January 17th and tomorrow, the 21st, 500 years ago marks an anniversary in the life of the Anabaptist churches. One that was years in the making. One that, when made, set the course for countless lives over 500 years. One that set the future for three particular men in Switzerland on January 21st, 1525. To conform to an ungodly demand of the government; or to boldly declares with one voice to serve God and listen to His Holy Word.

On January 17th, 1525, there was a public debate between Ulrich Zwingli and three men: Conrad Grebel, Feliz Manz, and Wilhelm Reublin. The goal was to put to rest once and for all the question of infant baptism. You see Zwingli had been for this act, and because of various concerns, had to have the Zurich Council’s support to move forward in his reforms. And the Council did not seem to WANT to support anything but infant baptism for their population. So as the tail goes, so goes the dog, and Zwingli fully supported this. Meanwhile the three men did not.

The church, the three men argued, is only made up of saved, repentant followers of Christ. And based on passages in Matthew 28 and Mark 16 (among other verses), they asked how can a baby have baptism, without salvation? It is backwards to the order of God. So the debate raged on. After it was all said and done the Zurich counsel decided that the three men could not adequately convince them, with Scripture, that the age old tradition of baptizing an infant was wrong. And further they were told that not only were they wrong, but they were to have their children, and the children of their group baptized within eight days! What were they to do? Were they wrong in reading of the Bible? Was it something they should do, because after all other verses do say to submit to the authorities? What would you do in a situation like this? When asked to violate a biblical truth and instead follow what you are ordered to do, would you obey or as Peter and John in Acts 5:29 say: “…We ought to obey God rather than men.”? A lot of questions to think about for sure.

These men met later together with other believers from the Bible study and wrestled these questions in prayer. When they were done praying one of them, who we know as George Blaurock, stood and asked believers baptism from Conrad Grebel. Once that was finish Blaurock then baptized each of the other repentant believers there that night. The die was cast you could say, and like dying to Christ in Romans 6:8, they then chose to live instead for Him whatever come what may.

And “whatever come what may” was shorter for some then others. Grebel died just over a year later from poor health and illness from his past poor choices, and avoiding authorities (more in a later blog this spring!) Manz was martyred just a few months after Grebels death in 1527. Reublin died, having left Anabaptism sometime in his later years, while Blaurock went on to have a successful traveling ministry until his martyrdom on September 6th, 1529. Many of the others in the room that night are lost to history, but not to God, we can trust that they stood with the resolve to follow through in their walk with Christ until the end. To stand boldly for the Lord and the truth of God’s Word that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).

The faith and courage it took to stand for the truth found in God’s Word was not easy, they were either banished, impoverished, tortured, beaten and killed while still maintaining the Bible and Christ in their hearts. What dedication, what resolve to follow no matter what! Can it be said of believers today that we have the same resolve in the face of persecution? I trust yes!

I realize this blog is shorter and more my rambling (sorry!), but as you think of January 17th and January 21st, 1525 you have to think about our own present January 17th and 21st 500 years later and half a world away. Can believers in America have the same resolve to stand before the magistrates of today and give account of why we can not submit to an ungodly demand? Can freedom loving Christians today search the Scriptures to learn the hard truths needed to walk in Christ as early Reformers did? Each one of us needs to answer that for ourselves, but I hope as the dawning of a new administration is upon us that we can learn from history and take it to heart as we rightly apply Scripture in our lives today. We may be asked in our lifetime to do things the Bible condemns. Can we stand?

C.S Lewis, in talking with his house guest Walter Hooper said this: “The Lord has done so much for such as I, how could I not give everything to Him?“ No truer words have been uttered! Let’s boldly proclaim these truths and stand boldly for God! Until next week, keep studying fellow students!