One of the best histories of the Baptist was written by William R. Estep, “The Anabaptist Story” (I highly recommend). Estep was professor of Church History, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth Texas. He did much of this research in Europe. In 1975 Eerdman’s Publishing Company published the work commemorating the four hundred and fiftieth year of the Anabaptist Movement. In January 1525, the movement was launched with the inauguration of believer’s baptism and the formation of the first congregation of the Swill Brethren in Zurich, Switzerland. Primary leaders of the Baptist Movement were Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock, who in the words of Estep, “Shone like so many meteors in the night.” These three men were the zealots of the movement; persecuted and imprisoned on several occasions. Flex Manz was finally arrested and tried for treason and sentenced to death by drowning. Our Baptist forefathers found no favor with the established churches in those early years, namely the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed (Presbyterian). Any deviation from the established churches was considered a crime of treason. Rebaptism, sedition, anarchy, blasphemy, sacrilege, and hypocrisy were lumped together indiscriminately under the label of treason. I might inform you that “Anabaptist” was not a name or title that the brethren assumed for themselves but a derogatory nickname tagged upon them by those who hated them and their doctrine, and was this not the case with Jesus our Lord? It was the established religion of His day that ridiculed Him and His doctrine and finally charged Him with blasphemy and treason and sentenced Him to death by crucifixion. Mr. Spurgeon says, “Probably the first martyr burnt in England for religion, and certainly not the last, was a Baptist; and others had ‘trials of cruel mockings, and scourgings, yea moreover, and of bonds and imprisonments; and were destitute, afflicted, and tormented.’ We cannot glory in our numbers, we cannot glory in our power, we cannot glory in our wealth; but we can glory in the faith and constancy by which those who went before us were enabled by divine grace to sustain the infliction of the most grievous wrongs – wrongs which were all the more keenly felt because received at the hands of fellow Christians, fellow-Protestants, and even fellow Puritans.” Let us thank God for the freedom we enjoy in this nation. And this liberty finds its root in, yea a Baptist, Roger Williams (1603-1683) political and religious leader, advocated separation of church and state, also the founder of the first Baptist church in America. Was it not for this freedom there would remain today persecution even to the point of death by the so-called “established churches.” If our liberty was taken away and we were demanded to conform or be tried as nonconformist at the peril of death, would we stand the test? ~~Terry Worthan, 1938-2022
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