Anniversary of the Birth of Anabaptism, January 21, 1525

The following comes from several sources that I copied and pasted from most notably 2 of them are THE HUTTERITE CHRONICLE and William Estep's THE ANABAPTIST STORY. Thought since today is the 477th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement it was worth remembering,


"The Anabaptist movement began in central Europe on January 21, 1525 from the desire of some to return to the Apostolic faith expressed in the Scriptures.

Anabaptists believed the official church was “fallen” beyond mere reform. Thorough restoration of New Testament Christianity was necessary, which required freedom from state control and ecclesiastical traditions. Anabaptists urged separation of church and society and rejected the Christendom system, in which church and state were entwined, that had dominated European culture since the fourth century.

On January 21, 1525, a dozen or so men who were students of the Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli met at the home of Felix Manz, near Grossmünster Switzerland. The men were disappointed in Zwingli's rejection of their doctrines and of the Zurich city council's order for them to cease their home Bible studies.

They bowed before the Most High God in heaven and called upon him as the Informer of Hearts, and they prayed that he would give to them His divine will and that he would show His mercy unto them. For flesh and blood did not drive them, since they well knew what they would have to suffer on account of it.

After the prayer, George Blaurock stood up and besought the leader of their group Conrad Grebel for God's sake to baptize him with the true Christian baptism upon his faith and knowledge. And when he knelt down with such a request and desire, Conrad baptized him, since at that time there was no ordained minister to perform such work.

After his baptism at the hands of Grebel, Blaurock proceeded to baptize all the others present. The newly baptized then pledged themselves as true disciples of Christ to live lives separated from the world and to teach the gospel and hold the faith.

With their rejection of their infant baptism and being baptized as believers, Anabaptism was born. With this first baptism, the earliest church of the Anabaptist movement was constituted.

They did not view themselves as a new church but a restoration of the 1st century Church founded upon the teachings of the Apostles and Jesus Christ as their only Head.

This was clearly the most revolutionary act of the Reformation. No other event so completely symbolized the break with Rome. Here, for the first time in the course of the Reformation, a group of Christians dared to form a church after the New Testament pattern. "

Within 150 years this small church of 12 to 15 saw their numbers grow into the thousands in Europe and in England resulted in the birth of the Baptist movement in 1609.