| Hampshire View Baptist Deaf Church |
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The Ana-Baptists of MunsterThe following is an email message written by Pastor Thomas Cassidy, First Baptist Church of Spring Valley, in response to an attack by a hyper-Calvinist on the Ana-Baptists of Munster over an event of the 16th century. I have left the message as it was written Richard Bacon wrote:
Just a quick history lesson. The shameful events which occurred at Munster in Westphalia were the result of years of harsh oppression and terrible suffering received from the hands of Munster's Catholic masters. Already a center of Ana-Baptist activity, from 1532 A.D., the population of the city began to be stirred up through the preaching of the LUTHERAN Bernhard Rothman (1495-1535). Munster quickly became a city of refuge and a magnet for radicalism. A Dutchman named Jan Matthys proclaimed himself to be Enoch and announced the arrival of the Millennial Kingdom. In 1534, his companions, John of Leyden and Gert Tom Kloster took charge of the government of the city. A bloody purge of the old order then began. People were forced to choose between baptism or death; monasteries were taken and desecrated; the wealth of the city was seized, and an enforced communist system of distribution enacted; Lutherans and Catholics were persecuted. This was a reign of terror akin to the French Revolution. In 1534, Jan Matthys, following a "divine revelation", led 20 men out of the city to attack the armies arrayed against it. He was killed. John of Leyden then introduced a theocratic rule, had himself crowned king of the New Jerusalem, and lived above the sufferings of his besieged subjects. Polygamy was introduced, despite the strong opposition of 200 true (ana)Baptists - and over the dead bodies of 50 of them. After a year long siege the city was retaken by the army of Bishop, ending with a horrible massacre of many of the city's remaining inhabitants and the most revolting torture and execution of the leaders. The enemies of the Gospel were quick to associate the Ana-Baptists with the events of Munster, and the effect of this tragedy was to blacken the name of true Bible believers for years to come. A great wave of persecution against Ana-Baptists across Europe followed. The truth, of course, was that those responsible for the rebellion and terror were anything BUT true Ana-Baptists. However, the biased historians of the Romish "Church" continued the slander, and today, those lacking discernment believe their slander. Oh, and as far as your statement of "only one church was sending missionaries to the new world with the true gospel of Jesus Christ", you seem to have overlooked the Petrobrussians, Henricians, Albigenses and Waldenses. The most missions minded Christian who ever lived in Europe, and carried the Gospel not only all trough Europe proper, but also into Eastern Europe and Asia proper. God Bless, |
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