This document discusses the origins and beliefs of early Anabaptist groups from the 16th century Protestant Reformation. It describes the various factions that emerged, including Spiritualists, Revolutionary Anabaptists, and later peaceable Anabaptists. The key beliefs discussed include baptism of adult believers only, separation of church and state, pacifism, emphasis on discipleship and church discipline. Important early leaders mentioned are Thomas Muntzer, Caspar Schwenkfeld, Michael Sattler, Andreas Karlstadt, Menno Simons, Jakob Hutter, and Baltahasar Hubmaier.

1. The Despised Outsiders

2. Wanted to go beyond reformation; seeking
restoration/reconstitution.
Desired to return to the Apostolic Christian
Church
Believed that Luther and Zwingli did not go
far enough.
Wanted to cut ties with every vestige of
Roman Catholicism.
Saw Church membership as being
voluntary.

3. A strong commitment to separation of
Church and state.
Practised believer’s baptism.
Had a simple style of worship.
Possessed a strong sense of discipline;
offending members were subject to the
ban.
Were egalitarian as well as socially
communistic.

4. Spiritualists
Evangelical Anabaptists
Evangelical Rationalists

5. Early Spiritualists:
Early Spiritualists such as the Zwickau
Prophets are not identified as being strictly
Anabaptist.
Believed in the superiority of the
inspiration of the Spirit over the written
Word of God.
Had a very low view of the sacraments.
Possessed a tendency toward
antinomianism.

6. Thomas Muntzer:
• Spent some time in the Zwickau region and
even gave his support to the weavers whose
trade was experiencing difficulty. However, it is
not clear if he influenced the Zwickau Prophets
or they him.
• Believed in social revolution.
• Made a claim to special revelation from God.
• Had a strong eschatological outlook;

7. Later Spiritualists:
 Held fast to many of the postulations of
the earlier ones.
Were not as concerned with
sociopolitical issues.
Did not possess a sociopolitical agenda.
Caspar Schwenkfeld major leader:

8. Revolutionary Anabaptists:
Followed in the tradition of Muntzer.
Were not afraid to use physical force.
Strong eschatological outlook.
Had a tendency toward fanaticism.
Practised iconoclasm.
Attempted to restore biblical practices
from both the New and Old Testament
eras.

9. Later Anabaptists:
Were more closely aligned to the major
reformers.
Had a communistic approach to living.
Attempted to restore the New Testament
foundations of Christianity.
Did not believe in disobeying the state
but were averse to military service and
swearing of oaths.
Were anti-Trinitarian and held on to
somewhat of a Monophysite Christology.

10. “Individualistic in their Christianity
Protestant or Catholics, devout but not
doctrinaire
Women elevated
Stressed rational approach to Christianity
Emphasis on reason for interpreting
Scripture.
Pacifistic confidence in resurrection of the
dead and the sleeping souls of the elect to
rule with Christ at his imminent return

11.  Minimize or eliminate sacraments and other
ordinances of organized religion
 Gradual elimination of divine nature of Christ.
 Anti-Trinitarian.
 Stressed sanctification; imitating Christ.
 Focus on evangelism and mission; reaching the
lost
 Grebel’s conception of a free church consisting
of freely committed and practicing believers.
 One was not born into the church but was
accepted on profession of faith and the promise
to lead a holy life. Baptism was the act
wherewith one became a member of the
Church.”

12. 2 Timothy 2:8-10 (TNIV)
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the
dead, descended from David. This is my
gospel,
For which I am suffering even to the point
of being chained like a criminal. But God's
word is not chained.
Therefore I endure everything for the sake
of the elect, that they too may obtain the
salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with
eternal glory.

13. First confession of the Anabaptists.
Written by Michael Sattler.
Composed after a collective meeting with
fellow Swiss Brethren at Schleitheim.
Explained the identity-giving convictions
separating Anabaptists from Papists and
anti-Papists.

14.  Seven universal items:
• Baptism: only administered to those who
have already repented, have experienced a
change of life, and truthfully believe that they
have been cleansed from sin. Infant baptism
seen as being the “highest and chief
abomination of the pope.
• Ban: administered to baptized believers who
have been walking in God’s commandments
but “inadvertently” fell “into error and sin.” Two
secret admonitions were given; third one was
public.

15. • Breaking of Bread: only baptized believers
were allowed to participate.
• Separation from the Abomination: high
regard placed on separation “from the evil and
from the wickedness which the devil planted in
the world.” Made a clear distinction as regards
humanity; only two class – good and evil.
• Pastors in the Church: must measure-up to
the standard set forth by Paul.

16.  The Sword: “sword” seen as being
ordained by God, however, its sphere of
usage is outside the community of faith.
Believers were to abstain from passing
sentence when there are disputes among
them. Believers are also to refrain from
becoming magistrates.
 The Oath: believers are not to swear oaths
since Christ commanded such.

20. Soteriology:
 The radical reformers saw justification as
changing more than just the legal status of the
individual but it also changes the life of the
person. As such they did not believe in
Luther’s concept of simul iustus et peccator.
 Saving grace for them involved prevenient
grace as well as efficacious grace.
 Saving grace transforms believers here and
now. It remakes and regenerates the sinner –
sanctification.

21. Faith involves overcoming sin.
Grace frees the will of the person and
the life now shows fruit of the
justification.
The saved person has the capacity to
choose between right and wrong.
Conversion sees the believer’s will as
being energized by the Holy Spirit and
as such the believer can now exercise
the will.

22. The Church and the State:
Believed in a believer’s Church with
voluntary membership.
Discipline/discipleship was of paramount
importance.
Church is a community of the faithful;
not perfect but striving toward
perfection.
Church is characterized by holiness in
the lives of its members.
Rejected the concept of an invisible
Church.

23.  Saw separation from the world as being
essential.
 Unbelievers were not to be a part of the
community of the faithful. Additionally, erring
members were placed under the ban.
 Worship services characterized by simplicity
of style.
 Church seen as being a “suffering Church.”
 Congregation responsible for choosing and
supporting the pastor/shepherd.

24.  Use of the tithe for support of the pastor
considered as being unscriptural.
 Pastor responsible for teaching the Word to
the believers as well as look after their
spiritual welfare – inclusive of imposing the
ban on the unfaithful.
 Rejected the state’s protection and did not
participate in the military.
 Pacifists who would neither take up the sword
for the state nor the Church.
 Did not participate in service to the state.
 Showed non-violence in times of persecution
and oppression.

25. Sacraments:
Rejected the concept of the sacraments.
Baptism:
• Adult believer’s baptism.
• “Meant only for the instructed, penitent and
believing person
• Only an adult that has been reborn could be
baptized
• Baptism was both an act of confession and a
promise to act according to God’s commands

26. The Lord’s Supper:
• The Lord’s Supper was non-sacramental
• Merely a remembrance
• A meal of fellowship, signifying a union with
Christ and the brethren
• It should not be celebrated in a church, but in
private homes and in the evening according to
Christ’s pattern.”

27. Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt:
He did away with icons.
He believed that faith is equal to
conversion and not just belief.
To him human nature was not totally
depraved and he rejected the doctrine of
predestination.
To him sin can be overcome with
cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

28. The Holy Spirit is given to the privileged as
well as the peasant.
 His understanding of the Communion
Service was that it was a symbol.
For him the Priesthood of all believers
means that all are equal before God.

29. Menno Simons 1492 - 1561:
He was a Catholic priest who was born in
Holland who began to study the New
Testament and as a result renounced his
faith in Catholicism.
He was defrocked from the Catholic
Church for holding on to views that were
contrary to the doctrines of the Church.
He became an Anabaptist and traveled
throughout Europe preaching his views.
His great contribution to the Reformation is
his book The Fundamentals (1539).

30. In speaking about baptism he presented
the view that baptism was for believers.
He also believed in the non-immortality of
the soul.
He emphasized the freedom of the will
thus the Christian can do good works
which is the evidence of true faith.

31. Jakob Hutter:
Organized communistic congregations
His followers became known as the
Hutterite brethren.
Some of their descendants later migrated
to Canada and South Dakota, USA.
He was burned at the stake in Innsbruck in
1536.

32. Baltahasar Hubmaier (1485-1528):
On January 1525 as an evangelical
preacher he answered that God had
commanded him to repudiate infant
baptism.
Re-baptized by Wilhelm Reublen and then
began baptizing other adults.
His book The Christian Baptism of
Believers
Arrested and compelled to retract his
Anabaptist views.

33. By his preaching and writing he attracted
persecuted people from many parts of
Germany and Switzerland.
Later seized by Austrian authorities and
burned at the stake at Vienna in March
1528.
Wife Elizabeth drowned.