What Is “Anabaptist”? A Church? A Theology?

What does “Anabaptist” mean? Is it the name of a church or a culture? Is it a way of life or a worldview? I’m glad you asked.

On this blog, I’m offering Christian life insights from an Anabaptist perspective, so it would be good to define the term Anabaptist. I’ll offer some definitions, as well as what I think the term Anabaptist should mean to us.

Anabaptist Definition

“Anabaptist” first described a group of Christians who believed that the Christianity of Jesus Christ is not a state religion. Today, the term has branched out to include other meanings, but all of them are rooted in the beliefs of those early Anabaptists.

Origin of the Term Anabaptist

The early Anabaptists advocated for religious freedom in Europe in the 1500s. This was when every government was either Catholic or Protestant, and every government forced its subjects to belong to a state church. These brave people read Scripture for themselves, and they found that Jesus’ way of life was not the way of life that the state-affiliated churches promoted. So they started their own small house churches.

They believed that someone is not truly a Christian unless they choose for themselves to commit their lives to Christ. In this era, everyone had already been baptized as an infant, but infants can’t choose to dedicate themselves to following Jesus! So the Anabaptists didn’t count infant baptism as a real baptism. Instead, they baptized adults who were willing to profess their faith in Christ.

In the beginning, they just called themselves “brethren,” since they considered each other to be closer than brothers and sisters. But their enemies scornfully called them “Anabaptists,” which means “rebaptizers,” because they baptized adult converts whether or not they had been baptized as infants. In time, everyone began to use that term, so they started using it as well.

Anabaptists’ Beliefs

From the start, there were lots of different beliefs among the diverse groups that sprang up. But the beliefs that were founded on Jesus’ example eventually came to define the Anabaptists. Sadly, some groups started out by practicing polygamy or starting a bloody revolution. But the groups that grew and thrived were the ones known for their peacefulness and the blameless lifestyle that they advocated. They took Jesus’ and the apostles’ directions in the New Testament to heart, following each command as closely as possible.

Probably the most definitive teaching of the Anabaptists is nonresistance—choosing to respond with kindness and blessing to anyone who wrongs you. For the Anabaptists, this included being completely nonviolent, not even retaliating against the many governments who imprisoned and slaughtered them.

They wanted to be just like Jesus, who refused to harm his enemies and who taught us to love our own enemies (Matthew 5:38-48). This stunning commitment to following Jesus makes them a beautiful example of the second great commandment—to love one’s neighbor as oneself.

Anabaptists Today

Today, there are quite a few groups of Christians that come from the historic groups of Anabaptists back in the Reformation. That includes Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, German Baptists, and others. Most of these groups still hold to some form of nonresistance, as well as other distinctive Anabaptist beliefs.

Even though they had grown explosively in the beginning (even in spite of violent persecution), many Anabaptists eventually fled to other countries. There, they built their own communities and often withdrew from society. That’s part of the reason why, today, Anabaptists often have a distinctive culture, like the way they dress. Of course, some groups, like the Amish, don’t even own cars. However, these distinctive practices also come from a deeply rooted desire to follow even the most difficult New Testament practices, like modest clothing and a humble lifestyle.

Recently, the example of the Anabaptists has inspired other groups of Christians who belong to more recent churches that also want to follow Jesus above all else. “Kingdom Christians” and neo-Anabaptists are two examples of these groups.

What Is an Anabaptist?

So, by “Anabaptist,” we can mean any of the following:

1. An emphasis on a personal choice to follow Jesus humbly and sincerely, and to obey the New Testament’s directions.
2. The groups of Christians that resulted from that worldview, and the people who belong to those groups.
3. The cultures of the different groups of Anabaptists who are around today.

What really matters about the term “Anabaptist,” I believe, is the first one. The early Anabaptists didn’t suffer persecution and die for their enemies just so that we could eat shoo-fly pie or take photogenic pictures of horses and buggies. They didn’t even care so much about the name, “Anabaptist,” which their enemies called them. After all, it was meant to make them sound silly.

However, if we can do what those faithful Christians did—love Jesus enough to obey and emulate him—that is the important thing. No matter who tries to stop us, or how silly we seem, we can be true Anabaptists. That’s why, even though I grew up Mennonite and I could call myself Anabaptist for all of these reasons, I suggest this way to be Anabaptist in the truest sense:

• Love God enough to model our lives on Jesus, and to obey his teachings and the teachings of his apostles.
• Love our neighbor and our enemy, no matter how much they make us suffer.

Wow, what a high calling! How can we possibly live up to it? But I sincerely believe that we can. We won’t ever be perfect, but we can at least become a little bit better than we are today. And that’s what this blog is about.