History: The Heritage of Our Baptist Faith

No one, however, believes that a Baptist church of our time is less a New Testament church because of our inability to so trace its history. Any group of people, anywhere, saved by the grace of God, the New Testament in hand, can and probably will, develop a Baptist church without the aid of ex­ ternal influence if they but read and follow the New Testament teachings. Yes, the Baptists are a Biblical people. They are also II. A PERSECUTED PEOPLE Paul and Barnabas came to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch and there they strengthened the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith. "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." (Acts 15:22) Baptists have demonstrated the reality of this principle. It has been truly said that we can trace the lineage of the Baptists more by blood than by baptism. The per­ secution, however, had a vital effect’upon the people. Vedder says that so long as the church was feeble, persecuted, and poor, it was comparatively pure in both doctrine and life. In these few paragraphs which follow, let us point out a few illustrations of the suffering through which our forbears have gone. There are many spiritual and capable Swiss Anabaptists who faced bitter persecution because of their break with Zwingli in 1523 A.D. Keep in mind as we tell these stories that Zwingli, to begin with, was sympathetic with the Anabaptist movement, but turned against them because he could not conceive of a church that was not related to the state. Though not a persecutor of these people, Zwingli stands condemned because he stood by, approving by silence all that was done against them. Three Swiss Anabaptists stand out as illustrations of this persecution. Conrad Grabel (1498 - 1526) had a spiritual awakening in 1522 and became a disciple of Zwingli. Three years later he became convinced that infant baptism was unscriptural , and as a consequence, broke with the Zwingli movement. The Zurich Council ordered all children to be baptized. Grabel and his friends were commanded to stop their arguments about it. The Council in 1526 ordered all Anabaptists to be drowned. Many who rejected infant baptism suffered martyrdom in this fashion. Within a year, Grabel and some of his friends were imprisoned