Anabaptists

Anabaptists are a Christian offshoot that formed during the Protestant Reformation who believe that infant baptism is not valid and only believers are to be baptized. They are known for their pacifism and their simple way of life. The Amish are an Anabaptist sect. Similar to the Puritans, religious persecution in England drove many Anabaptists to settle in the colonies that became the United States of America.

The Anabaptists began as early as 1521 in Zwickau, Switzerland. Their doctrinal beliefs include:

• Infant baptism is unbiblical and only adults should be baptized
• There should be a restoration of primitive Christianity without oaths, capital punishment and a church hierarchy
• Congregations and communities should establish a new kingdom of God
• Opposition to war (pacifism)

The traditional view that modern Baptists are largely descendants of the Anabaptists has been strongly disputed by the clergyman L. L. Clover in his book The Church: Her Origin, Purpose, Doctrine, and History. Quoting Religious Denominations of the World, Clover writes:

"In church history, the name of Anabaptists is generally applied to a class of fanatical men who at the beginning of the Reformation in the 16th century, raised violent disturbances in the center of Europe and brought upon themselves a lasting odium. These men ... rejected the baptism of infants and baptized all who adopted their views, which were really more political than religious. These religio-political fanatics ... differed from the Baptists except in the single point of baptism. ...

"The fanatical Antibaptists ... were originally from Germany, where ... they had made known their displeasure at the oppressions of the so-called feudal system ... at the time of the Reformation, sought in the new religion an augmented power and made the most shameful misuse of it ... The Antibaptists ought by no means to be considered the same as the Baptists. ...

Protestantism as a form of Gnostic Christianity

Relativist interpreters emphasize that "the true value of the Gospel" lies primarily in its profound psychological and emotional impact, in the telling of the story, without the necessity of it being factually and historically true, as a powerful means of causing spiritual transformation through personal identification with "the struggle and triumph of the mythical Jesus invented by Paul and the Gospel writers and the developed tradition of Christianity". The Historical-grammatical method (Literal hermeneutic) of orthodox catholic biblical hermeneutics directly contradicts this approach.

The "myth" assertion that the story of Jesus is an archetypical iconic pattern for personal insight and development—being profoundly "awakened" and transformed by being dynamically engaged and absorbed in the telling of the story—is a prime element of gnostic initiation and Cosmic Humanism, which is in direct opposition to the grounded reality of the Christian mysteries. See

• Joseph Campbell & The Hero's Journey - Odyssey Online. Antioch University, Santa Barbara (odyssey.antiochsb.edu)
• Excerpts from Myth and the Movies, Stuart Voytilla, by Christopher Vogler (tlu.ee) pdf (9 pages)
• Does Jesus follow Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey? (asyourpoetshavesaid.com)
• Are the Gospels a Myth?, by Fr. Dwight Longenecker - Strange Notions: The Digital Areopagus—Reason. Faith. Dialogue (strangenotions.com) They only seem to be, but they are not a myth.—see Fallacy of analogy.
• Are The Gospels Mythical? by Rene Girard (firstthings.com) Some people insist that they are, in spite of evidence to the contrary.

Author Philip J. Lee, Against the Protestant Gnostics shows that Gnostic tendencies are being taught alongside Christian orthodoxy, and that the Reformation at its heart fostered the inherent Gnostic tendencies toward a disdain for authority and the physical nature of things, and the Gnostic disdain of the sacraments and disdain of the doctrine of the physical resurrection of the body, and a sola scriptura reading of scripture sola spiritu with the hope of a bodiless spiritual-only salvation forever in heaven after death, through a direct "personal relation with Christ" (as a cosmic spiritual entity) and "knowing Jesus" by the "chosen elect". He demonstrates how these teachings of Gnosticism have wormed their way into Christian teachings, particularly in North American Protestantism. Pastor and author Peter Dietsch, in summarizing Lee's book, says, "In both the Old and New Testaments, the knowledge of God is not self-discoverable. God has revealed Himself in and through a community (His people, the Church), therefore He may be known only through that community."

See also

• Infant baptism
• Bogomil: Bogomilism
• Essay: Water baptism cannot save, the Church cannot save, Born again by faith alone