In our passage from Exodus, when Moses talks with the burning bush, he asks the fire about its identity, about how to tell others about who this is, what kind of deity could this be. “The God of your ancestors”—that who this is, the voice says to Moses. This weeks...
Anabaptist
The Mystery of Baptism
Hans Hut
Selection from "The Mystery of Baptism" First then, Christ says, "go into all the world and preach the gospel of all creatures [aller creaturen]." hear the Lord shows man shall come to the knowledge of God and himself, namely through the "gospel of all creatures." ...
Do Not Fear, O Soil
Isaac Villegas
“Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice,” Joel says the to ground, to the land, to the earth under his feet, passing on a message from God. And there’s a reassurance in Joel’s prophecy for the animals too: “Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of...
The Lord’s Supper
Dirk Philips
When we examine and look closely into the above words of Scripture in order to understand them thoroughly, and to lay hold of the true sense and understanding of it that accords in all cases with the Scriptures, and is contrary to no Scriptures or the faith we find...
My Father’s Resurrection: A Funeral Homily
Trevor Bechtel
One of my father’s favorite small adventures involves a peacock. One day about 75 years ago, his sister Janet came to get him to let him know that their peacock, Birdy, had been attacked by a dog, and was dying. George carefully collected Birdy and set him in some...
Account
Peter Riedemann
We acknowledge also Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God We have said and acknowledge it is one, and apart from him there is none that remains of himself unchanging in his clarity and who lives for ever; for he is truth, and that is his name in all eternity....
A Confession About Separation
Dirk Philips
From “A Confession About Separation Briefly Summarized, In How Far We Shall Shun or Avoid the Apostate" Whether one may also show mercy to the apostate in the time of need? Here we answer first that we do not desire to withhold or hold back mercy and welfare from...
We Live in Community
Eberhard Arnold
Here, Arnold lays out the theological rationale for a common life, which is rooted not in the optimism of socialism, but in the power of God to recreate a community out of fragmented society.
The Assembly of the Peasantry
This anonymous work, authored around May 1525, introduces one of the key tensions in Anabaptist thinking: the perfection of the Christian life, and its relation to the public good. The Anabaptist community exemplifies the way that Christ has meant to order the world, without need of authority, wiling to give to all who have need, paying taxes as a form of public love. But what happens when the community of faith is governed by public figures who exemplify Nero more than David, Satan more than Christ?
Instruction on Beginning a True Christian Life
Hans Schlaffer
In this selection from his treatise on the Christian life, Hans Schlaffer writes on a common theme—the need for repentance—but emphasizing the ways in which this is learned from attention to the natural world. As opposed to Reformed or Lutheran divines who made their case with reference to the an argument from within Scripture, Shlaffer makes his case for the need for repentance by observing the suffering of animals.