More Thoughts From MIchael and Sharon Rusten

Dear Friends,

I once baptized a twenty-something year old man by immersion in a river in Westport, Massachusetts, late in March or early April. All who attended were in coats or sweatshirts, and though there was no ice floating on the water, the water was so cold it took my breath away! Yet, he was insistent that he wanted to be baptized then, by immersion, and not wait for warmer weather.

Then, after the baptism, our teenage foster-daughter asked me, "Dad, why did you baptize a grownup?" Having been raised Catholic she had only ever seen babies baptized. So I explained the biblical rationale for baptizing believers.

Of course, for most people in America in the last 100 or so years, seeing older children, teenagers, and adults baptized is a pretty common phenomena. In fact, even if they haven't seen it in person, they've usually seen it in pictures, on TV, or in movies. Yet there was a time (centuries after the Bible was written) when it virtually disappeared from church life (from about 400 A.D. to 1500 A.D.). Today's excerpt is about the first man to baptize believers in more modern times -- and what happened to him as a result. It is found in "The One Year Book of Church History" by Michael and Sharon Rusten. If you love history (and even if you don't!) you should find this very interesting! Enjoy.

"His real name is Jorg Cajakog, but we know him as Georg Blaurock. 'Blaurock' means 'blue coat' after the coat he always wore. Born in 1491, Blaurock was a Catholic priest from Chur, Switzerland, who came to saving faith in Jesus Christ through the preaching of Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich sometime before 1523.

Devoting himself to personal Bible study, Blaurock became convinced that baptism was for believers in Christ, not infants, thus disagreeing with Zwingli's position. In Zurich he met a group who, led by Conrad Grebel and Feliis Manz, shared his views. They were given the nickname "Anabaptists" meaning "re-baptizers."

In early January 1525 the Zurich City Council, following the lead of Zwingli, pastor of the largest church in the city, warned all parents in Zurich that they must have their children baptized within eight days of their birth or face banishment from Zurich.

On January 21, 1525, the leaders of the Anabaptist movement in Zurich met at the home of Felix Manz to determine what to do. They began the meeting with earnest prayer, which was followed by a significant event in church history. Georg Blaurock asked Conrad Grebel to baptize him on his confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Grebel baptized him immediately, the first time in centuries an adult believer had been baptized solely on his confession of faith. Blaurock then baptized everyone else who was present. The Anabaptist movement had begun.

Just two weeks later Blaurocj was arrested, along with Manz and twenty-four others who refused to have their infants baptized. However, after a week Blaurock was released. In the midst of all this persecution, Blaurock founded an Anabaptist church in nearby Zollikon, where he won over 150 converts through his powerful preaching. That November Blaurock, Grebel, and Manz were arrested again and sentenced to an indefinite prison term on bread and water alone. As part of their sentence they were allowed no visitors.

Finally, on January 5, 1527, Manz was drowned for his Anabaptist views, and Blarock was stripped to the waist and paraded through the cold winter streets of Zurich with his hands bound as he was beaten until blood flowed from his wounds. He was taken to the city gate and there the city officers offered to release him if he would take a vow never to return to Zurich. He refused, answering that oath-taking was forbidden by God (Matthew 5:37). As a result, he was taken back to prison. Finally he agreed to take the oath and was exiled from Zurich.

In the next two years Blaurock had an extremely fruitful ministry as an itinerant evangelist, winning thousands of people to Christ throughout central Europe. In particular, he established many Congregations in the Tyrol region of what is today Austria and Italy. He then became pastor of a small Tyrolean church whose pastor had been burned at the stake just three months earlier. This time the persecution was not from the followers of Zwingli, but from the Roman Catholic Church. The persecution continued, and on September 6, 1529 (at 38 years old), Georg Blaurock himself was arrested and burned at the stake, thus ending the short but fruitful life of the first Baptist of modern times."

Sometimes we can forget that things we are free to do, with few if any dire consequences, others could not. In fact, doing so cost them dearly. Would you have been willing to take such a stand? Would you have been willing to suffer such consequences?

In the Bonds of Christian Liberty, Pastor Jeff