An Anabaptist Theology Of Baptism

Anabaptists rejected infant baptism because they insisted that the purpose of baptism was personal transformation and conscious adult commitment to Christ. Although dependent on personal faith, baptism occurred in the church and set the person baptized on a trajectory of witness for Christ that, in the sixteenth century, often led to persecution and even martyrdom. In later centuries, this visible witness for Christ increasingly manifested itself in a sectarian distinctiveness from the dominant culture-hence, the plain dress and way of life characteristic of the Amish, most Mennonites (until the mid-twentieth century), and Hutterites. Sixteenth-Century Anabaptists and Their Descendants The various denominations descended from the sixteenth-century Anabaptists (Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish), each developed their own organizational patterns, doctrinal statements, and worship patterns. During the early twentieth century, Mennonite leaders in Europe and North America began to study six…