The Cross of Christ, Part 3

In the first place, our persecutors accuse us of being seditious, just as those of Munster are, and of not being obedient to the magistracy.

To this we reply, in the first place: The Munsterites were seditious and in many things acted contrary to the word of God. But we do not agree with them. We are wholly opposed to these seditious abominations, such as resisting the king, seeking earthly power, taking up the sword, polygamy, playing the hypocrite with the world, and similar guilt, and we disapprove of them. According to the doctrine of Christ and Paul, we neither eat nor drink nor have any communion with those who do such things, unless they renounce their errors and become sound in the saving doctrine of Christ.

As the Papists and Lutherans are not a little divided, so we are even more divided in our views from the Munsterites and the other sects that sprang from them. That this is the truth we have shown by our writings, our life and our spoken testimony before lords, princes and the whole world; and it has been testified by the blood of many pious Christians, which has flowed like water in many countries for many years up to the present time.

But we cannot help it that the world will not believe this. Nevertheless, we testify that our hearts and consciences are pure and free before God from all sedition, hatred, vengeance and thirst for blood; and we strive earnestly, according to the doctrine of Paul, to live in peace with all men as far as possible. And if it is not possible for us to keep peace with them, we still do not want to avenge ourselves, but will commit it to him who says, “Vengeance and recompense belong to me,” Deuteronomy 32, verse 35. And we commit all our concerns to him alone, as Jeremiah and all the pious did from the beginning.

In the second place, we reply: Why do they so rashly accuse us of such sedition, when we are wholly innocent and clear of it, while they pay no attention to their own bloody, murderous uproar, which they, alas, carry on without limit? O Lord! how many principalities, cities and countries have they destroyed! How many houses have they set on fire! How many hundreds of thousands have they murdered! How many poor peasants, who were peaceable and innocent of sedition, have they robbed of their possessions and whose goods have they destroyed! How many women and virgins have they disgraced! What brutal and inhuman tyranny did they commit, and do they continue to practice daily! All this they do not notice; indeed, it must be called right and well done. Ah! how well this agrees with the doctrine, nature and Spirit of Christ, or with the disposition of innocent children, whom Christians must resemble in malice, or with the defenseless lambs and innocent doves to which the Scriptures direct us! If the temporal magistracy does not have the disposition and Spirit of Christ, then all must acknowledge that they are not Christians.

I am well aware that these tyrants, who boast of being Christians, justify their abominable warring, uproar and bloodshed by referring us to Moses, Joshua and so on. But they do not reflect that Moses and his successors, with their iron sword, have served their day, and that Christ has now given us a new command and another sword. I do not speak of the sword of the judge, for that is quite different; I speak of war and sedition. They do not reflect that they bear the sword of war, contrary to the gospel, against their own brothers, namely, their brothers in the faith, who have received the same baptism and have broken the same bread with them, and so are members of the same body. Again, what a strange, bloody uproar the Lutherans have made for several years to bring in their doctrine I will leave them to reflect on; yet we, though innocent, have to be called the seditious heretics, and they the pious, peaceable Christians! See how lamentably the understanding of this world is darkened. Well then, let them deal with us as they see fit; the merciful, gracious Father will preserve us from such abominable disturbances as the Munsterites have caused, and which, alas, are still in fashion among the supposed Christians. For by the manifest grace of God we have beaten our “swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks,” and we will sit under the true Vine, Christ, under the Prince of eternal peace, and will never take part in bloody wars.

In the third place, we reply: We know and use no other sword than the one Christ himself brought down from heaven and which the apostles used with power and Spirit, which proceeds from the mouth of the Lord: the sword of the Spirit, which is “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” With this sword and no other we desire to destroy the kingdom of the devil, reprove all wickedness, preach righteousness, and raise the father against the son, the son against the father, the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother, and so on, just as Jesus Christ, the holy apostles and the prophets did in this world. Understand me rightly: I do not mean here the prophets Elias and Samuel, who also used the sword, but the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zecharias, Amos and so on, who reproved only with doctrine and not otherwise.

That is the sword we bear, and we will lay it down for no one, neither for emperor, king nor any other authority. Peter says, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” We must serve, to his praise, him who has committed it to us, whether we happen to live or die, as it may please God.

That the world now lays this uproar to our charge as a reward for the pure love we have shown them, we must endure, as our forefathers did. “Are you not he,” said Ahab to Elijah, “who troubles Israel?” The prophet answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house.” Jeremiah, because of his faithful warning and wholesome admonition, was regarded by them as a mutineer, rebel and heretic; Christ Jesus was crucified; Paul and the apostles were thrown into prison as deceivers and rebels, and in the end had to suffer martyrdom. If the world could pass a true judgment, it would see clearly that Christ and his followers did not stir up tumult against the world, but the world against them; and also that we do not rise against anyone, but the whole world is in uproar, tyranny and raving against us, as may be seen.

Again, it is not true that we are opposed to the magistracy in the things for which they are ordained by God; understand me, in lawful things, such as paying toll, tribute, taxes and so on. But that they should rule and lord it over our consciences as they please, contrary to the Spirit of Christ, to this we do not consent; we will sacrifice possessions and life rather than knowingly sin against Jesus Christ and his holy word for any man’s sake, whether he is emperor or king.

The Scriptures testify abundantly that we are right in this; and therefore, with pious Susanna, we would rather obey God than man, and so fall into the hands of men rather than into the hands of God. May the gracious Father, through his blessed Son Jesus Christ, grant this deaf, blind world ears to hear and eyes to see, so that they may be converted and saved forever.

In the second place, we are accused maliciously and without cause of being stubborn, selfish and unconverted people who will by no means let ourselves be taught or instructed.

To this we reply, first: Even if this accusation were true, it would still be very unfitting for our persecutors to exterminate or harm us, since they want to be Christians, or boast that they are; for the punishment of the wicked will be eternal, as the Scriptures testify.

Not all men have faith, says Paul, but it is a gift of God. Now if it is a gift, it may not be forced by worldly power or the sword; it must be grasped by the grace of God through the working of the Holy Spirit, by means of the pure doctrine of the holy word together with the ardent prayer of humility. Moreover, it is not the will of the householder that the tares be rooted up before the time of harvest, as is clearly shown in the parable in Scripture.

Now if our persecutors were Christians, as they suppose, and if they held the word of the Lord to be true, why do they not hear and follow the word and commandment of Christ? Why do they root up the tares before the time? Why are they not afraid that they will root up the good wheat and not the tares? Why do they take upon themselves the duty of the angels, who at the proper time will bind the tares in bundles and cast them into the furnace of everlasting fire?

Since by our belief or unbelief (and unbelief it must always be, if what they say is true) we harm no man on earth, justice demands that they commit us, with our belief or unbelief, to the Lord alone and to his judgment, who in the fullness of time will judge all things in righteousness, and that they do not pursue us with the sword of destruction like savage pagans. The true disposition of a pious and sincere Christian is to lead poor, wandering sinners to repentance, not to destroy them, as these men do. As for all those who show a contrary spirit, it is easy for any intelligent Christian to show from the Scriptures of what father they are children.

Again, we reply: We are prepared in every way, even to death, to receive all sound doctrine, admonition, instruction and correction in righteousness. We spare no labor, pains or expense if only we can find faithful stewards to give us bread in due season; for our souls hunger for the living bread, and our spirits thirst for the living water. All who are rightly qualified to break the one and pour out the other we desire to hear with devoted hearts, and to live in obedience to their doctrine.

But we will have nothing to do with the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the lies and deceptions of false prophets, the stealing and outrages of thieves and murderers, whatever may happen by divine permission. Thank God, we have tasted the heavenly bread, and so we have grown heartily tired of the leaven and husks of the learned. We have drunk the pure water; the impure we leave to them. We have received the truth and rejected lies; the light has shone upon us, and there is no more room for darkness. In short, according to the gift of grace within us, we have found Christ, the true Messiah, his saving word, his pure ordinance and his holy and blameless life; and as a consequence we have turned away from antichrist, with the confident hope that we will never again observe or make use of his ordinance of infant baptism and his idolatrous supper, nor ever be reconciled to his odious, carnal, ungodly life.

If in this we do wrong and transgress before God and his church, as they imagine, then the fathers and the Scriptures must have miserably betrayed us. But no; the word of God is truth, and the truth will abide forever, even though the whole world is offended.

And because we do not dare take part again in their false doctrine, pretended sacraments, idolatry and false worship, and in their shameful, wicked and ungodly life; because by the Spirit of God, the evidence of the Scriptures and the witness of our own consciences we have turned away from such things, we must be called stubborn, selfish and obstinate, and, alas, must be to all men heretics, a prey and a mockery.

I hope, beloved brothers, that such absurd accusations will never dismay the hearts of the pious or make them faint, since they are entirely without foundation; while we, on the contrary, have the whole Scripture together with the prophets, apostles and saints, indeed, Christ Jesus himself, all of whom in truth and righteousness remained steadfast and immovable even to death in their opposition to all false doctrine, torture and tyranny, and did not agree with or consent to their ungodly deeds in a single point, neither in heart, speech nor behavior.

Should we then reject the heavenly light and embrace the darkness of condemnation? Forsake eternal truth and everlasting life? Follow after lies and pursue death, for the sake of a little perishable wealth and the enjoyment of temporal life for half an hour? If so, it would be better for us if we had never been born. From so dreadful an outcome it is our firm hope that God in his boundless love will always preserve and protect us.

In the third place, we answer: We sincerely detest and abhor the kind of teaching and conversion our persecutors would use to instruct and convert us, for their end is death, according to the testimony of the whole Scriptures. The reason is that their doctrine is false and deceptive, their sacraments are idolatrous and contrary to the word of God, their worship is sheer idolatry, and their whole life is earthly, carnal and contrary to the word of God, as may be seen, James 3, verse 15. Indeed, they are a people of whom we may justly testify what they say of us, namely, This is a stiff-necked, seditious, unconverted people, whose hearts are harder than diamond, a people who do not know their God, as the prophet says of Israel: “The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider,” Isaiah 1, verse 3.

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they have gone away backward. “They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. I listened and heard, but they did not speak rightly; no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Everyone turned to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle. Indeed, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the judgment of the Lord,” Jeremiah 8, verses 5 to 7. And there are more passages of a similar nature.

One might well rebuke them as John the Baptist did and say, Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, and do not say that you are Christians, as the Pharisees said they had Abraham for their father; for God does not know such perverse, carnal Christians. The axe is laid to the root of the tree; therefore every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Paul says, Neither drunkards, the covetous, the envious, the proud, idolaters, adulterers nor fornicators will inherit the kingdom of God. So in the spirit of compassion we may fittingly say to our persecutors, who are still such people, Reform! For alas, lords, princes, rulers, the learned and the unlearned, citizens, country people, man and woman, all on every side have become degenerate, walking in the accursed fruits of profanity and ungodliness. They reject God and his word; they grieve the Holy Spirit; they persecute the righteous and pious; the fear and love of God are an abomination to them. Yet to those who walk in the way of truth, who die to flesh and blood, who are heavenly and spiritually minded, and who with sincere hearts seek Christ Jesus and the imperishable, everlasting life, they say, Reform, be instructed, and use similar expressions, just as if we had the lies and they the truth; although, according to the gift given us, we love and seek the Lord sincerely. But what they do, I leave to any intelligent Christian to decide.

Moreover, they themselves show that the fruits and ardent charity of our members far exceed theirs; nevertheless we have to be looked upon as deceived, selfish, obstinate and unconverted heretics, while they consider themselves the real, spiritually anointed Christians, the truly legitimate children of God.

Now, dear brothers, judge from this how childish and nonsensical the world’s excuse for its tyrannical proceedings is, and how rashly and childishly we are accused by them. O, it is our heart’s desire that all our persecutors may receive grace from the Lord to repent, for it is high time that they awake and turn to him.

Again, our persecutors bring in an excuse, saying it is right that we should be persecuted, because through us many people are deplorably misled and brought to destruction.

To this we reply: If the case is examined and judged according to the flesh, it does appear that many are miserably deceived by us. For all who follow our doctrine, faith, life and confession in obedience and power must put at risk everything they have received from God: character, reputation, land, house, gold, silver, father, mother, sister, brother, husband, wife, son, daughter, indeed, life itself. People will generally point at them with the finger of scorn; they will be trampled underfoot, hated by all men, slandered and maligned, betrayed and delivered up to death. Gallows, racks, foul pools, stocks and swords, as well as hunger, thirst, want, toil, affliction, distress, anxiety, nakedness, sorrow, beatings, bonds and imprisonment, must be their portion and reward here on earth. No one may help or befriend them except at the risk of his person and property; the father may not receive and help the son, nor the son the father. In short, the world looks upon them as unworthy of heaven or earth. Moreover, they shun all the pomp, splendor, gluttony, drunkenness, carnal life and so on that the world delights in and makes use of as far as its means allow; and besides, they teach humility, sobriety and a humble, despised life in the fear of the Lord, which the world hates and rejects. It is therefore no wonder, in my opinion, that the erring, blind world, which neither has the Holy Spirit nor knows it, as Christ says, and which seeks, understands and judges earthly things alone, should regard, consider and detest such a life as the result of imposture and deception. [Note 1]

But those who are taught by God, who have risen with Christ to newness of life, are made partakers of the Holy Spirit, are spiritually minded, and look upon and judge all things by the Spirit, do not consider it imposture and deception. They value it above all gold, silver, knowledge, wisdom, riches, honor, display and show, indeed, above everything that is named under heaven; for they know from their hearts that this is the only doctrine that leads to immortality and eternal life. They do not look at the things that are passing, but at the things that are imperishable. They provide and prepare a treasure and inheritance that abides in heaven, but earthly treasure they do not value. They seek the wisdom that is eternal, and are therefore regarded by the whole world as fools. They adorn themselves with the inner garment of righteousness and despise the outer, moth-eaten garment of pride. They strive for the kingdom and crown of glory that will abide forever, and the earthly kingdom with its glory they leave to those who delight in it.

Therefore, dearly beloved, it is absolutely necessary to judge all things spiritually, for the world has come to such a state that the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ and his holy apostles is considered heresy; and to preach Christ Jesus, his Spirit and life, his unadulterated word, will and ordinance, and to turn people from ungodliness to piety, is considered imposition and deception. See how blind and ignorant in divine things our persecutors are, who so miserably oppress, persecute and destroy us for the sake of the truth. Indeed, my brothers, here is the patience and faith of the saints. All who experience this in their hearts (as related here) will possess their souls in patience, however great the opposition may be, and will pray for their enemies with all the ardor of the power that is in them.

In the fourth place, our persecutors accuse us with great bitterness because we separate ourselves from their doctrine, sacraments and church service, and from a carnal life, and dare have nothing to do with them in such things. They say that in this we condemn them and banish them to hell.

To this we reply, in the first place: The reason we can never consent to or allow, by word or deed, their preachers, sacraments, church service and impure, carnal life is that they are openly opposed to God and his word. The preachers serve when they are not sent; their doctrine is false, deceptive and contrary to the saving doctrine of truth; their life is blameworthy in every respect; they preach for the sake of filthy gain; they play the hypocrite to the world to flatter its desires. The foundation of their faith and religion is emperor, king, prince and potentate: what these command, they teach, and what these forbid, they leave untouched. Their infant baptism has no foundation in Scripture; their supper is idolatrous and impure, administered and received by the impure; their church service is contrary to the doctrine of the apostles; and the ordinary course of their life is for the most part so carnal and ungodly that every child of God must be exceedingly amazed and astonished at it.

Seeing, then, that their doctrine, sacrament, church service and life are in fact so plainly opposed to the word of God, how could we mingle with them again and become familiar with them in such heinous abominations? That we separate ourselves from them is the express word and will of God. For Paul says, “What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has he who believes with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty,” Second Corinthians 6, verses 14 to 18.

These words of Paul are plain and understandable. It is therefore utterly impossible that those who, through the goodness of God, have received from on high the true Light, Christ Jesus, unfeigned righteousness and a pure, effective faith, who have become a fit and worthy temple of the Lord, who are led by the Holy Spirit, and who are chosen and adopted as the children of God, should have fellowship again with darkness, Belial, unrighteousness, infidels and idolaters. For if, through the grace of God, you are convinced that their doctrine, sacraments, church service and life are false at the foundation; if you have a true zeal for God; if you count all things as dross so that with Paul you may win Christ, according to Scripture; if you abhor what is evil and cling to what is good; if you have washed your robes in the blood of the Lamb and have conformed all your thoughts, words and actions to the touchstone of the holy word and the example of Christ, how then can you have communion with them again and say amen to their abominations? We cannot serve two masters at once; we cannot hold communion with Christ and the devil at the same time; we cannot be the children and servants of God and also of Satan. If we love what is good, we must abhor what is evil; if we embrace the truth, we must forsake lies. And there are many such passages and Scriptures.

Now, because we separate ourselves from them in this way and testify by word and deed, even to death, that their works are evil, they are filled with the most inhuman rancor and indignation, and say from the heart, as all the ungodly have done from the beginning, “Let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings; he upbraids us with our offending the law, and objects to our infamy the transgressions of our education,” and so on. He exposes our secret designs and cunning devices. “He is grievous to us even to behold, for his life is not like other men’s; his ways are of another fashion. We are esteemed by him as counterfeits; he abstains from our ways as from filthiness; he pronounces the end of the just to be blessed.” “Let us condemn him with a shameful death,” Wisdom of Solomon 2, verses 12, 15, 16 and 20.

Here, my dearly beloved brothers, the Holy Spirit has given a faithful portrait of our persecutors. For our actual confession, that is to say, our separation from them, is the sole reason why the blind, bloodthirsty world, frantic with rage, tyrannizes over us so cruelly, and why we must bear and suffer so much, as Peter also says: They think it strange that you do not run with them into the same excess of riot, and they speak evil of you. Indeed, it was for this reason that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, Daniel, Eleazar, the mother with the seven sons, Christ Jesus and all the pious had to die and bear the cross: because they earnestly reproved the world in its doctrine, ceremonies and conduct, and opposed it to death.

This is, even to this day, the one and principal reason, and in reality there is no other, although our persecutors allege many, as we have shown, why we must be considered by the world as Anabaptists, heretics, knaves, deceivers and movers of sedition, and be regarded as fit objects of persecution. But thank God, we know the reason for our suffering. We know also that he who called us to this grace, and in whom we put our trust, will plead our cause successfully, and will faithfully stand by and deliver his poor, oppressed children in every time of need, to the advancement of his eternal praise and everlasting glory.

Although our persecutors assert that our separation from them is the result of mere obstinacy and caprice, their statement is false and unjust in the presence of God, who knows the hearts of all men. For our separation has no other foundation or purpose than this: that in our weakness we desired to observe the word of God with all our heart and keep his commandments, and that we might show the whole world, in real charity and in deed, that they lie in wickedness and are strangers to God and his word, so that in due time they may awake and turn from iniquity. For how can they truly teach others generosity, chastity, humility and every virtue if they themselves are given over to greed, lewdness and pride and addicted to every vice? It would be the height of folly for a person to point out the right way to others, warning them of robbers and murderers, while he himself took a winding, lonely road and willingly offered himself as easy prey to thieves and robbers. My brothers may reflect on what I mean.

It is not enough for a sincere Christian merely to speak the truth; he must also show in power and in deed what he speaks, and conform himself to it, or he will hear with the Pharisees, You say, and do not do; and also, as Paul says of the Jews in writing to the Romans, “You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say that a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who make your boast of the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?” Romans 2, verses 21 to 23.

In short, a Christian teaches and acts, professes and practices, believes and obeys, directs and advances; his heart, word and deed are in harmony. If not, he is a hypocrite and no Christian, as, alas, many are in our day who boast highly of knowledge and wisdom, though in power they are empty and unfruitful.

Again, we reply: Our persecutors violently and unjustly accuse us of condemning them to hell. Ah no! far be it from us to condemn any man under heaven before his time, however wicked he may be. For we know well that the Scriptures say, “Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned.” There is one who in the fullness of time will judge every man according to his works, namely, he to whom the Father has committed all judgment; whoever usurps his judgment will not go unpunished. Moreover, we do not know what measure of grace the sinner may be made partaker of before death; therefore we are clear and innocent before God of condemning others. Nevertheless, we are permitted to judge and speak by the word of God as follows: If a miser does not abandon his greedy ways, a whoremonger his lewdness, a drunkard his drunkenness, an idolater his worship of strange gods, and turn by a pious, penitent life to the true and living God with sorrow and anguish of heart, in the working faith of Jesus Christ, he is no Christian, nor will he inherit the kingdom of God. If sentence is passed in this way, it is not we who judge but the Scriptures, as Christ says, “He who rejects me and does not receive my words has one who judges him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day,” John 12, verse 48. We are well assured that God neither does nor can save any man contrary to his word, for he is truth and cannot lie. Where there is no faith and no newness of mind, there is no repentance, nor sorrow of heart, and so on; and upon such, alas, Christ Jesus has already passed sentence, saying, “If you do not believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins”; “Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish”; and more similar sayings.

Brothers, as you well know, we therefore judge no man with our word before the time, but we commit that to Jesus Christ and his word, who will judge them in due season. We do not condemn them by our separation, as they complain; but we teach and admonish them by word and work, with all diligence and faithfulness, that they may cease from evil, follow what is good, do righteousness, and seek and fear God in a good conscience, so that they do not die in sin and unbelief and remain forever under the wrath and judgment of God. Nevertheless, the pure charity and faithful service of the pious are ascribed to bad motives and twisted to their disgrace.

In the fifth place, many cover their tyranny and bloodshed with a thin fig leaf and say, We do not judge you; the emperor’s mandate judges you.

To this we reply: If our persecutors are Christians and have the knowledge of Christ, as they suppose, we earnestly ask them, in the spirit of humanity and for God’s sake, to compare the emperor with Christ and observe carefully whether the emperor and Christ are of one spirit, and whether he walks as Christ taught his disciples; and also to compare the mandate of the emperor with the gospel of Christ. If they find that the emperor does not agree with Christ in spirit and life, and that his mandate, by which they shape their conduct, is contrary to the gospel, then they must acknowledge that the emperor is no Christian and that his mandate is condemned and accursed in the presence of God.

It is the most lamentable blindness that they fear and honor the poor, earthly emperor more than Christ Jesus, and his bloodthirsty, malicious mandate more than the gospel of love. Yet they want to be considered Christians. O that the emperor and his subjects were Christians! This is our most earnest desire. Then a great deal of innocent blood would be spared, which is now spilled like water, contrary to all Scripture and charity.