Why Menno Simon Does Not Cease Teaching and Writing, Part 3

If by my teaching I should gain disciples for myself and not for Christ Jesus, seeking my own gain, praise and honor, then indeed woe to my soul! No, brothers, no. The Lord be blessed, I do not seek what Judas, Gallio and Theudas sought. By the grace of God I am not minded like those who in their imagination soar above the clouds and want to be like the Most High, Acts 5, verse 37. But I repeat it: I am a poor, miserable sinner who must fight daily with my flesh, the world and the devil, and seek the mercy of the Lord daily; and who, with holy Paul, boasts of nothing but Christ Jesus alone, and that he was crucified for us.

My writing and preaching are for nothing but the sake of Christ Jesus; for I seek and desire nothing (the Lord knows this) but that the most glorious name, the divine will and the glory of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ may be acknowledged throughout the world. I desire and seek sincere teachers, true doctrine, true faith, true sacraments, true worship and a blameless life; and for this I must pay with much tribulation, trouble, unrest, labor, watching, fear, anxiety, sorrow, envy, shame, heat and cold, and perhaps at last with torture, indeed with my blood and death. For my reward, according to the flesh, must be that of him who from the beginning, in his great love, has sought the salvation of the world. I say with holy John the Baptist: Christ Jesus must increase, but I must decrease, John 3, verse 30. He lives forever and ever, but I shall return again to the dust from which I came, like all the children of men.

Therefore I beseech you again, by the grace of God and for the salvation of your souls, to weigh my doctrine, and the doctrine of all people who have been since the times of the apostles, who are now and who shall yet be, in the gospel balance of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of his holy apostles, lest you be deceived by me or by any other man, whether he is a prince, learned or unlearned, holy in appearance or a worker of miracles. If what I teach is the word of God, accept it in the name of the Lord, if you would not be lost. But if it is human doctrine, then let it be accursed of God. “For no one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid (by the apostles), which is Jesus Christ,” First Corinthians 3, verse 11.

No doctrine is profitable or useful for our salvation except the doctrine of Christ Jesus and his holy apostles, as he himself says, “Teach them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you,” Matthew 28, verse 19.

All Scripture, of both the Old and the New Testament, rightly explained according to the intent of Christ Jesus and his holy apostles, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, Second Timothy 3, verse 16; but whatever is taught contrary to the Spirit and doctrine of Jesus is accursed of God, Galatians, chapter 1.

There is only one cornerstone laid by God, the Almighty Father, in the foundation of Zion, which is Christ Jesus, Isaiah 28, verse 16; Romans 9, verse 33; First Peter 2, verse 6; on him alone, and on no other, we should build in keeping with his word. The whole world, on the contrary, has built on strange cornerstones, such as popes, councils, doctors, and the doctrines and commandments of men, and on wrong practices of long standing, and still continues to build on pretended prophets; and so they shamefully reject the only, noble and finished cornerstone, the ever blessed Christ Jesus. Therefore I cannot be restrained, but must warn all God-fearing souls in the Lord by my writings, wherever they may be taken, read and heard, that from this moment they may awaken, if they desire to be saved (whether I live or die for doing so), and may without delay enter on the wholesome doctrine, sacraments, obedience and life of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ; for in him alone is eternal life, as has often been said above.

Beloved reader, truly I cannot help wondering at the obstinacy, deafness and blindness of the world, since they are not ashamed to bear the name of Christ and to boast of his merits, blood and death, while nothing at all is found among them by which they prove the good will and nature of Christ Jesus. O you vain boasters, if you are the true Christians in whom God is pleased, as you pretend, where then is your Christian baptism, in which you have buried your sins and put on the new life? Where is your true Supper, in which you proclaim the death of the Lord and show your brotherly love? Where is your love and fear of God? Your love of your neighbors? Your humility of heart? Your mercy toward the needy? Your obedience to the commandments of God? Your new birth from above, from which comes a new life that should be blameless before God and before all the world? James 1, verse 27. Where is the living, holy and pleasing sacrifice of your own body, which you should always be ready to offer for the sake of the Lord’s truth? We find nothing among you but unbelief and its evil fruits: an antichristian baptism, an idolatrous supper, unclean love of the flesh, unmercifulness, pride, avarice, disobedience in all divine matters, carnal birth, earthly mindedness, and the old, blameworthy life, led according to the will of him who from the beginning was a proud, false, deceitful, cruel and bloody murderer.

We find among you no worship but only a self-made set of rites that please the flesh, such as bells, organs, singing, festivals, ornamented churches, beautiful images, distinctions of foods and days, false purifications and promises, the reading of many psalms and pater nosters with the mouth and not in the spirit, the adulteration of the sacraments, and a destruction and garbling of everything that Christ Jesus has taught and commanded in his holy gospel. Truly, none of these are works of regenerated Christians; they are rather the works of Satan or of the foolish, blind and ignorant flesh. For by these works neither the word nor the righteousness of God is taught, no flesh is crucified, no neighbors are served, and above all they are not pleasing to God. Therefore, according to Scripture, they cannot be considered services of God, but rather an abominable, fearful and terrible service of idols. For by such means the ignorant, trusting common people are led away from true faith and trust in Christ Jesus and into a false trust in ceremonies—indeed, in ceremonies that the eternal wisdom, the blessed Christ Jesus, has never commanded. By these ceremonies they plainly show that at heart they believe Christ Jesus to be imperfect, foolish and unclean. For if they believed him to be wise and perfect, how could they so shamefully adulterate, break, despise and garble his perfect evangelical word and ordinances? And if they acknowledged him to be spotless, why do they seek their salvation in such impure and strange means, and not in the only pure sacrifice, which is Christ Jesus? [Note 1]

But because true religion opposes your carnal mindedness, pride, avarice, uncleanness, vanity, ease and the lusts of your flesh, you have chosen for yourselves a vain and strange religion by which you think you will be saved, although you do not live according to the word and will of God. O no, dear reader, no. I repeat it: if all creatures under heaven were devouring swords, fire and water; if all men were cruel, horrible and bloody tyrants; and if the shrewdness of the learned ruled all the people—still, all would be vanity. If you would enter into life, you must be born again, John 3, verse 5; you must be regenerated, and in malice you should be children, First Corinthians 14, verse 20; indeed, you must keep the commandments taught and commanded by Jesus Christ, Matthew, chapter 18. Nothing can be devised as a substitute; for there will never be a way to salvation other than Christ Jesus.

It is all too plain and foolish blindness to think that we could be saved and at the same time be avaricious, spiteful, envious, proud, adulterous and idolatrous, since all the Scriptures show and teach all too plainly that such people shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Did you ever find falsehood with God? I think not. Holy Paul says that God is one “who cannot lie,” Titus 1, verse 2. Christ Jesus says, “Your word is truth,” John 17, verse 17. If, then, he is a God who cannot lie, and if his holy word is truth—O you miserable people, then all is lost with you. For his doctrine and truth is that the unbelieving, rebellious, disobedient, avaricious, vain, lying, whoring, greedy, obstinate, idolatrous, adulterous, ambitious, bloodthirsty and carnal man shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, but his portion shall be “everlasting destruction,” First Thessalonians 1, verse 9, eternal darkness and eternal death. [Note 2]

Since you are such ungodly, obstinate and willful sinners, you are, according to the word of Christ, which cannot lie, and according to the doctrine of the apostles, who spoke in the same Spirit, shut out from the glorious revelation of the children of God and from the life to come; and you must remain forever, by the wrath of God, in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, Revelation 21, verse 8.

And if, in spite of this, you trust that you will be saved while you do not sincerely repent of your old life, then truly your trust is vain. For by such trust you make God a liar, because you trust to obtain life contrary to his holy word.

What! Do you think, O you perverse people, that we can take the Almighty, wise and just God by surprise, blind him and bribe him? Do you think that the eternal truth will become falsehood for your sake? No, beloved reader, no. Beware. The unstoppable sentence of God was passed, beyond all repeal, more than fifteen hundred years ago, namely, “If you live after the flesh, you shall die,” Romans 8, verse 13. This word is sure and firm.

O world, world, that you so despise as vain and useless the calling and inviting voice of your God, who is as faithful to you as a faithful father to his beloved children! And that you say in your hearts with beautiful Tyrus, “I am of perfect beauty,” Ezekiel 27, verse 3; and with proud Babel, “I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children,” Isaiah 47, verse 8. Indeed, although you now say, as the ignorant do, “It is peace and freedom,” yet I tell you, as Ezekiel said to Tyrus, “You are nothing; nothing will you be forever”; and as Isaiah said to Babel, “You shall fall and not rise again”; and with Paul, “that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night,” and, “as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape,” First Thessalonians 5, verses 2 and 3. And although you may now, like Capernaum, be exalted to heaven, yet you will be brought down to hell when you least expect it, Matthew 11, verse 23. You eat, drink, dress, grab and hoard, and you act in all your dealings as if you would remain forever in this tabernacle of clay; and you never consider that soon this word will be heard by all of us: “Give an account of your stewardship; for you may no longer be steward.”

The precious word of grace and of eternal peace, which is the most holy gospel of Jesus Christ, you count as nothing more than a fable—indeed, as accursed heresy. For you drown, burn, persecute and murder those who teach, admonish and reprove you by this word, and who are sent to you by God, by grace, with a strong power of the Spirit; just as the mad synagogue of the Jews did, so that they persecuted and destroyed not only the chosen children of God, the holy prophets, but also the only begotten Son of God himself, who by the inexpressible love of the merciful Father was sent to them for their own eternal salvation. What did they say? “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize his inheritance,” Matthew 21, verse 38.

How long will you continue in your damnable blindness, your rebellious obstinacy and your pernicious madness? Consider the abundant, inexpressible works of grace that Christ Jesus has shown you; and if his great love cannot move you to turn away from your idolatry, disobedience and accursed life, then remember his severe judgments, which from the beginning of creation have come upon all who did not abide in his blessed word and obedience, so that you may be drawn away from all evil by fear, since you are not moved by his love.

See the weeping eyes, O miserable world, and hear the tender voice of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ, how he wept over obstinate Jerusalem and said to them, “If you had known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong to your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes,” Luke 19, verse 42. And in another place, “Behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them you shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate,” Matthew 23, verses 34 to 38.

O sincerely beloved readers, if you rightly took these words of Christ to heart, your bones would dry up with fear; they would shake and tremble. For it is with you just as it was with Jerusalem and Judah. You willfully deny that Christ Jesus is your Lord. You do not desire the true knowledge of his ways. Instead you desire to do as all the Gentiles have done from the beginning, namely, to worship wood, stone, gold, silver, bread, wine and the works of your own hands. Besides this there is your earthly, carnal and corrupt life, which, so to speak, does not agree in the least with the word and will of him who by grace created you for his honor.

Indeed, you have so entirely rejected Christ Jesus and cast him from you in mockery that there is no doctrine, no sacrament, nor anything left among you that agrees with his word. Instead you have instituted self-made doctrines, sacraments, ceremonies and commandments, as if Christ Jesus, the only begotten Son and Wisdom of the Almighty Father, were not the true Messenger. And all those who brotherly admonish and gently reprove you about this damnable, deadly error, and seek to bring you back to Christ Jesus and his blessed word, must be seized and suffer as rebellious heretics in all cities and countries.

See, kind reader, because you have always been, and still are, so unthankful for his fatherly grace, God has shut his mercy away from you and has brought his just judgment upon you, so that there is neither right, God-fearing truth, nor true teachers, nor deacons, nor gospel, nor faith, nor Christian baptism, nor Christian Supper, nor Christian life, nor knowledge, nor truth, nor spiritual wisdom, nor judgment, nor ban, nor love, nor piety left on earth. So the house of which Christ Jesus spoke is entirely destroyed, and the well-prepared vineyard of the Lord is without fruit and has become useless, as the prophet says, “Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill; and he fenced it, and gathered out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress in it; and he looked for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to bring forth grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? And now, come; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; and break down its wall, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor dug; but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry,” Isaiah 5, verses 1 to 7.

See, dear brothers, as this judgment came first upon Israel, so it has also come upon us. For all flesh has corrupted its way, from the lowest to the highest. The heavens are iron, and the earth is metal. In the vineyard of the Lord there is no dew, no moisture and no ripe fruit; there is no digger, no pruner and no keeper. Everywhere it is accursed; the walls and hedges are trampled down; it is laid waste to be trampled on by all; strangers have dominion over it. The Gentiles have entered the sanctuary and have defiled the temple of the Lord. Our princes are devouring lions to us; our fathers are our betrayers; our pastors are our deceivers; our shepherds are our wolves; our watchmen are the thieves and murderers of our souls. We find nothing but thistles and thorns; everything is plundered and robbed, everything is torn up and broken down, wherever we turn. And all this because of our sinfulness; this we must confess before our God.

Indeed, dearest reader, compare our transgressions with those of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities that God destroyed because of their sinfulness, and see how far they still stand above us. For if we look rightly into the matter, we can conceive of no sinfulness greater than that of our time, whatever the sin may be—pride, avarice, fornication, adultery, idolatry, backbiting, hatred, envy, greed, treason, murder, disobedience to God, rebelliousness, lying, stealing, hypocrisy or any other ungodliness—as may be plainly seen.

Besides this, by this miserable, blind, erring world flesh is counted as Spirit, falsehood as truth, sinfulness as righteousness, and Satan as Christ. Antichrist is seated in the temple of God. Pharaoh arms himself against Israel. The mighty miracles and the pleading voice of the Lord are neither seen nor heeded. So this abominable darkness has covered the whole land of Egypt. I repeat, so the fearful judgment of God has come upon us because of our sinfulness, as the prophet says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness. None calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth; they trust in vanity and speak lies; they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spider’s web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper. Their webs shall not become garments, nor shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no judgment in their goings; they have made themselves crooked paths; whoever goes in them shall not know peace. Therefore judgment is far from us, nor does justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We all roar like bears and mourn sorely like doves; we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them: in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands far off; for truth has fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Indeed, truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey; and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor,” Isaiah 59, verses 2 to 16. [Note 3]

Most beloved, so God, the just judge, has sent his fearful judgment into this wicked world, although you do not feel it. For because you trample on the Son of God, count the blood of the New Testament as unclean and grieve the Holy Spirit of grace, you are under the terrible judgment and have fallen into the hands of the living God, so that you prefer falsehood to truth, obscurity to light, death to life. And therefore God has sent you error and deprived you of his holy word, faith, knowledge and truth, so that in this world you have neither light nor way, nor spiritual wisdom, nor prayer, nor God, nor Christ, nor promise, nor righteousness, nor peace, nor freedom of conscience, nor inward joy, nor hope—even though you boast so highly of the name, mercy, merits, death and blood of the Lord. For since you say that you acknowledge God, and yet do not honor and thank him as God, he has allowed you to be deceived by your sensual thoughts, and your foolish heart has been darkened, First John 1, verse 6; John 1, verse 10; Revelation 22, verse 15; John 9, verse 31; Ephesians 4, verse 18; Romans 1, verses 18 and 22. Besides this, you think it mere mockery to acknowledge God; therefore God has given you over to a perverse mind, to do the things you should not do, “being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful,” Romans 1, verses 29 to 31.

See, beloved reader, how mysteriously God punishes by his righteous judgment. For God, the mighty Lord, visits this world in many different ways because of its sinfulness: with bondage, war, bloodshed, drought, famine, pestilence and many other diseases—plagues and chastisements at which the world is horror-stricken. But above all, the most terrible wrath of God is his depriving us of his divine word. For the plagues first mentioned, such as pestilence, famine, the sword and so on, punish us only according to the flesh, and are chastisements for our correction, as the prophet says, which he inflicts so that his children may learn wisdom; but when he deprives us of his word, then all is lost. For if we do not have the word, we truly have nothing but unbelief, blindness, error, disobedience, conceit, bitterness, an unclean, foolish and adulterous spirit, and eternal death. But how few, indeed how very few, are horror-stricken at these plagues, however abundantly they have come upon them.

If we wanted to put out a man’s eyes, cut off his ears, take his life or take from him the inheritance of his natural father, would not such a person use all his reason, wit and wisdom to prevent such pain, shame, danger and loss? And today the whole world has eyes and does not see, ears and does not hear, life and yet is dead, and, above all, is robbed of the eternal inheritance of the merciful Father, but does not care. O, if they acknowledged their own misfortune, how diligently they would seek him who gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and true wisdom to the unlearned, who is Christ Jesus, Psalm 94, verse 9.

But the finely dressed woman has so enchanted you, and the whoring spirit of spiritual whoredom has so kept you under its wings, that I fear indeed that your abominable unbelief, obscurity, blindness, falsehood and madness will never again be taken from your hearts, but that the wrath of God will remain on you to the end; so that in this earthly life you will wander, without any piety, from one unclean thing to another until the time when we are placed before the just judge, where everyone shall receive his reward according to his works. Then, when it is too late, your blind eyes will be opened amid sighs and useless remorse, and you will acknowledge that you have not walked in the ways of righteousness to eternal life, but in the dark ways to eternal death. O misery, where will you then hide yourselves from the wrath of God? Then you will cry in terror, “You mountains, fall on us, and you hills, cover us,” Revelation 6, verse 16. For then no place of prayer, of mercy or of repentance can be found for the sinner. But the terrible sentence of the just God against all wicked, unbelieving, willful and disobedient sinners will then be pronounced: “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” Matthew 25, verse 41. O, how well it would be for such people if they had never been born.

Therefore, as long as I live, I will not cease to teach and admonish, both by word of mouth and in writing, as far as God, the merciful Father, in his inexpressible kindness, gives me knowledge, spirit, grace and wisdom, all those who seek the truth, so that they may awaken while there is still time, and seek the Lord while he may still be found, and call on him while he is near, so that their righteousness may go forth as a light and their salvation burn like a torch. This consists in nothing but casting off the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light, which is to renounce all false doctrine, false sacraments, false religion and the unbecoming, dishonest, carnal life, and to enter again into the divine doctrine, the evangelical sacraments, the services and works of love and the sincere Christian life, as it was taught, instituted and practiced by Christ Jesus himself, our only Deliverer and Shepherd, according to the will of his Father, Isaiah 55, verse 6; Isaiah 62, verse 2; Romans 13, verse 12.

So I labor and strive, according to the small talent God has given me—God is my witness—after nothing else than that the Daystar, the blessed Christ Jesus, the ever-shining Light, may arise in your hearts and enlighten you in all divine truth, knowledge, spiritual understanding and wisdom, to eternal life. Amen. Second Peter 1, verse 19.

Most beloved reader, I hereby beseech you all, whether you are lord, prince, learned or unlearned, to read these and all my writings with the fear of God in your hearts; and I have no doubt that you will clearly find that our doctrine, which is the doctrine of Jesus Christ and his holy apostles, does not tend to mutiny, discord, treason and rebellion, but rather—indeed, surely—to true Christian love, unity and peace. For Christ Jesus, whom we preach, is the true Prince of eternal peace, and not of discord, Isaiah, chapter 9. Tell me, whom have we shortchanged? Whom have we injured? We sincerely seek nothing but to save all mankind—not only at the cost of our goods, shelter, gold, silver and labor, but also (understand it in a spiritual sense) at the cost of our lifeblood.

Truly, truly, I say: if all lords and princes and their subjects who boast of the name of Christ acknowledged the doctrine of Jesus Christ described above as right and true, and were minded as the doctrine, life and Spirit of Christ require, then it would not be necessary to fortify cities and towns, to keep cavalry and infantry, or to manufacture deadly weapons such as guns, swords and spears. I do not speak here of the sword of justice, which is given for the punishment of the wicked and the protection of the good. But it would be as the prophet says, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.” “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,” Isaiah 2, verse 4; Micah 4, verses 3 and 4. For it is impossible that those who have committed themselves to the doctrine, life, body and church of Jesus Christ, and remain in it, should seek or desire anything but divine love, peace and unity: to suppress all evil and protect all good, as befits us in Christ Jesus. But we do not support the false prophets of the corrupted sects, who in many actions transgress the doctrine, rule and measure of Christ.

With this we commend you to the Lord, O faithful readers. And now judge for yourselves, according to the word of the Lord, whether or not I have by his grace pointed out to you the truth of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. Grace, peace, mercy, true knowledge and eternal life be to all who in truth love Christ Jesus. Amen. Do not hide the praise of God, but let it be read and heard by all who diligently seek and desire it.

Beloved brothers, do not depart from the doctrine and life of Christ.