The History of the Amish (Part 1)

By Magda Adriana

November 1, 2022

History of the Amish Series

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

October 31^st, 1517, Wittenberg, Europe

On this day, Martin Luther’s 95 theses was nailed to the chapel door in Wittenberg in what today is called Germany. You might have heard of this day referred to as “Reformation Day.” It was the beginning of a very turbulent era in which the Catholic Church saw its power torn apart, persecution become severe, theological disputes arise, wars break out, and Europe’s map drastically change. This reformation was the engine for the 2^nd church split since the days of Christ, with many more still to come. From this day on, split after split occurred, leaving us today with hundreds, if not thousands, of Christian denominations. But where do the Amish and Mennonites fit into this bigger picture of church history?

In this series I will be taking you on a journey through time to (re)discover the roots of the “plain people”.

The Reformation Era

For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church had been the only church in Western Europe. Around 1500, the power of this church began to crack. A monk named Martin Luther rediscovered the biblical truth that was hidden by the church because the lay people could not read Latin and the priests were the only ones to “explain” the Bible to lay church members.

One of the matters that Luther started to question and preach against, was the selling of indulgences: a piece of paper that people could buy in order to have their sins forgiven and get access to heaven. When Luther started reading the Bible, he soon discovered that this was not what the Bible taught.

As a result, Luther wrote his world famous 95 theses that was nailed to the chapel door in Wittenberg. This caused huge turmoil in the Catholic Church, and because the printing press was one of the newest inventions, Luther’s message spread rapidly, not just within the German regions, but also in the “low lands” (nowadays the Netherlands and Belgium), France, Austria, Switzerland and other European countries.

Martin Luther was the first “successful” reformer, but definitely not the only one. His teachings soon became very popular and other reformers in other countries followed his example and tried to reform the Catholic Church. The result of these reformation attempts within the Catholic Church was, without exception, that the reformers were banned and excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and prices were set on their heads to try to kill all of them. Among them were John Calvin in France, Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland and Menno Simons in the “low lands.” All of these men were willing to risk their lives in order to preach the true gospel: salvation by grace through faith alone, directly from God to men, without interference from a mighty institution like the Catholic Church. However, although the reformers were all united in the main teachings of the Reformation: only by grace, only through Christ, only through faith and only by the Bible, they differed in their explanation of the Bible in other areas of Christian doctrine, such as baptism and communion. This became an important issue, especially in Switzerland, where Zwingli tried to reform the Catholic Church. The authorities in many of the Swiss cantons chose the side of Zwingli, thus starting a new church: the Swiss Reformed Church. Just like the Catholic Church had been, this was a State Church, leaving no room for other interpretations of the Bible than their own. Many of Zwingli’s friends were opposed to the Catholic and Reformed doctrine of infant baptism. Even though Zwingli at first was not against the idea of a church membership (and thus baptism) that was only for adult believers upon the confession of their faith, he now sided with the Swiss State Church and thus became the theological “enemy” of his former friends. Since church and state were very much intertwined, infant baptism in the Swiss Reformed Church also meant being registered as a Swiss citizen. Since the “radical reformers” refused to let their children be baptized, they were often left with no right to be part of the main Swiss society. The first “rebaptism” among them took place on January 21^st, 1525, when Georg Blaurock, Felix Mantz and Konrad Grebel baptized each other upon their confession of faith. In the eyes of both the Catholic Church and other churches of the Reformation, these radicals were already baptized as babies. They therefore called these radicals “Anabaptists.”  Anabaptists means: “re-baptizer”. Thus, the Anabaptist movement had started…

 

« Back to Articles