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The Anabaptist religion began in 1525 in Switzerland. The original Anabaptists held to three beliefs that set them apart: Believer’s Baptism, Pacifism and Community of Goods.
1- Believer’s Baptism The Anabaptists held that a person must first believe the gospel before he could be accepted into the Church with the sign of water baptism. This is in accordance with the teachings of their Lord Jesus who placed believing ahead of baptism (Mt 28:19 and Mk 16:16).
2- Pacifism The Anabaptists held that one could not obtain or protect his rights by the use of force. This is in accordance with the teachings of their Lord Jesus who commanded his followers not to resist an evil man (Mt 5:39 and Mt 18:36).
3- Community of Goods The Anabaptists held that one could not have private property but must share all his goods in common with Christ’s brothers and sisters. This is in accordance with the teachings of their Lord Jesus who said that no one could be his followers unless they gave up all of their possessions (Luke 14:33, also Mt 6:19-34, Mt 19:21, Luke 12:33, John 13:34-35, Acts 2:44-47 and Acts 4:32-5:11).

However, today most Anabaptists do not hold to item 3 above, community of goods, but it was part of the original Anabaptists belief.

“Anabaptists”, are many groups who adopted many of the beliefs of Zwingli, but later would fight him, and adopt many of the Calvin’s theories.
These Christians rejected infant baptism, choosing instead believer’s baptism.. Since many of them had been baptized in their infancy, they chose to be rebaptized as believing adults. So their enemies called them anabaptists — “re-baptizers.”

ANABAPTISTS, (after Zwingli), 1519.
- Brethren in Christ, German Switzerland.
- Hutterine Brethren.
- Mennonites, to Pennsylvania, in 1653.
- German Baptists, Dunkards, to USA, 1723.
- German Moravians, who became the “United Brethren Church”, in 1735.
- Separatists and Congregationalists, in England and Holland, came to America as the Pilgrim fathers on the “Mayflower” (repudiated the title of Anabaptists, as they did the “Baptists”).
- The Amish, to Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa.
- The Baptists in USA (repudiated the title Anabaptists).

The history is a little spotty before 1525.

You’ll find there are a wide variety of Baptists. Some Baptists believe there was always a “shadow” church apart from the official Catholic Church going all the way back. There is some evidence to this effect but I’ve never been interested in following it. There is no paper trail; it’s all conjecture. Also, to me it’s a bit pointless because I’m not interested in tracking groups of Christians as much as I’m interested in tracking the development of theology.

The Anabaptists were not well liked by the Protestants or the Catholics during the Reformation. I don’t know a whole lot about them except to say they held some rather strange views. However, I’m not sure that the Anabaptists isn’t a splinter group from other Baptists. If you compare the London Baptist confession against Anabaptist beliefs, they sound like two separate groups.

I’m not defending them, simply stating that I wouldn’t lump all Baptists into the same mold. Both John Piper and Rick Warren are Southern Baptist and they are like night and day.