A History of the Baptists, Chapter 11 - Other Baptist Churches in the Practice of Dipping

“The Calvinists in Geneva figured that if the Baptists prefer immersion then they’d deal with the problem by drowning them. They killed over 900 of them, most of them by holding them under the waters of Lake Geneva until they could no longer breathe.”

I was looking for a specific link for the above.

charismatic takeovers... Calvinist takeovers

We need to worship God in Spirit AND in truth. Charismatics emphasize spirit at the expense of truth; Calvinists do the opposite. (that will get me in trouble with both groups)

If you wish to learn about the persecution of the early baptists, anabaptists and other groups in the early part of the Protestant Reformation, simply pick up any textbook on the “Radical Reformation.”

LOL, I’ve had mu share of them.

Every thought captive eh?

It's curious how every heresy, every deviation from orthodoxy, every movement in fact, always seems to start by someone saying "it is written". Of course, it may very well be written, but so are lots of things. Over emphasis on any aspect of the spiritual life at the expense of others is always going to lead to trouble.

I was more concerned about the particular accusation. I don’t ever recall reading the specific event you alleged. Throwing labels around like “Baptsts” “Lutherans”, “Calvinists” without know much about the individuals. Anabaptist could mean lots of things. Your typical modern Southern Baptist has little in common with anabaptist or mennonite today. Pacifism is one major difference.

Radical Reformation
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Protestant Reformation

Precursors
Waldensians (I 12th century)
Avignon Papacy (1309 to 1377)
John Wycliffe (E, 1320–1384)
Western Schism (1378–1417)
Jan Hus (B, ~1369–1415)
Hussite Wars (1420 to ~1434)
Northern Renaissance
German mysticism
The Start of the Reformation
English Reformation
The Ninety-Five Theses
German Peasants’ War
Schmalkaldic League
Magisterial · Radical · Counter
Protestant Reformers
Martin Luther
Philipp Melanchthon
Thomas Müntzer
Menno Simons
Martin Bucer
Olaus & Laurentius Petri
Huldrych Zwingli
John Calvin
John Knox
Reformation by location
Denmark-Norway and Holstein · England
Germany · Italy · Netherlands · Scotland
Sweden · France · Switzerland

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The Radical Reformation was a 16th century response to what was believed to be both the corruption in the Roman Catholic Church and the expanding Magisterial Protestant movement led by Martin Luther and many others. Beginning in Germany and Switzerland, the Radical Reformation birthed many radical Protestant groups throughout Europe. The term covers both radical reformers like Thomas Müntzer, Andreas Karlstadt, groups like the Zwickau prophets and anabaptist groups like the Hutterites and the Mennonites.

Although the proportion of the European population rebelling against both Catholic and Protestant churches was tiny, the literature on the Radical Reformation is vast, partly as a result of the proliferation of the Radical Reformation teachings in the United States.[1]

Contents [hide]
1 Characteristics
2 Radical reformers
3 Early forms of Anabaptism
4 Later forms of Anabaptism
5 Other movements
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Characteristics
Unlike the Roman Catholics and the more Magisterial Lutheran and Reformed (Zwinglian and Calvinist) Protestant movements, the Radical Reformation generally abandoned the idea of the “Church visible” as distinct from the “Church invisible.” Thus, the Church only consisted of the tiny community of believers, who accepted Jesus Christ and demonstrated this by adult baptism, called “believer’s baptism”.

While the magisterial reformers wanted to substitute their own learned elite for the learned elite of the Roman Catholic Church, the radical Protestant groups rejected church authority almost entirely. It was unavoidable that as the search for original and purely scriptural Christianity was carried further, some would claim that the tension between the church and the Roman Empire in the first centuries of Christianity was somehow normative, that the church is not to be allied with government, that a true church is always subject to be persecuted, and that the conversion of Constantine I was therefore the great apostasy that marked the end of pure Christianity.[2]

[edit] Radical reformers
There were a number of radical reformers in the reformation time, who had more radical claims than Luther or Zwingli. Some of them like Thomas Müntzer were involved in the German Peasants’ War. Other like Andreas Karlstadt was non-violent and had some theological interferences with Huldrych Zwingli. Kaspar Schwenkfeld and Sebastian Franck were influenced by german mysticism and spiritualism.

Thomas Müntzer
Andreas Karlstadt
Kaspar Schwenkfeld
Sebastian Franck
[edit] Early forms of Anabaptism
Some early forms of the Radical Reformation were millenarian, focusing on the imminent end of the world. This was particularly notable in the rule of John of Leiden over the city of Münster in 1535, which was ultimately crushed by the forces of the Catholic Bishop of Münster and the Lutheran Landgrave of Hesse. After the fall of Münster, several small militant groups such as the Batenburgers continued to adhere to revolutionary Anabaptist beliefs. Also non-violent anabaptist groups had millenarian conceptions.

The early Anabaptists believed that the Reformation must purify not only theology but also the actual lives of Christians, especially in what had to do with political and social relationships.[3] Therefore, the church should not be supported by the state, neither by tithes and taxes, nor by the use of the sword; Christianity was a matter of individual conviction, which could not be forced on anyone, but rather required a personal decision for it.[4]

Many groups were influenced by biblicism (like the Swiss Brethren), spiritualism (like the South German Anabaptists) and mainly absolute pacifism (like the Swiss Brethren, the Hutterites and the Mennonites from Northern Germany and the Netherlands). The Hutterites contended also the community of goods. In the beginning most of them were strongly missionary

[edit] Later forms of Anabaptism
Later forms of Anabaptism were much smaller, and focused on the formation of small, separatist communities. Among the many varieties to develop were Mennonites, Amish, and Hutterites. Typical among the new leaders of the later Anabaptist movement, and certainly the most influential of them, was Menno Simons (1496–1561), a Dutch Catholic priest who early in 1536 decided to join the Anabaptists.[5]

Menno Simons had no use for the violence advocated and practiced by the Münster movement, which seemed to him to pervert the very heart of Christianity.[6] Thus, Mennonite pacifism is not merely a peripheral characteristic of the movement, but rather belongs to the very essence of Menno’s understanding of the gospel; this is one of the reasons that it has been a constant characteristic of all Mennonite bodies through the centuries.[7]

[edit] Other movements
In addition to the Anabaptists, other Radical Reformation movements have been identified. Notably, George Huntston Williams, the great categorizer of the Radical Reformation, considered early forms of Unitarianism (such as that of the Socinians, and exemplified by Michael Servetus), and other trends that disregarded the Nicene christology still accepted by most Christians, as part of the Radical Reformation. With Michael Servetus (1511–1553) and Faustus Socinus (1539–1604) anti-Trinitarianism came to the foreground.[8]

[edit] See also
Protestant Reformation
Anabaptist
Persecution of Anabaptists
The Peasants’ War
Martyrs Mirror
Christian anarchism
Restorationism (Christian primitivism)

Your typical modern Southern Baptist has little in common with anabaptist or mennonite today.

Incorrect. Other than pacifism, most Baptists will agree with Mennonites (modern day anabaptists) on just about every central doctrinal issue, including believers' baptism. Furthermore, not all Mennonites are pacifists. Furthermore, some Baptists ARE pacifists.

On a personal note, I joined the SBC late in life. Earlier in my life I attended Friends churches (Quaker), Mennonite Churches, Bible Churches, and variously associated Baptist Churches...all in the Central Valley of California, where there are many of each in abundance.