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Baptism and Rebaptism (2)

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Baptism and Rebaptism (2)

9 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

“One Lord, one faith, one baptism”: it was the Apostle Paul who wrote these words in his epistle to the church of Ephesus. “I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins,” we read in the Nicene Creed. Yet there are numerous views about this one baptism. Young people get confused when a friend is immersed in a Baptist church. More than one parent mourns because a child was rebaptized in an evangelical congregation. We have seen something of that in our first article. In this article we will trace the history of the Anabaptist and the Baptist movements. Although our focus is on the Netherlands, we will also look at other countries and continents.

Rev. J.M.D. de Heer, Middleburg, the Netherlands

Translated from De Saambinder

The Netherlands

Adult baptism—Baptists themselves prefer the term believer’s baptism—has gained a strong foothold in the Netherlands. Baptism by immersion, after a personal confession of faith, is the current practice across the full range of the evangelical movement. Those who follow this practice are the Baptist churches, a sizable part of the Brethren Assemblies, and the Pentecostal churches. Numerous independent evangelical and charismatic groups also adhere to adult baptism.

The situation in the first centuries after the Reformation was not as diverse and confused as it is now. Whereas in the time of the Reformers there were Anabaptists, the seventeenth century saw the coming of the first Baptists to the Netherlands. The Baptist movement with a more evangelical tinge did not surface until the nineteenth century, whereas the Pentecostal churches were added to this mosaic in the twentieth century.

A rather new development is the fact that a growing number of people within the Reformed churches have begun to question the validity of infant baptism, and an increasing number of people support adult baptism. This has become a real problem, for instance, within the Reformed Confederation belonging to the Protestant Church of the Netherlands. Even communicant members and office bearers have themselves been rebaptized, after which they still want to be part of their congregation. In addition to that, the so-called Reformed Baptists have become part of the problem. Although subscribing to a confession which is closely related to the Westminster Confession, they reject infant baptism. Even within the Netherlands Reformed Congregations in the Netherlands, members can be found who are engaged in spreading the ideas of the Reformed Baptist movement.

Worldwide

In our world today the Baptist movement has become one of the main streams within Protestant religion. With their more than sixteen million members, the Southern Baptists constitute the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Experts estimate that there are four hundred million evangelical Christians around the globe. Most of them adhere to the practice of baptism after a personal confession of faith. Particularly the southern hemisphere manifests a very rapid growth of evangelical and Pentecostal churches.

It appears that also young people in Reformed churches are sometimes open to the idea of baptism by immersion after a personal confession of faith. The atmosphere which surrounds such church services does not fail to leave impressions behind. “It is so warm,” some will say. “It makes you feel excited.” Often they lack the biblical knowledge to defend infant baptism. Everything seems so simple after all: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16a). Does this text not indicate the sequence which should be followed: first personal faith and then baptism?

The daily reality shows that once someone has inwardly chosen for adult baptism, he can hardly be persuaded to give up this idea. Parents may sit down with a child that wants to be rebaptized and sometimes talk until the small hours of the night. On more than one occasion they have the feeling that they are talking to a stone wall. When inward choices have already been made, arguments from the Bible and the confessional writings hardly make any impression. How should we deal with this?

Menno Simons

Let us first give a brief sketch of the Baptist movement. The earliest roots of the Dutch branch of this movement go back to Menno Simons, a preacher who used to be a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. He is generally considered to be the spiritual “father” of the Anabaptist movement in the Netherlands. Menno was highly critical of both the Church of Rome and the doctrines of the Reformation. Especially the doctrine of infant baptism was the target of his attacks. Menno himself preached that Christians should not use any violence, but this could not prevent that within the Anabaptist movement forces surged which sought to establish the kingdom of God in a violent manner. An example of this is the occupation of Munster under the leadership of two Dutchmen called Jan Matthijsz and Jan from Leiden. The reign of terror in this German town was smothered in a terrible bloodbath.

After having undergone adult baptism in 1536, Menno Simons traveled back and forth between the North of Germany and the northern part of the Netherlands to spread his message. He died in 1561.

Within the early Anabaptist movement much emphasis was laid on baptism after a personal confession of faith. People made a conscious choice to follow Christ even though this was entailed by suffering. However, this emphasis on choosing tended to set up those who sought rebaptism for a clash with the Reformed truth of God’s free and sovereign good pleasure.

Not much remains today of the original Anabaptist movement in the Netherlands. Within the course of time, the Anabaptist congregations turned liberal in doctrine. They are also faced with a dwindling and aging membership.

John Smyth

The year 1619 saw the birth of the first Baptist church in the Netherlands. This church, established in Amsterdam, had its roots in England. The founder, John Smyth, belonged to the groups of Puritans who broke with the Anglican Church. They aimed for pure congregations, that is, that only those who bound themselves to the service of God and Christ by means of a true confession of faith were permitted to become members of these congregations. It did not last long before this “covenant making” became connected with the concept of adult baptism. After all, only adults are able to take that step in a fully conscious manner. When they do so, God’s covenant is truly made effective. Furthermore, much emphasis was laid upon purity of doctrine and upon serving one another.

After his flight to the Netherlands, Smyth first baptized himself and subsequently fifty church members who had followed him. Shortly after that, the congregation came in contact with the Anabaptists in Amsterdam. The similarities in doctrine and life were so great that the congregation of Smyth eventually merged with the Anabaptist movement in the Netherlands.

Revival movement

A new phase in the history of the Baptist movement was ushered in by the revival movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Some of the revival preachers such as John Wesley who was one of the founders of Methodism, as well as others, used their sermons to underscore the choice which man has to make. This movement made the nations of Europe ripe for a revitalization of the Baptist movement.

In 1834, Mr. J.G. Oncken founded a Baptist church in Hamburg, Germany. From there he traveled throughout Europe to meet Christians who had been touched by revival preachers and were no longer able to find spiritual food in the existing churches.

In 1844, Oncken sent friends to Gasselternijerveen in the Dutch province of Drenthe. In this town the Reformed minister, Dr. J.E. Feisser, had been deposed. Although he had come to this town as a liberal minister, he experienced a strong inner change once he was there. Influenced by the writings of the Puritan John Newton, he emphasized an experimental type of Christianity. At the same time, he began to long for a congregation consisting merely of born again Christians. This led to and was reinforced by a critical attitude towards infant baptism. Is it actually possible for children, who are not yet able to believe in a conscious way, to be members of the church? According to Feisser, infant baptism is the source that the church does not remain pure but turns into a mixture of faith and unbelief.

De Liefde, Darby, and Moody

The Dutch advocates of believer’s baptism formed a movement that was quite active. This movement was influenced by different streams and views. In this context the person of Rev. Jan de Liefde, Darbyism, and the Holiness Movement must be mentioned. De Liefde, an independent minister and founder of the Association for the Spiritual Welfare of the Nation in Amsterdam, became renowned for his unrelenting zeal in the field of evangelism and charitable work. The home mission workers whom he trained in person frequently became active in the circles of Baptists.

Another man who exerted much influence was John Nelson Darby, the spiritual father of the Brethren Assemblies. It was his conviction that the church must go back to the example of the New Testament church, intensely anticipating the return of Christ and not be structured by any offices. Darby, too, was an advocate of adult baptism, and so are the Brethren until the present time.

The last factor to be mentioned is the Holiness Movement that flourished around the person of Dwight L. Moody. This American revival preacher placed much emphasis on feelings. During his campaigns he constantly worked towards a so-called “decision for Jesus.” The conferences which he organized were attended by spiritual leaders coming from the European continent. In this way Moody gained a firm foothold within the circles of Dutch Baptists.

Religious shopping

The last phase of the history of the Baptist movement in the Netherlands is not yet very old. Since the nineties of the twentieth century, this movement has been strongly impacted by the wider stream of the Dutch evangelical movement. An example of this is the fact that the traditional songs of the Baptist churches, collected in a special bundle, are regularly forced to make way for revival songs.

In his study entitled “Gelovig gedoopt, 400 jaar baptisme, 150 jaar in Nederland” (“Baptized as Believers, 400 years Baptist movement, 150 years in the Netherlands”), Dr. O.H. DeVries mentions a signal that causes him concern. Traditional Baptist circles put much emphasis on the responsibility of the members to the wider community of the church as a whole. However, evangelical congregations are looking more and more like stalls in the evangelical market. “Believing shoppers” are going from stall to stall in search of a nice congregation that suits them best. Talented preachers draw large audiences, but after their departure the congregation risks a substantial bloodletting. □

To be continued

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Baptism and Rebaptism (2)

Bekijk de hele uitgave van maandag 1 maart 2010

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