Message 8

Comparison of Doctrines: The Ana-Baptists and Rome. Points of Contrast. A review of the Ana-Baptist history in their own blood. Poisoned bread and a drunken woman. The world suffers. It is necessary to leave the question of the Reformation and the Protestant churches. There is another group, which we have referred to in our messages, the Ana-Baptists, this group never had any connection to the Catholic Church and did not come out of her. The only protesting they ever did was to preach against her error . 1 Jn. 2:19. The erring churches left the true churches and actually backsliders and apostates from the Lord's churches formed the Catholic churches. The falling away started in the 1st century and shows us what may happen when members leave the Lord's church. Some churches of the protestant reformation came out of the Catholic church but it is interesting to note that Baptists have no ties whatsoever to Catholicism, there is no place in history where anyone can say here is the Baptist beginning.

Let us notice the doctrines of the Protestants and the Church of Rome in contrast with

The Ana-Baptists:

Soul freedom versus soul slavery.

Christ the head of the church versus human leaders.

Security and assurance versus salvation by works.

Believer's baptism versus infant baptism.

Baptism of conscious believers versus sprinkling unconscious infants.

Regenerated church members observing the Lord's Supper versus transubstantiation and the Catholic mass or Holy Communion.

The new birth by the spirit and word of God versus priestly rule, totalitarianism and hierarchy.

Separation of church and state versus union of church and state.

Regenerated church membership versus infant, sprinkled membership.

Liberty for men versus religious slavery for every baby that can be sprinkled.

Pastors and Deacons versus priests, prelates, cardinals, and popes.

Sole authority of the scripture in all matters versus tradition, superstition, and rules of the church.

The difference is not in clothes, nationality, or location, but doctrine.

There is an impossible gulf fixed by the scriptures and we have only touched the surface of the issues but the main one is the Bible.

Ana-Baptists. The name means re-baptizers. The groups who did not accept the authority of the Church of Rome and its baptism were known by different names but were classified as Ana Baptists because they re-baptized. Most protestant baptism is connected to Rome today and rests on unscriptural authority and false doctrine.

Protestant history gives Ana Baptist beginnings to a rebellion that took place in Munster, Germany in the 16th century .A disciple of Martin Luther, Thomas Muncer, became very popular with the common people, to the point that he was known as Luther's Absolam, and he led a rebellion against the Catholic prince of Munster .The prince was overthrown and Muncer and his followers set up a city which was identified with the peasant wars in Germany. There were, no doubt, some extravagant and extreme doctrines that arose out of this situation. Cramp's history says there was no Ana Baptist connection at all, the Catholics blamed Luther and he blamed Muncer and the Ana-Baptists.

Ana-Baptists were known by different names in different times, Montanists, Novationists, Puritans, Paterines, Donatists, Paulicians, Arnoldists, and Wasdenses, but all of them had a connection with and were at various times called Ana Baptists because they re-baptized. They were often nicknamed because of their leaders. Anyone who challenged Rome on baptism was dubbed with this name. Gradually the Ana was dropped after Luther's days and the name Baptist began to be used, our name was given to us by our enemies and we don't claim any divine origin to the name. We also do not claim that all of these groups were without error. Some of these churches didn't have complete bibles, some only had the gospels, some only had Paul's letters, and therefore they couldn't have all the instruction available to us today and must have had some error and inconsistencies.

Matt. 16:18; Matt. 28:18-20. We want to note promises, 1st, the gates of hell shall not prevail, 2nd, I will be with you always. These two promises, though not understood by the world, have brought the lord's church through nineteen hundred years of opposition and persecution. Sometimes they died like flies; they died by the millions; some have estimated more than 70 million died for their faith. The Ana-Baptists have existed since the days of Christ and the apostles and their doctrine can be found in each century.

Note the faith of sale of these people by some of the torture they endured. One method was the thumbscrew, they would put a specially designed screw on a man's thumb and tighten it in order to get him to recant or give information concerning other believers. The iron maid was like an iron casket or closet, which had many sharp spikes in the door that pierced the individual who was put inside; this was used for those who would not observe Easter. This might change our attitude about Easter and some of the other religious holidays if we knew the truth about them. Many individuals were drawn and quartered, some had hot lead poured down their throats, some had boiling oil poured in their ears, others had their stomachs cut open and packed with corn then put in pig pens with hungry hogs, some women were with child and had their stomachs split open and their children spilt on the ground while their husbands watched. Read Rev. 17:6. All this was because they believed it wrong to sprinkle infants and use the sword for evangelism.

Let us go to St. Bartholomew's day in the city of Paris when 70,000 people were slaughtered in one day as a result of the plan of the Queen of France and the pope. After the pope heard of the slaughter he ordered the Catholic hymn of praise to be sung at a thanksgiving service.

Can you imagine a road 30 miles long with stakes set up with a head on each stake as the road leads into Rome? Rev.6: 9-11.

There is a Trail of Blood through the ages, the faithful saints supplied the blood and the erring churches drank the blood. Even some Catholic historians state that if any group were judged by their willingness to suffer the Ana-Baptists would be the true church. You can identify the truth by a trail of blood.

This is our story, a story about the Bride of Christ and the harlot church and her daughters. Often when a Baptist preacher preaches about the Bride of Christ he is misunderstood to teach that only Baptists are going to heaven, what he is teaching is that Christ not only died to redeem all the saved but that he also died for the church as an institution and will one day receive all those faithful churches as his bride and give them special rewards for their faithfulness and suffering. 2 Cor11:1-2; Eph. 5:23; Rev. 19:7-9. Bride, building, body, and so forth, are all local ideas. We are saved by grace but in salvation we are not married to Christ, we are born again. 2 Cor. 11:2 says the church at Corinth was promised to Christ as an engaged woman is to a future bridegroom. Catholic means universal and you may guess where the universal church idea comes from. Church always means assembly unless it is used in an institutional sense. There was no church in the O.T. and all the saved are in the family of God but they are not in the Lord's church, it is consistent with scripture language to believe only in a local, visible, church established by Christ in his personal ministry .1 Cor. 12: 28 tells us Christ set the apostles in the church first, therefore they were the first church members. In the book of Acts the church is always an assembly of saved, baptized, congregated people. When we leave this place the church leaves but is not a church until we assemble.

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