This sermon discusses the significance of the Schleitheim Confession and highlights key figures like Leonard Schemer and Pilgrim Marpeck. It emphasizes the incorporation of all believers into the body of Christ, the importance of being conformed into the image of Christ, and the unity of believers chosen out of the world despite being despised. The sermon also addresses the challenges of false brethren introducing harmful beliefs and the need to stay true to the faith.

Okay, in the blessing, this picture is a picture of the Emmental Valley, where I was there with Benny, Benny Beiler and Esther's father. We were there at the trip last summer, and Benny had a brand new camera, his broke, and he had this little panorama mode. I said, well, let's try it. So, he put it on the panorama mode, and this was his first picture in the panorama mode, and he took that and it came out beautifully. He works for Grace Press, so he printed it up, and that's where a lot of you came from. So, it's a neat picture of the Emmental Valley. You can see the Alps in the background. Okay, all right, today we have an exciting day. We're gonna get into some of the dialogue about the Schleitheim Confession and everything, but there are three people that I wanted to discuss before we get in there. I wouldn't feel like I gave you this period well enough, and those are Leonard Schemer, and I'd like to say a little bit more about Pilgrim Marpeck. I gave him just a little side note yesterday. I gotta say just a little bit more. Also, I said a little something wrong, but I'm gonna correct myself, and then we're gonna give you Michael Sattler, which is gonna take us right into the Schleitheim Confession. So, after break, we'll come back for our dialogue over the Schleitheim Confession, and then we can start hearing your thoughts on that. If we have time, I doubt we will at the end. Michael Sattler is one of my favorite people, and I have his book here. I was gonna give you some writings from him. So, but I doubt we'll get there. All right, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus Christ today, and dear Lord, we ask for your indwelling presence with us as we look into your testimony in this time period, and dear God, we again don't want this just to be a head knowledge, but we want to be encouraged. Even rebuked by these people of old, and to be able to put your presence in this age. So God, be with us today, and speak to us through these things that we're reading, and may you be glorified in our life. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. All right, so if you open up your paper there, I'm going to talk about, I gave the little extra. Even this morning, I said, I gotta say something about this guy, because he is one of the most profound writers of the early Anabaptists, and that's the little extra handout that I gave you, not the ones that attach, and that's the one there under Leonhard Schemer. I think you German speakers, what does Leonhard mean? I looked it up, and it says brave like a lion, and it fits his name. He was an early missionary, revival preacher, if you would, and he's very inspiring. It kind of leads us right into a little bit more than I'm gonna say about Pilgrim Marpeck, and then into Michael Sattler. I'll make sure I give us time to just have our discussion on Schleidheim. But Leonhard Schemer, okay, this is a very interesting man. So take your extra sheet here on Leonhard Schemer. In the Martyr's Mirror, they have his name listed as Leonhard Schooner, which the Mennonite Encyclopedia now says is incorrect. But anyway, he was brought up at Volksbrock at Vienna by God-fearing parents, and they wanted him to join the priesthood. He didn't want the priesthood. He saw that they were just, it seemed empty to him. He wanted something more, so he ended up joining the Franciscans. As it mentions there, he joined the Barefoot Friars. They were talking with that time, because the Franciscans, and Francis, you have to give him, again, one of those people through the Pilgrim Church. Certainly, even at the end of his life, there'd be several things that I would disagree with Francis, but I'm very impressed that Francis, in his environment, was trying everything he could to live out the Sermon on the Mount and the teachings of Jesus. And this order attracted Leonhard Schemer, and so he joined them. But he wasn't there very long, and he saw that things were wicked there, and he was discouraged about their spirituality there, so he left them as well. And so he ended up leaving. He didn't even have any clothes to wear, and it says that a local person there gave him some clothing money to buy enough clothes. That's how he left with a shirt on his back, or maybe not even a shirt on his back. Now he began to wander about. First, he went to Nuremberg, where he learned the tailor's trade, and there he probably met the men of the Radical Reformation. He made his way to Nickelsburg in Moravia to hear Hubmeier's teaching, having vigorously opposed them in his former days when he was, before he was converted. And from here on, he turned to Vienna to learn more about the true Christianity, and he actually was a student he learned from Hans Huth. And so that's the little link there. But after being converted, the Brotherhood made him a preacher and a missionary right off. And you know, I look at this, and I see this in the Hutterites a lot happen. Peter Ritteman, one of the excellent missionaries of the Hutterites, and I don't know what to do with this. The Bible says not to lay hands on people quickly, but a lot of these people who they saw had a spiritual maturity from their background and that type of thing, they would bless these people and send them straight into the mission field, and it was very productive, and so I'll just bring that out. I don't know what to do with that, but he was one of those who apparently was ordained very quickly and was a powerful missionary in this time. He preached over into Salzburg, to all the Bavaria area, and the Tyrol, which if you remember is the Far East area. And he is believed, the South German Austrian, some people see as a whole different origin than the Swiss Brethren. And the South German Austrian also attracted Pilgrim Marpeck, and these brothers had some very deep spirituality in their writings. Okay, so although he realized that certain areas were very against him, he still kept on preaching in those areas, and one in particular area was the place called Rattenburg on the Inn, and this is in the Tyrol, again that Tyrol area close to Moravia. And as he was there, he was captured and persecuted from them. And Rattenburg, he claims he had worked only one day, as he was there only working for one day, it's noticed in his writings or some of the letters that we find that he wrote to the local brotherhood there, quote, you're unworthy bishop. And so it seems that he must have had some sort of authority as a traveling apostle in these areas. He's an interesting guy. While he was in jail, and this happened several times in the Anabaptists, and we can just thank God for it because we have some of their writings, the judges gave them ink and paper and let him write. So he was writing letters, but while he was not just writing letters, he was writing epistles. And some of these writings were actually kept by the early Hutterites, and they kept these in their writings in their treasury of writings, and that's why we have some of those still to this day. Again, he being more in the Moravian area, especially when he died. He did try to escape prison, and so that made it even more difficult for him. And so he ended up getting torture and hunger, and it made him very miserable, and dread for death made him shudder. But he wrote in one of his writings, quote, if I did not place all my confidence in the Lord, I would fall. But the Lord is my comfort and my confidence. He forsakes no one who trusts him. And so the government in Innsbruck urged, judged for a sentence to be, the Austrian wanted him to be burned at the stake, but the local government allowed him to have the very nice martyrdom of just having his head cut off. In those days, just like it was in the days of, with Paul, the Apostle Paul in the scriptures, the whole concept of getting your head chopped off is supposed to be a nice way to be killed. And drowning is supposed to be one of the nicest. That's why they did it for the ladies. We'll give you the benefit of just drowning you to death. And so when they did that to Felix Mons, I guess they thought they were being nice, you know, and not just burning him at the stake. So it's interesting. Here's the point I want to stress about his theology and the South German theology, and which I believe also Michael Sattler tasted some of this. In particular, this spirit made its way into the Moravian area. And it was his emphasis on the whole concept of what it meant to be born again. And I don't want you to miss this. And if I could take the historian hat off and put the preacher hat on a little bit more, even in our Anabaptist theology or our studying of these things, studying of even Christ, an outward obedience to even the words of Christ is still not enough. It must be from an indwelling presence, an indwelling presence of Jesus Christ. And this is one of the ones that Leonhard Schemer stressed. Remember yesterday I told you about the rumor that was going around that these people must be passing around a little flask to make them suddenly change their ways. He wrote a writing discussing what's inside this little flask of potion that the Anabaptists seem to have. And I have the quote from it. Here it is. He says, a reply to those who say we drink something from a small flask of which the devil himself does not know what it contains. Very well, says Schemer. Let it be called a flask, but the drink in it is nothing but a contrite, crushed and sad heart pounded by the mortar of the cross. The grapes in it grew in God's vineyard and were pressed under the press of tribulation. From such a flask Christ drank on the cross. And as a flask is narrow at the top, but wide at the bottom, thus is also the way of salvation. Once a man has overcome all agony and tribulation, the flask gets wide and receives God's comfort and consolation. Amen, isn't that beautiful? I love that. And so as we enter in and God gives us a strong conviction of our sin, we come into a joy of the Lord. And that was full in Schemer's writing. And it's beautiful stuff. He goes on in also one of his teachings and talks about three kinds of grace. And I gave this in your quotes there as well. And I like the things that he's saying here. He says, grace, the first is the word given us by the Father as a divine light. And that is the law. The divine light in man shows what man's sin is. Although the light is the same in all men, not all accept it and use it the same way. For as we know, when the Holy Spirit comes, he convicts the world of righteousness, sin and judgment. The second grace is Christ's or divine righteousness. The first light is our taskmaster, preparing us for the other light, which is Christ. Christ in us, he says in another place. But in order to see the second light, one must need go through the furnace of suffering. Also in 1 Peter, gold tested by fire. The Anabaptists use the word here, Golosanite, you need to put a T in your, you got cut off in my Golosanite. For the uncrucified Christ is like untried metal. In other words, an untested faith is no faith at all. Thus the second grace might also be called the cross. That coming before God and letting him convict you of your sins. The third grace, finally, is the grace of joy and rejoicing. That's that wide spot of that bottle. It is the promise of the Holy Spirit and his glory. And while the light of the world begins merrily, but ends sadly, the life of a God-fearing man has a sad beginning, but eventually the Holy Spirit comes to him, anointing him with the oil of unspeakable joy. Wow, huh? This last point here too. And there are three kinds of grace. There are also three kinds of baptism, well known from the scriptures themselves. The first baptism is with the Holy Spirit. The second is with the water, and the third with blood. Baptism with water is a confirmation of faith and an inner covenant with God. When one has written a letter, he seals it. But one would, but no one would seal a letter without knowing what it contains. So the sealing of the baptism needs to be something inside the letter. Whoever baptizes a child acts like a man who seals an empty letter. Interesting in thinking of our order of baptism. And in this last point, and if I could, but before we leave him, I don't want you to miss this point and I'll put back on my historian hat a little bit here. He stressed the inner life and what he called, what he meant to be born again. He preferred even the word in scriptures, where it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt in us. I'll let you Greek scholars look this out. He preferred the word, and the word became flesh and dwelt, excuse me, where it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, he preferred, and the word became flesh and dwelt in us. And we believe in God, he said, not on God. It's profound points. This idea of not following even Jesus in an outward, legalistic way. It's not a new set of Old Testament laws, but it's an indwelling of Jesus Christ into our lives. Peter puts it by these precious promises, we are partakers of the divine nature. And these early radicals and the Waldensians and several people through the age have talked about this indwelling presence of Christ. And I don't want you to walk over this too lightly. It's what makes it make sense. It's what makes following Jesus not just an outward thing, but as Paul says, we are conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Or the same spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead, if it dwells in us, it will quicken our mortal bodies. And here in this cry that he says, it is our spirit bears witness with God's spirit that we are children of God. We must be born of God. It's not a mental thing. Faith is not an agreeing to a creed. It is the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ. And don't miss that deep, rich spirituality of this period in all the mix of the things that we discuss. All right, going on now to just a little more I'm gonna say about Pilgrim Marpeck. Marpeck, like I said yesterday, was a mining engineer and a brilliant mining engineer. And he had a job at none other place than Rottenberg. Rottenberg was the place that Leonard Schemer was killed. And he had a very good place there, but as his job as mining magistrate, he had to one time expose the miners who were in sympathy to the Anabaptist movement to the Catholic authorities there. Well, we don't know about his conversion. We don't know what happened, but we do know two weeks after that man that I just read you, Leonard Schemer, was executed, Pilgrim Marpeck left town. And so we can only assume he could take it no more. When he actually saw, he reported these people, maybe like an Apostle Paul, if you would. And then when he saw this brilliant missionary beheaded, it took him. This is the last page of yesterday's handout. From 1528 to 1532, he lived in Strasbourg. I said he lived the rest of his life in Strasbourg. I made that mistake yesterday. He lived only this time. He finally ends up in Augsburg. In Strasbourg, he works amongst the reformers and spends some time there and has some leniency with them, but eventually he has to leave Strasbourg as well. And in 1544, Pilgrim Marpeck is working in the city forces of Augsburg. And on 12th of May, 1545, again, his genius as an engineer, he was made a city engineer there. And it was there that the government seemed to have just kind of winked at his Anabaptist beliefs. Augsburg was also a city that was much more open and that he allowed some freedom there. And he was able to help many of the other Anabaptists not get persecuted. And he had to try to pass the balance of having this prestigious job and being an Anabaptist, and that must have been a difficulty with him. During his writings, he debated with Martin Busser. He was the reformed person from the Strasbourg area. Schweckveld, remember he was the one who believed in the celestial flesh and ended up being a spiritualist. And it was in his writing with Schweckveld that we have some beautiful writings of Pilgrim Marpeck on the incarnation. And the whole idea of the church as the incarnation. And that's the beautiful thing of the visible church. It's not just the invisible, but Jesus Christ came in the flesh and he was both spirit and flesh. And so we have an incarnate church that's both spirit and flesh. And it's a little bit of different between modern American evangelicalism and classic Anabaptism, a visible church. He also had some writings against some of what he felt was the strict legalism of the Swiss Brethren and the Hutterites. And I don't know what to do with that. But you know, many people now look to him as a beautiful moderate view between two extremes. I think in many times they're right. And we still to this day walk in those balances. Falling into legalism, white shoes, and falling into liberalism, Pilgrim Marpeck tried to walk that difficult path through the different time. I do say this, people look to him as a hero of the moderate view, but I do wonder this. I heard someone once say this, I used to be middle of the road, but the road moved. You know, I wonder really the people who claim him as their hero, if you were back in the church with Pilgrim Marpeck, I have a feeling the seriousness of the faith and the order that he would have had even in the Marpeck circles would have been different than what the moderates are saying that he is today. Nonetheless, his idea of trying to find that balance is I think a balance all of us have to be able to find. Rich writings, it's only more, it's more lately coming into people being able to discover his works, and so he has some beautiful things there to say. Amen, all right, so with that, so I do encourage the reading of Pilgrim Marpeck. I think he's, there's a new biography on his, about him, and several of his writings now are available. All right, so now let's go and discuss Michael Sattler. And then after we discuss Michael Sattler, we will then go into our discussion of the Sleidheim Confession. Before that, can I, any thoughts just on the theology that I presented with Leonard Schemer, Pilgrim Marpeck, just any quick thoughts about some of those ideas that I put there? It's profound, yeah. Don't let those things pass by you too quickly. When you become students of history, you can just end up putting these people in a category like a museum piece, but I'm trying for you to see some of these things that they're saying is very serious. I don't really think that we're excused in the modern age to be able to not have some of the experiences of what they've had. And it's reading some of these stories that I think can inspire us even more. All right, you can't talk, end the cap on the talk of the early Swiss brethren without talking about Michael Sattler. Michael Sattler, if, I don't know, I was thinking if to skip him would be to skip, I don't know, I was trying to think across between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson talking about the American Revolution. Michael Sattler is, I very much appreciate his writings. Again, I don't just read them for historic merit, but also for the merit of what he says. And one of the beautiful things that he articulates is salvation by faith. And he doesn't try to balance this with salvation by faith and works. He merely says that this kind of salvation, this, again, indwelling presence of Jesus Christ will work. It will be showing itself in fruit. And he discusses this the way he does in a beautiful fashion. Okay, Michael Sattler, again, one of my favorite writers. I would say Leonard Schemer, Michael Sattler, of course, Conrad Grebel are some of my favorites, Felix Mons, but Michael Sattler is way up there with me, right up there, some also favorite that we'll get to next week is Peter Ritteman. But these men's deep spirituality have really blessed my life. It's not just from a historic perspective, but their deep understanding and talking about the presence of God within them has really changed my life. So don't lose that. Again, before I put my historic hat on again, I just feel I wanna say this again. That view of Christ's indwelling presence, it's one of the things that I would mark in my life as a change in my life. And it continues to change me, that we are to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Don't leave that too quickly. Because we cannot, even with this Anabaptist theology, have an outward obedience to Anabaptist theology. It must be the indwelling Christ. As we're Christ's followers, it's because Christ is within us. And that's what causes these things to come about. I think we'll see that in Michael Sattler as well. Michael Sattler was born in 1495 near Freeburg. He educated in the University of Freeburg, and he entered the cloister of St. Peter's near Freeburg and joined there as a monk. He quickly advanced into what was called a prior of the monastery. That was the next person in charge. But there was something interesting about being the prior. The monasteries at this time got their money because they owned vast amounts of land of the peasants. And so just like the feudal system would had a lord or a leader, the monasteries had the same thing. So the monasteries would actually make their living by charging rent on all the peasants that were working for them. Michael Sattler's job was the guy to go around saying, you owe us some money, let's take the money. And he was the one that had to go around to all the peasants, the tax collector, collecting the money. And so interestingly, just put that in the back of your mind as you think of how he dealt with these convictions when he began to deal with the words of Christ. Another interesting thing happened. In March of 1525, that peasants' revolt that we spoke of came through his area right before its climactic end. So it would have been very passionate at his time. And in 1525, the peasant revolt came through St. Peter's Benedictine Monastery in the Black Forest. And through his studies of, and so we asked the question, how did that affect him? That he didn't write a diary, we don't really know, but to keep in mind, that's what happened. But it was during that time, and through his studies of the scriptures, and no doubt influenced by the new Reformation theology in circulation, Sattler left the monastery, oh, excuse me, I had the wrong date there, don't I? In 1523, and was married. He marries Margarita, a former, I'll check those dates there. Someone check the dates there for when he left the monastery. I think I messed him up there. Sorry. The point I'm trying to make is he was there, and this peasant revolt came through, it affected him, during the same time he was beginning to study the scriptures, and I believe it was 1523. And during that time, he was wrestling with it, yes, it was 1523, and he ended up leaving the monastery. And he married a nun. Now, those little monastic orders that I put in the pilgrim church that I gave you early on, I gave certain ones for a purpose. He didn't just marry any nun, he married a nun of the Beguin, a Beguin sister. Remember, those were the ones that were sort of like the Waldensians, that were very concerned with the poor, and very concerned with evangelism, and he married a Beguin Swiss sister. And it said of her, this little quote of her, she was a talented and clever little woman. Interestingly enough. On November 6th, so he left the monastery, and went about meeting with the radicals, and trying to find his way there. We find him again on November 6th, 1525. Michael took place in that disputation with Zwingli, that was the third disputation Zwingli had with his former disciples, the radical reformers. That was the one there at the end when they were in prison, and you had, I remember you had Conrad Grebel, and you had Felix Monsal there, and it was basically just a formal, we're gonna say this and then condemn you. When he was there, it's suggested that he wasn't quite baptized yet, since there wasn't really an adult baptism going on. And he did sign some kind of paper saying he's not an Anabaptist, and he left there, apparently under some kind of oath not to return, or not to be involved with Anabaptism. But he wasn't quite an Anabaptist at that time, but certainly enough to be arrested, and being part of these radicals in his very early time there, and when he was working through his faith there with the radicals in Zurich. Michael and his wife then went to Strasbourg, because of its reputation for religious freedom. Strasbourg, in a few centuries before, had won its independence from its king. And again, in that area, if you ever look at a map of Germany, the Holy Roman Empire had just tons of little kingdoms all over it, like this. And the whole thing was under the title of the Holy Roman Empire, where sometimes a city, a big city, would win its independence from the king of that area. Strasbourg was one of those. And so it gave them a little more freedom. They had a kind of democracy, and they had councils of all kind of things, so they were able to make changes without having to ask the whole Holy Roman Empire for their changes. Switzerland itself, why some of these stresses, had broken off from the Holy Roman Empire and believed in running their country by local autonomous communities. Again, it's interesting to see some of that play itself out in the Dutch view of Mennonite and the Swiss brethren view, with the idea of a local brotherhood. Okay, so he goes to Strasbourg, and he ends up, hits it off pretty good with the reformers there. And he begins to study with them, and he begins to talk with them. He also meet Hans Denk also in that area. As he goes on, as he goes on there, he meets with Capito and Martin Busser. And these were the people who were the leaders of the Reformation. And in their writings, they speak very fondly of Michael Sattler. They like him. They actually kick Hans Denk out of town, but they let Michael Sattler stay, because they like him. And so, during that time, I want you just to put yourself and Michael Sattler and Margarita, his wife is named Margarita, put them in their shoes. You just left the monastery. You're there in Zurich, and there's this big thing. You're hearing about all this persecution, and now you're finally in an area where you're getting some acceptance. You're studying the word of God. And there was a temptation. There had to be, in my mind, I'm thinking, a temptation to say, this is pretty good. You know, and they respect the word of God. This is pretty good. But finally, it seems he came to a point where he said, it's good, but it's not enough. And his view of the church, his view of being a called-out people, was one of the biggest things that he differed with the Reformers in Strasbourg. We're not supposed to be this state church. We're supposed to be an ecclesia, a called-out people of God. And so he penned this letter. He ended up packing his bags. He even lived with these Reformers for a while in their home. He had a very good relationship. But one day, he finally penned this letter, packed his bag, and head out of town. And here's the letter that he gave the Reformers as he headed out of town. Grace and peace from God our Father through Jesus Christ our Savior. Dear brothers in God. I do think we should note that he called them dear brothers in God. Amen. As I recently spoke with you in brotherly moderation and friendliness on several points, which I together with my brothers and sisters have understood out of the Scripture, namely out of the New Testament, and you, for your part, as the ones asked, answer a similar moderation and friendliness as follows. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1 that love is the end of the commandment. Wherefore it is necessary that all of the commandments of God be guided by the same. They were also persecuting heretics. I am not able so to conceive in my understanding and conscience that this may be done as you do it with every point, namely with baptism, the Lord's Supper, force, or the sword, the oath, the ban, and all the commandments of God. What hinders me is the following. And apparently this is the points that he felt in difference with the new reformers there in Strasburg. It's precious that we have this letter, isn't it? Number one, Christ came to save all of those who would believe in him alone. He who believe, number two, he who believes and is baptized will be saved. He who believes not will be damned. Three, faith in Jesus Christ reconciles us with the father and gives us access to him. Number four, baptism incorporates all believers into the body of Christ of which he is the head. Number five, Christ is the head of his body. That is of the believers or the congregation. Number six, as the head is minded, so must its members also be. Number seven, the foreknown are called believers shall be conformed into the image of Christ. He's taking the Romans chapter eight passage. Let's take this predestination further, he's saying. Those who are foreknown are to be predestinated. Those who are predestinated are called into the image of Christ. Don't stop it. He's giving the reforms their own language. The whole point is we are to be conformed into the image of Christ. Eight, Christ is despised in the world. So are also those who are his. He has no kingdom in this world. But that which is of this world is against his kingdoms. Number nine, believers are chosen out of the world. Therefore the world hates them. Number 10, the devil is prince over the whole world and whom all the children of darkness rule. Number 11, Christ is the prince of the spirit and whom all who walk in the light live in the spirit. 12, the devil seeks to destroy, Christ seeks to save. That's a rebuke to them. You're destroying people, you're killing people. That's not the way of Christ. 13, the flesh is against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. You see Michael Sattler's big black and white coming out here. His separation from the world. 14, those who are spiritual are Christ. Those who are carnal belong to death and the wrath of God. We don't have a church that's mixed up with the wicked and the just. It's a people who are called out of God. Number 15, Christians are holy, completely yielded and have placed their trust in the Father, in heaven without any outward or worldly arms. We don't need weapons to do this. 16, the citizenship of Christians is in heaven and not on earth. 17, Christians are the members of the household of God and fellow citizens of the saints and not of the world. He keeps hammering that. 18, but they are true Christians, watch this, but they are true Christians who practice indeed the teachings of Christ. Wow, but they are true Christians who practice indeed, not just your mental consent, brothers, the teachings of Christ. 19, flesh and blood, pomp and temporal earthly honors and the world cannot comprehend the kingdom of God. You can't even understand it. In sum, there is nothing in common between Christ and Belial. Wow. Yeah, he was by now, I'm sorry. He received baptism. Some of those records we don't have, but he had made the, somewhere right after, thank you for asking that question. Somewhere after he left Zurich, it's believed that he was baptized and entered the Anabaptist movement, and he's making this, yeah, right, amen, amen. That's good, brother, I'm glad to hear you say that, amen. Such considerations, he still writes, and still much more of the same kind which do not now come to mind, hinder me, my dear brothers. You can just see him just writing this. This all just flew off the top of his head. This is just what came to me now. From, dear brothers, from understanding your general assertion on every subject, which you advocate with the words of Paul cited above. Therefore, my beloved in God, I know of no comfort in all despair except to address a humble prayer to God the Father for you and for me, that he might be willing to teach us in all truth by his Spirit. Herewith, I commend you to the Lord, for as I understand it, I can no longer remain here without doing a dishonor to God. Therefore, I must, for the sake of my conscience, leave the field to the opposition. I beg you herein that you understand this as an act of Christian humility on my part. The Lord will ultimately dispose. I like his spirit, don't you? You know, calling him brother, saying, guys, I'm just, this is where I'm coming out with this stuff. Be mercifully considerate, I pray you, of those who are in prison, and do not permit a merciful judgment to be superseded by a blind, spiteful, and cruel one. Those who are in error, if that they are, are not to be coerced, but after the second admonition avoided. He brings up, let's go back to Matthew 18 here, brothers. Christian, admonish benevolently out of sympathy and compassion for the sinful, and do not legalistically coerce persons by torture, this way or that. May the Lord God have mercy upon us all, and give us his spirit to lead us in the way, Christ Jesus, through whom we can again come into our kingdom, fatherland, and citizenship. The Lord be with all you dear brothers in God, amen. Michael Sattler, your brother in God, the Heavenly Father. Amen. What a gem, huh? What's that? Okay. I mean, okay, we'll explain that in the break, okay. Very well said, brother Dale. You hear that, a lot of the church leaders, we need to divide, if we divide it like this. Well said. Now what? Now what for Michael Sattler? Upon his failure to convince the most lenient and open reformers, that of Bursar and Capito, Sattler went again into the wilderness, preaching in the wilderness, a dangerous countryside around Horeb and Rottenburg. If you get your cup and cross map, love these maps in this book. On page 79, you can see there, in page 79, in cup and the cross, they're right, they're right where a lot of those dark X's are, straight up from Zurich, you see Strasburg underneath that dark gray line, and then Rottenburg, you see over there to the right, and down at Horeb, right there, was some of his main areas of influence. So he knew the little districts of there would still be Roman Catholic, Strasburg reformed, and so just leaving one area could get you in a lot of trouble, and it did for him. On February 24th, 1527, oh wait, I need to mention this, especially with understanding of a Swiss brother. Sattler was well aware of the need to somehow consolidate this flagelling movement. This is from Dave Esch's writing. The term Anabaptist was being loosely applied to libertarians, mystics, and even militant social rebels. Time may well be running out to implement the doctrines as agreed upon in Zurich by the Swiss brethren. There was a need to clarify things. So on February 24th, 1527, Sattler presided over a conference of Swiss brethren held in Schleidheim in the canton of Schaffhausen. Okay, so if again you look, that's that little northern tip of Switzerland. He presented to the conference a document that clearly distinguished the difference between Anabaptism and the state churches, as well as the differences with other rebaptizers who disobey scripture. This document called the Schleidheim Confession was approved and adapted without a dissenting voice, interestingly enough. And can I say a moment there? That's brotherhood. Brotherhood is not democracy. You see, people say, well, is it elder ran or is it brotherhood ran? It's neither. It's brother, or they say, is it elder ran or is it a democracy? And people say the church is not a democracy. No, it should never be, okay, 51% said this, so we're gonna go this direction. In the book of Acts in chapter 15, what you get is the brothers work out until it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to all of us. That's brotherhood. Sometimes you have to work things out, but you don't try to get a political agenda driving one way and you don't need a leadership trying to cram that way. It's a working together in the spirit of God. And I see this happening in Schleidheim. The problem, Lyndon said, that takes too much time, ouch. Yeah, but apparently that's what they reached there. And they would have had different, Wilhelm Rublin had some different views. Brothers had different views, but they worked it out and came up with that beautiful document. It was copied and widely distributed in the underground Anabaptist communities. The confession was considered an important enough threat to the reformers that both Zwingli and Calvin wrote separate works against it. And now his death. Michael Margarita and at least 14 others were arrested on their way to Horeb in the early March of 1527. So they just had this conference. They had it bound in a little handwritten book, and now they're heading back to their evangelism post in Horeb. And while they're on their way, they're caught by the Roman Catholic authorities and brought into trial. Soon after their imprisonment, they were taken to the tower at Binsdorf, and Michael was there until his trial at Rottenberg on May 15th. The following is a transcript from his trial from the Martyr's Mirror. I'm gonna read this to you because I think it gives us some interesting points, and then we'll take a break, and we'll come back and have you all talk about the Schleidheim Confession. Here is the court trial recorded in the Martyr's Mirror. It's very interesting. After a long trial on the day of his departure from the world, the articles being many, Michael Sattler requested that they would be read to him again and that he should have another hearing. This, the bailiff, as the governor of the Lord, opposed and was not consent to it. Michael Sattler then requested permission to speak. After a consultation, the judges returned as their answer that if his opponents would allow it, they, the judges, would consent. In other words, they were talking on and on about all the things that he did. Michael Sattler said, could you please just clearly state what you are accusing me for? And you gotta remember, this movement's growing. They just got through the peasant revolt, so this area was very nervous. So they're wondering, what are the peasants gonna do about the way we treat Michael Sattler? So the Catholics had some stresses here. And so, it's interesting, their reply. Thereupon the town clerk, Insaheim, as the attorney of the governor, spoke thus, sarcastically, prudent, honorable, and wise sirs. He has boasted of the Holy Ghost. Now, if he boast is true, it seems to me it is unnecessary to ground him this. For if he has the Holy Spirit as he boasts, the same will tell him what he has been done here. In other words, the Holy Spirit will let you know what we've been discussing all this time, he said very sarcastically. Michael Sattler replied, you servants of God, I hope my request will not be denied, for said articles are yet unknown to me. The town clerk responded, prudent, honorable, and wise sirs, though we are not bound to do this, yet in order to give satisfaction, we will grant him his request that it may not be thought that injustice has done him in his heresy. On that we desire to wrong him, or that we desire to wrong him. Hence, let the articles be read to him. Articles or charges against Michael Sattler. Hear ye, hear ye, here they are. First, that he and his adherents have acted contrary to the mandate of the emperor. Secondly, he has taught, held, and believed that the body and blood of Christ are not present in the sacrament. Thirdly, he has taught and believed that infant baptism does not conduce to salvation. Fourthly, that they have rejected the sacrament of extreme unction. That's getting a last rites from the priest. Fifthly, they have despised and condemned the mother of God and the saints. Sixthly, he has declared that men are not to swear before the authorities. Seventhly, he has commenced a new and unheard of custom in regard to the Lord's supper, placing the bread and wine on a plate, and eating and drinking the same. Eighthly, he has left the order and married a wife. Ninthly, he has said that if the Turks should invade the country, that's the Muslims, no resistance ought to be offered them. They say, well, he shouldn't resist the Muslims. And if it were right to wage war, he would rather take the field against the Christians than against the Turks. And it is certainly a great matter to set the greatest enemies of our holy faith against us. Now, this will come out. Sattler did write that to a letter in saying, and he's going to explain himself in this trial, but he did write that in a letter, and they found that letter, I suppose. Thereupon, Michael Sattler requested permission to confer with his brothers and sisters, which was granted him. Having conferred with him a little while, he began and undauntedly answered thus. In regard to the articles relating to me and my brothers and sisters here, the brief answer. First, that we have acted contrary to the imperial mandate, we do not admit. For the same says that the Lutheran doctrine and delusions is not to be adhered to, but only the gospel and word of God. In other words, the official statement says, you don't listen to the Lutherans, you only listen to the word of God. This we have kept. For I am not aware that we have acted contrary to the gospel and the word of God. I appeal to the words of Christ. Secondly, that the real body of Christ and Lord is not present in the sacraments, we admit. For the scripture says, Christ ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of his heavenly father once he shall come to judge the quick and the dead, from which it follows that if he is in heaven and not in the bread, he may not be eaten bodily. And he gives the scriptures. Thirdly, as to baptism, we say infant baptism is of no avail to salvation, for it is written that we live by faith alone. Again, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Peter likewise says, the like figure whereunto even baptism doth now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God and by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Fourthly, we have not rejected the oil, talking about extreme unction, for it is the creature of God, a creation of God. And what God has made is good and not to be refused, but that the Pope, the bishops, monks and priests can make it better, we do not believe, for the Pope never made anything good. That of which the Epistle of James speaks is not the Pope's oil. Well, that put a few more stabs in the side there. Fifthly, we have not condemned the mother of God and the saints, for the mother of Christ is to be blessed among all women. For to her was accorded the favor of giving birth to the savior of the whole world, but that she was the mediatress and the advocatess, that she had a place in advocating for us and in mediating for us. Of this the scriptures know nothing, for she must with us await the judgment. But Paul said to Timothy, Christ is our mediator and advocate with God. As regards the saints, we say that we who live and believe are the saints, which I prove by the epistles of Paul and the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, and the other places where he always writes to the beloved saints. Hence, we that believe are the saints, but those who have died in faith we regard as the blessing. Sixthly, we hold that we are not to swear before the authority, for the Lord says, swear not, but let your communications be yea, yea, nay, nay. Seventhly, when God called me to testify of his word, and I have read Paul, and also considered the unquestioned and perilous state in which I was, beholding the pomp, pride, usury, that's charging interest, and great whoredom of the monks and priests, I went and took unto me a wife. This is talking about him leaving the monastery. According to the command of God, for Paul well prophesied concerning this to Timothy, that in a later time it shall come to pass that men shall forbid to marry and command to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving. And eighthly, the big one. Eighthly, if the Turks should come, we ought not to resist them. Yes, that's correct. For it is written, thou shall not kill. We must not defend ourself against the Turks and others of our persecutors. So in other words, imagine what he's saying. What if a Muslim invasion would come upon our country? Don't make this just a historic point. Put it into practical use today. He says, if this happens, the Christians should not defend themselves, but are to beseech God with earnest prayer to repel and to resist them. But then I said that if warring were right, I would rather take the field against the so-called Christian who persecute, apprehend, and kill pious Christians than against the Turks, the Muslims, was for this reason. The Turks are a true Turk and knows nothing of the Christian faith and the Turk after the flesh. But you, who would be Christians and who make your boast of Christ, persecute the pious witness of Christ and are Turks after the spirit. Wasn't much chance for him after that. In conclusion, you ministers of God, I admonish you to consider the end for which God has appointed you, to punish the evil and to defend and protect the pious. Whereas then we have not acted contrary to God and the gospel. You will find that neither I nor my brethren and sisters have offended in word or deed against any authority. Therefore ye ministers of God, listen to this appeal now. If you have not heard or read the word of God, sin for the most learned and the sacred books of the Bible of whatsoever language they may be and let them confer with us in the word of God. And if they prove to us with the holy scriptures that we err and are in the wrong, we will gladly desist and recant and also willingly suffer the sentence and punishment for that of which we have been accused. But if no error is proven to us, I hope to God that you will be converted and receive instruction. Upon this speech, the judges laughed and put their heads together. And the town clerk said to him, oh, you infamous, desperate villain and muck. Shall we dispute with you? The hangmen shall dispute with you, I assure you. Michael said, God's will be done. The town clerk said, it were well if you had never been born. Michael's reply, God knows what is good. Town clerk, you arch heretic. You have seduced the pious. If they would only now forsake their error and accept grace. Michael, grace is with God alone. And one of the prisoners said, we must not depart from the truth. Imagine that. The town clerk, you desperate villain and arch heretic. I tell you, if there were no hangmen here, I would hang you myself and think that I had done God a service. Michael, God will judge aright. Thereupon, the town clerk said a few words to him in Latin, which we do not know. It's interesting little note there. The writer who was transcribing this didn't speak Latin. So he said, I didn't know what he said. But Michael Sattler finally answered the word in Latin, judica, which is a legal term in court, which means the matter has been settled. So there it is. I'm condemned guilty, judica. The town clerk then admonished the judges and said, he will not cease from his talk today. Therefore, my Lord judge, proceed with a sentence. I will commit it to the law. The judge asked Michael Sattler whether he also committed it to the law. Michael replied, you ministers of God, I am not sent to judge the word of God. We are sent to bear witness of it. And hence cannot consent to any law since we have no command from God concerning it. But if we cannot discharge from the law from, excuse me, but if we cannot be discharged from the law, we are ready to suffer for the word of God, whatever sufferings are, or may be imposed upon us all for the sake of the faith in Christ Jesus, our savior, as long as we have breath within us, unless we've been dissuaded by it from the scriptures. The town clerk said, the hangman shall convince you. Ye shall, he shall dispute with you, arch heretic. Michael, response, I appeal to the scriptures. Then the judges arose and went into another room where they remained for an hour and a half and determined on the sentence that came out. In the meantime, someone in the room treated Michael Sattler most unmercifully, heaping reproach of them. One of them said, you can imagine the audience waiting that hour and a half, and one of them said, what of you, what of you in expectation for yourself and the others that you have seduced them? With this, he also drew forth a sword which to lay upon the table, saying, see, with this shall they dispute with thee. But Michael did not answer upon a single word considering his person, but willingly endured it. The people of the crowd were getting mad. This is what they're gonna argue with you. Don't you get it, Michael? Don't you understand they're gonna kill you? He knew it. Michael's answer, according to the flesh, I was, oh, excuse me, one of the prisoners said, after all that little thing that happened about the sword, one of the Anabaptist prisoners said, we must not cast pearls before swines. Being also asked why he had not remained a lord in the covenant, why did you stay a lord in the convent? Why did you not stay one of these leaders in the convent? Michael did answer that. He said, according to the flesh, I was a lord, but it is better so. He did not say more than what is recorded here, and this he spoke fearlessly. The judges having returned to the room, the sentence was read, it was as following. And here's the mandate, here's the sentence. In the case of Governor of His Imperial Majesty versus Michael Sadler, judgment is passed that Michael Sadler shall be delivered to the executioner who shall lead him to the place of execution and cut out his tongue and throw him upon a wagon and there tear his body twice with red hot tongs. These little pincher things they had there. And after he has been brought on the outside of the gate, he shall be pinched five times more in this manner. After this had been done, in the manner prescribed, he was burned to ashes as a heretic. His fellow brethren were executed with the sword and his sister drowned. His wife also, having been subjected to many entreaties, admonitions and threats, under which she remained very steadfast, was drowned a few days afterwards. After he was dead, they said, come on, give it up now. Give it up. And that brave wife, Sister Hester, that brave wife stood there and said, no, I'm gonna stand true as well. Obviously, he was a good husband. He got the message into his wife as well. And she was drowned, mercifully, drowned in her persecution, in her death. This one person I found, where he got this, I'm not sure, the Noble Army of Heretics by Bill Jackson adds that during this time, some of the brothers asked him, let us know what it feels like when you're getting burned. Does God give grace during this time? So give us a sign. So he said, well, I will raise up two fingers in the midst of the fire if God is giving me grace. And so the story goes, where he got this, I don't know. I was trying to look it up last night, I couldn't. But while he was there in the fire and the fire was burning and they looked upon him, he lifted up two fingers, showing that God's grace was there for him during the midst of his burning in the fire. Powerful, suppurative witness of what he's done and what he left us. There's a plaque there at that spot. I went there when I visited last summer. It's just a big stone off a busy street. But it's there and there's the commemoration and there's a plaque there on the backside of that stone. Powerful, powerful witness in a brother and his life. Let's take a three-minute break and we'll come back. Let's sit kind of closer. Well, just enough that we can get together and then I want you to discuss the Schleidheim Confession. First, let's just have a few words about the congregational order. What do you think of the congregational order? Let's start off from the beginning there. I was impressed, again, with their piety and such. Since the almighty, eternal, and merciful God has made his wonderful light break forth in this world and in this most dangerous time, we recognize the mystery of the divine will that the word is preached to us according to the proper ordering of the Lord. Again, this idea of the proper order. Whereby we have been called into his fellowship, called into his fellowship. Therefore, according to the command of the Lord and the teachings of his apostles in Christian order, we should observe the new commandment in love one towards another so that love and unity may be maintained with all brothers and sisters of the entire congregation should agree to hold as follows. Now, the scholars here these days that are looking at this, oh, and by the way, that congregational order is in the first appendix in the Cup and the Cross as well. It's in that book as well. You'll see it. What he's guessing there, the scholars that look at this thing, is that you have a very new group of brothers and sisters that are meeting together and just saying, okay, how's it gonna be everyday church life is gonna be? What are we gonna do? How's it, you know, what are we gonna do? And that's what this congregational order came out. The types of things that they're discussing instead of being fine points of theology were just points of how you got along as brothers. So, did anything strike your attention, first of all, in the congregational order? It almost looks to me like they're trying to avoid this excess. They didn't want this movement to be a party or something, I don't know. Okay, what do you mean by that, like excess? Well, okay, don't eat too much. Yeah. Church is supposed to be serious. Yeah, good, okay. Meet three or four times a week. Good point, Andrew. Andrew's bringing out the point that there seems to be a general caution on, you know, excess, what did you use, where a party, or? That's not quite, that's not a good listing. Yeah, maybe just too casual. The idea of, you know, meeting three or four times a week. Let's say when we meet together, let's not be gluttonous with our eating. Let's encourage one another. And you're right, that seems to be the tone of what comes out of this. Anybody else, some thoughts on it? I'm surprised how often they decided to meet, especially since they were, if they were being persecuted, that'd be hard to keep a lid on that. No kidding. Very good point, Jim. Meeting three or four times a week, whenever time you do, you could get killed. I mean, that was quite a, quite a dedication that they had there. I wonder if they canceled the snowstorms. Yeah, because they're, you're right. You know, this area gets pretty white at that time of year. That's probably the best time to have meetings, is in a snowstorm. Everyone else is as far as being safe. That's a good point, that's a good point. Everybody's locked away. Cover your tracks. What's that? Cover your snow, your tracks. Cover your snow tracks, that's a good point, yeah. The storms would cover that. And one of the early writings in Zolocum, in the chronicles, it mentioned, at times, a whole band of people came through Zurich and preaching to them to repent and the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And they had on strange clothes and everything and had, I think it was palm branches. And interestingly enough, they were so busy with other things, with the threats of different things, it's when they totally ignored them and just went back. But they were a passionate people in these early Zolocum. But the thing that marks with this three or four times a week it kind of makes you think of what it means to be the church, the called out ones, a called out assembly. Take notice also of their sharing with one another. We should have a common pot to help those that are poor among us. It was recorded in the court records there and when people were being accused from Zolocum and had to recant, they said, well, you're practicing community of goods and they denied it. But there was a records where they were telling people let's take the locks off our door. Let's be totally open and sharing like we read happened in the early Jerusalem. And there was a spirit early on here that seemed to permeate these people. But the book, and we're gonna talk about this with Moravian Anabaptists. That point though, actually all these points to one degree or another, I see in all those who keep to Anabaptists and I think Christ following views in one way or another. It's expressed in different way. There's no doubt about it. Obviously the Swiss Brethren communities practiced this thing different than the Hutterites did. They both practiced it different than the Dutch did. But even the Dutch, the Swiss Brethren, the Hutterites all had this view of a called out people that lived their lives with one another and shared even their possessions with one another. And that's still, I think, dear today and it's something we don't wanna lose in all of our different circles. Again, for me coming into this world, it's very different than where I came from. Just to see that our biggest expenses is used on hospital bills and helping people out is a beautiful and precious thing and it's nothing we need to ever give up. It's very good. And just a word on that, this view of the church. A marked difference. Is the church, if the church is just a state area, this is where Sattler kinda got argued with in there, then it's only, and so it's the true people are really only known to God. Well, how do you discipline people? How do you, are you a really called out ones? The early Anabaptists said, it says ecclesia, we're supposed to be a called out people. And so that affected, yes, the church in our heart, Jesus only knows who is his true followers, but the church is to be visible. And here's the point that I sometimes use the analogy. To understand, I think what I seek to express here. Let's go to Burger King on the turnpike. All right. You're in Burger King, you're in a big building, everybody's in there, we're all eating, we're all under the same roof, everybody's having a good time. There's lots of good conversation going on. And there we are as an assembly at Burger King off the turnpike. Can you imagine it in your mind? Now, what is it about our gathering? The one thing about our gathering is it's a complete and total accident. In that case, a complete accident, most likely. There's some we might have come together, but in other words, this guy over at this table is going on a business trip to Philadelphia. Esther's gonna go visit her grandmother in Pittsburgh. Lyndon is about to head to who knows where. And everybody's going different places. We happen to be, though, at that moment at Burger King off the turnpike that day, that moment, accidentally. What's the chances of us being there together in that same expression next Sunday? Almost none. The gathering is an accident. The Anabaptists believe that's not the view of the church. The gathering is on purpose. God gathers a people together, a community of brothers together. And in that group of people together, God would work with them until these types of things come out in one expression or another. That's a church that's on purpose. A church that should not be accidents. It should be on purpose. And that sense of brother, though, is something that I see in these very early times here of the congregational order. Other thoughts? I wanna hear from you. The first paragraph talking about how we should observe the New Commandment. Because Christ has loved us, we should love each other. But this is not just an idea or a feeling. We should hold it, agree to hold it as follows. And this is how you love each other. Okay, brother. Okay. Yeah, that's a difference. So, Lucas, you're saying then that we're not just allowing this to be just an ideal, hey, we should love each other. They actually put some shoe leather to it. They were able to walk this out as a brotherhood here. They were willing to define. They were willing to define. Did you hear that? What's your thought on that? These brothers gathered together in the fear of God and were willing to define what they believed God was saying. They did, didn't they? And it says there that love and unity may be maintained. Hmm, that's good, brother Dale. And in doing that, love and unity is maintained. It wasn't a one minister telling him this is the way it's gonna be. And it wasn't a democracy. It was genuinely a brotherhood. And we'll have the spirit of God to say this seems good to us and the Holy Spirit. Even if it takes some time. Powerful. All right, let's leave that now and get into the slide, honey. Powerful, powerful. It also proves a point that definition creates sustainability. Ooh, Linden brought up a good point. Definition, say it again. Definition creates sustainability. Definition creates sustainability. If we cannot define who we are, we will not sustain who we wanna be. Ooh, say that again. If we, say it again, brother. If we cannot define who we wanna be, we cannot sustain who we wanna be. If we cannot define who we are. We cannot sustain who we wanna be. We cannot sustain who we wanna be. That's good. We're willing to define. Decide comes from two Latin words. And one is side, cut. Cut off the other options. You have to make decisions in life. All right, I'd love to dwell on that a little more, but to get into Schleinheim. Now, all that that you knew was going on in the history would come to Schleinheim. Remember how I said everybody was being called out of Atlas in one way or the other. They brothers felt, the Swiss brotherhood felt, we need to be able to put some definition to this. And here's the cover letter. May joy, peace, mercy from our Father through the atonement of the blood of Christ. Note that they did address it that way. Through the atonement of the blood of Christ Jesus, together with the gift of the Spirit, who was sent by the Father to all believers to give strength and consolation and constance in all tribulation and to the end, amen. Be with all who love God and all children of light who are scattered everywhere, wherever they might have been placed by God our Father. Interesting. They believe you're scattered in different places and placed there by God our Father. Wherever they might be gathered in unity, Brother Dale, might be gathered in unity of spirit in one God and Father of us all, grace and peace of heart be with you all, amen. Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord, first and primordially, we are always concerned for your consolation and the assurance of your conscience, which was sometime confused, so that you might not always be separated from us as aliens and by right almost completely excluded, but that you might turn to the true and planted members of Christ who have been armed through patience and the knowledge of self and thus be again united with us in the power of a godly Christian spirit and seal of God. It is manifest with what manifold cutting the devil has turned us aside so that he might destroy and cast down the work of God, which in us mercifully and graciously has been partially begun, but the true shepherd of our souls, Christ who has begun such in us will direct and teach the same to the end to his glory and our salvation, amen. Dear brothers and sisters, we who have been assembled in the Lord at Shleitheim on the raven, Randon, make known in points and articles unto all that love God and that as fear as we are concerned and have been united to stand fast in the Lord as obedient children, sons and daughters who have been and shall be separated from the world and all that we do and leave undone and the praise and glory be to God alone, uncontradicted by all the brothers completely at peace. Herein we have since the unity of the father and of our common Christ and present with us in their spirit for the Lord is the Lord of peace and not of quarreling for Paul indicates so that you understand that while points this concern, you should observe and understand what follows. You see, he says, a very great offense has been introduced by some false brethren among us, whereby several have turned away from the faith, thinking to practice and observe the freedom of the spirit in Christ, but such have fallen short of the truth to their own condemnation, are given over to lasciviousness and license of the flesh. They have esteemed that faith and love may do and permit everything and that nothing can harm nor condemn them since they are quote believers. And he goes on and closes there. And so that's why we're writing this, that false, is that not, can that not be an argument still given today? Wow. And he gets to this, these topics that are given. He talks about baptism. He talks about the church should have some, should practice Matthew 18 and then come to the band of excommunication. He talks about their view of communion and how he expresses this pure communion to be. He talks about the very controversial subject then and is to the day that's found. And he quotes the scripture as a second Corinthians chapter six and the promises that come from being a child of God in second Corinthians chapter six of separation from the abomination. He gives some advice of pastors in the church, the sword and the oath. So I'll leave it to you. Anything struck you, any particular thing struck you as you looked into that? What are some of your thoughts as you read through the Sleighthine Confession? There's separation from the world, dropped to the extreme. Okay. Dropped to the extreme. Okay. Brother Dale said that their view of separation from the world struck Dale as extreme. He would say too extreme. Shall we go to that? It's one of the most controversial ones. Separation from the world. We are agreed as follow on separation. A separation shall be made from the evil and from the wickedness, which the devil planted in the world. In this manner simply that we shall not have fellowship with them, the wicked, and not run with them in the multitude of their abominations. And he says, this is the way it is. I love that the way he puts it. He tried, since all who do not walk in obedience of faith and have not united themselves with God, so that they wish to do his will are a great abomination before God. It is not possible for anything to grow or issue forth from them except abominable things. For truly all creatures are in but two classes, good and bad, believing and unbelieving, darkness and light, the world and those who have come out of the world, God's temple and idols, Christ and Belial, and none can have part with the other. To us then the command of the Lord is clear when he calls us to be separate from the evil and thus, as 2 Corinthians 6 says, he will be our God and we shall be his sons and daughters. So what's your thoughts on that? Perhaps it's the next part where he defines it a little bit even more, Dale. From this we should learn that everything which is not united with God and Christ cannot be other than an abomination which we should shun and flee from. By this meant all Catholic and Protestant works and church services, meeting and church attendance, drinking houses, civic affairs, the oath sworn in unbelief, and he goes on to even put the sword in that, that those things are from the world and we should separate ourselves and even flee from those things. So what do you think of that? Well, it's where we come up with the rotten apple concept. Say that again. It's where we come up with the rotten apple theory. Okay. You're better off being in a box of good apples than a box of rotten apples. Okay. So we say that that's where we found that theory where we can't go mingle among them even to evangelize them because the chances are they're gonna get us before we get them. Right, good. Okay, that's a good point. You see what Lyndon's saying. He says that in this whole concept we're fearful that if we associate with them the rotten apple will affect the whole bunch. I will say that with their view they did indeed believe in evangelizing these people. Obviously they're willing to do it for their lives. To take it to the next step. Okay. I think what they're saying is you're better to attract them to them than to give it to them and attract them back. Okay. So I think that's where we get that. Okay. That's where with every great strength there's a fear of weakness. There's something we can watch out about that. It's a great strength. It can become an excuse not to seek it out. Mm-hmm. And we have to remember, I have to remember, in even saying that, let's not remember Michael Sadler's, let's make sure we remember Michael Sadler's kind words to the reformers in Strasburg. Well, that's what I was thinking about. I didn't even catch that. They're saying you don't even go to church with them. Yeah. Like any time at all. That's what it says there, yeah. But in that it seems in somewhere even though they had these strong positions, nevertheless, I like that letter to the reformers in Strasburg. Say, hey, we're gonna be strong on this, but we're not gonna put you completely. At least it seems in message there was a change between Strasburg and here that he still uses that kind of language for the reformers. I often think of the scripture in Jesus when the apostles came to him and were complaining that people were casting out demons without them. It's funny that the apostles would prefer people to be demon-possessed and do it not with them. And Jesus encouraged them and said, who is not against me is with me, but he said something there that I've always thought about. He says to them to have salt in yourself and peace with one another. That has become like a motto with me. Be very convinced like this about where you stand. And the more confident and convinced you are about where you stand, be salty with inside. But then on the other hand, be peace with other people. He didn't say just be peaceful with everybody. That would be a libertarian view today or hey, everything's okay, you're okay, I'm okay. That's not what Jesus said. And he didn't say just be salty. You better be salty. But have salt within yourself and peace with one another. And in the life of Michael Sattler, balanced with the Shrine of Confession, I see that lived out. Other thoughts? Maybe it sounds stronger than what they actually lived. Okay, okay, Andrew's saying maybe these words are very black and white, but perhaps they express that in different ways. Yeah, I kind of see that because they evangelized. They went out among them. Right, they went out among them and evangelized them. The question, the point of this question is, let's say Brother Capito says hey, we're having this great church service tonight. Bring your brothers over to my church and you can watch it. I have a feeling the Swiss brother would've said no. Well, right or wrong, I'm just saying, they would've said no. On the other hand, if they were having dinner with Capito, I don't get the impression he would've just called them, obviously from his letter, a non-Christian. Whether that's right or wrong, that's what I, I fear for him, but you were gonna say, but what? I was just gonna say, but we would go to church service now. Okay, but we would go to church service now. Okay. We might not be living this out quite like we think we do. Okay, Andrew says we might not be living this out the way we think we do, okay. All right, Lyndon, you had your hand up. But think about the time they were living and think about the message they were giving by not showing up at church. And since the church and state were together at that time, which they are now, it was a much harsher message for them not to be present. Excellent point, Lyndon. So think about, think about the point if they would not show up at church, they would be called out, right? And I think, I see a little difference than today in that standpoint. Where are, what is our generation being called out for? That's an excellent point, Lyndon's bringing it up. In those days, to show up at church kept you on the roster. There was a bit of compromise involved in there. Also, it wasn't just a matter of points of doctrine they were arguing about. Both the Catholics and evangelicals were killing these people. And so, you know, I think Lyndon is very right. We do need to consider the evangelicals that he's particularly talking about. Things aren't quite that way these days. And so, I think we have to understand that. Things can be more tricky these days, though, on the other hand, but nevertheless, it's an excellent point that Lyndon's bringing out. Other thoughts? That helped me to think about the band, too. They were very strong in band, but that's as contrasted to the sword. Like, they have an alternative here to a church that kills heretics. They're saying, no, we're going to be a pure church. In other words, it's actually a merciful option. And then, you catch that with the band. It's an excellent point that Lyndon's bringing up. The state, what's your answer to being a society of people? See, they saw themselves as a kingdom within a kingdom. They were the kingdom of God within the kingdom of this world. But how are you going to deal with discipline? We execute with a sword. They say, we can't execute with a sword. Quoting scripture there, this shall not be among you, but we use the band. And they quote Matthew 18. It's interesting, if you go back and read Matthew 18, it's a powerful passage. He gives this whole process, and Jesus is giving us the idea of a church court, if I can cheapen him with those words, that we deal with things within our society in this church court. And if we follow the way they held out that church court, I think it would be interesting to see the results. And it's to that that Jesus said, what you bind on earth shall be bound on heaven. Following that scripture in Matthew 18, Jesus says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst. We use that quote for another place, but that whole context in Matthew 18 flows out of this, what Lucas is giving here, of how we even are a pure church and how we go about this loving alternative, and that should be the purpose in our shunning. We're gonna see this Monday with how this developed and how Jacob Amman and some of the brothers had some concerns there. So yeah, great point. Great point with the band. The second. I think each generation's called out to the platform that they're given to operate on. So, and I think that it's our generation's job to decide what that platform is and deliver against it. Their platform was the band, the church. Not that the values and the decisions change, but every generation that does, that scene can change. I'll give you an example. In our generation, what we are fighting against is we did not change with the loss of the agrarian society. Our society, our former society was basically built on an agrarian model, where we, and you can read it in the writings of, you know, the writings we're reading in the world view side of things, and that is, and so we did not make the adjustments that we should have made for our generation. So you and I, our battle is to make those adjustments for our generation and to stand on them strong enough that it delivers a message that will save our generation. That's a great point. So that they own, the point is, is if you don't make those adjustments, and I don't mean drop things, I'm talking about reinforce things, so that your generation has something to stand on. That's good. The bottom line, we're running out of time. This is beautiful. We can continue this next week. The bottom line is God calls his people out, and like in the book of Revelation, he walks through the candlestick saying, is anybody here what the Spirit is saying to the church? And when a called out brotherhood can hear the voice of God, make definition, do it with love, and apply it to every generation, I believe God can be glorified in his people. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for the words that we heard today. I pray, God, do it again in our generation. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we can continue this discussion Monday. I do have a, start reading chapter eight in the cup of the cross. We're gonna hit the Moravian Anabaptist. We're gonna start hitting the Amish Monday. We're gonna hit the Moravian Anabaptist and going into the Hutterites next week, and so Monday is gonna be the Amish, and then we're gonna go into the Moravian Anabaptist and the Hutterites, and I want you to start reading chapter eight, have it read by the middle of next week, and read this before Monday. This is a precious letter written by Jacob Ammon's younger brother after long after the split between the Mennonites and the Amish, and it's filled with wisdom for today, and it's part of that source documents that come from the letters of Amish division by John D. Roth.