Well, it looks like we might have baptism in the snow on Sunday . . . South Carolina weather can change in an instant and you win some, you lose some.  But no worries, we will get into the water in our pool out back and go forward.  We have to!  And I don't mind that it costs us some pain and discomfort because I have read the stories of the first people to reintroduce believer's baptism by being fully immersed in water.  They were called the Anabaptists and they lived in Switzerland in the 16th century.

George Blaurock, Anabaptist martyr, burned at the stakeThis group, also known as the Swiss Brethren, was led by George Blaurock, Conrad Gregel and Felix Manz.  They began reading the New Testament for themselves instead of just having priests read and interpret it for them.  As they read, they became convinced that infant baptism was not proper and that only adults who could actively choose to believe the Gospel and choose to be baptized should indeed be baptized.  This, however, was not well received by the local authorities, who had baptized every infant born in their kingdom for centuries.  Yet the anabaptists were driven by bibilcal conviction, which is always stronger than the threats or punishments of a King or a priest.  So they refused to baptize their infants, but instead baptized themselves as adults, and this is Switzerland folks - not a warm place. 

Well, as this practice multiplied and more and more people embraced this as being true to New Testament teaching and practice, the local rulers sprang into action to stamp out the new movement of "religious and social rebellion".  How did they proceed in stamping it out, you ask? They began to kill everyone who chose to be baptized as an adult.  They hung them, they drowned them, they cut out their tongues, threw them into dungeons.  Thousands upon thousands of men, women and children were taken out into the lakes and rivers of Europe and had heavy stones tied around their legs before being thrown into the water to die a horrific death by drowning.  The "Christian" rulers of the day were in effect saying, "If you want to be baptized by being immersed in water, I will really immerse you in water!"  Their hatred of the fact that their system of rule and their system of church governance was being challenged and overturned by the common masses led them to these kinds of horrific, unthinkable atrocities.  When a political or religious leader is drunk with power, he will kill even a small child for the next bottle of wine!

So I am not worried about baptizing in the snow this Sunday.  In fact, I look forward to it because it will remind all of us of the great price that was paid by some of our brothers and sisters in 16th century Switzerland, who were willing to die as entire families to purchase for us the right to stand and baptize men and women in Jesus' Name - rain or shine, snow, sleet or hail, we move forward.

Oh, by the way.  Want to know whatever became of the Anabaptists movement, which was persecuted by all of Europe.  Well, it eventually morphed into several different branches, some of which are familiar to you, like the Mennonites and the Amish.  Menno Simmons started the Mennonite branch and Jacob Amman started the Amish, many of which heard of a new world, a new country where they could come and practice their religion peacefully and without government interferance.  So they came to William Penn's colony of Pennsylvania, in the British colonies which were to become the USA, a place where they were given the right, not by the government, but rather by God, to continue in their religious tradition peacefully and freely.

For more information on the Anabaptist movement, see http://www.reformedreader.org/history/anabaptiststory.htm or better yet, read The Anabaptist Story by William Estep.