Valerie wrote:I am equally blessed to hear this kind of faith exists in the Netherlands-
It would be great if Paul would share much more of his own background in the faith, and also about the Netherlands- all I know is 'hearsay' but I really wondered after reading his (your's, Paul) faith how he got to know about, and study about the Anabaptists, how introduced to them there in the Netherlands, and also about the faith in that part of the world presently.
Purty please??? Paul???
Well about your question how I first got acquainted with the Anabaptists. I think I already knew a little bit about the Amish before I came to faith. When I came to faith, the text that really pierced my heart was 'Be ye Holy, for I am Holy.' My eyes were opened to my own unholiness, and I desperately longed to live a holy life, and so after I came to faith I just went searching about the Amish/anabaptists because I wanted to know more. I have to say my initial interest was mainly about the Amish, I guess the appeal of a seperate, simple and pure life was really big.
I come from a calvinist background, the 'frozen chosen' as I call them sometimes. Here in Holland we have a 'Bible belt' aswell, and there is one large group of conservative calvinists in that 'belt' that dress a certain way and don't own a tv, have seperate 'reformed' schools, their own newspaper, and by appearance live somewhat apart from the world. They stand in the reformed tradition, usually have a very solid theoretical understanding of the faith, and are pretty much all infant baptisers, but they do appreciate Spurgeon and Bunyan for instance (even though they were for credo-baptism). However they also put alot of emphasis on election, and that is where the term 'frozen chosen' comes from. They often know alot of things about the faith theoretically, but that doesn't mean they know the Lord or they attend the Lords Supper. Sometimes in a very hyper-calvinist congregation of 3000, there might be 20 or 30 that share in the Lords Supper. Many congregations do not have a Minister, and some barely have elders and deacons, because so few members are actually believed to be soundly converted. This stems from the strong belief we are so depraved that we are unable to come to Christ, it has to be Gods work, and there is nothing we can do towards our own salvation. But there is alot of judgment and condemnation preached, so it really makes for an impossible spiritual situation, on the one hand the need is shown, on the other hand the cure is withheld. Also many things must happen before a person is truly converted, and he must give a solid account of his conversion aswell. There is alot of wariness from these congregations towards more 'lighter' congregations, Evangelical for instance, where there is much "easy believism".
On the other hand, there is another large group of "lighter" reformed Churches (splintered in many different denominations - we have
many denominations here in Holland) that are sadly going with the world. They are increasingly allowing gay marriages and women as Elders or ministers. There is hardly any true Biblical discernment left in these churches, and liberal theology is conquering it's thousands I'm affraid.
I myself used to go to one of the conservative Calvinist churches in which I grew up (though not hyper-calvinist), but because I moved to a different part of the country, and strongly believed believers baptism to be Biblical I went to a somewhat conservative Baptist congregation that is completely seperate from these reformed denominations.
In the Netherlands the population in general is quite hostile towards the faith, when I go to help my friend Evangelise on the street I usually face 99% rejection, people are very much hardened. But regardless, the Lord is still drawing people to Himself, especially from among those extremely conservative calvinists. And I am glad to say there are definitely more than 7000 who have not bowed their knee to BaƤl. Alot more could be said, but I hope this helps getting a little bit of a picture. God bless!