What are things that are common to us? By "us" I mean a grouping that includes Old Order Amish to River Brethren to German Baptists to Apostolic Christians to North American Holdemans to Hutterites to transitionally-plain fundamental conservatives to Congolese Mennonites to EYN Brethren in Nigeria to non-North American Holdemans to Russlandeutsch whether still in the former USSR or resettled in Europe.If someone raised the question, I would want us to acknowledge that conservative Anabaptist take different stances on this issue and not use this event as a place to try and set such things straight.
I would want the focus to be more on presenting and identifying things that are commonly believed and practiced among us.
In our study of early Anabaptist history, we might of course identify the various statements made by early Anabaptists on D&R and that would be fine of course.
Here are some things that are not common to us:
- Ethnicity. Apostolic Christians are mostly Eastern European. Holdemans are 8% not ethnic Europeans.
- Theological systems. The above list has a wide range of views on regeneration, salvation, and the atonement.
- Marriage. The list above has a very wide range of beliefs about marriage in the first place, and then D&R.
Here are some things that we do have in common:
- A view of the centrality of the New Testament and a willingness to try our best to follow it.
- Seeking other believers of like mind to read the New Testament with in church
- Either active persecution ongoing today (EYN, severe persecution in the past, or persecution within recent memory (WWI)
- A commitment to nonresistance regardless of how disadvantageous this is in the face of persecution or constantly being robbed/taken advantage of
- (This is the hardest one to understand for me) The veiling is practiced in worship, and often in everyday life too
- Everyday life is viewed as part of being a Christian, converting to Anabaptism takes over everything about your entire life and how you do things
- Lifestyle decisions are discerned by a church, informed by the New Testament, but not limited to it, and then the people who are part of that church abide by those decisions
- Relentless pressure on us, either as converts or as children or believers, to drift into the world, and most of the things in the above list disappear as that happens