Why do Swiss Anabaptists practice ethnic separatism from other Anabaptists?

[seinetsodumm]

Would I need to be re-baptized in order to join the Holdemans despite being baptized in the Mennonite church?

This would be interesting to know.

[Soloist]

Would I need to be re-baptized in order to join the Holdemans despite being baptized in the Mennonite church?

This would be interesting to know.

They don't accept baptism except in their own church.

[JohnH]

Would I need to be re-baptized in order to join the Holdemans despite being baptized in the Mennonite church?

This would be interesting to know.

Yes, baptism and church membership are the same thing.

We do not try to judge if someone’s baptism somewhere else is valid or not. So we just re-baptise.

For some reason, this greatly offends some people.

[Silentreader]

Would I need to be re-baptized in order to join the Holdemans despite being baptized in the Mennonite church?

This would be interesting to know.

Yes, baptism and church membership are the same thing.

We do not try to judge if someone’s baptism somewhere else is valid or not. So we just re-baptise.

For some reason, this greatly offends some people.

Especially those who don't believe that baptism and church membership are the same thing.

[ohio jones]

We do not try to judge if someone’s baptism somewhere else is valid or not. So we just re-baptise.

For some reason, this greatly offends some people.

Maybe it should.

The founding concept of the "anabaptist" movement (which really should have been called a baptist movement, but the opponents chose the label) was receiving baptism on confession of faith as a repudiation of infant baptism, the "highest and chief abomination of the pope." There is no biblical or historic justification within the Swiss Anabaptist tradition for rebaptism following a believer's baptism; later baptisms are a renouncing of all prior baptisms. The only valid reason I can see would be a case where a person admits their prior baptism was not accompanied by sincere conversion and commitment.

That makes us more like AB+ universal recipients (accepting almost any believer's baptism regardless of mode or context) rather than separatists. But maybe the ethnic part still needs some work.

[Neto]

In regards to accepting the baptism of a person coming from another congregation, would your congregation accept a person's previous baptism if they admit that it was not upon a personal conversion of faith, but still maintain that it was a 'right confession', that is, one that recognized that Christ is the only way of salvation. (Just that they had not experienced a true conversion.)

[R7ehr]

Would I need to be re-baptized in order to join the Holdemans despite being baptized in the Mennonite church?

This would be interesting to know.

Yes, baptism and church membership are the same thing.

We do not try to judge if someone’s baptism somewhere else is valid or not. So we just re-baptise.

For some reason, this greatly offends some people.

Does the Holdeman churches ever rebaptize their own members? Let’s say a person there is baptized as a 18 year old, and later they say that they were living in unrepentant sin when they were baptized, and had never been born again. And now they are, and would like to be rebaptized as a believer.
Has this ever happened? If so, were they rebaptized?
If this has not happened, how would this be received if it did?

[ohio jones]

In regards to accepting the baptism of a person coming from another congregation, would your congregation accept a person's previous baptism if they admit that it was not upon a personal conversion of faith, but still maintain that it was a 'right confession', that is, one that recognized that Christ is the only way of salvation. (Just that they had not experienced a true conversion.)

I assume that's directed to me, since we know the Holdeman answer. I think we might leave it to the individual's conscience, and whether they "request it of us and demand it for themselves." At least if they later experienced a true conversion before coming to us.

[Ernie]

In regards to accepting the baptism of a person coming from another congregation, would your congregation accept a person's previous baptism if they admit that it was not upon a personal conversion of faith, but still maintain that it was a 'right confession', that is, one that recognized that Christ is the only way of salvation. (Just that they had not experienced a true conversion.)

I assume that's directed to me, since we know the Holdeman answer. I think we might leave it to the individual's conscience, and whether they "request it of us and demand it for themselves." At least if they later experienced a true conversion before coming to us.

Our church would want someone to testify that they were sincerely repentant of their sin, and were wanting to be fully surrendered to Christ at the time of their baptism. If it was only a half-hearted commitment, we would encourage them to be rebaptized.
We would not rebaptize them if they wanted submersion baptism instead of the pouring or sprinkling they experienced.
Nor would we rebaptize if someone got new enlightenment on the purpose or meaning of baptism. (FWIW, I continually receive new enlightenment at age 52.) Some people who have gone down that route can never figure out when to stop getting rebaptized as they keep getting new ground-breaking understandings.

If someone wanted to be rebaptized I would simply ask them,
1. Did you believe that Jesus is the Christ and that he saves us from sin?
2. Were you repentant?
3. Were you fully intending to surrender to God or were you knowingly holding things back that you did not plan to give up?

[JohnH]

This would be interesting to know.

Yes, baptism and church membership are the same thing.

We do not try to judge if someone’s baptism somewhere else is valid or not. So we just re-baptise.

For some reason, this greatly offends some people.

Especially those who don't believe that baptism and church membership are the same thing.

If your belief system is that baptism should be some kind of “service” offered on-demand, similar to a drive-thru oil change place, and that baptism doesn’t necessarily mean church membership, then neither Holdeman nor other plain Anabaptist churches will be a good fit for you.

Just about any generic megachurch will be though.