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Five centuries ago, there was a move of the spirit to step behind the Council of Nicea (ca. 325 CE) and return Christianity to beliefs held by early disciples: there was a move not to return the Old Church [i.e., the Roman Church] to the teachings of Holy Writ, but to abandon the Old Church and its errant ways, its selling of indulgences, its abuses of power, its commingling of civil and ecclesiastical authority, and to seek purity in worship of God the Father and Christ Jesus. This required that disciples as mature believers be baptized by full immersion in water, the so-called Believers’ Baptism; for John the Baptist did not sprinkle infants, nor can infants repent. And as John the Baptist made straight for outwardly circumcised Israel the way to the Lord, the Apostle John—the disciple who loved Jesus—makes straight for circumcised-of-heart Israel the way to the Lord.

Articles, commentaries, and essays on this website continue the Sabbatarian Anabaptist tradition begun in modern history by Andreas Fischer (DOD 1540 CE); for taking up theological residence in the 3^rd-Century CE or in the 2^nd-Century CE doesn’t satisfy the goal 16^th-Century Anabaptist set before themselves, the goal of purity of belief, the goal of returning Christianity to the teachings of Christ Jesus and the beliefs of the early 1^st-Century Church, which was never an ideologically unified Body.

The letters to the seven churches (Revelation chaps 2 & 3) disclose differing problems and differing strengths within the single Body of Christ, with only the Church at Philadelphia being without criticism. And Philadelphia kept the word [’o logos] of Christ Jesus, the word that Jesus left with His disciples as the judge of unbelieving Christians (John 12:48), the word that will condemn every Christian whose righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt 5:20).

In His sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven’” (Matt 5:17–19 ESV emphasis added). Later, in the same sermon, Jesus said, “‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness”’” (Matt 7:21–23 unless otherwise noted, all citations on this website will be from the English Standard Version, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles).

In making straight the way to Christ Jesus for endtime disciples, John wrote,

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. (1 John 3:1–11 emphasis added)

To the Christian who sincerely believes that Jesus abolished the Law and the Prophets, this website will seem terribly legalistic; for there will be no condoning of social ills such as abortion or gay marriage or even of marriages between Believers and Unbelievers. The Christianity expressed on this site will not be that of 2^nd or 3^rd Century disciples, who, once Emperor Hadrian outlawed Judaism and Jewish practice (ca 135 CE), fled from Moses so far and so fast that even Sabbath observance became a casualty on the rocky rock Christendom took back to spiritual Babylon where what would become the Old Church baptized the tenets of the ancient mysteries religion and called them Christian.

In adhering to the word, the message, that Jesus left with His disciples, Anabaptists in general do not take oaths, nor participate in military actions or in civil governance. For Anabaptists, the Adversary remains the prince of this world and will remain its prince until the kingdom of this world is taken from the reigning hierarchy of spiritual Babylon and given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9–14; Rev 11:15). Hence, all authority in this present world derives from the authority God gave to the Adversary when He consigned all of humankind to disobedience so that He could have mercy on all (Rom 11:32). Therefore, Sabbatarian Anabaptists do not seek to assist the prince of this world, solving or resolving for him the problems inherent to autocratic or democratic rule in a world based upon transactions. Instead, this website advances the Anabaptist goal to seek first the kingdom of the heavens rather than the things of this world.

But in seeking first the kingdom of God, the three-centuries-long quietness of 8^th-day Anabaptists will be abandoned and replaced by the enthusiasm of their ancestors, which will necessarily cause more confrontational positions to be taken against the heresies of the Old Church, or the Reformed Church, and of Arian Christendom. Sobeit.

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