(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

We're continuing our series on the Protestant Reformation, and we're talking about the Anabaptists here today. And if you saw the documentary produced by our ascending church, Verity Baptist Church, I think we showed it during our anniversary or something like that, Being Baptist. It talks about this. It talks about how these are our brethren in the faith, the Anabaptists that were around hundreds of years ago, and it kind of morphed into what we know now as Baptists, or what we are. Okay? And so I'll go in depth on that a little bit later in the sermon, but first I want to explain to you this chapter, okay? Just some of these things. Notice what it says in Acts 5, verse 27, and when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, Did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. So notice in the government, the command was, no soul winning, no teaching the word of God. Okay? They're told they're not allowed to go soul winning. They're not allowed to teach the word of God. There's pretty much a ban on having church or anything like that, okay? Around the world, there are a lot of locations it's like that today. They might let you be a Christian, so called, in that country, but go ahead and try to convert a Muslim in some of these countries. You're not going to be allowed to. They won't actually let you freely worship God. Now here in this country, it's kind of hard for us to imagine that. The government's never going to put a ban on us from preaching the gospel, at least not anytime soon, unless the world changes a lot. We have free reign to preach the gospel. There's no problems. We have free reign to preach the word of God. But it is not like that all over the world, and it has not always been like that in history. Here they're commanded not to preach the word of God. I do want you to notice in verse 28, they're accused of filling Jerusalem with their doctrine. To be a false understanding about what a missionary's supposed to do is just all soul winning. It's just 100% soul winning, and then you get up here and you preach a 10-minute sermon, really shallow because it's all about soul winning. That's ridiculous because you're supposed to fill that area with your doctrine. It's not just getting people saved. I don't come up here and preach really short sermons, and you're like, oh man, it's so boring. I've got to go to YouTube to actually learn the word of God. That's ridiculous. We need to have real sermons here, where we're preaching the word of God, where we're learning and we're growing. It's not about just getting people saved. It's about building families and churches that are going to serve God their entire lifetimes. We want to fill this place with our doctrine, not just get people saved. Verse 29, then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. You see, if there was a command that you cannot go soul winning, you can't read the Bible, you can't teach the word of God, we ought to obey God rather than men. Now look, if the government decided to put in some law that you don't like, like you must wear a face mask, obey the government because God tells us to do that in Romans 13. You can do mental gymnastics in Romans 13 to try to explain away what it says, but you're supposed to obey authority as long as they don't tell you to do a sin. If you have children, your children do not have a right to say, well, I'm not going to listen to my parents in this situation because I don't like that rule. You say, why? That is God given authority and authority doesn't always make the right choices, but you're supposed to obey it because they're the authority. Try this at your work. If your boss says you must wear a face mask or whatever you must and try to just say, well, I'm not going to do it. Yeah, you're going to get fired because they're the authority at that job, my friend. Okay, and that's not really what the sermon is about, but what I'm saying is they refuse to obey man here because man's telling them you can't preach the gospel. If that were to happen here, you know what? That's something that we're supposed to disobey, the Bible says. But otherwise, if the government has rules we don't really like, we're supposed to obey it and try to live at peace with all men. That's what the Bible says. Okay. Verse 30, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. And so Peter doesn't just say, we're going to keep going soul winning. He said, you're responsible for killing the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a bold response, okay? It's not like, okay, yeah, you know, no, he says, you know what? Not only will we go soul winning, but you're responsible for killing Jesus Christ. Verse 31, him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. When they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. So the result of this is they want to kill Peter and the apostles preaching the gospel. It kind of shows, yeah, you are responsible for killing Jesus because you want to kill the person preaching the same message as Jesus Christ, okay? Verse 34, then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had a reputation among all the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space and said unto them, ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. Now I want to ask you a question. Do you believe this person, Gamaliel, do you believe he was intelligent or Bobo? It's probably an intelligent person, right? I mean, people that make it, look, even though there's a lot of wicked people that make it high up in politics, most of those people are pretty intelligent people from at least a worldly standard or from an educational standard, okay? They're intelligent people, and this man, although he's an ungodly person, he's going to make a very wise and true statement here in a second, okay? He says in verse 36, for before these days rose up, Thuddas, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about 400, joined themselves, who was slain, and all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught. He's saying there was this group that rose up, this religious group, and eventually they just kind of died out, okay? Verse 37, after this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing and drew away much people after him, he also perished and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. So another person rises up, and this is not Judas Iscariot, okay? There's a lot of people named Judas. It used to be a popular name, not so much now, okay? On Wednesday I mentioned the name Jezebel's open for anyone who has kids coming up. I mean, the name Judas is pretty open also in today's world, okay? It used to be a common name, so this is not Judas Iscariot, but he says, you know what, they were dispersed. Verse 38, and now I say unto you, refrain from these men and let them alone. For if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught. What he's saying is, you know what, if this is not actually of God, it's just going to die out. You don't have to worry about fighting it, and look, by and large, that's what happens with religions. Religions come, and religions go. Religions are really popular at one time, and then they die out. You know, it used to be Greek mythology was a really popular religion. I mean, there's not a whole lot of people that believe that today. Or Roman mythology, these things, I mean, I guess that's Roman Catholicism, it kind of changed, but look, these things kind of die out. I mean, it used to be that Zoroastrianism was the big religion in the world. That was the Persian Empire's religion. You're like, I don't even know what Zoroastrianism is, Brother Stuckey. It's like, well, that's a whole other sermon, okay? They basically left and fled to India with all the other, you know, really weird religions, okay? But look, there's all these religions that come, and then they die out usually. And what he's saying is, you know what, if Christianity, if this is false, it's going to die out. And let me tell you something, if they wanted to destroy Christianity, it would have been very easy. All they had to do was show the body of Jesus Christ. That's all they had to do. Our religion is based on the resurrection of Jesus. If you show the body, the religion's done. I mean, all of the followers would have been like, man, I guess I believed a lie. I mean, the resurrection is the proof, because they wanted to kill out this religion, and Christianity never died, because they could never show the body. I mean, they had it protected, you know, sealed, protected and everything, to make sure Jesus didn't rise again. Well, then all they had to do was show the body, right? And then people wouldn't have had any reason to think, wow, you know, I mean, they would say, well, obviously he didn't rise again. They never could show the body, okay? And so I want you to notice here in verse 39, but if it be of God, he cannot overthrow it, lest he happily ye be found even to fight against God. To him they agreed, and when they had called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go, once again, commanding them not to go soul winning. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Imagine being beaten and then rejoicing that you're able to serve God. I mean, that's an amazing reaction here. Verse 42, and daily and in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. They were going soul winning all the time, daily, every house, every opportunity they were preaching the gospel. You say, what does this have to do with our sermon? What you're seeing in Acts chapter five is that God's people are suffering persecution, right? Right? God's people are always going to suffer persecution, okay? Turn to Acts chapter eight, Acts chapter eight. So look, if you're trying to trace back our history and our roots, one thing you need to realize is whatever the truth is, whatever our brethren are in the faith, you know what? One guarantee, they had to have suffered persecution. Why? Because God's people will always suffer persecution. And so here's the thing, if we look back on the Anabaptists, which are the rebaptizers, and they never had any persecution, do you know what that tells us? They're not our brethren in the faith because God's people will always suffer persecution. See, in this sermon, I am going to biblically and logically prove to you that the Anabaptists are our brethren in the faith, okay? Now this is our sixth sermon in this series and we had two introductory sermons and we talked about the Lutheran branch. We talked about the Anglican or Church of England, King Henry VIII, and we talked about the Calvinist branch, the Presbyterians. See, most Baptists believe that they're Protestants. That's what most Baptists believe. They believe the Protestants are our brethren in the faith and nothing could be further from the truth, okay? The Protestants, we're going to see in this sermon, they persecuted us and killed us for baptizing people. That's the truth about this. Now, you say, why is this important, Brother Stuckey, or what is the difference here? Look, I've said many times during the sermon series that I was raised a Protestant, but look, I was raised a Protestant because that was the church in the area that was nearby that my parents went to. In reality, my parents' heritage, my dad's heritage, is actually Mennonite heritage. Now who knows the Mennonites, anybody? Now who knows the Amish? Maybe that's more famous, okay? People get those confused. They think the Amish are the Mennonites because the Amish is like a crazy version of the Mennonites, like the hardcore, you can't shave, no electricity, et cetera, et cetera. It's really common in the US. It's actually, it's the fastest growing religion in the world actually by percentage because they have a lot of kids, you know, and so everyone stays in the religion, but no electricity because electricity is of the devil, okay, and things such as that. And so although they have a lot of good principles about being very conservative, they go way above and beyond anything the Bible would say, okay? And so that's a whole other thing. Maybe I'll preach on it someday. It'll be entertaining. But the Mennonites are, basically the Amish and Mennonites are sort of like cousins. The Amish branched off from the Mennonites, okay? Now the Mennonites are known to be extremely conservative people. In fact, where I grew up, especially as my parents moved to Pennsylvania, it's very common to see women wearing bonnets on their hair everywhere they go because they believe in head coverings. They're very conservative. You see Mennonites and Amish everywhere, okay? Now why this is important is because if you ever visit Mennonite communities and go to their tourist spots and read their books, they are very dogmatic that they are the Anabaptists. And I'm going to prove to you that's not the case. See when I grew up, my dad and I used to have a lot of conversations about the Anabaptists before I was even saved. And the big problem with the Mennonites here today is they don't believe the right gospel. They believe you can lose your salvation, okay? And so they claim to be the Anabaptists and what some Baptists are wrongly doing is they don't really understand the history of where we came from. So they don't think we're the Anabaptists. They think the Mennonites are. And I'm going to show you in the sermon that is not the case, okay? The Mennonites did branch off, but they started basically a false church preaching a false gospel. And although they have good principles of being very conservative, our brethren in the faith are the Anabaptists as well as some other groups. And I'll prove that to you in the sermon, okay? Number one, if you're trying to find the right religion, they must have suffered persecution. They must have suffered persecution, okay? Now here's an article from John Horst which is, it's called The Mennonites in Europe, okay? It says this, note, the term Anabaptist was used to describe and define certain Christians during the Reformation era. These Christians rejected infant baptism, choosing instead believer's baptism, since many of them had been baptized in their infancy. They chose to be rebaptized as believing adults. So their enemies called them Anabaptists, meaning rebaptizers. And so the name Anabaptist was not chosen by us, it was chosen by our enemies, okay? They called us Anabaptists. They're rebaptizing all these Protestants and Catholics, okay? Now the reason why I'm quoting from this book, and I'm going to quote from a lot of books from the Mennonites, is quite honestly, Baptists know very little about church history and they've really not written any books about it, okay? And so unfortunately, I've got to read their books, but I'm going to show you biblically why they are not the Anabaptists, okay? And the Anabaptists were the rebaptizers for their crime of believer's baptism. Baptists were heavily persecuted during the 16th century and into the 17th by both Roman Catholics and Protestants. And look, that's the truth. The Anabaptists were killed and murdered. It was a crime. It was a capital offense to baptize people. You would be put to death for it in Protestant and Catholic run areas. So this is true. So you have Baptists here saying that, you know what, we're Protestants. And the problem with that is the Protestants murdered us. Look, it's pretty frustrating when I hear people say, well, we're just Protestants. The Protestants killed us. They murdered us. It's like, man, learn a little bit about it. They murdered us, okay? Look, I grew up Protestant, okay? I know what it's about. We preach this sermon series. They murdered us, okay? We are not Protestants. We're Baptists and we came from the Anabaptists. Acts 8 verse 35. So the big thing that you'd be put to death for is baptism. That is why you got the death penalty in these areas. What does the Bible say in Acts 8 verse 35? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came onto a certain water and the eunuch said, see here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So notice this man, the Ethiopian eunuch, he gets baptized after believing. This is not a baby. This is not a really young child. This is a grown adult of some age and he is getting baptized after he believes. This would have been punished by the death penalty in the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries by both the Catholics and the Protestants. This was a capital crime. It's funny because they always try to argue infant baptism, which we've disproved that a million times and this verse disproves it, but then all of a sudden they throw out believer's baptism and they embrace infant baptism and now baptism as an adult is punishable by the death penalty. It's like if you want to try to add infant baptism to the scriptures, how are you removing adult baptism? Isn't it pretty clear this is an adult that's getting baptized and that's punishable by the death penalty throughout history in many areas? You say why? When you're getting baptized, what you're showing is I line up with this group of people and by getting baptized, people are saying, I'm not a Catholic. I'm not a Protestant. I believe Jesus Christ died, was buried and rose again after three days. That's what baptism is. It says here in this article, it needs scarcely be said that Roman Catholicism had always taken an attitude of intolerance and persecution toward all dissenters from its creed. On the contrary, the principal leaders in the reformation movement, Luther and Zwingli, which are Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli, okay, we've talked about them, in the first period of the reformatory labors condemned Romish intolerance. They were in the earlier period defenders of the principle of liberty of conscience. So these two people, Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli, who kind of really started the Protestant reformation, they said, you know what, we deserve to have liberty and freedom to worship God like we want to worship God. That's what they said when they were not in power. When they got in power, you must obey what we say or you get put to death. And so here's what it says though, later they agreed to a thoroughgoing union of the church with the state. Union of the church with the state means basically the state gets to determine what you do. You become a state-run religion. We believe in separation from the government and the church. The church has the right to do things the way they want. If the government passed a law and said, baptism's illegal, we should not have to follow that. Throughout the world, governments try to take rule by oppression. Countries all over the world, they try to force you to be a certain religion. You cannot force people to believe on Jesus Christ. I gave the gospel to three people yesterday and nobody got saved. Because you cannot force people to believe in eternal security. You can't force people to believe the gospel. You can present the gospel, you can beg them and plead with them, and you can hope they'll get saved. But look, if they say, you know, hendia kosher, then you know what, they're not getting saved. If they're not sure, they're not sure. It's like, they're obviously thinking about it, but if they're not sure, they're not going to get saved. They must believe this. You cannot force them. And so whenever a government's trying to force you to be a certain religion, look, it's not about following these set rules, it's about what you believe in terms of Christianity. What do you believe about Jesus Christ? You cannot force people to believe a certain thing. But that's what Martin Luther and Ulrich Swingly try to do. They join the church with the state, which meant the abandonment of the principle of religious liberty. Furthermore, the natural and inevitable consequence was the persecution of the Anabaptists by the established Protestant state churches. Turn to Deuteronomy 19, Deuteronomy 19. Now look, I am not trying to negate the persecution the Catholics have done to us throughout history. I mean, didn't I preach a whole series on the dark history of the Roman Catholic Church? And I talked about the persecution that they gave to us. I'm not afraid to preach against the religion of this country. I mean, Roman Catholicism is wicked, okay? It always has been, and they've killed believers. But just because they killed more people than the Protestants doesn't mean the Protestants didn't kill us either. They did the same thing when they had the power. And if they had the power the Catholic Church had, they would have killed just as many people as the Roman Catholics, okay? That is the truth. And throughout history, they did this. So from this article, it says, you're in Deuteronomy 19. Let me read this to you. It is a fact recognized by many recent historians that the persecution of the Anabaptists surpassed in severity the persecution of the early Christians by pagan Rome. And so it's been said that the persecution was worse 500 years ago than what we read in Acts chapter five. In Acts chapter five, it was illegal to go soul winning. And yet people that are secular historians that don't believe the same things we do, they say, you know what? The persecution was actually worse 500 years ago. Right at the heart of the Protestant Reformation, it was a terrible time to be a Christian. If you actually believed on Jesus Christ and you're preaching the gospel, you're going to have the Catholics and the Protestants coming after you trying to kill you, okay? So it says it surpassed the persecution of the early Christians by pagan Rome. Persecution began in Zurich soon after the Brethren had organized a congregation. Imprisonment of varying severity, sometimes in dark dungeons, was followed by executions. Within a short period, the leaders of the Brethren lost their lives in the persecution. Anabaptism was made a capital crime. It was punishable by the death penalty to be an Anabaptist. Prices were set on the heads of Anabaptists. To give them food and shelter was made a crime. The Duke of Bavaria in 1527 gave orders that the imprisoned Anabaptists should be burned at the stake unless they recanted, in which case they should be beheaded. And so basically, if you're willing to say I was wrong, if you're not willing to say you're wrong, you get burned to death. If you say I was wrong, they'll just quickly end it by taking off your head for being a part of the Anabaptists. You were killed for just, look, so if you came to church, if this was 500 years ago and we got caught, we would all be put to death. That's what it's saying here. And look, this is not just one article. You can read book, and I'm reading from a lot of different ones. You can read book after book after book, and no one's really denying this. What the Catholics and the Protestants are trying to say is it was all a misunderstanding. It's like we made a mistake, and they try to lessen the amount. Both of them, okay, try to lessen the severity of this. But it was a crime to give food to us 500 years ago. And so basically, you were really relying on God to provide your every need, okay? And so it was a crime to give food. They were put to death, beheaded, in which case they should be beheaded. In Catholic countries, the Anabaptists as a rule were executed by burning at the stake. So in Catholic countries, you're usually burned to death, okay? In Lutheran and Zwinglian states, which is Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli, in the areas they controlled, Anabaptists were generally executed by beheading or drowning. The reason why you were drowned to death is because you were baptizing adults. And so the punishment was, hey, if you're going to baptize people in water, we're going to drown you in water, okay? That's the reason why they went with drowning. I mean, do these seem like nice people? It's like, I was top of my Baptist pastor, Martin Luther was such a great guy. It's like, well, you were taught wrong, my friend. It's like you were wrong about that. And look, nobody even denies this stuff because look, we're going to read in this sermon just a little bit. I don't have time to go into it. You can read from Martin Luther's own words, and I already have, about how basically it's heresy, and heresy was put to death by the death penalty for baptism, okay? So by Martin Luther's own words, look it up yourself. His words are pretty famous. They're all out there on the internet. He condemns himself, okay? The Protestants were just as guilty as the Catholics. They just did not have as much power as the Catholics, okay? Thousands sealed their faith with their blood. When all efforts to halt the movement prove vain, the authorities resorted to desperate measures. Armed executioners and mounted soldiers were sent in companies through the land to hunt down the Anabaptists and kill them on the spot without trial or sentence. The old method of pronouncing sentence on each individual dissenter proved inadequate to exterminate this faith. And so look, you know, what we read earlier from someone who was an unbeliever was that if this was of naught, it would have died out. And that's the truth. I mean, as heavy as this persecution was, if this was not of God, you know, our religion would have just pretty much died out. But it never did. You say, why? Because it's of God and God's not going to let it die out. And yes, many people were martyred, but look, you know, we have the same faith they had 500 years ago, okay? And so Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 15, what it said was there was no trial, okay? But that's not really a biblical thing, okay? Deuteronomy 19 verse 15, one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin, and any sin that he sinneth at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. And see, the Bible gives principles. I don't have time to go into it, but basically, you know, you can't just have one witness rise up and say, I saw somebody do such and such and they're put to death. You say, why? Because they might be lying, okay? And in the Bible, if I wanted to put Marlon to death and it was found that I lied about it, what's the penalty for me? The death penalty. And you know what? That makes sense. If I'm going to lie and try to get him to put to death, you know what? It makes sense that if I lie about it, I should get the crime I'm trying to get him guilty of. The Bible system makes sense. But another reason why one witness is not good enough is because in traumatic situations, quite honestly, sometimes the witness can be wrong accidentally. Right? I mean, if somebody breaks into your house in the middle of the night and you only kind of catch them from the side and you run them out or something like that, and then all of a sudden they take you to the police station and they give you various people in a line up and say, which one of these people was it? You could be wrong by accident. Why? Because it's not like you get to take a picture and spend 20 seconds looking at them. How tall are they? What colors their hair, et cetera, et cetera. Oftentimes people are wrong accidentally. Okay? So God's system makes sense. But during this time period, they only needed one witness. So if I were to rise up and say, I saw so and so get baptized a couple months ago, they would just get put to death immediately. That's the way they dealt with it. Why? Because they couldn't deal with it because the Anabaptists were spreading. People were getting saved. People were converting. People were getting saved, getting baptized. So they would try to put them to death. Okay. As best as they could turn to Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews 11. And look, we're looking at a lot of Bible here today. I believe in every sermon there should be a lot of Bible, but this first point, there's a lot of history I'm showing you because honestly, the persecution is the big thing for us to determine who are our brethren in the faith, who was persecuted. And that's going to give us a good idea who were probably our brethren. Okay. Now, look, just because somebody was persecuted, that does not guarantee they're our brethren. Okay. But it's a good indicator. I mean, in India, the Hindus kill thousands and thousands of Muslims, but the Muslims are not our brethren in the faith. They're getting persecuted by the Hindus. That doesn't mean they're our brethren in the faith, but being persecuted must be part of it because of the fact God's people will always be persecuted. We see that throughout the Bible. It says here in the first week of Lent 1528, King Ferdinand of Austria commissioned a company of executioners to root out the Anabaptist faith in his lands. So basically the King of Austria makes a decree. Every single Anabaptist in Austria is being put to death. Okay. And this isn't every country in Europe. Every country did this. Those who were overtaken in the highways of fields were killed with a sword. Others were dragged out of their houses and hanged on the doorposts. Most of them had gone into hiding in the woods and mountains in a forest near Langbach 17 were put to death. So people are hiding in the woods to get away, and they're just being hunted by the oppressive governments. In the province of Swabia in South Germany, 400 mountain soldiers were in 1528 sent out to put to death all Anabaptists on whom they could lay hands. Somewhat later, the number of soldiers still commissioned was increased to 800 and then to 1,000. So basically everybody in South Germany were putting to death. And so in various provinces, an imperial provost marshaled by the name of Berthold Eichel with his assistance, put many Anabaptists to death. On Christmas Day 1531, he drove 17 men and women into a farmhouse in Wurttemberg and burned the building together with the inmates. 350 Anabaptists were executed in the Palatinate before the year 1530. I'm just compiling various things. You could go all day on it. Okay. I mean, there's a book. My mind's blank right now. I'll just mention it later. Yes, I remember the Martyr's book of, man, I'm getting it backwards. The Martyr's book of Mar, or the Marir's book of Martyrs, I think it is. And it's like a two, it's bigger than the Bible. It's a 2,000 plus page book about all the persecution through the ages. Okay. That our people went through. Unfortunately, because Baptists don't know a whole lot about history, it was written by Mennonites to some of their doctrines in there. Unfortunately, because here's what you have to understand. The Fox's book of Martyrs is a Protestant book. And yes, what they're saying is true. There's persecution. The Catholics were killing the Protestants. They conveniently leave out that the Protestants were killing us. Okay. So unfortunately, we don't really have a history book without the false doctrine in there that shows all the persecution we've been to. But you read story after story and nobody denies it of all of the Anabaptists that were murdered. But I encourage you to go on Google and just type in, why were the Anabaptists hated by everybody? Article after article, you're going to find on Google because this is a historical fact. Okay. So Hebrews 11 verse 32, let me read this to you. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 32. And look, if you want a brief introduction to this sermon series and an understanding of our faith, I recommend you watch our documentary Being Baptist because it covers this stuff briefly. I mean, this is an eight part sermon series, but it covers this stuff about the Catholics and Protestants murdering us. Everything is correct in that documentary. This is just going a little bit more in detail, especially on the fact that the Protestants and it's mentioned in the documentary, but that the Protestants were guilty of murdering us as believers. Hebrews 11 verse 32, and what shall I more say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jethphah, of David also and Samuel and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the Romans. Women received their dead race to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn asunder, basically cut in half, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wondered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wondered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. This was written 2000 years ago. But if you're trying to find out who our brethren were 500 years ago, these things are going to be pretty similar to what was 2000 years ago. And isn't that what we're reading about? They were burned to death. They were beheaded. They were drowned. You say, why? They're our brethren in the faith. God's people will always go through persecution. Now here today in the Philippines, we don't have persecution. We literally have none. But our like minded brethren that believe the same things and teach the same things around the world in many countries, they are going through this right now. So yes, we are fortunate. We live in a country where we can freely preach the gospel. But go ahead and do a soul winning marathon in a Muslim country. See what happens to you. Go ahead and do a soul winning marathon in a Hindu or a Buddhist country. Oh, I mean, the Hindus and Buddhists are so nice. It's all about love your brethren as yourself as long as you don't believe like we do and getting people saved. But Christians get murdered and massacred in those countries all the time, okay? When you're preaching the gospel in those areas, and look, we are fortunate in a Catholic country we can freely preach the gospel. But hundreds of years ago, I promise you there was not that freedom because there was a persecution by the Catholic Church. The only reason why we're able to today is the Catholic Church lost its power a long time ago. The Pope used to own the world pretty much. He doesn't own the world anymore. The Pope lost his power hundreds of years ago. The Catholic Church used to own the world. And whenever you have a false religion, they will make a nationalized religion and force you to follow it. If you don't, they're going to persecute you just like you're seeing here. Okay. Turn to 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 3. Now look, I believe this sermon ought to be an encouragement to us. You say, why? Well, first off, we don't have this persecution here in the Philippines. But you know, to me it's encouraging reading about people that went through this because when I have just small trials in my life, it's kind of like, you know what, I have no reason to complain, right? When God's people used to have to fear to even read the scriptures or to have a church service or to get baptized, you'd be put to death. You know what? I don't have a reason to complain about my life when something doesn't go my way. Because honestly, you're blessed here in the Philippines to be a Christian. We can freely preach the gospel. We can have church service. Look, it's like there's no persecution here. And yet in other parts of the world, it's out there, my friend. And look, the media likes to just tell you it's just the Muslim countries. It is not just the Muslim countries. And yes, it happens in the Muslim countries, but they conveniently don't tell you that it's happening in all of these other countries as well if you're preaching the truth, okay? Notice what it says in 2 Timothy 3 verse 10, but thou has fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions. Paul talks about going through persecution and affliction. Notice what it says, which came onto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. Notice everywhere Paul went, there was persecution. Now in some areas, there's going to be more persecution, but there's going to be persecution everywhere because people hate God's words. And when you're preaching the message of the Bible, people will hate it. I mean, did we forget that Jesus was crucified? Did we forget that John the Baptist had his head taken? I mean, do we forget about that throughout the Bible? When you're reading the Bible, God's people are always going through persecution. Look, this is happening all over the world, okay? And you will go through persecution if you're serving God. What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Anyone who's living godly is going to suffer persecution. So look, if you think, well, this group 500 years ago are brethren in the faith, first ask yourself, did they go through any persecution? And by the way, this is why we know the Mennonites are not the Anabaptists and are not the same faith. You say, why? Because they have no persecution worldwide. None. Look, if you have no persecution for being a Mennonite worldwide anywhere, it's because, you know what, you're not the true religion. They claim they're the Anabaptists. Why don't they ever go through persecution? Look, there's a lot of nice things about the Mennonites. They're family oriented, they're conservative, they're very friendly and nice people, but they still have the wrong religion. And they're still going to die and go to hell unless they believe on Jesus Christ. You say why? Because they're hearing a work salvation message at their churches. They preach and believe a work salvation, and there is no persecution for them anywhere in the world. So look, if they're God's people, they would have to be going through persecution. I mean, isn't that logical? Now we don't go through persecution here, but mark my words, look, people that believe like we do in other parts of the world, they do go through persecution. You say why? Because they have the truth. And this ungodly world, they hate the message of the truth, my friend. And so look, our beliefs are the same thing as the ones 2000 years ago. You have the same religion and the same God as Abraham, Noah, Moses, Paul, the Apostle, name any of them. It's the same God. It's the same religion. And if they lived here today, near our church, you know where they come to church? They come to our church. And you know what they'd say, man, I don't know what this cell phone is. I don't know what this television thing is. I don't know what are these vehicles like, you know, what is a gypney? I mean, what's going on here? I don't know what any of this is. But you know what? This is the same preaching that I heard thousands of years ago. It doesn't seem like it's much different. Go out there and preach the gospel, preach hard, preach against worldliness, preach against sin. Hey, it's the same religion. Why? We believe in the same God that they do. And you know what? It could come one day that in this country, there's this persecution. We do not have this now. But let me tell you something, we don't know what's going to happen in 25 years. And during the end times, for sure, everybody's going to go through that persecution. But let me tell you something, it could come in our lifetime in this country. Now as a church that's going out and getting people saved, and starting church plants and things like that, we are going to at least have some persecution. Don't be naive and think there's never going to be persecution. Don't be naive and think we're never going to have bad people come in here and try to cause problems. It's going to happen. Okay. But let me tell you something, it could come a day where soul winning is illegal. That could happen 25 years from now. We don't know. It could happen in less time. Okay. And you got to ask yourself this question. If I live during this time period, would I just pretend not to be a Christian so I didn't get put to death? Or would I just serve God and say, you know what, if God allows me to live and keep going soul winning, I'm going to do it. If he decides I'm going to be a martyr, I'm going to do it. You've got to ask yourself that question because our brethren 500 years ago, if they had all decided I'll just be a silent Christian, you know what? Christianity would have died out. If God's people always just decided we're not going to go soul winning and serve God during persecution, you know what? Christianity would just die out. There must be a remnant of people that say, no matter what, if I have to starve and have no food, if I'm on the run like our brethren were, I'm still going to serve God. And so let me give you a quote here where it says, these Anabaptists were the most hated, persecuted and harassed sects or denominations of the 16th century. They were condemned everywhere, always and by all. This is just a secular article that the Anabaptists were killed everywhere by everybody. They were banished, imprisoned, executed, burned at the stake and drowned. The Anabaptists were the most hated people 500 years ago. There might be a reason why, because they were our brethren in the faith. Here is an article from Lutherans on Anabaptists. This is not from Martin Luther, but it's from his treatise. It's from his works. It's derived from that and Luther's works volume 40. But this is what it says. And look, as I mentioned, the Lutherans, you know what? They are Protestants and they were our enemies 500 years ago. Nowadays, Baptists want to get along with Catholics and Lutherans. Look, no, they believe a different gospel, my friend. Okay, see point number one was the persecution. But point number two, what you need to realize, and a lot of people are not aware of, is that Protestants gained political power. Protestants gained real political power. I mean, if you go to Scandinavia, and if you don't believe me, you can ask Brother Matthias, there are many countries that are just Lutheran countries. That is the state religion where pretty much everybody's a Lutheran. Okay, now in today's world, that doesn't mean much. There's not that persecution. But let me tell you something. There's the persecution hundreds of years ago, and Protestants gained power and got money and got power and control. And they did the same thing as the Catholics. It says this, what were the teachings of the Anabaptists? This is from the Lutherans. What were the teachings of the Anabaptists that offended against the Orthodox teaching of the gospel? First and foremost, the Anabaptists taught that those who had been baptized as children had to be baptized again, hence the name Anabaptists, which is rebaptizers. So the big crime we preach against the gospel is we say you got to get baptized after you believe. Okay, that's the big thing. Baptism was the fighting point, okay? The reason for this demand to be rebaptized was because of their teaching that baptism was not to be given to children. And let me say this, I am all for baptism for children if they believe the gospel. We're not for baptizing babies. Look, if your son or daughter gets saved at six years old, and they understand the gospel, by all means, you know, we'll baptize them. Now, as a parent, make sure they do understand the gospel and they didn't just say a prayer. Make sure they got it. But if they got it, baptize them. I'm all for baptizing children. I'm not for baptizing people that don't understand the gospel and are too young to understand it, okay? And so it says baptism was not given to children as they didn't need it as they are not sinners but are righteous before God. Now, now, wait a minute. Nobody teaches that children are not sinners. Nobody's teaching that children are not makulit until they turn six years old, okay? Nobody's teaching that. What we're teaching is that children are safe. Not saved, but they're safe. That God is not an evil God that is going to send a one-year-old to hell. I mean, do you realize how stupid this is? If God sent every baby to hell because they didn't get baptized, what about all the babies aborted in the womb? Because aren't they alive at that time? So if God sends babies to hell for not getting baptized, then I guess that means every time a baby's aborted, they get sent to hell. I guess every mom that loses a child before they're born, they go to hell. I guess our two twins that my wife had a miscarriage years ago, I guess they're in hell according to the Protestants. That's what they're saying. That's ridiculous. And look, as many moms as have lost children, do you realize how offensive of a teaching that is and how stupid that is? That if you have a child that dies at a young age, well, since they didn't get baptized, they've got to go to hell, or they've got to burn in purgatory or a purgatory-type area for a little while before they get to go to heaven. You get to pay the Catholic priest's money, pay the Protestant's money, and they'll pray your child out of purgatory or hell. I mean, that's garbage. That's wicked. And so, look, nobody's teaching that children are not sinners. What we're saying is they are safe, okay, until they reach an age they can understand. And it says this, and haven't yet gained the use of their reason and therefore are saved without baptism. Yeah, you know, I'm saying, yes, children have not gained reason when they're one-year-old. Look, I can't have the kind of conversation with my daughter as I can have with you. I mean, of course. It's like if I try to talk to my daughter about complicated things, of course, yes, she doesn't have that reason at the age of five months. It's like, are you kidding me? And they're claiming a baby that is two weeks old has enough reason and understanding to believe the gospel. They can't even feed themselves. It's like, what are you talking about? It's like if they have so much reason, just leave your baby at home for one day and see what happens. Your baby's going to be dead. I mean, they're fully dependent on their parents. They can't understand the gospel. I mean, what a ridiculous argument. This is still what they believe, that babies have the ability to understand the gospel when they're six months old, when they're two weeks old. It's like, what kind of garbage and I mean, talk about being Bobo. That is why they say you got to be baptized as a baby, because you've got original sin and you're going to go to hell if you don't get baptized. That's what the Catholics and the Protestants teach. Actually, the Catholics teach baptism saves you. And the Protestants say, well, you know, it's not that it saves you, but every saved person is going to get baptized as an infant. Yeah, it's the same thing. Same thing as people bringing in work salvation. And so this is what it says here. Here are the... Actually, let me keep reading here. One of Luther's chief responses to this particular heresy. So what we believe is heresy, according to this, is found in his treatise concerning rebaptism of 1528. Here's a short excerpt which argues that scripture shows faith being given to a child by God's word. So there's no reason to disbelieve that God's word through the preacher and baptism is any less effective. So here's his words, for if an Anabaptist hears, parentheses, that is if he does not want to be obstinate but teachable, that just as John believed and was made holy when Christ came and spoke through the mouth of his mother, so a child becomes a believer if Christ in baptism speaks to him through the mouth of the one who baptizes. Since it is his word, his commandment and his word cannot be without fruit, then the Anabaptist must admit that it may be so that he cannot altogether and firmly deny it nor cite any scripture to the contrary. What he's saying is this, that if I baptize a baby and I say they're believing, they're believing, because God's words aren't void. It's the power of my words is what he just said. Okay, if I baptize a baby and I tell you they believe, they believe, my friend, because it's the power of the priest, it's the power of the pastor. That is what the Catholics always taught, that the priests have this magical, mystical power. Okay, that's what they taught before. That's what they teach today. When they touch that holy water, it has more effect than you and me, because they are a pastor or a priest, my friend. That's what they teach. And look, this sermon is going to be long, I'll shorten the next sermon, I apologize. This might be last week's record of over 80 minutes, okay? I hate the idea that we're Protestants. I've always taught against that. It's wrong. It's heresy. It's ridiculous. I'm not here, but if he cannot clearly and convincingly deny it, then he cannot firmly defend his rebaptism, for he must firmly prove that children are without faith when they are baptized. If he is to justify rebaptism, I'm told that it has been sufficiently proved that his reasoning is uncertain and super-chilius throughout, okay? Now turn in your Bible to 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 3. Back to 2 Timothy 3. What Martin Luther said is, first, before we baptize adults, after they believe, we must prove that babies cannot understand the Gospel. It's not enough to turn to Acts 8 and see an example of an adult getting baptized. We must prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a baby who's going goo goo ga ga does not have the ability to understand the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. I've got to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that my son is not old enough to understand this. It's like, I mean, are you an idiot? Of course they don't understand when they're a baby. It's like, if you don't get that, then it's worthless debating this time. I'm not going to debate 20 hours for someone who obviously has the IQ of a five year old. It's like, my son might have more knowledge and understanding than Martin Luther, but he still doesn't have enough to get saved, my friend. He's still too young to understand these things. And so here's the words of Ulrich Zwingli, and this is on the death of Felix Manns. Now this is Feliz Manns. This was someone who was drowned to death because basically he left the Protestant religion and he became an Anabaptist and he was put to death. On March 7th, 1526, the Zurich Council had passed an edict that made adult rebaptism punishable by drowning. On January 5th, 1527, Manns became the first casualty of the edict and the first Swiss Anabaptist to be martyred at the hands of magisterial Protestants. He was executed by drowning in Lake Zurich on the Leimat. And so this is a very famous death. It's a known story. Basically he converted to being an Anabaptist and there was basically a big debate in the town over the topic of baptism. And so basically the Protestants voted that, you know what, yes, it's the death penalty for baptizing adults because the scripture teaches baby baptism. And so basically the Protestants that control and own that area and no Protestant could deny this. This is a common historical fact. They put to death this man because of the fact of baptism as an adult because he got saved and he got baptized. Look, you don't have to fear getting baptized, right? I mean, many people in this room have gotten baptized. I baptized you here or somewhere else. You got saved and you didn't have to worry about getting put to death. But our brethren in the faith 500 years ago, you better believe they had to worry about that. And let me tell you something, Muslims can get saved in Iraq, Afghanistan, and those countries. But let me tell you something. Let's see what happens if they get baptized publicly. Although probably be put to death, my friend. It's like you will be put to death if you publicly get baptized. Okay. And so here are the words of Martin Luther in 1530 Luther advanced the view that two offenses should be penalized even with death. So he decided the death penalty is for two things. Now, what's funny about this is I believe in the death penalty for many things, but apparently not the same things as Martin Luther. I believe the Bible teaches an eye for an eye and the correct government would be instilling those laws. I believe Leviticus 20 and all of the things in there, which are many things are punishable by the death penalty. But Martin Luther, it's not the sins that get you put to death. He says it's for sedition and heresy, and he's going to define what that means. Okay. And well, sedition and blasphemy. He says the emphasis was thus shifted from incorrect belief to its public manifestation by word and deed. This was, however, no great gain for liberty because Luther construed more abstention from public office and military service as sedition and a rejection of an article of the Apostles Creed is blasphemy. So if you don't agree with the Apostles Creed, it's blasphemy. You're put to death. Look, when we go soul winning and somebody doesn't want to hear the gospel or they don't believe, you just move on to the next door. But if you live during this time period, according to Martin Luther, if they had a door to door ministry, which I'm sure they didn't, but if they had a door to door ministry and someone doesn't believe, you put them to death. I mean, that's what they believe that if you don't believe these things, you know what? You're put to death. Okay. And it was heresy to get baptized as an adult. You must just believe what they say. It's funny. The same Protestants that wanted freedom from the Catholics, boy, it changed once they got the power, my friend. And look, anyone who wants to deny this, all you have to do in your free time is look up any information I'm saying. It's all throughout. In Martin Luther's own writings, he says this. In the writings of John Calvin or Rick Swingly, anything on the Anabaptist, this is a historical fact. On the front of our bulletin, you have this picture of this man, I believe his name is Dirk Williams. You say, what's this picture about? You see this man trying to rescue someone in water. This man, Dirk Williams, was an Anabaptist. He's our brethren in the faith and he was basically going to be put to death and he escaped for his life. And one soldier's following him and this soldier slips in the ice and is going to die. Dirk Williams turns around, he saves this man's life, and then he's put to death shortly afterward by the government. But this is someone, our brethren in the faith, that he had a heart for people and he looked at someone drowning. And look, I don't know the end of this man who drowned. I like to think this man, that touched him so much that he ended up believing the gospel and getting saved. I would love to hear that because this man, Dirk Williams, he died, he escaped for his life and he turned around because he cared enough about people that he wasn't willing, even his enemy. I mean, doesn't the Bible say that we're supposed to love our enemies? That's called putting in an action, my friend. Someone who's making sure you're getting put to death. That doesn't necessarily mean that this guy was a reprobate that's responsible for putting him to death. You say, why? They just work for the government. They're just following the government's orders. They get paid and just do what the government says. But you know, this man, Dirk Williams, says, you know what, I'm going to turn around and save this man's life. As a result, he gets put to death because he gets captured then when he would have gotten away. Okay. Look, this has happened all throughout history, but 500 years ago, that persecution was pretty heavy during this Protestant Reformation. Don't let anyone tell you the Protestant Reformation is a good thing. The persecution was at its worst during this time period because everybody was after us. Okay. I mean, there's even times, there's even times you can look at, and I don't have time to go into it, that the Catholics and Protestants put aside their differences of killing each other and said, we've got a common enemy we've got to get rid of. I mean, isn't it funny? I remember I was at Sears one time in the US working, and I remember one of my coworkers was a Mormon. And so I was talking to her about the Bible and everything, you know, we had some dead time and trying to explain the gospel. And there's this Jehovah's Witness coworker, and all of a sudden they team up against me. It's like the Sadducees and the Pharisees got a common enemy. And I got the Mormons and Jehovah's Witness saying, no, she's right. No, he's right. It's like, what in the world? The Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are just holding hands because I'm the common enemy. That's the way it is as God's people. That's the way it's always been throughout history, the Catholics and Protestants, they team together at times, because number one, the first thing we got to do is exterminate the Anabaptists because they're the real ones that are evil. What was our crime? Getting people saved and baptizing them. That was our crime. Or if you get caught reading the Bible, reading the scriptures, you get put to death. That was our crime 500 years ago, okay? So as I said earlier, here's the thing. Number one, we said this, that God's people are always going to suffer persecution. Number two, what I said, hold on one second. Number two, I talked about the Protestants gaining power, but three, let's talk about the Mennonites and Amish today, because I want to explain this to you, because I want you to realize that one day you're probably going to have some Baptist tell you, well, you know what? The Anabaptists, that's actually the Mennonites. They're the ones that were the Anabaptists. The Amish, they're the ones that are the Anabaptists. You know, the Amish are against soul winning. They don't believe in soul winning. It's not that they don't do it, they're against it. They basically live in their own communities away from everybody. And they have just like this, I mean, it's a cult, because the same thing with not allowed to read the scriptures and things like that. But basically, they show themselves through their works, they say. And so people see these guys with these long beards, but no mustache, I'm pretty sure long beards, no mustache. And they see them in these really old, you know, makalumang clothes, like from hundreds of years ago. I mean, they stand out like a sore thumb. I mean, they're against cars. You say, what do they do? They use a horse and buggy, my friend. They are old fashioned. They use a horse and a buggy. And you know, it's interesting, because, you know, their communities are pretty interesting to visit. They have good restaurants, and it's interesting learning the history. I went when I was back in September, I visited a lot of Amish communities, and I was watching their things and things like that, and I was educating myself, because I was planning to preach the series and things like that. But you know, what's interesting is that the horse and buggy is no cheaper than the car. And you know, the parts for it are pretty, pretty difficult. It's actually not any cheaper. So they're not saving money. But they're against modern technology. And that can lead you into sin. Okay. And so look, obviously, there's some truth to things they're saying. I mean, I think it's great. They don't have a television. They don't have internet or Facebook. Those things are probably great. Okay. But you're going a little bit too far when you say, you know what, you're not allowed to drive a car. Now, here's the thing. In the Philippines, they've got public transportation. In the US, that means you're spending four hours on a horse and buggy when you can ride somewhere in 15 minutes. It's like, does it really make a lot of sense when it doesn't save you money? It kind of makes sense. And you know, everybody sees them. You drive by, because, you know, near my parents, there's plenty of Amish, you're like, hey, there's those people in the horse and buggy. It's like they stand out like a sore thumb. And look, they're against soul winning. Not only do they not do it, they're against it. And it's actually hard to become Amish. They make it difficult. If you want to join their commune and their living system and go to their church, it takes years to prove your true Amish. Number one as a guy, you better make sure you can get that beard going. Now, here's the thing. As a white guy in the US, it's not that hard. You know, I have the ability. I don't like to have a beard, you know, but you can tell, like, if I don't shave after a few days, this is what it looks like. I could grow this gnarly beard or something. But look, there's a lot of Filipinos that probably can't grow that gnarly beard. You wouldn't be welcome because you don't have that beard, my friend. I mean, they're against buttons. Buttons are wrong, okay? They've got all these weird rules of just these bizarre things, okay? But look, they're against soul winning, and it's hard to join their communes. Now, are these people going to be persecuted by everybody? Because here's what I want you to understand. We were persecuted 500 years ago because we were actively preaching the gospel. But if you're just hanging to yourself away from everybody and not trying to convert anyone, saying we don't want anybody to be Amish, they're not going to put you to death. They put you to death because you're preaching the gospel. Now, the Mennonites are not as extreme as the Amish, but they don't have any soul winning at all, okay? Not only do they have a false gospel, they don't have any soul winning because they're like Amish light, okay? They basically know soul winning, you know, stay to yourself and things such as that. So look, they weren't baptizing any converts. They don't convert anybody. The only people that are Amish are people that are raised Amish, okay? They're raised Amish, they're raised Mennonite. They have many kids, so their religion grows, but they don't bring anybody into their religion. So here's the thing. They're not converting anybody and they wouldn't have been killed by the Catholics and Protestants. We were killed because we're getting people saved. And so the religion today better be the one that's getting people baptized, getting new people baptized and getting people saved. That's us, my friend. That's not the Mennonites and Amish. They don't get new converts. So they can't be the Anabaptists because the Anabaptists believe different things than they do. And they did different things. They had a soul winning ministry. The Mennonites do not have a ministry to try to convert people. They don't try to convert people, okay? And so what it said in 2 Timothy 3 verses 11 and 12, why, if the Mennonites are the true Anabaptists, why was there no persecution for the Mennonites today? 2 Timothy 3 verse 11, persecutions afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. They have no persecution anywhere in the world. Don't tell me that they're the ones that are the Anabaptists 500 years ago. I'll explain who they are a little bit later on in the sermon, but don't tell me they're the Anabaptists, okay? For sake of time, I'm going to skip the passages on soul winning. I mentioned they don't go soul winning. We know we're supposed to go and preach the gospel. Turn in your Bible to Romans 6, Romans 6, Romans chapter 6. Look, the true religion, even in the Old Testament, they were going out with the book of the law and preaching the gospel. The people 500 years ago, our brethren, we're going to have to find people that were persecuted and soul winning. We find that with the Anabaptists. But if the Mennonites are the Anabaptists today, then they would be going soul winning and getting persecuted. Doesn't that make sense? They don't do any soul winning anywhere. They don't get persecuted anywhere. You say why? Because they're not the Anabaptists. It's a different religion, my friend. They can claim they're the Anabaptists. And so the only thing they got right is this, that the Catholics and Protestants are both evil and wrong. They just know a little bit more about history than Baptists. Unfortunately, most Baptists think they're Protestants. They have no knowledge of the fact that the Protestants killed us. Very few people. And look, I'll be honest. I didn't learn this in any independent Baptist church, because I don't know if they're not aware. I mean, most of the Baptist churches I went to, they praise Martin Luther. They praise John Wesley. They praise these people I'm condemning. But then when I actually learned and educated, I mean, I wanted to learn about things, I'm reading about Martin Luther saying he thinks that people that get baptized as an adult get the death penalty. I'm like, well, wait a minute. I heard Martin Luther was just like us. Doesn't sound like it to me, my friend. Let me tell you something. I always encourage people, anything I say, whether it's in the Bible, whether it's history, go for yourself on Google and double check what I say. Say why? For one, I can make mistakes, and two, you just can't believe everything people say. Because we have all heard in Baptist churches that Martin Luther was such a great guy. Charles Spurgeon was such a great guy. Okay? John Wesley, all these guys were such great people. And then you read about them. Well, why did they baptize babies and believe you could lose your salvation if they were so great? If John Calvin's so great, why is he a baby baptizer? It's like they don't believe the same things as us, my friend. And you have to realize that God's people, the Bible says, are unknown yet well known. Unknown yet well known. We're not loved by the world. What does that mean? It means if you're really serving God and you're a great Christian, you're not going to be famous. Martin Luther's famous. We're well known up in heaven as saying, unknown here, well known there if you're serving God. But Martin Luther's very well known and very famous. Look, there are a lot of great churches and great men of God today around the world. I know a lot of these people that are serving God, doing great things. But here's the thing. You say, I've heard their sermons online. Yes, but here's what you need to understand. If 100 years went by, the only part that anything would know about them is they were a bad person. They wouldn't be revered by people. The public would say they were bad people. And look, I believe 500 years ago, there were some of the greatest preachers who ever lived. But you know what? We don't know their names because they were unknown here on earth. We know John the Baptist because of the fact he's in the Bible and he was executed. The Bible talks about it. But then when you go to church history in AD 200, we don't know who the great Christians are. The Protestants and Catholics talk about these church fathers, but when you read about them, they believe different things than us. You say, why? Because God's people are unknown here. If you're serving God, you're not going to be famous and revered here. You say, but what about Billy Graham? That's a whole other sermon, my friend. Billy Graham believed a false gospel. It's just like, yeah, he was great friends with Pope John Paul. Look at the pictures online. He said that Muslims go to heaven. You don't even have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven. That's what Billy Graham taught. He was well known by the world. And when you're well known and loved by the world, that means you're not a great person of God. Because you will be unknown here on earth. And so look, were there great people that lived 500 years ago? Obviously, who are they? We have no idea. We know some of the people that were martyred, but there's probably some of the greatest sermons you could ever hear 500 years ago, 600, 700, 800. We don't know what they are today. All we have are the remains of Martin Luther sermons and John Calvin and Charles Spurgeon. Why? Because they weren't of God. And so let me just give you some opposing thoughts on what I've said here today. The arguments people would use against us, because many Baptists are going to tell you that the Anabaptists are Mennonites. Or they're going to tell you that we're Protestants. Let me tell you why these things don't make sense. Because some people would say this, well, if you look at some of the Anabaptists, some of the Anabaptists taught a false gospel. They didn't believe salvation by grace through faith. And what I would say to that is, that's true. You say, how is that possible? Do all Baptists believe the right gospel today? Do all Baptist churches? Look, I'm not saying everybody who called themselves an Anabaptist 500 years ago was just like us. I am sure there are plenty of heretics and false teachers. Just because you're a Baptist doesn't mean you believe the right gospel. What I'm saying is that the group of Anabaptists, many of them were our brethren. But yeah, you know what? I'm sure there were ones preaching a false gospel. And look, it's not just Anabaptists, okay? I mean, the Waldensians and all these other groups, there were segments of them that were persecuted and killed and believe the same things. It's just the Anabaptists are the most famous, and it's not really hard to see how Anabaptists became Baptists. Okay, I mean, that's pretty common sense. Anabaptists became Baptists, okay? And so some people would say, well, they'll find a quote of an Anabaptist that says, you know what? You must repent of your sins to be saved. It's like, yeah, because he wasn't preaching the right gospel. In today's world, there are plenty of Baptists not preaching the right gospel. That doesn't mean that every Anabaptist believed a false gospel or that they were false, okay? So look, were there Anabaptists preaching the wrong gospel? Yeah, absolutely, just like it is today, okay? And so another thing that's mentioned is this, and I'll show you this verse in a second. Actually kind of the big argument people use against this, and it's a lack of knowledge of history and people need to educate themselves, is they say, you know what? Many Anabaptists, they practice Baptism by pouring instead of immersion. And that is true. Many of them did. Why is that, though? Here's what you need to understand. In today's world, it's really not hard here to get clean water to baptize people. But let's say, for example, the only Baptisms we could do was in the Manila Bay. You know what? A lot of people might not want to get baptized. You say, why? You could get a dangerous disease and die, my friend. It's just like, you know what, if you know, I mean, does anyone know anything about the Black Plague? Do people know anything about history? One of the main reasons people think, because there's different opinions, what caused the Black Plague was there was a dead body in the water and that filter to everybody causing the Black Plague. That's one of the common beliefs. Another one is rats or other things that were unclean went to the water, went to everybody. There are plenty of times throughout history in areas people lived where drinking water could be a little bit dangerous, actually. And so, look, in many parts of the world today, a lot of water is very unclean. And getting baptized in that water, do it at your own risk. You take a bath in that water, it's actually very dangerous, okay? And so there are many times where what they did is they resorted to pouring because, you know what, baptizing people was actually a health hazard for the person, and they didn't want people to die. And they say, Brother Stuckey, what would our church have done if we were in that situation? Look, we're not in that situation. We do baptism by immersion because we don't have to worry about it, okay? Because we're picturing the burial and resurrection of Jesus. But here's what I'm saying. It's very easy to cast stones at someone when you're not in that situation. Look, if it was actually dangerous to baptize people and they might die due to the water or get some disease, I don't know what we would do. And look, we're not in that situation. I could certainly understand why someone would say, you know what, I don't feel comfortable getting baptized in this water when people have gotten baptized here and gotten diseases and died. And look, if you know anything about the world in history, there are parts of the world where water is very unsanitary, okay? Especially during Europe. The Black Plague killed one third of the population. I mean, disease was running rampant during that time period. And yeah, you know what, it would have been dangerous. So yeah, some of them resorted to pouring because they said, you know, it's our best substitute. Do I agree with it? I don't really agree with it. I think we would just go without if we couldn't baptize people. But we're not in that situation. And I'm not going to cast stones at a soul winner who's getting people saved and getting converts because they don't want their convert to die when they baptize them, okay? So look, the reason why many of them were doing pouring is, you know what, they didn't really have access to safe water to baptize them. And it's like, I'm not going to stand in judgment because they made that decision. We're not in that situation. Now, do we believe baptism is by immersion? Absolutely. Okay? And we'll show you this in Romans 6. But here's what's funny about it. The Amish and the Mennonites, they still baptized by pouring, okay? I believe all of them do. Maybe some don't, but at least the vast majority, they still pour. It's not hard to get safe, clean water in the US. Why wouldn't you baptize today? Because most of the Amish are in the US. There'd be no reason to do pouring today when the water's completely safe, okay? And so look, are they following some of the principles of what the Anabaptists did? Yeah, but they don't understand or believe the Bible. They preach a wrong gospel and they're doing things that were only done for a specific reason and they don't even understand why, okay? They don't believe the same things as the Bible teaches. And so look, were the Anabaptists persecuted and killed for getting people saved? Absolutely. Did some of them do baptism by pouring? Yes, some did, okay? Not all of them, but yes, some did. You can find pictures of that and they did that. Why? Because they did not have the access to clean water to be able to baptize in a big area, okay? And so that's the decision they made. Why did the Amish and Mennonites do that today? They do that today because they don't understand the Bible and they don't understand why they did that in the past. And so people look at that and they say, well, wait a minute, many Anabaptists pour water over someone's head and the Amish do it today. So that proves that the Amish and the Mennonites are actually the Anabaptists. No, it just proves they're a crazy cult that derived from the Anabaptists, okay? It just proves a false church derived off of it and is preaching a false gospel, okay? That doesn't mean that the Anabaptists that were getting murdered for baptizing people were not our brethren, okay? Notice what it says in Romans 6. We'll close up here in a second. Romans 6 verse 3, know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. You say, Brother Stuckey, why do we baptize by immersion? Because it pictures the burial of Jesus Christ, the burial and then the resurrection of Jesus. So we do baptism by immersion, okay? When somebody is buried, their whole body goes under the water. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Now look, if you are a farmer or you plant vegetables, it's usually more successful to plant vegetables by putting them, the seeds underneath the ground, right? I mean, doesn't it make more sense than just to have them on top of the ground? You say why? Because baptism pictures a planting. When you plant something, it goes under the water or not. I mean, under the ground, right? Just as a burial, as planting, that is why we do immersion for baptism, okay? We're picturing the burial of resurrection, the burial of Jesus and the resurrection. And so last thing I'll say about this, some people would say this, that you know what? That there were other groups. Not only were there Anabaptists that preached the wrong gospel, but you'll find in history that there were other groups that did preach the right gospel beside the Anabaptists. And I would say that's true, okay? I would say in today's world with cell phones and the internet, people understand what a Baptist is, but all around the world, God's people were called kind of by different names because it wasn't as organized as it is today, okay? A large segment of the people that are preaching the right gospel were Anabaptists, but in other areas they were called by different things because they probably didn't even know what an Anabaptist was. You say why? Because that was mainly in parts of Europe, okay? And so yeah, there are other groups that believe the same thing, and guess what happened to those other groups? They were also persecuted and killed by the Catholics and the Protestants. And so let me tell you this, you can find things in history where the Protestants were killed by the Catholics. There's no denying that, but you can find things where the Hindus are killing the Muslims today. That doesn't make the Muslims right, okay? Yes, the Protestants had tens of millions of people killed by the Catholic church, but both the Catholics and the Protestants were killing the Anabaptists. Those are our brethren in faith. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your scripture and understanding a little bit more about church history, God. Help us to kind of understand our brethren and help us maybe to take away from this sermon series and this sermon specifically just that God's people have always gone through persecution. Help us to feel fortunate and blessed that we can serve you here today without that persecution, and we just ask you to help us to stay strong if one day there is a major persecution. Help us to continue to serve you, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.