Elena's Garden

Several weeks ago I began to do a little family history research. I was sparked to do some searching on the Internet when I began to study about the Anabaptist Movement that began on January 21, 1525. I knew that was my father's heritage as he was raised Amish. The Amish were a splinter group of a larger group of people led by Menno Simmons who became known as the Mennonites. The Anabaptist people were believers that wanted to follow the New Testament pattern of being baptized after their confession of faith instead of being baptised as an infant that was church tradition but was never mentioned in the New Testament. They wanted to pattern their walk with God after the example set in the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament. They were heavily persecuted by the Catholics and Protestants for doing this. These churches were in power politically and did not want their authority challenged so they began to persecute these believers.  They killed thousands of them. One leader in Southern Germany, Pilgrim Marpeck, records that some of them were raised from the dead after being killed by the church to live and testify among them. These events all happened during the Reformation in which people were trying to get free from the power of Rome as they called it. The power of Rome was the Catholic Church. The Anabaptists also became Pacifists as the military was either run by the church or heavily influenced by it and was very corrupt. So they didn't want to have anything to do with it. Some of their early leaders, Pilgrim Marpeck and Menno Simmons were not against the sword as long as it was for a righteous cause (to protect the innocent and put down tyranny). As time went on they had to leave and go to Holland and Russia to escape the horrible persecution they were suffering under. Eventually most of them made their way to America. They joined with the other believers wanting to form a country that separated church and state so what happened in Europe would not happen here. That people could worship in freedom and not be horribly persecuted for sharing their faith and making disciples like our Lord Jesus had commanded us to do. The Catholic Church told them at the beginning of the revival in 1525 that they could believe what they wanted but they could not tell anyone about it and make disciples. As I studied these people, the Anabaptists, in their beginnings I found out that they wanted to follow Christ's commands and be like the first century believers not being materialistic, being peaceful, not suing each other or seeking revenge, believing and practicing the permanence of marriage, being modest in dress and lifestyle, practicing sexual purity, no church buildings and paid ministers just simple meetings in homes. Everyone had a scripture or a song to share. This really touched my heart to understand where they came from.  Today after hundreds of years the Amish and Mennonite are thought of a really different and sometimes a dead religion but that was not the case in the beginning. The first century believers followed Christ's commands and were empowered by the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders, healing and raising from the dead are just a few of them and were heavily persecuted by the powers that be, the Roman Empire, because they would not bow to worship Caesar and give him allegiance over Christ, then Constantine converted around 300AD and made Christianity a state religion and by 1525 a lot of the priests were trained without ever even reading the Bible and followed church tradition instead. They were the ruling class and again began to persecute the true followers of Christ. In light of this study of history, the scripture, 1 John 4:3 "and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now is already in the world." The Catholic church of 1525 was saying they were confessing Christ but in reality they were not, because they were not practicing the commands of Jesus and were persecuting those who wanted to. I see the spirit of antichrist in the world now and in our country today. I would encourage you to study church history and this time especially if this has sparked your interest.

Now on to my family history. In studying the Anabaptists I ran across a list of churches that were birthed out of this time.  Along with the Mennonites and Amish were the Brethren and I remembered my mom talking about her grandparents on her mom's side being Brethren. So instead of just my father's side having an Anabaptist heritage, I found out that my mother's side did too. My mother spoke of her grandparents as being very godly people that really new and followed Christ.  She often said that her mother would of loved my dad so much but sadly she died before my folks met. Grandma did not marry a man that followed the Lord closely and went against her parents better wishes to marry him. Mom and all her brothers and sisters suffered from their dad's lack of commitment to do what was godly. So Grandma told my mom not to do what she did. She loved Grandpa and all her kids but she was trying to help my mother to avoid heartache like she had had. So my mom married my dad. He was raised Amish and did not know the Lord personally, it was a dead religion to him with rules and regulations and a lot of hypocrisy due to coldness of heart. After his dad died and he left the Amish church, he worked for a couple on a farm that was Mennonite. They lead him in the sinners prayer one morning after breakfast and my dad found the Lord in a real way and through a Pentecostal radio ministry called, Wings of Healing, he found out about a Bible School in Portland and went there and that is where he met my mom.  My mom's mom would of loved him not only for his gentle and sweet way and also being very smart but I think even more so because of his desire to follow God whole heartily. She would of been so happy for her daughter to find someone she could share her love with and have great fellowship in the faith in following Christ's words and commands. My dad had a very rich heritage of simple living and not following the world in its patterns and then added to it a personal relationship with Christ and empowerment by the Holy Spirit. My folks raised us in a loving and godly home,  telling us wonderful stories of faith and simple living of our ancestors. It was a very rich heritage indeed. I am married to a man that my mom never met because she died before I met him. I know she would of loved him because of his sweet and gentle way but more importantly his zeal and love for the Lord. When I studied the Anabaptist passions and beliefs I turned to him and said, "Honey, you would of made a good Mennonite." He was not raised in or near the Mennonites or Amish, neither did he study them but I realized he has come to his faith by just reading the Bible alone and not popular Christian thought or commentaries. The first lengthy conversation that I had with him (3 hours long) I came away with the feeling that I had known him all my life. He called me to ask me out and we ended up having the most wonderful time telling about our lives and our walk of faith. I am so thankful for Rich, what a wonderful husband he is and for his desire to cling to the truths of the Bible and practice what the Bible says, even with people thinking he is over the top, off spiritually because he won't go along with what everybody else is doing in the churches. I know God sees his heart and will reward him greatly.

John 14: 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."