# A Reflection on the Early American Mennonite Church CHURCH HISTORY Language: en Author: Joshua Yoder Millersburg, Ohio Original issue: The Heartbeat of the Remnant, Spring 2024 Source pages: 4–6 Read article: Original PDF: Spring\-2024\-Remnant\_for\-the\-web\.pdf [The Heartbeat of the Remnant, Spring 2024]() ![An open Bible with pages turning]() Our spiritual forefathers had much to say on the many issues facing the American Mennonite church in their time, and we can still learn from the collected writings of these church leaders and brethren\. We will look first at the hermeneutics of the early American Mennonite church, endeavoring to draw examples from which we, as 21st\-century Christians, can learn\. First, the correct interpretation of Scripture was a matter of great importance to these earlier Christians\. They had only recently emigrated away from a largely hostile area, where they had been constantly tested to the point of death on matters of faith and now faced a different set of challenges when confronted with peace and religious freedom\. We will look at how they navigated these challenges by studying several of their doctrines and practices\. ## The Doctrine of Nonresistance One matter that was well interpreted and applied by many of the early Mennonite writers is the principle and doctrine of the nonresistant Christian\. Although many of their Anabaptist descendants of today still hold, to varying degrees, this doctrine, it is oftentimes not done with the clarity and solemnity of their forefathers\. The early American Mennonites understood nonresistance as a foundational aspect of the Christian life, as it should be, and taught extensively on the practical application and appearance of nonresistance in the life of a believer\. Their primary motivation for living peaceably and without malice toward one’s fellow man was the given example of Jesus\. Christ typified the acceptable response to violence and ill\-will: gentleness, meekness, as befitted one who is called a Lamb\. ## The Emphasis of Biblical Foundations There was also a firm focus amongst early Mennonite writers against building doctrine on the writings of men\. This emphasis comes through strongly in their works, as they quote Scripture extensively\. They made their point by bringing in an example of Christ or by way of an applicable Scripture verse, rather than building on the sandy soil of a man’s opinions\. One of the areas in which they did so was the matter of salvation\. ## Importance of Practical Salvation We can learn much from the early Mennonites about the practical working out of salvation\. First, salvation is portrayed as both an inward and an outward change\. The inward is affected first through the working of the Holy Spirit in the willful sinner’s life\. It is an important distinction that the sinner is willful\. This position was contrary to most of the greater established churches of the time\. If a sinner must be willful, then it implies that all men can willfully accept salvation, an idea that is fundamental in nature, if not always verbalized, to the church of today\. In the early Mennonites’ time, predestination as taught by Calvinism seems to have necessitated this emphasis on man’s ability to choose freely, which is still true today\. There is also another flavoring of the “unwillingly saved” interpretation, and that comes from the aftereffects of the charismatic movement and the effect it has had on Mennonite and Amish circles\. This “unwilling salvation” is not a matter of predestination, but rather is described as almost a coercive calling by the Spirit\. It has been observed in several salvation testimonies where the testifiers recalled how they were completely comfortable in their lives of sin and debauchery when suddenly they would be struck down in the manner of Saul and could not help themselves but follow after God and give their lives to Him\. There are numerous pitfalls with this dramatic understanding of conversion, namely that it absolves responsibility from the one converted for his decision to convert\. This leads to a lack of counting the cost of Christianity, which is a death of oneself, a death of pride, and a death of favor with man\. If the believer hops headfirst into Christianity, not reckoning that he must give up all these self\-pleasing traits, how will he be able to grow spiritually if he cannot let go of his former vices? While this form of conversion may be genuine at the beginning, it does not often progress beyond the milk of the Word to the meat of which a mature Christian must partake\. This maturing of a Christian is emphasized in writings ranging from those of Menno Simons up to Abraham Goshalk\. It is also important for the sake of the church that the believer be firmly committed and engaged in the steady growth of his faith\. ## The Seriousness of a Pure Church The idea of church to the early American Mennonite seems to have been a more serious thought, less individualistic than our current state\. It is the pitiable state of nominal Christianity that the church has become a social organization with room for all sin and depravity\. It behooves us to consider closely the character of the church that Christ established and to note as well the character of the true churches, unspotted by apostasy and laxness\. This character is, like Christ himself, simple and yet incredibly full of meaning and spiritual vitality\. The first aspect of the church to recognize is its pure state as the bride of Christ\. Here again, we should consider the character of Christ\. Did He ever give Himself space for sin? Do we find Him occasionally indulging in a brief enjoyment of a “guilty pleasure”? The understanding reader will agree that Christ was pure in His entirety, and so how else should the bride be with which He is to be intimately and eternally joined? To aid our minds in answering such a question, let us consider the earthly symbol of this heavenly union: that of a man and a woman joined together for life\. This earthly union is recognized even by non\-Christians as something set aside purely for the two individuals involved, a relationship and a sharing of each other that is not and never to be partaken of by anyone outside of the intimate union\. This paints clearly for our earth\-bound minds the mind of Christ, insomuch as that marriage is a symbol of Christ and His bride\. The bride and Christ are for each other and give themselves to nothing and no one other\. Now that we can see the purity of the church, let us examine its practical working out amongst fallen man\. If it is to be pure, then how are we to be a part of it? Here enters the need for a clear understanding of regeneration, a doctrine held in high regard by these Mennonite forefathers\. They taught that the Spirit affects the spiritual washing and cleansing that will be made apparent in a changed state of thought and action in the believer\. This change is still at variance with our fallen nature, but through continued surrender and a deep humility, the Spirit will fill the believer until the nature of sin becomes the dominated instead of the dominant\. It is important to realize, however, that this victory over sin is brought into effect by the believer yielding his will and allowing the Spirit complete control\. Thus, a pure church is a surrendered, Spirit\-filled group of believers who recognize in true humility that their power is not in any way linked to their own merit\. The absence of pride, achieved only by the constant aid of the Spirit, gives further room for purification of the willing believer\. In this way, we can see the Christian life in shoe leather\. ![A fresh green leaf budding from a twig]() ## The Teachings of Practical Christianity The practicality of the early American Mennonite’s faith was continually on display\. In his book, “Pride and Humility,” John M\. Brenneman maintains that the outward appearance of a person is directly related to his inward heart, a view which extends as well to the actions of the individual\. It is necessary to build on the beliefs of willful salvation, regeneration, and a pure church previously examined to frame the mindset of a Mennonite’s interactions in daily living\. To these serious\-minded Christians, there was no difference in importance between the religious belief expressed on Sundays and the mundane actions of the rest of the week\. This is evidenced by their general abstinence from political matters and other elements of a worldly nature that would infringe upon the beliefs they held\. This put them in direct opposition to many of the churches of their day, where thrived two schools of thought: either that one’s earthly duties in a political manner were carried out completely separate from one’s faith, or that the accomplishment of these civic duties were incorporated in the will of God and so permissible for the Christian to engage in freely\. To the early American Mennonite, these types of stances betrayed the very meaning of his Christianity: he was a new person, alive only in the power of Christ that flowed through him\. This influenced and directed every aspect of his life, from his business dealings, which were carried out in a way so as not to take advantage of any party involved, to his dress and manner of deportment, which was to be based on humility and plainness, to his method of conversing with his fellow man, which was to show a genuine concern for the spiritual well\-being and eternal destiny\. ## Conclusion The sum of all these colonial Mennonite beliefs was the doctrine of how to grow into a mature, humble, repentant, but spiritually powerful servant of God\. He denied the allures of the world around him in favor of an eternal reward promised upon the purity of his faith and willing renunciation of the sin in which he had formerly lived\. This example, lived out by believers like us, should inspire us to further press into the Kingdom of God, working out our faith in humility and repentance\. ## Magazine citation - [An open Bible with pages turning](): Adobe Stock - [A fresh green leaf budding from a twig](): Belle Vie Images