Erroneous Articles of the Anabaptists

Erroneous Articles of the Anabaptists.

2]The Anabaptists are divided among themselves into many factions, as one contends for more, another for less errors; however, they all in common propound [profess] such doctrine as is to be tolerated or allowed neither in the Church, nor in the commonwealth and secular government, nor in domestic life.

Articles that Cannot be Tolerated in the Church.

3]1. That Christ did not assume His body and blood from the Virgin Mary, but brought them with Him from heaven.

4]2. That Christ is not true God, but only [is superior to other saints, because He] has more gifts of the Holy Ghost than any other holy man.

5]3. That our righteousness before God consists not in the sole merit of Christ alone, but in renewal, and hence in our own godliness [uprightness] in which we walk. This is based in great part upon one’s own special, self-chosen [and humanly devised] spirituality [holiness], and in fact is nothing else than a new sort of monkery.

6]4. That children who are not baptized are not sinners before God, but righteous and innocent, who in their innocency, because they have not yet attained their reason [the use of reason], are saved without Baptism (which, according to their assertion, they do not need). Therefore they reject the entire doctrine concerning original sin and what belongs to it.

7]5. That children are not to be baptized until they have attained their reason [the use of reason], and can themselves confess their faith.

8]6. That the children of Christians, because they have been born of Christian and believing parents, are holy and children of God even without and before Baptism; and for this reason they neither attach much importance to the baptism of children nor encourage it, contrary to the express words of God’s promise which pertains only to those who keep His covenant and do not despise it. Gen. 17:7ff

9]7. That that is no true Christian congregation [church] in which sinners are still found.

10]8. That no sermon is to be heard nor attended in those churches in which formerly papal masses have been celebrated and said.

11]9. That one [a godly man] must not have anything to do with the ministers of the Church who preach the Gospel according to the Augsburg Confession, and rebuke the sermons and errors of the Anabaptists; also that he is neither to serve nor in any way to labor for them, but to flee from and shun them as perverters of God’s Word.

Articles that Cannot be Tolerated in the Government.

12]1. That under the New Testament the magistracy is not an estate pleasing to God.

13]2. That a Christian cannot with a good, inviolate conscience hold or discharge the office of magistrate.

14]3. That a Christian cannot without injury to conscience use the office of the magistracy against the wicked in matters as they occur [matters so requiring], nor that subjects may invoke for their protection and defense the power which the magistrates possess and have received from God.

15]4. That a Christian cannot with a good conscience take an oath, nor with an oath do homage [promise fidelity] to the hereditary prince of his country or sovereign.

16]5. That under the New Testament magistrates cannot, without injury to conscience, inflict capital punishment upon malefactors.

Articles that Cannot be Tolerated in Domestic Life.

17]1. That a Christian cannot with a good conscience hold or possess property, but is in duty bound to devote it to the common treasury.

18]2. That a Christian cannot with a good conscience be an innkeeper, merchant, or cutler [maker of arms].

19]3. That the married may be divorced on account of [diverse] faith, and the one may abandon the other and be married to another person who is of his faith.