Wednesday, February 21, 2007

“The City of Zion”

These new believers did not forget their first love even as the Swabian League authorized a thousand horsemen to hunt down those whose only sword was the Word of God. But in their exuberance and lagging maturity of faith and weariness of persecution some trusted the untrustworthy to be shepherds of their souls: shepherds who forever blighted the name Anabaptist, first by spiritualizing His Word and then by making it say anything they wanted it to say.

Johann Matthiesen, a baker who inherited an Anabaptist following from his imprisoned predecessor, suddenly spiritualized that he was a latter day “Enoch,” the walled German city of Münster the “New Jerusalem,” and his followers the “Israel of God.” He instituted a variant of Old Testament “theocracy” and his prophets preached a New Testament “gospel” of apocalyptic signs and wonders. Those who valiantly contended that this was NOT of the Word or Spirit did not contend for long. Declaring from the pulpit that his City of God must be “cleansed,” he mandated the re-baptism of all and the execution of any who declined or opposed. Catholics and Lutherans fled, and on Easter Sunday some months later, the exiled Bishop of Münster advanced to retake the city. Matthys, now spiritualizing that he was a second “Gideon,” sallied forth with a band of thirty against a vastly superior Catholic and Protestant coalition in an attempt to bring in, by human effort, the Kingdom of God. His spiritualizing mania was perpetuated by his successor.

Johann Bockholdt, a tailor's apprentice, renamed Münster “The City of Zion,” appointed Elders to judge “The Tribes of Israel” (Ältesten der Stämme Israels), and ascended the throne of his “forefather” David. He also mandated the transgression of some Old Testament patriarchs: polygamy. Perhaps the most regrettable circumstance of the Münster episode were the individuals caught up in it, the vast majority women. Most were modest and of godly virtue. And also a number of nuns, having endured the abuse of Romanism, had come to know the Lord. The One who takes sins of scarlet, making them as white as snow. How ironic to require these women, under penalty of death, to accept the polygamous propositions of any who would ask; Bockholdt asked 16. How poignantly contrary was Münster from that formerly prayed for and intended? Many fled the city, many others died trying. And perhaps it was God’s mercy that eventually allowed the Bishop to advance and reclaim the city, ending the depravity with two days of slaughter. How regrettable the faithful witness of so many before and after that brief episode will forever be tainted by the word Münster.

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