June 13, 2017
Devotions: Personalities of the Reformation: Balthasar Hubmaier

Balthasar Hubmaier was born circa 1485 and died by burning at the stake on March 10, 1528 in Vienna. Three days later the authorities would tie a stone around his wife’s neck and throw her to her death in the Danube river. Hubmaier received his doctor of theology degree after studies at the universities at Freiburg and Ingolstadt 1516 in and around the age of 30. In 1521 he arrived in Switzerland where he soon became a leader of the fledgling Anabaptists. When Archduke Ferdinand heard of his actions, he threatened to send troops to Waldshut. Balthasar would leave so that the town would not be invaded. He would write an argument for religious tolerance, one of the first works on religious liberty in the Reformation movement. In his writing he would say “It is well and good that the secular authority puts to death the criminals who do physical harm to the defenseless (Romans 13). But no one may injure the atheist who wishes nothing for himself other than to forsake the gospel.”

He would eventually return to Waldshut to try to implement further reforms. On Easter Sunday, 1525, he and sixty others were rebaptized; three hundred soon followed their example. Balthasar wrote a work on believer’s baptism which was the most exhaustive treatment of the subject in the sixteenth century. Catholic troops would come to Waldshut, and the people would revert back to Catholicism. Balthasar would flee to Zurich where Zwingli’s men would capture him and torture him to recant his Anabaptist views. Once released he would flee to Nikolsburg, now Mikulov in the Czech Republic. Here he would return to his Anabaptist teachings and re-baptize six thousand people. Hubmaier represented the more moderate movement of the Anabaptists. He would support Christians participating in wars, and would not have the eschatalogical emphasis of Hans Hut. Hubmaier was heavily influenced by Erasmus and other Swiss leaders early on, but soon found plenty of platforms upon which to debate, particularly on the issue of believer’s baptism. Hubmaier had the gall to assert that people should be baptized as responsible adults who were making the decision to follow Christ on their own, and that such baptism should be by immersion, and further that such baptism accomplished no particular saving work but was rather an act of obedience to Christ. In Hubmaier’s own words…

Baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is when a man first confesses his sins, and pleads guilty; then believes in the forgiveness of his sins through Jesus Christ, and turns to live according to the rule of Christ, by the grace and strength given him from God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. He professes this publicly, in the eyes of men, by the outward baptism of water. He is then truly baptized, even if the baptizer did not speak these words over him. (via Hubmaier “The Christian Baptism of Believers.” In The Writings of Balthasar Hubmaier, by Davidson, 128; also britannica.com and You Need to Know Balthasar Hubmaier, brandonacox.com)

As you can see, there was a heated debate during the time of the Protestant Reformation over the decision of when someone should be baptized. Luther believed that the Sacrament was efficacious through the Word of G-d manifest through Jesus Christ, and the earthly element, in the presence of the believing members. It was not dependent on a person’s faith – Christ was the one to make it efficacious. Others believed that it could only be efficacious if the person made a public profession of such faith. We continue to baptize infants, and then in the process of Confirmation, the individual has the opportunity to “Reaffirm” their faith. Although I believe baptism can be more meaningful if the person can “remember” their baptism, there continues to be power in “Remembering” our baptism each morning when we wash.

Pastor Dave

Please collect bottles of shampoo and packs of diapers for Trinity’s Table.