Menno Simmons: A Peasant's Child Born in War-Torn Friesland - Research Paper

Introduction

Menno Simmons was a peasant's child who was born in Friesland, Netherlands in 1496. There is very little information about his childhood or his parents. Menno grew up in a very difficult time in a country that was torn in war. Due to the situation of his family and the country he managed to attend a local monastery in his neighborhood where he was able to study priesthood. The early life history of the priest is very limited but there is much from the time he was appointed to become a priest of the Roman Catholic at Utrecht in 1524. Later the priest was promoted to become chaplain in Pingjum in a village where his father came from. From when Menno Simon was made a priest to the day when he was promoted to glory in January 31st of 1561 he had dedicated his life to serving the church (Littell, 2016).

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Menno Simmons contributed a lot to Christianity. He was said to be a simple individual who had a warm character and direct thinking. The priest had great influence towards the Anabaptists of the Dutch and had any followers who were referred to as Mennonites. Menno Simmons became a priest at an early age and was only twenty-four when he was sworn in. he himself stated that he lives a liberal or easy going life together with another clergy who was of Lax (Littell, 2016). At that time, he had been afraid of reading the New Testament because he had the fear of transubstantiation which is the changing of the spirit of a matter like the bread and wine that is given as the sacrament of Eucharist standing body and blood of Jesus according to the Catholic Church. The doubts had towards the act of transubstantiation led him to read the book which made great changes towards his following deeds. He also had to read the luther's doctrine book to understand to clears all the doubts (Penton, 2017).

1n 1531, there was a controversial topic around the priests' country about the right time for a person's baptism. The Luther's book had insufficient answers about various topics and to the baptism issue at most. After not finding any fulfilling answers the priest decided to rely only on the scriptures for all his question (Penton, 2017). During that period a tailor by the name Sicke Freerks Snijder had been murdered because he had gotten baptized as an adult. This happening led to Menno shifting from a sacramental preacher to becoming an evangelical preacher. These changes can be seen to the modern day Christianity as most preachers are evangelical. He was the force of influence towards evangelical preaching and his followers plus the other coming generations followed suit. It was not very common during the priest's time (Penton, 2017). The shift of the preacher shifted way for the next generation of preachers as they felt it was the best to follow, that had been proven by the way of Menno's leadership, decisions and attitude towards life.

During that time people were being taught according Luther's book. A favored demand that made him go to Witmarsum. At that time his brother joined and became one of the john Matthy's following. They were the Munsterite rebels and that led to his death through murder at Bolsward in the year 1535 (Walker,2015). That incident was the life changer in the life of Menno. Menno was very furious at the leaders and blamed them for the act of misleading people, he was also angry at himself also and felt that he was supposed to guide the people and show them the right ways. The incident made him to begin preaching and spreading the gospel according to the bible and that led to him leaving the Church of Rome (Littell, 2016). The preaching of the Menno led to him gathering many followers who followed and believed in the teachings of the scriptures were emphasized among the people (Littell, 2016).

After ditching the Catholic Church, he started the Anabaptist which led to his baptism after leaving the Witmarsum and there he became a very popular person and one with great influence. The act of baptism as believed by the Anabaptists in the teachings of Jesus Christ even after the persecutions from the Roman Catholic. In Christianity up to date they believe of the ways of Christ's, his ministry and missions (Littell, 2016). The Christians still follow the scriptures of the bible which was a culture that Menno influenced greatly. The meaning of the name Anabaptist is 'one who believed in being baptized again'. The same belief is practiced by Christians as they believe that being born again to achieve the eternity life that is promised in the bible (Littell, 2016). To be a full Christian one must be baptized. According to the teachings of the bible and from the Anabaptists teachings one can be baptized anytime. Baptisms means accepting to change from the old earthly ways and follow the teachings of Jesus (Littell, 2016). Christianity has adopted baptism for a long time and believe that one cannot see heaven if unbaptized.

Menno Simmons was a big advocate of the ethical Christianity. He believed in the missions of Jesus Christ's and the society was supposed to be morally upright. There was no reason for people to get persecuted from the laws of Luther's book. He believed that being executed was wrong and an old way and according to the scriptures of the New Testament Jesus Christ, God's son died for the sins of man (Littell, 2016). He supported the celebrations of Easter as the death and resurrection of the son of God is a creation of hope in the believers. Christians still celebrate the Easter holidays by fasting and praying and they believe in the hope that Jesus Christ gave them. Through his advocacy towards the persecution of life, the Christians still continue advocating for life and believe that only God should take life and judge one's sin (Littell, 2016).

Menno Simmons contributed greatly towards the influence of Christianity and had to go to exile after he had started he started preaching openly about the errors that were made by the revolutionaries after the killings in Bolsward. He preached about the ethical obedience, pure doctrine, loving the neighbors and the scripture usage of sacrament, being willing to suffer and being open to the faith (Littell, 2016). This led to many dangers upon his life which led to him fleeing the country. This action was very important to Christians and it was an act that gives them power and it led to more people having the courage to follow the ministry of Jesus Christ according to the scriptures of the bible boldly. This act also made the Christians learn to suffer for their faith, and they should not fear to talk the truth and stand by the truth. Menno realized that they had been deceived by the traditions after reading the New Testament deeply and his mind had been troubled earlier about the sacrament bread. He got relieved after the revelation of the scriptures and got some encouragement from Luther that the human power or command cannot be held together to everlasting death. Through his many books that Menno wrote he believed that the grace of God was sufficient and he got revelations from the scriptures that made him referred to as an evangelical preacher. After getting the revelations from the scriptures a man named Sicke Snyder was murdered in Leeuwarden for getting baptized for the second time (Speckmann, 2018).

Menno wrote that he found it strange hearing about rebaptism and he dug deeper into the scripts to learn about infarcts baptism and he couldn't find anything of sort. He later had a conversation with his pastor and after close evaluation they came to confirm that according to the biblical scriptures there was no written statement about infant baptism (Speckmann, 2018). He believed that baptism in the tradition was made to take the position of the blood of Jesus which was supposed to wash sins. He later confronted Luther who told him that the infants were baptized in their own faith account but he found that that too was not in the biblical scriptures. Alter asking several other leaders about the perception about infant baptism he found that they all had differences in their opinion hence believing that they had been deceived in that matter (Speckmann, 2018). Through preaching the lords words he got disciples in the village where he came from. Menno used to read and meditate on the scriptures to have better understanding of the word which he taught to his followers (Speckmann, 2018).

References

Littell, F. H. (2016). A Tribute to Menno Simons: A Discussion of the Theology of Menno Simons and Its Significance for Today. Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Penton, T. A. (2017). A Comparison of Menno Simons andKarl Barth on Predestination. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Speckmann, I. (2018). Eating as One?: Dutch Mennonite Anti-sacramental Response to the 1982 WCC Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry Report. The Conrad Grebel Review, 36(2 (Spring)), 154-175.

Walker, P. (2015). Radical Roots: Connecting Anabaptism to the Early Church Fathers.