Felix Manz (1527)

Felix Manz was a son of a priest, his mother unmarried, but brought up educated to be a free thinker.  As ironic as fate may be, his mentor Ulrich Zwingli would ultimately be the person who would try to douse his fire for Christ.  Manz was the father of the Mennonite movement, part of the larger Anabaptist movement at his time.  A few years under Zwingli, he started to wonder if Zwingli had compromised and stop forward motion on the "back to the bible" reforms.  To Manz, sound faith must be based off biblical truth found in the written word of God.  Mans traditions, imaginations, & inventions could not supersede the Bible.  
This time, the Catholic church wasn't the persecutor!  It was the reformed church seeking to silence these on fire reformers.  In every generation, man must ask, how far do I intend to go for truth?  Our nation right now is going thru this!  Manz began to defy the edict and baptized his comrades and they him.  He was arrested after a few years of harassment, taken out by boat on the icy lake, bound and weighted down, and thrown over to drown.  Great supposed Christians these were to do such to a fellow brother!  I cant find Jesus giving this example to us!  His last words were a song to his Savior, "I praise You, LORD Christ in heaven, that You do turn my sorrow & sadness...already before my end has come, that I should have eternal joy with my Father."  I totally agree with my faithful brother Felix Manz, we must go further with church reform & the Bible must be our navigation source with the Holy Spirit.  If 9 traditions are sound and only 1 is off, is that okay with you?  Not me and not Felix Manz!

1 Comment


Sondra - April 4th, 2025 at 7:39am

Jesus said "follow me". Religious man says "do as I do or die". Jesus convicts our hearts to follow Him, man's religion condemns us. I choose to follow Jesus because He first loved me. Part of following Jesus is loving and honoring His Word.

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