Chapter 13 of the book:
The Failure of the Great Amish and Conservative Mennonite Dress Experiment
Why Christian Conservatism Isn’t the Answer and What to Do
Have you ever wondered why there are so many Christians who believe error and do not follow Christ as they should? You look at them and realize that they are not as mature spiritually as they should be. Why is there a failure of people to come to maturity in Christ?
Are you looking for something more than just the same old concepts, interpretations, explanations, and perspectives you have heard regurgitated over and over again? This website will give you some new insights and things to think about. You may not agree with everything you read, but Biblical Research Reports will stimulate your thinking. Our goal is to help you to formulate in your own mind what is Jesus’ truth as you look at the research we share on the various subjects facing the Church.
The Reason God Allows False Teachings in the Church
God tells us that part of the reason why He allows false teachings and divisions to exist in the church is to test us whether we love Jesus with all our heart and all our soul. He tells us: “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.” (1 Corinthians 11:19)
When there are false teachings, those who are not truly following Christ will follow the commands and teachings of men which are in error. God explains it in more detail in the Old Testament:
“Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 13:3)
The Lack of Spiritual Maturity in Christ because of the Shallowness of Preaching and Sunday School Lessons
Many sermons and Sunday school lessons are based on Bible stories or studying a specific passage of Scripture, such as a studying through a book of the Bible, or a combination of the two. The problem with primarily studying Bible stories, a passage of the Bible, or a preacher preaching through a book of the Bible, is that it only gives part of what God has to tell us about the subjects covered in that passage or Bible story. It gives an incomplete understanding of what God is instructing us. A pastor or teacher can lead others in a variety of interpretations or applications that are not correct. Sunday School classes often result in people going down “bunny trails” that are sort of related to the passage, but lead to applications and interpretations that are not what God commands.
When God wrote the Bible, He put it together differently than any other book. The details of a teaching are not laid out all in one place in chronological order or in a logical sequence like the civil laws of a government. They are scattered throughout the Bible. In order to understand the mind of Christ we have to look at all the passages of scripture that are related to a particular subject. For example, the subject of salvation is not explained in detail in one section devoted just to that topic. As a result, among those who call themselves Christians, there are various, conflicting, and opposing understandings of salvation. Each group looks to the passages that bolster their interpretation and explain away the passages that disprove their interpretation.
In order to bring people to maturity in Christ, the church needs to encourage people to study all of the passages related to a particular subject. The commands that God gives us in the New Testament, as opposed to OT and NT Bible stories, are what define to us what is right and wrong, and what we are to do. Bible stories have their place; they are God’s testimonies. But they are not where we get our primary direction from. It is only by following all the commands that God has given us in the New Testament that there can be true spiritual maturity in Christ and a unity of belief and practice among Christians.
The only way this can happen is if the church is led by the Holy Spirit. There is only one Holy Spirit, and He guides us into all truth (John 16:13). However, when a person follows another person, church or denomination, they are no longer fully led by the Spirit. One cannot follow God and man at the same time. In our study of the Bible, we must seek God’s interpretation of a passage and ask Him to show us the truth. Then we can all be led by the same Spirit, Who also gives us the power to obey His commands.
Carnal Christians and a Lack of Spiritual Maturity in Christ
God tells us that followers of men are carnal. Being carnal does not necessarily mean that an individual is not saved, although it may. It means that a person lacks spiritual maturity in Christ. It appears from Scripture that a person can be saved and be carnal. The Apostle Paul refers to the carnal Christians at Corinth as brethren and as babes in Christ. But being carnal limits how much a person can understand spiritually. They can only handle the milk of the Bible – the stories and simple things. They cannot understand the secret things of God that He has hidden in His Word – the gold mine that makes Bible study so interesting.
God tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:1-4: “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?”
A carnal person is one who follows other people and looks primarily to other people or to their church leaders for direction and to tell them what the Bible means rather than going to God for their direction and understanding. Their focus is more on church attendance, that they and others are going to church and following the church than on a person’s deepening relationship and maturity with Christ. Too often they are more concerned about what others in the church will think if they do not conform to the written and unwritten expectations of the church, than what God will think of them.
Churches capitalize on the carnal nature by having social events and other activities to keep people involved in the social life of the church. They break the family up into social groups according to age –Sunday school, the youth group, singles, young married couples, golden agers, etc. They are encouraged to interact with their peer group, which feeds the carnal nature of peer dependence.
It was those same carnal Christians at Corinth that also had problems with sexual sins in 1 Corinthians 5:1-2. “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.” In the same way, Amish and Mennonites are having problems with sexual sins, while following carnal manmade rules and regulations.
In Romans 8:6-7 God explains further why the carnal Amish and conservative Mennonite dress experiment resulted in sexual abuse happening: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” A carnal mind is one that uses human reasoning for direction in certain areas of life rather than following the Bible and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When the church uses human reasoning and adds manmade rules, it results in the people being carnally minded and their minds not being subject to the law of God but rather to the laws of man and of the church. They then do things that are contrary to God’s law. They are not spiritually mature.
Being Followers of Men results in a lack of spiritual maturity
In this section we are looking at Amish and Mennonite groups as a case study on why there is a lack of spiritual maturity in Christ when one follows the teachings of men. However, you will find that many other church groups are also following men and have a lack of spiritual maturity in Christ.
Mennonite groups today often refer to themselves as Anabaptists and followers of the Anabaptists and Anabaptist theology. The Anabaptists were a group of Christians in the Radical Reformation of the mid 1500’s that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. They believed in adult baptism and rejected their infant baptism. Thus they were called Anabaptists, which means “one who baptizes over again”. The use of the identifying name of “Anabaptist” by many Mennonite groups today is actually a strange term to use as an identifier because almost no one in those Mennonite churches today has been baptized more than one time. Almost everyone was baptized only as an adult and practically no one was baptized as a baby.
Most of the original Anabaptists were followers of Christ and tried to keep His commands with all their hearts. In contrast, Anabaptists today tend to be followers of the early Anabaptists and the teachings of their own present day Mennonite group. These Anabaptist beliefs can vary widely from group to group. Both liberal and conservative Mennonites call themselves Anabaptists. In a subtle way, the Amish and Mennonites of today are exhibiting the carnal aspect that God warns us against in I Corinthians 3:1-4 by calling themselves after the Anabaptists and after the names of men. The Amish and Mennonite denominations are splintered up into many smaller divisions, each following the leadership of yet another man or group of men. For example:
- Mennonites are named after the Anabaptist leader Menno Simons.
- Amish are named after Jacob Amman.
- Holdeman Mennonites are named after John Holdeman.
- Beachy Amish Mennonites are named after Bishop Moses Beachy.
- Swartzentruber Amish are named after Samuel Swartzentruber.
Menno Simons. Mennonites are named after the Anabaptist leader Menno Simons. God tells us: “For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?” (1 Corinthians 3:4) Being carnal does not necessarily mean that an individual is not saved, although it may. It appears from Scripture that a person can be saved and be carnal. But being carnal limits how much a person can understand spiritually and keeps them from having maturity in Christ. They can only handle the milk of the Bible – the stories and simple things.
Jacob Amman, the man whom the Amish are named after. Note that both Jacob Amman and Menno Simons had mustaches which are now forbidden by Amish and most conservative Mennonites.
God tells us that we are not to call ourselves after the name of a man, nor are we to divide up into splinter groups like the Anabaptists, Amish, Mennonites, Baptists, and other denominations have done. We are commanded to all speak the same thing and be perfectly joined together in the same mind and same judgment. With man, and as followers of men, it is impossible to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and same judgment. But in Christ it is possible. Would God instruct us to all speak the same thing if it were not possible to do it?
“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:10-13)
Are Mennonites baptized in the name of the Mennonite church? Technically, no. They are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But practically speaking, it is almost the same as if they are baptized into the Mennonite church, because baptism is the rite of passage for membership in the Mennonite church for most Mennonites. In many churches, baptism is inseparably linked with joining the Mennonite church. For most, a young person cannot be baptized until they are “old enough” to be a responsible member of that church. That requirement makes church membership a more important step than becoming a Christian, because the young person has to be older to be a member of the Mennonite church than to be a member of the body of Christ. It also ignores the spiritual importance of a person being baptized immediately after their profession for Christ.
John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress, in the opening section “The Life of John Bunyan,” makes this strong statement and prediction about the term Anabaptist: “And as for those factitious titles of Anabaptists, Independents, Presbyterians, or the like, I conclude that they come neither from Jerusalem nor from Antioch, but rather from Hell and Babylon for they naturally tend to division. You may know them by their fruits”. (emphasis added) (p. 48 Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, undated copy from Hurst & Co. Publishers, New York)
Time has shown that what John Bunyan said about division was right. The Anabaptist groups have naturally tended to division with many splinter groups. That is part of their fruit. Donald B. Kraybill, professor at Elizabethtown College, said that today there are more than 200 different Anabaptist groups in North America alone. He states: “Many people don’t realize how many different groups there are, how diverse they are…”
http://www.etown.edu/centers/young-center/concise-encyclopedia.aspx
“And as for those factitious titles of Anabaptists, Independents, Presbyterians, or the like, I conclude that they come neither from Jerusalem nor from Antioch, but rather from Hell and Babylon for they naturally tend to division. You may know them by their fruits”.
Because of the wide range of beliefs and practice of those who call themselves Anabaptist or Mennonite, the terms Anabaptist and Mennonite have become meaningless terms to describe a person’s beliefs. On basic doctrines, there is a wide range of beliefs from ultra conservative to ultra liberal. There are many who call themselves Anabaptist or Mennonite who hold totally opposite beliefs. For example: there are Mennonites who believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, and there are other Mennonites who believe that there are many ways to God such as through other religions like Islam. Some believe that practicing homosexuality is sin; other Anabaptists/Mennonites believe that same-sex marriage is an acceptable practice. It is common for Mennonites and Anabaptists to hold opposite positions on many doctrinal beliefs.
One reason that there have been so many divisions is that there is no absolute or final authority when it comes to specific details of Mennonite rules and regulations. The pastor becomes the final authority for his congregation. Each pastor, or congregation, has certain details that are important to them, but to another pastor or congregation they are not as important and there are other details that they see that are more important that are not as important to the first church. There can only be unity and true spiritual maturity in Christ when there is only one final authority, the Bible, to agree on. Division occurs when people start following the rules and regulations of men that are added to the commands in the New Testament.
To be followers of Christ, to all speak the same thing and not have divisions, we must follow Christ’s commands in the New Testament alone without the addition of other church commands and regulations. For a list of God’s commands in the New Testament go to:
www.biblicalresearchreports.com/listofcommands.php
A distinctively dressed Mennonite couple in Pennsylvania, 1942. The Great Mennonite Dress experiment has not resulted in unity of belief among Mennonites. The Mennonite denomination is characterized by many church splits and denominational divisions. Christian groups that take on the name of a man, such as Mennonite or Amish, and groups that follow the rules and regulations of man tend to result in division. There are over 200 divisions of Anabaptist groups in North America alone. The term Anabaptist is meaningless to describe what they believe or stand for because some of the groups believe and practice the exact opposite of other Anabaptists.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and are part of a named denomination or hold to a doctrine named after a man or men, it is important that you carefully evaluate what you are doing. There are spiritual limitations and consequences that being a part of this type of church group puts on you. There is only so far that you can help people come to maturity in Christ. I want to encourage you to move deeper in your relationship with Jesus Christ and to ask Him often to give you understanding into the deeper “meat” of His Word and His understanding than what you currently know. God’s Word is a gold mine that has much more for us to learn than what we currently understand. The Bible is a gold mine that has not been anywhere close to exhausted.
God’s wisdom is so vast that we have only begun to grasp a small part of His wisdom and understanding as it applies to living the Christian life, to health, to agriculture, to education, to science, and to all the other areas of life. I encourage you to lay aside the doctrines, teachings, and denominations of men which are weights that are weighing you down and preventing you from all that God has for you. As God tells us in Hebrews 12:1b; “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
The Worthlessness of Being Amish, Mennonite, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc.
One night, God impressed upon me in a dream the spiritual worthlessness of being Amish, Mennonite, or the member of any other Christian denomination, or identifying one’s self as a follower of a doctrine of man, such as being Calvinist, Reformed, Fundamentalist, Anabaptist, Charismatic, etc. Being a member of a manmade denomination or megachurch and following the specific doctrine, rules, and guidelines of that group makes a person carnal and can so severely limit their maturity in Christ that it is important that we understand its seriousness. Such people don’t realize how handicapped they really are in their walk with Christ or their lack of spiritual maturity. This is true of all who hold to theologies of men.
Denominations are not Biblical. Denominations are the opposite of what Jesus wants for the Church. Jesus wants us all to be unified under Him, not followers of a denomination or church. Jesus said: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:20-23)
Being part of a church denomination may not necessarily be sin. But denominations are human (carnal) solutions for church organization. Denominations (divisions) are not part of God’s plan for the Church and they are not found in Scripture.
If you are part of a denomination, it is harder to see your denomination’s shortcomings and spiritual limitations. However, it is easier to see the problem in other groups. For example, if you are not Amish, analyze the Amish as a group. They are one of the fastest growing denominations, mainly from having lots of children. Do they have a deeper spiritual understanding than what you do? Are people flocking to their denomination to get spiritual training so that they can become mature in Christ? Do their books and publications help people to better follow ALL of Christ’s commands? Are people joining their denomination because God has shown them answers to life’s problems and they are better able to help people than those who are professionally trained in the world’s education system as scientists, doctors, educators, psychiatrists, counselors, farmers, etc.? Do you believe the Amish have greater spiritual maturity in Christ than you do?
Why is it that the higher education system in the world today, which has rejected God and believes in evolution, has “answers” that Christians are flocking to and embracing? Many of the professors in Christian colleges and universities have been trained by secular universities. They are taking the teachings of the secular universities and repackaging them with religious terminology and adding religious concepts. I believe one reason Christians are flocking to the world for their answers and training is that church denominations and the churches within those denominations have limited people’s spiritual understanding and maturity in Christ. The church has limited their ability to understand God’s answers, and God has hidden His answers from them. The Church should have the real answers and the world should be drawn to the Church because God has the real solutions.
God has an incredible amount to teach us in all areas of life. God is the one who created the world and He knows exactly how everything works, and what the answers are to fix problems spiritually and physically. God knows the cure for cancer and how to keep it from occurring in the first place. He knows the cure for every disease and sickness. He knows the perfect answer for all of life’s problems – marriage, family, health, finances, energy, etc.
God knows exactly how a plant is made, how it works, and exactly what the nutritional requirements are for that plant to make it produce an incredible yield of high quality, nutrient dense food. God knows how to grow a cluster of grapes so big that it would take two men to carry it between them on a pole. (Numbers 13:23) I know of no denomination that has been given God’s deeper wisdom and understanding into the solutions for all of life’s problems, diseases, and true health.
Most Child Molesters Say they are Religious
In a national survey of 4,000 child molesters was a shocking revelation:
93% of the child molesters defined themselves as being religious!
This is a sad statistic for Christians when only 7% of admitted sexual molesters in the USA say they are not religious. It is a testimony to the carnal nature of churches and their member’s lack of spiritual maturity in Christ.
http://www.childmolestationprevention.org/pdfs/study.pdf
The High Rate of Divorce among Professing Christians is an Indicator of a Failure to Bring People to Maturity in Christ
One indicator of the failure to bring people to maturity in Christ by many denominations and megachurches (although this indicator does not apply to the Amish and conservative Mennonites who are strongly opposed to divorce) is the high rate of divorce among their members. Jesus tells us this about a Christian loving Him and loving others: “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” (1 John 4:20-21) This relates directly to divorce. If a person does not love their spouse whom they are one flesh with, and with whom they have made a marriage covenant with, God tells us that they do not love Him. They may think that they love God, but God does not view it as love. There are many pastors who will tell you differently; that you do not need to love your spouse and you can divorce them and remarry, but it is God’s opinion that counts on Judgment Day.
There are various statistics on the divorce rate among Christians. One survey by the Barna Group showed that most of the main line denominational groups and megachurches in the USA had a higher rate of divorce than the general population.
www.adherents.com/largecom/baptist_divorce.html
Others have contested the Barna statistics and have tried to put focus on a reduced level of divorce among persons that are “more committed”, but they still show that 38% of those church attendees have been divorced. Rather than disproving the high rate of divorce in churches, they show a high level of carnality, and a lack a spiritual maturity in the churches.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-03-14-divorce-christians_N.htm
We only live life once. Life is too short to waste it by being a follower of a denomination, being a follower of men, rather than a 100% follower of Christ, and not being able to understand the deeper things that God has to teach us. God tells us that being part of a denomination will limit our ability to understand the real answers and solutions for life and limit our spiritual maturity in Christ.
The worthlessness of being Mennonite, Amish, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, or a member of any of the other 30,000+ denominations is more than a lack of spiritual maturity and not being able to understand the deeper things of Christ. There are many consequences for following commands and doctrines of men as well. Each denomination has its own set of consequences from following their denomination’s manmade teachings and rules.
