Schwarzenau Brethren

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Schwarzenau Brethren (the German Baptists or Dunkers)
Background
Christianity Protestantism Anabaptism Radical Pietism Radical Reformation
Doctrinal tenets
Non-creedalism Trine baptism Love feast Feet washing Holy kiss Free church Anointing with oil Non-resistance Pacifism The Brethren Card
People
Alexander Mack Shantilal Bhagat Louis Bauman Conrad Beissel Donald F. Durnbaugh Vernard Eller Samuel Kinsey John Kline Peter Nead Christoph Sauer
Groups
Brethren Church Church of the Brethren Conservative Grace Brethren Dunkard Brethren Grace Brethren Old Brethren Old Brethren German Baptist Old German Baptist Brethren Old German Baptist Brethren, New Conference Old Order German Baptist Brethren Defunct groups Ephrata Cloister Church of God (New Dunkers)
Related movements
Amish Bruderhof Community of True Inspiration Hutterites Mennonites River Brethren Quakers
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Anabaptism
A 1685 illustration by Jan Luyken, published in Martyrs Mirror, of Dirk Willems saving his pursuer, an act of mercy that led to his recapture, after which he was burned at the stake near Asperen in the present-day Netherlands
Background Christianity Radical Reformation Sermon on the Mount
Doctrines and practices Theology of Anabaptism Believer's baptism Lovefeast Nonconformity to the world Nonresistance Free will Freedom of religion Priesthood of all believers Separation of church and state Foot washing Holy kiss Plain dress Shunning Simple living Singings
Documents Schleitheim Confession Dordrecht Confession Ausbund Martyrs Mirror
Key people George Blaurock Hans Denck Conrad Grebel Melchior Hoffman Balthasar Hubmaier Hans Hut Jakob Hutter Alexander Mack Felix Manz Pilgram Marpeck Melchior Rink Michael Sattler Menno Simons
Largest groups Amish Apostolic Christians Brethren in Christ Bruderhof Conservative Mennonites Hutterites Mennonite World Conference Mennonites Mennonite Brethren Old Colony Mennonites Old Order Mennonites River Brethren Russian Mennonites Schwarzenau Brethren
Related movements Schwenkfelders Baptists Pietism Radical Pietism Moravians Inspirationalists Quakers Neo-Anabaptism
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The Schwarzenau Brethren, the German Baptist Brethren, Dunkers, Dunkard Brethren, Tunkers,

Hopeful of the imminent return of Christ and desiring to follow Jesus in their daily life, the founding Brethren abandoned State churches and officially formed a new church in 1708. They thereby attempted to translate the New Testament idea of brotherly love into concrete congregational ordinances for all the members.[2] The Brethren rejected some Radical Pietists’ focus on emotionalism and direct revelation, and emphasized early ("Apostolic" or "primitive") New Testament Christianity as the binding standard for congregational practices. Founding and early Schwarzenau Brethren were also in fellowship with other Anabaptists such as the Mennonites and the River Brethren, and influenced by their writings.

As with many other Anabaptist traditions, the Schwarzenau Brethren are divided into Old Order groups (such as the Old Brethren German Baptist) who practice a lifestyle without certain elements of modern technology, Conservative groups (such as the Dunkard Brethren Church and the Old Brethren Church) who preserve traditional theological distinctives while allowing for the usage of modern conveniences, and mainline groups (such as the Church of the Brethren and the Brethren Church) who are assimilated into popular culture and society.^[3]

In

The Schwarzenau Brethren were first organized in 1708 under the leadership of

A notable influence was Ernst Christopher Hochmann von Hochenau, a traveling Pietist minister. While living in Schriesheim, his home town, Mack invited Hochmann to come and minister there. Like others who influenced the Brethren, Hochmann considered the pure church to be spiritual, and did not believe that an organized church was necessary. By 1708, the date of the first Brethren baptisms, Mack had rejected this position in favor of forming a separate church with visible rules and ordinances—including threefold baptism of repentant adults by immersion, a Love Feast (that combined communion with feetwashing and an evening meal), anointing, and church discipline according to Matthew 18 culminating in use of the "ban" against members who fall into sin and refuse to repent.

Religious persecution drove the Brethren to take refuge in Friesland, the Netherlands. In 1719 Peter Becker brought a group to Pennsylvania. In 1720 forty Brethren families settled in Surhuisterveen in Friesland. They settled among the Mennonites and remained there until 1729, when all but a handful emigrated to America, in three separate groups from 1719 to 1733.

Peter Becker organized the first American congregation at

In 1782 the Brethren forbade slaveholding by its members. In 1871 these Brethren adopted the title German Baptist Brethren at their Annual Meeting. The group continued to expand and from Pennsylvania, they migrated chiefly westward.[1] By 1908 they were most numerous in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota^[1] Arkansas, and California.

[Brethren] take the Scripture as their only guide, in matters both of faith and practice...such Christians I have never seen as they are: so averse are they to all sin, and to many things that other Christians esteem lawful, that they not only refuse to swear, go to war, etc. but are so afraid of doing any thing contrary to the commands of Christ, that no temptation would prevail upon them ever to sue any person at law, for either name, character, estate, or any debt, be it ever so just. They are industrious, sober, temperate, kind, charitable people; envying not the great, nor despising the mean, they read much, they sing and pray much, they are constant attendants upon the worship of God, their dwelling houses are all houses of prayer. They walk in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless both in public and private. They bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. No noise of rudeness, shameless mirth, loud vain laughter is heard within their doors. The law of kindness is in their mouths; no sourness or moroseness, disgraces their religion; and whatsoever they believe their Savior commands, they practice without requiring or regarding what others do.

— Elhenan Winchester (Universalist preacher), 1803^[4]

The beliefs of the Schwarzenau Brethren include triple or trine immersion

In 1732, Beissel led establishment of a semi-monastic community with a convent and a monastery at Ephrata in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.^[1] While celibate, the community also welcomed believing families; they lived nearby and participated in joint worship. The monastic features and celibacy were gradually abandoned after the American Revolution.^[1]

In 1745, brothers Samuel, Israel and Gabriel Eckerlin protested against Beissel's leadership after Beissel condemned them for having planted an orchard, built a mill and started a textile-manufacturing workshop in an effort to make the community economically self-sufficient. The Eckerlins and Mack left Ephrata in September to establish Mahanaim (Dunkard's Bottom, Virginia) on the New River in western Virginia.^[7]

In 1814 the Society was incorporated as the Seventh Day Baptists^[1] or Seventh Day German Baptist Church. Several branches were established, some of which still exist.^[8] A group called the Church of God or "New Dunkers" withdrew in 1848. They disbanded in August 1962.

The

After 1996, a small conservative group calling themselves The German Baptist Brethren split from the OGBB. The most recent split came in 2009, with the establishment of the Old German Baptist Brethren, New Conference, parishioners who left the OGBB.

In 1939 the "Progressive" Brethren Church experienced another schism. Those seeking an open position to the issue of

In 1992, because of doctrinal disagreements within the FGBC (primarily related to the connection between water baptism and church membership), the Conservative Grace Brethren Churches, International (CGBCI) was formed. It has no centralized headquarters at this time.

The paradigmatic conservative Schwarzenau Brethren denomination remains the Dunkard Brethren Church, in that they have preserved the distinctives of plain dress and headcovering while widely using modern conveniences. The Dunkard Brethren Church withdrew from the Church of the Brethren in 1926 because of what some believed was a gradual drift away from apostolic standards.^[3]

In 2019, after years of disagreement over New Testament standards of personal morality, some conservative congregations who were leaving the Church of the Brethren chose to form a new denomination called the Covenant Brethren Church.^[9] This fellowship has member congregations in Africa and Guatemala as well as the US states of Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Unlike the Dunkard Brethren Church that formed in 1926, the Covenant Brethren Church encourages but does not universally practice traditional Brethren distinctives such as the veiling or nonresistance (nonparticipation in the military).

• German Baptist Brethren (Schwarzenau Brethren, Dunkers), changed their name to Old German Baptist Brethren in 1881
• Church of the Brethren, 1908-
• Ephrata Cloister (1732–2009; known as German Seventh Day Baptist Church from 1814 then on)
• Church of God (New Dunkers) (1848–1962)
• Old German Baptist Brethren (1881–)
• Old Brethren
  (1913–)
• Old Brethren German Baptists (1939–)
• Old Order German Baptist Brethren (1921–)
• Old German Baptist Brethren, New Conference (2009–)
• The Brethren Church
  (1883–)
• Grace Brethren Church
  (1939–)
• Conservative Grace Brethren Churches, International (1992–)
• Dunkard Brethren Church (1926–): Though many churches retain the word "Dunkard" in their names, they may be congregations of more conservative "Old Order German Baptists", less conservative "Progressives", or the current "Church of the Brethren", also called in the 19th century "Fraternity of German Baptists," or simply "German Baptists", or within the community called "Dunkards".
• Covenant Brethren Church (2019–)

Other associated churches which associate with the term German Baptist include:

• Brethren Reformed Church

As of 2003, six Brethren bodies meet together in the Brethren World Assembly:

Brethren are noncreedal, but have summarized their beliefs in a variety of ways for the purpose of evangelical outreach. One such statement, developed and distributed during the late nineteenth century was the Brethren's Card. A later version was endorsed for general distribution by the 1923 Church of the Brethren Annual Conference. Variations on the Card were used by both the Old German Baptist Brethren and the Church of the Brethren.[10] This is an early version that was widely circulated:^[11]

Be it known unto all men,

1. That there is a people who, as little children (
   2, Matthew 28:20
   ).
2. They baptize believers by trine immersion (
   Acts 19:5–6
   ).
3. They follow the command and example of washing one another's feet (John 13:4–17).
4. They take the Lord's Supper at night (John 13:30), at one and the same time, tarrying one for another (1 Corinthians 11:33–34).
5. They greet one another with a holy kiss (Acts 20:37, Romans 16:16).
6. They take the communion at night, after supper, as did the Lord (Mark 14:17, 23).
7. They teach all the doctrines of Christ, peace (
   10
   ).
8. They labor for
   Romans 12:2
   ).
9. They advocate nonswearing (
   2 Corinthians 6:14, 17), opposition to hatred, violence and war (Matthew 5:21–25 and 5:43–48, John 18:36), doing good unto all men (Matthew 5:44, 46
   ).
10. They anoint and lay hands on the sick (James 5:14, 15).
11. They give the Bread of Life, the message of the common salvation offered unto all mankind without money or price (Matthew 10:8).
12. Dear reader, for the above we contend earnestly, and you, with all men, are entreated to hear, to examine and accept it as the word, which began to be spoken by the Lord, and the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3).

The 1923 version, influenced by both increasing formalism and by the

1. This body of Christians known as Brethren originated early in the eighteenth century: the church being a natural outgrowth of the Pietistic movement following the
   Reformation
   .
2. Firmly accepts and teaches the fundamental evangelical doctrines of the
   atonement, his resurrection from the tomb, ascension and personal and visible return; and the resurrection, both of the just and unjust (John 5:28–29; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
   ).
3. Observes the following New Testament rites:
   Acts 2:38); feet-washing (John 13:1–20, 1 Timothy 5:10); love feast (Luke 22:20, John 13:4, 1 Corinthians 11:17–34, Jude 12); communion (Matthew 26:26–30); the holy Christian greeting or salutation (Romans 16:16, Acts 20:37); proper modest appearance in worship (1 Corinthians 11:2–16); the anointing with oil for healing in the name of the Lord (James 5:13–18, Mark 6:13); laying on of hands (Acts 8:17, 19:6; 1 Timothy 4:14
   ). These rites are representative of spiritual facts which obtain in the lives of true believers, and as such are essential factors in the development of the Christian life.
4. Emphasizes: daily devotion for the individual, and family worship for the home (Ephesians 6:18–20, Philippians 4:8–9); stewardship of time, talents and money (Matthew 25:14–30); taking care of the fatherless, widows, poor, sick and aged (Acts 6:1–7).
5. Opposes on Scriptural grounds:
   2 Corinthians 6:14–18); games of chance and sinful amusements (1 Thessalonians 5:22, 1 Peter 2:11, Romans 12:17); extravagant and immodest dress (1 Timothy 2:8–10, 1 Peter 3:1–6
   ).
6. Labors earnestly, in harmony with the
   evangelization of the world; for the conversion of men to Jesus Christ; and for the realization of the life and love of Jesus Christ living in every true believer (Matthew 28:18–20, Mark 16:15–16, 2 Corinthians 3:18
   ).
7. Maintains the New Testament as its only creed, in harmony with which the above brief doctrinal statement is made.

This version was officially circulated by the Church of the Brethren in its publications until the middle part of the twentieth century, and it continues to be issued through the efforts of Brethren Revival Fellowship.

The teachings of some other groups are similar to this, but can differ widely in emphasis and scope. For example, the Grace Brethren are varied on the requirement of trine immersion, do not practice the Christian salutation, do not oppose war, and do not formally adhere to plain dress or modesty. Only the Conservative Grace Brethren Churches have retained a published use of the motto, "The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible".

In the progressive and liberal Church of the Brethren, significant emphasis is placed on social action issues. In the Brethren (Ashland) and Grace Brethren groups, significant emphasis is placed on exegesis of the Bible. Several of the groups maintain a larger "Doctrinal Statement" or treatise, but only for the purpose of clarifying their Biblical position.

Most Brethren groups maintain that the Bible is the sole authority and will revise their statement of faith if they perceive any difference between it and sound Biblical doctrine. Some of the Old Order groups incorporate church authority as a mechanism for unifying the interpretation and application of Biblical teachings.

There are several religious groups named

The