Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

epentance pre-cedes faith, Hottinger, at his execution, exhorted the people to
“Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” f451
They utterly rejected “sacramental salvation.” Grebel, a great Anabaptist
leader, said:
“From the scriptures we learn that baptism declares that by faith and the blood
of Christ our sins have been washed away, that we have died to sin and
walked in newness of life; that assurance of salvation is through the inner
baptism, faith, so that water does not confirm and increase faith as Wittenberg
theologians say, nor does it save.” f452
Hubmeyer said:
“In order to live a Christian life there must be a change in the natural man,
who is by nature sinful and with no remedy in himself by which the wounds
that sin has made can be healed. … When a man has received this new life he
confesses it before the church of which he is made a member according to the
rule of Christ; that is he shows to the church that, instructed in the Scriptures,
ho has given himself to Christ to live henceforth according to his will and
teaching. He is then baptized, making in baptism a public confession of his
faith. … In other words, in baptism he confesses that he is a sinner, but that
Christ by his death has pardoned his sins, so that he is accounted righteous
before the face of his God.” f453
Again, says Hubmeyer: “Condemnation is the result not of a neglect of baptism
but of unbelief alone.” f454 Again,
“we ascribe nothing whatever to water baptism. It is an ordinance instituted
by Christ and by the Apostles and received by believers.” f455
Again, he says:
“No element or outward thing can cleanse the soul, but faith purifies the
hearts of men. It follows that baptism cannot wash away sin. If, therefore, it
can not wash away sin, and yet is from God, it must be a public testimony of
inward faith, and an outward pledge to live henceforth a new life as God gives
grace.” f456
Says Denck, another great Anabaptist leader:
“In themselves ceremonies are not useful, and ho who thinks thereby to attain
anything whether through baptism or the breaking of bread is superstitious.
… He who makes ceremonies burdensome is not much of a gainer thereby,
for should one lose all ceremonies, he would not suffer any injury, and indeed
it is better to want them than to misuse them.” f457
In an Anabaptist confession of faith, called the Schleitheim Confession,” made
in 1527, we read