A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

lasted all afternoon and evening, eighteen heads of households signed the docu- ment, fully conscious of the grave consequences that such a step might bring. On January 18 nine others also signed the document,45 There were six immediate issues in the document: (1) A disassociation from the decadent church which they perceived to be under the judgment of God: wWe fear the inevitable judgment of God, since the openly godless living and their wickedness cry to God in heaven," (2) "A baptism on faith, as a seal of faith; not on a memorized faith, as is the practice, but on a genuine living faith effected by the Spirit of God. For without faith, it is impossible to please God . - . Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Bap- tism is not the new birth, as some of the unconverted main- tain, but serves as a sign for the baptismal candidate that he is really born again," (3) Regarding footwashing, we confess that the Lord Jesus instituted it, John 13, to be practiced among one another, for the blessing is in the deed, not in knowledge," (4) A consistent practice in selecting ministers, with qualifications as specified in Scripture. (5) A biblical practice of church discipline to bring sinners to repentance and thus guard the purity of the church, the household of God, (6) A commitment to the articles of faith as held by Menno in life and practice "according to our conviction from the Holy Spirit"46 The long-range concerns were for a restoration of a bibli- cal and Anabaptist church. The founders of the new move- ment felt intimately related to the sixteenth century. Though Pietism had strongly influenced their spiritual renewal, they chose not to become identified with it, preferring instead to remain clearly committed to sixteenth-century Anabaptism, 13 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH primarily the Dutch stream as interpreted by Menno Simons,47 The new movement did fall prey to the emotionalism of the broader renewal movement among nineteenth-century Russian Mennonites. In the struggle to survive under extreme hardships and to gam recognition in the Mennonite communi- ty, the new group lacked the leadership required to chart a balanced way. The excesses in the Neu Kronsweide congre- gation of 1853 were also present in the initial years of the Mennonite Brethren,48 The hardships inflicted on the early Mennonite Brethren as they sought to gain the right to exist within the larger com- munity was a sad chapter in the history of Mennonitism.49 Even unidentified writers in the Odessaer Zeitung (a regional newspaper) desc