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Menno

Louise A.J. Friesen

My papa was a staunch Mennonite, and a pacifist. I’m glad my dad appreciated Menno Simons. Even more valuable is the wisdom he displayed in looking past the man himself to the message that he stood for.

Let’s consider Menno Simons. What actually did he stand for?

I decided I wanted to hear “straight from the horse’s mouth.” The Columbia Bible College Library staff graciously dug up a copy of The Complete Writings of Menno Simons (Herald Press, translated from the Dutch by Leonard Verduin).

I went home and opened the book. I was shocked, almost stunned – but delightfully so. I had always envisioned this pacifist to be a mild man with infinite patience and an uncondemning manner as he pensively studied fallen humanity.

Not so! I discovered a peacenik who was an almost vicious verbal combatant. I had stumbled upon a character whose works were a compilation of onslaught upon onslaught, as the right skirmished against the not-right in his own mind.

Take this for fervour: “Where and when did you read in the Scriptures . . . that the unbelieving, disobedient, carnal man, the adulterous, immoral, drunken, avaricious, idolatrous, and pompous man has one single promise of the kingdom of Christ and His church? . . . Nowhere and never do we read it in the Scriptures. But thus it is written by Paul: . . . Adulterers, whoremongers, perverts, effeminate, unclean, idolators, drunkards, proud, avaricious, hateful persons, betrayers, and those who shed innocent blood; thieves, murderers and those who know no mercy, those disobedient to God and Christ, will not inherit the kingdom of God unless they repent. Yes, their portion will be in the fiery lake which burns with fire and brimstone” (pp. 89-90).

In Menno’s time, priests were not required to read the Bible. So, when Menno began to read the Scriptures, which he did more and more, they set a fire burning in his bones. Menno says, “The Word stands unshaken: For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; for to be carnally minded is death. Therefore I advise and entreat you all together to heed Christ Jesus, who is sent to us as a witness of the truth from heaven. For thus says He, . . . Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (p. 90).

One last quote: “If you wish to be saved, . . . your earthly, carnal, ungodly life must be reformed. For it is naught but true repentance that the Scriptures teach. . . . If you do not repent, there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can help you, for without true repentance we are comforted in vain. . . . We must be born from above, must be changed and renewed in our hearts, and must be transplanted from the unrighteous and evil nature of Adam into the true and good nature of Christ, or we can never in all eternity be saved by any means, be they human or divine. Wherever true repentance and the new creature are not . . . there man must be eternally lost” (p. 92).

Remarkable man, Menno Simons. I like him.

Louise A.J. Friesen lives in Abbotsford, B.C.

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Last modified September 18, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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