Church History
In 311 AD., the Roman Emperor Constantine publicly professed tolerance of the Christian faith and a few years later Christianity became the official religion of the government, the army and the whole empire. Under orders from the emperor, this state-church system tried to enforce it's doctrine and compromises on the worldwide or "catholic" church. These man-made officials declared that the non-resistant, non-conformist churches which were still faithful to the apostolic Gospel and disciplines were from then on to be called heretics and killed. Great human reasoners arose, like Augustine, who argued that it is right for Christians to go to war and fight, right to baptize infants, right to torture and kill "heretics" and right to obey the Pope of Rome. During these dark ages when the Catholic Church degenerated into superstition, murder and idolatry, there were many minority churches called by various names who remained faithful to the Scriptures and maintained believer's baptism, the new birth experience, discipleship and disciplined churches, non-resistance and non-conformity. As they were hunted and killed in one area, they sprang up in other areas; they found their Gospel in the Word of God and considered the Roman and Greek churches to be fallen. In the midst of all this darkness, a new light began shining around 1500. All over Europe there was a rebirth of interest in studying the ancient writings, chief among them the Bible. As people began to study for themselves what the Scriptures actually taught, they became amazed at the simplicity and purity of the apostolic church and horrified at the complexity and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church Reformers like Martin Luther in Germany, Zwingli in Switzerland, Calvin in Geneva and Knox in Scotland rose up to denounce the Catholic Church and to cry out for its reform and purification from within. They rejected the idolatry and superstition of the Catholic Church but accepted the state-church system of so-called Christian governments and Christian countries. Even after the reformers broke with Rome, they still retained infant baptism, defended the torture and killing of heretics and rejected the apostolic doctrines of discipleship, non-resistance and non-conformity. Because of this compromise of the reformers, there arose in the 1500's groups of sincere Christians who rejected the idea of mere reformation of Catholicism and aimed for nothing less than the restoration of the apostles' doctrine and fellowship. The leaders of the restoration movement were men like Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and later Menno Simons, Alexander Mack and Samuel Froelich, among many others. These men went about teaching and preaching their faith, summoning people everywhere to break with the world and worldly churches and become members of the Body of Christ.This resulted in their being opposed and persecuted by both the Catholic Church and the Protestant reformers and brought untold suffering into the lives of those who stood for the truth of the Gospel. By their enemies they were called Anabaptists (rebaptizers) because of their refusal to recognize infant baptism and their insistence on believer's baptism. Their movement was blessed of God and spread throughout Europe, being gladly received by the common people and those courageous leaders who desired to obey God and be true to the original pattern of the apostolic church. Within Germany, many Lutherans eventually became unhappy with the formalism of worship and ritual in their state church and with the general barrenness of German Protestantism. Taking their theology and much of their practice from the older Anabaptists, these Pietists, as they were called, took the New Testament literally and endeavored to put its teachings into practice even in the least detail of their lives. They spurned the ideal of apostolic succession, and at the heart of their practice was a love feast, or agape, the serving of the Lord's Supper preceded by a ceremony of foot washing. From these German Pictists were born the German Baptist Brethren, (often called Dunkers), beginning in 1708 with a brotherhood of eight persons in Schwarzenau, Germany. Because of economic necessity and persecution in central Germany, one group, under the leadership of Peter Becker, came to America in 1719 to take up free lands offered by William Penn. The members settled in Germantown, near Philadelphia, from where they eventually spread across the country. The German Baptist Brethren enjoyed healthy growth until 1881-1883 when the church split into three: the Progressive Dunkers formed the Brethren Church (represented today by the more Calvinistic Grace group and the Arminian Ashland group), the Conservative Dunkers formed the Church of the Brethren and the Old Order Dunkers formed the Old German Baptist Brethren Church. We are reminded by church history that many churches began through the desire of men of God to restore the doctrine and fellowship of the apostles. And yet we mark in alarm how so many of these same churches have tended to gradually drift away from apostolic standards and settle back into the world out of which they were originally called. It is for this reason that a small group of conservatives withdrew from the Church of the Brethren in 1926 and organized the Dunkard Brethren Church. The terms 'brethren" and "dunker" have been the cause of much confusion. Dunker is a direct derivation of the German word "tunken", meaning "to dip or immerse", and is identified with the peculiar method of immersion employed by all brethren churches--trine (triple) immersion--in which the believer is immersed three times, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Dunkard Brethren fellowship has approximately 900 members in 25 congregations in the United States. Additionally the Brethren support a mission among the Navajo Indians in New Mexico. And as of 1995 opened a Mission point in Africa.