Does This Sound Like You?

The Amish Papers - Chapter 10

One sure sign that people are born again is their concern for those who are not yet born again. Many of the Johnsonburg new believers demonstrated that concern, particularly for their unregenerate Amish family members and friends. And so I was not surprised when, in April of 2002, I was asked to write a one-page tract that they could use to reach out to other Amish people. There was an Amish school picnic they intended to attend, and their plan was to place tracts in the outhouse that folks could secretly read while they relieved themselves! It became known as the “Outhouse Outreach”!

This short article that follows is the text of that tract. Quite a few were taken from the outhouse that day, so we considered that to be a good sign!

Before the apostle Paul was a Christian, he was a Jew known as Saul, from the city of Tarsus. Not only was Paul formerly a Jew, he was an extraordinary Jew, years later describing himself as “a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless” (Philippians 3:5-6).

You probably know, however, that as Saul was on the road to Damascus to arrest and imprison Christians, God knocked him to the ground with a blinding light. Obviously, God was not pleased with him, and Saul heard a voice from heaven ask him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Up until that moment, Saul thought he was serving God, but he quickly realized that, by persecuting Christians, he was persecuting Jesus, the person whom all the Christians believed was God’s Son. Big mistake!

That began Saul’s spiritual journey, during which he learned many valuable lessons.

You may not realize it, but you could be just like Saul. You, too, may think you are on the right path, but God may be about to knock you to the ground, at least in a figurative sense, and set you on a very different course.

One of the first lessons Jesus taught Saul was that he was entirely wrong about the way to become accepted by God. It was not by trying to keep all of the Jewish laws written by Moses. Rather, it was by believing in Jesus. Paul later wrote about that very error in his letter to the Christians in Rome:

I know what enthusiasm they [the Jews] have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law (Romans 10:3-4).

He similarly wrote to the Christians in Philippi:

I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith (Philippians 3:9).

So, perhaps you are just like Saul. Up until now, you’ve thought that the way to become right in God’s eyes is to keep many laws. If you are Amish, you probably have not only been trying to keep God’s laws, but also trying to keep many manmade laws (that can’t be found in the Bible). And like all other Amish people, you’ve been failing at keeping both!

So, God has some good news for you, just as He had for Saul: It is impossible for you to be good enough to earn a right standing before God, so God has provided another way. That way is through faith in Jesus, the Son of God who died for all of your sins, as we just read. By dying for your sins, Jesus paid the penalty you deserve, and that makes it possible for God to completely forgive every sin you’ve ever committed. That is why the Bible declares that eternal life is not something to earn. Rather, it is a gift:

The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).

But there is still more good news about God’s way of making people right with Him.

When you believe in Jesus, God not only forgives all your sins, but He places His Holy Spirit in you, and His Spirit makes you into a new person, spiritually. This is something Jesus taught another Pharisee named Nicodemus. He told Nicodemus that, unless he was born again, he would never see or enter God’s kingdom. Then He explained that He was not talking about a physical rebirth, but a spiritual rebirth of his heart. And He told Nicodemus how he could experience it:

And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up [on a cross], so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:14-16).

When God puts His Holy Spirit into those who believe in Jesus, they are empowered to live a holy life that pleases God. They are “new creations in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Holy Spirit helps all believers obey all of Jesus’ commandments (but not manmade rules that aren’t in the Bible). That is the second part of how God makes people right with Him.

So, perhaps you are like Paul once was, trying to mistakenly earn your way to heaven. But now, like Saul, you have been figuratively knocked over with some words from heaven. Don’t wait any longer to believe, truly believe that is, that Jesus is God’s Son. As soon as you do, all your sins will be forgiven, and you will be born again! You will be a different person!

Then, find others who’ve also been reborn, and start telling everyone what had happened to you!

The 2022 Johnsonburg Confession

The Amish Papers - Chapter 9

The 2022 Ahamish Confession by David Servant

In order to help equip the Amish-background new believers in Johnsonburg, in early 2022 I penned the following doctrinal statement, patterned to a degree after the 1632 Dordrecht Confession. I hoped it would help the new believers be able to “offer a defense for the hope within them” as they were questioned by their Amish family members and friends for “adopting a new faith.” I imagined that they might even give copies of it to their yet-unsaved Amish family members and friends.

In any case, this document could help any new believer become grounded in the basic, essential New Testament truths, but it is written particularly for Amish-background believers. It can also help prepare new believers for the persecution they will sooner or later encounter for their faith.

The Recovery of Our Spiritual Heritage: Having come to realize that we have drifted from the spiritual heritage of our forefathers—many of whom paid with their lives for their sincere faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—we now strive to regain what has been lost by returning to the plain teachings of Jesus and the New Testament apostles whom He appointed. “Like newborn babies,” we “long for the pure milk of the word” (1 Pet. 2:2) that is undiluted and unpolluted by the traditions of men, so that “the word of Christ will richly dwell within us” (Col. 3:16).

Ours is not a “new belief” or “new teaching,” but rather an old belief and ancient teaching that was (1) held in common by all the early Christians, (2) plainly revealed in the New Testament, (3) affirmed in the Dordrecht Confession of 1632, and (4) believed by all the early Anabaptists from whom we are all descended.

Therefore…

1.) The Impossibility of Earning Our Salvation: We acknowledge that we, like all people, are guilty sinners in the eyes of God. We have repeatedly sinned in thought, word and deed, and we have disobeyed His holy commandments all of our lives. The Bible says that we are “by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3) are “slaves to sin” (John 8:34, Rom. 6:20) and that “our righteousness is like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). Jesus said, “No one is good but God alone” (Mark 10:18). Even our hope of “being good enough” to make heaven is evidence of our sinful pride. We therefore stand rightly condemned and deserving of God’s wrath. There is no hope of our attaining heaven and eternal life by our own merit or efforts. If we are to be saved, it can only be by God’s mercy.

2.) The Exaltation of the Humble: We believe that God’s mercy is abundant towards those who humble themselves like the sinner in Jesus’ story of the Pharisee and the tax-collector. The tax-collector sincerely acknowledged his sinfulness and humbly asked for God’s mercy, whereas the Pharisee proudly compared himself to others, even listing things he did that he believed earned God’s approval. Jesus said that the contrite tax collector left the temple that day “justified,” or “right in the eyes of God,” whereas the proud Pharisee did not, because, as Jesus promised, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). So we, like the tax-collector, have humbled ourselves before God, acknowledging our sinfulness and the foolish pride of hoping we could be good enough in the eyes of a holy God to earn or deserve eternal life.

3.) The Opening of Our Spiritual Eyes: Having abandoned our self-righteousness and acknowledged our sinfulness, God has kept His promise to exalt those who humble themselves. Although we are entirely undeserving, He has opened our eyes to His gracious means of forgiveness and salvation, namely, the sacrificial death of His beloved Son on the cross. We now see what was previously hidden from our understanding, and we have come to sincerely believe the most well-known verse in the Bible, which says that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

4.) Salvation by Grace Through Faith: We now truly believe in Jesus in our hearts, and not just in our heads as we did when we once joined the church. We sincerely and whole-heartedly believe He is the divine Son of God. We believe that He died for our sins. We believe that He was resurrected. We believe that He ascended to heaven and is now seated at the right hand of His Father. We believe that He will return one day. We believe that He will judge every person, and that we will all stand before Him to give an account.

We believe that Jesus is Lord and Master, and that we should obey His commandments and teach others who believe in Him to obey His commandments (Matt. 5:19). We believe His well-known promise that “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” As long as we continue to believe in Him, we are sure we will not perish, but will inherit eternal life. This agrees with the teaching of the apostle Paul, who wrote that we are “saved by grace through faith” and “not as a result of works” (Eph. 2:8-9). We have stopped hoping to be good enough to gain heaven, knowing that is impossible and prideful.

5.) The Forgiveness of Our Sin: The opening of our eyes, however, and the birth of genuine faith in our hearts has proven to be only the introduction to God’s grace that has been so abundantly poured out upon us. Through the death of Christ, the penalty for our sins has been paid in full, and we have been forgiven of all our past sins. We have been cleansed (Eph. 5:26; Heb. 9:13-14).

Jesus died for all our future sins as well, and He has become our “advocate before the Father” (1 John 2:1). If and when we sin in the future, and we know that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). It is not our confession or any penance (such as being temporarily shunned or excommunicated) that earns us forgiveness when we sin. Rather, it is God’s mercy, extended to us through Jesus sacrificial death for our sins.

6.) Our Spiritual Rebirth: When we believed in Jesus, we experienced the spiritual rebirth that Jesus told Nicodemus is necessary to see and enter God’s kingdom (John 3:1-22). Although we cannot fully explain it, we have been born again by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Being born again has proven not to just be something that has supposedly occurred to us when we joined the church and were baptized but that didn’t actually change us. It has proven to be an actual, undeniable, life-changing experience.

People who are born again know that their lives have changed. They look at their lives as divided into two sections: before they were born again and after they were born again. It is a radical transformation. Born again people are “new creations in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17).

7.) Our Indwelling by the Holy Spirit: Born again people are not only transformed by the Holy Spirit, but are also indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 14:17; Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor.6:19). They can say with the apostle Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”—by His indwelling Holy Spirit (Gal. 2:20). Just like Paul, the persons we once were have died, and we are now new persons. Baptism is a symbol of that, which is why in the New Testament new believers were baptized. They were immersed completely under the water, symbolizing the death and burial of the old person, and then they were lifted out from under the water, symbolizing their resurrection as a new person who was washed clean! That is what has happened to us. And that is why we are filled with love, joy and peace. The Holy Spirit is working in us, and He is growing His fruit through us (Gal. 5:22-23).

8.) Our Sonship and Adoption into God’s Family: But there is still more that God’s amazing grace has done in our lives. Being spiritually reborn, we have been made actual children of God. The apostle John wrote: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1) and, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are” (1 John 3:1). The Father of Jesus has also become our Heavenly Father (John 20:17)! Paul wrote, “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!'” (Gal. 4:6). Now we have a genuine relationship with God as His own children. We love and trust Him as our Father.

9.) God’s Love Shed Abroad in Our Hearts: We not only love the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but we also love one another. When the Holy Spirit came to live inside of us, He brought God’s love with Him, because God is love (1 John 4:7-8). Paul wrote, “The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). The love that God poured out in our hearts is not just a love for those who have been born again among our fellow Amish, but for all people all over the world who have been born again, of which there are hundreds of millions. That love is another proof to us that we have been truly born again. John wrote, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14).

10.) The Assurance of Our Salvation: God’s merciful and gracious work in our lives fills us with assurance of our relationship and standing with Him. We are no longer afraid of death. We have learned that being assured of salvation is the normal Christian experience, and it was the universal experience of all our born-again Anabaptist ancestors as well as the early Christians. John wrote, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

11.) Our Motivation to Obey All That Christ Commanded: Because of all these amazing blessings in our lives, our greatest desire is to please our Lord Jesus Christ. We strive to obey Him, not to earn our place in heaven, but for at least five other reasons: (1) Because we love Him. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). (2) Because we believe in Him, and the Bible teaches faith without works is dead (Jas. 2:14-26). (3) Because He has put His Holy Spirit in us who leads us in paths of righteousness. Paul wrote, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). (4) Because Jesus has delivered us from our former slavery to sin (Rom 6:5-7). And (5) because we are full of gratitude for what Jesus has done for us. We can never repay Him, but we can show Him our thankfulness through our obedience.

Once we were born again, we discovered that, although we can still commit sin, we cannot enjoy it. When we are tempted to sin, we inwardly resist it. If we yield to temptation, we feel remorse that motivates us to confess it. If we don’t confess it, our loving Heavenly Father disciplines us so that we might “share in His holiness” (Heb. 12:10). He has promised to complete the good work that He has begun in us (Phil. 1:6). Like any good Father, He is devoted to His children’s progress and maturity. He’s preparing us for His future kingdom!

12.) Jesus’ Church, His Body: As we prepare for that future kingdom, we realize that we are part of His earthly kingdom right now. That kingdom consists of everyone who truly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. We recognize that, although there are many doctrinal differences among those who believe in Jesus, there is “one body and one Spirit…one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of allwho is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:4-6). We therefore strive to be humble, gentle, patient and tolerant toward “one another in love” and be “diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2-3). In Christ, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female.” Rather, we “are all one in Christ” (Gal. 3:28).

We also recognize that Christ has one body that consists of many members that do not all have the same function (Rom. 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:12-26). God has graced us in different ways for different kinds of service. We are thankful for all the members of the body of Christ and their specific functions. All the members are dependent on each other and should work together in love, respect and harmony. There should be “no division in the body.” All the members should “have the same care for one another…and if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:25-26).

13.) Our Divinely-Given Ordnung: Jesus commanded His disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 to teach their disciples to obey all that He commanded them, what Paul referred to as “the law of Christ” (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2). Therefore, although we respect any and all convictions held by our Amish families and friends, our focus is not upon rules that are not part of Christ’s Law. Rather, our focus is upon obeying Christ’s commandments and making disciples who, like us, are striving to obey all of His commandments. Jesus is our Lord!

For this reason, we resist any temptation to participate in debates about any rules that are not found in the New Testament. Our only concern for our Amish families and friends is if they have been born again by God’s Spirit (as being born again is necessary to see and enter God’s kingdom) and if they are obeying the commandments Christ has given to us all. To whatever degree we may follow any rules of any Amish Ordnung, it is not due to any belief that God requires us to follow such rules, but due to our deep love and respect for our Amish family and friends. We strive to imitate the example of the apostle Paul who did not want to erect an obstacle to the gospel before his fellow Jews, and so he kept all the requirements of the Law of Moses when he was with them—although he himself knew that he was not “under the Law of Moses,” but only “under the law of Christ” (1 Cor. 9:20-23).  Therefore, at least until we are excommunicated for our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will continue to abide by the rules of our community’s Ordnung that do not contradict Christ’s Law, that we might not give anyone reason not to listen to the good news of the gospel of salvation by grace through faith. Like Paul, we “become all things to all men, so that we may by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).

Our faith is in Christ for our salvation, not in keeping manmade rules. We hope and pray that the day comes when all Amish people will place their faith solely in Christ, and they will consequently experience the same spiritual rebirth we have, resulting in a new desire to obey only Christ’s commandments.

14.) Our Response to Persecution: We are not surprised when we are persecuted for our faith in Christ, knowing that Jesus promised all His followers that they will suffer persecution, and also knowing that our Anabaptist forefathers were all persecuted because they, too, were born again, unlike the religious but spiritually dead people who persecuted them. We would be much more concerned if we were not persecuted at least to some degree, since Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way” (Luke 6:26). Like the first Christians, we consider ourselves blessed when we are counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake (Acts 5:41), because we remember how Jesus suffered for us, and He promised us that He will reward us for our sufferings for His sake (Matt. 5:11-12). The New Testament promises, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).

For this reason, we will always endeavor to “turn the other cheek,” “bless those who curse us,” “pray for those who persecute us” and “love our enemies” (Matt. 5:39, 43; Luke 6:27-28). If and when we are shunned or excommunicated by Amish family or friends who do not understand our spiritual rebirth, we will respond with love. We will not ignore those who ignore us. We will not shun those who shun us. We will not speak ill of those who speak ill of us. Rather, we will greet them, serve them and love them, in hopes that they will be shamed for how they are treating us, and that their eyes will be opened to the gospel so that they might escape the spiritual darkness that motivates them to persecute those who follow Jesus. We will also sincerely pray for their salvation, that they might be born again and enjoy all of the temporal and eternal benefits that belong to the children of God.

15.) Our Gatherings: Jesus said where two or three are gathered in His name, He would be in their midst (Matt. 18:20). When we gather with other believers, we look to Jesus to speak to us, guide us, and instruct us by His Word found in the Bible and by His Holy Spirit in our midst.

Jesus is the Head of the church (Col.1:18), which is His body, and He is the One who gives spiritual gifts and ministry gifts to the church (1 Cor. 12:4-11, 27-31; Eph. 4:7-12). The New Testament instructs us to “desire earnestly spiritual gifts” (1Cor. 14:1), of which nine are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. They are distributed, not as we will, but as God wills (1 Cor. 12:11). As God blesses us with revelation and manifestations of His power, our love for Him grows, and He is glorified. His gifts are given to build up His church, just as Paul wrote, “When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification” (1 Cor. 14:26).

In keeping with biblical tradition, our gatherings are most often held in homes. Our gatherings are not closed, but open to all—believers, seekers and unbelievers—as we have nothing to hide and much to share! Like the first Christians, we love to “break bread from house to house and enjoy our meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart” (Acts 2:46).

16.) Various Bible Translations: We are thankful for the many different translations of the Bible, including the German version translated by Martin Luther that made the Bible readable and understandable for the first time in history to common German people during the Protestant Reformation. Because German is not our “heart-language,” however, we are also thankful for English and Pennsylvania Dutch translations. As we strive to know God’s will for our lives, we are glad that we can compare many different Bible translations, all of which have been translated by scholars who have studied the ancient languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. We believe that if more Amish people would read the New Testament in one of their everyday languages, more Amish people would come to believe the gospel of grace and be born again by God’s Holy Spirit, recovering the spiritual heritage of their ancestors.

17.) Our Obligation to Non-Amish People: The New Testament teaches that God loves the entire world, and because of it, He gave His only Son (John 3:16). It also teaches that Jesus “is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). So it is no surprise that Jesus commanded His apostles to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15), and He also told them to “make disciples of all the nations (or more literally ‘all ethnic groups’),” teaching their disciples to obey all He commanded them (Matt. 28:19-20). It is therefore the responsibility of all of Christ’s disciples to strive to make disciples of all people, and not only Amish people.

Because of that, born-again Amish people face a similar dilemma as the apostle Paul, who was burdened to proclaim the gospel to Jews—who were under the Law of Moses—and to Gentiles, who were not. Not wanting to hinder his effectiveness in reaching either group, Paul kept the Mosaic Law’s requirements when he was with Jews but did not when he was with Gentiles (see 1 Cor. 9:19-23). Paul believed that he, as a Jewish believer in Christ, was not obligated before God to obey the Mosaic Law, but to only obey the law of Christ.

Similarly, since we have been born again, we realize that God does not require us to keep any of the manmade traditions of the Ordnung, but only to obey the Law of Christ. To the degree that we follow the manmade rules and traditions, it is only because of our deep love and respect for our Amish family and friends. We don’t want to offend them or hinder them from listening to the good news of the gospel of grace.

However, we also recognize that by following the Ordnung, we might hinder non-Amish unbelievers from listening to the good news that God wants us to share with them. We don’t want to mislead them into thinking they must keep the manmade traditions of our Ordnung in order to be accepted by God, because that simply is not true. Therefore, when we endeavor to influence non-Amish people who are not yet followers of Christ, we may temporarily abandon all adherence to the manmade rules of the Ordnung lest we hinder the gospel from being sown in their hearts. The same love that motivates us to keep the manmade rules of the Ordnung when we are with Amish people motivates us to abandon the manmade rules of the Ordnung when we are with non-Amish unbelievers. Like God, we desire “all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1Tim. 2:4).

18.) Our Weakness and God’s Strength: Our desire is to see the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ clearly communicated to every one of the 350,000 Amish people living in North America as quickly as possible, knowing that only those who are born again can see or enter God’s kingdom. We recognize that our task is beyond our human ability, especially when we think of the 300-year-old fortress walls of tradition that stand between us and those 350,000 precious people for whom Jesus died. We will only succeed if we have God’s supernatural help, and we rejoice knowing that “God’s power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). We are weak in ourselves, but we are strong in God. Jesus told us that “all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27), and “all things are possible to him who believes” (Matt. 9:23).

As we do what we can to expand Jesus’ kingdom inside and outside Amish culture, we trust for God to do what we cannot do. We seek His wisdom. We pray along with the original Christians, “Grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30). God is able to open closed hearts and minds by His power, and we continually ask and expect Him to use His power through us to that end. May He be glorified in and through us!

A Tale of Two Ordnungs

The Amish Papers - Chapter 8

A Tale of Two Ordnungs

As Amish folks know, Amish life and culture is totally regulated by the Ordnung. For outsiders who don’t know that the Ordnung is, it is an unwritten list of dos and don’ts that vary from one Amish community to another. All community members must publicly affirm their agreement with the Ordnung twice a year. Unfortunately, in many Amish communities, the Ordnung sometimes seems to take precedence over the Bible, particularly when keeping the Ordnung is viewed as a requirement to gain to heaven.

The article that follows, published as my monthly “e-teaching” in May of 2022, explores why the early church had no Ordnung but the commandments of Christ, and why the early Christians rejected an additional Ordnung that some attempted to introduce.

Before I moved to Smicksburg, Pennsylvania, I always assumed that Amish communities across the nation were all the same. Like most “English” Americans, I thought that the people who drove horse-drawn buggies all followed a uniform way of life. Once I relocated, however, into the heart of Pennsylvania’s third-largest Amish community, and in proximity to several other Amish communities, I began to realize there were differences that make just about every Amish community unique in some way. I learned that there was something called the “Ordnung,” that governed every aspect of Amish life, and that every community’s Ordnung is different. So there are actually hundreds of different Ordnungs among the Amish. Some are more conservative and some are more liberal.

As an example, I learned that it is OK for Smicksburg Amish, among whom I live, to ride in cars and even pay English drivers to drive them, but they are not permitted to own or drive cars. The Johnsonburg Amish, however, just 30 minutes away, are permitted to own vehicles, but they are not allowed to drive them. So they also hire English drivers.

I’ve heard some Amish folks say that the Ordnung is a guide, like road signs that help us navigate to a destination. Others compare it to a fence that keeps us from crossing into forbidden or dangerous territory. We all know, of course, that road signs and fences are good things, and who would argue against anything that keeps us from sinning?

That being said, I’d like to take a look at the first two Ordnungs that were introduced to the early church—the church founded by Jesus and His apostles that we read about in the New Testament. You may be interested to know that one of those Ordnungs was fully embraced by the early church, while the other one was completely rejected. Let’s first consider the Ordnung that was embraced.

The First Ordnung

The early church focused on, and strove to obey, the commandments Jesus gave them, because that is exactly what He commanded them to do. After His resurrection, He commissioned them:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20).

So, Jesus commanded His eleven apostles to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe everything He had commanded them. And that is just what they did. The commandments He gave them came to be known as “the Law of Christ,” as they are called by Paul in Galatians 6:2 and 1 Corinthians 9:21. In fact, in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he contrasted the “Law of Moses” with “the Law of Christ” (see 1 Cor. 9:19-23). Just as the Law of Moses consisted of all the laws that God gave Israel through Moses, so the Law of Christ consists of everything Jesus commanded His disciples. That would include, for example, everything Jesus commanded in His Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5-7). It would also include His “Great Commission” that I just quoted from Matthew 28:18-20.

Some folks claim that the “Great Commission” was only given to Jesus’ eleven apostles. That idea, however, is disproven right within Jesus’ Great Commission, because in it, He told the Eleven to teach people of every nation to observe everything He had commanded them. Of course, everything He commanded them included the Great Commission. So Jesus’ original apostles taught their disciples to also, “Go…and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe” all He had commanded. The Great Commission is a never-ending commandment that is binding upon every Christian generation.

In any case, the first and only Ordnung that the early church embraced was the Law of Christ. There is no evidence that the apostles added hundreds, or thousands, of additional laws or rules to the Law of Christ as guidelines or fences for the early Christians. In fact, during the subsequent centuries that followed, for at least 1,500 years, no true Christians ever saw a need to add hundreds or thousands of additional rules to the Ordnung that Christ gave the church—His commandments. And for good reason that we will soon see.

Beyond this, there is a lot of biblical evidence that the apostles strongly opposed adding any additional laws or rules to the Law of Christ, as indicated by how they reacted to some Jewish Christians in the early church who attempted to add the Law of Moses to the Law of Christ. Another way of describing what happened is that some teachers introduced a second Ordnung to Christ’s Ordnung.

The Second Ordnung, and the Apostle’s Reaction

Here are the details: Some Jewish professing Christians began teaching that if Gentiles (non-Jews) wanted to be saved, they had to be circumcised as required in the Law of Moses, as well as keep the Mosaic Law’s many other regulations (see Acts 15:1-5). They tragically did not understand that God gave the Mosaic Law to only one group of people—the descendants of Israel—and that He gave it to them only temporarily, until their Messiah would come and inaugurate the new covenant. They also did not understand that God was saving Gentiles the same way He was saving Jews—by grace through faith, and not by their works (see Ephesians 2:8-9).

Their false teaching caused such a stir in the early church that a convention was called in Jerusalem that included the most preeminent apostles, including Paul, Peter and James. The entire story is recorded in Acts 15, and you can read it for yourself. At that convention, some Pharisees who had believed in Jesus stood up and, concerning the new believers among the Gentiles, said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses” (Acts 15:5).

There was much discussion. Peter eventually spoke:

Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are” (Acts 15:7-11).

I so appreciate Peter’s honesty. He declared what everyone at that convention knew was true, that none of them, or their forefathers, had kept the Law of Moses. How hypocritical it would have been for them to expect Gentile believers to obey laws that none of them had consistently kept!

And that reminds me of what I’ve observed among some of my local Amish friends. Although phones are forbidden in the very-conservative Smicksburg community, those “in the know” have told me that there are hundreds of secret phones among them. Home electricity is forbidden within the Ordnung of the more liberal Johnsonburg community, but many Amish there have it. That rule is not enforced. Can you imagine them telling other Amish who were considering relocating to their community, “If you move here, you should know that home electricity is forbidden!”?

Did you also notice that Peter reminded everyone at the convention how God used him to first proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles? You can read all about that in Acts 10. Peter was divinely directed to visit the household of a Gentile man named Cornelius. As Peter told Cornelius’ household about Jesus, he proclaimed:

“And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead. Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 10:42-48).

Clearly, God accepted and forgave the Gentiles who believed Peter’s message—as evidenced by the miracle of them speaking in other tongues, just as had occurred on the day of Pentecost to Peter and more than 100 other Jewish Christians (see Acts 2:1-4). God’s forgiveness was obviously not dependent upon them being circumcised or keeping the Mosaic Law. They were saved by grace through faith (see Ephesians 2:8-9).

After Peter was done speaking at the convention, Paul and Barnabas then stood to recount many of the miracles God had done through them to get the attention of Gentiles, and they reported how God had transformed Gentiles without any requirement of circumcision or their adopting the regulations of the Mosaic Law.

Finally, the apostle James stood up and quoted an Old Testament passage that foretold how God would one day save Gentiles. He then recommended that the convention attendees send a letter to all the new Gentile believers in order to inform them there was no need for them to be circumcised and start keeping the Law of Moses. James did recommend, however, that the new Gentile believers avoid a few practices that were particularly offensive to Jews, but not as a requirement for salvation.

So the early church soundly rejected the second Ordnung that was introduced, an Ordnung that would have added hundreds of additional laws to the Law of Christ. Perhaps even more significant is that the rejected Ordnung was one that actually had divine origins. God Himself had given it through Moses. But the early apostles understood that it was never intended to be binding upon Gentiles, and most of them eventually understood that it was not binding on Jewish believers in Jesus either.

Now read slowly: If the early church rejected an ancient, divinely-given Ordnung that would have misled many into thinking salvation was not due to God’s grace, but that salvation depended on people keeping a set of laws that no one had ever fully kept, should we not pause and think before we embrace any Ordnung of human origin that similarly adds hundreds, or even thousands, of laws and regulations to the Law of Christ, especially if those laws and regulations mislead people into thinking their salvation is not due to God’s grace, but depends on keeping those laws—and especially when no one actually keeps them all?

It is an irrefutable fact that the early church, led by the original apostles, taught their disciples to obey all that Jesus had commanded them, and they did not add any fence laws or manmade rules to the Law of Christ. They, in fact, universally rejected a second potential Ordnung that some false teachers attempted to introduce.

Interestingly, the original Anabaptists of the 16th-century—from which most modern Amish people are descended—all rejected the Ordnung that the Roman Catholic Church had added to the Law of Christ. They rejected every manmade church doctrine and law that could not be found in the New Testament. How odd it is that modern Amish churches, in contrast with the original Anabaptists and the apostles of Jesus Christ, have adopted second Ordnungs that contain hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of additional rules that can’t be found in the Law of Christ, and a vow to obey those rules is required for church membership. Church members who unrepentantly break any Ordnung rule are excommunicated and told that they will go to hell.

By what authority do Amish church leaders have to make such claims? Have they forgotten that Jesus is the Head of His church? They invent and endorse rules that cannot be found in the Bible and tell people their eternal salvation hinges on keeping those rules! The original apostles, and original Anabaptists, would have been horrified by even the suggestion of such an idea!

Paul’s Letter Against “Legalism” (Salvation by Works)

This important topic is not only found in the Acts 15 story of the Jerusalem apostolic council. The apostle Paul actually wrote an entire letter on this subject, namely, his letter to the Galatians. The Galatian church had come under the same influence of Jewish Christians who were teaching that Gentiles needed to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses in order to be accepted by God. In his Galatian letter, Paul mentioned circumcision by name at least fifteen times. Below are four of those passages in which he mentioned circumcision a total of nine times:

Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law (Gal. 5:2-3).

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love (Gal. 5:6).

Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh (Gal. 6:12-13).

For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation (Gal. 6:15).

I’m sure you noticed Paul’s solemn warning to the Gentile Galatians that, if they “received circumcision,” Christ would be of no benefit to them. Paul could only have meant that Christ’s sacrificial death and the salvation He provided through it would be of no benefit to them. What could be more tragic than that?

Being a circumcised Jew himself (see Phil. 3:5), Paul certainly was not saying that the state of being circumcised automatically nullified all the benefits provided by Christ. He obviously believed that he, as a circumcised Christian, was benefitting from Christ. His concern regarding the Gentile Galatian believers was, of course, their basis of salvation. They were in danger of transferring their faith in Christ for salvation to faith in circumcision for salvation.

This concept is underscored again in two of the other above-quoted verses. In one of the final sentences that brings his Galatian letter to a conclusion, Paul wrote, “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal. 6:15). That is, it doesn’t make a bit of difference if a person is circumcised or not circumcised. All that matters is if a person is a “new creation,” that is, one who has been spiritually reborn through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just a few sentences earlier, Paul similarly wrote, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6). Again, circumcision has no part in salvation. Salvation is by faith, and the proof of genuine faith is love. When people believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love is poured out within their hearts through the Holy Spirit who comes to live inside them (see Romans 5:5). The first fruit of the indwelling Spirit is love, something Paul tells us in the same chapter of Galatians (see Galatians 5:22). So “faith working through love” is what matters, not circumcision.

The Application to Us

Obviously, it would be safe to conclude that Paul would say the same thing about anything that anyone might claim is essential for salvation other than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, faith that results in a new creation who manifests love. If someone, for example, made the claim that to be saved, one must become a member of a certain church denomination, be baptized using a certain formula, cut their hair or trim their beard in a certain way, wear a certain uniform every day, never own a phone, never drive a car, and so on, Paul would solemnly warn them, “If you do those things in order to be saved, Christ will be of no benefit to you.”

This is an irrefutable conclusion. If you agree with Paul that making circumcision a requirement for salvation nullifies the benefits of Christ, you must agree that making anything a salvation requirement—other than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—also nullifies the benefits of Christ.

“But,” some will say, “the Bible says that faith without works is dead and cannot save anyone.” Yes, that is true. True faith always produces works. Genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ always results in obedience to His commandments. If I believe that He is Lord, I will strive to obey Him. Adherence to manmade rules and traditions, however, is not an indication of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ any more than adherence to Chinese laws is an indication of United States citizenship. Manmade laws are by definition not God’s laws. When professing Christians subscribe to manmade laws thinking that they must adhere to them to be saved, they reveal that their faith is not in Christ for salvation. Rather, their faith is in their own works, and worse, works that aren’t even prescribed by God and that do not have the indwelling Spirit as their source. Just as Paul told the Galatians, he would tell such folks that Christ is of no benefit to them.

Salvation is a gift granted to us by God’s grace and received through faith in Christ. It is not something we earn through our own works. And along with forgiveness of our sins, God also grants us the gift of His indwelling Spirit who motivates and empowers us to live righteously. As Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10).

That passage, I think, should be memorized by every Christian, because it is so important and concise. Salvation is a gift. By definition, gifts are not earned. So salvation is not the result of our works, just as Paul said. Salvation does, however, result in our doing good works.

The “equation of salvation” is not rightly expressed by this formula: Good Works = Salvation.  That is legalism. Neither is it rightly expressed by this formula: Faith + Good Works = Salvation. That is semi-legalism. Rather, it is best expressed by this formula: Faith = Salvation + Good Works. True faith in the Lord Jesus Christ results in a spiritual rebirth, a salvation that is always accompanied by obedience to Christ’s commandments.

Notice also what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-10 about the nature of those good works that originate from the gift of salvation. They are a result of God’s “workmanship” in us. They are works that “God prepared beforehand.” So naturally, they align with God’s will and God’s commandments. They are primarily acts of loving one’s neighbor. They are certainly not works that have their origins in manmade traditions or cultural rules. Born-again, Spirit-indwelt, new creations are not inspired and empowered by God to follow manmade religious rules and traditions! They are inspired and empowered by God to follow His laws!

Human Traditions

So is it wrong for Christians to follow manmade traditions? Yes, if they contradict or subvert biblical truth. Jesus once said to some Jewish leaders: “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” (Matt. 15:2). He also said, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition” (Mark 7:9).

Again, if I keep manmade traditions because I think I must keep them to be saved, then following those manmade traditions contradicts biblical truth. On the other hand, if I keep them to express love for my neighbor, then keeping them is not wrong. In fact, keeping them is a form of doing good.

Let me offer a biblical example. Although Paul strongly warned the Gentile Galatian believers against being circumcised (as we have already read), he himself once circumcised a Gentile convert:

Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek [a Gentile], and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek (Acts 16:1-3).

Why did Paul circumcise Gentile Timothy? It was because he wanted Timothy to help him spread the gospel in a region where there were many Jews, and no Jew would listen to an uncircumcised Gentile teach them about God. So, in order to remove a barrier to the gospel, Paul circumcised Timothy. But you can be sure that Paul didn’t tell Timothy, “I’m doing this because you can’t be saved unless you are circumcised.” Absolutely not!

Paul’s concern regarding the Gentile believers in Galatia was that they were “seeking to be justified by law” (Gal. 5:4), a very grave error. In fact, Paul believed it was a spiritually-deadly error:

You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace (Gal. 5:4).

People sometimes ask, “Is it possible to fall from grace?” According to Paul, the answer is “yes”—if someone who formerly was trusting Jesus for salvation begins to trust his works. It was Paul, not me, who told the Galatians that they had been “severed from Christ” and had “fallen from grace.”

The Gentile Galatian believers were not only lining up to be circumcised, believing it was required for salvation, but they were also starting to observe Jewish “days and months and seasons and years” (Gal. 4:10), all because they had been duped by false teachers who taught such things were required for salvation. Paul was very worried: “I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain” (Gal. 4:11). Everything that had been gained for the gospel in Galatia was in danger of being lost!

And that is why Paul opened his letter to the Galatians by bluntly expressing his shock at what was happening among them:

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ (Gal. 1:6-7).

Paul called the Jewish circumcision message a “different” and “distorted” gospel that was not aligned with the gospel of “the grace of Christ.” He considered their false doctrine so deadly that he went on to say:

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

And Paul didn’t stop with wishing for a curse upon the false teachers. Near the end of his letter, he wrote in exasperation: “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves” (Gal. 5:12). Other less-subtle English translations use the word “castrate” instead of “mutilate.” If the Jewish teachers were so sure of the spiritual benefits of some foreskin removal, maybe they should try, on themselves, a full genital removal!

Modern Amish Ordnungs

In light of all we’ve considered so far, let’s now return to thinking about modern Amish Ordnungs. It goes without saying that, if anyone believes they must keep the Ordnung to be saved and reach heaven, they are no different than the deceived Galatians who believed that they had to be circumcised and keep the Mosaic Law. Such Amish people are not trusting Jesus for salvation but are trusting in their works, and even worse, they are trusting works that are not grounded in God’s Word. For example, there is nothing in the Bible that says it is wrong to own and drive a car, or that we must drive horse-drawn buggies. If you are driving a buggy because you think you must to get to heaven, you are trusting in your works and Christ will be of no benefit to you. And the same could be said for any other Ordnung rule if you are keeping it because you think you must to get to heaven.

If, however, you are keeping the Ordnung out of love for others and not because you think you must keep it in order to get to heaven, that is different. You could do that and still maintain faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him alone for salvation.

That is exactly what the Apostle Paul did. He knew that keeping the Mosaic Law was not necessary for him to be saved. However, in order to not erect Jewish barriers to the gospel, he kept the Law of Moses when he was around Jews. And in order to not set up barriers to the gospel to Gentiles, he did not keep the Law of Moses when he was around them:

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law [of Moses], as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law [Gentiles, to whom God never gave the Law of Moses], as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it (1 Cor. 9:19-23).

Clearly, Paul did not believe that he, a Jew, was required to keep the Law of Moses. Just as clear is the fact he also believed that he, as a Christian, was required to keep the Law of Christ.

So too, newly born-again people of Amish background should know that God does not require them to keep any manmade rules of their community’s Ordnung, but He does expect them to obey all that Christ commanded.

Should such people, however, keep the Amish Ordnung when they are around Amish people who are not yet born again in order to not set up a barrier to the gospel, in hopes of winning them to genuine salvation by grace through faith?

That is, I believe, an individual decision. But we should keep in mind that many Amish-background believers continue to live in full view of Amish neighbors, unlike Paul who alternately traveled between the somewhat-separated worlds of Jews and Gentiles. Paul was primarily an “apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13; 1 Tim. 2:7), so he spent limited time keeping the Mosaic Law trying to not offend Jews.

Also keep in mind that, by continuing to keep the Amish Ordnung, Amish-background believers potentially could strengthen the self-deception of Amish people who think the Ordnung must be followed in order to one day go to heaven. By not keeping the Ordnung but keeping the Law of Christ, Amish-background believers send a clear message to unregenerate (non-born-again) Amish people that they believe keeping the Ordnung is not essential for salvation.

If I was an idol-worshipper prior to being born again, I would not continue to worship idols in order to try to win my idol-worshipping friends. Rather, I would want every idol worshipper to know I was no longer worshipping idols and was now worshipping the one true God.

Beyond all of that, born-again Amish-background believers who continue to keep the Ordnung might mislead non-Amish unbelievers into thinking that all the Amish lifestyle rules are required by God, which would hinder them from believing the gospel.

All of this is to say, if you are an Amish-background believer who decides to continue following the Ordnung, you have a moral obligation to tell unregenerate Amish as well as unregenerate non-Amish that your keeping the Ordnung has nothing to do with salvation, just as Paul made efforts to convey to unregenerate Jews and Gentiles that keeping the rules of the Mosaic Law had nothing to do with salvation. Remember, Paul was circumcised, and he circumcised Timothy, but he certainly never let anyone think that he or Timothy believed that circumcision was essential for salvation.

Of course, any Amish person who is born again and who begins to try to lead unregenerate Amish people to a genuine faith in Jesus Christ—a faith that includes believing the Ordnung is not essential for salvation—may soon find himself or herself excommunicated by their Amish community. Among regenerate Amish communities, however, that would not be the case. Still, the question remains if regenerate Amish communities should follow any form of Amish Ordnung. By keeping their hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of lifestyle rules, they run the risk of misleading Amish and non-Amish unbelievers that they believe keeping their lifestyle rules is essential for salvation.

Amish Ordnungs, of course, are the reason why virtually no outsiders ever join any Amish communities, regenerate or unregenerate. All outsiders naturally realize that if they were to join any Amish community, they would be expected to conform to all the Ordnung rules. If you are a part of a regenerate or unregenerate Amish community, be honest about this! You would only allow people to join your community who agreed to conform to your Ordnung. And if they agreed to conform and you allowed them to join, but then they did not conform, you know they would be excommunicated. If you say, “No, we would allow them to remain,” then your unenforced Ordnung is just a list of suggestions which anyone in your community can keep or not keep! So what is the point of your Ordnung?

Common Objections Answered

— “But our regenerate Amish community has arrived at our Ordnung by consensus! It has not been forced upon us by a bishop. Our Ordnung rules represent our agreed-upon convictions!” some say.

Still, together, you’ve set up rules that are not found in the Law of Christ, and you won’t allow anyone to join your community unless they agree to keep your Ordnung. Here’s another way of saying it: In your section of Christ’s church and body, Christians who only follow the Law of Christ aren’t welcome to join you. They must agree with all your lifestyle rules. Are you helping or hindering the growth of God’s kingdom, the kingdom where He is the King who makes the rules? Are you working for or against the unity of the church for which Jesus prayed in John 17:21?

There were, of course, differences of conviction among believers in the early church regarding lifestyle choices that were not specifically addressed in the Law of Christ. For example, some of the early Christians were persuaded that it was wrong for them to eat meat that had been sacrificed to an idol. Others, like Paul, believed there was nothing wrong with the practice. But neither side created an Ordnung over it, dividing into separate churches. Paul admonished both sides to be considerate of each other and walk in love, and especially those whose consciences were “strong” rather than “weak” (see 1 Cor. 8:1-13).

I am certain that, even within regenerate Amish communities, there are differences of convictions. As in any and all groups, stronger personalities dominate, and the convictions of those folks become the rules of the Ordnung, and those who disagree either outwardly conform or leave the group.

All of this is to say, why not discard any and all manmade rules and just follow Christ and His rules? Why not just be respectful and considerate of those followers of Christ whose personal convictions differ from yours, which is an act of obedience to Christ’s commandment to love one another?

Besides all of that, the truth is, no matter how rigorous or lax any Ordnung is, whether it is contrived by regenerate or unregenerate Amish, very few folks under any Ordnung are actually keeping it in its entirety, simply because everyone has different personal convictions. So every Ordnung makes liars out of people who declare that they will keep all the Ordnung but who in reality don’t!

—”But the Ordnung rules are like fences and road signs keep us on the right path!”

Are you saying that God’s commandments and His indwelling Holy Spirit are not enough to accomplish that today, as they were 2,000 years ago for the early church? Are you born again or not?

—”But everyone follows rules that are not in the Bible! For example, there are speed limits on highways! Those rules are good for everyone!”

First, there is no danger that any speed limit sign might mislead anyone into thinking they will go to hell if they don’t obey it! I never saw a speed limit sign that said, “If you exceed 55 miles per hour, you will go to hell when you die!” Yet Ordnungs definitely have the potential to mislead people into thinking they must be obeyed to escape hell. In fact, in unregenerate Amish communities, that is exactly how Ordnungs are portrayed.

Second, many drivers, if not most drivers, regularly exceed speed limits, proof that rules really don’t change behaviors. People follow their convictions. People who care about others drive safely, according to what they deem to be safe, which may include exceeding the speed limit at times.

In reality, good people don’t need external laws to govern their behavior because they are internally governed by moral principle. That is why Paul wrote, “Law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious” (1Tim. 1:9). If you think you need hundreds or thousands of external laws to govern your behavior, you are admitting that you are not internally motivated to do what is right. And that is an admission that you are not born again and you do not have the Holy Spirit living in you.

The fact is, people who are born again don’t even need God’s commandments to govern their behavior, because they have the Holy Spirit living in them to guide them. That is why Paul wrote, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law” (Gal. 5:18). Under the new covenant, God’s laws are written in our hearts (see Heb. 8:10).

So if born-again people don’t even need God’s commandments (externally) to govern their behavior, how much more do they not need any manmade rules to govern their behavior!

In summary, Amish Ordnungs, whether contrived by unregenerate or regenerate Amish communities, are not only affronts against God, as they betray a belief that His commandments and Holy Spirit are insufficient to produce behavior that pleases Him, but they are also tacit admissions that adherents are not righteous people who are self-governed by inward convictions, but unrighteous people who need external laws. Worse, those lists of rules make liars out of every Amish person, as they pledge to follow them, but don’t. Even worse, those lists of rules divide unregenerate Amish people and communities into factions and, among regenerate Amish communities, divide Christ’s body.

What is even more telling about Amish Ordnungs is that, among many Amish communities that are governed by thousands of rules, there is sexual immorality, including even child abuse and incest, as well as drunkenness and alcoholism, drug abuse, hatred, unforgiveness and broken relationships, dysfunctional families and marriage conflict, depression and mental disorders, and a host of other problems and sins that are clearly condemned in the Bible. Some Amish folks who are obediently driving horse-drawn buggies and wearing straw hats are sexually molesting children! There is an Amish community near me in which, over the past year, three men have gone to prison for molesting children! The reason is because, if you are not born again, you are, as the Bible says, a slave to sin (see John 8:34; Rom. 6:6-20).

It is not just Amish child molesters who are slaves to sin. All unregenerate Amish people are slaves to sin. Amish folks who aren’t born again (just like “English” folks who haven’t been born again) have difficulty keeping God’s basic commandments, much less all the manmade rules of their Ordnung. The solution to the entire mess is the new birth through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! People who are born again have the desire and power to obey Jesus’ commandments, as Jesus Himself promised:

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matt. 11:28-29).

And as the apostle John echoed:

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3).

The reason Jesus’ commandments are not burdensome is because He transforms those who believe in Him by His grace. In their hearts, they love Him, and they want to obey Him. And by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, they can obey Him! The problem in unregenerate Amish communities is hearts that have not yet been transformed by the grace of God. That’s it. And it is so tragic, because the entire basis of the original Anabaptist movement of the 16th century was the new birth by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

How Far Fence Laws Can Go

Amish folks aren’t the first people who’ve promoted the idea of fence laws. Many of the Jews in Jesus’ day followed thousands of fence laws that were designed to keep them far from disobeying God’s laws. For example, the Mosaic law declared, “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk” (Ex. 34:26). This law related to an occult fertility rite practiced by the Canaanites—whom the Israelites dispossessed after their deliverance from Egypt. God didn’t want His people practicing pagan superstitions. The Jews, however, ignored the spirit of that particular law and created fence laws to prevent anyone from getting anywhere close to breaking the letter of it.

For example, a person might, at the same meal, drink goat’s milk and eat goat meat. There was some chance—albeit a slim one—that the milk might be from the mother of the goat that was being eaten. Once mixed in the stomach and heated there, a “boiling” of sorts would occur, and one would be guilty of boiling a goat in its mother’s milk! So, a fence law was established to prevent such a “transgression” from ever occurring. That law forbade the eating of any meat and dairy product together, because you never know if some goat’s meat may have mixed with some beef at the slaughter house, or if some goat’s milk may have been mixed with some cow’s milk at the dairy!

If one ate any meat product, he must wait a specified time for it to be fully digested before consuming any dairy product, and vice versa, lest they mix in one’s stomach. And all meat and dairy products must be kept in separate kitchens, lest there be any accidental mixing of the two. Moreover, completely separate dishes must be kept for eating meat and dairy products, because there was a chance that a small particle of cheese might remain on your plate from a previous meal. If that cheese was made from goat’s milk, and if you happen to eat some goat’s meat on that same plate, that goat’s meat might be from a goat whose mother’s milk was used to make the cheese, and thus when combined in your stomach, you’d be guilty of boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk! (It was because of these fence laws that I found it impossible to order a cheese pizza with pepperoni the last time I visited Israel.)

There were at least 1,500 fence laws surrounding the single commandment that forbade working on the Sabbath. Walking across a field on the Sabbath was forbidden, because you might inadvertently cause a grain of wheat to separate from its stalk, thus making you guilty of reaping on the Sabbath. Your foot might also step on a grain that had fallen on the ground, and by stepping on it, you might cause the wheat to be separated from the chaff, making you guilty of threshing on the Sabbath. It was also possible that your garment could create a breeze that would cause the chaff to blow away, making you guilty of winnowing on the Sabbath. And if a bird saw that grain and swooped down to eat it, you would be guilty of storing grain on the Sabbath!

Eventually, all those fence laws came to be considered as binding as the Mosaic Law, and they were compiled into what is called the Mishna. If there was disagreement between the two, the Mishna, by its own testimony, actually superseded the Mosaic Law. This Jesus condemned, citing an example of how the scribes and Pharisees invalidated the fifth commandment, and by their tradition released people from responsibility of caring for their elderly parents. Their doctrines were “precepts of men,” which proved that their hearts were far from God. Tragically, the same phenomenon can be observed in Amish culture today, where traditions take precedence over God’s Word. How it must grieve God. And the fence laws of the Jews couldn’t save or transform anyone, just like Amish Ordnungs.

Imagine This…

If you are Amish, I want to ask you to imagine something. Imagine waking up one morning to a world without any Ordnung. I know that sounds unimaginable if you are Amish. But just try to imagine it for a moment. Imagine that all the bishops and ministers in your community met and agreed to abolish the Ordnung, so from then on, no one would be expected to obey any manmade rules, but only Christ’s commandments. No one would have to worry any longer about being watched, discovered, judged, put on trial, shunned or excommunicated for anything that at one time was part of the Ordnung. What would happen in your community? Would anyone’s behavior change?

I’m sure you agree that most Amish people’s behavior, if not all Amish people’s behavior, would change, at least to some degree. Many would start doing things that were formerly forbidden and stop doing things that were formerly expected. And their change of behavior would reveal their former motive for their former behavior. They did what they did, not because they wanted to, but because they were expected to. They would have preferred otherwise, but they did what they did out of fear of losing the approval of the group. Any Amish person who is honest will admit that is the reason they keep their community’s Ordnung to the degree that they do. And any Amish person who is honest will also admit that is also the reason they all regularly or occasionally secretly transgress their community’s Ordnung—as long as they think they likely won’t be caught.

Now take this imagination one step further. Just as all Amish people obey their community’s Ordnung out of fear of losing the approval of the group, there is also a possibility that many Amish people obey Christ’s commandments for the very same reason. That is, they aren’t obeying Christ’s commandments because they love Him or because they are born again, but because they want the approval of other Amish people. Their “holiness” is just a show. If they weren’t under peer pressure to act Amish, they would be disobeying both their Ordnung and Christ’s commandments.

Yet I can assure you, if your Amish community abolished the Ordnung as well as any expectation that anyone keep Christ’s commandments, those who are born again within the community might, with everyone else, no longer keep any of the former Ordnung’s rules, but they would not cease obeying Christ’s commandments. The reason is because they want to keep Christ’s commandments, because they are born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Here’s another test: Imagine how you would act if you found yourself in a state of the U.S. where there were no other Amish people. Imagine being hundreds of miles from any Amish community, so there was no chance of anyone reporting you to your bishop for transgressions against the Ordnung. How would you act? If you would behave differently far away from other Amish people, that reveals your motive for how you behave now when you are around other Amish people. You are motivated by fear of losing the approval of your group. Far from other Amish eyes, there would be no chance of being rejected, so all your motivation to obey the Ordnung would be gone. Many Amish readers won’t need any imagination for what I’ve just described, because they’ve already done what I’ve described on their vacations. One English driver told me that most Amish people whom she drives for any extended trip change their clothes to make themselves indistinguishable from non-Amish people. On the beach, Amish women are wearing bikinis (and no head coverings)!

If you would disobey any of Christ’s commandments when far away from other Amish people, that is sure proof you have not been born again. The outstanding characteristic of a born-again person is that he or she wants to obey Jesus’ commandments.

All of this is to say, not only can the Ordnung not save you, it also can’t transform you or make you obey God. All it does is constantly condemn you—all your life. All those fences and road signs just tempt you to do the opposite of what you want to do because you are a slave to sin. The only solution to your slavery to sin is faith in Jesus, who longs to forgive you, deliver you, transform you, empower you, guide you, and one day welcome you into His eternal kingdom.

What are you waiting for? Stop hoping your works will save you! Repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, making Him your Lord! He will forgive you and put His Holy Spirit in you. You will be a “born-again” “new creation in Christ,” with an inward love, joy, and peace that you never dreamed of!

To Everyone Who is Hoping to be Good Enough to Get into Heaven

The Amish Papers - Chapter 7

For everyone who is hoping to be good enough to get into Heaven

Here is another article written in early 2022 that was published on our website. It explores a number of important theological issues all centered around holiness, forgiveness for sins we commit as believers, penance, public confession of sin, the discipline of the Lord, the loss of salvation, the assurance of salvation, and the marks of a genuine new birth. It could be helpful for any believer who has questions regarding these issues.

It is not only Amish people who are hoping they are good enough to get into heaven. Probably the majority of people on Planet Earth—at least those who believe in an afterlife—are hoping they are good enough to graduate at death to something better. It is a hope shared by billions of people, most of whom are persuaded that one’s state after death is determined by how one lives his or her life.

Although I’ve never been Amish, I know quite a few Amish people, as I live in the middle of Pennsylvania’s third-largest Amish community. As I’ve talked with them about their beliefs, I’ve learned that they’ve been taught all of their lives that you can’t know until you die if you will make it into heaven. The reason is because they believe that heaven hinges on their holiness, and no one will know until they die if they’ve been holy enough. Until then, they can only hope for the best.

The standard for holiness in Amish communities—as all Amish and Amish-background readers already know—is not just the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. It is also their local Ordnung, which legislates almost every detail of Amish life and culture. If you are not Amish, you may not know that every Amish adult is expected to affirm his or her agreement with the local Ordnung twice annually. Unrepentant infractions are grounds for excommunication.

Of course, because good Amish people can only hope they will be considered worthy for heaven, excommunicated Amish people have no hope at all. Rather, they are told that they will go to hell. That fear is a big part of what has perpetuated Amish culture for hundreds of years. If you believe that driving a car is a sure ticket to hell, that has a way of motivating you to keep driving a horse and buggy.

In Amish thinking, anyone who says he is certain of attaining heaven is prideful. Only proud people, they believe, would ever think they are good enough for heaven. And I couldn’t agree more. Looking at my own life, I tend to think I’m more deserving of hell than heaven.

It may surprise you, however, to hear me also say that I’m certain—if I died right now—that I would be going to heaven and not to hell. Obviously, my reason for being certain of my salvation is not because I think I’m good enough for heaven. On the contrary, I’m 100% certain I’m not good enough.

I was not good enough before I became a believer in Jesus about 46 years ago, and since I became a believer in Him, although my behavior is much more in line with God’s will, I’m still not good enough. The only way a person could be good enough to earn a place in heaven would be to be perfect his or her entire life, never sinning once. It is certainly too late for me to employ that strategy, and I’d be willing to bet it is too late for you as well! So, if any of us folks who have sinned—either a little or a lot—are going to get into heaven, it is going to require some mercy from God. The only way for sinners to get into heaven is through God’s mercy.

All Amish folks would agree with me on that point. They are, generally speaking, very much aware that they are sinners who need mercy from God. Amish belief, however, places a limit on God’s mercy, which then necessitates an unknown degree of personal obedience to make up for the mercy God does not extend. So Amish people believe they are saved by a combination of God’s mercy and personal obedience. And that obedience involves not only obedience to the “law of Christ” (which includes every commandment that Jesus gave to His followers) but also to the hundreds of unwritten requirements contained within their local Ordnung. So, of course it is impossible for them to know for certain if they will attain heaven. All they can do is hope for the best—for themselves and their loved ones who have died before them.

It may surprise you to learn, however, that none of the early Anabaptists believed like modern Amish people believe. Neither did any of the early Christians. Nor did Paul, Peter, John, James or Jude. Neither did Jesus.

Mercy and Grace

Any person who reads the Bible will repeatedly encounter two of the most wonderful words in the English language, which are mercy and grace. Both are expressions of love, and you know that if anyone has ever extended either to you. Both mercy and grace are undeserved blessings. To receive mercy or grace from a fellow human being is lovely. To receive mercy or grace from God, well, there are no words to describe how wonderful that is!

Although similar, mercy is sometimes defined as “not receiving a penalty you do deserve,” whereas grace is often defined as “receiving a blessing you do not deserve.” Whether those contrasting definitions are entirely accurate is not that important. Mercy and grace are both forms of undeserved favor. Every person who has ever lived has received both from God, but those who have believed in Jesus have received—by far and away—the most mercy and grace, and they are destined to receive even more of both in the future.

Let’s consider some of the mercy and grace God has showered upon those who believe in Jesus.

Scripture tells us that believers in Jesus “will not perish”:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Do you believe in Jesus? If “yes,” then you will not perish according to Jesus’ own promise in John 3:16. Of course, we all deserve to perish because of our sin, and to perish in hell. But because of His great mercy towards us, the Bible promises believers:

God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us (1 Thes. 5:9).

Do you believe that promise? If you do, it should also fill you with confidence that your eternal future is bright. God has not destined you for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Notice that Paul did not credit any good things believers have done as being the reason they are not destined for wrath. Rather, Paul credited Jesus and His death, because Jesus’ death paid the penalty for our sins. And not just for some of our sins, but for all of our sins. That includes even the sins we might yet commit in the future. That is why the apostle John, writing to Christians, said:

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

My little children, I amwriting these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (1 John 1:8–2:2).

A Closer Look at 1 John 1:8-2:2

To begin to paraphrase John, he wrote that if we claim to be sinless, we are self-deceived. We are all sinners. As sinners, we’re going to need forgiveness, which is why Jesus instructed His followers to pray for forgiveness of their sins in their daily prayers:

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (Matt. 6:11-12).

This is not to say that believers in Jesus sin just as much or to the same degree that nonbelievers do. Although believers are certainly capable of committing every sin that unbelievers commit, they have God-given incentives not to sin, as well as power over sin, that generally produce a much higher degree of holiness than what is observed in unbelievers. Later in this article, I will discuss some of those incentives and power in more detail, but I only want to establish now that Christians still sometimes sin. And that is why John wrote to Christians regarding what they should do if and when they do sin. Specifically, they should confess their sin to God. John declared that if we, as Christians, confess our sins to God, “He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Do you believe that promise? If you, as a believer in Jesus, confess your sin, God will mercifully do two things for you: (1) He will forgive you. And (2) He will also “cleanse you from all unrighteousness.” That means you are instantly perfectly clean in God’s eyes as soon as you confess. If you think you need to do something beyond confessing your sin to God, you are mistaken. Contained within your confession, of course, is your remorse, as well as your desire to not repeat the same sin. (And I think we all know that those good desires do not guarantee we never will repeat the same sin.)

Although John did not mention it in the passage we’re considering, if your sin has harmed another person, of course you should also confess your sin to that person and seek his or her forgiveness. But John is referring to what needs to be done to be forgiven by God.

John also wrote that Jesus is our “Advocate with the Father.” That is, Jesus is our lawyer who defends us against the condemnation we deserve for our sin. Jesus, of course, would never lie and argue that we didn’t commit the sins of which we are guilty. Rather, He declares that the penalty for our sin has been paid. John wrote in the same passage that Jesus is “the propitiation for our sins.” (Note that John is definitely including the sins committed by Christians.)

The dictionary definition of the verb propitiate is “to win or regain the favor of someone by doing something that pleases them.” The New Testament Greek word, hilasmos, which is often translated propitiation in English translations carries the meaning of “making appeasement by a sacrifice” or “atonement.” Jesus made atonement on the cross, where He suffered and died for all of our sins. He appeased the wrath of God that we deserved. Therefore, to think that what Jesus did was insufficient, or that we must add some additional atonement, is at best an unscriptural idea, and at worst, a degradation of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. To “do penance” as a means of atoning for our sins is to say that Jesus’ sufferings and death were not enough!

It is interesting that in Amish culture, those who sin are expected to confess their sin to the entire church and then endure a time of being excommunicated or shunned, a form of “doing penance.” Tragically, most Amish folks don’t realize that some of their Anabaptist forefathers gave their lives standing against the idea of “penance” as it was practiced then and still today within the Roman Catholic Church. When Roman Catholics “go to confession” where they privately confess their sins to a priest, penance is often prescribed. All of the Protestant Reformers and early Anabaptists considered such a practice to be heretical. Even if it is claimed that penance only validates the sincerity of one’s repentance, it can easily be perceived by the one doing penance that he or she is “making up for their sin,” which is a form of atonement beyond Christ’s atonement.

There is one more important part of John’s words in 1 John 1:8-2:2 that I want to emphasize. Take note John wrote that, if we confess our sins, God is “faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Although we might have thought the basis of God’s forgiveness is His mercy and grace, John says it is God’s faithfulness and righteousness. That is, it is right for God to forgive us. How can that be? The reason it is right for God to forgive us is because Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. Yes, Jesus’ death was a manifestation of God’s mercy toward us in that His death provided the means for our forgiveness by God, but that forgiveness is a manifestation of God’s faithfulness to do what is right because of what Jesus did on the cross! If God didn’t forgive us when we acknowledge our sin, it would be wrong of Him—in light of Jesus’ payment!

So, I hope you can see how silly it would be to think that we need to rely on anything other than Jesus’ sufferings and death to atone for our sins. Imagine someone paying off your long-overdue million-dollar debt and all the overdue interest, so that you were completely debt-free. Then imagine giving your former creditor ten cents to show him how sorry you were for not paying him when the money was due. That is somewhat akin to any “penance” we might do before God.

Public Confession of Sin

But what about the apostle James’ admonition to “confess your sins to one another”? (Jas. 5:16).

Clearly, James was not prescribing a practice that required all Christians at all times to confess all their sins to the entire church. Rather, he was addressing a specific group of Christians, and that specific group becomes obvious when we read the context of James’ words:

Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much (Jas. 5:14-16).

The specific Christians whom James was addressing were sick Christians. They should call for the church elders to pray over them with faith and anoint them with oil in Jesus’ name. James said that such folks will not only be healed but also be forgiven, if they have committed sins. The implication is that, if their sickness was the result of God’s discipline for their sin, God would both heal them and forgive them of the sins that opened the door to their sickness. Paul wrote of such a possibility in his first letter to the Corinthian believers:

For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world (1 Cor. 11:30-32).

It would be unsafe to conclude that all sickness (and premature death) that Christians suffer is a manifestation of God’s discipline for sin, but it would be equally unsafe to conclude that no sickness Christians suffer is a manifestation of God’s discipline for sin. It is every Christian’s responsibility to “judge himself,” as Paul wrote, and if we will, we can avoid God’s discipline/judgment.

The kind of sins of which James wrote that Christians should confess to one another are most likely sins they have committed against each other, as that interpretation fits best within the whole context of the book of James and the entire Bible. If we read the entire book of James, we see that James was writing to people who were very familiar with strife among themselves (see Jas. 4:1-2, 11-12). Broken relationships are only restored through confession. So James admonished them to reconcile by making confession and extending forgiveness, evidenced by prayers for healing.

Christians are commanded by God to love one another. To disobey that commandment is to potentially open the door to the Lord’s discipline. For that reason, to sin against a fellow believer is to potentially open the door to sickness, or even premature death. But that door can be closed by going to the person who has been sinned against and by asking for his or her forgiveness.

Of course, offended Christians are commanded to forgive those who confess their sins against them. If they don’t, they will get in trouble with God (see Matt. 18:23-35). If they have truly forgiven a sick believer who is requesting their forgiveness, they will have no trouble praying for that person’s healing. That is more of what James was talking about. There is no scripture in the New Testament that requires all Christians to confess all their sins in front of the entire church, much less any scripture that requires some form of penance from believers who have sinned.

The Initial and Latter Cleansings

When someone first repents of their sins and believes in Jesus, all of their past sins are forgiven and cleansed:

“Of Him [Jesus] all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins” (Acts 10:43).

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:13-14)

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake (1 John 2:12).

Not only that, but new believers become “new creations in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17), the Holy Spirit comes to live inside them (1 Cor. 6:19), and they are given a new inward nature that motivates and empowers them for holiness (Eph. 4:24). Still, those new creations have a residue of the old, sinful nature, so they are faced with a daily battle between flesh and spirit (see Gal. 5:16-24). As the apostle James wrote to believers in his day: “We all stumble in many ways” (Jas. 3:2). No Christian, of course, wants to sin. But sometimes we stumble. The word “stumble” implies falling unintentionally. So, although all true Christians have experienced a very significant initial cleansing, they occasionally need a subsequent, minor cleansing. Can you relate? I certainly can.

You may recall the time when Peter resisted Jesus’ intention to wash his feet. Jesus said to Peter, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me” (John 13:8). Peter replied, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head” (John 13:9). Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you” (John 13:10).

That conversation between Jesus and Peter is an excellent illustration of the initial and subsequent cleansings within the normal Christian life. As new believers, we are washed clean of our sin in a monumental way. Every sinful thought, word and deed is erased from our record when we believe in Jesus. God looks at us as if we had never sinned. That is what the New Testament means when it says that we have been “made righteous” or are “justified.” It is just-as-if-I’d never sinned!

But in our daily lives in the world, as we face all the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, we still sometimes get some dust on our feet. We need Jesus, the one who formerly cleansed our entire bodies, to then wash our feet, reminding us again of His humble service and great mercy. Once He does wash our feet, we are just as clean as we were when He first cleansed us. His mercy is more than sufficient.

What if a Believer Dies with Unconfessed Sin?

Since God expects us to confess our sins in order for us to be forgiven, what if we die with unconfessed sin?

We have already read a scripture passage that addresses that very issue in 1 Corinthians:

For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world (1 Cor. 11:30-32).

Obviously, those Corinthian Christians who had died prematurely due to God’s judgement/discipline died with unconfessed sins. If they would have “judged themselves” Paul said they would have avoided God’s judgment. So did they go to hell? No, Paul wrote that they were “disciplined by the Lord so that [they would] not be condemned along with the world.” So they obviously did not go to hell.

And because Scripture teaches that we must all one day stand before God in judgment (Rom. 14:10-12; 2 Cor. 5:9-10), we can be sure that any unconfessed sins will be addressed at our judgement. Obviously, if God can forgive us when we confess our sin on earth, He can also forgive us if we confess our sin in heaven.

This is not to say that there won’t be eternal consequences for our disobedience as believers. Scripture teaches that some believers will suffer loss of heavenly rewards they could have enjoyed had they been obedient. Concerning himself, an apostle, and concerning Apollos, a teacher, Paul wrote:

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yetso as through fire (1 Cor. 3:5-15).

According to Paul, it is possible—even for Christian leaders like himself and Apollos—to build Jesus’ church using figuratively-flammable materials that will one day perish in the flames of judgment. Those Christian leaders who build with “wood, hay and straw,” as compared to “gold, silver and precious stones,” will tragically witness their ministry works turn to ashes. But will such ministers be condemned to hell for building Jesus’ church using means and methods that proved to be of no real value? No, Paul wrote that, although their works will be “burned up” and they “will suffer loss,” they themselves “will be saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). The fire that burned their worthless works will also erase those works from their ministerial record.

Born-again Amish bishops, ministers and deacons would be wise to ask themselves what kind of materials they are using to build Jesus’ church. Will the various manmade Ordnungs which can be found nowhere in the New Testament fall under the category of wood, hay and straw, or gold, silver and precious stones? Of course, there is no need for Amish bishops, ministers and deacons who are not born again to ask such questions, because they will never see or enter God’s kingdom according to Jesus (see John 3:3,5). They will be cast into hell along with all the people whom they misled into believing that heaven is attained by keeping hundreds of manmade rules, an idea that contradicts the gospel and denigrates Jesus’ sacrificial death.

But is it Not Possible to Forfeit Salvation?

Some claim that no Christian can possesses assurance of salvation because no Christian knows if he or she will “endure to the end,” because Jesus said, “the one who endures to the end, he will be saved” (Matt. 10:22; 24:13).

Indeed, because it is by believing in Jesus we have the guarantee that we “will not perish but will have eternal life” (John 3:16), we must of course continue to believe in order to obtain ultimate salvation and heaven. We have been saved “by grace through faith” (Eph. 2:8), but not by a momentary instance of faith, but by a faith that continues and endures.

Similarly, Paul wrote that Jesus “has now reconciled us in His fleshly body through death, in order to present us before God holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed we continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that we have heard” (Col. 1:22-23). To ultimately be saved in the end, we must “continue in the faith.”

So, the New Testament teaches that (1) faith is not necessarily permanent or perpetual, and (2) those who currently believe could abandon their faith at any time in the future (see Luke 8:13). Therefore, none of us can be 100% certain that our faith will endure to the end. Those of us, however, who have believed steadfastly for decades, and through many trials, have good reason to think that we will never stop believing. Still, we always remain cautiously alert, lest within us ever arises “an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God” (Heb.3:12).

Those facts, however, do not prove that it is impossible for us to possess assurance of eternal life right now. If I were to die right now believing in Jesus, then I “will not perish, but will have eternal life” (John 3:16). Therefore, I possess current assurance of my salvation even though the possibility exists that I could fall away from faith at some future point. The apostle John certainly believed that it was possible for a believer to forfeit his salvation (see 1 John 2:28; 5:16, yet he still wrote, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13). According to John, knowing that you currently have eternal life is the normal Christian experience.

What About Faith Without Works?

Is it not true, however, as James wrote, that “faith without works is dead”? (Jas. 2:26).

Yes, it is certainly true. Faith without works cannot save anyone (see Jas. 2:14). Then how could anyone be certain that he has sufficient works to validate the authenticity of saving faith?

Take note that James did not write, “Faith without perfect holiness is dead and cannot save you.” Rather, he only wrote what everyone knows is true: If someone believes something, you can tell they believe it by their actions.

People who believe there is a scorpion hiding in their boot do not put their foot in that boot.

People who believe that their adult children and grandchildren are coming for a visit prepare for that visit.

People who believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for their sins and before whom they will stand one day strive to obey Him. That is how we know that many people—including even Amish people who say they believe in Jesus—don’t actually believe in Him. Keeping the Ordnung is more important to them than keeping Jesus’ commandments. They are more concerned about what other Amish people think about them than what God thinks about them. They are religious but not righteous. They have no genuine faith in Jesus, so they have never had their sins forgiven, they have never been born again, and they will not enter God’s kingdom—unless they repent and believe. Once they do believe in Jesus, their lives will change, and they will be characterized by daily striving to obey Him. But will they achieve perfection? No, as James also said, “we all stumble in many ways” (Jas. 3:2). So, “faith without works is dead” but “we all stumble in many ways.”

The Marks of the New Birth

If you have truly been born again, you are a different person than you were before you were born again. The Holy Spirit has come to live inside you, and He has transformed your spirit, the “inward person.” According to the apostle John, that transformation manifests itself in the lives of believers in at least three ways:

First, that transformation shows up in their confession of faith:

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God (1 John 4:15).

John was not writing about a one-time confession when someone is baptized, a confession that is often not made from true faith, but from a desire to please one’s family. The Greek word translated “confesses” implies an ongoing confession. Born again people often confess their faith in Jesus as the Son of God, and not just when they are reading a prayer or repeating words in church. They are not ashamed to confess their faith before others, and they often do. As Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32-33).

Second, the transformation shows up in their love for their fellow believers in Christ:

We know that we havepassed out of death into life, because we love the brethren (1 John 3:14).

This is how we know that many Amish people have never been truly born again. When someone is actually born again by God’s Spirit, Amish people often excommunicate him. I know of Amish people who have been excommunicated because they started studying the Bible with others! That is a sure sign that those who are doing the excommunication are not born again. Born again people love other born-again people! They don’t excommunicate them for being born again! And born-again people also love God’s Word! So they naturally want to talk about what God has said with other believers.

Third, the transformation shows up in their obedience to Jesus’ commandments:

By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments (1 John 2:3).

As I have already said, this is how we know that many Amish people have not been born again. They aren’t keeping Jesus’ commandments. Some are drunkards. Some are liars, or gossips or slanderers. Some are fornicators and adulterers. Some, believe it or not, sexually abuse children. Some are always engaged in hatred and strife even while claiming to be “people of peace.” Some are lovers of money. Some are full of pride like Pharisees. And many are trying to earn their way to heaven by keeping hundreds of manmade laws, in by doing, are ignoring the gospel of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. Paul warned:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10).

But all those things change when people are born again. Paul continues:

Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11).

Notice that the three scriptures I cited regarding the three ways that believers are transformed are all from John’s first epistle (1 John 2:3; 3:14; 4:15). John repeatedly mentioned those three ways of transformation: People who are truly born again continually confess that Jesus is the Son of God, they love other believers, and they obey Jesus’ commandments. And then John concludes his letter by saying, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). That is, John repeatedly mentioned the three proofs of transformation so that his readers could be certain that God’s grace had indeed transformed them.

What about you? Is the reason that you don’t have assurance of eternal life is because you have never truly been born again? Is it because you are hoping that you are good enough, but you are not certain that you are? Is it because you think that heaven is earned by a combination of keeping Jesus’ commandments as well as hundreds of manmade commandments?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then I have very good news for you. You can have assurance of eternal life by abandoning all hope that you can be saved by your conduct and then by believing that Jesus is the Son of God who died for your sins. He will forgive and cleanse you. He will cause you to be born again. He will put His Holy Spirit inside of you. And you will know that you can never be good enough to merit heaven or eternal life, but that you have been saved by grace through faith. What are you waiting for?

From the Peace Barn: Why Even Good Amish People, and Not Just Bad Amish People, Need to Repent and be Born Again

The Amish Papers - Chapter 6

Picture of Amish people - why even good Amish people need to repent and believe the gospel

Although my sixth article was never published in The Amish Voice, it was published on our website. I felt (and still feel) that a major roadblock that keeps Amish people from being born again is self-righteousness. So this article was an attempt to help Amish readers realize that, no matter how good they might be in comparison to others, they are still sinners who need to be born again and forgiven by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This teaching, based on the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, was penned in early 2022.

I’ve begun each of my two previous articles in The Amish Voice enumerating things I admire about the Amish—among whom I have many friends, particularly within the Pennsylvania communities of Smicksburg and Johnsonburg. The Smicksburg community is very conservative, whereas the Johnsonburg community has a more liberal Ordnung. I love both groups, however, and there are so many good things to say about them both, as there are about all Amish groups.

When you compare any Amish community to the general non-Amish population, their moral virtue shines brightly. I am, of course, speaking in a generalization, because there are certainly plenty of virtuous people outside of Amish culture, and moral failings certainly surface in Amish communities at times. From my observation, however, Amish communities are generally comparable to an island in a cesspool, and I am very familiar with non-Amish culture. I am also probably more familiar with Amish culture than most non-Amish people.

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From the Peace Barn: Amish or Ahamish?

The Amish Papers - Chapter 5

Image of amish men - Amish or Ahamish?

In May of 2022, this article, my fifth, was published in The Amish Voice. I came up with the term “Ahamish” to describe born-again Amish people. I imagined that when their eyes had been opened to true salvation and faith in the Lord Jesus that they cried out “Aha!” So, that put all Amish people into one of two categories, either Amish or Ahamish. This article was one more attempt to provoke Amish people to ask themselves if they were born again.

By this time in 2022, the secret Bible study in Johnsonburg had grown and multiplied, and after just a few months, two-dozen Johnsonburg adults had been born again. Eventually word reached the senior bishop who set in motion the excommunication of them all. So they formed their own Sunday morning gathering while continuing the weekday Bible studies.

Although my wife and I stopped attending any of the gatherings so as not to hinder Levi and Jonas from rising to their full leadership potential, our youngest daughter and her husband became very involved in one of the Bible studies, and they kept encouraging the new believers to not only persevere, but to reach out in ministry, which they enthusiastically did. We started referring to the entire thing as “the Johnsonburg Awakening.” By May of 2022, it was in full swing!

After the publication of my article in January’s Amish Voice (“From the Peace Barn: Amish and Born Again”), I received phone calls from readers in North Carolina, Indiana, Virginia and Wyoming. I enjoyed every conversation. Some were with Amish folks and some were with Ahamish folks. I’ll explain the difference later, but I first want to continue from my previous article explaining a few more reasons I admire the Amish people whom I know.

My wife and I live in the heart of Pennsylvania’s third-largest Amish community in a remodeled 1890 barn that became our home about a year ago. Most all of the remodeling work was done by skilled local Amish craftsman who have all become our friends.

I should tell you that our Amish community is one of the more conservative ones. Many things are forbidden that are permitted in other Amish communities, such as personal phones (community pay phones are permitted). Nevertheless, as seems to be the case in every Amish group, our Amish neighbors are hard-working, honest and considerate. For example, I noticed several years ago—when we first began remodeling our old barn—that whenever I walked into a room where my Amish carpenters were working, they would immediately switch from speaking Pennsylvania Dutch to English so that I could understand their ongoing conversation. I never had to worry that they were secretly talking negatively about me in a language I don’t understand!

I also admire Amish families I’ve met. They often have lots of children, and those children are well-behaved. From a young age they are involved in family chores. The elderly are respected, and infirm parents are cared for in the homes of their adult children. These are all good things.

There are other admirable Amish traits I could list, but I will save them for a future article. Although I’m sure Amish families and communities face many of the normal struggles of human relationships, they seem to maintain a decent degree of harmony. If everyone in the world were Amish, no doubt our planet would be a much better place.

Among those who phoned me in response to my previous article in The Amish Voice were (1) current Amish, (2) Amish who are considering becoming Mennonite, and (3) former Amish who are striving to serve God. All had a different story to tell.

One who was formerly Amish told me that he didn’t want to ever leave the Amish, but he was excommunicated because he became interested in learning more about the Bible, so he participated in Bible study and was subsequently born again (something Jesus said one must experience in order to enter the kingdom of heaven).

One who is considering becoming Mennonite has been having trouble with his local ministers because of his perception of their unequal application of their Ordnung among church members. His adult children left long ago and joined a Mennonite church.

One who is still Amish is greatly burdened for his Amish neighbors and community because he has been born again and is concerned that most of them are not.

All three of the people I’ve just described are among the “Ahamish.” That term, of course, is one I invented. So, who are the Ahamish?

You are probably familiar with the expression, “Aha!” When someone suddenly discovers something they hadn’t previously realized, they often say, “Aha!” Ahamish people are Amish folks who have done just that.  They’ve discovered something they previously didn’t realize.

In every case, Ahamish people previously didn’t realize their need to be born again. They knew they had been born into Amish culture and were expected to conform in every detail. They knew about the Bible and they were familiar with many of its stories. They had been baptized as teenagers when they made their vows. They attended church gatherings every other week all their lives.

In every case, however, they ultimately came to a realization that they were life-long sinners who deserved punishment, and that there was no hope of them earning salvation and eternal life. They discovered that God loved them so much that He gave His only Son to die for their sins on the cross. They came to believe Jesus’ promise that, “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). And when they truly believed in Him, not just said they believed in Him as they did when they made their vows to the church, but truly believed that He is God’s Son and the Lord, they repented of their sins and experienced a spiritual rebirth that transformed their lives.

What changed? They immediately experienced a joy and peace they had never known before. They knew all their sins had been forgiven and that God’s Holy Spirit had come to live inside them to empower them to live pure and holy lives. They knew they were children of God and that He had become their spiritual father. They knew they had eternal life. And they wanted others to enjoy the same wonderful blessings, so they started telling their Amish family members and friends about what had happened to them, because born-again people cannot keep quiet about the miracle they’ve experienced. And that is when some started getting into trouble. Some were eventually excommunicated.

Please understand that a person can be Amish but not be born again. However, please also understand that one can be Amish and also be born again if their particular Amish community allows it.

Beyond that, according to the Dordrecht Confession (to which all Amish groups subscribe), one is actually not truly Amish unless one is born again. Here’s the sixth article of the Dordrecht Confession:

We believe and confess, that, since the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and, therefore, prone to all unrighteousness, sin, and wickedness, the first lesson of the precious New Testament of the Son of God is repentance and reformation of life, and that, therefore, those who have ears to hear, and hearts to understand, must bring forth genuine fruits of repentance, reform their lives, believe the Gospel, eschew evil and do good, desist from unrighteousness, forsake sin, put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness: for, neither baptism, supper, church [membership], nor any other outward ceremony, can without faith, regeneration, change or renewing of life, avail anything to please God or to obtain of Him any consolation or promise of salvation; but we must go to God with an upright heart, and in perfect faith, and believe in Jesus Christ, as the Scripture says, and testifies of Him; through which faith we obtain forgiveness of sins, are sanctified, justified, and made children of God, yea, partake of His mind, nature, and image, as being born again of God from above, through incorruptible seed.

The Confession’s sixth article mentions both “being born again” and “regeneration.” Regeneration is another word for being born again. Yet one of the Ahamish folks who phoned me explained that many of the Amish people whom he knows become very troubled when he tells them about being born again. I asked him why they would be troubled about something that is clearly mentioned as a necessity by Jesus in John 3:1-8, by the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:3, and in Article 6 of the Dordrecht Confession. He said that they are tragically ignorant of those facts. I could not help but wonder why.

Another way of describing the difference between being Amish and Ahamish is that one can be Amish simply by an outward conformity to Amish culture. Being Ahamish, however, is not external, but internal. An Ahamish person may appear, on the outside, to be just like every other Amish person, but on the inside, he or she has become “a new creature in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Everyone needs an internal change of the heart to be accepted by God. Remember, God said, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). God also said, “I, the Lord, search the heart” (Jer. 17:10). What does God see when He looks at and searches a heart that has not been born again? He said through Jeremiah, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).

When God asked “who can understand it?” regarding people’s “deceitful” and “desperately sick” hearts, He obviously wasn’t questioning His own understanding. He knows every heart, which is why He declared that human hearts are deceitful and desperately sick. Those who don’t know that are those who are deceived by their desperately sick hearts.

And although I wrote in both my last article and this one about the many good qualities I’ve observed in Amish communities, I write now with tears in my eyes that I’ve also seen another side—but only to a small degree that God has seen it. I’m talking about some Amish hearts. When Amish people persecute, shun, and excommunicate other Amish people because they’ve been born again, they show that their hearts are deceived and desperately sick. They show that they are not born again. They are acting just like the Catholics and Protestants hundreds of years ago who hated the original Anabaptists because all of them were born again! What a tragedy that the formerly persecuted Anabaptists have now, in some cases, become the persecutors!

Yet through His great mercy offered through the sacrificial death of His spotless Son, God offers to anyone a new, pure heart, a heart that wants to obey Him:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. (Ezek. 36:26-27).

The apostle Paul was one who certainly received a new heart from God, and Ahamish people can all identify with him. Paul was initially a very religious Jew who persecuted the early Christians, all of whom were of Jewish origin, just like him. He persecuted his own people because he thought he was right and they were wrong. But then God opened his eyes to his own deceitful and sick heart. He then realized it was the exact opposite of what he had thought! The people he thought were wrong were actually right, and he, who previously thought he was right, was actually wrong! Those whom he was persecuting were righteous, and he was unrighteous!

After Paul’s conversion, religious Jews starting persecuting him. He tried to help them see that true Jews (just like true Amish people) are those who, like him, had been born again:

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God (Rom. 2:28-29).

For the most part, the Jews in Paul’s day were outwardly religious and outwardly circumcised. The apostle John wrote about them, “They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:42). That is, they lived their daily lives for the approval of their fellow Jews, just as so many Amish people are so focused on maintaining the approval of other Amish people.

Notice, however, that Paul believed that “true Jews” have “circumcised hearts,” a phrase that refers to being born again by the work of the Holy Spirit and the subsequent inward transformation. True Jews, as Paul wrote, are not seeking the praise of people, but the praise of God. And it is no different for true Amish people. And that is why true Amish people—the Ahamish people as I’ve been calling them—are willing to forsake the approval of other Amish people if necessary. What matters to them is the approval of God, and they strive to keep His laws rather than manmade rules that can’t be found anywhere in the Bible.

You can take a pig, scrub it clean, tie a pretty bow around its neck, and sprinkle it with perfume. But it will still be a pig! And that is the picture of the religious person—whether Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, or Amish—who has not been born again. Externally, they look good. But internally, they have the same old nature.

All religious people who have not been born again—if they will be honest in their hearts—know that they stand condemned before the God who searches and knows everyone’s heart, because they know their inward thoughts that they hide from everyone else. They also know—if they are honest with their hearts—that they are putting on a show for all the other religious people in their group whose approval they seek. Again, this is true of all religious people, whether they are Jewish, Protestant, Catholic or Amish. If they aren’t aware of what I’ve just described, it is one more proof of what God said through Jeremiah about how deceitful and desperately sick human hearts are. Pride is often what blinds them.

But don’t think that I am pointing a finger because I don’t have personal experience of that very thing myself. I was once a religious church-attender who had fooled myself that I was a pretty good person. When I was confirmed in my church as a teenager, I even confessed publicly that I believed in Jesus Christ. Looking back now, however, I realized that I was just saying words as I attempted to please my parents and the other people at my church. I didn’t really believe in Jesus, and the reason I’m sure of it now is because He was not my Lord. I was striving to please others, not Him.

One day, however, God opened my eyes, and I finally saw myself as God saw me—as a proud, self-deceived hypocrite with a desperately wicked heart. What a glorious day that was! I realized I had nothing good in myself to offer God. And so I feebly responded to His call to repent of my sins and truly believe in Jesus. When I did, my life was dramatically changed. I had no idea at the time that I had been born again because I had never heard that phrase or read it in the Bible. But I knew I was a different person.

Like all people who are born again, I now look at my life in two sections: before I was born again and after I was born again. I started reading the Bible and I slowly learned what had happened to me. I eventually realized that I had been born again and that God’s Holy Spirit was living in me. And I started telling other people, because I could not keep quiet. As the apostle Paul wrote, “But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believe, therefor I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak” (2 Cor. 4:13). That is one test of an authentic new birth. Born-again people are concerned about other people who are not born again, because being born again is a requirement for heaven according to Jesus. If you are not concerned about other people being born again, that is a sure sign you are not born again yourself.

What about you? Have you been born again? Are you religious or righteous? Do you truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, as evidenced by your desire to please Him, even if you must forfeit the approval of others? Are you a cleaned-up pig or a “new creation in Christ”? Are you Amish or Ahamish?

The good news is that you can be born again today. You could start by praying for God to help you see your heart as He sees it. Once He does, you will be ready to cast yourself onto the Lord Jesus Christ completely for forgiveness, salvation and a new life. The Lord is full of mercy! He will not turn you away!

From the Peace Barn: Born Again and Amish

The Amish Papers - Chapter 4

Image of Amish buggy

My wife and I moved into our remodeled barn in January of 2021. Four months later, our son and his wife purchased a house about 30 minutes from us from a young Amish couple named Ervin and Lovina who were members of the Johnsonburg Amish community. We learned from our daughter-in-law that Lavina was born again and living an Amish lifestyle (although the Johnsonburg Amish were more liberal than the Smicksburg Amish). So we excitedly made arrangements to meet Lavina, and when we did, it was obvious that she was indeed born again. Lavina told us that one of her sisters named Elisabeth and her husband, Mervin, were also born again, and so we eventually were able to meet and interview them. Then, Elisabeth told us that one of her brothers, named Jonas, was either born again or very close to it, and he was a minister in their church! So we started making plans to meet Jonas and his wife, Ida.

I had also received some very positive feedback from some born again Amish readers of The Amish Voice regarding my previous articles. So I was happy to be realizing that there were some Amish people who are born again. That inspired me to write the following article that was published in The Amish Voice in January of 2022. I wanted Amish readers to know that they could be born again and remain Amish.

When this article was published in The Amish Voice, it was read by one of the Johnsonburg Amish ministers (who was not born again), who made copies of it to hand out to a small meeting of Johnsonburg Amish leaders. I suspect what concerned him was that I revealed that I had been in contact with some born-again Amish people in Johnsonburg, his Amish community. One of the two Johnsonburg bishops, named Levi, was at that meeting. He had been born again several years earlier just from reading an English Bible, and as a new bishop, he was trying to figure out how to share his new faith with his Amish flock. Reading my article created a desire in him to meet me, and he learned shortly thereafter that I was scheduled to have dinner with his cousin, Jonas, and Jonas’ wife Ida, the next day! So he asked Jonas if he could ask my wife and I if we would stop by at his house to meet him after our dinner.

That day, January 31, 2022, is a day I will always remember as very providential, as that was the day God connected us to minister Jonas and Ida, as well as bishop Levi and Fannie. It was at that meeting at Levi and Fannie’s home that we all agreed to start a secret Bible study, to which they would invite Amish friends and family members whom they thought would be interested, and who would also keep the Bible study secret (since such things are forbidden in most Amish communities). The article that follows was a catalyst to what we eventually referred to as the “Johnsonburg Awakening.”

In 1880, George Washington Hazlett purchased 109 wooded acres near Smicksburg, Pennsylvania, which he began clearing, with the hopes of one day operating a farm. In the process, he felled many old oaks, and he hand-hewed their trunks into long posts and beams for a future 50-foot square bank barn. Some of the hemlocks he harvested were sawn at a local mill into rough-cut planks for barn siding. By 1890, George had assembled everything he needed to build his barn, including quarried foundation stones, and with the help of friends, he erected a structure that still stands today, more than 130 years later.

In the 1940s and 50s, my great Uncle Clyde, George Hazlett’s grandson, built two rustic living quarters in either side of that barn, complete with a kitchen, living room, bedrooms, plumbing and gaslights in every room. Uncle Clyde spent most of his summers at his converted barn, which I enjoyed visiting many times as a child. My siblings and I loved to hike the trails Uncle Clyde had cleared in his wooded acres, and swimming and fishing in the Little Mahoning Creek that bordered his property was always a special treat.

I would have never imagined it as a child, but my wife and I now reside at that barn, which we remodeled over the last few years into a lovely home that still features George Hazlett’s skill in the many exposed hand-hewn posts and beams. We’ve named it “The Peace Barn” because of the peaceful ambiance. The Peace Barn also highlights the skill of many local Smicksburg Amish carpenters and craftsman, who have done 95% of all the remodeling work, and who have become friends in the process.

It was in the early 1960s that a few Amish families moved from Ohio to the Smicksburg area, and today there are over 550 households that share about 20 surnames. The Smicksburg community is the 3rd largest Amish settlement in Pennsylvania and the 11th largest in the U.S., consisting of almost 3,000 souls.

We’ve come to know quite a few of our Amish neighbors, and we’re thankful to be living among them. They are friendly, considerate, hardworking, honest and sincere. As Christians, my wife and I share many of the same values held by our Amish neighbors that stem from their Anabaptist heritage. I’ve jokingly told a number of my Amish friends that my wife and I are “half Amish,” as we raised our children without a TV, never sent them to public schools but rather schooled them ourselves, have been involved in churches that met in homes rather than church buildings, prefer rural living, and try, with God’s help, to obey Jesus’ commandments. And on a few occasions, I’ve even told some of my Amish friends that I’m actually more Amish than they are, because I actually believe the 1632 Dordrecht Confession!

Concerning that last point, having studied the history, beliefs and practices of early Anabaptism when it began in the early 1500s, and having also read the 1632 Dordrecht Confession, I’m so sorry to say that the large majority of my Amish friends do not enjoy the wonderful spiritual blessings of the original Anabaptists. More than anything else, the original Anabaptists believed the Bible, and they consequently rejected anything that was taught either by the Roman Catholic Church or the Protestant Reformers that couldn’t be found in the Word of God. They expressly rejected all human, religious tradition that contradicted the Bible’s teaching.

One of those church traditions that early Anabaptists rejected—practiced by both Catholics and Protestants—was infant baptism, as they saw what anyone who honestly reads the New Testament easily sees, that the New Testament church, led by the apostles whom Jesus chose, never baptized infants, but rather, adults only. And they did so only after such adults repented of their sins and believed in the Lord Jesus. It was the persecutors of the early Anabaptists who consequently labeled them “Re-baptizers,” because they baptized adults who had previously been baptized as infants in the Roman Catholic or Protestant churches.

Another church tradition that early Anabaptists rejected (as did all the Protestants) was the (primarily Catholic) idea that one could earn one’s way to heaven by one’s own works. They read in the Bible that “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). The early Anabaptists held to the biblical truth that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), so no one is good enough to be saved by their own merits. Grace from God is essential for salvation of sinners. And the early Anabaptists believed that God extended His grace through His Son Jesus Christ, who died for their sins and made salvation available for all who would repent and become His followers.

Yet another church tradition that early Anabaptists rejected was the (primarily Protestant) idea that one could genuinely believe in Jesus but not obey Him. They read in the Bible that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) and that faith without works cannot save anyone (James 2:14).

The early Anabaptists also believed that anyone who repents of their sins and believes in Jesus experiences a spiritual rebirth that transforms him into a “born again” (1 Pet. 1:23) “new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17). They believed Jesus’ plain words, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). They believed that a spiritual rebirth was essential for salvation. It was the starting place for a true relationship with God. And they believed that the new birth was not just a theological concept, but a living, experiential reality. People who experienced the new birth were genuinely transformed. They understood what the New Testament meant when it described true conversion as “passing from death to life” (1 John 3:4). It is a dramatic, inward change that affects everything in a person’s life.

The early Anabaptists also believed that the good works that are done by believers do not stem purely from human effort or outward conformity to an imposed and enforced Christian culture, but from the Holy Spirit, who literally indwells all those who truly believe in Jesus. They read and believed Paul’s words to the Galatian Christians about “the fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22), and his words to the Ephesian Christians: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

All of these plain, biblical truths are found in Article 6 of the Dordrecht Confession, the 1632 Mennonite doctrinal statement to which all Amish people subscribe. It reads:

We believe and confess, that, since the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and, therefore, prone to all unrighteousness, sin, and wickedness, the first lesson of the precious New Testament of the Son of God is repentance and reformation of life, and that, therefore, those who have ears to hear, and hearts to understand, must bring forth genuine fruits of repentance, reform their lives, believe the Gospel, eschew evil and do good, desist from unrighteousness, forsake sin, put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness: for, neither baptism, supper, church, nor any other outward ceremony, can without faith, regeneration, change or renewing of life, avail anything to please God or to obtain of Him any consolation or promise of salvation; but we must go to God with an upright heart, and in perfect faith, and believe in Jesus Christ, as the Scripture says, and testifies of Him; through which faith we obtain forgiveness of sins, are sanctified, justified, and made children of God, yea, partake of His mind, nature, and image, as being born again of God from above, through incorruptible seed. Genesis 8:21; Mark 1:15; Ezekiel 12:2; Colossians 3:9, 10; Ephesians 4:22, 24; Hebrews 10:22, 23; John 7:38 (italics added).

In contrast to what is believed by so many Amish today—the idea that a person cannot be certain of his salvation, and if one is certain, it is an indication of pride—the original Anabaptists universally believed that those who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus have their sins forgiven and become born-again children of God, as we just read from Article 6 of the Dordrecht Confession.

How could someone who is spiritually reborn, has his sins forgiven, and has become a child of God, rightly say, “I don’t know if I will be accepted by God to enter heaven, because I am not certain I am good enough?” Such a belief contradicts not only the Dordrecht Confession, but the entire message of the New Testament.

It is not prideful for people whom God has forgiven of their sins and made into His children to believe their sins are forgiven and they are God’s children. Rather, it is an expression of faith, rather than of unbelief, in what God has said.

The truth is, it is prideful to even hope that one can be good enough to gain heaven, because God has declared that no one is good enough for that, which is why Jesus died for our sins. Hoping to be good enough to gain heaven is one sin, among others, that people need to repent of to be born again.

All these simple biblical truths are also affirmed in Articles 7 and 8 of the Dordrecht Confession:

Concerning baptism we confess that all penitent believers, who, through faith, regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, are made one with God, and are written in heaven, must, upon such Scriptural confession of faith, and renewing of life, be baptized with water….

We believe in, and confess a visible church of God, namely, those who, as has been said before, truly repent and believe, and are rightly baptized; who are one with God in heaven, and rightly incorporated into the communion of the saints here on earth. These we confess to be the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, who are declared to be the bride and wife of Christ, yea, children and heirs of everlasting life, a tent, tabernacle, and habitation of God in the Spirit.

All of these truths in the Dordrecht Confession are straight from the New Testament. How could someone who is regenerated by the Holy Ghost, made one with God, has his name written in heaven, is chosen of God, has become a royal priest as well as the bride and wife of Christ ever rightly say, “I don’t know if I will make heaven, because I’m not sure I’m good enough?” What would you think of a child who said to his father, “I don’t know if I am your child, or if I have the right to live in this house with you”?

As I said earlier, this is the heart-breaking tragedy that I’ve witnessed among my Smicksburg Amish friends. And how terrible it is for them to miss out on the greatest blessing that was enjoyed not only by all their Anabaptist forefathers among the Swiss Brethren, but also Jakob Ammann (from whom the Amish derive their name), all the early Amish believers, and not to mention all the first Christians we read about in the book of Acts, plus all true believers around the world since then, which include myself, my family, and many of my friends. I’ve personally met thousands of born-again followers of Jesus all over the world in more than 40 nations to which I’ve traveled. There is nothing better on earth than being born again by God’s Holy Spirit. It can happen to you!

Sadly, I’ve found that most of my Amish friends do not want to talk about these things. They seem to be afraid of being led astray and the consequent excommunication and shunning they would suffer. Their fear is even more tragic, as there is no reason why one can’t be born again and continue to live a traditional Amish lifestyle. Worse, the New Testament teaches that those who persecute born-again people prove that they themselves are serving Satan!

Through readers’ responses to some of my previous articles in the Amish Voice, I’ve been blessed to hear from a number of born-again Amish believers across the country who are enjoying the wonderful blessings of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and who know they are “new creatures” and children of God whose sins have been forgiven. And while they continue to live within traditional Amish culture, they’ve found new joy in the assurance of salvation and a relationship with the Lord they never dreamed of. Like all truly born-again believers in Jesus, they wish everyone was born again. They are the true “Old Order,” having now joined the “Original Order,” which is the oldest Order!

I have also learned that in 1971 another nearby Amish community was birthed from the Smicksburg community, nine years after its founding in 1962. The Troutville community has since grown to be almost as large as the Smicksburg community, consisting of more than 2,500 people. The Troutville Ordnung is definitely more liberal than the Smicksburg Ordnung. From the Troutville community, another community was birthed in 2005, which now consists of over 500 people. The Johnsonburg Ordnung is even more liberal than the Troutville Ordnung.

Of course, many members of the Smicksburg, Troutville and Johnsonburg communities are related to each other, which causes some strain among them due to the differences in each community’s Ordnung. But I have to confess that I have been pleasantly surprised to meet some members of the Johnsonburg community who are born again and who aren’t ashamed to say so. They love to talk about their personal relationships with the Lord, and it is evident that the Holy Spirit indwells them and is living through them. They sometimes gather for Bible studies. They are full of joy, and no wonder, because they are certain that they are going to heaven as long as they don’t fall away from their faith. I’m looking forward to getting to know them better. They understand, just like the original Anabaptists, that holiness is not outward conformity to a list of manmade rules, but that true holiness stems from a born-again heart, and it is the Holy Spirit within them who instructs and empowers them to do what is right and please God.

I’ll close by sharing a contrast I’ve observed between the Smicksburg and Johnsonburg Amish.

One day when three of my Smicksburg Amish friends were installing a floor in our barn, I showed them some video on my large-screen TV that was filmed from the International Space Station, which circles the earth 16 times every day. It is fascinating film footage, as you can see the curvature of the earth, as well as the oceans, land masses of continents, mountain ranges and cloud formations from a vantage point of 254 miles above it all. In the nighttime video footage, you can see the lights of large cities and small villages. My Amish friends really enjoyed seeing what they had never seen before.

I asked one of them, who is a local bishop, if it would be wrong of me to invite local Amish families to our house to watch an amazing documentary on my TV about how penguins live in Antarctica. (Many local Amish families take their children to the Pittsburgh Zoo, and it is considered to be an acceptable, educational and recreational activity.) He said that was a “gray area,” and expressed hesitation because “it could lead to other things.” That is, watching something harmless on TV could lead to watching something on TV that is not harmless. And he was correct. If you don’t watch anything on TV, there is no chance you might watch something bad. However, there is also no chance you might watch something good! (Eliminating all TV is somewhat akin to eliminating all sex in order to avoid fornication.)

I own a TV, and I don’t watch anything that any Amish person would consider sinful. On the contrary, most Amish people would consider everything I watch on my TV to be morally uplifting. For example, my wife and I have recently been watching a dramatization about the life of Jesus called The Chosen. It is being viewed around the world by millions of people, many of whom previously knew nothing about Jesus. That is a good thing!

A television is not a dangerous thing to someone who is born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. If I was to begin viewing something on my TV that was not pleasing to the Lord, He would immediately convict me, because He lives in me by His Holy Spirit! Beyond that, I have no desire to view what displeases Him, because He has changed me when I was born again. So I don’t need a set of rules to regulate my behavior. As the apostle Paul wrote, “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18).

My son and his wife, who live among the Johnsonburg Amish, recently had a local Amish family at their house who wanted to watch an episode of The Chosen. So, together they watched an episode that was all about Jesus’ miracle of changing water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee. It is an uplifting dramatization that reminded all of them of Jesus’ power and compassion. No harm was done! Rather, God was glorified. And because my son, his wife, and the Amish couple are all born again, there is no danger that the next time they get together they will be viewing an ungodly, worldly, sinful movie! None of them have any such desire.

And that is the primary difference between being born again and not being born again but trying to conform to a set of rules to try to please God. Until you are inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit, you may limitedly achieve an outward appearance of holiness that is imposed on you by Amish culture. But on the inside, there is still impurity, and that impurity has a way of coming to the surface.

In future articles in the Amish Voice, I hope to introduce you to some born-again Amish Christians who are still living within Amish culture. If you are one of them, I would love to talk with you or meet you in order to hear and share your story with readers who are not yet born again. Your story might help open eyes and hearts to the greatest blessing made possible by Jesus’ death—eternal life, which is something the Bible teaches Christians can know they’ve possessed:

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God (1 John 5:13).

It’s time for spiritually-hungry Amish folks to recover their spiritual heritage and become members of the Oldest, Original Order, the one found in the New Testament! And it’s time for born-again Amish folks to take the necessary risks to truly love their fellow Amish who are not yet born again by sharing with them how they, too, can experience the blessing of the new birth!

Unless You Become Like a Child

The Amish Papers - Chapter 3

E-teaching graphic, "Unless you become like a child" by David Servant

This was the third article I wrote for possible publication in The Amish Voice, and it was ultimately published in January of 2021. It was another attempt to help Amish people consider some very well-known words of Jesus regarding the necessity of becoming like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, and provoke them to think about the application of those words to their lives. I again received some positive feedback from readers, but none from anyone in the Smicksburg Amish community.

Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3).

These words, spoken by the eternal Son of God, the Creator of the universe, the One who holds the keys to God’s Kingdom as well as to death and Hades, and before whom everyone must one day stand in judgment to give an account, would seem worthy of our consideration (Mark 1:1; Col. 1:16; Matt. 6:19; Rev. 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:10; Acts 10:42). The only people who will enter heaven are those who were converted, and in their conversion, became like children (in some way).

It is these words found in Matthew 18:3—and similar words found in other places Scripture—that lead us to believe that children who die enter the kingdom of heaven (see, for example, 2 Sam. 12:23; Matt. 18:10; 19:14). If we must become like children in order to enter heaven (Matt. 18:3), and if the kingdom of heaven belongs to children (Matt. 19:14), it stands to reason that any and all children who die enter heaven. If you’ve ever lost a child or suffered a miscarriage, you’ve got a child in heaven.

It is also from Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:3 that we deduce that there must be a time when children reach an age when God no longer considers them to be children, but rather to be adults, at which time they must—if they hope to enter heaven—be converted and become, in some way, like the children whom they previously were. Theologians refer to that age of passage from childhood to adulthood as the “age of accountability,” a phrase that acknowledges the fact that children are sinful, but that they are not held accountable for their sin by God until they reach adulthood.

Scripture does not reveal an exact age when that transition takes place, and it seems reasonable to think that it could be different for every child. Some like to point to the ages of 12 and 13, when Jewish girls and boys celebrate their bat and bar mitzvahs. Personally, however, I would not want to stake my theology on Jewish tradition.

In any case, a most important question we should all ask ourselves is this: Have I been genuinely converted? Tragically, multitudes of people around the world who identify on some level as being Christians have never experienced authentic Christian conversion.

Authentic conversion is so dramatic that Scripture describes it as a resurrection. Unconverted people are characterized in the Bible as being dead. When they are converted, however, they become alive. That is one reason converted people are expected to immediately be baptized. When done biblically, baptism is done by total immersion, representing the new convert’s death, burial and resurrection. That is a picture of authentic Christian conversion. So every professing Christian should ask himself or herself: Have I been resurrected? Or am I just religious?

The Religious Chain

Although it is right and proper to spiritually train our children, there is an inherent danger in it: Our children might carry on our spiritual practices and traditions but never actually be converted. And their children and grandchildren might follow the same path, creating a chain of religious, but unconverted, descendants.

The human links in such chains never experience conversion simply because they don’t see their need to convert. They are convinced that their veneer of Christianity is proof they are Christians. They have some knowledge of the Bible, but Jesus is not their Lord, which explains why they ignore His core commandments, like His commandment to (1) make disciples of all the nations or to (2) love their neighbors as themselves.

Regarding Jesus’ commandment to make disciples (that is, obedient followers) of all the nations, religious people never attempt to make disciples, near them or abroad, because they are not themselves His disciples. As the famous Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, once said:

Every Christian is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that you are either trying to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love Him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus, and a totally silent tongue about him.

Regarding Jesus’ commandment to love their neighbors as themselves, religious people do, of course, love those who love them, but that is something Jesus said even tax collectors and Gentiles do (Matt. 5:46-47). The love of unconverted people extends no further than their own family, friends and religious group. They could care less about the multitudes in their town and around the world who are on the road to hell (which they imagine they are not on themselves).

Unconverted, religious people outwardly conform to the standards of their group, whether they be strict or lax, but their public and private lives are full of contradictions. They vocally and/or silently condemn others for sins of which they themselves are often guilty, but on a lesser scale or in some different form. Their secret thoughts and hidden deeds reveal that they actually don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God. If they truly did believe in Him, He would have the preeminent place in their hearts, and obeying Him would consume their lives. Any practice or tradition among their religious group that would usurp Christ’s rightful place or obscure or pervert His clear teaching would result in a holy uproar within their hearts that would manifest itself in concern, grief and action.

Any “loss” suffered as a result of conversion, whether it be financial, friends or even family, would be counted as being of no comparison to what has been gained. As the apostle Paul, who before his conversion was a very zealous religious person with a very religious pedigree, wrote:

If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the Church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:5-11).

These words are not only the testimony of a former Pharisee whom most everyone would have assumed was on the road to heaven even before his dramatic conversion (most everyone except God, that is), but the testimony of everyone who has been genuinely converted and who truly believes in Jesus Christ. They have found the “treasure in the field” that is worth giving up everything to gain (see Matt. 13:34). Christ has become their life (Phil. 1:21). Nothing compares to Him.

Man-Pleaser or God-Pleaser?

If the true convert is forced to decide between pleasing family or Christ, he chooses Christ. This is what Jesus undeniably taught:

Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.

He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (Matt. 10:34-37).

If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:26).

Regardless of how much we might soften the hyperbole in these passages, Jesus’ message remains crystal clear. True converts/believers/disciples love Jesus supremely, and they desire to please Him above all others.

And this is basic Christianity. An authentic conversion is not a socially-imposed conformity founded in the fear of man, but a change of belief and behavior that is rooted in the fear and love of God.

Of whom do I write? I suspect some readers will be silently saying “Amen” as they think of certain groups, churches and denominations. The truth, however, is that you can probably pick any group, church or denomination under the banner of Christendom. Every one of them includes men-pleasing, tradition- and heritage-lovers who think they are Christians but who have actually never been converted.

In many groups, those kinds of folks are the large majority. Generally speaking, the longer a group has been established, the larger the percentage of its members resemble unconverted Pharisees—religious but not resurrected. If you talk to them about Jesus, they will be uncomfortable and resistant. They may even persecute you to some degree, all the while convinced, like the Pharisees, that they are on the right path. It is indeed tragic.

So I again ask this all-important question: Have you been converted? Or are you only a link in a religious chain?

In What Way Must We Become Like Children?

A sure sign that one has been converted, according to Jesus, is that the convert becomes like a child.

Jesus did not specify precisely in what way we must become like children if we hope to enter heaven, but it seems doubtful that He was referring to any of the negative characteristics associated with children. We all know, for example, that children can be very selfish, and they must be trained for years to become considerate of others. In light of everything else that Jesus taught, it would seem safe to conclude He was not saying selfishness is what marks true converts who will one day enter heaven!

Considering the positive characteristics of children, some point out that children are generally more trusting than adults. Thus, some associate Jesus’ words about our need to become like children with the truth that salvation is possessed by faith (Eph. 2:8). We need to have faith like children, they say, trusting in Jesus in order to enter heaven.

Others note that children understand their dependency, particularly upon their parents. In fact, one characteristic that differentiates children from adults is dependency and independency. So some say we must, like children, have no thought of independence or self-sufficiency, and we must acknowledge that apart from Christ—who atoned for our sins, forgave us, and is empowering us to obey God—we have no hope of salvation.

Others emphasize the fact that children naturally love and respect their parents, and generally tend to obey them. So they say we must similarly obey God.

And still others point out that children are usually considered to be innocent. No one looks at a little child and wonders if she is hiding a “deep, dark past.” Although such innocence is lost to adults, it can be regained through the forgiveness and transformation offered by God through Jesus Christ. So some claim that children’s innocence is what Jesus had in mind when He said we must become like children to enter heaven.

I think there is truth to all of those views. Yet I think they should be incorporated into a larger view that not only takes what Jesus said at face value, but also considers the context of the entire New Testament. Jesus did not specify any single characteristic of children that we should imitate. Rather, He said we must be converted and become like children.

Is it possible that children—to whom, according to Jesus, the kingdom of heaven belongs—possess a spiritual nature that is lost to adults, but that adults can regain by experiencing an authentic, spiritual conversion? Is it possible that babies and children are in some sense “spiritually alive,” but they “spiritually die” when they chose the wrong path upon reaching the “age of accountability,” after which time they must be “spiritually reborn” to become, once again, “spiritually alive” if they hope to enter heaven?

Personally, I am persuaded that this could very well be what Jesus had in mind when He said we must “become like children” to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Although it seems indisputable that babies are born with—and all children possess—a sinful nature, I am not so certain that such traits preclude the idea that babies and children are “spiritually alive.” According to the Bible, all authentic Christians are “spiritually alive,” yet Scripture also states that all of them still possess sinful natures, what Paul refers to as “the flesh” that “sets its desire against the Spirit” (see Gal. 5:17). So, if spiritually alive adults can simultaneously possess sinful natures, why should anyone claim that children, because they have sinful natures, can’t be spiritually alive?

Paul: Alive, Dead, Alive Again

An interesting verse in Paul’s letter to the Romans seems to support this understanding:

I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me (Rom. 7:9-11).

Although Paul’s words may not be as clear as we’d wish, it is obvious that he was not referring to being physically alive or dead. He could only have been referring to being spiritually alive and dead. Scripture teaches that all human beings are tri-part in nature: spirit, soul and body (2 Thes. 5:23; Jas. 2:16). It also teaches that unconverted adults, although possessing bodies that are alive, have spirits that are dead (Eph. 2:1).

Note that in the above passage, Paul referred to a time when he once was alive, but that he died “when the commandment came.” The Law of Moses, of course, had been given by God hundreds of years before Paul was born, so when Paul referred to the time when “the commandment came,” it seems reasonable to think he was speaking of the time when he heard God’s commandment, was held accountable by God to obey it, but decided to disobey it, at which point he died, spiritually.

All of this leads me to think Paul believed there was a time in his life, prior to his conversion, when he was spiritually alive. But, when he reached an age of accountability, he sinned, and he became spiritually dead. And all of that seems to support the idea that babies and children are not spiritually dead, but rather, are spiritually alive, which is perhaps the reason or yet another reason Jesus said that we must become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Even More “Like Children”

In addition to all of this, the New Testament repeatedly tells us that truly converted people actually become “children of God”:

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are…. Beloved, now we are children of God (1 John 3:1a, 2a; see also John 1:12; Rom. 8:14, 16; Gal. 3:26; Phil 2:15; 1 John 3:1-2).

Other New Testament scriptures reveal that true believers in Christ are not only “adopted” by God into His family—which by itself might lead them to think they are only very fortunate orphans—but that they are actually also “born of God” (1 John 5:1). That makes them God’s actual children. They are “born of His Spirit” (John 3:6) and indwelt by His Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). So they possess His nature. If they could take a “spiritual DNA test,” it would reveal “divine spiritual genetics”!

Of course, being supernaturally recreated into God’s actual children and bearing His nature, true believers increasingly act like God’s children, trusting Him, acknowledging their dependence upon Him, and obeying Him (all those characteristics of children often associated with various interpretations of Matthew 18:3). As Paul wrote, “Prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach, and “be imitators of God, as beloved children; (Phil. 2:15; Eph. 5:1; emphasis added). Or, as John wrote, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9, emphasis added).

This, too, is basic Christianity. This is what it means to be a “new creation in Christ,” in which “the old things passed away” and “new things have come (1 Cor. 5:17). This is what it actually means to be “born again,” another prerequisite Jesus mentioned to entering heaven (John 3:3; see also 1 Pet. 1:3, 23). To enter heaven, we must be converted and be spiritually reborn to become like children, children of God.

Surrounded by Sermons

It is interesting to think that the many children with whom we interact throughout our lives serve as divinely-placed examples to us of what we must become to enter heaven. Had God desired, He could have created us to reproduce, not babies, but mature adults. But He designed humans so that we would be surrounded—all of our lives—by children, little teachers whose silent sermons hold the key to eternal life. Let us open our ears and eyes to the divine message they continually broadcast!

In conclusion, here are the all-important questions each one of us should ask ourselves:

  1. Have I experienced a conversion, a change of mind and heart that was so dramatic that it can be described as a “resurrection,” and one that has resulted in a relationship with God that supersedes all other relationships, as evidenced by my obedience to Christ’s commandments? Or am I just a link in a religious chain following some manmade traditions behind a veneer of Christian culture?
  2. Have I become “like a child” through a spiritual rebirth? Can I point to a time in my life when I was spiritually dead but became spiritually alive? Am I indwelled by God’s Spirit so that I can say with Paul and every authentic Christian since Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20)?

Those who can answer the above questions affirmatively are the most blessed people on the earth! Are you among them?

What Does It Really Mean to be Born Again?

The Amish Papers - Chapter 2

What does it really mean to be born again?

Because of the encouragement of Paul Miller, then editor of The Amish Voice, I wrote some additional articles to submit to him for consideration for publication. Paul liked the article below, but he told me it was too lengthy, so he divided it and published it as a two-part series in two consecutive editions of The Amish Voice in 2020.  Both of those editions were mailed to every Amish household in the Smicksburg community, but I received no responses from any of them. I did receive some positive feedback from Amish and ex-Amish readers in other places. This article is also one that we sent to those who responded to our June, 2022 mailing to over 60,000 mostly-Amish households, who asked for more information about the new birth.

One of the most tragic statements I’ve ever heard was spoken from the mouth of a woman who had encountered some people whom she considered odd—folks who had identified themselves as “born-again Christians.” She rolled her eyeballs as she mocked them, saying to some family members, “Watch out for those ‘born-again’ Christians! They’re out to convert you!”

What made her warning so tragic is that she attended a Methodist church every Sunday. Not only was the founder of her denomination—John Wesley—fully persuaded almost 300 years ago of the necessity of being born again[1], but even more persuaded was the founder of all of Christianity—Jesus Christ—about 2,000 years ago! Jesus once said to a very religious man, a highly-respected teacher and Pharisee named Nicodemus:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

Take note that that solemn declaration, spoken by the King of God’s kingdom, begins with the words, “truly, truly.” Jesus didn’t want Nicodemus—or anyone else—to take His words lightly. It was a declaration of unassailable truth uttered by the very Son of God: Unless one is born again, he absolutely cannot see the kingdom of God. There are no exceptions. For that reason, everyone, and especially those who profess to be Christians, should ask themselves this very important question: Have I been born again? (And if you answered “yes,” a second important question is: “Have I REALLY been born again?”)

One who has not been born again is comparable to a baby who has not yet been born. She is blind to the world outside her mother’s womb. She may hear muffled sounds and perhaps even perceive a dim light that penetrates the darkness of the womb, but she is completely shut off to that world and cannot see it. Similarly, those who are not born again may sense some hints of the kingdom of God “out there.” They may, like Nicodemus or the mocking woman I first mentioned, be steeped in religion and therefore think they already have some connection to God. But still, until they are born again, they cannot see His kingdom. They live in isolation, blind to a wonderful realm that potentially awaits them.

Conversely, one who has been born again is comparable to a baby who has escaped the womb and now entered into a brand-new world he previously could not see. The born-again believer has his eyes opened to see God’s kingdom. He realizes there is (of course) a great king—Jesus Himself—who rules over that kingdom. He understands that Jesus’ kingdom includes not only himself, but everyone who truly believes in Him and has thus submitted to His loving rule. For his “fellow kingdom citizens,” he feels a special affinity, a supernatural love. He soon realizes that Jesus’ kingdom extends all over the world, and that it will one day be the only kingdom on earth—when Jesus finally banishes all those who did not heed His solemn words: “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The Conversation Begins

Not understanding Jesus’ declaration regarding the necessity of a second birth, Nicodemus replied, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” (John 3:4).

Nicodemus apparently thought Jesus was referring to a physical rebirth. So Jesus repeated what He had already said, but altered it slightly to help Nicodemus realize He was referring to a spiritual rebirth: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

First, notice Jesus again began His second declaration with the words, “Truly, truly.” Of course, Jesus never lied. So we should believe everything He said. How much more when He prefaces His words with “Truly, truly”!

Second, it is from this elaboration we realize that, not only can one not see God’s kingdom unless he is born again, neither can one enter God’s kingdom. Jesus’ solemn declaration has become even more solemn. No one can enter God’s kingdom unless they are born again. There are no exceptions. This teaches us that all true Christians are born again. If you are not born again, you are not a true Christian.

If you think you are a Christian, but you have not been born again, you put your own opinion above the solemn words of Jesus. You exalt yourself above God! (Which probably isn’t a good strategy for getting into heaven…)

Third, it is from this declaration by Jesus we realize that, to be born again, one does not need to re-enter his mother’s womb. Rather, he needs to be born “of water and the Spirit.” What does that mean?

Some think the phrase being “born of water” refers to a physical birth, which is often preceded by a rush of water-like fluid from the breaking of a mother’s amniotic sac. If this is the correct interpretation, Jesus was simply telling Nicodemus that one must experience both a physical and a spiritual birth in order to see and enter God’s kingdom. Jesus seems to also draw this contrast in His very next sentence: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).

Other interpreters, however, wonder why Jesus would affirm to Nicodemus something that is so obvious, namely, that one must be physically born to ultimately enter God’s kingdom. For that reason, some think Jesus was referring to water baptism, or to something else that the word water might symbolically represent, such as the word of God, spiritual purification, or the Holy Spirit (see Ezek. 36:25; John 7:38-39; Titus 3:5; Eph. 5:26; 1 Cor. 6:11). I don’t see a great need to be dogmatic about any single interpretation, as all of them contain some biblical truth. Every new believer should be baptized in water. And one must respond in faith to God’s word as revealed in the gospel, be spiritually cleansed, and be indwelt and transformed by the Holy Spirit to enter God’s kingdom. According to the New Testament, all those things occur when one is born again. So let us focus on what it means to be “born of the Spirit.”

Being Born of the Spirit

Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). So it is the spirit of a person that needs to be reborn if that person is to enter God’s kingdom.

Scripture teaches that all of us are tripartite in nature—spirit, soul and body:

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thes. 5:23).

My body, of course, is my physical, material self—my flesh, bones, blood and so on.

My soul is my mind, emotions and intellect.

My spirit is revealed in the Bible as being the “true person,” who lives on even after my body dies:

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead (Jas. 2:26, emphasis added).

The human spirit is referred to in the Bible as the “hidden person of the heart” (see I Pet. 3:4). The human spirit is a person. People who have temporarily died during hospital surgery sometimes say, “I came out of my body and ascended to the ceiling, and I was looking down at the doctors who were trying to revive me.” They refer to their spirit as “I” and “me.” Your spirit is the “real you.” And your spirit must be born again by the direct action of God’s Holy Spirit if you are to see or enter God’s kingdom.

Why is being born again essential? Because the Bible teaches that prior to being born again, our spirits possess a sinful nature, and we are “spiritually dead.” Consider Paul’s words in his Ephesian letter:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (Eph. 2:1-6).

Paul told the Ephesian Christians they were formerly dead in their “trespasses and sins.” Obviously, they were not formerly physically dead, so he must have been saying they were spiritually dead. Their sins made them dead to God. They lived like everyone else, indulging in sin every day, not even realizing that the spirit of the devil, whom Paul called “the prince of the power of the air,” was “working in” them. They were “by nature children of wrath.” That is, they sinned because they were sinners by nature.

This state of spiritual death is the same state in which Adam and Eve found themselves after they sinned. God had told them they would die on the day they ate the forbidden fruit, but Scripture tells us that Adam lived hundreds of years after he sinned. So he must have died spiritually that day. He found himself cast out of Eden, alienated from God. That is the state of every spiritually dead person. It is not only their sin that separates them from God, but their sinful nature.

And all of this explains why no one can enter God’s kingdom unless they are born again. People who are spiritually dead, whose very nature is sinful, who have Satan’s spirit working in them, cannot enter God’s kingdom unless they are somehow radically transformed. They must be born again!

Thankfully, the Christians in Ephesus had all experienced that wonderful spiritual regeneration. As we just read in Paul’s letter to them, God, in His great mercy and love, changed them from being dead to being alive, spiritually. That is just another way to describe being born again. Both Jesus and the apostle John referred to the spiritual rebirth as “passing from death to life”:

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life (John 5:24; see also 1 John 3:14).

Obviously, in light of Scripture’s very descriptive words related to this subject, one who has been truly born again has experienced a profound spiritual change. To be born again is not a human effort of reformation; it is a divine work of resurrection! It is not “turning over a new leaf,” but “receiving a new life”!

This is not to say that true Christians have no struggle with sin. Although they possess spirits that have been transformed, they possess souls/minds that are being transformed, and bodies that are awaiting future transformation. Their transformed spirits find themselves at war with their non-transformed “flesh” (see Gal. 5:19-23), but they are no longer slaves to sin as they were prior to their rebirth.

Religious Blindness

Tragically, those who are often the most blind to their dead spiritual state are those who are the most religious. As they keep their traditions, manmade rules, and even some of God’s commandments, they wrongly assume that they have no need to be spiritually reborn.

Such folks are somewhat comparable to pigs that have been bathed and sprinkled with perfume. They may look clean and smell nice, but they are still pigs. And if you put them close to mud, they will gravitate towards it. That is their nature.

The only way to keep pigs from returning to the mud is to build a fence that prevents them from doing what they want to do. And it is the same way for religious people who have not been born again. Their leaders, ancient or modern, build fences to keep them away from sin. In Jesus’ day, this is exactly what religious leaders like Nicodemus did. They built fences around God’s laws, hoping to keep people from even getting close to sinning. But those “pigs” always found some way to slip under or around the fence, because pigs love to wallow in the mud! And when they found their way under and around those fences and into the mud, they often discovered that their fence-building leaders were already wallowing in the mud themselves!

God, however, takes pigs and transforms them into sheep, the “sheep of His pasture”! (Ps. 79:13). That is why Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17).

The Difference

People who are born again are radically different than they were before they were born again. From the moment of their spiritual rebirth, they immediately see themselves and others differently. They know that every person is either born again or not born again, a new creation or not a new creation. And the first thing that enters their minds when they see or meet a new person is, “Are they born again or not?” They want everyone to experience the same rebirth they’ve experienced.

When religious people experience a spiritual rebirth, they no longer look at the world as consisting of everyone who is in their religious group and everyone who is not. Again, they realize that there are only two categories of people in God’s eyes—those who have been born again and those who have not been born again. When religious people are born again, they are immediately concerned about everyone who is not born again, especially those within their religious group. And they can’t keep quiet about it, any more than they could keep quiet if they saw their neighbor’s house on fire. Because people who are not born again are on the road to hell—unless Jesus was lying when He said, “Unless you are born again, you cannot enter God’s kingdom.”

Spiritual rebirth is just one of numerous immediate blessings God pours out upon those who believe in His Son. God forgives their sins, makes them His children, gives them the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and promises them eternal life. These blessings are like birthday gifts, but gifts that are given at birth!

How Can I Be Born Again?

Babies in the womb can’t birth themselves. They are birthed by the action of their mothers. Similarly, no person can cause himself to be born again. Spiritual rebirth is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. This is why the New Testament refers to those who have been born again as people who are “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6, 8) and “born of God” (1 John 3:9; 4:7; 5:1). Being born again is a divine miracle that no one can fully understand or explain.

The Holy Spirit, however, doesn’t regenerate people’s spirits arbitrarily. He regenerates the spirits of those who believe in Jesus. John wrote, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ [Messiah] is born of God” (1 John 5:1, emphasis added).

John also wrote, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (1 John 5:4). Faith is the key that opens the door to being “born of God” and “overcoming the world” (that is, not living like the people of the world who are not born again).

Similarly, and just a few seconds after telling Nicodemus that he must be born again, Jesus told him:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16; emphasis added).

It is simply by believing in Jesus that eternal life, and spiritual rebirth, is gained. If we had lived sinless lives of perfection, we would not need to be born again, and we would have earned eternal life. But sinners (like all of us) need forgiveness and transformation. The New Testament repeatedly reveals that these things are graciously granted to those who believe in Jesus.

How Can I Be Sure I’ve Been Born Again?

Of course, claiming to believe that Jesus is the Christ is not proof that one actually does believe. I know that, because I publicly claimed I believed in Jesus when I was confirmed as a church member at age 12. Looking back, I realize that I really didn’t believe what I claimed to believe. If I would have truly believed in Jesus, I would have been spiritually reborn and become a new creature—just as Jesus promised—and I would have started acting like it. The New Testament teaches that there are two primary marks that identify those who are genuinely born again:

  1. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him…. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God (1 John 2:29; 3:9, emphasis added).
  2. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God (1 John 4:7, emphasis added).

The first identifying mark of those who are born of God is that they practice righteousness and do not practice sin (1 John 2:29; 3:9). That is, they consistently do what is right. They are not perfect, and they may sometimes stumble (see James 3:2), but their lives are characterized by righteousness and holiness. Those whose lives are characterized by sin and unrighteousness are not born again. As Paul warned in his letter to the Corinthians:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

Take note that Paul credited the transformed lives of the Corinthian Christians, not to human efforts to reform, not to fence laws, nor to church membership. Rather, he credited God’s Spirit. The Corinthian believers had been “washed,” “sanctified” (set apart for holy use) and “justified” (declared righteous) by the work of God, not by the work of man. They had been born again!

The second identifying mark of those who are born of God is that they love others who are born again (1 John 4:7)—those who are fellow members of their spiritual family and who have the same Heavenly Father. If they mock, resist or don’t want to associate with those who are born again, it proves they are not born again. As John also wrote:

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death…. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen (1 John 3:14; 4:20, emphasis added).

How tragic it is when people who profess to be Christians shun or disassociate themselves from family members who are born again. By their actions, they demonstrate that they are not Christians, but just religious.

The love that born-again people have for their spiritual family also motivates them to make sacrifices for members facing hardships. Jesus’ foretelling of the future judgment of the sheep and goats makes that ever so clear (see Matt. 25:31-46). To not care for the “least of these” among Christ’s brethren is to not care for Jesus. As John echoed:

We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? (1 John 3:16-17).

The Assurance of Salvation

Notice that so many of the passages I’ve quoted from the Bible are from the apostle John’s first letter. John wrote that letter to help his readers ascertain, by self-examination, if they were truly born again and genuinely possessed eternal life. Near the end of that letter he wrote:

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).

It is not only possible to know that you have eternal life and are born again, it is the normal experience of every true Christian. To say that we can’t know if we have eternal life or if we are born again is to take sides against the Bible.

Moreover, to claim that people are born again simply because they are water baptized, even though they continue to live sinful lives or don’t love born-again people, is also to contradict the Bible. Baptism is a symbolic picture of being born again, not a means to be born again. New believers should be baptized, yes, and they should be told that their baptism represents their death, burial and cleansing resurrection to a new life—as spiritually reborn children of God. But those who are baptized without genuine faith in Jesus are like dry pigs who temporarily become wet pigs! They are still pigs!

A Gradual Rebirth?

Occasionally, I’ve encountered religious people who tell me their church teaches that Christians are gradually born again over their lifetimes. This, too, is an idea that you will never find in the Bible. Consider the many Scripture passages I’ve already cited that make some reference to being “born again,” “born of God,” “born of the Spirit,” “passing from death to life,” and so on. Most of them make it abundantly clear that the new birth, like the physical birth of a child, is an event that takes place in a relatively short amount of time. The apostles wrote to the early Christians as if they had already been born again at some point in the past, not as if they were gradually being born again throughout their span of their lives.

For example, Peter wrote:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again [past tense] to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 1:3, emphasis added).

For you have been born again [past tense] not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God (1 Pet. 1:23, emphasis added).

If you encountered an adult who said, “I can’t say that I’ve been born yet, but I believe I’m gradually being born over the course of my life,” you’d have to conclude that person doesn’t understand the plain meaning of the word “born.” Similarly, the person who claims he is gradually being born again over the course of his life does violence to the simple word “born.” Moreover, he clearly has not investigated what the Bible says on the topic of the new birth and has no idea what it actually means to be born again.

What About You?

Have you experienced a life-changing spiritual rebirth so significant that you view the span of your life so far as “pre-born-again” and “post-born-again”? Has your inward nature changed so that, more than anything else, you want to please God? Do you look at God as your Heavenly Father rather than as “the Man Upstairs” or the distant God whom you sing about on Sunday mornings? Have your eyes been opened to see God’s kingdom, and do you consider all of those who have been born again to be your spiritual brothers and sisters? Are you sure that when you die, you will enter God’s kingdom?

If you cannot answer “yes” to all of those questions, then there is one thing you must do: You must believe in Jesus:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).

If you believe in Him as He has revealed Himself in the Bible—as the Son of God, the Creator of the Universe, the Future Judge before whom everyone will stand and give an account—He will become your Lord. Your life, and eternity, will dramatically change.

Don’t wait until you are in hell to finally take Jesus’ solemn words—”You must be born again”—as serious as He intended for you to take them. Don’t wait another second! Fall on your knees and pray to the God who created you, loves you, and who will re-create you!

[1] See John Wesley’s Sermon #45, titled The New Birth, which begins with the words, “If any doctrines within the whole compass of Christianity may be properly termed fundamental, they are doubtless these two—the doctrine of justification, and that of the new birth.”

An Honest Look at the 1632 Dordrecht Confession of Faith

The Amish Papers - Chapter 1

A look at the 1632 Dordrecht Confession of Faith

I wrote this article in April of 2019 in order to give it to the three Amish carpenters who were remodeling our 1890 barn into our current residence. I thought it would help them see quite plainly how far the Amish faith had drifted from its roots, as revealed by the 1632 Dordrecht Confession, to which all Amish people subscribe.

I gave my article to the head carpenter, and I will never forget the day he called me after he began reading it. It was a very uncomfortable and confrontational conversation. He wanted to know what my intentions were, and he made it clear that if I was going to try to influence them regarding the Bible, they would not continue to work for me. It caught me off guard.

That was my first real dose of Amish resistance to truth. Their belief regarding the assurance of salvation directly contradicted what was repeatedly written in the doctrinal statement they all claimed to believe, and that was actually believed by all their born-again ancestors! But the facts didn’t matter. Tradition trumped truth.

That was the first foreshadowing of many other disappointments and frustrations we endured trying to bring light into the darkness that covers the Amish in Smicksburg. I tried giving my article to another Amish man who was helping with the electrical and plumbing in my remodel project, but he refused, telling me that he had been warned by the other Amish man I had given it to.

In September of 2019, this article was published by Mission to Amish People (MAP) in their bi-monthly publication, The Amish Voice under the title, “A Message for Today from the Past.” My wife, Becky, and I paid to subscribe all 550 Amish households in Smicksburg to The Amish Voice for several years in hopes some might be reached with the gospel. For this article, I used the pseudonym “David Miller,” and I included a P.O. Box to which anyone could reply. No one from Smicksburg did.

The Dordrecht Confession of Faith was composed by 17th-century Dutch Anabaptist leaders and adopted on April 21, 1632 at a Mennonite Conference held at Dordrecht, Holland. Twenty-eight years later, in 1660, It was formally adopted by Swiss Brethren ministers and elders in Ohnenheim, France.  Jakob Ammann, born in 1644, was a member of the Swiss Brethren, having converted from the state church sometime between 1671 and 1680.

The Amish movement began among the Swiss Brethren in 1693, thirty-three years after they had adopted the Dordrecht Confession. Jakob Ammann and others among the Swiss Brethren felt that their churches had drifted and were compromising what was written in the Dordrecht Confession, specifically regarding the severity of shunning, the practice of foot washing, and the idea that Anabaptist sympathizers (“the true-hearted”) should be considered to be saved people even though they would not submit to re-baptism and follow Christ. Thus was born the Amish schism from the Swiss Brethren.

There is little doubt that Jakob Ammann and the original Amish Christians believed everything in the Dordrecht Confession. And of course, all Old Order Amish today subscribe to it.

Below are Articles 2-8, including each article’s scripture references. I agree whole-heartedly with everything in all of these articles as they are entirely biblical. The complete Dordrecht Confession of Faith can be found in copies of The Martyrs’ Mirror, a classic book found in every Amish household.

I have underlined the many statements contained within in The Dordrecht Confession that stand in contrast to the contemporary Amish idea that all we can do is hope to get to heaven, and we can’t know if we were “good enough” until we stand before God. Those are ideas that Jakob Ammann and all original Amish believers would have whole-heartedly rejected.

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