The Anabaptists Vision Then and Now - Jason Schrock

Good morning to each of you this morning. It's good

to be together on another beautiful Lord's Day, another day

that has been given to us to gather together. Hear

at Halsey this morning, I'd like to I don't know.

I don't think it's a streak of laziness. I think

it's something that the Lord would have me to share.

But five weeks ago we had the Fellowship meeting and

I was assigned a subject. I put a fair amount

of time into it, and probably ninety five percent of

you didn't hear it for some reason. You can settle

that in your own mind, but I thought I thought

it would be in order to share that this morning.

And as you know, this is the five hundredth anniversary

of the beginning of the Anabaptist movement. So some of

the things there at the fellowship meeting was geared that way,

and we've been studying that in our in our Sunday

school lesson, and the uh I was I was thinking,

what we've been studying in our Sunday school lesson, somewhat

not completely, has been what has happened this morning. I

would like to go a little bit more into why,

the why of it. The a little bit more of

the doctrinal aspect of it. And the title that was

given to me was the Anabaptist Vision then and now.

So the thought is do we have the same vision

today as what they had five hundred years ago? I

have a chart of asked the ushers to pass about.

I thought, if Courster could lead us in faith of

our fathers, I think that's four fifty eight in the church,

timil lead us in that. While while they passed soils.

Out number four hundred and fifty.

Eight funds.

Inside second so xys.

A S.

S sign.

For since spe.

Speak step.

Time.

There is school day to stalls.

And stress school.

All right, thank you. You can put your charts away

except for one thing for right now. We'll get to

them a little bit later. But I would like to

mention this. If you see on the chart for on

the right, there's a blank column how practiced now? So

the title of the message this morning is the Anabaptist

Vision then and now. Really that is left blank for

you to fill in how you plan to apply it

to continue it on. So that's your homework, all right.

So the burden of the message this morning is what

does it take to maintain the vision that our Anabaptist's

forefathers had. Perhaps better stated would be how can we

maintain a biblical view and practice of the Church of

Jesus Christ in our day? And I'd like to ask

you this morning, what is your vision for your life?

What is your vision for our church here? What do

we want to see going forward? What do we want today, tomorrow,

ten years from now, if the Lord Terry's or fifty

years or I don't suppose the world's going to continue

on another five hundred. But I think we need to

understand the issues that gave rise to the Anabaptist church.

We've had quite a bit of that here in our

Sunday school lesson, but I go over some of that. Again,

we're not just basing everything we do or believe on

what the Anabaptist did, But we do recognize that the

doctrine that they espoused, that they taught emerged from their

study of the Word of God, and that I believe

it's a true expression of biblical Christianity. And so therefore

we followed the Anabaptists as they followed Christ. So is

this subject relevant to us today? I'd like to say yes,

it is are we rooted and grounded enough that we

will not lose this vision? Since I gave this message

five weeks ago here, I don't know. Two three weeks ago,

I was in my office and I was deleting a

bunch of old emails and I run to a run

onto an email that I'd forgotten and gotten about eight

years ago, and it just stood out to me in

relation to this. And just to give a little bit

of background, there's a family in Ohio, and I'm not

giving the name, but that our family, my siblings and

so on, had interacted with quite a bit in past years.

My sister would have stayed in their home when she

was taking nurses training. One of their sons stayed in

our home when he was out here in Harvest many

years ago, and we had some interaction over the years.

I I was in Ohio and I don't remember exactly

when this was a few years back, and the mother

in this home, she said, here, would you be interested

in this, in this autobiography that I've put together my life? Well?

Sure so I took it, and very interesting the life.

Oh my heart bled when I looked through that and

saw the current. Well maybe not even so current some

of them were in ninety four, but more current pictures,

and there was no sign of distinction or separation from

the world other than the mother and father. And I'm

not here to condemn anybody. I'm not here to point fingers.

But here's what I wanted to share with you on

this email. This is what one of the daughters in

that family had written to me. Sometimes I wish, as

an adult, I could understand my heritage and wonder how

I and my siblings could not continue in it when

all of yours accept so on have done. So I'm

glad that God understands our hearts and appreciates the Lutheran

liturgy where I attend of confession and forgiveness. And so

here we have a person that almost seems like a

little bit at sea. She recognizes she had a good heritage,

and she wonders why she and her siblings couldn't stay

in that heritage. She wondered why some others do. And

yet she appreciates that God can understand her as she

goes to the Lutheran church and has confession and forgiveness there.

And here, again, I'm not slamming Lutherans, but we believe

that there was some shortcomings in that belief system. So

in thinking of the early Anabaptist's vision, our mind go

to the Swiss Brethren, and then we also go to Holland,

and we know that there was a group that began

in Switzerland a little bit later in Holland that came

to almost identical belief and practices independent of one another,

and that was based on an honest study of the

Word of God. I'd like you, if you'd like to

turn with me to the book of Titus. I'd like

to just point out some things there that I think

are worthwhile to look at. And I'm thinking of the

of the word doctrine. There's four verses here in the

first two chapters of Titus that have the word doctrine,

and that would be teaching, that would be understanding the

will of God. First of all, Titus one nine says,

holding fast a faithful word, as hath been taught, that

you may be able by sound doctrine those to exhort

and to convince the gainsayer. Going to chapter two, verse one,

but speak now of the things which become sound doctrine.

Now let me mention here that Paul was giving instruction

to his to a younger leader in the church, Titus,

and he says, speak to things which becomes sound doctrine

verse seven, exhort servants, oh excuse me, okay. Verse seven,

in all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works,

in doctrines, showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, and verse ten, not purloining,

but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the

doctrine of God or Savior. And then with that same thought,

I'd like to read a verse in Romans six, Romans six,

verse seventeen. But God be thanked that you were the

servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart

that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. And

so the conservative apostle Paul the title and to the

Romans was that they hear and that they teach, and

that they put to practice the doctrine of our Lord

Jesus Christ. And so most of the things that we

will look at this morning, and on this chart here,

which we'll get to that pretty quick, here are the

beliefs and the practices that set the brethren, the Anabaptists,

apart from the Reformed Church of their day. The Anabaptist,

agreed with many of the beliefs that Luther and Zwingley had,

and yet they had more definite views and practices that

they held to. Just a little bit of background. Yet,

before we get into into this, we know the Roman

Catholicism have become corrupt in many ways. They practiced many

things that were contrary to the Bible, such as to saints,

and of course prayer to Jesus Mother Mary was a

very strong thing there. They had worship of images, the

belief that the bread and the wine in the mass

or in our communion, if we would have communion here today,

and we'd say, well, now this bread turns into the

actual body of Jesus and the wine into his actual blood.

Now that's that's what they would have believed. They believed

in purgatory, and that that was a kind of a

holding pit. You might say too, that some could receive

somewhat punishment as estrangement from God, and that they could

be released from purgatory if there was a the righteous

had excess righteousness, according to the beliefs of some. And

so if you you actually paid some money put it

in my call for here that can go into the

wealth of the church. You can buy some of those

excess righteousnesses that saints of the past had. They had

literal priesthood and so on. One thing, I don't know

that we really hear a lot about this, but there

were there were a lot of relics that they gathered together.

It said that I was reading somewhere in fifteen or

nine Frederick the Wise, and I'm not sure who Frederick

the Wise, as I should have checked it out, had

five thousand and five relics. And if you viewed them.

And here again I didn't. I couldn't tell whether it

means to view them all or if he got this

for every view, for everything you viewed, but it would

take one hundred days off of your time in purgatory.

And so you could view these things, and what were they? Well,

here's a cloth that was part of the robe that

Jesus war to the cross. And here is a splendor

of wood that come off of the cross. And so

we view that and we reverer that. Well, here's some

sticks and that why that came from the burning bush

of Moses, and why look at here, here's a feather

that's from Gabriel's wing. Things like that and they would

view that those relics. And so in the early part

of the sixteenth century there were many who were dissatisfied

with the Catholic Church, both her false teachings and her

abominable practices, as well as she wielded a very strong

political She was very strong political and so there was

a movement afloat to reform the church. We need to

make some changes in the church. There's a lot of

things that are wrong here. And so that's where we

get the word reformation. Let's reform this church and get

it back to what it should be.

And we.

We think of men like Martin Luther, who very boldly

stood up against the the wrongs of the of the church.

We think of over exulingly in Zurich, Switzerland, and there

were there were others, John Calvin at Geneva, there was

John Knox in Scotland, I believe it was, and various ones.

Some of them separate from the Catholic Church and actually

started their own church. Some of them actually did try

to stay within the Roman Catholic Church and try to

reform it. And so that brings us in to the

heritage that we want to look at this morning, and

I had to think. Just suppose that we had Brother

Greble and Brother Moms and Brother bla Rock here in

our services this morning, and we could ask them what

concerns did you have and how did you practice them?

And we could tell them, you know, our church here

we're endeavoring to follow in your footsteps. Do you see

anything at all that resembles what you were trying to

stand for? Does it or does it not? I think

that's fair to ask. Okay, now a little bit more

on the chart. The one side is not quite as

busy as the other side. That's what I handed out

at the at the fellowship meeting several weeks ago, and

then I'm working on this for today. On the backside,

I put in some just short quotes from scripture on

these different points that to show that these were not

just manufactured ideas by the Anabaptist but they were actually

based on scripture. And I don't know if you've noticed here,

but these are all quotes from the New Testament. I

think you could just about go through and put Old

Testament quotes in that would also be valid, but these

are all New Testament quotes. Again, I want to be

clear that these are not the only tenets of faith

of the Anabaptists. There were a lot of other things.

I mean, they you know, they believed in in the God,

the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. They

just all those things. But these would be areas where

they would have had a basic differing of belief in

practice from the reformers. All right, So let's go down

through here thirteen points, probably about two minutes of the points,

if we can do that, all right. The first one

is the authority of the scriptures. The Anabaptists believed that

the scriptures were the final authority. And you know, I

think that Swingley also believed this, and a lot of

the other reformers did. But how did the scriptures then

become the basis how to live one's life? Okay? Conrad Grebel,

one of the first leaders there, said, you should regard

neither of the opinion of the civil authorities nor of

any man, but should do only what God requires of you,

and what the mouth of God has spoken that you

should heed. So that was his stand. He also wrote

in a letter, we would ask you to discard the

old ordinances of Antichrist and hold to the word of

God alone, and be guided by it. Another quote from Menosimons,

this time from Holland. He said he'd rather die than

teach his brethren a single word that is at variance

with the testimony of God's word. And so we see

the Countergrevel Menosimons and others. They believed in the authority

of the scriptures, and the records of the sayings of

the Anabaptists show that the word of God was paramount

in their belief and walk of life. Now I left

you the open blank there, and if you can want

to fill it in you may. If you want to

just fill it in your mind, that's fine. I do

want to give just a little bit on each one

of these of something perhaps that we should consider today.

And so I believe today we need to have a

clear directive of thus saith the Lord. Perhaps we feel

that we're grounded on this, there's no danger of losing it.

But I'd like to emphasize the importance of giving heed

to all the scripture and not just say, well, that's

really not so important, doesn't really apply. I think Two,

we need to be very aware of and continually on

guard against the errors of eternal security. Once saved, always saved,

regardless of what you do. Secondly, a literal method of

Bible interpretation. The brethren read the Word of God and

accepted it at face value. This called for simple, practical obedience.

They did not get involved in great, big theological discussions

by the religious scholars of the day. It wasn't necessary

to depend on the learned of the day to understand

the scripture's demand. They read it. It was simple, here's

what the Bible says, It's what we need to do.

And so scriptural obedience and holiness of life form such

an integral part of believing that if they are lost,

the belief is also lost. Two Timothy three, sixteen seventeen.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is

profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction of righteousness,

that the Man of God may be perfect thorughly furnished

unto all good works. So where does that bring us

to today? I think it needs to be in their

mind when we read the Word of God, thus saith

the Lord, and that's the final authority. But do we

tamper with that a little bit?

Say?

Yeah, yeah, but I think or my dad said, and

that settles it. But does your dad say what the

Lord said? Number three believers baptism. Both the Catholic and

the Protestant churches were state churches. In other words, they

were run the civil authorities as well as the church authorities.

And to actually make the state church work, they needed

to baptize the infants that they would become a part

of the system, so that everyone in the jurisdiction of

the land would be part of the church. And so

if you refuse that, if you didn't have your baby baptized,

it was seditious. It was it was unlawful, it was

blasphemous as far as they were concerned. Also, the Catholics

and the Lutherns believed in baptismal regeneration. In other words,

you cannot be saved, you cannot go to Heaven unless

you have been baptized. So there was a strong and

that that was true for adults and children. Both the

brethren said, there's there's no scriptural president for baptizing babies.

Well yeah, but the other said, yeah, but look at

that circumcision. They needed to circumcise in the Old Testament

at eight days. But as far as baptizing, nothing in

the New Testament, where there were those that were baptized

other than adult believers, and so they held that baptism

needed to be voluntary, a personal choice that resulted in

an individual personal commitment to follow Christ. So on the

day of Pentecost, Peter said, repent and be baptized. Paul

told the Flippy and Jailer believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

and now shon't be saved, and then they were baptized Paul.

I don't know how small a children were there in

the Flippy and Jailer's house. But Paul didn't say, now

make sure you have all the children, get your little

children and the babies and all sort of baptized that

they can be saved. No, he says, believe that's an

adult thing, you know. I think today there's a fine

line between expecting our children to become part of the

church at a certain age or requiring signs of regeneration.

We should not just accept adolescents into the church without

a demonstration of a definite new birth experience. The fourth, then,

is a liberty of conscience. The Anabaptists believed that the

church and the state were completely separate organizations. They did

not function together. They both had their part, but not together.

They were completely diverse in nature and mission. And so consequently,

one's Christian faith should not be forced on another that

you have to do, you have to believe, you have

to perform according to what we think. And so they

believed in voluntary acceptance of doctrinal truth and practices. They

did not believe that those who disagreed with the doctoral

position of the state should be persecuted for their beliefs.

Neither should the church persecute those that did not agree

with their position. And you know, as we go through

the history of the Reformation, we know that the Catholics

were very rustless in their handling of those who did

not follow them. So you'd think, well, maybe the Reformers

would have a little bit more liberty, but no, so

in the days of the Reformers, any deviation from belief

in practice of the state church was seditious and punishable

by death. What's interesting is that the Anabaptists were ahead

of their time. You might say they were champions of

the cornerstone of the American society as we know it,

in which religious freedom was granted to all. And I

found this interesting in my study that we know that

William Penn or the Pens, the Penn family, established in

Pennsylvania a what's called a Holy Experiment and made so

that those who came from repressive situations had the freedom

to worship God as they believed they should. And so

when Penns established their Holy Experiment in the New World

and had their first assembly meeting, they adopted laws which

had been agreed upon before leaving England. So they had

agreed on this before they ever left England. These laws

provided that no person acknowledging Almighty God shall in any

wise be molested or prejudiced for his or her conscience,

conscientious persuasion, or practice, but shall enjoy Christian liberty. So,

even though we believe in the right of the individual

to live according to his own conscience without force, yet

we also believe that each church, each body of local

body of believers, needs to set guidelines that are acceptable

and that can be to be a part of this

brotherhood that brings a sin to church discipline. Number five.

The Anabaptists believed that sin and false doctrine must be

removed from the true church. They believed in a true

fellowship of believers. Ephesians five twenty seven says that he

might present it to himself a glorious church, not having

spot a wrinkle or any such thing, but that it

should be holding without blemish. Now, in their earlier teachings,

a Luther and Swingley both would have taught church discipline.

But you know, how are you going to apply that

in a state church? If everybody is a member, and

you've got to be a part of the church to

be a part of the state, how are you going

to apply church discipline? Later on, Luther lamented that the

Reformation did not change people's hearts. He wished that he

could have had a fellowship where there would have been

a list of those true leevers and where church discipline

could have been exercised, But no, he had passed up by.

And so the Brethren excluded from fellowship those who sinned

or in doctrial error. And the Swiss believed that the

strongest form of church discipline was excommunication. And like Dan

said in the Sunday School lesson this morning, they excommunicated

instead of killing, and that excluded one from the communion table.

And that's based in one Corinthians five eleven or thirteen.

But now I've written under you not to keep company

if any man that has called a brother be a

fornicator or covenis, or an idolater, or a railer, or

a drunkard or extortioner with such an one, No, not

to eat, For what have I to do to judge

them also that are without? Do not you judge them

that are within? But them that are without? God judges. Therefore,

put away from among yourselves that wicked person. And in

the Anabaptist circles, and particularly among the Dutch, this got

to be quite a point of contention.

No, not to eat.

The Swiss took that to be communion, the Dutch took

that literally not to eat with a person. And we

know that the Amish have also taken that position. And

this issue down through time has caused many divisions, and

I'm not going to go into that this morning, but

we do find that there are numerous scriptures from the

teaching of Jesus to the apostles that sin must be

dealt with and not allowed in the church, And looking

at history, any group that does not exercise church discipline

will be short lived. And so I think today we

have a clear understanding of the purpose of discipline, and

I think too much discipline has been a strong arm

method to make sure that everybody agrees with me. But

that's not true excommunication. Excommunication is to try to help

the person to understand the error of their way and

be restored, all right. Number six the separation of church

and state. They did not accept the state saying how

the church should operate, nor did they try to run

the affairs of the state. They kept free from involvement

and government offices. And you know, today, I suppose we

all have political opinions. That's not all bad, but it's

not all good either. We dare not become entangled in

the affairs of the government under which we live. I

think we need to stay clear of voting and of

jury duty and other things that tie us into the

government of the land. All right, then we have number

seven brotherhood and brotherly love. The Believers became a close

knit group of brethren. There was strong affinity for one another,

giving to those in need. One writer, speaking of the

brethren of Augsbury, said, in their brotherhood there was an

evidence the purpose to render each other the greatest possible

service on the ground of brothers in love. First John

three seventeen says, but whoso hath this world's good and

see it, says brother, have need and shuteth up his

bowels of capassion from him? How dwelleth the love of

God in him? And Galatian six' ten as we have

therefore opportunity to let us do good and to all,

men especially under them who are of the household of. Faith,

now as we heard in our adult and Youth sunday

school lesson, today The Tatarian brethren took that as far

as community of. Goods so how do we fulfill this vision? Today,

well THERE'S i guess we had some discussion on. That

but you know, WHAT i. Think we need to help

each other in times of sickness and. Death we need

to be vigilant when our brother and sister has a great,

burden mutual, aid take time to relate to one. Another

do we need depend on insurance or do we depend

on one another One peter three. Eight, finally be of

all on, mind having compassion one of another love is,

brethren be, pitiful be. Courteous number eight. Humility The brethren

believed that the true believer would do nothing for pomp

and show whatever was fashionable and followed worldly styles was considered.

Pride their emphasis on humility was in essence the practice

of non conformity to the. World and here again we.

Looked we heard in A sunday school lesson this morning

that we're a. Glesson AND i don't know IF i

can pronounce that. Right but in our, book on forty

page forty, seven it says this was a strong theme

among The South German anabaptist. Leaders it meant a lifestyle of,

yieldedness first Toward, god then toward his, people and finally

yielding to the cross of, suffering and so that we

would find in. Humility Henry, bullinger an opponent Of, anabaptists

said that they insisted on modest apparel and condemned outward

adornment mental. Simons when he was addressing the Monster heights,

said The kingdom of The lord is not a kingdom

in which a swaggering show of, gold silver, pearls, silk

velvet and display has any places in the usage of

the prow in haughty. World but in The kingdom Of,

christ the kingdom of all, humility the outward adorning of

the body has no, place but the inward ornaments of

the spirit are sought and coveted with great zeal and,

diligence with a broken and contrite. Heart there's other quotes

that we could, give BUT i think that the thought

here on humility is it shows on the, outside but

it also very much shows on how our, demeanor how we,

live how we relate to, others and so whether it's

how we appear or how our lives are, lived we

need to be humble Before god and, man.

All.

Right number, nine separation from the, world and so with

humility and with separation from the world old this makes

up the practice of what we often call non, conformity

be not conformed to this, world and so this applies

to more than. Dress The anabaptists kept free from public, drinking, houses, dances,

profanity and luxury as evidence of. Wiliness they testified against,

profanity and it seemed that the churches of that day

did little to stop the, sin and even some of

the clergy were guilty of. It mennonites In europe says.

This it is of interest to notice from source material

that one who was accused of being An anabaptist could

clear himself of this charge by using. Profanity so someone was,

arrested say you're An. Anabaptist No i'm. Not, well, okay prove.

It use profanity and then we'll know that you're. Not

separation from the world also prohibited members from participating in

government offices such as magistrates or. Constables and they firmly

held that there are two, kingdoms The kingdom of the

world The kingdom Of. Christ and a person is either

a part of one or of the, other but not.

Both and SO i think, today how do we practice this?

Today or how do we think of that separation from the.

World we also endeavor to keep free from drinking houses

and dancing in profanity and. Luxury we endeavor to hold

uphold separation by avoiding the unequal yoke with unbelievers in

business and social. Events all. Right ten defenselessness or non.

Resistance The anabaptists believed That jesus forbade the use of the,

sword whether for personal defense or defending a worldly. Kingdom

they did not participate in strife or. Riots they did

not sue at the. Law they advocated paying all. Taxes,

now as we read the accounts of some of The,

anabaptists some of them did try to defend themselves with,

weapons but it's quite noteworthy that only the Defenseless anabaptists

were the ones that. Survived jesus, said all they that

take the sword shall perish with the. Sword and so

refusal to bear arms in the military became a definite

issue that The church need to deal with throughout the,

centuries and we do that yet today as. Well we

believe we cannot take part in the. Military but non

resistance is more than avoiding guns and. Bombs Lead our

lives need to be such that we take no offense

when others. Wrongness number eleven refusal to swear the. Oath

In matthew five thirty, Five jesus, said BUT i, say

and to you swear not at. All In james five,

twelve but above all, things my, brothers swear not neither By,

heaven neither by the, earth neither by any other, oath

but like Your, aba your, name, nay unless you fall into.

Condemnation now The anabaptist took this. Seriously some of The

swiss rulers would have required everybody to swear an oath of,

allegiance and part of that was to determine who were

who Were. Anabaptists those were conscientiously opposed to. That today

our government recognizes our position and allows us to affirm

that we affirm rather than to. Swear AND i appreciate

that they do. That but you, know our word should be,

good that what we say is, true and what we

promise we will. Keep AND i Think i've said this here.

Before you, Know i've already been in a court. Setting

and so raise your right, hand and Where i'll. Affirm,

okay raise your right. Hand do you promise to tell the,

truth nothing about the, Truth so help Me, God, YES

i affirm that. IS i think that's getting pretty close

to swearing when we raise your right hand and say.

That so just something to think, about all. Right number

twelve the lay. Ministry so immediately when they started, out

they appointed leaders and ministers of the gospel from among.

Themselves they did not rely on professionally trained. Leadership And

paul's instruction To titus for this cause left eye being

in crete that thou should have sat in order the

things that are, wanting and ordain elders in every, city

AS i had appointed Thee now The Reformed church there

In switzerland they found much fault with the brethren appointing

their own. Ministers they didn't recognize, them and the weddings

that they would perform they were. Invalid and they said

that any children that are born to a union that

was married by The, anabaptists those children were illegitimate and

they could not inherit their parents'. PROPERTY i think it's

very important today to choose leaders from among. US i

think it is just very important to keep on with the,

vision all. Right one more missionary. Zeal The Anabaptist church

was pre eminently a mission missionary, church and that was

one reason for its rapid. Spread the church was engaged

in aggressive. Evangelism the early leaders went from place to

place preaching The kingdom Of. God they won many and

baptized them upon confession of. Faith and sometimes we'll read

where one hundred or several hundred were. Baptized what about

The what about The, Lutherans what about The Reformed? Church

how evangelistic were? They, well you, know they didn't need to,

be because they had they had everybody in their. Circles

they just preached where it was. Safe in the state

church all sort. Of all citizens were a part of the.

Church there was no need to. Evangelize AND i think

we're aware that over the years because of the relentless

persecution and the resettlement Of anabaptists Across europe and later Into,

america and they lost their early missionary. Zeal now in

more recent times there's been an effort to regain the

missionary activity of the. Past but, so you, know what

should we? DO i think we need to to try

to spread The gospel where we. Can that's so a

conclusion as we look at these principles of The anabaptist,

vision where do we stand? Today where do you? Stand

do you agree with? Them are you perpetuating? Them are

you do you want them passed on to succeeding? Generations

maybe more, so WOULD i be willing to give my

life rather than to violate these? Principles Early anabaptists were

willing to lay their life down for. Them we claim

the heritage of our, Forefathers but do we accept an

espouse and carry on the? Vision and so, again If

conrad And felix And george And mento were here today

intermingled with, us would they say you are carrying on

our vision or would they SAY i don't recognize you

strayed you strayed a long way from a. Vision SO

i think it should behoove us to appreciate those of

the past and endeavor to be true witnesses of the

vision that is our. Heritage the, lords let's have a clothing.

Song