Bro. John:
You mentioned Sebastian Franck today in the office and said your father really liked him. I can see why! I looked him up and found a letter he had written to a man named John Campanus in 1531. Wow! I included here the link of the letter.
It is lengthy but well worth reading when you have time. Below are a few excerpts from it:
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“Along with this, I ask what is the need or why should God wish to restore the outworn sacraments and take them back from Antichrist, yea, contrary to his own nature (which is Spirit and inward), yield to weak material elements? For he had been for fourteen hundred years now himself the teacher and baptizer and governor of the Feast, that is, in the Spirit and in truth without any outward means — in the Spirit, I say, in order that he may baptize, instruct, and nourish our spirit. And does he wish now, just as though he were weary of spiritual things and had quite forgotten his nature, to take refuge again in the poor sick elements of the world and re-establish the besmirched holy days and the sacraments of both Testaments? But God will remain [true] to his character, especially [as disclosed] in the New Testament, as long as the world stands.
Good luck, my brother, with thy wonderful theology. May it please God that it be as true as it is unbelievable to the world. Mine is not less wonderful. For I believe and am certain that at the present time not a single true and natural word of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is acknowledged on earth, yea, that no one has begun to recognize the righteousness of faith. No one, I say, in the whole of Germany, nay, more, in the whole world — I speak of those who sound forth their falsified word from their pulpits to the common people, that is, of the swine and the dogs — no one has been called or sent. Of this I have absolutely no doubt. Therefore, they preach without any fruit, for they are not sent of God but instead retch out the Word solely according to the letter, soiled with human filth, not according to the divine sense. For they also don’t know another word to say but what is Scriptural, and of no other teachers except their evangelists.
In brief, all that we have learned since childhood from the papists, we must all of a sudden again unlearn. Again, the same for what we have, received from Luther and Zwingli — all must be abandoned and altered. For one will sooner make a good Christian out of a Turk than out of a bad Christian or a learned divine! For the veil of Moses hinders them, that is, the death-dealing letter of Scripture, which they receive as life and as life-giving Spirit. I, however, hold completely that the intention of the Lord does not reside precisely in the rind of Scripture. That is, Scripture is not so easy for everyone to understand but what I would sooner believe that it were locked with seven seals and knowable to none but to the Lamb. For to such an extent does God hide his wisdom under the covering of likeness and literary parable of letters that none but those who are taught of God himself can understand them. And [he] does not so lightly expose his secret to the godless world and all scamps but rather conceals it beneath the rind so that only the instructed of God, as I have said, may be able to grasp it.”
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Thanks, Sandy.
Yes, I discovered Franck while doing some research as a seminary student and read some of his writings to my father, who rejoiced in them. Of course, as with John Fox and many others who were trying to break loose from the suffocating quilt of Christian doctrines and traditions, Franck’s vision may have been a little cloudy (but not anything in the excerpt you sent), but considering their times, they were remarkably inspired men.
Thank you again, I enjoyed reading what you sent and being re-acquainted with an old friend, Sebastian Franck.
jdc