Radical Reformation Day? Absolutely! But isn't Reformation Day enough? Absolutely not! While Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary continues to celebrate the biblical progress made during the Protestant Reformation with Reformation Day on Oct. 31, we are compelled to honor the recovery of New Testament Christianity with Radical Reformation Day on Jan. 21. On this day in 1525, after an extended period of intense Bible study in the original languages, a period described by an early chronicler as an "extraordinary awakening and preparation by God," [1] the first Anabaptists or "Brothers," as they called themselves, recovered the New Testament practice of baptizing only believers.
The celebration of the earliest recorded restitution of believers' baptism raises some important questions: First, what was the impetus for this "Extraordinary Awakening," an awakening which occurred over two centuries before the "Great Awakening" of more recent fame? Second, what were the characteristic beliefs during this Extraordinary Awakening? Third, who were some of the leading figures in the Extraordinary Awakening, which formed a major part of the Radical Reformation? Finally, what were the results of the Extraordinary Awakening?
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