Hubmaier Influence On Religion

Hubmaier was obviously a well-known highly respected participant in the disputation. In regard to images and mass he suggested that errors and abuses had crept in over the centuries, and that these, as in all controversial religious questions, the only standard of judgment was Scripture which God himself had authorized and sanctified. :(Bergsten, Estep, & Barnes, 1978 p 83) Hubmaier theological training prepared him for the tactics of point- point debate on such matters as free will and original sin and especially on the most threatening controverted issue of infant baptism. His gifts as a popular preacher and teacher show to the best advantage in simple polemic tracts and his writings on church order. :(W. H. Pipkin, 1992) p.15
Hubmaier’s
appearance in Zurich shows that he was now clear about his task as a reformer. Therefore, from 1521 to the beginning of 1523, his attention was focused upon Pauline theology, the study of Scripture, and declaration of new doctrines, which was primarily due to the stimulating influence of the humanist and Wittenberg theologians. From 1523 – 1525, the major issues revolved around the biblical teachings regarding the mass and images. But during 1525 the renewal of believer’s baptism overshadowed everything else. :(Bergsten, Estep, & Barnes, 1978) p. 87

Theological thoughts
The Centrality of Faith
Martin Luther arrived at the conclusion that sinners are justified before God by faith alone, apart from any works of merit by human being.
This view became known as his doctrine of sola fides (italic), which eventually became the clarion call for reforms throughout the entire sixteenth- century Protestant Reformation. (Mabry, 1998, p. 1) Regardless of the receptive method of faith, operating within the practices of the church or operating apart from the church; In whatever way they understood it, these reformers made faith the cornerstone of their whole movement. (Mabry, 1998, p. 1). Hubmaier’s understanding of the nature of the Christian faith was central to his
theology.

Most of Hubmaier’s writing were done in the context of his various baptismal controversies with other reformers, and in these writings, he provides no simple systematic presentation of his faith doctrine. But a careful analysis of what he writes about faith in these treatises provides understanding of its centrality in his theology. The word Hubmaier used to express “faith” is (“glaub”), which meant to Hubmaier that which turns human being toward God, leads them to say “yes” to His will as expressed in His Word, and enables them to obey His commandments.
But at other times (“glaub”) meant a sure and certain knowledge that sinners who are convinced of the truth of God’s Word and who wants to change, are forgiven of their sins and are reconciled to God.
Mabry, 1998, p2). According to Hubmaier’s study of God, either one or the other or both understandings of faith is presupposed. Protestant reformers of Hubmaier’s time, like leaders Luther and Zwingli believed faith was essential for salvation, the sacraments, and the living of Christian life. While he agreed with them, he insisted that faith was necessary for baptism, with emphasis upon the fact that faith (at least in the initial belief stage) as some kind of mental, intellectual, reasoning capacity within human beings, in such a way that one must hear the gospel which comes on him or her through the Word of
God.
Infants would be eligible, because they would not have the kind of mental maturity necessary for understanding the gospel and recognizing the validity of it (Mabry, 1998, p10). Hubmaier also discusses blood baptism well known to the church since the days of martyrdom in the first century the church had felt that to die for one’s faith was the highest