Quotable

In Scripture as well as in history we read and find that the pure wholesome truth from the beginning of the world has generally been hated, reviled, and persecuted....The good pious Jeremiah, because he reproved the scribes for their false doctrine and wickedness, admonished the ignorant...urged the wicked population to repent...was called by the scribes a heretic and deceiver, and by the princes a seditionist and troublemaker. He had to bear much hardship although he was chosen of God and a prophet...and spake from the mouth of the Lord....John, a man sent from God...a burning, shining light, the messenger of the Lord, a voice crying in the wilderness...was accused that he was possessed of devils and was at last beheaded....

Jesus Christ, Himself the eternal Light and Life, was called Beelzebub, a Samaritan and devil-possessed, an insurrectionist, a transgressor of the Law, a blasphemer, a glutton and winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners...and at the last He was rewarded for all His glorious miracles, kindness, and love shown to them with a mocking robe, a crown of thorns, scourging, cross, nails and death after they had derided and blasphemed Him. How they treated Stephen, Peter, Paul, James, and the others, the Scriptures show abundantly.

At the time of the first church the Christians were called swine by some; others called them robbers of God’s glory, murderers, infanticides, abominable...enemies of the human race...and of God....So it is today on every hand....False doctrine, idolatry, unbelief, willfulness, shame, and blasphemy are in control. They will not be reproved or admonished. They hate all who would in pure love at the cost of their goods and life...lead them in the way of peace, and save their souls if possible.

—Menno Simons (c. 1540), The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, pp 544-545