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Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up  /  Chapter 18: The Anabaptist Fire  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 6
The quote “If the head had to suffer…how shall his servants…expect peace and freedom as to their flesh?” frames suffering as normal for Christians; how does that view of God’s purposes in suffering collide with modern expectations of safety, comfort, or “freedom,” and what changes if we treat hardship as part of discipleship rather than a problem to solve?
Another way to ask: If suffering is normal for Christians, how does that go against today’s focus on comfort, safety, and “freedom”? What changes when we treat hardship as part of following Jesus instead of something to quickly fix?

Direct Answer Bercot presents the Anabaptist view that suffering is a normal, expected part of following Jesus, not an abnormal failure of God’s care. That collides with modern expectations that faith should produce comfort and “peace and freedom” in this life; it reframes hardship as cross-shaped discipleship.

Support from Transcript:

  • Bercot says, “Like the early Christians, the Anabaptists also preach the message of the cross.”
  • He quotes an Anabaptist: “If the head had to suffer such torture… how shall his servants… expect peace and freedom as to their flesh?”
  • He describes their reality: “cruelly hunted down, tortured, and executed.”
  • Yet they did not respond by grasping for security through violence: they “refused to fight back or retaliate.”
  • He contrasts them with a “Gospel of health and wealth,” saying they instead “stressed simplicity of living” and often lived in “dire poverty.”
Discussion Follow-ups If hardship is expected, what should change in how we pray, preach, and measure “success” in the Christian life?

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