THE STORY OF DIRK WILLEMS
THE STORY OF DIRK WILLEMS
- by Zac Poonen
The Anabaptists in Europe (in the 16th century) were peaceful citizens who did not believe in war. Their only crime was that they rejected infant baptism and took believers baptism!! So they were called Anabaptists (those who took baptism again). And just for this, the Catholics and the Protestants tortured and killed at least 1,500 Anabaptists.
For the men, death was usually by fire; for the women it was by drowning. Many Anabaptists were so bold in their final testimony for Christ that authorities began to clamp their tongues before leading them out to their execution so that they would not speak about the Lord and win more converts.
Dirk Willems, an Anabaptist, was imprisoned in his home town of Asperen (Netherlands), for taking believers baptism, and for having secret church services in his home and for allowing others to be baptized there. Knowing that his fate would be death if he remained in prison, Dirk made a rope of strips of cloth and slid down it over the prison wall. A prison-guard saw him and chased him.
There was a pond nearby covered with a thin layer of ice. Dirk had become thin (due to the starvation diet in the prison) and so he ran across the pond safely to the other side. But when the heavy-built guard chased him, the ice broke under his weight – and he sank into the icy water and cried out for help. Dirk remembered what Jesus taught – to love one’s enemies. So he turned back immediately and pulled the guard out of the icy water.
The guard was so grateful that he wanted to let Dirk escape. But the chief magistrate who was standing on the shore, sternly ordered the guard to arrest Dirk and bring him back, lest the guard himself be imprisoned.
So Dirk was put back in prison and condemned to death. He was burned to death on May 16, 1569.
Such men are our brothers in Christ whom we will meet in heaven one day. We shall then exchange our testimonies.
May we all have something worthwhile to tell them then of our testimony – how we glorified Christ.
Closing note: Sadly, many of the descendants of those Anabaptists – the Amish, Mennonites and Hutterites – face no persecution today, but have become wealthy, and do not know the Lord at all. They only have the outward form of religion. That is a warning for all of us. So train up your children when they are young, to follow the Lord wholeheartedly.
