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I sing of my Redeemer, and His wondrous love to me. That He would leave the
splendours of Heaven for such a wretch like me!
Heaven, what a blessed hope and what a joy to look forward to!
Formerly I was a Hutterite, living on New Elm Colony. I was a good Hutterite,
obeying my parents and all of the colony laws to a T. I would be against
trying anything different because change to me meant going in a modern and
worldly way. I respected our ministers and the stricter they were the better I
liked them. I liked rules because I thought that this was the way to live a
disciplined life.
As Hutterites we had no assurance of salvation. The Hutterite's teach that if
you obey what the Bible teaches and follow the colony rules, you will probably
eventually get to Heaven. You could never be sure of your eternal destiny.
Members of the Hutterite colony believe that new birth happens at baptism. At
the time of baptism you must confess your sins to the preacher, he prays
before the congregation and your sins are forgiven.
I did all this but still the questions remained; are my sins forgiven? Did I
give the preacher enough detail? On the colony we were encouraged to only read
the German Bible, our sermons and the Chronicles of the Hutterian Brethren. I
had so many questions and started searching for answers on my own. I lost many
friends this way, because they thought I was going too deep. The ministers had
a meeting and our family was found guilty. This drove me to look even deeper
into the Bible. I remember reading about Matthew 16:19 in a German concordance
that the colonies have in their supply of books. Matthew 16:19 says "And I will
give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will
be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven."
I was now convinced that the ministers couldn't forgive sin.
Finally, one day, I met Steve Kember at the Zellers' mall and invited him to come
to our house. He came, and we spent the evening talking about the Word of God.
Two weeks later he came again and explained Romans 3, Isaiah 53 and John 3 to
us. He told us that we had all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and
needed to be saved. This was a new concept for us - we thought Christianity was something that you gradually grew into.
In Isaiah 53 he showed us that Jesus was afflicted, wounded and bruised for our iniquities.
Finally, John 3 tells how everyone who believeth in the Son has everlasting life.
It was so clear and so simple and I believed exactly that! I just took the Word
of God as truth.
After that I would tell people that I had searched for truth and the truth had
set me free. The more I talked, the more assurance I got from the Bible.
Sometimes I had large crowds gathered around me asking questions. The Hutterites
would think that I was preaching a false Gospel and that I had found an easy
way to Heaven.
On July 12, 2000, I and 14 other members of New Elm Colony were excommunicated
for believing in Jesus.
In September of 2001, seven of us got baptized by Steve Kember at the Good News
Centre. I realized that the baptism I had when I was 21 years old was not valid.
After this baptism we were expelled from the colony.
On October 22, 2001 about 30 of us left with our personal belongings and moved
to Coldhurst, AB. God has blessed us in numerous ways since then.
I am so thankful to God that He saved a wretch like me. Come to Jesus just as
you are, wretched and full of sin. Humble yourself in repentance, believe and
receive Christ. Trust him, open your heart and you will be saved. With that
comes the blessed knowledge of an eternal future in Heaven. What a joy that
will be!
(Transcribed from an oral testimony
by Matthew Entz)
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