… About the Ordnung, which the Amish have set up as an idol.

Simply stated, the Ordnung is a set of rules set up by the Amish leadership, differing in each individual church. Everyone who is a member of that specific church must follow those specific or known rules, or they will be excommunicated with no exceptions.

The Amish, Mennonite, and the Hutterite people all stem from the same people group called the Anabaptists.

This movement came out of the dark ages in 1521, breaking away from the Reformed Lutheran and the Roman Catholic Church. Many were the misdeeds of the Roman Catholic and the Reformed Lutheran Church, but I will only touch on one. The Roman Catholics, at that time and to this day, still baptize infants, claiming them to be accepted in the Kingdom of God while still babies. A number of common people began to read the Bible and to understand that being born again had to be done when one was old enough to understand that they were a Sinner and needed to be saved by the blood of Jesus. Only then could they be baptized. Immediately, the Roman Catholic and the Reformed Lutheran Church began to persecute these new and young believers who began to re-baptize each other in their newfound faith. The name Anabaptist simply means one who is baptized again. With extreme persecution, parents were burned at the stake for their faith, as their children were taken away. The church authorities would chop off their fingers one at a time, insisting that they denounce their new faith. If they continued to refuse to denounce Christ, they were either killed by the sword, burned at the stake, or drowned at the local river. During a period of over 100 years, many thousands were killed.

Menno Simons, in the 15th century, became a born again re-baptized leader among the Anabaptist people. This is where the Mennonite denomination came from.

Jacob Hutter, in the 16th century, became a figurehead among the Anabaptists. From him came the branch of the Hutterites.

In the early 1600s a man named Jacob Amman from the Reformed Church, a tailor by trade, gave his life to the Lord and became an Anabaptist. In time, Jacob Ammon became a Bishop among his congregation. As pride would have it, Jacob Ammon got into a severe dispute with the Mennonite Ordnung on the style of clothing they wore. As a tailor this move gave him job security. This is where a branch of people stepped away from the Mennonite church and followed Jacob Ammon, and became known as the “Amish”.

In the late 1600s after long and persistent persecution, the state church leaders of Switzerland made a deal with the Anabaptist people. If they would stop preaching the gospel outside of their churches, they promised to end persecution. Persecution weary people agreed to these terms, giving up the great Commission found in Matthew chapter 28:16 - 20.

Within just a few years, the focus on saving the lost, which is the Great Commission from Matthew 28:16-20, disappeared completely among the Amish. Here the internal fighting began.

This one compromise branched off into countless others until the Amish belief became so distorted that they no longer believed that they could be saved through the blood of Jesus alone, but would have to follow every rule of the Ordnung in hopes of making it heaven.

Where excommunication had been rare, it became commonplace. Their individual church Ordnungs became the standard they lived and died by.

Today from the outside looking in, the Amish look quaint, kind, respectful, forgiving, and plain. I invite you to look with me a bit deeper to see the reality.

All Amish Ordnungs are rules. Here are a few examples: buggy type (top buggies or open buggies) - wheel type (steel or rubber) - reflector and light configuration on the buggies - gas engines/no gas engines - tractors/no tractors - bicycles - scooters or neither - no electricity - running water or none - beard length - bonnet size - shawl size and color - shoe color - dress color - men's pants style pocket configuration - folds on women's caps have to be a certain number - aprons required or not required. The list goes on and on and on. Many of them are not allowed to pray unless they use a certain book filled with German prayers. Many of the Ordnungs do not allow for prayer meetings or Bible studies. In most communities Bibles are only allowed to be read in the old German language. In many of these churches bishops and ministers within the church are the only ones who are allowed to study the Bible and preach from it, even though many of the people do not understand this German at all.

If just one of the Ordnung idol rules is broken, they must immediately stand before the Church and repent (make confession) or they may be excommunicated. These traditions continue in light of violating the word of God over and over again.

I could write a book on the things the Amish override in the Bible to fulfill the requirements of the Ordnung idol. Unfortunately, time and space limit me. So I will touch on only a few of these many compromises found among the Amish.

As Amish people, we started out with a heart for the Lord, but we have now ended with hate; despising and excommunicating each other, refusing to eat at the same table with those whom we deem less holy than ourselves. Churches will split over the smallest disagreement on the Ordnung idol. Perhaps a disagreement on the configuration of buggy reflectors, churches and families will split. Perhaps over a fold in the woman's apron, a church will split and excommunicate each other.

They claim holiness while many bishops participate in vile drunken parties, substance abuse, coarse joking, swearing, carousing, and the worst sort of behavior. In direct violation of 1st Corinthians 6:9-11 which states, that all who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God and are lost without Christ. This is all done within the confines of the Amish communities; rarely (if ever) seen by those outside of the community. This in itself would not be so bad if they were only harming themselves, but due to the Ordung idol-worship that they have indulged in, the devil has moved in and taken over entire families with the worst kind of immorality.

The world calls it swinging, but the Amish have begun to swap wives. We have many testimonies of young women coming out of the Amish communities, completely broken and decimated from their dads or their brothers sexually using them over and over again, night after night, year after year, even from an extremely young age. Some of them are getting pregnant as young as 13 by their dad or their brothers. Men give testimony to their own mothers and older women abusing them sexually when they were young boys. Thousands of them are on heavy antidepressant medication from the hopeless treadmill of the Ordnung idol.

The Amish people have proven the Bible true. Isaiah 64:4 states “All of us have become like one who is unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”

Jesus said, “worship the Lord your God only.” We will become like whatever we worship. That is why He required us to worship Him who is perfect love. Instead we as the Amish people have traded perfect love for a horrible substitute, the Ordnung Idol. We have become like the idol we worship. Divided, angry, hateful, abusive, violent, filthy, greedy, lust driven, addicted to pornography, addicted to sex, addicted to alcohol, addicted to nicotine, addicted to medication and addicted to ourselves.

Matthew 3:7-10 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

Matthew 23:23-28 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Marcus Girod