Elias Feisser

Elias Feisser

Elias Johannes Feisser (born December 10, 1805 in Winsum , Netherlands , † June 2, 1865 in Nieuwe Pekela , Netherlands) was a Dutch Baptist theologian. He is considered to be the founder of the Dutch Baptists .

Origin and beginnings

Johannes Feisser is born as the son of Johannes Feisser and his wife Anna Maria, née Bouer. On May 16, 1823 he enrolled at the University of Groningen as a theology student . He completed his first exam on May 3, 1827. He continued his studies at the University of Leiden , where he obtained his doctorate in theology on June 21, 1828 . Community service as a preacher in Lekkum (1828–1831), Winschoten and Franeker (1833–1838) followed. A serious physical illness forced him to give up the full-time ministry for the time being.

Feisser's path to the Baptists

In his illness phase, he studied the scriptures intensively . Personal Bible study leads him to new insights into New Testament baptism and the Lord's Supper . Although he took up an office again in the Dutch Reformed parish of Gasselternijveen after his recovery, he got into internal conflicts from 1843 at the latest because of the baptism and communion practice of his denomination. Because of his personal preoccupation with the Bible , the knowledge grows in him that the New Testament baptism presupposes the wish of the person to be baptized and that it occurs through immersion. He puts this knowledge up for discussion within his church and gets into a deep discussion about it with his church council. In 1843 the higher church authority, the Provinciaal Kerkbestuur , removed him from his offices.

It is probably traveling salesmen and seasonal workers that Feisser heard about from the young Baptist movement in Germany shortly after his impeachment. He makes contact with Johann Gerhard Oncken , founder of this movement, and receives on its mediating between visiting Julius Köbner and Jeveraner elders Anton Friedrich Remmers . In this way Feisser learns that he is not alone in his understanding of baptism; for the first time he heard the denomination of Baptists in conversations with Koebner and Remmers .

Foundation of the first Dutch Baptist church

In May 1845 Julius Köbner traveled to Feisser for a second time. In the meantime, he has gathered a small group of like-minded people. You leave the Dutch Church and decide to be baptized. Köbner carries out the requested baptism of Feisser and initially six other members of the Feisser circle. The place of baptism is the Nijveensche moon , not far from Gasselternijveen.

The baptized are constituted under Köbner's chairmanship as the Gemeente van Gedoopte Christenen (congregation of baptized Christians). Feisser is ordained an elder in this first Dutch Baptist church. A short time later it received official royal recognition as a religious society .

Last years of life

In 1849 Feisser relocated to Nieuwe Pekela , where he died in 1865 at the age of 60. Feisser's writings, which he published during the evening of his life, are of particular importance for the emergence and development of the Dutch Baptists.

Web links

• Short biography Feissers (Dutch) ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )