Chapter 4 – Neighbor Eld Returns | The Bible Makes Us Baptists by Mary E. Bamford (read by H. Ross)

The year is 1528. After a long and mysterious absence, old Neighbor Eld returns—but the joy of his arrival is quickly shadowed by sorrow. Thin, bent, and broken in spirit, he confesses the loss of his beloved New Testament, seized and thrown into the flames by Roman authorities. Yet even in grief, his hope flickers: “He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.”
In this poignant chapter, Editha’s innocent longing to hear the Scriptures again is met with her father’s growing resolve to follow Christ alone. Though danger surrounds them, and superstition abounds—from “St. Peter’s whip” to relics of Malchus’ severed ear—the light of truth begins to cut through the shadows of fear.

Neighbor Eld recounts his imprisonment and the sacred words he remembered by heart. Editha’s father, quietly but courageously, shares the truths of baptism, liberty of conscience, and his growing identification with the Anabaptists—those early believers who dared to say that baptism must follow faith, not birth.

As night falls, Editha’s childlike fear gives way to bold trust: “St. Peter will never harm you or me,” her father gently assures her. “It is the Lord Jesus who has power over us—He loves us.”

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🎯 Themes in This Chapter:
• The cost of possessing the New Testament
• Comfort drawn from Scripture under persecution
• Childhood fears and religious superstition
• The strength of biblical fatherhood
• A growing awareness of Anabaptist convictions
• The biblical roots of religious liberty

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