Well to begin with ana-baptists were not all straight as an arrow.. like all christian churches some veered off.. but in amongst these churches you can find ones that believed the bible completely.. were independent.. believed Jesus to be God.. baptism only after salvation.. will re-baptise people from unscriptural churches.. Lord's Supper meant for a local body only...

Churches with these teachings have been around since the NT times right through to today.. it is very hard to trace them completely because most of the records of them have been destroyed by perscutors from Protestant and Catholic churches.. but you can find the same teaching in churches, that weren't part of the reformation.. and were seperate from the Catholic church. They declared non-fellowship with the time when Augustine had the unification of different churches.. and remained independent. Here are some quotes about them:

Sir Isaac Newton said it was "his conviction that the Baptists were the only group that had not symbolized with Rome" (Whiston, Memoirs of, written by himself, 201).



Mosheim : "Before the rise of Luther and Calvin there lay concealed in almost all the countries of Europe persons who adhered tenaciously to the principles of the Dutch Baptists" (Moshem, Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, III, 200).


Alexander Campbell : "From the apostolic age, to the present time, the sentiments of Baptists, and the practice of baptism have had a continued chain of advocates, and public monuments of their existence in every century can be produced" (Macalla and Campbell Debate on Baptism, 378, 379, Buffalo, 1824).


John Clark Ridpath - "I should not readily admit that there was a Baptist church as far back as A. D. 100, though without doubt there were Baptists then, as all Christians were then Baptists" (Jarrel. Baptist Church Perpetuity, 59).


Cardinal Hosius, a member of the Council of Trent, A. D. 1560, "If the truth of religion were judged by the readiness and boldness of which a man of any sect shows in suffering, then the opinion and persuasion of no sect can be truer and surer than that of the Anabaptists since there have been none for these twelve hundred years past, that have been more generally punished or that have more cheerfully and steadfastly undergone, and even offered themselves to the most cruel punishment than these people" (Hosius, Letters Apud Opera, 112-113. Baptist Magazine CVIII, 278. May, 1826).


In the year 1819 Dr. Ypeii, Professor of Theology in Gronigen, and the Rev. J. J. Dermout, Chaplain to the King of the Netherlands:

"We have seen that the Baptists who were formerly called Anabaptists, and in later times Mennonites. were the original Waldenses, and who have lone in the history of the church received the honor of that origin. On this account the Baptists may be considered as the only Christian community which has stood since the days of the apostles, and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doctrines of the Gospel through the ages" (Ypeij en Dermout, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsrhe Hervormde Kerk. Breda, 1819).

from http://www.pbministries.org/History/...urches_03.htm:

The history of the Lord ‘s church goes back to the first century. Jesus established his church during his personal ministry here on earth. In the New Testament there is abundant proof of the truthfulness of this statement. Some people, however, would deny Jesus the honor of establishing his own church and say it began on the day of Pentecost. The writer submits the following statements showing our Lord established his church during his personal ministry and not on the day of Pentecost.
1. The church had a commission to preach before Pentecost (Matthew 28:19, 20).


2. The church baptized people before Pentecost (John 4:1, 2).


3. The church had the Lord’s Supper before Pentecost (Luke 22:15-20).


4. The church held an election before Pentecost (Acts 1:15-26).


5. There was a church roll before Pentecost (Acts 1:15).


6. The words of Jesus, "Tell it unto the church," were spoken before Pentecost (Matthew 18:17). How could one tell anything to a church that did not exist!


7. There were about 3000 additions to the church on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41). A church must be established before it can have additions.


8. Our Lord left his house (Mark 13 :34). By inspiration the Apostle Paul identifies "the house of God" as "The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15).


9. The first spiritual gift set in the church was the gift of the apostles (1 Cor. 12:28). The church had to be in existence before the apostles could be set in it.


The Scriptures are clear in their testimony that Jesus established his church personally and left it in the world when He went back to the Father.

The Promise
Jesus promised his church, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). The church .Jesus built is promised a continuous history down through the ages. This promise is true no matter what men may say.