Without the true saving faith it is impossible for one to please God. If someone believes from the heart but still does not want to confess with the mouth, then he wants to serve two masters and no one can serve two masters at the same time who are opposed to each other. Our opponents, however want to lead the truehearted people into the heavenly sheepfold by another path without this Christian discipline, without the cross, and without suffering with which the Holy Scriptures are filled. We pay no regard to human councils, to longstanding practice and the custom of time if they are not established according to God's Word. For our faith should be loudly, clearly, firmly and solely grounded upon God's Word.
Faith is no respecter of persons.
God's Word demands obedience from all people, from the leader as much as from the follower, from the teacher as much as from the listener. Throughout Amish history the differences with their contemporaries was often not on the doctrines themselves, but where the emphasis was put on those doctrines. The conflict the Bernese Anabaptists had with the state church was not so much in their lifestyle and conduct but on their theology. The Amish church through the years has been affected by pietism. One might say the strength of the Amish has also been their weakness.