Reformation Missions 1500 to 1800 Part 2

1. Reformation Missions 1500 to 1800Part 2 For several hundred years people had attempted to reform the Church, but every attempt was met with persecution and repression until the love for the Truth compelled men to heroic action

2. Andrew Fuller helped found Baptist Missionary Society Baptist Church • John Smyth and Thomas Helwys fled England to Amsterdam to avoid being burnt at the stake • Met Menno Simon, convinced of water baptism of adult believers, they formed first Baptist Church in 1609 • In 1612 Helwys returned to England to start the General Baptists • Belief in a general atonement—hold that Christ’s death made salvation available for any person who voluntarily exercised faith in Christ (Ariminian or Amyraldianism), but could fall from grace • Spread slowly but never were significant as the Calvinistic Baptists

3. Baptist Church • Particular (or Calvinistic) Baptists • Christ died for particular individuals (limited to the elect) • Early Particulars had open communion and open memberships (except John Bunyan) • Grace Baptists are exclusive. • Tended toward HYPERCALVINISM where God saves without human intervention • Fuller taught that Christ died for all men and our duty was to tell them: Carey was a disciple • The Baptist Union (of Particular and General Baptist) formed in 1792, then became open in 1813.

4. John Elliot (1604-1690) • Born in England, graduate of Oxford, became a Puritan, went to New England in 1631. • In 1641, he followed a burden for the Algonquian Indians and began through an interpreter… learned their language and was preaching in Algonquian in 1 year. • By 1654 he prepared a catechism (discipleship) and by 1658 he had translated the New Testament – THE FIRST BIBLE PRINTED IN NORTH AMERICA. • Elliot extracted Indian believers who lived in “Praying Villages” • 14 villages were established with thousands of Indians • First Indian pastor ordained in Natick, MA in 1681 • All but 4 villages were destroyed in the King Philips War in 1675 – King Philips was an Indian leader committed to driving the English out of Americas

5. Pietists Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) August Herman Francke 1663-1727 • A reform movement within the dying Lutheran Church in the late 17th century • Inspired by the writings of Phillip Jakob Spener, August Herman Franke, • Pietism stressed practice over doctrine, spirit over form, a thorough-going spiritual rebirth of the individual and that religious faith is something to be lived out in service to others. • Pietists were extremely skeptical of theological scholasticism • Radical Pietists such as the Moravians, the German Baptists (Church of the Brethren), and Inspirationists (Amana Colonies/Church Society) are expressions of its institutional forms. • Peaked by the 1750s, then continued to influence revival movements in America including Methodism, the United Brethren, the Evangelical Association and the Brethren

6. Count von Zinzendorf (1700-1762) • Raised as a Pietists, studied law at Wittenberg for diplomatic service • Bought his grandmother’s estate • He sought by preaching, by tract and book distribution and by practical benevolence might awaken the somewhat torpid religion of the Lutheran Church. • Gave asylum to some Bohemian or Moravian Brethren from various groups to build a village of Herrnhut • Persecution had made them fanatical and inflexible regarding their creed and form of worship, making them fight one another • His organization was a Family Community– not individual families– as a commitment to unity and purpose • Thanks to his relationships to the court of Denmark enabled the transporting of evangelical missionaries to Dutch colonies, prohibited on Spanish/Portuguese ships. Germany Location of estate

7. Moravians • Jan Hus, professor at Prague University, taught the Bible as the only authority, and the Church should renounce secular powers and extensive properties, and return to the biblical ideals of the Church. • His criticism of selling indulgences and other abuses worsened the reputation of the Czech nation, so the Pope declared an interdict on Prague, soon condemned and burnt in 1415 • Five years later his followers formed a new Town called Tabor in 1420 to realize the ideal society on 4 principles: • Freedom to spread the Word of God • Receive the consecrated bread and wine at mass (sub utraque specie) • Ban on secular power for priests • Punishment of mortal sins • Followers formed the Bohemian Brethren, persecuted so fled to Herrnhut and there started the Moravian Church • Became the first large scale Protestant missionary movement

8. Moravians and John Wesley Wesley’s house • En route to Americas, 1736, Wesley observed German Moravians serving others and calmly facing threatening storms • Attitude of service, Wesley wrote: “it was good for their proud hearts,” and “their loving Savior had done more for them.” • Wesley’s Diary:“My brother,” said Spangenberg, “I must first ask you one or two questions. Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear witness with you that you are a child of God?” John Wesley was dumb. “Do you know Jesus Christ?” asked Spangenberg. “I know,” replied Wesley, “that He is the Savior of the world.”“Do you know,” pursued Spangenberg, pressing the question further home, “that He has saved you?”“I hope He has died to save me,” stammered Wesley. “Do you know yourself?” persisted Spangenberg, who was not content with skin-deep work. “I do,” replied Wesley, “but,” says he, “I fear they were vain words.” For a time he stumbled on as dazed as ever.

9. Moravians and John Wesley • “I went to America to convert the Indians,” he wrote, bitterly, in his Journal, when he returned to England; “but oh, who shall convert me? I have a fair summer religion. I can talk well; nay, and I believe myself, when no danger is near. But let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled. Nor can I say, ‘to die is gain. • “I have a sort of fear that when I have spun my last thread I shall perish on the shore. I have learned…that I who went to America to convert others was not converted myself.” • John Wesley later met Peter Boehler, a Moravian, who helped him further, saying • “My brother, my brother, that philosophy of yours must be purged away.” When John Wesley complained, “Ah, how can I preach the faith which I have not got?” Peter Boehler answered, “Preach faith till you have it, and then, because you have it, you will preach it.” • Eventually Wesley got the faith at Altersgate in a Moravian church, then went to Herrnhut to study, then returned to England to make disciples.