The Recovery of the Local Churches

The Moravian Brethren

The Lord’s recovery of the matter of the local church through his faithful servants is marked by several notable milestones. History tells us of a great number of movements that occurred during the sixteenth century under the Protestant Reformation, but one movement that is generally unknown involved a group of believers known as the Moravian Brethren. Though they did not see in full the practice of the proper church life, in essence they recovered a scriptural oneness that stood in contradistinction to the splintering effect that the Reformation was to have.

In the early 1700s a young man by the name of Count Zinzendorf founded a settlement on his estate in Bertholdsdorf, Germany named Herrnhut, meaning “the Lord’s watch.” The settlement served as a refuge for Christians who were being persecuted abroad for their beliefs. Among the groups who joined Zinzendorf there were Lutherans, Calvinists, German Pietists, a group known as the “Bohemian Brethren,” and a number of other dissenters from established churches. It was inevitable that this motley crew would soon begin to tire of one another. In time, various disputes arose concering doctrine and practice. A.J. Lewis, who chronicled their history, said of this episode, “It seemed that every wind of doctrine and division blew through Herrnhut…but any unity in the settlement was a thing of rags and tatters.” As the situation worsened in Herrnhut, Zinzendorf continued to pray and speak in a kindly manner toward those who were of a contentious spirit. Finally, on May 12, 1727, Zinzendorf assembled the community and spoke to them for three hours concerning the evils of division. The effect of this speaking was remarkable. The entire community immediately adopted a constitution in which they renounced their religious disputes with one another, agreeing instead to give preference to one another for the sake of their oneness. The change that followed in the next few weeks was markedly different from the previous state of affairs. This new attitude of oneness bore abundant fruit in August of the same year at a special meeting in which the Lord’s table was celebrated. Zinzendorf, who had just returned from abroad, fell to his knees at one point in the meeting and began confessing his sins aloud before the congregation. What followed was an outpouring of the Spirit upon the entire congregation. One attendant, Christian David, recorded his impressions of that day: “It is truly a miracle of God that out of so many kinds and sects as Catholics, Lutheran, Reformed, Separatist, Gichtelian and the like, we could have been melted together into one.” Another present that day was David Nitschmann, who wrote, “From that time on Herrnhut became a living Congregation of Christ.”

This was the beginning of the recovery of the proper practice of the local church life. With these believers the oneness of the Spirit was truly evident. Concerning this phase of the Lord’s recovery of the proper local church life, Witness Lee writes:

History shows us that there was a desire within many seeking ones for the proper church life. They could not express this inward desire, but actually there was something in them seeking or hunting the proper church life. In the eighteenth century, the Lord moved among the Moravian brethren under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf to recover something of the practice of the church life. These Moravian brethren suffered the persecution not only of the Roman Catholic Church but also of the state churches. They were persecuted because they stood for the truth, and they fled to Zinzendorf’s estate in Saxony for refuge. Because of Count Zinzendorf’s love for the Lord, he received many of these seekers who came from different backgrounds. These brothers began to disagree over their doctrinal differences. One day Zinzendorf called a conference, and he convinced them to drop their doctrinal disagreements. They signed an agreement to keep the unity among them and to lay aside their differences in doctrine and in their religious backgrounds. Afterwards, while they were having the Lord’s table, they experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Among them there was the strongest revival in church history up to that time, and they became one of the most prevailing Christian groups on earth. Even John Wesley was saved through them. He stayed with these brethren for a period of time. He said that if it were not for his burden for England, he would have stayed with the Moravian brethren for his entire life. To our knowledge, since the time of the early apostles, the Moravian brothers might be considered as the first group of Christians to realize the church life in a somewhat proper way. Therefore, God’s blessing was poured out upon them. Although they enjoyed the practice of the church life to a certain degree, they were still not clear about many aspects of the truth concerning the church.

(Witness Lee, History of the Church, 32-33)

The Moravian Brethren experienced God’s blessing due to their faithfulness to drop all divisive matters and, instead, practice unity. Even without explicit revelation from the Scriptures regarding the truth and practice of the local church, these believers enjoyed the same oneness and blessing that was documented among the early local churches in the book of Acts.

Main

The Reformation

The Moravian Brethren

The Plymouth Brethren

A New Beginning

Watchman Nee’s Calling

Watchman Nee’s Revelation

Watchman Nee’s Care for the Local Churches

The Local Church in Foochow, China

Witness Lee’s Revelation

The Spread of the Local Churches

Bibliography

Links