May 12. Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf. Zinzendorf was a man out of step with his own time, but in step with God’s heart. Like Luther before him, Zinzendorf was a German reformer, with a heart to correct a wrong direction he thought the church was taking.
Unlike Luther, though, the church that Zinzendorf was co ncerned about was the Lutheran Church itself. Protestantism was about 200 years old when Zinzendorf offered land and support to establish a small community of oppressed Christians. He hoped that this community would be a model for other “little churches within the [Lutheran] Church,” and that each little church would contribute toward the spiritual health of the whole.
But Zinzendorf’s beliefs and practices antagonized the aristocracy, the town guilds, and the Lutheran church. Eventually, the government banished him from his own estate. Though, eleven years later, they rescinded his banishment.
He had an ecumenical vision for the church, long before ecumenism was a watchword. He rejected certain Enlightenment principles because he believed that Christianity should be a “religion of the heart” rather than a search for pure doctrine, and this belief led him to tolerate doctrinal differences. His heart led him to send missionaries around the globe 60 years before the modern mission movement started. On this date in 1727, Zinzendorf began a prayer movement that lasted for the next 100 years. Here’s his story.
Evil can seem overwhelming, but one faithful man can turn the tide.
When Christian VI was about to be crowned King of Denmark, and the Royalty and the elite traveled to Copenhagen to celebrate, Count Zinzendorf arrived.
The palace—full of light and food and flowers—resounded with polite conversation and civilized laughter.
During the festivities, Zinzendorf—“a lover of Jesus, and a friend of man”—got involved in a conversation with a slave from St. Thomas who had accompanied his master to the coronation.
Anthony Ulrich, the slave, seized the opportunity to tell Count Zinzendorf about the horrific life his people were enduring in St. Thomas—a small island, which had become a slave market under Danish rule. And here was Zinzendorf celebrating the coronation of the new King of the Danes.
Ulrich and Zinzendorf discovered they were both Christians, and as Ulrich poured out his heart about the desperate need for the Gospel on the island of his ancestors, Zinzendorf was deeply moved. But these islands had been under European control a long time. How could it be they hadn’t already heard the Gospel?
Zinzendorf returned to his estate, and God was already at work, preparing an answer to the prayers of the oppressed slaves in St. Thomas, who had not yet heard of the hope of Christ.
On a small parcel of his own land, the Count had offered refuge to a community of Christians, who’d escaped religious persecution in nearby Moravia. Zinzendorf had grown to love these Moravian refugees. They understood the pain of injustice, the power of prayer, and the mandate that “the evangelization of the world was an imperative obligation for the living Church.” They knew Jesus’ command to go and make disciples of the whole world was a “must-do.”
Zinzendorf went straight to his Moravian brothers and told them about the talk he’d had with the Christian slave from St. Thomas. With passion, the Count described the atrocities that Ulrich and his people were enduring as slaves, and how the Count was convinced that the only answer to the tragic realities in St. Thomas was for others who knew Christ to bring them the hope of the Gospel.
Two Moravian refugees, Leonard Dober and Tobias Leopold, were so moved by Zinzendorf’s words that they decided to leave their lives in Herrnhut and commit to take the hope of Christ to the slaves of St. Thomas.
“Now to Him who is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen,” (Ephesians 3:20-21, BSB).
How can you use what God has placed in your hands to impact the needs of those around you? Evil can seem overwhelming, but one faithful man can turn the tide.
Lindt, Gillian. “Nikolaus Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf: German Religious Leader.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopediabritannica.com. Accessed August 8, 2020.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikolaus-Ludwig-Graf-von-Zinzendorf.
“Nikolaus von Zinzendorf: Christ-Centered Moravian ‘Brother’.” Christianity Today. Christianitytoday.com. Accessed August 8, 2020.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/denominationalfounders/nikolaus-von-zinzendorf.html.
https://howlingpixel.com/i-en/Christian_VI_of_Denmark
https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/zinzendorf-the-messianic-trailblazer/
https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/denominationalfounders/nikolaus-von-zinzendorf.html
http://www.moravians.net/joomla/about-us/34-moravian-moments/67-moravian-moment-4
Story read by Daniel Carpenter
Story written by John Mandeville, https://www.johnmandeville.com/