Thoughts on the Moravian Revival

Dear Friends,

I have told many that if I was not a pastor, I would be a history teacher! History thrills me! Any history, but church history in particular. Therefore, today, I would like to share one of my favorite events in church history. It is the Moravian Revival or Moravian Pentecost of 1727.

It’s too significant of an event for you NOT to know about! So, I offer you this condensed summary, hoping it inspires you as much as it has me. Thanks given to Tony Cauchi whose post on “The Revival Library” ( https://revival-library.org/histories/1727-the-great-awakening-moravians/ ) much of this material was borrowed from and expanded upon. Enjoy!

Who Are We Talking About?
The Moravians were the spiritual descendants of Jan Hus, the Czechoslovakian reformer/martyr who took his stand on the biblical Gospel of “Grace alone, by Faith alone through Christ alone” and paid for it with his life on July 6, 1415 –just over 100 years before Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517.

In the early 1700’s they had been invited to settle on the estate of Count Nicholas Von Zinzendorf in Saxony, Germany. There they began a community called “Herrnhut” (which means “the Lord’s Protection” or “Watchful Care”) dedicated to following the teachings of Christ in simplicity, holiness, and truth. Soon, other believers from various protestant traditions (fleeing Catholic persecution) joined this community, which grew into a small town.

Understandably, major religious disagreements emerged, and by the mid-1720’s the disgruntled community was deeply divided and highly critical of one another. Zinzendorf was appalled at this blatant display of ungodliness and pleaded for unity, love, and repentance. He visited all the adult members of the community and drew up a covenant calling them ‘to seek out and emphasize the points in which they agreed,’ rather than stressing their differences. And on the 12th of May, 1727, they all signed the covenant to dedicate their lives, as he dedicated his, to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. They gave themselves afresh to God and promised to bury their disputes forever. In addition, many of them decided to set aside certain times for continued earnest prayer.

The Pentecost or Revival Event of 1727
On Tuesday the 16th of July, Zinzendorf poured out his soul in a public prayer accompanied by a flood of tears. His prayer produced an extraordinary effect. The whole community began praying as never before and were deeply affected by the Word of God and the power of the blood of Christ. Their hearts were set on fire with new faith and love towards the Saviour, and a similar pure and burning love towards one another. They began to grow together into a holy union among themselves, banding themselves together into small groups of two or three to discuss their spiritual state, to exhort, reprove, and pray for each other.

One historian records, ‘On the Lord’s day, the 10th of August, minister Rothe (one of the pastors at Herrnhut) was seized, in the midst of the assembly, with an unusual impulse. He threw himself upon his knees before God, and the whole assembly prostrated themselves with him under the same emotions. An uninterrupted course of singing and prayer, weeping and supplication, continued till midnight. All hearts were united in love.’

Then came Wednesday night, August 13th, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on whole assembly during the communion service, with loud weeping drowning out the singing. An electric anointing flowed through all those present with inexpressible joy and love as they all shared the bread and wine, knowing they were baptized into one Spirit. The scene was so moving that the pastor could hardly tell what he saw or heard. This electrifying “baptism” or outpouring of the Spirit fell even upon two from the community that were over 15 miles away at the time.

The Moravian Revival Continues
Five days later, on the 18th of August, a remarkable revival took place among the children at Herrnhut and Bertholdsdorf. All the children at the boarding school were seized by an extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit, and they spent the entire night in prayer. It resulted in a continuing work of God in the children, in both places. No words can express the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit upon these children, whose lives were so transformed.

Then, on the 25th of August the community began the ministry of 24 hour-a-day, seven day a week, “Prayer Watch” in which there was one person in the chapel praying at all times, day and night, for over a hundred years! Yes, you heard that right! Twenty-four hours a day, every day, for 100 years! The longest unbroken prayer watch in the history of the church! As the fire on the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem never ceased to burn, they considered it should be so with the prayers of the Church, which is now the Temple of God – the prayers of the saints always ascending to the Lord.

The Wider Results of the Moravian Revival
In January of 1728 the brethren held their first missionary meeting. “This meeting was celebrated by messages on different portions of Holy Scripture, and fervent prayers – in the midst of which the church experienced a remarkable enjoyment of the presence of the Spirit.”

Moravian Missionaries started being sent out in 1731, and took their revival work first to the West Indies and Greenland. (At one point two Moravian men sought to sell themselves into slavery so they could minister the Gospel to slaves on the islands of the West Indies.) In the years following, missionaries were sent to Labrador, North America (what is today the state of Georgia), South America, South Africa, Asia, Australia, and many other islands of the sea. They were a mighty force in the evangelization of thousands and played an instrumental role in the conversion of John Wesley and George Whitefield, seeding the First Great Awakening that spread through the British Isles as well as up and down the whole eastern coast of America. They planted vibrant Gospel-preaching and Christ-honoring churches on every continent.

In the next 30 years they sent out 100 missionaries from that small community, a figure that rose to 300 in 65 years. Therefore, by the time William Carey was even born in 1761 (the man who is considered ‘the father of modern missions”) there were already 226 Moravian Mission Stations around the world, and 300 Moravian Stations by the time Carey left for India in 1793. They taught slaves to read, cared for widows and orphans, nursed the sick, translated the Scriptures (and other Christian literature) into other languages, leaving behind a trail of blessing and hope wherever they went. Zinzendorf (as part of that evangelization) came to America and founded the town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1741.

Who knows if the same revival spirit might be poured out again, if we dedicated ourselves to God, repented of our bad attitudes and hostility to one another, and sought the Lord in prayer like these first Moravian believers did?

Lord Jesus, May You be Pleased to Do the Same Again in Our Day, Pastor Jeff