Although the Reformation was a great recovery of the church, only a small part was recovered; a great number of important matters of the church were still not recovered. Therefore, after another two hundred years, in the early part of the eighteenth century, God had a further recovery with the Moravian brethren. The Moravian brethren originally lived in Moravia, but they suffered persecution because of their love for the Lord with a pure heart. Eventually, they escaped to Bohemia. In the early part of the eighteenth century, they brought in a great revival there. This revival was a strong recovery, and it was much more serious than the recovery through the Reformation. It recovered nearly ninety percent of what needed to be recovered in the church. To a great extent these brethren returned to the original condition of the church in its nature, in its principle, in its testimony, and in its ground. Let us briefly cover the important points of this recovery.
First, the Moravian brethren not only had the Bible in their hands, but they also obeyed the words of the Bible. Their living, work, meeting, and worship were all according to the teaching of the Bible. Therefore, at that time the Bible was quite illuminating. They were much more advanced on this point than the Protestants.
Second, they were truly freed, separated, from the world. They did not mix themselves with politics. They were citizens of a nation, but on matters related to the worship of God they did not mix with politics. This time, the matter of the church being separated from the world was recovered considerably. It could be likened to the boat being on the sea but the sea water not coming into the boat.
Third, they were absolutely not defiled by idols. Concerning this matter, they were much more absolute than the Protestants.
Fourth, they removed distinctions in rank. Thank the Lord, when these Moravian brethren were raised up, distinctions in rank in the church were eliminated. They scorned rank and forsook organization; instead, they stressed the fellowship and coordination among themselves as brothers. Brother Zinzendorf, a leading one among them, once said that if he gave up fellowship with the brethren, he would not know where to find the church. What a marvelous realization! To him, the reality of the church was in the fellowship and coordination of the brethren. They paid attention to this point; therefore, their service was strong and living. This is evident in history.
They also endeavored to keep the oneness by abandoning differences in doctrinal views. At that time, at least four different groups were meeting together: Moravian brethren, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Calvinists. These four groups were quite different from one another in their doctrinal views. At the beginning they argued so seriously that they were almost divided. Then Zinzendorf proposed that all of them make a contract in which they would agree to lay aside their doctrinal differences and pay attention only to the points that were similar among them. Because they were people who loved the Lord with pure hearts, being the so-called puritans in history, they accepted Zinzendorf’s proposal and signed the contract in May 1727. From that time on they laid aside all the differences and focused on the similarities. Later the Holy Spirit continued to work so that even the doctrinal differences were completely eliminated. In this way they became absolutely one. Hence, they greatly experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and after three or four years, they went in groups to foreign lands for the spread of the gospel in an unprecedented way.
In this recovery, they also removed formal organization for unification. They did not have a head church and branch churches. Formal organization was completely removed from their midst.
In such a situation, the Moravian brethren allowed Christ to be the Head and allowed the Holy Spirit to rule among them. The recovery among them might be considered quite complete. All who read church history admit that the recovery among this group of Moravian brethren was the first serious recovery of the church since the first group of the apostles. This was a tremendous recovery.