Hall of heritage

Made it to NYC and having a really relaxing time so far. Didn’t even half-way realize how much I was in need of a New York fix! Just so grateful I have a friend who puts me up—and he’s got a great location at 4th and Bowery.

Plan to write more for tomorrow but for now, here’s a passage on the Moravians. I’ve written about them before but this is a different recap delivery that I couldn’t resist writing up:

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If you want to see if Bible prophecy is being fulfilled or is about to be fulfilled, or if you just want to understand Bible prophecy, there’s only one nation to watch and that’s the nation Israel. You don’t need to consider the U.S. or Europe. Russia doesn’t win place or show. Not an Issue. And forget China and the great kings of the East.

For his New Year’s studies, Jordan told of the former king of Saxony, Count von Zinzendorf, from three centuries ago, who was the leader of a Christian group in Europe called the Moravians. They were the modern-era precursor to missionaries. They were in a sense our predecessors spiritually.

Jordan started, “You go up into Door County today and there’s a Moravian church. The one time my wife and I were in the area we drove by it and saw on the sign out front that they had a lady preacher and I thought, ‘Uh-oh, they’re different now! They’re liberals now!’ but they weren’t in von Zinzendorf’s day.’

“They literally carried the gospel across the known world. There were Moravian missionaries that went down into Africa and were leading African tribes to Christ. Some of their converts became Moravians in faith and doctrine and then sold themselves into slavery to the Muslim slave-traders.

“Did you know that almost all of the African slave trades, when the Europeans went down and bought them, they were buying them from Muslims? The Africans who were selling other Africans into slavery were mainly Muslims.

“See, you don’t read that in the daily funny papers. But some of these Moravian African Believers literally sold themselves into slavery so they could go with their people to wherever they were going to take the gospel.

“And the gospel came to America—you know, the African-American community today is probably the country’s strongest religious community (and when I say religious I don’t mean Catholic and Lutheran) and the heritage they have, much of that comes from those Moravians.

“European Moravians came to America to evangelize the Indians and later the others. They were tremendous people with the gospel. Their first leader, Count von Zinzendorf of Saxony, was brought in one day by the king of Sweden, who said, ‘I know you’re a Bible-believer and I want to listen to why you believe the Bible. People love and respect you and I want to know why would an intelligent, educated, thoughtful, influential man like yourself believe in the Bible?’ As opposed to the pope and all that stuff—this is Reformation Era kind-of-thing, you know.

“And the king of Sweden said, ‘I’ll give you an audience of ten hours,’ which was a rare thing for a king to do). Von Zinzendorf replied, ‘I don’t need 10 hours; I can tell you in a moment, in two words.’ And the king of Sweden said kind of shocked, ‘What?’ He said, ‘The Jew.’

“You know what Malachi 3:6 says? ‘I am the Lord I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.’ The Bible symbol for the nation Israel is not the Star of David. Amos 8 tells you the Star of David is really the Star of Molech, a false god. The Bible symbol for the nation Israel is the burning bush that Moses saw in Exodus 3. It burns but it’s not consumed. Why?

“ ‘Because I the Lord change not. If I’ve told you I’m going to do something, I’ll never go back on my word. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.’

“And that tiny little beleaguered nation through the ages has been a nation that inexplicably, without any rational rhyme or reason, has endured. There have been many nations brought to extinction with far less thrown at them in every century of the past three millenniums than this little nation has.

“You come to our day and think of how the Christian church, from Augustine, has claimed to have replaced Israel. ‘They’re not God’s people.’ You go to the Reformation and read even what Luther would have said about the Jew and how he and the rest were anti-Semitic. They hated Israel. And they took Israel’s place and claimed their blessings. They even tried to take their Bible away from them. They go to eliminate them and yet there they are.

“God says in Jeremiah 33, ‘You know what it will take to get rid of the nation Israel? You’ll have to get rid of the ordinances of heaven. You’ll have to get rid of the laws that keep the earth functioning.’

“In other words, you’re going to have to get rid of the universe. Why? Because He created the nation Israel for a purpose related to what He’s doing in the universe, and to get rid of Israel He has to get rid of His whole purpose for creation. That’s the explanation for it. And that’s why Zinzendorf said, ‘I know the Bible’s true because I can just look right there and see God has kept His Word against impossible odds.’ ”