Nicolaus zinzendorf biography channel
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Remembering Zinzendorf
Rev. Tony Cooke
Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf is not widely known among American Christians today, but were it not for him, we might have never heard of John Wesley. In October of 2022 I was privileged to preach in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was originally a Christian settlement established by Zinzendorf and his followers, known as the Moravians.
Born into wealth in 1700 in eastern Germany, Zinzendorf received a group of persecuted Christian refugees on to his estate. This group, known as Moravians, were the spiritual descendants of Jan Hus, the Czech reformer who had been burnt at the stake one hundred years before Luther came on the scene.
In 1727, the believing community at Herrnhut (Zinzendorf’s estate) experienced a dynamic outpouring of the Holy Spirit that is sometimes referred to as “The Moravian Pentecost.” The people experienced the presence of God in remarkable ways, and a twenty-four prayer-meeting began that lasted more than one hundred yea
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Acts America
Count Zinzendorf
Nicholas Ludwig, Count Zinzendorf, was born in Dresden in 1700. He was very much a part of the Pietist movement in Germany, which emphasized personal piety and an emotional component to the religious life. This was in contrast to the state Lutheran Church of the day, which had grown to symbolize a largely intellectual faith centered on belief in specific doctrines. He believed in "heart religion," a personal salvation built on the individual's spiritual relationship with Christ.
Zinzendorf was born into one of the most noble families of Europe. His father died when he was an infant, and he was raised at Gros Hennersdorf, the castle of his influential Pietistic grandmother. Stories abound of his deep faith during childhood. As a young man he struggled with his desire to study for the ministry and the expectation that he would fulfill his hereditary role as a Count. As a teenager at Halle Academy, he and several other young nobles formed a