From the beginning of the Protestant reformation through the missions efforts with the American Indians

1. Missions
History of Missions
Dr. Robert Patton
Missionary to Suriname,
South America

2. Pre-Reformation
Evangelicals
 Priscillian - beheaded as a heretic, but his
main problem was teaching that asceticism
and celibacy should be the goal of all serious
Christians. It is somewhat doubtful if the
punishment was warranted – at one time he
was a bishop
 Paulicians - about 650-950 - opposed false
teachings in the Roman Catholic church.
There were a number of other groups with a
variety of names – vigorously persecuted by
the Catholic church

3. Pre-Reformation
Evangelicals
 There were many other persecuted
evangelicals - often all we know of them
comes from their enemies –
 Bogomiles, Peter deBruys, Peter Waldo and
the Waldensen, the Bohemian Bretheren, the
Albigenses, John Wycliffe, the Lollards, John
Hus, Menno Simon, the anabaptists, etc.

4. Early Reformation missions
 French Catholic Hugenots went to Brazil to
start a mission in 1705, but were murdered
by Portuguese Catholics through the
treachery of a leader. About 500 persons had
gone to begin a colony. When commanded
to become Catholics, they produced their
beliefs, and were slaughtered.

5. First Protestant missionary to
the Muslims
 .Verceslaus Budovetz of Budapest went
to Istanbul from 1577-1581, won one
Muslim. He was of Mennonite (John
Huss) background, and impressed with
the hold of Islam on their people

6. Reformed opposition
 Hadrian Saravia, one of the translators of the
KJV, wrote a chapter on missions and its
necessity
 Theodore Beza, who succeeded John Calvin,
said it was only for the apostles, as did Johann
Gerhard
 This was typical of many Reformers, though
Calvin did train pastors and smuggled them
back to France

7. Some Protestant outreach
 King Gustav Vasa of Sweden wanted to
reach the Lapps of the north
 A German nobleman wanted to see
books in the Slavic language go to
reach the Muslims and Turks
 Hugo Grotius wrote a book to be used
for missions expansion

8. Hugo Grotius

9. Dutch in Indonesia
 Trained in Leyden to work for the Dutch East
India Company, care for the Dutch citizens but
to reach the nationals. There was a cash
bonus for each baptized. The Dutch claimed
40,000 baptized
 The New Testament was translated into Malay
 Taiwan – initial success stopped by a Chinese
pirate who drove them out

10. Early Reformation missions
 1595 - Dutch Calvinists started a colony in
Indonesia
 A Lutheran, Baron Von Welz, was the first
missionary to Suriname but died of disease.
He had advocated missions but no one
listened. He left off being a baron, went to
Holland and was commissioned as apostle to
the gentiles

11. Early Reformers
 Johann Ursinus refuted von Welz
 Hard to recruit missionaries
 Depravity of the lost make conversion
difficult
 The great needs at home
 The Christians in other lands have the
responsibility to convert the heathen

12. The Reformation
 The great reformers Luther, Calvin and
Zwingli showed little burden for
missions.
 Some was perhaps due to the Calvinism
emphasizing the sovereignty of God to
the exclusion of the responsibility of
man. Even Carey fought against this…

13. The Reformation
 The great reformers Luther, Calvin and
Zwingli showed little burden for
missions.
 Luther:
 Christ is coming soon
 The great commission was given just to
the apostles

14. Calvin
 His doctrine was anti-missionary
 But he sent out dozens of missionaries
 He tried to set up a group in Brazil, but
the leader turned traitor, joined the
Portuguese and left the Jesuits to finish
off the rest

15. Why were there initially few
Protestant missionaries?
 Protestant countries were landlocked, and
did not have access to the sea except for
England and Holland and Scandanavia
 .Unfortunately even though the countries
were more isolated, when they did set up
trading companies, the companies
themselves hindered the gospel

16. Why were there initially few
Protestant missionaries?
 There were no monastic orders or parachurch
organizations for missions
 They were having trouble maintaining
themselves against the Roman Catholic
church
 Difficult times for the protestants, who were a
persecuted minority.
 They also fought between the Calvinists and
Lutherans, and both persecuted the
Anabaptists

17. Reformed Theological
problems
 Poor interpretation of missionary texts
 Failure to see the separation of church
and state - they believe in baptizing into
a state church, which was territorial
 They further expected the government
to send out missionaries, not the church
 Hypercalvinism is against missions

18. Problems with Protestantism
and missions
 Idea that missions should begin just at
the borders of heathendom
 Believing that the heathen were too
depraved to get saved – not
understanding the work and power of
the Holy Spirit

19. Reasons for minimal missions
 Idea that you must have a “missionary
call” - otherwise don’t go
 Opposition by kings and rulers
 Evil conduct of some Christians
 Basic reason – spiritual weakness, with
many not born again

20. Initial protestant passion –
Baron Justinian von Welz
 Baron Von Welz was a wealthy baron who
lived a luxurious life until age 40. He was
raised Lutheran, and had to move out of
a Catholic area of Germany. He was
saved and seriously began an ascetic life
with a burden for the lost. He was
against the cold unfeeling nature of the
Lutheran church, and pushed for reaching
the lost.

21. Baron von Welz
 He proposed setting up a training program
for missions including studying Pauline
methods, culture, language, etc and gave
money for the same.
 When no one would go overseas, he asked
a friend to appoint him “apostle to the
heathen”, gave his wealth to establishing a
school and moved to Holland

22. Baron von Welz
 He had called for preaching and teaching
missions among churches and setting up a
mission organization to send out missionaries.
He was condemned by most Lutherans
 Eventually he went out through a Pietist
group from Holland to Dutch Guiana
(Suriname) , where he died of tropical
disease, a man one century ahead of his
times

23. Baron von Welz
 You can think of von Welz as a loss of
life for nothing. I must look at his life
as consistent with his beliefs. He was
truly a man of great vision and a
century ahead of the times. Had they
followed his lead, he would have well
been the father of modern missions

24. Herbert Kane had noted
 No great missionary outreach could
occur until there was spiritual revival
 With Lutheran pietism, there was a
return to radical discipleship and many
went to the mission field
 What does that say now???

25. The University of Halle
 Phillip Spener and August Francke started the
University of Halle in Germany in 1698.
 Phillip Spener was a Lutheran pastor who was
disgusted at the sterile intellectualism of the
Lutheran church, and set up small groups with
an emphasis on being born again and having a
personal relationship with the Lord.

26. The University of Halle
 August Franke was a pietist professor at
the University of Leipzig who was
dismissed because of his pietist views
 He was a pastor, and also started his
own university, which then became the
center of pietism.

27. The Danish Halle Mission
 Later it joined with King Fredrick of
Denmark for a college to train
missionaries – the Danish-Halle mission
the greatest missionary force till Carey,
and the first Reformed foreign missions
with over 60 missionaries at the time of
Schwartz

28. Phillip Spener, father of
German Pietism

29. August Franke – University of
Halle

30. Danish-Halle Mission
 When the king of Denmark became a
pietist, he wanted to evangelize India.
 Having no missionaries, they ordained
two Lutheran missionaries, Ziegenbalg
& Pluschau. However, secret
information went to the Danish East
Indies Company to hinder their work in
every possible way

31. Danish-Halle to India
 Bartholomew Ziegenbalg & Henry
Plutschau were opposed by the Danish
East India Company, but learned Tamil
within 8 months. They set up the first girls
school in India. They brought in a printing
press for printing Tamil
 Plutschau died in 5 years, and Ziegenbalg
in 14, but they had over 350 believers, a
missionary seminary, part of the Tamil
Bible, and a Tamil lexicon

32. Bartholomew Ziegelbalg
monument & Tamil Bible

33. Principles of Ziegenbalg &
Plutschau
 Church and school together – by which
they mean that people must be able to
read the Bible
 The Bible must be available in their own
language
 In preaching the gospel, you must
understand the mind of the people

34. Principles…
 Preaching must aim at conversion
 As soon as possible, an indigenous
church with indigenous leaders must be
started

35. Christian Fredrick Schwartz
 Considered the founder of the native
church in India – started in 1750 at age
24 and stayed 48 years.
 Fluent in Tamil, Persian, Hindi, English,
Hindu-Portuguese as well as his native
German – he was born in what is now
Poland

36. Christian Fredrick Schwartz
 He was sent out by the king of
Denmark. He was totally trusted and
loved with genuine spirituality plus a
powerful intellect. He was for a time an
English chaplain
 He served as a diplomat between the
British and Indians
 Very effective with children and
established orphanages and schools

37. Schwartz

38. Christian Frederick Schwartz
 He befriended a raja who was not saved but
placed his adopted son in his care
 Estimated 6000 Hindu & Muslims were
saved under his ministry – considered the
apostle to South India
 A lady baptized by him resulted in 5000
baptized – later formed Tinnevelly church

39. Moravians
 They originally came from the work of John
Huss before Luther. They believed in the
scripture as rule and practice, and had about
400 churches but were ruthlessly persecuted
by the Jesuits. They fled to Saxony in
Germany
 Under leadership of Christian David, they
found shelter in Herrnhut

40. John Huss – martyr for his faith

41. The Moravian church
 Count Nicholaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf
was the driving force for the Moravians
- missionaries were 1:60 as opposed to
1:5000 normally.
 The missionaries were self-supporting.
 Every Christian is a missionary and
should witness in his everyday life.

42. Count Zinzendorf
 Born in 1700 into wealth. His father
died, and his mother raised him in
evangelical Pietism.
 He was sent to Halle under Franck
 He was to be trained in state service,
but troubled, wanting to serve Christ
 1722, he opened his estate to
Protestant refugees

43. Count Zinzendorf

44. Count Zinzendorf
 Many settled at Herrnhut, initially with
much tension from different
backgrounds
 Revival came in 1727, with a burden for
missions and a 100 year prayer vigil
 He was introduced to two Greenland
converts and an African slave, and
brought them to Herrnhut

45. Zinzendorf preaching to the
nations

46. Moravian
 In1732 they sent missionaries first to
the West Indies and Greenland –
 Zinzendorf continued to lead for 30
years, by which time they had sent 226
missionaries out

47. Count Zinzendorf
 Started sending out missionaries
 Went to West Indies in 1738, released
missionaries from jail and helped set a
good mission program
 Although he was not enamored with
Native Americans, he sent 20 to
evangelize them

48. The Moravian church
 They sent out more missionaries in 20 years
than all the Protestant & Anglicans had done
in 200 years.
 His method for 33 years:
 All persons were layman trained as
evangelists
 They worked alongside their converts,
witnessing with word and life
 No political or economic involvement

49. The symbol of the Moravian
church

50. The Moravian church
 They were not strong on doctrine, but strong on
love
 Family took second place, often abandoned. His
relationship with his own wife was not good; 10
years he was exiled, while she maintained
affairs. She eventually died.
 He later married a peasant woman who was
influenced by mysticism
 They eventually became enamored of mysticism
of the death of Christ. He only partially
recovered from this

51. Herrnhut

52. Hans Egede
 A Norwegian Lutheran was a Pietist,
and a pastor for 10 stormy years. He
learned that Leif the Lucky had started
a church there many years ago, which
grew but then basically stopped and the
people went back to paganism
 His wife, originally opposed, strongly
supported him

53. Egede
 Arrived in 1721 but many difficulties
getting housing; language difficulty; no
evidence of Christian belief
 Culture of Eskimos was markedly
different. Evangelism was slow
 His boys helped, who picked up the
language. His singing also helped

54. Egede
 He tried baptizing children and
indoctrinating them, as he wanted them
to totally abandon any heathenism
 Lack of support
 Bergen company did not make profit
 The King who supported the venture died,
and the new King abandoned the
commercial venture

55. Hans Egede – considered
apostle to Greenland

56. Christian David
 Christian David, converted from being a
fervent Roman Catholic at age 27. He met
Count Zinzendorf, and together they recruited
for Herrnhut.
 In 1733, he had heard that Egede was
leaving Greenland, and headed a team there.
 There were communication problems
between the two missionaries

57. Egede & David clashed
 Big difference over approach to
evangelism
 Egede thought too rigid
 David thought too compromising
 Actually a smallpox epidemic brought
by a returning Greenlander broke
through as Egede cared for many sick
 Egede’s wife died one year later

58. Christian David
 There was growth between Moravians & the
Lutheran over the next 30 years or so + translation.
The Moravians saw many converted and a church full
 Egede returned remarried; his son Paul carried on
the work with revival; Hans died age 72.
 Paul’s vision deteriorated, but they worked on
translation until Paul’s death 30 years later,
completing the New Testament

59. George Schmidt -
 He was converted at age 16, and went to
Herrnhut before their revival
 Very difficult life - imprisoned twice by Jesuits
for preaching in Germany & Austria, often
meeting in secret. His imprisonment for 3
years was followed by 3 years hard labor.
 Finally he recanted to satisfy the oppressors.
 Not received well at Herrnhut, he went back
again, but then to Holland to learn Dutch and
sent to South Africa

60. George Schmidt -
 There was great resistance from the Dutch
colonists and from the Reformed pastors who
did not want to see the African’s status
changed.
 He supported himself by numerous jobs, and
evangelized through contacts.
 He started a church, but even his convert
Africo relapsed into drinking. He was very
discouraged.

61. George Schmidt
 He was ordained in absentia, and began to
baptize converts
 The Dutch Reformed were furious, but in
examining the converts, they understood their
beliefs well and even after ordination, more
trouble till eventually he was removed. He was
sent back to Holland to face charges He was
never allowed to return
 50 years later believers were still there

62. Hans Hallbeck
 The work languished for 50 years, but
then revived under Hans Hallbeck, with
38 stations and 50,000 professing
Christians...
 More successful at Cape Colony, with
50,000 converts and 38 stations by the
Moravians

63. Missions to Native
Americans
 Aggressively approached by both
Protestant and Catholic
 Overall results very poor
 Land-grabbing, abuse, cultural clash
and slow extinction…

64. American Indians
 Franciscans first worked with Pueblo
Indians, and brought in domestic
animals, food, tools, etc.
 Many converts – but basically syncretic
beliefs

65. Major differences culturally
 Land – sacred for the use of the
community – cannot be bought or sold,
and tied to ancestors too
 Culture – decisions made by group, and
not by individual

66. Work with Huron Indians
 Jean de Brebeuf did much contextualization
 Called the mass a thanksgiving, never
mentioning the body & blood of Christ
 Looked at sprinkling of tobacco before
fishing and saying novenas as similar
 Translated creeds and prayers, not
scriptures

67. Paul le Jeune
 Translated the scriptures with great
difficulty
 After 10 years, about half the tribe of
10,000 converted
 Iroquois league attacked, killed most of
the Hurons, and tortured and
murdered Jean de Brebeuf – and the
mission was ended

68. Paul le Jeune, Jesuit priest

69. American colonies were to
reach the Indians
 Massachusetts Bay had on their seal an
Indian saying “Come over and help us”
 Connecticut – the main reason
 These sentiments were just that – and
often colonists despised missionaries

70. Seals of Massachusetts Bay &
Plymouth Bay

71. John Eliot 1604-1690
 Father of the modern missions movement.
Brilliant Greek & Hebrew scholar at Cambridge.
 He was appointed missionary under Oliver
Cromwell, focused on translation, and also did
leadership training and mission organization.
 He also translated the entire Bible into their
language, and had schools & churches.

72. John Eliot 1604-1690
 This non-conformist Congregational English
pastor, was very effective with the Algonquin
Indians. Brilliant student in Hebrew & Greek
 After teaching, he came to the USA, followed by
brothers and fiance, married and was pastor at
Roxbury, outside Boston
 Age 40, he started learning the Algonquin
language.
 He began preaching 2 years later in a wigwam

73. Elliot set an area apart for
Christians
 Indians were given sizeable area
 Set up town, organized like Jethro’s rule
 Elliot equated Christianity with western
culture
 He worked slowly, waiting 5 years
before the first baptisms
 His Bible is the first printed in America!

74. John Eliot
 He was the first missionary out of the
Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in New England, the first
organized Protestant mission agency

75. Translated the Bible
 Translated the entire New Testament in 7
years
 Trained 24 Indian evangelists who had their
own churches
 Tragic end came with King Phillip’s war, with
bloody fighting between Indians and settlers.
Praying Indians helped the settlers, but were
shipped off to a bleak island without supplies

76. Eliot continued
 After the war, he continued 13 years to
serve the Indians until his death age 85.
 He also helped begin a missionary outreach
of the Anglican church
 His strengths:
 Unbending optimism
 Getting help from others
 Knowledge that it is God who saves souls

77. John Eliot portrait and copy of
first Bible printed in N. America

78. Missions to Native
Americans
 Roger Williams - 1606-1683 - staunch
defender of Indians, learned language
but not particularly successful in their
conversion
 He was brilliant in multiple languages
and trained as an Anglican but switched
to Puritan beliefs
 He came to America and wanted
religious freedom

79. Roger Williams
 Main proponent of:
Separatism,
freedom of religion
separation of church and state
Founded the first Baptist Church

80. Roger Williams
 Because of his strong views on
separation, he was to be arrested, but
walked 100 plus miles in the snow and
was rescued by the Indians
 He basically set up Rhode Island as the
first colony with complete religious
freedom in the USA

81. Roger Williams and Indians

82. Roger Williams and first
Baptist church in the USA

83. The Mayhews
 The Mayhews were originally from
England and settled on islands off the
USA coast. Thomas, the father, set up
a profitable business and was governor
of the Island
 Thomas Mayhew’s son was a missionary
to Martha’s Vineyard, but died at sea

84. The Mayhews
 His father, a landlord, took his job at
age 72, and worked 20 years. They
dealt honestly with the Indians
 His grandson and great grandson also
worked among the Indians there
through five generations to Zachariah
Mayhew, who died in 1806

85. Gov. Thomas Mayhew

86. David Brainerd
 David Brainerd was his diary and prayer life
was extremely moving.
 He was a brilliant student but dismissed from
Yale for a minor infraction, perhaps as a
scapegoat when Yale resisted a spiritual revival
among the students.
 He was deeply religious and had a close rela-
tionship with God, spending much time in
prayer

87. David Brainerd
 Although offered positions in several
churches, he persisted in missions to the
Indians
 He became depressed, spent much time in
prayer. His original interpreter was often
drunk – later got saved, and his wife. First
two years were very discouraging

88. David Brainerd
 . He went off on his own rather than
working under a successful senior missionary
 Later after much prayer, there was true
revival and he was able to organize a
church. More revivals occurred
 He ended up with TBC dying in the home of
Jonathan Edwards. Jerusha Edwards, whom
he had hoped to marry, died of TBC several
months later.

89. David Brainerd
 David Brainerd - his diary and prayer life
was extremely moving, published by
Jonathan Edwards
 His diary proved the inspiration of several
future missionaries, including William Carey
and Henry Martyn
 God greatly used his devotion to Him
in the lives of other missionaries.

90. David Brainerd

91. Eleazer Wheelock
 Wanted to bring Indian and white
students together so that the Indians
would learn white culture, and the
whites the Indian language. Then both
would work as evangelists, with an
emphasis on the Indians
 Total of 50 students, 1/3 went as
evangelists.

92. Eleazer Wheelock
 Biggest problem was that Wheelock did
not respect the Indian culture or their
evangelists as equals
 His first young man turned out to be a
fine evangelist
 He eventually enlarged the school
which became Dartmouth College

93. Eleazer Wheelock

94. Moravian David Zeisberger
 Originally started in Hudson Valley, later
Pennsylvania
 Opposed by many, some called
Moravians a cult
 Set up a prosperous village in
Pennsylvania

95. David Zeisberger
 French-Indian war of 1755 – his village
attacked, 11 killed, village burned
 Went to Ohio. The English called them spies;
they fled for a winter, came back for their grain
next year, and 96 were killed by American
militia
 They finally settled in Ontario. Zeisberger
returned to Ohio until his death over 80 years
old

96. Zeisberger and Indians –
missionary for 62 years

97. Zeisberger