Reactions to Pietism
Reactions to Pietism During the seventeenth century the faith of the best and the most pious had devolved to this level in all Reformed churches in the Netherlands. But this situation couldn't be endured for long. Such a largely fearful and isolated life couldn't be the true, complete
Christian religion. Those lamentations weren't worship, those sighings weren't faith, and that world-flight wasn't the victory over the world. As a result, a widespread longing sprang up for something different, something better.
Various movements tried to point to a better way to achieve certainty. They can be reduced to two main lines: the Moravian
Brethren in Lutheran circles and the Methodists in Reformed circles.
The Moravians wanted to win souls and lead them to their greatest happiness not by the law, but by the gospel; not through thunder from Mt. Sinai but through the loving voice from Golgotha; not through the stern figure of Moses but through the friendly figure of Jesus. Nikolaus von Zinzendorf (17001760) wanted nothing to do with the so-called Busskampf and Durchkruch (penitential struggle and breakthrough) of the pietists. He called them miserable
Christians; Zinzendorf didn't want a sighing, lamenting faith but a singing, rejoicing Christianity. To bring this about, all that was needed was the proclamation of the dear Savior. A lifelike description of His endless love for sinners revealed in His suffering and death, in His blood and wounds, would be enough to make an impression on the receptive heart. And this impression is the saving work of Christ, the renewal and impar-tation of life through His Holy
Spirit. Those so affected by the gospel of the cross rest in Jesus' wounds, enter into a marriage covenant with Him and are freed from the guilt and domination of sin. From then on they would lead happy, thankful, unburdened lives, fed and strengthened by the
remembrance of Jesus' words, by a rich cultus (worship) and by a treasury of emotional hymns.
Methodism chose another route. Because they experienced the guilt of sin more deeply than did the Moravian Brethren, the Methodists felt it was necessary to shock the soul out of its false security. Faith ought to be preceded by a deep sense of guilt evoked by passionate speeches, by terrifying descriptions of death and hell, and by emotional, stirring songs. But immediately thereafter, grace was preached and there was an offer of salvation.
From the descent into hell of self-knowledge, the soul ascended into the heaven of knowing God. Methodism compressed all experience of salvation into one moment. The deepest misery and the highest blessedness lay side by side. He who sat down in the sinner's seat as a lost soul was in that same moment found by Christ. He sat down guilty and deserving hell, and he stood up pardoned and having inherited heaven.
Faith was therefore an immediate, full certainty, because it originated suddenly out of deep woe and derived its total certainty from the contrast with the state that preceded it. Faith was born in the bright light of awareness. The Methodist knows the day and the hour of his rebirth. John Wesley (17031791) was converted on May
24, 1738 at 9:15 P.M. Anyone who came into the certainty of faith by this route never need doubt his own condition. There was no longer any need for continual self-examination, looking inward to test the reality of one's faith. One knew that one had passed from death into life and now had more important things to do. Justification was for once and always, finished, but sanctification lay before him. And around him lay a world full of lost souls who needed to be saved in the same manner. Converted himself, he now had no higher calling than to convert others and to win as many souls for Jesus as possible.
Both movements have exerted a strong influence on Christianity.
They awoke Christians from their self-reflection and called them out