Quote:
Originally Posted by kisstheson
Thank you, dear brother Ohio, for that marvelous portion from dear brother Cheltschizki! You have hit my spiritual soft spot - it is hard for me to even think about all those dear brothers and sisters who lived in Moravia and Bohemia and who eventually acquired the name "Unitas Fratrum" without tears coming down. :verysad: I can not think of a more excellent expression of Jesus Christ on this earth in all of church history after the first century. What a sweet, beautiful, peaceful, testimony of Christ shined forth from them! What a heart for the Lord's interests alone. What a hunger for His truth. What a desire for oneness with all genuine believers. What a heart of love toward all. What a willingness to be led as lambs to the slaughter for Jesus' sake.
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Among us, we have always heard that the prophetic "Philadelphia" was firstly fulfilled by the Plymouth Brethren in the early 1830's, but ... from my little study of church history, I would think that the Moravians with Zinzendorf, one hundred years earlier, were a much more suitable choice. The Plymouth Brethren, especially the exclusives, were never noted characteristically for their love, even in their earliest days. They are more suitable as the fulfillment of prophetic "Laodicea," warning us all what the natural result will be of those who exalt knowledge and truth and "light" above all.
The letter written by ANGroves to Darby in 1836 is proof of this. Under the leadership of JNDarby, bad habits were developed from the very beginning, as noted by Groves. He was visiting England on a short reprieve from the mission field when he wrote to Darby.
Wikipedia has a brief biography, which is well worth the read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Norris_Groves
Groves and Cronin should be considered the earliest of the Brethren, and not Darby, whom I considered to have hijacked their leadership. Groves had an incredible impact on Hudson Taylor, George Muller, Chapman, and others. It's amazing that WL spoke so highly of JND, and yet nothing about Groves and Chapman, and so little about Muller.