Page 53 - Pilgrims in Georgia

R The Message of Salvation: From Moravian to Methodist

Seal of the Moravian Church Young John Wesley
Storm at sea Gottlieb Spangenberg Peter Boehler

Arriving in Savannah, Wesley asked the leader of the Moravians, Gottlieb Spangenberg for advice regarding his work as a
pastor and missionary. He left a record in his diary of the conversation: Spangenberg asked, “My brother, I must first ask
you 1 or 2 questions. Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit, that you
are a child of God?” Wesley wrote, “I was surprised, and knew not what to answer. He observed it, and asked, ‘Do you
know Jesus Christ?’ I paused, and said, ‘I know he is the Saviour of the world.’ ‘True,’ replied he; ‘but do you know he has
saved you?’ I answered, ‘I hope he has died to save me.’ He only added, ‘Do you know yourself?’ I said, ‘I do.’ Then
Wesley added this, “But I fear they were vain words.” After a difficult period of trial and failure in Georgia Wesley
returned to England where contacted the Moravians again. Peter Boehler became Wesley’s personal contact and
counselor. He concluded he lacked a genuine saving faith & should stop preaching. Boehler advised him to continue until
he possessed the faith he preached about. Finally, on May 24, 1738, Wesley had the experience that changed his life. He
wrote …In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface
to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the

heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: And an
assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. After
that, Wesley no longer doubted his salvation. In fact, the obsession he’d had before about wondering if he was saved
was replaced by a confidence that freed him to turn his talents to other things, chiefly the organizing of the Methodist
Societies. This would eventually create a separate, worldwide, group of church denominations. In 1784, he responded to
the shortage of priests in the American colonies due to the American Revolutionary War by ordaining preachers for
America. A year later the first Methodist missionaries were sent to Georgia. The influence of the Moravians had come
full circle. In the sometimes-mysterious Providence of God, this was a direct result of the Moravians being brought by

the Trustees to Georgia! While the Moravian community in Georgia did not last long, ten years, and was never very large
it marked the beginnings of the group's very successful settlements in other parts of North America and became an
important part of the ongoing transatlantic evangelical revival ,the Great Awakening.