Philip William Otterbein History

REV PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN: THE INFLUENCE

OF FIVE HISTORIC PROTESTANT MOVEMENTS: LUTHERANISM, CALVINSIM,

MORAVIANISM, ANABAPTISTS AND PIETISM, AND HIS

INFLUENCE ON THE METHODISTS

By

Barry Neufeld Email: Barry.Neufeld @mytwu.ca

Mailbox: 58 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the course of

HIS 541

ACTS Seminary

March 23, 2009

Approved by ________________________________________________

Professor Bruce Guenther

Otterbein: Five Influences 2

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Outline

Philip William Otterbein stands at the head of a German awakening in America, which

occurred shortly after the Great Awakening begun by Jonathan Edwards, and slightly prior to

the introduction of Methodism to the American Colonies. He and his followers organized the

United Brethren in Christ, the first truly American Denomination, and while they arrived at a

position nearly identical to the Methodists, they arrived by a different route.

Thesis:

I will attempt to show how the rich heritage of the United Brethren in Christ

implemented the best of four major streams of the protestant reformation: Calvinism,

Lutheranism, Anabaptism and Moravianism as well as the later developments of the Pietists.

Although he was sometimes given the derogatory label of a “Dutch Methodist” Otterbein

actually had a greater influence on the Methodists than vice versa.

Contents Background: ................................................................................................................. 3

Lutheran Influences: ................................................................................................... 4

Calvinistic/ Ramist Influences: ................................................................................. 7

Pietistic Influences ................................................................................................... 11

Moravian Influences: ............................................................................................... 14

Anabaptist influences .............................................................................................. 17

Influence on the Methodists: ................................................................................. 20

Conclusion: ................................................................................................................ 22


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Background:

William Philip Otterbein was born in

Dillenburg- Nassau Germany beside the

Palatinate in the Rhenish Valley in 1726. The

geographical area was surrounded by

Calvinistic, Lutheran and Catholic areas.

Otterbein came from a long line of

protestant pastors, all trained at the Herborn

(Theological) School and his own father was

particularly esteemed. Six of his brothers and

a brother-in-law all became reformed Pastors. While not all students will represent the

distinctive beliefs of their alma mater, the family connection was strong, Herborn was very

unique and in this writer’s opinion, it is safe to assume that much of Philip William Otterbein’s

belief system was formed by this school.

Otterbein took this influence with him to the New World where Pennsylvania was also

known as “New Germany”. Between 1702 and 1757 about 50,000 Germans came to

Pennsylvania mostly from the Palatinate. This was because Louis XIV of France had ordered

the devastation of the Palatinate area in 1679. He revoked the Edict of Nantes, and destroyed

the Palatinate again in 1688 and 1693. A majority of the population was slaughtered. Homes

and forests were burned. Orchards were cut down, even graves were desecrated. “The

wretched provinces of the Rhone sought an avenue for escape through Holland. This havoc is


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justly regarded as one of the darkest pages in the history of Germany.”1 The Mennonites in

Switzerland were also fleeing persecution by the Reformed church. By 1751 there were 90,000

Germans in Pennsylvania, of which a third were German Reformed.2

Lutheran Influences:

The focal point of the convergence of all these influences was Herborn School, in the

Nassau region of the German Rhenish valley. At the time of the Reformation in the early 16th

Century, the region was mostly Lutheran. However, they leaned more to the irenic

Lutheranism of Philip Melanchthon, who irritated the Gnesio-Lutherans by his allowance for

the role of human will in the experience of salvation, and downplayed the salvific benefits of

the Eucharist. Melanchthon evidenced a mild, conciliatory spirit which earned him the label

“crypto-Calvinist”. Herborn was strong on the need for the believer to have assurance of

Salvation. This was pure Lutheranism: “Luther declares that he who hath no assurance spews

faith out, and Melanchthon makes assurance the discriminating line of Christianity from

heathenism.”3

Melanchthon developed a new theme which would gain dominance in protestant

orthodoxy: “the concept of the dual nature of theology. Theology as “knowledge” is objective

study of scripture publicly studied as a university discipline employing the humanistic tools of

classical learning and philogy. But theology as “true knowledge” (vera cognitia) results when

1 Abram Paul Funkhouser, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Virginia Conference (Dayton, VA: Ruebush-Kieffer

Company, 1921), 26.

2 A. W. Drury, The Life of Rev. Philip William Otterbein (Dayton, OH: United Brethren Publishing House, 1890), 61.

3 Philip Melanchthon, Discussions of Philosophy p 486 quoted in Ibid., 74.


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scripture is proclaimed and heard as the vox Dei.”4 “The two aspects [of Erkenntnis and

Vertrauen] are separated and there is even talk of two kinds of faith: an acceptance as true of

the whole content of the Bible on the one hand, and a Spirit-inspired confidence on the

other.”5

Otterbein’s life was process of subjecting his intellectual faith to his “heart faith” and

seeking to follow Christ in obedience.

According to Gneiso-Lutherans, any action on man’s part was called the sin of synergy or

salvation by works. For this reason, most Lutherans have resisted any revival or evangelistic

activities. A 19th Century American Evangelical Lutheran theologian put it this way:

“The teaching that a person helps in any way with his conversion is synergy. Melanchthon writes as a synergist. ‘From this error (sc. of the Manicheans) minds must be led away and taught that free will does something. Therefore some of the ancients spoke in this way: Free will in man is the ability to respond to grace (facultas se applicandi ad gratiam), that is, it hears the promise and tries to assent and renounces sins against conscience....”6

An example of the synergism that Otterbein learned at Herborn is the way he upheld

human responsibility in the exercise of will, so that neither God nor Satan can be the cause of

mans’ fall: In his sermon “The Salvation Bringing Incarnation and the Glorious Victory of

Jesus Christ over the Devil and Death” delivered 1760 at the Reformed Church in

Germantown, PA, Otterbein stated:

4 John Steven O'Malley, Pilgrimage of Faith, ATLA Monograph #4d ed. (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1973), 19.

5 Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Study of the Faith, trans, by Sierd Woudstra (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,

1979), p. 441.Quoted in Joel R. Beeke, "Faith and Assurance in the Heidelberg Catechism and its Primary Composers : A

Fresh Look at the Kendall Thesis," Calvin Theological Journal 27, no. 1 (04 1992): 46.O'Malley, Pilgrimage of Faith, 46.

6 Adolf Hoenecke, Evangelical Lutheran Dogmatics, Volume IV (Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Northwestern Publishing House, 1999),

285.


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“Man obeyed him (the devil) and ate of the forbidden fruit. He turned his desire away from God, and he sought delight outside of God…hence men have permitted themselves to be taken prisoner by the devil, for the sake of his will, as a result of their falling away from God. As soon as God’s Spirit opens a person’s eyes, so that he recognizes and feels his misery, then he gets up with the prodigal son and says ‘Father, I have sinned.’”7

Otterbein and the other Reformed missionaries from Holland were met in New York by

Rev. John Melchoir Mühlenberg, the apostle of Lutheranism in America who gave them a

blessing and a warning from Matthew 10:16 “Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of

wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”8 Mühlenberg knew that the

communities into which they were headed were primitive, savage and promiscuous. “The

crossing of the Atlantic or Mississippi or a movement from country to city is frequent

explanation of religious apostasy. The atmosphere of the New World encouraged a wild and

reckless life.”9 “Gross drunkenness was almost as common among ministers and other church

members as among the people in general.”10 Many settlements had no pastors or churches and

there was “much laxity in manners and morals. The German pastors were so few that they

could seldom visit a frontier neighborhood oftener than once or twice a year.”11

Denominational lines were blurred on the frontier. Lutheran Superintendent Mühlenberg,

preached sermons for Mennonites from 1745 on. He reported that

7 quoted in J. Steven O'Malley, Early German-American Evangelicalism : Pietist Sources on Discipleship and Sanctification (Lanham, Md.:

Scarecrow Press, 1995), 21-27.

8 Paul R. Fetters, ed. Theological Perspectives: Arminian -Wesleyan Reflections on Theology, (Huntington, Indiana: Church of the United

Brethren in Christ, 1992), 30.

9 Drury, The Life of Rev. Philip William Otterbein, 61-62.

10 Funkhouser, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Virginia Conference, 33.

11 Ibid., 29.


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“I have in such sermons not spoken upon the disputed points between us and them, but have proclaimed atonement, faith, and holiness—so we all without discrimination may be complete in all things necessary.”12

Calvinistic/ Ramist Influences:

At the time of the Reformation, the ruler of Nassau-Dillenburg was Count Johann VI

who had studied under Melanchthon. His father had been a participant in the Diet of Worms,

but his elder brother, William of Orange urged him to switch to the Reformed religion in

1577.13 The princely reformer opened the Herborn Hohe Schule in 1584 with a faculty led by

Kaspar Olevianus. Herborn became the reformed bulwark against rationalism, and “although

committed to Reformed dogma, the Count’s “high school” was to reflect the irenic spirit of

Melanchthon.”14 A distinct variety of Calvinism emerged at Herborn under the influence of

Peter Ramus (1515-1572), a Picard like Calvin who was a Huguenot philosopher and martyr of

St. Bartholomew’s Night. Ramus has been credited by Moltmann for attempting to dislodge

the Aristotelian syllogism from its prominent role in Reformed (and Lutheran) Orthodoxy.15

i.e.: “Discussion of Platonic (sanctification) and Aristotelian (justification) theology: Revivalism

combined both.”16 “The School at Herborn carried on this opposition to rationalistic

scholasticism, and Ramism also had an effect on the Puritans at Cambridge, and Herborn

became the continental counterpart to Cambridge.17 Herborn professors Kaspar Olevianus

(1536-1587) and to a lesser extent, Zacharias Ursinus (1534-1583) took the major role in the

12 J. C. Wenger, History of The Mennonites of the Franconia Conference (Scottdale, Pa.: Mennonite Publishing House, 1938) p 400

quoted in Sem C. Sutter, "Mennonites and the Pennsylvania German Revival," Mennonite Quarterly Review 50, no. 1 (01 1976):

53.

13 O'Malley, Pilgrimage of Faith, 7.

14 Ibid., 15.

15 Ibid., 22.




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preparation of the Heidelberg Catechism at the behest of Elector Frederick the Pious of the

Palatinate in 1563. The Heidelburg Catechism18 was the result of the controversy between

Lutherans, Melanchthonians, Calvinists, and Zwinglians, and it has a “warm, experiential

character.”19 In Nassau, the Heidelberg Catechism remained primarily a Layman’s book of

instruction in church, home and school.20 For example:

“The first effect of Christ in us is the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit, who ‘bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,’ whereby we can lay aside the bondage to fear and cry out, ‘Abba, dear Father.’

The second effect of Christ in us whereby He regenerates us, is the mortifying of the old self, that is, the corrupt, sinful nature, so that we ourselves become enemies of that nature within, and so that by the grace of the Spirit of Christ it becomes progressively weaker until finally it is removed entirely.

The third effect is the quickening by the Spirit or coming-to-life of the new self, so that by the power of Christ working in us, our minds are inclined from now on to delight to walk in a new life.”21

Pastors trained at Herborn were required to regularly and systematically include sections

of the Heidelberg Catechism in their sermons. Furthermore, in the tradition of Richard Baxter,

who wrote “The Reformed Pastor” they were to systematically examine their catechumens

before they partook in the Lord’s Supper22... NOT to see if they could recite the Catechism by

rote, but to ensure they understood how this would help them to “ Live Well.”23

At Herborn, moderate Calvinism was taught:

18 "The Heidelberg Catechism," in Christian Classics Ethereal Library [database online]. Grand Rapids. MI June 1, 2005 [cited

2009]. Available from http://www.ccel.org/creeds/heidelberg-cat-ext.txt.

19 O'Malley, Pilgrimage of Faith, 3-4.

20 Ibid., 13.

21 a translation of this passage from the original "Schirat edition" of Kaspar Olevianus, "Vester Grundt, das ist, die artikel des alten,

waren, ungezweifelten christlichen Glaubens" (Heidelberg: Michel Schirat, 1567 P. 177 quoted in Beeke, Faith and Assurance in the

Heidelberg Catechism and its Primary Composers : A Fresh Look at the Kendall Thesis, 60.

22 Richard Baxter, Gildas Silvanus: The Reformed Pastor (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974), 239.


http://www.ccel.org/creeds/heidelberg-cat-ext.txt


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“At this time the peculiarities of this system ceased to be accented. The Reformed Church in Germany has never been much given to elaborating or defending theological tenets,--especially such as have divided the minds of devout Christians. Its spirit has been that of Melanchthon. Such was the Herborn school, when in 1742, Philip William became enrolled as a student.”24

While the wording of the Heidelberg Catechism is sufficiently ambiguous to allow denial

of double predestination and the perseverance of the saints, the Synod of Dordt attempted to

eliminate any tendencies towards Arminianism. There was extremism evident at the Synod of

Dort: “the Emden Pastor Ritzius Lucas affirmed that it was more important to teach the

Catechism than to preach from the scriptures.”25 Several authors have noted that the

differences between Arminius and Calvin were not as vast as the current variances in

Calvinistic dogma,26 and Beeke states that

“There are differences between Calvin and the Heidelberg theologians with regard to their conceptions of faith and assurance, these differences are largely matters of degree rather than of substance. The HC, Ursinus, and Olevianus each have distinctive emphases on the doctrine of assurance that move quantitatively beyond but not qualitatively contradictory to Calvin.”27

After graduating the Herborn School, Otterbein and taught at the Herborn Paedagogium

in preparation for his ordination to the Reformed Church. After his ordination in 1749, he

pastored the Dillenberg church, supporting his now widowed mother. Michael Schlatter, a

Swiss Reform missionary came to Herborn looking for recruits. Otterbein volunteered to go as

a missionary to America under the auspices of the wealthier Dutch Reform church. “The

Dutch originally wanted the Germans to join with the Scottish Presbyterians, but the

24 Drury, The Life of Rev. Philip William Otterbein, 36. NOTE: (When Drury uses the word “evangelical”, he is referring to

supporters of a crisis salvation experience typical of the late 19th Century revivals i.e. a born again experience)

25 Heinritch Steitz, Geschicte der Evangelishchen Kirche in Hessen und Nassau, (Marburg 1965) II 163 quoted in O'Malley, Pilgrimage of

Faith, 10.

26 Fetters, Theological Perspectives: Arminian -Wesleyan Reflections on Theology, 22.

27 Beeke, Faith and Assurance in the Heidelberg Catechism and its Primary Composers : A Fresh Look at the Kendall Thesis, 55-56.


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Presbyterians had been impacted by Edward’s revivalism and didn’t adhere to the Heidelberg

or any catechism.” So the Dutch Synods took responsibility for the German Reformed in

America.28

After training, examinations and trial sermons in Holland, Otterbein arrived in America in

1752 and was recommended to the Lancaster Pa German Reformed Church. He was

disappointed to find a spiritually dead church which had been led by unordained, undisciplined

pastors for many years. They excused their moral discrepancies by appealing to the doctrine of

“Perseverance of the Saints”, strongly stated in the Canons of Dordt.29 Although he had been

examined for orthodox Calvinist Doctrine in Holland before being approved as a missionary,

Otterbein immediately began to question the Dutch emphasis on the doctrines of double

election and perseverance of the Saints. “His aversion to dogmatic paradoxes...the lingering

influences from Melanchthon, which had been so deeply planted throughout the Rhenish

Provinces, may have been factors in producing the change (to Arminianism).”30 Despite his

drift toward an Arminian position in Lancaster, he emerged as a highly respected the pastor

within the Cœtus of the Dutch Reformed in America and leader of the revivalist party in the

German speaking Reformed Churches. In Lancaster, he was so busy examining and exhorting

“backslidden and loose living” communicants that he established some rules of order to make

it clear who was to able allowed to attend at the Lords’ Table as required by the Catechism.31

This was before the Methodists arrived in America.

28 Paul R. Fetters, ed. Trials and Triumphs A History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, (Huntington, Indiana: Church of

the United Brethren in Christ, 1984), 58-60.

29 O'Malley, Early German-American Evangelicalism : Pietist Sources on Discipleship and Sanctification, 167.

30 Drury, The Life of Rev. Philip William Otterbein, 79.



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In 1783, Otterbein took the initiative to lay hands on his best friend and disciple, George

Geeting and ordain him as one set aside for the preaching ministry. He did this without the

prior approval of the Dutch Reform Cœtus, to which he was accountable. After much debate,

the Cœtus later voted to ordain Geeting in 1788.32 Not all Reformed folk admired William

Otterbein. When a Pastor returned home from a Reformed Synod meeting, a parishioner

asked why they hadn’t “thrown Mr. ‘O’ over the fence”. The Pastor replied “Ah! He was too

heavy for us!”33 While the Synod did not always agree with Otterbein, they had profound

respect for him. Otterbein was briefly married to a daughter of French Huguenot refugees--

Susan LeRoy-- who died childless.34

Pietistic Influences

Herborn was a wing of protection against romantic rationalism.35 The Herborn theology

found its culmination in the monumental theological system of Johan Heinrich Alsted (1588-

1638) professor at Herborn from 1619-1629. This had a foundational influence on Reformed

Pietistic Orthodoxy, and especially the theology of the Otterbeins.36 Philip Spener was

appointed a (Lutheran) pastor at Frankfort-on-the main, only a few miles from Herborn

School where in 1666 he introduced the concept of ‘Collegia Pietatis’” essentially home Bible

study and prayer meetings.37 Funkhouser states: “Spener and Pietism were to Germany what

32 J. Bruce Behney, Paul Himmel Eller, and Kenneth W. Krueger, The History of the Evangelical United Brethren Church (Nashville:

Abingdon, 1979), 58.





37 Elizabeth A. Livingstone, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Rev. 2ndd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press,

2006), 554.


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Wesley and early Methodism were to England, and Wesley was greatly influenced by his

German forerunner.”38 William and his younger brother George Godfrey Otterbein and their

professor, Dr. Schramm “had deep sympathy with the spirit and methods of Pietists: the collegia

pietatus (associations for piety) the ecclesiolæ in ecclesia (associations in churches)” which they

believed supplied life for dead orthodoxy.39 The six Otterbein brothers--all who became

pastors--were sons of a venerated Pietist pastor, and a very pious mother. Otterbein served as

preceptor in Herborn from 1748 – 1752. He was inspired by the Dutch pietism of Vitringa

and Lampe.40

William Otterbein’s duties in his first pastorate in 1752 were to preach Sundays,

Wednesdays and festival days, and lead a weekly prayer meeting41 (which was rare in Germany

at the time). “He stressed “a pure life and an active religious spirit. This aroused some

opposition…his mother said the home town was too narrow for one like him and that he

would have to become a missionary.”42

After arriving at Lancaster Reformed Church, Otterbein was very discouraged with his

impious and undisciplined congregation. In 1754, He preached a sermon on repentance and

faith. He was so convicted by his own sermon that when a seeker came forward with a

question, Otterbein was too shaken to reply; “he said, ‘my friend, advice is scarce with me

today.’ He sought his closet and struggled to find peace and joy.”43 This experience of the



40 Ibid., 36., O'Malley, Early German-American Evangelicalism : Pietist Sources on Discipleship and Sanctification, 166.


42 Ibid., 10.



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Lord’s blessing was a turning point in his ministry: when his faith moved from his head to his

heart, his preaching took on “a unique unction”. When asked at the end of his life by Bishop

Asbury:

“‘By what means were you brought to the gospel of God and our Savior?’ to which Otterbein replied ‘by degrees I was brought to the knowledge of the truth while I was at Lancaster’”.44

For Otterbein, victory in the Christian life was always a journey, never a point of arrival.

In 1758, (The year that Jonathan Edwards died) Otterbein was called to a circuit parish in

Tulpehocken Creek. This community of stubborn Germans were very resentful of the Dutch

authorities in New York. They were also terrorized by the increasingly angry Native Americans

They were essentially “rednecks” before and after Otterbein’s ministry. It was in this unlikely

place that Otterbein introduced the novel concept of midweek bible studies and prayer

meetings. At first, he was the only one who knelt and prayed, but the practice soon became

commonplace. “This was an advance over the pre-Lord’s supper interviews in Lancaster.”45

Francke had instituted prayer meetings in Halle in 1692. Otterbein had previously convened

prayer meetings in Dillenburg in 1749. But this was the first recorded instance of a prayer

meeting in America.46 It is significant that there were no Methodist Preachers in America when

Otterbein began holding prayer meetings. (Wesley and Whitfield had been in the south briefly)

Robert Strawbridge, a Methodist lay preacher came to America in 1760. Philip Embury began

the first Methodist Class in New York in 1766, but these meetings were not primarily for





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prayer.47 While at Tulpehocken, Otterbein also began what was to become a practice of later

Methodists: an itinerant ministry visiting all the German counties of Pennsylvania, Virginia

and Maryland.

“In the spring of 1774, Otterbein and brother ministers in the German Reformed church formed a society known as ‘The United Ministers’ adopting the methods of Spener and forming classes within their own congregations and other congregations without a pastor.” 48

Moravian Influences:

Funkhouser traces the roots of the United Brethren back to Peter Waldo, (Pierre Vaudès or

de Vaux) a merchant of France who translated the bible into French in 1180. The Waldensian

movement was characterized from the beginning by lay preaching, voluntary poverty and

sticking to the "Word of God", the Bible. Waldo died in Bohemia in 1180 which became a

stronghold of pre-reformation protestants. “John Hus emerged as a leader, but after his

martyrdom, the group was persecuted and took on the name of Unitas Fratrum or United

Brethren. A delegation were kindly received by Luther but he did not think Germans could

match the Bohemian Brethren in their adherence to discipline.” 49

“The aversion of the German mind, to a thorough discipline, with which Luther had to

contend, lingered with the Germans in America.”50 Nevertheless, this did not prevent

Otterbein from persuading eighty male members of his “loose-living” German Reformed

Church in Lancaster to sign a covenant of discipline as a prerequisite to the Lord’s Supper.51



49 Ibid., 5.


51 Ibid., 65-67.


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“It was also from Herborn that the first missionary impulses within the Reform church were felt—with John Amos Comenius going forth from Herborn as the reorganizer of the Czech (Hussite) Brethren in the seventeenth century. They were to be reorganized again in the 18th Century under Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf as the ‘unitas Fratrem.’” (or Moravians).52

“The Moravians laid greater stress on their pastor’s piety, moral conduct, and knowledge of

the Bible than on human learning.”53

Otterbein’s Herborn professor, Dr. Schramm lectured in practical divinity and was “an

apostle of the so-called Thætige Christenthum (active Christianity or world evangelism)”.54

Another Professor Dr. Arnold “was more inclined to Dutch Theologians, but also enthused

about Thætige Christenthum.”55 This concept was being championed by Count Zinzendorf, who

appealed to the Kings of Denmark and Prussia to support this cause.56

“The defining event in this period was the so-called Berlin speeches of the Count. In 1738 (Zinzendorf) held salutations to the men on Luther's interpretation of the second article of the creed he treated his growing insight into the justification question. He (Zinzendorf) not only proclaimed the message of free grace of God on the Cross, Christ's death, "but also that inner renewal, and the joyous act of the good from the spontaneity of a heart taken, from which the new belief state follows.”57

While the rulers of Europe did not give wholehearted backing to Zinzendorf, his ideas

influenced the young Otterbein to volunteer as a missionary in 1748.

Gottschalk, a Moravian missionary tells of a church service in the spring of 1748 in

Pendleton county Pennsylvania: “Only women and children attended because the men were




55 Ibid., 39.

56 Ibid., 39. & "Der Soldatenkönig Und Der Prediger Der Herzensreligion Der Briefwechsel Zwischen Friedrich Wilhelm I.

Und Dem Grafen Zinzendorf," in Verein für die Geschichte Berlins [database online]. Berlin [cited 2008]. Available from

http://www.diegeschichteberlins.de/geschichteberlins/persoenlichkeiten/persoenlichkeiteag/briefwechselfriedrichwilhelmi

grafzinzendor.html.

http://www.diegeschichteberlins.de/geschichteberlins/persoenlichkeiten/persoenlichkeiteag/briefwechselfriedrichwilhelmigrafzinzendor.html

http://www.diegeschichteberlins.de/geschichteberlins/persoenlichkeiten/persoenlichkeiteag/briefwechselfriedrichwilhelmigrafzinzendor.html


16

out hunting bear on Shenandoah mountain. The style of living is described…as primitive in

the extreme. They did not hesitate to call it a near approach to savagery.”58

On the other hand, less wholesome movements started by the Moravians in 1736 under

Count Zinzendorf were trying to promote an ecumenical movement: “The Congregation of

God in the Spirit” included the more mystically extravagant religious groups. There was no

doctrinal unity. The most disruptive were the Ephrata Brethren (cloister) who were actively

proselyzing among the German Reformed, and were connected with Benjamin Franklin’s

Rosicrucianism.59

“In 1774, the great Council of Three (the Rosicrucian Fraternity's ultimate governing body) was composed of Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer and Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine was later succeeded by Lafayette, who, like Benjamin Franklin, was a member of the Paris Rosicrucian lodge ‘Humanidad.’”60

There were so many Germans in Pennsylvania that Benjamin Franklin began the publication

of a German newspaper in 1734.61

Caught between the spiritual indifference and worldliness of the established church and

the mystical extravagances of the sectarian movements, Otterbein longed to return to

Germany and the stability of a faith informed by the Heidelberg Catechism. However, he was

prevented by the French and Indian Wars in 1758.62

57 Ibid.

58 Matthias G. Gottschalk, "Report and Observations of Bro. Gottschalk on His Journey through Virginia and Maryland, Undertaken in

March and April, 1748," quoted in Funkhouser, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Virginia Conference, 30.


60 "The Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis: The Authentic Rosicrucian Fraternity in the Americas and the Isles of the Sea," in The Beverly

Hall Corporation [database online]. Quakertown, PA [cited 2009]. Available from http://www.soul.org/.



http://www.soul.org/


17

It was not until 1800 that the United Brethren in Christ was established as the first

“made-in America” denomination. One pastor, Christopher Grosh was from the United

Brethren, the name for the Moravians, so they added “in Christ” and the now elderly Boehm

and Otterbein were elected as Bishops.63

Anabaptist influences

The non specific language of the Heidelberg confession was written in the same spirit as

the Dordrecht Confession of the Mennonites which was in use in Pennsylvania as early as

1712. (with the exception of sections on pacifism and public offices)64

“The devotional classic of the Mennonites was the anonymous Gestliches Lüstgärtlein which was published in Herborn in 1787. Friedman, an Anabaptist scholar expresses amazement that this could have been published on a Reformed press, but this fact only reflects the continuation of the irenic tradition of pietistic ecumenism at Count Johann’s school.”65

“George Godfrey Otterbein b 1726 was imbued with apostolic zeal and was thoroughly convinced of the error of the spirit of the age. (Rationalism) He stood associated with the leading minds of Germany. He felt the force of that course of events that ultimated in rationalism, but resisted with all his strength the on-rolling tide of ruin. He was the author of three volumes on the Heidelberg Catechism.”66

“In his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism he was “describing ‘hearty trust’ in

terms of ‘resignation’ [Gelassenheit]. He (George Otterbein) uses a term which is distinctive of

south German Anabaptists: i.e. Hans Denck (c1500-1527).”67 While George Godfrey

Otterbein was younger, he had a significant impact on his older brother William.68

63 Fetters, Trials and Triumphs A History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, 77.

64 Gerald C. Studer, "The Dordrecht Confession of Faith, 1632-1982," Mennonite Quarterly Review 58, no. 4 (10 1984): 505.



67 Hans Denck, Whether God is the Cause of Evil (1526) 91 quoted in O'Malley, Pilgrimage of Faith, 117.



18

To the Germans from the war-torn Palatinate, the Anabaptist doctrine of pacifism was

beginning to find some sympathy. The scattered Mennonites had few pastors, and were getting

confused by the messages of the itinerant disciples of British evangelist George Whitefield.69

However, they had an advantage over other Protestants, because they could elect one of their

own members to be a lay minister, without waiting for a properly credentialed clergyman

educated in the old country.70

Martin Boehm’s father was reared as a member of the Reformed Church in Switzerland,

but fell under the influence of the Pietists. His parents and his pastor denounced him as a

heretic and he was sentenced to jail. However, he escaped to America in 1715, where he

married a Mennonite woman in Pennsylvania. Martin, born in 1725 was bright and fluent and

was elected as a Mennonite preacher at the age of 33. However, he felt inadequate and prayed

earnestly for the Holy Spirit to make him a new man. While plowing a field he became so

burdened with his sin, and cried out to God so fervently that he had an experience of

assurance. His sermons began to call for his listeners to be born again. “Despite a mixed

reaction by his Mennonite Brethren, he was advanced to the rank of Bishop in 1759.”71

Christian Newcomer (1750-1830) was another Mennonite who became convinced "that a

religion whose habitation is only in the head and is not felt in the heart is insufficient to

salvation." He was ordained by Otterbein and began preaching with Otterbein, whom he had

met in Maryland.72


70 Sutter, Mennonites and the Pennsylvania German Revival, 39.


72 Ibid., 36-37.


19

“On Whitsunday (Pentecost) of 1767, Otterbein was sitting on the platform of Isaac

Longs’ Barn where ‘Menonist’ Bishop Boehm was preaching in German. Some ‘New Light’

preachers from Virginia were preaching to an overflow crowd in the orchard. Despite their

doctrinal differences, Otterbein appreciated Boehm so much that he embraced him exclaiming

loudly ‘wir sind Brüder’ [we are brethren]. Considering their doctrinal and historical differences,

this moved the crowd to tears. At the close of the meeting, Otterbein, Boehm, Newcomer

(another Mennonite preacher) and the Virginia preachers entered into a form of union calling

themselves ‘The United Brethren in Christ’”73 “While Otterbein remained in regular Reformed

Pastorates, Boehm was ousted by the Mennonites, mainly for associating with a cleric of a

non-pacifist church during the time of the American Revolution.”74

Otterbein ministered to mainly Reformed Churches because he never withdrew from the

Reformed Synod and was never expelled. Independent Mennonite churches continued to

benefit from the ministry of Jacob Boehm and the Baltimore Evangelical Reformed Church,

which was later to become the mother church of the United Brethren in Christ.75

The first actual conference of the United Brethren church met in Baltimore in 1789. Of

the fourteen preachers present, nine had come from the reformed; four from the Mennonites,

and one from the Moravians. In their confession of faith they came to several compromises,

the most significant being that they accepted all three modes of Baptism , pouring, immersion

and sprinkling (at any age):. Foot washing was used, but not accepted as an ordinance.76

73 Ibid., 34., Drury, The Life of Rev. Philip William Otterbein, 305., Behney, Eller, and Krueger, The History of the Evangelical United

Brethren Church, 38.

74 Funkhouser, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Virginia Conference, 36-37.

75 Ibid., 38

76 Ibid., 39.


20

Bishop Christian Burkholder of Groffdale district, Lancaster County opposed the

emotionalism of the United Brethren in Christ this way:

"The tree is known by its fruit, which indeed is the only sign whereby the children of God may be known. If you talk much of your experience and your life shows the contrary, you will become a laughingstock before the world and a hypocrite before God.”77

This criticism was acknowledged by Otterbein and his United Brethren in Christ, which

propelled them to later embrace the Methodist doctrine of sanctification, thereby integrating

religious experience with ethics.

Influence on the Methodists:

Otterbein actually had a greater influence on the Methodists than they did on himself and

his church. He had already reached the peak of his ministry and was already implementing

practices typical of the Methodists by the time he began to associate with them. In 1773, he

reluctantly accepted a call to an independent German Reformed church in Baltimore that

refused to be subject to the Dutch Reformed Cœtus, and later the German Reformed Church

Synod. The reason was because the Cœtus had supported their former minister Benedict

Swope who had caused a scandal, but was excused on account of the doctrine of

“perseverance of the saints”. Interestingly one rule of the Baltimore Evangelical Reformed

Church was:

“No preacher was to be retained who upheld predestination or the perseverance of the saints, or who was out of harmony with the disciplinary rules and modes of worship, and on accusation of immorality might be at once suspended.”78

77 Christian Burkholder Nützliche und erbauliche Anrede an die Jugend, von der wahren Busse (Useful and Edifying Address to the Young on

True Repentance, according to the English edition of 1857) Christian Burkholder, Anrede an die Jugend ( [Ephrata, Pa.] : Bauman &

Cleim, 1804). (Scottdale, Pa: Mennonite Publishing House, 1941). quoted in Sutter, Mennonites and the Pennsylvania German

Revival, 52.



21

Otterbein was 48 years old when he met Francis Asbury the day he arrived in Baltimore

on May 4, 1774. Asbury was still a layman, and unable to administer the sacraments, so they

ministered together, forming a long and intimate friendship. The independent Baltimore

church began to adopt the class meeting typical of the Methodists which was not typical of the

Reformed church.79 Class meetings were implemented slowly because Otterbein’s Mennonite

colleagues were wary of such rigid structure.80

On Dec 25, 1784, at the first Methodist General Conference, Francis Asbury was

ordained a Methodist elder. The next day he was ordained a deacon. And on Dec 27, 1984,

Asbury was consecrated to the office of bishop. “One of the elders who assisted in the

consecration of Mr. Asbury was the Rev. Mr. Otterbein, a minister of the German Church. Mr.

Asbury requested that he might be assisted by Dr. Thomas Coke (Priest of the Church of

England) and the other elders in the performance of this solemn ceremony.”81


80 Phares Β. Gibble, History of the Eastern Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Dayton, O.: Otterbein Press, 1951),

71 quoted in Sutter, Mennonites and the Pennsylvania German Revival, 47.



22

Conclusion:

In 1809 the Baltimore Methodists struck a committee to explore union between

Methodists and the United Brethren. Although they worked cooperatively for many years,

union did not take place until 1968.82 They did not see themselves in competition: The

Methodists worked among the English and the United Brethren among the Germans.83

Because they had arrived at similar conclusions about doctrine by different routes, they

believed they had both been led by the Holy Spirit.

“Bishop Otterbein was recognized as one of the scholars of his age. He was familiar with the Greek, Hebrew and Latin languages. Bishop Asbury speaks of him as ‘one of the best scholars and the greatest divines in America.’” 84

Inspired by the great Lutheran pioneer Philip Melanchthon, Otterbein’s life’s work was to

integrate the intellectual knowledge of God [Erkenntnis] with an equally essential subjective

heart experience [Vertrauen]. He worked closely with all forms of Calvinism: German, Dutch,

Swiss and through his wife, French. Under Otterbein’s leadership, in the irenic spirit of

Melanchthon, the United Brethren in Christ were able through prayer to find enough common

ground to compromise between Reformed, Mennonite, Moravian and Methodist doctrines

and practices (they used all three modes of baptism).85 Unlike most revivalists and Mennonites,

Otterbein continued to lean on the Heidelberg Catechism as a North Star to guide his

scriptural understanding and evaluate his spiritual experiences: balancing justification with

sanctification. His Arminian interpretation of doctrine evolved experientially and

82 Behney, Eller, and Krueger, The History of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, 330.

83 Drury, The Life of Rev. Philip William Otterbein, 296., Behney, Eller, and Krueger, The History of the Evangelical United Brethren

Church, 55.


85 Behney, Eller, and Krueger, The History of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, 109.


23

independently of Methodist influence. He remained a respected member of the Reformed

Synod all his life and although his methods were considered controversial, he was never

accused of false doctrine or immorality. From the Pietists, he had learned the discipline of the

Holy Spirit and had come to know his Savior in a personal way at a time when he was most

discouraged. It was obviously a true call of God that he was inspired by the Moravian-inspired

Thætige Christenthum which also motivated his Dutch Reform sponsors. There is even a little

Roman Catholic influence: his followers respected him so deeply they did not hesitate to call

him by the title “Father Otterbein” in his later years.86

Unlike many prominent leaders in Church History, there are no records of any personal

foibles, faults or eccentricities in Otterbein. He was loyal to his mother church, but ecumenical

in spirit. Throughout his long life Otterbein enjoyed the affectionate esteem of great numbers

of people, both in his own and other churches. “When he died in 1813, funeral services were

conducted by ministers of the Lutheran, Methodist and Episcopal Churches as a significant

witness to the breadth of his sympathies.”87 Philip William Otterbein truly “reflects the

continuation of the irenic tradition of pietistic ecumenism at Count Johann’s school.”88





24

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25

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Philip William Otterbein History