Editing Nicolaus Zinzendorf (section)

==Theology==
{{Further|Congregation of God in the Spirit}}
He taught that the Savior had a relationship with each believer, but a different level of relationship with the ''Gemeinde''.  Decisions on interpretation of Scripture were to be made communally, not individually.  He believed it was the ''Gemeinde'', not the ecclesiastical and political institution, that was truly the Church of Jesus Christ.<ref name="AETH2">Freeman, pp. 290-91</ref>

His famous preaching of the redemption through the blood of Christ, followed a change of opinion around 1734/35, the years before it was suspected he had adhered to the opposite doctrines of Johann Conrad Dippel.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://digitale.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vd18/12301943 |title=Drucke des 18. Jahrhunderts (VD18) / Dippel, Johann Conrad: Eröffneter Weg zum Frieden mit Gott und allen Creaturen : Durch die Publication der sämtlichen Schrifften Christiani Democriti ; Jn Drey Bänden, Welche Er selbst nach und nach bis an seinen Tod dem Druck hat übergeben [...] : Bd. 3. Berleburg. Berleburg : Haug, 1747 |date=1747 |language=en}}</ref>

More scandalously, he had his secret or half-public doctrines, most notably of the "Holy marriage" or "Marriage-Sacrament". In his first big song-book, "Sammlung Geist- und lieblicher Lieder", Herrnhut 1731, in the preface p.&nbsp;16, he states a holy marriage is a sacrament together with the baptism and Lord's Supper.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dresden |first=SLUB |title=Sammlung Geist- und lieblicher Lieder, Eine grosse Anzahl der Kern-vollesten alten und erwecklichsten neuen Gesänge ... |url=http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id42599306X/1 |access-date=2023-11-28 |website=digital.slub-dresden.de |language=de-DE}}</ref> This means that man and wife who live in such a marriage are sinless. The doctrines of this were especially given out to the married couples of the congregation in the count's speeches, notably in his 1747 edited: "Oeffentliche Gemeinreden", 2. Vols., and in the 1755 at Frankfurt and Leipzig published (by a local Saxon clergyman who had got hold of the manuscript): "Haupt-Schlüssel zum herrnhutischen Ehe-Sacrament".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dresden |first=SLUB |title=Haupt-Schlüssel zum Herrnhutischen Ehe-Sacrament, Das ist: des Hrn. Grafen von Zinzendorf an das Ehe-Chor gehaltenen Reden |url=http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id335696228/1 |access-date=2023-11-28 |website=digital.slub-dresden.de |language=de-DE}}</ref>
From 1735 on, in public writings, Z. expressly declared himself for the lutheran confession of Augsburg,<ref>A. G. Spangenberg: "Leben des Grafen Zinzendorf", IV, S. I. 1773, p. 911 f.</ref> but in private letters he declared indifference to any confession; that is, the Catholic, Reformed and Lutheran churches as "sects" called, that is an adherence to Jesus Christ without any doctrine, and finally his own church as the center of this, and including threats to those who would oppose him. In a letter to some separatists outside Frankfurt M, of 16. June 1736 he states:
"Wir haben Lust, Seelen zu JEsu zu bereden, in allen Secten und Verfassungen. Denn wir machen keine neue, sondern leben in JESU gemein, die allenthalben nur eine ist. Will man uns dieses in Liebe lassen, so so lassen wir wieder stehen, was wir nicht gebauet. Wil man uns aber darinnen stören; so werden wir uns mit dem Schwerdt des Geistes zur Rechten und zur Lincken Platz machen. (We have desire, to prepare souls to Jesus, in all sects and constitutions. Then we make no new ones, but live in the congregation of Jesus, which everywhere only one is. Would one let this in love, so will we leave standing, what we did not build. But if one will disturb this; so will we right and left make place with the sword of spirit.)"<ref>"Geheimer Brief-Wechsel Des Herrn Grafen von Zinzendorf", S. I. Frankfurt und Leipzig 1741, p. 200-201.
http://digitale.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/urn/urn:nbn:de:gbv:3:1-478011</ref> Such utterances carried the double appearance of theological toleration and dictatorship. Which Jesus he is referring to, is also unclear, because it is a Jesus without certain content. The theology that emerged from all the controversies, was a ceremonial, liturgical one.<ref>Spangenberg: "Leben Zinzendorfs", S. I. 1774–75, p. 1525, 1556, 1974, 2229; "Haupt-Schlüssel etc.", Preface</ref>
An original English account (from Z. visit in North America) of Count Z. opinions can be found in: Gilbert Tennent: "Some account of the Principles of the Moravians", London 1743.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tennent |first=Gilbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VYoUAAAAQAAJ&q=gilbert+tennent |title=Some Account of the Principles of the Moravians: Chiefly Collected from Several Conversations with Count Zinzendorf; and from Some Sermons Preached by Him at Berlin, ... Being an Appendix to a Treatise on the Necessity of Holding Fast the Truth. By Gilbert Tennent, ... |date=1743 |publisher=S. Mason |language=en}}</ref>