Michael Youssef - Treasure That Lasts

The Choice before Us

You have probably never heard of Baron Justinian von Weltz, a Dutch nobleman of the seventeenth century. He had a passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Though his story is rarely told today, his zeal for spreading the gospel influenced generations of pastors, teachers, and missionaries.

The first-century church sent out thousands of missionaries from Judea to Europe, Africa, and Asia. But by the seventeenth century, the church had become stagnant. Baron von Weltz, a Lutheran layman, was heartbroken that he and his fellow Lutherans were doing nothing to reach the lost. Like most European nations, Holland had established colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Yet the Dutch Lutheran church made no effort to reach those lands with the gospel.

Baron von Weltz wrote pamphlets and preached about the need to evangelize the worldbut church leaders responded with mockery. He proposed a missionary society called The Jesus Society for world evangelism. Eminent Lutheran scholar Johannes Heinrich Ursinus scoffed at the idea, saying that by taking the gospel into godless lands, the Society would draw children of the devil to the church. That, of course, was von Weltzs goalto draw children of the devil to the gospel and convert them to children of God as Jesus commanded.

In 1664, von Weltz journeyed to Regensburg, Bavaria, to address the Imperial Diet (the ruling council) of the Holy Roman Empire. Once again, he was mocked, as he put it, with haughty condescension. He added, I thought the heathen were in far distant lands, and lo, I found myself in the midst of them.

After failing to persuade church leaders to take up the cause of evangelism, von Weltz renounced his title as a baron. With the support of a few close friends, he committed himself to becoming a missionary. In his final sermon before leaving on his missionary journey, he said:

What is it to me to bear the title well-born, when I am born again to Christ? What is it to me to have the title lord, when I desire to be servant of Christ? What is it to me to be called your grace when I have need of Gods grace? All these vanities I will away with and all else I lay at the feet of my dear Lord Jesus.

Justinian von Weltz set sail for Surinam, a Dutch colony in South America. He arrived in 1666 and died there in 1668. There is no account of von Weltz making a single convert. He lived a lonely life and was buried in a forgotten grave.

Did von Weltz die a failure? Not at all. No one who lives faithfully for God is ever a failure. Though forgotten by the world, Justinian von Weltz was crowned by God with success. God raised up a new generation of believers who read his writings and were inspired to take the gospel to distant corners of the earth. Even in death, his influence ignited a missionary movement that continued expanding long after his death.