The Age of the Open Door
A Deeper Dive Into the Book of Revelation - Part 77
In addition to the restoration of the doctrine of sanctification through the “washing of water by the Word of God,” the Philadelphia Church Age also saw the restoration of Christian outreach and missions.
Jesus opened the door during this age, and His faithful disciples responded. But this open door did not lead His people into the Church. It led them outside the walls of the church buildings into the harvest fields to carry the Gospel of the Kingdom to far away lands.
“I know your [record of] works and what you are doing. See! I have set before you a door wide open which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept My Word and guarded My message and have not renounced or denied My name.”—Revelation 3:8 (AMPC)
Jesus acknowledges here that His followers in the Philadelphia Church Age only had a little power, and that was true because the Baptism of the Holy Spirit had not yet been restored to the Church on a wide scale. That would not happen until The Azusa Street Revival of 1906.
And yet with only the little power that they had, these faithful missionaries of the Philadelphia Church Age changed the world and reached many people with the message of Christ and the Gospel.
The Moravians
The spark that lit the fire of international missions may have started with Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf and the Moravians in the first half of the 1700s. Many of the Moravian believers set out from Germany in the 1700s carrying very little with them except the message of Jesus Christ and a burden for lost souls.
As the first two Moravian missionaries set sail for the West Indies, willing to even sell themselves into slavery to bring the Gospel to the slaves, they called out, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering!”
“The Moravians beautifully explain their motivation for missions in the following 1791 evangelical report. ‘The simple motive of the brethren for sending missionaries to distant nations was and is an ardent desire to promote the salvation of their fellow men, by making known to them the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ. It grieved them to hear of so many thousands and millions of the human race sitting in darkness and groaning beneath the yoke of sin and the tyranny of Satan; and remembering the glorious promises given in the Word of God, that the heathen also should be the reward of the sufferings and death of Jesus; and considering His commandment to His followers, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, they were filled with confident hopes that if they went forth in obedience unto, and believing in His word, their labor would not be in vain in the Lord. They were not dismayed in reflecting on the smallness of their means and abilities, and that they hardly knew their way to the heathen whose salvation they so ardently longed for, nor by the prospect of enduring hardships of every kind and even perhaps the loss of their lives in the attempt. Yet their love to their Savior and their fellow sinners for whom He shed His blood, far outweighed all these considerations. They went forth in the strength of their God and He has wrought wonders in their behalf.’” (Smithers)
The prayers, the devotion, and the missionary efforts of the Moravian Christians impacted many people in many countries, including John and Charles Wesley. The world and the church would be very different today if not for the impact of the Moravian Christians.
When John Wesley determined to make his own missionary trip to bring the Gospel message to America, his mother, Susannah Wesley, responded by saying, “If I had twenty sons, I would rejoice if they were all so employed, though I should never see them more.”
Many of the missionaries of this age gave their lives in service to the Gospel message and to the people they were sent to reach. Many of them never returned to the families and friends they had left behind.
David Brainerd
David Brainerd gave his life to reach the Native Americans of New England. Even though he received offers to leave the mission field and accept a traditional position as a church minister, he refused.
From his diary:
“[I] could have no freedom in the thought of any other circumstances or business in life: All my desire was the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God: God does not suffer me to please or comfort myself with hopes of seeing friends, returning to my dear acquaintance, and enjoying worldly comforts.” (Edwards)
The great preacher, Jonathan Edwards, saw such value in the diary of David Brainerd to inspire believers that he considered it part of his own ministry to compile and publish Brainerd’s journals. Since his death at age 29, Brainerd’s words have continued to inspire missionaries, pastors, and many other believers. Since its first publication in 1749, Brainerd’s diary has never been out of print.
William Carey
It was during the Philadelphia Church Age also that William Carey established his missionary base in India and transformed that country with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Carey established universities and a publishing business, and he supervised the translation of the Bible into several major languages, getting the Scriptures into the hands of thousands of people who had never read it before.
Carey’s motto was “Attempt great things for God; expect great things from God.” His essay, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, led to the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society in England. He is known today as the father of modern missions.
Hudson Taylor
As the work of William Carey transformed the nation of India, the missionary efforts of Hudson Taylor impacted the nation of China. Being careful to build his ministry on God’s principles in the Bible, Hudson Taylor became a modern-day model for other ministers in how to effectively reach other cultures with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Taylor established the China Inland Mission in 1865. His organization continues to impact thousands of people around the world as the Overseas Missionary Fellowship.
Amy Carmichael
Many of the missionaries of the Philadelphia Church Age were men, but in the late 1800’s a remarkable woman impacted the nation of India, saving and transforming the lives of desperate people with great needs. Amy Carmichael initially applied to Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission to become a missionary to China, but she was turned down for health reasons. After spending some time in Japan and Sri Lanka, Amy traveled to India and went from village to village sharing the Gospel message, but with only limited results.
It was not until Amy met a young Indian girl named Preena that she finally found what she was really called to do in India. Preena had been suffering in sexual slavery as a temple prostitute. Preena was the catalyst for Amy to establish a home that would become a sanctuary for children who had been abused or orphaned.
The home grew to become the village of Dohnavur, offering not only food and shelter, but education, medical care, Christian discipleship, and a caring family of believers to hundreds who came to live and work there.
At the age of 63, Amy suffered a crippling injury and was no longer able to personally manage all of the needs of the village, but by that time, work had been delegated to others who were able to carry on the ministry.
Far from being finished with ministry, this was when Amy’s ministry entered a new phase that reached far beyond the walls of the Dohnavur village. In the confines of her room, Amy began to write. Her books and poems have inspired and encouraged people in many countries around the world, leading people into closer personal relationships with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
In her later years, Amy prepared the Indian women of Dohnavur to carry on the work that God had begun among them, and she also stressed the need for Indians to evangelize their own country, taking the Gospel message outside the walls of their own village.
Amy is buried at the Dohnavur Fellowship in India. Rather than being honored with an elaborate monument, only a humble bird bath marks the grave of this great servant of God. It is inscribed with only a single word, “Ammai,” meaning “revered Mother.”
The Open Door
Nicolaus von Zinzendorf, David Brainerd, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, and Amy Carmichael are only a few of the great servants of God who followed His call to go through the door that Jesus opened and to reach the world for Jesus Christ.
These belong in the list of God’s heroes of the faith alongside such great men and women of God as those listed in Hebrews chapter 11. These truly are “people of whom the world was not worthy.”
These great men and women of God changed the world and changed the Church forever, but from the outside, not the inside. It is important for us to understand that the door that Jesus opened for the brave disciples of this age was a door leading out of the traditional churches, not into them. Just as it was in Jesus’ earthly ministry, many of the most significant events in the lives of believers of the Philadelphia Church Age happened outside the walls of traditional churches as Jesus’ disciples were faithful to go through the door that Jesus had opened for them.
References:
David Brainerd. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 11, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brainerd
Edwards, J. (1978). The life of David Brainerd: Chiefly extracted from his diary. Baker Books.
Fernandez, R. (Director). (2014). John Wesley: The faith that sparked the Methodist movement [Film]. Herald Entertainment / Christian History Institute.
Menkis, A. (2023, July 10). Mother to the exploited: Meet Amy Carmichael. Core Christianity. https://corechristianity.com/resources/articles/mother-to-the-exploited-meet-amy-carmichael-1867-1951
Smithers, D. (2015, February 11). Count Zinzendorf & The Moravians: Prayer makes history. The Traveling Team. https://www.thetravelingteam.org/articles/count-zinzendorf-the-moravians-prayer-makes-history
Vision Video. (2020, December 9). Count Zinzendorf: The rich young ruler who said yes | Full movie | Rev. Dr. Albert Frank [Video]. YouTube.
Vision Video. (2021, November 27). Amy Carmichael: Mother to the motherless | Full movie | Elisabeth Elliot [Video]. YouTube.
Vision Video. (2021, December 11). First fruits: Zinzendorf and the Moravians (1982) | Full movie | Richard Foster | Todd Hoagey [Video]. YouTube.
William Carey (missionary). (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 11, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carey_(missionary)
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