Jozias Fraanje (Biezelinge, October 20, 1878 - Barneveld, September 3, 1949) was a Dutch minister. He belonged to the Reformed Churches and in the second quarter of the 20th century he was the second man behind Gerrit Hendrik Kersten, the undisputed leader of that church society. Fraanje was a very precise preacher and world-renowner than Kersten. He put his stamp especially on the Reformed Towns and later Reformed Churches in the Netherlands on the western edge of the Veluwe and in the Gelderse Valley.
Jozias Fraanje grew up in the circles of "Bakkerians" one of the divisions in the Leaders' circles. He did not go to school because his parents did not vaccinate him, which was then a condition for being able to attend primary education. Fraanje had to write his letters later by others. He was opposed to vaccination throughout his life. Although he lived neatly civilians, he made a conversion experience in 1904 convincing him of his guilt over God. Despite his lack of education, due to his good memory and visual language, he was given a leading role in the Reformed Churches created in 1907.
In 1908, Fraanje became a practitioner in Goes and in 1912 in Terneuzen. The practice meant that he had to lead church services and keep his sermons, although he was not a minister. In Terneuzen, he was still confirmed as a minister in the same year. Because of his "singular gifts" (special gifts) he did not have to follow any education as a minister. Fraanje was initially also against the theological education that Kersten founded, as the believer had to be "taught of God" and not to be an academic "god-learned". Only in 1930 did he resist his resistance to Theological School. In 1913 Fraanje went to Rotterdam and in 1916 he returned to Goes. Here too, he did not stay long, in 1918 he went to Barneveld where he would stay until his death in 1949. In his preaching, he set the path of the believer to the center of salvation. In particular, the knowledge of their own sinfulness prior to conversion was given a heavy emphasis. In the sense of faith, Fraanje was close to the Reformed Churches, which he also ruled on, although this was not permitted by church law.
Although he was little educated, Fraanje managed to acquire great influence in the Reformed Churches. His moved personality and his simple, visual language spoke of many churchgoers. Fraanje was an opponent of modernization, as evidenced by his resistance to theological education and his rejection of vaccination. He was also opposed to politics and dismissed in 1922 his Barneveld congregation members to vote, although in 1918 Kersten had established the SGP. Four years after the death of Fraanje, the congregation is in a Reformed Church and a Reformed Church in the Netherlands.
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