Whittaker

William Episode 27: 

Hello, thank you for joining us today! It takes a near act of God for someone to stand back and view themselves, and their culture with a wide angle lens - To rise above their own time and view things from an eternal or heavenly perspective. Everyone can and usually does critique history  quite well when they look back on time… But it’s something special and rare for one to do it in real time and space with grace and with truth. It is nearly impossible for people to internally realize the their own personal short comings, or their blind spots, and then to recognize it externally, in their own time and culture, without having adopted it, or more often, become complacent to it. Above this, it is even more difficult to not only see the changes that need to be made but then do the hard work in implementing them - to actually change the cultural and political norm of one’s day. To try this and fail, and get up and fail again, time and time again…..To get back up and try over and over…. until your life is spent….with no promise of success. This is what we’ll look at in today’s narrative.

I was going to say that this is “a” story…. but really, due to its immense scope, its nature, and its extreme rarity, this is “the” story of a man’s life given to change a worldwide and institutional practice, so openly accepted and ingrained in cultures times-past, that to identify it and capture it, would be like trying to separate the air surrounding you from the air inside your lungs…. Slavery was normal. It was in the air that all people breathed. Although practiced by all people in all of history, the very small framed William Wilburforce determined to change that. By the grace of God, William would spearhead the movement that would change the world forever.

Eric Metaxas wrote, that “[William] Wilberforce overturned not just European civilization’s view of slavery but its view of almost everything in the human sphere; and that is why it’s nearly impossible to do justice to the enormity of his accomplishment: it was nothing less than a fundamental and important shift in human conscience.” Intro XV

Let’s look into William’s life and times and ask God to give us clarity, and vision for what He may have for us in our life and times today.……Episode 27, William, starts now.

William Wilberforce was born on August 24th, 1759. He was an abnormally small and fragile boy — in fact he would never grow taller than 5’ 3”. From his childhood, William would suffer from a weak and sickly constitution accompanied with poor eyesight. So, with the recent death of his eldest sister and his father, the young and ill-looking eight-year-old, William, felt even smaller. On top of this all, William’s mother was becoming very sick. With her nearing the verge of death, his relatively comfortable world that he had known was crashing down around him.

As a result of losing his father, sister, and now, possibly his mother, little William was forced to move from his small town of Hull close to the large city of London with his Aunt Hannah and Uncle William. Not only was he moving to a completely new environment, with a new school, and new caretakers, but his Aunt as Uncle were Methodists.

The new break off sect of the Church of England started by John Wesley nearly three decades before was largely viewed with contempt. At the time, Methodists were considered to be religious radicals - fanatics who took the gospel of Jesus seriously and passionately in a time where Bibles were only opened on Sunday mornings and where Christian teachings stayed safely within church walls. Both Anglicans and non-religious people frowned upon Methodists and their zeal of God. Later, William wrote about this time in his life saying, “It’s impossible for you to have any idea of the hatred in which the Methodists were then held. I cannot better explain it to you than by than saying that it is more like the account given in Ivanhoe of the persecutions against the Jews, than anything else I know.” (Metaxas, p. 12).

At the time, the prospect for the small and fatherless boy seemed overwhelming. Yet, this was the plan of God for William, without which he would never be the same - nor would the world.

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William’s Aunt and Uncle had a profound influence upon the young boy — and it was precisely because they were not, what William’s mother had hoped, just nominal Anglicans. Besides being extremely wealthy, and befriending many notable people in both the church and state, it was from them that William truly saw the Christian faith put into everyday practice. His Aunt and Uncle were also friends with some of the most dominate Christian figures of the century, namely, John Newton and George Whitefield.

Whitefield had traveled to America several times and was on his 13th and last trip to America when William came to live with his Aunt and Uncle. Whitefield, had an impact on William, although indirectly, as it’s doubtful the two ever met. But young William did meet John Newton, the slave trader-turned-pastor and author of “Amazing Grace”. Throughout the years, the two became very close. William regarded Newton as his spiritual father. By the age of fourteen, William wrote a paper against the slave trade. No doubt, much of his knowledge of it came from Newton’s influence.

Concerned that William was being overly affected by her Methodist relatives, William’s mother and grandfather moved him back to Hull. William had only spent two years with his Aunt and Uncle but he had grown to cherish them dearly. He wrote them shortly after leaving London saying, “I can never forget you as long as I live.” (Metaxas 12). Soon after William reluctantly returned to Hull, to his delight, the headmaster of his school, Joseph Milner, had become a passionate Methodist as well. And so, despite being in Hull, mostly surrounded by people who were nothing like his Aunt and Uncle, William still found encouragement in these formative years while his young faith and biblical worldview were developing.

Just 3 months after the rebels in the United States declared their independence from Britain, the seventeen year old William entered St. John’s College in Cambridge in 1776.

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Typical of young men his age, college for William began with much socializing, singing, card playing and late night drinking. In these years, William was blossoming into a charismatic man. Because he could sing quite well and charm people with his speech, he was always looked on with favor and gladly received by all people. William had the unique ability to captivate those around him with the rare and welcomed capability to be both moral and entertaining. With the recent death of his grandfather, William was left with a large inheritance which not only allowed William to throw extravagant parties, but would be crucial in his future in politics, where money played a big part in being elected.

William’s induction into Parliament came earlier than he probably intended. In college, William became close friends with William Pitt. Pitt, a statesmen himself, was the son of the famed Prime Minister, William Pitt the Elder. Throughout college, the two young Williams became very close and maintained a devoted friendship that would last for years to come. It was with Pitt’s encouragement that William decided to try his hand in politics — getting the idea to represent the city of Hull in the House of Commons. Having just turned 21, and throwing a birthday party sparing no expense, William found himself elected as a member of Parliament, having received more votes than his two challengers combined. And within only a few years, his dear friend advanced in his own career as a politician. The twenty four-year-old, William Pitt, would become the youngest Prime Minister in English history, being appointed by the King on December 18, 1783.

But in the midst of all the limelight and success, William began to question his existence, namely his faith and purpose in life. As he mused on the simple faith he once had as a child, he could not help but notice the dreadful gap between himself and God’s holiness. He read the Bible often leading him to confess in his diary, “I believe all the great truths of the Christian religion, but I am not acting as though I did.” (Metaxas, p. 53). Wanting to have a real faith like his Aunt and Uncle, William found himself in a predicament as Methodists and their ilk were still not welcomed in Parliament or high society, both of which William was deeply entwined.

It’s no wonder then that William spent much of his time reading, praying, and writing in his diary, about the looming decision awaiting him. William knew that he wanted to pursue and follow God above all else. This was the “Great Change” that William would refer to years later. Having reached out to his close fiends and mentors for advice, William laid out the problem that he wanted to be a faithful Christian but that it was probably incompatible with a life of a politician. His dear friend Pitt acknowledged William’s desire to live as a Christian unfettered by social or political constraints but encouraged him to stay in Parliament. Heartened, William was still not convinced and decided to converse with his old friend John Newton, who was now sixty years old. Newton, like Pitt, advised William that a life of politics and religion can indeed coexist. Soon after, speaking of William, Newton wrote a friend, “I hope the Lord will make him a blessing both as a Christian and a statesman. How seldom do these characteristics coincide!! But they are not incompatible.” (Metaxas p. 61).

With that, William had decided to remain in parliament — resolved to let his faith in God dictate not only his character but more importantly the policies he would soon put forward. It was a balance act. With diligence, William now had to let his biblical theology or those “great Christian truths” permeate his  personal and political life, without losing his influence and charismatic ability to persuade.  

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The twenty-six-tear-old, was now back in the House of Commons and set before himself two “great objects” that he would sacrifice the remainder of his life to. The second of the “great objects” was the reformation of manners. Being in the very heart of London, William had a front row seat to society’s many ailments that not only affected the poor, but the rich, and everyone in between. Being one the largest cities of the time, disease, overcrowding and crime were rampant. The death penalty was unjust and carried out by public hangings and even public burnings at times. Grotesque violence was commonplace. Animal cruelty like dogfights and bull-baiting were also displayed in the public square for people’s amusement. Alcoholism and addiction were also destroying families namely among the poor. Many infants were often abandoned and died from neglect as more and more parents left reality for the temporary comfort of alcohol and opium. Poverty also led many to obtain finances through the the sex trade. At the time, twenty-five percent of unmarried women in London were prostitutes. The average age of those girls was sixteen and there were even brothels that provided the services of fourteen year-old adolescents.

This dark culture in which William lived stood in stark contrast to many of the core truths of Christianity like self control, sobriety, sexual purity, and compassion. All of these Christian characteristics and callings were based upon the foundational doctrine of seeing the “Imago Dei” the (image of God) in oneself and in others. As a result, its no wonder that most people didn’t see anything wrong or immoral with the slave trade. It was just another custom of the culture. Thus, William’s second “great object” to change or reform the practices of society, naturally led to his first “great object” — the suppression of the slave trade.

While Willian was laying the groundwork towards both of these goals, it wasn’t until he was twenty-eight years old that he famously penned in his diary, “God almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.” (Metaxas p. 85). Soon after, William determinedly wrote, ”So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the [slave] trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected it’s abolition.” 

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The task in front William did not just seem overwhelming, it was. For years to come, more than he could have ever thought, William would have to work with all types of people in every possible way to see any amount of success. Thankfully, there were others who shared his same sentiments and like him, were willing to risk their livelihood. From artist’s, poets, theologians, and preachers to Quakers, sailors, and escaped slaves, all participated in various ways.

In 1783, four years before William penned his two ‘great objects’ the Quakers had already set up the ‘Committee on the Slave Trade’ which attracted the attention of Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson — two giants in the cause to end slavery. Under their leadership, the Quakers committee soon became the more influential 'Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade’. At this same time, (1787) William helped to found the ‘Society for the Reformation of Manners’.

But just as the movement was gaining recognition, and William was laying the groundwork to bring a bill to the House of Commons, he became very sick with fevers and exhaustion. In February of 1788 William became so ill with diarrhea and chronic stomach pain that doctors believed he was nearing death. After aiding him, the physicians concluded that William was suffering from an “absolute decay of all [his] digestive tracts.” Fearing the worst, they began to prescribe Opium. To their surprise, the opiate which William would remain on for the remainder of his life, worked better than expected. While he slowly regained his strength, William would be afflicted with stomach infections for the rest of his life and dependent upon the drug which didn’t help his worsening eyesight.

Despite this setback, about a year and a half after this, on May 12, 1789, William was back in the House of Commons. Mustering all of his oratory skills, William delivered his first major speech, putting forward twelve propositions for abolition of the slave trade. His discourse would last for three-and-a-half hours through which he graphically explained the horrific conditions of the  transatlantic route. Although William made the case that his propositions would be economically beneficial to the country, he did not hide that the primary purpose for abolition should be due to principle — the principles of conscience and of justice, and ultimately “the laws of religion and of God.”

While the oration was noted as being one of William’s greatest by many notable people, the members of Parliament remained unconvinced. The debate ended with a decision to hear more evidence. In effect, nothing politically or lawfully changed and so William and all those working with him suffered their first of many legislative defeats. And although William’s speech heartened many, as it vocalized a growing movement toward civility, it also raised the ire of others.

William had become the most public target of many who opposed abolition. Scottish biographer and lawyer, James Boswell, turned on William by publishing a blistering rhyme attacking not only his Christian faith but small stature writing, “Go Wilberforce with narrow skull, Go home and preach away at Hull. Go, Wilberforce, be gone, for shame, Thou dwarf with big resounding name,” (Metaxas p. 156). The Prince of Wales also singled out William as did the King of England’s third son, the Duke of Clarence. William’s life was directly threatened by some slave-ship captains. Besides this, fanciful rumors were spread around that William was a cruel and violent husband — a man who would often beat his wife. Regardless that William wasn’t even courting a woman at the time, let alone married, the constant attacks upon him and his cause were always hurtful. For many across the globe, their income was directly or indirectly dependent upon the well being of the slave trade. Thus, William’s leadership for its abolition was unwanted and resisted tooth and nail.

Regardless, year after year, William was resolute in putting forth bills to chip away at the institution from every possible angle. And for various reasons, (whether it was because the French Revolution was unfolding to the south or the American rebels fighting for independence across the Atlantic) England found itself intertwined among dangerous revolutions discovering reasons or excuses to hinder any progress for abolition. Meanwhile, that the barbaric and evil slave trade ran as usual, was not lost to William. It vexed him greatly. But although precious time was passing into the darkness of history, William’s purpose and resolve was only growing brighter. After ten years the tide was beginning to change.

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A welcomed reprieve and a great personal encouragement to William after many years of legislative losses, was meeting his future wife, Barbara Ann Spooner. In April of 1797, the two met at a dinner party in the city of Bath. Only after eight days of getting to know each other, they were engaged and would be married within a month’s time. On May 30, of the same year, the thirty-seven-year-old William married his twenty-year-old bride Barbara Ann. Although she nearly died from typhoid early in their marriage, Barbara recovered and would continue raising a family with her husband. And within ten short years of marriage, William found himself closer than ever to his beautiful wife, who shared his same heart for Christian reform, while fathering two girls and four young boys. With Barbara’s influence and help, William would not only continue to fight for abolition, but many other social changes as well. In 1804, William helped found the British and Foreign Bible Society as well and the Church Missionary Society. In a very real sense, the more missionaries bringing Christian principles to new people groups could only bolster the movement for abolition.

As William had become painfully aware, he’d need all the help he could get. But oddly, that help to advance abolition came through the early death of his best friend and Prime Minister, William Pitt. In January of 1806, the forty-six-year-old Pitt died from ulcers and chronic stomach problems. He past away unmarried and without any children. William Grenville, Pitt’s cousin, and long time friend of Wilburforce was then elected as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Grenville, who had long believed the slave trade was an evil and cruel institution, sensed the public sentiment was leaning in favor of abolition and decided to become personally involved in the battle to help advance it.

By now though, after nearly two decades of losses, the forty-seven-year-old William, was not as optimistic. But although the small framed man was even smaller and weaker than he had been as a youth, his spirit and mind were not. And even though William had endured many political defeats, he was still heartened by the Prime Minister’s willingness to engage in the progress for abolition. On January 2, 1807 Grenville personally read the bill before the House of Lords. A month later on February 5, the second reading of the bill was given. This ignited a long debate in Parliament that would last throughout the night. Again, Grenville, the new Prime Minister, gave a speech championing William’s twenty year effort to abolish the slave trade. And as Wilburforce had done years before, Grenville likewise appealed to his fellow member’s morality — presenting the case that the bill for abolition should pass because it was both the ethical and virtuous choice for any nation, let alone a Christian one.

After many orations were presented throughout the night, in a stunning ending, the votes were finally cast and tallied at 5:00 in the morning. The bill for abolition had past by 46 counts! Undoubtedly, William and all those with him were surprised and thrilled. But William’s excitement was tempered as the bill would still need to pass one last time in the House of Commons. The date was set three weeks away for February 23.

William knew that for the bill to succeed in it’s final reading and vote, God would have to “turn the hearts of men” — namely, the West Indian planters who constantly resisted the bill. But by William’s political insight, he astonishingly counted on having their favor. By an act of God’s grace, William believed that abolition had now become popular, even to some of those who prospered from it. The twenty years of effort and sacrifice from William and all those working with him had changed the public’s sentiment and it seemed now that the writing was on the wall.

At last, the day arrived for the bill’s 3rd and final reading. After commencing, member after member arose to give their speech. As one finished, more eagerly stood to address the Parliament. As the hours past, the momentum seemed to be swelling, not only in favor of abolition but in favor of its champion, William Wilburforce. Sir Samuel Romilly, the solicitor-general  and an admirer of William stirred the crowd to tears by eloquently contrasting Wilburforce as England’s peacemaker to Napoleon as France’s warlord. Humbled by this show of approval and praise, William began to shed tears of joy. Upon seeing this, the house was filled with great applause and sincere cheers! It was in this atmosphere that the 299 votes were then cast. After a short count, the House would vote 283 in favor of the bill to only 16 against.

The battle to end the slave trade was officially won on February 23, 1807.

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Although the slave trade had legally ended in England, nearly 20 years after William resolved to end it, slavery itself had not. While terminating the trade would serve as a moral light for other countries to emulate, the question that William would continue to fight for was whether England could go even further and abolish slavery all together. By now, William was not young, nor was he healthy, but he was mature and determined to continue the battle to reform England’s manners — which included many social reforms but could not be made more evident than to legally abolish slavery.

And so, William went from one monumental battle straight into the next. In 1813, William convinced Parliament to permit Christian missionaries to India. Soon after this, he and his friends began an antislavery public opinion campaign never seen before in English history. “In 1814 they had gathered one million signatures, one-tenth of the population, on 800 petitions, which they delivered to the House of Commons.” (Christianity Today). In 1822, he helped form the anti-Slavery Society which officially launched his campaign for the emancipation of slaves the year after.

But only 2 years after this, in 1825 the sixty-six-year-old retired from the House of Commons. His health was suffering more than normal and once again, his life was in danger from pro-slavery radicals. Although William’s workload was reduced now working from home, he remained involved for emancipation as much as he possibly could. The movement to abolish slavery within Parliament was in other capable hands and there was much to do behind the scenes. So, like the many years before, William would work tirelessly for the years to come. Knowing that his time was drawing near, the seventy-two-year-old made another anti-slavery speech at a public meeting in April 1833. It would be his last.

Surely the old man thought that hoping to abolish slavery entirely was too large of an ambition — a youthful promise made in relative and emotional haste that was probably more foolhardy than courageous. But even if emancipation was not to be seen in his lifetime, William took comfort, especially in his last days, that he fought for it for nearly half a century. On July 19, William likened himself to an old clock that was winding down. He was 73 years old and as his health continued to decline, William found himself surrounded by loved ones who all knew what was soon to come.

But then, something unexpected came on a Friday night, July 26 — and it was great news! A report came that the government had just conceded, granting freedom to all slaves in the British Empire. At last, the Slavery Abolition Act had officially passed. William could hardly believe it! All at once, his life’s aim was granted, his prayers answered, his struggle was over and on the following day, William reveled in it!

“Who can dream what went through the old man’s mind that day? To know that the battle for emancipation was really and truly over, and won—to know that every slave in the vast reaches of the British Empire would soon have his legal freedom and could never again suffer under such a system. Such a Saturday of joy as Wilberforce lived that day can only come after a thousand Saturdays of battle. But it had come. It was a dream come true.” (Metaxas p. 275). A dream, that would indeed console his dying body for a few more days. For in the early hours of Monday morning, July 29, 1833, William Wilburforce, exhaled for the last time.  

Days later, the York Herald newspaper eulogized Wilberforce writing that towards him:

"...there is probably associated more love and veneration than ever fell to the lot of any civilised individual throughout the civilised globe ...  His warfare is accomplished, his cause is finished; he kept the Faith. Those who regard him merely as a philanthropist, in the worldly sense of that abused term, know but little of his character”. (https://www.mylearning.org/stories/william-wilberforce/168)

Deep feelings and endless thoughts of revenge captivated the young man’s mind. For two weeks now, all he had thought about was the retribution he would inflict upon his captors when he got free, if he ever got free — something he knew would never happen.

Just a fortnight ago the sixteen-year-old had been enjoying his fairly sheltered life as a Roman citizen on the west coast of Britain near the small town of Bannaventa Berniae. From all the comforts that came with having a father who was a local magistrate and living in a country villa with servants to do most of the work, mindlessly playing on the beach close to his home was only one of many leisurely activities. But in a flash without any warning, all the happiness and comforts were replaced by fear and hardship when Patricus was attacked by a gang of professional Irish slave raiders.

It was efficient, violent, and traumatic.

Rome had begun its decline a decade before; as a consequence its ships no longer secured the Western Sea surrounding the Celtic Islands. Without Roman rule, other ships were free to sail unmolested. As such, no political authority was concerned about Irish kidnappers. During the one-day journey across the sea, and now in iron shackles, all Patricus could think about were the stories he had heard as a child concerning the heathen culture of the Irish. While he never thought they were all true — how they would eat human flesh, shamelessly commit incest, and smear the blood of slain victims on their faces — he now seriously questioned them. As his kidnapping alone revealed, the Irish were not considered barbarians for nothing. And although Patricus claimed to be an atheist or just apathetic to Christianity, he couldn’t help harboring bitterness towards his Christian parents and ironically, their God. The timeless question swirled in his maturing mind: How can a loving God allow evil things to happen? The fear of being forsaken incessantly bore upon his fragile conscience too, for Patricus really was alone. Most of the slaves taken by the Irish were women and children as most men were not easily secured. Patricus wasn’t a boy, but he wasn’t quite a man. And yet, it was in this time of his life, against the backdrop of Irish captivity, that God would forge something powerful within him — something so unexpected and so beautiful that it would not only change his destiny but the destiny of an entire pagan country.

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But that was in the future. In the present, the very start of the the 3rd century, the only destiny Patricus was in charge of was the one hundred sheep he was made to shepherd in a cold and wet place somewhere on the west coast of Ireland. In coming to this new land it was like traveling back in time four hundred years. Although the primitive accommodations were difficult to get used to, it wasn’t long after arriving that Patricus’ anger surprisingly simmered down into a place somewhere between ambivalence and acquiescence. In the many days and nights that Patricus spend alone, the growing boy began to consider God, His will, His plan, and His love for the lost. But as he drew nearer to God, the shame of his past sins weighed heavily on him. One sin grieved Patricus in particular. With some time, though, he finally arrived at being at peace with God. He wrote about this process, “After I came to Ireland I watched over sheep. Day by day I began to pray more frequently — and more and more my love of God and my faith in him and reverence for him began to increase.”

After six years of captivity, the twenty-two-year old was now a young man and had been forged into someone new. He was a new creation of sorts; the faith of his parents and grandparents had become his own. Fasting and praying were regular practices in his new life as a Christian. Looking back, Patricus wrote, “God used the time to shape and mold me into something better. He made me into what I am now — someone very different from what I once was,… before I was a slave, I didn’t even care about myself.”

And then on one unspectacular night, as Patricus was falling asleep, God clearly spoke to him in a dream saying, “You have fasted well — soon you will be going home.” Confused by this, as Patricus knew it was nearly impossible to escape and that the New Testament taught slaves to be obedient to their masters, he didn’t immediately respond. But the next night God spoke again saying, “Behold, your ship is ready.” Putting aside all the questions and difficulties surrounding how a successful escape could actually happen, and there were many, Patricus succumbed to the conviction of God’s leading. Simply put, if God spoke, then Patricus had to obey.

But because no ships sailed to Britain from the west coast of Ireland, he would have to make the the 200 mile trek across the island. The arduous journey would take over a month to complete and would be slow and dangerous for anyone making the trip, let alone an escaped slave who had to avoid being seen. How he would get on the ship, and under what circumstances, were all unknown to Patricus. But as God called him to obedience, Patricus believed God would somehow provide a way — and He did. After getting on a ship, sailing for three days across the sea, and walking through Britain with the sailors for a few weeks, Patricus finally arrived to his home and to his family.

“They took me in — their long-lost son — and begged me earnestly that after all I had been through I would never leave them again.”

But although no one knew at the time, that was just what he was going to do.

Once at home, after the many sweet celebrations and reunions with both friends and family, life for Patricus slowly returned to a comfortable normalcy. But that leisurely time didn’t last for long. God spoke to Patricus again in another dream. Although this time it wasn’t a call to leave Ireland, it was a call to return.

The Irish were in much need of the gospel of Jesus as their island was cut off from much of the many other progressing civilizations. But it was the dream he received of the Irish people calling him back to walk among them that truly convicted Patricus to once again accept the strange but clear call of God. Once he resolved to preach the gospel to the people of Ireland, to the very people who kidnapped and made him a slave, Patricus believed he needed to undergo a theological education. Not only did he need this time of academic preparation to mature his faith and knowledge of the Lord, he needed some ecclesiastical weight behind him as he would be evangelizing alone in relatively uncharted and hostile territory. Within the church, Patricus most likely started as a layman and deacon, progressing to priest and finally being ordained as a bishop. After these years, Patricus, a more mature Christian servant, was ready to make his way back to the cold and wet lands of Ireland. Now not unwillingly as a slave for men, but willingly as a slave for Christ.

While Patricus learned much about Irish civilization during his previous six-year stint, it seemed much had changed in the time he was away. As a slave and shepherd, Patricus was relatively distanced from the local wars and overall spiritual darkness of the landscape. The culture now awaiting him would be filled with feuding kings, political druids, and witches — many if not all their pretensions being opposed to the knowledge and rule of a Jewish rabbi, who claimed to be the Son of God. Thus, as is common in the Kingdom of Heaven, many of Paticus’ first converts were societal outcasts, women and poor. In general, most tribal kings across the land were not receptive to the gospel or the Briton who brought it. Yet some were indifferent enough to allow churches to be built on their land. Season after season Patricus continued to travel throughout Ireland, preaching the gospel to anyone who would hear and planting house churches where he was received. Slowly and with much toil, Patricus was spiritually building the first body of Christ in Ireland. And as the years came and went, so did the decades.

As an elderly man, the white-haired Patricus had now begun to baptize the sons and daughters of those parents he had converted years before. And as every generation presents its own unique and special challenges to the gospel, this one did as well. But from all the opposition Irish culture could throw at the British Bishop and to the Christian faith in general, the most hurtful and violent assault came not from their pagan hands, but from the hands of Christian tyrants from Patricus’ own homeland.

By 460 AD Rome was on its last leg — the empire was nearly all but collapsed. Britain was under attack on every front and from every direction. From the north and west, the Irish and Picts (Scottish) were pushing their raids south. From the east, German warriors were amassing in numbers. And from the south, around London, Saxons and Jutes had even begun building settlements. All these attacks from the outside were too much for the Britons to effectively and systematically handle. In this unprecedented time of political and social disarray, the old inhabitants of the island found themselves being protected from the foreign intruders by men of British-Roman nobility. As such, these men were Christian, although most were purely nominal. These few leaders who scraped together local armies and defended their communities against external threats became known as tyrants, warlords that protected their people with little to no oversight.

For generations, the west coast of Britain was seasonally attacked by the barbarians from Ireland; but now tyrants, those specifically living on the west coast, not only wanted to force their enemies back but exact retribution for the years of unanswered assaults upon their people.

The tide had turned.

And during springtime, when the sea separating Briton and Ireland was calm, one particularly brutal tyrant named Coroticus began his offensive attack. The mission of the voyage was clear. Dock in an undivulged location, locate an unassuming clan, kill the men, and capture the women and children as cargo for slaves. The assignment was done efficiently and quickly. By the time Patricus was informed of the attack, Coroticus and those taken prisoner were already at sea. Upon hearing the news, Patricus found the place where his beloved flock had been attacked. It wasn’t far from where many of them were baptized on Easter the day before. Some of the men of the group who had been murdered lay rigid, the oil on their forehead from being anointed still fragranced the spring air. Likewise, a number of women and children who had been baptized were certainly kidnapped in their baptismal robes.

There was no lack of signs that these new converts traveling home were Christians, but that meant nothing to Coroticus and his mercenaries. Patricus was in between despair over the murder of his people and rage that it was brought by the hands of Christian soldiers from the place of his birth. In response, Patricus penned a letter to Coroticus and his men asking for it be circulated among the churches in Britain so the prisoners might be released. The letter was a heartfelt plea for divine justice, a stinging rebuke to Coroticus, and a petition for the church in Britain to excommunicate him. But after all of his attempts to pick up the pieces of his scattered flock, he couldn’t change the fact that a small part of his clergy had been kidnapped and murdered. In the end, Patricus’ only real and lasting hope was to be reunited with his spiritual sons and daughters in the next life, something not too far away for the aging Bishop.

In the later years of his life, Patricus wrote two letters. The first was titled, Confessions, an account of his life and ministry and the other was A letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, the plea for his people to be returned to their home. In both epistles we see the heart of Patricus, his deep humility, and the true love he had for the Irish people. Nearing death, In his Confessions, Patricus asked the Bishops in Britain that he be permitted to die among his flock in Ireland, even if it meant being buried in an unmarked grave. He wrote, “If I have ever done anything worthwhile for the God I love, I ask that I might be allowed to die here for his name with these converts and slaves — even if it means that I won’t have a marked grave or that my body is torn apart piece by piece by dogs or wild animals or that I serve as a meal for the birds of the air.  I know if that were to happen, I would gain my soul along with a new body on that day we will undoubtedly rise again like the sun in the morning — like the son Jesus Christ our redeemer.” As such, the place of his burial is unknown, and even though we celebrate his life on March 17th, we only know that Patricus died sometime around 490 AD.

While much of the details of Patricus’ life are missing or obscure, the impact he made in Ireland, and the world for that matter, are crystal clear. His love for God and the people of Ireland, those considered barbaric and subhuman by many of the time and those who kidnapped him as a boy, remains an amazing testimony of what God can do with an obedient servant.

As a young slave, Patricus was forced to shepherd sheep; but by the grace of God, he ended his long life as a willing shepherd of men. Like a true watchman, he protected and fed his sheep until the end. Patricus’ example to us should move us to into a deeper place of love and service to all people – even those who seek our harm. Through it all — the kidnapping, the escape, the return, the trials, the hurt, and the suffering, Patricus never considered it a burden, but rather a gift. As he ended his Confessions, Patricus leaves us with these words.

“My final prayer is that all of you who believe in God and respect him — whoever you may be who read this letter that Patrick the unlearned sinner wrote from Ireland — that none of you will ever say that I in my ignorance did anything for God. You must understand — because it is the truth — that it was all the gift of God.

“And this is my confession before I die.”

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Most content of this podcast was taken from: Freeman, Philip, St. Patrick of Ireland, A Biography, Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, New York, NY, 2005. (All Patricus quotes were taken from the same). 

John Piper Quote: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/when-another-christian-hurts-you

While the coming of December once evoked warm sentiments for the upcoming celebration of the birth of Christ, it had been overshadowed by the harsh weather that was only going to get colder. “One of the season's jokes was that Dante had been wrong, and that hell was not hot at all, it was, in fact, as cold as a Romanian apartment in winter.” (1) But, even if the apartments were warm, Christmas was not celebrated, and even though ninety percent of Romanians belonged to the Christian Orthodox faith, church bells did not ring. By the 1980’s, the most celebrated day in Romania was no longer the birth of Jesus the Christ, but under compulsion, the birth of its  dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu - who was aptly nicknamed, the antichrist. (2) But as 1989 was coming to a close in mid December, as we all know now, the people of Romania were unknowingly on the brink of not only openly celebrating the birth of their Christ, but the death of their antichrist. But what many don’t know, was that this Romanian Revolution all started by the humble but powerful convictions of a Hungarian pastor named Laszlo Tokes.

Only Romanians forty-five years and older could remember the sweet sounds of church bells ringing! For under Nicolae Ceausescu’s Romanian Communist Party, they were no more. Romania had been in the grips of Communism for some time, but by the 1980’s it had become intolerable. Despite the country being very fertile, like most Communist countries food was scarce and people were starving. Most of the nation’s raw materials were being exported to foreign creditors to pay off debts that Nicolae had accumulated. Because of this debt, Nicolae’s aim was to strengthen the work force, causing Romania to reach a population of 100 million. To do so, he outlawed abortion and contraceptives.

And in massive block apartments that housed the growing nation, hot water was only available one day of the week and the electricity only worked when the government wanted it to. Every winter, hundreds of people froze to death in their apartment or died from “asphyxiation as gas stoves were shut off, only to be then turned back on without warning, filling sleeping apartments with gas.” (3) Meanwhile, the secret police, the Securitate, had made Romania into a police state.  It is believed that one in four citizens would alert the Securitate of anyone suspected of being un loyal to the Government. Actions, speech, and even opinions that did not approve Nicolae were strictly forbidden. Because of the overwhelming numbers of the police state, organizing dissent was nearly impossible, and “Even by Soviet Bloc standards, the Securitate was exceptionally brutal.” (4)

But on December 16th, in the western city of Timisoara a public protest was being held in response to the government’s crackdown against the Reformed church pastor, Laszlo Tokes. He had been critical of Nicolae’s government - mainly that the people of Romania not only, could not exercise their God-given rights, but did not even know what they were. The Romanian Communist Party charged the pastor with enticing ethnic hatred and sought to have him forcibly removed. But his parishioners, (who just two years before only numbered a few dozen had now grown to nearly five thousand), protected their pastor and his pregnant wife Edith by surrounding their church with a human shield. Tokes knew of the plan for his capture so he encouraged his church a few days beforehand stating, “I have been issued a summons of eviction. I will not accept it, so I will be taken from you by force…They want to do this in secret because they have no right to do it. Please, come… and be witnesses of what will happen. Come, be peaceful, but be witnesses.” (5)

And the church came in numbers. So much that their collective resistance rendered the Securitate unable to remove the pastor. And as the hours past into nightfall, more and more people from other churches joined the protest into the next day. By now, many other supportive spectators had joined the cause and began to take the message further. Within a day the demonstration for the pastor sparked a protest in the city. And within a few more days the protest in the city would in turn spark a wild fire of dissent among a brutalized nation.

Pro Romanian chants and songs that had long been outlawed, broke out among the people. The crowd grew so large and cantankerous around the church that a large portion decided to take their protest to the central square of Timisoara. This was when the Securitate made their move. In the pre-dawn hours of December 17th, the secret police burst through the crowd, broke the church door, and captured Tokes and his wife. Just as fast as they came, the secret police then disappeared into the darkness from where they emerged.

But as the sun began to rise the public outcry was only beginning.

By early morning the central square of Timisoara was filled with protestors confronting the Securitate with candles of unity and songs proclaiming freedom - but others objectors were not as peaceful. Having heard the uprising was becoming too much for the local police, the military was called in with armored carriers and tanks. At the command of Nicolae’s wife, Elena, the military then opened fire into the protestors killing men, women, and children.

By the next few days, the uprising in Timisoara was nearly squashed by military force. But the cries for freedom and justice from those who perished had been heard throughout the whole nation. Having been in Iran, Nicolae quickly returned to his palace in Bucharest on the evening of December 20th to publicly condemn the unrest in Timisoara the following morning. Nicolae addressed a gathering of approximately 100,000 people packed upon the door steps of his nearly 4 million square foot palace on December 21st. (6) But it was too late.

In the middle of his speech which praised his communist country and condemned the protestors at Timisoara as being “Fascists”, panic broke out among the crowd.  It was the first time that Nicolae had ever been booed by a crowd - and it would be his last. There was 3.5 minutes of confusion that interrupted the speech as the cameras stopped visually recording. Whatever the mysterious disturbance was, it clearly signaled the end of Nicolae’s reign. Confusion and violent protests continued throughout the night in Bucharest. The House of the Republic was being overrun.

Around noon on December 22nd Nicolae, his wife, and four others were rushed into a helicopter and extracted from their stately home. As a revolution was evident and now unstoppable, the military soon defected. The Ceausescu’s were forced to land and arrested only three and a half hours later. While all this was taking place a new Government Council was being formed and a military tribunal placed the couple in court martial. They were charged with the genocide of 60 thousand Romanians and other fiscal crimes.

The trial, which was largely a spectacle was held on December 25th. It lasted for about two hours and delivered death sentences to the Dictator and his wife. Because the Ceausescu’s didn’t recognize the court’s authority they declined to have any legal aid. Throughout the trial Nicolae kept looking at his wrist watch as if waiting to be rescued. It never came. From the make-shift courtroom, the couple was then handcuffed and shuffled outside. Nicolae was complacent, while Elena was quite bitter and kept commanding the guards to be gentle with her lest they break her wrists. While many military personal offered to execute them, only three paratroopers were selected. With their service rifles in hand, the three opened fire on the elderly couple just outside the courtroom. Nineteen bullets were fired in total. Although the trial and executed bodies were televised, the actually execution was not caught on camera since the paratroopers didn’t wait for the command to shoot, causing the cameraman to miss the moment.

By midday on December 25th, the antichrist and his wife were dead. And for the first time in 40 years, the streets of Romania were filled with people crying in sincere celebration! Make shift Christmas trees were being erected and throughout the country a familiar carol played, as the church bells were once again ringing. But now they pealed more loud and deep: as if to say, “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The wrong shall fail, The right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

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Pastor Tokes and his wife were soon released from where they were taken. Laszlo would go on to serve in the Reformed Church and extend his influence within Romania’s European Parliament. He received numerous awards and was even honored in Washington D.C. in 2009 being awarded the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom for his role in helping to overthrow Romanian communism. He is 69 year old and continues to live in Romania today.

In the immediate wake of the Revolution, a large bronze statue of a Soviet soldier that domineered a public square, was taken down, melted, and recast into church bells. (7) And their continued sound has inspired more to be cast even today. In just 2017 Romania's Redemption Cathedral dedicated one of the biggest church bells in the world weighing in at 25 tons. Half of Bucharest’s nearly 2 million free citizens can hear it when rung. (8)

And hearing bells when they ring is much more than just something we sense with our ears but something we can sense and comprehend with our hearts. In was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1863, that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow heard the church bells ring on Christmas. Hearing them stirred his depressed heart and revived a belief in a promise that he had stopped believing. He put pen to paper and wrote the now famous poem, “Christmas Bells”. He authored it in an extremely painful time of his life and the nation’s as it was in the very middle of a bloody Civil War. The war mixed with personal loss made the grace and love of God hard to see. Although it was written 126 years before the Romanian Revolution, it was and remains an appropriate message that even in the darkest hours, God is not dead nor is He asleep. For at the very heart of Longfellow’s poem (and the reason I believe it endures) is the angelic promise - that with the arrival of Jesus, God in the flesh, true peace on earth and goodwill toward men can be had. (Luke 2:13-14) And this message was made for all mankind for all times!

If we want peace on earth and goodwill extended to all people, Christ must no longer lay in a manger within our minds but sit upon the throne of our hearts. That’s my prayer and hope for you and for myself! Merry Christmas!

Verse:

 When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan. Psalm 29:2

Cited Work:

1. https://www.rferl.org/a/Finally_We_Called_It_Christmas_Again_My_Role_In_Romanias_Revolution__/1908965.html

2. https://www.rferl.org/a/romania-revolution-then-and-now/29660285.html

3.https://www.rferl.org/a/romania-revolution-then-and-now/29660285.html

4. Smith, Craig S (12 December 2006), "Eastern Europe Struggles to purge Security Services", The New York Times

5. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/how-a-reformed-church-overthrew-communism-in-romania/

6. As of 2020, the Palace of the Parliament is valued at €4 billion, making it the most expensive administrative building in the world. The cost of heating, electricity, and lighting alone exceeds $6 million per year, comparable to the total cost of powering a medium-sized city. (Wikipedia)

7. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/capitalism-take-its-toll-1.109402

8. https://www.romania-insider.com/romanias-redemption-cathedral-will-have-25-ton-bell-with-the-patriarchs-portrait-on-it/

Audio Clip:

Death of a Dictator - ABC News - 1990, Feb 28, 2017 (YouTube)

Nixon welcomes Romanian president, Ceausescu, to White House, Nov 16, 2016 (YouTube)

Nicolae Ceausescu LAST SPEECH, Aug 28, 2011 (YouTube)

Music:

Cold Wind Bells by July Morning in Cinematic (Audiojungle) 

Documentary by Music_Beats in Cinematic (Audiojungle) 

Cold Cinematic Landscape by Aleksey Chistilin in Atmospheres Soundscapes (Audiojungle) 

 Cameron Hood and Carlie Alderink from the Tiny Winter Hymnal EP . Link Below: 

https://soundcloud.com/cameronhood/i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas?in=cameronhood/sets/tiny-winter-hymnal-ep&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

 Charles - Part 1

Charles Templeton was born October 7th, 1915 in Toronto Canada. With four other siblings in the midst of the depression, the family learned to adapt on meager wages. Everyone in the family had to do their part. Young Charles, picked up drawing and was quite talented at it. So, after failing to pass the 9th and 10th grade, he pursued his knack of drawing sketches, hoping that someone might find value in his work and purchase them. Charles was pleasantly found right - the 17 year old artist was hired onto the Toronto Globe as a sports cartoonist.

Overnight, the teenager was making good money and was thoroughly enjoying his job. Charles found himself in the very midst of the sports news world, and everything else associated with it. Notoriety, late night drinking, and fawning women were all bonuses. He would later write about this time in his life, “To a boy in his late teens, it was the best of all possible worlds.”

But after four years, the underbelly of his envied job and lifestyle began to show. Returning home one morning at 3:00 a.m. from a party, the young man feeling quite depressed looked into a mirror. He didn’t like the reflection. As he walked to his room his mother heard him in the hallway and called out to him. She talked to him about her own faith in Christ.

Charles would later write about this event: “As I went down the hall, I was forming a prayer in my head, but as I knelt by my bed in the darkness, my mind was strangely vacant; thoughts and words wouldn't come to focus. After a moment, it was as though a black blanket had been draped over me. A sense of enormous guilt descended and invaded every part of me. I was unclean. Involuntarily, I began to pray, my face upturned, tears streaming. The only words I could find were, "Lord, come down. Come do[wn]. Come down. . . .”

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Billy - Part 1

At this same time, in the United States near Charolette North Carolina, Billy Graham had just graduated from high school. As he struggled through school being the son of a Dairy Farmer, his graduation was a feat that many questioned. And while the young man had grown up in a godly and Christian environment he had just made a personal commitment to Jesus during a revival two years earlier, under the preaching of Baptist evangelist Mordecai Ham. Like his future friend and preaching partner, Charles Templeton, Billy was also convicted by his sin and his need for forgiveness. That night at the diner table, Billy stopped to inform his family that he had been saved that day.

While he first enrolled at Bob Jones College in Cleveland Tennessee, since it was closet to home and less expensive than Wheaton, he quickly felt the school too legalistic and rigid. So, after only one semester, and racking up nearly enough demerits to be kicked out, he transferred to Florida Bible Institute. And it was there in 1937, that Billy would begin to preach.

Having become mentored by the academic Dean of the school, John Minder, Billy joined him to attend a Baptist conference in Palatka Florida. When Minder was asked to speak that night to a small church of Baptist preachers, he politely declined saying that Billy would be pleased to preach in his place. So, with no real choice in the matter, the 19 year old awkwardly preached for the first time - it was a mixture of four different sermons he had memorized from Moody Press. He would later remember that the sermon was very “Raw”.  

The next few years in Billy’s life would be transformational. He was baptized on December 4, 1938 in Silver Lake, Florida, ordained to the ministry in a Southern Baptist church a year later, and graduated from Florida Bible Institute in 1940. And so began his humble and long journey into becoming one of the most influential evangelist in America. But there was another great evangelist being formed in Canada - and the two were soon to meet and unite their passion and calling to preach the truths of the Bible to a world on the brink of another World War.  

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Charles - Part 2

By this time, Charles had left the Toronto Globe to enter the ministry and to give himself fully to the preaching of the gospel. He had evangelized all over - Michigan, New York, Indiana, Illinois, and even further south, probably very close to where Billy was himself beginning his career as a preacher. Charles had met his wife in Grand Rapids Michigan and the couple was married 6 weeks later. But soon after in 1941, in the midst of starting a new church with his new wife, Charles read a number of books written by famous secular authors. And for the first time in his short life as a follower of Jesus, his faith in the veracity and miraculous claims of the Bible was challenged. But Charles soon stuffed these troubling questions behind the success of becoming one of North America’s top evangelist and so, he continued to do what he knew best.

And before long, notable people began to take notice of Charles’ ministry. In the Spring of 1945 he was invited by a local pastor named Torrey Johnston to speak at Chicago Stadium to a crowd full of young people. It was a Youth for Christ rally and attendance was steadily growing into the thousands. Backstage, among the noise of a boisterous crowd, Torrey introduced the young Canadian evangelist to the slightly younger Billy Graham and the two preachers become instantaneous friends. On the platform, just before Billy was about to speak, he leaned over to his new friend Charles and said, "Pray for me. I'm scared to death."  

Soon after, a Youth for Christ team was selected to take the message of the gospel to a war torn Europe. Torrey Johnston would serve as the president while Billy and Charles would alternate as preachers. The tour went well and over the months Charles’ and Billy’s friendship grew as did their success and influence. But the questions, that had bothered Charles years before could no longer be ignored. So, at thirty three years of age, and without formal education for the last 15 years, Charles was accepted into the theologically liberal Princeton University to formally seek answers to those doubts “that were [secretly]  eroding his faith.” Charles remembers these three years at Princeton as some of the best in his life. Among his enjoyable courses, Charles would often see Albert Einstein, who lived only three houses away from the Campus Seminary. But although he throughly liked his new environment, Charles couldn’t escape the fact that he was experiencing a real crisis of faith about the Bible and the person of Jesus. And his fears of possibly believing and preaching something not empirically, historically or spiritually true, was being shared by his friend Billy as well.

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Billy - Part 2

It was August of 1949, and Billy was 30 years old in Forest Falls, California in a Christian Camp speaking to a crowd inside Hormel Hall. No one knew it, but having been recently challenged by his friend and fellow evangelist, Billy was now internally questioning the veracity of the Bible and whether he believed it to really be God’s spoken word to humanity. It was a shocking blow to Billy’s confidence that his friend, fellow pastor and Bible teacher now believed the Scriptures to be flawed, outdated and full of superstitions. The two had discussed their disagreements and had been civil about their opposite conclusions, but if Billy was really honest, he still had lingering doubts.

The weight and the enormity of it all bore down on Billy’s soul. So in the dark woods of the night at Forest Home Billy placed his bible on a random tree stump and cried out: “O God! There are many things in this book I do not understand. There are many problems with it for which I have no solution. There are many seeming contradictions. There are some areas in it that do not seem to correlate with modern science. I can’t answer some of the philosophical and psychological questions Chuck and others are raising.” Falling to his knees, Billy then resolutely confessed “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—by faith! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word!”

Billy later recalled in this moment that the Holy Spirit was moving within him and he felt his presence and power in a new and fresh way - one that he hadn’t experienced in months. For Billy “A major bridge had been crossed.” On the next day, 400 people made a commitment to Jesus and Henrietta Mears, the woman who invited Billy to speak at the camp noted that he “taught with [more] authority” than she had ever seen before.

And while at first, Billy had reluctantly accepted Henrietta’s invitation to speak at Forest Home, he now knew why God led him into the forest. Like Jesus being led into the Desert - a test was finished and a decision was made - a decision that would effect the  course of Billy’s calling and in turn, the eternity of millions. While Billy was calling people to trust and follow Christ, Christ was calling Billy to trust and follow His word.

Billy’s heart and mind were now settled. And his friend Charles was settling his. While the two friends remained courteous, they grew apart from each other knowing their views of the Bible and the person of Jesus were diametrically opposed to each other.

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Charles - Part 3

By the end of Charles’ three years at Princeton in 1951, his doubts about the Bible had nearly solidified and his faith was no more. And yet, because of his success and influence, he was still offered positions on numerous platforms. Radio and Television ministries, as well as churches all sought him out. In 1953, Charles found himself living in Manhattan as the Director of Evangelism for the Presbyterian Church USA. But it wasn’t long before the weight of leading others into a theological persuasion that he himself no longer thought true, came to a head.

Charles would later write: “What right did I have to stand before … thousands of people [that] I had been preaching to nightly for years, using all my persuasive skills to win them to something I was no longer convinced of myself? It was a reprehensible thing to do and I must stop it.”

And stop it he did. Charles left the ministry in 1957, publicly declaring that he was an agnostic. At this time, his mother who’s faith was real and vibrant was dying from cancer - although Charles was with her when she past, she died assuming her boy was still a believing Christian and in the ministry. On top of this, Charles and his wife Connie were undergoing a divorce after 18 years of marriage. She too was still a Christian and was heavily involved in the church. Charles’ conclusion about the Bible came with great cost:

“It seemed that all of life was showing me its nether side. My faith was gone, my marriage was dead, my mother was dying. I was cutting myself off from the hundreds of friends I had made during nineteen years in the church. I was abandoning people who looked to me, including thirty-six men and women who were in the ministry or on mission fields because of my work. I felt like a betrayer….But there was no real choice. I could stay in the ministry, paper over my doubts and daily live a lie, or I could make the break.”

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Conclusion

As Charles made the physical break from the Church, he was merely following the decision that his heart and mind had made years before. Similarly, as Billy continued in evangelism, he too was naturally following the resolution that he had made in the dark forest years ago. And so, the two friends had chosen their two separate paths and were now far from each other. As the years past the two naturally grew apart. Charles became more involved in television and writing, and had even invented a child resistant medicine cap and a teddy bear that stayed warm throughout the night.

Billy continued in evangelism, and as most people know, would become one of the most influential Christian leaders of the 20th Century. Although there are many reasons for Billy’s success, none could have been as important than the decision he made at Forest Home. Billy knew this, as did those close to him. And In 1967, a massive rock in honor of how Billy overcame doubt that fateful night 18 years before, was dedicated at the Christian Conference Center, Forest Home. In addition to preaching, Billy would go on to publish many books on the Christian faith.

And while not producing as much content as Billy, Charles authored some books as well. In 1996, just 5 years before his death, Charles chronicled his doubts about his faith in his most well known book entitled: Farewell To God - My reasons for rejecting the Christian Faith. “In straightforward language, Templeton deals with such subjects as the Creation fable, racial prejudice in the Bible, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus' alienation from his family, the second-class status of women in the church, the mystery of evil, the illusion that prayer works, why there is suffering and death, and the loss of faith in God.”(4)

Soon after the book was published, Charles was diagnosed with Alzheimers. But before his passing, Charles was interviewed by a curious journalist and once atheist named Lee Strobel. Upon Charles’ resolve in denying Christianity’s most foundational claims, he surprisingly confessed with tears in his eyes that he “missed Jesus”. Charles Templeton died soon after on June 7th, 2001 in Toronto Canada.

Billy would live for 17 more years. With nine months short of living a century, Billy Graham died on February 21st, 2018. His last words were recorded: “By the time you read this, I will be in heaven, and as I write this I’m looking forward with great anticipation to the day when I will be in God’s presence forever.” (3)

Two similar men who for a season shared the one Christian faith.  But over time the two decisions they made about the Bible led to two very different faiths, and two different lives with extremely divergent endings. Now that we know what these men thought about the Bible, and the place it served or didn’t serve in their lives, what do you believe? And perhaps a better question to ingest is how will that effect you when you step into eternity?

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Video Clips:

How to read the Bible? What to expect from reading? - Billy Graham, (Youtube)

Charles Templeton interviewed by Pierre Berton at 72 (Beginning of clip - communication), (Youtube)

Webster! Full Episode October 27, 1980 (36:00 -50:00), (Youtube)

Christopher Hitchens talks about Billy Graham, (Youtube)

Richard Dawkins exploding at bullshit in the Bible, (Youtube)

Articles:

Templeton, Charles,  An Anecdotal Memoir

Graham, Billy, Just As I Am, Billy Graham, 1997

https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20180221/billy-grahams-last-column-by-time-you-read-this-i-will-be-in-heaven

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/farewell-to-god-my-reasons-for-rejecting-the-christian-faith_charles-templeton/287805/item/1711095/?gclid=CjwKCAjw7--KBhAMEiwAxfpkWKxKCBq11cKOHfkUQDe3mo5ao_Xoc5rqmTuCPIceHA0hF5-M6j0OJhoC9sMQAvD_BwE#idiq=1711095&edition=4422278

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/charles-templeton-missing-jesus/

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John Gresham Machen was born on July 28, 1881. It was prosperous time - the gilded age of America. Skyscrapers were going up as well as wages. The Machen family was affluent.  John’s mother Mary came from a wealthy family and was a devote Presbyterian. She was a voracious reader and had even published a work on the Bible and poetry. She was 21 years younger than her husband, Arthur Webster Machen, a successful lawyer and an Episcopalian. But despite the couple’s different Christian affiliations, Mary taught John along with her other two sons, the Westminster Shorter Catechism from an early age. The family attended Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, and in time, John came to make the Presbyterian Church his own. But in a twist of fate as only God could know, much of the Presbyterian church would one day make Machen their own.  

As an adolescent, he received a classical education and was taught in Greek and Latin. It would serve as formational to his future career as a New Testament scholar. At seventeen years of age, John enrolled at the newly founded, John Hopkins University where he excelled in his studies. In 1901 he decided to pursue Theology at Princeton University.

After four years there, John found himself doing his post study in Germany - the very home of Protestantism. It was there that John learned under Professor and Lutheran Theologian,  Wilhelm Herrmann. For better or worse, Herrmann was one of many Theologians in Europe greatly influenced by Immanuel Kant. In general, Herrmann’s Theology viewed God as an ultimate power and source of goodness, but was less concerned with the accuracy or the inherency of the Christian Scriptures, or even the historicity of the person of Jesus. To make things more confusing for young Machen, Herrmann was a passionate and devoted Christian whose preaching deeply moved John’s heart. Because of this, the young theology student had a hard time reconciling a real Christian faith that was not built upon historical and biblical truths. To Machen, Herrmann’s philosophy of Christian faith was a bit illogical. John knew that a substantial and vibrant faith in Jesus should not be separated from what the Bible clearly revealed. History and Doctrine must be integrated.  

He would later write, “Christ died"--that is history; "Christ died for our sins"--that is doctrine. Without these two elements, joined in an absolutely indissoluble union, there is no Christianity.”(J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism)

While it tested his faith, it would seem that John’s time in Germany only strengthened his convictions that modern or liberal theology was not just a different form of the historic Christian  faith, but a growing threat to it. But even by this time in John’s young life, he still seemed to be somewhat aimless concerning his career. In letters written to his parents, John conveyed that he found many fields of study to be intriguing and worth engaging in. He loved sports as well. Thus, the young, wealthy academic was not convinced that the life of a Theologian / Teacher or Pastor was a life he really wanted to pursue. But upon his return to the states in 1906, Machen had decided on a career having joined Princeton Seminary as an instructor in New Testament studies. And so began for John, not only a personal and spiritual struggle against the rising tide of Modernism’s influence of Theology but an academic and vocational one as well.

As the years past, Machen was becoming a notable New Testament scholar and one, even more rare, that could post a solid intellectual, historical, and exegetical defense for the foundations of the Christian Faith against the progressive theology that had spread and was continuing to infiltrate academia and churches all across America. And While Machen’s influence and controversy became more widespread and although the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) was growing more tolerant of Modernism, John was promoted as Princeton’s Assistant Professor of New Testament studies in 1914 - on  the eve of WW1.

So just as soon as he advanced in Princeton, Machen left to help the war efforts in France. John didn’t want to serve from the guarded position of a Chaplain, so he chose to work though the YMCA as a secretary. But for all practicality, he was a literal waiter, making and serving hot chocolate to the soldiers all day and night. While John was located near the front lines of the war, and was never in combat, he was close enough to the action to see death and suffering firsthand. Thankfully the war was relatively short lived and John left for home. But upon his return, another war was in full swing - a theological one in John’s mind, that while it didn’t destroy the human body, had every potential to destroy the soul. There were clearly two camps of Protestants now, each preaching two different and oppositional interpretations of the gospel. And in May of 1922, Baptist and modernist preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick made that even more apparent by preaching a now famous sermon against his theological opponents entitled, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?"

And indeed, that was the question - one that John would try and answer. But frustratingly, it seemed that he would do it mostly alone. John was not only philosophically distressed at the open front that Modernist Theology posed to the Historic Christian faith, but personally disheartened, by the fact that he didn’t see many others trying to defend it with him. The Conservative Church was largely apathetic which was leading to its ruin. He would later write, “The mass of the Church here is still conservative — but conservative in an ignorant, non-polemic, sweetness-and-light kind of way which is just meat for the wolves.”

So, in continuing to shepherd the flock of God, Machen wrote the short but powerful book, Christianity and Liberalism in 1923. In the introduction, he clarified, “In my little book, Christianity and Liberalism, I tried to show that the issue in the Church of the present day is not between two varieties of the same religion, but, at bottom, between two essentially different types of thought and life.” A few years later, Machen wrote another similar book entitled, What Is Faith? In it, Machen tried to reveal that real Christian faith should not only capture one’s heart and emotions but must engage one’s mind and knowledge as well. Even though his books were received relatively well, there was more work to be done. So, besides teaching on weekdays, preaching on weekends, and publishing in the time between, Machen also took advantage of the air waves. The Radio was not even a decade old, and John made effective use of it. So much so, that by his numerous teachings on what makes Christianity authentically Christian, he became known as Dr. Fun-da-men-ta-lis or (The Dr. of the Fundamentals).

But in the very midst of all of this, the more liberal Northern Presbyterians were doing their own work to break free from fundamentalism’s long hold on their denomination. And in May of 1924, the Auburn Affirmation was dated and presented to the General Assembly - the authoritative body of the Presbyterian church. The Auburn Affirmation sought to liberate the Presbyterian Church from the requirements of those seeking ordination.  Since the church’s beginning, every ordained minister had to believe and confess five fundamentals of the Christian faith. 1. The Inerrancy of the Scriptures, 2. The Virgin birth of Jesus, and His deity, 3. The Substitutionary Atonement, 4. The bodily resurrection of Jesus, and 5. The authenticity of Jesus’ miracles - (belief in the supernatural). Although the affirmation was authored by an eleven-member Conference Committee, it was signed by over twelve hundred ministers of the PCUSA, and supported by many other clergymen. The General Assembly convened to consider the affirmation and set about to probe deeper into the division within their church that had now been brewing for nearly 30 years.

But just after this, in 1925, the American mood towards the Modernist / Fundamentalist theological controversy drastically changed over the Summer of that year. And it happened  outside the walls of the Church.

In July, William Jennings Bryan, the three time Democratic Presidential candidate, the Conservative Christian, and long time Presbyterian elder, participated in the highly publicized Scopes Trial - or the Scope’s Monkey Trial. While the Trial technically debated the legality of teaching the theory of evolution in public schools, the case was much bigger than that. It highlighted, and nationalized the ongoing controversy of Liberal VS. Conservative, and Modernist VS. Fundamentalist. The aging Bryan represented the prosecution, arguing against evolution being taught in schools where the famed Clarence Darrow defended John Scope’s right to instruct and teach the theory. But on the seventh day of the trial, Darrow unorthodoxly questioned Byran as a witness to basically defend the Bible, and the miracles described within it. Byran, although relatively well versed in the Bible, was not ready for this line of questioning - and it embarrassingly showed. The news coverage, namely led by Henry Mencken ridiculed and branded Bryan as a Southern, anti-intellectual, Bible believing dope. On the eight and last day of the trial, the jury took only nine minutes to deliberate. Although Mr. Scope’s was found guilty on a technicality and fined one hundred dollars, the American public believed the media coverage that largely portrayed fundamentalist Christians as naive, rigid, and unscientific.

William Bryan died five days after the trial in his sleep from a stroke. He was 65 years old.

In the aftermath of the Scope’s case, what was once a nation that had grown somewhat indifferent to theological fundamentalism had now become openly opposed to it. With the movement presently on the side of the Progressives in every aspect of the culture and now in the Church, (as the General Assembly ended up supporting the Auburn Affirmation), Machen and the many others like him, felt they had no place to go. Their belief in the foundational truths of the Christian Faith were not welcomed in the arts, or humanities. Worse, they were not welcomed in Princeton or even the PCUSA. So, with firmness of purpose, academic influence, and much financial help from his inheritance, Machen took the lead in founding Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia in 1929. He would teach New Testament there until his death, which sadly, wasn’t too far away for the 48 year old professor.

While the emergence of a Seminary that remained faithful to the historic and conservative doctrines of the faith was a success, there was still only one Presbyterian Church, to which all those “fundamentalists” reluctantly belonged. The new Seminary was no doubt an academic  solution, but it was not an ecclesiastical one. And within only a few years after the new Seminary had opened, Machen saw more problems on the horizon of a church divided.

That’s because a certain theology sown must reap a certain practice. And sure enough, some missionaries from the PCUSA revealed that their work in foreign countries had less to do with the saving work of Jesus than it did spreading general Christian philosophy and ethics. In the wake of the Auburn Affirmation,  many missionaries straightforwardly denied the deity of Christ, and therefore, His redemptive work, like novelist Pearl S. Buck who openly denied the core tenets of the gospel. Because of this, Machen could not, in good faith give the church's tithes to a missionary board that spread such unbiblical theology upon lost souls. Gresham wrote that the "mission­ary of liberalism” sought to spread "the blessings of Christian civilization (what­ever that may be), and is not particularly interested in leading individuals to relinquish their pagan beliefs." (Christianity and Liberalism). Due to the two opposing groups of Christians inside their walls, the PCUSA clearly had two different missions. And so, in 1933 Machen, finally formed The Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions.

While this new Foreign Missions Board was a victory, much like Westminster Seminary was, at least from the Conservative point of view, it was only another band aid applied to a much bigger and festering wound. Not only was the PCUSA, growing tired of being challenged on every level, but was now receiving less income from their tithes being split between two Missionary Agencies.  They felt it was time to confront the new mission board head on. The General Assembly demanded that the members of the Independent Missions committee step down. This command was ignored - the conservatives in general believed that the Presbytery would not seriously punish other Presbyterians whose sole purpose was to preach the gospel. But they were wrong. In February and March of 1935, Machen was tried on six charges all related to his support for the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. Although he plead “Not Guilty”, the court not only denied his chance to defend himself against the accusations of disobedience, but ruled that their judicial resolution could not be challenged. Friend and colleague of Machen later wrote how wrong it was, “…that a Presbyterian court should thus have flouted the most elementary principles of justice, [and] That it happened can only be attributed to a shocking disregard of the basic Protestant principles that God alone is Lord of the conscience and that the Scriptures are the only infallible rule of faith and practice by which all controversies are to be judged.” [-Stonehouse, Ned B., J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1954), pages 490-491.]

Machen was officially and finally defeated. Not by the world, but by his own church, the PCUSA. He was tried, convicted, and suspended from his ministerial duties. In essence, his ordination from the church he grew up, taught, and served in was revoked.

This unsurprisingly led to the culmination of the great Presbyterian split.

Having done all to unite and yet warn his body of believers, concerning the dangers of Modern Theology, Machen, and the many with him, were convinced they had no other option than to officially start their own church - the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, or the OPC. It was launched in mid 1936. But while the controversial scholar, and defrocked church planter was busy with all his commitments, Machen was never too occupied to preach to anyone, anywhere. During the Westminster’s Christmas break of the 1936, (just six months after the OPC began), John was asked to preach to some churches in North Dakota. Close friends of his lightly tried to dissuade him from going since he was already clearly tired and stressed from fresh church split. Yet, ever devoted to his work and to the preaching of the gospel, John did not heed their caution. He took the train into the inhospitable weather of the North Dakota winter. But there would be no train ride back.

While the 55 year old, weathered many storms in his life up to this point, the 20 below 0 winds got to him and John soon fell ill with pneumonia. Just after Christmas day away from home, Machen was admitted to a Roman Catholic hospital in Bismarck. On the morning of New Year’s Day 1937, John still gravely ill, was well enough to send a telegram to his close friend and Westminster colleague, John Murray. But later that day, around 7:30 p.m., John Gresham Machen finally succumbed to his chest infection and died.


With little imagination, one could speculate that John’s last days on earth was nothing more than an old, haggard, academic polemist, bitter at how he was handled by the church, saddened by the friends he lost, confused as to his poor health, complaining in all these things resentfully asking “why”? But it seems, anything like that was far from the truth. John, whom, rest and tranquility often eluded, was at peace. His last recorded words, from the telegram Mr. Murray received simply said, “I’m so thankful for [the] active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.”  

You see, John’s hope and peace were nothing the world or the church could give or take away. His ultimate rest was solely in the person and redeeming work of Jesus. That is why Machen could write that he was “thankful” on the very day he died, probably alone, in an unfamiliar hospital in the harsh weather of North Dakota. All of John’s work - his preachings, his teachings, his writings, viewed as both defensive and offensive, was not just convincing one about lifeless creeds or beliefs, or philosophical theories, and impersonal theology, but rather the personally deep relationship that can be had in his friend and savior Jesus.  And for Machen, that was worth living for, fighting for, and dying for.

Sources:

1. Youtube: The Boswell Sisters 1930's music - USA Best female singers vol.1 (1930-1935) / ill rec

2. Youtube: LGBTQ+ Against God's Design? Progressive VS Conservative Christian (Part 1) / Anchored North (Clip used out of context).

3. Youtube: Inherit the Wind (1960) - Fanaticism and Ignorance Scene (5/12) | Movieclips / Feb 2, 2017

4. Youtube: Scopes Monkey – Rare Footage of the "Trial of the Century" | Flashback | History / Jul 20, 2018

Questions:

What does it look like for you to contend for the faith today in your circle of influence?

What doctrines should the Church be split over?

Extra Material:

Christ, Culture & Coffee, An Apologetics Podcast /  Episode 153: The Dangers of Progressive Christianity

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLnNvdW5kY2xvdWQuY29tL3VzZXJzL3NvdW5kY2xvdWQ6dXNlcnM6NDMyMTM2NTYwL3NvdW5kcy5yc3M/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMTAwNDM4OTE4OQ?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjAkOH_0PHwAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAg&hl=en

In February of 2020, the man slowly awoke from a deep sleep. Not a deep sleep like he had been out all night, but a deep sleep like he had been in a coma. Actually, a medically induced coma that lasted for over a week. The fifty-seven year old man had been completely unconscious for nine days. And if he was arousing from a nightmare, the reality he awoke to was much worse. As his eyes opened, the man noticed he couldn’t move. Not because his body wasn’t working, but because his body was strapped down to the patient bed with six large leather straps in an ICU room that didn’t quite look familiar.

If this wasn’t enough to strike serious fear into his already anxious mind, he noticed the nurses surrounding him were speaking a foreign language. Last the man remembered, he was in a hospital in Toronto, with his family nearby. But now, (whenever ‘now’ was) he was in a totally different hospital - in a totally different country strapped down to bed with the only people around him speaking Russian.

These were the confusing and dire circumstances the man awoke to, quickly escalating his anxious and fragile thoughts to anger, fear, and unadulterated panic. Confusion, dreadful apprehension, and hopelessness had been his unwanted companions - and yet despite his best efforts, they were only gaining in size and scope. As he began wrestling with thoughts of self-harm the man could only describe this decent in madness as a trip to Hell.

This was not the life of someone who had 1.4 million twitter followers, 1.3 million Instagram followers, 860,000 Facebook followers, 207,000 Reddit followers, and who the New York Times would proclaim as being “The most influential public intellectual in the Western world right now” - Especially for someone who had dedicated his life and career to better understand the human mind, and to practically help others with psychological disorders.

But it was painfully obvious now - Jordan B. Peterson, the famed Canadian professor of psychology, clinical psychologist, and Youtube personality, couldn’t keep his own mind from fracturing. Like the most broken and miserable of people, he too was at a total loss. And after months of entrusting his mental and physical health to psychologists, psychiatrists, and the best that medicine could offer, he was now completely dependent upon the only two forces that mattered in his life. His family and his faith in God. The former, were un-mistakingly known and present. But the latter was invisible, nebulous, and shrouded in deep mystery. No matter how much Dr. Peterson relied upon his close friends and family, they were only human, and could only provide so much. Jordan needed healing and relief that his family - indeed, humanity could not fully provide.

Who and what God and faith were to Jordan was unclear. But that he wanted and was desperate for him, now more than ever, was definitely not.  

JORDAN’S LIFE

Jordan Bernt (Bair-ent) Peterson was born June 12th, 1962 in Edmonton, Alberta Canada, and grew up in the nearby small town of Fairview. His mother Beverly, was a librarian at the campus of Grande Prairie Regional College. His father, Walter was a school teacher. The small framed Jordan would be the eldest of his parent’s three children.

With nothing much to do in the small town, everyone knew each other quite well. Jordan became friends with a girl across the street named Tammy Roberts. She was only eight years old, but it seemed they had a crush on each other. The 11 year old Jordan would tell his father that he was going to marry her one day. But first, he had to finish high school in which he started in 1975.

When he graduated from Fairview High School four years later, Jordan entered the college that employed his mother to study political science and English Literature in hopes to one day become a corporate lawyer. But during this time, he read George Orwell’s “The Road to Wigan Pier” - a book that wrestled with the bleak life of those working in the industrial age of north England and the place that Socialism could have in alleviating their miserable circumstances. Orwell’s book impacted Jordan greatly. He would later transfer to the University of Alberta and graduate in 1982 with a B.A. in political science. Just after this, Jordan visited Europe for a year where he took a studious approach in understanding the psychological origins of recent European totalitarianism. This led him to not only become a student of history but of psychology where he delved into the writings of Jung, Nietzsche, and Dostoevsky.

Two years after receiving his first B.A., Jordan then received his second from the University of Alberta in psychology in 1984. He then moved to Montreal for further schooling at McGill University. And it was during this stint that Jordan married his lifelong friend and neighbor, Tammy shortly before earning his Ph.D in clinical psychology in 1991. The newly weds soon welcomed their first child and daughter Mikhaila in 1992 and their second child and son, Julian in 1994. Mikhaila suffered greatly from an autoimmune disease at a very young age and was “diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis at 7, severe depression at 10, and idiopathic hypersomnia at 21.” By the time she was only 17 years old, the young woman had to undergo a hip and ankle replacement. (https://carnivoremd.com/mikhaila-peterson-on-curing-autoimmune-disease-and-depression-with-the-carnivore-diet/)

In this busy time of raising a young family, with the added stress of one child suffering a severe autoimmune disease, Jordan and Tammy moved to the United States so Jordan could teach and research at Harvard University. After five years, they then returned to Canada where he would  join the faculty of psychology at the University of Toronto in 1998. He has remained there since.

Among being a husband, father, teacher, and clinical psychologist, Jordan soon became an author. In 1999, he published his first book, Maps of Meaning. It was a collection from his many lectures that explored the connection between psychology, philosophy, mythology, religion and neuroscience. And as time past, Jordan grew in both his practice and knowledge. His time at the University of Toronto allowed him to find his voice and compile his thoughts in a world that was changing faster than ever before - and where extreme political ideologies were growing, largely unchallenged. Jordan began to make a name for himself in late 2010 for what seemed to be his conservative views to the cultural changes sweeping across the western world.

JORDAN’S RISE TO FAME

But it wasn’t until 2016 that Jordan really began to become a known figure on a international scale. In May, of 2016 a certain bill was introduced under Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government. It was an Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code, otherwise known as (Bill C-16). Passing in the House and Senate, the new bill became law upon receiving Royal Assent on June 19th 2017, which came into force immediately. The bill’s aim was to prevent violence and discrimination against individuals on the basis of their gender identity or their gender expression by penalizing or even criminalizing citizens for not using the preferred chosen pronouns of the afore mentioned.  

Incensed that the new bill would legally require compelled speech, Jordan began to boldly, and clearly speak out for free speech and against any law that either stifled or compelled it. Having a rich knowledge of totalitarianism, and knowing this bill was politically driven, Jordan put out a series of Youtube videos condemning the bill, which poured over into a general critique of political correctness and identity politics. His videos quickly garnered millions of views, stirring the hornets nest of the far left, but resonating and gaining support with far more people from a variety backgrounds. This put him at odds with the extreme progressives whose cultural and political foes usually came from conservative and or religious sects. And oddly, Jordan was neither of these. He might have held some views that leaned further right than left, but he always classified himself as a classic liberal, and he wasn’t speaking from a pulpit. Indeed, Jordan held to objective morality, but his own personal views on religion were nebulous and were far from fitting into a traditional systematic theology. Instead of speaking from a political or religious platform, Jordan spoke from an academic one, being a highly regarded psychologist, whose articulation and deep thinking formed an scholastic hybrid of philosophy, psychiatry, and history that challenged, as well as encouraged, many in unfamiliar ways.

JORDAN’S FANS AND FOES

Even though bill C-16 was ultimately passed, Jordan and his critique served as a public bulwark against extreme ideologies that usually sneak in legislation largely unnoticed and worse, unchallenged. But Jordan was not a one-trick pony. He seemed to take any invitation to speak and could give lectures on a variety of topics ranging from religion, mythology, and history, to philosophy, totalitarianism, and neuroscience. He also encouraged healthy masculinity and by doing so, found himself at odds with the current feminist doctrine of “toxic masculinity”. His prior stance on rejecting compelled speech for the transgendered created another group of political enemies. Jordan was also one of the few public figures taking on the front of the identity politic of “white privilege”. But Jordan’s courage to speak out against mainstream social issues was not done without a cost.  A staff member at Penguin Random House Canada, (by whom he was published) summarily accused Jordan of being "an icon of hate speech and transphobia" as well as "an icon of white supremacy”. (https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/nov/24/jordan-b-peterson-book-deal-triggers-penguin-rando/). By all his political adversaries, Jordan was generally dismissed as an “angry white man.”

But despite the many political, philosophical, and controversial overtones of Jordan’s content, much of his advice was very practical, down to earth, and irrefutably good. In a word, Jordan challenged everyone, (both his private clients and those millions publicly listening to his lectures), to become better people by accepting more responsibility. Stand up straight. Make your bed. Beautify at least one room in your house. Discipline your children. Tell the truth. Work hard and be grateful in times of suffering were just some of his overall messages that attracted many and various types of people. Although Jordan had unintentionally amassed a large following of younger men, his audience was made up of men and women, theists and atheists, religious and secular, as well as those on the political right and left. All found Jordan’s insight and advice to be thought-provoking at least, and life changing at best.

Continuing to appear on countless shows, podcasts, interviews, debates, and lectures, Jordan’s fame was growing widespread. In 2018, he took a break from his teaching and clinical duties to work on his 2nd book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. The groundwork had been laid for the self-help book to quickly become a bestseller in several countries. And it was. Being promoted with a world tour, Jordan would eventually sale more than 5 million copies. He had been in the public eye for years, but now his popularity was soaring and his ideas, both the simple and complex, the practical and the philosophical, were not only being welcomed, but tried and found true by many. After the book tour, it seemed Jordan was at the pinnacle of his success. But little did he know that by very beginning of 2019, the next year his life, and the lives of his loved ones would start to unravel.

JORDAN’S FAMILY HEALTH

But unknown by Jordan, things may have started to go wrong as early as 2016. He stopped taking an anti-anxiety agent that he had been on for 20 years because of a recent change in his diet that he thought had rendered them of little to no use. But soon after in 2017, Jordan became very anxious and could not warm his body. He always felt physically cold no matter how many layers he covered himself with. His blood pressure also became dangerously low causing him to nearly black out when rising up from a sitting position. And on top of this all, Jordan suffered from complete insomnia. And sleep is the one thing that anxious and depressed people need and crave as its the only time to allow their mind to rest. With all these aliments, Jordan’s  family physician soon prescribed a benzodiazepine - which greatly helped with the insomnia and lessened the other symptoms as well. Under the assumption that benzodiazepines were relatively harmless, Jordan continued to take them for the next three years. While this change of medicine seemed like a good decision at the time, being coupled with the success of his book and his world tour, it might have precipitated his severely impaired health that started in January of 2019. The year started in Zurich, Switzerland, where Jordan’s daughter Mikhaila, underwent surgery to replace much of her ankle that was originally replaced over a decade earlier. And while it wasn’t a life-risking surgery, Jordan noticed an abnormal fear within himself begin to rise.

No sooner, had Jordan seemed to emotionally recover from his daughter’s stint in the infirmary, only two months later, in early March, his wife Tammy prepared to undergo surgery to remove her kidney cancer. Although the cancer was fairly common and completely treatable, there was always a risk. This only heightened Jordan’s troubled and anxious thoughts, and the surgery thankfully went as planned, but 6 weeks later, Tammy’s diagnosis changed for the worse. She was actually being afflicted a rare malignancy “which had a one year fatality rate of near 100 percent.” (Peterson, 12 more rules, Overture xvi).

With this news, Jordan was now dying inside - his mind and body was racked with fear. As their 30th wedding anniversary approached, Jordan could not fathom living without his lifelong friend and wife. Two weeks later, Tammy underwent another surgery to remove the rest of her kidney and the nearby lymphatic system. The procedure seemed to stop the cancer from growing but introduced another fatal predicament of her now impaired lymphatic system leaking fluid - up to a gallon in a single day. Tammy and Jordan immediately traveled to Philadelphia to begin more testing and treatment options when only being there 4 days, the draining completely and somewhat miraculously stopped. Thankfully, while Tammy recovered to wholeness remarkably fast, Jordan’s descent was nearly beginning.

JORDAN’S HEALTH

In the midst of being with his daughter and wife through all their surgeries and recoveries, Jordan asked his doctor to prescribe a higher dosage of the benzodiazepines, as he was in an unusually stressful time in his already stressful life. But all this did was make his anxiety worse. As another attempt to treat his constant depression and severe distress, Joran’s Dr. took him off of the benzodiazepines to try a new drug, Ketamine. Jordan said the few times he took the anesthetic / psychedelic, it felt like a 90 minute trip to Hell. Soon after jettisoning the Ketamine, Jordan then went into acute benzodiazepine withdrawal. The physical pain, and mental anguish were unbearable. Jordan now suffered from uncontrollable restlessness, extreme anxiety, thoughts of self harm and even suicide.

After learning about the dangers of sudden benzodiazepine withdrawal, a close friend and physician started Jordan on the benzodiazepines once again in hopes of a controlled and slow withdrawal. While this helped with the more immediate symptoms, he was far from healthy, and after about three months, it was clear that Jordan was not improving nor really cutting back on benzodiazepines. He then traveled to an American clinic that specialized in benzodiazepine withdrawal which after 3 and a half months there, with ultimately nothing to show for, Jordan and his family began to look elsewhere. So, by December of 2019, after nearly a year of mental trauma and physical decline, Jordan left the states and checked himself into a local hospital in Toronto. He was there for about a month, in which once again, the help he received was very limited. Besides finding no real answers in Toronto, Jordan contracted double-pneumonia. By this time - he was delirious. And then it went dark.  

The next thing Jordan remembered was waking up in Moscow. Out of desperation, his family had moved him there from the Toronto hospital. The facility in Moscow had placed Jordan in a medically induced coma to undergo the worst of the withdrawal symptoms. On January 14th, he was taken off of anesthetic and intubation and a week later moved to an ICU for neurological rehabilitation. Here, Jordan, practiced basic motor skills like walking up stairs and learning to sit and type. By February 7th, 2020 Jordan was slowly getting better, so the family decided to relocate to the warm weather in Florida, but that was just as COVID 19 became a worldwide pandemic. By May, three months after leaving Russia, Jordan was becoming worse and had returned to the original medication that had been forcefully stopped in Russia. Jordan was defeated.  With no hope and nothing to lose, Jordan and his family decided to move to a Serbian clinic that practiced “a novel approach to the problem of benzodiazepine withdraw.” (xxi).

Finally, five months later, after nearly two years of battling severe depression, anxiety and benzodiazepine withdrawal, Jordan emerged from his ordeal, not fully recovered, on Oct 19, 2020 to inform his Youtube audience of all that had befell him and his family. Slowly and carefully, he began to complete his third book, 12 more rules, which was published March 2, 2021. Since then, Jordan’s life has started to look like it did before, (as he has been busy engaging in more interviews, podcasts, and shows), but looks are almost always deceiving. Jordan was not the same - nor will he be the same as before this trying crisis of health.

His traumatic experience is still being processed, not only because it just happened, but sadly, as of writing this, the remnant effects remain a very real part of his life now.

It might be easy for onlookers to forget his dire circumstances, but it will not be easy nor even possible for Jordan to forget - even if he wanted to. Going through an ordeal like that is never forgotten. One, never simply “gets over it”. While there is healing and newness, traumatic events like that changes everyone for better or worse. This is evidently seen, in Jordan’s wife Tammy. Because of her near death experience, Jordan confessed that she has begun “attending to some issues regarding her own spiritual development.” And no doubt Jordan has and will do the same.

But exactly what that will look like, no one knows. It seems Jordan himself doesn’t even know. With his health crisis still too close to put behind him, Jordan did an interview on March 1st - (not even two months ago). Regarding the person of Jesus and his faith in Him, Jordan soberly contemplated: 

"..."

Jordan expressly stated what saved him in this ordeal - “The love I have for my family; the love they have for me; the encouragement they have delivered, along with my friends; [and] the fact that I still had meaningful work I could struggle through during the abyss.” (xxiii). But it should leave us asking - What is the love of family, and friends, and the drive to produce meaningful work without the One who is love and gives meaning to all things?

___________________________________

VIDEO CLIPS:

1. Jordan Peterson, Oct 19, 2020 - Peterson put out a YouTube video (Return Home) giving an update on his health and his future plans for work. 

2. Jordan Peterson cries talking about Jesus Christ (short clip) Mar 11, 2021

3. Jordan B Peterson's Recent Comments on God and Christianity, Mar 9, 2021

4. Genders, Rights and Freedom of Speech, Oct 26, 2016

5. Return Home, Oct 19, 2020 Jordan B Peterson, 

6. If You Hate Jordan Peterson Watch This Video, It Will Change Your Mind, Jul 3, 2018

7. #1355 Joe Rogan Reacts to Jordan Peterson Checking Himself Into Rehab, Sep 20, 2019

8. Peterson Family Update - Feb 7, 2020

At seventeen years old, the young man, depressed by his grades in school, and his average ability in playing Cricket found himself contemplating suicide. He didn’t know that the maximum number of suicides in India occur just after school examinations, but he definitely felt the weight of having never attained academic excellence and the shame it would surly bring to his family. He simply didn’t care and he didn’t want to live anymore.

Although his parents were Christians and he went to church with them fairly regularly, nothing about the Christian faith became real to him. He had never even opened a bible on his own initiative. As such, the young man thought there was no real difference between himself and an atheist. Maybe that softened his conscience as he was about to become another sad statistic of youth suicide. At his parent’s home in New Delhi, the depressed boy having no hope for the future in this life and no idea what awaited him in the next, ingested the poison, closed his eyes and waited to die.

But the boy didn’t die. As he slowly and painfully awoke hours later confused and dehydrated in a hospital bed, the he realized that his plans were thwarted. A servant from the house had found him passed out and rushed him to the closest hospital. Not long after becoming responsive, laying in the hospital bed with his mother standing nearby, did a man walk into their room. The stranger was not a Dr. and was not invited in, so his presence was a bit curious. The man had a little red Gideon’s New Testament Bible and he offered it to the young patient.  Seeing that he was too weak to reach out and take it, the man opened it up to read its words aloud. The boy’s mother gently tried explaining to the stranger, although his intentions seemed good, that her son needed rest and privacy at the moment. The unknown man, aware that the boy had just tried to commit suicide, politely replied that her son needed to hear God’s word more than anything else.

With that, he opened the New Testament to the gospel of John and read from the fourteenth chapter - "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” It was those words from verse nineteen that resonated with the boy. “Because I live, you also shall live.” That promise of Jesus seemed to bring life into the boys poisoned body and purpose into his broken spirit. Upon hearing these words in Red, the boy who just previously didn’t want to live, having no reason to live, now believed that if Jesus himself was alive, then he too wanted to alive. And not just live - but live in God, and for Christ. The young man purposed in his heart to leave no stone un-turned in his pursuit of truth - that is to say, his pursuit of God.

Laying in the hospital bed that day in 1963, this young man’s life was forever transformed by hearing Jesus’ words. And in turn, God would use him to transform many other lives for the kingdom of Heaven. The stranger with the bible was named Fred, and the boy he read the gospel to was seventeen year old Ravi Zacharias.

Within just eight years of his unsuccessful suicide attempt, Ravi had become a passionate preacher - He spend the summer in Vietnam preaching the gospel to both US soldiers and VietCong members. Soon after that, in 1972 Ravi married his once  youth group friend, Margaret Reynolds. They would remain together until the end. Upon graduating from Ontario Bible College in Canada, Ravi soon began preaching for a Christian Missionary organization and was sent to Cambodia for a short time. After being ordained by the same organization in 1980, Ravi began teaching at it’s affiliated Seminary as a professor of evangelism. It was during this stint, that the relatively young 37 year old Ravi, was invited to speak in Amsterdam at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. This placed him on a global pedestal as a leading international evangelical preacher.

Between teaching in class and guest speaking for large events, Ravi found himself sharing the gospel message back in his homeland of India. And it was there where he really saw the need for an apologetic ministry - to preach not only to one’s heart, but one’s mind as well. This was a ministry of teaching using logic, reason, intellect, and science to persuade even hardened skeptics.  So in August of 1984, Ravi  started  Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) in Toronto, Canada. This platform served his desire to remain a classical evangelist, but “in the arena of the intellectually resistant.”

The timing of Ravi’s apologetic ministry heartened many Christians and challenged many atheists. At the time, ardent atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris, were gaining popularity and Ravi was one of few Christians taking their arguments not only seriously, but humbly as well. This kind and intelligent approach to answering atheists and skeptics won over many people. Even those who didn’t ultimately agree with Ravi’s defense of the gospel, God, and the Bible, had respect for him. As years turned into decades, Ravi’s fame, talent, and gracious ability to dialogue with others in public forum who had doubts about the Christian faith grew to widespread acclaim. His personal testimony of finding real-life after attempting suicide also comforted those dealing with mental illness and bolstered his overall credibility. Besides frequently speaking at leading universities in America, and authoring over 25 books, Ravi continued to travel and preach the gospel in numerous countries - nearly 70 in total. Over time, his faithful service and ministry grew by leaps and bounds. By 2015, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (or RZIM) employed 250 people in 15 locations around the world with a listed revenue of 25 million dollars. Ravi was 69 years old and while in good health, the ministry that bore his name was nearing its fruitful end.  

But around this time, disturbing allegations started coming out concerning the grey haired, beloved evangelist. Some of the assertions claimed that Ravi had a long history of inflating his credentials. Numerous people, even including admirers, reported that Ravi had insisted on being called “Dr.” when he had never obtained a Ph.D. or even a Doctorate. He did hold honorary doctorates from various institutions, but tended to use these honorary titles as academic ones, even referring to himself as “Dr. Zacharias” in printed material.  Ravi also referred to himself as a "Senior Research Fellow” at Oxford University, a "Visiting Scholar” at Cambridge University and a "professor at Oxford”. And while Ravi played a part in such places to certain extents, all those claims were found to be false.

But far more concerning than his inflated credentials, were accusations of sexual impropriety that started to arise. In October of 2016, Ravi texted a married woman with whom he had a relationship with that he would consider suicide if she went public with her allegations of her and Ravi’s secret relationship. The Canadian woman claimed that Ravi “manipulated” her into sending him sexual text messages and explicit photos. As this was the first sexual scandal against Ravi to be made public, few knew about it and even less took it seriously. But a long line of women who had secret relationships with Ravi across the world noticed and were gaining confidence to come out as well. On July 31, 2017, Ravi filed a lawsuit against the Canadian woman and her husband on grounds of extortion, but a few months after, both the couple and Ravi agreed to a five million Non Disclosure Agreement.

Between having to clarify his exaggerated credentials and buy a couple’s silence, Ravi spent his last years defending his character and reputation far more than he did the gospel. Still, all the good that Ravi had done for so many years outweighed these present accusations. Plus, it wasn’t unheard of for a woman to file a frivolous sexual harassment claim against a notable Christian man as an easy way to receive money. As the smoke had settled, in 2018 the Christian publishing company, Harper Collins announced a new book deal with Ravi and things seemed to return to normal. But as demands of the ministry continued, Ravi, now 74 was not up to the task; not only emotionally, but physically as well - particularly, his back. He had long been seeing massage therapists and had recently undergone surgery on his spine for chronic discomfort. But after three weeks of severe pain following the surgery, a biopsy was taken from his lower spine. A malignant tumor was found on his sacrum and in March of 2020, Ravi was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer.

The news spread quickly and gained sympathy from Christians around the world. The recents claims of sexual misconduct were quickly buried underneath the report of the newly found cancer. While Ravi and his wife seemed to handle the news by the grace of a sovereign God, time would eventually tell. But there was hardly any time left and within only a few months of the diagnosis, Ravi died at his home in Atlanta Georgia on May 19th, 2020 at the age of 74. He was buried in a coffin built by prisoners from Angola,  on May 21st in a private cemetery in Georgia.

The universal outpouring of support for the family and admiration for the famed apologist came from all corners of the earth. Not only had Ravi reached millions of ordinary people, but politicians, athletes, and other famous celebrities. One of the world’s leading Christian apologists had died and having lived nearly 3/4’s of his life preaching and teaching the fundamentals of the Christian faith eloquently and passionately across the globe, his legacy would be like those greats who had past before him like Chuck Smith, R.C. Sproul, and even Billy Graham.

But unlike these Christian leaders, the legacy of Ravi was not set upon his death. And what would have and what should have been a solid legacy becoming of a prestigious Christian leader, was just beginning to erode. And up until publishing this, is still suffering ruin.

Just four months after Ravi’s death, three women employed at the day-spas that he co-owned in Atlanta, came out alleging that over a five year period, Ravi engaged in unwanted sexual activity with each of them. It is alleged that Ravi would expose himself, touch himself, and touch some of the massage therapists who were working on him - and not only those women living in Atlanta, but other massage therapists in Thailand, India, and Malaysia. Not only would Ravi offer his spiritual guidance as a way to manipulate these women, it seems he used finances from his ministry to give them lavish gifts in exchange for their services and their silence.

Soon the allegations against Ravi were too large to ignore and Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) - the largest Christian apologetic organization in the world, had no options but to hire impartial attorneys to investigate the claims. After interviewing 50 witnesses and examining various cell phones that Ravi used from 2014 to 2018, they reported, “we are confident that we uncovered sufficient evidence to conclude that Mr. Zacharias engaged in sexual misconduct.” (https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/february/ravi-zacharias-rzim-investigation-sexual-abuse-sexting-rape.html)

At first RZIM, denied the claims that their wise and honorable founder had been anything but noble. But after the preliminary investigation, On December 23, 2020, they confirmed the allegations were indeed true to the shock and sadness of all the staff. They put out a statement saying:  

"The interim investigation update indicates this assessment of Ravi's behavior to be true—that he did indeed engage in sexual misconduct. This misconduct is deeply troubling and wholly inconsistent with the man Ravi Zacharias presented both publicly and privately to so many over more than four decades of public ministry. We are heartbroken at learning this but feel it necessary to be transparent and to inform our staff, donors, and supporters at this time, even while the investigation continues.”

By the time the investigation was over, the news had only gotten worse. Ravi Zacharias International Ministries released the results of its investigation on February 11th 2021. Without going into detail, the report found that Ravi had sexually explicit communication and photos from over 200 women - some of these messages were just months before he died. Furthermore, the report concluded that tens of thousands of dollars were taken from the ministry fund, specifically under the “humanitarian effort” account, and used to pay housing and schooling costs for some of his massage therapists.

It would seem that the prestige of serving God for five decades by preaching to those around the world was brought down by a few months of investigation. Any honor Ravi held in the hearts of his audience had now turned to dishonor and it wasn’t due to a brief investigation or a bad choice Ravi could make once in a while, but sadly and more accurately, a lifetime of living two contradictory lives. A duplicitous life is repugnant to all people, but from one who claims to be a disciple of Christ, and teaches the Christian faith on a scale such as his, it is intolerable.

Because of this, Ravi Zacharias will be remembered for many things by many people. He will be a rare one who leaves a sad and confusing aftermath - a legacy that at the heart contradicts itself. Ravi’s teachings were deeply received by many people, but his own heart only received them partially. Ravi formed a ministry that taught to one’s mind and intellect above their heart and emotion. But obviously his heart needed to be transformed along with his mind. He preached to one’s mind from reason, logic, and intellect. It is clear now, that after living with a secret life of sexual immorality for years, Ravi abandoned those in his Great and Tragic Legacy. 

It was no joke, on April 1st, 1901 Jay Vivian Chambers was born in Philadelphia on a cold early morning with snow blanketing the ground; a blizzard was soon to come. Weighing 12 pounds and measuring 12 inches across the shoulders, his birth nearly killed his mother Laha. An artery was torn and baby Jay had to be removed with instruments. It was sad but fitting that Jay was born in this fashion, difficult and dangerous; his birth would serve as a type of foreboding for the remainder of his life. He was an abnormally large  newborn, and he’d grow to live an abnormally large life.

Young Jay was named after his father Jay Chambers. His middle name, Vivian was the last name of one of his mother’s lifelong friends. As a child and young adult, he despised his first and middle names and vowed to change them as soon as he was able. While he didn’t know it at the time, he would live to have multiple first and last names - most of them assigned to him. Eventually, Jay would take his mother’s maiden name for his first, and keep his father’s surname, going by who the world now knows him as, Whittaker Chambers.

Young Whittaker grew up in Lynbrook, New York State. His family moved there in 1904 just after Whittaker’s little brother Richard was born.  As Whittaker became a child and began to understand and compare his world with that of others, he became keenly aware of the dysfunction that he was continually surrounded by. Both of his parents, Jay and Laha came from the world of art as they were both thespians in their young life. They loved the stage and continued to act even after having their two boys. More so Jay - He was truly an artist and viewed himself as much. He didn’t care for the comforts of a middle class family. This was made apparent by withholding any money for his wife to beautify or to just repair their humble home. Nor did he pay any attention to his son’s overall health - Both Richard and Whittaker often suffered tooth aches to no relief from a dentist. As Jay submerged himself in his work as an artist for the local paper, and took a liking for the opera, and all things “culture”, he became completely absent from the family. He would come home in the middle hours of the night, almost always drunk. For this, and many other reasons, young Whittaker regrettably, but honestly lacked any respect for his father (p. 142).

Jay’s absence and lack of engagement made Laha become Whittaker’s favorite parent, even if it was by default. Their shared sentiments regarding Jay, drew them into a close relationship. But Laha struggled with her own demons. She became dependent upon her young boys and could be described as acting somewhat neurotic at times. For some reason she felt the need to frequently remind Whittaker of how much pain his delivery had caused her.  Understandably, he resented this. Yet, despite all of her faults and problems, Laha loved her two boys and they became her life and her world. The small family even tried attending an Episcopalian Church for a time. But without reason, the boys were suspected of passing the whooping cough to another attendant. That ended their three month trial - as such religion played no part in their home. Whittaker would later write, “What I knew as a child about religion, I did not know as the result of any instruction. I knew it as a result of something I heard by chance, or that happened to me, and that touched something that was already in me.” (p. 116).

Whittaker might not have needed religious education, but he would need all the hope and grounding he could get because the tenuous marriage of his parents rapidly dissolved when Whittaker and Richard were still young. Jay had his own life outside his family and simply solidified this by moving out. He would send the family 8 dollars a week, which at the time, Laha and her two boys managed fairly well. But Whittaker knew they were poor and would understand later that Jay could have given more in alimony, seeing as he had a steady and relatively good paying job. The good part of Whittaker’s father being gone was that their home became a much happier place. His father’s absence at home lightened the usually oppressive atmosphere.

But it wasn’t long before Jay had moved out, that Grandma Whittaker would move in. And she was anything but a calming presence in their house. With early dementia, Grandma Whittaker would lock herself into her room and light little fires “cooking” something. The family learned to disregard her insistent self ramblings as well as the smell of smoke coming from her room. There were several times when Whittaker, being the largest in the family, would have to intervene - whether it was breaking down a door to see what was aflame or wrestling scissors or knives from her clinched fists, Grandma being at the house, in addition to the old tensions, was like having a demoniac presence sitting in the heart of their home. (p. 169). Whittaker would later write, “I suppose nobody ever sleeps quite peacefully in a house where a woman sometimes wanders around with a knife.” (p. 170).

While Whittaker seemed to take the brunt of all this abnormality, the weight was surely shared by both brothers. Living under the same roof caused Whittaker and Richard to become very close even though they were growing up to be quite different men. Richard was good with his hands, and worked with them often. He ended up building a guesthouse on their property which he would soon move into as a young adult. He was more outspoken, expressed more emotion, and soon became Laha’s favorite sons’ as it was natural for him to confide in her - something she desperately craved. Yet, as he neared his late teenage years, Richard began to find solace from his pitiful life in drinking  more prohibition whiskey than he clearly ought. By the time he was twenty, he could be found drunk in the early hours of the day. Whittaker, on the other hand was more cerebral, immersing himself into books and self reflection, guarding and keeping his thoughts almost entirely to himself.

In the fall of 1920, Whittaker enrolled at Columbia College (p.164). Upon attending, he took the opportunity to finally rid himself of the name Vivian to officially take his mother’s maiden name, Whittaker. And although he was already abreast of the Communist movement, it was here that he began reading more  of its happenings and was encouraged by others to delve deeper into the social, economic, and political world of Marxism. Here, Whittaker’s skills and talent with writing, reading, and translating the languages was noticed among his peers and professors. Many thought he’d become a novelist or major poet. Indeed, Whittaker did  write - among his works was a short play entitled: A Play for Puppets. It was featured in Columbia's literary magazine. But the atheistic nature of the playlet caused controversy among the school and even spread to the New York City newspaper. Whittaker was disheartened and came to dislike Columbia - Although it wasn’t his first choice of colleges, it allowed him to live at home and save the family from paying boarding fees. Choosing to live at home rather than live at a dorm not only saved the family money, but in a sense, saved the family, or what was left of it  - if only for a short time.

In the two years Whittaker attended college, Richard found himself further down the road of self destruction - continual drinking with self absorbed unhappiness.  One night at a bar with his friends and brother, Richard became so belligerent, he began cursing for all to hear, himself and his parents for ruining not only their own lives, but his life as well. The sober Whittaker took offense at the remarks and with the bar tender’s approval, threw a tumbler of whiskey at Richard’s face. The two brothers fought in the bar and throughout the night. Whittaker, although larger but not as scrappy, finally went to bed bleeding from the bridge of his nose. The scar Richard left him would remain with Whittaker for the remainder of his life. It was a sort of going away gift as Richard was soon to leave.

Within a years time - Richard would take his life. He was found in his kitchen one morning with his head resting on a pillow inside the gas oven - his feet propped up on a pile of books with a bottle of whiskey just below his rigid fingers. Whittaker, although in shock from seeing his brother and best friend cold and lifeless, was not surprised. Richard had tried this multiple times before without success only because of his older brother’s intervention. It was only a matter of time. Not long after Whittaker removed his brother from his house and had him buried, did he receive a call from Laha informing him that his father Jay had passed away. His mother said that Jay “had simply dropped dead in the bathroom as he prepared to shave.”

Whittaker was 22 years old and his small world, as broken and fragile as it was, had mostly died - and what was left, was dying. His mother was withering away from grief and His grandmother was clinically insane. Whittaker was convinced that the death surrounding him and the many pains that preceded it was a just microcosm of the world at large. World War One had just ended three years before claiming twenty-two million lives. The Bolshevik revolution in Russia was nearing its end, having murdered tens of millions and served as Communism’s catalyst to spread across the globe. Revolutions were happening, as were epidemics. The Spanish flu was in full swing and would kill fifty million people before it ended, not to mention smallpox that would end up taking many more than that.

Much of what Whittaker intimately knew was poverty, neglect, alcoholism, and dysfunction. And at the time, the world seemed to reflect that stark reality. Yes, “The world was dying of its own vulgarity, stupidity, complacency, inhumanity, power and materialism - a death of the spirit… That this world was dying both brothers knew.” (p.185). “But they differed on how to face the fact. Richard had simply removed himself from what he found unsolvable or unworthy to be solved. He had made his choice, (186-187) and so would Whittaker. But whereas Richard succumbed to the world’s cancer of wars, economic crises’ and moral enervation, finding nothing to live for, Whittaker committed to become the cure, having found something to die for. By the time his brother and father expired, Whittaker was already a member in the Communist Party. But now he became an un-reconcilable Communist - in both body and spirit. Not because he was simply attracted to it, but was driven to it from despair by the crisis of history through which the world [was] passing.” (p.191).

Whittaker was at a loss. And he felt helpless - God was not in control - not in control of his circumstances, nor his brother’s. God wasn’t in control of the wars and revolutions, nor the epidemics of diseases spreading across the globe. If God could not, or would not solve the problems plaguing mankind - then mankind had no choice but to assume the throne. Whittaker would write that “Communism restores to man his sovereignty by the simple method of denying God.” (p. 10). But although Whittaker was about to plunge deep and long into a world view that not only denies God, but seeks to eradicate any trace of him, God would not deny Whittaker. Rather, God would pursue him!

Whittaker was now in his early 50’s - and was now a counter-revolutionist testifying against Communism. What had at once given him a reason to live had now become evil; and now risked taking his life. Whittaker, in the midst of deadly consequences from without and emotional turmoil from within, was presently shinning an unwanted light on not only his past affairs working for the Soviet’s secret military intelligence, but many others who were still working within the United States Government. After twenty five years, Whittaker would look back on his time as a Communist.

In those beginning years, soon after Richard’s suicide, Whittaker’s ability with writing and editing were quickly put to use for the Communist Party - specifically “Class-angling”. This was the art of rewriting news stories with a Communist interpretation. That was just the beginning though. Whittaker’s proficiency and devotion to Communism exceeded simply working for the Party and being shuffled around to  and from various Socialist presses, producing pamphlets, magazines, and any other forms of literary propaganda. He had more services to offer, and others laying in wait had taken notice. And within a short time, Chambers was recruited to join the "Communist underground”.

Accepting it as his solemn duty, Whittaker was now a spy working to overthrow the U.S. government on behalf of Stalin’s Soviet Union in the military intelligence agency - the GRU. After serving under various controllers, taking assorted identities, holding numerous job titles, and only living in places for short periods, Whittaker finally came under the direction of Harold Ware, a member of the Washington spy apparatus. Ware was an agricultural engineer and was employed by the federal New Deal while covertly leading a group of about 75 operatives within the U.S. government. It was in this place and time that Chambers became close to Alger Hiss. Hiss was a fellow communist spy and like Ware, served within the higher echelons of the Washington establishment. He was a government attorney, served in the New Deal, the Justice Department, and would later even serve in the U.S. delegation to attend the famous Yalta Conference where Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met to negotiate the terms for the end of the War. Circumstances had Whittaker and Alger in close contact. Living together for a time, their families shared a rare type of intimacy; that kind that could only be relegated to secrecy and truly understood by the life of a spy. From the plenty of people that came in and out of Whittaker’s life within his service as a Russian asset, Chambers would later confess that “Mr. Hiss had become his closest friend.” (p. 694).

By now, Whittaker was in the thick of his espionage activity, but his concerns with  taking orders from the Soviet Union were growing. At first he was specifically disillusioned with Stalin’s personal perversion by turning to Fascism. But shortly after, that, Whittaker came to see that is wasn’t Stalin he was concerned with, but Communism itself. He would later write, “The point was not that Stalin is evil, but that Communism is more evil, and that, acting through his person, it found its supremely logical manifestation. The important point was not the character of Stalin, but the character of Communism,…”( p. 249).

Through Whittaker’s marriage to his wife Esther, in the early 30’s and the births of their two children afterwards, (both events which were unofficially frowned upon by the Party), God was slowly but steadily convicting Whittaker not only of the evils of Communism, but the joy and grace that can only be had in a life surrendered to Himself. God was calling Whittaker to come forth.  And it wasn’t until 1937, until he  first began to feel like Lazarus - a man making “the impossible return”; climbing from the deep underground into the realm of the living. And within a year’s time, in April of 1938, Whittaker and his wife, made that final decision - the only possible choice; that they’d rather die, than live under Communism. It would be all sorts of hell that they would have to endure. Whittaker faced the threat of physical death for defecting  from anybody at anytime, but it was the emotional turmoil he suffered that was just as troubling. In times of weakness and unbearable stress, it was as if Whittaker’s brother was calling from the ground to join him. But through all the pain, and all the trials, nothing made the couple regret their decision. (p.25). Chambers finally and officially broke with communism and took his wife and two children into hiding. But Whittaker did not break from Communism just to remain quiet, but to eventually fight against it.

In April of 1939, almost one year exactly from leaving the Soviet underground did Whittaker come out of hiding to go work for Time. His actions against Communism were going to be slow and methodical and his new job allowed those two maneuvers. He began at Time as a no-body; a third-string book reviewer making an annual 5 thousand dollars and quickly rose to senior editor making 30 thousand. Never once did he ask for a raise. As a well trained former Communist, Whittaker never really knew or cared how much he made. Nearly 10 years later, he resigned as one of the best known writer-editors from Time because the court case he was in “had reached a crisis.” (p. 86). Looking back, Whittaker would write, “My debt and my gratitude to Time cannot be measured. At a critical moment, Time gave me back my life. It gave me my voice. It gave me sanctuary, professional respect, peace and time in which to mature my changed view of the world and man’s destiny, and mine, it it. I went to Time a fugitive; I left a citizen. In my years with it, I became a Quaker and took my wife and children with me into the spiritual peace of the meeting.” (p. 87-88). And Whittaker would need a reservoir of peace for the long battle ahead.

Soon after leaving Time, on August 3, 1948, Chambers was called to testify before the House on the Un-American Activities Committee. It was here where he  gave witness to the names to all those he knew inside the underground Ware group. This undoubtedly, included his once good friend, Alger Hiss. It caused Whittaker, the disheveled and portly witness, much anguish to have to testify against him. His statements didn’t accuse Alger of espionage activity, but straightly claimed that he was or at least had been a member of the Communist Party. But the buttoned-up and good looking Hiss flatly rejected any allegations that he had ever been a Communist and claimed no knowledge as to who Chambers was. The long trials that pursued would be called the “Hiss Trials”. These were some of Whittaker’s worst years of defection. By now, he was thankful to not really worry about being snuffed out by an unknown assassin, and he remained grateful for his work at Time where he gained respect and a bit of editorial notoriety. But coming before the United States Government to confess his past, and having to charge others, specifically his friend Alger, of secret allegiance to Soviet Russia, bore down on his body and his soul.

In the beginning, the majority of people just couldn’t believe that the U.S. government had been infiltrated to such an extent. And on the surface, Hiss was likable, believable,  and had a mirror-finish education and career. Whittaker on the other hand looked tired and depressed and his accusations - too far fetched. President Truman straightforwardly dismissed  Whittaker’s testimony as a “Red Herring”. He surely didn’t like the allegation that the man responsible for the United Nations Charter Conference was a Communist. But Whittaker simply knew too many intimate details about Alger that couldn’t be easily ignored. Yet, without evidence, the first trial ended in 1949 with the jury deadlocked.

Meanwhile, Hiss’s attorneys referred to Whittaker as an “enemy of the Republic, a blasphemer of Christ, and a disbeliever in God,”. This was ironic, since it was due to Whittaker’s hope to save the Republic and trust in God that he was testifying. Regardless, the defense also put on a psychiatrist who pointed out Chamber’s childhood, characterizing him as a sort of psychopath who’s only nature was to lie. But the evidence finally produced by Chambers in the second trial was undeniable. Under subpoena, Whittaker presented four handwritten notes composed by Hiss,  65 State Department documents, and 4 strips of microfilm that had once been hidden inside a hollowed out pumpkin. These papers and microfilm became known as the “pumpkin papers.” The reason for the delay in producing the evidence was by Whittaker’s account, “to spare an old friend from more trouble than necessary.” But even though Whittaker tried to guard his old friend, the evidence was not as gracious. And eventually, in 1950, when the second trial had reached its conclusion, Hiss was found guilty on two counts of perjury being sentenced to five years in prison. He couldn’t be charged with espionage because the statute of limitations for such a crime was only five years.

The whole ordeal was unpleasant to say the least. The international attention, the constant personal attacks, and the character assassination left Whittaker troubled, saddened, and took a brutal toll on his overall health. He had been suffering from heart problems for over 10 years now. But although the court case was conclusively over,  and the smoke had settled, Whittaker had much more to say, un-encumbered by interruptions from attorneys and groans from the crowds. He would do what he knew best - Write his account - his life story; why and how he became a Communist and why he defected. He would explain everything in vivid detail, in his 800 page autobiography, aptly entitled: Witness. In 1952, Chambers published his work to widespread acclaim. The book was a bestseller for nearly a year which helped to pay some of the legal debts that had been growing. But, as an Ex-Communist and now a Quaker, money meant little to Whittaker whereas honesty and honor meant everything.

His autobiography served to make the record straight. It laid to rest the suggestion  that he fabricated anything in his testimony. But Witness wasn’t just written as a counter revolutionist’s hope to win over his enemies, but as a father gently explaining his complex life to his two children, who were too young to understand all the drama swirling around them and their father. As such, Whittaker bore his soul for all to see that  Communism and Freedom were the two irreconcilable faiths of his time. To Whittaker, a Witness against Communism was a Witness for God. And that calling to witness in every sense of it, became Whittaker’s cross to bear. He would explain this to his son and daughter in the introduction of autobiography:

“My children, when you were little, we [to] used sometimes to go for walks in our pine woods.  In the open fields, you would run along by yourselves.  But you used [to] instinctively … give me your hands as we entered those woods, where it was darker, lonelier, and in the stillness our voices sounded loud and frightening.  In this book I am again giving you my hands.  I am leading you, not through cool pinewoods, but up and up a narrow defile between bare and steep rocks from which, in shadow, things uncoil and slither away.  It will be dark.  But, in the end, if I have led you aright, you will make out three crosses, from two of which hang thieves.  I will have brought you to Golgotha— the place of skulls.  This is the meaning of the journey.  Before you understand, I may not be there; my hands maybe have slipped from yours.  It will not matter.  For when you understand what you see, you will no longer be children.  You will know that life is pain, that each of us hangs always upon the cross of himself.  And when you know that this is true of every man, woman, and child on earth, you will be wise.” (p. 21).

Nine years after, on July 9, 1961, Whittaker died of a heart attack at his 300-acre farm in Westminster, Maryland. Having said his peace - he left his wife and children the life he had always wanted and a Witness the world could never ignore.

Hello! Welcome to Salvation and Stuff - I’m your host Micah Coate.

I am of the opinion that God is always speaking to us. Undoubtedly, God speaks to us through His word, the scriptures but also through times past. As Paul said in his letter to the church in Rome “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4). One major part of this podcast is Biblical Theology - and in that we will find instruction, encouragement, and hope - that is sensible and practical.

But God speaks to us in other ways. He often speaks To us - Through us. That is, we all have a story to tell. Millions of people in past generations have encountered God and lived in both peaceful and precarious times.  Men and women from various places, cultures, with different languages spanning across generations - with nothing in common except that God played a role in their life. And their stories are waiting to be told.

In the ancient book of Deuteronomy, Moses (circa 1400) - not only the most prominent figure in the Old Testament, but the most important religious leader in world history is nearing his death. God informs Moses that he will not enter into the “promised land”, and furthermore, that the nation of Israel will forsake the covenant and begin to serve other gods from the new land they will be entering. So God writes a song and tells Moses to copy and write it down and to teach it to the people so that in the near future, when they are suffering the consequences of following after others “gods”, it will serve as a reminder - it will testify against them in hope to draw them back.

So Moses reads the song aloud to all the leaders of Israel. And in one verse (verse 7 of chapter 32) The songs commands the the people to ,“Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations;”

God’s solution to their misery was to “remember and consider” the days of old and the years of many generations.” We can all relate to this. We have followed our own will instead of His, we have all made gods out of things that we know we shouldn’t and as a result, have been troubled by the results. And one way to get us back on track is to remember those people and times that give witness to the glory and goodness of God.

So on Salvation and Stuff we are going to try and “Remember” and “consider” those who have gone before us and the generations that have preceded us because we have so much to learn from them.  We agree with the friend of old Job, that “we were born only yesterday and know nothing.” What’s the remedy for that? “Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned.” (Job 8:8,9).

The aim of this podcast is to engage, encourage and enlighten all people towards a deeper faith in Jesus. No matter who you are, where you find yourself, or what you’re doing in life now, if you appreciate history and inspiring biographies mixed with practical theology, all delivered in my absolutely stunning, soothing, masculine and comforting voice (albeit sometimes unclear), I hope you’ll find this podcast worthy of your time. If so, please subscribe and share it with a friend. To find out more about Salvation and Stuff and to connect with me, please visit my websites at: 

salvationandstuff.simplecast.com

salvationandstuff.com

If there ever was a time to discuss faith and politics by cheerful hearts with those close to you during the holidays, it’s today! In what is now rare political form, both houses of congress once agreed on something historic and of good nature! What was it?  They requested the President to implore the nation to separate a special day of the year to give thanks to God for His many blessings - in particular the gift of being a sovereign and free nation with a constitutional government elected by and for its citizens.

On October 3rd, 1789, (just thirteen years after the Declaration of Independence was written and one year after the Constitution was ratified) President George Washington wrote the short 469 word Proclamation and instituted the holiday that we now call Thanksgiving. A few things must be noted and indeed cannot be overlooked.

The Proclamation was all about the greatness of God, asking for forgiveness, and bestowing our many blessings to others.

Most undeniably, God is the center of the Proclamation. He was described by Washington as the “Almighty God”, “great and glorious Being”, “beneficent Author”, and the “great Lord and Ruler of Nations”.

Secondly, Washington gives witness to the goodness of God. He was “the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.” Thanksgiving was then to be humbly made to God, not just for the freedom to gorge ourselves on fattened bites of tryptophan-ed turkey, and watch football, but for His “many signal favors”, “manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence” that led the United States “an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for [our] safety and happiness.” We must remember that the pleasure we have from feasting with friends and family on Thanksgiving is only possible from a government that pursues its people’s happiness and safety.  

Odd as it may seem, one way to celebrate our freedom and happiness is to confess sin. Washington also asked us as a nation to beseech God “to pardon our national and other transgressions.” Much can be said about this, but it should be sufficient to wonder how good it would be to have a federal government acknowledge their fallen state by imploring God to forgive both their personal and national transgressions.  

Lastly, Washington wanted the many blessings that the United States enjoyed like virtue, faith and science to be given to others. Today, in a time where science and religion are falsely pitted against each other, Washington reminds us that there is no gulf between them. He ends the Proclamation hoping “our national government [would be] a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord -To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.”

So, even though our senses might be slightly dulled from over consumption this Thanksgiving, may we not forget to raise a glass to give true thanks to God for our nation, our prosperity and the many freedoms we share. May we consider our faults as individuals and as a country and seek pardon from God all while seeking to be a blessing to both neighbors and strangers.

______________________

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-sources-2/article/thanksgiving-proclamation-of-1789/