The Soul Winners!

[JM]

I thought we could make a thread about the great soul winners of the Faith, what do you think? I'll start.

I'd like to start with John Calvin, the great Reformer, theologian and soul winner.

C.H. SPURGEON wrote: "John Calvin…is looked upon now, of course, a theologian only, but he was really one of the greatest of gospel preachers. When Calvin opened the Book and took a text, you might be sure that he was about to preach "Through grace are ye saved, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

If we look at Geneva, we can see that his preaching changed it for the better in many cases. People were brought to Christ and saved. Many false things and myths have been spread about him, mosty due to his theology and not his evangelism, we shouldn't allow this to detract from the great man of God. I cry with Spurgeon, "That glorious man, Calvin!"

"Yet, whatever result may at length follow our efforts, there never will be reason to regret that we showed both pious and grateful obedience to God, and, what we will be able to relieve our sorrow even in the greatest catastrophes, that we faithfully served both the glory of Christ, which is preferable to all the kingdoms of the world, and the salvation of souls, which is more precious than the whole world." (Concerning Scandals. St Andrew Press p.115)

"However St. Paul speaks here expressly of the saints or faithful, but this does not imply that we should not pray generally for all men. For the wretched unbelievers and the ignorant have great need to be pleaded for with God; behold them on the way to perdition. If we saw a beast at the point of perishing, we would have pity on it. And what shall we do when we see souls in peril, which are so precious before God, as he has shown in that he has ransomed them with the blood of his own Son? If we see then a poor soul going thus to perdition, ought we not to be moved with compassion and kindness, and should we not desire God to apply the remedy? So then, St. Paul's meaning in this passage is not that we should let the wretched sinners alone without having any care for them. We should pray generally for all men, but he shows at the same time that we ought to have a special care for those whom God has joined to us by a tighter bond." (Calvin's sermon on Ephesians 6:18-19 BOT p684-685)

"It is our duty to pray for all who trouble us; to desire the salvation of all men."(Comments on Psalms)

"It is no small consolation to godly teachers that, although the larger part of the world does not listen to Christ, He has His sheep whom He knows and by whom He is also known. They must do their utmost to bring the whole world into Christ's fold, but when they do not succeed as they would wish, they must be satisfied with the single thought that those who are sheep will be collected together by their work." (Comment on John 10:27)

Seeing that God has given us such a treasure and so inestimable a thing as His Word, we must employ ourselves as much as we can, that it may be kept safe and sound and not perish. And let every man be sure to lock it up securely in his own heart. But it is not enough to have an eye to his own salvation, but the knowledge of God must shine generally throughout the whole world." (Sermon on 1 Timothy 2:3)

Generally, because we have the gospel freely preached here among us, and because we ought everywhere to be like a burning lamp to show the way of salvation [John 5:35] And particularly, by every man discharging his own duty that we give no cause of offence to our neighbours, but rather endeavour to draw to us those are estranged from God and his truth. (Sermon on Ephesians 4:6-8 BOT p340)

What therefore in effect we have to bear in mind is that God's enlightening of us is in order that she should no more be plunged into darkness, but that, being enlightened by Him, we should endeavour to give light to poor unbelievers who wander and reel and stumble as though they would break their necks, for they are poor brute beasts. (Sermons on Ephesians 5:8-11 BOT p513)

FIND SOMEONE AND SHARE THE GOSPEL!

If you find it heart, add names and bio's to this list, peace.

 

[Blazin Bones]

How did I know you'd start with John Calvin? How about the Great Charles Spurgen, or The Apostle Paul?

 

[JM]

How did I know you'd start with John Calvin? How about the Great Charles Spurgen, or The Apostle Paul?

Lets see it then! Post a bio.

Here another!

Quote: In 1737, when only a twenty-two year old Oxford graduate, George Whitefield's voice startled England like a trumpet blast. Attacked by clergy, press and mob alike, Whitefield nevertheless became the most popular and influential preacher of the age. At a time when London had a population of less than 700,000, he could hold spellbound 20,000 people at a time at Moorfields and Kennington Common. For thirty four years his voice resounded throughout England and America. A firm Calvinist in creed yet unrivalled as an aggressive evangelist; slim in person yet storming in preaching as if he were a giant; a clergyman of the Church of England yet crossing the Atlantic thirteen times and becoming the 'apostle of the England empire'; a favorite preacher of coal miners and London roughnecks yet an equal favorite of peers and scholars; weak and broken in body yet preaching his last sermon'until the candle which he held in his hand burned away and went out in its socket'; the name of George Whitefield scarce knows a parallel."The most extraordinary man of our times",declared Lord Bolingbroke. "Often as I have read his life", wrote C. H. Spurgeon,"I am conscious of distinct quickening whenever I turn to it. He lived. Other men seemed to be only half-alive; but Whitefield was all life, fire, wing , force.My own model, if I may have such a thing in due subordination to my Lord, is George Whitefield; but with unequal footsteps must I follow in his glorious track."
In his new book, "Five Great Evangelists", John Armstrong writes,"One of the most remarkable evangelists that ever lived, George Whitefield (pronounced Whitfield), impacted the eighteenth century religious scene with such effect that the mark he left still profoundly influences evangelical Christianity...Certainly no English-speaking evangelist has ever preached the gospel with more effect and determination than George Whitefield. Whatever history concludes regarding other great evangelists the amazing life of George Whitefield demonstrates that he belongs with the greatest evangelists of all time. Undoubtedly, he was a massively effective popular preacher. He moved the masses as no-one before him and hardly anyone since. His life is filled with instruction for Christians today." This thorough going Calvinist of whom no school or theology or church bears his name sparked America's Great Awakening. George Whitefield also in fact the founder of the movement called Methodism and the man whom Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, called his role model. Whitefield's deep passion for the Gospel and strong doctrinal preaching of the alien righteousness of Christ revealed from faith to faith (Rom 1:17) stirred the hearts of thousands across colonial America. The Church would do well to re-familiarize itself with the life, work and theology of this great man of God. The following articles, stories and sermons are provided with the hope they will help to do just that. Mark A. Noll in The Scandal of the Evangelical Mindwrites, "In many ways, the defining figure in the history of Ameican eangelicalism is the eighteenth-century revivalist George Whitefield. As shown in the splendid recent biography by Harry Stout, Whitefield's style - popular preaching aimed at emotional response - has continued to shape American evangelicalism long after Whitefield's specific theology (he was a Calvinist), his denominational origins (he was an Anglican), and his rank (he was a clergyman) are long forgotten. Daniel Pals has well summarized Whitefield's career: 'The very thing that...accounts for his success [was] a deeply populist frame of mind. Almost every one of Whitefield sermons is marked by a fundamentally democratic determination to simplify the essentials of religion in a way that gives them the widest possible mass appeals.' As it was in the days of Whitefield, so it has been in the two centuries since. The most visible evangelicals, with the broadest popular influence, have been public speakers whose influence rested on their ability to communicate a simple message to a broad audience." http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/3 ... field.html

 

[JM]

One of the faster growing Churches can be found in South Korea! I had the chance to pray with some of these brothers and sisters (boy can they pray) during a Ssirum wrestling event. It touch my heart to see just how 'Christian' everything was. It was in everything they did.

http://www.pck.or.kr/EngPage/eng_index.html

The history of the Protestant church in Korea began in 1884 when Mr. Suh, Sang-yoon founded the Sorae Church in Hwang-hae Province in north-eastern Korea. Mr. Suh had been baptized in Manchuria by John Ross, a Scottish missionary to China in 1879. He also helped Ross to translate the New Testament into Korean. Later, he carried Bibles throughout Korea as a colporteur.

Religions Christian 49%, Buddhist 47%, Confucianist 3%, Shamanist, Chondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way), and other 1%

http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_htm/skorea.htm

40% are Christian! Amen!

 

[JM]

Billy Sunday
From famous ball-player to famous evangelist, Billy Sunday is still remembered today for his energetic preaching style and large, successful evangelistic campaigns across the United States. In his lifetime, Billy Sunday addressed over 100 million people without the aid of loud speakers, TV, or radio.

Sunday gained nationwide recognition for his prowess as a baseball player. He became the first player to run the bases in 14 seconds, and set records for stealing bases.

Shortly after being Saved through the outreach of the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, Sunday turned down a $400 per month baseball salary (at a time when the average worker made $480 per year) for a $84 per month ministry position. Ball teams later offered $500/month and even $2000/month, but Sunday remained committed to his ministry for God. Later in life he was offered $1,000,000 to be in the movies, but again declined in order to continue the evangelistic ministry God had called him to. He passed away after a heart attack in 1935 at age 73.

 

[JM]

Harry A. Ironside
1876 - 1951

"Great truths that are stumbling blocks to the natural man are nevertheless the very foundations upon which the confidence of the spiritual man is built."

Few preachers had more varied ministries than this man. He was a captain in the Salvation Army, an itinerant preacher with the Plymouth Brethren, pastor of the renowned Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, and conducted Bible conferences throughout the world. Sandwiched between those major ministries, Ironside preached the Gospel on street corners, in missions, in taverns, on Indian reservations, etc.

Never formally ordained and with no experience whatever as a pastor, Ironside took over the 4,000-seat Moody Memorial Church in Chicago and often filled it to capacity for 18 1/2 years. A seminary president once said of him, "He has the most unique ministry of any man living." Although he had little formal education, his tremendous mental capacity and photographic memory caused him to be called the "Archbishop of Fundamentalism."

Preaching--warm, soul-saving preaching--was his forte. Special speakers in his great church often meant nothing; the crowds came when he was there. He traveled constantly at his prime, he averaged 40 weeks in the year on the road--always returning to Moody Memorial for Sunday services.

His pen moved, too; he contributed regularly to various religious periodicals and journals in addition to publishing 80 books and pamphlets. His writings included addresses or commentaries on the entire New Testament, all of the prophetic books of the Old Testament, and a great many volumes on specific Bible themes and subjects.

In 1951, Dr. Ironside died in Cambridge, New Zealand, and was buried there at his own request.

 

[JM]

Dwight Lyman Moody: Evangelist; born at Northfield, Massachusetts, [United States], February 5, 1837; died there December 22, 1899. He was the sixth of the nine children of Edwin and Betsy Moody (née Holton). His father, who was a mason, died in 1841 (aged 41) and the family was in very straitened circumstances for years. His mother died in 1895, aged ninety. Moody received his first religious impressions in the village Unitarian church and his first missionary work was in getting pupils for its Sunday-school, which he attended. His schooling was carried only as far as the district school could take him, and while a young boy he had to earn his living. In 1854 he resolved to try his fortunes in Boston, and there was hired by his uncle, Samuel Holton, as a clerk in his boot and shoe store. One of the conditions of his engagement was that he should regularly attend his uncle's church, the Mount Vernon (Orthodox) Congregational Church, and also its Sunday-school. This promise he faithfully kept and was so much impressed by the truths he heard taught that in 1855 he applied for admission into the church. But his examination was not considered satisfactory and his application was held over for a year when he was thought to have made sufficient attainments in theology for church membership. In September 1856, he went to Chicago and quickly found a more lucrative position than his uncle could offer him, and made a reputation as a salesman and traveler in the shoe trade. He also accumulated $7,000 toward the $100,000 upon which he had set his heart. But while diligent in his business and uncommonly successful he became absorbed more and more in religious work. His energies were first spent upon the Sunday-school as teacher, as gatherer-in of new pupils, and most unpromising ones, who under his instruction improved marvelously, and then as superintendent of the North Market Hall Sunday-school which he built up until it had a membership of 1,500 and out of it in 1863 the Illinois Street Church was formed. He thus was well known in the state as a Sunday-school worker. From the time of his coming to Chicago he had entered heartily into the work of the Young Men's Christian Association, and he raised a huge part of the money for its building, not once but twice, for the first was burned in 1867, and the second in 1871. In 1861 he gave up business and was an independent city missionary, then agent of the Christian Commission in the Civil War and after that again in Sunday-school work and the secretary of the Chicago Young Men's Christian Association. But as yet he had done nothing to give him international fame.

In 1867 he made a visit to Great Britain on account of his wife's health -- he had married in 1862. He made some valuable acquaintances and did a little evangelistic work. One of his converts was John Kenneth Mackenzie. In 1872 he was again in Great Britain, held numerous meetings and won the esteem of prominent Evangelicals. From these he received an invitation to return for general revival work. He came the next year, bringing with him Ira David Sankey, who was henceforth to be linked with him in fame as a revivalist. They landed at Liverpool on June 17, 1873, and held their first services in York. Moody's downright preaching and Sankey's simple but soul stirring singing won attention, and as they passed from city to city they were heard by great crowds. They spent two years in this arduous labor, and then returned to America. Their fame was now in all the churches and invitations poured in upon them to do at home what they had done abroad, so they repeated these services and duplicated their successes, and that in all parts of the country. In 1881 and again in 1891 and 1892 they were in the United Kingdom. One of their most loyal supporters was Henry Drummond, who owed to them the quickening of his religious life in 1874.

In 1892 Moody by invitation of friends made a brief visit to the Holy Land. It was on his return to London that autumn that he first knew of the heart difficulty which ultimately caused his death. It may have been this knowledge that induced him during his remaining years to seek rather to deepen the spiritual life of professing Christians through church services of the ordinary quiet type, than to address the enormous miscellaneous crowds in all kinds of buildings as he did in earlier days. It was while holding services in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 16, 1899, that he broke down, and, although he was able to reach home, he was fatally stricken and soon after died.

Moody had "consecrated common sense." He was honest, preached a Calvinistic creed which he accepted with all his heart, and was master of an effective style. His sermons and shorter addresses abound in personal allusions, in shrewd remarks and home thrusts. He had a hatred of shams and scant respect for persons who had only place to recommend them. He was often abrupt, sometimes brusk. He had no polish, small education, but he knew the English Bible and accepted it literally. He was fond of treating Bible characters very familiarly and enlivening his sermons by imaginary conversations with and between them. But that he was truly bent upon promoting the kingdom of God by the ways he thought most helpful there is no doubt. Like other great revivalists he had much praise which was undesirable, but he never lost his head. He also never allowed excitement to carry his audiences off their feet. For sanity, sincerity, spirituality, and success Moody goes into the very first rank of revival preachers.

During Moody's and Sankey's mission at Newcastle, England, in 1873, the first form of the familiar hymn-book which bears their name appeared in response to the necessity of having a book which was adapted to their needs. This book was originally little better than a small pamphlet, but it was enlarged and has taken on various shapes and had varied contents while preserving its main features. The sale of the book in its different forms has been enormous. Up to 1900, more than a million and a quarter of dollars had been paid its compilers in royalties. Of his share in this money Moody made noble use, and thus opened a chapter in his life which is less known to the public, but will have more permanent interest than his preaching. For with it he founded, or helped to found, the chain of educational institutions which does not bear his name but which is his greatest monument. The first was the Northfield Seminary for Young Women, erected and carried on in his native town. It dates from 1879. This is a school which trains girls for college, if they go so far, but in any case gives them good instruction permeated with religion. All the work of the house is done by the students. In 1881 Mount Hermon School for Young Men was started. The two schools are only a few miles apart. The students are taken at very low rates, combine manual training with the usual school courses, and are under strong religious influences, The Bible Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago [now Moody Bible Institute], open to both sexes, is another of the educational aids which owe their origin to him. The Students' Conferences and the Northfield Christian Workers' Conference, both of which meet annually at Northfield, were inaugurated by him. They have exerted a great influence, and of a very sane and thoughtful type.

In church connection Moody belonged to the independent Chicago Avenue Church. In his activities he belonged to the Church universal.

Bibliography: The principal biography is by his son, W. R. Moody, Now York, 1900. Others are by R. Drummond, New York, 1900; J. S. Ogilvie, ib. 1900; and A. W. Williams, Philadelphia 1900. Phases of Moody's life and work are treated in: T. S. J., D L. Moody at Home, New York, 1886; H. M. Wharton, A Month with Moody in Chicago, Baltimore, 1894; H. B. Hartsler, Moody in Chicago, New York, 1894.

Copied from The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge... New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1910.

 

[JM]

Life of Dr Owen, by Rev. Andrew Thomson, B.A., Edinburgh

It is matter of just regret and complaint that no elaborate contemporary memoir of this great Puritan was ever written. Twenty years after his death, Cotton Mather, in his "Magnalia Americana Christi," declared "that the church of God was wronged, in that the life of the great John Owen was not written;" and it was only when twenty years more had elapsed that a life of Owen at length appeared, from the pen of Mr Asty, a respectable Independent minister in London; which, though written under the eye of Sir John Hartopp, a particular friend of Owen, and for many years a member of his church, is chargeable with numerous inaccuracies, and so scanty withal, as "not to contain so many pages as Owen has written books." In addition to this, an equally brief anonymous memoir has fallen into our hands, professing to have been written by one who "had the honour to know this eminent person well, and to hear him frequently; though he must confess that he had not then years and experience enough to conceive a suitable idea of the Doctor's great worth."

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/tex ... wbiog.html

 

[JM]

I can't believe no one has a soul winner to add to this list!

 

[Orthodox Christian]

How about Saint Patrick of Ireland- he began about 600 churches, and thousands came to Christ through his ministry. Through his influence, a once warrior/pagan Island became a haven and oasis of Christianity through the 'dark Ages.'

Or Saint Innocent of Alaska

Saint Innocent was born John Veniaminov in 1797 in the village of Anginskoye in Irkutsk province. The son of a church server, he entered the Irkutsk theological seminary at the age of 20. He married, was ordained a deacon of the Church of the Annunciation in Irkutsk, and became a teacher before being ordained at the age of 24. At 26 he volunteered to travel to the distant island of Unalaska in the Aleutians as a mission priest, accompanied by his aging mother, his wife, his son, and his brother. It took them more than a year to travel from Irkutsk to the island of Unalaska. He built churches, learned the local languages, translated the gospels and hymns, and expanded his mission to the surrounding islands. In Unalaska he wrote his famous "Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven." We went on to Sitka Island, to minister to the Tlingits (or Kolushchans), who had not heard the Gospel and served there for fifteen years before returning to St. Petersburge to report on the mission.

Innocent had marvelous sucess in reaching the Aleutians for Christ.

 

[JM]

John N. Darby made converts up to 800 a week! (so it's been said :D ) Many who became born again believers remained in their mainstream churches and are the forerunners of fundamentalism.

Quote: From 1827 to 1833, Darby's ecclesiology and eschatology were formed. Disenchanted with the state-church religion. Darby addressed in his earliest writing the heavenly nature of the church and the need for it to be unencumbered with earthly things. He soon discovered a group of like-minded people meeting in Dublin for Bible study, worship, and breaking of bread without ecclesiastical ritual and hierarchy. By 1831, he had left the Church of England and joined others in Plymouth, England, who were opposed to denominationalism, one-man ministry, and church formalism. From this time on, Darby's life would be inextricable from the influential Plymouth Brethren movement. The Powerscourt Conferences from 1831- 33 would provide the context in which Darby's eschatology would be aligned consistently with his ecclesiology. Afterward his innovations in both fields of theology would be widely accepted throughout the Brethren movement, yielding a new perspective and interpretation of Scripture that would be known as dispensationalism. http://www.tyndale.edu/dirn/bios/darby.html



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[JM]

Dr. Henri L. Rossier was born on January 25, 1835 at Vevey in French Switzerland to a family that was among the first there to gather to the Lord Jesus alone. After studying medicine at Zurich and Wurzburg he settled in his native Vevey, where he lived a long life of devoted self-sacrificing service. At age 27 he married Madeleine de Graffenried from Berne, and the Lord in time granted them six children. Along with practicing medicine for well over fifty years, as time went on he increasingly devoted himself to ministering the Word in assemblies and taking part in Bible conferences in Switzerland, Germany, and France.

However, it is for his written work that he is best known today. Acquainted from his youth with J.N. Darby, he began early in life to translate this brother´s writings into French. He was helpful also with the editing of Darby´s translation of the Bible into French and with preparation of the volumes of ETUDES SUR LA PAROLE, later to become better known as the SYNOPSIS after it had been translated into English. For 58 years he served as editor of MESSANGER EVANGELIQUE, a monthly magazine for the edification of believers widely circulated throughout the French-speaking world. He wrote many articles for this magazine himself, often while being driven in a horse-drawn coach to the homes of his patients.

Besides this, he wrote commentaries on most of the books of the Bible, especially on the historical and prophetic books of the Old Testament and on the epistles of Paul and Peter and the Revelation in the New Testament. He was a prolific hymn writer as well. Some 28 of his hymns are included in HYMNES ET CANTIQUES, the hymn book used among many French-speaking assemblies and which he played a major role in compiling and revising. Some of his hymns have been translated into English, as have his commentaries on Joshua and Judges.

After a long and useful life of service, he was called home to be with the Lord on March 20, 1928 at the advanced age of 93.

 

[JM]

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/wotm_flash.html

 

[JM]

http://www.ianpaisley.org/