200 years ago today, a man named Adoniram Judson jumped on a ship with his wife, Ann, and gospel partner, Luther Rice, and headed toward the unknowns of Burma.  Take some time today and get to know this amazing missionary pioneer.  I promise, his life will greatly benefit yours.  Millions of Christians in Burma today (now Myanmar) find their heritage in Judson’s life and ministry to this country.

• Judson’s Wikipage 
• His Great Missionary Biography, To the Golden Shore, by Courtney Anderson.

“First in War, First in Peace . . .” [:] One Baptist Chaplain of the America Revolution

By Dr. Roger Duke

Used with Permission.

“Light Horse Harry Lee ha[s] famously eulogized his friend Gen. George Washington as ‘first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.’”[1] This bromide might also be attributed to our Baptist chaplains, especially in the founding of the American Republic as she was being forged through the crucible of war.

From the time of the Protestant Reformation through present Baptist history, the military chaplain has played an integral role in times of war, national emergencies, as well as in times of peace. From their common deaths on the battlefield, men such as Ulrich Zwingli to Dale Goetz have given that “last full measure of devotion” to the cause of Christ and His Church. All the while, they attended to the spiritual needs of the soldiers who had also gone into “harm’s way.”

Consider the Swiss Reformer:

Zwingli himself died on the battlefield, in the prime of manhood, aged forty-seven years . . . . He made no use of his weapons, but contended himself with cheering the soldiers. . .  . Soon after the battle [of Kappel] had begun, he stooped down to console a dying soldier, when a stone was hurled against his head by one of the Waldstatters and prostrated him on the ground. Rising again, he received several other blows, and a thrust from a lance. Once more he lifted his head, and, looking at the blood trickling from his wounds, he exclaimed: “What matters this misfortune? They may kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul.” These were his last words.[2]

In memory of his contribution to the Reformation, “Zwingli[’s] . . . statue, with a sword in one hand and the Bible in the other, stands near the municipal library at Zurich.”[3] “Ministers of the Gospel have always played an important role in history. Of particular interest . . . [are the] chaplains in the United States.”[4]

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Sometimes it is easy to fall into the gloom and doom prophecies provided to us by our modern media. This video should be a great encouragement. This is not a guy trying to build his ratings through fear and intimidation of the uninformed populace; he is simply trying to get out his message that the world is not as bad as we may think. Unfortunately, he is under the impression that all of this is unaided by the will of a sovereign God. Hopefully someone in his life will be able to share with him the good news that human success is not determined by green initiatives, personal health, or any other man-centered venture which could fail with human weakness; our improvement is based upon the love of a good and sovereign God.

Many people today often look at history through a very narrow lens.  This type of view, this narrow lens view, is often found on college and university campuses all over the world.  What is more, history is seen subjectively as an order of events that takes place in randomness, albeit with somewhat of a butterfly effect, questioning cultural frameworks, ideologies, subjective morality, and the problem of evil.  For example, historical events such as the Holocaust are explained away in subjectivity whisking away any objective reason behind the evil of the Germans during this time.  Questions and objections are often raised against Christianity by using the evil of historical events (i.e., the Crusades) to equate evil with a system of beliefs.  This is in fact a common fallacy that people try and hold over those who follow Jesus and claim to serve in his church.  I am not trying to credit The Crusades with being a good thing, but I am saying that you cannot judge a worldview by ones corruption of it. 

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