Heroes of the Faith: with J.John and Killy

Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson defied every convention of the Victorian era to make remarkable contributions to biblical scholarship.

The 18th-century missionary David Brainerd was a man who had a brief life but an astonishing influence.

Brainerd was born in 1718 to a prosperous local administrator in a New England still influenced by the Puritans. Orphaned early and lacking any relationship with God, Brainerd decided to enter the newly created Yale College. In 1739, after an intense spiritual search, he underwent a conversion to Christ.

Anyone travelling through the United States will come across schools, colleges and universities that carry the name of Asbury. They bear witness to a remarkable hero of the faith.

Nee was born in 1903 in Fuzhou, south-east China. His grandfather had been one of the first pastors in China and his mother dedicated him to God before his birth. Despite this, and an education in a school run by a missionary society, Nee grew up without a personal faith. However, at the age of 17 he accepted Jesus in a powerful conversion experience. Totally dedicating his life to God, he immediately started witnessing to those around him.

Catherine was born to a cloth dyer in Siena, Italy, in 1347, the twenty-third of twenty-six children, most of whom didn’t survive infancy. It was a tough time and place to be born: the Black Death, which was to kill a third of Europe, was spreading; much of what we now know as Italy was a mosaic of warring factions; and the Catholic church, which had brought some measure of stability to Europe, was in disarray with the Pope exiled at Avignon in France.

One Christian hero who I am privileged to have met is Richard Wurmbrand. His story, told in Tortured for Christ, impacted me deeply as a young student.

Watts’ hymns were of such quality and so rich in spiritual insight that objections to hymn singing in churches faded away for good.

Phoebe Palmer was one the foremost Christian leaders of the 19th century and someone whose influence continues to the present day. She stepped out from her comfortable New York home to do whatever the Lord demanded of her.

Two figures dominated the evangelical church of Britain in the late nineteenth century: the nonconformist preacher Charles Spurgeon and the Anglican preacher, writer and bishop, John Charles Ryle.

Few people have achieved as much for the kingdom of God in as little time as Henry Martyn, missionary and Bible translator, whose life ended when he was only thirty-one.