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Welcome to Our Christian Heritage.
My name is Randy Melchert, and we're here today with Bill Federer.
Bill Federer is the author of America's God and Country, Encyclopedia
of Quotations. And today we're going to start
talking about William Booth, the Salvation Army. What was
William Booth? Where did he come from? Why was
he impacted in such a way that he started a worldwide movement?
Well, William Booth was born in 1829, and he was a pawnbroker. He was in England and would go
to the poor neighborhoods and see the poor. He became a Christian
and wanted to minister to the poor. Then he began reading Charles
Finney's lectures. Charles Finney was a lawyer in
America who then became a preacher. He would say things like, there's
no honorary members. In other words, if you're a Christian,
you have to show it. And so this gave birth to different
movements. And so here is William Booth
saying, I want to do something. And so he marries Catherine Booth
in 1855. and they decide to start a ministry
called Christian Mission, and they worked to get young girls
out of sex trafficking. Lo and behold, the evil people
that would go to a poor family and say, well, you have a daughter,
we can give her a nice career, and we can give her... help her
up and this and that and the parents would say really really
really promise you know and they go yeah well as soon as they
would give the girl to her she'd be in a brothel somewhere and
um hard terrible stories uh and so katherine booth said i felt
as though i must go and walk the streets and besiege the dens
where these hellish iniquities were going on to keep quiet seemed
like being a traitor to humanity. So here's this Catherine Booth
going into these smoky inner city dens and rebuking these
deceitful, ugly criminals. And so then William and Catherine
Booth decide that they're going to rescue a girl out of sex trafficking. And so they actually buy a girl. Well, guess what? The people
in the government that were participating in this traffic decided to prosecute
the booths. for sex trafficking. And they
have to defend themselves. It ends up becoming front page
news. It works its way all the way
up the courts. Finally, they're vindicated. But now the evil
of this sex trafficking of underage girls is public knowledge. And
with the help of a Josephine Butler, they pushed through the
Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which raised the age of
consent, where before it was like 13 years old. And so here,
the Booths decided we're not just going to be honorary members,
we're going to do something. And they literally changed the
laws in England to protect these young girls. And then they set
up 117 homes. The first one was called White
Chapel for these girls to escape to. They were like shelter homes. William Booth said, while women
weep as they do now, I'll fight. While little children go hungry,
I'll fight. While men go to prison, in and
out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight. While there is a
drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets,
where there remains one dark soul without the light of God,
I'll fight. I'll fight to the very end. So you get an insight
into the motivation behind William and Catherine Booth. And so they,
in 1880, learned about sweat shops where they would have businesses
and make people work, you know, in terrible conditions. But one
of the issues was Fosse Jaw. What's fossey jaw? They would
make matches, the kind that you could strike anywhere. And so
it was a little stick piece of wood with the little flammable
stuff and at the very tip was a little drop of phosphorus. And the way they made these was
the people would take the sticks that had the flammable stuff
there, but they would touch it to their tongue and dip it in
a little dish full of phosphorus and then set it in the tray to
dry. And they would do this over and
over again. Well, sure enough, at some point the phosphorus
began to be in their mouth and it would eat away the calcium
and eat away their teeth, eat away their jaw, and it would
glow green at nighttime. and just horrible disfiguration. And so the booths championed
matches that only struck on sandpaper. So if you've got a, you know,
a pack of matches or something and you need that little brown
piece of sandpaper to rub it on, that goes all the way back
to William and Catherine Booth and solving this terrible situation
with Fossey job. Well, they ended up by 1879 having
1900 voluntary speakers. They had 75,000 meetings and
they were invited into the the palace there, and they met
King Edward VII and Winston Churchill. They were awarded the badge of
honor there in London, and then they began to open up branches
in other countries. We're talking Australia, India,
Switzerland, Canada, Jamaica, Hong Kong, and in 1885, the United
States of America. And so they had a semi-military
form of government with a structure, and it has stood the test of
time. While so many other organizations over time, they end up getting
infiltrated with people that want to de-emphasize the gospel
and move in a secular direction. the Salvation Army has stayed
true to the mission of the founders, William and Catherine Booth.
Well, William Booth corresponded, he met Teddy Roosevelt and wrote
letters back and forth and In 1903, he writes a letter to Teddy
Roosevelt saying, you know, thank you for what you're doing in
America and may the blessings of him who maketh rich and addeth
no sorrow be on the White House and the nation it represents.
William Booth was invited to open a session of the U.S. Senate
in prayer. But it's interesting, even Booker
T. Washington, who founded the Tuskegee
Institute. He was the black president of
Tuskegee. He said, I'm very glad to hear
the Salvation Army is going to undertake work among my people
in the southern states. I've always had the greatest
respect for the work of the Salvation Army because I have noted that
it draws no color line in religion. Wow. So in other words, if you
really want to get rid of the race problem, Christianity is
the answer. All the other ones that they
want to keep some type of class structure, that's the Marxist
strategy is you get people to identify with subgroups and then
you pit the subgroups against each other to bring out a social
and domestic riots and crises and then that's an excuse for
the communist governments to take over. 45 countries felt
the communism that way. The British did the same thing
when they took over India. They would go to one kingdom
and give them guns, another one give them guns, and then incite
animosities, and then they would fight each other, and the British
would take over both. It's Proverbs 6 where it talks about things
that God hates, and the last is, he that soweth discord amongst
the brethren. And so it's really only the gospel
that says you see people for their heart, and they're made
in the image of God. I tell people it's software,
not hardware. Right? Imagine somebody coming
and saying, well, you know, red computers are better than blue
computers. It's like, really doesn't matter
what color the computer is. It's what software, what apps
do you have running on the thing? It really doesn't matter what
somebody's skin color is. It's what software do they have
running on their brain? Is it a selfish, a me first,
or is it the gospel that you love one another and be willing
to give your life for one another? Anyway. So the Booths ended up
making this great impact across the nation. And it all started
with this guy that was a pawnbroker. And he got touched by the Lord
and then decided... Now in America, Evangeline Booth,
the daughter of William and Catherine, she becomes the head of the Salvation
Army in America. and she gets recognized by President
Woodrow Wilson and many of the leaders, and then she becomes
the leader internationally. So again, women rise up in the
leadership. This is a Christian organization.
And disaster relief, they helped out during a San Francisco earthquake
in 1906. There was no FEMA. There was
no federal emergency when there's a crisis. It was just volunteer
organizations. The Salvation Army was one of
these important ones. Then during World War I, they
would be over in Europe behind the army. They would be ministering
to the soldiers and giving them coffee and soup kitchens and
so forth, and taking care of those that were sick. So you
have Franklin Roosevelt acknowledging the work of the Salvation Army,
and even Lyndon Johnson, and he says, you know, when other
armies put down their guns, you know, and leave the front lines,
I hope the Salvation Army stays on the front lines. So here's
a quote from William Booth. Here's a line that's attributed
to him. It says, Most Christian organizations
would like to send their workers to Bible school for five years.
I would like to send our workers to hell for five minutes. That
would prepare them for a lifetime of compassionate ministry. Wow. It's like, oh, okay. And then
William Booth said this, What are you living for? What is the
deep secret purpose that control and fashions your existence? What do you eat and drink for?
What is the end of your marrying and giving in marriage, your
money-making and toiling and planning? Is it the salvation
of souls, the overthrow of the kingdom of evil, and the setting
up of the kingdom of God? If not, you may be religious,
but I don't see how you can be a Christian. So, again, just
a story of someone, that humble pawnbroker, and how he's touched
by the Lord, and 150,000 people came to his funeral. I mean,
just a tremendous impact that William and Catherine Booth and
their daughter, Evangeline, had on the world. That is incredible
that one person has this impact. Yeah, and it's almost like to
the same degree that there's evil, God's looking to raise
up somebody that's good. If there's general evil, you'll
have a general good, but if it's terrible, terrible evil, there'll
be fewer and fewer that have the courage to stand up until
finally there's just the one. And obviously the one was Jesus. He personally was the only righteous
one, you know, it says all have sinned, but Jesus was the spotless
Lamb of God. But you look at it, God loves
to raise up Christians and to stand up and encourage. Matter
of fact, It's almost like he likes it when the odds are stacked
against us. If you remember the story of
Gideon, there's 100,000 Midianites, and Gideon gets 30,000 Israelites. And God says, too many. Tell
everyone that's scared to go home. Then he's whittled down
to 10,000. Still too many. Go drink from
a creek. Whittles it to 300. And then God rolls up his sleeves
and says, now watch this. In other words, God likes it
when it looks hopeless, and he can find somebody with faith
and courage that stands up. Now, another one is George Williams. People say, who's George Williams?
Well, he lived at the same time as the Booths. He's over in England,
and he reads Charles Finney's lectures on revival, and he decides
to start the YMCA. Young Men's Christian Association. And one of the quotes from George
Williams, he actually got knighted, so it was Sir George Williams,
founder of the YMCA, he said, My lifelong experience as a businessman
and a Christian worker among young men has taught me that
the only power in this world that can effectually keep one
from sin in all the varied and often attractive forms is that
which comes from the intimate knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ
as a present Savior. George William continues, and
I can also heartily testify that the safe guidebook by which one
may be led to Christ is the Bible, the Word of God, which is inspired
by the Holy Ghost. So here the founder of the YMCA
says the only thing that can keep men from sin is the gospel,
is a relationship with Jesus Christ. So the Young Men's Christian
Association has membership in the millions in 124 different
countries. The original emblem for the YMCA
was a triangle, and it was spirit, mind, and body. And it had a
scripture, John 17.21, right there. You can look on the internet
and see the old... John 17.21 says, "...that they
may be one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they
also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast
sent me." In 1885, the words Spirit, Mind, and Body were added
to the triangle, and underneath was the letters XP. Now, for those that are familiar,
XP is the Chi Rho, the letters in Latin that are the first two
letters of the name Christ. So, the letter that makes the
K sound is called the Chi, and it's written as an X. Christ,
the R sounding letter, is called Rho, and it's written as a P. And so you'll see this in a lot
of, you know, fourth century Christian writings, the X and
the P, and it stands for the Chi Rho, the first two letters
of the name Christ. Like we abbreviate states with
two letters. Back then they would abbreviate
names with the first two letters. Now, in the Middle Ages, it got
shortened just to the Chi, and it was called the Christ's Cross,
or they would pronounce it Criss-Cross. The very term Criss-Cross comes
from Christ's Cross, and it was a form of a written oath. And
so you'd court, you'd put your hand on a Bible, swear to tell
the truth. Well, if you were going to swear upon a document, you would sign
at the Christ's Cross. That's come down to us as sign
at the X. And then they would kiss it to show sincerity. And
so that's come down as the X's and the O's on the bottom of
a valentine, that you're swearing before Christ to keep your pledge
and you're kissing it to show sincerity. Anyway, but on the
emblem of the YMCA, it said Spirit, Mind and Body, John 17, 21, and
the Chi Rho, the XP. And anyway, so the YMCA, a lot
of things came out of that. And one of them was over in Switzerland,
a guy named Henry Dunant, and he led the Geneva YMCA. And when there were different
wars going on in Europe, he would minister and organize taking
care of the wounded on the battlefield. And he ended up starting the
International Red Cross. And one of the people that came
over from America to help was Clara Barton, and then she went
back to America and started the American Red Cross. And by the
way, Henry Dunant was at the very first organizing meeting
for the Jews to take back The Holy Land. It's interesting that
they began to minister in Turkey and in Muslim countries, but
they were offended by the cross, so they changed it to the Red
Crescent, so their ambulances would have a Red Crescent on
it. But that came originally from the Red Cross, so the founder
of the Red Crescent was really Henry Dunant, who supported Israel.
And then we see D.L. Moody. He was a shoe salesman
in Chicago, and I'll tell some more about him later, but he
ran the YMCA in Chicago. And in the 1871 Chicago World's
Fair, you know, he raises the money to rebuild it, but... Because of the Chicago Fire.
The Chicago Fire. Mrs. O'Leary's cow. allegedly
was the one who kicked over and started the Chicago fire. Yeah,
and the ash of that fire blew across the lake and was burning
up all kinds of areas that were hundreds of miles away. So again,
here we have George Williams starting the YMCA. Now another
interesting person started the YWCA and her name was Mary Jane
Kinard. And she started the Young Women's
Christian Association. And she helped work with Florence
Nightingale, one of the pioneers of nursing. And then she built
hospitals over in the areas of India and so forth. And so the
founder of the YWCA, You see the ripple effect, you
know, the Charles Finney, the Sir George Williams, and now
it's Mary Jane Kennard. She started an international
prayer movement. And one of the quotes that she
did, she said, we need to unite in prayer in reference to the
condition of the Jews, Mohammedans, and the heathen world. And she
said, prayer awakens such strong opposition from the world of
flesh and the devil. Hence, the power of prayer went to one God
and Father through one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, by one
Holy Spirit, the prompter of prayer. The multitude of them
that believe appeal for strength to fight the good fight of faith."
Now, again, a lot of these organizations over the years would have people
donate money. And sometimes people with a lot
of money have agendas that are not as biblically motivated. and the leadership of organizations
would say, well, we want to accommodate this person because they gave
so much, so we'll de-emphasize a little of the gospel message
here, a little there, there, and before you know it, you've
backed away. And instead of it being a spirit,
mind, and body, it's a community service, it's this, that, and
the other, but you've backed away from the gospel. Because
today, most of the time, when you think of a YMCA, you think
of an athletic gym. But originally, its purpose was
so much more. Right. And so there's a need
for us to try to reclaim some of these organizations. And when
they, again, get the big boards and those that give lots of money,
that have an agenda that's not biblical, they will help pull
the organization in an anti-biblical direction. A similar situation
happened with the Boy Scouts. You read Lord Baden-Powell, and
he actually printed pamphlets, and he says, the Boy Scouts is
applied Christianity. you know, to do a good turn daily
and all this. But then, more recently, the
organization grew with a tremendous overhead and in debt, and they
decided to cave to those pushing a radical alternative sexual
agenda, and the membership has dropped off to significantly
less than it used to be as a result. But one other person, now that
we're talking about social impact organizations, is Goodwill. Now, people think of Goodwill
as a place where you can donate stuff and get used up, but Goodwill
was actually founded as a Christian ministry. Rev. Edgar James Helms. He was a United
Methodist minister. The year was 1902 when he founded
it. He insisted that they have prayer
every morning. He said, if we ever stop praying,
this organization will not be what I intended it to be. But
he wrote this in 1918. Again, this is Edgar James Helms,
founder of the Goodwill Industries. He says, if the Spirit of God
is to dominate the whole social order, then must he be manifest
as much in the family and industry and state as he is in the church.
the church has a greater task of evangelism than to secure
individuals who will lift their hands for prayer, or sign a card,
or shake hands with an evangelist. So you can see some of that Charles
Finney ripple effect, that it's not just going to church and
shaking hands with the evangelist after the service and thinking,
well, I did it. He goes on, he says, no. Employer and employee
must shake hands in mutual respect and cooperation. The era of exploitation
and competition between nations and races must end in mutual
helpfulness and goodwill. Jesus Christ and his gospel must
permeate industry and every human interest as well as preaching
and education. the church of his divinely appointed
agency for this task. So again, these organizations,
you see their signs and you see their stories, they had a Christian
beginning to meet the needs of people, but it was a manifestation
of their Christian faith, going all the way back to the Charles
Finney Second Great Awakening revival. that the gospel impacts
every area of life, that it doesn't just affect what you do on Sunday,
it affects seven days a week. It does. Now, the importance
is speaking the gospel, because once these organizations say,
well, we're just going to meet the needs of people, we're going
to not emphasize the gospel, what happens is it loses its
vitality. And so with this movement, It
was, okay, you're a Christian, but you also do the works. The
next step was, you just do the works. And so you have these
organizations that say, we're just going to do the works and
we're not going to share the gospel. And then the next step after that
is the social justice, is liberation theology, is we want to do riots
and even kill people to push our agenda that we think is going
to bring heaven on earth. And that always is opposite of
what Jesus intended. I walk people through the steps. So let's say somebody becomes
a Christian, and they're telling everyone about how their life
has changed, and they are now living a godly life. and they
rise up in church leadership and after a while they don't
talk as much about their conversion experience as they had and there's
a new person in the church and they say hey I want to be like
that older respected Christian leader and he's doing living
a good Christian godly life I want to live just like him hmm and
so he ends up trying to follow all of the outward things and
it more or less turns into works And then he goes home to his
kids and he says, kids, you got to go do this, do this, do this,
do this, do this. And his kids are growing up thinking
this Christianity is legalism. And they end up saying it's impossible
to live up to all these rules and standards. And they end up
getting rebellious and they end up leaving the church. And then
some of them try to say, well, there's no God, and they back
away. And then you're back to somebody getting saved again.
And so the disconnect is speaking the gospel. And so if the Lord
changes your life, you get involved in church and you rise up and
you say, you know, okay, I'm just going to live a godly life.
Yes, but tell people. that you're living the godly
life because Jesus changed your heart, because you're a sinner
saved by faith. It's not just what you're doing,
it's telling why you're doing it. Right, right. So you want
to live the godly life, but at some point you need to put the
gospel in there. Otherwise, even the ones that
like you, they're going to try to model after you, and then
it's going to turn into works. So it's not just with individuals,
but it's with organizations. So an organization that's founded,
they need to continue to stay true to the gospel message as
well as minister to the needs of the poor. That's a fun challenge,
trying to weigh both things that are important, but it's so easy
to let go of the one. Right. But the Lord gives us the ability
to do it as long as we seek Him. If you're excited about something,
you're going to talk about it. And so if you have a personal
relationship with the Lord, you need to spend time with Him in
prayer, spend time in His Word, and that keeps the intimacy and
the fire burning. Now, the Finney ripple effect
continued. And you had someone that went
to his church in New York, the Marble Collegiate Church, and
his name was Jeremiah Lamphere. And he decides to put out a sign
in front of his store in New York, inviting people in for
prayer. The year is 1857. There's a financial
collapse in New York. And this is a serious financial
collapse. You have hundreds of businesses
closing. You have banks failing. Railroads
went bankrupt. 900 mercantile businesses in
New York City went out of business. 900? There were over 30,000 out
of work in the city of New York. So this is a crisis time in the
city and Jeremiah Lamphere puts out this sign like one person
comes to pray, but the next time maybe half dozen. And by the
end of the week, you have a hundred. And then the next week, several
hundred. Next week, several thousand. Until pretty soon, it began to
spread across the country. And vice crime decreased, and
people returned stolen money, and saloons closed down. And there were 50,000 praying
in New York. Every day at lunchtime, Utica, New York, daily prayer.
Albany, New York, Newark, New Jersey, 3,000 came to Christ.
Boston, all the leading businessmen, publicans and sinners were awakened. Haberville, Massachusetts, Washington,
D.C., Philadelphia, 4,000 met. At James Hall, philanthropists
were giving money. One philanthropist is John Price
Cozer. He says, I have never, I think,
been present at a more stirring and edifying prayer meeting.
The room was full and divine influence seemed manifest. So
it was a layman's prayer revival. There was no church organizing
it. It was just spontaneous. And
then it was out of this that you had a businessman in Chicago
named D.L. Moody, a shoe salesman, and in
1858 is when he began a Sunday school for inner-city poor kids.
In other words, he is now going to do something with his faith.
Wow. We're going to pick that up after
this break. This is Randy Melchert, and this is Our Christian Heritage.
William Booth & Jeremiah Lanphier by Bill Federer
Series Our Christian Heritage
Historian Bill Federer talks about God's work in American history.
| Sermon ID | 219251647268 |
| Duration | 31:07 |
| Date | |
| Category | TV Broadcast |
| Language | English |
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