PART 1

It was in February 1812, just four months before the war of 1812 broke out, when the ship, the Caravan, set sail from Salem, Massachusetts. Adoniram Judson was accompanied by his wife, Ann. The next planned landfall would be India followed by further travel on to Burma. Adoniram Judson was to be the first missionary from the United States to go to a foreign country.

Judson was ordained, sent and funded as a Congregationalist missionary. However, during his studying and reading during the voyage, he became convinced that the Baptist practice of baptism by full immersion was the truly Scriptural one.

As a result of their change in belief, the couple were both baptized by immersion upon their arrival in Calcutta, India. Since they no longer had the Congregational backing for their missionary ambitions, they had to wait until such funding could be provided by a Baptist mission board.

When they finally arrived at their destination in Burma (name change to Myanmar in 1989), they were sponsored there as Baptist missionaries.

To get the full picture of Judson’s remarkable story, we must begin his story a few years earlier.

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Adoniram Judson was blessed with a huge intellect and was a “veritable bookworm” as a child. He learned to read at the age of three, took navigation lessons at ten, studied theology as a child, and entered Providence College (now Brown University) at the age of seventeen. It must have made his father very proud when Adoniram was named valedictorian of his class upon graduation from the college in1807.

At that time, Adoniram was a deist. A deist believes in moral teachings and that God created the universe, but does not believe in the divinity of Jesus. The deist believes that though God created the universe, God remains apart from it and permits his creation to administer itself, stressing the importance of ethical conduct, and to run it according to the natural laws God established.

Adoniram believed that he was in good company since Voltaire, Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Franklin had professed their belief in deism as well. He hid his deist belief from his parents, who thought he was a Christian like they were. Adoniram wanted fame and fortune. Both were certainly achievable, since deism allowed a belief in a god who does not intervene in the lives of mankind versus the Christian belief of a personal relationship with the God of the Bible.

His father was a Congregationalist minister in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He expected Adoniram to follow in his footsteps. When Adoniram revolted and told his parents of his belief in deism, he and his father argued bitterly, creating an unresolved division in the household.

Adoniram, like the story of the prodigal son told by Jesus in Luke 15:11-32, went to “a far country”, which in this case was New York City. He wandered for a time, but that proved unsatisfactory. He had been taught that the God his parents worshipped was all-knowing, all-powerful and knew the future. He had also been told that the God of the Bible was an angry and vindictive God, but that He was also a fair and just God.

A bizarre set of circumstances, which included the death of his closest friend, became a pivotal point in Adoniram’s life. He was shocked by the death of this friend, who had also been a staunch deist. According to deist belief his friend was now forever totally lost. Adoniram felt compelled to believe that the God of the Bible was the real God. Yet, his life was in turmoil when he returned to Plymouth and his family. He was now looking for inner certainty and direction for his life.

He enrolled at the new Andover Newton Theological Seminary, where he studied languages. He already knew Greek and Latin and now added the study of Hebrew (Aramaic). From that point on he was a new man and knew he would arrange his life to please the same God his father believed in.

In his second year at Andover he read the sermon “Star in the East” by Dr. Claudius Buchanan, which emphasized the need for evangelism in the Far East. This was the catalyst that caused Adoniram to decide to become a foreign missionary. He evolved from hoping to be a foreign missionary to deciding where he should go to serve. The more he read and studied the more he was sure that signs pointed him to Burma. However, there was no organization yet formed that could offer to sponsor him.

His father was not aware of Adoniram’s plans to become a foreign missionary. Unbeknownst to his son, his father had arranged for him to become the assistant pastor at the largest church in Boston after Adoniram’s graduation. All Adoniram had to do was to accept the Boston call. When informed about the Boston arrangement, Adoniram said emphatically “NO!”… he was going to Burma! Yet, he still needed to find a foreign mission board to sanction and support him.

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In Part Two we’ll continue the story of the life of America’s first foreign missionary and why his accomplishments still have relevance today. See you back here on Thursday.

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Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28: 19-20

He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Luke 10:2

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If you have a story or testimony that you think might bless others,
I invite you to send it by email to me (Kenneth Kersey) at godsotherways@me.com.

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