Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith
The Bible is filled with biography – one character after another parade across the pages. God loves to teach lasting lessons through the lives of individuals. With that in mind, Stephen Davey has undertaken a special biographical series illustrating biblical truths through the lives of contemporary believers. These ordinary men and women provide a wonderful legacy. They are influenced and influential because of their faith in God. They are Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith.
Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith
A Tale of Trials and Triumphs: The Life of Adoniram and Ann Judson
Have you ever wondered about the incredible stories of faith and courage left behind by those who dedicated their lives to spreading the Gospel? Get ready to be inspired as Stephen Davey unveils the remarkable story of America's first foreign missionary, Adoniram Judson, and his tenacious wife, Ann. Journey with us through their extraordinary lives, filled with trials and immense suffering, yet leaving a legacy that continues to inspire Christians to this day.
Discover how Adoniram's early days as a precocious child led him to surrender his life for the sake of the Gospel. Learn about the Judsons' bold decision to leave their religious past and financial support behind, setting sail for India, and the challenges they faced in spreading the Word in a foreign land. Hear the profound impact Adoniram's ministry had on the Burmese people, resulting in thousands of baptisms and a Bible translation that remains popular to this day. Reflect on the three truths revealed through his life: serving Christ does not eliminate potential suffering, willingness to suffer is often the key to spiritual fruit, and what matters most is a life surrendered. Immerse yourself in the captivating story of Adoniram and Ann Judson, and be inspired by their unwavering faith and courage.
music playing. Welcome to Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith. As you listen, through this series, Steven Davie will introduce you to our Faith in God. I'm your host, Scott Wiley. This series is produced by Wisdom International. You can learn more and access all of our other resources at WisdomOnlineorg. Today you'll meet Adnar M Judson. Judson's biography is one of ups and downs, high levels of rare stories that captivate you like a grand literary classic but convicts you like a great revival sermon.
Speaker 2:Here's Steven, to introduce you to Adnar M Judson In John's Gospel, chapter 12, the Lord Jesus is speaking to his death and his resurrection and his coming glory or glorification. And the Lord is not only speaking prophetically of his own death but of all those who surrender, in fact, to this day, those who surrender their lives to following Jesus Christ, no matter what. Look at verse 24 there. This will be the life verse lived in. Introduce you to a tonight, perhaps in a little bit deeper way. But the Lord says in verse 24 of John 12, truly, truly, i say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. And Jesus certainly implies here that suffering in hand. In fact, there seems to be some parallel, doesn't there, between suffering much and influencing much for the glory of Christ. Have you ever wondered why it is that people were still reading about today and people were still studying in the Bible and throughout church history, people who accomplished so much? in fact, it seems like the more they suffered, the more they are studied to this day, still influencing our world for Jesus Christ. And may these individuals be an encouragement to us and this testimony tonight, The words of our Lord as he enters Jerusalem, knowing that within days he's going to be still echo to this day. With this lasting principle, a legacy of spiritual fruit belongs to that man or woman, young person who effectively says to Jesus Christ here am I, bury me. If there was anybody in church history that seemed to fit this description at least in modern church history of a fruitful life of surrender, it would be the man who would become America's first foreign missionary. He would suffer incredibly. He would bury all but one of his children. He would dig graves for his first wife and then his second wife, 19 years later As well, from disease and difficulty. In fact, long after becoming a living legend, adnar M Judson would write this kind of appeal to potential missionary candidates Ready for this. I quote remember a large proportion of those who come out on a mission here to the east of their native land. So walk softly. Death is narrowly watching your steps. How's that for a recruiting strategy? Are you willing to be a seed planted in the ground by suffering, even dying? bear a harvest of fruit for the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, as I mentioned, this missionary's name was Adnar and I am Adnar's home.
Speaker 2:In 1788 in Boston, massachusetts. By the age of three, he was already revealing that he was a rather precocious child, a quick learner. His mother was able, to her surprise, to teach him how to read in one week. My mother had the same problem with me, and it's a. It was during a week, while his father was away preaching, and Adnar surprised his father upon his return by reading an entire chapter to him from the Bible, three years of age. That wasn't me, i don't know about you. At age three, i was climbing up the stairs. The alfaric could go up and jump and still survive. That was my level when he was 16.
Speaker 2:His father enrolled him in Rhode Island College, now Brown University. He did that because his father, although his father graduated from Yale, considered at that time Yale and Harvard to be too liberal. If only he could see them now. Well, adnar would go to Brown University. He'd be at the top of every class throughout college and he would graduate in 1807. However, he would keep a secret that would not be revealed for at least a year, and when he revealed it after his 20th birthday, it would break his parents' heart.
Speaker 2:Adnar had been heavily influenced by a fellow student named Jacob Eames, artistic, and he was an unbeliever. Jacob became one of Adnar's closest friends, and he introduced Adnar to what was called then free thinking, which is basically atheism, french skepticism And it ultimately denies the deity of Christ and the gospel of atonement. By the time Adnar Judson graduated from Brown University, he had to read at the age of three, and he'd also abandoned the gospel. After informing his parents of his, with their hearts shattered, he attempted to tutor for a year. That didn't work out, and so he set out to tour New England on horseback.
Speaker 2:He eventually joined a group of actors in New York City where he lived what he called a reckless, vagabond life. He would write that they would find lodging in an inn, run up the score and then slip out in the middle of the night without paying any of their bills. But after only a few weeks in New York City with these actors, he kind of grew tired of their undisciplined lifestyle And he struck out on his own again, roaming without any purpose, without any meaning searching. One night he stopped to spend the night at an inn He'd never stayed at before, and the innkeeper apologized to him when he arrived that he would more than likely have his sleep interrupted by a young man next door, in the room next to him, who was violently ill. Sure enough, during the night, the moaning and the crying and the groaning of the young man in the next room kept him awake. The man seemed to be on the brink of dying. His moaning and his groaning and lamenting and crying kept Adoniram lying awake on his bed almost all night.
Speaker 2:Adoniram wondered about this young man's soul. Where would he spend eternity? What was his hope after death? And in fact he realized he shouldn't be asking those kinds of questions because he didn't believe that anymore. In fact he would recount later that he himself already there thinking the same thoughts about his own soul And if he were that young man. Eventually the moaning stopped and Adoniram slipped off to sleep.
Speaker 2:But early the next morning Adoniram got up and he asked the innkeeper about the young man's health. The outcome And the innkeeper confirmed that the young man had indeed died hours earlier. Adoniram asked him do you know who he was? And the innkeeper said oh yes, his name was Eames, jacob Eames, and Adoniram could hardly move. He would stay at that inn for hours pondering the death of his friend, and he would later tell a friend, and I quote, to think that hell should open up in this country inn and snatch Jacob Eames, my dearest friend and guide, from the next room. This could not, simply could not be pure coincidence And of course it wasn't The sovereign grace of Christ. In fact, adoniram realized that God was on his trail, he said. He immediately returned home and, to the joy of his parents, a few months later, trusted Christ for his personal salvation and devoted himself to the Lord. He would be marked forever by that event that God so dramatically used.
Speaker 2:Two years later, he was wrapping up some seminary studies and he applied for missionary status with the Congregational Church, a Congregational Mission Board. As a student, he had heard a sermon that illustrated the mission fields of Burma, china, india, and he determined to give his life to serve Christ in that part of the world. Which is then interesting again that his parents, who were thrilled with his conversion, were not happy with his desire for missionary service overseas, and in fact he had been offered a faculty position at Brown University, which he declined, much to the frustration of his father. He was offered a paid pastoral position in a church nearby his family home, which he declined to his mother's tears. On the same day he presented himself to the Congregational Mission Board, he met a young woman named Anne Hasseltine And over the next few weeks they quickly fell in love. Adam was clear about his life's goal. He told her and everybody else he was heading for Burma, that's located between Southern India and China, a land that we now call Myanmar. She turned that to be just as committed to the gospel as he was. So one month after meeting her again, this is not what you want your children to hear. One month after meeting her, he asked her father if he could marry her.
Speaker 2:His letter to Anne's father is revealing. I'm going to read some of it to you because it reveals his passion for the lost and it's almost prophetic. In detail The letter reads, by the way Dad's imagine some young man wanting to marry your daughter and his proposal sounding like this 1800s English. I quote I have now to ask you whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world. That's a period for me.
Speaker 2:Think about it, listen. Whether you can consent to her departure for a heathen land, her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary's life. Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influences of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you? for the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of heaven and the glory of God, can you consent to all this in the promise of meeting your daughter in the world of glory with a crown of righteousness, brightened by the acclamations of heathen? now saved through her means? who will there be praising her Savior? How's that for a proposal, man? imagine I'd like to take your daughter away from you to a heathen land where she'll probably suffer every deprivation and, more than likely, a violent death. You could see, can't you in this young man? no holds barred. This is what I'm going to do, this is where we're going to go, this is what matters most.
Speaker 2:Anne's father said yes, and so did she. In a way, anne, her father, mother, really, we're all saying the same thing to God, just in different ways. Here am I, bury me. Two weeks after their wedding. They are on a ship bound for India. The voyage would last four months.
Speaker 2:I want to bring up one thing, because it creates problems and again shows you a little bit of their character. It's going to create problems with their congregationalist supporters back home and their family. Remember, his dad is a congregational pastor. You see, during this voyage they spent a lot of time ransacking the book of Acts, the gospels, studying the word on subjects related to church planting, and they came to the conclusion that salvation should precede baptism. And they also concluded that baptism, correctly understood, literally translated, could only mean immersion.
Speaker 2:In that voyage they changed their entire view and their affiliation And, by the way, this is no small thing. They departed from America as congregationalists and landed in India as baptists. Now, the problem was there was no American Baptist missionary board He's the first missionary from America So they effectively declined, walked away from all of their support and their supporters. I bring that issue up because it reveals something about them early on, both of them Their willingness to confront their religious past, their willingness to potentially upset their families, their willingness to lose all their financial support, all for the sake of biblical conviction, which reveals quite a bit about the metal of their character that will be put to the test. Adnarum and Ann Judson were baptized by immersion soon after landing in Calcutta, india, by the son of William Kerry Felix was his name with whom they stayed when they arrived. They would trust God and, frankly, never look back.
Speaker 2:Now the good news was when news reached America of their changed position, baptist churches rallied. Evidently they were a little slower than the congregationalists and they created the American Baptist Missionary Union and promptly began supporting them. Now there were other changes ahead for them. They expected to settle in an area where they were not allowed. When they arrived, they had to move several times and eventually they settled on an area known as Rangoon, burma, just north of Thailand.
Speaker 2:There they would spend the next ten years of their lives attempting to learn the Burmese language. They had to learn it without a teacher, without a grammar, without a dictionary, without any other believers, without a church, without any help. Adnarum had to learn Ann's wife Ann, by literally creating his own Burmese grammar. God wired him at three to prepare him for what he would be doing at 23. So he would spend several years creating his own grammar, learning the language. It would take six years of study before he was able to preach his first sermon. Finally, seven years after arriving, adnarum led the first Burmese individual to faith in Jesus Christ. Think about it seven years before one convert to Christ. I mean, that doesn't really sell all that well to the supporters back home, does it? But they stayed with it. Part of the problem was, in Burma, converting from Buddhism was punishable by death. Little wonder it would take Judson twelve years before he had eighteen people baptized and in the church, twelve years, eighteen people.
Speaker 2:On one occasion, adnarum and another missionary traveled to see the emperor of Burma to petition for freedom to preach and for people to convert without losing their lives or being threatened of the loss of their lives. He not only disregarded their request, but he threw the gospel tract that Adnarum had written to the ground after reading only a few lines. In the meantime, roger William Judson, their little boy, died at eight months of age. Back in their home region, anne Judson continued serving along with her husband. She had been able to befriend the wife of the political leader in Rangoon sort of like the governor in our culture and begin to make inroads More long. A printing press arrived and materials that Adnarum had translated into Burmese were now being printed by the thousands. Still no real fruit, but they were now coalescing into printed materials that they could distribute, and they were being distributed. It included a full and complete translation of the gospel of Matthew. Eventually, adnarum would complete the entire New Testament into Burmese. Not the time he finishes this translation, war breaks out between England and Burma, and all of the English missionaries are immediately suspected of being spies for the British government.
Speaker 2:There was trouble in the air. Five years after baptizing their first convert, on June 8, 1824, burmese officials suddenly broke into their home, threw Adnarum to the ground, tied him up and dragged him away to prison. He was placed in a prison building with a hundred other inmates, male and female. They were all lying on the floor, their feet in stalks and iron chains weighing 14 pounds. In fact, adnarum would wear the scars of those chains for the rest of his life. At night, he records, a bamboo pole was passed between the prisoner's shackled feet and then hoisted up by pulleys so that the prisoners literally hung upside down at a height which allowed their shoulders to rest on the ground, while their feet were pulled above their heads all night long. After some time, adnarum was moved to a cage that once housed a lion, not high enough to stand, not broad enough to lie down.
Speaker 2:During this time, anne delivered their daughter, maria. She would walk to that jail every day, bringing Adnarum food that she would beg the jailer to pass along to him, because the prison supplied no food. Inmates simply starved to death. Soon she became ill and unable to nurse her baby. Finally, if you can imagine this, the jailer had mercy on them and actually let Adnarum take the baby each evening into the village and beg for some nursing mother to give their baby milk. Finally, suddenly, adnarum was released from prison.
Speaker 2:Almost two years in there He was evidently needed to translate between the English and the Burmese. They found a use for him and they let him go. By the time he returned home, anne was dead. A few months later, their little Maria died. A few months after that he received news that his father had also only recently died as well, and he was crushed by it all. It just all bored down on him.
Speaker 2:He entered a deep depression. It would last nearly three years. He dropped his translation work. He retreated from anything that might promote any sense of happiness or pleasure. He refused to eat with those outside the mission station. He renounced his honorary doctorate that he had been given from Brown University. He gave all of his savings away to the Baptist mission board and asked that his salary be reduced. He then built a hut some distance from his mission compound, deep in the jungle, dangerous and the lone, where he moved in. He even dug next to the hut an open grave where he expected to be buried, and he would sit in that grave for hours contemplating the decaying of his own flesh.
Speaker 2:He would write in his journal, though, and on one occasion during this time he wrote these words of utter spiritual desolation. He said, and I quote God is to me the great unknown. I believe in him, but I cannot find him. He subsisted on a little rice each day, and he actually spent his days reflecting, and he would even pray for some sign that God had forgiven him for all sorts of imagined failures, for not living up to his calling, for not being a more humble missionary, for getting caught up with the pride of his commitment, for accepting the accolades that he had received from others.
Speaker 2:On and on, the turning point came, and it was surprising, it was actually a letter informing him that his brother, elnathen, had died at the age of 35. But ironically, this became the first step out of depression, because Adoniram had been praying, had prayed for 17 years specifically for his brother's salvation, but to no avail. However, the letter informed him that not only had Elnathen died, but Elnathen, before dying, had trusted Jesus Christ for salvation, and that was sort of this puff of wind in his sails that moved him back to the mission compound. He picked back up his translation work and the next year 1831, was the beginning of an incredible outpouring of spiritual interest that he had never seen before. Is it possible that God, in his timing, waited until this seed had truly died, buried? But now the refreshing work of God's Spirit was enabling him breathing new life back into him And, ironically, a great harvest is about to begin. Starts out slowly at first, but it's already seen as different. Instead of what God did for him, eight years after Ann's death was bring to him another bride.
Speaker 2:Adoniram married a widow of a longtime missionary partner in Burma. Instead of going back to the state, she decided to stay there. They married, had several children, the family grew and as it grew, the church grew. On September 1835, he completed the Old Testament translation of the Bible into Burmese, and he also baptized the one hundredth member of the Burmese Baptist Church. Now, these, when he had started out, had been his goal. He wanted to translate the Bible into Burmese and he wanted to baptize 100 converts who trusted in Jesus Christ. And they were now accomplished And he was rejoicing. He was thrilled. Then his wife Sarah's health began to decline and they decided to go home to America to recover for her and to raise awareness of the mission that God was indeed establishing. It was taking root. There were now a hundred believers. Sadly, she would die in root to America and be buried on an island while Adoniram and their three oldest children continued on.
Speaker 2:When they arrived in Boston, adoniram, much to his surprise, was greeted as a celebrity. Newspapers covered his arrival and every move. Everybody wanted to meet the first American missionary to now return some 20 years later, with stories of distant lands and great danger and disease and difficulty and prison shackles And you know all that stuff. Since Adoniram was actually suffering at the time with a lung problem, he could only talk in a whisper through an assistant. In addition, he hadn't spoken English for nearly 20 years and he had a hard time, he said, putting three sentences together properly. In fact, he had written to his board before his arrival and he said to them, and I quote Do not expect me to make public addresses, for in order to become an acceptable and eloquent preacher in a foreign language, i had deliberately abandoned my own. He had literally stopped speaking English. Congregations and gatherings in the eastern part of America were somewhat disappointed that instead of talking about his adventures, he most often simply wanted to whisper the gospel and talk about Christ. He had truly died to self. While in America he met a woman with a rather well-known literary career underway. They fell in love. She agreed to be his wife and leave her career comforts of home for 108 degree weather Disease difficulty. She too became one more seed to say here I am, lord, bury me. They arrived back in Burma and that's when the work literally exploded.
Speaker 2:Adonis began a ministry with a group of people called the Kerens, a people group, a large ethnic group there in the country that was still following traces of Old Testament truths. It's really interesting to study some of this amazing preservation of truth through oral traditions. In fact, they had handed these down for centuries. They called them the traditions of the elders. Add, an armed Judson, by the way, had no idea. No idea. It's as if God had reserved his encounter with the first Keren, a people group member, until now. But their traditions included, for instance listen to these, the story of a creator God who created man and then a woman from that man's rib. They also believed in a devil who tempted them into sinning. They believed in a Messiah who would come one day to the rescue. They were actually living with the expectation of a messenger who would come to deliver news of the Messiah and deliver to them news from a sacred parchment roll.
Speaker 2:And here comes Adonis Judson, just perfectly timed by the Lord, while he had once spent years sitting in a public hut he had built, praying that someone would accept his invitation to come in and inquire about the gospel. Now, in one winter alone, when they returned, 6,000 people came to their home to inquire and ask for material. Some would travel three months from the borders of China and arrive saying and I'm reading what he was writing, quote sir, we hear that there is an eternal hell. We're afraid of it. Do give us a writing that will tell us how to escape it. Others came from the north, saying we've seen writings that tell of an eternal God. If you are the author, referring to his tracks that by now had been distributed that far, if you are the author, please give us more so that we can know the truth before we die. If you can imagine this beloved, in one year alone Adonis Judson and his team baptized more than 1,000 converts. 12 years to reach 18 people in one year over 1,000. That buried seed is now bearing a harvest of fruit Truly amazing.
Speaker 2:After several years of fruitful ministry, his health began to fail and he was now 61 years of age. He had been through so much. When he had arrived in his early twenties, he had hoped and prayed for 100 believers soon after his death at the age of 61. There were more than 200,000 Christians and hundreds of churches. In fact, one out of every 58 Burmese citizens had accepted Jesus Christ For the last 150 years. By the way, since his death, every dictionary and every grammar written in Burma is based on the work of Adonis Judson. His Bible is still the most popular premier translation for the Burmese people. All of that he did alone, buried, on the day he baptized his first convert. He had waited seven years to see it happen. He had written in his journal these rather audacious words I love this. He says, and I quote Oh, may this baptism prove to be the beginning of a series of baptisms in the Burman Empire which shall continue in uninterrupted success to the end of the age. And guess what? It's still taking place. There are now nearly 4,000 evangelical Baptist congregations, which include 1.9 million people in that country and counting, and they all trace their spiritual lineage to the legacy of Adonis Judson.
Speaker 2:On April 3, 1850, he boarded a ship for a voyage he hoped would help him recover his strength and steady, became terribly ill And eight days into the voyage he passed away. Listen to this simple conclusion. The crew gathered in silence as they wrapped his body for burial at sea. No family or friends on board, And after a few words by a captain who didn't believe the gospel, his body was lowered into the Indian Ocean without even a prayer. I don't think that would have mattered to Adonis Judson. He had died long ago and his welcome into the presence of his eternal Savior would have been wonderful to see A seed, a kernel of wheat, surrendered, sacrificed, buried, but even to this day bearing fruit.
Speaker 2:We can observe a lot of truths from this man's life that I'm going to give you three statements very quickly. Number one serving Christ does not eliminate potential suffering. Serving Christ does not eliminate potential suffering. Secondly, willingness to suffer is often the key to spiritual fruit. Willingness to suffer is often the key to spiritual fruit. Number three what matters most is a life surrendered which effectively says no matter where you are, no matter where you are, no matter where I am. What matters most is that we are saying Lord, here am I, bury me. There's a marble slab outside of Baptist Church in the town where he was born, molden, massachusetts, placed there in a memorial. That says all that I believe Adon-Iron Judson would care to have said, and I close with what that slab declares Reverend Adon-Iron Judson, born August 9, 1788, died April 12, 1850. Molden, his birthplace, the ocean his grave, converted Bermans and the Burmese Bible his monument. His record is on high.
Speaker 1:That was Steven Davy, the president of Wisdom International. You're listening to his series called Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith. If you enjoyed hearing the story of Adon-Iron Judson, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcast or wherever you're listening, And please subscribe so that you won't miss an episode. Steven has a website filled with resources to help you know what the Bible says, understand what it means and apply it to your life. Learn more at wisdomonlineorg. I'm Scott Wiley. Thanks for listening. Join us again next time on Modern Heroes of the Christian Faith. Thank you.
