Seeing God in the life of Wilberforce
Emma and Samuel and I are back from a great week of vacation. Some good time with my parents in Monson, Maine. Some good time preparing our house for the arrival of a baby girl. Some good time in a little cottage near the ocean in Wareham, MA. And some good time celebrating Emma’s birthday on June 7.
My holiday reading consisted of two books.
First, R.C. Sproul’s book The Last Days According to Jesus</i., in which Sproul carefully examines Jesus’ teaching on the last days in Matthew 24. Sproul helped me to get a much better understanding of preterism: the (gravely mistaken, in my judgment) view that the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. fulfills all the end-time promises of Scripture.
Second, my friend Kevin Belmonte’s excellent biography William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity. I was helped, challenged, and encouraged by this book. Wilberforce was the chief human instrument in the 18th and 19th centuries in the abolition of the British slave trade. He was an evangelical who loved the Bible and believed passionately in the truth of Scripture. Kevin Belmonte is well-qualified to write the book – he was the lead historical consultant for the major motion picture ‘Amazing Grace’ which came out a couple years ago about the life of William Wilberforce.
Kevin does a great job of bringing Wilberforce to life — of describing his conversion to Christ, his fight for abolition, his pursuit of the reformation of manners in the England of his day, and his enduring legacy. I think I was most challenged by Wilberforce’s radical commitment to his family. In 1812 he resigned a powerful seat in Parliament in order to be able to spend more time with his family. He wrote: ‘I conceive that my chief objects should be First; My children. Secondly; Parliament.’ He invested himself heavily in educating and raising his children. This prioritization paid off. His family loved him dearly and respected him greatly. Two of his sons become ministers in the Church of England. Soon before Wilberforce died, he wrote: ‘I do declare that the delight I have in feeling that there are a few people whose hearts are really attached to me, is the very highest I have in this world. What more could any man wish at the close of life, than to be attended by his own children, and his own wife, and all treating him with such uniform kindness and affection?’ I was challenged and moved by these sentences. Indeed, what could matter more?
A warm thank you to PCF and the elders for letting us get away this last week. We’re looking forward to plunging back into ministry.
Posted by Stephen Witmer on Jun 8, 03:32 PM