John Knox
John Knox was born in Haddington, near Edinburgh around 1514. In 1536 he graduated from St Andrews University and was ordained a priest. He became a notary and tutor, but in 1543 was converted to Christ and embraced the Reformed faith. He was much influenced by the preacher George Wishart, and became his bodyguard. After…
Read MoreGeorge Fox
In 1647, as a 23-year-old, Fox was already a discerning critic of his culture. When human counselors could not fill his spiritual void, he turned to Bible reading and prayer, often in the sanctuary of “hollow trees and lonesome places.” On some of these occasions he received “openings,” e.g., that attending a university does not…
Read MoreWilliam Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison, born in 1805 in the seaside town of Newburyport, Massachusetts, came of age in a nation teetering between the ideals of liberty and the brutal realities of human bondage. The son of a struggling Baptist mother and an absent father, Garrison was raised in poverty and piety. His mother, Frances Maria Garrison,…
Read MoreAleksandr Solzhenitsyn
In these dark days in which the power of secular fundamentalism appears to be on the rise and in which religious freedom seems to be imperiled, it is easy for Christians to become despondent. The clouds of radical relativism seem to obscure the light of objective truth and it can be difficult to discern any…
Read MoreDietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer was born in 1906, son of a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Berlin. He was an outstanding student, and at the age of 25 became a lecturer in systematic theology at the same University. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer became a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church,…
Read MoreCorrie ten Boom
THE TEN BOOM FAMILY In 1837, Willem ten Boom opened a watch shop in this house. He lived with his family in the rooms above the shop. The home was later passed down to Willem’s son Casper, and then to Casper’s daughter, Corrie. The Ten Boom family were devoted Christians who dedicated their lives in…
Read MoreFyodor Dostoevsky
“Life is in ourselves and not in the external,” writes Fyodor Dostoevsky in a letter to his brother dated December 22, 1849. “To be a human being among human beings, and remain one forever, no matter what misfortunes befall, not to become depressed, and not to falter–this is what life is, herein lies its task.”…
Read MoreIsaac Backus
During the American Revolution, numerous men assisted in forging the United States. Only a handful of men, however, contributed significantly to building the philosophical foundations of both the new government and a new church denomination. Isaac Backus was a founder of the Baptist denomination, which grew out of the American Congregationalist Church. It is currently the largest…
Read MorePaul of Tarsus
Early Life Paul himself tells us (Acts 22) that he was born in Tarsus in the south-east part of modern Turkey called Cilicia to a Jewish family of the tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11) and, important for Paul later in his life, born a Roman citizen (Acts 22). Knowing that he was present as a…
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