Chapter 5 - Born, Not Of The Will Of Man, But Of God
Series: Our Fathers Saw His Mighty Works
Throughout the
centuries, it has often been a popular activity to compile genealogies or
family trees. Although these are
sometimes begun for no other reason than curiosity or hobby, they may aid those
of a younger generation in understanding themselves through learning about
their ancestral origins and formative influences. The recording of genealogies dates back to
the beginning of time when God in the book of Genesis preserved the ancestries
of the first humans who inhabited the earth.
In fact, each of our own family trees if completely assembled would
conclude, “Which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.” (Luke 3:38b
KJV)
In a far more important realm, all those who have become
children of God through faith in Jesus Christ have a spiritual family tree with
only two levels. Represented on paper it
is a Vine with many branches coming out of it.
No branch grows out of another branch, but each emanates directly from
the Vine. Every Christian is a direct
descendant of God and has a genealogy which reads, “Born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13
NKJV) No true Christian is a concoction
of imperfect human intellect and effort.
To believe so could lead to complete disillusionment with and
abandonment of Christianity. But every
Christian is a miraculous new creation in Christ.
As evidenced by
its name, the Lutheran Inter-Synodical Evangelistic Committee, which was
renamed the Lutheran Evangelistic Movement in 1945, was founded for the purpose
that men and women, young and old, might be miraculously born anew of God
through faith in Jesus Christ. And this
happened countless times. Although
documentation of specific instances is scarcer for the first eight years until
the monthly magazine Evangelize began to be published in May 1945, the
most significant testimonies are those of the original founders
themselves. The three evangelists that
Enoch Scotvold recruited to help him prepare that first evangelistic conference
in January 1937 were no casual second-generation Christians but had been
definitely, and in some cases dramatically, born of God. What had happened to them they longed to see
God repeat in the lives of others to whom they preached His Word. Thus they felt strongly led of God to begin
an organization in which evangelistic preaching might be promoted.
The oldest of these LEM founders, both physically and
spiritually, was Rev. Jens M. Halvorson.
He was born on February 16, 1878, in Wanamingo, Minnesota.1 Spiritually, he was born before the turn of
the century during the powerful “Revival in the Nineties” that coursed among
Norwegian Lutherans in America.2
At the time of his ordination in the Lutheran Free Church in 1902, he
gave the following testimony of God’s powerful moving in the first
two-and-a-half decades of his life.3
“Quite early [Jens] felt God’s
Spirit working on his heart. Concern
about his sin and lost state made a great impression on him and gave him a
longing in his heart to become a child of God.
During his preparation for Confirmation, this longing became yet
stronger and he repeated his baptismal vows on June 10, 1893, with the sincere
desire to forsake the Devil and live for the Lord. During this period of time he experienced
something of the happiness and blessedness that through faith his sins were
pardoned. However, he could not wholly
escape a guilty conscience.
“In the fall of 1893, he began to
study at [the Academy Division of] Augsburg Seminary. There he came under the constant influence of
God’s Word which often produced an anxiety in his soul and a fear of
death. Chased by a vicious conscience,
he could not find peace in sin nor was he really that serious in seeking the
Lord and His grace.
“This time passed until the fall of
1897. There was at this time a great
awakening and revival in Wanamingo. Many
among the young people came to experience life in God, including two of his
siblings. Now the Spirit of God overpowered
him. In a vivid realization that he had
been resisting God’s spiritual call, he yielded to God’s grace. But still it took a little more time before
he had saving faith in the blood of Christ.
“When he started to experience God’s
marvelous love and mercy in his own heart, it became his desire to go out to
his fellow human beings with the message about Him for the purpose of
converting sinners to blessedness and salvation.
“In the spring of 1899, he graduated
from the College Division of Augsburg Seminary.
In the fall of the same year, he entered the Theological Division of
Augsburg Seminary from which he received his degree on May 29, 1902. Being at the seminary had been a great
blessing for him. It had not been easy
and there were difficult times, but these served to make the grace of God more
and more precious. Finally it was only
trusting in this grace that he could confidently present himself for
ordination.”
Beginning in 1902, Halvorson proclaimed that message of
God’s saving grace as a parish pastor in Argyle, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois;
Ashland, Wisconsin; and Northwood, North Dakota respectively.4 Then in 1924 he and his family moved to
Minneapolis, Minnesota, from where he began to travel as the official
evangelist of the Lutheran Free Church,5 often accompanied by his
brother Martin who assisted with singing.6 During Halvorson’s fifteen years as
evangelist, he held meetings in nearly every Free Church as well as other
Lutheran congregations7 while being entirely supported by offerings
taken at the meetings.8
Clearly, the same power of God that had brought Halvorson himself to
repentance decades earlier was still mightily at work through him. Every year, his synod reported things like,
“His meetings have, by the grace of God, meant new life and interest to many a
congregation,”9 and, “We thank God for the evidences of His blessing
upon this work in the spiritual awakening and quickening which have followed
it. This work is to be commended to our
congregations for their prayers and participation”10
Perhaps the most memorable of the revivals which broke
out under Halvorson’s preaching occurred in Newfolden, Minnesota in 1933. Beginning on Tuesday, March 21, and
concluding on Sunday, March 26, Halvorson preached evangelistic services at
Bethlehem Lutheran Church.11
His specific texts and topics are not remembered, but it is possible
that his sermons during that 1933 Lenten season were similar to a series he
once suggested for a Deeper Life Conference:
Four
Crucifixions
1.
Christ for me
2.
I to the world
3.
The world to me
4.
The flesh.12
Filled with Scriptures and
illustrations from daily life, Halvorson’s bold preaching was used of God to
awaken many to their sinful condition while his tactful attitude showed sincere
concern for souls as he pointed them to Jesus the Savior.13 So many both young and old were converted
through the Holy Spirit’s moving14 that substitute speakers were
found for Halvorson’s next scheduled week of meetings in La Crosse, Wisconsin,
so that he could stay an additional week at Newfolden.15 The revival continued that second week to
such an extent that the young people remembered it vividly nearly 60 years
later.16 On May 1st, the Lutheran
Messenger reported, “News from Newfolden, Minn. Quite a few changes have taken place here . .
. Most of all do we thank God for the spiritual awakening in our midst and for
the many who have sought salvation for their souls these last weeks.”17
During the next several years, Halvorson’s evangelistic
meetings were in such high demand that he not only filled his schedule18
but had to decline some invitations.19 So many were these declined invitations that
the Lutheran Free Church added another full-time evangelist in mid 1936.20 Later that same year, Enoch Scotvold
approached Jens Halvorson with the request to help plan a conference on
Lutheran evangelism for January 1937.
Having seen a general growing hunger for the gospel and believing that
it necessitated a collaborative evangelistic effort among many Lutheran synods,
the veteran evangelist readily consented.
It is amazing to consider that, whereas Jens Halvorson
had been converted before the turn of the century, Evangelist John Carlsen had
not even been converted before the beginning of the decade in which Enoch
Scotvold recruited him. Carlsen was born
on September 29, 1899,21 in Hillesoy, Troms, Norway. There his devoted Christian parents raised
their family of fourteen while also caring for six orphaned children.22 Undoubtedly, John was affected early by his
parents’ Godly lives and by the fact that his mother told him she had dedicated
him to the Lord for Christian service and missions work.23 Yet he firmly resisted God’s call for many
years and “resented his mother’s transaction” with God.24
After finishing public schooling, John became partners
with one of his brothers in a commercial fishing business in Norway.25 By taking business training, he was able to
work his way up from a mere fisherman to bookkeeper and then buyer for their
fishing export firm.26 But
when the post World War I recession caused their business to collapse in 1921,27
John immigrated across the Atlantic where he found employment on a wheat farm
in Saskatchewan, Canada.28
The next year, he married his fiancée Konstance who had also immigrated
from Norway; and together they moved to Eagle River and then Milwaukee,
Wisconsin.29 Here John was
employed first with the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company and then with a
photography studio retouching portraits.30 And here he finally began listening to God’s
call at 30 years of age.
It was obvious that God had given John Carlsen many
talents. How else could one person work
in fishing, business, farming, manufacturing, and photography
successively? But it was also God who
took away one of these talents to begin getting this man’s attention. One day at the photography studio, John
suddenly discovered that he had lost his skill in retouching portraits. His loss of ability was so obvious that his
employer was forced to let him go.31
The loss of a job was a serious thing during those early years of the
Great Depression, especially considering that the Carlsens now had two young
daughters and owned their own home in Milwaukee.32 Still John resisted God and tested Him
further. Since God had only removed the
one talent, John instead began working as a carpenter and builder.33 But God’s call was persistent. Before long, John was injured on the
job. A short time later he was injured
again, and this time quite seriously.34 Finally, “he understood what all this meant
and was obedient to God.”35
Repenting of his sin, he joyfully received forgiveness and salvation
through God’s grace. And he began
enthusiastically preparing for God’s call to Christian service by taking
evening classes.36 Within a
year he moved his family to Minneapolis so that he could enroll as a student at
the Lutheran Bible Institute.37
One day at LBI in the fall of 1932, the course of the
rest of Carlsen’s life was determined during a Missions Survey Class on
“Unreached Fields” taught by Rev. Clarence O. Granlund.38 As Rev. Granlund described various
unevangelized areas in the world, the students - and especially John Carlsen -
were profoundly affected by the needs of South America.39 Said fellow student Stanley Olson, “While the
teacher moved on to other areas in his survey, most of us remained with our
thoughts and prayers riveted on South America.”40 As John and Stanley shared their mutual
God-given burden after class that day, John suggested that they begin a prayer
group41 “to call upon the Lord of the harvest that he would send
forth laborers to the Latin American field.”42 At the first prayer meeting, Stanley brought
a large map of South America over which the small group prayed, moving from
area to area.43
The prayer group began meeting weekly in the Carlsen’s
apartment44 and growing steadily until size forced it to move to the
LBI campus and then Calvary Lutheran Church (Rev. Granlund’s charge) and
Central Lutheran Church.45
After several years, the intercessors began calling themselves “The
South American Mission Prayer League”46 and praying more fervently
that God would guide some of His servants to a specific South American field of
His choosing.47 Little did
they know that they were praying for one of their own number. Shortly after John Carlsen graduated from
LBI, the Holy Spirit began to impress upon him that he himself was to go to
South America.48 But the
timing and the means were not obvious yet.
And so, for a brief time after finishing at LBI, Carlsen
became a parochial school teacher and a pastor’s assistant. But when an invitation opened the door, he
soon discovered God’s present calling for him as an evangelist within the
Norwegian Lutheran Church in America and for the Western Lutheran Bible Institute
in Montana.49 Still heavily
burdened for South America, he preached powerfully “combining an evangelistic
and missionary emphasis.”50
It was during this time that Enoch Scotvold asked him to become part of
a volunteer committee for planning a January 1937 Lutheran evangelistic
conference. Though still believing that
God’s ultimate call for him was to South America, the ambitious Carlsen
accepted the offer and thus became one of the founding committee members of the
Lutheran Evangelistic Movement.
Later that May of 1937, the South American Mission Prayer
League began to organize itself into a missionary sending agency.51 At an unforgettable prayer meeting on August
6, God made it exceedingly clear to those present that He was calling John
Carlsen and fellow intercessor Pastor Ernest Weinhardt to go to South America.52 In preparation for this, the two men toured
across parts of the United States presenting the cause of missions and
preaching evangelistically.53
Carlsen had already been doing this on his own for some
time with the mighty blessing of God upon him.
Earlier that summer, he had preached in Kloten, North Dakota. The closing service was scheduled for the
evening of Sunday, June 6, 1937. But at
that meeting “a mighty and sudden revival broke out.”54 Carlsen rejoiced that it “was one of the
more, if not the most, remarkable meetings I have had. It was marvelous in this respect: that it was
self-evident that it was all brought about by the mighty power of the Holy
Spirit. When I entered the pulpit, the
Holy Spirit gave me such a definite assurance that souls would be saved that I
started my introductory remarks by stating that God just told me that souls
would be saved tonight.” “About 30 souls
- young and old, men and women, boys and girls - were convicted by the Holy Spirit
of sin, righteousness, and judgment and surrendered to Jesus Christ.” “It was a blessed experience by which I have
been greatly humbled, and my heart is blessing God. The pastor said, ‘I will never in my life
forget this meeting nor will anyone else that was present.’” “Because of this sudden revival, we decided
to continue our meetings [the next] week also.”
At the end of 1937, Carlsen summarized the previous
months of evangelism: “The Word has been presented to thousands of souls on the
home-land . . . God has also, by His Spirit, through His Word led a good number
of unsaved sinners to the cross . . . .”55 Within two months, Carlsen and Weinhardt were
headed for Bolivia as the first missionaries of what became the World Mission
Prayer League, the story of which is capably told elsewhere.56 But yet John Carlsen’s heart was very much
with evangelism and with the work of the Lutheran Inter-Synodical Evangelistic
Committee of which he was still a member.
Enroute on a ship he wrote, “I have often thought of writing you asking
how the Conference on Evangelism fared” (the second such conference which was
held in January 1938). “I trust you had
a blessed time and that something real constructive for Lutheran Evangelism was
done. Were there many that attended? Please write me a few words about the
Conference.”57 By October of
that year, Carlsen and Weinhardt felt led of God that enough pioneer work had
been done in preparation for future missionaries that Carlsen should return
home and resume holding evangelistic meetings.
Eager to begin, he wrote from Bolivia, “All invitations for evangelistic
meetings or Bible conferences should be sent directly to my home address . . .
.”58 Upon his return, his
preaching continued to be greatly blessed of God.
If Jens Halvorson’s or John Carlsen’s testimonies were at
all lacking in dramatic effect, the story of LEM founder Joseph Stump more than
made up for them.59 Joseph
Luther Stump had been born in 1896 into the home of a chief contemporary
theologian. His father, Dr. Joseph
Stump, was not only an important leader within his denomination (which, through
merger, became part of the United Lutheran Church in America in 1918) but also
the well-known author of a systematic theology, a textbook on ethics, and “Stump’s
Catechism” which was a best-seller world-wide.
In later years, he was also a seminary chair and president. With such a man for a father, young Joe was
raised in a very religious, very staid, and very Lutheran environment. But even as a young boy he rebelled against
the propriety of it all and made it obvious that he had no intention of
following in his father’s path.
But in 1915, something changed his mind. During military service in World War I, Joe
found himself in a foxhole in France with several comrades. Gripped by fear as gunfire and explosions
rang overhead, Joe desperately prayed, “God, if you get me out of this mess,
I’ll do anything! I’ll even become a
minister!” God did indeed deliver him
and eventually brought him back home where he told his father about his vow to
the Almighty. With his father’s help,
Joe not only kept his promise by attending seminary and being ordained but
actually became a very successful minister, serving one of the largest ULCA
congregations. In this parish he
faithfully pastored for ten years, being loved by his parishioners among whom
he made many friends.
One of these became his most trusted friend, and together
they enjoyed many activities and spent much time. Then one day came the shocking and surreal news
that this friend was gravely ill and had only weeks to live. No matter how hard he tried, Joe was unable
to prepare himself for the dreaded day.
But soon it arrived and he received a phone call to come to the hospital
one last time. His friend had only hours
left to live.
As his friend lay dying, Joe Stump held his hand and read
to him from the Prayer Book. He assured
him that heaven was not far off now because he had been so active in the
church, had lived a good life, had believed the right doctrines. But just before passing into eternity, the
frail man lifted his head from the pillow and stared right into Joe’s eyes with
such a look of fear and horror that it was as if he were screaming, “Joe, why
did you deceive me? My soul is
lost!” But it was too late. He was dead, and Joe Stump was left with the
agony of a tormented conscience.
In the days following the funeral, Stump did not
recover. Deeply troubled, he took no
appointments and paced his office. His
wife and all of his closest friends and advisors assured him that he was just
shaken up over the loss of a friend and recommended that he take some time off
for relaxation and recuperation. But
Stump was miserable. He saw his
pastorate as a horrible failure and contemplated leaving the ministry. How could he continue when he possessed
nothing himself which he could give his people to bring them peace and
assurance of heaven in their dying hours?
Groping in spiritual darkness, Stump arranged a leave of absence from
his church. On his last Sunday, he forlornly
told his congregation that he was missing something and could not preach again
until he found it. Then he left by the
back door for a destination that not even his wife knew.
In all of Joseph Stump’s blackness, there was a flicker
of hope. One of the advisors in whom he
had confided after the funeral was an acquaintance of his from New York City,
the well-known Episcopal rector Samuel Shoemaker. Shoemaker had been the only one to
acknowledge that Stump had a real problem but also that God had the answer for
it. Quickly, Stump headed for New York
City. When he arrived, he checked into a
hotel and called Shoemaker. Shoemaker
was too busy to get together that day, but he did take time to listen to Stump
explain his troubles again in more detail over the phone. Stump concluded, “Maybe I need some new way
to make God more real to people.” To
this Shoemaker replied, “You sound like you’re talking about people being
saved. You ought to go to the Bowery
Mission. People get saved there all the
time.” This was somewhat foreign
terminology to Stump, but he was willing to try almost anything. That evening he headed to the Mission.
The Bowery Mission has been sadly described by one New
York City pastor as being on “the street of forgotten men. Drunks lie in the gutter and on the
sidewalks. The dregs of humanity
gravitate [there].”60 Dressed
in a dark suit and white collared shirt, Joseph Stump felt conspicuously out of
place as he took a seat among the dozens of men who smelled of filth and
alcohol. After the group sang a few
songs, Mission Director Hadley began his sermon. He dealt with sin, forgiveness, and salvation
through Jesus’ death on the cross. To
Stump it seemed fairly ordinary and quite similar to what he preached back
home.
But then Hadley continued: “Yes, I tell you that ‘all
have sinned’ and need to repent. In
fact, even those who stand behind pulpits need to be saved. Those with white collars have to be saved the
same way that bums need to be saved.”
Stump was furious at the insult!
He was the only one in the audience with a white collar and those around
him began glancing at him. As soon as
the service was over, he charged out of the Mission and headed for his hotel in
a blind rage. Seething in anger, he fell
into a chair in his room and spent the night there sleeping fitfully.
Early the next morning, the phone rang. It was Shoemaker wondering what Stump had
thought of the Mission the night before.
“Did you go up front, Joe? I mean,
when they asked for sinners who wanted to be saved, did you go, Joe?” Had Shoemaker really expected that? “Yes, Joe, I stayed home from an important
meeting last night to pray that you would do just that.” Stump felt betrayed. He hung up the phone having no more reason to
talk to this man who apparently thought he was as vile as a bum.
But as Joseph Stump continued to boil in anger, God’s
Holy Spirit began to speak to him and to suggest that perhaps he was a worse
sinner than he had thought. He recalled
familiar Scriptures on which he had often preached, but now God made them
painfully personal. As the hours passed
that day, he became convinced that he indeed was a wretchedly wicked person who
was unworthy to stand in God’s presence.
“He experienced an anguish of soul such as he had never known.”
That evening found Joseph Stump once again at the Bowery
Mission. Eagerly he listened to Hadley’s
message and waited for its conclusion so that he could bolt, not for the door,
but for the altar in response to the invitation to salvation by grace. Immediately, “a peace he had never known
engulfed him.” He had found what he had
been missing. On his way home, he passed
a billboard which said, “Coke - It’s the real thing.” “No it’s not,” he shouted. “I have it.
He’s the real thing!
Hallelujah!”
Upon arriving home, he told his wife what God had done
for him. She felt confused at first, but
within a few days she too had repented of sin and found peace with God. And of course Stump joyfully told his
congregation what had happened to him.
Now he preached to them from a heart of repentance and belief. As he did so, numerous souls found salvation
and many came from outside the church to hear this dynamically new-born
preacher. Wednesday evening prayer
meetings now saw packed audiences of vital Christians testifying with tears
about how Jesus had saved them from their sins.
Not everyone was pleased, however. To many people in Stump’s church and synod it
was offensive that the son of the prominent Dr. Stump would publicly proclaim
that, although he had studied in a Lutheran college and seminary and had pastored
a Lutheran church for ten years, he had not even been a Christian. His church board pledged to double his salary
if he would quit this new kind of preaching, and one member appealed to the
synod’s seminary to come and investigate.
Because at that time Dr. Stump himself was president of the seminary, he
answered this appeal by attending one of his son’s Wednesday evening prayer
meetings. After an assembly full of
tears and testimony, Dr. Stump had tears in his own eyes, saying, “Joe, all my
life I’ve wanted to know how to make this happen and I never could.” After a thorough examination, the seminary
was unable to find a legitimate reason for Stump to be removed from the
pastorate. His congregation was split
over whether or not he should be forced to resign. For a time, he continued on as their pastor;
but when the divisive battle showed no signs of ending, Stump resigned.
Now God led him into a full-time ministry of evangelism
using the dramatic story of his conversion to bring invitations for preaching
in various churches, conferences, and meetings.
Wherever Stump went, he testified of how God had saved him. Often his sermon texts were the parables and
miracles of Jesus, through every one of which he made plain the way of
salvation. Whenever Stump preached, the
Holy Spirit moved powerfully; and hundreds of souls were brought to the cross
of Christ over the next several years.
It was during this time that Enoch Scotvold recruited Joseph Stump for a
team of volunteer evangelists preparing the program for a Lutheran evangelistic
conference in January 1937. Stump
accepted and in the following years became a vital member of the Lutheran
Inter-Synodical Evangelistic Committee.
Enoch Scotvold
and the three evangelists that he assembled so many decades ago left no doubt
in their testimonies that they themselves had been born of God. They were not the product of men’s persuasion
or of rigorous religious discipline. They
had only been saved from sin by the direct intervention of the God who had sent
Jesus to die for them. Immediately upon
being born again, they were each overwhelmed with the desire to preach God’s
Word to others that they too might repent and receive God’s saving grace. When these four men came together in late
1936 to begin planning a Lutheran evangelistic conference, they did not know
the specific ways in which God would mightily bless their newfound ministry in
the years ahead. But they did firmly
believe that the same Word by which God had given them authority to become His
sons was the only means by which anyone else could be saved. Thus they enthusiastically joined forces in
proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to a seeking generation. And through the evangelistic organization
which they founded, God did indeed bring many sons and daughters to glory.
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