The Aquila Report

Your independent source for news and commentary from and about conservative, orthodox evangelicals in the Reformed and Presbyterian family of churches

Providence College
  • Biblical
    and Theological
  • Churches
    and Ministries
  • People
    in the News
  • World
    and Life News
  • Lifestyle
    and Reviews
    • Books
    • Movies
    • Music
  • Opinion
    and Commentary
  • General Assembly
    and Synod Reports
    • ARP General Synod
    • EPC General Assembly
    • OPC General Assembly
    • PCA General Assembly
    • PCUSA General Assembly
    • RPCNA Synod
    • URCNA Synod
  • Subscribe
    to Weekly Email
  • Biblical
    and Theological
  • Churches
    and Ministries
  • People
    in the News
  • World
    and Life News
  • Lifestyle
    and Reviews
    • Books
    • Movies
    • Music
  • Opinion
    and Commentary
  • General Assembly
    and Synod Reports
    • ARP General Synod
    • EPC General Assembly
    • OPC General Assembly
    • PCA General Assembly
    • PCUSA General Assembly
    • RPCNA Synod
    • URCNA Synod
  • Subscribe
    to Weekly Email
  • Search
Home/Churches and Ministries/William Booth’s Steadfastness in Ministry Despite Strong Opposition

William Booth’s Steadfastness in Ministry Despite Strong Opposition

"Fifty years hence it will matter very little indeed how these people treated us. It will matter a great deal how we dealt with the work of God.” - William Booth

Written by Vance Christie | Thursday, May 13, 2021

Even the great Earl of Shaftesbury, a leader in the evangelical branch of the Church of England and an eminent social reformer, announced that after much study he was convinced the Salvation Army was clearly antichrist. One of the Earl’s admirers then revealed that in his own studies he had learned that the “number” of William Booth’s name added up to 666.

 

In Scripture and throughout Church History there are many examples of committed Christians who continued to faithfully, bravely carry out their God-directed ministries in the face of stiff or sometimes even fierce opposition. Not a few such Christians continue to do so around the world today. Their examples show us how to respond appropriately to such challenging situations and inspire us to be similarly brave and faithful with the Lord’s help.

William Booth, who founded the Salvation Army in 1877, is one such worthy model in this regard. Booth and the Salvation Army zealously proclaimed the Christian Gospel of salvation from sin and its deserved judgment through faith in Jesus Christ. They also ministered actively and compassionately to the material and moral needs of the lower classes of society. Tens of thousands of people were eventually helped and elevated through their ministries.

But initially Booth was repeatedly assaulted in the press by government and religious leaders alike. They attacked not only Booth’s unique evangelistic methods, but also his bold notions of how to bring about moral-social reform.

Professor Thomas Henry Huxley, a biologist and an agnostic who more than anyone had won public acceptance for Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theories, wrote twelve letters blasting Booth in the London Times. Huxley viewed Booth’s sway over his followers as being “the prostitution of the mind” and a worse evil than prostitution or alcoholism. He characterized Booth’s campaign to make people sober and hardworking as nothing more than a ruse to herd “washed, shorn and docked sheep” into his “narrow theological fold.”

Read More

 

Related Posts:

  • Lord Shaftesbury: Evangelical Social Reformer
  • Were The Christian Abolitionists Wrong?
  • William Perkins and the Priority of Scripture
  • John Wycliffe, Reformer Part 1: Wycliffe vs. the Begging…
  • Opportunities and Opposition

Subscribe, Follow, Listen

  • email-alt
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • apple-podcasts
  • anchor
Providence College
Belhaven University

Archives

Books

Special

  • About
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact Us
  • Donations
  • Email Alerts
  • Leadership
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Principles and Practices
  • Privacy Policy

Important:

Free Subscription

Aquila Report Email Alerts

Special

  • About
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Principles and Practices
  • RSS Feed
  • Subscribe to Weekly Email Alerts
Providence Christian College - visit

DISCLAIMER: The Aquila Report is a news and information resource. We welcome commentary from readers; for more information visit our Letters to the Editor link. All our content, including commentary and opinion, is intended to be information for our readers and does not necessarily indicate an endorsement by The Aquila Report or its governing board. In order to provide this website free of charge to our readers,  Aquila Report uses a combination of donations, advertisements and affiliate marketing links to  pay its operating costs.

Return to top of page

Website design by Five More Talents · Copyright © 2023 The Aquila Report · Log in