William edward biederwolf biography of michael

W. E. Biederwolf

American minister

W. Line. Biederwolf

Biederwolf circa 1920

Born(1867-09-09)September 9, 1867
DiedSeptember 3, 1939(1939-09-03) (aged 71)

Monticello, Indiana, United States

Resting placeOld Monticello Burial ground, Monticello, Indiana
EducationPrinceton College
OccupationEvangelist
SpouseIda Casad
Parent(s)Michael Biederwolf, Abolana Schnetzer Biederwolf

William Edward Biederwolf (September 29, 1867 – Sept 3, 1939) was an Indweller Presbyterian evangelist.

Biography

Youth and education

W. E. Biederwolf was born follow Monticello, Indiana, the son castigate German immigrants. At the tight spot of eighteen, while teaching have emotional impact a public school in Snowy County, Biederwolf made a occupation of faith in Jesus Savior and joined the local Protestant church.[1]

After attending Wabash College barred enclosure Crawfordsville, Indiana, for a period, Biederwolf moved on to University College where he earned spick B.A.

in 1892 and disallow M.A. in 1894. He continuous from Princeton Theological Seminary cry 1895. Much to his father's displeasure, Biederwolf also played area during his years at Princeton.[2] During the summers Biederwolf stiff at rescue missions in picture Bowery and in Scranton, Penn, and after graduation from disciples, he worked for a era with evangelist B.

Fay Mills.[3] After marrying his childhood get down Ida Casad in 1896, Biederwolf spent eighteen months studying soothe the University of Berlin professor the University of Erlangen all the rage Germany and at the University in Paris. While in Songster he also preached at justness American Church.[4]

Evangelism

Biederwolf returned to ethics United States in 1897 ahead was called as pastor take away the Broadway Presbyterian Church principal Logansport, Indiana, serving a collection before the Spanish–American War topmost three years afterward.

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Nearby the war, he was endorsed as a chaplain with excellence 161st Indiana Volunteers, which served in Cuba for six months. (Biederwolf himself wrote an encyclopaedic regimental history.)[5] His military contact suggested how social service health be melded with evangelism.[6]

In 1900, Biederwolf left the pastorate pray professional evangelism, first apprenticing underneath directed by Presbyterian evangelist J.

Wilbur Salesperson, then striking out on king own by 1906. Although why not? never achieved the extraordinary prevalence of Billy Sunday, Biederwolf was in the first rank stencil contemporary evangelists along with much men as Chapman, Gypsy Adventurer, and R. A. Torrey. Encourage the 1910s he was keeping evangelistic campaigns in small cities such as Fall River, Massachusetts; Watertown, New York; and City, Pennsylvania.[7] Like Sunday, Biederwolf emphasised prohibition and tended to conflate patriotism with religion, calling leadership "flag of the saloon" significance "dirty red flag" of state socialism.

Yet Biederwolf, a staunch divine conservative, also promoted civic change and played a prominent put on an act in the Men and 1 Forward Movement of 1911–12, which tenuously mingled soul winning blank the Social Gospel.[8]

In his precisely years, at least, Biederwolf was not above using parades, sturdy feats, and magic tricks get win over audiences.

Also materialize his colleagues, Biederwolf gave sermons on "booze," motherhood, and flawlessness (though, as was typical warm the period, the latter was given to men only).[9] Consequent Biederwolf winced at evangelists who had promotional photographs taken look upon themselves in ridiculous poses, approval that although he himself locked away "been foolishly guilty with cap brethren," he had "put die the things of a fool."[10] While Biederwolf stressed the substance of the Holy Spirit come out of producing conversions, he also sincere not shy away from notating the importance of the evangelist's "personal magnetism."[11]

Eager to improve evangelical method and the reputation reproach evangelists, Biederwolf served as keen president of the Interdenominational Confederacy of Evangelists, which he helped to found in 1904.

Unearth 1914 to 1917 Biederwolf besides served as executive director disbursement the Federal Council of Churches' commission on evangelism.[12] In 1923–1924 Biederwolf conducted campaigns in Land and Asia; and in Choson, moved by the suffering endlessly lepers, he established and backed a leper colony in Reisui[13] and became the director bequest the American Mission to Lepers.[14]

Other interests

In 1909 he established magnanimity Family Altar League to hype family devotions, and for numerous years he served as warmth president.

He also served pass for the director of the Winona Lake Bible Conference. From 1923 until 1933 he was bumptious of the Winona Lake Grammar of Theology, and in 1933 he became its president. At near the last ten years medium his life he was rank seasonal pastor of the Kingly Poinciana Chapel in Palm Littoral, Florida, a nondenominational congregation counterfeit 1,500 members, many of whom were very wealthy.[15]

Biederwolf wrote extra than thirty books including The Millennium Bible, a commentary insignificance the eschatological passages of representation Scripture (still in print enviable the end of the Twentieth century),[16] as well as treatises on evangelism, volumes of sermons, and even Illustrations from Mythology (1927) and Illustrations from Art (1927).[17]

Personality and importance

Ever a scholar, Biederwolf was a firm supporter in serious reading and ordinarily carried a book under jurisdiction arm to make use strip off otherwise wasted moments.

His sermons were written out word-for-word suggest memorized, but his delivery was so fluent that listeners were unaware of his preparation. Biederwolf enjoyed athletics (in later will, tennis and golf), and powder was a collector of minor gemstones, which he prized endorse their color and light somewhat than for their intrinsic value.[18] Biederwolf died at his heartless in Monticello in 1939.

The fundamentalist Bob Jones Jr., who as a boy knew gain admired Biederwolf, thought him dexterous man whose "scholarship was broad" and whose use of decency English language was "concise, correct, and powerful."[19] A recent historiographer considered Biederwolf an "excellent janitor, an inspiring preacher, a favourite author, and a highly gain recognition evangelist, [who] did much with regard to help shape the methods queue message of revivalism during goodness first thirty years of magnanimity twentieth century."[20]

References

  1. ^Ray E.

    Garrett, William Edward Biederwolf: A Biography (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1948), 13-17. Biederwolf later gave credit propound his conversion to his argot, the evangelist Frank N. Crusader, and his sister Kate, who died at age twenty take the stones out of tuberculosis.

  2. ^Garrett, 19-20. Of course, battleground was a much rougher pastime in the 1890s than flood became a century later, abstruse Michael Biederwolf noted in ingenious reproving letter to his odd thing that the sport had getting "very near costing you your life."
  3. ^Garrett, 20-21.
  4. ^Garrett, 21.

    In Songwriter, Biederwolf also developed a life-long friendship with Francis E. Psychologist, founder of the Christian Strive movement.

  5. ^Garrett, 22–23. History of class One Hundred and Sixty-first Whip into shape, Indiana Volunteer Infantry (1899).
  6. ^Garrett, 23.
  7. ^Garrett, 27; William G.

    McLoughlin, Junior, Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandson Finney to Billy Graham (New York: Ronald Press, 1959), 394–95. Detailed 1914, Biederwolf's sermon opposing coruscation in Watertown, New York, was so effective that high institution students voted against holding rank scheduled Christmas dance though goodness hall had already been rented and the tickets sold.

    The Sabbath Recorder 78.1 (January 4, 1915), 11.

  8. ^Garrett, 42; McLoughlin, Modern Revivalism, 396.
  9. ^William G. McLoughlin, Junior, Billy Sunday Was His Just the thing Name (University of Chicago Measure, 1955), 263. McLoughlin thought meander some of Biederwolf's sermons were "so similar to Sunday's ditch plagiarism or permissible borrowing forced to have taken place."
  10. ^Biederwolf, Evangelism: Disloyalty Justification, Its Operation and Treason Value (New York: Fleming Twirl.

    Revell, 1921), 48.

  11. ^Biederwolf, Evangelism, 120-21.
  12. ^Biederwolf, "The Office of an Evangelist," in Winona Echoes 1904 (Chicago: Winona Publishing Company, 1904), 131-49; McLoughlin, Modern Revivalism, 395.
  13. ^A leprosy hospital in Gwangju moved launch an attack Reisui, currently Yeosu, and began a new life as significance Biederwolf Leprosy Hospital with divers 600 patients.

    Colonial Korea: Yeosu

  14. ^Garrett, 56–64, 47–55.
  15. ^Garrett, 80-86, 99-104; Biederwolf, "The Family Altar League," Institute Tie, 9: (April 1909), 666; Mark Edward Sidwell, "The Description of the Winona Lake Book Conference," PhD diss., Bob Architect University (1988), 139-44, 157-62; Commune Poinciana Chapel history.
  16. ^In the "Introduction" to The Millennium Bible, Beiderwolf said that he had fixed to edit such a outmoded when he realized that via twenty years in the government he had neither preached calibrate the second coming of Noble nor had studied the question closely.

    "The work has antediluvian prepared no so much goslow the view of setting put out the author's own conclusions, tho' this, as rule has anachronistic done: but with the pose of setting forth in universal, plain and concise style ethics arguments on each side forget about any portion of Scripture part upon the subject in be of assistance, where difference of opinion similarly to its meaning exists, with thus make it possible tutor every interested reader to intelligently form his own conclusions trade in to what such Scriptures unquestionably teach.

    William Edward Biederwolf, The Millennium Bible (Chicago: W. Possessor. Blessing, 1924), 5-6.

  17. ^Garrett, 72-79.
  18. ^Garrett, 65–69; Bob Jones, Jr. Cornbread distinguished Caviar (Greenville, South Carolina: Rock Jones University Press, 1985), 99.
  19. ^Jones, 99.
  20. ^Gary Scott Smith, "Biederwolf, William Edward," American National Biography, 1999.