William Borden

[bling]

[Scrawly]

It would be interesting to see if the fanaticism of these young men could be sustained in the context of the free world -- growing up and attending university or seminary, for example. I think for some people, their devotion and/or zealousness is directly proportionate to the duress that they are under. I am not saying that is necessarily the case, but it certainly could be -- especially for young, newly Christian men in such a stressful context. Mr. Borden on the other hand seemed to be the genuine article, but at the end of the day only God knows the heart of man.

[bling]

It would be interesting to see if the fanaticism of these young men could be sustained in the context of the free world -- growing up and attending university or seminary, for example. I think for some people, their devotion and/or zealousness is directly proportionate to the duress that they are under. I am not saying that is necessarily the case, but it certainly could be -- especially for young, newly Christian men in such a stressful context. Mr. Borden on the other hand seemed to be the genuine article, but at the end of the day only God knows the heart of man.

You are right to some degree. I personally did not want some to get out as soon as they did get out, because they had to go back to the cities they were from and be paroled there and in those cities there was no churches with an ex-prisoner Christian program. Some that stayed in Raleigh, N.C. did well and others scattered and were discouraged by the hypocrisy in their local churches and I lost tough. But a few made a difference Bill Searcy when back to Rocky Mount N.C. where there was only a small Church of Christ congregation. he was known as a huge trouble maker and people did not trust him. He went back to the high school he was thrown out of to finish his last 2 years. Three years later he is the preacher in that same little congregation to standing room only crowds, he had all A's his senior year and was heading off to Harding College to study ministry.
He went on to get a PHD and be a missionary.

[Thoughtful Monk]

Thanks for your opinion, TM. Although, I think it's important, when investigating a matter, to make a sharp distinction between what we want to be true and what is in fact true. Or conversely, what we do not want to be true, yet what is true regardless. In our pursuit for truth we ought not let our desires override proper examination of the evidence.

I fully agree we need to find out what is true not what we want to be true. When I read your OP, I interpreted it as you having come to a conclusion.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/his...am-borden.html

From one work, we probably can't make reliable conclusions which follows from the Biblical standard of two or more witnesses to establish a matter. So yes, we have to be comfortable with knowing that God knows.

Now a hagiography is probably not a fully reliable source. The author's intend is to inspire the reader to live a life more directed to God. So parts could be a little suspect. On the other hand, where did the author get the quote from? If he made it up, it's still a good quote.

I agree. Hopefully it was the risen Christ empowering even if his actual life wasn't as heroic as portrayed.

[Rushing Jaws]

During college the guy spent time trying to 'evangelize' (I still don't know exactly what that meant to him) and rehabilitate the poor and/or obnoxious people in his society. He chose to forego a lucrative career in business (selling milk) and instead became a missionary. He died of an unusual disease before even accomplishing anything as a missionary. Contrary to what you wrote above, elsewhere I have seen that he gave away $1 million in his last will and testament, so it does not appear that he gave all his money away in his lifetime. It's perhaps not the path that I would have preferred, but I don't find anything all that extraordinary or insane about him.

He sounds admirable, and worthy of imitation. Rather like C. T. Studd or George Muller. An unusual degree of Christian heroism is bound to look "extreme" to those of us too spiritually weak to show it. The people to worry about, IMO, are those of us who are not capable of that degree of generosity and sacrifice. I wish a lot more of us were like that.