They Were Christians

Cristobal Krusen

Description

What do Abraham Lincoln, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Louis Pasteur, Frederick Douglass, Florence Nightingale, and John D. Rockefeller Sr. all have in common? They all changed the world--and they were all Christians. Now the little-known stories of faith behind twelve influential people of history are available in one inspiring volume.They Were Christians reveals the faith-filled motivations behind some of the most outstanding political, scientific, and humanitarian contributions of history. From the founding of the Red Cross to the family crisis that drove America's favorite president to his knees and cracked his religious skepticism, the fascinating stories of these faithful history-makers will inspire, encourage, and entertain readers of history and biography.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 26 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493400553
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2016 by Cristóbal Krusen
Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-0055-3
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible®, copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com .
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my father, William A. Krusen Sr. He loved me with a quiet love, and it has made all the difference.
Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Dedication 5
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction 11
Dag Hammarskjöld 15
Frederick Douglass 33
Florence Nightingale 57
Frank País 75
Fyodor Dostoyevsky 91
Jean-Henri Dunant 107
Abraham Lincoln 121
Joseph Lister and Louis Pasteur 143
Chiune Sugihara 161
Charles Dickens 177
John D. Rockefeller Sr. 191
Notes 209
About the Author 215
Back Ads 216
Back Cover 218
Acknowledgments
I WISH TO ACKNOWLEDGE the invaluable guidance of my literary agent, Greg Johnson, in the early stages of this book’s development.
I also wish to thank Brian Smith, my editor, for his careful review of the manuscript and his thoughtful suggestions on improving it.
Thanks to Baker Publishing for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to tell these stories for generations yet to come. And thanks to Rebekah Guzman, Amy Ballor, and the rest of the Baker Books team for their patience in granting me an extended deadline. I trust they feel that the extra time has been worth it!
Finally, a very special thank-you to my wife, Cheryl Krusen, for her unflagging support every step along the way. Love to you all!
Introduction
I WAS TWENTY - NINE YEARS OLD when I became a Christ follower. It didn’t happen overnight. Early in the process, when I was reading the Bible on my own, a co-worker asked me if I was “born again.” I stared at him blankly. I had no idea what he was talking about. No one had ever spoken to me before about the need to be “born again.”
Looking back over my life, I certainly had many blessings, including a godly grandmother who inspired in me a sincere devotion to God. But her influence over me waned following her death when I was eleven years old. By my midteen years I believed in a vague sort of agnosticism that hardened into dark nihilism by my early twenties.
Then I traveled to Australia for a writing assignment and read the Bible as part of my research. Until that time I had wanted to be a big-shot director and writer in Hollywood—rich and successful with a woman or two on each arm. But as I read the Bible, I began turning from a world I could see to one I could not see. I began a conscious search for truth—if truth could be found—and fell in love with a man I encountered in the pages of the Bible. The romance lasted nearly two years until I finally succumbed wholly to his beauty and gave him my all. I’ll never forget the first thought that went through my mind when I made that sweet surrender to Jesus Christ: I’ll never be a filmmaker now.
My assumption, of course, was that wholehearted faith in Christ and commitment to the Gospels would translate into a life of ministry as the ultimate outlet for self-expression and service to God. Naturally enough, I began to wonder if I might become a pastor or a missionary to some far-off land. I did, in fact, become a missionary for two years, but in time, I came to understand that service to God has manifold, indeed unlimited, expressions. In truth, if God exists, then one should expect to find those who love him in every field of human endeavor.
The twelve individuals I have gotten to know through writing this book have become personal friends. They are highly regarded today for their contributions to science and medicine, literature and philanthropy, government and diplomacy. Unfortunately, people seldom—if ever—remember them for the rich storehouses of faith that gave their lives meaning and purpose in the first place.
It’s time to change that. It’s time to let the record show that They Were Christians .
While writing this book, I found myself crying out at times to the “ghosts” of Abraham, Dag, Frederick, and the others, saying, “We’ll make this part of your story known!”
I was repeatedly moved to tears as I considered how much the living God had been so much a part of their lives.
But please understand. These are not exhaustive biographies. Rather, they are more akin to profiles on what Paul Harvey might have called “the rest of the story,” specifically those Christian elements in the lives of twelve people who changed the world for the better. May their examples inspire and encourage you, as they have me, and may we all let our light so shine before others that the world will see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven (Matt. 5:16).
Dag Hammarskjöld
I remember Dag Hammarskjöld’s clear blue eyes as much as anything else about him. I also recall my child’s sense that he was a good man, a kind man. I was nine years old when his plane went down under mysterious circumstances in what is today the African nation of Zambia. How terribly sad! I thought. He had been on a peacekeeping mission for the United Nations, and it had cost him his life.
I discerned a different reaction to Dag’s death from most of the adults in my world. Dag Hammarskjöld had been secretary-general of the United Nations, and to them the UN was a suspect organization, dangerously left-leaning. Some would have called it diabolical. The furthest thing from anyone’s mind was that the UN might have been led by a person of sincere Christian faith. And yet it was. Unmistakably so, as was revealed in 1963 when Dag’s private journal was published posthumously—originally in Swedish, and a year later in English under the title Markings .
Twenty years after Dag’s death I found myself in his native Sweden facing a crossroads in my life. For several years I had been on a quest for spiritual truth, a self-styled search that had led me to study Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, and finally Christianity. By that time I had read the Bible cover to cover and had concluded that the way to God is through Christ. But how does one enter Christ? For someone like me, who grew up largely outside the church, it was a mystery. All I could do was continue to read the Bible and seek the truth as best I could.
Then one fine October morning as I sat alongside the Motala River in Norrköping, Jesus’s words from the Gospel of Matthew came forcefully to mind: “Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3 NKJV).
Suddenly, I began to cry. I felt like a lost child who had been transported miraculously home. All that was left for me to do was walk up to the door, open it, and enter in. When I stood up from that riverbank, I was a new creation in Christ.
I made no connection to Dag Hammarskjöld at the time—that would come later. But as I consider his life and legacy now, I realize that one of the greatest statesmen of the twentieth century (indeed, of any century) had been my brother in the Christian faith. He left me—and the world—a shining example of what it means to serve others “and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2 NKJV).

P ER L IND ’ S HEART WAS HEAVY . And how could it not be? He looked out the window of the Boeing 707, staring at the billowing clouds that appeared to float slowly past. The scene was worthy of a painting, or at least a photograph. Per knew he would produce neither one. He had made this trip many times before.
He touched the side pocket of his jacket, instinctively feeling the shape of the letter that had arrived less than two weeks ago. It had been mailed to him by Dag from Stockholm, asking him to take charge of his papers and personal belongings in New York should there be a need. Should anything happen to him . . .
Per felt a lump in his throat.
During the first three years of Dag’s tenure as secretary-general, Per had served as his personal assistant and had continued to stay in close contact. He and his wife and children had become like family to the brilliant, soft-spoken diplomat, who had no wife or children of his own.
And now the unthinkable.
There was no fanfare when Per’s plane landed at Idlewild Airport in New York City. No news reporters, no photographers as there had been in 1953 when he and Dag had landed at the same airport and Dag had given his first interview to the press corps. This was just another early autumn day in “the city that never sleeps.”
Per was soon at work on the thirty-eighth floor of the UN Secretariat Building enlisting the help of Dag’s personal secretary, Hannah Platz, and other staff members. Everyone maintained a professional attitude, which made