An Act of Faith
Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16
In the 1770s the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains formed natural barriers which limited the westward expansion of settlers from the coastal plains and piedmont region of Virginia. However, a few intrepid souls began the arduous migration over the mountains to form the first permanent settlements west of these mountains. Among these initial settlers came some with a desire not only to expand the physical frontier but also the spiritual frontier through the formation of new churches. This expansion west of the mountains came during a time of growing religious fervor and freedom in the American colonies. The earliest denominations to enter our Greenbrier River area were Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists. By far the preeminent name associated with Baptist beginnings in southwestern Virginia is that of Elder John Alderson, Jr. He was called Elder rather than Reverend because under British colonial rule the latter title was allowed only to those serving as ministers of the Church of England.
What caused Elder John Alderson, Jr. to move westward into the wilderness across the mountains? Was it the love of adventure or the desire to settle and own a part of a growing country? Perhaps. Without written evidence, it is most difficult, if not impossible, for us to know exactly what led Elder John into the green hills that surround us. I would like to think that among his motives was a desire to carry the gospel to those living on the frontier, and there is certainly evidence in his life actions to support that motive. Could it be that God called him from the safety of a place he knew on the family farm in the Shenandoah Valley to a new place that he did not know on the peril-filled frontier?
For me, the story of Elder John runs somewhat parallel with that of the biblical character Abraham. “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you” (Gen 12:1). As Abram obeyed God, the Lord promised to make him into a “great nation,” to make his “name great,” and to bless others through him. Of course God’s plans for Abraham were to bring forth a nation holy to God that would serve as a conduit through which he would send his son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save it. Yet, we can see in Elder John’s journey both the call to leave the familiar for the unfamiliar and also similar results of his name being made great and his obedience bringing blessing not only to himself but also to his physical and spiritual descendants gathered here today.
In fact, like Abraham and Elder John, each one of us is on a journey with God. In many ways God continues to call each of us to leave behind the comfortable and familiar and to move forward with him in life to accomplish the things he has for us to do with him even though we may not yet see or completely understand what these things may be. What is it that motivated Abraham and Elder John to leave the familiar and to go to a land they did not know? What is it that motivates us to receive God and to move forward with him in our lives? FAITH ! Faith is required of us all as we engage the journey of life with God. Hebrews 11 is known as The Hall of Faith passage because it defines faith and gives us examples to follow in our own faith journey. Let me share a bit of the faith journey of the Patriarch Abraham as recorded in Hebrews 11.
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. . . .
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them (Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16 NIV).
God wants your life and mine to be lived as an act of faith: a saving faith, a living faith, an abiding faith.
A Saving Faith (1-3)
What is faith? The writer says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (1). We hope to experience God in our journey of life each day and to be with him in eternity. We are certain of God’s presence with us in life, even those we do not physically see him. By faith we acknowledge that God exists and that the universe and everything in it, including you and me, has been created by God for a purpose. Acknowledging the existence of a power greater than yourself is the first step toward a saving faith.
Elder John called on the name of the Lord and experienced a saving faith. In 1759 Elder John married Mary Elizabeth Carroll (1739-1805) of the wealthy and prominent Carroll family. She remained his lifelong companion and bore him five sons and four daughters. After the tragic death of his beloved daughter and a serious personal illness, Elder John had a profound conversion experience and felt the call to preach. He gave an account of this period of his life in Rockingham County as follows.
My father being much from home, and I being the oldest son, much dependence was placed on me to take care of the farm, so that I had very little opportunity to learn. The chief of the books that I read were the Bible and the Baptist catechism, which last I got by heart, and not only said it over at school but also in the public congregations on Sundays after sermon. By these means I was kept from all gross immoralities. By an expression dropped from my father, after I had recovered from a very severe spell of sickness, my mind was very solemnly impressed, which I have never lost to this day. After passing through a painful and tedious law work, in which I would set resolutions and then break them, I became at last deeply concerned. I sought the Lord with my whole heart, and at last obtained comfort, great comfort, by the application of these words, "Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone." After many trials and doubts as to my conversion, I began at last to be exercised about preaching. I, at first, thought it impossible that so weak a creature as I could be called to preach; but being persuaded at last by many divine tokens that it was the will of God, I entered upon the solemn work.
Elder John outlined in his words the three steps that we all must take to receive a saving faith. First, Elder John said, “After passing through a painful and tedious law work, in which I would set resolutions and then break them, I became at last deeply concerned.” He realized that there was nothing that he could do to live up to the law of God. In fact, none of us are perfect before the Lord. Like Elder John, each of us must embrace the reality that we “. . . have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Ro 3:23). We must accept the words of the Apostle Paul, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph 2:8).
Second, Elder John declared that he “. . . sought the Lord with [his] whole heart.” We each must come to the point where we are at the end of ourselves and look up to God. We believe “. . . everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Ac 2:21, Ro 10:13). Third, Elder John realized that his salvation was by faith in “Jesus Christ” the “chief cornerstone.” Paul counsels, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro 6:23). But he also shares the good news that “. . . if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Ro 10:9-10). The result of receiving a saving faith from God is that it leads naturally to a living faith with God.
Third, Elder John testified, “I began at last to be exercised about preaching.” While our works are not the means by which we are saved, they are the fruit of our salvation. Paul reminds us, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:10). James affirms, “. . . faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (Jm 2:17).
A Living Faith (8-12)
Abraham had both a saving and a living faith. “Abram believed (i.e., faithed) the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6). The writer of Hebrews records, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. . . . And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore” (8,12). A living faith blesses not only those who have it but also those with whom they share life and even those who come long after their lives in this world are over. Through Abraham’s line Jesus Christ came into the world to bless us all with saving faith.
Elder John’s actions on the frontier give us an example of a saving faith put into action as a living faith. In 1775, Elder John succeeded his father as pastor of Linville’s Creek Church. A short time later, he made his first foray into Greenbrier County in southwestern Virginia apparently through connections he had with some members of his church who had migrated to this area. On his second visit to Greenbrier County, he baptized one person, and on his third visit he baptized two more. One of those baptized was John Griffith from the area known as Griffith’s Creek which lies near Alderson. On his third trip, he stayed for a short time at Jackson’s River, due to Indian troubles on the Greenbrier. After an additional brief sojourn at Jarrett’s Fort on Wolf Creek, Elder John settled permanently on the banks of the Greenbrier River in 1777 at the place where the Town of Alderson stands to this day. There he cleared land and began farming. As did many frontier farmers, he followed the plow with a gun swung from his shoulder. He set about ministering to settlers on the frontier who faced opposition from both wilderness and unfriendly Native Americans. Those living on the frontier were in need of spiritual care, and he was called by God to deliver it. In regard to his ministry, Robert Semple observes, “Neither cold, nor heat, nor storms, nor peril from savages, nor perils from his own countrymen, nor perils from destructive beasts, nor inward temptations, nor outward afflictions, retarded his labors.” Ralph McDanel adds, “If the Indians did not molest the settlers he preached wherever there was a convenient place. Because of the menace of Indians, forts had been established from place to place and Alderson preached to the garrisons in the forts. Usually he was received but sometimes, met with opposition.”
Elder John’s ministry in Greenbrier County, West Virginia led to a gathering of twelve, including himself and his wife, who agreed to form a church as an arm of the Smith and Linville’s Creek Church. After petitioning the Ketocton Association for help, they received word that they had the power to constitute a church. So, on November 24, 1781, just five weeks after the conclusion of the Battle of Yorktown, Greenbrier Baptist Church was formed by this intrepid band of twelve believers living on the leading edge of the American frontier. The first twelve members were: John Alderson, Mary Alderson, Thomas Alderson, who was the younger brother of Elder John, John Kippers, John Sheppherd, John Scaggs, Katherine Scaggs, Joseph Scaggs, Lucy Scaggs, Bailey Wood, Ann Wood, and James Wood. Elder John served as pastor of the church for the remainder of his life. During these years he also travelled to other churches to preach and hold meetings. His wide influence led to the founding of at least seven other Baptist churches during his lifetime. He performed 408 marriage ceremonies on the frontier. His frontier ministry drew to a close with his death in 1821. Ralph McDanel documents the closing years of Elder John’s ministry.
. . . By 1819 he was unable to travel or preach. . . . He presided at the meeting of the Association at Lewisburg in 1818 and attended the Association meeting at Greenbrier in 1820. It was his last Association meeting and was held there in order that Brother Alderson could be present. At this meeting a Methodist brother preached a powerful sermon and so moved Brother Alderson that he broke out in an extemporaneous address while sitting in his chair. While attending a meeting in January 1821, he became ill while standing and would have fallen had not some of his family caught him. He was carried home and put to bed where he remained until his death on March 5th, 1821.
An Abiding Faith (13-16)
The end of Elder John’s earthly life did not mark the end of his journey of faith, for his faith like ours must be an abiding faith. The writer of Hebrews said of those living by faith, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance . . . they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (13a,16). Elder John continued to express a living faith until the end of his life. His last sermon was preached from a chair on which he was carried to the platform. He was faithful to the end. What an example and legacy he has left for us in his expression of a living and abiding faith lived to the end of this life to the glory of God. Fathers, each of us leaves a legacy of faith, good or bad, for the sons and daughters who follow after us. May our legacy be one of a living and abiding faith in God. Elder John is buried beside his beloved wife Mary Carroll Alderson in the cemetery just behind our church. While there are no known portraits or photographs of this prestigious pioneer Baptist minister, Elder John painted an indelible self-portrait in his legacy of a life well lived in service to both God and country. The ripples of his life continue to touch those of us who live in the green hills beside the rushing waters of the Greenbrier today.
We don’t know what Elder John’s vision of this church and her ministry into the future might have been. He only saw and welcomed that future “ . . . from a distance” (13). What might he say to us, if he was here today? I feel certain that he that would express great joy to the Lord that a church that he helped found 236 years ago continues to walk in faith with God and to do God’s kingdom work on earth. I’m sure he would be amazed at this building in comparison with the first drafty, leaky log meeting house that he helped build. I’m sure he would encourage us to continue proclaiming the need for a personal, saving faith to all who will hear. I’m certain that he would be glad to know that we are continuing his legacy of a living and abiding faith in our community and world as we share the gospel to the glory of God. As a part of the “great cloud of witnesses” that surround us (Hb 12:1), I'm sure that he would urge us to “. . . run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hb 12:1). I know he would tell us to “. . . fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hb 12:2).
What motivates your life today? Hopefully, like Abraham and Elder John, your motivation in life is your faith in God. Remember that your faith journey begins with a saving faith found only in Jesus Christ. Your faith journey continues as you express a living faith in all that you do to the glory of God. Your abiding faith in God will ultimately lead you to God’s holy city in heaven, the place God has prepared for all who place faith in him. What legacy of faith will you leave behind? Will it testify of your living faith in following the Lord wherever he led you? Will it be a legacy of abiding faith that inspires those who follow in the faith after you?
Faith is required of us all as we engage the journey of life with God. May each of us personally accept God’s saving faith in Christ Jesus. May we boldly embrace living faith to the glory of God in all that we do and say. May we leave an example for those who follow of an abiding faith to the end of this life and into eternity. We honor the memory of Elder John Alderson, Jr. who has painted a portrait of saving, living, and abiding faith for us with his life, but above all may we honor our Heavenly Father and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. May everything that we are and everything we do be focused on bringing glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
