This Day in Baptist History

April 19, 1836 – Adoniram Judson Gordon (AJ) was born. His grandfather, deacon John Calvin Gordon had gone with the Hyper Calvinist split in the Baptist church which he had been a member, but his son was caught up in the new wave of missionary spirit that was sweeping across the land with the ministry of the Judson’s and others that were moving out across the mission fields of the world. So as the father had been loyal to the name of the reformer, the son was now faithful to his vision in the naming of his son. A.J. Gordon was saved when he was fifteen years old, and received his theological training at Brown University (1857-60) and Newton Theological Seminary (1860-63) after which he was ordained and became a pastor in Jamaica Plain, Mass. Soon thereafter he married Miss Maria Hale. In late 1869 he accepted a call to the prestigious Clarendon Street (Baptist) Church in Boston. For over 25 years he was one of the best known pastors in America. He was a defender of the faith and unafraid to battle agnosticism, Unitarianism, religious liberalism, and doctrinal error such as evolution and baptismal regeneration. The cults feared his pulpit and pen. Dr. Gordon was a Fundamentalist, and he said, “The world’s motto is, ‘In union there is strength;’ the church’s motto is, ‘In separation there is strength.” He edited a religious weekly, authored at least eleven outstanding volumes, and was a persistent soul-winner and evangelistic preacher. A.J. Gordon was a favorite in college and university chapels, where he was totally at home with college students. He also founded a Bible institute that was directed to train young people for missions. Condensed by Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: pp. 215-16. [CF: Ernest B. Gordon, Adoniram Judson Gordon (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1896), pp. 15-17.]