User:Ericbradley

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Eric Bradley a librarian residing in Winona Lake, Indiana. Born and raised in Northern Indiana, he has a rich passion for basketball, Amish culture, Anabaptist theologies, and Elkhart, Indiana’s brass musical instrument industry. He is not to be confused with Los Angeles studio singer Eric Bradley. He received his BA from Grace College (Indiana) majoring in Biblical Studies and is pursing a MLS from Indiana University.

Having worked in a Brethren school library archive, I have read several books on Brethren and Anabaptist history, and am working to contribute to these articles where they are incomplete. Please feel free to contact me at eric@ericbradley.com on any discussion with these matters.

Contents

[edit] Contributions

April 2007

July 2007

Louis S. Bauman

Minister, Evangelist, Grace Brethren Pioneer
Born November 13, 1875
Nora Springs, Iowa
Died November 8, 1950
Washington, DC

[edit] Louis Bauman article Draft

Louis Sylvester Bauman (November 13, 1875 - November 8, 1950) was a Brethren minister, writer, and bible conference speaker, holding influential leadership in the Brethren Church and the "Grace Brethren" movement which evenly divided the denomination in 1939. He served in several pastorates, in particular the First Brethren Church of Long Beach, California where he was pastor for thirty-four years (1913-1947). Bauman held to traditional Brethren views regarding baptism, communion, and nonresistance, but also held to fundenmentalist convictions regarding missions, and premillennial dispensationalism, with the latter views becoming foundational beliefs of Grace Brethren.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early Life

Bauman was born in Nora Springs, Iowa to William and Amelia (Leckington) Bauman. In 1878 his family moved to the Morrill, Kansas area. His father was an German Baptist Brethren (as all Schwarzenau Brethren were known as before 1881/82) elder, and Bauman joined the Pony Creek Brethren congregation through a revival held by his father in February 1889. Bauman came from humble beginnings, with both parents at times employed to meet the needs of their four children (Bauman had three sisters). He received his high school education in Lawrence, Kansas and obtained no education higher except for an honorary degree from Ashland College.[1][2]

Bauman in early adulthood
Bauman in early adulthood

He married Mary M. Wageman on April 28, 1898. They had three children: Glenn W., Iva Muriel, and Paul R. Glenn died at age six (ca. 1907), which spurred Bauman's reading of Biblical prophecies and his thought development toward dispensationalism. His wife Mary died on September 12, 1909, and he remarried to Reta Virginia Stover on April 8, 1912. Bauman and Stover first met at a evangelistic campaign in Sunnyside, Washington in 1911, where Brethren leader and Grace Seminary founder Alva J. McClain was converted to Christianity.[3][4]

[edit] Early Ministry

Bauman gave his first sermon at age seventeen on July 2, 1893 at the Pony Creek (Kansas) Brethren Church. He was ordained in the Brethren Church August 4, 1894, and was pastor of the Auburn and Cornell, Illinois, Illinois congregations from 1895 to 1897 followed by pastorates at Roann and Mexico, Indiana congregations from 1897 to 1900. [5]

[edit] Philadelphia

In 1900 Bauman began a pastorate at the First Brethren Church of Philadelphia, a place where his interest in foreign missions and eschatology would bloom. There he met brothers Jacob C. and H.C. Cassel who both had passions for mission work. He became a charter member of the Foreign Missionary Society of the Brethren Church in 1900, in 1904 became a member of its board of trustees, and in 1906 became the board's secretary. Bauman served in the last position until 1945. In Philadelphia Bauman led James Gribble to Christianity, who along with his wife Dr. Florence Gribble became pioneer missionaries to the African French colony of Ubangi-Shari (which in 1960 became the Central African Republic).

Bauman's interest in eschatology was greatly impacted by a well known Brethren premillennialist and through the grieving process of losing his oldest son. Isaac D. Bowman was Bauman’s predecessor at the Philadelphia church, published writer, and open premillennialist. Bowman and Bauman remained in close contact throughout their lifetimes, although Bowman’s theological views were more traditionally Brethren, and remained with the Ashland Brethren group in the 1939 division. The death of Bauman’s son Glenn brought a devoted reading to prophetic texts of the Bible. Alan S. Pearce's poetic eulogy of Bauman summarizes the experience.

When [Bauman's] firstborn son, Glenn, was taken to be with the Lord, at the age of 6, doubts arose in the mind of Louis Bauman. Why should his boy be taken, while others who got their food from garbage cans in the alleys remain? Why should his boy be taken from him? Determined to get an answer, he was driven, as never before, to the unchangeable "word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." Here he found not only consolation and assurance, but became fascinated with the book of Daniel, he read and reread the prophecies contained in this portion of the Scriptures, and comparing them with other Scriptures, he was convinced that only a God who knew the end from the beginning could be the author of the Bible.[6]

While in Philadelphia Bauman wrote the first edition of his magnum opus The Faith Once for All Delivered unto the Saints, at slightly over 100 pages details his traditional Brethren beliefs along with his developed interest. See: Theology.

[edit] Long Beach

For the majority of his career, 1913 to 1948, Bauman was pastor of "Fifth and Cherry" First Brethren Church of Long Beach (California). Beginning originally in 1911 as evangelistic tent meetings (notably in the era of evangelist Billy Sunday) by 1913 a congregation was founded and quickly became a hub for missionary activity, the development of young Brethren leadership, and in time what became the "Grace Brethren" movement.

Louis Bauman with several of his Brethren colleagues. (Left to Right) Percy Yett, Miles Taber, Alan Pearce, Bauman, Herbert Tay, Homer Kent, Sr., and Alva J. McClain.
Louis Bauman with several of his Brethren colleagues. (Left to Right) Percy Yett, Miles Taber, Alan Pearce, Bauman, Herbert Tay, Homer Kent, Sr., and Alva J. McClain.

Involvement with Missions

Text

Leadership in the Brethren Church

Bauman was instrumental in developing young Brethren Church leaders within his theological perspective. Having been in connection with R. A. Torry of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA) Bauman encouraged many young men to attend dispensationalist BIOLA, teach Sunday School classes at Bauman's Long Beach church, then go throughout Brethren congregations and organizations. Alva J. McClain and R. Paul Miller followed this model, and others such as Homer A Kent, Sr. (who went to Ashland College then to dispensationalist Xenia Theological Seminary) followed similar paths.


Development of the Grace Brethren Church

[edit] Later Ministry

[edit] Theology

Bauman held strongly to beliefs (and concerns) of other early twentieth century fundamentalist, being deeply against classic liberalism and consumed with end times prophecy. However, unlike other fundamentalist of his time, he also held to many, although arguably not all, of the pietistic and Anabaptist influenced distinctives of his Brethren tradition. This unique mixture (or what later would become tension among Grace Brethren themselves[7]) is laid out in The Faith Once for All Delivered unto the Saints. In this work Bauman lays out his convictions in four sections, the first (Basic Doctrine) and last (Prophetic Doctrine) being very fundamentalist in nature and the middle two (The Great Commission and Practical Doctrine) distinctively Brethren.

Several of Bauman's fundamentalist perspectives did create strong disagreement among many of his Brethren Church peers and along with the events at Ashland College brought about the denominational split of the late nineteen thirties. The Sermon on the Mount of Matthew 5-7, a foundational passage for Brethren and Anabaptist groups in general, was viewed by Bauman in a classical dispensationalism framework as a passage intended for the Jews and not the New Testament gospel intended for the Church in the "Age of Grace." Bauman said regarding the Sermon on the Mount that "there's no gospel in it because there's no blood in it."[8] At the height of conflict between "Ashland" and "Grace" Brethren groups, Bauman wrote:

We hold in common with our Brethren of The Grace Seminary Group that The Sermon on the Mount, coming from the lips of the incarnate God, is the highest, holiest, purest, most perfect law that ever has fallen, or ever will fall, upon ears of men. It is the law of the Kingdom of Heaven...The Gospel of salvation calls for blood atonement; for a belief in the deity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and, for faith in the resurrection of Christ from the dead--not one word of which doctrines are found in the Sermon on The Mount.[9]

[edit] Selected Works

[edit] Published Books and Pamphlets

[edit] Magazines which Bauman Contributed to Frequently

  • The Brethren Evangelist Bauman began contributing to the Brethren Church magazine in his late teens, and wrote frequently up until the Ashland/Grace split in 1939.
  • The Brethren Missionary Herald Bauman was a contributer to the Grace Brethren movement newsletter from its start until his death in 1950.
  • The King's Business This monthly publication was produced by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA). Bauman wrote nearly each month, pointing to current events and their alignment with his interpretation of Biblical prophecy.
  • The Sunday School Times

[edit] See Also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Alan S. Pearce, "Summary of Dr. Bauman’s Life," Brethren Missionary Herald, January 6, 1951, 3.
  2. ^ Dennis D. Martin, "Bauman, Louis Sylvester," Brethren Encyclopedia, (Philadelphia: Brethren Encyclopedia Inc., 1983), 96-7.
  3. ^ Pearce, "Bauman's Life," 3
  4. ^ "Bauman, Louis S.," Religious Leaders of America Vol. II. 1941-42, edited by J. C. Schwarz (New York: J.C. Schwarz, 1941), 66.
  5. ^ Martin, "Bauman, Louis Sylvester," 96-7.
  6. ^ Pearce, "Bauman's Life," 3
  7. ^ Robert G. Clouse, "Changes and Partings: Division in the Progressive/Grace Brethren Church." Brethren Life and Thought 42 (1997): 180-198.
  8. ^ Why Adam ate the Apple sound recording
  9. ^ Bauman, Louis S. "What has Divided the Brethren Church?" Brethren Evangelist, September 2, 1939, 15.
  10. ^ There have been numerous reprints of Bauman's magnum opus. Sources vary on the date of the first known printing, listing it between 1906 and 1909. The earlier editions being self-published, all dates probably show up as copyright for the first edition prints.

[edit] External Links

  • The Brethren Church The denomination Bauman was apart of until the formation of the Grace Brethren in 1939.
  • Grace Brethren Church of Long Beach Originally First Brethren Church of Long Beach, the present day congregation which Bauman founded in 1913 and led as pastor until 1948. During his time as pastor, this became the largest Brethren congregation in the United States.
  • Grace Brethren International Missions Originally the Brethren Foreign Missionary Society (BFM), this organization was co-founded in 1900 by Bauman in Winona Lake, Indiana.
  • Grace Theological Seminary Bauman was instrumental in founding Grace Theological Seminary. McClain Hall at the school has a commemorative plaque dedicated to him.
  • Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches The "Grace movement" denomination Bauman co-founded in 1939 after divisions with the Brethren Church.
  • Morgan Library - Grace College and Seminary Morgan Library holds the complete Bauman papers, and a near exhaustive collection of Bauman print materials. These include all his published books, complete holdings of The Brethren Evangelist, The Brethren Missionary Herald, The Sunday School Times (Bauman contributed greatly to all three publications), and the Brethren Foreign Missionary Society / Grace Brethren International Missions archives.

[edit] About me

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