“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you.” (Lev. 25:10)
In olden times as well as presently, considerable significance has been given to 50 years–half a century. In ancient Israel, the jubilee was a time of great blessing and rejoicing. Today, married couples look forward to their Golden Wedding Anniversary. This year is my jubilee –50 years in Christ.
Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows,
Loving his Saviour to tell what he knows.
Once more to tell it would I embrace,
I’m only a sinner saved by grace.
In the town of Witmarsum, Holland, a man by the name of Menno Simons was born in 1496, (only four years after Columbus arrived in America 500 years ago). A priest in the Roman Church, the Gospel light began to dawn upon his soul as he prefunctorily performed the mass. But it was the killing of several hundred Anabaptists, including his brother, that drove him to renounce his unscriptural position and identify with these hounded saints. Until his death at age sixty-five, he was driven from country to country, always writing and preaching as he went. He is looked upon as the founder of the Mennonite churches.
My dictionary defines a Mennonite as one opposed to infant baptism, taking oaths, holding public office and military service. I find it strange to define someone in that fashion–by the things they are opposed to, rather than by the things they stand for. Menno Simons, a defender of the faith, quickly gained many followers, mainly in Germany, Holland, and Switzerland, but also some from France and Poland. At that time there was very severe religious persecution throughout Europe.
Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, lived from 1729 to 1796. She knew that the Mennonites were excellent farmers and so offered them land in the Ukraine, which at that time was known as the breadbasket of Europe. She also granted them exemption from military service. One of my ancestors, a man by the name of Peter Funk, whose forefathers came from Rotterdam, had moved to Danzig (now called Gdansk). He received the invitation from Catherine, and decided to move with his household to the Ukraine. My father’s brother, also Peter Funk, had an exact list of how many people went, including even the number of pigs and chickens they took along.
These Mennonites spoke the German language and also a dialect called Low German or Plat Deutsch. They kept largely to themselves and rarely intermarried with the people in the area. The soil was good, the people were industrious, and they soon became prosperous.
And so it was that, on the 30th day of April, 1923, I was born in a little village in the Ukraine called Nieder (Lower) Chortitza.
My father was a school teacher and my mother was the daughter of a prosperous farmer. My father served with the Red Cross in the First World War. He had professed salvation in 1910 and had even gone out evangelizing the villages round about, but the horrors and atrocities of the war and the following Communist revolution turned him aside and stumbled him. He became a silent Christian, and in all my life he never spoke to me about Christ or salvation.
We were fortunate enough to get out of that country just as the purges began. I was six weeks old and it was during a time of famine (some say induced by Stalin to subjugate the people). We were able to book passage to Western Canada and settled in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where we lived until 1938.
I went to Sunday School and outwardly was a moral, upright person. Like the rich young ruler, I could say, “I have not murdered or committed adultery; I am not given to stealing or lying; I honour my father and mother.” In other words, I was self-righteous. I didn’t know I was lost.
We moved to Vineland, Ontario and as a boy, I picked fruit in the orchards. On one occasion, a young man picked me up and asked me if I was saved. I told him that no one could know until they died and then our good deeds would be weighed up against our bad deeds to see where we would go.
By this time, I had turned 17, and still attended the Mennonite Church where the services were in German. It was the thing to do, so I applied for church membership. I spoke to the bishop and he quoted a verse from Matthew 7: “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” He said to me, “John, you are on the broad and crowded road that leads to destruction.” For the first time I realized I was not right with God. I was lost. What an awakening!
God had called me. I began reading the Bible. In fact, I couldn’t keep away from it. I listened to many Gospel radio broadcasts, but I still did not clearly understand how to be saved. I tried desperately to be saved. I wept and prayed. I felt that perhaps it was not meant for me to be saved since nothing happened. I was in dead earnest and there was nothing in all the world I wanted more than salvation. God was working in my life. As I look back now half a century later, I can see how God was bringing me along to the point of salvation. I tried and I tried, but I couldn’t seem to become saved.
The Bishop had given me one other verse– John 6:37–“All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” I clung to this verse.
Then one day, over the radio I heard a man speaking on John 3:36 –“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” By now I had learned that Christ had paid for our sins on the cross and I believed and I had eternal life.
The joy, the satisfaction, the fulfilment, can scarcely be described. I spoke to everyone about salvation. I thought it so wonderful that all I would have to do is tell others and they too would be saved, but I found it wasn’t quite that easy. My younger brother was saved a year or two later, but my older brother, as far as I know, is not saved yet, even though I have prayed for him daily for 50 years.
Life is brief and death is sure,
Sin’s the curse, but Christ’s the cure.
The most important decision you will have to make involves Christ and it decides your eternal destiny. Why not make the decision I made half a century ago? You will never regret it.
So I was saved, but I knew very little about the Bible. However, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it began to unfold to me.
I had a tremendous urge to spread the Gospel. I used to take my bicycle and go through a large area, leaving Gospel papers in the rural mail boxes.
At that time, passenger ships came from Toronto to Port Dalhousie, near St. Catharines. There were many hundreds on board and as these came off the ship, each one was given a Gospel paper.
Then I began to look around for Christian friends and a place where I could enjoy Christian fellowship which I so much craved.
I dropped into a small mission in St. Catharines which was run by two sisters who did most of the preaching. I wasn’t taught in the Word, but I had read that Paul had said, “Let the women learn in silence with all subjection,” and, “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” I knew this form of meeting was not for me.
Then there was a group who were very involved with prophecy and I was greatly interested in prophecy, but I soon found out that their main interest was keeping the Old Testament sabbath. Sadly I turned away.
Eventually I came across a small building with a sign on it: “Christians Gathered in The Name of the Lord Jesus Christ Meet Here.” There was no denominational title, just simple believers who preached the Gospel and taught the Word of God.
It was now 1944 and I knew I had found what I was looking for. They were simple folk, but they were real! What impressed me was their reverence for the Lord. He wasn’t referred to simply as “Jesus”; they gave Him His proper title: “the Lord Jesus Christ.” It seemed that all they talked about was the Lord Jesus. He was central to everything.
Then gradually I began to learn other truths regarding a scripturally-gathered assembly.
These people gathered alone in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had scriptural elders who had the oversight of the assembly. The believers were all involved in the work of the Lord, not just one man who was the minister.
I learned about the priesthood of all believers; how Christ was the Head of the Church and the local assembly; and how the Holy Spirit was allowed to guide the believers in their worship and service.
I was particularly taken with the Lord’s Supper which was held every Lord’s Day. They told me it was “as often,” and not “as seldom.”
I had been sprinkled in the Mennonite Church, but I was not saved then. I was now baptized by immersion.
There was a young man who was a few years older than I, who took me under his wing. His name was David Marwick, and he nurtured and discipled me.
I wasn’t looking for a girl, but there she was! Evelyn and I were married in 1947. So for all these years, we have been active in the Lord’s work among the assemblies. As we look back over 50 years, we realize a little bit of what we owe to the Lord. But only heaven will unfold the mighty work He has done on our behalf.
When this passing world is done;
When has sunk yon glaring sun;
When I stand with Christ on high
Looking o’er life’s history:
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.