God’s Battle Axe – Albert Benjamin Simpson

One of the vessels used by God to promote the Gospel in North America in the 19^th century was A. B. Simpson as he was fondly called. He was born on December 15, 1843 to James Simpson and Janet Simpson (nee Clark), in Prince Edward Island, Canada. His family had emigrated from Scotland and Simpson’s religious training was through his parent’s Scottish Covenanter heritage.

When Canada experienced economic depression in the 1840’s, his father’s business failed. This compelled them to move to Western Ontario to take up farming. His father was a highly respected deacon and his parents pressed him to become a minister. However, he had conflicting feelings about this because even though he had a sound moral background, he had no strong personal conviction that he was called into the ministry.

         Much later, he attended Knox College in Toronto to prepare him for ministry in the Presbyterian Church. Under great stress while studying at the college, he had an emotional and physical collapse as he was only 14 years old. He was convinced that he might die at any time, and he became overwhelmed at the thought that he did not really know God and might not have eternal life. In 1858, Simpson had a pivotal change in his understanding of God.

This was after he read Walter Marshall’s book, Gospel Mystery of Sanctification. It included a clear presentation of the necessity of receiving Jesus Christ as Saviour and that all works outside of this were in vain. Total justification was the acceptance of Jesus alone, and on that basis we would be filled with the Holy Spirit and receive a new heart.

Amazingly, this was a new revelation to Simpson. He fell to his knees and committed his life to Christ. A new sense of peace filled him and the word became alive to him as never before.

When Simpson graduated from the college in 1865, he accepted a pastorate at Knox Church in Hamilton, a church with 1,200 members, and the second largest in Canada then. He stayed with the denomination for eight years as an extremely successful minister. The church added 750 members while he was there.

Simpson, then suffering health problems, accepted another pastorate in a Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, United States of America in 1874. The American Civil War had left the city and churches with heavy financial and spiritual challenges. On his arrival in the church, Simpson called for reconciliation and started prayer meetings. Two months of united prayer meetings among the clergy led to a year of interdenominational meetings with 10,000 local residents.

He also set up missions all over the city to give a place to those who did not go to church. Simpson continued to drive himself beyond his physical strength. His father worried that he was killing himself. At the end of five years, Simpson felt that he had done all that he could in the city. He then left for New York in 1879, to pastor the Thirteenth Street Presbyterian Church.

The turning point in Simpson’s health and beliefs about divine healing occurred in 1881. He had experienced a token of God’s love in this area years before. A woman, whose older son was in coma and dying, asked him to pray with the young man. She was not sure that he was saved and felt burdened about his salvation.

Simpson went to her house and prayed that her son would become well enough to speak to his mother about this. When the preacher was getting ready to leave, the son woke up and from that point his health improved. The healing was so remarkable that Simpson never forgot it. He made an initial attempt to believe in Jesus as his healer, but was told by a physician that this was presumptuous, and so he abandoned it.

        The summer of 1881, he and his family visited Old Orchard Beach, Maine, where Dr. Charles Cullis, an evangelist, was holding a convention. Simpson only  attended a few of the meetings as his goal was rest and relaxation. In the course of his interaction with other believers at the location, he heard several testimonies of people being healed by believing the word of God. Consequently, he decided to find out for himself if this was true. He opened his Bible and sought to find God’s direction in this matter. Simpson became convinced that divine healing was indeed Scriptural.

Thereafter, he went to the forest by himself to seek God’s face where he made the commitment to believe three things. Firstly, healing was in the word of God and he would never doubt it. Secondly, he would commit his physical well-being to Christ and would depend on Jesus to keep him.  Thirdly, he would speak about healing and minister in any way God called him to do so. He was overwhelmed with the presence of God and knew something had changed. He was later healed of his heart disorder in August of that year.

 On returning to his church after his encounter with God in Maine, Simpson began teaching on divine healing. Many parishioners and other people initially   viewed this with suspicion. New York had a large immigrant population, and he felt a great burden for the poor and the lost. He led approximately 100 Italian immigrants to Christ and wanted them to become members of his church.

His congregation was not in support of the move and suggested that another church should be opened for the immigrants. Their disposition broke his heart, compelling him to leave the church in November 1881. He then established the Gospel Tabernacle in the city as an independent church. He held evangelistic meetings, ran several rescue missions, preached in jailhouses, had meetings for sailors, opened an orphanage and a home for unwed mothers, provided a dispensary for the poor and started a Missionary Training School.

        In 1883, Simpson began to hold meetings regularly to pray for the sick, and dedicated his house as a home for faith and physical healing. Prayer times were later set for twice a week. He also began to hold public meetings at the Tabernacle on Friday nights. The progression was quick as the teaching spread. Between 1883 and 1917, one Sarah Lindenberger ran the healing home. It was moved into larger facilities four times until it was finally relocated to the CM&A Campus at Nyack, New York in 1897. It continued to operate until 1917 when Lindenberger retired at the age of 76.

         Simpson also created two associations, the Christian Alliance for the pursuit of higher Christian life, and the Evangelical Missionary Alliance for foreign missions. Two years later, both merged to become the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Simpson said, “We are an alliance of Christians for world-wide missionary work. It is to hold up Jesus in fullness, ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever!’

It is to lead God’s hungry children to know their full inheritance of privilege and blessing for spirit, soul and body. It is to encourage and incite the people of God to do the neglected work of our age and time among the unchurched classes at home and the perishing heathen abroad.” In May 1918, Simpson retired after more than 50 years of service to the cause of Christ. He died on October 29, 1919, at age 76. His final words were spoken to God in prayer for the missionaries he had helped to send throughout the world.

One remarkable thing about godly preachers like Simpson is their total commitment to the cause of Christ. They do not built empires to boost their egos, nor do they add to, or subtract from the word of God. The Holy Spirit energises their messages, and they shun the sensationalism and heresies that characterise operations of many “new breed” ministers. These charlatans audaciously edit the Holy Bible and their claim to fame is their purported visits by demons posing as angels, as well as other beings pretending to be either Jesus Christ or the Father. We pray that God would help His children to hone their spiritual discernment, as the enemy has unleashed many lying spirits on humans in his quest to pervert the Gospel of Christ.

       ****Culled from Take the Gospel to the World, https://www.healingandrevival.com; A. B. Simpson – Biography, https://www.hopefaithprayer.com.