Cancel Abraham. He owned slaves and even impregnated one of them.
Cancel Sarah. She enabled her husband’s escapade and persecuted the victim.
Cancel David. His behavior is only acceptable in a movie.
Samson and Jephthah? Let’s not even go there.
How can God exalt such obviously flawed people in Hebrews 11 as examples of faith? Don’t their misdeeds cancel out any good they have done? Why didn’t God erase them from history? Why did He—sometimes in painstaking detail—record the failings of His people?
During the quarantine period of the 2020 pandemic, I wrote a devotional book about Christians of the past who lived God’s promises in difficult times. I researched the lives and times of people like William Carey, George Liele, Henry Martyn, Adoniram Judson, George Whitefield, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, Mary Slessor, and David Livingstone. Even though God greatly used each of these men and women of faith, many today would rather they be forgotten.
Why cancel these Christians of the past? Modern critics perceive many of them to be colonialists supporting imperialistic expansion. Most are accused of forcing their narrow worldviews on cultures that neither wanted nor needed them. Furthermore, these Christians of the past did not attack slavery or other abuses of their day in a way many people of this century think they should have.[1]
History is complicated. Should we whitewash the lives of our Christian heroes so that they become larger than life? Should we just erase them all because they do not fit today’s narrative?
In the preface to my book Daring Devotion: A 31-Day Journey with Those Who Lived God’s Promises,[2] I addressed this issue. . .
“Like those listed by God in Hebrews 11, these men and women, though champions of the Gospel and faithful in their service, were flawed. As we read their writings, we find that they were deeply humbled by their own failings. From our contemporary perspective, we may also be shocked by areas of their lives in which we perceive they were blinded by their upbringing, times, and culture.
Writing in the late 1800’s, J. C. Ryle, in the foreword of his brief biography of George Whitefield, cautions on how we should view Christians of the past. “The story of Whitefield’s times is one that should often be told. Without it, nobody is qualified to form an opinion either as to the man or his acts. Conduct that in one kind of times may seem rash, extravagant, and indiscreet, in another may be wise, prudent, and even absolutely necessary. In forming your opinion of the comparative merits of Christian men, never forget the old rule: ‘Distinguish between times.’ Place yourself in each man’s position. Do not judge what was a right course of action in other times, by what seems a right course of action in your own.”[3]
In the future, someone will look back at you and me. They will see areas in which we have erred or been blinded by our own times. Future generations of believers too may have caveats about our lives and ministries. I pray they also will say we were faithful to God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May we extend to those before us the grace that we ourselves would wish to receive by those who follow us.”
Let us not cancel the past. Let us learn. Emulate the good.[4] Take warning from the evil.[5] Sometimes both can be seen in the same person’s example. God works in broken times through flawed people—people like you and me.
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)
“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty . . . That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:27-31)
[1] In fact, many of these Christians went far beyond their contemporaries in protesting the entrenched systems of their cultures and in aiding the weak and downtrodden across the world.
[2] This book is available on Amazon and at Church Works Media.
[3] Ryle, John Charles. A Sketch of the Life and Labors of George Whitefield (New York: Anson D.F. Randolf, 1854), 7.
[4] Hebrews 11.
[5] 1 Corinthians 10:6-12.
