John T. Johnson
BIRTH AND EARLY DAYS
John Telemacus Johnson was born into this world on October 5, 1788 at Great Crossings, Scott County, Kentucky. His parents were Robert and Jemima Johnson. They were of Welsh stock and came from Virginia, of which Kentucky was a county. They were rigid Baptists of great integrity.
His education was an excellent one for those days. His teacher, Malcomb Worley, was at that time a Presbyterian but eventually ended up being a Shaker, having been deceived and lured away from his religious moorings by the Shaker missionaries who deceived a large number of people from all the various religious parties of that day. His collegiate education was obtained at Transylvania University which was located at Lexington, Kentucky. Having successfully completed that he decided that he would like to pursue a legal career. He studied law with his older brother Richard and received his degree from two legal professors, Felix Grundy and the other, Robert Ninian. He was a successful lawyer at a very young age. He also ended up as a judge of the Appellate court in Kentucky. The career was very lucrative and although he limited his practice to Scott County he did very well and was moderately wealthy for that day.
MARRIAGE
In 1811, on the 9th day of October, he was married to Miss Sophia Lewis, he being about twenty-three years old, and she about fifteen. In pioneer times, it was not unusual for a man to take a wife several years younger than him. The reason was that they did not live long lives, and by starting a family that young, they could have as much time together as possible. The wife’s life, in particular, could be brief with complications from pregnancy or the hard labor they would have to do to hack a farm out of the wilderness. After the marriage ceremony, he and his bride settled on 150 acres of prime land along South Elkhorn Creek, near Georgetown, on the turnpike leading from Georgetown to Dry Run. He and a younger brother, Joel, built a mill in partnership and ran it for several years. The mill was most likely a grist mill that would grind the wheat for flour or corn into cornmeal. They were complicated structures that they built alongside a reliable water source. The South Elkhorn Creek was just that. It wasn’t a stream, yet it wasn’t a river, but it would provide enough power to run the mill. It appears like everything else John T. Johnson did in those early years proved to be a success.
THE WAR OF 1812
Although it was not very well known, but when his country called, he answered. He was on the staff of William Henry Harrison and led troops in battle at the battle of Fort Meigs. At a much later date he revealed that his unit proceeded while under fire to attack a battery of guns and to spike the cannons. He spoke of it as a simple task but he did not mention that he had a horse shot out from under him. He also received a musket ball injury in his ankle. It must not have been a bad one as he never spoke of it again. Shortly after this battle he developed some terrible sickness which ended his army career and also nearly his life.
POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS
Johnson was looking for a way to serve his community after he had recovered from his illness. The obvious choice was politics. He had a legal background as well as serving as a judge of the Appellate court. He was elected to the Kentucky Legislature in which he served for several years. He was then elected as a congressman. As in other things, he was very successful at whatever he did. His personal fortune also grew to where he owned several properties and a large parcel of land.
His was a proper attitude for a owner of lands as we will soon see.
RUIN!!!!
In the 19th century, right around the time Johnson was accumulating wealth and growing in his legal profession, the country hit a hard patch financially. Banks were floating loans that were bad, currency was being issued by banks as well as every other financial sin. Soon, it all came home to roost. And, for the first time we see Johnson doing something wrong. He must have been a wonderful friend for he made the mistake of being surety for friends and when the friends went belly-up financially, Johnson was left holding the bag. He was required to give surety for those friends who had lost everything. He nearly did so too. But this time it was him giving up over $50,000 in lands that he had acquired. As he would later put it: he lost everything. He surrendered his lands and was the happier for their being gone. He afterward spoke of it as being a pleasant exercise. It did not bother him that he had done this for his friends though I seriously doubt him doing the same thing a second time.
RELIGIOUS AWAKENING
About this time, he commenced preaching the gospel to his neighbors. Of quick perception, and of an ardent and sanguine temperament, he was anxious that others should see and feel what he so clearly saw and so strongly felt, and which he could but regard as of paramount importance to the religious interests of all.
Hence his public career, and the earnestness of his labors.
At this point, J.T. Johnson sought to give his Baptist faith the same examination as he had the faith and writings of Alexander Campbell. When he proposed to do that with the leaders of his local Baptist Church-that of Great Crossing, he did not receive a good reception. In fact, he was told that things were as they were and not to “cause trouble.” This had a chilling effect on him and he sought to find a church that was in accordance with Bible teaching. “Accordingly, on the second Saturday of February 1831, B.S. Chambers, W. Johnson and myself, formed a congregation of God, at the Great Crossings, my birth-place. At this meeting I had the happiness of baptizing my wife, my brother Joel and his wife. From that time onward I endeavored to redeem the time and the solemn pledges I had made in behalf of this good cause. I at once surrendered a lucrative practice of the law and have made many sacrifices in the best of causes.” As it will significantly aid our readers in forming a proper estimate of the character and labors of J.T.
Johnson, we pause to look around us and note the state of parties about the period of which we write.
The great parties in the field, in Kentucky, were the Methodists and Presbyterians, and some other weaker sects of Pedobaptists, together with the Baptists, who were even more numerous than the Methodists. There were also in the field some eight or ten thousand of those called, sometimes, “Marshallites,” “Stoneites,” “Schismatics,” etc., but who claimed to be simply Christians: taking the word of God as the only rule of faith and practice—the only basis of the union of God’s people, and heartily repudiating all human creeds as tests of Christian fellowship. Hence, their readiness to hear and accept the plea of Alexander Campbell for the destruction of sects and the union of God’s people according to the prayer of Christ. The Pedobaptist parties in the field were less influenced by the writings and public teachings of A. Campbell than either the friends of Stone or the Baptists. This is easily accounted for. The friends of Stone had commenced a reformation movement with a desire to harmonize the people of God, and were making some advances in that direction; not, however, without making some serious missteps, which greatly retarded the good work. They were, in the meantime, open to conviction, and happy to learn from any quarter, and especially from one who advocated so ably their great position, which, above all others, distinguished them from the sects of the day, and which they regarded as the only true ground of Christian progress, viz: The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. Alexander Campbell was considered a Baptist at this point and had even been involved in several religious debates with the various denominations as well as with Catholicism and with Owen, who denied basically everything related to the Bible. According to the great mass of people, Campbell was unbeaten! He began his landmark paper, The Christian Baptist, on July 4, 1823, and the religious world would never be the same. His idea led to an outpouring of a willing spirit to study the Word to see what it said. Many, many people, especially among the Baptists, were to discover that their religious practices were not in accord with what Bible actually taught. The most honest of them came to be known as “Reformers” due to their desire to bring their practices into accord with sacred writ.
Such men as Elders Vardeman, Walter Warder, W. Vaughn, S. Noel, Jacob Creath, Sen. and Jr., John Smith and his brother Jonathan, John Calerman, G. Gates, William Morton, Jesse Holton, G.W. Elley, P.S. Fall, Robt. Batson, and doubtless others were of this number. The four preachers, first mentioned in this list, were among the first to advocate the views of A. Campbell, and among the first and last to turn back.
Johnson’s biographer, John I. Rogers, said: “While these views were being carefully examined and warmly embraced by the leading minds in the Baptist Churches, and among our people in this section of Kentucky, in the close of the year ‘27, and extending through the year 1828, there, was an immense religious excitement, resulting in numerous additions to various religious bodies, but especially to the Baptists and Christian congregations. In the meantime, parties were being created in the Baptist Churches—preachers and people were taking sides, and the war waxed hotter and hotter. Vardeman and Warder, and others began to fear Campbell was going too far, and they began to look back to ‘the old dispensation.’ It is part of candor to acknowledge, now that some 30 years have passed away, that there were improprieties and indiscretions committed on both sides. Extremes begat extremes. In attempting to correct abuses, we no doubt frequently went too far.” In 1829–’30, the lines began to be drawn, the work of excision or of cutting off the “Campbellites” commenced, in associations and churches. Just at this critical and exciting conjuncture, the subject of this biography, J.T. Johnson, withdrew from the Baptist Church, at the Great Crossings, and with two others, at the beginning of 1831, as we have just seen, organized a church upon the word of God alone.
At this point, we need to remember that the great heart of Johnson caused him to give up all worldly allurements such as a very lucrative law practice, a seat in either the Kentucky Legislature or even in Congress itself, to comply with his heart’s desire to be closer to home, not to mention that as a preacher of the word, he was growing in grace and knowledge
every day. That truly is a clear example of the Lord’s command to come out and be separate. How many of us can say that? He gave up the honors and privileges of the world, and all the advantages of connecting with a huge congregation, and the most numerous and widespread religious party in the state, to associate with a mere handful of what were regarded the most desperate spiritual adventurers. But the die was cast— the Rubicon was crossed—he had counted the cost, and, “live or die, sink or swim,” he was determined to devote his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor, to the best of all causes—the cause of uniting God’s people and saving the world. He says, from this time forward, I determined to redeem the time. And well did he fulfill that pledge. For, from that day onward to the day of his death, he never faltered, he never wavered, and his name and fame are identified with every important movement in favor of our cause.”[1]
“My emancipation from a sectarian institution,” says he, “resulted in an intimate acquaintance and firm friendship with that eminent man of God, Elder Barton W. Stone, deservedly the most eminent preacher in the Christian connection in the West.” They lived together in or near Georgetown, and soon each plainly saw that there was no scriptural barrier to their union. They encouraged a fraternal sentiment among the members of their congregations, and the brethren of both churches at last met and worshiped together. They all saw more and more clearly every day that they were indeed on the same foundation, in the same spirit, and with the same gospel, and that there was no reason why they should not be of one family. Among those who watched the development of this fraternal spirit among the Disciples and Christians about Georgetown, no one more deeply sympathized with it, or more cordially approved and encouraged it than John Smith. There were but few, if any, of the persecuted Arians within the bounds of the North District Association; but his eye turned to the little handful of Disciples at the Great Crossings, and to the neighboring Christians of Georgetown—to Johnson and to Stone, as those who seemed to be called, in the providence of God, to lead in the work of uniting the two brotherhoods together. He could not, therefore, have stayed away from them. In fact, they sent for him, and, in November, 1831, he went to the Great Crossings, and there labored in the gospel for some days with Johnson and his brethren. Accessions were gained, and the number of Disciples at that place was increased to about forty. “We rejoice,” says Alexander Campbell, when speaking of that meeting, “to hear that the utmost harmony and Christian love prevail, not only among the Disciples composing that congregation, but between them and the Disciples meeting under the Christian name in connection with Brother Stone, in Georgetown, notwithstanding the sparrings between us editors.” To further the cause of union, Johnson agreed to become a coeditor of the Christian Messenger, an arrangement which went into effect in January following. In the meantime, an informal and private conference was held in Georgetown some time before the close of the year, at which John Smith, John Rogers, and perhaps others were present. The subject of a general union of the churches was discussed, its importance and practicability were admitted, and the time and manner of effecting it were considered. To this great work, John Smith was willing to give what time he could spare from his needy family, and, visiting the congregations of Christians and reformers throughout the State, labor to conciliate and unite them; and John Rogers was ready, if necessary, to do the same. They decided, however, to hold a four-days’ union meeting at Georgetown, embracing Christmas Day, and afterwards a similar meeting at Lexington, on New Year’s Day, and to invite teachers and brethren from abroad to be present. On these occasions many of both parties assembled, and they worshiped and counseled together with one spirit and one accord. [2]
At Lexington, especially, on New Year’s Day, pursuant to the notice very generally given, many Disciples and Christians came together to talk over, once more, and finally, the points of difference between them, to ascertain whether the proposed union were practicable, and, if so, to agree upon the terms on which it should be affected. It was not a meeting of elders or preachers only, but a popular assembly—a mass meeting of the brethren. While many had laid aside their prejudices, and were ready to consummate the union, some of each party still cherished honest doubts respecting the doctrine of the others. Some reformers still looked upon the Christians as Arians; and some Christians were averse to the union, in the belief that the reformers denied the influence of the Spirit, and attached undue importance to baptism. On the other hand, while the Christians still refused to give up their name, the others were willing to concede that it was no less scriptural and proper than Disciple. While all did not hold in the same sense that baptism was for the remission of sins, they all agreed that it was a divine ordinance, which could not safely be set aside or neglected. Finally, though they still differed on the question of free or restricted communion, each felt that it was his privilege to commune with the other, since they were all of one faith and one immersion. On Saturday, the appointed day, a multitude of anxious brethren began, at an early hour, to crowd the old meetinghouse of the Christians, on Hill Street, in Lexington. There was Stone, and Johnson, and Smith, and Rogers, and Elley, and Creath, and many others, all guarded in thought and purpose against any compromise of the truth, but all filled with the spirit of that grandest of prayers:” May they all be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee; that the world may know that thou hast sent me.” Smith was informed that it had been arranged that one from each party should deliver an address, and plainly set forth, according to his own conception, the scriptural ground of union among the people of Christ. He was also told that he had been selected by the Disciples, and Stone by the Christians; and that it was the wish of the brethren that they should avoid the spirit and manner of controversy, and give their views of the plan of union freely, but without reference to party distinctions. When this had been announced, the two brethren went aside, and conferred in private. Neither knew certainly what the other would say in the critical hour which had now come upon the churches; nor did either, in that moment of solemn conference, ask the other to disclose his mind or heart, touching their differences, more fully than he had already done. “What is your choice, my brother?” said Stone, at length. “Will you speak first or last?” “Brother Stone, I have no choice,” said Smith. “I have already made up my mind about the matter, and what I have to say can be said as well at one time as at another.” “I wish you to talk first, then,” said Stone, “and I will follow.” And they returned to the house, as the hour for speaking had already come. The occasion was to John Smith the most important and solemn that had occurred in the history of the reformation. It was now to be seen whether all that had been said and written and done in behalf of the simple gospel of Christ and the union of Christians was really the work of the Lord, or whether the prayers of Stone and of Johnson were but idle longings of pious, yet deluded hearts; whether the toils and sacrifices of Smith were but the schismatic efforts of a bold enthusiast, and whether the teachings of Campbell were only the speculations of a graceless and sensuous philosophy. The denominations around mocked, and declared that a church without a constitution could not stand, and that a union without a creed was but the chimera of a dreamy and infatuated heresy. Smith arose with simple dignity, and stood, prayerful and self-possessed, before the mingling brotherhoods. He felt, as no one else could feel it, the weight of the responsibility that rested on him. A single unscriptural position taken; the least sectarian feeling betrayed; an intemperate word; a proud, unfraternal glance of the eye might arouse suspicion and prejudice, and blast the hope of union in the very moment when it was budding with so many promises. Every eye turned upon him, and every ear leaned to catch the slightest tones of his voice. He said: God has but one people on the earth. He has given to them but one Book, and therein exhorts and commands them to be one family. A union such as we plead for—a union of God’s people on that one Book—must, then, be practicable. Every Christian desire to stand complete in the whole will of God. The prayer of the Savior, and the whole tenor of his teaching, clearly show that it is God’s will that his children should be united. To the Christian, then, such a union must be desirable. But an amalgamation of sects is not such a union as Christ prayed for and God enjoins. To agree to be one upon any system of human invention would be contrary to his will, and could never be a blessing to the church or the world; therefore, the only union practicable or desirable must be based on the word of God as the only rule of faith and practice. There are certain abstruse or speculative matters— such as the mode of the divine existence and the ground and nature of the atonement—that have, for centuries, been themes of discussion among Christians. These questions are as far from being settled now as they were in the beginning of the controversy. By a needless and intemperate discussion of them much feeling has been provoked, and divisions have been produced. For several years past I have tried to speak on such subjects only in the language of inspiration, for it can offend no one to say about those things just what the Lord himself has said. In this scriptural style of speech all Christians should be agreed. It cannot be wrong; it cannot do harm. If I come to the passage, “My Father is greater than I,” I will quote it, but will not stop to speculate upon the inferiority of the Son. If I read, “Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” I will not stop to speculate upon the consubstantial nature of the Father and the Son. I will not linger to build a theory on such texts, and thus encourage a speculative and wrangling spirit among my brethren. I will present these subjects only in the words which the Lord has given to me. I know he will not be displeased if we say just what he has said. Whatever opinions about these and similar subjects I may have reached in the course of my investigation, if I never distract the church of God with them or seek to impose them on my brethren, they will never do the world any harm. I have the more cheerfully resolved on this course, because the gospel is a system of facts, commands, and promises; and no deduction or inference from them, however logical or true, forms any part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No heaven is promised to those who hold them, and no hell is threatened to those who deny them. They do not constitute, singly or together, any item of the ancient and apostolic gospel. While there is but one faith, there may be ten thousand opinions; and hence if Christians are ever to be one, they must be one in faith, and not in opinion. When certain subjects arise, even in conversation or social discussion, about which there is a contrariety of opinion and sensitiveness of feeling, speak of them in the words of the Scriptures, and no offense will be given, and no pride of doctrine will be encouraged. We may even come, in the end, by thus speaking the same things, to think the same things. For several years past I have stood pledged to meet the religious world, or any part of it, on the ancient gospel and order of things as presented in the words of the Book. This is the foundation on which Christians once stood, and on it they can, and ought to, stand again. From this I cannot depart to meet any man, or set of men, in the wide world. While, for the sake of peace and Christian union, I have long since waived the public maintenance of any speculation I may hold, yet not one gospel fact, commandment, or promise will I surrender for the world. Let us, then, my brethren, be no longer Campbellites or Stoneites, New Lights or Old Lights, or any other kind of lights; but let us all come to the Bible, and to the Bible alone, as the only book in the world that can give us all that pertains unto life and godliness.[3]
The union between the Christians (Stone) and the Disciples (Campbell) now comes into our field of view. It was often discussed and debated by those who were to be involved. Some eagerly anticipated it while others viewed it with much trepidation. The first meeting was held at Christmas time in 1831. It was of four days. The second meeting was another four-day event which occurred at Lexington KY around New Year’s Day of 1832. Among those present, were Barton Warren Stone, John Rogers, John T. Johnson and John Smith with many others. Many were public speakers and had been present at both of the sessions.
Many friends of J.T. Johnson and Alexander Campbell were afraid of the consequences of the connection with Stone and his friends. John Smith and John Rogers were tasked with riding through northern portions of Kentucky to promote the union of the two groups. They spent an entire year doing such as evangelizing along with edifying the churches.
Johnson was directly involved with this intrepid team by overseeing the financial support that the two men needed to keep them going.
Some in these areas were very much opposed to the union and the two men tasked with helping them to come to a better understanding of the matter. There was an even greater thing that Johnson could do to help in the union. In January 1832, he became a co-editor of Barton W. Stone’s Christian Messenger.
This paper was widely circulated among the churches as well as individual Christians. Johnson used every opportunity to speak regarding the union as well as making himself familiar with those among whom he would be laboring for the remainder of his life. He made many friends and I suppose to any denominational man he would soon become a real enemy. This never slowed him down when he came to face with such when he preached the Gospel message.
When Johnson became co-editor, he came to know so many of God’s people, stretched forth across the young nation at that time. He would use these contacts and would travel forth all across the nation preaching the Gospel message to some for the first time while others rejoiced to hear it over and over. He was known as a herald of the Kingdom and proclaimer of the Gospel of God’s dear son. His labors across the nation continued right up till the time of his leaving this world for the reward of the next.
EDITOR AT LARGE
One thing that was not very well known outside of his day was that Johnson was an editor supreme. He worked on a great number of famous papers as an editor or co-editor. Also, his reports of his exploits were to be seen in very nearly every journal of that day anywhere near where he was located at the time. He started as co-editor of the Christian Messenger for two years until Stone moved it to the far west in the 1830’s. After that, he became an editor of a famous-but not journal known as The Gospel Advocate which was of short life but was located in Georgetown, Kentucky. His co-editor of this paper for 1835 and 1836, was B.F. Hall. The next paper that he was involved in was The Christian of 1837 which he co-edited for just one year. Next, he was a co-editor and writer for The Christian Preacher which was ably edited by D.S. Burnet. This paper ran from 1836-1840 and was a favorite for all of the writers among the disciples. As mentioned earlier, he wrote to and had reports published by a myriad of papers. Some relatively unknown ones were The Christian Magazine, edited by crowd favorite of the time Jesse B. Ferguson. I have seen reports in the most bizarre papers of single issue.
INSTITUTIONAL LEANINGS
Another area in which Johnson was involved and would have been even more involved were the societies of the early day. He would write of how he was in favor of the American Christian Missionary Society and how things would need to become more involved in organization to work in favor of the saints of that day. It is not a statement I make out of spite or anything. I just know that if he had lived longer, he very well might have been involved with the instrument seeing that he and L.L. Pinkerton of Midway, Kentucky were dearest of friends. It is not a thing that I say lightly to impugn his character, not in the least, but by the trends I have observed by reading hundreds upon hundreds of his reports and statements made in so many different papers.
DEATH of JOHN T. JOHNSON
In earlier statements I commented on how he was a wonderful evangelist. That cannot be emphasized enough. He openly stated that he missed so much of the life of his family throughout their lives indicated how much and how far he traveled in advancing the kingdom of God’s dear Son. He was mentally destroyed by the death of his wife of some plague that was stalking the people of that day. I believe it was cholera which was running in Lexington. He never quite got over the death of Sophia and he mentioned her often in his reports of his last days.
The death of John T. Johnson occurred on this wise. He was traveling doing evangelism in late 1856 and was in Lexington where one of his adult children lived. He was preaching one December day and was taken ill and put to bed, hopefully to recover, but after a period of ten days he continued his decline. When asked if he had any regrets regarding his life, he answered that he had not a single doubt regarding what he had done. If given the chance he would have done it all over again. And so, one of God’s great Proclaimers was taken home to his reward. One of the joys of my short walk is that I have had the opportunity to study and get to know this great man of God and his walk throughout this dark world holding up the blazing torch which is the good news of God’s dear Son.
Bibliography:
The Joyful Proclaimer-Frank
Life of J.T. Johnson-Rogers
Life of John Smith-Williams
Story of D.S. Burnet-Keith
The Christian Baptist-Campbell
Journals-Millennial Harbinger-Campbell
The Christian Messenger-Stone
The Gospel Advocate-B.F. Hall
The Christian Preacher-Burnet
The Christian-Scott
[1] Life of J.T. Johnson page 14
[2] Life of John Smith page 375
[3]Life of Elder John Smith page 379