Elijah Pierson | |
---|---|
Born | August 30, 1786 |
Died | August 6, 1834 47) | (aged
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | businessman preacher |
Spouse | Sarah Stanford |
Elijah Pierson (30 August 1786 - 6 August 1834 [1] ) was a successful American businessman and preacher who is best known for his later involvement with the religious leader Robert Matthews ( sometimes called "The Prophet Matthias").
Pierson was born in Morristown, New Jersey and was raised as a religious perfectionist Presbyterian, believing in God's direct interaction in the world in correlation to individual or collective sins. Around 1800, he moved to New York City and began to work as a clerk and later as a merchant. He remained unmarried, working on Pearl Street as a merchant, until 1822 when he met Sarah Stanford. The two were married and became heavily involved in mission work on Bowery Hill and Five Points, rejecting Yankee Presbyterian in favor of egalitarianism and retrenchment. After eight years of marriage, Sarah died from what was reported as overwork, causing major her husband's mental health. During her funeral, Pierson attempted to raise her from the dead, declaring himself "Elijah the Tishbite". His distress over the will of God helped Robert Matthews persuade him to help fund his "Kingdom" in 1832.
On July 28, 1834 in Sing Sing, New York, after eating several plates of blackberries, Pierson died of what was reported as poisoning. Robert Matthews was accused of poisoning Pierson and the case became extremely popular in the local penny presses. [2]
In 1835 Matthews, along with his housekeeper Isabella (later known as Sojourner Truth), was accused of murdering Pierson, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence, and Truth's presentation of several letters verifying her trustworthiness as a servant. The trial then focused on the reported beating of his daughter which he was found guilty of. The trial which lasted four days, resulted in a sentencing of three months and thirty additional days for contempt of court. [3]
Ahab was the seventh king of Israel, the son and successor of King Omri and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, according to the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible presents Ahab as a wicked king, particularly for condoning Jezebel's influence on religious policies and his principal role behind Naboth's arbitrary execution.
The Book of Kings is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of Israel also including the books of Joshua, Judges and Samuel.
Elijah was, according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible, a prophet and a miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worship of the Hebrew God over that of the Canaanite deity Baal. God also performed many miracles through Elijah, including resurrection, bringing fire down from the sky, and entering heaven alive "by fire." He is also portrayed as leading a school of prophets known as "the sons of the prophets." Following his ascension, Elisha, his disciple and most devoted assistant, took over his role as leader of this school. The Book of Malachi prophesies Elijah's return "before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD," making him a harbinger of the Messiah and of the eschaton in various faiths that revere the Hebrew Bible. References to Elijah appear in Sirach, the New Testament, the Mishnah and Talmud, the Quran, the Book of Mormon, and Baháʼí writings.
Sojourner Truth was an American abolitionist and activist for African-American civil rights, women's rights, and alcohol temperance. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.
Wallace Fard Muhammad, also known as Wallace D. Fard or Master Fard Muhammad, was the founder of the Nation of Islam. He arrived in Detroit in 1930 with an ambiguous background and several aliases, and taught an idiosyncratic form of what he considered Islam to members of the city's black population. In 1934, he disappeared from public record, and Elijah Muhammad succeeded him as leader of the Nation of Islam.
Elijah Parish Lovejoy was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor, and abolitionist. After his murder by a mob, he became a martyr to the abolitionist cause opposing slavery in the United States. He was also hailed as a defender of free speech and freedom of the press.
Arthur Tappan Pierson was an American Presbyterian pastor, Christian leader, missionary and writer who preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over fifty books, and gave Bible lectures as part of a transatlantic preaching ministry that made him famous in Scotland, England, and Korea. He was a consulting editor for the original "Scofield Reference Bible" (1909) for his friend, C. I. Scofield and was also a friend of D. L. Moody, George Müller, Adoniram Judson Gordon, and C. H. Spurgeon, whom he succeeded in the pulpit of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, from 1891 to 1893. Throughout his career, Pierson filled several pulpit positions around the world as an urban pastor who cared passionately for the poor.
Sarah Good was one of the first three women to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials, which occurred in 1692 in colonial Massachusetts.
Charles Beecher was an American minister, composer of religious hymns and a prolific author.
The fundamentalist–modernist controversy is a major schism that originated in the 1920s and 1930s within the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. At issue were foundational disputes about the role of Christianity; the authority of the Bible; and the death, resurrection, and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Two broad factions within Protestantism emerged: fundamentalists, who insisted upon the timeless validity of each doctrine of Christian orthodoxy; and modernists, who advocated a conscious adaptation of the Christian faith in response to the new scientific discoveries and moral pressures of the age. At first, the schism was limited to Reformed churches and centered around the Princeton Theological Seminary which had fundamentalist faculty members found Westminster Theological Seminary when Princeton went in a liberal direction. However, it soon spread, affecting nearly every Protestant denomination in the United States. Denominations that were not initially affected, such as the Lutheran churches, eventually were embroiled in the controversy, leading to a schism in the United States.
Robert Elliott Speer was an American Presbyterian religious leader and an authority on missions.
Abraham Lincoln grew up in a highly religious Baptist family. He never joined any Church, and was a skeptic as a young man and sometimes ridiculed revivalists. He frequently referred to God and had a deep knowledge of the Bible, often quoting it. Lincoln attended Protestant church services with his wife and children. "Especially after the death of his young son Willie in 1862, Lincoln moved away from his earlier religious skepticism." Some argue that Lincoln was neither a Christian believer nor a secular freethinker.
Robert Matthews was an American carpenter, businessman, and religious figure who gathered a cult-like following in 1830s New York. His aliases included Robert Matthias, Jesus Matthias, Matthias the Prophet, and Joshua the Jewish Minister. Matthews successfully converted three wealthy businessmen who helped fund the founding of a settlement he called The Kingdom, in Sing Sing village, New York. The Kingdom, also known as Mount Zion, eventually became involved in adultery, bankruptcy, and suspected murder; consequently landing Matthews in jail. He is also remembered today for his brief encounter with Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
Elisha was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a prophet and a wonder-worker. His name is commonly transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, or Alyasa via Arabic, and Elyasa or Elyesa via Turkish. Also mentioned in the New Testament and the Quran,[6:86][38:48] Elisha is venerated as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity and Islam and writings of the Baháʼí Faith refer to him by name.
James Francis Marion Jones, also known as the Rt. Rev. Dr. James F. Jones, D.D and as Prophet Jones, was an American black religious leader, televangelist, faith healer and pastor who led the religious movement that developed into the Church of Universal Triumph, Dominion of God, Inc. from 1938 until his death in 1971.
Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher was a German Reformed clergyman.
The raising of the son of the widow of Zarephath is a miracle of the prophet Elijah recorded in the Hebrew Bible, 1 Kings 17, taking place in the Phoenician city of Zarephath.
New Testament Church is a Christian denomination from Hong Kong, founded by the Hong Kong movie actress Mui Yee in 1963 then led by her daughter Zhang Lude. The leadership was then passed to Elijah Hong, and he settled down the New Testament Church on Mount Zion in Taiwan. The Chinese government classifies the church as heterodox.
Ilyās was a prophet and messenger of God (Allah) who was sent to guide the Children of Israel. He was given the prophetic mission to prevent people from worshipping idols. Ilyas is the prophetic predecessor to Alyasa. Some Islamic scholars believe, that Ilyas is from the progeny of Harun (Aaron).
1 Kings 17 is the seventeenth chapter of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and Judah by a Deuteronomic compiler in the seventh century BCE, with a supplement added in the sixth century BCE. This chapter belongs to the section comprising 1 Kings 16:15 to 2 Kings 8:29 which documents the period of Omri's dynasty. The focus of this chapter is the activity of prophet Elijah during the reign of king Ahab in the northern kingdom.