21
Nov
2009

Is It Well With Your Soul?

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21 Nov 2009

Justin Taylor points out that it was 136 years ago today that Horatio Spafford lost his four daughters in the shipwreck of the steamship Ville du Havre. It was this event that led Spafford to write It is Well With My Soul.

About Post Author

Nick Batzig is the senior pastor of Church Creek PCA in Charleston, SC and an associate editor for Ligonier Ministries. Prior to serving at Church Creek, Nick was a pastor at Wayside PCA on Signal Mountain, TN. Formerly, Nick served as the founding pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Richmond Hill, GA and as the editor of Reformation21 and the Christward Collective--sites of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. He frequently writes for Tabletalk Magazine, Reformation 21, He Reads Truth, and the Christward Collective. Nick was also the host of East of Eden, a podcast devoted to the Biblical and Systematic Theology of Jonathan Edwards. You can friend him on Facebook here and follow him on Twitter @nick_batzig

5 Responses

  1. Richard
    Reply

    I really wish we could consider whether we should be singing the hymns written by those who are not orthodox in their beliefs. By all accounts–given especially the later years of his life, Spafford was not an orthodox believer; and his wife was even worse.

  2. Nicholas T. Batzig
    Reply

    Richard,

    Its funny that you mention that, since I was talking with my wife about just after I wrote the post. The hymn itself is orthodox, but you are correct to point out that Spafford and his wife committed themselves to philanthropy and basically gave into the social Gospel model of ministry. I think this is important to point out.

  3. Nicholas T. Batzig
    Reply

    I am not certain about the scholarship, but this work presents Horatio and Anna (especially Anna) Spafford as far from orthodox believers in Jesus Christ in their later years.

  4. Nicholas T. Batzig
    Reply

    I am not certain about the scholarship, but this work presents Horatio and Anna (especially Anna) Spafford as far from orthodox believers in Jesus Christ in their later years.

  5. Richard
    Reply

    Nicholas,

    I have read the book you are referring to–checked it out from our local library and devoured it months ago. The author seems solid in her scholarship–and seems on firm ground that the Spaffords, especially Anna, essentially set herself up as the head of a cult in Jerusalem–it was more than just social gospel stuff. She denied the esentials of the faith. It disturbs me that this gets overlooked.

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