Tinka, you are a student of history. Read the book that I cited. It is the best that there is on the life of William Foy.
Yes, there were racial concerns involved. However, the primary issue was that Foy did not understand the 3rd vision. It ran counter to what he believed. Foy felt that he could not preach something that appeared to him to be against the Bible. Yet, he could not find it in his heart to reject the visions. Faced with that problem he went to the Lord and asked God to take the responsibility away from him. God did.
His request was not a rejection. He had proclaimed the visions for 3 months at a time, twice. He had done what God had asked him to do.
It is easy for those of us who live 165 years later to point out the humaness in William Foy. It may be easy for us to point to a weakness and say that he should have relied upon God to strengthen him and bring him to understanding. But, I would ask everyone here: Would you have done as much as Foy did? Would you have stopped earning your living to go and preach a strange message for three months and do it twice. I cannot say that I would have had that level of faith.
Foy was not Foss, and I will suggest that we should recognize that.
Thank you Gregory here is a little of what I reread. Just had thought on why when God knows ending from beginning why he gave Foy the vision other then a "test:??
THE EXPERIENCE OF
WILLIAM ELLIS FOY
IN THE HEIGHT OF THE ADVENT AWAKENING WILLIAM FOY, A LIGHT-SKINNED MULATTO RESIDING IN NEW ENGLAND, WAS GIVEN TWO OR THREE VISIONS RELATING TO THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. SOMETIME BEFORE THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF OCTOBER 22, 1844, ELLEN HARMON HEARD HIM SPEAK IN BEETHOVEN HALL IN PORTLAND, MAINE. SOMETIME AFTER THE 1844 DISAPPOINTMENT, UNBEKNOWN TO ELLEN HARMON AT FIRST, HE WAS PRESENT IN A MEETING HELD IN THE COUNTRYSIDE EAST OF PORTLAND, TOWARD CAPE ELIZABETH, AT WHICH SHE SPOKE, TELLING OF HER FIRST VISION. WHILE SHE WAS SPEAKING, FOY STOOD TO HIS FEET AND PRAISED THE LORD, DECLARING THAT IT WAS JUST WHAT HE HAD SEEN. AFTER THE MEETING HE WANTED TO TALK WITH HER, AND THEY HAD A LITTLE VISIT. {1BIO 488.1}
IN 1835, FOY AS A YOUNG MAN, GAVE HIS HEART TO CHRIST AND BECAME A MEMBER OF THE FREEWILL BAPTIST CHURCH. SEVEN YEARS LATER, IN 1842, WHILE HE WAS PREPARING TO TAKE HOLY ORDERS AS AN EPISCOPAL MINISTER, TWO VISIONS WERE GIVEN HIM. ALTHOUGH DEEPLY RELIGIOUS, HE WAS BY HIS OWN TESTIMONY, "OPPOSED TO THE DOCTRINE OF JESUS' NEAR APPROACH." {1BIO 488.2}
THE VISIONS RELATING TO THE NEAR ADVENT OF CHRIST AND TO LAST-DAY EVENTS CREATED IN HIM A VERY DEFINITE INTEREST IN THE ADVENT MOVEMENT, AND HE JOINED OTHERS IN HERALDING THE MESSAGE OF THE EXPECTATION OF CHRIST'S SOON RETURN. {1BIO 488.3}
THE TWO INITIAL VISIONS OF WILLIAM FOY, TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE, WERE PUBLISHED IN 1845 IN A PAMPHLET IN PORTLAND, MAINE. THE FIRST VISION WAS GIVEN TO HIM ON JANUARY 18, 1842, WHILE HE WAS ATTENDING SERVICE IN A BOSTON CHURCH ON SOUTHARK STREET. EYEWITNESSES TO THE EXPERIENCE TESTIFY THAT HE
489
WAS IN VISION TWO AND A HALF HOURS. A PHYSICIAN WHO EXAMINED HIM TESTIFIED THAT HE COULD FIND NO APPEARANCE OF LIFE "EXCEPT AROUND THE HEART." IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT FOY DECLARES, "MY BREATH LEFT ME." {1BIO 488.4}
IN THE FIRST REVELATION FOY VIEWED THE GLORIOUS REWARD OF THE FAITHFUL AND THE PUNISHMENT OF SINNERS. HE FELT THE DUTY TO DECLARE WHAT HE HAD SEEN TO OTHERS, BUT NOT BEING INSTRUCTED TO RELATE THE VISION, HE DISCLOSED IT TO NO ONE. BUT HE HAD NO PEACE OF MIND. IN A SECOND REVELATION GIVEN TO HIM, ON FEBRUARY 4, 1842, HE VIEWED MULTITUDES OF EARTH, THOSE WHO HAD NOT DIED AND THOSE WHO HAD BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD, BEING ASSEMBLED TO RECEIVE THEIR REWARD. IN CONNECTION WITH THIS REVELATION HE WAS INSTRUCTED, "THOU MUST REVEAL THOSE THINGS WHICH THOU HAST SEEN, AND ALSO WARN THY FELLOW CREATURES TO FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME." {1BIO 489.1}
FOY'S UNWILLINGNESS TO RELATE TO OTHERS WHAT HAD BEEN SHOWN TO HIM STEMMED FROM BOTH THE PREJUDICE AGAINST ANY WHO CLAIMED TO HAVE DIVINE REVELATIONS AND THE PREJUDICE AGAINST THOSE OF HIS COLOR. HE QUESTIONED IN HIS MIND, "WHY SHOULD THESE THINGS BE GIVEN TO ME TO BEAR TO THE WORLD?" {1BIO 489.2}
A FEW DAYS LATER THE PASTOR OF THE BLOOMFIELD STREET CHURCH IN BOSTON CALLED UPON FOY TO RELATE THE VISIONS IN HIS HOUSE OF WORSHIP. RELUCTANTLY HE CONSENTED, AND THE NEXT EVENING HE FOUND A LARGE CONGREGATION ASSEMBLED AWAITING HIS MESSAGE. AS HE BEGAN TO SPEAK, HIS FEAR LEFT HIM, AND HE RELATED WITH GREAT FREEDOM THE THINGS THAT WERE SHOWN TO HIM, TO A CONGREGATION THAT GAVE RAPT ATTENTION. {1BIO 489.3}
WITH THIS AS A BEGINNING HE TRAVELED FOR THREE MONTHS, DELIVERING HIS MESSAGES TO CROWDED HOUSES OF ALL DENOMINATIONS. HE HAD A GOOD COMMAND OF LANGUAGE. AS HE DESCRIBED THE HEAVENLY WORLD, THE NEW JERUSALEM, AND THE COMPASSIONATE LOVE OF CHRIST, AND EXHORTED THE UNCONVERTED TO SEEK GOD, MANY RESPONDED TO HIS ENTREATIES. AS HIS FAMILY NEEDED SUPPORT, AFTER THREE MONTHS IN THE FIELD, FOY RETIRED FROM PUBLIC WORK TO LABOR WITH HIS HANDS. HE ENGAGED IN SUCH WORK FOR THREE MONTHS, AND THEN, FEELING IMPELLED TO STAND BEFORE THE PEOPLE, HE AGAIN TOOK UP HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY, EXPECTING SOON TO SEE HIS SAVIOUR WHEN HE SHOULD COME. WHEN SPEAKING, HE WORE THE CLERICAL ROBES OF THE EPISCOPAL CLERGY. {1BIO 489.4}
ACCORDING TO J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, NEAR THE TIME OF THE EXPECTATION IN 1844 FOY WAS GIVEN A THIRD VISION IN WHICH WERE
490
PRESENTED THREE PLATFORMS THAT HE COULD NOT UNDERSTAND IN THE LIGHT OF HIS BELIEF IN THE IMMINENT COMING OF CHRIST. ACCORDING TO LOUGHBOROUGH, IN PERPLEXITY FOY CEASED PUBLIC WORK. IT IS KNOWN THAT IN THE 1850S AND THROUGH MID-LIFE HE FILLED POSITIONS AS A FREEWILL BAPTIST MINISTER IN MASSACHUSETTS AND MAINE, AND THEN TURNED TO FARMING IN SULLIVAN COUNTY IN MAINE. WHILE BUT LITTLE IS KNOWN OF HIS LATER EXPERIENCE, HIS TOMBSTONE BEARS THE RECORD THAT HE DIED IN 1893. {1BIO 489.5}
THERE IS NO OCCASION TO QUESTION THE GENUINENESS OF WILLIAM FOY'S EXPERIENCE. LOUGHBOROUGH FELT THAT THE VISIONS BORE CLEAR EVIDENCES OF BEING THE GENUINE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD. MORE SIGNIFICANT, PERHAPS, IS THE FACT THAT ELLEN WHITE, WHO AS NOTED ABOVE HAD SOME ACQUAINTANCE WITH HIM, IN AN INTERVIEW IN 1912 TREATED HIS EXPERIENCE AS GENUINE.--AUTHOR.
SOURCES
DF 231. "THE CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE OF WILLIAM E. FOY, TOGETHER WITH THE TWO
VISIONS HE RECEIVED IN THE MONTHS OF JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1842."
PORTLAND: J. AND C. H. PEARSON, 1845. ELLEN G. WHITE MANUSCRIPT 131, 1906. LOUGHBOROUGH, J. N. THE GREAT SECOND ADVENT MOVEMENT. WASHINGTON,
D.C.: REVIEW AND HERALD, 1909. PAGES 145-147. {1BIO 490.1}
Author
Topic: Are we ignoring the Women's Ordination Issue for a Reason (Read 288635 times)
