Word Warrior Publishing

Marlene Banks

Bible Verses and References

Scripture quotations marked CSB are from the CHRISTIAN STANDARD BIBLE®, copyright © 2017, Holman Bible Publishers, Brentwood, Tennessee

Scripture quotations marked RSB are from the RESTORATION STUDY BIBLE™ (4thedition), copyright © 2019, Yahweh’s Restoration Ministry, Holts Summit Missouri

Scripture quotations marked AKJV are from the (Authorized) KING JAMES VERSION, copyright © 2003, Thomas Nelson Inc., Nashville, Dallas (USA) and Mexico City, Rio De Janeiro, Beijing

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE® copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, The Lockman Foundation 

Scripture quotations marked BSB ARE FROM the HOLY BIBLE, BEREAN STUDY BIBLE, (C) 2016, 2020, Bible Hub, Pittsburgh, PA 15045

Footnotes- Footnotes are also used to indicate the source of a particular piece of information.

Author's Note

It is an odd turn of events that inspired me to write this devotional style literary offering. At first when I considered writing a devotional, I resisted the idea. In my opinion, there were an abundance of devotionals in circulation, and more being cranked out on a regular basis. Scriptural and Theological topics have been addressed and readdressed in numerous thematical presentations via the Christian devotional. The thought of writing a devotional and adding to the already abundant supply did not appeal to me. So, I said I would never write one. Lesson learned, I mean lesson relearned, never say never. 

Time passed and surprise, surprise, the idea of writing a devotional emerged again seemingly out of nowhere. I immediately dismissed it but surprisingly it reemerged. The fleeting thought of writing a devotional type book became a gentle consideration which progressed into a persistent urging that eventually revved up to a blaring directive. I could no longer dumb down, ignore or resist its nagging presence. My spiritual push, which had become insistent, finally prevailed. For the purpose of research, I read some nicely written devotionals and checked the most popular topics already out there. I then followed the Spirit’s leading toward a particular theme and style—mine. I decided I should write a collection of biographical sketches about saints of God within the framework of Kingdom soldiers and warriors focusing on their outstanding actions fueled by their powerful faith. It would be a devotional format of short biographical treatises with relevant spiritual messages. Once that was clear in my mind, I had to engage in personal spiritual battles that I believe were meant to delay, disrupt or dissuade me. With so much enemy pushback, I realized this project was a must do and this humble effort is the end result.

Introduction

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, (Ephesians 4:1 CSB)

so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, (Colossians 1:10 CSB)

The title of this devotional, Walk Worthy Faith’s Power and Purpose combines ideas that have milled around in my mind for a while. Let’s start with what Apostle Paul meant when he twice urged people of the Way (believing Christians of that era) to walk worthy. Practically speaking what does walking worthy look like today? Paul states, “…walk worthy of your calling…” and “…walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him…”. What did these statements mean in 1stcentury’s Believing community and is it applicable to Christians in the 21stcentury? By the time a reader finishes this devotional, my hope is for them to have a clearer understanding of what walking worthy involves and any related questions (general or personal) are adequately answered.  

This collective work of biographies is meant to inform, inspire and be a useful tool toward encouraging your personal journey through spirit-filled self-examination. One goal is to help refine your view on what it is to be an authentic follower of Jesus, a genuine child of the True Living God and triumphant example of Christian faith. May it demonstrate that faithful saints can absolutely live victoriously in this present life beyond the salvation experience. Not necessarily by the world’s superficial standards, but even unto death one can win over the enemy of our souls. Christ Jesus’ sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection was undoubtedly the world’s greatest victory. We can experience our own personal victories as well.

Each biographical sketch was written for either its diversity of theme, time in human history or potential for spiritual introspection and life application. Some of the people may be familiar and others unknown. The common denominator being, they all walked worthy demonstrating what that looks like in various situations and different time periods. Each individual lived out their purpose wielding their shield of faith[1]while manifesting faith’s Divinely Powerful best when circumstances or people were at their absolute wretched worst. 

DEVOTION 1

Faith Beyond Fear

Endure thou therefore hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

No man who warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:3-4 (AKJV)

     Ivan Vasilyevich Moiseyev was a Russian farm boy conscripted into military service where his enthusiastic Christian beliefs frustrated superior officers and converted some of his fellow enlisted men. This Soviet soldier was a superior warrior for the faith among a godless and vicious regime. Wearing, very decisively, the full armor of his God, Ivan bravely fulfilled his purpose.His name may not be familiar like some notable saints, but this young man is very much a fitting testament to what it means to live out the Word of God. He walked most worthy in the face of terrible persecution. Ivan had to decide if he would relent to his perfectly understandable fears or his biblically fed faith in Christ Jesus. His radical evangelism led young Russians to Christ during his life and after his death. Despite harassment and hardcore abuse by Communist officers, this warrior made choices that stagger human understanding, defying the instinct for survival. He valiantly rose above his fear of being ostracized, tortured or killed. Like Apostle Paul, the youthful Russian soldier fought an astonishingly good fight and undoubtedly kept his faith.

     Ivan Vasilyevich Moiseyev was born in 1952 in the city of Volontirovka, Suvorov District, Moldavian SSR. He was mostly called Vanya by those who knew him. His Christ-loving parents, Vasily and Ionna, had a family of seven sons and one daughter. They were peasant farmers who raised their children with strong Christian doctrines and values. Ivan dedicated his life to Christ Jesus and was eventually baptized in an Evangelical Baptist Church in Slabodeyska by 1970. He was an unusually passionate advocate for the Gospel to anyone around him. 

At eighteen Vanya (Ivan) went to Odessa to fulfill his two-year mandatory service in the Soviet Army. His faith quickly put him at odds with the atheistic propagation of the Communist Party. Military leaders became agitated with his passive refusal to deny Christianity. He was then sent to a regiment in Old Crimea, in the city of Kerch. His plight magnified under Kerch’s ambitious Polit-Ruk officials. Vanya felt it was his mission, an edict from God, to be zealous for Jesus Christ, promoting the Gospel to those in that unbelieving regime that did not tolerate religion and most especially Christianity. The Soviet youth were programmed to reject all religious doctrine but primarily the existence of a Supreme Being referred to as God. They founded their socialist propaganda on scientific information and communal sustention and progress. This godless political disposition made it a satanic stronghold, one that was waging an active spiritual battle. 

Vanya would go off to pray and spoke often of Christ Jesus to his fellow soldiers in spite of brutal repercussions. He refused to accept the “lie” as he called scientific atheism the Red Army methodically circulated. From the start, his faith made him a target, but he’d heard from God and showed outstanding courage. The young soldier was ordered to recant his Christian beliefs and accept what he was being indoctrinated to think. He could have pretended just for a while until he got out of the army, but he refused to deny his Lord and Savior under any circumstance.

     Vanya was given to dreams and visions from God before and during his military service. There were angelic visitations and warning revelations encouraging and strengthening him; allaying his doubts and fears to do God’s Will. So, he persisted in talking about Christ Jesus despite punishment such as having to scrub floors with a brush on hands and knees all night long or being awakened in the middle of the night and interrogated for long periods. He was also starved, having to go without food for as long as five days. One cannot help but be appalled and heartbroken at that degree of suffering, but God would intervene and sustain His ambassador of faith through those terrible ordeals. The soviet authorities eventually gave up for fear Vanya would become gravely ill and die. They could not understand how he tolerated it for so long. The young soldier was sometimes beaten, and other times imprisoned. For two weeks, at night he was made to stand outside in the subzero Russian cold and snow wearing an inadequate summer uniform. Again, the Lord, God Almighty was gracious and there was a miraculous deliverance from feeling the full impact of that frigid Russian weather and prevention from frostbite or freezing to death. 

     Once, Vanya was accidentally run over by a truck. When told he must have radical surgery to remove his right arm to save his life, he prayed and was miraculously healed during the night. That morning was the scheduled day of the surgery. The doctors, nurses and other hospital employees were astounded. The surgeon told Malsin, Vanya’s commanding officer, that the miracle he himself witnessed convinced him God existed, there was no other possible explanation. The professed conversion infuriated the already aggravated commander and the abuse escalated. They would put Vanya in a rubber suit and pump in compressed air that pressurize his chest until he almost couldn’t breathe. The Red Army used these inhumane measures to break the young disciple of Christ, but it seemed only to make his faith grow stronger. Other miracles and angelic visits occurred on Vanya’s behalf as the Spirit sustained him in supernatural ways attesting to God’s Will and Purpose. 

At one time a challenge was leveled at Vanya to prove the existence of his God. After praying for direction, Vanya accepted the challenge and won it which humiliated the unbelieving military commanders. Others in the regiment were turning to Christ when witnessing Vanya’s faith and the Divine intervention and miracles. He was an anointed man of God by all accounts often proclaiming Christ Jesus through his persecutions. During one of his many interrogations, Vanya declared, “I have one higher allegiance, and that is to Jesus Christ. He has given me certain orders, and these I cannot disobey.”

     One time, however, Vanya did not obey. While driving a military truck containing food with a Ukrainian sergeant named Harmansky, he was directed by his inner voice to slow down his speed. He dismissed the directive because he was driving carefully and well within the 60kph speed limit. The warning happened again but this time with a blaring emphasis and a thump from something beneath the wheel. Vanya knew God was making him stop. At that moment, the sergeant shouted that bread from their truck had fallen onto the road. When Vanya stopped the truck and they went to inspect the cab, it was still tightly locked, but bread was strewn back from where they’d just driven. There was no logical way that bread could have fallen out the back of the locked truck. They finally retrieved all the bread and in total puzzlement continued their way. Not long after they started on, while Harmansky railed against Vanya’s handling of his faith issue, they came upon a terrible multivehicle collision. In what must have been a chain reaction, a huge crane and bus had collided as well as passenger cars. It was a horrible sight of mangled metal, and broken bodies, shattered glass and splattered blood all around. An old man’s body had been hurled through a windshield where it still hung. There was pure pandemonium; cries of anguish from the injured as the police and rescue vehicles arrived on the scene. Death and destruction were everywhere the two soldiers looked. Vanya and Harmansky were traumatized at the sight before them but even more so at the realization they could have been in that horrific accident had not God intervened. Vanya was quite upset but understood all too well how his Master worked. This gave him a spiritual edge his companion did not possess. The sergeant was shaken to the core in more ways than one and broke down sobbing from the sight and the eventual comprehension of it all. When they returned to base, Harmansky was an emotional wreck demonstratively telling the whole story to the interested soldiers. For the embarrassed Commander Malsin and his irate superiors, this was the last straw! The whole matter had gone too far. This Baptist instigator, Moiseyev, had defied all attempts of reeducation. He violated the USSR Constitution and was making a fool of the Red Army. 

     The exasperated military leaders saw how popular Vanya was with his comrades. The continual Divine interventions on the servant soldier’s behalf was thwarting the soviet insistence of there being no God. None of them believed in such nonsense and always justified it away with some natural explanation. They wrestled with much angst and bickered among themselves about how to handle this disruptive religious influence on their communist agenda. Russia is a transcontinental (Eurasian) country. Even with his love of Christ Jesus, Vanya was an extremely patriotic Russian who loved his homeland. As a soldier, he was almost flawless; excelling in physical training, had a very respectful stout demeanor and doing everything he was supposed to do with exceptional results. He had been assigned as a driver, chauffeuring officers, and was always ready on time, the vehicle clean with sparkling tires that were full of air and his appearance impeccable. He was a handsome young man with a strong chiseled chin and solid body. From all appearances and actions, he should have and would have been the pride of the soviet army but for his insistence on his religious beliefs.

In one of his letters to his parents Vanya wrote: 

Even though I am a soldier, I work for the Lord, though there are difficulties and testings. Jesus Christ gave the order to proclaim His word in this city, in any meeting, in a military unit, to officers and soldiers. I have been in a division headquarters and in a special section. Though it was not easy, the Lord worked so that it turned out well there. I had an opportunity to proclaim His word to the most senior personnel. But I was reviled and thrown out of the meeting.

     Vanya’s harassment ramped up even more near the end of his life. Too many miracles being reported, too many people were witnessing the Powerful and Holy Hand of God. The Polit-Rut and Soviet commanders would not tolerate what they considered religious mass hysteria. He was pulled from classes for interrogation and out of bed at night so often that he was tired most of the time and eventually became exhausted. When they sent him back to classes he had to catch up or be penalized. The faithful Kingdom warrior suffered this harsh treatment repeatedly as a case to discredit him was being built. At one point the weary young man cried out to the Lord in exhausted frustration, unable to endure much more. He wrestled, as any person would under such circumstance, with his human emotions and physical distress. By his own account, once again Vanya was supernaturally strengthened by angelic visitation.

This faithful Kingdom warrior had made acquaintances with Sergei, a fellow inductee from another unit. It was a blessed encounter to know he was not totally alone in his love for Christ Jesus. They occasionally met secretly at an out-of-the-way location, but the grueling pace of military training and heavy workload did not allow it often. He also met a young African Christian named Ed who was studying in Kerch. They would talk and pray together, encouraging one another. Ed was eventually deported from Russia because of his evangelical zeal. However, his friend, the young Russian soldier’s fate would not be so mild. Vanya wrote his family about his tortures and made tape recordings when he was home on leave. His written and audio documentation is the main, but not sole, source of information about his military life and harassment. Much of it has been verified by witnesses and actual military documentation. 

The case built against Vanya culminated into a faux legal preceding meant to break the non-submissive Baptist into recanting his faith and everything that had occurred demonstrating God’s existence and Sovereign Power. As he’d done all along, Vanya respectfully stood his ground. He was in a prison house by now, taken out of his unit lest he continue to influence his fellow soldiers. During this time, he was treated more horribly than ever. Colonel Malsin was obsessed about his military reputation if he failed to control Moiseyev. The whole matter had lasted far too long and was taking its toll on the colonel. His last-ditch efforts were out of desperate determination to shut down that Baptist Jesus believing advocate. In Malsin’s mind every man had a breaking point, and he resolved to take that supposed superhuman farm boy to his. 

     At this point Vanya was being harassed by a tribunal that tortured him to the point of physical depletion. They constantly threaten him with a seven-year prison sentence but never followed through. He was not afraid of being put in prison and they eventually figured that out. They did not want to imprison the young soldier, they wanted to destroy his Christ-like spirit. Ten days he endured their cruel methods. In addition to long grilling sessions, he was shuffled into different cells that progressively became more like torture chambers. Each worse than the previous, the last being like a closet, having no bed with water on the floor. He was regularly denied food and eventually became delirious. All this being done to break him but with Divine supernatural strength he did not relent. It was an absolute dreadful experience for Vanya and at one point he began crying out to God for deliverance. He did this knowing in his heart it would not be in the form of a prison sentence or army discharge. It didn’t matter, he’d had all he could humanly take. Then the tribunal officials signed off the case. Deciding they did not want his death or inflicted mental collapse on their hands they stopped their inhumane torture. It took many days for the abused soldier to recuperate enough to be sent back to Kerch. Even then he was isolated from the rest of his unit. Malsin was again furious, but he had a final part in his seemingly failproof plan.

     Apparently, Vanya was aware his days on this earth were not long. On July 11, 1972, he wrote to his parents about a vision of angels and heaven that God had given him to help make it through his final tribulation. In this letter, he told them they would not see him anymore. The last letter he wrote dated July 15, 1972, was as if he knew it would be just that—his very last. He wrote the end of Revelation 2:10, reminding his loved ones of his coming reward for his sufferings. 

His visions and the Word of God fortified Vanya’s spiritual endurance. It is evident that he believed fully that Bible verse without doubt. The day after he wrote the letter an order came for him to go to KGB headquarters to pick up some officers, supposedly to chauffer. At only twenty years young, Vanya never returned from that duty. The colonel had not considered that Moiseyev would actually die in defiance. This was not the result he wanted, there was no victory without annihilating his foolishness about God. With him dead that could not happen. Although the problem person was gone, the plan had utterly failed. What was even worse the death will have to be explained to the higher authorities, the boy’s family and inquisitive soldiers from his unit who had previously rallied together in defense of their Christian comrade. 

Military officials called it an accidental drowning. The death certificate read: mechanical asphyxiation from drowning. However, when the body arrived at the Moiseyev farm, the family decided to inspect it fully and take pictures. Other family members and townspeople were present. Vanya’s brother, Semyon, a staunch Komsomol (All-Union Leninist Communist League of Youth) member, protested opening the casket and the photographing of the body. He went as far as throwing himself on the coffin to stop his father and was pulled off and dragged out the room by two men as he continued verbally objecting. This was the same brother who had warned Vanya about spouting his religious ideas and how it would not be tolerated in the Red Army. 

     When the coffin was opened and to the family’s horror the body was almost unrecognizable. Vanya, already in a weakened condition, had been brutally beat about the entire torso with additional wounds on his head and around his mouth. There were burns on his chest. He had been stabbed in and around the heart six times, and, yes, he had been drowned as well. 

When you read the various detailed accounts of this amazing young man’s journey with Jesus, while in an antagonistic environment, it becomes undeniable that he was anointed, had extraordinary faith and courage and was Divinely appointed to endure the tragic sufferings and death. Vanya was often supernaturally engaged and always sure of his spiritual footing. Nothing deterred him from speaking God’s Truth in the heart of enemy territory, even to high-ranking military officials. He may have been a Soviet soldier, but he was without question a soldier in the army of the Lord as the song goes. Vanya was truly a larger-than-life Kingdom warrior. In a foreword for a 1986 edition of the book, VANYA, Brother Andrew wrote, Vanya did not have a message, he was the message. What an extraordinarily brilliant and appropriate statement. 

The Red Army’s many efforts to silence the Savior’s dedicated disciple failed. They did not sway Vanya’s allegiance away from Christ Jesus to the atheist philosophy that required worshipping the Soviet régime. Because of this, they murdered him. Vanya walked through the strait gate and down that narrow path. Full-to-the-overflow with faith and enduring to the end, Vanya walks worthy into eternity. 

     Colonel Malsin, base commander and primary antagonist of Ivan Vasilyevich Moiseyev said: “Moiseyev died hard, he fought against death, but he died as a Christian.”

What was the frustrated communist colonel saying? Even being at complete odds with anything concerning Christianity and the teachings of any deity centered religion, he could not help but observe the strength of faith that young Moiseyev exhibited. The colonel was expressing Vanya’s staunch refusal to deny his Savior during the agonizing final tortuous attempt to make him do so. The faith-filled soldier holding tight to his Savior as he struggled to stay alive, in some significant way, penetrated the hard heart of the commander. Vanya obviously experienced terrible suffering, evident by the horrendous condition of his corpse. Yet, he remained faithful unto death as the scripture says—faithful beyond his fear and agony. His extraordinary courage and endurance are heart wrenching examples that might put many of us to shame. 

Side Note: 

     Several things happened after Vanya’s death. One very encouraging outcome developed from that nightmarish scenario. In The Lord’s great mercy, Vanya did not die for naught. His unit had to be split up by the Soviets. Each man was sent to a different place because many of them began believing in the Omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God and the Gospel of Christ Jesus, the Savior Son. They began embracing Christianity because of Vanya’s influence and unstoppably courageous faith. Even beyond his tortured death there was victory for this martyred saint, a warrior on the frontline of a serious spiritual battle, played out in the natural. Because of him, what he said, what he did and his steadfastness, those new converts were influenced and hopefully changed unto salvation.

Colonel Malsin’s life was never the same either. Things spiraled downward for him and his family. The Colonel’s young son sustained fatal injuries from an accident and his wife had to be committed to a mental institution. The once proud Soviet atheist eventually lost his precious military post after becoming convinced he was under God’s punishment. 

Ivan’s parents waged a public protest of their son’s tortures and subsequent death. They took what legal avenues they could. Complaints were made by many individuals and groups, even those not of a religious affiliation. Semyon worked against his family; openly opposing the accusations his parents and others leveled about the military and KGB’s culpability in Vanya’s death. Semyon was as resolute to his communist regime’s philosophy as Vanya was committed to his Christian faith. The one characteristic difference being, Vanya sacrificed himself making a resounding Kingdom declaration that has been communicated in Russia and throughout the world for over fifty years.

Reflections: 

     Who among us knows without doubt that we would stand strong against opposition to our faith as Vanya did? Most of us would like to believe we would, but would we? Can we honestly say we have no doubt that we would have endured like that young soldier? How many times do we not share our faith with friends or associates for fear of being criticized or ostracized? If we shrink away afraid of lightweight ridicule, social rejection or because the culture says it’s judgmental and politically incorrect, then we do our Savior and that young Christian warrior a great disservice. Being covert believers is not what genuine disciples of Christ Jesus do. If we remain steadfast and obedient like Vanya we will surely face a lot of push back in today’s secularist/antichristian and immoral culture. 

Vanya was human and dealt with fear and doubt that gave him pause to hesitate and rethink his actions, but he overcame his human frailty time and time again. We know this because he did not give in under the horrible pressure of physical abuse. Faith that strong is powerful and only comes when the Holy Spirit’s influence is stronger in us than our natural instincts and the enemy’s whispers and temptations. And that is the truly sweet spot where all Yahweh’s children should strive to be. The place wear the Blood of the Savior Christ Jesus covers us with Divine Power from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

And pray for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Ephesians 6:19-20 (KJ21)

Consider This…

1.  Do you hide your Christian identity to be more socially accepted by unsaved family, coworkers, neighbors, or business associates?

2. Are you willing to speak up for Christ Jesus and defend God’s Word and Kingdom agenda in enemy territory when it is considered narrow minded or hateful, unsophisticated, or even unintelligent? 

3. How much suffering will you tolerate for the Gospel’s sake, and would you sacrifice your life if it came to that?

Sovereign Father God,strengthen me so I may be steadfast for the Gospel of Your Son, Jesus Christ, in any circumstance. Give me bold unwavering faith so that I may walk worthy in my calling. Help me by Your Holy Spirit to fully trust the Truth of Your Word and not lose my convictions because of trials and hardships. I want to be willingly faithful no matter the consequence with courageous faith that glorifies You. In Christ Jesus’ Holy name. So Be It!

                                                                     * * * * * * * * * * * * 

DEVOTION 2

Frontline of faith

“This is My commandment: that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:12-13 (KJ21)

     Jonathan Myrick Daniels, a twenty-six-year-old Episcopal seminarian student stared the hate-filled demons of racism directly in the eyes. His spirit-fed willingness to stand against an ingrained culture of discrimination and violence did not retreat. Jonathan witnessed firsthand the monster of systemic bigotry and became enthusiastic about helping to facilitate change. In the 1960s, racial, social and political upheaval may have dominated this country’s media, but it was in actuality a spiritual battle raging across the nation. Jonathan’s robust faith played out in his service to humanity. A Kingdom mentality fueled by the Holy Spirit began to well up in this promising young seminarian. A split-second reaction prompted by what was most assuredly a spirit-led response would thrust him into more than mere media headlines.

     Jonathan Myrick Daniels’ short life in this world started March 20, 1939, in Keene, New Hampshire. He was born to an obstetrician father and language teacher mother. Johnathan joined an Episcopal church when he was a high school senior, yet he experienced distressing uncertainty about his faith walk and the things of God. He graduated top of his Lexington, Virginia Military Institute class as valedictorian in 1961. From there he went on to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts majoring in literature. When he was no longer plagued by wavering doubts about Christianity, Jonathan became convinced he was supposed to spend his life in devout service. He then transferred to the Episcopal Theological School also in Cambridge. 

     Jonathan was a serious and dedicated seminary student. He responded to the public call from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for clergy, students, and lay persons to join him in a peaceful march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. It was then Jonathan commenced his involvement with the civil rights movement. After that initial experience, the devout seminarian decided his role should be more substantial than one singular event. He requested to return to Alabama and complete his theological studies independently while working for the movement. He lived with a local African American family teaching people to read, registering blacks to vote, and integrating the local Episcopal Church’s segregated worship services. 

     More than once Jonathan’s correspondence, in which he would refer to Apostle Paul, demonstrated he’d grown beyond ritualistic Anglican practices into a disciple striving to be more Christ-like. He’d entered the belly of enemy territory positioned on the battle’s frontline to uproot a demonic stronghold of hardcore bigotry. Jonathan was a white New England northerner endeavoring to dismantle a longstanding racist system in the deep south. He, and others like him, were considered traitors to their race and Yankee agitators. This was certainly not an easy undertaking. To the observing public the nation’s civil rights movement was a social, legal and political problem framed in humanism. To the spiritually astute, the ones with Holy Spirit led discernment, it would be more complicated. The deep-rooted disparity and racial hatred of that period (as had been at other times in United States history) was deliberate spiritual havoc playing out in diverse ways to disrupt peaceful interaction and magnify human’s sin nature. Man’s inhumanity to man has always been an effective tactic. Throughout the world, hateful racial, national and religious bigotry of any sort have had devastating effects on humanity.

     August 13, 1965, a group which Jonathan was part of was arrested in the aftermath of a short-lived civil rights demonstration at Fort Deposit, in Alabama. The march quickly morphed into a potentially violent standoff because of a hostile crowd of locals in wait. The peaceful protestors were removed and put in a Hayneville jail. They were confined in the sweltering jail with no air conditioning and dreadfully inadequate accommodations for a whole week. On August 20, the protestors were suspiciously released but given no transportation out of town. Jonathan and three other individuals along with Robert Bailey, another activist, went to purchase soft drinks on this one-hundred-degree temperature day. They headed to Varner’s Cash Store, one of the few local businesses known to cordially serve black people. As they were entering the store they were stopped at the doorway by a belligerent non-salaried deputy, Tom Coleman. He was carrying a 12-gauge shotgun and holstering a handgun. Coleman cursed at them and threatened Ruby Sales, a seventeen-year-old African American. Then he raised his shotgun to her face. Jonathan quickly pushed Ruby out of the line of fire. As a result, he got the full impact of the shot gun blast at close range. It is said the impact practically severed his body. Death most likely was instantaneous. Jonathan Myrick Daniels was cut down at ­only twenty-six years old.

     Accompanying Robert, Jonathan and Ruby to the store was a Catholic priest from Chicago, Father Richard Morrisoe, who immediately grabbed the hand of the other African American girl who was with them, a local named Joyce Bailey, and started running. Father Morrisroe shoved Joyce behind a car. Tom Coleman then turned his shotgun on the Caucasian priest and fired again severely wounding the man’s lower back. He crumbled to the ground. Father Morrisroe survived his injury but only after being callously carried to the hospital in a hearse on top of Jonathan Daniel’s dead body. He was taken to Montgomery Baptist Hospital. There was only one doctor, a military surgeon, willing to operate on the wounded clergyman. Apparently they considered certain death to be imminent providing a chaplain to give last rites. No other doctor in that hospital would try to save his life. One wonders if the reason was actual inability to perform the surgery or was it indifference. A generations-old segregationist philosophy and strong resentment of a possibly changing culture was so deeply ingrained that even doing right in the eyes of God, professional ethics or human compassion could not penetrate it. The priest’s injuries were so severe it took him six months in Alabama and Illinois hospitals to reasonably recover. Even now, some fifty-nine years afterwards, the horror of the cold-blooded nature of this tragedy and its subsequent outcome is intensely heartbreaking.

The nation was rightfully outraged, responding with stunned disbelief as we mourned yet another atrocious murder. It had not been two years since the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing which killed four little African American girls during Sunday school in Birmingham, Alabama. A little less than five months earlier, Viola Fauver Liuzzo, a 39-year-old Caucasian housewife and mother of five who was also a civil rights activist was shot twice in the head by three Ku Kluz Klan members in Selma, Alabama. Only three months had passed since the clubbing death of a Caucasian Unitarian Minister, James Reeb also in Selma, Alabama. The dark spiritual influence in those areas had no care for men of God and perhaps they were especially targeted. During that period of United States history there was criminal violence and killings occurring with mind numbing regularity. Jonathan’s murder once again underscored the embedded evil of the existing racist and Jim Crow systems of this country. 

Christ Jesus is the Sacrificial Lambsent by Father Yah but certainly Jonathan Myrick Daniels’s death qualifies him as an example of what it is to be a lamb sacrificed. His instantaneous action saved the life of another soul but ended his own as he walked worthily toward his eternal destiny.

Side Note:

     Ruby Sales, whose life was saved that day, was so traumatized by the tragedy she was unable to speak for months. Even being extremely distraught and despite a very real danger to her safety, she was determined to testify at the trial against Tom Coleman. She did just that along with Joyce Bailey the other young lady. To fully realize the general disposition of the citizenry, local and state law enforcement agencies and the judicial system in Alabama one needs only to grasp the facts about Tom Coleman. This is a man who shot and killed a black prison worker on a road crew six years prior. He suffered little to no legal ramifications for that killing. For the Jonathan Daniels homicide, his first-degree murder charge was reduced to manslaughter. He was then acquitted of that reduced charge by an all-white Alabama jury after claiming self-defense. A claim that was backed up by multiple false testimonies accusing the seminarian student and priest of brandishing weapons. In the end Coleman walked out a free man. By many in that community he was lauded for his actions and considered a hero. There were also inadequate charges given for shooting Father Morrisoe, and even they were eventually dropped altogether. Coleman stated to a CBS reporter in 1966 that he would take similar action were he facing other “outsiders from the north” in the same circumstance.[2] After the trial, he resumed his state job with no further legal repercussions. Years later it was told that through the years Coleman repeatedly declared he had no remorse and would not hesitate to do it again. He lived until he was 86 years old. 

     Ruby Sales, who had been a student at Tuskegee Institute left the south and attended Manhatanville College and then Princeton University. She’s spent her adult life teaching and getting involved in social activism. She ended up studying at the same Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts where Jonathan attended. Ruby is now an Episcopal minister, vigorous social activist, and founder of the Spirit House. Annually she went to Hayneville, Alabama speaking and retelling the story of Jonathan because she says she didn’t want the following generations to forget Jonathan’s sacrifice and his Christ-like spirit that was prevalent among many of the protestors during the civil rights movement.

Father Richard Morrisoe earned his master’s and doctorate in Theology after the tragedy. Yet he left the priesthood in 1972. He became a lawyer, got married and had two children. His son’s name is Richard Jonathan in memory of Daniels. He advocated for Jonathan to be honored as a martyr and attends functions commemorating Daniels. 

Reflections:

     Jonathan Daniels heard a call, saw a need and left his ordered life in New England to go to a chaotic region where the people would surely be hostile. Alabama was a state where others had already been killed for their participation in the civil rights movement—where innocent children had died as a result. Yet, Jonathan in all likelihood not wanting to or thinking he would die was certainly willing to lay aside his safety and go into the trenches for a cause that was not personally his. It was a human cause, yes, but Jonathan could have watched from the sidelines, prayed from afar, donated money, or taken a safer method of involvement. Any type of direct participation carried obvious risks, but he chose to directly engage the dark adversarial spirits of discrimination. This is the mentality of a Kingdom-minded disciple and Spirit-filled warrior, walking willingly into a volatile situation, standing at the frontline of battle in the name of his Holy God and Savior, carrying the banner of love, justice and peace.

Consider This…

1. Which is more important in your life, safety or service? 

2. Do you openly speak out against injustices?

3. How much inconvenience, risk, or abuse are you willing to endure to stand for justice in this world in the name of a Holy and Just God? 

4. What role do you think people in the family of faith should take in social and political matters. What did Jesus say concerning one’s social enthusiasm and worldly participation?

Most High and Holy God, my prayer is for understanding about Your Will for me in social or political matters and how I should or should not be involved. Let any participation on my part build up and glorify You. Through the Holy Spirit give me strength to become less about me and more about others, so one day I may be willing to lay down my life for another like Jesus did for me. To become more like Your Son is my goal. In Christ Jesus’ Sacrificial name. 

[1]Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Ephesians 6:16 KJV

[2] Online article: How a Chicago Priest Became an Unwitting Civil Rights figure 

S.L. Wisenberg, Chicago, August 31, 2015