Prefi bible

• The European Protestant churches that emerged from the Reformation movements of the 12th to the 16th centuries were late in its efforts to spread Christianity particularly to Asia
• There was a considerable delay before European Protestantism became involved in the further spread of the Christian faith outside Europe
• God was working in the lives of men and women, preparing and equipping them to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to other parts of the world particularly in India and other countries in Asia
• This study looks into the lives of people that God moved to spread the Gospel to these places, as well as the struggles & the hardships they encountered and their contributions toward missions
• William Carey


  "Father of Modern Protestant Missions"
• William Carey


  • Born in 1761 to Edmund and Elizabeth Carey who were weavers
  • His father was appointed the parish clerk and village schoolmaster when William was six
  • He was the oldest of five children
  • He hungered for historical and scientific knowledge from a young age
  • He had no formal education after the age of twelve
  • He turned himself into a productive self-educator and an enthusiastic reader
  • He delighted in books of travel and adventure and had a special interest with plants
  • He showed determination in completing anything he ever began
  • His health did not permit him to engage in agricultural pursuits
• William Carey


  • He was raised in the obscure, rural village of Paulerpury, in the middle of England
  • He apprenticed in a local cobbler's shop, where he was converted as an Anglican
  • He enthusiastically took up the faith
  • He borrowed a Greek grammar and proceeded to teach himself New Testament Greek
  • He had a natural gift for learning new languages
  • He taught himself both Hebrew and Greek
  • Before he was thirty-one, he was able to read the Bible in seven languages including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, & French
• William Carey: '"Thy Redeemer, the God of the whole earth shall He be called."'
• Isaiah 54


  Carey's favorite passage of scripture, a constant encouragement during his ministry
• At the age of 19, William Carey fell in love with Dorothy Plackett, who was six years older than him, and they were married on June 10, 1781
• They had seven children together, three of whom died at a young age
• Dorothy was a faithful and devoted wife, although she was illiterate and never shared in William's great missionary passion
• Carey continued pursuing his lifelong interest in international affairs, especially the religious life of other cultures
• Carey was increasingly dismayed at his fellow Protestants' lack of missions interest
• Carey penned "An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens"
• Carey argued that Jesus' Great Commission applied to all Christians of all times, and he castigated fellow believers of his day for ignoring it
• In 1792 Carey organized a missionary society, and at its inaugural meeting preached a sermon with the call, "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!"
• Within a year, Carey, John Thomas (a former surgeon), and Carey's family were on a ship headed for India
• Thomas and Carey had grossly underestimated what it would cost to live in India, and Carey's early years there were miserable
• Carey was deeply upset by the Indian's deep-rooted religious nature expressed by the innumerable shrines, the offerings of food and flowers, and the incredible sufferings they were willing to endure in their quest for spiritual peace
• Carey was most outraged by the terrible practice of Sati, which was a traditional funeral custom where if a man died, his wife, or wives, would throw themselves onto the burning pyre in order to kill themselves
• When Thomas deserted the enterprise, Carey was forced to move his family repeatedly as he sought employment that could sustain them
• Illness racked the family, and loneliness and regret set it: "I am in a strange land," he wrote, "no Christian friend, a large family, and nothing to supply their wants."
• Carey retained hope: "Well, I have God, and his word is sure."
• In October 1799, Carey was invited to locate in a Danish settlement in Serampore, near Calcutta, where missionaries were looked upon more kindly than in those parts of India where the East India Company was hostile towards missionaries
• Carey learned Bengali with the help of a pundit, and in a few weeks began translating the Bible into Bengali and preaching to small gatherings
• Carey was joined by William Ward, a printer, and Joshua and Hanna Marshman, teachers
• Mission finances increased considerably as Ward began securing government printing contracts, the Marshmans opened schools for children, and Carey began teaching at Fort William College in Calcutta
• In December 1800, after seven years of missionary labor, Carey baptized his first convert, Krishna Pal, and two months later, he published his first Bengali New Testament
• Carey and his colleagues laid the foundation for the study of modern Bengali, which up to this time had been an "unsettled dialect"
• Carey's greatest focus was intensely on the work of translating the Bible into local languages and helping people become literate so that they could read God's Word
• Carey faced opposition and resistance from businesses and the Indian government
• When Carey himself contracted malaria, and then his 5-year-old Peter died of dysentery, it became too much for his wife, Dorothy, whose mental health deteriorated rapidly
• Dorothy suffered delusions, accusing Carey of adultery and threatening him with a knife. She eventually had to be confined to a room and physically restrained
• Dorothy was mentally unstable until her death in 1807
• Several of Carey's children also died from various diseases at young ages
• Carey: '"This is indeed the valley of the shadow of death to me, But I rejoice that I am here notwithstanding; and God is here."'
• William Carey


  Married Charlotte Rumohrm in 1808, who was a great encouragement to Carey because of her delight in the scripture and her desire for the Indians to know the Lord intimately through their heart language
• William and Charlotte Carey

  Worked together on translating the Bible because she was also fluent in several languages
• Charlotte Carey passed away

  1821