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lesterb wrote:Sylvester’s
Journal…

Introduction

This book takes place in the 1870’s in a large Mennonite community in the eastern part of North America, probably either in Ontario or Pennsylvania. Spiritually, the Mennonite Church was in a very low period during this time. They considered the Methodists to be their spiritual enemies, since some of the more spiritually minded Mennonite younger families had gone over to them. This book reflects this scenario, and is not necessarily representative of the beliefs of the Mennonite Church of today. I have bent that a little in places, to leave readers with some answers for questions they might be facing today, but in general, I have tried to stick to this.

In some cases, terminology has changed from then until now. For instance, the term “new birth” was unknown, per se, in those times. But the concept wasn’t, though it was viewed more as something that one grew into, rather than the impulsive, revival meeting response type of conversion experience common in the Methodist settings of the time. Even today, one may meet older people with Old Order Mennonite background who, though they are obviously Christians, cannot tell you the day or the hour that they decided to follow Jesus.

The idea of a confessional journal, as portrayed in this book, will be a little strange to most readers. But it did happen, mostly in small offshoots of the mainstream Mennonites, like the Reformed Mennonites.

This book is fiction. (Any similarity to any living person is coincidental and unintended.) But, even in today’s church setting, people do go astray. Some of these people try to hide their sin. And hidden sin always has repercussions. This is true not only of the person committing them, but of their family, friends, and church. Hopefully, I can show you some of these repercussions in this book.

lesterb wrote:Sylvester’s
Journal…

Introduction

This book takes place in the 1870’s in a large Mennonite community in the eastern part of North America, probably either in Ontario or Pennsylvania. Spiritually, the Mennonite Church was in a very low period during this time. They considered the Methodists to be their spiritual enemies, since some of the more spiritually minded Mennonite younger families had gone over to them. This book reflects this scenario, and is not necessarily representative of the beliefs of the Mennonite Church of today. I have bent that a little in places, to leave readers with some answers for questions they might be facing today, but in general, I have tried to stick to this.

In some cases, terminology has changed from then until now. For instance, the term “new birth” was unknown, per se, in those times. But the concept wasn’t, though it was viewed more as something that one grew into, rather than the impulsive, revival meeting response type of conversion experience common in the Methodist settings of the time. Even today, one may meet older people with Old Order Mennonite background who, though they are obviously Christians, cannot tell you the day or the hour that they decided to follow Jesus.

The idea of a confessional journal, as portrayed in this book, will be a little strange to most readers. But it did happen, mostly in small offshoots of the mainstream Mennonites, like the Reformed Mennonites.

This book is fiction. (Any similarity to any living person is coincidental and unintended.) But, even in today’s church setting, people do go astray. Some of these people try to hide their sin. And hidden sin always has repercussions. This is true not only of the person committing them, but of their family, friends, and church. Hopefully, I can show you some of these repercussions in this book.

EdselB wrote:

lesterb wrote:Sylvester’s
Journal…

Introduction

This book takes place in the 1870’s in a large Mennonite community in the eastern part of North America, probably either in Ontario or Pennsylvania. Spiritually, the Mennonite Church was in a very low period during this time. They considered the Methodists to be their spiritual enemies, since some of the more spiritually minded Mennonite younger families had gone over to them. This book reflects this scenario, and is not necessarily representative of the beliefs of the Mennonite Church of today. I have bent that a little in places, to leave readers with some answers for questions they might be facing today, but in general, I have tried to stick to this.

In some cases, terminology has changed from then until now. For instance, the term “new birth” was unknown, per se, in those times. But the concept wasn’t, though it was viewed more as something that one grew into, rather than the impulsive, revival meeting response type of conversion experience common in the Methodist settings of the time. Even today, one may meet older people with Old Order Mennonite background who, though they are obviously Christians, cannot tell you the day or the hour that they decided to follow Jesus.

The idea of a confessional journal, as portrayed in this book, will be a little strange to most readers. But it did happen, mostly in small offshoots of the mainstream Mennonites, like the Reformed Mennonites.

This book is fiction. (Any similarity to any living person is coincidental and unintended.) But, even in today’s church setting, people do go astray. Some of these people try to hide their sin. And hidden sin always has repercussions. This is true not only of the person committing them, but of their family, friends, and church. Hopefully, I can show you some of these repercussions in this book.

I am not sure that I would agree that the 1870s was a low point for the Mennonite Church. Also confessional diaries were very rare among 19th century Mennonites outside the Reformed Mennonites. That is one of the things that makes Reformed Mennonites distinctive from 19th Old Mennonites or Amish.

As far as the new birth, I think you should read Peter Burkholder's "Nine Reflections" at the back of The Mennonite Confession of Faith (1837)

https://archive.org/details/confessionfaith00menngoog

or Abraham Godshalk, A Description of the New Creature (1838). The text is avaialble online

https://archive.org/details/familyrecordothe00gods

This is a geneaolgy of the Godshalk family, which includes AG's book, on pp. 40-108.

And of course there is Christian Burkholder's Address to Youth

http://thecommonlife.com.au/rainham/wp- ... -Youth.pdf

Happy reading.

ken_sylvania wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2019 4:45 pm

lesterb wrote:Sylvester’s
Journal…

Introduction

This book takes place in the 1870’s in a large Mennonite community in the eastern part of North America, probably either in Ontario or Pennsylvania. Spiritually, the Mennonite Church was in a very low period during this time. They considered the Methodists to be their spiritual enemies, since some of the more spiritually minded Mennonite younger families had gone over to them. This book reflects this scenario, and is not necessarily representative of the beliefs of the Mennonite Church of today. I have bent that a little in places, to leave readers with some answers for questions they might be facing today, but in general, I have tried to stick to this.

In some cases, terminology has changed from then until now. For instance, the term “new birth” was unknown, per se, in those times. But the concept wasn’t, though it was viewed more as something that one grew into, rather than the impulsive, revival meeting response type of conversion experience common in the Methodist settings of the time. Even today, one may meet older people with Old Order Mennonite background who, though they are obviously Christians, cannot tell you the day or the hour that they decided to follow Jesus.

The idea of a confessional journal, as portrayed in this book, will be a little strange to most readers. But it did happen, mostly in small offshoots of the mainstream Mennonites, like the Reformed Mennonites.

This book is fiction. (Any similarity to any living person is coincidental and unintended.) But, even in today’s church setting, people do go astray. Some of these people try to hide their sin. And hidden sin always has repercussions. This is true not only of the person committing them, but of their family, friends, and church. Hopefully, I can show you some of these repercussions in this book.

Now in print.
Available at TGS International.