The Jack Miller Timeline and Archive

In 1838, Archibald Alexander presented to the Presbytery of New Brunswick an original study that has provided immense value to the church, titled, Biographical Sketches of the Founder and Principal Alumni of the Log College Together with an Account of the Revivals of Religion under Their Ministry.

Jack began his analysis not with the first, but with the second of the last five novels that was published in 1848. He believed Jack Tier marked Cooper’s transition from his earlier romanticism to a growing social pessimism, which developed alongside Cooper’s interest in Christian doctrine and the religious decline in America. Miller’s dissertation outlined three forms of man’s sinful self-trust—assertive lawlessness, proud claims to knowledge, and dependence upon one’s own strength—which summarized Cooper’s central theme in Jack Tier. Through his characters, Cooper revealed “the peril to society found in the popular American doctrine of self-reliance in the leveling of politics of the frontier and enshrined in the teachings of Ralph Waldo Emerson.”

Jack considered the third of these final novels, The Oak Openings (1849), to be among Cooper’s finest works. Jack Tier shows the tension between Romantic optimism and Christian realism; The Crater exposes the disastrous end of man’s pride and self-trust, while this third novel most clearly illuminates Cooper’s growing faith.

In the final two novels, The Sea Lions (1849) and The Ways of the Hour (1850), Cooper explores parallel themes of greed and intellectual doubt and describes what happens when man’s opinion triumphs over principle. While researching for his dissertation, Jack noticed that even in his middle novels, Cooper had demonstrated the beginning of a movement away from Romantic optimism, specifically, a sensitivity to the problem of materialism in the United States. In The Sea Lions, Cooper juxtaposes two greedy characters, one grasping and the other miserly. Cupidity may take various forms, but their ultimate effect is always the same: hardened hearts are made indifferent to the revelation of God. Therefore, as Cooper states, “the hardness of the human heart is intimately related to man’s becoming engrossed by a love for material gain.” As Jack shows, Cooper then surprises his readers with a third and unexpected form of materialism parallel to the grasping and miserly greed he described earlier. People easily recognize grasping greed as a form of materialism. Seeing miserly greed as materialistic, though not quite as obvious, also makes sense. Alongside these two, however, exists another form of materialism: enlightened intellectual doubt. Cooper sees man’s humanistic doubting of the divine as a stubborn, greedy refusal to believe in anything other than what man, in his hubris, can comprehend with his rational faculties. He writes, “You worship your reason instead of the only true and living God. This is idolatry of the worst character, since the idol is never seen by his devotee, and he does not know its existence.” Cooper comes to include theoretical doubt among the evil forms of self-dependence. Human reason is a useful instrument but not a deity which man may worship.

Iva, by Ella Mae Sponaugle, page 99

Sarah Ellen topped 5 feet 9 inches tall. Thomas was from Kentucky and fought in Walker Rebellion in Nicaragua. Ellen determined not to have a large family. Jenny, Iva’s older sister, was born in 1883, and Iva 1993.

Iva, Page 8

See also Marriage License in Pistol River Recollections, EM Sponaugle, Page 235

About 1875 the Forgey Family settled at Oak Grove not far from the Mountain Ranch of Raleigh Scott in Curry County.

When their daughter Susie’s engagement to Elias Lawrence was ended by his death, she began to attend the local dances with Edward Miller.

Edward Bates Miller was a happy-go-lucky Irishman full of fun and with a large stock of amusing stories. He was well-liked by everyone. A year later he and Susie were married in October 1884. Their first son, Elmer was born June 22, 1885.

The elder Forgey’s (William and Hannah) moved the remaining family (Hannah Michaels Forgey’s parents, Susie’s sisters Rebecca and Ruby, and other family members in the wagon train) to the Preston Place on the Upper Pistol River to give Ed and Susie Miller a home in the cabin at Oak Grove Prairie.

Susie’s two sisters, Rebecca and Ruby, homesteaded 160 acres.

That’s when William and Hannah Forgey bought the ranch known as Grasshopper Hill located farther into the mountains.

William's happy-go-lucky son-in-law, Ed Miller, sold the Oak Grove cain and prairie to Susie’s sister and her husband, Fred Smith.

After Ed and Susie had rented a house at the mouth of Burnt Hill Creek for a couple of years, the young couple was again desperate. More children had been added to the family and Ed had trouble finding work from that remote location.

William and Hannah, Elmer’s grandparents and Jack’s great grandparents, packed their belongings again. Ed and Susie were given the ranch.

William and Hannah had been invited to stay with Will and Ruby Wridge who had moved to the Beaverton near Portland. But the household became tense when William refused to apply for a veteran’s pension.

Page 172, Pistol River Recollections, Ella Mae Sponaugle

On June 22, 1885, Jack’s father, Elmer, the oldest child of Edward and Susie Miller, was born in Irma near the Lower Pistol River in Oregon. Elmer’s father had a gambling habit, the losses of which created family instability as the Miller family grew. In 1894, financial conditions forced them to move to the Upper Pistol River to a ranch owned by Susie’s parents, affectionately known as Grasshopper Hill. In 1903, despite many losses, Edward’s gambling habit finally resulted in his winning a ranch located in the more socially vibrant pioneering settlement of Agness. When his parents moved, eighteen-year-old Elmer purchased the ranch from his father for ten dollars. Having learned to hunt at age eight and being intimately familiar with the Siskiyou Mountains, Elmer gained prominence as a predatory game hunter for the state of Oregon. From 1905 to 1910, he caught the attention of regional newspapers and national magazines as a game hunter, hunting guide, and breeder of champion hunting dogs. In 1910 he was recognized as the most famous citizen in Curry County.

Same year Elmer’s sister Aimee was born. Elmer was the oldest son. His brother Bryon was born in 1887.

The ranch was close to the headwaters of the Pistol River. The boys rode a horse to school near Mountain Ranch about 15 miles away.

Elmer ran sheep until 1910 when the Coyotes came in. Ed and Susie sold Grasshopper Hill to Elmer for $10 so they could move closer to a community on the Rogue River.

Page 66, Iva

On July 2, 1893, Jack’s mother, Iva Avada Murry, was born, the second daughter of Thomas Murry and Sarah “Ellen” Miller. When Thomas and Ellen married in 1879, it was a mismatch from the start. Thomas was thirty years older than Ellen. Jack’s grandfather wasted time in town drinking. Over time, Ellen felt trapped between two dangerous choices: stay with a husband and father who was increasingly abusive or risk exposing herself and her two girls to the dangers of the wild west. Finally, when Iva was four years old, Ellen and her daughters escaped the drunken wrath of her husband.

Iva’s mother, Sarah Ellen, was 30 years younger than her husband, Thomas Murry.

Ed was not the world’s greatest provider; rather he fancied himself as a gambler. Lively, full of jokes and jolly Irish humor, he was a great social success without putting much food on the table for his growing family.

They sold their Oak Grove property and moved the mouth of Burnt Hill Creek where they rented a house.

But the money from the sale went, as it always did, until the wolf breathed at their door once more. Susie’s parents came to the rescue (again). Susie, Ed and their growing family could have the Forgey’s Grasshopper Hill Ranch under the shadow of Snow Camp Mountain.

Thankfully, but not too willingly, the young couple moved the 20 miles or more back into the hills.

Missing the small but necessary social life, Ed and Susie soon began to leave their children in the care of their eldest son, Elmer. By cooking a bog pot of stew and one of beans with cornbread, the parents felt the children were fairly safe at their remote mountain home.

Elmer later told of one time when the food ran out before his parents’ return. He shot a deer for food for the children; he was 8 years old.

Grandfather Forgey had left the family a well-developed farm. He had planted a big orchard that was bearing fruit and a grapevine.

Page 207, Pistol River Recollections, E.M. Sponaugle.

Page 173, Pistol River Recollections, E.M. Sponaugle

From 1897 to 1910, Iva lived with her mother in the back of a wagon, a fatherless and homeless life. Her gypsy-like travels crisscrossed five-thousand miles, as far south as the Sierra Nevada desert and as far north as Seattle. While stopping in southwest Oregon to visit her sister, Ellen agreed to marry Oliver Doolittle and settled there in 1909. Objecting to her mother’s choice of husband, Iva joined her older sister in Redding, California, to help raise her sister’s two children and finally attend school herself. When that did not work out, Iva, “the girl from outside,” returned and settled with her mother and stepfather on the Lower Pistol River.

Iva, Page 10

Iva. Page 9

Iva, Page 10

Page 207-208, Pistol River Recollections, E.M. Sponaugle.

Ed and Susie move to Agnes.

There is some suggestion from early accounts about foul play surrounding Elmer Miller’s death.

Some random thoughts:

Will Wridge was not unfamiliar with the area since they once lived there before moving to Beaverton.

And Ed Miller did not seem to own the Oak Grove property before selling it. It too was given to Ed and Susie by William and Hannah Forgey.

Ed sold it and kept the proceeds, renting a house in Burnt Hill Creek. When that money ran out, they then came to Grasshopper Hill and again the Forgey’s gave Ed and Susie Grasshopper Hill.

This time, they would sell Grasshopper Hill to Elmer for $10 in 1903, even though the Forgey’s again gave them the ranch without apparently without money changing hands.

Were the titles transferred?

However, before Will shot Elmer, Elmer had been living on the land as owner for 25 years.

G. Campbell Morgan, Evangelism (Chicago: Revell, 1904), 112 pp.

A book Jack Miller read and cited. Morgan, the Welsh-American Bible expositor, argued for evangelism rooted in regeneration and blood redemption rather than merely social reform. His insistence that the evangel is "always fresh as the break of day, and yet as old as the continuity of day-break through the ages" anticipates themes Jack later developed in his own evangelism teaching.

URL: https://www.amazon.com/Evangelism-G-Campbell-Morgan/dp/1533249962

Iva, Page 9

Iva, by Ella Mae Sponaugle, Page 99.

Page 234, Pistol River Recollections, EM Sponaugle

Sponaugle, Ella
Photo: Iva Miller
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Author(s): Ella Sponaugle.

Source: C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

In this story, we discover that Oliver Doolittle came to work in the mine with his brother.

Page 182, Pistol River Recollections, EM Sponaugle

Elmer Miller and Harley Gardner were first cousins: their mothers were Forgey sisters.

Harley and Elmer stayed at the Hardenbrooks while going to School at Irma.

Jack Miller’s early family background in southwest Oregon deeply shaped his life and ministry as a twentieth century pioneer of grace. Jack’s parents, Elmer Miller and Iva Murry, first met in 1912 on the Lower Pistol River, a small pioneering settlement on the Pacific coast in isolated Curry County. Both sets of great grandparents, optimistic for their futures, endured great challenges and suffered significant tragedy pioneering west along the Oregon Trail and over the Northwest Crossing.

Eventually, Elmer Miller and Iva Murry married on May 5, 1912. Leo Miller, the eldest son of Elmer and Iva Miller, was born on the Upper Pistol River in 1913. Raymond was born in 1916, followed by Ira in 1918. Three girls followed the three boys: Ella Mae in 1921, Frances in 1923, and Irene in 1925.

Iva, Page 188

Also see Pistol Rriver Recollections, Page 185.

“Austin Ralph was in charge of building road from Carpentersville to the Swinging Bridge. Leo Miller was the ‘Dynamite Boy’ who blew out the stumps and the slides between Ralph’s and the river.

Iva, Page 188

Iva, by Ella Mae Sponaugle. Page 188

Unlike his father Edward, Elmer was an excellent provider for his family. In 1920, before the girls were born, Iva wanted their boys to be closer to the Swinging Bridge School. To accommodate his wife’s concerns, Elmer bought a 160-acre homestead, locally known as the Burn, down the Pistol River. The Miller boys, however, still encountered wild animals along the way to school, so when Ella Mae was old enough to walk to school, Iva’s anxiety about wild animals grew. Elmer rented a small house in Gold Beach, Oregon, in the fall of 1926 to alleviate Iva’s fear for her children’s safety. The following school year, Elmer bought a house and five lots on Third Street for his wife. In this manner, the Miller family arrived in Gold Beach at the mouth of the Rogue River. The children easily walked to school, and Iva had access to a twelve-bed hospital should a seventh child be added to their prosperous and happy family.

First known school was on School Ridge on the Gardner Ranch. The Second known school in the early 1900’s was Trout Creek School. The Miller children (Elmer’s family) walked six miles to school crossing a river on the way. Jack’s older siblings attended the Upper Pistol River School on the Ralph Ranch.

Jack attended school in Gold Beach when Iva wanted her girls to be able to walk to school without being frightened by wild animals.

Page 237-238, Pistol River Recollections.

Iva, Page 87

Page 209, Pistol River Recollections, EM Sponaugle

Rose Marie Miller was born in San Francisco on December 23, 1924, to Lorenz and Annemarie Carlsen who had migrated from Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany, settling in Daly City. Barbara, Rose Marie’s younger sister, was born four years later with a mental disability.

Van Til, Cornelius
Reformed Epistemology
The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

Pistol River Recollections, Page 211, E.M. Sponaugle

Iva wanted her girls to walk to school without being frightened by animals.

As they were preparing to move, the ranch house caught fire.

Iva made sure each child could read before he or she entered the first grade.

Elmer walked the 25 miles back and forth to the ranch through the school year.

Page 212, Pistol River Recollections, EM Sponaugle.

CHAPTER 2: CHEER UP! GOD’S GRACE IS FAR GREATER THAN YOU EVER DARED HOPE (FROM 1928 TO 1949)

Crow, Jack
Elmer Miller: Curry County’s Little Big Game Hunter
Hunter Trader Trapper

Elmer and Iva’s optimism peaked with the birth of their seventh and last child. Cecil John “Jack” Miller was born in Gold Beach, Oregon, on December 18, 1928. Having been married for seventeen years, Elmer and Iva adored one another. They delighted in their large family, and all the children doted on their baby brother. With a bright future ahead, little Jackie crowned a happy, loving, and stable Miller family.

Iva and Elmer’s Children
Chapter 29

Leo flunked out of Oregon State College on his first try. His high school mentor, who was teaching in a Junior College in Santa Ana saw to it that Leo graduated from Santa Ana Junior College with honors instead of chasing girls.

Raymond worked in a furniture factory in Berkeley. As the Depression hung on, the factory failed. Ray lost his job. Then he enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a radioman on a submarine. Ray served on the submarine for 6 years until his senior officers discovered he was near sighted. He retired from the Navy but found a job as a civilian administrator directing planes at an air port in Puerto Rico, later in Georgia and other states.

Irene was about three years older than Jackie. She was already in school. She and Al her stepfather didn’t get along very well, but she liked the baby, Allen.

Frances was the “lady” among the girls. Pretty, lovely, white skin and black hair, she grew up as a princess among a rowdy crew of loving, laughing, working and worrying young people.

Rose Marie’s father rarely talked to his daughter about weighty matters. Rose Marie only learned about the circumstances leading to her mother’s breakdown years later. Before the market crash in 1929, Lorenz had invested the family savings. Compounding matters, he concealed the failed investment from his wife. She could not bear the loss of trust and stability. She had given up a noble German background to come to America with her husband. She cleaned the kind of homes she once lived in with servants to clean for her. Annemarie had lived frugally, sacrificed, and saved to recreate their stable German life in America.

When Princeton Seminary turned away from historic Reformed Calvinism, several of Princeton’s faculty, led by J. Gresham Machen, founded WTS in 1929. Since that time, WTS has held itself responsible for preserving the Reformed heritage in the United States. John Frame writes about the influence of WTS in the twentieth century: “From 1923 to present, the movement begun by J. Gresham Machen and Westminster Theological Seminary has supplied the theological leadership for the conservative evangelical Reformed Christians in the United States.” Frame has not overstated the significance of WTS.

A survey of WTS’s history since 1929 divides the seminary into three generations: early Westminster from 1929 to 1969, middle Westminster from 1969 to (approximately) 2009, and late Westminster since 2009. Faculty and students of middle WTS, the new-old Westminster California (WSC), and late WTS claim status as heir to the legacy of Machen and early WTS. Many former middle WTS faculty, including Tremper Longman, consider their generation as the high point at WTS. A new-old WSC, and late WTS to a lesser degree, considers the faculty of middle WTS as having moved away from what they view as the earlier “confessional” history of WTS toward a more “broadly evangelical” or, in some cases, even liberal WTS. WSC argues for a return to confessionalism. Late WTS seems to desire a renewed emphasis upon their biblical theological heritage. Because WTS has supplied much of the theological leadership for Reformed conservative evangelical Christians in the twentieth century, seminaries, denominations, networks of churches, and parachurches across the United States and around the world have felt the impact of middle WTS.

Elmer, considered among the greatest game hunters in the West, continued to garner praise as the subject of exposés in newspapers and hunting magazines. The older boys helped their father maintain the ranch and breed his champion hunting dogs. The girls helped their mother at home in Gold Beach and especially enjoyed watching their baby brother learn to walk and combing “little Jackie’s hair with all the golden curls.” In December 1929, Elmer retired as Oregon’s most celebrated predatory game hunter, accepting a newly created position as a forest ranger for the United States Forest Service, which he began in January 1930.

Even before the Justification Controversy began, John Murray, founding WTS faculty member and esteemed Professor of Systematic Theology from 1930 to 1966, had set the stage for misunderstandings between WTS faculty members. Murray had handpicked Norman Shepherd to succeed him after Shepherd had joined the faculty of WTS as Associate Professor of Systematic Theology in 1963. As the controversy over Shepherd’s teaching erupted, Shepherd visited Murray in Scotland to inquire about the orthodoxy of his teaching on justification. Though an account of this meeting is unavailable, Murray reportedly encouraged Shepherd to continue the course.

The juxtaposition before and after December 1930 is difficult to for anyone fathom, much less for a two-year old—from happiness, security, safety, and stability to instant fatherlessness, unimaginable upheaval, and desperate poverty. Things happened too rapidly with few available answers. While Elmer’s success had insulated his family from economic difficulties, the full weight of the Great Depression now collapsed upon the Millers.

After Elmer’s death, Iva was alone with seven children ages 17 to 2. Two-year-old Jackie was approaching three. He had piles of golden curls that his sisters loved to comb.

Ellen and Oliver arrived from the Rogue Valley to run the ranch in the mountains. The depression settled in full force.

Relatives of Grandma Ellen answered her call to help on the ranch. The Davis family with three grown sons arrived to help her and Oliver on the property. But the help for Grandma Ellen was too late. The relatives on the ranch brought her own horse back to Carpentersville. Iva drove her green Model A Ford down the Coast Highway to pick her up at the store.

When the children came home school, Grandma Ellen was already in bed. Oliver remained on the ranch with the Davis family. Dr. Cartwright came when called. He recommended abdominal surgery. He had done it successfully before. Grandma had assisted surgeries that failed. No way. Grandma Ellen lived for about six weeks November until November 1932.

Grandma Ellen was buried in a Pauper’s grave in the Gold Beach Cemetery at the Presbyterian Church not far from Elmer’s grave.

Grandma Ellen and Oliver had used the money from the sale of their property in Central Point, their car, horses and other farm equipment to help Iva and the children get through the past two years since Elmer’s death. Now they were destitute. no source of income him. him

Friends and nei neighbors shard from their own meager store him— potatoes dug from him the ground, fish from the Rogue River or the ocean.

Elmer’s brothers’ and sisters’ families sent what they could but everyone in the Great Depression suffered the loss of jobs and lack of markets.

On December 16, 1930, two days before Jack turned two, sudden tragedy devastated the Miller family. Reporters from as far away as Los Angeles, California, wrote about Elmer’s unexpected death, which many considered “the greatest tragedy in [that] part of the country.”

“Elmer Miller’s death was probably the greatest tragedy in this part of the country,” added Stanley Colegrove. “Elmer was a fine man, known for his honesty and truthfulness. He was hard working and he left a large family of seven children."

Iva, Page 88-90

Elmer was at the ranch with his two brothers, Omer and Bob, about the middle December. Will Wridge was down from Portland where his family had moved.

[Added Note from Pistol River Recollections by Ella Mae Sponaugle, Page 173. Susie Forgey’s sisters were Rebecca and Ruby. Rebecca married Benjamin Gardner, Sr., which made Ben Gardner Jack’s 2nd cousin. Ruby married William Wridge, Elmer’s uncle, and presumably the man who shot and killer Elmer while hunting.]

Will phoned, wanting to go on a bear hunt. Elmer was not eager to go with Will. He called every friend he could think of to hunt with them. Most of them wanted to be home since Christmas was only 10 days away. Zahnie Crockett had a cold; Dolly didn’t want him to go out in the severe chill of the winter weather. Elmer's brothers wanted to hunt just west of the ranch, while a bear hunt might lead almost anywhere.

Early the next morning Elmer and Will set off with the pack of hounds, determined to make good use of time to track a marauding bear. Not until 4:30 PM that afternoon did Will Wridge appear at Harley Gardner’s ranch. Elmer Miller had been shot accidentally that morning when he rushed in close to the dogs fighting the bear. Will shot his rifle., hitting Elmer. Will wandered around, lost, until he finally stumbled onto the ranch.

Elmer’s wound was a bad one. The bullet entered from behind just at his tailbone, traveled along his right leg, coming out of the knee. It’s hard to think that way, but it’s best he went. He would have been a cripple for the rest of his life. For an active man like Elmer that would’ve been something he couldn’t bear.

All the doctor could determine was that Elmer had been shot about 10 o’clock that morning and had died about three hours later.

When they found Elmer he was seated on the knoll. He had been dead a long time. The men found Elmer sitting up on the knoll. He had doubled the index finger of his right hand between his teeth was biting on his finger to help him bear the pain. His pocket watch was cupped in his left hand as if he were trying to figure how long it would take for help to get them.

Elmer stopped all the bleeding fine, but he didn’t know that the bullet split off a sliver when it came through his right knee. The split piece of lead pierced the leather of his left ankle, and severed an artery. If I had been there I would have found the bleeding.

“Where were the dogs? Among the questions remaining in the years that followed was what had happened to the pack of dogs. Iva was satisfied that in fighting with the bear they had been severely injured, then crawled away to die.

Zahnie said Harley had told him he had gone back to the Low Glades, just to see if he could find anything of interest. Harley said he had found something, but he wouldn’t tell what because it would only make trouble in the family. No long ago, one man said Zahnie told him that he, Zahnie, had gone back to the Low Glades. He had found the hunting dogs dead and buried together in a hole in the ground.

Elmer’s family had a tough financial struggle for many years but now Dad has (from his seven children) fifteen grandchildren, 44 great grandchildren, and 20 great great grandchildren.

Four of his seven children earned college degrees with one earning a Ph.D., one and electrical engineer, one a wildlife specialist, one a school teacher, and one a seminary professor and ministry. Although he fell to the ground early in life, he believed in God and left good seed to sprout after him.”

(Page, 215, Pistol River Recollections)

Will Wridge, Elmer’s uncle on his mother’s side, was visiting from Portland. On December 15, Wridge called and asked Elmer to take him on a bear hunt. With Christmas a few weeks away and Jack’s birthday around the corner, Elmer did not want to leave his family. Generally, Elmer found it imprudent to hunt alone. However, he could find no one to either go with him or take his uncle hunting for bears in his stead. Wridge persisted. Early on the morning of December 16, 1930, against Elmer’s better judgment, the acclaimed bear hunter and his uncle left Grasshopper Hill Ranch to hunt for bear.

Jack’s once idyllic family situation only worsened from December 16, 1930, to late 1943. Iva’s mother and stepfather, Ellen and Oliver Doolittle, sold the store they owned in Agness and moved to the Upper Pistol River in an attempt to save the Grasshopper Hill Ranch and the Burn. By the end of 1932, Jack’s grandparents had lost everything they owned trying to rescue Iva and the ranch; Ellen’s health was also broken. By the time Oliver brought his wife to the Lower Pistol River for medical care, it was too late. For the Miller family, loss added to loss and death added to death when Jack’s grandmother died a month before his fourth birthday. Since Iva could not afford a funeral for her mother, she buried Sarah Ellen Murry Doolittle in a pauper’s grave in the Pioneer Cemetery next to the Presbyterian Church in Gold Beach, Oregon.

Iva, Ella Mae Sponaugle

Elmer E. Miller was one of the most widely known bear and cougar hunters in southwestern Oregon.

He was found near Pyramid Rock. An uncle of Miller’s had accidentally shot and seriously wounded his nephew.

Wridge hastened to the nearest settlement for assistance, but could not find his way back to the scene of the shooting.

See Newspaper article entitled “Hunter Shot Accidentally in Mountains” dated December 18, 1930 in the Klamath News.

Miller was found dead a few miles from the scene of the accident. He apparently had endeavored to reach aid and crawled some few miles from Pyramid Rock where he was shot by Wridge while they were hunting bear.

See “Hunter is Shot by Companion”, Dec. 17, 1930, Daily Capital Journal, Salem.

The tragedy was carried as far south as the Los Angeles Times. See “Partner Kills Hunter” Dec. 18, 1930.

WVF started in 1932 with William Volker, a committed Christian, business magnate, and generous philanthropist. Volker had created a charitable trust and distributed half of his vast fortune to WVF. WVF received large annual distributions from Volker’s business interest. Volker’s generosity attracted attention despite his attempts to avoid public fanfare. In 1944, Volker entrusted his nephew, Harold Luhnow, with the Volker business enterprise and WVF. Mark Rushdoony, son of Rousas J. Rushdoony, a key leader at CAS in 1962, writes,

Iva, Page 88

Iva, by Ella Mae Sponaugle, Page 100

Court House News: andy A. Lawrence and Iva Miller

At the time of Elmer’s death, social security for a young widow in Iva’s situation was remarriage. Seven children and few available men severely limited Iva’s choice of husbands. Soon, friends were introducing Iva to the few eligible men in Pistol River and Gold Beach. On January 24, 1933, two years after Elmer’s death, the attractive thirty-nine-year-old remarried. Andy Allen “Al” Lawrence was a fifty-seven-year-old single man living on his parents’ ranch on the Lower Pistol River. Iva’s eighth child, Andy Allen “Junior” Lawrence, was born in 1934.

Sponaugle, Ella
Photo: Jack Miller and Junior Lawrence
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

J. Gresham Machen and the OPC played a pivotal role in Jack’s conversion. Machen, who founded the OPC in 1936, also founded Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS) seven years earlier. Machen and the faculty at WTS supplied the primary theological leadership for the conservative evangelical reformed community of Christians in the United States. When the First Bible Presbyterian Church joined the OPC in 1941, they became one of seventy-two small but motivated churches in the unapologetically Calvinist denomination. When Jack became a Christian, the OPC as a whole had only 5,922 communing members and 2,084 non-communing members (that is, baptized covenant children).

Through 1938, Jack nightly experienced a terrifying fear of death. His nightly fears became so strong, they prevented him from sleeping. In one version, he awakens to find that his beloved father has simply disappeared into the darkness of death never to return, wondering if the same thing will happen to him the next time he goes to sleep. In another version he awakens to his stepfather sometimes angrily striking him without warning or other times beating the hell out of the young boy in his rage.

I also admired Rose Marie as a highly effective public speaker, a person with a talent for dance and athletics. Her swimming was a work of artistic grace. When she was younger she was a much more casual person, but as she became fortyish she showed a remarkable capacity for building order wherever disorder threatened.

"In my mind Dad could do anything. He taught me to swim with skill in the Russian River north of San Francisco, and he built in the backyard of our home an attractive patio and a large and elaborate play house. Farther back in the same yard my father and mother planted a vegetable and flower garden. It was a microcosm of the German-American community, where I studied German, went to the opera, took ballet, learned to waltz and dance the polka and acted the role of a gracious, cultured hostess. It was a world of human goodness and careful morality from which the disorderly Nazi movement was ejected under Dad's
leadership."

Rose Marie’s Story: Surprised by
Grace, p. 14, 16

"Over time, the burdens overwhelmed her, and in desperation she tried to take her own life. One day when I was about thirteen years old, I was alone in the house with my mother when I smelled gas. I ran into the kitchen and saw her head in the oven. With fear gripping my heart, I turned off the gas, pulled her away from the stove, and opened all the windows. My voice shook with tears as I called my dad at his garage in San Francisco and told him to come home." from "NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD" by Rose Marie Miller, Prologue

"From that day on, my dad and I never talked about what had happened, but it was our unspoken pact that we would do whatever we had to do to keep my mother in the home and keep her from taking her life. The fact that I couldn’t talk about what was happening locked up my emotions. I knew something was seriously wrong but did not know how to express my feelings." from "NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD" by Rose Marie Miller
Prologue

"If you had told me years ago that I would be speaking about living in the freedom of the gospel, I would have laughed. I grew up in a family that knew very little about freedom and a lot about control. My parents were German immigrants, and the most significant aspect of our lives was the fact that my mother was a paranoid schizophrenic. She accused every visitor to our house of being a spy, so people stopped coming. When we went out to dinner, she accused other diners of spying on her. Our family became lonely and isolated, focused on keeping my mother from taking her own life. I believed in God during those years, but I wasn’t sure he was particularly concerned about our problems. I believed that Jesus came to die for sinners, but since I didn’t see myself as much of a sinner, that didn’t have much of an effect on me." from "NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD" by Rose Marie Miller, Chapter 1

Iva, Page 100

Location: Growing Up In Gold Beach, Or.

A Faith Worth Sharing

A Faith Worth Sharing, Kindle Location, 732

No one could have started further from God than I did. When I was young, my father’s death convinced me that the world was empty and without God. When an admired schoolteacher announced his atheism, my rebellious and angry heart responded. I became a committed atheist at twelve years old. But over the years the Lord had challenged my atheism. He used different experiences to change my hard heart into a prepared heart.

One fall day when I was fourteen, I was walking through the woods near my home. I stopped to admire a scene where a small creek edged its way out of the ancient rain forest and past a meadow. I had often paused just here. But this time, as the tall Douglas firs, the golden maples, and the moss-covered rocks captured my attention, I saw something that had escaped me until that moment.

It looked as if this scene had been designed to make a beautiful picture. Everything fit together in a way I’d never noticed before. I went away wondering, Could this perfect design be the result of chance? I wasn’t sure.

I had more questions a year later when I was hunting north of town. I met a magnificent buck on a craggy ridge above the Rogue River. We were face to face and less than one hundred feet apart. I raised my rifle to shoot him. As he bounded away I had a perfect bead on him. But I did not shoot. I was so awed by his majesty that I could not pull the trigger.

At the time I did not think God had anything to do with my decision not to kill the buck. I only knew that I couldn’t kill such a glorious animal. But if the buck had just evolved by chance, why would I care?

Miller, C. John (1999-09-01). A Faith Worth Sharing: a lifetime of conversations about Christ (Kindle Locations 733-747). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.

A Faith Worth Sharing, Kindle Location 732

One fall day when I was fourteen, I was walking through the woods near my home. I stopped to admire a scene where a small creek edged its way out of the ancient rain forest and past a meadow. I had often paused just here. But this time, as the tall Douglas firs, the golden maples, and the moss-covered rocks captured my attention, I saw something that had escaped me until that moment.

It looked as if this scene had been designed to make a beautiful picture. Everything fit together in a way I’d never noticed before. I went away wondering, Could this perfect design be the result of chance? I wasn’t sure.

I had more questions a year later when I was hunting north of town. I met a magnificent buck on a craggy ridge above the Rogue River. We were face to face and less than one hundred feet apart. I raised my rifle to shoot him. As he bounded away I had a perfect bead on him. But I did not shoot. I was so awed by his majesty that I could not pull the trigger.

At the time I did not think God had anything to do with my decision not to kill the buck. I only knew that I couldn’t kill such a glorious animal. But if the buck had just evolved by chance, why would I care?

Miller, C. John (1999-09-01). A Faith Worth Sharing: a lifetime of conversations about Christ (Kindle Locations 733-747). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Jack’s spiritual and life journeys vacillating to and from San Francisco between 1943 and 1948 parallel one another. His spiritual journey moved through what he described as “a series of hard, slow steps” from a vague, natural moralism masquerading as Christianity, to atheism, to a “sort of half-way conversion” until Jack finally trusted in the sovereign Christ “all the way.”

Jack was too young to work on the coastal highways when he had left Oregon in 1943, but when he returned in 1945, he immediately found a job working as a flagman and laborer, shoveling gravel on those familiar serpentine coastal roads he had traveled to and from San Francisco. Working outdoors rejuvenated Jack physically, but spiritually he “was still the same restless, foolish, poor person [he] was before” he left for San Francisco. When Jack decided to become a Christian, he somehow missed something vital, though he did know what he overlooked.

Photo: Leo Miller and Jack Caughell
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Jack Miller collection, St. Louis, Missouri.

"I grew up in a community where Sunday morning was generally considered the dullest hour of the week. At that time there was only one church in our Oregon community, and it was so boring that the mayor of our town what suggested the slot machine to be installed in the sanctuary to promote a little profitable action in a place where nothing exciting ever seemed to happen. Quite properly, The mayor was admonished for his blasphemous attitude, but perhaps he really did have a point. When he made a suggestion that the church install slot machines practically everybody said with horror that gambling had nothing to do with the purpose of the church. But a suggestion also revealed that nobody ever told him what was the purpose of the church and at least he had the idea that something all to be happening in it.

As a teenager my own attitude was more typical than the mayors. I was clear the church did not have a purpose beyond that of comforting people who need religious solace. In my view "church" was for timid people - not for the tough-minded type like myself who are ready to face the unpleasant truth that God probably did not exist and that worship was a charade designed to conceal that he was permanently absent both for worship and the universe.

Therefore, at age 14, I withdrew from the church attendance and began to search discover the real action was in life.

Some years later, on the return trip to Oregon, I met Christ and became his follower. It was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me. Once I knew him personally, I sense without anyone telling me that the keyword for describing his purposes was "others." He had not died for himself but for others like me were helpless and confused.

Location: With Jack's Personal Background

This date is backed into from assimilating two primary sources:
a. A Faith Worth Sharing, Kindle Location 741
b. Sermon entitled, “Election: Power Source for Living”

I had more questions a year later when I was hunting north of town. I met a magnificent buck on a craggy ridge above the Rogue River. We were face to face and less than one hundred feet apart. I raised my rifle to shoot him. As he bounded away I had a perfect bead on him. But I did not shoot. I was so awed by his majesty that I could not pull the trigger.

At the time I did not think God had anything to do with my decision not to kill the buck. I only knew that I couldn’t kill such a glorious animal. But if the buck had just evolved by chance, why would I care?

Miller, C. John (1999-09-01). A Faith Worth Sharing: a lifetime of conversations about Christ (Kindle Locations 733-747). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Jack speaks of being “sort of half-way converted” in the sermon, and “really got saved” in October/November, 1948 while reading Ephesians 1.

This much is clear.

Less clear is what happened before that led him to describe himself as “sort of half-way converted.”

This seems to be a movement away from atheism to a general faith in God in which he saw himself as choosing faith, choosing to believe in Christ and to reject his commitment to atheism.

A couple of references apply.

He speaks of looking up into the heavens while lying in the forest looking up through massive Redwoods and seeing the sky, and the Majesty of seeing a buck on the Rogue River. and the majesty of God overwhelming him. This seemed to mark a transition away from atheism to some kind of faith.

While living with his sister Ella Mae. She was converted first, and Jack after her according to Jack. How soon after her?

Elsewhere in AFWS, he speaks of them both being invited to church by children.

Jack did attend church with Ella Mae sporadically while working and going to school.

He also speaks of being troubled by a movie.

And a comment made by someone getting in a bus about atomic bombs destroying the world.

This general sense of faith also continued while working in the mountains after his brother died.

The dating is unclear. But in keeping with the statement in his sermon on election about choosing Christ, Jack seems to have in mind the two years of trying to believe in his own strength and choosing, leading up to his brother Leo’s death in March of 1945, and subsequent return to Oregon to work on the road crew for three years.

Jack had just turned 20 years old he returned to San Francisco.

This could have been 1944. Heart of a servant leader timeline has 1943. However, in a faith worth sharing, Jack says he was 16 when he left home, which would have made this at least 1944 since he was born on Dec 18, 1928. Went to live with his sister.

Saw a movie that disturbed him. Theme was that problems of modern man stem from his inability to be thankful to God for his gifts of creation.

Location: For San Francisco

When I was sixteen, I dropped out of high school and left my home in Oregon. I moved to San Francisco to live with my sister Ella, who had become a Christian. There I was able to work in the shipyards and earn a high school diploma. My earlier questions prepared my heart to hear my sister Ella talk about God. Ella and I had many conversations about the meaning of life and her new faith. During this same time, I saw a movie that disturbed me. Its simple theme was that the problems of modern man stem from his inability to be thankful to God for his gifts of creation. This was a new thought for a confirmed atheist and another way God prepared my heart. The movie left me troubled and hungry for answers, and I began to attend church sporadically with my sister.

Miller, C. John (1999-09-01). A Faith Worth Sharing: a lifetime of conversations about Christ (Kindle Locations 747-753). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Yearbook Photograph of Rose Marie Miller
University of California Berkley

Combination of Rose Marie Miller interview and Allen Lawrence, Jr.

Bob & Keren & Rose Marie Interview 1.
RM: And so he left, he left Oregon when he was sixteen and came to live with his sister who had become a Christian and who had been an emerging (inaudible) of the force, so so Jack went to high school under that, the, I don't, I'm not quite sure what the program was, but I remember his working on ships but but getting his high school degree through the through the navy. So he, let's see why did I start telling you this, did you just ask.. #3:59:29.3#
Location: Hunters Point, San Francisco, CA

From personal interview with Junior (Allen Lawrence) Jack's younger brother. Junior said Jack had gotten his machinist certification.
Location: San Francisco Naval Shipyard

Also see “Hunters Point Shipyard: A Community History,” Page D 6

"The Hunters Point community, which boasted three dry docks, small shipbuilding firms, taverns, stores, boulevard cafes, and shrimp markets in 1940, was transformed into a vital contributor to the war industry in the years following Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Navy's acquisition in 1940 of the Bethlehem Steel Dry Docks, which became Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, necessitated development of the district's infrastructure and the base itself.

Between 1939 and 1946, the Navy invested $87 million at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, including the completion of vast public works and ship building. Sixty buildings were constructed, 199 ships repaired, and over 12,000 units of housing built. Heavy construction to support six dry docks also occurred at Hunters Point. The most profound transformations, however, took the form of demographic changes brought on by the war's labor demands.

Faced with nationwide wartime labor shortages, the fully operating shipyard offered many opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled craftsmen, manual laborers, and apprentice blacksmiths, joiners, painters, coppersmiths, electricians, machinists, pipefitters, shipfitters, boilermakers, welders, and sheet metal workers. In the early 1940s, California's booming war industries acted as a beacon for workers from all over the nation. Active recruitment was conducted to meet the demand. Federally funded relocation programs, under such auspices as the War Manpower Commission, recruited 15,000 to 16,000 Black workers to the Bay Area shipyards by 1943. In a mere three years, the number of Black families in San Francisco swelled from 2,000 to 12,000. The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard labor force swelled from 8,024 in 1943 to 18,235 in August 1945.

News spread by word of mouth across the Depression-strapped country. It became known that California and the Bay Area offered consistent work that could be easily secured. And the workers came:

'They were brought from the South and the Midwest; from all the gas stations that had mechanics to the machinists who were making farm implements...[they] were brought into the war effort by train into San Francisco. They were promised at the time jobs for any family members that qualified, and the family [was] moved by rail into the area and a house was supplied for them....So the Navy built many homes on top of the hill out here at Hunters Point (Brown, 1995).'"

Miller, Rose Marie
United States Cadet Nurse Corps Membership Card
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Along with recruiting African American male workers, the Navy also lowered the age limit, allowing some teenagers to apprentice. Even so, at fifteen, Jack was underage when he arrived in San Francisco to earn his machinist’s certificate at Hunters Point. The Navy, Jack, or both overlooked or fudged his actual age by a year or more. Although the vast military complex at Hunters Point suffered from notoriously poor and dangerous working conditions, the Navy supplied Jack with the means to escape his stepfather. During his first stay in San Francisco, he lived with his sister Ella Mae, earned his machinist certification, worked at the shipyard, completed his last year of high school, and enrolled in fall classes at San Francisco State College before returning to Oregon in August of 1945.

After a year of arguing with Christians, Jack stopped arguing but kept reading his Bible. In early 1945 Jack decided he might as well become a Christian like his sister. He wrote,

Photo: Leo Miller Ski Trooper in World War II
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

On March 3, 1945, tragedy struck the Miller family again. When Uncle Will had shot Jack’s father in a hunting accident fifteen years earlier, Jack’s eldest brother, eighteen-year-old Leo, had taken paternal responsibility for little Jackie. Before the war, Leo accurately predicted he would not return from active duty. He died on a mountain ridge in Italy while spotting for artillery. Leo was the closest person to a father Jack had known. When Jack received the heartbreaking news that his beloved brother and protector had died in action just a few weeks before his scheduled discharge, he finally “came to the end of the road.”

AFWS, Kindle Location 751

Here on Eddy Street I had my first experiences with sharing my faith. I had become a Christian only two months before, while working as a flagman and laborer on a highway maintenance crew in southwest Oregon.

Before that I had been a college student in San Francisco. But I had dropped out. I had too many questions that college wasn’t answering.

I also think that a difficult childhood had caught up with me. My father had died when I was two years old. My mother remarried and my stepfather made life hard for all of us.

I left home at sixteen and went to live with my sister in San Francisco. While working at the Navy Yard, I earned a high school diploma.

About that time, we heard that my older brother Leo, who had protected and befriended me after my father died, had been killed in the war.

This news left me confused and searching for answers. I made my way back to my hometown in Oregon, and I got a job working on the highway and spent my spare time reading the Bible.

Although I had been an atheist for many years, I couldn’t stop studying the Bible. Eventually God met me while I was wrestling with Ephesians, a small book in the New Testament.

Reading it turned my world upside down. I had come to the end of the road, where there is nothing left but God. But he was all I needed.

Miller, C. John (1999-09-01). A Faith Worth Sharing: a lifetime of conversations about Christ (Kindle Locations 109-115). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Then several weeks before World War II ended, we got word that my oldest brother Leo had been killed in Italy. Leo had thought that he might not return. Before he left he gave away all his personal possessions, including his prized gun. But to me, his death came as a tremendous shock. We had been very close. When my father died, Leo had taken me under his wing. After his death I was very alone. This is when I decided that my life wasn’t working. I dropped out of college and returned to Oregon.

Miller, C. John (1999-09-01). A Faith Worth Sharing: a lifetime of conversations about Christ (Kindle Locations 755-758). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.

When he was in San Francisco, Jack had occasionally attended the First Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) with Ella Mae. After Ella Mae surrendered her life to Christ, he talked regularly with her about her conversion to Christ, the meaning of life, and her new faith. Soon, other members of Jack’s family became Christians. Jack was being exposed to the gospel. He could not escape the sovereign Christ.

I vividly recall an experience I had as a youthful unbeliever, steeped in intellectual despising of the Christian faith. It was August 1945, and the atomic bomb had just been exploded over Hiroshima. As commuters boarded the bus, people were shaking their heads and wondering whether this new weapon would destroy the world. A sailor responded quietly: “No, the world won’t ever be destroyed by atomic bombs. Jesus won’t let that happen. He’s coming back first.”

Miller, C. John (1997-06-03). Powerful Evangelism for the Powerless (Kindle Locations 730-734). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition. (Page 53)

San Francisco State College (SFSC) had quadrupled with post-war enrollment. Due to the influx of returning military personnel and the swollen war-time population already overwhelming the Bay Area, the student body rapidly expanded at the downtown campus. Jack had originally enrolled at SFSC in August 1945. After the death of his brother Leo, he had dropped out of college and returned to Oregon for three years. In the spring of 1949, Jack continued his education at SFSC, graduating in May of 1953.

A Faith Worth Sharing

Repentance: A Personal Confession, CJM Archives in St. Louis, Mo.

A faith worth sharing, 112 Location: Southwest Oregon

Also, see Sermon entitled, “Election: Power Source for Life”

"After two years I was as miserable at the end of it as I was at the beginning. I still had no peace with God. And I was so much so that I dropped out of the college I was going to. I went back to my home in Oregon, and I got a job, and I thought that that wonderful Oregon Fall would just set me right. What I need is more fresh air.

So I got outside; I got a nice suntan; I got a job on a highway crew and I shoveled gravel. Lots of little things like that. And it was a great experience, and so on. I got a nice tan. I felt great physically.

But I was still the same restless, foolish, poor person I was before. I was in flight from God, and there was no other way to describe it.

Foreshadowing Jack’s 1948 conversion, Jack later would ask, “Mom, I’m wondering. You know we all grew up thinking we were Christians, went to church, and all that. But I cannot recall anyone ever telling me that I was lost and that I needed Jesus to give me a new life.” Iva replied, “Of course, I always believed that…. We (meaning herself and my father) took it for granted.” Jack highly respected his mother, yet he also remained troubled and puzzled. That “we took for granted” Christ and his love troubled Jack about his mother’s and father’s presumed faith. That his mother and father had never said anything like “Christ died for your sins, and it means everything to me” puzzled Jack. Were others, like himself, presuming to be Christian because they attended church?

Jack desperately read Scripture without getting much out of it throughout the fall of 1948. Romans and Ephesians seemed to draw his attention especially. Jack looked for help to understand what he was reading. He vividly recalled the day he picked up Machen’s book:

In late autumn of 1948, I was sitting at home in the family living room in the small coastal hamlet of Gold Beach, Oregon.... The book I was reading...was J. Gresham Machen’s “Christian View of Man,” clearly written, but at the moment not very inspiring to me. I found myself falling asleep. But in one area of my life I have always been disciplined and that is as a reader. So I plowed on. I was reading the chapter on “divine election.”

Something about Jack and his openness about needing the gospel himself had reached Mel. Jack had poured over the books of John, Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, and James like a “Bible-holic” since 1948 until whole chapters fixed themselves in his memory. In the absence of his earthly father and brother, Jack desperately needed to hear the voice of his heavenly Father all the time. He and Mel both had big needs. Jack went to the Bible; Mel went to the bottle. At the boarding house, Jack came to understand an important truth: omnipotent grace runs downhill. He explains, “God intended the gospel to be for desperate people.”

Rose Marie described her brief engagement in 1948 as a pivotal turning point in her life. She said, “If I wrote my personal memoirs, I would start with my engagement at Biola.” Rose Marie finished her semester and returned to Daly City in December to help her father care for her mother and sister.

Jack was conflicted by the thought of leaving the denomination he had belonged to since his 1948 conversion. He explained, “I took these matters before the Lord and by His grace became willing to stay in the OPC ... I found myself wanting to do almost anything to avoid leaving the OPC.” Jack also realized there was also a lot of bitterness in the OPC over churches leaving for the PCA and the decline of the OPC’s denominational missions’ program, for which many blamed Jack and WHM.

Monsma, Martin
Reformed Evangelism: A Manual on Principles and Methods of Evangelization
Grand Rapids Board of Evangelism of the Christian Reformed Church

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Source: The Presbyterian Guardian

Publisher: Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Jack thought witnessing and preaching could resolve his uneasiness. Certainly, his dedication and apparent growth looked impressive to outside observers. When Jack visited his sister in San Francisco in April 1948, the pastor at First OPC asked him to speak at Friendship Night. Ironically, Jack spoke for the first time about deciding to become a Christian before he actually became a Christian. Looking back on the period from 1945 to 1948, he described himself as “half-way converted.” When he “really got saved” was while reading Ephesians 1 in December 1948. Jack explains, “If I had to introduce [a non-Christian] to what I had [before December 1948], they were going to be miserable. At least a non-Christian still had some fun. Who wanted to drink the vinegar I had going down me every day[?]”

Presbyterian Guardian:17:9:May 25, 1948:page 139

OPC statistics had total counted total membership of 8006 of which 5922 were communicants.

At the time there was 72 OPC churches. Only 1 church had over 500 members, and 3 others over 400. An increase of 434 over the previous year.

In June 1951, a great need of ministers was publicized. There were at that time 80 out of 400 vacant pulpits in CRC and 9 out of 75 in the OPC. 13 men graduated from WTS that year.

Morning attendance at the church was about 75. Edward E. Elliot succeeded Carl Ahlfeldt. Ahlfeldt came to First OPC In 1943 following Atwell who planted the church in 1940. Elliot came around 1950. Presbyterian Guardian:20:April 16, 1951. Page 74.

Attendance grew to around 100 by December 1951 somewhat as a result of a weekend conference at Mt Hermon which included two weeks of early morning prayer. Presbyterian Guardian: 20:Dec 1951:229.

Picture taken from San Francisco Library dated: http:// sflib1.sfpl.org:82/record=b1006625
Location: First OPC On Turk Street

See Repentance: A Personal Confession, p. 1. Location: Family Living Room In Gold Beach, Oregon

A Faith Worth Sharing, Kindle location 89
Presbyterian Guardian:20:June 1951:104
Location: Presbyterian Guardian:17:12:Aug, 1948:192-193

See Sermon: Election, The Powersource for Living where Jack discusses “full conversion.”

See also Family Background in “Repentance: A Personal Confession," No Date.

In the late autumn of 1948, I was sitting at home in the family living room in the small coastal hamlet of Gold Beach, Oregon. The fall weather that year had been exceptionally beautiful and warm. In that long Indian summer even my restless spirit had become slow and dull.

The book I was reading seemed to add to my sense of dulness. It was J. Gresham Machen's Christian View of Man, clearly written but at the moment not very inspiring to me. I found myself falling asleep. But in one area of my life I have always been disciplined and that is as a reader. So I plowed on. I was reading the chapter on "divine election".

As I grasped the practical meaning of what J. Gresham Machen was saying, my temper suddenly flared. It was like gasoline touched by a lighted match. Almost instantly I was fully awake. What was this incredible stuff? He says that I believed in Christ only because God first chose me? What did that do for my freedom of choice? Well•••who did God think He was anyway? It did not occur to me to ask myself if I really knew anything about believing in Christ. What upset me was the loss of my choice. It seemed somehow to rob me of the most important thing in my life.
In effect, the inescapable question was: Who does God think He is anyway?

An immediate answer did not come to my mind. Then as I opened the Bible to Ephesians one to check out what J. Gresham Machen had been saying my answer came. With breath-taking immediacy I saw that God was God and that He was God alone and all the way. Then the question came back to me. And who do you think you are?

Only one answer was possible: God.

The starkness of my insane answer shocked me. I thought I was "God". In another moment my whole being was filled with a painful sense of shame. To have man wrong is bad enough, but to have put myself on the same level as the living God -- how sickening! My thoughts were in complete upheaval, but one truth cut into me with the force of sharp- edged surgical steel. I had lived only for my own glory and not for God's. His plan was for me to live for His glory and will, and I had never done that for a single moment in my life. In fact, it had seemed to me that I had done Him a considerable favor by believing in Him. The idea that He was the absolute center of all things glorious had never even crossed my mind.

Now exposed, my conscience said to me: What a cagy, selfish, evil person you are! Of all people you are the most hugely egocentric man who ever lived! (1-2)

My restlessness which everyone noticed in me had been a kind of drivenness. I was always traveling through outer physical space in order to cope with the empty inner space. For example, I just could not cope with college. Several months before I had dropped out and left San Francisco State in a restless return to my home town in Oregon. But now as I turned twenty years old, I went back to my studies at San Francisco State and found a unity and coherence in my that work left me deeply satisfied. (3)

I came from a pioneer ranching family which had originally settled on the Rogue River in southwestern Oregon. My grandparents had operated a store in a very isolated place about thirty miles from the coast called Agnes. My parents moved a few miles to a ranch on the headwaters of the Pistol River in order to avoid the rough crowd that was then living on the Rogue River. My parents and four brothers and three sisters have been among the finest people that I have ever known. In my family everybody is hard- working, loyal, generous, and honest. in me these qualities were tainted in every part by a proud desire to dominate others. I also had a stubborn unwillingness to admit faults. (4)

Through my family this spirit of superiority was powerfully reinforced. In effect, as children we were told that "you can do most things you set your mind to" but ''watch out what you say because God will never forgive your taking His name in vain." Such Scotch Irish Victorianism won't necessarily keep you from all the bad sins, but it promotes the pretense of human independence from God and certainly makes you feel superior to the blaspheming sinners of the world. What I learned at home was that we superior Millers were always about the best in what we did and should expect to win in all reasonable competition. In this setting I don't think I ever heard anyone tell me they loved me. The idea seemed to be that winners don't need that sort of soft stuff. The effect of this training was to build in me a conceit of boilerplate thickness, leaving me with the dangerous impression even after my conversion that it was my calling to dominate people for their own good. (4-5)

Actually when twenty years had gone by since my first repentance in the family living room, I was just beginning to sense how little I knew of the love of a Father who delights in pardoning transgressors. (5)

Rose Marie Miller Interview. Exact date uncertain.

RM: So he just, he just knew he said he wanted to be God of his life and that's what he struggled with. So he got down on his knees and just poured out his sin. He was just filled right away with the spirit with love for Christ.

He went to his mother, and he hated the church, it was a little Presbyterian Church that really wasn't impacting peoples lives at all, he went to his mother and he said I want to preach to the church.

And his mother said you can't do that you're not a Christian (laughs).

But he preached, you know. He went door to door telling people, I mean, they would, that's what caught the attention of the builders in San Francisco, you know.

I mean he nobody said this is what you have to do, he just did it you know. So a lot of people would know grace.

Gold Beach, Oregon

A Faith Worth Sharing, Kindle location 89

See Sermon: Election, The Powersource for Living

And “Outgrowing the Ingrown Church” Blue Notebook, Handwritten Intro.

The prior date and reference from Presbyterian Guardian to “Jack Miller” speaking at church on April 4, 1948 prior to sermon is confusing.

Sermon on Ephesians 1:

At first glance, this date seems to conflict with other dates Jack gives elsewhere which states he returned to SF two months after his conversion, and then in notebooks, dates this is December 1948.

How can this apparent contradiction in dates be explained?

Jack says that he went to church some with Ella Mae and had started reading his bible.

However, Jack explains the dates and his conversion in a sermon entitled, “Election: The Powersource for Life.”

a. Jack speaks of having “two years of saving himself.”

So you see, I felt that when you come to Ephesians 1, you are on the same ground. That you are having a revelation of His glory, and, the first time I ever read this, I thought I was a Christian. I had just saved myself. I don’t know whether you’ve ever met someone like that. But I had about two years of saving myself.

b. He connects the end of these two years with dropping out of college and returning to Oregon.

c. We know this was after Leo’s death which happened two weeks before WWII ended (April 45), and Ella’s Mae’s date in Iva (March 45).

And when I do anything, as you all know, I do it with my whole heart. And if anybody could have saved himself, I could have. After two years I was as miserable at the end of it as I was at the beginning. I still had no peace with God. And I was so much so that I dropped out of the college I was going to. I went back to my home in Oregon, and I got a job, and I thought that that wonderful Oregon Fall would just set me right. What I need is more fresh air.

So I got outside; I got a nice suntan; I got a job on a highway crew and I shoveled gravel. Lots of little things like that. And it was a great experience, and so on. I got a nice tan. I felt great physically.

But I was still the same restless, foolish, poor person I was before. I was in flight from God, and there was no other way to describe it.

d. JACK “REALLY GOT SAVED THROUGH EPHESIANS 1."

In response to J. Gresham Machen on Election (Oct/Nov 45) at his Oregon home, “I know I believe in Christ. I’ve done a lot of believing, and I know I did it. Nobody else did it.”

And so I had this book there, by a man named J. Gresham Machen. And it was boring me to death. And I was falling asleep over it every time I tried to read it. And I read it there. And he came to the section on election. And I looked at that, you know, and I got really angry.

I got so angry— I didn’t throw the book; I’m polite, I might have burned it up or something— but I was really angry. And I said, “Who does God think He is anyway?” And it never came out quite in those words, but it was always in my mind. And then the answer came back to me, “God! Who do you think you are?”

And in that moment I realized— it was just like being out on that boat— I knew that God was there. So I got out this chapter of Ephesians and I read it. And I said, I’m going to find out if it is really true. The author referred to Ephesians 1.

So I read it. And I said, “Man alive! It is there! How awful.” And this God who elects people, I said look, “I know I believe in Christ. I’ve done a lot of believing, and I know I did it. Nobody else did it.”

Of course it hadn’t resulted in anything.

And at that moment, I began to see that there was something terribly, terribly wrong with me. And the sense of shame began to come over me that I had misunderstood the God of the universe. And that behind it all, I wanted to be saved for my glory. And I wanted to insist that it had been my will that had chosen Christ.

And so in kind of a quiet meeting with God, I said, “Lord, I’m utterly ashamed of myself. I see it now. I’ve been living for my own glory. And I simply saw that I was a very, very proud person. And the one word that still sticks with me that I confessed to God, I said, “God, I’m ego-centric all the way. I love myself, and I don’t love you.” And I said, “I’m sorry for it. And I can’t even figure out why you would want me. But I’m not going to give you any choice. I’m giving myself to you.”

I was desperate. I was just cut to the heart. I almost, I thought I was going to die.

I saw how evil had been my life lived for my own glory. And when I confessed that, I said, “I was ashamed of it. I said to God something like this. I put down my weapons. I put them all down. Surrender. And when I said that, I said I’m going to live for your glory, and before I said I don’t even know whether you want me, but here I am, take me.”

And he took me.

And the most amazing thing happened to me when I committed myself to live for the glory of God, and I gave up the idea that I had somehow saved myself, or had a big part in it, I had a peace, and a song.

But man, when I saw what God had done for me, I began to see what the Cross meant, I saw what God had saved me from, I saw my utter wretchedness, and I just wanted to dance for joy.

Man I had a song, I had Ephesians: immediately I knew, I understood the passage, and I realized that this was music.

Later on I’ve read some very penetrating studies of Scripture, and one of them by Verstermon makes a comment about how Paul writes right out of the music of the Psalms.

And when you read Ephesians 1, he is singing. And my heart sang for joy over a God who has God all the way.

And the amazing thing was that I just wanted Christ to be preeminent. And that is really the first thing you meet in this passage.

If you look at it in Ephesians 1: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

And then in vs. 4 he says, “He chose us in Him.” Christ is preeminent here. And as he goes through here, every time it is through Jesus Christ.

Vs. 5— In love He adopted us, after His predestinating love He adopted us, it’s through Jesus Christ.

And then He speaks in vs. 6 of the grace which came to us, freely given to us, in the One He loves, in His beloved Son, that’s Christ.

In Him we have redemption, that’s in vs. 7.

And when we move on down through the passage, its all these things coming together in vs. 10— the plan, it comes together. Everything in the whole heavens and the earth in Christ.

And so you have it back in eternity, you have Christ in time redeeming us, and then Christ gathering us all together—its all in Christ.

And the thing that seemed to me at that point such a shame was that there could be anyone in this universe who didn’t live for the preeminence of Christ.

e. Jack explains TRANSITION FROM “COVERTED SORT OF HALF-WAY” TO “THEN I REALLY GOT SAVED THROUGH EPHESIANS 1.”

Before "I could see God had a kind of a general plan over things. He had led me out of Oregon to San Francisco.

MY SISTER WAS CONVERTED FIRST AND I WAS CONVERTED A LITTLE LATER, and others became Christians. But others had power I didn’t.

AND I WAS SO INSISTENT ON THE FACT THAT I HAD CHOSEN CHRIST THAT I WAS REALLY MY OWN SAVIOR."

f. Jack preachers and returns to San Francisco.

“I’d always disliked the Presbyterian church. I had been a Presbyterian atheist. And I GOT COVERTED SORT OF HALF WAY. AND THEN I REALLY GOT SAVED THROUGH EPHESIANS 1. And when I did, I loved Presbyterians. Now of you can love Presbyterians, I figured you could love anyone. And I sent down to the church where I had grown up, and I said, “Would you like to have me preach you a sermon?”

g. Jack’s Summary Application

“One thing I’m terribly afraid of is that some of you might think you know Christ, but you are still living for your own glory, and you haven’t had the joy of a surrender to God and His grace in Jesus Christ.”

h. The Affect, Timeline, and Message

And when I left there, I could hardly wait to get back to San Francisco. I had this desire to make Christ preeminent.

I was about 20 years old.

What I did was, in a very urban area, I had not done any calling at all. I was a country boy. And I went there knowing and I said to people, at door after door,

“HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT JESUS AND THE JOY HE BRINGS TO THOSE WHO HAVE HIM ALL THE WAY AS THEIR LORD AND SAVIOR?”

THAT’S WHAT A KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGNTY BRINGS.

It brings a freedom. You know why I had that freedom? Before I had been afraid of people, and once you haVE been in the storm of God’s revelation, you don’t say, “Alright, He’s a little man like me. He may be 6’10”, but its only relatively bigger than me, because God in Christ has all the preeminence. (sarcasm)”

Now are you man-centered in spite of everything in your thinking? Are you really seeking for your own preeminence?

You see this doctrine of election can help you, and it can liberate you from that.

From “A Faith Worth Sharing”

Owner was named Bill

Worked as a breakfast cook for over 12 single men

Couple blocks from San Francisco State Univ downtown campus Gus was a fellow student at sfsu

First shared his faith at the boarding house
Became a Christian two months before while working as a flagman and laborer on a highway maintenance crew in SW Oregon.

Jack had previously dropped out of college at SFSU.

Location: San Francisco

Around October, 1948. See "Outgrowing Ingrown Church (Notebook Notes), page 2.

"Reading it turned my world upside down. I had come to the end of the road (ironically while working on roads), where there is nothing left but God. But he was all I needed."

Reflecting on this pivotal time from 1945 to 1948, Jack recognized his central problem: “By being proud, I laid my own trap.”

Whatever theological difficulties and life challenges Jack would later face in the next five decades, one biblical reality grounded the rest. In December 1948, the sovereign Christ personally taught Jack that “faith alone,” or “faith only,” means “faith all the way” in the sovereign preeminent Christ for the glory of His omnipotent grace.

Jack returned to SF in December of 1948 and began going
door to door sharing his faith.

Outgrowing the ingrown church intro (notebook notes), December 1980.
Immediately begins door to door evangelism telling anyone who would listen about the living reality of Christ.
Location: Boarding House

It is worthwhile to examine these important details in Jack’s testimony carefully. The predestinating God threatened Jack’s most precious possession, his choice to believe or not believe. Lurking quietly, hidden behind all his religious efforts to become a Christian up until December 1948, Jack wanted for himself the glory of first believing in God. His pride blinded him to his own heart. God should be grateful to Jack for taking the leap of faith and believing in God despite such little evidence. After all, God robbed Jack of his father and substituted an abusive stepfather. Then God robbed Jack of Leo. Now this: God expected to get the glory for Jack’s choice to believe? God was saying that Jack’s faith did not create anything? That even faith is a gift of God’s omnipotent grace?

Church is on Turk street, more than a mile from the boarding house. Carl Ahlfedt, OPC pastor.

The following Spring Jack asked Gus when he was going to become a Christian. Gus said "I think I have." A faith worth sharing, 376.

Gus was the best man at Jack's wedding a year later.
Reference from Presbyterian Guardian: 28:2:Jan 26, 1959:32

San Francisco Congregations Unite -- Dec 12, 1958 First OPC which met on Turk Street, sold their building and merged with Covenant OPC. The name First OPC was kept and they moved to Covenants facilities at 380 Kensington Way. Covenant entered OPC from Bible Pres three years earlier.

Citation in "Blue regular ruled 200 page notebook, box 2, CJM Archives:

Jack returned to SF in December of 1948 and began going door to door sharing his faith.
Location: First OPC In San Francisco

Gus was Jack's best man. A Faith Forth Sharing, Kindle 376

It was a year after Gus had become a Christian, which happened sometime later that Spring after Jack had brought Gus to the young people's meeting at church on New Year's Eve 1948.

Now in union with Christ rather than fighting God’s sovereign grace, the joy and peace of God flooded Jack’s heart and mind. Having finally received the good news of the gospel in December 1948, he now placed his faith in “a God who is God all the way.”

Jack returned to San Francisco in December 1948. When the twenty-year-old arrived in the grossly overcrowded city, he had no money, no job, and no place to live. However, Jack’s family history and pioneering mindset did not allow him to use lack of money as a reason for self-pity or to avoid work, miss a meal, or look for a handout. Jack responded to these challenging circumstances by picking up a bucket and rag. Inexperienced with window washing and door-to-door evangelism, he spent his first month in an urban neighborhood offering to wash windows. He used this opportunity to share his new faith. As a country boy in a big city, Jack figured that if he could ask strangers to wash their windows for money, he could also ask if they had “heard about Jesus and the joy he brings to those who have him all the way as their Lord and Savior.”

According to Rose Marie, when Jack first returned to San Francisco, after becoming a Christian and before getting a job at the boarding house, because he was broke and because he knew how to work hard, he just got a bucket and went door-to-door asking people if you could wash their windows.

"You know, he just never used lack of money as an excuse for not working or eating."

Location: San Francisco, California

A faith worth sharing, location 89
Owner was named Bill

Worked as a breakfast cook for over 12 single men couple blocks from San Francisco State Univ Downtown Campus.

Gus was a fellow student. First shared his faith at the boarding house

Jack became a Christian two months before while working as a flagman and laborer on a highway maintenance crew in SW Oregon.

Had previously dropped out of college at SFSU.

Location: San Francisco

CJM Archives in St. Louis, Mo.

Chapter Two fittingly begins with grace. “Cheer Up! God’s Grace Is Greater Than You Have Ever Dared Hope” introduces Jack’s early life through 1949. Chapter Three, “Cheer Up! You Are Far Worse Than You Ever Thought,” covers the 1950s and 1960s. Chapters Four, Five, and Six form the heart of this biographical study. Chapter Four, “Cheer Up! God’s Spirit Works in Your Weakness,” covers the 1970s. Chapter Four focuses on the joy of God’s Spirit working through Jack’s weakness magnifying all the more the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter Five, “Cheer Up! Justification by Faith in the Twentieth Century,” explains Jack’s theological development during the controversy over justification in Norman Shepherd’s teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary. Chapter Six, “Cheer Up! God’s Kingdom Is More Wonderful Than You Have Ever Imagined,” picks up in the 1980s with the rapid expansion of ministry activities, including the opening of several new mission fields. Finally, Chapter Seven, “Cheer Up! Come On, Let’s Die Together; It’s a Great Way to Come to Life,” ends on the highest note. It surveys how Jack Miller, a dying man preaching to dying men, continues to influence leaders today.

Jack stayed in touch with Gus. In the winter before the boarding house had closed, Jack had met at church a beautiful young woman named Rose Marie Carlsen. Ten months later, Gus would serve as Jack’s best man in his wedding. Gus drove Jack to Gold Beach, and the young men stopped along the way to camp on the Eel River. During the summer of 1949, Jack worked for the National Forest Service, spotting fires in the Siskiyou Mountains. He boarded in the Snow Camp Lookout located above the Upper Pistol River and the Grasshopper Hill Ranch once owned by Jack’s father, Elmer. So much had happened, and yet this was only the beginning of Jack’s story.

Jack met Rose Marie at First OPC in San Francisco in the winter of 1949 when they each taught a class of young people at the church. Nothing about Jack stood out to Rose Marie when they initially met. After her failed engagement, she focused her attention on completing college and caring for her family. She had little time or interest in another relationship, especially to someone four years younger. Rose Marie simply never saw Jack as someone she would marry.

After returning to school in San Francisco, Jack worked up the courage to ask Rose Marie on a date. He saved enough money to take her to a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. Rose Marie began reciprocating Jack’s romantic interest by October when he was already mentioning to her a desire to go to Ireland as a missionary. Preparing to propose marriage to Rose Marie in October of 1949, Jack gave up his approach to wooing her with theology, opting instead for romantic poetry. Always the avid reader, that night Jack recited to Rose Marie the verses from Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty.”

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Publisher: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC)

Jack Miller Archives, St. Louis, MO.

Carl Ahlfeldt: Today in OPC History, May 13, 2014

Afws, 508, pieced together mothers conflict with relative.

Her name is Iva Lawrence Location: Gold Beach, Oregon

Gus said that night and said "I don't see how anyone could be here tonight and come away an atheist." In a faith worth sharing, 356

Church is on Turk Street, more than a mile from the boarding house. Carl Ahlfedt, OPC pastor.

The following Spring Jack asked Gus when he was going to become a Christian. Gus said "I think I have." A faith worth sharing, 376.

Gus was the best man at Jack's wedding a year later.
Reference from Presbyterian Guardian: 28:2:Jan 26, 1959:32

By the end of May 1949, deteriorating personal health combined with the disrepair of the business forced Bill to close the boarding house. Overlooking Bill’s unjust treatment, Jack and Gus took care of Bill and closed his business, not because Bill deserved their continued care after everyone else left, but the young men loved their unloving boss for Christ’s sake. All three of them needed the gospel. Whether or not Bill actually received God’s grace was not primarily Jack’s burden but ultimately, like his own salvation, a work of the sovereign God.

Gus was a student with Jack, worked together with Jack, and is "the one friend I've stayed in contact with" from the boarding house. Gus became a businessman in California. A faith worth sharing, 376

Location: Eddy Street, San Francisco With: Gus

Gus drove Jack to Gold beach a few days after the boarding house closed. A faith worth sharing, 395

408 miles from Eddy Street to Gold Beach. Camped out in early June at the Eel River with Gus. Afws, 423

Jack shared his faith with his mom, and, being a virtuous person, she was confused. For her being a Christian meant going to church and believing the bible.

His mother raised 8 children. Afws, 441.

Jack Millers grandfather, on his mother's side, was Thomas Murray. He owned a horse ranch in salinas, California. Afws, 441.

Also noted in letter Cornelius Van Til, 1950. Location: Gold Beach, Oregon

CJM Archives in St. Louis, Mo.

Presbyterian Guardian:18:6:June 1949:105

April 25, 1960, Volume 29, Number 5 — 6 pages (from page 69-79)

Presbytery of California Hosts OPC General Assembly June 12, 1960

Dwight H. Poundstone visits churches of Presbytery of California from Oregon to Southern Cal to prepare readers for 27th General Assembly of OPC.

See 6 Page Scanned Handout. Location: Biola, Los Angeles

Rose Marie Miller interview, 8:27 mark, Rose Marie 3 Audio Transcript
Location: Chinatown, San Francisco, Calif

B.A. In Philosophy/History
Bob & Keren & Rose Marie Interview 1:
RM: He took three of our children to seminary see Jack was is in this little OPC In San Francisco.
RM: And but he was always witnessing to everybody. #3:53:7.5#
RM: And when he graduated from from San Francisco State he wanted to go to the UC to get his degree in in philosophy. #3:53:18.4#
RM: And the elders of the church, especially Jack, John Julien's father said no Jack should go to seminary. #3:53:26.8#
Location: San Francisco

Rose Marie Miller interview, 8:27 mark, Rose Marie 3 Audio Transcript

"RM: My family, yes. Dad had a trailer and we went. So then he became, and I just never saw him as someone I would marry. I had a failed engagement.

And at that point in time I wasn’t interested in getting married or even in a relationship. It just was.. and by this time I was 24 so, but he began to show more interest in me than I in him.

Actually as I said before to his mother, he wanted to drive up to Oregon to meet me in Pretty Lake. And his mother said she didn’t think that was such a good idea (laughs).

So then that whole month of September whatever those states were when we were gone, I think he must of, he wrote me letters, and as I said they were all about doctrine. #0:9:53.6#

Location: Rose Marie Goes On Cross-Country Family For Sept

Even then, work had already begun in Ireland. As far back as 1949, Jack had wanted to go to Ireland as a missionary. This didn’t work out for him, but he never forgot the country. In 1977, Jack and I took a team of twenty-three young men and women from New Life Church to work alongside a Baptist church in the middle of Dublin. The church continued to invite us, and every year a team from New Life went to do evangelism. In 1983, two New Life families moved there permanently, and Ireland became WHM’s second field.

The mustard seed continued to grow. Our next field was Amsterdam where the church plant is now led by Dutch Christians. London soon followed. From London, we are also reaching into India. All told, since 1994, nine mission fields have been added to WHM. Each one is unique.

And what has happened in Uganda where everything started? God brought many WHM missionaries to Uganda’s western mountains. Churches have been planted and a school opened. A medical team meets many needs, the New Testament has been translated into Lubwisi, and clean water has come into the community.

Today, the mustard seed has grown into a tree through which nineteen nations of the world are hearing the gospel. We have much to be thankful for. I celebrate what God has done through our weakness, driving us to prayer to seek his glory.

This section includes talks and reflections from recent years that I hope reflect the weakness and the glory, the dependence on prayer, and the joy of promises fulfilled. God has truly done “exceedingly abundantly” above all that we could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE SEED.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3017-3047). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

CHEER UP! YOU ARE FAR WORSE THAN YOU THINK (1950-1970)

The loyal and dutiful young, German woman remained hesitant, notwithstanding Jack’s proposal. “Why do you want to marry me?” Rose Marie asked. She needed assurance her husband would support her caregiving role with her handicapped sister and mentally ill mother. Both pastors at First OPC—Edward Elliot replaced Carl Ahfeldt in 1950—cautioned Jack against marrying Rose Marie. Rose Marie had responsibilities to care for her family, and God was calling Jack to attend Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS). Jack did not see the two as mutually exclusive. He believed God called him to marry Rose Marie now, and at some point, God would ensure that he would attend WTS.

Harvie Conn, former Professor of Missions at WTS, did share an interest in elenctics with his WTS colleague. The two seminary professors had long been friends, knowing each other as far back as 1950 through OPC missionary Bruce Hunt. Conn and Jack were colleagues at WTS, Conn attended New Life Church and followed his pastor to war-torn Uganda in 1980. Later, Conn would veer his thoughts on missional elenctics more toward the academic study of cultures and contextualization. Timothy Keller, former pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, acknowledges Harvie Conn’s influence in developing his approach to contextualization while also acknowledging Jack’s influence as his former pastor at New Life Church in teaching him how to apply the gospel. For Jack, this meant a gospel-centered elenctical application. Whether Keller realized he was applying the gospel elenctically or not is another question. Still, the Holy Spirit has used Keller’s approach to powerfully and graciously convict many of sin, leading them to faith and repentance.

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

Publisher: Westminster Theological Seminary (Glenside, PA)

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Publisher: Westminster Theological Seminary (Glenside, PA)

[Date unknown — held in the Bookends record without a recorded date. If you have information that helps date this item, please contribute via the form on the home page.]

Bob & Keren Heppe & Rose Marie Miller Interview 1:

K: He did he did he started liking it. But dad really liked cathedrals. Going, every place we went like visiting in Europe, we always visited the art museum and the cathedral. Much to my dismay you know as a.. #0:26:2.1#

RM: Well he did the same thing when we met he was just starting university. I was just finishing. So he took a course on art, one semester, probably before the impressionist. And but he was fascinated with.. shoot.. he was fascinated with modern art.. Chagall.. well Chagall wasn't necessarily modern. But Picasso, Chagall. Ohhh who's the man that starts, his name starts with a D? Anyway during this time Jack was also the professor at Westminster so he took students down to the art museum and lectured on on the art. So he became very, yeah he really did. #0:27:23.4#

K: Yeah he really liked art. #0:27:27.7#

RM: Coming from a hillbilly, south of the mountains Oregon, he he he was interested in everything, literature, art... #0:27:35.3#
Location: San Francisco State University

Ed Elliot: Today in OPC History, May 25, 2014

There Jack met Gracie, an African-American woman who worked in dishwasher room. One of his best teachers and mentors. Afws, 610

Two months later Jack got another part-time job working for the post office at Rincon Annex.
Location: San Francisco State University

Jack and Rose Marie Miller married on January 29, 1950, in Bolinas, California. As business expanded at his auto garage, Lorenz moved the Carlsens across the Bay to a beautiful home on a ten-acre farm north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Rose Marie’s mother refused to attend her daughter’s wedding if held at First OPC, so Jack and Rose Marie moved their wedding to the Carlsen home.

It was a year after Gus had become a Christian, which happened sometime later that Spring after Jack had brought Gus to the young people's meeting at church on New Year's Eve 1948.

In the interview with Rose Marie she clarified their marriage was January 29, 1950. They moved into a one bedroom house Jack had lived in paying $20 a month rent.
Rose Marie was a friend from church. AFWS, 637

According to Roseann's email Jack married Rose Marie when he was a sophomore in college at San Francisco State University.

Bob & Keren & Rose Marie Interview 1

RM: when he became a Christian, his pastor was an older, Godly man, Reverend Ahfeldt and and he would sit for hours in reading all the, I mean he just explored and he just was a sponge for all of this all of this the the scholars, the Whitfields, the Calvins, the Luthers, you know all of that. It's all in his studies. In fact, when Jack asked me to marry him and we went to the pastor, he was not very happy with Jack getting married because he said you know this man has a lot to do, I mean it's another story. #3:52:7.1#

RM: He he said you know he has all this education you know he really should should not have marriage interfere. #3:52:18.7#

RM: Oh yeah yeah. But so yeah. And yeah at the end of all of this education, the university, his Ph.D. his D. Min (meant Mdiv) program and five kids later we didn't have any debt you know. That's a story of (inaudible). #3:52:43.2#

M: Okay, where did you get married?

RM: But he [father] had moved his family out to across the Bay and to really beautiful area. Had a beautiful home ... And my mother wouldn't get married in the, wouldn't come to the church if I were married in the church. So we moved the wedding to my home, and it was a little village, a fishing village called the Bolinas. #4:12:20.9#

Location: San Francisco, California

Rose Marie Miller interview.

RoseMarie commuted to school for her last semester after they were married on January 29, 1950. Jack was a freshman school, maybe a sophomore.

See also email from Paul Miller dated October 25, 2016.

Lorenz Carlsen sells 10 acres in Bolinas, north of Golden Gate bridge. (He'd sold home in Daly City earlier in the 50s and retired to Bolinas. Bolinas was where Jack and Rose Marie were married. It was a beautiful home.)

We lived on one hundred dollars a month. This covered a twenty-dollar room in a boarding house, food, and transportation across San Francisco Bay to my last semester at the University of California. We were not to go into debt or borrow money. I was content.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

Jack and I started married life in San Francisco, California, with some very concrete goals. Jack was to finish university—he had three years to go. I was not to work outside the home—I was finishing my education. We would let God choose the timing of our children as it pleased him. We lived on one hundred dollars a month. This covered a twenty-dollar room in a boarding house, food, and transportation across San Francisco Bay to my last semester at the University of California. We were not to go into debt or borrow money. I was content.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

There Jack met Gracie, an African-American woman who worked in dishwasher room. One of his best teachers and mentors. Afws, 610

Two months later Jack got another part-time job working for the post office at Rincon Annex.
Location: San Francisco State University

Cornelius Van Til Collection Westminster seminary, Glenside.
Page 1 is missing. On page 2, Jack asks Dr. Van Til to recommend a good logic book written from a Christian point of view.

Jack's Major is in philosophy, with a minor in history. He states that his plans are indefinite, but would like to teach philosophy some day.

"At any rate Westminster seminary is a must on my educational program.”

Location: Westminster Seminary, Glenside

Three months later, I was pregnant with our first daughter. When the semester ended in May, Jack and I planned to go to Oregon to work on a fire lookout. But we had no money for bus fare. As we were considering our trip north, someone knocked on the door and asked if we could take a car to Jack’s hometown. He would pay for gas. Jack grew up on the Oregon coast in a small fishing village called Gold Beach. We gave up our room, stored our wedding gifts, and headed north. We camped in the redwoods for one night— my favorite place in California—and delivered the car three blocks from Jack’s mother’s home.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

Rose Marie Miller interview.

Rose Marie commuted to school for her last semester after they were married on January 29, 1950. Jack was a freshman school, maybe a sophomore.

While on the mountaintop lookout, Jack taught Rose Marie how to shoot a 22.

We lived off canned food, and after we ate the food, we put the cans up everywhere and shot the cans. We studied Shakespeare together, and he told me logic.

Jack also taught Rose Marie to love literature. She always enjoyed reading, but that was just random novels. He got me into real good stuff, and I just began to read everything he was teaching.

Jack taught me more that one summer than I learned in four years at the University.

Location: Siskiyou Mountains, Southwest, Oregon

That summer we lived in one room on top of the mountain—glass all around. We had free “housing” and enough money to pay for the groceries that were delivered to our lookout. I learned to cook and bake on a wood stove and to travel down the mountain to get clean, fresh water from a mountain stream for washing and drinking. I also learned how to shoot a .22 rifle. Since we had a lot of empty cans, Jack taught me how to shoot to hit.

Mice were plentiful and came out at night to scamper around our room. Often Jack chased them with a broom or tried to shoot them. Finally I said, “Why don’t we take the tops of the empty cans and nail them over every opening or crevice?” He said, “They could never get through those cracks.” But we did nail everything shut and the mice stopped coming. I was content.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

When the semester ended in May, Jack and I planned to go to Oregon to work on a fire lookout. But we had no money for bus fare. As we were considering our trip north, someone knocked on the door and asked if we could take a car to Jack’s hometown. He would pay for gas. Jack grew up on the Oregon coast in a small fishing village called Gold Beach. We gave up our room, stored our wedding gifts, and headed north. We camped in the redwoods for one night— my favorite place in California—and delivered the car three blocks from Jack’s mother’s home.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

After the summer we traveled back to San Francisco. Jack still had two more years of school. But where were we going to live? We found a one-room apartment with a small kitchen for thirty dollars a month. Jack was now working as a manager in the school cafeteria, earning a little more money so we could afford the ten-dollar increase. I wanted my first baby to be born in the University of California Hospital, so I went to register. I was told that I couldn’t afford the eighty-dollar bill; my husband wasn’t making enough money. I replied, “If I pay twenty dollars a month until the baby is due, will you accept me?” They did and my daughter Roseann was born there. I did need this hospital. It was a difficult delivery, and I lost a lot of blood. After two weeks I developed a breast infection, and it took me many months to recover. But I was content.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

Jack was now working as a manager in the school cafeteria, earning a little more money so we could afford the ten-dollar increase.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

Location: Jack Miller Archives In St. Louis

Author(s): Cornelius Van Til.

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA Archives, Glenside, Penn.

Publisher: Westminster Theological Seminary (Glenside, PA)

Montgomery Library at WTS

The young family of three spent the summer of 1951 in southern Oregon at a different lookout. Jack again informally enrolled himself for the summer in his self-study educational program to become a philosophy professor. The smaller lookout meant the family slept in a tent for the summer. Roseann slept in a banana crate used for carrying groceries up the mountain. That summer, Rose Marie became pregnant with Ruth Lyn, their second child.

During this formative time, Van Til freely tutored Jack with philosophical instruction. From 1951 to 1960, Van Til traveled to Ripon every summer to enjoy a lengthy visit with Dr. Gilbert den Dulk. The Millers loved the den Dulk family. Rose Marie especially relied upon Mrs. den Dulk, and Jack looked forward every year to Van Til’s arrival, ready with his list of discussion points. When Van Til came to Ripon, Jack became noticeably less available. During Van Til’s visits, Jack disappeared with his philosophy mentor for hours behind closed doors, leaving Rose Marie to attend to meals, the children, and the house.

Roseann was born in January 1951. It was a difficult delivery. Rose Marie lost a lot of blood and took several months to recover. When asked about how Jack supported her during Roseann’s delivery, Rose Marie shook her head and laughed: “[W]hen I had my first baby, he just dropped me off and went home and finished his term paper. He did not know he had a daughter until the next morning.”

"I mean Jack, when I had my first baby he just dropped me off and went home and finished his term paper. . . . He didn't know he had a daughter until the next morning you know. That's the way it was. So we never just thought about it as a big deal."

The next summer we again traveled to Oregon to work on a lookout. This time we camped on the ground below because the lookout was too small to sleep in. The forest service set up a tent for us and again brought groceries. We traveled up the mountain each day, Jack carrying Roseann, now five months old, with our food and water for the day. Her bed was a banana box in the lookout. I was now pregnant with Ruth.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

Returning again to San Francisco, we needed a place to live. This was in 1951 when rent control was still in effect. Some people in our small church were having trouble with their landlord over rent control and didn’t want to live in their house until the matter was settled. It was a beautiful old seven-bedroom house near the Twin Peaks tunnel. I loved it. They offered it to us for twenty-two dollars a month. We still had no car, no insurance, no bank account, no savings, and no phone. But I was content.

Ruth was born in March 1952. Now I had two little ones to care for in this big, beautiful house. It was a happy time. Jack was still going to school. I had no washer so I boiled all the diapers. We had a small icebox and, when we could afford it, a block of ice was delivered. My food budget was ten dollars a week. That year we did not return to Oregon, but after two years we had to move because the rent control problems were settled. But where would we go? Two days before we had to move, someone in our church offered us a three-bedroom apartment for thirty dollars a week. Here Paul was born, and Jack finished university. I was content.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

When the Miller family returned to San Francisco that August, they believed God gave Rose Marie a beautiful, large home in a perfect location at an affordable price. Since their marriage, she had lived in a bedroom in a boarding house, a tiny apartment with a kitchen, and a mountain lookout. She generally remembered those days as good times. When the homeless couple returned to San Francisco, a friend at church had a seven-bedroom home tied up by the city’s rent control ordinances. For twenty-five dollars per week, Jack rented the home near the Twin Peaks Tunnel down from Market Street. The growing family lived comfortably in that large house for nearly two years. Ruth Lyn was born there in March of 1952. In August 1952, Rose Marie became pregnant with Paul. The pregnant mother of two had her hands full as Jack continued his studies in philosophy and history. Like his father Elmer, Jack loved marriage and fatherhood. He happily worked the long hours and found time to study and to enjoy his pregnant wife and two baby girls.

In a major shift after Volker’s death, Luhnow redirected WVF’s support away from local philanthropy in Kansas City toward shaping American opinion and national politics, emphasizing education. Concerned that leftist universities were indoctrinating students at American colleges and schools in communism and liberalism, WVF brought together a well-funded network of conservative scholarly leaders that would shape twentieth-century American political and intellectual history. WVF became “the major source of financial support,” underwriting the then fledgling conservative libertarian movement. Gary North notes, “WVF was the one libertarian foundation with any money.” As the multinational company continued to expand, Luhnow moved the headquarters of Volker’s businesses, including WVF, from Kansas City to Burlingame, California, in 1952.

See return address in letter from Rev. Beck dated Feb 4, 1952 Location: 4426 20th Street, San Francisco

Miller archives in St. Louis
Location: By Frank Beck, San Francisco, California

Author(s): Frank Beck.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Jack Miller archives in St. Louis.
Jack questions Beck regarding inspiration of Scripture. Location: North East Baptist Church, Millerton, NY

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Ruth was born in March 1952. Now I had two little ones to care for in this big, beautiful house. It was a happy time. Jack was still going to school. I had no washer so I boiled all the diapers. We had a small icebox and, when we could afford it, a block of ice was delivered. My food budget was ten dollars a week. That year we did not return to Oregon, but after two years we had to move because the rent control problems were settled. But where would we go? Two days before we had to move, someone in our church offered us a three-bedroom apartment for thirty dollars a week. Here Paul was born, and Jack finished university. I was content.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

Jack Miller archives in St. Louis. Location: 24 1/2 Ford Street, S. F., Ca.

In the winter of 1953, Jack applied to the master’s program at Cal-Berkley. Leaders at First OPC continued strongly to encourage Jack to attend WTS. Rose Marie preferred that her husband start September classes at Cal-Berkeley, allowing her to remain close to her parents and sister. Just before final exams that May, Rose Marie gave birth to Paul, their only son. At the same time, the property owner settled the rent control issues on the large house they had lived in for two years. Suddenly, the Millers had to pack, move, and find a new place to live in short order.

In 1953, Jack had started studying Herman Dooyeweerd, a twentieth-century Dutch Calvinist philosopher in Amsterdam. From 1955 through the early 60s in Ripon, Jack had long conversations with Cornelius Van Til, who was the leading proponent of the Amsterdam philosophy in North America. As Jack taught high school students, he applied Dooyeweerd’s thought to literature. He had already started writing a text outlining his original ideas. High school students were responding positively as his teaching brought otherwise boring literature to life. RCS leaders pushed back on Jack’s novel approach. They wanted him simply to teach English and Church History rather than pursue his new ideas. Doctoral studies and teaching literature to college students at Pacific would give Jack an opportunity to build the critical apparatus he would need to teach in college. From 1961 to 1968, Jack would sharpen his skills as God’s skeptic to modern skeptics in higher education.

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Again, God provided through a friend from church who offered them a short-term lease on a three-bedroom apartment for thirty dollars per week. Jack completed his undergraduate education at SFSC in May 1953. He earned a degree in philosophy with a minor in history. He had received his acceptance letter from Cal-Berkeley and would start classes in the fall semester.

Enrolled in September classes in Philadelphia. At some point, Jack became a deacon in the church. But I don't have record of that. Presbyterian Guardian:22:Oct 15, 1953, 190.
Bob & Keren & Rose Marie Interview 1:

RM: So so by that time I was with three babies well yeah Paul was three months old, but they paid for Jack's ticket to go to Westminster and then sent us a check, one every month so we sup — Jack supplemented our income by by working part time. In the mean time he was going to seminary well and and a year later Barb was born and I was getting pretty worn out and Jack was sick a lot. Just because we had no car and Philadelphia winters were were brutal when you had to stand out in the corners and wait for street cars or buses to come. So at the end of two years he he was he was sick a lot and he said he said I can't go on. And he was straight A student there but.. #3:54:37.7#

RM: Bob Bob Demoss was (inaudible) they picked us up in their car, brought us to church, and that's when he and Harvey Conn became good friends. Yeah so that's kind of kind of another story, but so after two years he said we've got to leave. #3:55:7.8#

RM And so we we left and then they just pled with Jack to stay but he said we won't, I just can't go on like this. I can't, so he applied for, see Dr. Van Til had a good friend in this little town in (inaudible) in the dutch community. So he he had, I guess he must have talked about Van Til, he suggested that Jack (inaudible) school there wouldn't Jack apply for a teaching job. Well Jack's bent was always philosophy but but that will all all they had open was a was English. So that's why he ended up getting his doctorate in English literature. So we were there from '53, I'm sorry '54, we moved there in '54, and then Jack taught there, started working on his Ph.D., church plant was starting... #3:56:25.3#

When Paul was three months old, we moved to Philadelphia so that Jack could attend Westminster Seminary. We lived in Germantown in a second-floor apartment with four rooms. This is where our fourth child, Barbara, was born. Our sleeping arrangements were interesting. Roseann was in the front room, Paul was in the kitchen, Ruth was in the second bedroom and Barb was in the hallway. Moving to Philadelphia was a cross-cultural experience. In addition, winters were cold; summers were hot. I was used to the gentle climate of San Francisco. But God provided every need. I was content.

Living in Philadelphia was not easy. Jack took public transportation to seminary, often standing for long hours in the wintry cold waiting for the bus. After two years, he became ill and I was also very weary. We decided to return to California. Barbara was almost a year old; Paul was two, Ruth three, and Roseann four.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

See OGTIGC, page 121. Location: Westminster Seminary

Received letter from dean acknowledging admission for Sept 1953. Applied again and was accepted by similar letter for September, 1958. What happened? What is his masters in?
Location: Berkeley, California`

Rose Marie Miller interview.
Location: When First In Seminary At Westminster

See letter dated September 17, 1953 to Dr. William Clausen Location: 24 1/2 Ford Street, San Francisco, Calif

CJM Archives in St. Louis, Mo.

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Presbyterian Guardian, October 15, 1953, Volume #22, 10
Mr. C. J. Miller, a deacon of the church, and his family have gone to Philadelphia, where Mr. Miller is enrolled in Westminster Seminary.
Location: Presbyterian Guardian, San Francisco, California

Murray, John\Cummings, Calvin K\
Biblical Evangelism Today: A Symposium
Committee on Christian Education

Author(s): W. Elliot.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Jack Miller archives in St. Louis.

Jack and Rose Marie have moved to Philly in fall of 1953. Jack is continuing a conversation concerning Albert Mitchell being unfit for preaching, and San Francisco Presbytery.

Jack's address in Philadelphia is: 2028 E. Chelten Ave., Philadelphia 38, PA.

Location: Philadelphia, Pa.

Jack Miller archives in St. Louis.

Jack and Rose Marie have moved to Philly in fall of 1953. Jack is continuing a conversation concerning Albert Mitchell being unfit for preaching, and San Francisco Presbytery.

Jack's address in Philadelphia is: 2028 E. Chelten Ave., Philadelphia 38, PA.

Location: Philadelphia, Pa.

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Publisher: Center for American Studies

Source: C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Publisher: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC)

URL: http://newgrowthpress.com

C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at The Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C.

Jack enjoyed sitting under the esteemed faculty during those two years at WTS. John Murray’s teaching on union with Christ especially caught Jack’s attention. Jack excelled in his classes until the sleepless exhaustion and recurring sickness overwhelmed the struggling family with financial problems. After a particularly difficult winter, Jack and Rose Marie decided to return to California. To make the most of his remaining time, Jack quit his job to spend every moment taking as many extra classes as the seminary allowed. He sat under the faculty at WTS, soaking in all they had to teach. According to Rose Marie, “Jack was a sponge” when it came to learning from his professors or anyone else. Although professors at WTS and OPC church leaders pled with Jack to stay and complete his final year of his seminary, continuing health and financial concerns forced the Millers to return to California in May 1955.

Roseann feels like she got the cream dad's parenting. When she was 6 Jack Would drive her to school and teacher grammar.

She grew up on education driven childhood in which mom contribute as well as dad. They read (or told) of the classics, tallest understand appreciate art and sprinkle in history in church history. And Bible, lots of Bible.

Location: Roseann Trott's Email Dated August 15, 2015

Rose Marie Miller Interview

Jack applied to teach English in a Christian school in central California in a predominantly Dutch community. We now lived on $285 a month, enough to pay for food and rent. We squeezed into a two-bedroom home. Our house was not on the side of town where the wealthy farmers lived but on the side where the one-room jail was. We had no phone, no car, no bank account, no insurance, and no credit cards. But because Jack taught at the high school, our children were able to attend Christian school for free. I was content.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

Rose Marie Miller interview.
Location: While Teaching English At CRC School In Rippon, Ca

Bob & Keren & Rose Marie Interview 1:
RM: But he but he slanted in terms of Van Til and I don't know Van Til well enough to know how that went. But after a year they took the class away came to Bob, you know they loved his teaching they but they they you know in the Christian Reformed Church you don't produce, you don't introduce anything new. But it was interesting because Dr. Van Til was good friend with the doctor in the town, Dr. Vengahl. So every every summer Dr. Van Til would visit with him and then of course Dr. Van, Dr. Van Til would bring him over to our house and then right away they just, they just talked. I mean they just talked you know they didn't even say how are you they just sat there and talked philosophy. It was really.. So when the students wanted Jack to to go to Wall Street to he wanted Dr. Van Til to go along with him. So I had issues with Dr. Van Til. #4:1:39.6#
Location: Ripon, California

Jack applied to teach English in a Christian school in central California in a predominantly Dutch community. We now lived on $285 a month, enough to pay for food and rent. We squeezed into a two-bedroom home. Our house was not on the side of town where the wealthy farmers lived but on the side where the one-room jail was. We had no phone, no car, no bank account, no insurance, and no credit cards. But because Jack taught at the high school, our children were able to attend Christian school for free. I was content.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

When the Millers arrived in Ripon, they had no savings, no phone, no car, no bank account, no insurance, and no credit. Jack worked in the peach orchards until school started in order to earn immediate income. From September 1955 to May 1961, Jack taught high school students at RCS English II, III, and IV and Church History. The position paid the young teacher $285 per month, enough to pay for food and rent. The CRC made Jack transfer his officer ordination from the OPC in order to teach at RCS, a requirement that frustrated Jack and leadership in the OPC. With Roseann now four, Ruth Lyn three, Paul two, and Barbara one-year old, the large family squeezed into a small two-bedroom house near Ripon’s one-bed jail on the opposite side of town from the school and the nicer neighborhoods.

Rose Marie Miller interview.
Location: While Teaching English At CRC School In Ripon, Ca

Rose Marie Miller interview.

The CRC make Jack transfer his membership and Officer ordination. There was a large CRC Dutch community in Modesto. At this time RoseMarie was discontented, she did not feel like she fit in it Rippon. So she encouraged Jack towards Stockton, when the Modesto Bible study was doing very well could've been a really good church plant.though she recognizes God's providence your hand, she also expressed some regret having influenced Jack to leave Modesto.

Location: Modesto, California

See Roseann Trott’s Email dated August 15, 2015. CJM Archives in St. Louis, Mo.

I think I got the cream of Dad's parenting. When I was six he drove me to first grade and taught me all the grammar that I know to this day on the way. That was vintage Dad---always involving others in what he was doing for one thing. But the other part of it was that he delighted to challenge people, sometimes throwing them in over their heads to teach them to swim. (That would describe setting up Hillside house and appointing seminary students as houseparents, supporting young men (in their twenties) as elders, pastors, and church planters and the early missions in Uganda and Ireland.) But there was also a love of education and learning, typical of the Reformed churches in the fifties, that threatened (or sometimes succeeded) in supplanting a heart given to Christ as the center of the Christian life and the church life. For example, I don't remember hearing in my Reformed high school about giving Christ my heart or taking up my cross and following Jesus. The Christian life was more about the intellectual defense of the faith (which Dad could do quite well, earlier and later in life and ministry). At any rate, I thrived (or thought I did) on an education-driven childhood, in which Mom contributed as well as Dad. They read (or told) us the classics, taught us to understand and appreciate art and sprinkled in history and church history. And Bible, lots of Bible. . . .

I began to wonder---my fears, my obsessions, all the things about myself, that I thought,"I was just born this way, I can never change"----maybe God could change them. I prayed and prayed, begging God to change me. Begging him to help me in my marriage. Nothing happened. So one night at an outdoor youth group/Bible study in Bucks County, when the stars had come out and it was time for questions, under the cover of darkness I said, "I keep repenting and repenting and nothing is happening." And Dad said, "Unless you turn to Christ, repenting is just turning in circles." Well, he had nailed it. I was just turning in on myself. At that time, the Lord gave me deep conviction over many sins and I knew such a feeling of cleanness, a closeness to Christ, happiness, that I wondered if I'd been a Christian before. . . .

Another thing Dad said that changed my life: he was always corralling whoever was at hand for whatever activity was going and he had me go in and show slides of Japan to a nursing home. When we were done, he took me aside and said, "How you talk, how you deliver your talk is a matter of faith." Well, I didn't even know that there was a problem. But in many years of Bible studies and teaching those words been a touchstone. I've learned that it's not just about speaking clearly and effectively...one does that because one believes, that faith is the first order of business for a speaker. . . .

When my husband got out of the army we returned to Philadelphia and New Life was exploding. Homosexuals, drug addicts, demon-possessed people were being saved. It was the gospel walking around under many mops of hair.

Dad used his seminary classes to church plant (involving my husband and students in calling all through Abington). All night prayer meetings, weeks of prayer, evangelism weeks. Naturally seminary students were attracted to this and some very able, gifted students and teachers attached themselves to what was called derisively, "Jenkintown pietists" or "David's band of malcontents." Those men and women were God's gift to Dad---they were willing to reach out to the motorcycle gang members and make them part of their families. Mom and Dad set the pace of radical hospitality undergirded by a radical prayer life.

Dad did not want to compete with the other Presbyterian churches in the area, so he started his services at 4:30 in the afternoon in the local gym. Although that is standard venue today, it wasn't then. . . .

Dad had no musical ability. I've never heard him talk about why he wanted guitars and drums and scripture songs (along with hymns), but it was part of welcoming the motorcycle gang types. But more than that, it warmed the cold heart of Reformed worship. It made NL a home for those coming from Africa. It made it NL a place that charismatics could feel at home. It became a staging point for the Reformed faith, renewed by the gospel of grace, to have
wider cultural impact. I would say that is at least part of Dad's lasting legacy.
wider cultural impact. I would say that is at least part of Dad's lasting legacy.
Barbara and Paul and I all have different ways of saying it, but we all see Dad as putting heart, faith, life into a marvelous spiritual heritage that had run a bit dry.

When Dad had a heart attack in Uganda, I was concerned...but he did seem to often have health problems....this was just one more crisis that would resolve itself. But when he had cancer I was in shock, it didn't seem like it was possible. I learned to cry. Mom said that before Dad died, the Lord asked her if she could say, "Thy Kingdom Come," even if He took her husband. At the time and for years after, I couldn't see how that was working...but now I see that so many of the second tier men have been able to come into their own...and there is a certain authority in the words of someone who has gone home. . . .

Dad's lasting legacy: in the fifties if you wanted to live radically for Christ, you could smuggle Bibles into Russia. Or you could do ministry among the gangs. If you wanted to street preach you would have to hang with Baptists and Pentecostals. As they worked on the streets (and thank God they did) druggies and thugs would come to Christ. But the graduate student passing by wouldn't think there was anything for him. And it didn't attract the Great Hearts (Bunyan)---the men with the head and heart capacity to affect the wider culture. Dad taught a generation to do street evangelism, to pray, to worship enthusiastically, to be disciples---to live for Christ---and that it could be exciting and rewarding---and done in such a way that the passing graduate student would at least be impressed...if not converted. Some (many?) of the men and women that he influenced were more gifted than he was---better at teaching, writing, preaching, and staying the course (Dad could be a bit ADHD) and they are the ones that have written the best-sellers. But Dad taught them a new way of doing church. His influence on these men and women is, in my opinion, his lasting legacy.

Marsden had based his positive evaluation of Jack’s gifts on the results the high school English teacher had in nearby Modesto, California. While visiting homes in November 1956, Jack had met numerous families who invited Jack back for several visits. Soon, he started a home Bible study in the Modesto community twelve miles south of Ripon. Other families joined the growing study, and by the end of 1957, the group began discussions with the OPC’s Presbytery about organizing morning and evening worship services. The Presbytery and Modesto OPC credit Jack with having laid the foundation for the Modesto church. Jack deflected the credit given to him, stating that the church “appears to be one of [God’s] spontaneous products, a grass-roots development.”

Jack Miller archives in St. Louis Missouri. Location: Rippon, California

“I have several other important decisions to make. this year a decision must be made as to whether I shall work for an advanced degree in English or whether I shall make preparations to return to Westminster. Dr. Sherman thinks unequivocally that Westminster is the right direction."

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

Publisher: Westminster Theological Seminary (Glenside, PA)

The family spent the summer of 1957 at the lookout in southern Oregon. Jack rested, studied, and enjoyed family time with his wife and children. Then, Jack applied and was accepted a second time into the masters program at Cal-Berkeley with classes scheduled to start in September 1958.

The explanation for Jack’s decision begins with a series of letters he exchanged with Robert Marsden four years earlier in 1957, when Marsden pressured Jack to stop teaching at the Christian high school, Ripon, and focus on the more important church ministry. Jack explained to Marsden a specific task God had given him:

Photo: Jack’s Yearbook Photo, Faculty Ripon High School Teaching Church History, and English II, III, and IV
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

In this letter, the executive secretary presses Jack about completing seminary rather than teaching English in school.

He recommends Jack return alone to Westminster to complete his education, and discusses how hard it is for students with families.

Location: Jack Miller Archives In St. Louis

Author(s): Robert Marsden.

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

Publisher: Westminster Theological Seminary (Glenside, PA)

Jack Miller archives in St. Louis
Location: Offering $18 Per Day To Raise Money Summer 1957

Jack Miller archives the St. Louis.

"Dr. Kline's message on creation was surprisingly well received. He strongly advocated interpreting the days of Genesis 1 as eras. That is contrary to excepted opinion in Rippon, since most here subscribe to the 24 hour day as the correct interpretation. He did very well, and no friends were lost as far as I know.

Sometime in the past you mentioned weak preaching in the
OPC. Can you think of any corrective measures that might be taken?

Can the course of instruction of the seminary be strengthened so that the men are exposed to a stronger homiletical tradition? I think Edmund Clowney is doing a great job, but many of the men are lacking in background. Is there anything that can be done?

As to my future, I plan to stay in Rippon another year, Lord willing. I am trying to write a text in the field of literature. I think I have some original ideas about interpreting literature from a Christian point of you. I'm seeking to apply Herman Dooyeweerd's thinking to literature.

My scholarship needs to be sharpened can certainly before I can accomplish this task. This is the main reason I am not rushing into the ministry.

God is giving me a task to complete in this field, and I must see it through. I'm afraid there would not be time for it in the ministry.

However, I do have a love for the ministry of the word. Calling is a delight to my soul, and God is giving me a strong desire to preach. Any advice and admonition, of course, is gladly received. I surely need it."

Location: Rippon, California

Author(s): Jack Miller.

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

Publisher: Westminster Theological Seminary (Glenside, PA)

Jack Miller archives in St. Louis. Location: Rippon, California

Author(s): Robert Marsden.

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

Publisher: Westminster Theological Seminary (Glenside, PA)

Jack Miller archives in St. Louis.
Location: For Summer Of 1957, Ripon, California

Jack Miller archives in St. Louis.

"It does seem a shame that you can't be in the active ministry when you have such a deep interested individuals, for that seems to be one of the elements in the ministry of many excellent man. They seem to love the gospel and they seem to love people in bulk, but not in particular." Executive secretary Westminster theological seminary.

Location: Rippon, California

Author(s): Rose Marie Miller.

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

Publisher: Westminster Theological Seminary (Glenside, PA)

Jack Miller archives St. Louis Missouri.

"We were recently with Herb Butt and he gave Jack some excellent advice as far as the ministry is concerned. This is been a problem for Jack, because he does have a love for the work of the ministry and also for Christian education. He advised Jack to get as much education as he can and then when he is little older to consider very seriously the ministry."

Location: Re: Jack's Future Ministry Plans

CJM Archives, St. Louis, MO.

Author(s): Robert Marsden.

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

Publisher: Westminster Theological Seminary (Glenside, PA)

Jack Miller archives St. Louis Missouri.
Location: Siskiyou Mountains, Southwest Oregon

Rose Marie Miller interview
Also see Paul Miller Interview
Moved from Ripon to Modesto, continued teaching and began working with CRC as evangelist.
Location: Near Modesto, About 10 Miles From Ripon

After two years, I began to think that our house was too small and that we should find a bigger house. I didn’t really fit into the Dutch community, and Roseann was in bed much of the time with a heart problem. For the first time, I wanted more than I had. A restless
discontent began to settle in my heart.
A family gave us a car. We moved into an old farmhouse about ten miles out of town, with lots of room inside and out. But the downside was that we now had a car we couldn’t afford to repair, and it needed gas that wasn’t included in the budget.

Looking back, it is interesting for me to see the influence that my parents’ view of money had on me. My father was very frugal. He never went into debt and never had a credit card. Although he never sat down and gave me a lesson on money, I learned very early that you live on what you make. This had a profound effect on me, so when I didn’t quite make it money-wise, I felt I had failed, and guilt began to replace faith. There was nothing wrong with wanting a bigger house, but what I did not do was wait for God to provide it. A few months after we moved, a large home became available for teachers. I should have waited.

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3359-3374). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

Letter between George Marsden, Executive secretary of WTS, and Jack Miller dated December 28, 1956.
Location: Ripon, Calif

Wolf, Carl Julius
Jonathan Edwards on Evangelism

Presbyterian Guardian, Vol 27, Number 2, Page 29, 15, 1958. Location: Presbyterian Guardian

Received letter from dean acknowledging admission for Sept 1953. Applied again and was accepted by similar letter for September, 1958. What happened? What is his masters in?
Location: Berkeley, California

Rushdooney reviews Jacks work on Puritanism and John Milton and John Bunyan. Box 3, CJM archives, St. Louis, MO
Location: Rushdooney Reviews Jack's Work

CJM Archives, St. Louis, Mo.

Santa Cruz, CA.
CJM Archives, St. Louis, MO.

Author(s): Rousas J. Rushdoony.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Reference from Presbyterian Guardian: 28:2:Jan 26, 1959:32
San Francisco Congregations Unite -- Dec 12, 1958 First OPC which met on Turk Street, sold their building and merged with Covenant OPC. The name First OPC was kept and they moved to Covenants facilities at 380 Kensington Way. Covenant entered OPC from Bible Pres three years earlier.

The Miller family moved to Stockton in late 1959. Keren, the last of the Miller children, was born in Stockton the following April. Roseann had turned nine, Ruth Lyn eight, Paul seven, and Barbara five-years-old. Rose Marie recalled those unbearably hot Stockton summers with temperatures climbing at times to above one hundred and seven degrees.A friend from out of town visited Rose Marie in Stockton. Out of concern, her friend tried to sympathize with the mother of five. She said, “Rose Marie, you shouldn’t have to live this way,” unaware of how deeply discouraged Rose Marie had become with God and Jack. Rose Marie had believed she and Jack were in partnership with God up until Stockton. Now, she wondered if God and Jack were more like enemies, adding anger, self-pity, and bitterness toward God and Jack to her growing list of disappointments.

By this time I had a great deal of experience, but much of my joy was gone. I realize there was something wrong with me when I was planting that church in California. Without realizing it, I'd stop knowing how to respond to prepare the heart. Afws, 760
Location: Stockton, Ca

Once Jack accepted the Presbytery appointment, things moved rapidly. On January 10, 1959, the Session of First OPC in Sunnyvale ordained Jack as an elder and appointed him and another elder to the Stockton mission. In early April, the Presbytery received the newly named Bethany OPC mission and then licensed Jack to preach. Bethany OPC issued a call to Jack at the Presbytery’s September 24 meeting. The Presbytery ordained Jack as an evangelist on October 9 at an adjourned meeting, noting his call as an irregular call. Rousas Rushdoony, an OPC pastor from Santa Cruz, moderated the service while Henry Coray preached from Joshua 4:6, a sermon titled “What Mean Ye By These Stones?”

Jack, along with Mr. Brink, were given the particular responsibility by the Session for the new mission project in Stockton. Jack was also appointed stated supply by the Session. The group in Stockton were meeting in the Seventh Day Adventist building on Sunday's.

Location: First OPC Of Sunnyvale With: Mr. Dirk Brink

Presbyterian Guardian, February 25, 1959, Volume 28, Number 4, Page 57

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir:

The report on the "Sunday Evening Bible Institute" as described by Mr. Bachman in the January 10 GUARDIAN sounds promising as a means for reaching more people with the truth. We should all be alert to refreshing ways of presenting the doctrine of Scripture. However, is it not possible to preserve Reformed principles of worship while adding new ideas? For example, does a twenty- minute worship period allow time for the exercise of the particular means of grace-prayer and the preaching of the Word? The Shorter Catechism says, "The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation" (Q.89). Cannot the most prominent place be given to these things without eliminating the possibility of modification in method?
Sincerely,
C. JACK MILLER Rt. 6, Box 1565 Modesto, Calif.
Location: Stockton, California

Presbyterian Guardian, February 25, 1959, Volume 28, Number 4, Page 55

Stockton Mission Shows Progress

The latest mission venture in the Presbytery of California is in the city of Stockton. Near the northern end of the productive San Joaquin Valley, Stockton has a population of about 100,000. It is the home of the College of the Pacific, and is 50 miles south of Sacramento.

In November of last year a few interested families decided to hold public worship services under the auspices of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The initiative was taken by Mr. Dirk Brink, and by Dr. Daniel van Houte and Mr. Jack Miller, teachers in the Ripon Christian School. Presbytery's home missionary, Carl F. H. Henry W. Coray, preached at the opening service. Eleven people were present.

Meanwhile interest has mounted. The group has secured the Seventh Day Adventist building at Vine and Madison in which to worship. Services are held at 11 a.m. and 7: 30 p.m. This mission project is under the direction of the Session of First Church, Sunnyvale, which Mr. Coray serves. Mr. Miller has been appointed stated supply, and is doing the burden of the preaching in Stockton. Attendance last month was reported as 35 to 40 for morning worship with 20 to 25 the average at night.

Dr. van Houte conducts the midweek services, which are held in various homes. Not long ago the Wednesday meeting was in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Dirk Brink, and the celebration of their 40th wedding anniversary made it an occasion for congratulations and best wishes.

The Presbytery has endorsed this effort in Stockton and is giving some help toward its support. Both Messrs. Brink and Miller are elders on the Sunnyvale Session, and Dr. van Houte is a minister of the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination. He has a son attending Westminster Seminary

Location: Stockton, California

October 1961, Volume 30, Number 10, Page 182
California Churches Dedicate Buildings (March, 1961, Reported in October Presbyterian Guarding)

San Francisco — Earlier in the month First Church of San Francisco was filled to overflowing as some 250 people crowded into the upstairs chapel and into the social hall below.

The Rev. John Galbraith (general secretary of the Committee on Foreign Missions) used as his theme for the dedication sermon "Size Doesn't Count."

Pastors of other congregations in the area who participated were the Rev. Messrs. Henry Coray, Richard Lewis, Jack Miller, and Arthur Riffel.

First Church began under the ministry of the Rev. Robert Atwell, meeting in a store building until the purchase and remodelling of the old Stanley Dollar home on Turk St.

(Editorial Note: See R. Stanley Dollar Shipping for additional information)

Following the pastorates of the Rev. Carl Ahlfeldt and the Rev. Edwards Elliott, the Rev. Salvador Solis was called as minister in the spring of 1958.

About a year later Covenant Church (whose former pastor, the Rev. Lionel Brown, is now in Volga, S. D.) and First Church merged, the properties were sold and the present location acquired at 1350 Lawton St., at 20th Avenue.

An existing building serves as a manse, with Sunday school rooms downstairs.

The exterior of the new chapel is of stucco and brick, with a copper steeple above a high slanted roof. The interior has a driftwood finish, with laminated arches. Blue carpeting adds to the loveliness of the chapel, which seats 165. A social hall and pastor's study are downstairs.

On the Friday after the dedication the church family gathered for a fellowship dinner and a time of reminiscing.

The MacKenzies showed color slides portraying the history of the church from its beginning and closing with pictures of the many volunteers whose labors brought the construction to its completion.

Location: New Location 1350 Lawson St. And 20

April 25, 1960, Volume 29, Number 5 — 6 pages (from page 69-79)
Presbytery of California Hosts OPC General Assembly June 12, 1960

Dwight H. Poundstone visits churches of Presbytery of California from Oregon to Southern Cal to prepare readers for 27th General Assembly of OPC.

See 6 Page Scanned Handout.
Southward to Stockton [from Oregon south through the Redwoods]

We have seen pictures of the redwoods, but for some reason we are overwhelmed by their size. Once we are through the redwoods we turn inland again in order that we may drive through Sacramento, the California state capital. We are also thinking of the next church we want to visit - Stockton, which is just a few miles south of the capital.

This is one of the newer churches of the Presbytery, having been received in March 1959, about five months after the group’s first meeting, at which eleven people (six of them children) listened to the preaching of Presbytery missionary Coray. We talk to their pastor, the Rev. Jack Miller, and learn that they are meeting in a Seventh Day Adventist building in an older neighborhood which has few children and young people. We are pleased to learn that in spite of several problems the church is growing steadily, and now has twenty-two communicants and eighteen baptized children on its roll. This is one of the works that are partially supported through the Presbytery. The others are the churches of Sunnyvale and La Habra. We are told that a member of this church, Jack Julian, D.D.S., who practices in Sonora, is praying about the start of an O. P. C. in Tuolumne County. If all of our churches had several such members, we'd really begin to grow!

From Stockton we must go west again in order to visit our churches in the San Francisco Bay area.

Presbyterian Guardian, April 10, 1959, Volume 28, Number 7, Page 111
Stockton, Calif,

Fifteen charter members were enrolled and constituted the congregation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Stockton, by action of the Presbytery of California at a special meeting in Stockton on March 19. A number of other persons are expected to unite with the church in the near future. Mr. Dirk Brink and Mr. Jack Miller, elders in the Sunnyvale congregation but residing near Stockton, were constituted a temporary Session, with the Rev. Henry W. Coray as moderator. Mr. Miller has been appointed by the Session to preach for the present. Morning attendance is running in the forties.

Bob & Keren & Rose Marie Interview 1:
M: The Bethany Church plant. yeah. #3:56:27.8#

RM: And that was, that was a mess. And eventually, and then then he went to Burlingame and so did (inaudible) and the institute.. #3:56:39.4#

Presbyterian Guardian, April 25, 1959, Volume 28, Number 8, Page 119

California Overture

At its spring meeting on April 22 the Presbytery of California
. . . Mr. Cecil John (Jack) Miller was licensed and appointed stated supply for the new congregation in Stockton.
Location: Spring Meeting

My discontent went deeper when Jack made a decision to plant a church in Stockton, California. I did not want to be a pastor’s wife. My plan was to be the wife of a professor. I didn’t know how to deal with this new reality.
It was a difficult church plant, and there was not much support for Jack from other pastors in dealing with the problems he faced. With the church occupying his time and attention, plus a fifty-mile commute to the Christian school, Jack had little energy left to help me at home. I missed his support with the children. But above all I missed the sense of God’s presence. I was no longer content.

Keren was born in April 1960. The summers in Stockton were hot—often over 107 degrees. We had no fan, and the refrigerator was too small to hold ice. Then the one dear friend I had in the Dutch community died. Another friend from out of state came to attend the funeral and visit me. It was one of those very hot days. I was sitting in the kitchen, nursing Keren with my sweat dripping down on her forehead. My friend said, “Rose Marie, you shouldn’t have to live this way.”

That did it. I believed the voice from the pit.
Now anger was added to discontent. “She’s right,” I thought. “I should not have to live this way.” Now I could blame someone—my husband. It was all Jack’s fault! I continued to listen to Satan whisper, “Your only hope is to tough it out and do your duty. God will not come through for you. You are a victim of Jack’s decision.”

Even if we don’t believe, God is still faithful. He was so to us. Our children were able to
attend Christian school. They found friends in the neighborhood and in the church. There was a city pool close by where we could swim for free in the hot days of summer.

Every afternoon I walked to a nearby bakery and bought pastry so that I had tea and cake ready when the children came home. I started to read the classics to them. It was a sweet family time. We had no TV, so reading was a great way to connect with them. We had a fun family night every Friday when the children made up plays and acted them out.

Until this time I believed I was in partnership with God: He would provide, and I would believe. Life was simple. But when the direction of my life changed—now a pastor’s wife— and income was insufficient, I lost the sense of partnership. I lost it in anger and rebellion, blaming Jack.

Years later in a quiet moment, when I was reflecting on this time in my life, I sensed God saying quietly, “Rose Marie, I gave you a family. You believed that I would take care of every need, and I did. Then, when I called Jack into ministry, you rebelled at my calling and refused to believe I could be with you in the next stage of your life. This was a time for you to enter more deeply into my plan and you refused. My plan for you and your family is wise and good, and only grief can come when you do not accept and submit to it. Your lack of love for people and your rebellion against me were exposed. But you had such tight control over your life, and you were so sure about how it should work, you didn’t take the time to listen to me.”

Miller, Rose Marie . NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD (Kindle Locations 3168-3257). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

Presbyterian Guardian, Vol 28, No. 17, Oct 30, 1959, Pages 287-288
OCTOBER 30, 1959, VOLUME 28, NUMBER 18, page 288

C. J. Miller Ordained
Cecil John Miller was ordained as an evangelist by the Presbytery of California at an adjourned meeting in Stockton on October 9. The Presbytery itself, at its regular meeting on September 24, had issued a call to Mr. Miller to undertake the work of an evangelist following his satisfactory completion of the examinations for ordination. As a licentiate of the Presbytery, Mr. Miller has been serving as stated supply of Bethany Church, of Stockton, and he will continue to minister in that capacity.
Moderator of the meeting was the Rev. R. J. Rushdoony, of Santa Cruz. Following the reading of Scripture by the Rev. Salvador Solis, of San Francisco, the Rev. Arthur Riffel, Brentwood, led in prayer. "What mean ye by these stones?" (Joshua 4:6) was the theme of the sermon preached by the Rev. Henry Coray, Presbytery's home missionary in Sunnyvale.
After the ordination by the laying on of hands by the presbyters, the Rev. Richard Lewis, of Berkeley, gave a solemn charge to Mr. Miller, and the newly ordained man dismissed the congregation with the benediction. Members of the congregation and other friends who were present were served refreshments by the ladies and the young people of Bethany Church, in the fellowship hour which followed. The congregation presented a Bible to Mr. Miller. "It is our prayer that his service may be long and fruitful," wrote Elder Clarence Westra in behalf of the session and congregation, "and that he may indeed be zealous for the honor of his Lord and Master, and may be instrumental in bringing many souls to a saving knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ."
Notice of address change in the November Presbyterian guardian page 389: 1125 W. Poplar, Stockton, California.
Location: Stockton, California

Source: Presbyterian Guardian, Vol 28, Number 17, October 30, 1959, pages 287-88.

Ordained by Presbytery of California.
Salvador Solis read Scripture Richard Lewis laid hands "It is our prayer that his service may be long and fruitful," wrote Elder Clarence Westra in behalf of the session and congregation, "and that he may indeed be zealous for the honor of his Lord and Master, and may be instrumental in bringing many souls to a saving knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ."

See letter from Jack Peterson, stated clerk, on Box 12, CJM archives where Jack receives official notice and $150 for next six months.
Church was on the corner of E. Harding Way and Funston Avenue.

Location: Stockton, California
With: Carl F. H. Henry Coray Preached "What Mean Ye By These Stones, R.J. Rushdoony, Moderator, Arthur Riffle, Lead In Prayer, Clarence Westra, Elder

Source: The Presbyterian Guardian

Publisher: Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: Torch and Trumpet

No date is given. But by 1960 Jack had drawn focus on glorified joy (1 Pet 1:8) from Jonathan Edwards treatise on the Religious Affections by 1960.

"The beauty of a life lived for the glory of God, with accent on the deliverance from darkness into marvelous light" I had met in Edwards personally narrative even earlier.

But unfortunately the power of it did not get turned on for me life and ministry.

Again, the issue is God himself. We cannot have something unless God himself gives it to us.
OGTIGC, 77

Jack Julien was Jack's friend from college who asked Jack to drop in on his friends Doris and Harry. Afws, 681

Jack Julien was also President of the men's Group organized at First OPC on Jan 19, 1950.

Presbyterian Guardian:19:February 1950:28.

Miller archives in St. Louis. Location: Torch And Trumpet

April 25, 1960, Volume 29, Number 5 — 6 pages (from page 69-79)

Presbytery of California Hosts OPC General Assembly June 12, 1960 Dwight H. Poundstone visits churches of Presbytery of California from Oregon to Southern Cal to prepare readers for 27th General Assembly of OPC.

See 6 Page Scanned Handout.
Southward to Stockton [from Oregon south through the Redwoods]

We have seen pictures of the redwoods, but for some reason we are overwhelmed by their size. Once we are through the redwoods we turn inland again in order that we may drive through Sacramento, the California state capital. We are also thinking of the next church we want to visit - Stockton, which is just a few miles south of the capital.

This is one of the newer churches of the Presbytery, having been received in March 1959, about five months after the group’s first meeting, at which eleven people (six of them children) listened to the preaching of Presbytery missionary Coray. We talk to their pastor, the Rev. Jack Miller, and learn that they are meeting in a Seventh Day Adventist building in an older neighborhood which has few children and young people. We are pleased to learn that in spite of several problems the church is growing steadily, and now has twenty-two communicants and eighteen baptized children on its roll. This is one of the works that are partially supported through the Presbytery. The others are the churches of Sunnyvale and La Habra. We are told that a member of this church, Jack Julian, D.D.S., who practices in Sonora, is praying about the start of an O. P. C. in Tuolumne County. If all of our churches had several such members, we'd really begin to grow!

From Stockton we must go west again in order to visit our churches in the San Francisco Bay area.

Location: In Preparation For 27Th GA Of OPC

It was June, 1960, and six weeks before I had delivered a beautiful baby girl, Keren, our fifth child. By now the summer heat had turned our town into a bake oven. The humidity was very low, but the temperature sometimes would go up to 107 degrees or higher. I was lying on the hardwood floor of our bedroom near the screen door hoping to catch any breeze that might come around the corner of our wide porch. To lie here was cooler than lying on the hot bed. I tried to! cope with the heat by keeping the house open at night, and iM the morning pulling all the shades, trying to keep inside coolness the night brought. It usually worked until about 11:30 in the morning on hot days. We had no fans or air conditioning.
"Dana (not her real name), a good friend of mine from Los Angeles, had been staying with us for a days. She had come to attend the funeral of another another dear friend who had died the previous week. Dana had said to me, 'You shouldn't have to
live this way. You need a bigger refrigerator and air conditioning. '
"As I lay on the floor I thought about !her comment and said to myself, 'Yes, you deserve better, and if Jack had not gone into the ministry and become a college professor like I had planned I wouldn't have to put up with these conditions.'

"When we were married ten years before 1 was sure of God's plan for our lives. Now in 1960 I actually didn't like God's plan. I felt God was for me as long as I did my part, but I seemed to lose him when I didn't understand my part or want to accept his plan. I also believed my part to live within the

income God had given us. That was part Qf family order. But buying a house with my father's financial 'help didn't keep us within our budget. At that time there was never enough money to balance our budget--much less buy air conditioning for our home.

"Too, when Jack was ordained as a pastor- in 1959 I suddenly found myself with a role--pastor's I did not want in my heart of hearts. Then when I gave birth to Keren I was also very weak physically and it was a time. I accepted an interpretation of my life and Jack's that came from below. I hardly knew I had done this because I all these negative 13 and feelings beneath the surface iof my life. But a body weakened by surgery just as I was entering my menopause was forcing this emotional turmoil to the Too, except for Keren our children were all moving out of home into marriage or college. During this time of rapid lif$ changes the poison root grew, and now I felt its controlling power.”

Rose Marie’s Story: Surprised by Grace, p. 13

Surprised by Grace: story of Rose Marie Miller, page 12.
This was six weeks before delivering Keren, their fifth child. Location: Stockton, Calif

April 25, 1960, Volume 29, Number 5 — 6 pages (from page 69-79)
Presbytery of California Hosts OPC General Assembly June 12, 1960
Dwight H. Poundstone visits churches of Presbytery of California from Oregon to Southern Cal to prepare readers for 27th General Assembly of OPC.

Presbyterian Guardian, September, 1960, volume 29, number 9, Page 143 page 143.
Location: South Of San Francisco, California

Source: C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Publisher: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC)

URL: http://newgrowthpress.com

Jack Miller Collection, SEBTS, Wake Forest, NC

The Trinity Hymnal
Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Personal Note Book, Miller Collection, St. Louis

It was not just Rose Marie: Jack also lost his joy in Stockton. This church plant provided him with his most difficult ministry experience to date. The positive reports to Presbytery from the Stockton leaders differed from Jack’s experience on the ground. The church was stable financially, growing slowly (having managed to purchase a building in February 1961), and sound theologically (in its own estimation), but it had little joy. Desiring to address the problem of joylessness, Jack taught a series from Jonathan Edwards on glorified joy, though commenting, “[U]nfortunately the power of it did not get turned on for my life and ministry.” He started a prayer meeting, recognizing that true joy comes with God’s presence, observing, “We cannot have something unless God gives it to us.” When no one showed up to pray, including God, his joylessness deepened with the belief that he killed the prayer meeting, too. Rose Marie described Jack’s first pastorate succinctly: “It was a mess.”

Stockton, Calif. -

Bethany Church has a $1,000 option with a promise of a bank loan of $12,000 toward the purchase of a building. A property with an attractive church structure is available for $25,000 and the congregation hopes to raise the balance in gifts or loans by June 1st in order to obtain the needed building. The Rev. Jack Miller is pastor of Bethany Church.

Although it is itself a new mission congregation, one of its members, Dr. Jack Julien, who resides in Sonora, has been anxious for a Reformed witness in his city in the heart of the Mother Lode country in the foothills of the Sierras. At his invitation Presbytery's missionary Carl F. H. Henry Coray has been holding Bible classes in the Julien home since last fall. The group, which numbers about a dozen, is studying the book of Romans on the first and third Friday evenings of each month.
Location: Stockton, California

University of the Pacific
See note dated April 1, 1961 in University of the Pacific Correspondence, report cards, and degree folder. Jack was granted full tuition and $1750 scholarship.
Location: Stockton, CA
With: Dr. Paul Witherington, Chair

Jack and the four school-aged children commuted to RCS through May 1961.

Source: C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Publisher: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC)

URL: http://newgrowthpress.com

See small spiral notebook in archives box 1
Location: Richardson Grove State Park, Garberville, CA With: Kids, RoseMarie Miller

While pastoring the church in Stockton, Jack began doctoral studies at the University of the Pacific in September 1961. Though less distinguished than Cal-Berkeley, Pacific had a notable history as the oldest chartered university in California. Pacific also enjoyed a good reputation for training professors and teachers. Accepting Jack into their doctoral program, Pacific gave him a full tuition scholarship and a $1750 stipend to teach undergraduate level courses. Jack had completed his high school teaching at RCS in May 1961 and was free that September to teach literature and English comprehension to students at Pacific while studying there.

Jack’s doctoral studies began in September 1961 while he still served as pastor of Bethany OPC. He successfully defended his dissertation seven years later in May 1968. Between starting and completing his doctoral studies at Pacific, the Center for American Studies (CAS), formerly known as the William Volker Fund (WVF), hired the thirty-four-year-old doctoral student as a research consultant. Jack’s contract with CAS started in February 1963 and ended in July 1964. This was a crucial period that significantly shaped Jack and CAS and altered the landscape of conservative libertarianism with respect to Christianity in the United States of America.

Another major shift of direction at WVF occurred in 1962, a change that both explained Jack’s recruitment to CAS and also still deeply affects the Christian conservative and libertarian landscape across the United States today. This change led Luhnow to reach a conclusion about the place of Christianity in politics and education, a conclusion which ended the historic fusion of conservative libertarian scholars that he and WVF had powerfully woven together over fifteen years.

Through 1962, WVF had worked indiscriminately with known atheists, secularists, Roman Catholics, nationalists, Protestants and Calvinists as long as they were libertarian and conservative. In a meeting in the summer of 1962, Luhnow, the only person in America with the currency to make such a change, literally “blew the top off” what historians have referred to as “one of the most important intellectual constructs of mid-century U.S. culture.” Luhnow concluded that the existing fusion of conservative libertarian scholars trying to avoid intellectual discussions about the place of Christianity in education and politics did not work. In a monumental decision, Luhnow announced that the conservative libertarian movement should merge its economic and social conservatism with Christianity, a vision Luhnow and WVF were now committing their considerable resources to achieving.

The reality was far different. From the financial center in Burlingame, Jack watched the towering international fusion of academics and intellectuals collapse. Like the tower of Babel itself, conservative libertarians, many of whose influential leaders were not professing Christians, dispersed in a modern diaspora that scattered into larger and smaller groups and sub-groups across America still trying to answer the question Luhnow forced in 1962: What is the place of Christianity in economic and social conservatism? Luhnow’s own answer was that Christianity was inseparable from conservative libertarianism.

Stott, John R. W.
Motives and Methods in Evangelism

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The Presbyterian Guardian

Publisher: Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The Presbyterian Guardian

Publisher: Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Author(s): Herman N. Ridderbos.

Publisher: P & R Publishing (Philadelphia, PA)

URL: https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Kingdom-Herman-N-Ridderbos/dp/0875524087?SubscriptionId=0NM5T5X751JWT17C4GG2&tag=sonnysoftwa0d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0875524087

Book Description: This volume is a monumental study of the preaching of Jesus according to the synoptics. It is a veritable treasure house of informative and stimulating exegesis of large segments of the synoptic texts. Special mention may be made, by way of illustration, of the illuminating and helpful discussion of the parables and of the apocalyptic discourse of Mark 13. When Ridderbos concludes that the kingdom of God involves both a present and a future aspect, nothing especially startling is disclosed. But the author's treatment of this subject wins unqualified admiration when one takes account of the manner in which, in the context of a thorough and minute examination of the arguments of the representatives of "consistent eschatology" and "realized eschatology," he surveys the pertinent data and evaluates the issues with exceptional exegetical ability. No one perhaps has approached him in the comprehensiveness of the treatment of this matter. And the discussion in this connection of such subjects as the kingdom in relation to Satan's defeat and preset working, the miracles as present power and as signs of the future, the parables, and the integration of Jesus' ministry with the coming of the kingdom is highly rewarding. Ned B. Stonehouse, Late Professor of New Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary

Presbyterian Guardian, 31:1:15

See Preface of Man in Modern Education

Also see Surprised by Grace: story of Rose Marie Miller, page 35.

Date uncertain. Jack says, "even during my first pastorate (in Stockton) I taught English part time in a university near our church.

See OGTIGC, 94
Also see OGTIGC, 105 -- "it was about 1962 when I killed the prayer meeting."
Location: Bethany OPC

Presbyterian Guardian 31:3:48

Rose Marie Miller Interview.
Rose Marie recalls their moving in sometime in the early 60's -- 61 or 62 -- while in Stockton and before moving to Burlingame and then Philly.

Her dad had a stroke and diabetes. He could no longer take care of his wife and daughter and care for the farm. The coastal road was winding and it was hard to get to them.

So he sold the house [in Bolinas] and moved to [Modesto] closer to family so he could have some help.

Location: From Bolinas to Modesto.

See email from Barbara dated October 23, 2016 correcting Timeline errors:

“My grandfather Lorenz moved from Bolinas, CA to Modesto (they lived in Daly City when Rose Marie and Barbara were younger).

"Lorenz Carlsen sells 10 acres in Bolinas, north of Golden Gate bridge. (He'd sold home in Daly City earlier in the 50s and retired to Bolinas. Bolinas was where Jack and Rose Marie were married. It was a beautiful home.)

Presbyterian Guardian, October, 1962, page 138, volume 31, number10.

Location: Near Santa Cruz, California

: At Rushdoony's suggestion, CAS hired Gary North as an intern in 1963. Context for reformed/libertarian intellectual movement surrounding Jack's era.

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Jack resigned as pastor of Bethany OPC in January 1963 when the Center for American Studies (CAS) hired the young scholar as a research consultant. Bethany OPC called Gerald Latal to succeed Jack that November. Although Jack led prayer at the installation service, the Session refused to allow Jack to preach at Latal’s installation. The refusal surprised Jack. Planting the church was difficult, but Jack thought he left on good terms. When he inquired further, he learned he had offended Westra’s wife a year before. Subsequently, he tried to reconcile with the elder and his wife but did not succeed until a decade later.

December 18, 1963, and the pulpit had been vacant for 11 months. No further information is given about the cause of this transition).

Paul Miller Interview:
P: yeah. I said Barb don't you remember when we did the great scatdaddle out of the.. Now i'm using the books term. Out of stockton that we put we rented a trailer and it had mattresses on both sides and just dumbed all of our furniture in the middle. #0:28:52.5#

On November 7, 1963 Jack wrote letter because Westras didn't want him to return for installation of Latal. (See letter on Box 12, OPC correspondence, CJM archives.

By October 1966, Latal had a list of 29 grievances brought against him which included difficulty with Westras.
Location: Stockton, California

Rushdoony immediately hired Jack as a consultant for the fund at $9,000 per year, far more than Jack and Rose Marie had ever earned. The Miller family moved to Redwood City in January 1963 with the help of a $500 loan from Luhnow. Jack’s contract with CAS started on February 21, 1963. When Jack took the job, CAS was in discussions with the Hoover Institute about becoming a permanent, self-funded, conservative think-tank under the umbrella of Stanford University. They also were discussing the formation of a Christian college. As Couch explained, “Rushdoony came to the Center with the ambition of molding [CAS] on the philosophy of Van Tilian Presuppositionalism; he saw it as an opportunity to start a [Reformed] Christian college.” In either case, Jack hoped his consultancy with CAS would lead to a full-time professorship.

P: Yeah so she she was very morally, so she had high standards morally. But she was very strict. I mean my memories, Barb and Keren have so so memories of childhood. I just no Barb's has gone on record as having improved her memory all though at the time she wasn't a happy camper. But I had a ball growing up. #0:43:14.6#
M: Did you? #0:43:14.6#

P: Oh yeah. Yeah. I was, my dad wasn't, like he didn't play sports and stuff with me, but you know we you know he nourished, they nourished our intellectual life you know and I mean we were just we were a family of avid readers. #0:43:31.2#

Location: To Work At Center For American Studies

Trust and Obey: Norman Shephered and the Justification Controversy at Westminster
Page 19

See letter dated January-5, 1963 from Ivan R. Bierly, outlining payment of $9000 for this year beginning February 21.

Author(s): Ivan Bierly.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Presbyterian Guardian, Page 18, February, 1963. Location: 1975 Cordilleras Road, Redwood City, California

See letter dated February 20, 1963 from Maysel Grow
However, the Millers had given notice of a move to 1975 Cordilleras Road, Redwood City, California that would be published in the February 1963 Presbyterian Guardian.
Location: 1125 West Poplar Street, Stockton, Calif

Sonora Church Comes Into Being, Presbyterian Guardian, March 1962, Page 47

March, 1962, Volume 31, Number 3, Page 47 Sonora Church Comes into Being

February 15, 1962 marked an important step in the organization of an Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sonora.

A Commission of three from the Presbytery of California was present at a meeting in Grange Hall to accomplish the formal groundwork.

The Rev. Henry Coray gave a brief survey of the reasons and events which called the Orthodox Presbyterian Church into being.

The Rev. C. John Miller of Stockton then questioned the prospective members of the nascent church. Nine adult members were then voted into membership to be publicly received the following Sunday.

The following motion was then passed: "This Commission on motion recognizes the Community Presbyterian Church of Sonora as a constituted church of Christ under the care of the Presbytery of California, with the view to its formal reception as a fully organized church of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church at the April meeting of Presbytery."

Elder Clarence Westra of the Stockton Church was then appointed to serve as Elder Pro-tern.

The pastor, Rev. R. K. Churchill, has started communicant classes for others who will become members at the Easter season.

A committee has also been formed to survey possible church building sites. Mr. Churchill and his wife moved into Sonora, in the heart of the 'Mother Lode' country, last May.
Location: Sonora, California

With: Rev RK Churchill, planter, Rev. Henry Coray, Elder Clarence Westra

CJM Archives, St. Louis, MO.

Author(s): Maysel Grow.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

See letter dated June 8, 1964 to Harold Luhnow where Jack repays final payment of $500 loan and reminds Luhnow that Jack is enrolling at WTS in fall of 64.

See letter dated January-5, 1963 from Ivan R. Bierly, outlining payment of $9000 for this year beginning February 21.

Center for American Studies is formerly the Volker Fund. Location: Redwood City, CA

Interview Notes with William Edgar Below:

[00:40:01] Jack was a part of the practical theology department and he was the preaching coach. [5.4]
[00:40:08] He also, my recollection is he taught a class on Christian education because he'd been involved in a Christian school and he was you know he just knew a lot about everything. But as I suggested earlier his classes were much more story telling of what he had done the day before on the streets of Philadelphia than they were really helping us about Christian education. You know they were great stories, and they were very inspirational. [37.4]
[00:40:46] But we were not getting. Yeah. [3.4]
[00:40:50] What the catalogue said we were supposed to be getting. [2.2]
Mike: [00:40:54] Funny the sad story first preaching the video with Dr. Chapel grab the hose running late grab all that I could find and took it and come to find out later it was our marriage video. [24.0]
[00:41:19] Ok so I'm looking here at ... he mentioned, you mentioned that you knew about the think tank in his, you know I have this book that has never been published the great man in modern education which is probably why they had him supposedly teaching Christian Ed; it is you know almost a thousand pages. Did he talk to you? And you also talked about being over a lot at their house. What were some of those conversations like because you obviously knew about the think tank, and things like that. You probably knew that Rushdoony was there and Gary North was there. [38.3]
Bill Edgar: [00:41:57] He, the conversations were indeed about a wide range of subjects; intellectual history I think is probably the way I'd summarize most of them. You know he knew about the rise of the middle class in the 18th century and he knew about the secularization of the American novel in the 19th and he, he was very very conversant on politics. [26.2]
Bill Edgar: [00:42:24] He told us in a moment of candor that one of the reasons he left the think tank is that he thought that the theonomy people verged on on prejudice. The theme of the anti communism had been overdone and he just worried that it was a kind of a strange version of Christian America that he just couldn't entirely buy into. So obviously in our discussions we were seminary students; we didn't know much but he didn't go into great details about that, but it was clear that he was he had become critical of what became the theonomy movement. And I don't know whether, maybe in those early days he also just worried that they weren't as gospel driven as you would want Christians to be whatever their concerns. That's very possible. So I say intellectual history. [1:09.1]
Bill Edgar: [00:43:34] Theology, you know he'd read everything and he could comment on anything we could ask him about you know eschatology and we could ask him about his views of the church we could ask him about trends in the world trends in America, the arts. I mean he was just unstumpable. [23.4]
[00:44:00] And it was just so much fun because, I mean it was a little bit like L'Abri in that it was just a bunch of us sitting around and Rosemary prepared wonderful refreshments for us. And he would just expound on things and we could just pummel him with questions. [19.4]
Mike: [00:44:21] You know I've heard one one person say one of the callers there was say that you know sometimes they wouldn't take Jack seriously because he did not have the logical background his Ph.D. was in literature that would not be your take on that. [19.2]
[00:44:41] Not at all. No. [0.7]
[00:44:43] He knew his theology very very well. Now remember I was a brand question and in my first couple years of seminary. So I didn't have a critical apparatus to make such judgments. [15.7]
[00:45:00] But my, my impression was that he was just so widely read and he lived in the atmosphere of theologians that while perhaps he didn't train professionally, not only was that not a problem, but he brought something that classically trained theologians sometimes couldn't bring. And as you know he was criticized for a number of things. One of the oddest criticisms to me was a little book by Jay Adams that we can't. [43.9]
[5:43.0]

Miller Archives in St. Louis

Author(s): Harold Luhnow.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

CAS terminated Rushdoony’s management contract in September 1963 because of his wrathful, angry Calvinism. CAS, however, was charitable toward Rushdooney by awarding the terminated leader a two-year grant to continue his research and writing. Although Jack feared for his job, he survived Couch’s association of him with Rushdoony’s strident Calvinism. Jack also steered clear of David Hoggan and his nationalistic eccentricities, which later made international headlines when it surfaced that Hoggan was a Nazi sympathizer, supported Hitler, and denied most accounts of the Holocaust.

See letter from Committee on Foreign Missions to John C. Miller dated October 30, 1963.
Location: 1975 Cardilleras Road, Redwood City, Calif

Jack Miller collection St. Louis.

"At present I am writing in serving as a staff member at the Center for American studies in Burlingame.

My reasons for being there for threefold. First I appreciate the opportunity to write and study, and secondly I hope to pay off some of the expenses are incurred by working degree and then I am also attempting to finish the degree itself.

They seemed pleased with my work here even though I have been plain-spoken in questioning the vagueness of the Center's aims..

In some respects, they appear to be gaining a little "epistemological self-consciousness."

To my surprise, another Calvinist was hired recently. Location: Foreign Missions Comm OPC, Philadelphia

CJM Archives, St. Louis, MO.

Author(s): John P. Galbraith.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

See letter to Bethany session dated November 7, 1963 from Jack Miller, page 1.

Letter to session of Bethany from Jack Miller dated November 7, 1963.
Jack seems to have offended Mrs. Clarence Westra over something he had reportedly said to her while visiting their house a year earlier.
Jack wants there to be reconciliation. Should there be no reconciliation he was willing to take the matter before the Presbytery as a discipline case.

See letter dated November 7, 1963 from C. John Miller Location: 1700 East Harding Way

On November 7, 1963 Jack wrote letter because Westras didn't want him to return for installation of Latal. (See letter on Box 12, OPC correspondence, CJM archives.

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Ira Miller's address in Los Angeles was 141 S. Normandie, Los Angeles 4, California.

Jack wanted to visit his brother while in Los Angeles filming a documentary is a teacher for the Center for American studies.

Location: Los Angeles, California

See letter dated November 15, 1963 to Ira Miller from Jack Miller. Location: He Asked To Get Together With His Brother Ira

Letter to Ira Miller dated November 14, 1953.
Jack Miller collection in St. Louis Missouri. Location: For Center Of American Studies

During installation, Jack read scripture and prayed. Fellowship supper took place on February 2 in which some of the high points of Bethany's 5 year history were recounted.
Presbyterian Guardian:33:2:Feb 1964:29.
Location: Bethany Church, Stockton, California
With: Rev. Richard Lewis, Moderator, Gerald G. Layla, New Pastor, Rev Churchill, Coray, Riffel

Source: The Presbyterian Guardian

Publisher: Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Jack explained to his inquiring seminary interns one of the reasons he left the highly regarded think-tank in July of 1964 to return to WTS. Edgar summarized Jack’s explanation:

Per bibliographic record: Miller, 'Man in Modern Education Vol. 1.' Burlingame, CA: Center for American Studies, 1964. Unpublished. Held at the C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO. Written while Jack was pastoring in Stockton and beginning doctoral studies at the University of [California, Berkeley].

Photo: Jack Miller Working on The Mark Magazine for Seniors and Intermediates
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Latal Installed at Bethany OPC in Stockton
The Presbyterian Guardian

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Publisher: Center for American Studies (Burlingame, CA)

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Publisher: Center for American Studies (Burlingame, CA)

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The Presbyterian Guardian

Publisher: Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Publisher: Center for American Studies (Burlingame, CA)

Luhnow had a severe stroke in January 1964. His health continued to deteriorate, creating personal fears about his faith. Luhnow’s religious searching toward the end of his life curtailed ongoing discussions with Stanford and the Hoover Institute over CAS becoming an autonomous, self-funded think-tank under the university. Without Luhnow’s leadership, CAS collapsed under the intense, unanswered criticism over the David Hoggan debacle. Luhnow decided to shut down CAS in September 1964. A decade later, most of the remaining assets were transferred to the Hoover Institute.

In February 1964, the Center for American Studies (CAS) renewed Jack’s contract for a second year as Man in Modern Education moved toward publication. However, Jack’s

CJM Archives, St. Louis, MO.

Francis Schaeffer’s Swiss L’Abri and Bruce Hunt’s early influence tempted Jack to consider going to Europe as an OPC missionary. The Presbytery of the West Coast “urged the Committee on Home and Foreign Missions … to consider sending Mr. Miller to Europe as a foreign missionary.” In the end, Jack was a teacher and preacher whose express desire was to teach in a college or seminary should an opportunity arise. In the mid 1960s, Edmund Clowney was hiring WTS faculty members in their Practical Theology Department. At the time, WTS gave the primary responsibility of recruiting and hiring to the department chair. In March 1964, Jack traveled to Philadelphia to meet with Clowney and map out a plan for him to be hired at WTS upon completion of his seminary training and doctoral studies. The next year, WTS hired Jay E. Adams to the Practical Theology Department in an adjunct capacity.

Jack gave opening prayer and devotion.

"On motion presbytery urged the committee home for missions of the general assembly to consider sending Mr. Miller to Europe as a foreign missionary."

Location: Presbyterian Of West Coast Opc

Prior to moving east, Jack needed to complete his qualifying exams at Pacific, find employment in Philadelphia, and rent a large home sufficient for five kids as well as Rose Marie’s parents and sister. Jack passed his comprehensive exams in March 1964; the OPC’s Committee on Christian Education hired Jack at thirty hours per week to help publish The Mark Magazine, and Jack and Rose Marie rented a large house at 415 Walnut Street in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, from Robert den Dulk, a recent graduate of the seminary. Rose Marie’s aging parents and disabled sister would join the Millers in Jenkintown six months later.

First Meeting of Two Newly Formed Presbyteries
West Coast — Bethany Church, Stockton, welcomed the historic first meeting of the Presbytery of the West Coast (northern California, Oregon, and Washington) on March 11-12.

The honor of being chosen as the first Moderator went to Elder David L. Neilands, of Covenant Church, Berkeley. Mr. Neilands, a charter member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, was the first ruling elder to serve as Moderator of the old Presbytery and later of the General Assembly.

With the reception of three congregations the West Coast Presbytery now numbers 12 churches and one chapel (Eugene, Oregon).

The Modesto Chapel, under the ministry of the Rev. Thomas Champness as missionary- pastor, was received as a particular congregation.

The work had its inception several years ago as the result of the labors of the Rev. Jack Miller while he was a teacher at the Ripon Christian High School.

Further nurture came during the time that Mr. Miller served as pastor of Bethany Church, Stockton.

Members of the new Modesto congregation assisted members of Bethany in entertaining the presbyters.

Bethany's pastor is Dr. Gerald Latal.

Location: Stockton, California

Miller archives in St. Louis. Paul Miller interview:
P:To teach at Westminster you had to be a student at Westminster. #0:30:58.6#
P: So I think the whole idea of coming back east from the very beginning was for him to teach at Westminster. #0:31:6.2#
Location: See March 26, 64 Letter To Clowney

Deduced from comments by Jack in letter to Ed Clowney on March 26, 1964, CJM Archives in St. Louis, Mo.

See Miller archives in St. Louis.

And letter to Ed Clowney he dated March 27, 1964, Jack publicly recognizes that Center for American studies owns this MSS.

Jack asks Ed Clowney to read it. During this trip Jack may have spoken about joining Westminster. Jack also talks about Hubert Kay, Time-Life and fortune editor, who had become a rationalist.

Location: Center For American Studies, Burlingame, Ca.

See Miller archives in St. Louis.

In letter to Ed Clowney he dated March 27, 1964, Jack publicly recognizes that Center for American studies owns this MSS.

Jack asks Ed Clowney to read it. During this trip Jack may have spoken about joining Westminster. Jack also talks about Hubert Kay, Time-Life and fortune editor, who had become a rationalist.

Location: Center For American Studies, Burlingame, Ca.

Explanation for manuscript of Man in Modern Education, its origins, theme, purpose. Research was done while working at the Center for American Studies.

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

See letter dated June 8, 1964 to Harold Luhnow where Jack repays final payment of $500 loan and reminds Luhnow that Jack is enrolling at WTS in fall of 64.

"C. John Miller, former teaching fellow at University of Pacific, will preach July... Burlingame, and is now writing his first book, "Man in Modern Education."
Location: Burlingame

See employment contract dated July 24, 1964. Terms $1500 per academic year scholarship aid, 30 hours per week, 3 months notice of termination.
Location: Philadelphia

See also OGTIGC, page 27

And Also Presbyterian Guardian, November 1964, Page 162 Committee on Christian Educations — Great Commission Publications

The Rev. C. John Miller has also been added to the staff on a part- time basis, devoting his labor to plans for a monthly magazine, The Mark. A goal of October, 1965, has been set for publication of this periodical which is intended to serve both the Intermediate and Senior departments.

Location: Great Commission Publications, OPC

Rose Marie Miller interview. Location: Philadelphia, Pa.

See email from Barbara dated October 23, 2016 Correcting Timeline Errors.

“The doctor was Dr. Den Dulk. His son was Bob Den Dulk."

Jack corrects an overstatement in his involvement thought he was involved. See Presbyterian Guardian 33:7:sept 1964:113-114.

Location: Modesto, California

Taken from various interview datings (e.g., Rose Marie Miller, Paul Miller, etc.)

September, 1964, Pages 13-14

Jack Clarifies His Role in Modesto Chapel (from April, 1964 Presbyterian Guardian)

EDITOR'S MAIL BOX — Letter to Editor
Dear Sir:
In reading the news from the Presbytery of the West Coast, I appreciated the kind report by Rev. Richard Lewis concerning my part in the establishment of the Modesto church. To make the picture somewhat more complete, however, I would like to call attention to the generous labors of others.

Particularly, elder Clarence Westra, a dedicated member of the Stockton session, performed faithful yeoman service. For all practical purposes, he became leader of the evening Bible class in Modesto in order to relieve me for other labor. Later on, he faithfully represented our Stockton session at the Lord's Day afternoon services in Modesto, preached there too, and, I believe, secured guest speakers.

Not only so, Rev. Robert Churchill was active in many phases of the work: in speaking, helping to find a place to meet, and organizing the congregation. Rev. Henry Coray also helped in much the same way. Two retired Christian Reformed ministers, Rev. J. J. Weersing and Rev. J. J. Steigenga, preached frequently and brought a rich spiritual blessing to the people of God in Modesto. And from time to time, a number of the O.P. pastors and elders took part in maintaining the worship.

Although every true church is established by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, it seems almost as if he had moved in a unique manner in bringing into being the congregation in Modesto.

One particular incident stands out as an illustration of such working. Several years ago on a hot afternoon, I was calling door- to-door in Modesto and stopped at a home where the man of the house was standing on a stepladder working on his garage door. Quite obviously he did not want to talk, and after a brief one- sided conversation, I turned to leave.
Upon a sudden impulse, I paused. He had said he was a Baptist and that was about all. "Are you," I asked for no apparent reason, "convinced of Baptist doctrine?"
"No," he said, "I'rn a Calvinist." That was the first meeting with Richard Nielsen. Within the next five minutes we were sitting on his lawn, well on our way to becoming fast friends in the gospel. Considerably later, the Nielsen family and the families of Charles Cornwell and Robert Cornwell invited me to lead a Bible study. Some months after, the interest of the John De Boer family brought additional encouragement to us.

After a further season of waiting, with some
discouragements, God moved again. The arrival of the Clyde Dunlap family and the Glen Harris family from the Long Beach O.P.C. gave the work a renewed impetus and official worship services were started, first on Sunday afternoon, and later regular morning and evening services were established.

In the gathering together of these and other families, the thing to impress the observer is not human agency but God's quiet working to establish a congregation.

Another bright aspect of the picture has been the coming of Rev. Thomas Champness to feed this new flock. For a minister to cross the country may not in itself be so unusual, but Mr. Champness came to a very small group as yet not organized as a church, without a church building, and with relatively little financial help outside the local group.
In calling attention to the working of God in Modesto, one does not mean to slight his other works, for God delights to build with different means in different places. Yet at certain times and certain places, our Father's workings seem especially striking. And our church there appears to be one of his spontaneous products, a grass-roots development. An indication of this fact can be seen in the attendance pattern, for regularly the evening attendance equals the morning.
Undoubtedly, the Modesto O.P.C. will face growing pains like other churches, but God, we believe, will continue the good cause that he has originated.

Sincerely,
JACK MILLER Redwood City, Calif

Email exchange with Don Jamison dated January 18, 2016. See attached word document.

Presbytery minutes notice a communication from C. John Miller reporting on his work in the gospel to be read at item 13 on the docket. Stated clerk did not offer to find the communication.

Location: Presbytery Of The West Coast Opc

Rushdoony, Rousas J.
Letter to Jack Miller Reviewing ‘The Mark’ Magazine
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Rushdoony, Rousas J.
Letter to Jack Miller concerning Criticism of the Catechism Workbook
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Robert Marsden had previously explained the tremendous difficulties married students with children faced while studying at WTS. He writes, “There are very few fellows who are able to get through seminary when they have several children for distractions are usually just too much, particularly when you are in uncomfortable quarters, which are cramped, and have very little money for all sorts of trifles that make life easier.” In spite of all the limitations and stress, God blessed the Millers in Philadelphia. Jack completed his seminary training at WTS in 1965.

Photo: Jack as Lecturer at Westminster Theological Seminary
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Westminster Theological Seminary Report of Academic Standing for C. Jack Miller: 1964–65
The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Photo: Jack Miller Class at Westminster Theological Seminary
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Publisher: The Jack Miller Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, Mo.

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Publisher: The Jack Miller Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, Mo.

Rose Marie Miller Interview.

In the large house they were renting, there was a middle floor flat. The family moved out at the end of 64, and Rose Marie asked her family to move in with them into the flat.

Her father knew his wife would outline him, so wanting them to be settled and cared for, they moved to Philly.

Location: Philadelphia, Pa.

Don Jameison, Presbytery of California Minutes

In their April 1965 meeting, the Presbytery of the West Coast approved Jack’s request to transfer his ministerial credentials to the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Jack started serving Mechanicsville Chapel (MC) as stated pulpit supply that summer. In their September meeting, the Presbytery of Philadelphia enrolled the WTS graduate as a regular member. By November, the small congregation called Jack as their pastor.

Jack was absent from the meeting, though the Presbytery received this communication from Jack requesting that his credentials be transferred to Presbytery of Philadelphia.

Later at the same meeting an item reads, "On Motion it was approved at the request of C. John Miller for dismissal to the Presbytery the Philadelphia be granted."

Location: From Presbytery Of The West Opc

Writing for the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC about what it is like being a student in Dr. Cornelius Van Til's class as a seminary student.
Location: Presbyterian Guardian, 34:4:April 1965:55

Just for a moment imagine that you are sitting in one of Dr. Van Til's classes at Westminster Seminary. A bright student has posed a difficult question about the philosophy of Kant, and a spirited discussion follows. To you some of the terms seem as long as freight cars: "epistemological self- consciousness," "concrete universal," "ontological Trinity," and "the Creator-creature distinction."

You feel lost-but only for a moment. A young man in the back row raises his hand. "Dr. Van Til," he says with a timid smile, "I'm afraid I didn't quite get that last point about the Creator-creature distinction." (As a matter of fact he has missed the whole point of the discussion.')

Then with untiring patience and a touch of humor Professor Van Til takes the time to bring this student back into the mainstream of the class discussion. He illustrates the Christian position by telling a story about a man (the believer) who wanders into a valley where everyone is blind (un-regenerate men). The blind people then offer to sew the man's eyes shut so that he will see no more "illusions." Or he may tell an original parable about the owner of an estate (God) who stamps his name on all his property (the creation). Then he points out how foolish it is for the servants on the estate (men) to pretend that they have no knowledge that the Lord of the property exists.

As he continues using his picturesque language, the shy student and you begin to get the point. You see that this approach has a basic simplicity. It is just the old-fashioned gospel applied to the broad problems of human thought and to the defense of Christian doctrine.

One of the high points of the class hour is Dr. Van Til's work at the blackboard. To the delight of the students the blackboard soon comes to resemble a modern abstract painting with crisscrossing lines, arrows, names. of thinkers, and circles. The circles, of course, are the key to the whole design. At bottom, he says, there are only two ways of looking at the relationship between God and man: there is the Christian approach with two circles, and the non-Christian approach with one circle. The Christian recognizes in his reasoning that he is a dependent creature made in the image of God; the unbeliever thinks of himself as an independent being who is self- existent.

To those who know him, however, Dr. Van Til is more than a "class- room thinker." To many of the people of Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Glenside he is almost a second pastor, frequently making sick calls or visits to those with special needs. A nearby hospital has been a part of his "parish" and as a summer pulpit supply in Wisconsin he has sought also to minister to the sick and the shut-ins. To sum it up, here is a man whose scholarly teaching ministry is warmed by the heart of a true pastor both within and outside the classroom.

C. JOHN MILLER Mr. Miller, after a decade as teacher, pastor, and doctoral candidate in the field of literature at the University of the Pacific, has returned to Westminster to complete his seminary training. He is also writing for the Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

See OPC Presbytery of Philadelphia Minutes Location: Dismissed From Presbytery Of Calif (e.g., this was actually Presbytery of the West Coast at the time).

ANCHOR for Book 5 start cover date. Bundle citations: ,

Presbytery of Philadelphia minutes Location: Westminster Theological Seminary

40th Anniversary Edition Westminster Seminary Edition of the Presbyterian Guardian

See Board Minutes dated June 10, 1969

As stated in OGTIGC, page 27 Location: For Home Missions Board

Presbyterian Guardian and Presbytery of Philadelphia Minutes

Bill Krispin Interview

Presbytery of Philadelphia minutes
Location: Knox Opc, Silver Springs, Maryland

Email exchange with Don Jamieson dated January 18, 2016. See attached word document.

Presbytery of the West Coast received a report "from Presbytery of Philadelphia stating that they received and enrolled the Rev. C. John Miller on May 1, 1965. (No action)."

In the word document for Mr. Jamison, there is a error in the date which indicates is September 22-23, 1995. This is clearly an error that should be 1965.

Location: To Presbytery Of The West Coast

Presbyterian Philadelphia meeting minutes Location: 7401 Old York Rd., Melrose, Pa

CJM Archives in St. Louis, Mo.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Presbytery of Philadelphia minutes.

Jack reported on this pastoral work, and requested permission to conduct an installation and ordination service for Layman. Permission was granted.

Enthusiasm grew at once among the handful of remaining members at MC, and soon, new converts to Christianity started attending weekly gatherings. WTS faculty connections and students hungry for practical ministry experience gave Jack access to gifted teachers and future church leaders he could recruit for ministry at MC and in the nearby communities of Doylestown and New Hope. Jack recruited Edward J. Young, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at WTS, to teach on Isaiah for the adults. Jack unofficially started an internship program for WTS students. He targeted several Harvard graduates who had recently enrolled at WTS. Bill Edgar and Jim Hurley joined Jack at MC in 1966. Dick Keyes joined his fellow Harvard graduates in 1967. Soon, David Clowney joined some of his seminary classmates at MC, attracted by Jack’s engaging preaching and intrigued by students’ description of the ministry at MC.

/ 1966 — Latal grievances context for Jack's Bethany OPC pastorate, promoted in R2 review

Kuiper, R. B.
God Centered Evangelism

Miller to Start as Lecturer in Second Semester
Westminster Seminary Bulletin

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

P: Well we he quoted the medievals a lot, scholastics and, someone complimented him and he said we he said I stand on the shoulders of giants. Dad said to me that one day I'll be able to do that with him so. #0:1:42.4#
M: Yeah. He said that toward that, was that toward the.. #0:1:46.3#
P: That was in 8th grade. #0:1:46.7#
M: 8th, all the way in 8th grade? #0:1:47.6# P: Yeah yeah. #0:1:49.4#
M: He told you that. #0:1:50.3#
P: Yeah so that was neat. #0:1:54.0#
M: That's awesome. #0:1:56.3#
P: I think he was trying to also, looking back on it I think I don't know where that came from. I think that he was he was counteracting possibly some, it was a repentance for some behavior of his that not had been stellar. #0:2:17.1#
But but dad he in both places all the dark side of dad came to fore in his inability to do a successor. His own his own struggles with envy and jealousy. My mom, dad was acting weird to me when I was in 7th or 8th grade and mom pulled me aside and she said dad struggles with jealousy with you. And I was like I was just an 8th grader. And I think she probably talked to dad about it and that's why he came back and told me that thing about you'll stand on my shoulders some day. So it just some of it was just very simple human just you know pride and power that were at work in both institutions.. #0:2:50.8#
Location: Paul Miller Interview 1

Presbyterian Philadelphia OPC minutes

Presbytery received a communication from the Rev. C. John Miller requesting that a period of time be set aside following the lunch recess at the next regular meeting to discuss the subject, "towards a more effective communication of the Gospel."

Location: Trinity Opc, Hatboro, Pennsylvania

Jack joined the WTS faculty as a Lecturer in Practical Theology in May 1966 with a starting salary of $2,650. Rose Marie recalled a warning Van Til gave to Jack when he first joined the faculty. Van Til cautioned his former student, “Just don’t say anything for a year, don’t force anything for a year.” According to Rose Marie, Van Til knew that Jack would now see the clear divide between theological education and ministry practice. Following Van Til’s advice, Jack kept somewhat quiet for two years. Nonetheless, the gulf between the theories of seminary education and the practice of ministry appalled Jack. To carry out the middle WTS vision, Jack determined to bridge education and practice to address the Kantian gulf he now witnessed between the two.

See Jack’s Obituary written by Roseanne Miller Trott in Philadelphia Inquirer dated April 17, 1996

CJM Archives, St. Louis, MO.

Author(s): Iva Lawrence.

Source: The C. John Miller Manuscript Collection, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO

Presbyterian of Philadelphia OPC minutes

The discussion own "toward a more effective communication of the gospel" was led by Mr. Ensworth

Location: Trinity Opc, Fairfax, Virginia

Presbyterian Guardian, March, 1966, page 43. Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This study cannot speak definitively to the high point or low point of WTS. As for Jack, he served in the Practical Theology Department from July 1966 through May 1982. He began as a faculty member during the later years of early WTS and continued through the first thirteen years of middle WTS. Even after his retirement, absence from the faculty did not equate to absence of Jack’s influence. Some leaders cast a longer shadow than others.

Begins teaching in Practical Theology Department

Based on date of letter by Wilson Albright, located in OPC correspondence file, CJM archives.

Presbyterian Guardian, January, 1967, Page 11

The new term also saw the Rev. C. John Miller undertaking his work as Lecturer in Practical Theology, teaching a course in Christian Education and offering a new course on Calvinism in American Literature. Mr. Miller, a former Christian High School teacher and Orthodox Presbyterian pastor, taught English at the University of the Pacific while working toward his Ph.D. He is now finishing his doctoral dissertation. He has served for the past year and a half as pastor of the Mechanicsville, Pa. Chapel.
Location: Glenside, PA

Jack's WTS career began July 1966 as Lecturer in Practical Theology per both (Rose Marie interview adds July precision) and (synthesis of WTS minutes and reports: 'WTS appointed Jack as a Lecturer in Practical Theology from 1966 to 1968'). Promoted from MERGED status as genuinely distinct career milestone with no existing Master Timeline MCT.

Presbyterian guardian, volume 35, number 9, November 1966, page 143.

Mechanicsville, Pa. - The Rev. C. John Miller of the Presbytery of Philadelphia is serving as pastor of the Mechanicsville Chapel. An adult evening Bible school during the last week of September centered on the theme of "Christ in the Old Testament." Dr. Edward J. Young of Westminster brought three messages on Isaiah, and the Rev. Albert Martin of Caldwell, N. J. spoke on Psalms 22 and 2. On the following Sunday evening Mr. David Ketchen of Canada brought the message. He is a Westminster Seminary senior.

Paul Miller interview:
P: So we in fact when we got married dad dad had dad had left the chapel at that point. I can tell you why if you want to know. #0:46:21.1#

P: It was there was tension between him and Bud Haberen. #0:46:25.1#

P: And not really know the nature of it. Neither have ever talked about it which is you know the greatness of that generation. #0:46:32.5#

P: But I think the rut of it was they wanted a full time pastors, and I would say it was the elders, an example of elders working hard to kill a church because dad was doing, the church was booming with dad half time. All they needed to do was just hire another guy.. #0:46:49.6#

P: But they really killed a real work of the spirit. The next guy who came in, George Morton, but now George Morton really almost killed it.... #0:47:28.0#

P: But they they I just thought it was a dumb decision on their part. #0:47:40.8#
Location: Mechanicsville Chapel

Presbytery of Philadelphia.
Location: Jack Was Nominate But Not Elected As Clerk

By October 1966, Latal had a list of 29 grievances brought against him which included difficulty with Westras.
Location: Stockton, California

Source: The Presbyterian Guardian

Publisher: Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Presbyterian of Philadelphia minutes
Location: Emmanuel Church, Wilmington Delaware

In 1967, Jack started seriously questioning his preaching. Ironically, those who heard him found his preaching more engaging than most. D. Clair Davis, Professor of Church History at WTS, said he would go to Mechanicsville one evening a month to hear Jack preach because attending his own church in the morning was killing him. He found that Jack’s preaching even before 1970 brought life to him; though after 1970, Jack’s preaching was much clearer. Nevertheless, Jack’s basic alienation from God left him insecure.

Source: The Presbyterian Guardian

Publisher: Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Letter on article by F. Francis Schaeffer (35:147-48), Volume 36, Number 3, March 1967, Page 41 http://opc.org/cfh/guardian/Volume_36/1967-03.pdf

EDITOR'S MAIL BOX

Dear Sir:
The recent letter (February) by Harry Schat and Raymond Commeret discussing Francis Schaeffer's article "The Practice of Truth" (Guardian, December 1966) reveals a commendable concern for maintaining a biblical apologetics in the modern world. At the same time, it does not seem to me that the writers of the let- ter have quite understood the purpose of the article by Dr. Schaeffer.

He does not appear to be teaching a nature-grace opposition when he reasons that truth must be practiced as well as affirmed. As I understand his article he is saying rather that co- operation in evangelism with those who do not accept the authority of Scripture is dangerous-that such a practice, in effect, undercuts and rela- tivizes the truth we affirm.

Moreover, although his language could have been more precise, in speaking of "brute facts" Dr. Schaeffer is not presupposing a modern philo- sophical interpretation of existence. In- stead he is merely saying that history is taken seriously by the Christian, that he refuses to accept a dialectical relativizing of the past.

For myself, I too wish that the article had mentioned the Scriptures as the truth in a more explicit way. Yet even here I think,the authors of the letter go too far when they state that "without the revelation of the Bible there would be no truth anywhere for blinded sinful man." Is this to be understood to mean that general re- revelation to man does not exist? I am sure that the writers of the letter do not really want to take this position, a point of view which is clearly not that of the Scriptures themselves, of the Westminster Confession, of John Calvin or Dr. Cornelius Van Til.

Fruit of L'Abri

In the Mechanicsville Chapel, where I have carried on a part-time pastorate, I have found numerous co-workers in the young men converted through the ministry of the Schaeffers at L' Abri in Switzerland. These young men have spoken in our services and at present two of them are conducting a chil- dren's Bible club with consecration and Christian zeal. Two things stand out in our association with them: 1) the love these new Christians have for the Bible as the Word of God and 2) their dependence upon Him in prayer. I haven't seen the slightest evidence of a "sort of neo-rationalism and neo- humanism" in these young men.

Cordially yours, C. JOHN MILLER Jenkintown, Pa

Presbytery of Philadelphia OPC minutes Location: First Opc, Baltimore, Maryland

Prayer and Evangelism, p. 1
Location: 1967 Summer 1967, Date Unknown, Mechanicsville

Presbytery of Philadelphia OPC minutes
Location: Calvary Church, Glenside, Pennsylvania

Presbytery of Philadelphia OPC minutes
Location: Kirkwood Opc, Kirkwood, Pennsylvania

Jack’s 1968 dissertation at Pacific was only the first fruits he harvested from the valuable eighteen months of interdisciplinary academic research at CAS. Jack had indeed sharpened his scholarship considerably. As evidence, Jack had tackled a deeply controversial subject over the boundaries of religion and politics at the heart of the divisive fusionism controversy at CAS. The same leaders at CAS who resented and unequivocally rejected Rushdoony’s brand of Calvinism seemed pleased with Jack’s winsome Calvinistic approach. Had Jack watered down his Calvinist commitments to accommodate CAS leadership? Jack did not think so, at least not in the way that undermined his most important Calvinist presuppositions. He writes, “I have been plain-spoken in questioning the vagueness of the Center’s aims. In some respects, they appear to be gaining a little ‘epistemological self-consciousness,’ and to my surprise, another Calvinist was hired recently.”

As Clowney recruited new students from around the United States to WTS, the student body grew rapidly. Later, WTS would boast a student body that came from forty different countries and eighty different denominations. For a sense of perspective on the rapid growth of the WTS student body, in 1968 sixty-seven students were enrolled at WTS with twenty-seven of those in the senior class. By the early 1970s, student enrollment nearly quadrupled to over seventy-five students per class.

Quoting John Newton, Jack often said, “Calvinism is one of the worst systems preached theoretically and one of the best preached practically.” In 1968, the historical gap between theological education and church ministry at WTS widened into a gulf separating the two. The split between classroom and community stirred students to challenge faculty; it nearly led to a student revolt akin to those occurring on other college campuses at the same time. Krispin recalled the students’ frustration:

There was a lot of ferment going on in the seminary. Some of it was tied to Jack, and some of it had to do with students pushing back on the extreme academic character of the seminary. I was one of those, so I can bear witness to it. We had something of a student revolution in 1968 where a group of us went to the faculty with a list of changes in the curriculum. I was one of the instigators in that…. We went with two primary problems. One was WTS had no courses on hermeneutics. They had exegesis courses. And the prof would come in and exegete the passage in hopes you’d see the principles they’d use…. The other issue we brought to the table was that WTS faculty, with the exception of people like Clowney, Jack, and Van Til, were all lecture, and you could not ask questions. You could ask after class but not during class. We wanted to have faculty-directed discussions.… We had to ante up to the place where we began to boycott classes.

Frances Schaeffer, former OPC missionary and renowned Christian apologist, was the person who was speaking most vividly to this divide between theological academics and applied ministry at the time. Van Til objected to Schaeffer’s coming to speak at WTS, so the seminary would not officially invite him. Schaeffer considered himself Van Tilian, but Van Til had his doubts. Overriding Van Til’s objection, Clowney gave the students permission to invite the founder of L’Abri. The students who had the connection with Schaeffer had also interned with Jack at MC, and Jack and Schaeffer had spent formative time together during his earlier visit to Philadelphia. The students also invited D. James Kennedy to WTS in the early formation of Evangelism Explosion. Kennedy’s emphasis also fed into Jack’s call for the church and seminary to engage in evangelism. In 1968, the students brought Schaeffer and Kennedy to WTS. Since WTS was a faculty-run institution, students bringing visiting instructors to the campus without formal faculty permission—but with the support of Clowney and Jack—rubbed many faculty the wrong way.

Clowney articulated the vision for middle WTS, and Jack catalyzed that vision on campus and at MC but not without cost to Jack, his wife, his children, and others. Some among the faculty and student body gravitated toward Jack. Others avoided him. When WTS appointed Jack as Assistant Professor of Practical Theology in 1968, Clowney expected Jack, like other full-time faculty, to resign his pastorate at MC, but MC wanted Jack to remain as their pastor. When Jack refused to resign, Clowney pressed Jack, in part because the seminary separated itself constitutionally from the church for historically important reasons. Jack’s stubbornness frustrated Clowney on occasions such as this.

According to Krispin, Jack discussed resigning and un-resigning from WTS several times between 1968 and 1970, but this may give the wrong impression. Jack himself emphasized only one resignation, which occurred later in 1970; the previous conversations arose from more natural career choices. In May 1968, Jack had defended his doctoral dissertation at Pacific. That July, the Board of Trustees at WTS appointed Jack as Assistant Professor of Practical Theology for a two-year term. In 1969, the board appointed Jack to an additional three-year term beginning July 1970. The completion of doctoral studies and faculty appointments for 1968 and 1970 are expected times to reflect on one’s present and future opportunities. Jack had no history of being hotheaded or showing impulsive behavior, so his conversations at the time about resigning simply grew out of career transitions. Catalytic leadership can at times seem like impulsivity.

Work piled upon work. Already having little time for his family, Jack took even more responsibilities by agreeing to edit a series of books in connection with the 40th Anniversary of WTS. From 1968 through 1970, Jack had overwhelmingly positive responses from students and auditors who attended his assorted literary and theological courses: European Theological Novel, Christian Poets, Man in Contemporary Culture, Contemporary Culture and Evangelism, Gospel Communication, Calvinism in American Literature, and Group Evangelism. Jack taught classes during the day, at night, and on weekends. WTS opened courses to the public. After filling the largest room at WTS, Jack moved classes across the street to the sanctuary of Calvary OPC. The number of people auditing Jack’s classes led WTS to charge auditing fees.

: 1968 = final academic year of 'early WTS' era before formal transition to middle WTS (Sept 1969). D.G. Hart historiography.

Source: C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Publisher: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC)

URL: http://newgrowthpress.com

Source: C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Publisher: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC)

URL: http://newgrowthpress.com

Source: C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Publisher: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC)

URL: http://newgrowthpress.com

See Jack’s Obituary written by Roseanne Miller Trott in Philadelphia Inquirer dated April 17, 1996

Dissertation is on "The Theme of Social Decay in the Last Five
Novels of James Fenimore Cooper." Location: Stockton
With: Dr. Paul Witherington, Chair, Malcolm Eiselen, Clair Olsen, Lawrence Osborne, Ruth Faurot

Source: CJM Archives, St. Louis, Miss.

Dissertation Bound by University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA

Presbytery of Philadelphia OPC minutes Location: Calvary Opc, Glenside, Pennsylvania

Jack’s original study reconsidered Cooper’s last five novels under the overarching theme of social decay in the United States. He presented his dissertation, “The Theme of Social Decay in the Last Five Novels of James Fenimore Cooper,” to the faculty of Pacific in May 1968.

Presbyterian Guardian, May, 1968, page 52. Location: General Assembly Of Opc Class Of 71

Presbyterian Guardian, Page 62, volume 37, number 6, June 1968.

See Board Minutes date May 21, 1968

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

Jack was not above criticism, that is, if he could control the criticism. He did so by offering self-criticism while also inviting critical input. For the latter, he asked Schaeffer and D. James Kennedy for input, and he sought counsel from Martyn Lloyd Jones who was a visiting lecturer at WTS. In June 1968, Jack traveled to Fuller Seminary to meet with Professor Donald McGavran. He asked McGavran to critically assess Calvinists he knew. McGavran said, “[P]eople in [your] group [Calvinists] were troubled by tendencies toward elitism.” Even though Jack invited criticism from others, several leaders interviewed for this study indicated that Jack had actually few people who could freely speak critically into his life. Too many of his student acolytes overly adored him.

Jack asked Donald McGavran to criticize him frankly, no holds barred.

McGavran said with a twinkle in his eye, people in my group were troubled by tendencies toward elitism. He also said that we did not seem to have much practical confidence in the Holy Spirit as Christ's presence and therefore we tended to be timid.

He added that if we divided people culturally between washed and unwashed, we tended to go after the washed.

Location: Fuller Seminary

P: But he and Schafer had a lot of stuff, similarities. They were both Presbyterian evangelical evangelists who did missions. So their DNA was very similar and then dad really modeled himself, like we we opened our home up to people and that became kind of the modus operandi. #0:25:40.6#
M: He got that from Schafer? #0:25:41.3#
P: I'm, he never said it. There's this whole Presbyterian tradition of not crediting people. #0:25:45.5#
P: So but dad was very influenced by him. He he was a disciple of Schafer. #0:26:4.8#
P: And a lot of people were. #0:26:4.8# Location: Paul Miller Interview

See Board Minutes of Westminster Seminary dated May 21, 1968

Richard Gaffin elected and reelected in same meetings to Assistant Professor of NT.

Also see Email Exchange with Karla Grafton, Archivist at The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary.

"According to the WTS academic catalogs, Miller was assistant professor through the 72-73 academic year.

1973-74 he is listed as Associate Professor of Practical Theology.

This remains until 1976.

From 1976-77 to 1979-80, Miller is listed as Lecturer in Evangelism.

1980-81, and 81-82, he is adjunct professor of evangelism."

C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at The Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C.

Presbyterian Guardian, July-August, volume 37, number 7, 1968, Page 87.

Faith and Culture

A new Tuesday evening course on the European theological novel is being offered during the fall quarter,open to auditors as well as to students taking it for credit. Taught by Professor C. John Miller, the class will explore themes in Camus, Dostoevsky, Golding, Greene, and Kafka, with particular attention to the "hurt" in modern man in relation to the healing found in the gospel.

Dr. Miller, a former college teacher of literature, is assistant professor of practical theology at Westminster. He received his doctorate in June from the University of the Pacific. His thesis dealt with James Fenimore Cooper's attempt in his last five novels to criticize American civilization from a Christian point of view.

This evening course is the first of three to be given during Westminster Seminary's fortieth academic year relating the Christian faith to modern culture. The second course is an introduction to Christian poets, and the third will provide a broad perspective of man in contemporary culture, according to President Clowney.

Location: Tuesday Evenings Westminster Seminary Fall Semester

Presbytery to Philadelphia OPC minutes
Jack was elected to the committee church extension and home missions
Location: Trinity Opc, Hatboro, Pennsylvania

Hart also wanted to know if anyone at middle WTS made a case for changing course. A better question would first ask whether middle WTS did change course and, if so, how. In 1969, Edmund Clowney at WTS stood at the transition from early to middle WTS. Like Alexander in 1838 with Princeton, Clowney recognized the importance of placing a marker in the history books that “usher[ed] WTS into a second Biblical generation in the service of Christ.” Interestingly, the WTS faculty elected Jack to edit a number of popular books written by members of the faculty in a series to be initiated in connection with the fortieth anniversary of the seminary.

Jack’s emphasis on evangelism at middle WTS maintained continuity with early WTS. For years, Van Til charged seminary graduates to engage in evangelism, a charge built into the heart of his complex apologetic thought that, after all was said and done, meant “You can take God at his Word.” Students and faculty watched Van Til street preaching with Jack in the late 1960s. Krispin recalls, “Van Til had a natural affinity toward evangelism. He believed you could trust God to use his Word according to his purposes. So naturally Van Til wanted to go along with Jack.” Robert Godfrey, former President of WSC, laughed when he recalled Jack’s question during Godfrey’s faculty interview for a position in the history department at WTS. Jack asked the prospective faculty member to tell him about the last person Godfrey had led to Christ. As Clowney had indicated in his 1969 address, “Every professor and student must gain the secret of theological learning. The teacher of theology must be a spiritual leader. The repetition of unappropriated truth is peril to the soul of teacher and student alike.”

Late 1969 to April 1970 represents one of the bleakest times in Jack’s life and ministry. Jack was not intellectually assenting to an abstraction when he quoted Richard Lovelace who wrote of a dangerous complacency besetting pastors and their congregations:

Photo: Jack Miller Teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary
C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Mannon, John D.\Packer, J. I.\Jones, Hywel R.\Braund, Elizabeth\Lloyd–Jones, D. Martin
By Schisms Rent Asunder: Papers Read at the Puritan and Reformed Studies Conference 1969
Puritan and Westminster Conference Papers

May 1969, Volume 38, Number 5, Page 54
An evening course open to auditors as well as to seminarians was offered during each quarter by Professor C. John Miller of the Seminary faculty. The two-hour weekly sessions-half lecture and half animated discussion attracted a good many college students and other adults from the community. Topics dealt with the European theological novel, Christian poets, and man in contemporary culture from a Biblical perspective.
Location: Winter And Spring Semester Westminster Seminary

Location: Bill Krispin Interview, Day MLK was Killed

: May 1969 = end of the last spring semester of early WTS era, before middle WTS begins in the Sept 1969 academic year. D.G. Hart taxonomy.

Source: The Presbyterian Guardian

Publisher: Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Presbyterian Guardian, Volume 38, number 5, May 1969. Location: Presbyterian Guardian

Repentance: A Personal Confession
The day before Mothers Day. Location: Mechanicsville Chapel

Presbytery to Philadelphia OPC minutes

Jack and Norman Shepherd were appointed by the Presbytery, with Jack as convener, to the committee on chaplaincy in in-state institutions.

Location: Calvary Opc, Middletown, Pennsylvania

Source: The Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside, PA

See Minutes of the Board of Trustees at Westminster Theological Seminary dated June 10, 1969

This re-election to a three year term beginning July of 1970, after completing a two year term in May of 1970, likely explains why there is no public recording of Jack formally resigning or rescinding that resignation after classes were complete in May.

While this doesn’t negate the deep struggles and frustrations Jack was experiences, or his verbally communicating to Edmund Clowney he was resigning, as for as the formal records reflect, it most likely happened in the normal course of his election and re-election to the faculty of WTS as Assistant Professor of Practical Theology.

Presbyterian guardian, September 1969.

The Christian school much stress the dignity of the learner and the Sonship of the learner.
September 1969, volume 38, number 8, Pages 109-110. NUCS Annual Meeting Considers Theme “The God Who Is Here"

More than 200 teachers, administrators and board members met in mid-August for the 49th annual convention of the National Union of
Christian Schools. The three-day meeting was held on the Ambler campus of Temple University in suburban Philadelphia.

Leader of the sectional on English and language arts, Dr. C. John Miller, former high school and college teacher, now in the practical theology department of Westminster Seminary, addressed the first general session of the convention on the conference theme, "The God Who Is Here."

Location: Jack Miller Speaks At Temple Conference

: 'This study dates the formal transition from early to middle WTS as the academic year beginning in September 1969.' Jack joined WTS faculty this same academic year.

[00:13:16] And then the third guy was Jack Miller. And so I met Jack as a professor and had him for preaching coach. But he took an interest in several of us particularly those who had a kind of L'Abri background. [18.8]
[00:13:36] He was intrigued by the L'Abri model of Christian discipleship and so on and so we often were over in his home just informally for discussions and getting to know each other. [20.0]
[00:13:58] He was a brilliant man. He had actually recently been in a conservative think tank in California. But he left that for a bunch of reasons and was called to Westminster and this was way before a lot of the changes that people know about him had occurred. Nevertheless he was still the most engaging and lively professor and already beginning a little bit to be critical of the classic seminary model although he taught within it and fit in it pretty well. He was getting his PhD at the time in California. His doctoral dissertation was on James Fenimore Cooper. And Jack was very very conversant with literature, particularly American literature, but world literature as well. So he taught evening courses in literature that included not just students, but the community, the wider community. So that's a subject in itself you've probably come across. Yeah. [1:18.4]
[00:15:18] The thesis was that the journey which began as a Christian motif obviously back in the Middle Ages and then later with people like Bunyan and so forth became secularized in the 18th and 19th centuries with people like Melville and others. [24.9]
[00:15:43] And so we just had this incredible series of lectures in literature. That's just to say something about the breadth of his intellect. He was widely read, he was, as we say today in interdisciplinary studies. After three years of seminary, including the fact that he did my marriage, he presided over my marriage in 1968 in Norfolk, Connecticut, and that's the whole story. [41.3]
[00:16:26] We just became very close. And after I graduated from seminary, I wasn't sure what to do. I decided to postpone music school and work in the church. And one of the main reasons for that is that theologically I'd become convinced at Westminster of the critical importance of the church. At L'Abri we didn't get that in the same way. But when I came to Westminster the role of the church was very very crucial. [37.8]
[00:17:05] And second, Jack had asked a number of us to be interns in a very independent church that he took over for a while called Mechanicsville Chapel. And it was under his leadership that many of us kind of cut our teeth in practical ministry. So he'd have us preach and lead Bible study and do evangelistic outreach kinds of things. [34.1]
[00:17:40] And it was just terrific hands on practice that complemented all of the theory and all the good theology we were getting in the classroom. So even though this was before his spiritual revolution he had a real sense of reaching people, of ministering to them, of training young men in the art of pastoral care and preaching and so forth. [36.6]
[00:18:17] So then when I, when we graduated we just weren't sure which direction to take and I worked with my hands for a summer in taking care of a forest up in north western Connecticut. [18.4]
[00:18:36] And then Jack called and had concocted this idea with Ed Clowney and some others of establishing a kind of beachhead L'Abri like ministry in a little town outside of Mechanicsville called New Hope, which was and still is to some extent, thought it is much more commercial now, an artsy community: it has art galleries and all kinds of alternative people. [36.8]
[00:19:13] This is you know the 60s and there was a lot of kind of hippies and just people who would have been caricature of what people think of the 60s living in this place. [14.8]
[00:19:29] And so I officially I became a home missionary for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and my assignment was to live in New Hope and reach out to the local community. Lots to tell there. I don't know if you found anything in the archives. But it began with a lot of enthusiasm. We, my way of putting it, is that Jack way over estimated our gifts and he figured that you know because of our background we were just naturals to reproduce the kind of ministry that L'Abri had. [47.8]
[00:20:17] And while it didn't happen. After nearly a year, we realized that we were not you know turning that town upside down as he had hoped. [15.3]
[00:20:34] There were lots of good things that happened. We had a lecture series in a local art gallery which was well attended. We had Bible study; a lot of counseling. [10.7]
[00:20:48] We had our first child with us which was you know a real challenge for us. We loved having children but combining that with ministry was hard. And then it was a faith based ministry in the classic sense that we prayed our money and food. There was no organization behind us. There was no paycheck. And you know this worked well at L'Abri. But there was a whole different structure behind that and reasons for that and so forth. [41.0]
[00:21:29] And we weren't the Schaeffer's. So the money was really really thin and my my poor parents who aren't, who weren't believers wondered you know what we were doing was going to feed our grandchild. [15.8]
[00:21:47] And then, I don't know if this comes out of the archives. We had an unfortunate misunderstanding. Jack somehow got the idea that I was encroaching on his ministry at Mechanicsville. And the last thing I was doing, I think we'd had some effect on people, but there was no encroachment. [27.8]
[00:22:16] So he got kind of angry at us and sent us to get counseling which I pretty much, we did. But I deeply resented it because it is a false accusation. For one reason or another, including that, the ministry just came to a grinding halt. [18.4]
[00:22:35] And I became a school teacher for eight years which was very very fulfilling and just what I should have been doing. Had our second child. [9.4]
[00:22:46] And during that time in the 70s, as I was a school teacher in Connecticut that Jack had his spiritual revolution. So we weren't actually close to him during that time and I only found out about it secondhand and later. [20.0]
[00:23:07] Make a long story short when we moved back to America from a 10 year ministry in France as a seminary professor, Jack and Rosemary were incredibly sweet to us and had us right over in their home and Jack wrote me a long letter of apology. [18.5]
[00:23:27] And he'd come to the conclusion that he had been wrong and I, that was very sweet, and very welcome, because I did feel like I'd been injured. [11.4]
[00:23:39] So we ended up really good friends and did a lot together again. I had him speak at different conferences that I was heading, and back in their home a lot. [12.3]
[00:23:51] And then the dear man as you know died died of cancer. I mean you're welcome to ask me about his adoption years and his ministry in Sonship. I actually don't know a lot about it. Obviously it represented a kind of real revolution. And he had had this remarkable renewal in his own life. But it was as I said not when we were around or abroad actually for most of that and I just praise the Lord for what he was able to do. [45.8]
[00:24:39] He eventually as you know left teaching seminary. I mean seminary teaching just wasn't his thing. He did it as best as a brilliant man could, but his heart was not in it. His heart was in taking groups down to you know Temple University or to Wall Street and evangelizing people on the street. [24.2]
[00:25:03] And he was really good at that. And he helped me learn how to do that as well. So he eventually left that and then and his church left the OPC; that's a controversial subject. They left the OPC and went into the PCA, and developed a network known as the New Life Churches. [23.6]
[00:25:29] And then along came World Harvest which was a marvelously fresh mission with a marvelously fresh approach to mission based in part on Rose Marie and Jack's love for Ireland and Spain where they've gone and done a lot of evangelism and then consolidated that and the mission... [26.7]
[00:25:56] The mission is a vital one today and it's changed its name to Serge, but it is a great, really live and dynamic mission. So that's the cliff notes of my Jack Miller story. I can give you lots of details, but maybe you should ask questions. [25.8]
[13:05.7]

Bill Edgar Interview

More Interview

[00:13:16] And then the third guy was Jack Miller. And so I met Jack as a professor and had him for preaching coach. But he took an interest in several of us particularly those who had a kind of L'Abri background. [18.8]
[00:13:36] He was intrigued by the L'Abri model of Christian discipleship and so on and so we often were over in his home just informally for discussions and getting to know each other. [20.0]
[00:13:58] He was a brilliant man. He had actually recently been in a conservative think tank in California. But he left that for a bunch of reasons and was called to Westminster and this was way before a lot of the changes that people know about him had occurred. Nevertheless he was still the most engaging and lively professor and already beginning a little bit to be critical of the classic seminary model although he taught within it and fit in it pretty well. He was getting his PhD at the time in California. His doctoral dissertation was on James Fenimore Cooper. And Jack was very very conversant with literature, particularly American literature, but world literature as well. So he taught evening courses in literature that included not just students, but the community, the wider community. So that's a subject in itself you've probably come across. Yeah. [1:18.4]
[00:15:18] The thesis was that the journey which began as a Christian motif obviously back in the Middle Ages and then later with people like Bunyan and so forth became secularized in the 18th and 19th centuries with people like Melville and others. [24.9]
[00:15:43] And so we just had this incredible series of lectures in literature. That's just to say something about the breadth of his intellect. He was widely read, he was, as we say today in interdisciplinary studies. After three years of seminary, including the fact that he did my marriage, he presided over my marriage in 1968 in Norfolk, Connecticut, and that's the whole story. [41.3]
[00:16:26] We just became very close. And after I graduated from seminary, I wasn't sure what to do. I decided to postpone music school and work in the church. And one of the main reasons for that is that theologically I'd become convinced at Westminster of the critical importance of the church. At L'Abri we didn't get that in the same way. But when I came to Westminster the role of the church was very very crucial. [37.8]
[00:17:05] And second, Jack had asked a number of us to be interns in a very independent church that he took over for a while called Mechanicsville Chapel. And it was under his leadership that many of us kind of cut our teeth in practical ministry. So he'd have us preach and lead Bible study and do evangelistic outreach kinds of things. [34.1]
[00:17:40] And it was just terrific hands on practice that complemented all of the theory and all the good theology we were getting in the classroom. So even though this was before his spiritual revolution he had a real sense of reaching people, of ministering to them, of training young men in the art of pastoral care and preaching and so forth. [36.6]
[00:18:17] So then when I, when we graduated we just weren't sure which direction to take and I worked with my hands for a summer in taking care of a forest up in north western Connecticut. [18.4]
[00:18:36] And then Jack called and had concocted this idea with Ed Clowney and some others of establishing a kind of beachhead L'Abri like ministry in a little town outside of Mechanicsville called New Hope, which was and still is to some extent, thought it is much more commercial now, an artsy community: it has art galleries and all kinds of alternative people. [36.8]
[00:19:13] This is you know the 60s and there was a lot of kind of hippies and just people who would have been caricature of what people think of the 60s living in this place. [14.8]
[00:19:29] And so I officially I became a home missionary for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and my assignment was to live in New Hope and reach out to the local community. Lots to tell there. I don't know if you found anything in the archives. But it began with a lot of enthusiasm. We, my way of putting it, is that Jack way over estimated our gifts and he figured that you know because of our background we were just naturals to reproduce the kind of ministry that L'Abri had. [47.8]
[00:20:17] And while it didn't happen. After nearly a year, we realized that we were not you know turning that town upside down as he had hoped. [15.3]
[00:20:34] There were lots of good things that happened. We had a lecture series in a local art gallery which was well attended. We had Bible study; a lot of counseling. [10.7]
[00:20:48] We had our first child with us which was you know a real challenge for us. We loved having children but combining that with ministry was hard. And then it was a faith based ministry in the classic sense that we prayed our money and food. There was no organization behind us. There was no paycheck. And you know this worked well at L'Abri. But there was a whole different structure behind that and reasons for that and so forth. [41.0]
[00:21:29] And we weren't the Schaeffer's. So the money was really really thin and my my poor parents who aren't, who weren't believers wondered you know what we were doing was going to feed our grandchild. [15.8]
[00:21:47] And then, I don't know if this comes out of the archives. We had an unfortunate misunderstanding. Jack somehow got the idea that I was encroaching on his ministry at Mechanicsville. And the last thing I was doing, I think we'd had some effect on people, but there was no encroachment. [27.8]
[00:22:16] So he got kind of angry at us and sent us to get counseling which I pretty much, we did. But I deeply resented it because it is a false accusation. For one reason or another, including that, the ministry just came to a grinding halt. [18.4]
[00:22:35] And I became a school teacher for eight years which was very very fulfilling and just what I should have been doing. Had our second child. [9.4]
[00:22:46] And during that time in the 70s, as I was a school teacher in Connecticut that Jack had his spiritual revolution. So we weren't actually close to him during that time and I only found out about it secondhand and later. [20.0]
[00:23:07] Make a long story short when we moved back to America from a 10 year ministry in France as a seminary professor, Jack and Rosemary were incredibly sweet to us and had us right over in their home and Jack wrote me a long letter of apology. [18.5]
[00:23:27] And he'd come to the conclusion that he had been wrong and I, that was very sweet, and very welcome, because I did feel like I'd been injured. [11.4]
[00:23:39] So we ended up really good friends and did a lot together again. I had him speak at different conferences that I was heading, and back in their home a lot. [12.3]
[00:23:51] And then the dear man as you know died died of cancer. I mean you're welcome to ask me about his adoption years and his ministry in Sonship. I actually don't know a lot about it. Obviously it represented a kind of real revolution. And he had had this remarkable renewal in his own life. But it was as I said not when we were around or abroad actually for most of that and I just praise the Lord for what he was able to do. [45.8]
[00:24:39] He eventually as you know left teaching seminary. I mean seminary teaching just wasn't his thing. He did it as best as a brilliant man could, but his heart was not in it. His heart was in taking groups down to you know Temple University or to Wall Street and evangelizing people on the street. [24.2]
[00:25:03] And he was really good at that. And he helped me learn how to do that as well. So he eventually left that and then and his church left the OPC; that's a controversial subject. They left the OPC and went into the PCA, and developed a network known as the New Life Churches. [23.6]
[00:25:29] And then along came World Harvest which was a marvelously fresh mission with a marvelously fresh approach to mission based in part on Rose Marie and Jack's love for Ireland and Spain where they've gone and done a lot of evangelism and then consolidated that and the mission... [26.7]
[00:25:56] The mission is a vital one today and it's changed its name to Serge, but it is a great, really live and dynamic mission. So that's the cliff notes of my Jack Miller story. I can give you lots of details, but maybe you should ask questions. [25.8]
[13:05.7]

Mike: [00:49:54] Yeah. So back in you know thank you for telling me about the painful experience that you had. That's really really helpful. And also about his [Jack's] repentance. [11.2]
[00:50:06] I don't know if you want to go into that a little bit more. I mean it's pretty, it sounds like, why would he have thought that you guys were encroaching, or did he say why he thought you guys were encroaching on what they were doing at Mechanicsville? [18.5]
Bill Edgar: [00:50:26] Actually no, this is another part of it. I mean I don't want to go too deeply into it, but it's one of the more dark parts of his life. He sent a friend who was another minister to kind of investigate and lay the accusations down. [16.0]
Bill Edgar: [00:50:42] And so you know I I was caught completely off guard and denied all of it because none of it was true. [8.3]
Bill Edgar: [00:50:52] What I think might have led him to think that is: a) Our relative ineffectiveness in New Hope. You know we were not turning the town upside down as he had thought. And B) we had very warm and cordial relations with some of the people at Mechanicsville Chapel. Some of them being our supporters. And the last thing on my mind was sheep stealing. I don't know what it would have even looked like because we were just members of the church. But I think he was worried that maybe we were investing too much time with the people of Mechanicsville, and not enough time on the front lines of New Hope. [52.4]
Bill Edgar: [00:51:44] And I'm sure that's right because I'm just not a frontline kind of person. You know I'm not like Jack and I don't have his boldness. And so thats the way he interpreted I think those events. [16.7]
Mike: [00:52:03] Bill Viss mentioned (I had a three or four hour interview with him). He mentioned that Jack would go and do street preaching in New Hope. Was he helpful to you guys while you were doing that, or was that before you guys got there? [10.7]
Bill Edgar: [00:52:14] It was, some of it anyway was during the time we were there and so he'd bring me along. [12.3]
[00:52:28] And it was fascinating. I remember once we went to the home of a witch and he asked me to give my testimony. And I was a little reluctant. I thought what's this going to help a witch. But you know, I said something or other. And he, so we worked on this lady. And so yeah that was he did this. He did come along but he had a very very busy life and I wasn't always on his radar screen. [34.1]
[00:53:04] And you know he was teaching at seminary, he was the pastor of Mechanicsville, he had all kinds of writing projects, and you know, yeah, he would come out occasionally, and I would join him, but whether he had gone a lot before. [17.4]
[00:53:23] I don't know how I'd imagined he had, but I honestly don't know. I don't know why he picked New Hope except that it was near Mechanicsville and famous as an artsy place and he figured I was an artsy kind of guy. [13.6]
Mike: [00:53:38] So it was you, and Dick Keyes, is that right? [3.3]
Bill Edgar: [00:53:43] Yeah, we were all interns at Mechanicsville. And he went on after graduation to work at L'Abri which he has done all his life. [9.8]
Mike: [00:53:53] Right. They had the same experience with Jack. He did he had that same negative experience with it. [6.0]
Bill Edgar: [00:54:00] I don't know. I had no idea. You should probably talk to him. OK. OK. I doubt it because remember it was because the negative experience was because we were working you know on the same project together and I don't think Dick every did that. [16.5]
[00:54:16] We were all interns at Mechanicsville and it was a great learning experience. I don't think there was anything negative from that. [6.7]
Mike: [00:54:23] OK. OK. And then so we get to see that letter that he wrote to you. Would you have that would you be willing to share that or is it too personal. [12.0]
Bill Edgar: [00:54:35] Yeah I have that, but I would not be willing to share it. It's much too personal. [6.2]
[00:54:42] OK. Is there anything out of that that you would add? You felt like he had sufficiently repented for the depth... That's been one of my questions I've asked... I've asked people, because Jack talked about repentance so much. Had Jack sinned against you all. And did he repent? [22.5]
[00:55:05] You know because sometimes, you know in my own life I'll beat people to the punch in repentance because I want to be in control of repentance and not really get to the heart of it. So I guess maybe you sounded like that was sufficient for you at the time? [18.7]
[00:55:24] Oh it was it was real. And more than anyone could ask for. So it was sincere and well articulate and yeah, it tied the knot, you know, and it was wonderful. [17.7]
[5:48.5]

Mike: [01:23:02] How would you assess Jack's impact on the church if you had to. And what would you say about him today that in your book or how would you assess this ongoing impact on the church today. [14.9]
[01:23:17] You know he is. [1.1]
Bill Edgar: [01:23:19] Let me put it this way. Jacques Deridas, who was famous for deconstruction, was once asked later in his life, "Has deconstruction ... Is it still alive? Or is it still a hot topic? And he said, "No, but it's all over the place." In other words, Jack's impact, except for people like you and me and a few other insiders, is probably not under his name, under his banner, under even his publications though those are great. It it's more in the people that he affected and the movements that came out of that. And just the inspiration to continue to center on the gospel despite all the temptations to moralism that are around him. I think he had a great impact in that in that way. The you know just in our little world we've had PhD students do their dissertations on adoption and its technical stuff, and its not a lot about Jack Miller. But had he not I think raised that banner it would have remained a neglected doctrine. So I think that's probably the way I see it. If you ask people who were in the New Life churches that they owe it to direct influence and his spirit is still alive. I'm sure that's true. But for me he was appointed you know to quote "After for such a time as this." I think Shaeffer was the same. There are voices who are prophetic at the time and and their stuff is a bit dated now. Shaffer's more than Jack I guess but their impact is palpable. It's indirect. [2:27.1]
[2:43.7]

Presbyterian Guardian, May 1969, Volume 38, Number 5, Page 54.

Free University at Four Brooks

Westminster alumni and faculty members are among participants in the second annual Free University scheduled this year from September 1 to 6 at the Four Brooks Conference Grounds near Pipersville, Pa. Last year sessions were held at French Creek.

The theme "Christian Perspectives on Campus" will view such areas as science, history, art, and social and political questions in the light of Scripture. Staff members will include Mr. William Edgar, 1969 graduate of Westminster; Dr. C. John Miller of the Seminary's practical theology department (a Bible study on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit); Mr. Noel Weeks, a Westminster alumnus now pursuing graduate studies at Brandeis University; Dr. H. R. Rookmaaker, professor of art history in the Free University of Amsterdam; Dr. Howard Moon, instructor in history at Temple University; and Dr. Paul Woolley, Westminster professor of church history.

The "Free" unfortunately doesn't eliminate a cost of $30 for the week. Further information may be obtained from the registrar, Edward Fielding, 5033 Wayne Avenue, Germantown, Phila., Pa. 19144 (phone GE 8-9331).
Location: Free University At Four Brooks, Pipersville, Penn

Presbyterian Guardian, May 1970, Volume 39, Number 1, Page 5.
EVENING COURSES OPEN
TO THE PUBLIC

In still another way Westminster has widened its service to its more immediate vicinity.

Throughout the current academic year a number of courses, held for the most part on Tuesday evenings, have been opened to auditors without charge. Seminarians may take such a course for credit.

"Contemporary Culture and Evangelism" was offered in the fall term by Professor C. John Miller. Beginning with lectures on the Death of Personality and Freedom and the Tragedy of Nihilistic Youth, discussion centered on the work of L'Abri Fellowship and that of Elizabeth Braund in London. An interracial youth group active in the ghetto of Newark brought a stirring gospel testimony one evening and answered questions about their evangelistic witness.

Among other topics considered were the American Businessman, the Laughter of Marcel Duchamp, the Tragedy of the Intellectual and New Methods in Christian Witness. Auditors included local ministers, college students from Beaver, Penn and other institutions, and interested persons from the community.

Location: Tuesday Evenings At Westminster Fall Of 1969

Presbytery of Philadelphia OPC minutes

Dr. Miller reported on his work at Mechanicsville chapel and other areas of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The possibility of starting a new work in New Hope, Pennsylvania, was also presented.

Location: Community OPC, Center Square, Pennsylvania

Presbytery of Philadelphia OPC minutes
Location: Bethany Opc, Nottingham, Pennsylvania

Krispin recalled how WTS history professor Paul Woolley responded to the student representatives who met with faculty to discuss changes in the curriculum and allow time for questions in class. Woolley said, “In order to have discussions in class, you have to have thoughts to think, and we give you the thoughts to think in class.’” The student leaders responded, “You mean we don’t start thinking until we come to your class?” Woolley’s comment to the student leaders came at a time when Harvard and Bob Jones competed for first-place honors for the highest number of new students attending the seminary. WTS finally revised the curriculum in 1970. Among other changes, the updated curriculum included a class on hermeneutics. The late 1960s and early 70s also ushered in a period of real turmoil outside WTS from many different sides, including the rise of the counterculture movement, the charismatic movement, and the Jesus People movement. Students, churches, and the world looked to the church for some sense of theological relevancy—gospel perspective on the times.

Nonetheless, in early 1970, Jack found himself dealing with that same sense of nervous drivenness that marked his life before becoming a Christian. He had struggled with a hunger for acceptance and a deep sense of insecurity dating back to his childhood. He was again living like an orphan, but now in a seminary and ministry context with a much greater reputation to lose. Rose Marie recognized that Jack’s competing ministry mistresses, rather than God, gave him his greatest joy and, at the same time, revealed his greatest fears. Paradoxically, MC grew while Jack’s insecurity about his preaching ability also grew. Even after Jack completed his doctoral work, he remained restless. The kids were getting older and going to college. One achieving daughter graduated high school as Valedictorian while another drifted away from the Lord unnoticed.

In 1970, God brought Jack low enough to have the right kind of despair—“Cheer Up! You are a lot worse that you think you are”—and then lifted him up to enjoy the good news—“Cheer Up! God’s grace is greater than you have ever dared hope.” It would take Jack nearly twenty years to express to Edgar the fullness of repentance. He would not see Edgar again until 1989. In the intervening years, Edgar taught at a school in Connecticut for eight years and at a seminary in France for another ten. After WTS hired Bill Edgar to the faculty as Professor of Apologetics in 1989, he recalled what happened when he saw Jack:

Jack’s life underwent an intensive spiritual renewal during the summer and fall of 1970. He summarized the personal results of that core inward change that empowered and redirected his life journey:

Jack’s life from 1970 to 1979 reveals how the sovereign Lord brought Jack down in order to bring him up as a pioneer of omnipotent grace in the twentieth century.

The hammer of God’s word would break the rock, the fire would burn, the sword would cut, and a starving Jack Miller would hungrily “eat the promises of God like a pig” during the summer of 1970.

By 1970, Jack had knowingly integrated the first three common features into his own ministry with a modicum of success, outwardly speaking. However, the fourth common feature—an unusual commitment to and effectiveness in prayer—eluded his diligent techniques, models, methods, and resolve. Jack realized he did not know much about prayer. He followed up with the most fruitful leaders but was frustrated by their response. Rather than giving him concrete things to do, these leaders spoke to him about how poorly they prayed. The significant hole in Jack’s theology and practice had now taken a particular shape: prayerlessness.

During the weeks following his 1970 resignations from WTS and MC, Jack would not need a program in order to learn how to pray. God used personal and professional crises to inwardly bring down the outwardly successful seminary professor, forcing the chastened leader to return to where it all started: the simplicity of the gospel, prayer, faith, and repentance.

Before Jack learned to pray, his ministry had nearly collapsed. Weakness was a hinderance to his praying before 1970, but afterward, Jack saw his weakness as an advantage: the occasion for praying. He explains,

The third presupposition Jack questioned was a view commonly held by Reformed people with respect to prayer, especially as it relates to evangelism. Calvinists tend to agree that prayer changes the one praying. They also agree that prayer somehow remains important for missionary work, but exactly how or why prayer impacts missions is less clear. Reformed people typically confuse God’s eternal decree of election with the Bible’s teaching of justification by faith. Many Calvinists fatalistically presume, on the basis of God’s sovereignty, that whatever will happen will happen anyway, despite the sovereign Lord’s explicit command for all men everywhere to repent and believe (Acts 17:30). As a result, Reformed people often have little motivation for prayer. Notably, as early as 1970, Jack had already rejected teaching about multiple justifications, a controversy that would surface in the Reformed community five years later.

Jack’s study of the promises during the Summer of 1970 were to have lasting impact on his life and ministry. As an example, he saw that the Old Testament prophet Isaiah contrasted two distinct ages: the former age with the new age, which Jack variously referred to as the old age, or dispensation, that contrasted with the new age, or the last days. To contrast these two ages, Isaiah used four images: the vine and the shoot, the desert and the garden, the remnant and the multitude, and the house of the Lord and the mountain of the Lord.

Viewed from the perspective of life extensive, things appeared normal when the Millers arrived back in Philadelphia. The children returned to school. Jack returned to his teaching responsibilities at WTS and preaching at MC. From the perspective of life intensive, however, a thoroughgoing change was happening in the center of Jack’s heart. Jack had filled his head full of theology. There were times when he found his study in Spain dry and not all that exciting. He said, “I was stacked up to here with promises of the water of life from the OT.” Sensing that he was nearing a breakthrough, Jack continued his study of the promises into the fall of 1970.

Jack would often laugh as he joyfully declared, “Cheer Up! You are far worse than you think you are,” which he quickly followed with “Cheer Up! God’s grace is far greater than you ever imagined.” However, Jack also learned in 1970 that these two crucial “Cheer Up!” statements cannot stand apart from a third and equally important one: “Cheer Up! God’s Spirit works in your weakness.”

When Christian leaders came to Jack for help after 1970, he listened and asked questions. He saw how these leaders were hopelessly stuck between the promise of Pentecost and the fulfillment of the Parousia as he had been. After making little headway with some of the more stubborn ones, he laughed with the laughter of self-recognition as he smiled and asked, “Why did you come to me? I see you don’t believe in the Holy Spirit. Have you ever thought about becoming a Trinitarian? Let God have a chance. Have you ever met God?”

When Jack became a biblically functioning Trinitarian, what impressed him the most was the divine power of the gospel. For the most part, Jack had learned to communicate the basic content of the gospel message effectively and relevantly. As a testimony to the gospel’s power, compared to most Reformed leaders, Jack had a fruitful ministry before his spiritual revolution in 1970. How could Jack preach the gospel with a bad conscience and unravelling ministry, hidden to most everyone else, yet the gospel still powerfully saved and transformed others? Conversely, what would happen when Jack actually partnered with the Spirit of Christ in the preaching of the gospel to himself and others? The answer to these questions explains how Jack saw more people converted to Christ between May 1970 and the end of 1972 than in all his prior years of ministry combined.

Roseann Trott lived with her parents while her husband was away at basic training. She was able to recall the change at home and in the church before and after 1970. Before 1970, MC had followed the same pattern as the California churches of her childhood that included lots of travel and time in church without much going on. As the eldest child, Roseann was forced into the role of a second mother. This angered Roseann; though, at the time, her suppressed anger was hidden to the young teenager. She had experienced a hardening of heart during this time where it seemed to her that “being a [husband] was far better than being a wife.” Her heart reflected her father’s ministry—lots of church activity with little happening.

When Roseann returned to live with her parents after 1970, she noticed the work was the same but with a new sense of vitality and excitement. Foster children, refugees, drug addicts, and the demon-possessed came to live with her parents. A developmentally delayed Irish girl with a temper currently lived there. A lobotomy was the last proposed treatment before Jack and Rose Marie offered to take her into their home. They gave her simple chores, such as setting the table, which she found impossible to do. She could not even pour water because her hand shook so much. Roseann’s parents told her that not setting the table was sin and that Jesus died for sinners. Roseann recalls her discomfort when she first heard that remark:

From 1970 onward, Jack had become increasingly impressed with the power of the gospel (John 1:29, 33).

Jack did not say these things to his friend harshly. He was keenly aware of how the Lord had humbled him in 1970. More importantly, Jack knew that from that low place, God’s Spirit had worked mightily in his own weakness. He wanted the same for his friend and colleague.

Gross had gotten away with commandeering the two garbage trucks once, but to continue using the trucks, the team would need official permission. A week later, Jack and Gross visited the city engineer’s office to ask permission to use garbage trucks and volunteer to work alongside city employees to help clean up the markets. The city engineer, a Mr. Achal, had studied at Oxford and spoke excellent English. He greeted the two Americans warmly. The city engineer explained that in 1970, Kampala had over fifty garbage lorries to serve a much smaller population. In 1980, Kampala’s population had increased to over a million people, and now the city had only one working garbage truck and a second one that was undependable.

The Lord determined to use Jack’s heart attack to create space in his busy schedule for him to not only focus on his family, but also to give a higher priority to corporate prayer. Jack’s emphasis on partnership with the Spirit through prayer began at the Schaeffers in 1970 and deepened throughout the remainder of his life. Paradoxically, the weaker Jack became, the more he prayed; the more he prayed, the more Jack rejoiced as he witnessed the glory of God’s kingdom grow in ways far greater than he could have imagined.

Twenty-six years earlier, the sovereign Lord had brought Rose Marie and these same three Miller children to Spain where Jack had studied the promises of God. Rose Marie reflected on that earlier time in Spain saying, “He returned to the States [in 1970] a changed man, willing to follow the Lamb anywhere. Once again, our heavenly Father had brought us to Spain, this time to say goodbye to Jack.”

Dr. Miller Gives Lectures on “Gospel Communication” and “Calvinism in American Literature in Sunnyvale and Modesto
The Presbyterian Guardian

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: C. John Miller Oral History Interview Collection, Archives and Special Collections at the Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Author(s): C. John Miller.

Source: Letter to the Editor

Publisher: The Daily Intelligencer (DoyleSt.own, PA)

URL: https://www.newspapers.com/image/46699202

See Board Minutes dated June 10, 1968

Presbyterian guardian, Vol 39, number 1, May 1970, page 6.

The two courses taught were "Gospel communication" and "Calvinism an American literature"

Paul Miller Interview:

P: Yeah. So here was the culture of critique piece. And that kind of disappeared slowly after he left Westminster but he was always very perceptive of culture, always read broadly. And that comes through in his sermons all the time. #0:22:55.9#

But so prayer had begun to emerge in dad. So there was a kind of it was kind of the early stirring... So dad begun to spend more time in prayer and there was this whole renewal at Mechanicsville from '70 to '72 that that this it was a real revival it was very much part of he whole Jesus thing too it was just part of what the spirit, God's spirit was doing nationwide.

But it was like the church was overflowing and hippies were everywhere and then dad like he he did art critique, Marcel Duchamp you might have come across that. He had this whole series on Marcel Duchamp. #0:25:0.3#

P: You know dad was pioneer... #0:19:21.9#

P: But What I do know is that that dad came away from that first trip in '68 and he was he could be a very good listener to people. And and he had a he he could have a real teachable spirit, I could give you a couple of really good examples of that. Oh the other thing in here, I don't want to forget... #0:20:1.7#

P: And this was independent of Schafer but a cultural critic. #0:20:10.4#

P: He was, it's one side of dad that really has never been written up but it was one of his most brilliant sides.. #0:20:17.0#
Location: Westminster Seminary

Presbyterian guardian, Vol 39, number 1, May 1970, page 6.
In the current spring quarter Professor Miller is presenting a course on "Group Evangelism" dealing with biblical principles and practical difficulties encountered in taking the gospel to groups, in particular those who have actively resisted the Christian message. A lecture during the first hour is followed by discussion during the second.

Among books being considered are Spurgeon's The Soul-Winner and Bonar's Words to Winners of Souls, and a more recent work, My Friend the Enemy by Pannell. Guest lecturers include a former priest, a businessman, and an IVCF director. Topics covered are such as Christ and the Ghetto, Jewish Evangelism, and Evangelism through Home Bible Study Groups.
Location: Westminster Seminary

Presbyterian Guardian, Volume 39, Number 1, May 1970, Page 6.

Florida Seminar in February — Another seminar took place at the Sharon Church of Hialeah, Florida from February 23 to 26. Designed for ministers and other church leaders, it followed the theme of "The Gospel in the Seventies" and included four popular evening evangelistic messages by President Clowney and Dr. Miller.

Dr. Clowney's morning lectures were on "Preaching Christ from the Old Testament" while Professor Miller dealt with "Evangelism and the
Youth Revolt" in a combined effort to help pastors in their concern for evangelism in our contemporary culture.

Location: Pastors Conference, Sharon Church, Hialeah, Florid With: Ed Clowney

Presbyterian guardian, Vol 39, number 1, May 1970, page 6. MID-MARCH EVANGELISM SEMINARS HELD IN CALIFORNIA

As a part of its Continuing Education Program Westminster Seminary sponsored two seminars on Evangelism on the West Coast with laymen particularly in mind. An all-day conference was held on March 14 in the Sunnyvale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, of which Dr. Henry Krabbendam is pastor. The seminar was repeated on March 16 - 18 at three evening sessions in the Modesto Christian Reformed Church, the Rev. Douglas Vander Wall, pastor.
With his theme "The Evangelistic Calling of the Church" President Edmund P. Clowney presented three Scripture-oriented lectures that climaxed in the truth that God's calling is in the Power of the Cross and in the Glory of the Throne.

Dr. C. John Miller's messages centered on "Evangelism and the Reformed Faith" in relation to preparation for, the message of, and the methods of evangelism. Within the limits of time some opportunity for questions and answers was given following the messages.
Some eighty persons attended the Sunnyvale seminar and over one hundred participated in the Modesto meetings. Laymen commented gratefully on the practical benefits of these seminars, noting the "solid, Reformed grounding in the Word, tying in so wonderfully the Old Testament with the New," and expressing appreciation for the "thoroughness and warmth" of the professors' presentation. Many hoped that similar seminars would be held another year.

Location: Sunnyvale And Modesto California

The darkest moment came in April 1970. Jack had a solid relationship with the three WTS interns from Harvard, particularly William Edgar, current Professor of Apologetics at WTS. Edgar had graduated in May 1969 and returned to Connecticut with his wife. Jack communicated to Presbytery an idea he had formulated with Clowney and some others in the OPC to establish a L’Abri-style ministry in the little town called New Hope, forty-five miles from Philadelphia. In 1966, Jack had been elected to the Committee on Church Extension and Home Missions of the OPC, which approved the New Hope mission. On behalf of the Presbytery, Jack recruited Edgar to return to the Philadelphia area and lead this New Hope ministry initiative. To do so, Edgar became a home missionary for the OPC and was assigned to live in New Hope and reach out to the local community.

By April 1970, I had grown sick to death of the church [and the seminary] viewed as a “religious cushion” and me as chief cushioner. I had been a pastor for more than a decade and an instructor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia for four years. I had given it all my best shot. But as a change agent I had bombed out. I was awash with cynicism about the prospects of the Christian church and went around with continual sorrow in my heart over the state of the churches around me. In a mood of dark despair, I resigned both from the seminary and faculty, and from my pastorate at the church. Seeing no future for the Christian church and soured by my own failure as an instrument of change, I agreed with Pogo’s comment, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Thus far, the study may seem hagiographic. However, Jack’s first three years at WTS proved difficult, as indicated by a series of conversations about his resigning that climaxed in May 1970 and even more by his prioritizing ministry over family.

Intensive study, long hours tracing out great themes of grace predicted in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Joel, Habakkuk, and Zechariah.

Rose Marie Miller interview.
RoseMarie said she knew she had to get Jack away so he wouldn't talk to anyone. They had met a man from Barcelona who had invited them to visit. RoseMarie contacted him to see if he had an apartment to rent. They rented for two weeks. While there, Rose Marie Miller met a Spanish man married to German woman, which enabled RoseMarie to communicate with her. This couple allowed the Miller family to housesit while they were out of the country. That's how they stayed in Spain in the summer of 1970.

When I asked how Jack broke the news to her about his 1970 resignation, RoseMarie said: "he said, honey, we don't have a job anymore."

Keren Heppe interjected during the interview that they left for Spain after seminary semester but before kids school is over in May, and return in September.

Location: Barcelona, Spain

With: Paul Miller, Keren Heppe, Barbara Juliani, Rose Marie Miller

The single English word life does little justice to the nuanced complexity of the term. Thankfully, the Greek language provides three biblical words, all translated into English as life (1 John 3:14–23), which draw attention to these rich nuances: zwń (life intensive), bi÷oß (life extensive), and yuch (life spiritual). Keeping a tri-perspectival view of life intensive, life extensive, and life spiritual in mind provides a helpful apparatus for examining anyone’s life, especially Jack Miller’s life from May 1970 to 1979.

Jack spent those first unemployed weeks in May 1970 thinking, praying, crying, and praying some more. Finally, the former pastor and seminary teacher had time in his busy schedule to listen to and talk with God. Soon, he began to see that the primary fault

Barbara’s story of unraveling had been developing for years. After Jack’s personal reformation in May 1970, things had been going fairly well for Jack, Rose Marie, and the Miller children. Roseann had married James Trott, a fine young Harvard graduate who served in the military. Jim Correnti, a Baptist seminary student and talented musician, had visited the Miller home to speak with Jack about pastoring and theology; there, he also met their daughter Ruth. Paul had become a committed Christian and was engaged to marry a godly woman in the near future.

Unofficially, leadership training at NLC—focused on prayer, evangelism, and discipleship—began to prepare the NLC Ireland team to go to Dublin. In fact, much of the subject matter for the Evangelism, Discipleship, and Teams modules for the Sonship Leadership Training Series came from Jack’s teaching after May 1970. This pre-Sonship version of the Leadership Training Series began in 1977.

Rose Marie Miller Interview.

Rose Marie recounts selling over the telephone to help make money to pay for Europe trip.

Location: Philadelphia, Pa.

See p. 21, OGTIGC

I felt like a fool, but I reasoned in my heart, "So what?" So in stood on a box under the arch in Washington Square and proclaimed Christ at the top of my lungs.

Location: Greenwich Village
With: Group Of Westminster Students

OGTIG,47
Location: Walnut Street, Jenkintown

See p. 24, OGTIGC
Bob and Keren Heppe and RoseMarie Miller interview 1:

RM: Well see I think one, what was unique, one of the things that goes with the preaching is his honesty about his you know, that that gradually I mean when he when when he go fed up with with back with Westminster and the church he went to all the faculty and said I have a huge problem with pride. Do you have that problem?

Dr. Van Till said I struggle with it every day. But but I think there are times when the spirit works so deeply, the sin patterns of his life and and at the same time bringing the spirit and the scripture to him made him the the man that he became. #0:58:33.1#

Location: Mechanicsville Chapel & Westminster Date Uncertain

Approximate date given in OGTIGC, 20. Location: Mechanicsville Chapel & Westminster

Rose Marie Miller interview.

The exact dates are unclear, however, the Miller's flew

Iceland air to Luxembourg because the airfare was cheaper. This explains how they went south through Germany and Switzerland to get to Spain.

Paul Miller Interview:

So we prayed that God would provide a loan and they, it took them, it was an extra cash account with inter— I I valley bank something IVP. I IVP was the bank. And one of us I paid for my own ticket everybody else because I had I'm ... I was the family saver. #0:29:37.8#

P: So and they, you know we went to we went to Spain with just an address and they, this guy they'd known for twenty years an they'd written, we had no money no plans nothing. #0:29:55.7#

P: And God provided for us wonderfully you know. That was off on the... Yeah. Yeah dad had the serious hillbilly in him.

Location: From Luxembourg To Switzerland

When the Millers arrived in Barcelona in early June 1970, they had only two weeks to find other housing. Acting on what they saw at L’Abri, they prayed, asking God to provide a place for the summer they could afford. On the beach, Rose Marie providentially met a couple who were planning to spend three months in Germany, the wife’s home country. Able to speak some German, Rose Marie became friends with the wife and learned of their summer plans. The couple graciously allowed the Millers to housesit until their return from Germany.

The New Hope failure took down Jack’s hope with it. Classes ended in May. Jack had completed his two-year term at WTS. He had not yet confirmed acceptance of the new three-year appointment starting in July 1970. Jack told Clowney and MC he was resigning. He had already put together pulpit supply for MC for the next several months. Without drama, he broke the news to Rose Marie: he simply came home and said to his wife, “Honey, we don’t have a job anymore.” Jack’s announcement did not surprise Rose Marie. She already knew her husband could not continue as things were. In the middle of this gut-wrenching turmoil, Jack wrote,

Jack Miller Collection, SEBTS, Wake Forest, NC

Presbyterian Guardian, May 1970, Volume 39, Number 1, Page 5.
FAMILY BIBLE CONFERENCE
PLANNED AUGUST 1 - 8

A Bible conference for families under the sponsorship of Westminster is being planned for the first week in August at Pinebrook in the Poconos. This is a "first" for the Seminary and is one of a number of endeavors through which Westminster is seeking to serve the wider community with the impact of biblical faith for our times.

Two members of the department of practical theology will head the faculty for this family Bible conference: President Edmund Clowney and Dr. C. John Miller.

Location: Pinebrook In The Poconos Mountains

Editorial Note: Jack did not make it back from Spain in time to fulfill this obligation.

Rose Marie Miller interview.
Exact dates are unclear. See note on May 1970 for further explanation.
Location: From Spain To Luxembourg

Rose Marie Miller Interview.

Rose Marie and the kids helped make money to pay for trip to Spain. Before trip, Rose Marie sold items on telephone. After, they had to pay for airline tickets they put on credit. So Rose Marie worked for school.

She worked part time at a school for mentally challenged children. Rose Marie was good at this because she took care of her sister.

In 74 they wanted RM to go full time. She didn't feel good about that, and said no.

This is when they started taking people in their home.

Location: Philadelphia, Pa.

Presbytery of Philadelphia OPC minutes

Jack is re-elected to the class of 72 for the committee on church extension and home missions

Location: Grace Opc, Middleton, Delaware

Presbytery of Philadelphia OPC minutes
Location: Community Opc, Center Square, Pennsylvania

c.a. Early November for 10 days straight Jack read Roberta Romans 1. Roberta told Jack, "I've been avoiding you." At the end of 10 days and explaining free justification, Jack told Roberta, "You cannot have it both ways. You are either in Christ by faith or in the world by unbelief."

See p. 37, OGTIGC
Location: Mechanicsville Chapel

Jack frustrated other faculty members less supportive of him than Clowney. For example, Adams thought Clowney should quit talking Jack out of resigning. Jack’s catalyzing leadership took some of the pressure off Clowney, so he talked Jack into remaining on the WTS faculty. Seeing the fruit of the connection between WTS and MC, Clowney later ceased pressuring Jack to resign his pastorate at MC and continued supporting Jack’s approach to closing the divide between theological education and ministry practice at WTS. In a turnabout in 1971, it was MC that would pressure Jack to choose between church and seminary, which ultimately led to Jack’s resigning his pastorate at MC.

“To be near to God and to have God near to us is the whole purpose of human life.” Jack penned these “timeless” words in a 1971 essay entitled “Repentance and the Twentieth Century Man.” Over the next decade Jack would learn what “near[ness] to God” means.

Jack began Repentance in 1971 by writing an informal essay for his personal use during this spiritually stretching time. Jack began with the memorable words: “To be near God and to have God near us is the whole purpose of the human life.” In the essay, Jack described what the Lord was teaching him about the elenctical connection of nearness to God to faith and repentance tied together in evangelism and discipleship. He explained,

The Holy Spirit brought revival to a nearly dead church known primarily for its cemetery. By the summer of 1971, finding available parking at MC became problematic. About the prayer meeting, Jack recalled, “So many people were packed into the church basement that you could hardly enter the door or find a place to sit. We had to adjourn to the sanctuary to provide space for all the people.” Soon, there was no room to sit in the sanctuary.

By the end of 1971, MC was growing so rapidly that the elders began pushing Jack to resign from the faculty at WTS, so he could dedicate his time to pastoring the church. A twenty-five-mile commute to MC from home and WTS also became increasingly difficult. When Rose Marie began having a series of health problems in December, Jack knew it was time to make a choice between MC and WTS. Over Christmas break, they looked for housing in the Mechanicsville area. After the new year, still unsure about moving, Jack traveled to New York to seek counsel from Francis Schaeffer about whether to leave or remain at WTS. Recognizing the influence Jack was having on training a generation of leaders, Schaeffer advised his younger colleague to remain at WTS. To their disappointment, Jack informed the leaders of MC of his decision to resign as their pastor.

House guests from all walks of life came to live with the Millers from 1971 to 1979 including troubled college students, WTS students, Ugandan refugees, felons, people who were mentally ill, and many others. Gwen was among the first guests to live in the Miller home. The young woman had been deeply involved in the occult, drugs, and motorcycle gangs when she arrived in 1974. A darkness was growing inside Gwen even as she received the Millers’ care, hospitality, and friendship. Soon, she began planning to murder her host family. As the gospel touched Gwen’s life, she was overcome with guilt.

The two definitive published accounts of this controversy come from O. Palmer Robertson and Ian Alastair Hewitson. Robertson, Associate Professor of Old Testament who served on the WTS faculty from 1971 to 1980, was one of Norman Shepherd’s most vocal critics. Hewitson did not directly participate in the controversy, but his account supported Shepherd’s own voice and reflected on the troubling controversy two decades later. In his biography of W. Stanford Reid, A. Donald MacLeod has contributed the perspective of Reid, the then President of the WTS Board of Trustees, who argued against Shepherd’s teaching on justification.

In 1971, Idi Amin, “Uganda’s Hitler,” staged a military coup and appointed himself President. At the time, Sempangi served as the Professor of Art History at Makerere University in Kampala. He was also the Founding Pastor of Redeemed Church in Uganda. The Sempangi family somehow avoided Amin’s attention for two years.

Roseann Miller Marries

Miller—Whitted Wedding

In January 1971, Roseann, their eldest daughter, married James Trott, who had recently enlisted in the army after graduating from Harvard. The following November, Ruth Lyn married Jim Corenti, who had recently graduated from the Juilliard School of Music. In the midst of all that activity, Rose Marie’s father, Lorenz, died in March 1971.

CJM Archives, St. Louis, Mo.