Mirror of truth john holdeman biography death

He married Elizabeth Shriner Ritter, 18 November During the first year of his marriage he experienced spiritual tribulation followed by "joyful light and quiet conscience" and a series of dreams and visions that convinced him of a call to ministry. He was not even among those who were nominated to be considered as a candidate for the ministry for election by lot.

On 24 January , he began to preach.

John Holdeman (January 31, - March 10, ) was an American self-described prophet and the founder of the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite.

In April a new congregation of four was formed in his father's home. His father joined; his mother did not. Between and he traveled widely, preached, and wrote earnestly while eking out an existence as a farmer. The cost of publishing his own writings and his frequent absences from farming operations resulted in severe financial crises.

He died at age 68; his wife outlived him by 32 years, reaching 98 years of age.

Married in June, , to Elizabeth Ritter.

Holdeman's significance can be assessed from various perspectives. For the immigrants from Volhynia and the Kleine Gemeinde members who joined the Church of God in Christ Mennonite at a crucial juncture, his emphases and style were a Godsend in their frustrations and needs. He enjoyed particular success among the latter group in Manitoba. He enabled them to rise above their own history of rejection, confusion, and feeling of lostness.

His historic fellow Old Mennonites, however, regarded him as a disillusioned, church-rejecting, church-splitter who had been frustrated at not being called to the ministry among them. Other historians identify him as a son of his times, authenticated for the impact he made by his typical 19th century characterizations with his revelations, dreams, and visions, and his revival meeting tactics, millennial views, nonconformity emphasis, and authoritarian leadership in the midst of America's democratization and the ideological upheavals of the times.

His was one of many similar renewal movements of the 19th century--a number of them from America's Old Mennonite Church.