As you know, the persecution of the saints at Jerusalem, in the day of the Apostles, encouraged the spreading of the gospel into other areas – Samaria, Syria, Joppa, and even Rome. Similarly, the persecution of God’s people in Virginia and North Carolina drove good Baptist people west into Kentucky and Tennessee.
Thirty-year-old, John Borum moved his family from Virginia in 1805 and settled in Tennessee. John had been born just before the Revolutionary War and he had been born again while in the midst of his own rebellion against God. He joined the Round Lick Baptist Church in Smith County in north central Tennessee. On August 5, 1810 he was ordained by the Round Lick Church, and began preaching near Big Spring. With the blessing of his former church, the Big Spring Church was organized ten years later. Pastor Borum served that congregation for the rest of his twenty-four earthly years.
He was not well-known. He didn’t write any popular books and he didn’t manage a website. But after his death, which occurred on this day in 1844, it was said of him, “No man, perhaps, ever gave greater evidence of love to God and the souls of men, than Elder John Borum. But he is gone to enjoy that rest that remains to the people of God, while his usefulness and worth live, and are cherished in the memory of all who were acquainted with him.”