Benajah Harvey Carroll was born on this day (Dec. 27) in 1843. His father was a Baptist preacher and the rest of his family were devoted Christians. His brother, J.M. Carroll, authored the often-published booklet “Trail of Blood.”
Despite being surrounded by the gospel, B.H. Carroll for years remained an unbeliever and avowed infidel. He later testified, “My infidelity related to the Bible and its manifest doctrines. I doubted that it was God’s book. I doubted miracles. I doubted the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. But more than all, I doubted the vicarious expiation for the sins of men. (But) I never doubted that the Scriptures claimed inspiration, nor that they taught unequivocally the divinity and vicarious expiation of Jesus. If the Bible does not teach these, it teaches nothing.”
As a thirteen year old boy, in a protracted “revival meeting” B.H. was coerced by well-meaning adults to join his father’s church. They repeatedly asked leading questions to which he was forced to gave affirmation simply to end the attack and embarrassment. He was baptized as a dry sinner and arose a wet sinner. At that point he vowed never to darken a church door again.
However, some time later his mother convinced him to attend a brush arbor meeting where an evangelist challenged the unbelievers in the crowd to consider what they had without Christ. “Have you found anything worth having where you are? Is there anything else out there worthy trying that has any promise in it? Well then, admitting there’s nothing there, if there is a God, mustn’t there be something somewhere? If so, how do you know it isn’t here (in the Bible)?” The preacher said, “I don’t ask you to read any book, nor study any evidences, nor make any difficult and tedious pilgrimages; that way is too long, and time is too short.” The man then quoted John 7:17 and Hosea 6:3 – “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God…” “Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord…” At that point the Holy Spirit used His Word to challenge Carroll to simply trust what God had said, and indeed, he discovered what was eternally true – Christ did give His life a ransom for many.
B.H. Carroll went on to be one of the best known Baptist preachers in the history of Texas.
