Irwin C Herendeen (1883-1982) is a name few remember today. Those who are familiar with the name usually connect it to Arthur Pink. A Christian book and tract publisher, Herendeen laboured in Central Pennsylvania and published many of Pink's works among others.
Some have rightly traced his influence on the growth of the Reformed Baptist movement in twentieth century America. Based in Swengel, Herendeen attended a Baptist church in nearby Lewisburg, the congregation pastored by John Reisinger. Herendeen was instrumental in steering both John and his brother Ernie toward Calvinism and their influence would spread far and wide. Ernie is perhaps best known for his connections to Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania – by all accounts one of the flagship congregations in American Reformed Baptist circles. They would go on to influence figures like Albert Martin in New Jersey, and it's no accident that the Banner of Truth set up its offices in Carlisle as well.
Herendeen played a significant part in influencing these men and the story of his publishing enterprise and relationship with Arthur Pink is compelling. Indeed his life story continues to affect me. In addition to his testimony, I am moved by the story that brought him to Swengel in the first decade of the twentieth century. An old man running a tract ministry was looking for a successor and Herendeen (a native of Western New York) moved from Buffalo to rural Union County, Pennsylvania – a move that would lead to contacts and books being published that has influenced thousands and continues to do so. Indeed, just months after my own conversion a copy of Pink's The Sovereignty of God fell into my hands and changed my perspective and ultimately my life.
Just recently I took my family on a drive to Swengel and reflected on the humble out of the way setting of the Old Cedar Cemetery where Herendeen's grave is to be found. He lived a long and very interesting life and interacted with many of the ecclesiastical figures of influence in the twentieth century – even though his name is scarcely known. Thankfully some have realised this historical omission and are attempting to remedy it.
One of my sons was researching Herendeen and stumbled on to some interesting old newspaper articles involving an FBI raid on his Swengel publishing house in 1918. Needless to say this piqued my interest but at the same time I wasn't entirely surprised by this discovery.
Though it has been forgotten, many of the Fundamentalists at the time were ardent in their separatism and consequently many were opposed to any kind of Christian participation in World War I. They rightly identified the conflict as a clash of world powers, big money, and forces that were opposed to the gospel on all sides. So called Christian nations were butchering one another, the population was worked up into a frenzy, and the propaganda campaign was palpable and offensive. Many also rightly identified the inherent idolatry and danger in the rampant and fervent nationalism of the moment.
They were not always consistent and principled in their oppositional stand. Few held to genuine non-resistance as what would be found among 'Kingdom Christians' both before and after the Magisterial Reformation. They were truly committed to a Christian rejection of violence while Fundamentalists were largely motivated by an eschatological conviction that the world was turning to apostasy and that Christians should submit to God's plan for the 'End Times'.
We find some hint of this separatist ethic in Arthur Pink's letters. Interestingly even during World War II he makes it clear that he believed Christians should be conscientious objectors and should refuse to participate - but at the same time he's clearly emotionally engaged in the conflict and speaks in terms that indicate an allegiance to Britain and what not. It's hardly shocking. Again there was a strong separatist impulse in early Fundamentalism but as it was sometimes less than principled it isn't too surprising to learn that it would eventually deteriorate and collapse.
The shock of Communism's rise and the first Red Scare of the 1920's turned many separatists into citizen-activists. World War II and the subsequent Cold War was the final straw. Evangelicalism rose out of that context and slowly the fusion of 'Christian Patriotism', capitalism, and the drive to exert a Christian influence on culture would eliminate what little was left of Fundamentalist separatism. And as many know by the 1970's the Moral Majority achieved for the first time a political unity – bringing the divers political and regional allegiances into the fold of the Republican Party and behind Ronald Reagan.
In terms of twentieth century Church history and New Testament doctrine, it's a sad story and while there's much to criticise about old Fundamentalism I find myself cheering on their dissident and antithetical stance during the First World War. They enraged the public, politicians, and Establishment clerics and academics. George Marsden's Fundamentalism and American Culture covers this period briefly but well and mentions one who was arrested for his premillennialist views – views that would lead him to criticise the war and to warn Christians against supporting it or participating in it.
Marsden doesn't say this was Herendeen but my son and I believe that's who he was referencing. The newspaper articles (that are available online) speak of an FBI raid on Swengel, Herendeen's arrest for sedition, and arraignment in Scranton.
Eventually the charges were dropped and so while we can rightly say he was persecuted, the father of seven faced a light scourge compared to what many have endured both before and since. That said, to imagine the context and what he and his family must have endured – it must have been a very daunting and difficult experience.
But Herendeen was right. He wasn't opposing the US government per se but at the time there was such a frenzy and hysteria the Wilson government would not tolerate any hint of dissent. Backed by powerful elements in society, those that did speak out and warn against participation worked and expose the lies faced a great deal of grief. After a speech in Canton Ohio, Eugene Debs was imprisoned. Many Anabaptists suffered vandalism and public harassment for resisting the draft and refusing to purchase war bonds - leading many to abandon the United States for Canada and Latin America. Fundamentalists were excoriated and in the case of Herendeen, arrested.
He was a hero and he was right to oppose Christian endorsement of the war.
Did he eventually shift away from that position? I don't know. Standing in the cemetery you could see the graves of some of his children and their spouses. They were part of the World War II generation and by all accounts fully participated in that conflict. Were they dissenting from their father's position? Did he change his views? Did he view WWII in different terms? Did he give them his blessing?
We don't know. There are other newspaper letters (to the editor) available in which Herendeen argues for the upholding of the death penalty. This is not surprising. Again, Fundamentalist rejection of the war was not rooted in Christian non-resistance. The death penalty exists for a reason and the state (which is the sword) represent violence. It's there for a reason (God's hand of Providential restraint) but we can also say that as an entity it is (in Romans 12-13) contrasted with the Christian ethic and position. We don't resist the state but we don't endorse it either. We expect the state to kill – that's what states do. But we don't endorse the killing and we certainly don't participate in it.
Herendeen had been a Fundamentalist and like Pink a Dispensationalist. Under Pink's influence he embraced Calvinism and both men would later abandon Dispensationalism altogether.
They were men of their time working within that context. I cannot agree with or endorse all they stood for but I can admire and celebrate the truths they did attain and hold fast to.
IC Herendeen is scarcely remembered and yet his memory is cherished by those familiar with him. But very few (I think) are aware of his testimony in the second decade of the twentieth century. He suffered for his testimony. Few Evangelicals or Confessionalists today would grasp or appreciate his stand and yet those of us committed to the New Testament and its ethics can rejoice in his testimony. For that brief moment (at least) he was a shining light, a fire of truth testifying to the world's lies and the False Church's corruption, a citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom whose presence on this Earth through the Holy Spirit working in the Church condemns this age and all its works.
These thoughts raced through my mind as I stood there in Swengel listening to the cicadas standing in a small out of the way cemetery behind an old church building that's now someone's house. If the reports are true it was in the basement of that building (which had by Herendeen's time become a post office among other things) that Herendeen ran a press and printed off the works of Pink and others. Pink also lived nearby (in or near Millmont) on a couple of occasions in the 1920's and early 1930's.
The light of the Kingdom shone on that place and though no one in Swengel today cares or even seems to know the names of Herendeen or Pink – the Holy Spirit was at work. Their names are still known in nearby Lewisburg among the congregation started by John Reisinger – now located a little ways out from the charming old town. While Pink died in 1952 in Scotland and there's no one left who would remember him in the Swengel-Lewisburg area, there are those still alive that remember Herendeen as a very old man in the 1970's and early 1980's – he lived to be ninety-nine years old. In a few more years the people who remember this man who interacted with Pink, Baker, Scofield, and others will also be gone but his name lives on in heaven and I look forward to meeting him someday.
He would probably marvel that forty years after his death people would be seeking out his legacy and his gravestone but that's the nature of the Church and as God's people it's important that we remember the testimony of the saints that preceded us. We need to remember the stories and learn from them.