John Newton: Slave Trader, Abolitionist, Songwriter, Pastor

HT: Tony Reinke and ChristianityToday

Newton’s life was dramatically worthy of an HBO miniseries like John Adams. Newton lived through massive shifts in historical and geopolitical power (including the American Revolution, but on the losing side). As a young man, his life was full of personal drama, heated rebellion, a lifelong romance, some naval fighting, and decades of seafaring. Eventually he sailed slave ships across the Atlantic, nearly died at sea in a storm, was saved from his sin, and converted to the Christ he hated for 20 years. If you fast-forward to the end of his life, he worked as an abolitionist along with his young friend William Wilberforce. Newton was on his deathbed when he learned that Britain abolished its Atlantic slave trade.

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