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Chapter 2
A
CONTROVERSIAL BOOK
The years in Talas
(1904-1910) were very advantageous. The student body was comprised of over
one hundred girls from Armenian and Greek families. In those days it was
hard to find any Turkish students in missionary schools. The school enjoyed
a reputation for holding firm spiritual standards, while always aiming to
acquaint every student with the claims of the Savior. A good number of the
girls came from homes associated with the ancient traditional churches.
Their prime interest was to learn English. Three subjects were considered of
primary importance — religion, language and arithmetic. A student failing
any of these had to abandon all hopes of ever graduating!
During Aneta’s
studies in this school, several spiritual awakenings occurred. Itinerant
evangelists who happened to be touring the region and speaking in various
localities often stopped by to share their spiritual experiences. Those were
men for whom proclaiming Christ and his message meant everything. When they
had committed their lives to Jesus Christ and His service, their dedication
was irrevocable. Hazards and trials did not deter them. Therefore they could
share their faith with awe-inspiring certainty. They often left their
families at home for months on end and traveled from place to place, mostly
on horseback.
Social life in
the school centered on such gatherings enriched by these guest speakers.
While some of the girls had little or no use for those meetings, Aneta’s
tender heart was stirred afresh each time. The memory of them was inscribed
indelibly on her mind. Disregarding the mockers, some of the girls regularly
met together for Bible study and prayer. Aneta was not yet born again, but
the more she searched for the illuminating truth of Christ, the hungrier her
heart became.
One stormy night
with strong winds howling, thunder crashing and Mt. Argaeus emblazoned by
lightning, she was struck with terror. Suddenly the thought occurred to her,
“Where would I be if I died tonight?” At this fearful prospect a well-known
hymn flashed into her mind, “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, All Other
Ground is Sinking Sand.”
Falling on her
knees, her bed became her altar. A deeply-felt prayer ascended from Aneta’s
heart, “Christ, you are my Rock. Rock of Ages, I come to you.” Immediately
all fears vanished. The storm outside continued. But instead of the fearful
trembling, an overwhelming peace calmed her entire being. It was the most
memorable night of her life in school. The peace of Christ that passes all
understanding took over from then on. Many storms were to be her share in
life, but that extraordinary peace which flooded her soul that evening never
left her.
She was eighteen
and about to be graduated from school. The circle of joyful girls advanced
in spiritual knowledge. One day a girl ran excitedly into the room holding a
Turkish book written in Greek script which had just been published, ‘The
Second Coming of Christ.’ Its author was Haralambos
Bostanjoglou.
She gathered all
the girls around her, exclaiming, “Lister to a wonderful exposition about
our Lord’s return!” Everyone was thrilled, as they knew so little about this
exciting theme. She read while the others listened. Could all these
wonderful truths be real? Or were they someone’s fantasy? The girls’
excitement grew. Until the appearance of this book the teaching concerning
the Second Coming of Christ had not been dealt with in Anatolia. The
missionaries from New England, true to their Reformed stance, espoused the
post-millennial or amillennial interpretation of eschatology. No one had
presented the teaching of premillennialism. This was a ‘first’ on the
subject. Naturally, all churches established by the missionaries followed
the amillennial line. In this new book the author was not only delving into
a new subject, but was expounding the Lord’s reign of one thousand years on
this earth as he presented his position of the eschatological teaching of
the New Testament!
No little commotion
was stirred when this book came out. The Evangelical community throughout
Asia Minor reacted with mixed emotions. The leadership of the churches was
generally unwilling to accept this interpretation. Professor H. Krikorian,
owner of the Evangelical publishing house Rahnuma − ‘Road Guide’ − in
Constantinople, immediately took it upon himself to openly refute the book,
considering it heretical. He wrote a long article in his widely circulated
Evangelical periodical. The teaching was said to be the product of
Bostanjoglou’s imagination. The Protestant community was advised to
disregard the book. Before long, both the book and the article became focal
points of a growing controversy.
Nouritsa Tavlian,
later Mrs. Philibossian of Fresno, California, held the book in one hand and
the article in the other. She read the paragraph titles and then the
article. Until then the whole concept of Christ’s premillennial return was
an entirely unexplored subject. Being in agreement with Haralambos’
teaching, she rebutted the article point by point. The girls at the school
were puzzled by the upheaval the young evangelist’s book had caused. In
order to reach an objective judgment they first wanted to digest the
contents of both the book and the article written against it.
A few friends of
Bostanjoglou were afraid of the church leadership. Furthermore, being
influenced by the article, they assumed a neutral position. Very soon they
lost interest in the subject. But a persistent young mentor at the school
suggested that those interested could study the issue on their own. Aneta
was in the band of interested girls who continued searching out the truths
of this teaching in their Bible studies.
It should be noted
here that modern theology had already crept into the circle of missionaries
in Asia Minor. Being influenced by them a number of churches started
following the same line. This development eventually became very detrimental
to the life of the Christian community. The church leadership was pretty
much on the side of the missionaries, except for a few.
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