• On Whose Shoulders Do We Stand?
• Andrew Peterson’s Life and Farm Attracts New Interest
• You Can Help Save Our History

On Whose Shoulders Do We Stand?

by Virgil Olson, Professor Emeritus, Bethel University (Condensed from a talk at Bethel Seminary, January 18, 2006, at the presentation of Dr. Chris Armstrong, a new associate professor of church history at Bethel Seminary)

This fall it will be 134 years since Bethel Seminary had its beginning in Chicago with one professor and one student. The professor: John Alexis Edgren. The student: Christopher Silene.

The stories of Edgren have become a part of the folklore of the seminary—his daring faith, brilliant scholarship, great energy, and sacrificial labor.

Edgren became internationally respected for his outstanding ability as a linguist. He started his career as a sailor, and as he sailed the seven seas he acquired a hunger for learning languages. In addition to being proficient in Hebrew and Greek, he had a working knowledge of Syriac, Egyptian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, Chaldean, Samaritan, Arabic, Assyrian, and Gothic. And I might add—German, French, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, of course, and English.

On one occasion a professor from England asked Edgren to translate an inscription found on a monument in Egypt. Scholars had debated the correct translation, but could not come to a final conclusion. Edgren, after careful study, sent in his translation. The scholars agreed that Edgren’s translation was correct. The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote Edgren with appreciation, stating that Edgren was one of the foremost authorities in Egyptology.

Another early Bethel Seminary professor of scholarly repute was Olaf Hadeen, professor of Hebrew. Bethel Seminary, in its early years, primarily ministered to Swedish immigrant students. It was associated then with the Baptist Union Seminary, which later became part of the University of Chicago. If you walk through the foyer of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, you will see several busts of the renowned scholars of the Divinity School, including William Rainy Harper, first President of the University of Chicago; Schailer Matthews, one of the early theological liberal leaders; Edgar Goodspeed, the New Testament scholar; and our own Olaf Hadeen, the Hebrew scholar. Hadeen is yet another broad shoulder on which Bethel Seminary stands. These teachers were persons of deep spiritual convictions and concerns.

The seminary I came to in 1938 enrolled no more than 50-60 students, including 10-12 women. Bethel Seminary was a fellowship of learning with a warm, spiritually open environment where students and faculty developed close friendships. I owe a great debt to the humble, deeply spiritual, intellectually brilliant professors who helped me form a biblical worldview and an acceptance that I may never know it all when it comes to theology and the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.
Three professors gave me a love for God, a love for God’s Son, a love for God’s Book, a love for God’s people, and a love for God’s mission. On their shoulders I gratefully stand.

First, Professor Arvid Gordh was a competent Greek scholar who patiently led his students to another world of knowing, becoming familiar with the Greek text of the New Testament. With clarity and logical exposition, he opened up the stories and teachings of this sacred document. As we sat before him in his God revealing the messages from the Holy Book.

But Gordh’s influence on me was also outside of Bethel and the classroom. I attended the Baptist summer assembly in 1934 at one of the first camps at Wood Lake, Wis. Gordh was the main teacher and evangelist. He was small and slight of stature, with deep-set dark eyes and with black hair combed straight back. He wore a black suit, white shirt, and black tie with shoes highly polished—a little out of place in a camp setting. His voice was soft, with a slight Swedish accent—not the type that would normally keep restless teenagers sitting still on hard, rough-hewn benches in a large tent with curtains flapping at the slightest wind. But when Gordh spoke, everyone focused on this small man who eloquently shared with us the prayer of the Apostle Paul, that we might be “filled with all the fullness of God.” As an 18-year-old, something spiritually significant happened to me that week. Today, I and many others stand on the spiritual shoulders of Arvid Gordh.

The second professor is Karl J. Karlson, affectionately called “K.J.” Karlson was not only my teacher in several classes, but also dean of the seminary. The crown jewels of his teaching were courses on the life of Christ and the life of Paul.

Karlson was bold, never hesitant to speak his mind. He had a broad accent, marking him as coming from a province in southern Sweden. When he lectured, he walked back and forth in front of the class, holding a three-foot pointer, sometimes jabbing at us in the front row. Other times he was more relaxed, holding the pointer with a hand at each end behind his head, like he was pushing himself forward.

At the opening chapel of my first year at the seminary, Dean Karlson exhorted us with the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:18: “Look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.” During my seminary years I gradually began to understand that counsel. I became more aware of the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. And I am grateful to my beloved dean, K. J., who encouraged me to open my eyes so that I could see glimpses of truth the Lord has for me. I am humbly grateful to stand on the shoulders of this forceful proclaimer of the mysteries of God in Christ Jesus.

The third professor, and the most influential person in my life, was my father, Adolf Olson. He taught at the seminary for 36 years. When Dean Lagergren retired in 1922, he autocratically made the decision to have Adolf Olson succeed him in the chair of systematic theology and blessed him with these words: “May God be his light, the Spirit his teacher, and the Bible his guiding star.”

Professor Gordh had a special spiritual influence on my father’s life. Gordh had a profound spiritual experience at some meetings in Chicago in February 1909. When Gordh returned to Bethel Academy, where he served as the principal, the students all knew their leader had had a gracious meeting with God. And Adolf Olson wanted that same experience. At a deeper life conference at the Trinity Baptist Church, St. Paul, April 16, 1909, under the preaching of Arvid Gordh, young Adolf had a similar experience. He wrote in his autobiography, that “it pleased God to visit my soul with a most gracious in-filling of His Holy Spirit. The joy and the glory of it cannot be expressed in human language!”

Professor Olson’s teaching of theology was strongly devotional, with heavy emphasis on the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Olson never forgot the wonder of his conversion as a 17-year-old immigrant, under the preaching of Pastor Victor Hedberg at the Elim Swedish Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Often he quoted the words from this gospel song:

O, the love that drew salvation’s plan!
O, the grace that brought it down to man!
O, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary.

These men lived lives of pious humility, graciously accepting people with other theological convictions. Their inquisitiveness rubbed off on me, reminding me that there is always something more that can be discovered and said about the great truths of the Bible. As one told me, “It is always good to place an etcetera mark after every doctrine. No one has captured all that can be said about the great truths of the Christian faith.”

These early leaders were intellectual; academic stalwarts; and professors who exemplified holiness, piety, graciousness, and commitment. On their shoulders, all of us at Bethel University and the Baptist General Conference can proudly, yet humbly stand.

Andrew Peterson’s Life and Farm Attracts New Interest

by Richard Turnwall

The life of an early Swedish Baptist immigrant is coming into prominence, thanks to the interest of the Carver County (Minn.) Historical Association and a group in Sweden who are investigating early immigrant experiences, especially those that contributed to the four-volume work of Wilhelm Moberg, The Emigrants.
Andrew Peterson came to Carver County in 1855 from near Burlington, Iowa, with a group of Swedish Baptists led by F.O. Nilsson.

They had left Iowa because of ridicule by their Swedish Lutheran neighbors over their Baptist practices. Nilsson, their leader, had been exiled from Sweden in 1850 because of his free church convictions. His reputation followed him to America.

The group had been urged to resettle by Andrew Bergquist, who in 1853 traveled to the Minnesota Territory and found beautiful, verdant land available near what is now called Lake Waconia. Within a short time, several Iowa Swedish Baptist families arrived in Carver County. The resettled Swedish Baptists staked neighboring claims of farmland and called their community Scandia. The Bergquists later moved to Minneapolis and, in 1871, became charter members of what is now Bethlehem Baptist Church.

Nilsson, like the others, staked a claim. His land abutted Peterson’s. Nilsson never farmed, but Scandia became home for F.O. and his wife Sophia. He soon began traveling into other Scandinavian settlements, preaching the gospel and organizing Baptist congregations. But before resuming his travels, he organized his Scandia neighbors into a Baptist church.

From the sketchy history that remains, it seems that organization took place on August 1, 1855, in Andrew Peterson’s log cabin. There were nine charter members, but no resident pastor. Nilsson made only occasional visits home, and in his absence Peterson and Bergquist gave leadership to the congregation. In 1857 they built their church, a 20’ x 26’ log structure on the east shore of Lake Waconia. Because of its historical significance, that building was moved in 1973 to St. Paul where it now stands on a hillside overlooking Bethel Seminary.

Andrew Peterson remained on his farm and in the Scandia Church until his death in 1898. He, his wife Elsa, and their nine children are all buried in the Scandia Cemetery, located near Waconia at the corner of County Highway 30 and Island View Road. They had no grandchildren.

The name Andrew Peterson is well known in the history of what is now the Minnesota Baptist Conference. It is becoming better known in larger circles. In 1978 the Heritage Committee of the Carver County Historical Association sponsored a Harvest Festival on the grounds of the Peterson farm. Minnesota State dignitaries, representatives from Sweden, and descendents of the Scandia families were present. At that time the Peterson farm was designated a National Historic Site and Josephine Mihelich’s book Andrew Peterson and the Scandia Story was published. The Heritage Association has continued to work with the current owners of the Peterson farm to find ways to preserve remaining buildings built by him.

An Andrew Peterson Society has been established in Sweden. The interest of this group was sparked by the publication of Wilhelm Moberg’s The Emigrants. In researching the story of Karl Oskar and Kristina, Moberg spent several years in Minnesota. Among his valued resources was the diary of Andrew Peterson, a terse daily record of activities and events spanning 55 years. That diary is in the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society.

While the figure of Karl Oskar in the story is much different from Andrew Peterson, it is obvious that many of the details of immigrant frontier life were gleaned from Peterson’s diaries. The Swedish group has found several hundred such correlations. They are so enthused about Andrew Peterson as a significant source of Karl Oskar’s immigrant experiences that they are supporting the effort to maintain the Peterson farm buildings. They have sent a delegation to Carver County to look over the situation and have provided significant financial support for the re-roofing of one of the decaying barns.

Since the countryside once known as Scandia is now prime real estate for new housing, much of Peterson’s farmland is targeted for development. Some of the land is subject to a complex legal dispute, and the outcome is not clearly predictable. The Andrew Peterson homestead may be seen at the northwest corner of County 5 and Parley Lake Road. It is privately owned and called The Rock Isle Farm.
For more information about the restoration project, contact Ron Holtmeier at UncleRon1@earthlink.net. He is chairman of the Carver County Heritage Association.

You Can Help to Save Our History

A small group of volunteers and a part-time archivist have done an outstanding job in preserving and disseminating the remarkable stories of God’s work among the churches and the people of the BGC. With only a bare bones budget, we send out Trailmarkers, rescue valuable historical documents from destruction, and tell the stories of the miracles God has done in our midst. We could do more if we had more resources. Your gifts to the Baptist General Conference History Center at Bethel University are needed to help us manage this important but immense task. If you wish to help this effort, send your gift to Jim Spickelmier at Bethel University, 3900 Bethel Dr., St. Paul, MN 55112. Checks should be payable to Bethel University and designated for the History Center.

Steering Committee of Friends of the Baptist General Conference History Center
Richard Turnwall, Chair; Diana Magnuson, Archivist; Alvera Mickelsen, Editor, Trailmarkers; John Anderson;
G.William Carlson; Jonathan Larson; Mary Jo Monson; Shirley Olseen; Virgil Olson; James Spickelmier; Florence Walbert