Brothers in Church History

5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols

Ligonier Ministries

Christianity, History, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Behind several well-known names in church history stand faithful brothers whose stories are often untold. Today, Stephen Nichols shares how these men, though less recognized, played meaningful roles in the life of the church.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church History.
0:10.0	On this episode, we are looking at brothers in church history.
0:13.0	I suspect that many of you out there have brothers, so maybe you can relate to this.
0:19.0	Our first is a younger brother. This is John Brainerd.
0:22.1	He is the younger brother of the much, much more famous missionary, David Brainerd.
0:27.6	David Brainerd, this is back in the 1700s, the colonial era of America.
0:32.2	He's a missionary to Native Americans.
0:34.6	He ends up keeping a journal.
0:36.5	That journal gets turned into a biography by Jonathan
0:39.0	Edwards, and we have the life of David Brainerd. But there was also John. And after David's
0:45.6	death, John stepped in and picked up the work of his brother and was a missionary for many, many
0:50.8	more years than David was. And so we have the younger brother John Brainerd.
0:56.3	We also have an older brother.
0:58.3	This is Robert Liddell.
1:00.0	He is the older brother to the much, much more famous Lidl,
1:05.0	the Olympic champion, Eric.
1:08.1	They were both born in China.
1:10.2	Robert was born in the year 1900. And when they were young,
1:15.4	their family brought them from China to the UK, and they were in boarding school in London.
1:22.0	They together played rugby, cricket, and ran. And there were a few occasions in those junior high and high school years
1:29.3	where Robert may have been a little faster than Eric. Well, he was two years older, two or three
1:34.9	years older than Eric, and he went to Edinburgh, and then after two years, Eric followed.
	...

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