Sabbath Day Four - Chariots of Fire

Passion City Church Podcast

Passion City Church

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4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Eric Liddell was favored to win the Olympic 100m in 1924—until he found out the race was on a Sunday. His decision to honor the Sabbath cost him one race, but shaped his life’s legacy. In this episode, we reflect on what it means to protect Sabbath in a world that constantly demands compromise.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Eric Liddell took a deep breath as the murmuring of the crowd grew quiet in his ears.
0:12.0	The track was warm today, not hot, but warm, as it sat underneath the Paris sun.
0:20.3	The Scotsman reached down,
0:22.2	his thumbs digging slightly into the ash-gray cinder,
0:25.8	causing little clouds of dust to swirl around his wrists and feet
0:29.5	as he held his body perfectly still.
0:34.3	Waiting.
0:36.6	Waiting.
0:40.3	Waiting for... Eight months before the starting gun sent him
0:49.3	hurdling around the track that June day in 1924,
0:53.3	Eric Liddell had looked down at a piece of paper, closed
0:57.0	his eyes, and made up his mind. As one of Scotland's most talented athletes of his time,
1:05.0	Lidell was offered a spot on Britain's Olympic team without any real debate. In fact, so explosive was Liddell, with his head thrown back and arms swinging aggressively
1:17.4	at his sides, that the 22-year-old was favored to win the 100-meter sprint in that year's
1:22.7	Paris games.
1:25.9	There was just one problem.
1:28.3	When the schedule was released, Eric Liddell noticed that the 100-meter sprint would be held on a Sunday.
1:37.3	As the son of Christian missionaries born 22 years earlier in Tianjin,
1:43.3	Lidl took the Sabbath literally, and running a race,
1:47.9	even a race in the Olympics, and even a race he was projected to win, wasn't an option.
1:55.3	The press went mad at his decision.
1:58.7	Reporters pounded their fists on the door of his dormitory in Edinburgh,
	...

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