George Hawkins Pember (1837 – July 1910) was an English theologian and author. He was affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren.Reetzke, James. Biographical Sketches: A Brief History of the Lord's Recovery. Chicago: Chicago Bibles and Books, 2003: 23. Print.
Early life, education and marriages Pember was born in Hereford, the son of George Hawkins Pember (1805–77) and Mary Pember (1804–77).Pember's parents are listed in the UK Census of 1841 living in the Parish of St. Peter, Herefordshire. Pember's father's occupation is listed as Silk Mercer. A younger brother named Robert aged 3 also appears in the census record. 1841 Census available to subscribers at http://www.ancestry.com/ He was educated at Hereford Cathedral School and matriculated from there in 1856. He then enrolled at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He earned the B.A. in his studies in Classics in 1860, and proceeded to postgraduate studies earning an M.A. in 1863. During his postgraduate studies Pember held a teaching post as assistant master at Rossall, Lancashire, from 1861 to 1863. and also refer to the UK Census of 1861 which lists Pember as residing in Bathwick, Somerset with the occupation of a tutor. Census available to subscribers at http://www.ancestry.com/ On 14 January 1864 Pember married Mary Lemmon (née Reynolds).UK Marriage Index 1837–1915, entry for January–March 1864 at St. Giles, London, Vol. 1b, p 541. Index available to subscribers at http://www.ancestry.com/ She had been previously married to William Lemmon who died in 1861, and she had two daughters from that marriage.Mary Pember is listed in UK Census of 1871, along with her two daughters Elizabeth and Sarah Lemmon, as residing in Budleigh Salterton, Devon. Census available to subscribers at http://www.ancestry.com/ She died on 10 July 1891 and left her estate to her husband George Pember.UK Death Index 1837–1915 for 1891 July–September Vol. 5b, p 213, and England & Wales National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administration), 1861–1941, entry for 1891, p. 259. Both documents are available to subscribers at http://www.ancestry.com/ In 1893 Pember married Elizabeth Ann Smith in Devon, and they resided at Westbourne Terrace, Budleigh Salterton, Devon for the remainder of their lives.UK Marriage Index 1837–1915, for 1893 October–December, Vol. 5b, p. 151, St. Thomas, Devonshire. Also see entries for the UK Census of 1901 listing the couple as residing at Westbourne Terrace, Budleigh Salterton, Devon. Both documents available to subscribers at http://www.ancestry.com/
Faith Pember's conversion to Christianity led him to participate in the Brethren, and from within that movement he developed his career as an author and teacher of biblical and theological themes. The Brethren emerged in the 1820s as an independent movement that protested about the ecclesiastical divisions of Protestant churches.For an account of the emergence and beliefs of the Brethren see Roy Coad, A History of The Brethren Movement, Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1976. Prominent leaders within the Brethren such as Anthony Norris Groves, George Müller and John Nelson Darby were persuaded that there were biblical teachings that were overlooked or not consistently taught by the Protestant churches such as practising adult baptism only (hence rejecting infant baptism), restricting the observance of the Lord's Supper (partaking of the emblems of bread and wine representing Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice) to baptised members, and biblical prophecies about the imminent return of Christ to the world. As the Brethren placed great emphasis on understanding biblical prophecy they believed that current events could be signs or signals that Christ's second coming would occur very soon.Ian S. Rennie, "Nineteenth-Century Roots of Contemporary Prophetic Interpretation" in Handbook of Biblical Prophecy, Carl E. Armerding and W. Ward Gasque, eds. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978, 41–60. As the Brethren upheld strong convictions about living in the end-times, participant members engaged in what they saw as the urgent task of preaching the gospel to persuade other people to become followers of Christ.Coad, History of The Brethren Movement, 263–267. The approach that the Brethren developed in understanding biblical prophecy is technically known as Dispensationalism.For background on the Brethren and Dispensationalism see Ian Rennie "Nineteenth Century Roots" in note 9, and also see Robert G. Clouse Ed. The Meaning of The Millennium: Four Views, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1977, 63–92. Martyn Percy, "Whose Time is it Anyway? Evangelicals, the Millennium and Millenarianism" in Christian Millenarianism: From the Early Church to Waco, Stephen Hunt Ed. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001, 26–38.
Theological writing Pember's career as a writer appears to have been very financially successful because in successive UK census records his occupation is described as a man of "independent means".UK Census records for 1881, 1891 and 1901 respectively, available for subscribers at http://www.ancestry.com/ The books that he wrote all reflect the distinctive doctrinal themes of the Brethren outlined above. His books The Antichrist, Babylon and the Coming Kingdom, The Great Prophecies of the centuries concerning Israel and the Gentiles, and Mystery Babylon the Great are examples of Brethren interpretations of biblical prophecies in light of current events, and about the rejection of divisions in the Protestant churches. His book The Lord's Command is a classic example of Brethren arguments that uphold the need for only adults (believer's baptism) to be baptised and the rejection of the practice of infant baptism.
His book Earth's Earliest Ages, which went through several editions, had two principal objectives. Pember wrote in the preface to the first edition: "To remove some of the Geological and other difficulties usually associated with the commencing chapters of Genesis" and "to show the characteristic features of the Days of Noah were reappearing in Christendom, and therefore, that the Days of the Son of Man could not be far distant."George H. Pember, Earth's Earliest Ages and their Connection with Modern Spiritualism, Theosophy, and Buddhism, reprint ed. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel, 1975 , p. 25.
In this book Pember attempted to reconcile the Genesis account of the world's creation with the emerging fossil evidence in geological science about the age of the Earth. Pember argued a position known as "The Gap Theory", and which had been previously proposed by the Scottish theologian Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847).James R. Moore, "Geologists and Interpreters of Genesis in the Nineteenth Century," in God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science, David C. Lindberg & Ronald L. Numbers, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986, 322–350. In this theory, God originally created the universe but due to the rebellion of some angels led by Lucifer (or Satan) the Earth descended into chaos and life was destroyed. Pember's position was that the first chapter of Genesis gave an account of God restoring or recreating the world after the collapse of the original creation. So proponents of the Gap Theory like Pember propose that a "gap" exists between the first two verses in Genesis chapter one which allows for all the extra time needed to include the ancient fossil and geological evidences. The geological fossils were creatures that lived in the original creation and were destroyed when Lucifer fell into sin. The biblical story of Adam and Eve is about a later recreation of the world.Pember, Earth's Earliest Ages, 27–107. Pember's argument for the "Gap Theory" is an example of how some evangelical Christians in the nineteenth century tried to reconcile geological evidence for an old Earth with the book of Genesis and without embracing Charles Darwin's theory about the evolution of the species.James R. Moore, The Post-Darwinian Controversies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. ; and George M. Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991, 153–81.
The other major feature of Pember's Earth's Earliest Ages was his argument that the emergence of rival non-Christian religious groups were evidence that end times biblical prophecies were being fulfilled. Three particular religious movements were pinpointed as being examples of the spiritual deception that are characteristic of the biblical signs of the end times: the Spiritualist churches, the Theosophical Society, and Buddhism.Pember, Earth's Earliest Ages, 149–276. Pember criticised these three movements on the grounds that their teachings were contradicted by the Bible. These religious groups were classified by Pember as modern-day heresies.Pember, Earth's Earliest Ages, 191–93, 257–59, 273–76. Pember's interpretation of the Spiritualist churches and of the Theosophical Society as prophetic signs of anti-Christian spiritual deception represents a nineteenth-century style of argument that has been subsequently developed and refined in Christian Countercult literature.For background on the Christian Countercult see John A. Saliba, Understanding New Religious Movements, 2d ed. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press, 2003, 203–23. J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America, 2nd ed. New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1992, 335–43. As Pember's book defends the creation account of Genesis and rejects Darwinian evolutionary theory it is a work of Christian apologetics, and the latter part of the book is an early example of that genre of literature produced in evangelical Countercult apologetics.For an historical account of late nineteenth-century Christian apologetics responding to Darwin see James R. Moore, The Post-Darwinian Controversies. For a survey of evangelical countercult apologetic models and methods see John W. Morehead, "Where Do We Go From Here?" in Encountering New Religious Movements, Irving Hexham, Stephen Rost & John W. Morehead, Eds. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2004, 279–88. . .
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