Benjamin Generation Order Printed Copy

Author: Joseph Prince
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Inspiring, I was much impacted.

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About the Book

In "Benjamin Generation," Joseph Prince explores how believers can experience a double portion of God's blessings by embracing their identity as part of the Benjamin Generation. Through biblical examples and personal stories, Prince encourages readers to live in the fullness of God's grace and walk in victory. This book offers practical insights and revelations to help Christians realize their inheritance as children of God.

Adoniram Judson

Born in Malden, Massachusetts, the son of Adoniram Judson, Sr., a Congregational clergyman, and Abigail (Brown), Judson graduated from Brown University (B.A., M.A.) and in the first class of Andover Theological Seminary (1810). His interest in missions began in 1809 when he read Claudius Buchanan‘s sermon “The Star in the East.” With ministerial friends he started the Society of Inquiry, a seminary study group on missions. In 1810 he was licensed to preach by the Orange, Vermont, Congregational Association preparatory to the pastoral ministry; however, he had strong inclinations toward overseas missions. In June of that year, Judson, Samuel Newell, Samuel Nott, Jr., and Gordon Hall presented themselves to the Massachusetts General Association for missionary service, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was formed as a result. Following an unsuccessful attempt to secure an appointment from the London Missionary Society in England, Judson persuaded the ABCFM to support three couples and two single men on a mission to the East. Judson was the lead candidate of the first commissioning service for the American overseas missionaries held at Salem (Massachusetts) Tabernacle on February 6, 1812. Following a sendoff with great fanfare, Judson and his bride, Ann (Haseltine), sailed with the Newells for India in 1812. During the four-month voyage, the couple carefully studied the baptismal positions of the English Baptists in order to controvert the Baptist position; however, when they arrived at Calcutta, they adopted Baptist principles and were baptized by William Carey. Upon their change of sentiments, the Judsons resigned from the ABCFM and plans were laid for the creation of a Baptist mission society in the United States. By order of the British East India Company, the Judsons were forced to leave India. Surreptitiously escaping to Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar), in 1813, they established a station that became the first mission of American Baptists. Their work included evangelism and Bible translation. In 1842, following completion of Judsons’s first dictionary, the couple relocated to Ava, to establish greater influence with the government. However, Adoniram Judson was charged with being an English spy and was imprisoned in June 1824. In a 21-month period of incarceration during the Anglo-Burmese War, he suffered from fever and malnutrition and underwent a forced march. As a result of the courage and resourcefulness of his wife, he was released in February 1826 to serve as a translator for the Burmese government during negotiations for the Treaty of Yandabo. Ann Judson died of complications of smallpox later the same year. To enlarge his efforts, Judson moved his mission to Moulmein in 1828. There, with the assistance of Jonathan Wade, he built a church and school and continued work on the Burmese Bible, which he completed in 1834. Later that year, he married Sarah Hall Boardman, widow of George Dana Boardman and a gifted linguist and teacher. In 1845, following the birth of their eight child, Sarah’s health declined and the Judsons embarked for the United States. Sarah died en route; Judson completed the trip and remained in the United States for nine months’ furlough. While his strength had been greatly reduced and he suffered chronic laryngitis, he was hailed as a hero throughout the Christian community. While at Madison University in upstate New York, he met and married Emily Chubbock, a writer and educator. They returned to Burma in 1846 for continued work on an enlarged Burmese dictionary, which was finished in 1849. Shortly afterward, Judson contracted a respiratory fever and, attempting to travel to a better climate, died at sea. Brackney, William H., “Judson, Adoniram,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 345-46. This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

the deadly deceit in material desires

Bible study often exposes us. As I sat in a Bible study recently, the leader asked our group how we heard Jesus’s voice and how we follow, like he says in John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” One woman sitting next to me measured the voice of God in the many blessings of her life — a new house purchased without difficulty, an old house sold without stress. She was now enjoying life in her dream home in the warm, dry climate of her dreams. And all thanks to a painless move. She gave evidence for how smoothly her life was moving along, like dominoes falling perfectly in order. As I sat there listening, I couldn’t help but feel troubled. I knew that not a few women around us were following Christ through troubled marriages, battles with cancer, or the grief of lost babies. Some faced the drone of unceasing financial hardships — the exact opposite of how some of us define God’s blessing on our lives. And yet we who are struggling can listen for Jesus’s voice with desperation and longing. We can desire to follow him as much — perhaps more — than the materially blessed. Blessing’s Bluff A smile and an open Bible can press down so hard on raw hurt when we measure God’s blessing with material prosperity. The effect is something I’ve heard expressed by many and have seen dramatized in “Christian” movies. You can know you’re blessed by God when everything goes well for you. Just trust God while you do A + B and, as long as you have enough faith, you should get C every time: the life you’ve always wanted. It’s a simple formula for the “blessed” life, with Jesus on top! But owning a nice house with a spacious kitchen, or driving a shiny car with no dents, or basking in financial abundance and easygoing circumstances are not reliable evidences of God’s blessing in this age. The formula might look attractive in a movie, but it contradicts both the Bible and the real-life experience of many struggling saints who are faithful in the challenges, insecurities, and pains of everyday life. Deadly Equation As I thought about what that nice lady had said about how blessed she was, Jesus spoke to me though his word: “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45) What the lady next to me said is true in a sense — she is blessed by God. But so is the greedy miser who sits in his penthouse with wealth he earned through a harsh abuse of power. Both the good lady next to me and the oppressive evil tyrant are blessed with comforts and provisions, sun and rain, houses and air conditioning every single day. God is sovereign, and he radiates goodness and pours out unearned blessings of all kinds every day. He blesses all with his common kindness. The formula God’s blessing = life comfort is a deadly one. And it’s not an isolated issue either. Unfortunately, the equation seems to be ingrained into so much American Christianity, and it’s part and parcel of the prosperity gospel that false teachers in our nation export to the world. And when I’m not careful, the plank that is the prosperity gospel protrudes from my own eye . Bruised and Blessed God’s common kindness reaches us all, but it takes saving grace to turn to Jesus when marriage is hard, when a woman — my friend — loses three babies, or when a young missionary is told he has end-stage cancer. The Bible doesn’t offer a formula, but points us to a Savior—a battered, crushed, beaten, bruised, bloodied Savior. And the special blessing of God’s presence is with those who are walking in suffering, the same road Jesus himself walked. He is present in the path of pain and trial and heartache. God was present in Joseph’s pain: Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. (Genesis 39:20–21) God was present in David’s darkness: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (Psalm 23:4–5) God is present with us in today’s suffering: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. (1 Peter 4:12–14) So with God’s help, I remove my self-centered, American-dream plank and its sinful impulse to want a god who makes me the center and not him. My plank must come out first. And with God’s help, I toss aside the lie that we find God’s blessing in easy circumstances, or in health, or in financial prosperity. And with God’s help, I’ll keep the path, holding firmly to the hand of my Good Shepherd.