There are some special anniversaries approaching in 2012.

Almost fifty years ago, on 20^th January, 1962, Mr Edward Joshua Poole-Connor was called home. He graciously spoke many times for the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony yet comparatively few people in this present generation seem to understand what this man of God believed and taught concerning prophecy. The Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony will, God willing, publish a volume containing various messages given over many years, and it is hoped that this book will be available by the new year.

E J Poole Connor was born at Hackney, on Saturday, 27^th July, 1872. As a child he was delicate, and it was thought that he would not reach manhood. His education was fitful, the consequence being that in later years he had much leeway to make up. The family was of Irish extraction. Mr Poole Connor’s parents were devout Christians and earnest Protestants, being attached to the Calvinistic Independents.

They were strict in discipline, but most lovable in character, and, to their children, the Lord’s Day was the happiest day of the week.

Edward Joshua was converted early in life. During his ‘teens’ he had a Sunday school class in which several scholars were older than their teacher. He recalls hearing at this period some of the great preachers of an age of preaching - Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Joseph Parker, Dwight L Moody, James Hudson Taylor, Alexander Maclaren.

He was baptized by immersion at the age of 21 and took charge of Aldershot Baptist Church. Four years at Aldershot, followed by a shorter pastorate in London, led to an exceedingly happy ten years in Surbiton. Here Mr Poole Connor had the honour of the friendship of Dr Barnardo.

He sat for and passed the Ministerial Recognition Examination of the Baptist Union, but later left the Baptist Union for the same reasons that led C H Spurgeon to fight the ‘Downgrade’ controversy and to sever himself from that Union.* Mr Poole Connor always referred to Mr Spurgeon’s action with full approval. He promoted the Spurgeon centenary Mission in 1934.

[* See Mr. Spurgeon on The First Resurrection.]

On leaving the Baptists, he became assistant to Pastor W Fuller Gooch, of the unsectarian Lansdowne Hall at West Norwood, and there saw more clearly the weaknesses of the partial rapture and higher dispensational teachings.*

[* The S.G.A.T. believe the whole Church will have to pass through the Great Tribulation! See ‘Selective Quotations’ Nos. 4, 9, 11, 80, 140.]

His life was enriched by the friendship of Pastor James Stephens, MA, of Highgate Road Chapel, who introduced him to the writings of Mr B W Newton whose teachings he largely embraced, although he had learned similar second advent teaching previously. He frequently paid tribute in glad acknowledgement to the value of Mr Newton’s unfolding of scriptural and protestant truth, which strengthened his grasp of Bible Teaching in the knowledge of the whole counsel of God.

He was invited to the church at Talbot Tabernacle in 1913, as pastor, and for two periods he ministered the gospel with much acceptance there. His two pastoral periods there were divided by service as secretary of the North Africa Mission. This work took him frequently to the Barbary States in North Africa.

During his second term at the Talbot Tabernacle, he sought to draw together in a closer fellowship the unattached churches and missions in this country. That led him in 1922 to take steps in the formation of what is now the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches. Later, he served that Fellowship as National Commissioner. At the end of World War II he undertook the reopening of the All Nations Bible College at Maidenhead, where he was Honorary Principal for three years.

In addition to his North African travels, he visited France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy in the Lord’s service, and at eighty years of age he fulfilled a preaching and lecturing tour in the United States.

For forty years he was always a welcome speaker on the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony platform, at its conferences and other meetings, and as a writer in Watching and Waiting. He was never happier than in its service. The present S.G.A.T. secretary heard him preach many times for the Testimony during the period 1950-1961.

Of the works of B W Newton, Mr Poole-Connor said that he regarded his teaching on the subject of the Lord’s return and many other subjects as singularly scriptural and compelling. His booklet The Coming of the Son of Man is simple, comprehensive, and scriptural.

He loved Israel, and David Baron, and the Mission he founded (The Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel); with its witness concerning Christ as Israel’s Messiah. The Bible League had his whole hearted support from its inception and after the death of Mr W E Dalling. MA, the Editor of its Quarterly, he undertook the task of editing that magazine, which he fulfilled with the ability of devout scholarship. He took great interest in the Evangelical Library. While still in its early days as the ‘Free Grace Library’ in the sole care of Mr Geoffrey Williams, he discovered it and did much to preserve it, to bring it to London and to world-wide prominence. He, too, was a founding member of the London Bible College.

Works by Mr Poole-Connor currently available from the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony include ‘The Coming of the Son of Man,’ price £1.25; ‘Behaviour for Young Christians,’ 25p; ‘Christ's Millennial Kingdom,’ 20p; and ‘The Gateway to a Golden Age,’ 15p.

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