Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church History, a significant influence

on the church that you might never have heard of is John Nelson Darby. His life spanned

almost the entire 19th century. He was born in 1800 and he died in 1882. Let's consider

those 82 years. He was born in the city of London into a large family. There were nine

children in this family. His uncle was a British Navy admiral who served under the famous

Lord Nelson, hence John Nelson Darby's middle name. His father was a merchant. The Darby

family was originally from Ireland and of Irish descent. And when John Nelson Darby's

uncle died, the family inherited leap castle in King's County, Ireland. John Nelson

Darby had his early schooling at Westminster School in London. Yes, this was part of Westminster

Abbey and located just behind the Abbey. When it came time for college, Darby went to his

ancestral Ireland to Trinity College Dublin. Home arguably to the most iconic academic library.

If you haven't seen pictures of it or haven't visited it in person, you really should.

That's the long room of the old library at Trinity College Dublin. It is a work of art.

It is a true wonder. Well, as an undergraduate there, he excelled in languages and classic

studies. In fact, he won the coveted classics gold medal at his graduation in 1819. He then

began to pursue law studies. In that same year, 1820, he had a conversion experience and

he also felt called to the ministry. He straddled studying law and serving in the church

for the next five or so years before he gave up law altogether and aimed his sights on

the ministry and the study of divinity. In the 1830s and 40s, Darby was the leader of

what would eventually emerge as the Plymouth Brethren movement. In a nutshell, this would

be a low church reaction or response to high church Anglicanism or the high church

of the Church of Ireland. He also rode extensively and produced a very literal but a new translation

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