Charles Henry Welch
Encyclopedia
Charles Henry Welch (1880-1967) was a Christian
dispensational
theologian, writer and speaker.
During his lifetime he produced over 60 books, booklets and pamphlets, and more than 500 audio recordings. His most significant works are 56 bound volumes of the Berean Expositor, a Bible study magazine edited by Mr. Welch from 1906 until his death in 1967, and 10 volumes of The Alphabetical Analysis.
He also taught his dispensational
approach of the Bible with lectures throughout Great Britain
, the Netherlands
, France
, Canada
and the United States
.
Welch promoted the Acts 28 position which he believed "is indeed of the utmost dispensational
importance to the believer today. It marks a frontier." He believed the dispensational truths of the Acts period (29 - 62 AD) differed greatly from those written after the Acts period, (see Meeting with Dr. Bullinger below).
, England
on April 25, 1880. When he left school at 14 Welch entered the leatherwork trade, his father's occupation, and remained in the industry until 1904, age 24.
In addition, his early years were influenced by the study of art at the Bermondsey Settlement
.
From November 1900, he became a Christian
after hearing an address by Dr. L. W. Munhall, (M.A.) titled "Sceptics and the Bible
". He was amazed as he "listened to a man who was most evidently sane and scholarly, actually maintaining that the Scriptures were true!"
, young Welch actively attended Church and various Christian
meetings and lectures. During one of the classes he received a prize for writing “The Figurative Language of Scripture”. Afterwards Welch was offered a position at the Bible
Training College of London
as part-time General Secretary. While attending the college he studied advanced Greek
and Hebrew, while teaching an elementary Greek
class. It was during this time that Welch began to develop his dispensational approach to the Bible
.
As his knowledge of the Scriptures grew, Welch disagreed with the direction of the Bible Training College which was forming a primitive church based upon the Sermon on the Mount
and Acts chapters 1 and 2. As a result of this conflict, Welch resigned in 1907 and began meeting with a small Bible study group. It was during this time that he created The Berean Expositor.
Welch wrote to Bullinger and soon met with him to discuss the relation of Paul's 14 epistles to the boundary line of Acts 28. Although Bullinger had written many times previously concerning Israel's setting aside in God's dealings at Acts 28, he had continued to write about the New Testament epistles without reconciling the fact that some were written before, and some after Acts chapter 28.
At this meeting, Welch put forth the idea to the man for whom he had so much respect. Mr. Welch records that after pondering his proposal, Dr. Bullinger declared, "That scraps half the books I've written. But we want the Truth, and the Truth is in what you have said." Dr. Bullinger agreed, the place of Acts 28 indeed had an important bearing on interpreting the New Testament
. Then they both "discussed implications that arise from observing the relation of Paul's epistles to that boundary line" as follows:
Although Dr. Bullinger died four and half years after the meeting, his last book titled: “Foundations of Dispensational Truth” reflected his understanding and acceptance of the division of the Pauline epistles
written before and after the Acts 28 dividing line.
Although incomplete at his death, Dr. Bullinger's Companion Bible was fully published in 1922. Within The Companion Bible's appendixes is written an exposition by C.H. Welch titled, The Eight Parables of the Kingdom of Heaven in Matt. 13, Appendix 145. Although Welch wrote 24 more articles for the Appendixes related to the Acts 28 position, this was the only article published. Perplexed, Welch wrote to the committee in charge of completing The Companion Bible for an explanation. Their response was: "We do not know what Dr. Bullinger would have written, we can only go back and adopt what he has already written, although his last book, The Foundations of Dispensational Truth proves that he fully accepted Acts 28 as the dispensational boundary and the segregation of The Prison Epistles."
In 1943, Welch adopted the Wilson St. Chapel in London as his church building, which he renamed The Chapel of the Opened Book. To preserve Welch's works and research, The Berean Publishing Trust and The Berean Forward Movement were established.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
dispensational
Dispensationalism
Dispensationalism is a nineteenth-century evangelical development based on a futurist biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants.As a system,...
theologian, writer and speaker.
During his lifetime he produced over 60 books, booklets and pamphlets, and more than 500 audio recordings. His most significant works are 56 bound volumes of the Berean Expositor, a Bible study magazine edited by Mr. Welch from 1906 until his death in 1967, and 10 volumes of The Alphabetical Analysis.
He also taught his dispensational
Dispensationalism
Dispensationalism is a nineteenth-century evangelical development based on a futurist biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants.As a system,...
approach of the Bible with lectures throughout Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Welch promoted the Acts 28 position which he believed "is indeed of the utmost dispensational
Dispensationalism
Dispensationalism is a nineteenth-century evangelical development based on a futurist biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants.As a system,...
importance to the believer today. It marks a frontier." He believed the dispensational truths of the Acts period (29 - 62 AD) differed greatly from those written after the Acts period, (see Meeting with Dr. Bullinger below).
Early life
C. H. Welch was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
on April 25, 1880. When he left school at 14 Welch entered the leatherwork trade, his father's occupation, and remained in the industry until 1904, age 24.
In addition, his early years were influenced by the study of art at the Bermondsey Settlement
Bermondsey Settlement
The Bermondsey Settlement was a settlement house founded in Bermondsey, East London, by the Rev'd John Scott Lidgett. It was the only Methodist foundation among the settlements that appeared in the late 19th and early 20th century. Like other settlement houses it offered social, health and...
.
From November 1900, he became a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
after hearing an address by Dr. L. W. Munhall, (M.A.) titled "Sceptics and the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
". He was amazed as he "listened to a man who was most evidently sane and scholarly, actually maintaining that the Scriptures were true!"
Bible Training College
After his conversion to ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, young Welch actively attended Church and various Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
meetings and lectures. During one of the classes he received a prize for writing “The Figurative Language of Scripture”. Afterwards Welch was offered a position at the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
Training College of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
as part-time General Secretary. While attending the college he studied advanced Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and Hebrew, while teaching an elementary Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
class. It was during this time that Welch began to develop his dispensational approach to the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
.
As his knowledge of the Scriptures grew, Welch disagreed with the direction of the Bible Training College which was forming a primitive church based upon the Sermon on the Mount
Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew...
and Acts chapters 1 and 2. As a result of this conflict, Welch resigned in 1907 and began meeting with a small Bible study group. It was during this time that he created The Berean Expositor.
Meeting with Dr. E.W. Bullinger
After his resignation from the Bible Training College in 1908, Welch read an article in Dr. Bullinger's “Things To Come” which he believed contained an anomaly; namely, if Israel had been set aside in God's plans at Acts 28:24-28 (approximately 62 AD), then the epistles of the New Testament written before and after this event should reflect such a change.Welch wrote to Bullinger and soon met with him to discuss the relation of Paul's 14 epistles to the boundary line of Acts 28. Although Bullinger had written many times previously concerning Israel's setting aside in God's dealings at Acts 28, he had continued to write about the New Testament epistles without reconciling the fact that some were written before, and some after Acts chapter 28.
At this meeting, Welch put forth the idea to the man for whom he had so much respect. Mr. Welch records that after pondering his proposal, Dr. Bullinger declared, "That scraps half the books I've written. But we want the Truth, and the Truth is in what you have said." Dr. Bullinger agreed, the place of Acts 28 indeed had an important bearing on interpreting the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. Then they both "discussed implications that arise from observing the relation of Paul's epistles to that boundary line" as follows:
| Epistles Written Before Acts 28 | Epistles Written After Acts 28 |
|---|---|
| Galatians | Ephesians |
| 1 Thessalonians | Philippians |
| 2 Thessalonians | Colossians |
| Hebrews | Philemon |
| 1 Corinthians | 1 Timothy |
| 2 Corinthians | Titus |
| Romans | 2 Timothy |
Although Dr. Bullinger died four and half years after the meeting, his last book titled: “Foundations of Dispensational Truth” reflected his understanding and acceptance of the division of the Pauline epistles
Pauline epistles
The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen New Testament books which have the name Paul as the first word, hence claiming authorship by Paul the Apostle. Among these letters are some of the earliest extant Christian documents...
written before and after the Acts 28 dividing line.
After the meeting
When Dr. Bullinger was writing The Companion Bible there was little time to continue his Things to Come journal. As a result, he asked Welch to take over as editor. His first article was titled, “The Unity of the Spirit (Eph 4:3): What is it?”. He continued to write dispensational expositions in the journal until it ceased publication in 1915.Although incomplete at his death, Dr. Bullinger's Companion Bible was fully published in 1922. Within The Companion Bible's appendixes is written an exposition by C.H. Welch titled, The Eight Parables of the Kingdom of Heaven in Matt. 13, Appendix 145. Although Welch wrote 24 more articles for the Appendixes related to the Acts 28 position, this was the only article published. Perplexed, Welch wrote to the committee in charge of completing The Companion Bible for an explanation. Their response was: "We do not know what Dr. Bullinger would have written, we can only go back and adopt what he has already written, although his last book, The Foundations of Dispensational Truth proves that he fully accepted Acts 28 as the dispensational boundary and the segregation of The Prison Epistles."
In 1943, Welch adopted the Wilson St. Chapel in London as his church building, which he renamed The Chapel of the Opened Book. To preserve Welch's works and research, The Berean Publishing Trust and The Berean Forward Movement were established.
Works
- Apostle of the Reconciliation (1923)
- Testimony of the Lord’s Prisoner (1931) ISBN 0851560539
- Just and the Justifier (1948)
- Life Through His Name (1953)
- ‘Dispensational Truth: Or, The Place of Israel and the Church in the Purpose of the Ages’ (1959) ISBN 978-0851560823
- Published posthumously, after Welch's death on November 11, 1967
- In Heavenly Places: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Ephesians (1968)
- United Yet Divided (1976) ISBN 978-0851560571
- The Berean Expositor, volumes 1-56
- From Pentecost to Prison, or The Acts of the Apostles, (1996)
- Perfection or Perdition: An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews (1970)
- Form of Sound Words, (1997) ISBN 978-0851561745
- Welch's magazine continues to publish his works