J.W. McGarvey

J.W. McGarvey

7 Sermons|2 Books|1 Images
John William McGarvey (1829–1911) was an American preacher, educator, and author whose influential ministry within the Restoration Movement left a lasting mark on 19th- and early 20th-century evangelical Christianity. Born on March 1, 1829, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, to an Irish immigrant father and Sarah Ann Thomson, he lost his father at age four, after which his mother married Dr. Gurdon F. Saltonstall. Raised in Tremont, Illinois, from 1839, McGarvey attended Bethany College in Virginia from 1847 to 1850, graduating with honors and delivering the Greek commencement address under the mentorship of Alexander Campbell. Baptized in 1848 by W.K. Pendleton, he resolved to preach, beginning his ministry in 1851 in Fayette, Missouri, after his stepfather’s death. In 1853, he married Ottie F. Hix, with whom he had eight children, though several predeceased him. McGarvey’s preaching career spanned multiple congregations, notably in Dover, Missouri (1853–1862), and Lexington, Kentucky, where he served Main Street Christian Church (1862–1866) and later Broadway Christian Church (1869–1880), growing memberships significantly with his clear, doctrinal sermons. A staunch defender of biblical inerrancy, he opposed instrumental music in worship and theological liberalism, co-editing The Apostolic Times from 1869 to advocate Restoration principles. As a professor at the College of the Bible in Lexington from 1865, and its president from 1895 until his death, he trained generations of preachers, emphasizing scriptural authority over modernist trends. His extensive writings, including Commentary on Acts (1863) and Evidences of Christianity (1886), remain influential. McGarvey died on October 6, 1911, in Lexington, leaving a legacy as a preacher whose scholarship and fidelity to New Testament Christianity shaped the Churches of Christ.
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