Pastor Tom Admin January 11, 2021

Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives
Thomas Jefferson Fisher – ”This Year Thou Shalt Die”

Thomas Jefferson Fisher was the fourth of thirteen children, born in Mt. Sterling, Montgomery County, Kentucky on April 9, 1812, and born again there in his sixteenth year, after which he joined a Presbyterian church. He quickly learned his mistake, and a year later he was immersed and joined the Baptist church in David’s Fork, Fayette County, Kentucky.

To that point Brother Fisher had received very little formal education, so he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in order to study under a Baptist pastor there.

In 1834, then twenty-two-years-old he was ordained, and the following February he accepted a call to pastor the Mill Creek Baptist Church Bardstown, Kentucky. When this ministry didn’t work out, the young man became a traveling evangelist – something for which he was eminently suited. Throughout the rest of his life, vast crowds came to hear him preach Christ, and it is estimated that more than 12,000 people professed conversions under his ministry.

On December 20, 1865 Mr. Fisher left his comfortable home at Bardstown, Kentucky, to return to it no more. He reached Bagdad of Shelby County, Kentucky, and preached that night. On New Year’s day he preached from these words: “This year thou shalt die.” While he urged upon his audience the solemn purport of this text of Holy Writ, perhaps no one thought of making an application of it to the strong, healthy speaker, upon whose words of burning eloquence they hung with awe and delight. He continued preaching at Bagdad until Sunday night, January 7, 1866. On that night he preached his last sermon.

The next day he arrived in Louisville where he expected to collect two thousand dollars from a friend that was owed him. That evening, he took supper with a friend. Afterwards, at about 8 p.m., he was found lying on the pavement, helpless and unconscious. His skull was so badly fractured that recovery was hopeless. Mr. Fisher was taken to the house of a friend, receiving medical attention; but the assassin’s missile had placed him beyond the reach of man’s aid.

He lay thus wrapped in quiet unconsciousness until noon of Thursday, January 11, 1866, when he quietly passed away, and went into the presence of God, to yield up an account of his stewardship.

Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from: “The Life of Thomas Jefferson Fisher: The Celebrated Pulpit Orator ……” (John H. Spencer)

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