A Tribute to Dr. Freeman Barton
It was about 2:00 AM and my roommate Harry Stoliker and I were in our dorm room working on a project for one of our classes that was due later that morning when out of the corner of my eye I saw Dr. Freeman Barton whisk by our door. I turned to Harry with surprise and said “What is Dr. Barton doing in the men’s dorm at 2:00 AM?” Within a few minutes I had my answer for the fire alarm went off blaring! As the Dean of Students, Dr. Barton took his responsibility for the safety and preparedness of the students seriously. What better time to make sure that the fire alarms worked and the men’s dorm would be evacuated expeditiously than a surprise fire drill at 2:00 AM. Such was the care and the unpredictability of our Dean of Students!
I attended Dr. Barton’s memorial service on Saturday September 11, 2021. It was a moving service of tribute to this pious Christ-loving scholar/professor. The officiating and homily by Floyd McIntyre, the filial and loving words of his son Don Barton and the tribute paid to him by Hazel Blackstone and Glenn Rice on behalf of Berkshire Christian College were spot on and I trust brought real comfort to his wife Pauline, and his other children Audrey, Jonas, Janette and his grandchildren.
Freeman Barton came from a New Hampshire farm family. In spite of his quiet and soft spoken manner he was as solid as New Hampshire granite. At the core of his life, of course, was his faith in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and his unswerving commitment to the authority and sufficiency of God’s Word, the Bible. He knew that God had called him to teach and he faithfully pursued that calling, earning degrees from Berkshire Christian College, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and his PhD. from the University of Iowa. When Berkshire Christian College closed he pursued a degree in Library Science and ended his career in academia as Librarian at Gordon-Conwell.
I offer a few of my own reflections on this man who had such a significant impact on my life and on that of so many others. I mentioned that he was soft spoken. This was a fact and not merely a metaphor. His lectures were always filled with rich content but if you wanted to be sure you heard him you had better have sat in the first three rows of his classes. He had a heart for the students he taught and was a mentor to many. During my freshman year I took his course on US Government and in addition to learning a great deal about the US Constitution and how our government was crafted to work, I voted for the first time. He was also a hands-on instructor and made sure that those in his Government class who were over 18 were registered to vote and then took us to the polls in Stockbridge to vote in the 1972 Presidential election. Other courses followed in Bible, theology, eschatology and missions.
It was his passion for world missions that grabbed my mind and heart in an unexpected way. It was through his influence and behind the scenes labors that Alice Brown and I became mission interns with ACGC Missions. Alice spent four months in the Philippines and I spent the same amount of time in Japan with wonderful Japanese believers and AC missionaries Austin and Dorothy Warriner, Jack and Connie Jones, Floyd and Musa Powers and Sylvia Whitman. It was Dr. Barton who drove me to Logan Airport in Boston to catch my flight. I can still remember him standing on an exterior veranda waving as my plane taxied for take off.
During my graduate years at Westminster Theological Seminary, I became keenly aware of how his careful scholarship, which undergirded his lectures and class discussions, prepared me for some of the most rigorous academic challenges I would face. That careful scholarship also marked his own writing and his years of editing the Advent Christian academic journal Henceforth.
Freeman Barton, however, was no ivory tower theologian. He loved the Gospel and sought opportunities to share Christ and to support those who were engaged in church ministry and in world missions. He spent his sabbatical during 1979 with his family teaching at Oro Bible College in the Philippines and traveling to various churches there to preach and to minister. He was engaged with efforts in church planting and revitalization too. When I began pastoral ministry in Connecticut and the church was relocating and worshipping in a local school in Windsor, one Sunday morning Freeman showed up on his motorcycle (which entailed a 70 mile trip one way) to worship with us and to check on how I was fairing.
I had the privilege of not only being his student at Berkshire Christian College but a colleague serving as an adjunct lecturer from 1980-1986. He loved the college and it broke his heart many times over to see the downgrade that was occurring during those closing years. He stood against that theological downgrade and it was his humble yet courageous stand for the continuation of the evangelical and Biblical fabric of the college that got him (unjustly) terminated. During that time he chronicled all that was taking place and after the college closed at Lenox he published his careful account in the treatise entitled: “Mary Queen of Scots at Berkshire Christian College: Case Study in the Dissolution of a Christian College.”
In God’s good and gracious providence Freeman was hired as librarian at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and moved his family to North Hamilton, Massachusetts. There he finished his vocational years and then retired with Pauline to North Springfield, Vermont. It was during those years that I had the opportunity to work with him again and with Floyd McIntyre, Bruce Burks, Terry Robinson, Larry Knowles and Steve Brown in what was called the Themelios Forum. We were meeting together, writing papers and giving presentations with the goal of influencing the Advent Christian people toward greater Biblical orthodoxy that reflected the historic catholic creeds and the five solas of the reformation. Freeman’s knowledge, scholarship and passion for God’s glory aided us in all our efforts.
The true character of any of us comes to light in the crucible of suffering. I always knew that Freeman, like David, was a man after God’s own heart. This came out very overtly as he endured the ravages of Parkinson disease. It was heartbreaking to see him physically deteriorate knowing that his mind was still engaged. Even during his battle with this awful affliction he sought to stay active with research and writing. Unfortunately, he was not able to finish his last book that was to lay out a more broad reaching eschatological vision than his prior work “Heaven, Hell and Hades.” However, he did not face this battle alone. His dear wife Pauline fought with him and for him always by his side. She shared in his suffering and provided him with such loving care. Yet, he rarely (if ever) complained or blamed his loving heavenly Father. Rather, though his outer man was wasting away, his hope in the promise of the Resurrection secured for him by the person and work of his Lord Jesus Christ was his foundation and the loving hand of his heavenly Father continued to shape and strengthen him in his inner man. His pious, humble, loving and noble character shone through brightly to the glory of God as his earthly vessel failed him. So he now rests from his labors awaiting that glorious day of resurrection, when he will set his eyes upon his blessed God and Savior Jesus Christ.