I Know Whom I Have Believed Hymn Story

I know whom I have believed hymn story is yet another powerful story on hymns that have blessed millions all over the world. It is difficult to appreciate this hymn without first hearing the story of the conversion of the author, Major Daniel Webster Whittle.

If you are familiar with English dictionaries you will have probably noticed the name Daniel Webster in the name of the author.

His parents were definitely fans of Daniel Webster, the politician and author of one of English languages famous dictionaries for they name their son after him.

Daniel Webster Whittle was born on November 22, 1840 in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts.

From what I can gather he was raised in a religious family. From what I have gathered his mother was very religious and a very prayerful woman.

And it appears that in his youth he too was religious but appears to have strayed from the strait and narrow way later on in his youth.

Daniel Webster Whittle, I know whom I have believed hymn story
Daniel Webster Whittle

In his youth, he joined the military and would rise to the rank of Major. In the 1861 he was deployed to fight in the American civil war. Before he left for the war he married his wife Abbie Hanson.

During the war he was seriously injured and captured as a prisoner of war. Due to the injury he had to have his arm amputated above the arm.

Coming from a religious family one would have expected these incidents to have made him to seek the Lord more.

Unfortunately that is not what happened to him at least initially as he was indifferent to religious things by this time.

Fortunately for him, his mother who had shed tears and prayed with him before he left for the war also packed a new testament bible in one of his bags.

By God’s grace, while in hospital he came across this bible and began to read it.

He read all the books from Matthew to Revelation. After revelation he started again from the book of Matthew and says he could understand the scriptures more clearly than before.

But for some reason he did not feel like giving his life to Jesus yet.

Then one day a nurse came over with a request for him to come and pray for a dying soldier.

The soldier had been pleading with the nurse to pray for him before he died.

The dying soldier had strayed away from the Lord and had no relationship with him but wanted to come back to Christ.

Unfortunately the nurse was not religious either and felt that she could not pray for him.

Daniel Webster Whittle told the nurse that he too was not religious and was therefore not the right person to pray for the young man.

The nurse was surprised as she had seen Daniel Webster Whittle reading the bible and he was also the only one she had seen who did not use cuss words or any unkind words.

Probably this was the remnant of his boyhood days when he was religious.

Finally Daniel Webster Whittle decided to go and pray with this young man. He found a young man of about seventeen years old and the young man pleaded with him.

“‘Oh, pray for me! Pray for me! I am dying. I was a good boy at home in Maine. My mother and father are members of the Church, and I went to Sunday School and tried to be a good boy.

But since I became a soldier I have learned to be wicked. I drank, and swore, and gambled, and went with bad men. And now I am dying, and I am not fit to die! Oh, ask God to forgive me! Pray for me. Ask Christ to save me!’”

He knelt besides the bed of his young man and first of all confessed his own sins and accepted Jesus as his own personal savior.

And then holding the young man’s hand he prayed for God to forgive the dying soldier and claiming God’s promises for him.

As he did this the young man pressed his hand.

When he finished the prayer, the young man was dead but in the words of Daniel Webster Whittle his face shown with the peace and he believed that God had heard his prayer.

Later on in life he penned this beautiful song, I Know Whom I have Believed as an expression of his faith and trust in the Lord.

It was meant to show what God had done in his life since he gave his life to him.

I hope by now you have noticed that the chorus is based on the following words of Paul to Timothy.

“For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

You may wish to visit Crown Him With Many Crowns Hymn Story

I Know Whom I have Believed Lyrics

Below are the words of this beautiful hymn that has come to bless millions if not billions of Christian all over the world.

I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
Redeemed me for His own.

Refrain:
But “I know Whom I have believed,
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.”

I know not how this saving faith
To me He did impart,
Nor how believing in His Word
Wrought peace within my heart.

I know not how the Spirit moves,
Convincing men of sin,
Revealing Jesus through the Word,
Creating faith in Him.

I know not what of good or ill
May be reserved for me,
Of weary ways or golden days,
Before His face I see.

I know not when my Lord may come,
At night or noonday fair,
Nor if I walk the vale with Him,
Or meet Him in the air.

He Giveth More Grace Hymn Story and Lyrics.

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I Know Whom I Have Believed Video

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