November 25 Today in OPC History

On this date in 1989, Hattie DeWaard went home to her Lord. She was the widow of John DeWaard, one of the seven ministers who, with J. Gresham Machen, were suspended from the ministry by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1936.

Henrikje Smitter (Hattie) was born in rural Michigan in 1895. For 24 years she lived quietly on the family farm. The oldest daughter and middle child in a family of seven children, she left school after eighth grade to help at home. Her desire to be a part of the larger work of God’s Kingdom led her to respond to the publicity about the shortage of nurses following World War I. While training at Blodgett Hospital in Grand Rapids, she met John DeWaard.

As a bride, Hattie joined John at Princeton Seminary in 1923. The following year the Auburn Affirmation was signed by Presbyterian ministers willing to affirm that the Bible is not inerrant. Articles in periodicals used terms like “tolerance” and “inclusiveness” and “extreme fundamentalism” to describe what was happening in the church. Hattie got a crash course in the current threats to historic Christianity by listening as her husband and his former roommate, Cornelius Van Til, discussed these things.

When John accepted a call to First Presbyterian Church in Cedar Grove, Wisconsin in 1925, the debates about defending the faith seemed far away. But ten years later, John was forced to choose between obedience to his conscience and submission to an increasingly authoritarian church. In his trials, Hattie was able to give him strong support. Though she never took a class, she learned a lot at Princeton.

She was one of the original members of the Orthodox Presbyterian church and loved it deeply. Her life was characterized by the honor she showed to the men who founded the church and the encouragement she gave to the young people who joined it over the following years.

Read more about Hattie in Choosing the Good Portion: Women of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, which is available on OPC.ORG here.

Picture: John and Hattie DeWaard