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Thomas Todhunter Shields (1873-1955) was born in England and grew up in Canada, the son of a pastor. He was converted in 1891 at age 18 and preached his first sermon three years later. He had no formal college or seminary education. He pastored four Baptist churches between 1894 and 1910.
That year he became pastor of Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto, where he remained until his death in 1955. He was called a “man of special gifts, a mountain peak without peer as preacher, teacher, writer--a veritable genius, the Canadian Spurgeon, a battling Baptist, and a devoted pastor” (Leslie Tarr, Shields of Canada, from the foreword by H.C. Slade).
By 1919, Jarvis Street was the leading church of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, with a membership of 700. That year, Shields spoke out against the liberalism of I.G. Matthews, a teacher at the denomination’s McMaster University, and the liberalism espoused by the Canadian Baptist, the denomination’s paper. There was a downgrade in the doctrine of the infallible inspiration of Scripture. Shields also spoke against “the damage being done by worldly amusements.” Instead of heeding the warning and standing with Shields against liberalism and worldliness, the majority of pastors in the denomination attacked the messenger, charging him with being “a dictator.” Many of his own church members were supporters of McMaster’s University and called for a vote to fire the pastor. By a slim margin of 351 to 310, the move was defeated, but 340 people left the church. There is usually a real price to pay for standing for the truth, but God blesses it.
In 1922, Shields began publishing the Gospel Witness to preach the truth and to expose “Romanism and Modernism.” “It was one of the most powerful organs of the Fundamentalist Movement in the 1920s and 1930s” (Dollar, A History of Fundamentalism in America).
In 1923, Shields helped found the Baptist Bible Union.
In 1924, Shields hosted J. Frank Norris for a month of meetings and had an attendance of 50,000.
In 1927, Jarvis Street Baptist Church was voted out of the Ontario and Quebec Convention, and Shields led in the formation of the Union of Regular Baptist Churches. This was composed of 77 Baptist churches in Ontario and Quebec that separated from the Convention.
By 1927, Jarvis Street had a membership of 2,000.
In the 1930s, Shields took a stand for amillennialism and attacked the Scofield Bible. This resulted in his division from premillennialists such as J. Frank Norris.
In 1938, Jarvis Street’s building was burned down by arson, but a new building was constructed and was debt free by 1947.
Shields founded the Canadian Protestant League to oppose the growing power of the Catholic Church in Canada.
In 1948, Shields joined Carl McIntire’s International Council of Christian Churches.
Shields was a warrior. He said, “I had a stormy life. ... I have been zealous for the Gospel. ... I regret nothing of my contention for the faith, save that I have not striven more heroically and continuously for the glory of the Gospel. ... Preaching is the biggest business I know. ... I am a soldier in the field. ... I will have no compromise with the enemy” (Tarr, Shields of Canada, pp. 145-158).
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