Thursday, October 29, 2026

It is the 29th of October 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

If you’ll permit me, I’d like to start with a point about a word we use a lot, and how I don’t care to use it a certain way, and then- to tell our story… well, I’ll use it that way.

 

We often tell stories about “conversions”. From Paul to Augustine and more, we have these dramatic moments when characters go from unbeliever to believer. The literal “Road to Damascus” moment with Paul has perhaps sent us searching for our own moment or the moment in others' stories. Two points: you might not have a single moment- it's often a process. And secondly- I’d prefer to keep the “conversion” language as the moment one goes from Non-Christian to Christian… you didn’t “convert” to a denomination or tradition; you just moved rooms.

 

All that to say- let me tell you the fascinating story of the four conversions of Nehemiah Goreh with a shoutout to John Keune, who suggested such a reading of this fascinating Sanskrit-trained Hindu controversialist who became a Christian apologist and Anglican priest.

 

He was born Nilakantha Goreh in 1825 in North East India to a wealthy and Orthodox Hindu family. Because of this family’s status, they were able to have Goreh tutored privately instead of going to one of the growing number of schools run by British missionaries. Goreh studied the Hindu holy texts and became a pandit- a kind of Hindu scholar. But he soon upset his family with his first conversion- that from a follower of the tradition that followed Shiva to that of Vishnu. His reasoning was that the Vishnu tradition had texts and traditions that predated Shiva and thus were more reliable. He was warned that this kind of scrutiny might lead him down a bad path… even to that of the mleccha- or Barbarian (what they called the Christians).

 

Upset with this, he decided to attempt to drive all the Christian preachers out of his neighborhood. He met William Smith of the Christian Missionary Society, and the two argued, shared texts, and Goreh wrote a Hindu critique of Christianity. It included the idea that the Christian God created too many who were consigned to hell, that Christians condemn idolatry but then worship the Bible, and that the lack of reincarnation in Christianity is unjust for those who should be given a second chance.

 

Around 1846 Goreh began to have doubts about his own arguments. He claims it was reading the Sermon on the Mount and bringing questions to other Pandits that led to him doubting his own beliefs. By 1848 he was baptized- his “second" conversion- and was disowned by his family. He traveled around the country and then to London. Of what he saw there he said: “If that is Christianity, I am not a Christian”. He had also been harboring doubts about the divinity of Jesus. X He went to Calcutta, where he studied with an Anglo-Catholic and soon learned of the varieties of Christians and their distinctive emphases. Thus, his “third” conversion was to the Anglican Communion. He would study and teach at the Bishop’s college there and was ordained as a Deacon in the Church of England. Later, upon learning of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, he made the fourth “conversion” as he made steps to join the monastic order. He never formally joined, as he was unsure of his own personal holiness- he did, however, spend the rest of his life living amongst them.

 

He had been married, briefly- his wife died in 1853. They had one daughter, raised by white missionaries and she herself- Ellen Lakshmi would become a missionary.

 

Goreh had always wrestled with assurance. His constant search for orthodoxy and his lack of peace can be seen in the prayer recorded by his caretaker on his deathbed- he said he had one request: joy in his faith. He said he was converted by those who stressed this feeling, but he was unable to find it. It was said that he was very saintly, but utterly joyless. He was a man racked by doubt and searching for both personal holiness and orthodoxy- as seen in his four “conversions”. But it was his one conversion- in 1848 into the Christian faith by baptism that we remember primarily on this, the anniversary of his death on this day in 1895. Born in 1825, Nilakantha, baptized Nehemiah Goreh, was 70 years old.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Psalm 107 from the Scottish Metrical Psalter:

¹ Praise God, for he is good: for still
his mercies lasting be.
² Let God’s redeemed say so, whom he
from th’ en’my’s hand did free;

³ And gathered them out of the lands,
from north, south, east, and west.
⁴ They strayed in desert’s pathless way,
no city found to rest.

⁵ For thirst and hunger in them faints
⁶ their soul. When straits them press,
They cry unto the Lord, and he
them frees from their distress.

⁷ Them also in a way to walk
that right is he did guide,
That they might to a city go,
wherein they might abide.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 29th of October 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man excited for Halloween- another year dressing up as the 95 Theses; he doesn’t knock- he just affixes himself to your front door… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who gives out 95 Reese's and Gummy Worms to keep it Reformation-themed… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.