ELLIOT, PHILIP JAMES (1927–1956)
Missionary to Ecuadorean Indians
Born into a godly family in Portland, Oregon, Elliot graduated in 1949 from Wheaton College (Illinois) with highest honor as a Greek major. He was intellectually gifted, with interests ranging over public speaking, music, art, and literature, especially poetry. He memorized hundreds of hymns. Taking up wrestling in college to develop his body for the glory of God, he became a wrestling champion.
In 1952 Elliot went to Ecuador, establishing a school and Bible-teaching ministry among the Quechua Indians. After a long and unorthodox courtship that began at Wheaton, he married Elisabeth Howard in 1953.
Elliot kept a journal, begun during college, in which he consistently recorded the growth of his soul. Some of his statements have become classics: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” His journals also reflected his sense of urgency: “I seek not a long life but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.” “Father, if thou wilt let me go to South America to labor with Thee and to die … let me go soon.”
That vision was fulfilled when he and four companions began efforts to reach the Aucas, a primitive Indian tribe in eastern Ecuador. After three months of carefully planned weekly visits by air over a village, they landed on a beach of the Curaray River in Auca territory. They were encouraged by friendly contact with three Aucas, but two days later ten Aucas attacked and killed all five missionaries. Their deaths had repercussions around the world, including the subsequent conversion of many Aucas. The story of Jim Elliot’s life and death is recorded in Through Gates of Splendor (1957) and Shadow of the Almighty (1958), both by Elisabeth Elliot.
D.M.HOWARD
D.M. Howard, “Elliot, Philip James,” ed. J.D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort, Who’s Who in Christian History (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1992), 230.
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