John Gifford Bellett (19 July 1795 – 10 October 1864) was an Irish Christian writer and theologian, and was influential in the beginning of the

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and non-conformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where they originated from Anglicanism. The group emphasizes ...

movement.

Life

Bellett was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland. He was educated first at the Grammar School in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, England, then at

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, where he excelled in Classics, and afterwards in London. It was in Dublin that, as a layman, he first became acquainted with

John Nelson Darby John Nelson Darby (18 November 1800 – 29 April 1882) was an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher, one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren and the founder of the Exclusive Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern D ...

, then a minister in the established

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

, and in 1829 the pair began meeting with others such as

Edward Cronin Edward Cronin (born Cork, Ireland, 1 February 1801, died Brixton, 1 February 1882) was a pioneer of homeopathy in England and one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren movement. Life Cronin was born in 1801 in Cork, Ireland, before moving to ...

and Francis Hutchinson for communion and prayer. Bellett had become a Christian as a student and by 1827 was a layman serving the Church. In a letter to James McAllister, written in 1858, he describes the episcopal charge of William Magee,

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...

, that sought for greater state protection for the Church. The

Erastian Thomas Erastus (original surname Lüber, Lieber, or Liebler; 7 September 152431 December 1583) was a Swiss physician and Calvinist theologian. He wrote 100 theses (later reduced to 75) in which he argued that the sins committed by Christians shou ...

nature of the charge offended Darby particularly, but also many others including Bellett.Grayson Carter, ''Anglican Evangelicals'', OUP 2001, p. 212, The pair bonded particularly over prophetic issues, and attended meetings and discussions together at the home of Lady Powerscourt, and Bellett and Darby (along with the Brethren movement in particular) were particularly associated with

dispensationalism Dispensationalism is a system that was formalized in its entirety by John Nelson Darby. Dispensationalism maintains that history is divided into multiple ages or "dispensations" in which God acts with humanity in different ways. Dispensationali ...

and

premillennialism Premillennialism, in Christian eschatology, is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the Earth (the Second Coming) before the Millennialism#Christianity, Millennium, a literal thousand-year golden age of peace. Premillennialism is base ...

Writings

Bellett wrote many articles and books on scriptural subjects, his most famous works being ''The Patriarchs'', ''The Evangelists'' and ''The Minor Prophets''. A substantial list of his works can be found vi
STEM Publishing

Selected works

* ''The Patriachs'' (Morrish, 1909) * ''The Evangelists'' (Rouse, 1903) * ''The Minor Prophets'' (ed. W. Kelly; Allan, 1870) * ''Short Meditations'' (Cavenagh, 1866) * ''Moral Glory of Jesus Christ''

References

External links

* *
Collected writings of J.G. Bellett

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellett, John Gifford Irish Plymouth Brethren Irish evangelicals 1795 births 1864 deaths Christian writers Writers from Dublin (city)