The God of All Comfort Exists
Remembering W. Terry Varner
When Alexander Campbell received the news of the death of Walter Scott, his “much beloved and esteemed” friend, he wrote a memorial tribute to Scott. Early in his literary tribute, Campbell stated, “Next to my father, he was my most cordial and indefatigable fellow laborer.” The piece was published in the May 1861 issue of The Millennial Harbinger for which Campbell served as Editor (1830-1864).
Some years ago, I read with appreciation Campbell’s tribute to his dearest preacher friend. However, since the 19th of August of this year, I have read the aforementioned tribute more often with an increasing depth of appreciation. This is the case because the date of August 19, 2024, is the day my “much beloved and esteemed” friend, W. Terry Varner, passed from what Dr. Warren repeatedly called the vale of soul-making. Others have referenced it as such, but it was the late Thomas B. Warren who impacted both Terry Varner and myself with his teaching concerning this matter.
With one exception, Terry Varner was with me each time I visited Bethany College founded by Alexander Campbell. The exception was 18 years ago when I traveled solo to Bethany. However, there was a sense in which Varner even traveled with me on that occasion. He had been assigned a lecture on Micah 6:6-8 to be delivered during a lectureship scheduled for October 2006. In July of 2006, I had purchased the volume A Handful of Stars: Texts that have Moved Great Minds authored by F. W. Boreham. I bought this book because I knew it contained an essay on Habakkuk 3:16-19, the text I was assigned to address during the same aforementioned lectureship. Upon receiving Boreham’s book I discovered it also included an essay on the passage that Varner had been assigned. I gave a quick look at Boreham’s essay on Micah 6:6-8 and was impressed with a statement attributed to the Victorian intellectual Thomas Huxley, known as the prince of agnostics who coined the term agnosticism to describe his professed inability to know whether or not God exists. As was customary in our relationship, I shared Huxley’s statement with Varner and strongly urged him to use it in his lecture. Boreham, as too often is the case, had not documented the original source of the Huxley quote. I did some research and discovered Huxley’s tribute to Micah 6 appears in his 1894 volume, Science and Hebrew Tradition Essays. Neither Terry nor I had this rare volume, but Bethany College did. I traveled to Bethany’s library and received permission to see the book, which was archived in a rare book section. The Huxley quote, fully documented, appears in Varner’s lecture on this text. His last published article for the Warren Center and his last editorial appear in the Spring 2024 issue of Sufficient Evidence: A Journal of Christian Apologetics. The last article published prior to his death was none other than his 2006 lecture manuscript on Micah 6:6-8.
Occasionally we hear someone being described as a self-made man. Terry Varner was a God-made man. He and I met 50 years ago (1974). We were ministering during that time to churches in northeast Ohio—he in the Canton area, and I in the Akron area. Neither of us knew the other. However, he just happened to attend a funeral service which I was officiating. I wonder if this really just happened. Was providence, perhaps, working here (cf. Philemon 15)? The deceased was the father of a member of the congregation to which Terry was ministering. During the funeral message I said, “The God of all comfort exists [cf. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4]. We can know He exists. This is a great consolation for us in our struggles.” Following the funeral service, Terry approached me, introduced himself, and requested an appointment to discuss a subject which he did not identify at that time. I honored his request. The day of the appointment arrived, and we met. Following our exchange of a few pleasantries, he explained his reason for meeting. He stated, “So, you believe you can know and prove the existence of God?” I answered, “Yes. Absolutely!” He responded, “I have been looking for a preacher in this area who believes like I do that it is possible to prove God exists and that the existence of God is a matter of knowledge.”
Since that meeting fifty years ago, the prayers, studies, debates, writing, discussions, publications, sermons, lectures, lessons, tears, laughter, trips, miles, meals, books, articles, goals, plans, conversations, calls, messages, meetings, events, memories, etc. are many. But the foundation of it all remained the same—GOD, THE BIBLE, AND JESUS CHRIST. Such remained true through the fifty years of our friendship, remains true today, and will remain true eternally.
The list of things that describes the life of Terry Varner is so long and diverse it would fill a lengthy biography to describe it in detail—Christian, preacher, military serviceman, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, elder, teacher, scholar, lecturer, writer, editor, preaching school co-founder, counselor, apologist, apologetics center co-founder, board director, educator, public speaker, horticulturalist, agriculturalist, sportsman, hunter, fisherman, chef, anthologist, bibliophile, etc. His longest period of service—70 years—was as a Christian and a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He truly was a man of God; God made the man.
With the exception of Lillie, his wife of 65 years. and their four children, Steve, Scott, Stuart, and Sara, I probably knew Terry Varner as well or better than any other human on Earth. I tell you, he was one of the most remarkable men I have known. I do not know every detail, but know enough to conclude from what he shared with me over the last 50 years that, ultimately, it was but by the grace of God in conjunction with the providence of God that Terry Varner overcame what he had to in order to become what he was as he passed from this vale of soul-making.
Respectfully, I borrow words from Campbell’s tribute to Walter Scott in the following:
No death in my horizon, out of my own family . . . awoke more tender sympathies. . . . We often took counsel together. . . . I knew him well. I knew him long. I loved him much. . . . By the eye of faith and the eye of hope . . . I see him in Abraham’s bosom.
Fifty years ago the affirmation of a proposition (i.e., "The God of all comfort exists, and we can know He exists.") brought the two of us together. Today, more obvious to me than ever, are the implications of a second proposition as stated in the same context as the first. It is ". . . We should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead . . ." (2 Corinthians 1:9). By these great things we are 1) sustained in our loss, 2) rejoice in his gain, and 3) grounded and settled by the hope of the gospel (Colossians 1:23). We are a people of certainty anchored by the hope of the faith (Hebrews 6:19-20) and living by this sure faith on the resurrection side of the grave. Because Jesus died and rose again the reunion will occur! The best is yet to come (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)! To the God of all comfort be the glory. Amen!