John newton biography video gold 1

by David Cloud

John Newton (1725-1807), author of "Amazing Grace," lived an amazing life which reads like an adventure novel.

His godly mother, a non-conformist, died when he was seven, and after only two years of formal schooling he joined his unbelieving father at sea at age 11, starting on a career of wickedness and blasphemy and infidelity.

In an attempt to forget the God his mother taught him and quiet his conscience, he moved from deism to atheism. Later he said, "I believed my own lie."

He endured a terrible flogging for attempting to desert from the Royal Navy.

John newton biography video gold 1

Captured by a slave trader in West Africa, he became a slave to this man's African wife who treated him like a dog, forcing him to live in filthy rags with barely enough food to survive. After being rescued by an agent of his father, Newton became a master of a slave ship.

He was converted in 1748 at age 23.

This was in connection with a fierce storm that almost sank his sh