Eric chose to delight in and teach the young people in his charge the joyous treasures that God has hidden in each day and the freedom of understanding the grace of God. During a prayer session—which often felt more like gripe sessions—one of the teenage girls broke down.
“Lord,” Kari Torjesen prayed, “I am willing to stay in this prison for the rest of my life if I can only know you.” Years later, Kari said, “I’d planned to go to college. Instead I went to prison . . . [but after that prayer] I was free! It was as if the gates had been opened. I was released in my spirit.”[98]
Steadily, as Eric had observed throughout his life, God produced more and more fruit when Eric diligently attended to ministry. But the question of how long until the war would end and they could go free persisted.
Eric’s subtle but constant reassurances of the faithfulness of Christ made him an example of character, integrity, and hope to the internees, no matter the situation. He refused to focus on the despair of uncertainty and took every opportunity to turn despair into hope. He shared the love of Jesus with those who felt bound, physically or even spiritually, despite their active imaginations for rescue.
There has been some recent speculation that one such freedom fantasy did come true for Eric. Recently it has been claimed that Winston Churchill arranged with the Japanese government for a prisoner exchange for the peaceful release of Eric Liddell. Upon hearing the news, Eric offered to allow an expectant mother—one of the prostitutes in the camp—to take his place. This is an exquisite story of sacrifice, and one consistent with Eric’s typically selfless nature, but the factuality of the event remains uncertain.
A fellow missionary recounted a tale of the powerful effect Eric’s presence had on depressed people in the camp. A businessman who had been brought up by parents who were strict Brethren found himself unable to reconcile himself to the narrow attitudes they adopted. But his association with Eric at Weihsien turned his skepticism into a personal faith in Christ, which led him to seek baptism while in internment.
Eric Liddell’s theology of feeling unrestricted within the controlled hands of Christ became increasingly evident and manifested itself one day in a startling way. In a remarkable illustration of his faith journey since the Olympics, Eric amazingly broke his longstanding rule of no sports on the Sabbath.
Initially when asked about playing any sport on a Sunday, Eric gave his expected no. But winter provided a bleaker challenge than the warmer months. The action of hockey in the arctic air got the youth out of the dorms and kept them warm at the same time. And, of course, Eric loved to play with them—save on Sundays.
On Sundays the youth played without Eric’s supervision or participation, and brutal conflict ensued, becoming a weekly issue. The problem of the youth fighting on the sports field persisted for over a month. Any other day, Eric would have been in their midst, monitoring their athletic activity in some way. But the lack of “Uncle Eric” did not dissuade the youth from seeking to kill their boredom. Sunday after Sunday, the pent-up youth went out.
Eric evidently recognized the bomb about to explode and defused it. In what can only be described as a massive shift from his earlier legalistic approach—one that made him more famous than a gold medal ever could—Eric agreed to come out to the sports field. “I won’t play; I will only referee,” he said. Eric reasoned that drilling a positive example for the youth and establishing order, even at the expense of keeping his untarnished Sabbath record intact, was for the greater good.
Eric’s reputation extended far beyond the sports field, the classroom, or the Sunday school class. During their time in Weihsien, Helena Campbell approached Eric, asking if he would baptize her daughter, Eileen. Helena had heard the gospel message Eric continued to preach in word and in action and had come to believe that she should have her daughter baptized. That day the camp’s kitchen sink became the font of baptism.[99]
In his book Disciplines of the Christian Life, Eric articulates his own views on baptism:
In the Epistles baptism is regarded as the sacrament by which people entered into the new life which Paul describes as “in Christ.” . . .
The apostles are told to baptize “in” or “into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” These words, into the Name, are of great significance. . . .
Christian baptism thus becomes not only the representation of the spiritual cleansing that God gives to us in Jesus Christ, but also the means by which that blessing is conveyed to us in response to our profession of faith.[100]
Eric’s writings make clear that he believed and instructed teaching toward baptizing (sharing the faith with adults, leading to baptism) as well as baptizing toward teaching (baptizing an infant and raising them up in the faith). He also connected salvation to baptism in his specificity of infant baptism:
The practice of infant baptism rests also upon the revelation of God given us in Jesus Christ. That revelation makes clear to us that, in the matter of our salvation, God always acts first. God does not wait for our repentance; he sends his Son to bring about that repentance. He comes to meet us, and our experience of his love creates the spirit of new obedience. Everywhere and always it is God who takes the initiative.[101]
And so it was that one more heart—that of Eileen Campbell—was kindled to faith.
While the heart of one mother in the camp rejoiced, another’s was torn in half. Separated from her husband during the war, a mother and her teenage son stood in their usual lines at roll call. The teenager discussed with another boy whether the perimeter fence was indeed electrified. To prove he was right, the teenager grabbed the fence and was electrocuted in front of everyone, including his horrified
