Biography
William Ian Thomas was born on January 12, 1914, in Bournemouth, England. His father was a pastor and an evangelist, and the family was devout. He grew up in a home where the Bible was read and prayed over. As a boy, he was converted at a children's meeting, and he began to preach as a teenager. He felt a call to the ministry but did not follow it right away. He went to work, and then in 1932, he joined the British Army. He rose to the rank of major in the Royal Artillery and served in the Second World War.
In the army, he was an effective officer who carried on his Christian witness. He was known for his readiness to speak to others about his faith. He took part in the war in the Middle East and Europe. He was a man of confidence and energy. But he suffered from a deep spiritual dryness. He felt that he was working for God in his own strength and that the Christian life was a failure. He had an experience that changed his life. He realized that the Christian life is not to be lived by effort but is the life of Christ lived in the believer. He said that God did not ask him to do something for Him but to let Christ live through him.
He came to call this the saving life of Christ. The idea was that the believer is saved by the death of Christ and kept by the life of Christ. In the war, he began to teach this message to groups of soldiers and officers. He started a Bible study group among the officers. At the end of the war, he left the army, and he turned to full-time ministry. In 1947, he founded the Torchbearers, a youth movement to train young people in the Christian life. It began at a large house in Capernwray, in Lancashire, called Capernwray Hall, which he turned into a Bible school. The school was a place where young people could study the Bible and learn to walk by faith. It was the first of a number of Capernwray Bible schools around the world.
The Capernwray schools grew into a network of institutions in many countries. They were open to students of all backgrounds, with a focus on a one-year study of the Bible. Thousands of young people came to the schools, and many went on to serve in the mission field and in the church. He was an effective teacher, who spoke with great humor and a military directness. He had a gift for using stories and for breaking down difficult ideas. He traveled widely, giving talks at conferences.
His books were widely read. The best known is The Saving Life of Christ, published in 1961, and The Indwelling Life of Christ, in 1953. They set out the message of the life of Christ in the believer. He wrote in clear and simple language. He gave the idea that the Christian life is not a matter of imitation but of the exchanged life. The books have influenced many in the evangelical world, including Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ.
His teaching has been questioned by some, who thought that it neglected the need for effort and discipline. Some thought that it was too passive. He did not deny the call to obedience, but he put the stress on the source of power. He was also a man of strong personality, and he was sometimes criticized for his authority in the schools. He had a deep faith, and he was devoted to his wife, Joan, and their family.
He died on October 30, 2007, at the age of ninety-three. His life shows the effect of a soldier who came to the end of his own strength and found the secret of the life in Christ. The schools that he founded continue to teach the Word.