| Elias
Aslaksen Six years ago, I made a study
of wartime naval history and in the process discovered some material on Lieutenant Elias
Aslaksen. The 1910 Naval Academy’s rank register listed him as the unrivaled top
member of his class – in fact, the best in the whole history of the Academy and
thereby destined to fill the highest position in the Norwegian Navy. Among the papers were
the ship logs and daily records of World War I (1914 to 1918) which revealed how extensive
Aslaksen’s service had been. I also unearthed a speech by the chief of the Norwegian
Navy, Vice-Admiral Magne Braadland, given to the Naval Reserve Officers as recently as
1970; Aslaksen is also mentioned in this speech. Trygve Gran, the national hero, pilot,
and polar explorer, describes Aslaksen in glowing terms in his autobiography. My old
neighbor, Admiral Landgraff, under whose military command I raised the flag every May 17th,
also had fond memories of his classmate and regarded him with the greatest respect.
The name Elias Aslaksen also brings to mind stories from my
own boyhood days
when this fascinating personage came to visit my
grandfather. My grandfather declared him to be one of the greatest men of God who ever
lived. I had no reason at all to doubt my grandfather. On the contrary, he was totally
honest and sincere. However, at that time I was more interested in the many stories that
these talented and captivating storytellers could produce than in what kind of a man
Aslaksen really was. Imagine my astonishment when many years later I discovered that he
could easily have reached the very top position in the Norwegian Navy and would thereby
have been a top figure in Norwegian society! Aslaksen – the one I knew as an
interesting giant of faith, an unquestionably God-fearing and humble man – could this
really be one and the same person?
The more I discovered about him, the more unreal the whole
thing became. Coming from a well-to-do middle class family, and making the top grades in
the examinations of the most excellent educational institute in the country, he then
chooses to
forsake both fortune and career in favor of an exceedingly
modest lifestyle, if it couldn’t quite be called one of poverty. Instead of following
a career that would have put him in a position of high authority, he earned his daily
bread by growing berries and vegetables in a home-gardening setting, by fishing and
berry-picking, as a stamp-collector, and as a tutor – and otherwise by taking any job
that happened to come his way. He poured his huge wealth of energy into literally living a
life crucified with Christ, not just preaching about it. His entire work was carried out
within the framework of what he called the church of the living God, the nameless group of
people that make up the church called "Smith’s Friends." As far as I can
tell, he was indeed the rich man who gave everything away in order to follow the Lord
– he was the camel who passed through the eye of the needle.
I was amazed at the power that moved a man so gifted and
with so strong a character to give up such a bright career. To the outside world, it must
have seemed just about crazy for a man who excelled in every way to abandon himself to
such a degree. He possessed a youthful spiritedness, had a compassionate nature, was
brilliantly intelligent, and had a sense of duty and a faithfulness to duty that reminds
one of the noble heroes of ancient history. What could ever cause such a man to become a
faithful warrior of the Lord – to daily search his own heart, to daily, every moment
of the day, humble himself under "God’s mighty hand" to such an extent that
he himself disappears? Then and there I decided to one day tell the story of Elias
Aslaksen.
In short, it was a meeting in 1908 with Gunnery Officer
Johan O. Smith onboard a warship on the high seas that changed the course of Cadet
Aslaksen’s life. From then on he was possessed of only one desire – to do the
will of God. To a significant degree, these two together laid the foundation of the
church, and the church as we know it today is almost unthinkable without the work of
Aslaksen. All the same, it was still a question for me whether Aslaksen in particular, and
on his own, formed the church and its teachings, or whether in everything of essence he
was more the one who followed the guidelines that Johan O. Smith had already given. I have
tried to find answers to some of these things.
What about the background and the growing up years of a
person who for more than sixty years influenced – in fact, almost plagued – the
Norwegian community of Christians? For Aslaksen’s labors extended far beyond the
church itself. For several decades, he was a prominent preacher in open-air meetings; he
was also the foremost warrior for the church in the conflicts that ensued with the State
Church and the Pentecostal movement, conflicts that for a period of about fifty years must
have seemed to outsiders to constitute downright religious warfare.
To begin with, I thought that it would be a simpler matter
to research material for this book than was the case with the biography of J.O. Smith. I
made a huge mistake. It is unbelievable how well Elias Aslaksen covered his tracks, and
unfortunately all the public registers before the turn of the present century are sparse
in information, and at best not too comprehensive. It’s clear that he took no
interest either in his own person or in his personal or family history; on the contrary,
he lived from day to day and looked ahead into the future. His choice not to have a
gravestone made for him was true to character. To stand weeping at a grave belonged to the
temporal, whereas a spiritual person would rather set his sights on heaven.
The task which is so nicely called research has therefore
taken a whole year longer that what I had intended, and has led me to many foreign shores,
not to mention overgrown paths up over Oppdal to the Grønning farms in Norddal, to
Ålesund, Fredriksvern and to Kristiania. There he was born a good 110 years ago.
I feel as though I’ve gone full circle now. First the
discovery of Elias Aslaksen in the archives of the Naval Reserve Officers which led to the
book "The Way of the Cross – an account of Smith’s Friends," followed
by "Voyage to Heaven’s Shores" – the biography of Johan Oscar Smith;
and now my account of the history of the friends and of their greatest forerunners ends
with the story of the one who set the whole process in motion. The reader should bear in
mind that to a large extent the first two books supplement the history of Aslaksen. You
will find in them many things that are not included in this book.
A LITTLE ABOUT HIS WORK
Although Elias Aslaksen lived and breathed for the church
called Smith’s Friends, we must not underestimate his contributions to society in
general. In the first place, we note his personal efforts at sea and in the Navy, and the
example he set as a Naval Reserve Officer, where his longest service was carried out
during World War I. Secondly, the effort he made on behalf of the Navy to justify the
position of Christians in military service, explaining from the Bible that Christians both
can and should participate. In a broader sense, this led to a definition of Christian
values that included both duty and loyalty to the society in which one lives. Thus he
significantly contributed to the nurturing of good and law-abiding citizens.
However, his greatest work was within the church, whether
it concerned the spread of the church or the way in which it maintained its course and
preserved its teachings through stormy years. His personal life is an example for anyone
who wants to live according to the Bible as a sincere follower of Christ. His integrity in
all life’s situations never wavered, totally in line with his "teacher,"
Johan Oscar Smith. No common language, either verbal or written, can adequately express
what Aslaksen has meant to the individual in the church. He was the friend of his friends,
always on the spot when he was most needed – loving, and expecting nothing in return.
He was surprised at no human weakness, but purposed to lead people to a life with God.
Only there could people come to true and complete rest. His measuring stick was always
love.
We can place a Socrates and a Paul in front of the mirror
of history and see them both reflected in the shape of Aslaksen – in his noble mind.
What he in turn wrote about J. O. Smith is also a striking reflection of his own
character:
"His one living interest was Christ and the church; to
be filled with all God’s fullness, which is in Christ; to render as great a
contribution as possible to the task of eradicating all the sin and imperfection that
clings to each member of the body of Christ – indeed, to find and do the right and
the most perfect thing in every area, both in his personal life and in his ministry, and
to crush everything that was of Satan and of man, in order to make room for all the
fullness of God.
For this he gave absolutely everything, and for this he
watched and prayed. Thus, he was always ready to take his place as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ: faithful, true, righteous, selfless, not a respecter of persons, and possessing
great contempt for gain and for the honor of man, even though, as a result of this, he
came into conflict with, practically speaking, everything and everyone."
November 1998
Kjell Arne Bratli
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