6 August 8, 2019 | Warsaw [Łukasz Romanowski]
The Polish Seventh-day Adventist community sadly lost a dear friend, mentor, and pillar on 29 July 2019 as Dr Igor Baron, former director of the Department of Theology and a long-time lecturer at the Polish College of Theology and Humanities passed away. The death came after a relatively short but intense fight with cancer at the age of just 45.
Baron had recently moved from academia to pastoral ministry and as recently as March this year he was working full-time, sharing his time, experience and expertise with the two churches he had served since the previous November.
With little hope from a medical point of view, and after trying other natural options, Baron shared with a pastoral colleague that he was now “left to wait in dignity for the Lord’s resurrection”.
In times like these we are confronted with questions such as why would God allow for this seemingly unreasonable loss? An academic teacher who has educated and mentored dozens of students – future pastors, a father of two wonderful and young sons, a friend, a husband, and a warm soul. Yet, all the lips of those who attended the funeral were compelled to silence. Nobody knew.
Perhaps the answer to this unanswerable, at least for now, question lies in the cry that came out of Jesus’s breast, a cry of agony: ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46). Jesus felt forsaken even unto His death. Yet His Father was all this time by His side, suffering with His Son and sharing His ordeal. Likewise, we can be assured that God was present by the side of His other son – Pastor Baron – and his bereaving family. In spite of the suffering, Jesus was able to bring a sense into the otherwise senseless life of human beings. Likewise, we can be assured that one day Igor’s untimely death will make sense to someone in this weary world, or to all once on the right side of eternity.
The funeral service in Podkowa Lesna attracted a large number of participants. In addition to family, the College faculty and staff, pastors, church members, students, union and conferences officers attended. Memories and words of consolation were shared by family, members of Igor’s churches, former students and current pastors, as well as the Polish Union President, Ryszard Jankowski.
LIFE
Dr. Igor Baron was born 20 June 1974 in Hincesti, a Moldovan town, to Constantin and Nadyezda Baron. He had two younger brothers – Gyenady and Alexander.
In 1993, at the age of 19, he was baptised, and the following year he came to Poland in order to fulfill his dream of serving God and people. He studied at the Higher Seminary in Podkowa Lesna (later PCTH) and continued at the Christian Academy of Theology in Warsaw. In 2007 he received his doctoral title at the Swietokrzyska Academy in Kielce, Poland, for his dissertation on the history and culture of ancient Mesopotamia in the light of the Scriptures. On 8 July 2001 he married Beata Burger. Later the couple had two sons: Gabriel (now 16) and Natan (now 13).
Igor Baron lectured at the Polish College of Theology and Humanities since from 2004 until 2019. All his life he was fascinated with the Book of Daniel as well as Old Testament Exegesis. Most of all, however, he was an expert in Hebrew, a subject he taught for years. He served as the director of the Theology Department of the College from 2007 to 2018. He was the director of the College’s in-house publishing entity: Signa Temporis, producing two volumes out of the planned three on Adventist theology (a translation of the Handbook of Seventh-Day Adventist Theology, 2000). In 2018 he fulfilled his long-time dream by stepping down from his directorial capacity and moving into full-time ministry.
Our prayers and sympathies remain with his wife and two children as we await the glorious resurrection morning.
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, editor; Deana Stojković, associate editor
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