Early life and influences Wiberg was born on 17 July 1816 in Vi in
Hälsingtuna parish,
Hälsingland, Sweden. He was educated at
Uppsala University and became a priest in the
Church of Sweden. The growing
pietist and Reader (
läsare) movements in the Scandinavian countries were an influence on him. Wiberg, like fellow Lutheran-turned-Baptist-pioneer
Gustaf Palmquist, was a friend of pietist preacher
Carl Olof Rosenius. He was also influenced by Methodist missionary
George Scott and
Lars Vilhelm Henschen, a champion of
religious freedom. Wiberg later came to know several of the figures in the growing Baptist
revival movement and his views on the
state church became more skeptical. Wiberg has been called the "pivotal link to the New World" and "in some ways a piece of ideological blotting paper" due to his connections with so many key figures in the Reader movement. After a visit to preacher
Johann Gerhard Oncken in Hamburg in 1851, Wiberg came to agree with Baptist teachings regarding
baptism. The same year, on his journey to the United States, he was baptized by
F. O. Nilsson in Copenhagen. Wiberg spent three years in the United States to learn more about the
Baptist movement there. He was ordained in New York in the
Baptist Mariner's Church and then worked for the
American Baptist Publication Society. While in Philadelphia, he married Caroline Lintemuth. He also wrote ('The Christian baptism') and ('Are you baptized?'), the first Swedish Baptist publications in the United States. Wiberg returned to Sweden in 1855 to find that his writings had contributed to the movement's growth; there were now 500 Swedish Baptists, with 800 to 1000 formal conversions a year. He began intensive work to strengthen the new movement throughout the country. Among his collaborators were brothers
Johannes,
Per, and Gustaf Palmquist. A confession of faith written by Wiberg was adopted, a training course for preachers was begun, and from 1856 the new movement had its own publication, , edited by Wiberg. The publication and Wiberg's
colporteur work played a large role in the spread of Baptist churches in Norway and Finland as well; his writings were brought to
Åland and contributed to the start of the early
Finnish Baptist movement. He also baptized some of the early founders of Baptist churches in Finland, siblings
Viktor and
Anna Heikel. In 1858, the
Conventicle Act, which outlawed religious meetings other than those of the
Lutheran Church of Sweden, was overturned. By the following year, the Baptists had grown to a total of 4,311 members in 95 churches, and almost 6,000 members in 1863.
Baptist Union and seminary Wiberg was one of the leaders who worked to gather the Swedish Baptist churches for their first general conference in 1857; this was to become the
Baptist Union of Sweden in 1889. Speakers at the second conference included key Baptist figures
Julius Köbner,
John Howard Hinton, and
Edward Steane. In 1866, the conference established a seminary,
Bethel Seminary (), which Wiberg raised funds for through the
American Baptist Missionary Union.
Death Wiberg died on 5 November 1887 in Stockholm. == Works ==