W. A. Criswell
Encyclopedia
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
, author, and a two-term elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
(SBC) from 1968 to 1970. Supporters have described him as one of the 20th century's greatest expository preachers, and the patriarch
Patriarch
Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...
of the "Conservative Resurgence" within the SBC.
Early life
Criswell was born in Eldorado, OklahomaEldorado, Oklahoma
Eldorado is a town in Jackson County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 446 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Eldorado is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....
to Wallie Amos and Anna Currie Criswell. It was not
uncommon at the time for boys to be named with initials and he was simply called "W. A.". In later years when a full name was required for his passport Criswell supplied his father's first and middle names. Criswell grew up in Texline
Texline, Texas
Texline is a town in northwestern Dallam County, Texas, United States. The population was 511 at the 2000 census. The town is named for its location near the New Mexico-Texas state line. U.S. Highway 87 constitutes the main street of Texline....
in Dallam County, the most northwesterly community in the Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
panhandle, where his cowboy-barber father moved the family in 1915. At age 10 he professed faith in Christ at a revival meeting led by the evangelist Rev. John Hicks, and two years later he publicly committed his life to the gospel ministry. Criswell was licensed to preach at the age of 17 and soon thereafter held part-time pastorates at Devil's Bend and Pulltight, Texas. While attending Baylor University
Baylor University
Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
1928-1931 he ministered in Marlow, Pecan Grove, and White Mound, Texas; and during his graduate and post-graduate years at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...
he pastored Baptist churches in Mt. Washington and Oakland (near Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
). After completing his degrees he accepted the call to First Baptist Church of Chickasha, Oklahoma
Chickasha, Oklahoma
Chickasha is a city in and the county seat, business and employment center of Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 15,850 at the 2000 census. Chickasha is home to the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma and hosts an annual Festival of Light celebration located at...
in 1937, and then to First Baptist Church of Muskogee
Muskogee, Oklahoma
Muskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in Oklahoma....
in 1941. Criswell married Betty Harris, the pianist of the Mount Washington church, in 1935; daughter Mabel Ann ("Anne") was born in Chickasha in 1939. Anne possessed an exceptional operatic voice and recorded three albums of sacred music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, two of them with the Ralph Carmichael
Ralph Carmichael
Ralph Carmichael is a composer and arranger of both secular pop music and contemporary Christian music, being regarded as one of the pioneers of the latter genre...
orchestra.
First Baptist Church of Dallas
In 1944 Criswell was called to replace George W. TruettGeorge Washington Truett
George Washington Truett also George W. Truett served as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1927-1929, minister and writer. He was one of the most significant Southern Baptist preachers of his era...
as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
. He would spend the remainder of his life at First Baptist, preaching more than four thousand sermons from its pulpit. During his tenure membership grew from 7,800 to 26,000, with weekly Sunday School attendance in excess of 5,000. The church expanded to multiple buildings covering five blocks in downtown Dallas, eventually becoming the largest Southern Baptist church in the world. The popular evangelist Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
joined the church in 1953, became a close friend of the Criswell family, and remained a member of the Dallas congregation for 55 years.
Criswell was an early pioneer of the modern megachurch
Megachurch
A megachurch is a church having 2,000 or more in average weekend attendance. The Hartford Institute's database lists more than 1,300 such Protestant churches in the United States. According to that data, approximately 50 churches on the list have attendance ranging from 10,000 to 47,000...
phenomenon and introduced a number of innovations at First Baptist Dallas that became a model for growing churches all
over the country. By the early 1950s he had hired professionally-trained educational directors for each age group of the church, organized a sophisticated multi-level Sunday School program, added a full-time business manager to the staff, and broadened the church into a youth and family life center featuring a bowling alley, skating rink, and gymnasium with a track and basketball court. He greatly expanded the church's long-standing Silent Friends ministry, creating for the deaf their own Sunday School, Training Union, Vacation Bible School, and summer camp ministries. His vigorous outreach efforts to the community included sponsoring thirty-seven inner city missions, a crisis pregnancy center, the Good Shepherd and Dallas Life Foundation ministries for the homeless and disadvantaged, Spanish-language chapels, and extensive television and radio ministries. Church services were locally televised as early as January 1951 and eventually were carried on stations nationwide.
Criswell's accomplishments include helping to engineer the rightward shift of the Southern Baptist convention
Religious denomination
A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity.The term describes various Christian denominations...
which began in the late 1970s. He was awarded eight honorary doctorates in addition to his earned postgraduate degree. He published fifty-four books, including an annotated Criswell Study Bible (in later editions the Believers Study Bible and Holy Bible, Baptist Study Edition, Thomas Nelson Publishers), and founded both the Criswell College
Criswell College
Criswell College is a Dispensationalist Christian college and divinity school in Dallas, Texas. It is known for training students to teach and preach the Bible with emphasis on evangelism, the original languages, and Biblical inerrancy.-History:...
with its radio station KCBI and First Baptist Academy
First Baptist Academy of Dallas
First Baptist Academy of Dallas is a Biblically-integrated, college preparatory school located in Downtown Dallas, Texas.FBA is in the city center district with easy access to the arts district and the West End historic district enabling students to use the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher...
.
In 1995 First Baptist called Dr. O. S. Hawkins as pastor and Criswell entered semi-retirement as pastor emeritus. He continued to preach at conferences, First Baptist's annual
pre-Easter series, Sunday school and college lectures, and occasional Sunday morning messages for the remainder
of the decade. Criswell died quietly at the home of longtime friend Jack Pogue on January 10, 2002, at the age of 92. His passing
made national headlines, and as a farewell honor the city of Dallas closed off the U.S.-75 North Central Expressway for the celebrated pastor's funeral cortege.
Well-known pastor and author Rick Warren
Rick Warren
Richard Duane "Rick" Warren is an American evangelical Christian minister and author. He is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, currently the eighth-largest church in the United States...
recounts his call to full-time ministry as a 19-year-old student at California Baptist College
California Baptist University
California Baptist University is a private, Christian, liberal arts university located in Riverside, California, United States. Originally founded in 1950 as California Baptist College, it is controlled by the California Southern Baptist Convention, an organization affiliated with the Southern...
, when in November 1973 he and a friend skipped classes and drove 350 miles to hear
Criswell preach at the Jack Tar Hotel
Jack Tar Hotels
Jack Tar Hotels was a major hotel chain in the United States until 1997 when they were sold to Allegro. The sale included "including 100% ownership of a resort and casino in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic and assume two leases for resorts in Montego Bay, Jamaica and Cancun, Mexico...
in San Francisco. Warren stood in line to shake hands with Criswell
afterwards.
Warren went on to found the Saddleback Church
Saddleback Church
Saddleback Church is an evangelical Christian megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, situated in southern Orange County, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The church was founded in 1980 by pastor Rick Warren...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, one of the most recognized and influential churches in the country, with weekly attendance in excess of 20,000. In his book, The Purpose Driven Church
The Purpose Driven Church
The Purpose Driven Church is a book written by Rick Warren, founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, USA. It was first published in 1995...
, Warren referred to Criswell as the "greatest American pastor of the twentieth century."
Audio recordings of Criswell's preaching were made beginning in December 1953, and over 3,300 of his expository sermons are
available free of charge in audio, video, and searchable transcript form at the W. A. Criswell Sermon Library
website. It is the largest such collection by a single pastor in the world, and is sponsored and maintained by the non-profit
W. A. Criswell Foundation which also supports the Criswell College.
Southern Baptist Convention presidency
Dr. Criswell served two times as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1968–1970), the largestAmerican
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
non-Roman Catholic denomination with 16 million members. During the 20 years that followed he was perhaps the
most popular preacher at evangelism and pastors' conferences in America, and also preached extensively in mission fields
worldwide.
Theology
Criswell's theology is best described as conservativeConservative Christianity
Conservative Christianity is a term applied to a number of groups or movements seen as giving priority to traditional Christian beliefs and practices...
and evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
. He
believed in Biblical inerrancy
Biblical inerrancy
Biblical inerrancy is the doctrinal position that the Bible is accurate and totally free of error, that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact." Some equate inerrancy with infallibility; others do not.Conservative Christians generally believe that...
, the eternal security
Perseverance of the saints
Perseverance of the saints, as well as the corollary—though distinct—doctrine known as "Once Saved, Always Saved", is a Calvinist teaching that once persons are truly saved they can never lose their salvation....
of the believer, and Jesus Christ
as the authority of spiritual truth and the sole path to salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
of sinful mankind.
Criswell's theology and ethics reflected the era in which he lived. Unlike his predecessor, George W. Truett (1876–1944), at
First Baptist Church of Dallas, Criswell preached dispensational
Dispensationalism
Dispensationalism is a nineteenth-century evangelical development based on a futurist biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants.As a system,...
premillennialism from the pulpit. Truett had reflected a postmillennial approach to eschatological questions, whereas Criswell drew upon the theology of C.I. Scofield. A comparison of the beliefs of Truett and Criswell illustrates how American conservative Christianity changed
sociologically during the 20th century. Postmillennialism
Postmillennialism
In Christian end-times theology, , postmillennialism is an interpretation of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation which sees Christ's second coming as occurring after the "Millennium", a Golden Age in which Christian ethics prosper...
, popular around the start of the 20th century, expressed an
optimistic expectation for the social transformation of this world by Christ in the present day through the missionary work
of his Church; but the two World Wars dealt this view a near-fatal blow. Premillennialism
Premillennialism
Premillennialism in Christian end-times theology is the belief that Jesus will literally and physically be on the earth for his millennial reign, at his second coming. The doctrine is called premillennialism because it holds that Jesus’ physical return to earth will occur prior to the inauguration...
offered a more pragmatic view
of the limited scope of possible social reform, looking ahead to the rapture
Rapture
The rapture is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord"....
in which Christians are removed from the
world before the end-time judgments of the tribulation
Tribulation
The Great Tribulation refers to tumultuous events that are described during the "signs of the times", first mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet discourse...
and Armageddon
Armageddon
Armageddon is, according to the Bible, the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location...
, after which Christ himself returns to
transform the world and establish his kingdom.
Criswell's preaching also reflected his culture as societal attitudes evolved on the issue of racial integration. While he
never spoke in support of segregation from the pulpit, Criswell was at first privately critical of the Supreme Court's
decision in Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
and of federal intervention in Southern segregation. In 1953 he made an address denouncing forced
integration to a South Carolina evangelism conference, and a day later to the South Carolina legislature. Taken aback by
negative reactions and distorted accounts of his remarks in the press, Criswell did not publicly address the issue again for
over a decade, claiming he was "a pastor, not a politician." However, upon his 1968 election as president of the Southern
Baptist Convention and the SBC's endorsement of racial equality and desegregation, Criswell announced to the press, "Every
Southern Baptist in the land should support the spirit of that statement. We Southern Baptists have definitely turned away
from racism, from segregation, from anything and everything that speaks of a separation of people in the body of Christ."
Criswell's first sermon after his election as SBC president in 1968 was titled "The Church of the Open Door," emphasizing that his
church already had many non-white members and was open to all regardless of race. He asserted publicly, "I don't think that
segregation could have been or was at any time intelligently, seriously supported by the Bible.
Politics
Criswell sometimes got involved in political campaigns. In 1976, he urged from the pulpit the election of the RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Jr.
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
(1913–2006), an Episcopalian, rather than the Southern Baptist
Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
nominee, former Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
. Carter nevertheless won the electoral votes of Texas, the last Democrat to have done so.
In the 1980s, he continued to support Republican presidential nominees Ronald W. Reagan and George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
.
Quotes
"To lift Him up, to preach His name, and to invite souls to love Him and to follow Him is the highest, heavenliest privilege of human life.""The word we preach from our pulpits ought to be like the Word of God itself--like a fire and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces."
"After 70 years of expository preaching, I have yet to touch the hem of His garment."
"God sends people into our lives just when we need them, to say the right word, His word, just when we need it."
"When our trials come, when we feel pain and suffering, when our tears flow again, it is our joy and comfort to lift our faces heavenward and to go on, standing on the promises of God."
"Start low, stay slow. Raise higher, bring fire." (on sermon delivery
Homiletics
Homiletics , in theology the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific department of public preaching. The one who practices or studies homiletics is called a homilist....
)
Selected works
- Acts, an Exposition. Zondervan 0-310-22880-8
- Acts: In One Volume. Zondervan 0-310-43840-3
- Baptism, Filling and Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Zondervan 0-310-22751-8
- Basic Bible Sermons on the Cross. Thomas Nelson 0-8407-1102-6
- The Christ of the Cross. Crescendo 0-89038-020-1
- The Compassionate Christ. Crescendo 0-89038-025-2
- Confessions of a Happy Christian. Pelican 0-88289-400-5
- Criswell's Guidebook For Pastors. Broadman & Holman 0-8054-2360-5
- Did Man Just Happen. Moody 0-8024-2212-8
- Expository Sermons on Revelations. Zondervan 0-310-22840-9
- Expository Sermons on the Book of Daniel. Zondervan 0-310-22800-X
- Great Doctrines of the Bible. Vol. 1: Bibliology. Zondervan 0-310-43930-2
- Great Doctrines of the Bible: Vol. 2: Christology. 0-310-43860-8
- Great Doctrines of the Bible: Vol. 3: Ecclesiology. Zondervan 0-310-43900-0
- Great Doctrines of the Bible: Vol. 4: Pneumatology. Zodervan
- Great Doctrines of the Bible: Vol, 5: Soteriology. Zondervan
- Great Doctrines of the Bible: Vol. 6: Christian Life and Stewardship. Zondervan 0-310-43950-7
- Great Doctrines of the Bible: vol. 7: Prayer/Angelology. Zondervan 0-310-43960-4
- Great Doctrines of the Bible: Vol. 8: Eschatology. Zondervan 0-310-43830-6
- Holy Bible: Baptist Study Edition. Struik 0-7852-5838-8
- Isaiah: An Exposition. Zondervan 0-310-22870-0
- Open Bible: King James Version. Thomas Nelson 0-7180-1811-7
- The Social Conscience of W. A. Criswell. Crescendo 0-89038-039-2
- Standing on the Promises: The Autobiography of W. A. Criswell. W Pub Group 0-8499-9038-6
- Welcome Back, Jesus!. Broadman 0-8054-1939-X
- Why I Preach That the Bible Is Literally True. Broadman & Holman 0-8054-1260-3
- With a Bible in My Hand. Broadman & Holman 0-8054-1520-3