|
|
|
|
Wallie Amos Criswell was born in Eldorado, Okla., in 1909. The dust bowl drove the Criswell family to the Texas panhandle on the border of New Mexico. Young Criswell’s life was fairly normal for children of his day living with his family on the Oklahoma and Texas border. His father was a barber and part-time farmer. His mother was a committed mother, determined to see her children excel. As soon as Criswell began to read, it was obvious that his face was going to be set in a different direction than most. The lad loved to read, devouring Zane Grey and Horatio Alger stories. He also loved to read the King James Bible. So at the age of six, W.A. Criswell read the entire Bible through in one year. Criswell’s parents were committed Christians and Baptists. W.A. senior was a deacon in the church and his mother led them in daily devotions. Sundays were an adventure. The family would rise early, pack their picnic basket and head off in the wagon for a day at church. Along with other believers they gathered to sing hymns and hear God’s Word preached with gusto. It was no real surprise when W.A. Criswell made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and was baptized at the age of ten. By the time he was 12 he made a public commitment of his life to the gospel ministry, delivering his first sermon as the funeral message for a beloved pet dog. The pastor that made the greatest influence on Criswell during those early years was a man of God by the name of Campbell. He had fought in World War One and loved to read. The young hopeful preacher was invited over often to the pastor's home to read from his library. There he discovered theology as well as Aristotle, Aquinas, Napoleon and others. Pastor Campbell admitted that a pastor's life was difficult but he also encouraged W.A. to pursue God's call. "Don’t do anything halfway, Criswell," he said, "What you start, finish!" Finishing became one of W.A. Criswell’s greatest attributes. Years passed and Criswell entered Texline High School. He continued his pursuit of preaching and won awards as a debater. This is not to imply that the youthful “Texahoman” didn’t care about normal High School activites. He played basketball as a freshman and became very proficient with his beloved trombone. One of Criswell's fondest memories of High School was when John Philip Sousa came to town. Sousa led the area bands in one of his great marches and all were thrilled by that great event. It was time for college, so at the age of seventeen W.A. Criswell headed off for Baylor University in Waco. Not long after arriving at Baylor, Criswell took a walk in Waco and found himself in Sand Town which was the slum of Waco and populated with the poorest of the poor of every color and background. While walking he passed by an old woman, sitting in a rocking chair with a large Bible in her lap. As he passed her yard she asked him to come sit by her. "You've come to talk about Jesus, haven't you" she asked? Criswell told her had no church or pulpit in which to preach. The old woman encouraged Criswell to preach right there in her yard. For many weeks after that Criswell would go to Sand Town and share Jesus from noon till sundown. He wrote of that experience: "I walked up and down the streets of Sand Town, knocking on doors, introducing myself and asking if the person would like to talk about Jesus ... And so many people, young and old, men and women, black, white, and tan, gave their lives to Jesus as we talked ... When I was just seventeen in Sand Town ... I discovered that nobody needs a church to preach. Nobody needs a pulpit to stand behind. The world is waiting to hear the Good News of the gospel. And what a glorious thing it is to share that Good News wherever God may place us!" W.A. Criswell was now a bona-fide “God-called” preacher and it was obvious to everyone who knew him. Both his mother and father became Criswell's biggest supporters as he went off into the gospel ministry. During the remaining years at Baylor the young preacher excelled in his studies while pastoring small rural churches. Many hours were spent in study and then many more in driving in a borrowed car to little churches to preach wearing the one suit he owned. The hardships didn’t’ matter. W.A. Criswell was preaching the Bible and that was the highest honor known to this man! Along with graduation from Baylor came the decision as to where to go to seminary. That decision was a difficult one for Criswell. His best friend advised him to go to a more liberal seminary such as Brown or Princeton. His friend contended that Criswell needed to broaden his horizons and quit being so narrow-minded. In the end Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky was his choice. Once at Southern, Criswell again pastored small churches. He was first and foremost a preacher of the Gospel but his education remained a high priority as well. He studied under the likes of A.T. Robertson and came to love Greek and Hebrew. Criswell’s command of the original languages permeated his preaching throughout the rest of his life. On the same day that Bonnie and Clyde met their demise near Shreveport, Louisiana, W.A. passed his exams to graduate from Southern Seminary. Right after graduation Criswell met the love of his life, Bettie Marie Harris who would come to simply be known as Mrs. C in later years. She was much more than Criswell's right hand. She was his spiritual mooring. Everything was now complete. Criswell had his education, his ordination, and a helpmeet for the rest of his life. The Criswells were determined to follow God wholly in their new life together. They served in churches in Oklahoma from 1937 till 1944. These were maturing times. Every experience became a building block for future years of ministry. Near the end of this period, just three weeks after D-Day, W.A. and his wife read in the paper of the death of Mr. Baptist, George W. Truett. The impact of that news was great. Truett had made a deep and lasting impression on Criswell. He must have mused as to who would be able to fill those big shoes. Much to his surprise the person asked was W.A. Criswell himself. He couldn't believe he was asked preach in the pulpit that for forty-seven years had been supplied by the legendary George W. Truett. In a 1985 interview with the Dallas Morning News, Criswell recalled how he had a vivid dream in which the deceased Truett urged him to "go down and preach to my people." Nevertheless, Criswell initially declined an invitation to preach a sermon at the Dallas church, saying he was "nothing of the stature of Dr. Truett." His wife did not share his reservations, he said, explaining that she accepted the church's invitation for him. “There wasn't anything for
me to do but come down here and preach," he said. A few weeks later, the church
called him as pastor. The young boy who learned to preach the Gospel in Sand Town was now leading the largest church in the Southern Baptist Convention. If anything marked Criswell it was his preaching. Not long after coming to Dallas he announced that he intended to preach through the entire Bible. Some members of the church worried that such an approach would not be appealing and that attendance would fall. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Almost eighteen years later, in 1963, Criswell had indeed preached through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Timothy George notes that "Criswell recaptured a pattern of preaching first modeled … by the great reformers ... men like Zwingli and Calvin." This was no accident. Criswell consciously was seeking to return to the Reformation model of preaching. Part of that model included preaching the Bible from a grammatical-historical viewpoint. He quotes Luther: "Every word should be allowed to stand in its natural meaning and should not be abandoned unless faith forces us to it. The literal sense of Scripture alone is the essence of faith and of Christian theology." His one great working
truth was this: "The Bible, God's Word, is utterly true and powerful." He taught us that we can
mine the riches of the Word and never fear that we will run out of precious
sermon material or ministerial vitality. The power keeps on coming, all the way
to the grave. While Criswell moved with
ease among the rich and famous, he never lost the ability to relate well to the
most humble person, Semple noted. He is known as the
patriarch of the "conservative resurgence," returning the SBC to its
Bible-believing roots. Twice elected president of the SBC, in 1968 and 1969,
during the 20 years that followed he was perhaps the most popular preacher at
evangelism and pastors' conferences in America, while also preaching extensively
to mission fields worldwide. “Lord, You know that dying holds no fear for me. To rush form this world into Your open arms will be a moment of triumph and praise. But, dearest Father, there are times I wonder if all of heaven could hold the joy that preaching Your Word has brought to me. Is there anything inside of eternity, Lord, that even compares to kneeling beside someone at this mourner’s bench who is finding forgiveness for sin and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior?”
|
|
Search - JeremyTiss.com - Feedback Copyright 1996-2007 This page was last updated on: October 1, 2007 |