Posted on 08/25/2006 9:04:09 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
W.A. Criswell showed remarkable openness and flexibility when these traits were rare among evangelicals.
Several years ago a teenager struggling with the call to ministry came to Dallas and boldly made an appointment to see W. A. Criswell. The great pastor listened with empathy and interest as the young man recounted the difficulties he was facing. When their conference was ended, Criswell knelt beside the young preacher with his arm around his shoulder and invoked the presence of Christ on his life's work. When he returned home, the young man told his pastor what he had done.
"What?" he exclaimed, "you really prayed with Dr. Criswell? Man, you have seen the Pope!"
Wallie Amos Criswell was born in 1909 in the dust-bowl town of Eldorado, Oklahoma, to a cowboy-barber and his beautiful wife. Born in obscurity and raised in poverty, this wind-swept lad of the plains would become in time the most famous Baptist pastor in the world. When he died earlier this year at age 92, he was extolled as a passionate preacher, a powerful evangelist, and a redoubtable defender of the faith. He was all of that and more.
Holy Roller with a Ph.D.
Criswell began his pastoral labors during his student days at Baylor University. He served small congregations in such places of renown as Devil's Bend and Pulltight, Texas. Even then he was known for his pulpit exuberance. On a clear night, it was said, you could hear Criswell preaching five miles away. After graduation from Baylor, Criswell moved to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he studied the Greek New Testament under the great A. T. Robertson. On Valentine's Day in 1935 he married Betty Mae Harris, the pianist at the church he served part time.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
He replied, "I'm not a Catholic. ...and I couldn't be, but I thank God for what they have done to name the name of Christ in the world. I would be more comfortable praying with a Catholic priest who believes in the Virgin Birth, the blood Atonement, and the deity of Christ than with a liberal Protestant who doesn't."
Now that's Ecumenical.
Amen
I will never forget participating in a powerful service of the Lord's Supper that Criswell led at First Baptist Dallas. Here was a Southern Baptist church with kneelers—one of Criswell's innovations. Criswell carefully explained the meaning of the Lord's Supper and then invited the congregation to kneel and prayerfully receive the bread and cup. The liturgy was in keeping with the Baptist tradition in every way, and there was a powerful sense of Christ's presence in that service and a hush of reverence unusual in Protestant celebrations of the Eucharist.
One of my best friends, a strong faithful Bible Christian (she has been a wonderful faith teacher for me!) will go to Mass once in awhile. One of her comments that she says about Protestant churches is that they have lost the 'reverence'. She loves the reverence that is observed at a Catholic Mass. We learn a lot from eachother. I've learned tons of scripture and she's learned how to fall on her knees and humble yourself before God.
I still don't get it.
HHOK. Alex, now THAT was a good article. I really dug the guy BEFORE reading about his good relations with Catholics. ;^D
A Baptist Pope? Don't tell James White :-)
He is a bit peeved they chose that German chap.
Pope Calvin the First of Phoenix! (They moved the Pope's house to Avignon for a while, why not somewhere less French?)
Based on his statement, it would probably surprise Dr. Criswell to know that Catholics do not believe in the blood atonement of Christ. For their belief in the atonement please see Doctrine of the Atonement
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