W. A. Criswell

{{Short description|American pastor and author (1909–2002)}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Wallie Amos "W. A." Criswell
| image         = W.A. Criswell.jpg
| image_caption =
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1909|12|19}}
| birth_place   = [[Eldorado, Oklahoma|Eldorado]], [[Jackson County, Oklahoma|Jackson County]], [[Oklahoma]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age|2002|1|10|1909|12|19}}
| death_place   = [[Dallas Texas|Dallas]], [[Texas]]
| resting_place =
| alma_mater    = [[Baylor University]]<br />[[Southern Baptist Theological Seminary]]
| occupation    = [[Southern Baptist]] pastor;<br />President of [[Southern Baptist Convention]], 1968-1970<br />Founder, [[Criswell College]]<br />Editor ''Criswell Study Bible''<br />Author of 54 books
| years active  = 1926–{{circa|2000}}
| spouse        = Bessie Marie Harris Criswell, "Betty" (d. 2006)
| children      = Mabel Ann Criswell (d. 2002)
| parents       = Wallie Amos and Anna Currie Criswell
}}
'''Wallie Amos Criswell''' (December 19, 1909 – January 10, 2002), was an [[United States of America|American]] [[pastor]], author, and a two-term elected president of the [[Southern Baptist Convention]] from 1968 to 1970.<ref name=obit/> As senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas for five decades he became widely known for expository biblical preaching at a popular level,<ref name="BP">{{cite web| title = Texas Baptists prepare to memorialize Criswell | publisher = Baptist Press Website | date=2002-01-10 | url = http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=12520 | access-date =2011-02-15 }}</ref> and is regarded as a key figure in the late 1970s "[[Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence|Conservative Resurgence]]" within the Southern Baptist Convention.

==Early life==
Criswell was born in [[Eldorado, Oklahoma|Eldorado]] in [[Jackson County, Oklahoma|Jackson County]] in southwestern [[Oklahoma]]<ref name="tribute">[http://www.sbc.net/criswell/news.asp A Tribute to W. A. Criswell], [[Southern Baptist Convention]] (accessed May 26, 2010).</ref> 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, Texas|Texline]] in [[Dallam County, Texas|Dallam County]], the most northwesterly community in the [[Texas Panhandle]], where his cowboy-barber father moved the family in 1915.<ref>Criswell, W. A. ''Why I Preach That the Bible Is Literally True''.  Nashville: B&H, 1969.</ref>

At age ten, young W. A. professed faith in Christ at a revival meeting led by the evangelist Reverend John Hicks. Two years later Criswell publicly committed his life to the gospel ministry.  Criswell was licensed to preach at the age of seventeen and soon thereafter held part-time pastorates at Devil's Bend and Pulltight, Texas.<ref name="tribute"/> While attending [[Baylor University]] in [[Waco, Texas|Waco]], [[Texas]], from 1928 to 1931 he ministered in Marlow, White Mound, and  [[Pecan Grove, Texas|Pecan Grove]], the latter in [[Fort Bend County, Texas|Fort Bend County]], Texas. During his graduate and post-graduate years, including a [[Ph.D.]] at the [[Southern Baptist Theological Seminary]] in [[Louisville, Kentucky|Louisville]], [[Kentucky]], Criswell was the pastor of Baptist churches in [[Mount Washington, Kentucky|Mount Washington]] in [[Bullitt County, Kentucky|Bullitt County]] near Louisville and [[Oakland, Warren County, Kentucky|Oakland]] in [[Warren County, Kentucky|Warren County]] near [[Bowling Green, Kentucky|Bowling Green]], Kentucky.  After completing his degrees, Criswell in 1937 accepted the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of [[Chickasha, Oklahoma|Chickasha]] in [[Grady County, Oklahoma|Grady County]] in central Oklahoma. In 1941, he moved to First Baptist Church of [[Muskogee, Oklahoma|Muskogee]] in eastern Oklahoma. In 1935, Criswell married the former Bessie Marie "Betty" Harris (1913–2006), the pianist of the Mount Washington church and an education graduate of [[Western Kentucky University]] in Bowling Green.<ref name=bessiecris>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=23733|title=Obituary of Betty Harris Criswell|publisher=Baptist Press News|access-date=April 6, 2012}}</ref> Their daughter Mabel Ann was born in Chickasha in 1939. Mabel Ann possessed an exceptional operatic voice and recorded three albums of sacred music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, two with the [[Ralph Carmichael]] orchestra. She died in 2002, some six months after her father's passing.<ref name=bessiecris/>

==First Baptist Church of Dallas==
[[File:WAC FBC.jpg|250px|left|thumb|<span style="font-size:100%;">For over fifty years Criswell was the 
pastor of the downtown First [[Baptist]] Church of [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]], [[Texas]], known for its Bible based teaching.</span>]]

In 1944 Criswell was called to replace [[George Washington Truett]] as the pastor of the [[First Baptist Church (Dallas)|First Baptist Church]] in [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]].  He would spend the remainder of his life at First Baptist, preaching more than four thousand sermons from its pulpit. During his pastorship 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]] 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 part of the pioneering movement in the modern [[megachurch]] phenomenon.  He was also a visionary, who 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.<ref name="McBeth">McBeth, Leon ''The First Baptist Church of Dallas: Centennial History (1868-1968)'', Zondervan, 1968, pp 240-347.</ref>

[[File:W. A. Criswell by Blair Buswell 1993 Criswell College Dallas Texas.jpg|thumb|right|Statue of Criswell at [[Criswell College]].]]
Criswell's accomplishments include helping to engineer the conservative resurgence of the Southern Baptist [[religious denomination|convention]], a transition  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 [[Criswell College]] with its radio station [[KCBI]], and [[First Baptist Academy of Dallas|First Baptist Academy]].

At Criswell's request in 1988 a search committee was formed to identify and call a new pastor.  On Thanksgiving Sunday evening 1990 First Baptist called Joel C. Gregory as pastor, following the unanimous recommendation of the pastor search committee and the deacons. Gregory became pastor while Criswell took the title "Senior Pastor."  At the Wednesday evening service on September 30, 1992, Gregory announced his resignation, indicating that the intended succession of Criswell had not taken place. Gregory subsequently wrote ''Too Great a Temptation'' (Summit Group, 1994) describing his experiences during this period.

In 1993 First Baptist called 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.

==Death==
Criswell died quietly at the home of longtime friend Jack Pogue on January 10, 2002, at the age of 92.<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=W. A. Criswell, a Baptist Leader, Dies at 92 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/12/us/w-a-criswell-a-baptist-leader-dies-at-92.html |quote=The Rev. W. A. Criswell, a leader of the conservative movement now in control of the Southern Baptists and former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, one of the denomination's first megachurches, died on Thursday in Dallas. He was 92. ... |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |date=January 12, 2002 |access-date=2014-08-27 }}</ref>

His death 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.

==Influence==
Well-known pastor and author [[Rick Warren]] recounts his call to full-time ministry as a 19-year-old student at [[California Baptist University|California Baptist College]], when in November 1973 he and a friend skipped classes and drove 350 miles to hear Criswell preach at the [[Jack Tar Hotels|Jack Tar Hotel]] in [[San Francisco]].<ref name="wmu">{{cite web| title = Interview with a Missions Leader | publisher = Woman's Missionary Union Website | url = http://www.wmu.com/rickwarren/
| access-date =2007-12-18 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071214010511/http://www.wmu.com/rickwarren/ <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-12-14}}</ref> Warren stood in line to shake hands with Criswell afterwards.<ref name=wmu/>

{{blockquote|When my turn finally arrived, something unexpected happened. Criswell looked at me with kind, loving eyes and said, quite emphatically, "Young man, I feel led to lay hands on you and pray for you!" He placed his hands on my head and prayed: "Father, I ask that you give this young preacher a double portion of your Spirit. May the church he pastors grow to twice the size of the Dallas church. Bless him greatly, O Lord."<ref name=wmu/>}}

Warren went on to found the [[Saddleback Church]] in [[California]], one of the most recognized ecumenical churches in the country, with weekly attendance in excess of 20,000. In his book, ''[[The Purpose Driven Church]]'', Warren referred to Criswell as the "greatest American pastor of the twentieth century."

Audio recordings of Criswell's preaching began in December 1953, and over 4000 of his expository sermons are available free of charge in audio, video, and searchable transcript form at the [http://www.wacriswell.com/ W. A. Criswell Sermon Library] website, one of the largest online collections by a single pastor in the world. It is sponsored and maintained by the non-profit W. A. Criswell Foundation which also supports Criswell College.

==Southern Baptist Convention presidency==

{{Southern Baptists}}

From 1969 to 1970 Dr. Criswell served as [[Southern Baptist Convention Presidents|president of the Southern Baptist Convention]], the largest non-[[Roman Catholic]] denomination in the United States, with some 16 million members.{{Citation needed|date=September 2014}} During the twenty 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 [[Conservatism|conservative]] and [[evangelicalism|evangelical]]. He believed in [[Biblical inerrancy]], the [[perseverance of the saints|eternal security]] of the believer, and [[Jesus Christ]] as the authority of spiritual truth and the sole path to [[salvation]] of sinful mankind.  Unlike his predecessor George W. Truett, Criswell preached [[dispensationalism|dispensational]] [[premillennialism]] and the pretribulation rapture of the church.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Rising of Israel
|author=W. A. Criswell
|url=https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1985/the-rising-of-israel1/|quote=People coming to hear me preach said, "Why, that man is a pre-millennialist.  Why, that man is a dispensationalist."  I never had a premillennial teacher in my life.  I never had a dispensational teacher in my life, nor had I ever read any premillennial literature.  But they said as I was preaching through the Bible, they said, "Why that man is premillennialist, he is a premillennialist.  He is preaching about the Jews. He is preaching about the land belonging to the Jews.  And he is preaching about their return to the Holy Land.  And he is talking about their conversion there in the land.  He is preaching that."  I never made it up.  I was just preaching through the Bible.  That is all I was doing.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Before the Coming of Christ |author=W. A. Criswell 
|url=https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1985/before-the-coming-of-christ/ |quote=Well, I am what a theologian calls a pretribulation rapturist; I am a pretribulationist.   I believe, according to the Word of God, and ... I’m going to tell you why, according to the Word of God, I think we’re going to be raptured before. I’ve got six theological reasons from the Word of the Lord.}}</ref>

==Politics==
===Segregation===

Criswell was a former segregationist, and was critical of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' delivering "...a widely circulated sermon labeling activists for racial integration “a bunch of infidels, dying from the neck up,” [and] preaching that “the idea of the universal brotherhood and the fatherhood of God is a denial of everything in the Bible.”<ref>https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/interview-playboy-magazine-nearly-torpedoed-jimmy-carters-presidential-campaign-180975576/ "An Interview With ‘Playboy’ Magazine Nearly Torpedoed Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Campaign"</ref> Criswell also railed at federal intervention against [[de jure]] southern segregation.<ref name="Freeman">{{cite journal |last=Freeman |first=Curtis |date=2007 |title="Never Had I Been So Blind": W. A. Criswell's "Change" on Racial Segregation |url=http://jsr.fsu.edu/Volume10/Freeman.pdf |journal=Journal of Southern Religion |volume=10 |pages=1–12 |access-date=October 9, 2015}}</ref>

In 1956 he made an address denouncing forced integration to a [[South Carolina]] evangelism conference, and a day later to the [[South Carolina General Assembly|South Carolina legislature]].<ref name="Freeman" /> In it, he was particularly critical of the [[National Council of Churches]] and the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]], calling on his co-religionists to resist these "two-by scantling, good-for-nothing fellows who are trying to upset all of the things that we love as good old Southern people and as good old Southern Baptists"<ref name="Freeman" /> and referring to the intimidation of "those East Texans  ... [such] that they dare not pronounce the word ''chigger'' any longer. It has to be ''cheegro''."<ref name="Freeman" />

Taken aback by negative reactions to 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.<ref name="StandProm">{{cite book |title= Standing on the Promises: The Autobiography of W. A. Criswell|last= Criswell|first= W. A.|author-link= W. A. Criswell|year= 1990|publisher= Word Publishing|location= Dallas, Texas|isbn= 0-8499-0843-4|pages= 202–204, 216–217}}</ref>
<blockquote>"Never in my life did I believe in separating people on the basis of skin pigmentation.  Racism was, is, and always will be an abomination in the eyes of God, and should be in the eyes of God's people.  And where we who call the name of Christ have knowingly or unknowingly contributed to racism in any form, we have sinned and need to beg God's forgiveness."<ref>{{cite book |last=Criswell |first=W. A. |date=1990 |title=Standing on the Promises |publisher=Word Publishing |page=203 |isbn=0-8499-0843-4}}</ref></blockquote>

===Presidential elections===

In 1960 Criswell published an article attacking the appropriateness of Roman Catholics to serve as president, titled "Religious Freedom, the Church, the State, and Senator Kennedy."  The address, the text of which is available from the [[Kennedy Library]] archives,<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKCAMP1960-1019-007.aspx |title = Religious literature: Criswell, Dr. W. A. &#124; JFK Library}}</ref> stoked the concern of some Protestants at the prospect of a Catholic President, to which the Senator in question ([[John F. Kennedy]]) responded in a speech in which he cast himself as the candidate of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic party]] rather than of the Catholic church, and committed himself to the [[separation of church and state]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16920600 |title = Transcript: JFK's Speech on His Religion|website = [[NPR]]}}</ref>  In 1976, Criswell supported the election of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[U.S. President]] [[Gerald Ford|Gerald R. Ford Jr.]], an [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopalian]], rather than the Southern Baptist [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee, former [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] [[Governor]] [[Jimmy Carter]].

===Abortion===

Questioned in 1973 about the Supreme Court's decision in ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' Criswell replied, "I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person, and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed."<ref name="Balmer2014">{{cite news |last1=Balmer |first1=Randall |author1-link=Randall Balmer |title=The Real Origins of the Religious Right |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133/ |access-date=29 May 2022 |work=[[Politico]] |date=May 27, 2014}}</ref> Criswell later became a staunch opponent of the procedure.<ref name="Balmer2014"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://media.sbhla.org.s3.amazonaws.com/06-JUN-1996.PDF|title=SBC presidents urge Clinton: 'repent' of abortion ban veto}}</ref>

==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''
*''The Criswell Study Bible. Thomas Nelson 0-84070-452-6''
*''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. Zondervan''
*''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. Thomas Nelson 0-7852-5838-8''
*''Isaiah: An Exposition. Zondervan 0-310-22870-0''
*''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''

==See also==
{{Portal|Oklahoma|United States|Texas|Biography}}
*[[List of Southern Baptist Convention affiliated people]]
*[[Southern Baptist Convention]]
*[[Southern Baptist Convention Presidents]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{sister project links|W. A. Criswell}}
* [http://www.wacriswell.com/ The W. A. Criswell Sermon Library]
*[http://www.wacriswell.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/About.Home.cfm About W. A. from W. A. Criswell.com]
*[http://www.wacriswell.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/Search.Transcripts/sermon/1589.cfm Transcript, "The Church of the Open Door," June 9, 1968]
*[http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/march11/3.54.html?start=1 "The Baptist Pope", ''Christianity Today'', March 2002]
*[http://www.sbc.net/criswell/news.asp BP New Release and Tribute upon Criswell's Death]
*[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19910608&id=37UeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zc4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6846,2459006 "Fundamentalist Baptists celebrate purge of moderates," Spartanburg Herald-Journal, June 8, 1991]
*[http://criswell.edu  Criswell College]

{{S-start}}
{{succession box |
before=[[H. Franklin Paschall]] |
title=President of the [[Southern Baptist Convention]]
W. A. Criswell|
years=1969-1970|
after=[[Carl Bates]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Criswell, Wallie Amos}}
[[Category:1909 births]]
[[Category:2002 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American academics]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States]]
[[Category:Activists from Texas]]
[[Category:American anti-abortion activists]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Baptists from Kentucky]]
[[Category:Baptists from Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Baptist writers]]
[[Category:Critics of the Catholic Church]]
[[Category:Dispensationalism]]
[[Category:Heads of universities and colleges in the United States]]
[[Category:New Right (United States)]]
[[Category:People from Bullitt County, Kentucky]]
[[Category:People from Chickasha, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:People from Dallam County, Texas]]
[[Category:Writers from Dallas]]
[[Category:Clergy from Dallas]]
[[Category:People from Jackson County, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:People from Warren County, Kentucky]]
[[Category:Religious leaders from Louisville, Kentucky]]
[[Category:Southern Baptist Convention presidents]]
[[Category:Southern Baptist ministers]]
[[Category:Southern Baptist Theological Seminary alumni]]
[[Category:Texas Republicans]]
[[Category:Writers from Muskogee, Oklahoma]]