W.A. Criswell, longtime Baptist leader, dies at 92
01/10/2002
By HELEN PARMLEY / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
He modestly called himself a "Bible-thumping preacher." Others revered him as the "pope" of Southern Baptists. Billy Graham praised him as "the best preacher I ever heard anywhere."
Dr. W.A. Criswell, a central figure in Dallas and national religious life for more than five decades, has died at 92, a church spokeswoman said today.
The pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church of Dallas began preaching more than 70 years ago.
During his tenure in Dallas, Wally Amos Criswell became one of the best-known pastors in all of Christendom, and his church became a magnet for the politically powerful and the less influential.
Dr. Criswell had been in frail health for more than a year and had been hospitalized several times for digestive and cardiac problems.
His powerful, personal preaching style influenced generations of pastors. He laughed, he wept, he became enraged or tenderly personal. Without benefit of notes but with an open Bible in his raised hand, Dr. Criswell preached about the horrors of hell and the love of God.
From the pulpit of what became the largest church of the Southern Baptist Convention and from various leadership roles, his rock-ribbed Biblical theology affected people far from the downtown Dallas church.
Mr. Graham was not just an admirer of Dr. Criswell but counted himself as a member of First Baptist. And thousands of homeless men who spent time at the Dallas Life Foundation benefited from Dr. Criswell's leadership.
But Dr. Criswell's ministry was more than his best-known image – the white-haired, white-suited pastor declaiming the Gospel. The minister occasionally donned a bunny suit, complete with tall ears and a fuzzy tail, to pass out Easter eggs to children of the church. And for years, he'd wear a cowboy outfit and 10-gallon hat to mingle with members at the church's annual Western barbecue roundup.
The rock-jawed preacher from Oklahoma – with the looks of a football coach and the tenor of a zealot – first stood at the pulpit of First Baptist Church of Dallas on Nov. 19, 1944. The 34-year-old pastor, known already for the fervor of his preaching, issued an appeal for an evangelism of liquid fire.
"We'll go on and up with our various works," promised the preacher as he accepted the call from the First Baptist congregation. "We'll give to missions more money than ever before. We'll have Sunday School with 5,000 in attendance every Sunday, and the services in the church will be in the eye of God."
That was lofty talk from a relatively unknown newcomer to the buckle on the Bible Belt who was following in the footsteps of the legendary Dr. George Truett.
From 1897 to 1944, Dr. Truett had guided the church through what was thought to be its most glorious era. But Dr. Criswell delivered on his early promises.
He led the Dallas congregation into an even bigger program of mission and evangelism that reached unprecedented heights. The church claimed a membership of about 8,000 when Dr. Criswell arrived. During his heyday, First Baptist claimed about 28,000 members.
Under Dr. Criswell, the church ran 21 missions all over the city, including the Dallas Life Foundation. Annual giving exceeded $12 million. Church property reached an estimated value of more than $50 million.
In addition, under Dr. Criswell's leadership, the church opened First Baptist Academy and Criswell College.
Dr. Criswell became senior pastor in 1991. He was succeeded as pastor by the Rev. Joel Gregory. The younger pastor's rancorous departure less than two years later included accusations – vigorously denied by many church members – that Dr. Criswell was unwilling to relinquish power.
Dr. Gregory was succeeded by Dr. O.S. Hawkins, who called Dr. Criswell "my greatest human asset" when he left in 1998 to head the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
In July 1999, Dr. Mac Brunson took over as senior pastor. And on that Sunday when Dr. Criswell managed the extended introduction, he repeatedly and emotionally called the new man "our pastor." Dr. Criswell's visible support was a blessing during the first days in his new pulpit, Dr. Brunson said.
But some people said that Dr. Criswell's presence had been a mixed blessing for the pastors who came to First Baptist during his years as pastor emeritus – as if Jimmy Johnson had been forced to coach the Cowboys with Tom Landry watching from the next office. Dr. Criswell had set a daunting standard for success in the pulpit and in the work of his church.
Dr. Criswell was born Dec. 19, 1909, in Eldorado, Okla. While he was still a boy, his family moved to Texline, Texas, where his odd jobs included sweeping his father's small-town barber shop and the nearby post office.
He had a religious conversion during a tent revival when he was 10. At 17, he was licensed to preach at First Baptist Church in Amarillo. An excellent student, he entered Baylor University where he received a bachelor of arts degree and was awarded high honors.
He was an accomplished debater and briefly considered becoming an actor. He also found time to play trombone in the Baylor band.
Dr. Criswell preached his first formal sermon on the public square in Waco. In 1931, he began six years of study at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., where he was awarded a master of theology and a doctor of philosophy, with a major in New Testament interpretation.
While attending the seminary, he also served as pastor in several small churches in Kentucky. That was where he met and married church pianist Betty Marie Harrie. The couple had one child, Mabel Anne.
Dr. Criswell was called to a full-time ministry in Chickasha, Okla., then, three years later, to First Church of Muskogee, Okla. He often said that there he learned to temper his youthful fiery zeal with patience and diplomacy. He brought those skills, along with a strong administrative hand, to Dallas in 1944.
By the 1960s, Dr. Criswell had become the most powerful leader among Southern Baptists. Considered the father of the fundamentalist movement in the Southern Baptist Convention, he was twice elected president of the organization, the world's largest Protestant denomination. He preached and conducted evangelistic crusades on every major continent and was a guest of the White House and of Pope Paul in Rome.
For many years, Dr. Criswell opposed having black members in the church. He changed his mind in 1969, telling his deacons, "I came to the profound conclusion that to separate by coercion the body of Christ on the basis of skin pigmentation was unthinkable, un-Christian and unacceptable to God."
He was a champion of Israel and enjoyed a warm relationship with Jews and with Catholics.
"I would be more comfortable praying with a Catholic priest who believes in the virgin birth, the blood of atonement and the deity of Christ than with a liberal Protestant that doesn't," the pastor declared in a 1972 interview with The Dallas Morning News.
A prolific writer, Dr. Criswell was the author of 54 books that were widely read, particularly by fundamentalists.
In 1995, Dr. Criswell changed his title to pastor emeritus. He continued to preach at the church periodically, plus speak around the country and raise funds for Criswell College.
As recently as April 1998, Dr. Criswell took on an ambitious preaching schedule, delivering sermons for five consecutive days before Easter.
In May 1998, he was operated on for colon cancer and was hospitalized for several weeks. At the time, friends called his recovery "remarkable," although he never returned to his previous level of activity.
For Dr. Criswell, the heart of the ministry was always the pulpit. Although grateful for the tremendous growth of First Baptist Church during his watch, the pastor lamented when the membership became too large for him to make all the hospital and home calls of the sick and the elderly, deliver the marriage vows for all the weddings and baptize all the babies of the congregation.
Dr. Criswell presented a figure of great stature as he stood in the downtown pulpit three times each Sunday to preach his vision of the word of God. He traditionally wore a white suit during the years when his ministry was televised throughout the Southwest. A thatch of white hair accented the deep blue of his penetrating eyes.
A constant and diligent student of the Bible, the scholarly revivalist confronted the minds as well as the hearts of his congregation. Except for obvious symbolism, Dr. Criswell believed the Bible to be the literal, inerrant word of God and the cornerstone of the Christian faith.
His preaching style changed the sermons of America. To make his point, he was known to tear pages from the Bible while he growled, "They say this part isn't true. So let's just throw it away." Until finally, having ripped Genesis and the flood, the Virgin birth, the resurrection and all manner of other stories from the book, he would hold up the few pages left to demonstrate why he was an all-or-nothing Bible believer.
One of his early goals at First Baptist was to preach the Bible all the way through, verse by verse. It took him almost 18 years.
"His people have been exposed to more of the Bible than any church in America," said Dr. John Vaughan, director of the Church Growth Center at Southwest Baptist University in Missouri on the occasion of Dr. Criswell's 50th anniversary at First Baptist.
After suffering a heart attack in 1980, the pastor returned to a packed 2,500-seat sanctuary where an emotionally charged congregation stood to wildly applaud their beloved leader.
Attempting to hold back the tears that flooded his eyes, he walked to the pulpit and in a halting voice he said, "You are dear and precious people. All I ever wanted to be, in all my life, was a pastor. I can't ever remember wanting to do anything else. The Lord has been good to me."
He recounted the strength of his own faith in dealing with death, saying his period of recuperation was the most spiritual experience of his life as he encountered "confirming signs from heaven."
"Someone's been here. Someone is here," he said in explaining the omnipresence of God. His voice moving from an outcry to a whisper as he testified, "In my heart I'm ready – today, tomorrow, anytime. My Lord, I am ready."
Funeral and burial arrangements are pending.
dallasnews.com
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