The weather in the Texas panhandle and southern Oklahoma can be fierce and unrelenting. From searing heat in the summer to blasting cold winds in the winter it is fickle and unforgiving. Life itself could be the same way at the beginning of the 20^th century. There were great joys for the settlers of that land but there also were plenty of sorrows. Wally Amos Criswell saw the joy of his family of a wife and three children suddenly blasted by the killing winds of Typhoid fever. With great sorrow he laid to rest his dear wife and a newborn son. Hundreds of miles away in New Mexico, Anna Currie experienced a storm of her own. Against her father’s wishes she married a man who eventually left her deserted and the young single mother of two children. But things can bloom and grow even in that barren land. After some time Criswell and Currie found each other. They fell in love and married. W.A. Criswell brought three children and Anna two to their new union. And so it was that in 1909 they brought a son of their own into the world and they named him Wally Amos Criswell, Jr.

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. Her father had been a doctor and she dreamed of seeing her youngest son follow in those footsteps. 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. He loved the Bible so much that other children taunted him with names such as “little Bible reader” and “holy roller.”

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.

Elementary School began in a miserable way for Criswell. At times the wind chill factor dropped temperatures to forty and fifty below zero. The ride of one hour each way by wagon was bone chilling. Criswell's grades suffered as a result and he had failing grades at the end of his first year. Thus began a series of times when Criswell's mother moved away with her children to afford them a better education. She rented a house in Texline and took up baking to pay the rent. [1] Criswell often wondered why his mother would give up being with his father and sacrifice so much to make sure he was educated. Perhaps she was driven by the memory of her father who had been a physician in the Confederate Army. Perhaps she secretly wished she could pursue being a doctor and lived vicariously through her children. Whatever the reason, Anna Criswell played a crucial role in planting the seeds of learning in her son.

While his mother looked forward to her son becoming a physician, Criswell had other ideas. He announced his intention to become a preacher as a young teenager and his parents were less than thrilled. While his mother was set on W.A. being a doctor, his father had different reasons for his disapproval. He had seen the hard life Baptist preachers endured. He was proud of his son but his remark was, "Anything but a preacher ... I don't want to see you starved and cheated and embarrassed like so many pastors have been."[2] Both parents were well meaning. Like so many, they wanted their children to livea better life than they had. If they could have only known what a life their son would have as a preacher of the Gospel perhaps they would not have hesitated as the did!

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!" [3] Finishing became one of W.A. Criswell’s greatest attributes. An associate who knew him well in later years said: “If the whole world were one game of musical chairs with all four billion people involved and only one chair, when the music stopped no one would have to guess who would be in the chair: it would be W.A. Criswell.” [4]

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. Education, however, was everything to mother Criswell. She learned that the Texline School was not accredited and promptly moved away from her husband again to see that the children were in a proper school. This time the move was to the “big-city” of Amarillo, Texas. In 1925 Anna and her children made the one hundred twenty five mile move and began a new chapter in their life. This is not to imply that Criswell’s father was against this. His barbershop was stable and it was not uncommon for families to separate at times after this manner.

Amarillo was not totally cut off from the world. As a senior in High School, Criswell heard Will Rogers speak. He listened on the radio to the likes of Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan. Babe Ruth was in his prime and Criswell listened with fascination to accounts of his heroics. Criswell's real heroes were preachers. While attending the First Baptist Church of Amarillo, he heard L.R. Scarborough preach. On a number of occasions through those years his family heard none other than George W. Truett preach. Truett was “Mr. Baptist” and pastored the First Baptist Church of Dallas for forty-seven years.

In 1927 Babe Ruth set the home run record; Gene Tunney defeated Jack Dempsey as the Heavy Weight Boxing Champion; Al Jolson appeared in the first talking movie; Charles Lindbergh was the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic; and W. A. Criswell graduated from Amarillo High School. [5] His mother's heart was still set on him being a doctor but he was already set like flint toward a higher calling. Ruth and Lindberg set records in their respective fields and Criswell would one day set records of a different kind.

It was time for college, so at the age of seventeen W.A. Criswell headed off for Baylor University in Waco. As before, his mother moved with him to ensure he excelled in his education. 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!" [6]

W.A. Criswell was now a bona-fide “God-called” preacher and it was obvious to everyone who knew him. After his ordination in 1928 mother Criswell returned to live with the rest of her family. After thirteen years of hoping her son would become a doctor she yielded to the higher call of Jesus Christ. Both 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 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. Criswell couldn't believe God had led him to fill the pulpit that for forty-seven years had been supplied by George W. Truett.

Criswell began his ministry at First Baptist Church of Dallas in 1944. As he preached his first sermon, Dr. Criswell looked down into the eyes of Dr. Truett's widow. He mentioned many good things of the past, his own hopes for the church and then quoted some words from the late pastor, "God buries the workman, but the work goes on!"[7] Mrs. Truett looked back with approval. She later put her arm around her new pastor and told him she would see him as her son from then on. Before and since there have been very few churches which have known a century of preaching to be supplied by only two pastors. First Baptist Church of Dallas was truly blessed.

Many changes occured during the new pastor’s years in Dallas. Truett was a great preacher but he was also absent from this church for long periods of time as a denominational leader. Criswell began to move the church toward a fuller ministry. Rooms that had gone unused for years were opened and painted, ministers were assigned to specific age groups, and what is now called a Family Life Center was built. The church grew dramatically. Most responded well to the changes but a few did not. The one dark period of these early years was when Criswell led the church to disfellowship two families because of their rebellion and gossip. But the work moved on. 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 Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin." [8] 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."[9]

It is apparent from reading Criswel'sl sermons and books that he had a great affinity with Charles Spurgeon He noted that Spurgeon preached over four thousand sermons that covered almost every verse of the Bible. While their preaching style was different the effect was similar; they both preached the whole Bible and preached the whole Bible as true. In his book, Why I Preach the Bible is Literally True, Criswell said: "We frequently hear discussions concerning whether the Bible is the Word of God or only contains the word of God. If, by the former, it is meant that God spoke every word in the Bible, the answer, of course, is not. But if it is meant that God caused every word in the Bible ... the answer is yes." [10]  This author remembers hearing Criswell preaching on this subject at the First Baptist Church of Euless, Texas in the late 1970's. He was commenting on the increasingly common use of Redaction Criticism among Bible scholars. Criswell quipped: "They believe the Bible is inspired in spots and they are inspired to spot the spots." To Criswell, the Bible was inspired from Genesis to Revelation and he preached the whole counsel of God.

Criswell was by now the most listened to preacher in America and that was not without its dangers. In the early 1950’s the Civil Rights movement was just getting in to full swing. While in South Carolina to preach at the state evangelism conference Dr. Criswell was asked by the Governor of South Carolina to speak to the State Legislature. With only an hour to prepare Criswell accepted. In later years he regretted that decision. Here are some of excerpts from that speech:

"It is just this -- that one of the glories of a democratic society, we can choose our friends, we can choose our companions, we can choose the mates that share with us the building of our homes. We can choose our lives. It's a free country. It's a free nation and that thing of ... they don't like the word segregation -- but call it that ... that thing enters all of the realms of our lives and there is no escaping from it if a man has the liberty of choice."

"I just can't sing like those colored folks sing. And my folks can't do it and my choir can't do it. If I'd tell them to sing a Negro spiritual for me, why you'd never heard such a sorry Negro spiritual singing in your life. They can't do it. But the colored folks can do it over there at their church. They've got lots of things over there. I've never seen a white preacher in my life preach like a colored preacher. But it is better for them to be over there in their way, in their church, with their preacher, carrying on like they do, and then I'm over here with my flock and my kind and we are carrying on like we want to do. And everything is just fine."

"If you want this group, or that group, or that group, or that group, brother, it's a free country. If I want my group, let me have it. Let me have it. Don't force me by law, by statute, by Supreme Court decision, by any way that they can think of, don't force me to cross over in those intimate things where I don't want to go. Let me build my life. Let me have my church. Let me have my school. Let me have my friends. Let me have my home. Let me have my family. And what you give to me, give to every man in America and keep it like our glorious forefathers made it -- a land of the free and the home of the brave. "[11]

Criswell recalled in his autobiography his motive and intentions during that speech. His concern was the church not politics. From a church growth viewpoint, Criswell sincerely believed that black and white church could best reach people by being black and white churches. The media misinterpreted his comments on segregation. Newspapers repeated allegations of racism and saw Criswell as proof of white Southern Baptists' disdain for other races. Hear Criswell's own words concerning this incident:

" Racism was, is, and always will be an abomination in the eyes of God, and should be in the eyes of God's people ... we have sinned and need to beg God's forgiveness ... At that time it seemed pragmatic that the best way to reach black people was with a black pastor ... it seemed the same for white churches as well ... During seminary, I had attended black Baptist meetings regularly ... I had visited the great black Baptist churches in Dallas.. In fact it was a black Baptist pastor in Dallas, Reverend Ernest C. Estell, pastor of St. John's Baptist Church, who defended me even as the press was misquoting my South Carolina speech." [12]

Criswell came to regret his words in South Carolina even though they were misquoted. He said: "In the following weeks, months, and years, as I prayed and searched the holy Scriptures, preached the gospel, and worked with our people, I came to the profound conclusion that to separate by coercion the body of Christ on any basis was unthinkable, unchristian, and unacceptable to God."

Several years later in 1968, Criswell preached a landmark sermon in his Dallas church called The Church of the Open Door. In that message Criswell publicly acknowledged how God had changed his mind on segregation. Criswell recounted stories of people of many colors and nationalities joining the church. He told of children, black and white, visiting from the Buckner Home. Then he recounted something he had recently told his deacons:

"And finally, as I spoke to my brethren and compeers in the church, our deacons, I said, “And I bare my personal soul to you. I cannot describe and I have come to feel the weight of it and the burden of it. I cannot describe to you how I feel when I preach the gospel of the Son of God and call men to faith and to repentance, and then stand there afraid that somebody might respond who has a different pigment from mine. It is though I were living in denial of the faith, to preach and be afraid that somebody might respond.” What if there came down the aisle a Buckner child who was colored? How would I explain to that child? In ten thousand years I couldn’t explain to that child, I couldn’t do it. But that’s not so much the point, how can I explain to God? You tell me how. You give me the words. What do I return to say to God? “This child, Lord, out here at the Buckner Home found Jesus today.” What would I say? "[13]

To this day Criswell is still painted as a racist by those who are unaware of the real man, his message or his ministry. Thankfully our judge is not man but God!

1960 found Criswell right in the middle of another controversy. John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic to make a serious run for President of the United States of America. Criswell spoke in caution against Kennedy’s election. While his words may have been more measured, Criswell spoke from a conviction. He had seen the influence of the Catholic Church in South America and the Philippines and feared the same results if Kennedy was elected. [14] As a Baptist, Criswell’s concept of a church free from government control was paramount. Though Criswell was one of the first to send sincere condolences to the Kennedy’s on the day a nation mourned his assassination some never forgave Criswell for his comments.

In spite of controversies the preacher from Texline kept right on preaching the Book. All was not seriousness with him however. Criswell loved a story and even a good joke. He wrote in one book "I think of that old codger who married at the tender age of 87 and immediately began to look for a bigger house close to an elementary school. That's the spirit.” In a TV debate in Dallas a female minister of the United Methodist church said: ""The bastard heresy of the 20th century is the teaching that the Bible is the Word of God." The man who presided over the session said to me, "Pastor, what do you think about that? You talk to her. What do you think about that?" And afterwards over a thousand of my people said, "Why didn't you answer her?" I said, "For two reasons. One, my mother taught me to respect a woman. Second, my brethren say I'm not supposed to cuss in the pulpit!"[15]

Criswell became president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1963. He had turned down the position many times but finally felt the time was right. That same year he wrote Why I Preach the Bible is Literally True. This book proved to be the opening shot in a war that would rage in the Southern Baptist Convention for another twenty years. Criswell had experienced first-hand the devastating effect of liberalism on preachers of other denominations. While in seminary, he and some friends attended the services of a liberal pastor. To their amazement he used Shakespeare as his text for his message. When they asked why he did not use the Bible as his text the minister replied, "I preached the Bible last year and finished it..."[16] Criswell concluded his book with these prophetic words:

"If our preachers ... churches and institutions are true to that expression of faith (the infallibility of Scripture) we shall live. If we repudiate it, we shall die. God will remove our lamp stand from its place ... As theological liberalism that denies the Word of God has destroyed other churches; the same theological liberalism will destroy us. There is no exception in this judgment, whether in individual congregations or in denominational associations." [17]

He didn’t seek it but W.A. Criswell became the spiritual father of the stand against liberalism in his denomination. Many of a more liberal persuasion genuinely resented Criswell and his teaching. The response from professors of religion in Southern Baptist Seminaries was chilling. Sixty-four Baptist professors wrote a resolution condemning the book and protesting the publication of it by the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board. Richard Land said:" There is no question that they loathed Criswell, because Criswell is the living, breathing denial of all of their straw men, and their caricatures. Here was a man with a Ph.D. from Southern Seminary, a man who was an honor graduate at Baylor University, and man who was pastor ... of the most sophisticated church in the history of the SBC. He was a man of culture ... and he believed every word of the Scripture to be inerrant and infallible...." [18]

In 1985 Criswell preached a watershed sermon at the Pastors Conference of the Southern Baptist Convention. Criswell commented afterwards that Whether We Live or Die was the most important sermon he ever preached.  With all the passion a Texan could muster, Criswell warned his fellow pastors to learn from the life of Charles Spurgeon and the Down Grade controversy.

"I comment on the sad condition of Baptist churches in England as found in the latest biography of Spurgeon written by Dr. Arnold Dalamore, entitled: C. H. Spurgeon, a New Biography, published this last year. The comment concerning English Baptists is this: “Where there is no acceptance of the Bible as inerrant; there is no true Christianity. The preaching is powerless, and what Spurgeon declared to his generation one hundred years ago is the outcome.” And that statement is followed by this paragraph: “The failure of the new theology or higher criticism, call it what we will, is forcefully brought out by E. J. Bouconner in his Evangelism in England. He tells of a conversation between the editor of an agnostic magazine and a neo-orthodox minister. The editor told the minister that despite their different vocations, they had much in Bible, in common. “I don’t believe the Bible,” said the agnostic, “but neither do you. I don’t believe the story about creation, but you don’t either. I don’t believe any of these things, but neither do you. I am as much of a Christian as you. And you are as much of an infidel as I.”[19]

Criswell catalogued the demise of great Baptist schools such as Brown and warned of similar fates for Southern Baptist schools if the tide was not turned back to the authority of God’s Word. "The trouble is, the self-styled superior religionists do nothing but preside over a dying church and a dying witness and a dying denomination. No minister who has embraced a higher critical approach to the gospel has ever built a great church; held a mighty revival or won a city to the Lord. They live off the labor and sacrifice of those who paid the price of devoted service before them. " [20]

Many pastors, including this author, remember those addresses at the Southern Baptist Convention. More than that we remember a man who loved the Word of God. He wasn’t a perfect man but he was God’s man. FBC Dallas grew consistently throughout Criswell’s half-century there. The church grew from 7800 members to 25,000 members in the mid-80's. The church baptized thousands, started dozens of mission churches, established education systems from Pre-School to Graduate School, and began radio and television ministries. The impact of W.A. Criswell’s life reached far beyond numbers. Here was a highly educated man who preached with deep passion when he spoke of his beloved Savior and Lord. At the end of his autobiography, Standing on the Promises, Criswell wrote:

"There is only one joy greater than preaching or teaching the Word, and that joy is this: One day soon we will see the Author of the Word face to face ... In the meantime, all He asks of us is that we go on loving the Word and sharing it in our own ways, that we remain faithful to the Word, that we win the lost to Christ. And 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."[21]

On January 10^th, 2002, W.A. Criswell finally saw his Lord face to face. At the age of 92 his life had spanned almost a century of service to the King. While at Baylor he was called the preacher you could hear from five miles away. His earthly voice is silent now but his faith and influence are still heard loud and clear.

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