Featured The Unknown John R. Rice

With this thread I'd like to share some things from my personal knowledge and from the extensive research I did for my new biography of John R. Rice, the famous revivalist. Feel free to share your own memories or thoughts or knowledge. By the way, I'll probably share a few things that are not in my or any other biography. In the interest of full disclosure, for those new to the BB or who do not know me, John R. Rice was my grandfather.

In the 1930's Rice was an itinerant evangelist, having tent meetings throughout Texas. In 1931 he held a tent meeting on the lawn of the county courthouse of Sherman. The courthouse was gone, having been burned down in the previous year during the famous Sherman Riot. The riot was about George Hughes, a young black man who was accused of raping a white woman. The young man was lynched, and other crimes occurred, such as the arson of the homes of several African Americans. Regardless, Rice set up a tent seating 1000, and a great revival happened, with hundreds saved.

Rice started a new church there not because he wanted to but because the local SBC church rejected the converts. The church still exist today, though under a different name. The revival was significant enough in Texas history that there is an historical marker honoring it: [Texas Historical Commission Marker: Grayson Bible Baptist Church]

It must be said here that Rice hated racist violence. He wrote years later: “What difference is there in a night-riding Ku Klux Klansman in America who beats offending Jews or negroes or foreigners, and a German machine-gunner, strafing refugees in Poland with a machine gun? At heart they are one"[1]
[1] John R. Rice, World-Wide War and the Bible (Wheaton: Sword of the Lord, 1940), 60.

 

Thanks for the input, aged man. His life as a child is well covered in the standard biographies, but I'm aiming at little known facts and events in this thread.

I heard Ray Hart sing that beautiful song, and used to have his cassette tape. I found it here on Youtube, complete with words by John R. Rice from the sermon:

 

What a blessing to know "the rest of the story." Thank you!

You know, LDBC supported us all our years in Japan. On our last furlough, they had the most awesome missionary conference I've ever been in.

 

Sorry to hear about the change in music style. We were last there in 2012, and I believe their service was traditional then.

 

John R. Rice's first experience with revival was when he was just a boy of fifteen. One day he began reading through Acts 2 and was thrilled at what God did there, with 3,000 souls saved. Here is an excerpt from my book about what happened next:

"One day his pastor invited him to pray with him for a revival in the nearby little cow town of Dundee, in a tiny church with only five members. The pastor preached and young John became the song leader. Nothing happened at first. No Christians were revived and no souls saved, so the boy began to fast and pray. One day the two of them went out into the woods to pray. The pastor asked, 'What do you want today, John?' The boy thought and then said, 'I have a burden for one person to be saved.' The pastor agreed, they prayed together, and sure enough, one precious soul trusted Christ as Savior!

"The next day they prayed for three to be saved, and so it was! The next day they prayed for five to be saved, and young John added, 'I want one of them to be Red Stone, and one to be Bill Palm.' That prayer was answered too, with five saved, including those very two souls! That small revival was when two things happened: the future evangelist learned that God answers prayer, and he won his first soul to Jesus Christ. During the invitation of one service, John noticed a young boy of fourteen named Albert sitting in front of him and clearly under conviction, and he urged him to raise his hand for salvation and then trust Christ. Albert did raise his hand timidly, but the preacher did not ask for folks to come forward, so young John took him outdoors and there led him to Jesus Christ. What a thrill he got from this—an event he never forgot and one which inspired his future."

 

Haven't posted here lately, but still plan to. Maybe tomorrow I can post something longer. In the meantime, a couple of new facts I uncovered in my research, things that I myself did not know.

First of all, John R. Rice wrote in one of his books that he prayed about 100 times a day. He just gave the bare figure, with no explanation. Did he actually count the times? Or was he just saying he prayed much?

Next, I learned from one of his letters in the John R. Rice Papers at Southwestern BTS that he liked Johnny Cash! Really! Well, Rice was an old cowboy, and Cash sang cowboy songs, so it shouldn't be surprising.

Rice had fond memories of his teen years as a Texas cowboy, so he kept horses and cows on his property (an old farm) in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He also liked the western novels of Zane Gray and Louis L'Amour.

 

Yeah, fascinating writer. My wife and both read his books, and we have the Sackett Companion by him (title? ) which is a lot of fun.

 

There was a big, public dispute between John R. Rice and Bob Jones, Jr., in 1971-1972. The main issues were how to define the verbal inspiration of the Bible (Rice liked the word "dictate," following theologians like Gaussen), and secondary separation. However, there was another issue that I did not know about until I did research in the John R. Rice Papers at Southwestern.

Rice believed very strongly in the possibility of revival anywhere and any time. Jones was also an evangelist, but did not believe in the possibility of revival in these days. I have had this view of Jones verified to me by one who knew him well.

I was also astounded to learn that Rice was the one who initiated the break with a 7 page letter in the Fall of 1971. I was at Bob Jones U. at the time, and lived through the whole mess; I thought that Jones was the one who broke off from Rice. However, this letter was very eye opening to me. Rice was very frustrated with Jones, Jr., at the time.

 

Didn't know that about Jones, Jr., but it doesn't surprise me. He was a great lover of art and literature.

I agree with MLJ and you about Lewis. I've read most of his books, both fiction and non-fiction. His book on the Psalms is especially bad.