Featured Fundamental Baptist Biographies

He was a British Calvinist. Generally speaking, British preachers don't become fundamentalists, unless you count Spurgeon, who I call the proto-fundamentalist.

Pink's thing was spreading Calvinism, not fighting liberalism. So he was not a fundamentalist, in my estimation. Also, note that in his later life, he did not even go to church, though he kept up his writings. Hardly a good example for fundamentalists, who are generally very pro-local church.

 

Neither have I except when I say it. I use the term for Spurgeon because he took a stand against the liberalism in the British Baptist Union, and then was kicked out for it. So though fundamentalism did not yet exist as a movement, IMO, Spurgeon was the epitome of the stand the early fundamentalists took against liberalism in their respective denominations.

 

Arthur W. Pink was a Fundamentalist from the time he was converted in 1908 until around 1930 or a bit before.

AWP was not polemical, like the Canadian T.T. Shields. He was indeed a Calvinist, but he was not only accepted but beloved in Fundamentalist circles in his early days. He was a theologically balanced man. In most of his time doing conference work in Australia from 1925 to 1928 he moved in what would be considered Fundamentalist circles. He was friends with Arno Gabelein author of Our Hope magazine and other less notable figures within the movement back then.

AWP had complaints about 'decisionism' as he called it. Easy believism was something than rankled him and that the moral law as dismissed as something Christians should not be bothered with. Gradually these elements and the emphasis on prophesies caused him to move away from those kinds of churches and out of the ranks of Fundamentalism. Later, in the early 1930s, he wrote a series of 18 articles dismantling Dispensationalism.

Iain Murray called him a modern day Matthew Henry. Lots of men were called the 'last Puritan' --Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon and Dr. D-M-L-J. But I think AWP was a Puritan at heart in the best sense. DMLJ was positively influenced by Studies In The Scriptures. I think there is a line of connection between Spurgeon, AWP and DMLJ.

AWP canvassed so much of the Word of God. It's remarkable. The publication was just a two person operation. He studied and wrote and his wife Vera typed every article. After his time in Australia (and I could add so much more) all doors of an oral ministry were closed to him (partly due to his strictness) and he devoted all his energy to writing. By God's providence that what he was meant to do.

 

Jerry Falwell started out as a Fundamental Baptist, and even called himself a Fundamentalist towards the end of his career. However, in my book he abandoned Fundamentalism when he teamed with Catholics in the Moral Majority, and then went even further away when he bailed out the Charismatic ministry of Jim Bakker. At any rate, he wrote two (yep, 2!) autobiographies, and I also have a book written about him by his wife:

Falwell, Jerry. Falwell: An Autobiography. Lynchburg: Liberty House Publishers, 1997.

________. Strength for the Journey. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.

Falwell, Macel with Melanie Hemry. Jerry Falwell: His Life and Legacy. New York: Howard Books, 2008.

 

O. S. Hawkins, In the Name of God. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2021.

Just finished this new, very good book about the faceoff in Texas for years of J. Frank Norris versus George W. Truett. L. R. Scarborough gets in the picture quite a bit, too. While not a straight biography, but more church history, it has a lot of biographical material in it about the two men, who fought for the soul of the SBC back in the first part of the 20th century.

Norris was the Fundamentalist, of course, and Truett was the face of the moderates of the day. The book rehabilitates the image of Norris quite a bit, giving him the credit for inspiring the SBC Conservative Resurgence in the 1970's and after. Again, Norris, who had a very good education for the day (ThM from Southern BTS), set the standard for the preaching of Southern Baptists of later days such as W. A. Criswell. Norris's preaching was text driven, while Truett, though a great pulpiteer, was more of a topical preacher.

All in all, this book is well worth the read for anyone interested in J. Frank Norris and Baptist history.

 

He was also remarkable at drawing the types/anti-types from scripture.

 

Margaret Stringer, Jesus Led Me All the Way. Buy it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Led-Me...prefix=margaret+stringer,stripbooks,64&sr=1-1

This is one of the best missionary biographies I have ever read (and I have read many). Margaret was an independent Baptist missionary Bible translator in Papua, Indonesia, for 40 years. (Caveat: She did not do the work of a male missionary, such as church planting.) My heart goes out to single lady missionaries--they have a tough row to hoe. And the most difficult task in foreign missions is translating the Bible for a people group with no written language. She did it splendidly!

 

At the Moral Majority meeting I attended in 1979 or so, they had a Catholic priest lead in prayer. That's beyond simply inviting them to join. I draw the line at where I think the Bible does--the unequal yoke. In other words, if there is equal partnership and cooperation, it is wrong. Again, if a false group is put forth as godly (leading in prayer), I believe that is wrong.

Concerning prolife rallies, I've never attended one and don't plan to. What America needs is revival, and I don't see such meetings as revivals. We need deep, long, consecrated prayer and evangelism, or the corruption of abortion will not be defeated. I don't think single issue ministries are the answer.

Charismatics are incredibly destructive. Their doctrine is abominable before God (health and wealth, tongues, "manifest sons of God," false healing, etc. etc.). Three times in Japan the Charismatics damaged my ministry for God. I oppose them completely and I wish Jerry had.

Have you read his second autobiography? He tells the story there, and it is incredibly sordid. That ministry was not worth rescuing. To be fair to Jerry, though, he finally came to the conclusion that God used him to show the corruption of Bakker's ministry. But still, why would he try to rescue such a ministry anyway? My impression after reading his two autobiographies was that he felt a brotherhood of TV preachers so he tried to bail a fellow TV preacher out. Not a good reason, IMO.

 

Awesome! I just ordered it. Thank you.

Alas, I've never heard of one.

 

Joseph Hart's Spiritual Autobiography

http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/terrell.gail.e.html

http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/milburn.j.h.html

http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/killingworth.t.html

Check Baptist History Homepage for more beyond Biographies.

 

Adams, George F. - Adams, John Q. - Adams, Samuel M. - Alexander, Lewis D. - Allen, Jane - Anderson, J. H. - Anderson, R. T. - Angus, Joseph - Armitage, Thomas - Arthur, William - Asa - Asplund, John -

Backus, Isaac - Bainbridge, Peter - Baines, George W. - Baldwin, Thomas - Barnes, Lemuel Call - Barrow, David - Bays, Joseph - Beaman, Roy O. - Beddome, Benjamin - Benedict, David - Bennett, Eld. Micajah - Bethel, Lemuel Hall - Black, J. D. - Black, John William - Blackwood, Christopher - - Blitch, Joseph Luke - The Boardmans - George Dana & Sr. - Bogard, Ben M. - Boone, Squire II - Booth, Abraham - Bow, Jonathan Gaines - Bower, Jacob - Boyce, James P. - Brantly, W. T. - Breaker, J. M. C. - Broaddus, Andrew - Broaddus, William F. - Broadus, John A. - Brong, Rosco - Brundige, William - Bruner, Weston - Bryan, Andrew - Buck, William C. - Buckland, R. J. W. - Buckley, Elder William - Buckner, Henry F. - Bunyan, John - Burleson, Rufus - Burns, David E. -

 

Calloway, Binie - Campbell, Duncan R. - Caperton, A. C. - Carey, John - Carey, William - Carpenter, C. H. - Carroll, B. H. - Carroll, J. M. - Carson, Alexander - Cary, Lott - Cash, Warren - Castleberry, Van Boone - Cathcart, William - Caudill, Medford - Chapin, Stephen - Chaudoin, William N. - Chiles, James - Christian, John T. - Clarke, John - Clarke, Miner G. - Cole, C. D. - Coleman, James S. - Cockrell, Milburn - Colgate, William - Colman, James - Comer, John - Compere, E. L. - Cone, Spencer H. - Conner, Lewis - Cook, Joseph - Cottrell, Reuben - Covington, Will Ed - Craig, Elijah and Joseph - Craig, Lewis - Cranfill, J. B. - Crawford, N. M. - Crawford, T. P. and Martha - Crismon, Leo. T. - Criswell, W. A. - Cross, I. K. - Curry, J. L. M. - Curry, Lathey Ernest

Dagg, John L. - D'Anvers, Henry - Davis, Noah K. - Dawson, W. H. - Dayton, A. C. - DeVotie, James - Dexter, Gregory - Dillard, Ryland T. - Dobbs, C. E. W. - Dodd, M. E. - Dowling, JohnDowns, Thomas - Doyle, David - Drummond, Lewis - Dudley, Ambrose and Thomas P. - Dudley, Richard M. - Dudley, William - Dunbar, Duncan - Dunlevy, Francis - Dunster, Henry -

Eaton, Joseph H. - Eaton, T. T. - Edmonds, Justin O. - Edwards, Morgan - Elsey, Charles W. - Evans, Christmas - Everts, W. W.

 

Fawcett, John - Ferrill, London - Ferris, Ezra - Fish, Ezra J. - Fisher, Thomas J. - Floyd, Matthew - Florence Frank, Jr. - Folk, E. E. - Ford, Reuben - Ford, Samuel H. - Forty, Henry - Francis, Benjamin - Francis, Henry - Fristoe, Robert - Frost, James M. - Fuller, Andrew -

Gambrell, James Bruton - Gano, John - Gano, Stephen - Gardner, W. W. - Gayle, Peter S. - George, Herbert D. - Giddings, Rockwood - Gifford, Andrew - Gill, John - Gillette, A. D. - Goadby, J. J. - Goddard, Josiah - Graham, Baltis Joseph Windsor - Going, Jonathan - Graves, Absalom - Graves, Alfred C. - Graves, J.R. - Graves, Rosewell - Green, Abner W. - Green, Elisha - Greenwood, James - Grigg, Jacob - Grime, J. H. -


Haldane, Robert - Hale, Fred D. - Hall, J. N. - Hall, Robert - Ham, Mordecai - Harding, John - Harding, T. S. - Harriss, Samuel - Hart, Oliver - Hartwell, Jesse Boardman - Harvey, W. P. - Hatcher, John - Hatcher, William E. - Havner, Vance - Hawthorne, James B. - Haycraft, Samuel - Henderson , Thomas - Hickman, William - Hill, Samuel. S. - Hightower, John - Hinton, Isaac Taylor - Hiscox, Edward T. - Holcombe, Henry - Holman, Jesse - Holmes, Donald - Holmes, Obadiah - Hovey, Alvah - Howell, R. B. C. - Hubbard, Carroll - Hübmaier, Balthasar - Hutchings, Moses -

Ireland, James - Ivimey, Joseph -