Dr John R Rice Sermons

His grandson is a frequent member of this board. Ask him when you run across him.

 

Elderly man, eyewitness, recalls 1936 sermon given by John R. Rice:

 

I'm the grandson of JRR who was mentioned. I heard him in person many times, of course, but I seldom listen to the sermons on the Internet, so I can't much help there. I read a lot of his sermons, though. He put out many sermon books.

 

No offense to this guy, but his memory is faulty. The history tells a different story. I don't know whether he heard a JRR rant against Norris (I doubt it), but I do know that the actual split came when Norris viciously attacked a good preacher in his paper, The Fundamentalist, of which Rice was the editor. Rice told Norris he wasn't going to let the article happen, so they broke fellowship. Then, when Rice was about to go to New York for a city-wide revival meeting, Norris sent a telegram saying Rice had "a full platform of Holy Rollerism," which was a lie. (Norris charged Rice with speaking in tongues, among other things, according to the Bates dissertation.) The NY meeting went on anyway, with hundreds saved.

In support of Rice's version is the historical fact that after Norris founded the World Baptist Fellowship, he was so nasty and controlling that almost all of the other preachers deserted Norris's WBF and founded the Bible Baptist Fellowship. Here is a statement from the Keith Bates' dissertation, "Convinced that he was fighting on God’s side and that fundamentalists possessed the only true faith, Norris attacked his enemies with such viciousness that he rightfully earned the reputation of being one of fundamentalism’s most ruthless warriors" ("Moving Fundamentalism Toward the Mainstream: John R. Rice and the Reingagement of America's Religious and Political Cultures").

Concerning this guy's statement that Norris would go before Rice and preach, then Rice would come along and preach and then start a church, that too is mistaken. Rice would hold a tent meeting in Texas without Norris, then start a church and call a pastor. He did this 11 times, the historical record says. Since there have now been 3 PhD dissertations about John R. Rice and several master's theses, the facts are out there for the diligent researcher.

 

More on this from Roy E. Falls:

J. Frank Norris Historical Society: The Norris/Rice Split of 1936

"the Baptist Tabernacle, also known as the Ramseur Baptist Church in Paris, Texas. This location was the last place in which J. Frank Norris and John R. Rice appeared in public together. The split was aired before a packed house in 1936. I was there and was an eye-witness to the bitter exchanges"

 

And I have one of these books.

 

Here is a website with 21 of his sermons:
Index of /media/AudioSermonsbyJohnRRice
(I am not endorsing everything on the website, of course.)

 

Any time, friend.

 

It remains that the paper documentation does not track.

J Frank Norris was a huge influence.

If he considered you an opponent, he was vicious and would seek to find any lie to discredit.

I am reminded of Vernon Grounds who literally sought out local assemblies and planted seeds to destroy any pastor who didn’t agree with him

Norris was a nice man unless he thought you were not o ne hundred percent on his side of any issue.

A clone of that thinking in the mid to late years of the 2000’s was Jack Hyles.