No one can know too much or be able to do too much," Harold Lindsell wrote in a book on missions published more than 40 years ago. Lindsell, in applying such counsel to his own life, wrote more than 20 books, becoming a potent force for growth and development of the evangelical movement.

Lindsell died January 15 in Lake Forest, California, after a long illness. He was 84. Lindsell served as CHRISTIANITY TODAY editor from 1968 to 1978. Subsequently, he became editor emeritus and a director on the board of the magazine's parent corporation, Christianity Today International.

Under Lindsell's editorial supervision, CT played an important role in rallying evangelicals after the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion. As an author, Lindsell is best known for his 1976 book, The Battle for the Bible, which documented and deplored the defection of noted evangelical institutions from belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. His series of annotated study Bibles, including the Harper Study Bible, Revised Standard Version, and his 1973 study of Christian ethics, The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, also have proved to be enduring in their popularity and scholarship.

FOND REMEMBRANCES: "I loved him as a brother," says CT founder Billy Graham. "He was a counselor to both Ruth and me. Many times I called him for advice." Ruth Graham credits Lindsell with being used by God to save her doubting faith when all attended Wheaton College.

Although ordained a Southern Baptist and possessing a solid academic pedigree, Lindsell never had any seminary training and never held a pastorate. Yet in important ways his peers saw in him the heart of a pastor and a man for whom prayer was second nature.

"He was a man of prayer who not only ...