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In 1946, Criswell announced to the congregation his plan to preach through the entire Bible, book by book. During his long walk through the Bible (which took 18 years), members of his church would mark pivotal events in their family life by reference to their pastor's exegetical sojourns. Baby Jane was born in Chronicles, Ruth got married in Mark, Billy Bob was baptized in Daniel, and Deacon Smith died in Deuteronomy.

Like Truett before him, Criswell became a renowned world Baptist leader. He traveled around the world with his friend Duke McCall, preaching the gospel on every continent. In 1964, he and Cameron Townsend, the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators, survived a plane crash while visiting mission stations in the jungles of Peru. Criswell also had a spiritual impact on Billy Graham in the early years of his ministry. Graham has been a member of First Baptist Dallas since 1953.

Criswell's role in the conservative resurgence in the SBC awaits a definitive study. But there is no doubt that he has been a major force in the redirection of America's largest Protestant denomination. Criswell's defense of biblical inerrancy, Why I Preach That the Bible Is Literally True, was published during his first term as president of the SBC in 1968. It created a firestorm of controversy. A Baptist professor at the University of Richmond opposed Criswell's second-term election as SBC president. Criswell was overwhelmingly reelected, 7,483 to 450, but this contest was a portent of future Baptist battles in which Criswell would play a significant role.

In 1985, Criswell preached a stirring sermon, "Whether We Live or Die," to the Pastors Conference of the SBC in Dallas. He excoriated theological liberalism and called on his fellow Baptists to stay faithful to the Scriptures. He concluded that message by quoting from William Blake:

Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

Criswell doubtless saw the conservative movement in the SBC as the providential work of God. At the same time, he recognized the harsh turns the controversy sometimes took, and he spoke with remorse about ruptured relationships along the way. Near the end of his life, Criswell told his lifelong friend Herschel Hobbs (a former CTI board member and former president of the SBC), "I wish that the people who believed the most about the Bible had the most loving spirit about what they believed, me included. The war of words must have grieved our loving Father, for it certainly broke my heart."

On a visit to his church in Dallas several years ago, I learned about some of Criswell's personal eccentricities. He always drank sweet milk with ice and ordered me a glass of it for lunch. He had a special pair of shoes that he only wore in the pulpit—shoes that never walked the streets of Dallas. He worked out religiously at the YMCA near his church. He told me that he might forget to read his Bible and pray, but he never forgot to go to the Y.

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March 11 2002, Vol. 46, No. 3