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Beyond all of his accomplishments, two things about Carl Henry stand out in my mind. On his last visit to Beeson Divinity School, he spoke in chapel about his conversion to Christ. He never got over the sheer wonder and joy of having been chosen and rescued by God's surprising grace. He knew what it meant to be born again. The other thing that stands out was his extraordinary humility and kindness toward others. His commitment to the orthodox Christian faith was solid as a rock, but I never heard him speak in a bitter or disparaging way about anybody, not even those with whom he disagreed.

I last saw Carl several months ago, when Greg Waybright, president of Trinity International University, and I made a pilgrimage to his bedside at the little Moravian nursing home where he and Helga lived.

He could not walk, and could barely talk, but his mind was abuzz with ideas and plans and new ventures for the advance of God's kingdom. We prayed and read the Scriptures together. Even though he was in pain, his eyes still sparkled with the joy of Christ. Carl loved to quote Vance Havner's prayer, "Lord, get me safely home before dark." As we left, Helga thanked us for coming and said she thought Carl was ready to go home. And now to home he has gone, to the place where peace abides and grasshoppers limp no more.

Timothy George is dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and an executive editor of Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

More on Carl F.H. Henry includes:

Inside CT: Carl Henry's Dream | Evangelicals are gaining respect among mainstream journalists, and that would have pleased Carl Henry. (Jan. 23, 2004)

Carl F.H. Henry, Theologian and First Editor of Christianity Today, Dies at 90 | Thinker helped to shape many evangelical institutions and efforts, from higher education to ecumenism. (Dec. 08, 2003)

The Carl Henry that Might Have Been | Carl Henry will be remembered as someone who, in a confusing age, held forth the solid middle of a faith that fortifies the whole human person against the fraying ends of irrationalism and superstition (Dec. 08, 2003)

Standing on the Promises | Former CT editors Carl Henry and Kenneth Kantzer evaluate evangelicalism in light of its twentieth-century developments. (Sept. 16, 1996)

Profiles of Henry are available online from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School's magazine, Boston University's Modern Western Theology site, and elsewhere.

The Billy Graham Center Archives web site has an autographed copy of Christianity Today's first issue, along with a February 15, 1956, photo of Graham and the editors.

Eerdmans recently reissued Henry's classic The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. Other Henry volumes, including the six-volume God, Revelation, and Authority, Confessions of a Theologian, Twilight of a Great Civilization, Dictionary of Christian Ethics, The Identity of Jesus of Nazareth, Toward a Recovery of Christian Belief, Evangelical Affirmations, and Christian Mindset in a Secular Society, are available at ChristianBook.com, Amazon.com, and other book retailers.

Amazon can also help with several out of print Henry titles, including Gods of This Age Or … God of the Ages?, The Biblical Expositor, and The Ministry of Development in Evangelical Perspective.

Several books about Henry are also available (though out of print), including Carl Henry at His Best, Conversations with Carl Henry, What Is Truth?, God and Culture: Essays in Honor of Carl F.H. Henry, Two Reformers of Fundamentalism, and a biography, Carl F.H. Henry.

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March 2004, Vol. 48, No. 3