John R. Rice
| John Richard Rice
(Christian evangelist and editor of The Sword of the Lord) | |||
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| Born | December 11, 1895 Cooke County, Texas | ||
| Died | December 29, 1980 (aged 85) Murfreesboro, Tennessee | ||
| Spouse | Lloys McClure Cooke Rice
Children: | ||
John Richard Rice (Doctor of Divinity) (December 11, 1895 – December 29, 1980) was a Baptist evangelist, pastor and founder and editor of The Sword of the Lord newspaper. He was an influential figure in Fundamentalist Christianity. In addition to The Sword of the Lord, Rice is best known as the author of the book Prayer: Asking and Receiving. He also wrote several hymns, including a selection on prayer entitled "Ask, Seek, and Knock."
Background
Rice was born in Cooke County in North Texas, on December 11, 1895, the son of William H. and Sallie Elizabeth La Prade Rice. He was the oldest of three siblings. He was converted to the cause of Jesus Christ at the age of twelve.
Rice briefly attended Decatur Baptist College, served in the Army, and graduated in 1920 from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He did graduate work at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as the University of Chicago.
He held a Doctor of Divinity degree.[1]
He took on his first pastorate at First Baptist Church in rural Shamrock, Texas, and later pastored in Dallas. In 1926, he became a full-time itinerant evangelist. He collaborated with J. Frank Norris on an early radio program. Reacting against modernism, Rice broke with the large Southern Baptist Convention in 1927.
Sword of the Lord
In 1932, he founded the Fundamentalist Baptist Church in Dallas. Two years later, he founded The Sword of the Lord, a bi-weekly publication that has grown into the foremost Fundamentalist newsletter in the world. It vigorously exposed the evils of a liberalism, Catholicism, communism, the civil rights movement, and various vices, including dancing, the consumption of alcohol, smoking, and inappropriate motion pictures.
In 1939 he left Dallas for Wheaton, Illinois, in 1940, which became the base for The Sword of the Lord and for his full-time evangelism. He criticized the better known Billy Graham for cooperating with liberal ministers in his evangelistic crusades and for insisting on having a desegregated audience for Graham's crusades.
Rice moved finally in 1963, at the invitation of his brother Bill Rice, to Murfreesboro, Tennessee (where Sword continues to maintain its headquarters), helping out at the Bill Rice Ranch.
John and Bill worked as co-editors of The Sword of the Lord until 1978, when Bill died. That same year, John Rice asked Curtis Hutson to move to Murfreesboro to become the co-editor of the publication. Hutson succeeded Rice two years later.
John R Rice continued diligently editing The Sword of the Lord until his death on December 29, 1980.
John R. Rice had an impact on the world through his early pastoral work, his enormous effort in evangelism, and through his prolific pen by which he earned the nickname "The 20th Century's Mightiest Pen".
Further reading
- Sumner, Robert L. A Man Sent from God: A Biography of Dr. John R. Rice (1959).
Works
Books
- 742 Heart-Warming Poems—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-758-6)
- Amusements for Christians—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-012-3)
- Apples of Gold—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-017-4)
- Bible Baptism—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-055-7)
- Bible Facts About Heaven—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-057-3)
- Bible Garden, The—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-081-6)
- Bible Lessons on the Book of Revelation—Sword of the Lord Pub
- Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives, and Women Preachers—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-065-4)
- Charismatic Movement, The—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-101-4)
- False Doctrines—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-282-7)
- Filled With The Spirit—Sword of the Lord Pub
- God in Your Family—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-304-1)
- Golden Path to Successful Personal Soul Winning, The—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-306-8)
- Home--Courtship, Marriage and Children, The—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-359-9)
- How to Get Things From God—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-366-1)
- How to Make a Grand Success of the Christian Life—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-381-5)
- In the Beginning...—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-403-X)
- Lodges Examined by the Bible—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-510-9)
- Our God-Breathed Book--The Bible—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-628-8)
- Prayer--Asking and Receiving—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-654-7)
- Predestined for Hell?—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-657-1)
- Ruin of a Christian, The—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-710-1)
- Second Coming of Christ in Daniel, The—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-753-5)
- Seven Secrets—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-759-4)
- Son of God, The—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-794-2)
- The Coming Kingdom Of Christ—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-116-2)
- We Can Have Revival Now/Soul Winner's Fire—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-902-3)
- What it Costs to be a Good Christian—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-905-8)
- When a Christian Sins—Sword of the Lord Pub (ISBN 0-87398-911-2)
Other
The Rice Reference Bible Nashville: Thomas Nelson (1975)