John R. Rice Quotes

       John R. Rice
       1896-1980
      
       John Richard Rice was born in Cooke County, Texas, on December 11, 1895, the son of William H. and Sallie Elizabeth LaPrade Rice. Educated at Decatur Baptist College and Baylor University, he did graduate work at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago.
      
       Although Dr. Rice served as pastor of Baptist churches in Dallas and Shamrock, Texas, in addition to starting about a dozen others from his successful independent crusades, his primary work was as an evangelist. He had been a friend and peer of Billy and Ma Sunday, Bob Jones Sr., W.B. Riley, Homer Rodeheaver, H.A. Ironside, Robert G. Lee, Harry Rimmer, and other leaders of that era. He himself held huge citywide crusades in Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, Seattle, and numerous other key metropolitan centers.
      
       Dr. Rice authored more than 200 books and booklets, circulating in excess of 60,000,000 copies before his death--about a dozen of which were translated into at least 35 foreign languages. His sermon booklet, What Must I Do to Be Saved?, had been distributed in over 32,000,000 copies in English alone--8,500,000 in Japanese, and nearly 2,000,000 in Spanish.
      
       In 1934 he launched The Sword of the Lord, which, by the time of his death, had become the largest independent religious weekly in the world, with subscribers in every state of the union, and more than 100 foreign countries. Thousands of preachers read it regularly, and it undoubtedly had the greatest impact on the fundamentalist movement of any publication in the 20th century.

The world never burned a casual Christian at the stake.     Topics: Apathy, Persecution God's people should be baptized because God commanded it, not because some church requires it.     Topics: Baptism No one can be a good Christian who does not with holy zeal set out to know, delight in, and live by the Word of God!     Topics: Christians, Scripture, Zeal You can never truly enjoy Christmas until you can look up into the Father's face and tell him you have received his Christmas gift.     Topics: Christmas I want no Christmas without a burden for lost souls, a message for sinners, a heart to bring in the lost sheep so dear to the Shepherd, the sinning souls for whom Christ died.     Topics: Christmas, Evangelism You may be lonely, poor, and cold, neglected by the children, forgotten by your friends, yet may have the glad Christmas joy in your heart as Paul had, shut up in prison cells at Rome!     Topics: Christmas, Joy Any pleasure that would keep you from Christ is a sinful pleasure that will doubtless cause you anguish, heartache, tears and remorse.     Topics: Compromise We'll say good night here, and good morning up there.     Topics: Death, Heaven Not till I die or not till Jesus comes, will I ever be eased of this burden, these tears, this toil to save souls.     Topics: Evangelism What a compelling motive we have for prayer, for preaching, for soul winning when we learn that every responsible human being who leaves this world without a definite change in heart, immediately lifts his eyes in Hell, tormented in flame!     Topics: Evangelism, Hell Every preacher, if he is saved, has this Great Commission. If you don't win souls, you have failed in your Christian life. No one is a good Christian who doesn't win souls. You are not doing the first things He said you were to do after you got baptized. Those who do not win souls are disobedient in the main command of Jesus Christ, and that is not a small matter.     Topics: Evangelism Never put a question mark where God has put a period.     Topics: Faith