866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
______
John R. Rice (1895-1980) was probably the most influential preacher in the fundamental Baptist movement, certainly one of the top five. When dividing fundamental Baptists into major groups, the largest is “the Sword crowd.” The influence of The Sword of the Lord paper, Sword of the Lord books, and the Sword conferences cannot be calculated. The circulation of the weekly paper peaked in 1972 at 300,000.
There was a lot that was right and biblical about John Rice and his associates, and I am glad that there were “Sword-style” fundamental Baptist churches when I was saved in the early 1970s. I’m glad that denominational churches were not the only churches that existed then and that there was a better choice. At the same time, it is sad that the fundamental Baptist churches were not a whole lot stronger.
The Sword of the Lord masthead encapsulated many of the things that were biblical and important about John Rice’s ministry: “An Independent Christian Weekly, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ. Opposes Modernism, Worldliness and Formalism.”
These are things that have characterized “Sword” churches, and they are truly “fundamental” things. And they are exceedingly rare. In an age when the verbal inspiration of the Bible and Christ’s full Deity and substitutionary blood atonement and salvation by faith alone and the pretribulational return of Christ are under attack on every side, including by “evangelicals,” The Sword of the Lord took an unequivocal stand. In a day when modernism and worldliness and formalism have captured the Christian denominations, The Sword of the Lord stood against them.
I grew up Southern Baptist, and don’t recall hearing preaching on the imminent return of Christ, or any sense of urgency about soul winning and world missions, or any opposition to modernism, worldliness, and formalism. I found those things only when I began to study Scripture for myself, and I found them in the first fundamental Baptist church I joined, a church that got The Sword of the Lord paper and had Sword of the Lord books available.
The Sword of the Lord stood for a pilgrim lifestyle and separation from the world at a time when the denominations, including the Southern Baptists and the evangelicals, had abandoned it. John Rice preached on modest attire. He preached against rock music, dancing, gambling, Hollywood movies. He preached courtship instead of dating, and his own daughters modeled this. The Sword’s stand against worldliness helped me as a young Christian coming out of a rock & roll hippy background. It help me to avoid going down the Christian rock path, which is a path to extremely dangerous spiritual waters.
I could wish that the Sword-style fundamental Baptists then had been stronger biblically, but they were what they were, and they were much more sound than denominational Baptists and New Evangelicals. In the Sword-style churches, a great number of lost sinners were saved, a great many homes were straightened out, a great many saints surrendered their lives to Christ and lived separated lives to His glory, and a great many preachers and missionaries were raised up for the ministry.
Some of the excellent biblical things that John R. Rice and his associates (such as Lee Roberson) stood for were the following:
- The verbal, plenary, infallible inspiration of Scripture (they believed the book “from cover to cover”)
- Unhesitating rejection of theological modernism
- Salvation only through faith in Jesus Christ
- Christ’s substitutionary, vicarious atonement
- A literal heaven and a literal eternal hell
- Rejection of both Darwinian and theistic evolution
- Rejection of every humanistic philosophy that is contrary to God’s Word
- The imminent pre-tribulational return of Christ
- The sense of urgency about, and the zeal to fulfill, the Great Commission, including the aggressive evangelization of one’s own community
- Rejection of the world’s pop music (including blues, jazz, rock, hip hop) and commitment to sacred music as opposed to contemporary
- A pilgrim lifestyle that involves a rejection of the world’s sensual dress fashions, separation from the world, non-conformity to the world (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 5:11; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17 were preached and applied to every area of life)
- Living by faith without dependence on denominationalism; thousands of men stepped out by faith to start churches and ministries with no promise of support, no guaranteed income, no big financial backers, no retirement benefits
- The centrality of and autonomy of the New Testament assembly
These were unpopular stands even prior to World War II. Fundamental Baptist people were going against the grain both of secular society and of Christianity at large. I thank the Lord that there were men who were willing to take such a courageous stand for truth in the midst of end-time apostasy.
John Rice was a man of God. I have no doubt about that. He knew God, loved God, and sought to please God with his whole life. He was known as a Christ-like, compassionate man.
John R. Rice modeled good Christian character, in his public life, his private life, and his family life. He practiced what he preached. There was never a hint of moral scandal surrounding the man. He was honest, a man of his word. He was careful in handling money. He paid his debts. At the end of his life, he could say with Samuel of old, “Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you” (1 Sa. 12:3).
John Rice was a man of great spiritual vision and faith in God. He was a man of prayer. He believed in “asking and receiving” big things from God. His sermons and books contain many challenging examples of the power of the prayer of faith, the power of stepping out in God’s will to do something that looks impossible. Faith pleases God, and John Rice doubtless has his reward for living by faith.
He was a pioneer, not content with the status quo.
He was brave, willing to take unpopular stands and trust God with the results, such as when he left the Southern Baptist Convention as a young evangelist and when he separated from the hugely-popular Billy Graham.
We would hasten to add that we are convinced that there were errors in Dr. Rice’s thinking and ministry that had a corrupting influence on the churches that were associated with and influenced by him, and these errors rendered them much weaker than they could have been. The Bible warns that “the little foxes spoil the vine” (Song 2:15), but these errors and faults were pretty big foxes.
It’s not time to abandon the good of the old Sword churches; it is time to go back to the Bible alone and reject everything that is contrary and add everything that is missing.
______
For the rest of this lengthy study on John R. Rice and the Sword of the Lord, see The History and Heritage of Fundamentalism and Fundamental Baptists, www.wayoflife.org
See also the newly published Fundamental Baptists: History, Collapse, and Revival (December 2025) in the book section of www.wayoflife.org.
- Receive these reports by email
- www.wayoflife.org
______________________
Sharing Policy: Much of our material is available for free, such as the hundreds of articles at the Way of Life web site. Other items we sell to help fund our expensive literature and foreign church planting ministries. Way of Life's content falls into two categories: sharable and non-sharable. Things that we encourage you to share include the audio sermons, O Timothy magazine, FBIS articles, and the free eVideos and free eBooks. You are welcome to make copies of these at your own expense and share them with friends and family. You may also post parts of reports and/or entire reports to websites, blogs, etc as long as you give proper credit (citation). A link to the original report is very much appreciated as the reports are frequently updated and/or expanded. Things we do not want copied and distributed are "Store" items like the Fundamental Baptist Digital Library, print editions of our books, electronic editions of the books that we sell, the videos that we sell, etc. The items have taken years to produce at enormous expense in time and money, and we use the income from sales to help fund the ministry. We trust that your Christian honesty will preserve the integrity of this policy. "For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward" (1 Timothy 5:18). Questions? support@wayoflife.org
Goal:Distributed by Way of Life Literature Inc., the Fundamental Baptist Information Service is an e-mail posting for Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. Our primary goal with the FBIS is to provide material to assist preachers in the edification and protection of the churches.
Offering: Offerings are welcome if you care to make one. If you have been helped and/or blessed by our material offerings can be mailed or made online with with Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or Paypal. For information see: www.wayoflife.org/about/makeanoffering.html.
