John Richard Rice
1895 - 1980

      Rice was a Baptist evangelist and pastor and the founding editor of The Sword of the Lord, an influential fundamentalist newspaper.

      Rice was born in Cooke County, Texas in 1895, the son of William H. and Sallie Elizabeth La Prade Rice, and the oldest of three brothers. The death of John R. Rice's mother when he was was six years old left a lasting mark on the man.

      Rice did not complete his seminary course but in 1923, took a position as the assistant pastor of a Southern Baptist church in Plainview, Texas. The following year he became senior pastor in Shamrock, Texas, an oil boomtown; but in 1926 he left the pastorate for evanglism. Settling in Fort Worth, he became an unofficial associate of the flamboyant and authoritarian fundamentalist J. Frank Norris, pastor of First Baptist Church, who was preparing to leave the Southern Baptist Convention. Rice himself broke with the Southern Baptists in 1927.

      During the next few years, Rice held a series of successful revivals in Texas that were promoted by Norris. Rice made converts during his campaigns and then organized the new Christians into at least a half-dozen churches with the name "Fundamentalist Baptist."

      In July 1932, Rice held an open-air evangelistic campaign in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas and hundreds made professions of faith. There Rice organized the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle of Dallas; but instead of moving on, he pastored the church for more than seven years.

      Rice believed that the mission of churches was "not to take care of Christians" but to "win souls."

Showing 1 to 20 of 54 items.

A Sermon from a Catholic Bible
      I hold in my hand the new Confraternity edition of the New Testament which is translated from the Latin Vulgate by Catholic authorities. It has on the title page the following: The NEW TESTAMENT of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Translated from the Latin Vulgate. A Revision of the Challoner-Rheims Version Edited by Catholic Scholars Under t ...read

All Satan's Apples Have Worms
      I am speaking tonight on the subject, "All Satan's Apples Have Worms." I do not deny that the Devil has some pretty apples; I just say that all of them are fakes and that after you bite into them, you will find they have worms. All Satan's apples have worms. Luke, chapter 15, is one of the most familiar stories in the Bible, one of the most ...read

Assurance of Salvation
      "They that gladly received his word. . . . " - Acts 2:41. Here are some lessons in the Christian life. Every Christian starts out as a baby Christian. One has to learn after one is saved. One has to grow in grace after being saved. A good example is in the book of Acts, after Pentecost, when they had three thousand people saved. The Lord tell ...read

Backsliders; Saved or Lost?
      Everywhere people want to know whether the backslider is saved or lost. After one has sinned, is he still a child of God? When he has lost the joy of salvation, does he still have the salvation? Well, the answer to this question is that the backslider does not deserve to be saved but deserves to go to Hell; that other people will often think th ...read

Bad Use of Natural Languages at Corinth
      There are many good people who are misled on this matter of speaking with tongues. They are very eager people. Often they are good Christians in the sense that they want all God has, and they want to please God. They are spiritually-minded, good people, but often they are rather ignorant of the Bible and that makes them a prey to people who come al ...read

BAPTISM DOES NOT SAVE-DOES NOT HELP SAVE
      A favorite device of the Devil is to have men look to their works for their salvation instead of looking to Christ. He leads some to trust in their morality, some to depend upon lodge membership, some to depend upon confessions to priests; some he leads to trust in baptism. That is a fatal mistake. The unanimous voice of all the Scriptures is that ...read

BAPTISM FOR US IN THIS DISPENSATION; HAS NEVER BEEN DONE AWAY WITH
      Sometimes when people do not want to keep some command of the Lord Jesus they say, "That was for the Jews," or "That was done away with at the closing of the apostolic age." So some people, having been accustomed to a form of baptism or a teaching about it which they could not reconcile to the Scriptures, think they can promote Christian unity ...read

BAPTISM IS CHRISTIAN, NOT JEWISH; NEW TESTAMENT, NOT OLD TESTAMENT; GRACE, NOT LAW
      Down through the centuries till modern times all Bible students and theologians agreed that baptism was a New Testament practice exclusively, that it went with the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ, and was not a part of the Old Testament ceremonial law. However, those who sprinkled unconverted babies tried to find some excuse for family ...read

BAPTISM WITH WATER-ITS IMPORTANCE AND MEANING
      There have been too many sermons on baptism as a part of the doctrines of some denomination. There is too much talk about "Baptist doctrine" or "Methodist doctrine" or "the doctrine of our church." In this Bible study, we are interested solely in what the Bible teaches about baptism. Nothing else matters. God's people should be baptized beca ...read

Baptism: Make Public Your Allegiance to Christ
      I am talking on how to be a good Christian, with the understanding that everybody starts as a baby Christian. The Scripture says that "as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." And Scripture commands us to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. When people are saved, they are not necessarily gradu ...read

Bible Foretells Greatest Revivals Yet To Come
      Does the Bible justify the pessimism of those who think there will be no more great revivals? Absolutely not. How happy some would be if they could find in the Bible justification for their false alibis and excuses, justification for their powerlessness and fruitlessness. If there were a verse in the Bible which said there would be no more great re ...read

Bobbed Hair
      1Corinthians 11:3-15 tells us that since the man is the head of the woman, and there is a fundamental difference between men and women, that difference should be symbolized in the ways men and women wear their hair. "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is ...read

Christian Giving and Soul Winning
      Are you learning to be a good Christian? The Scripture says we should grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Scripture says, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." When you get saved. You are a baby Christian and you need to learn, you need to grow. Since you are no ...read

Convicted Sinners Can Reject Christ
      The Scriptures show that enlightened, convicted men do resist God, do thwart the grace of God. Men who could be saved, who are set apart by the blood of Christ, men who are bought, resist the Holy Spirit. God's grace is offered all, but is not irresistible, as Calvin taught. One of the five points of this man-made philosophy of extreme Calvinis ...read

Dear Catholic Friend
      After much correspondence, Dr. Rice writes an earnest Catholic man what is wrong with the Roman church. DEAR Catholic Friend: Your letter is before me, and prayerfully I take time to answer it. The truth of God is so holy that I must deal very reverently with it. And the truth has been so perverted by Roman dogma and tradition, that the tru ...read

Drinking - What John R. Rice Wrote About It
      'Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!' Isaiah 28:1 'The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet.' Isaiah 28:3 'But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink ...read

Ecumenical Excuses for Unequal Yokes
      1. Parable of the Tares: "Leave Them Alone Till Harvest." 2. "But Love the Modernists as Christian Brothers." 3. The Great Success of the Compromise Proves God Is for It. 4. "Fundamentalists Are Jealous, Envious Pharisees." 5. "Touch Not Mine Anointed." 6. Gamaliel's Advice, "If Not of God, It Will Come to Nought." ...read

False Doctrines and Claims of Tongues People
      Now I come to bring the last message on the tongues movement -- the movement that teaches speaking in tongues as the initial evidence of the fullness of the Spirit or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. First, let me say that many, many people of the tongues movement are good Christian people. They believe the Bible, they love the Lord. Many of them ...read

False Teaching About The Last Days
      Thousands of tracts, magazine articles, sermons and radio messages tell the people, "Jesus is coming soon!" "These last days of this dispensation" and similar phrases are very common in the Christian magazines. "Time is running out!" writes one Christian, who means that in a very short time Jesus is certain to come. "The last great mission o ...read