Thank you for this thread.
It looks very interesting.
Who is David Sproul, besides being, "Dr. David Sproul is a senior consultant with International Baptist Missions"?
Is this him?
In the wake of the David Hartman brew ha-ha I am skeptical of conservative, fundamentalist Christian 'historians'.
I've just read part 4.
Of what I recall David Sproul is right on.
Read some of Graham's work from the late 40's and early 50's to what came later, big change in him. What hurt him is what have hurt a lot of churches, being tolerant and understand others or we need to compromise.
No we need to love others, help others but keep our values when they are in accord with Scripture.
No, that's not him.
Brother Sproul was for many years the president of IBM.
He is the father of Mike Sproul, senior pastor Tri-City Baptist Church, Chandler, AZ.
As for a comparison to, David Hartman, the difference is Hartman sdealt with "secular" history while this series is a "how we got to where we are" history of the FBFI.
The OP's David Sproul oversaw Tri-City Baptist Church's tiny mission board "International Baptist Missions".
His doctoral degree is honorary, from a Bible college.
I've now read all four and I think he did a good job.
Going back on what I was taught and read and read and some I even recall.
Thanks, it was a good read.
Dave Sproul is also known for his pamphlet "An Open Letter To Jerry Falwell From Evangelist Dave Sproul".
"In this pamphlet Sproul attacks Falwell for inviting Dr. Harold Lindsell to speak at Liberty Baptist Seminary on the inerrancy issue. . . .He further criticizes Falwell for having Dr. W. A. Criswell speak at Lynchburg, claiming that Criswell is "perhaps second only to Billy Graham in being the biggest Judas-goat of the century"."
―p. 160, The Fundamentalist Phenomenon, quoting David Sproul, "An Open Letter To Jerry Falwell From Evangelist Dave Sproul" (Tempe, Ariz.: Fundamental Baptist Press, 1979), p. 10.
So far, I've seen your posts about the author.
Let's face it back in 1979, men like Mr. Sproul did not like Mr. Falwell's actions and positions.
Nor did they like Billy Graham and his supporters.
One of the articles gives their reasoning.
I find that Sproul did a pretty good job. His account of the Conservative Baptist mess tallies with the recent history of Baptist World Mission (my board) by Dr. Fred Moritz (an earned doctorate, Jerome :smilewinkgrin:), Now is the Time. Dr. Moritz is the former director of BWM. I read this on the plane coming back to Japan last week, and it is well written and documented. Particularly strange is the Conservative Baptist plummet from the Portland Manifesto of 1953 to the mess of 1963.
I have this pamphlet, written in 1979, and find that Sproul made some good points (and a few I disagree with). At that time I was having doubts about Falwell because I had been to a Moral Majority meeting where they had a Catholic priest lead in prayer. My thinking was that if Billy Graham was wrong to have priests participate in his campaigns, and send converts to the Catholic church, why was it okay for Falwell to join forces with the Catholics in political meetings which were openly Christian?
I met Falwell at my grandfather's funeral in 1980, and I've read his autobiography and his wife's book about him. He was a good and gracious man. However, I think he became a thoroughgoing New Evangelical. How else can you explain his bailout of Jim Bakker? Also, check out this BB discussion of Falwell's relationship with Moon: http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=4893
Falwell's view of fundamentalism can be seen in The Fundamenalist Phenomenon, co-authored with Ed Dobson and Ed Hindson, in which the authors take the position that there is no essential difference between fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals (p. 11, 2nd ed.), a view which is clearly mistaken.
Neither Ketcham nor Tulga were present at the 1932 founding of the GARBC.
Ketcham would later become an officer, but Tulga was not part of the GARBC.
He was a Northern Baptist Convention/Conservative Baptist Fellowship man.
Bizarre.
Where is he pulling these figure from?
http://www.garbc.org/?p=1959 "Our God Reigns is the theme of 2010 GARBC Conference, June 21-25, in Schaumburg, IL. You won’t want to miss the expository preaching from the book of Daniel, emphasizing the power and sovereignty of God. Speakers include Daniel Davey, Tim Jordan, John Greening, Ken Spink, Joe Earle,
William Gasser, Mike Stallard, and Bernie Augsburger."
Was there not even minimal fact checking done on Sproul's "history"?
Sproul did miss here since (1) it was a series of pamphlets, and (2) they appeared from 1910 to 1915. Maybe he's referring to the first time the pamphlets were bound into one book. (Wikipedia says a series of 90 essays in 12 volumes, but I've always read that they were a series of pamphlets.)