Tribute to Reuben Archer Torrey
by Reuben Archer Torrey III
If you have read the Biola material on my grandfather, you will know why I am proud of him. I only want to add a little more. After
completing his theological studies in the USA he went to Germany and studied for 2 years under the most famous (I think) Bible scholars
of the day. They were the men who invented the so-called "Higher Criticism." They and their disciples are still taught in many of the
most respectable theological institutions in the US, today. R.A.Torrey returned to the US convinced of the futility and incorrectness
of the whole system. He resolved to teach nothing but the Bible, and the Bible as the infallible and inerrant Word of God. He took a
small church in a poor section of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and there my father was born.
In the meantime, D. L. Moody, the former shoe salesman turned evengelist, saw a need for a Bible institute where the Bible was taught as
the word of God and where Christian workers could be trained. He, himself, could not do it and he began asking around for a man who
could. He was introduced to R.A.Torrey, a man with the requisite scholarship as well as the requisite conviction. He invited him to
organize the Chicago Bible Institute and Torrey accepted. The great evangelist was D. L. Moody, and he continued his meetings and
winning thousands to Christ. Then, one day, he dropped dead in the midst of one of his campaigns. They asked Dr. Torrey to step in and
he did, completing the campaign with the same power as D. L. Moody. Later he wrote "Why God Used D.L.Moody," explaining that it was the
baptism of the Holy Spirit that was the source of Moody's power. Suddenly, Torrey became Moody's successor and, while going on with the
work at the bible institute, which now became known as "Moody Bible Institute," he conducted evangelistic campaigns all over the world,
filling huge stadiums and halls for weeks at a time, exalting the crucified Christ and winning thousands and thousands to Christ.
When he conducted campaigns, the evening services were always evangelistic, directed toward winning sinners to the Saviour. But the
mid-day meetings (morning or afternoon) were directed to Christian workers to introduce them to the "Power of Prayer and the Prayer of
Power," or the "Baptism With the Holy Spirit."
No one saw anything wrong with Torrey's approach until the Azusa Street Revival, when God poured out the Holy Spirit on a very mixed
group of hungry seekers of different races and colors but all of poor working class backgrounds with no formal theological training.
After that, many of Torrey's associates (who became, in time the ":evangelical movement") pled with him not to use the terminology of
"Baptism with the Holy Spirit," but only to talk about being "filled" with the Spirit. Torrey replied, "The Bible talks about the
baptism with the Holy Spirit and I will talk about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit." He became the only one of the evangelical movement
to use that terminology. My own Bible study has shown me how correct he was: there are two Greek words for "filled" in the book of
Acts, and one refers to the baptism in the Holy Spirit and one refers to something quite different, the infilling of the Holy Spirit in
order to bear fruit with no reference to power for ministry.
Another interesting episode was a request that was made to him to write out clearly what really are the fundamentals of the Christian
religion. Torrey wrote a series of booklets on "The Fundamentals" with the idea of helping people to clarify and sort out their
thinking, but a group of people, who became known as "Fundamentalists," made the series into a legalistic and rigid system, much as the
ancient Pharisees did with the law of Moses. Torrey distanced himself from them. He never entered into controversy, as firm and
definite as his views were. When his associates became too insistent on the matter of not talking about the "baptism" with the Holy
Spirit or about "the fundamentals," he would just qiietly resign and go somewhere else to work. To the end of his life he directed the
Montrose Bible Conference, which he had organized, to which he invited, as speakers, outstanding teachers, Bible students,
archaeologists, and the like, filling a 3000-seat "tabernacle" on a hilltop in Montrose, Pennsylvania. That is where he is buried. One
of my dreams is to have such a conference center in Korea.
|
|
|
