Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 04:1 (Spring 1961)
Article: The Passing Of Dr. W. B. Riley The Second Martin Luther Of Protestant Christendom
Author: Richard V. Clearwaters

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CenQ 4:1 (Spring 1961) p. 11

The Passing Of Dr. W. B. Riley The Second Martin Luther Of Protestant Christendom

Richard V. Clearwaters

Delivered by Dr. Richard V. Clearwaters
at Dr. Riley’s Funeral in First Baptist Church,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 9, 1947

Edited by R. V. Clearwaters for Publication

Today, the second Martin Luther of Protestantism rests from his labors but not until he had nailed more than eighty theses to the door of every communion in Protestant Christendom by the publications from his pen. He was Administrator, Author, Educator, Evangelist, Orator, Pastor, Polemicist, Teacher, and Christian Statesman — truly a ten-talent man with a fine sense of humor. He indeed had the fearless fire of Luther, the organizing genius of Wesley, and the natural eloquence of Savonarola. Those who knew him never accused him of being an office seeker; he will not be remembered today because he was an office holder (though he was honored with his share), but rather he will be long remembered as one whose life, labors, and leadership caused him to be a maker of offices that no one else could fill. There are today no shoulders upon which his mantle may fall.

Shall we behold the onward march of Christ and His Church through the centuries to see where William Bell Riley is raised up. The early New Testament Church had its first center in Jerusalem, but the Judizers came in and the evangelistic zeal was chilled and the soul winning fires died down and the Church moved on. The next center for the Christian Church was Antioch but worldliness and sensuality crept in and the evangelistic zeal was chilled and the soul winning fires died down, and the Church moved on. The next center for the Church was Ephesus, but the Gnostic heresy denying Christ’s Deity crept in and the evangelistic zeal was chilled and the soul winning fires, died down and the Church moved on. In the early part of the fourth century Constantinople became the base of operation for the Christian Church, but formalism and liturgy crept in and the evangelistic zeal was chilled and the soul winning fires died down and the Church moved on. Rome became the center for the Christian Church about 600 A.D., but the Latin Vulgate and Monasticism flourished and isolated Christianity from a needy and sinful world and the evangelistic zeal was chilled and the soul winning fires died down and the Church moved on. France then became the center of the Christian Church, and the powers of Popery with their consequent corruption added to the crusades brought mighty schisms in the Church, and the evangelistic zeal was chilled and the soul winning fires died down and the center of the Christian Church moved on to Germany with the coming of Martin Luther’s Reformation in 1517. But the bitter controversies between the reformers...

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