Preached at the Pastor's Conference of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1985.
This famous sermon surveyed the history of theological drift among Baptists since the rise of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory in the 19th-century up to his own day. He recounts Spurgeon’s stand against doctrinal downgrade among British Baptists and lamented the tragic fall of former Southern Baptist professor Crawford Toy to liberal theology. If Southern Baptists in 1985 followed Toy’s errant example, he declared, they could be sure their efforts to reach the world for Christ would fail.
“Some say the position taken by Spurgeon (to defend biblical authority) hurt the mission movement,” Criswell said. “My brother, if the higher critical approach to the Scriptures dominates our institutions and our denominations, there will be no missionaries to hurt! They will cease to exist!”