Jerry Falwell (1933-2007) was called to his heavenly home May 15, 2007
The U.S. public will probably remember Jerry Falwell, primarily for his amazing galvanization of conservative Christians into a significant voting block in American politics after decades in which the evangelical church had stayed behind closed doors and avoided any entanglement with what it thought of as the dirty world of politics. Leading the Moral Majority and calling Christians to exercise responsibility for a government elected by the people and for the people Falwell believed, and I think probably correctly, that these evangelical voters were directly responsible for the election of Ronald Reagan and the conservative revolution that followed. His political legacy is historic.
I’m sure that he would rather be remembered for another area of his ministry. Jerry’s ministry has shown that the biblical message of Christ reaches the heart of any people who are earnestly seeking to know the God of creation. Beginning as an Independent Fundamentalist minister Jerry built a congregation in Thomas Road Baptist Church that is reported to have reached over 22,000. His message could probably be simplistically summarized by Acts 16:31 “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…”
His work stretched beyond the pulpit and the voting booth to Education and other social activism. Liberty University with over 7,000 students and significant respectability in both academics and sports is just one of the schools he founded. The others were Christian elementary schools. But education wasn’t the extent of his social outreach. A strong opponent of abortion (I was moved years ago while visiting the Liberty campus, on a trip through Lynchburg to Roanoke, when I saw the memorial for unborn children who had been terminated by abortion that is on the campus), Jerry was not content to merely condemn the practice, but he stepped up and founded homes for unwed mothers where young women could find help to get through their pregnancy without the need to allow or cause the death of the child they carried. He founded a home for those who had become alcoholics, as well. He even stepped out of the Independent Baptist mode of ministry in which he started and in the end associated his ministry with the Southern Baptist Convention, something the large majority of Independent Fundamentalists can barely imagine much less do.
Despite the caricature that his liberal religious and political opponents propagated about him Jerry was smart, consistently gracious, decent, honorable and honest. He handled himself well in t.v. interviews and debates even with those who relentlessly attempted to make him look bad. It was hard to do, because Jerry was a good man. Whether you liked him or not, agreed with him or not, applauded his success or not, an honest evaluation is that Jerry was a good man.
He would be the first to tell you that all of his positive achievements could not get him into heaven, only faith in Jesus Christ as personal savior does that, and he would invite you here and now to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
Thank you, Jerry, you did well.
