For three years in my under-graduate work at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, I reviewed the whole field of New Testament study, remembering that some day as I worked toward a Ph.D. degree, I would be asked to present a subject on which I would write a doctor’s thesis. After surveying the entire gamut of the almost limitless facets of the life and literature of the days of Christ and of the apostles, I chose for my subject the ministry of John the Baptist. Both in those days of intensive research and through these many years since, I have ever been grateful for the selection of the study. No greater contribution has ever been made to my own life and to my understanding of the Christian message than this intimate conversance with the work of the great Baptist.

To my amazement, I learned during those days of research that there are comparatively few books written on this man who was the second greatest born of woman. Why he has been overlooked is still a mystery to me. This is one reason for my great appreciation for Dr. Anderson’s choice material, upon learning of his intention to publish this volume on John. Having seen the manuscript and having followed the clear line of this discussion, I am doubly grateful. To all who would know more about Christ and to all who would follow in the sweet, humble spirit of John, the first baptizer, these pages will be an untold blessing.

The calling and the work of John the Baptist were from heaven. Explicitly and repeatedly, the Holy Scriptures present John as being personally a child born in the elective purpose of God and the words that he preached and the baptism that he instituted were no less the directives of Heaven.

There is no such thing as understanding the Christian ministry and the Christian message without first understanding the message and ministry of John. Through the eyes of Dr. Anderson and through his patient and careful research, we shall see this great preacher in all of his glory, in all of his meaning, and in all of his sweet humility as he prepared the way for our Lord.

Blessed are the eyes that look upon these pages; blessed are the teacher and the preacher who possess this volume. Above all, may God bless to the good of His children in the earth the incomparable example of the First Baptist who lives for no other purpose than to point men to Christ. May the Lord make like soul-winners of us all.

W. A. Criswell, Pastor
First Baptist Church Dallas, Texas