A. C. Dixon-Microcosm of an Era
I. A. C. Dixon-Microcosm of an Era
A. Born on a plantation near Shelby, North Carolina, on July 6, 1854, Amzi Clarence Dixon was a microcosm of an era of Fundamentalism.
1.One day during his Asheville pastorate, Dixon led a young carpenter to Christ. a)That youth soon entered the ministry and was instrumental in the conversion of George W. Truett (1867-1944), later to become a famous Southern Baptist preacher and pastor of Dallas’s First Baptist Church. b)"So Truett is my grandson in the gospel," A. C. Dixon used to say. c)following the liberal Henry Ward Beecher’s death, Dixon said: "The kind of unbelief which he did more than any other man to popularize has done much to weaken the power of the pulpit. To charge God with being the Father of all men is a slander upon his holiness. Few illusions can do more harm than that which holds all men to be children of God. It puts men to sleep on the bed of false security. It is the vagary of the broad and sentimental mind, and has no foundation in Scripture or experience." d)In 1906, the accepted the pulpit of the Chicago Avenue Church in Chicago, Illinois. This was the nondenominational congregation that Dixon’s hero, Dwight L. Moody, had founded. e)Dixon’s Baltimore church, however, had reportedly expressed its displeasure with his activity in the BBU. His letter of resignation from the BBU, dated February 19, 1925, appeared in a number of Baptist newspapers:After prayerfully considering the whole situation as it now exists, I am convinced that the Baptist Bible Union of America has fulfilled its great mission, and ought, therefore, to be dissolved. It has raised the danger signal and thoroughly aroused the Baptist denomination to the perils of Modernism. It has made it easy for Fundamentalists to bear testimony to the truth within our churches, Associations and Conventions. This work from within ought to continue with increased energy, and I believe that it can now be done more effectively without any other organization. . . . I, therefore, resign my position as a member of the Board of Managers and my membership in the Baptist Bible Union of America, believing that God will lead the Fundamentalists to ultimate victory in our beloved denomination.