Rolfe Barnard Biography

I'd like to read an excerpt from my biography of Rolf Barnard entitled, God's Hitchhiker Evangelist, and do this before we pray for revival, friends. Rolf Barnard was an evangelist who lived in relative obscurity and died without an even public notice of his death, but of whom it was said he was the human means of divine mercy to a hundred thousand souls, the fruit of an itinerant preaching ministry that lasted over 40 years and canvassed much of America. To say this man Barnard was a controversial figure is an understatement.

A Southern Baptist and fundamentalist, Barnard's ministry alienated him within his own denomination and fundamentalist circles. Pulpits were closed to him and peers spoke ill of him. What did he preach which drew such ire from so many? Rolf Barnard preached the unvarnished doctrines of grace, the gospel of God's glory.

He believed in sovereign grace and defended its doctrines to his death. He saw its reality within his own heart and proclaimed the sovereignty of God and the salvation of man. This was the message which upset so many.

This was also the message that God seemed pleased to save many. Throughout the ministry of Rolf Barnard, his primary message was repentance. In a day when most preachers no longer believed repentance was necessary to faith and salvation, even within the sovereign grace movement, which he was primarily instrumental in its formation and served as its figurehead, he came down hard on those who only preached the doctrine of election and did not preach repentance and the need for a changed life.

Addressing a group of reformed pastors during this period, he commented, we must put first things first. The first emphasis is repentance. This generation doesn't need to learn the doctrine of election.

This generation needs to be called to repentance. This generation needs to bow to Jesus Christ. But what alienated most within his denomination was his prophetic voice which cried out against the spiritual deterioration of Southern Baptist life, the dilution of the gospel to make it more palatable to the masses, and evangelism which relied more upon man's methodology and emotional appeals more than God's sovereignty and the Holy Spirit's activity in convicting the heart of sin.

Rolf Barnard was not afraid to take aim and shoot down what he saw as the treatment of grace and the perversion of the gospel, and he simply ruffled some feathers of his peers. He had his enemies. One man was so mad at him that purportedly he came to a meeting with a gun to shoot Barnard.

Providentially, there was no shooting. When I began to study the life and ministry of Rolf Barnard, I was shocked at how greatly this man of God was used in the salvation of souls. In many ways he was the Azahel Nettleton of his day.

In fact, Barnard and Nettleton shared much in common. Both fought for orthodox religion of their day and faced fierce opposition for their stance. Both preached man's duty for immediate repentance, and both saw great movements of God's grace.

Listening to a Rolf Barnard sermon is an experience in itself. You will find yourself startled, alarmed, amused, convicted, and occasionally brought to tears. Take time to read his sixty-eight printed sermons, and you will stand amazed at this man's comprehension of human nature and his understanding of the lost sinner and infidel, and admire his great ability as an effective communicator of the great doctrines of the Bible.

Barnard knew full well the windings of the sinner's wicked heart, for he was once an infidel himself, and knew all the excuses and objections a rebel makes so not to stack arms and throw down a shotgun at the feet of a sovereign. Evangelist Barnard possessed a deep desire to see man submit to the claims of Christ and His Lordship through repentance and a life of faith. He was a man of prayer who regularly interceded for the lost, but most of all he believed a Christian was someone who had experienced change through a new birth from above, and had entered into a union with Jesus Christ.

He firmly believed that Jesus saved sinners from their sins at conversion. He did not hold to the theory that someone could take Jesus as Savior now, and later take Him as Lord. How can one describe his preaching and still do him justice? I don't know if it can be done, but I will try.

Ralph Barnard preached with a Bible in one hand, and a stick of dynamite in the other. As the demands of the holy law of God were pressed upon his hearers, a combustion began to occur, and as the passion of the preacher rose, sparks would begin to fly, as listeners sat spellbound, as they drew closer and closer to Sinai on a smoke, until they could sense the terror of the Lord, and were confronted with the wickedness of their own heart. At times this spiritual combustion could be too overwhelming to some of his hearers.

They'd have to be removed from a Ralph Barnard meeting on a stretcher. This occurred on more than one occasion. Do you know anyone who's preaching does that? There were times when some of his hearers were so overcome by the truths they heard they became insensible, and landed in mental institutions.

In his younger years, his preaching could literally shake an entire town. His preaching could be powerful and gripping, under the right circumstances, and that was Ralph Barnard at his best and most effective. He could also be quite ordinary as a preacher, but he kept a lifelong willingness to preach what others would not, and face the consequences for his convictions.

He was a man jealous for God and His glory. But one thing was certain. If you went to a Ralph Barnard meeting, you did not leave without a strong opinion of the preacher, good or bad.

His preaching disturbed people. If I could sum up his preaching with one word, it would be disturbing. He was a disturbing preacher.

He had a way of getting under your skin, like a splinter beneath your finger which gnaws at you and makes you wince. He could get you mad, get you under conviction, get you to the foot of Calvary and at the feet of a savior whose fountain of blood can wash all sins away. He preached the gospel in its purity and proper order.

He believed in total depravity and preached often on the doctrines of ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration, with the voice of a prophet, warning of a judgment to come, and a Christ who ruled with all authority from a heavenly throne. His was not a politically correct gospel. His gospel had power to save.

Let me say, friends, that if we preached more like Ralph Barnard and were more full of the Holy Spirit when we preached like Ralph Barnard was, maybe we'd see a little touch revival ourselves. Let us pray now that revival will come to our churches across this land. Let us pray.