Rolfe Barnard's Awakening Ministry

When I was writing the biography on the life and ministry of the Baptist evangelist, Rolf Barnard, I learned why God used him so mightily. And when I say mightily, friends, I mean mightily useful to God for his glory. It was estimated that 100,000 souls were brought to Christ in his 40 years of itinerant preaching.

Evangelist Barnard believed in preaching the gospel in its purity and proper order, that sinners had to be awakened to their lost condition before they could be saved. Rolf Barnard had an awakening ministry which transformed the church life of many of the towns where he preached. At times, people in his meetings would have to be removed on ambulance stretchers because they had become insensible under his disturbing messages.

Some would end up in mental institutions. Some would die suddenly from fighting against the spirit of God. One such startling incident stands out.

I'll let Rolf Barnard, related to you, friends, in his own words. The pastor of a church in a certain place asked me to come and hold meetings. Before I got there, seven deacons of that church had come to the pastor and said, now, brother pastor, we are not going to oppose anything, but we don't believe in what you call evangelistic campaigns.

So we will not be back until this preacher is gone and the meetings are over. The pastor said, well, I hate to see you take that attitude, but if that is what you want to do, I appreciate you coming and telling me. Well, if they had done what they said, it would have been all right.

But we couldn't get a crowd for a few nights and we were hitting it pretty hard. So those fellows were glad and got to bragging about how we weren't getting anywhere in the meetings. They violated their word that they wouldn't oppose us.

The pastor came to me and he was broken hearted. And he said, brother Barnard, this is killing me. What can we do? I said, I don't know.

Are you game for us to get down on our knees and ask God to save them or kill them? He agreed. And we got down on our knees and said, Lord, you know what these fellows are doing? They are ruining the meeting. They are making fun of the gospel, the church, and the Lord Jesus Christ and God's preachers.

Why? They were just filling the whole town with this. And everybody was talking about how the meeting was no good and those seven deacons making fun of it. So we said, Lord, save them or kill them.

Neither one of us was supposed to tell about that prayer. And I don't think I did, but somebody did. And those deacons heard about it.

They just heard half of it, though. And so they had a big time. They said, the preachers up there praying for God to kill us.

But we were praying for God to save them or kill them to get them out of the way. They were bucking God. They were hoarding themselves against God.

I think that is dangerous. They just laughed and had a big time about it. But in four days time, the pastor had seven different funerals.

And they were the funerals of those seven Baptist deacons. Every one of them died a horrible, sudden death. God kills people that hoarding themselves against his claims for Jesus Christ.