Biography
Riley began his ministry as pastor of the First Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota and served there for forty-five years, and another five as pastor emeritus. Riley wrote a number of texts on Christian Evangelism and founded the Northwestern Bible Training School along with an Evangelical Seminary.
Theologically, Riley was a Baptist traditionalist who believed in the New Hampshire Confession of Faith of 1833, the most popular Baptist creed of the 19th century. His first major work was an exposition of the Confession and in 1922 he tried to get the Northern Baptist Convention to adopt it as its binding statement of faith.
Riley was the editor of The Christian Fundamentalist from 1891 to 1933. In 1919 Riley founded the World Christian Fundamentals Association. Riley was president of the Minnesota Baptist State Convention in 1944-45. When Riley died in 1947, Billy Graham conducted the funeral services. At the time of his death Northwestern Bible School was the second largest Bible School in the world with some 1,200 students enrolled.
Read more about this topic: William Bell Riley
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