The Sword of the Lord is a bi-weekly publication published in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It is owned and operated by Sword of the Lord Ministries which also publishes books, pamphlets, and tracts, from a fundamentalist, Independent Baptist point of view.
The Sword was founded in 1934 by John R. Rice (1895-1980) who served as its editor until his death. Curtis Hutson then took over as editor until his passing. Shelton Smith then became its current editor.
The name of the ministry and publication is taken from a phrase in Judges 7:20: "And they cried, The Sword of the LORD, and of Gideon." The verse is featured in the banner, as is the newspaper's stated purpose:[1]
"An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism."
Because of its Independent Baptist stance, it is highly anti-Calvinist and will not publish sermons by Calvinist preachers; although an exception has been made for the noted nineteenth-century Calvinist Charles Spurgeon due to his Gospel preaching, Spurgeon's sermons have been edited to remove Calvinist-leaning passages.[2]
It is also a proponent of the King James only movement, though not to the extreme of some supporters such as the late Peter Ruckman.[3]
Categories: [Christian Media] [Fundamentalism]