R.A. Torrey (1856-1928)

Rueben Archer Torrey was an American evangelist, pastor, educator and writer. He was a superintendent at the Bible Institute of the Evangelization Society (BIES) (now Moody Bible institute). He later became their second president.

Reuben was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, the son of a banker.

He graduated form Yale University in 1875 and Yale Divinity School in 1878.
Rueben in the same year became a minister in Garrettville, Ohio.

In 1879 he married Clara Smith (Swift?) and they had 5 children.

He studied Theology at Leipzig and Erlangen Universities from 1882-3.

In 1889 he joined Dwight Moody in his evangelistic work in Chicago and became superintendent of BIES (1889-1908).
(For information about the Moody Bible Institute see notes)

In 1894 he became pastor at Chicago Avenue Church (now the Moody Memorial Church) (1894-1906).

In 1898 Reuben served as chaplain with the YMCA at camp Chickamauga during the Spanish American War’

1902-3 he preached in nearly every part of the English speaking world.
1903-5 with Charles McCallon Alexander, a song leader, he conducted revival services in Great Britain and visited China, Japan, Australia and India.
1905-7 campaigned in American and Canadian

1908 Reuben founded the Montrose Bible Conference i Pennsylvania. Many well known Christian leaders frequently gathered at the 3,000 seat tabernacle. He remained a guiding hand of the conference for the rest of his life.
(What started as a 10 day summer Bible has expanded into a a year round multi- faceted conference, camp and Retreat center

1912-1924 he served as Dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BILA)( now Biola University) where he was recognized as a leader in the field of Christian education. He contributed to the BIOLA publication The King’s Business.
( See ’ History and Heritage’ and ‘Forgotten Founder’)

In WW1 he acted as chaplain at Camp Bowie - a POW camp in Texas.

1915-24 he served as the first pastor of the Church of the Open Door, Los Angles. He was one of the 3 editors of the The Fundamentals which gave its name to ‘fundamentalism’.
(Read excerpt from ’ The Untold Story of the Fundamentals’)

The church and BILA both grew rapidly under Reuben’s leadership.

After 12 years at BILA he became restless to devote his time fully to evangelism. He resigned his positions to hold evangelistic meetings and to speak at conferences throughout the USA.
Reuben held his last evangelistic meeting in Florida in 1927. Additional meetings were cancelled because of his failing health.

He died on 26th October , 1928 at home in Ashville, North Carolina.
Reuben had preached throughout the world and written 40 books.
He was 72 when he died.

Sources
Biola University
Moody Bible Institute
Wikipedia