Carl McIntire (1906–2002)

Carl McIntire (1906–2002), a Westminster Theological Seminary graduate, became one of the most prominent and controversial Christian defenders of the twentieth century, expelled from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for refusing to resign from the Independent Board of Foreign Missions.[1] His controversies reveal a pattern of theological rigidity and divisive separatism that fractured evangelical unity.

Doctrinal Inflexibility

McIntire’s primary complaints centered on eschatology and Christian liberty, particularly his insistence that premillennialism was non-negotiable despite being acceptable within Reformed traditions, with many of his followers embracing dispensational eschatology instead.[1] This dispensational position contradicted Reformed theology’s teaching of continuity between Old Testament Israel and the New Testament Church.[1] On the alcohol question, McIntire and associate J. Oliver Buswell demanded total abstinence as church policy, but the General Assembly rejected this, upholding the traditional Reformed position condemning drunkenness while affirming moderate drinking.[1]

Extreme Separatism and Institutional Division

McIntire founded the Bible Presbyterian Church, a fundamentalist body with only diluted allegiance to historic Reformed faith.[1] His ruthless insistence on doctrinal purity led him to form the American Council of Christian Churches (1941) and International Council of Christian Churches (1948) to oppose ecumenical movements, but his extreme separatism caused more than three-quarters of his denomination’s hundred churches to disassociate from him in 1956.[2]

Combative Methodology

McIntire published numerous critical articles attacking Billy Graham in his newspaper, the Christian Beacon, and built a long career on rancorous confrontation.[3] He protested Graham’s ecumenical evangelism by standing outside a congress entrance distributing mimeographed tirades against Graham and the evangelism he represented.[3]

The core problem with McIntire’s approach was treating secondary theological matters—eschatological systems and personal practices—as grounds for separation and schism, fragmenting Christian witness through uncompromising rigidity rather than pursuing unity within doctrinal boundaries.

[1] James Edward McGoldrick, Richard Clark Reed, and Thomas Hugh Spence Jr., Presbyterian and Reformed Churches: A Global History (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 327–328.
[2] D. K. Larsen, “McIntire, Carl,” in Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, ed. Timothy Larsen et al. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 395.
[3] William Martin, A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 340–341.