On July 1, 2019, Dr. Norman L. Geisler went home with the Lord. He was an author, professor, pastor, administrator, and expert witness. He took great joy in his family. In fact, he sent me an email on June 6th to make sure I updated the number of great-grandchildren in his bio for an upcoming book. He even called me on June 19th to be sure I applied the update. Someone was a little excited, wasn’t he?
A personal connection
Since so much has already been written about Norman Geisler’s accomplishments, I’ll just highlight a few. He wrote about 130 books and hundreds of articles. He participated in dozens of debates. Geisler co-founded two seminaries, founded the International Society of Christian Apologetics, and served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society (1988).
Geisler on success
How did he accomplish so much? When asked how he measured success, he answered:
I measure my own accomplishment by the standard of God’s Word. In the final analysis, have I brought every thought captive to Christ? I am successful to the degree that I think and live Christocentrically and captivate every thought, whether it happens to be about politics or ethics or family, in the light of Christ and His revelation in His Word.[1]
Geisler’s history
Many do not realize that Dr. Geisler was virtually illiterate in high school. He became a Christian at the age of seventeen then God called him to be a scholar. As he often pointed out, God is more interested in our availability than our ability. He is able to equip us; we need only to humble ourselves before Him.
A couple of years ago, Dr. Geisler entrusted me to preserve his writings.[2] When I picked up the articles, they filled an entire suitcase! I opened the first folder, discovering some of his graded papers from college. His early papers had excellent structure, but they were filled spelling and grammatical errors.