Foy Esco (Foy E., Jr.) Wallace (30 September 1896 – 18 December 1979) was an influential figure among American Churches of Christ in the early and mid-20th century. Through his writing and speaking, Wallace gathered a considerable following among that autonomous group of churches. His skilled use of logic, combined with his charisma, propelled him to the forefront of at least three major controversies in the Churches of Christ.
Biography
Early life
Foy E. Wallace Jr., was born September 30, 1896, on a farm south of Belcherville, Texas in Montague County, Texas. His father, Foy Edwin (Foy E., Sr.) Wallace (1871–1949), was a prominent preacher within churches of Christ in Texas, having been at the forefront of debate with the Disciples of Christ over mechanical instrumental music in Christian worship and missionary societies. Charles Ready Nichol (1876–1961) and Robertson Lafayette Whiteside (1869–1951) were also very influential in Wallace's thinking as was his older brother Cled Eugene Wallace (1892–1962).
He was baptized by his father in 1909 and preached his first sermon in 1912 at Stephenville, Texas. While his initial appointments derived largely from his shared name, within a short time he had made a name for himself as a preaching prodigy. Wallace would carry the nickname of "The Boy Preacher" even into early adulthood.
Wallace very rarely preached as a local minister. While he lived in a progression of Texas towns (Lott, Temple, Vernon, Wichita Falls, and Fort Worth), these cities usually served him simply as bases for his "gospel meetings" (commonly called "revivals" outside churches of Christ).
One of Wallace's few significant works as a local preacher occurred from 1928 to the middle of 1930 with the Central church of Christ in Los Angeles, California.
In the middle of 1930 Wallace was called from Los Angeles, California to Nashville, Tennessee by Leon B. McQuiddy to serve as editor of the Gospel Advocate Wallace continued in this role until 1934 when severe financial difficulty of the Great Depression combined with a series of family medical problems led to Wallace's resignation as editor of the Gospel Advocate in an attempt to recover financially. However, late in 1934 Wallace declared bankruptcy while affirming his debts. In 1937 Wallace returned to Nashville and with the assistance of longtime family friend John W. Akin (1873–1960), satisfied all debts.
Premillennialism
On February 11, 1909, Robert H. Boll (1875–1956) became the front-page editor of the Gospel Advocate. After several years of work widely acceptable to his readership, his premillennial views were expressed within its pages, to the dismay of most of the Advocate's management, including J. C. McQuiddy (1858–1924). After considerable friction, Boll was dismissed, re-hired and dismissed again in 1915. In 1916 Boll became the editor of The Word and Work, a paper formerly edited by Stanford Chambers (1876–1969), of New Orleans, Louisiana. The paper Word and Work, was founded in 1908 by premillennialist Dr. David Lipscomb Watson. Especially under Chambers' ownership after 1913 Word and Work took an explicitly premillennial view. Boll moved the magazine to Louisville, Kentucky, where it continued to promote premillennialism within churches of Christ.
Boll's promotion of premillennialism led to continuing controversy from 1915 on into the 1920s, culminating in a written debate with H. Leo Boles in 1927. That debate ended amicably, but in 1932, the Advocate, under Wallace, turned its eye back toward the debate with a series of critical articles on premillennialism.
Wallace himself engaged in two well-known debates regarding premillennialism with Charles McKendree Neal (1878–1956) in 1933 at Winchester, Kentucky and Chattanooga, Tennessee. These debates established Wallace as the leader of those opposed to the premillennialists within the church.
In November 1934 Wallace participated in an equally contentious debate, also on the millennium, with Texas Baptist fundamentalist J. Frank Norris, in Fort Worth. After three raucous evenings of debate, each side claimed victory. For churches of Christ the debate became particularly divisive when ministers Frank M. Mullins and Jesse Wood from two Dallas-area Churches of Christ went to the microphone in support of Norris, a development which Norris had encouraged. Walter Estal Brightwell (1893–1957), a supporter of Wallace, wrote of the debate:
in the words of some of the boys who returned from France after the late war, I would not take a million dollars for the debate and the privilege of attending it, but I would not give a dime for another one just like it.