Warren Christian Apologetics Center
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AH - Glenn Hawkins

Glenn Hawkins

 

Glenn Edwin Hawkins (1943-2023) graduated Newark High School, Newark OH (1961), Ohio Valley University, Parkersburg WV (1963), Harding University (B.A. 1965), and Harding Graduate School of Religion, Memphis TN (M.A. Apologetics 1975).
Glenn began his career as a preacher of the gospel and worked with a variety of congregations in MO & TN. From July of 1975 until his passing, Glenn served as minister of Massillon Church of Christ where he conducted a weekly radio program, wrote a weekly column for the Massillon newspaper, taught weekly Bible classes, served as a guest speaker at numerous lectureships, served as a teacher at Ohio Valley University, and was a staff writer for Sufficient Evidence, bi-annual apologetics journal of Warren Apologetics Center.
He was married for 57 years to Hope (Shutts) Hawkins. They had two sons Kenneth (Susan) Hawkins and Adam, and one granddaughter, Addison. He loved the Massillon Tigers, the Ohio State Buckeyes, golf, singing, and most of all his family, and countless friends.

He Knew It Was Worth It All

On January 3, 2023, the reaper entered the forest, and came for a cedar—a strong towering cedar that had withstood the blasts of trouble, trial, toil, and tragedy, just one year shy of eighty years. That great cedar fell and, as a result, a sizeable segment of Christians in Northeast Ohio and beyond resounded with the cry of the king and sweet singer of old that “there is a prince and a great man fallen” in spiritual Israel (cf. 2 Samuel 3:38; Galatians 6:16). His name—Glenn Hawkins. To his now widowed wife Hope, their two sons Kenneth and Adam, daughter-in-law Susan, granddaughter Addison, all of their extended family, and numberless friends, we express our deepest sympathy.

   On October 16, 1943, Jack and Frona Hawkins were blessed with a baby boy. They named him Glenn and, as our Lord did, the boy Glenn “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). And, he became a preacher—a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God has one unique Son—“His only begotten Son,” and He became a preacher. Jesus came preaching the gospel (Mark 1:14). Jack and Frona had one son, and he followed in the steps of Jesus.

   For more than a half century—57 years—Glenn Hawkins gave himself to the ministry of the word of God (cf. 2 Timothy 4:2, 5). More than 80 percent (47 years) of that 57-year career was spent ministering in Stark County, Ohio. Think deeply about this. Including the years that Glenn’s father served in the same capacity in the 1950s with the same church in this city, the name Hawkins has been associated with the preaching ministry of the Massillon Church of Christ during parts of seven decades of the 20th and 21st centuries! What an historical accomplishment! Was it worth it?

   Prior to locating at Massillon, Glenn was a graduate student in Apologetics and Philosophy of Religion under the teaching of Thomas B. Warren as his major professor. Glenn’s life was impacted by the logical thinking and powerful classroom teaching of Dr. Warren at Harding Graduate School of Religion, Memphis, TN. It was rigorous, but it changed Glenn’s life and the lives of so many of us who were directly influenced by Thomas B. Warren’s pioneering work in Apologetics. Was it worth it?

   Glenn Hawkins understood and supported the mission and vision of Warren Apologetics Center. Perhaps his final literary contribution to WCAC was his best—a masterpiece—titled, “What the Bible Claims.” It appears as a chapter in the remarkable book, The Utterance of God (published by the Warren Center in 2021), which is an extended treatment of Thomas B. Warren’s historic logical argument that proves the Bible is the word of God. The “Foreword” to the book affirms: “If the total years spent in serious biblical studies by each of the [23] contributors to this book were added together, the sum would exceed 1000 years!” (xv). Add to this the affirmation of Ecclesiastes as the writer searched for an answer to what life is all about: “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the flesh” (12:12, NIV). Was it worth it?

   Glenn Hawkins had learned it was all worth it, because he had learned the truth from a great mother and father, and it was confirmed in his graduate studies by as great a teacher any one of us could ever expect to have. He learned God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ are provable and knowable. He learned the case for Christianity is one characterized by rationality and certainty. With humility, he lived and preached it with the assurance of Deity—the uninventable Jesus Christ—preaching Him with absolute priority (cf. 2 Timothy 4:1-2).

   That veracity and victory in Christ settled it. As Paul declared, Glenn agreed, “I know whom I have believed . . .” (2 Timothy 1:12, emp. added). Jesus Christ the supreme revelation of God, the supreme interpretation of suffering, and the supreme signification of hope: Jesus is worth it all!

Charles C. Pugh III
Executive Director

Warren ApologeticsComment