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'''Irvie Keil Cross''', known as '''I. K. Cross''' (March 21, 1917 -- December 10, 2008),<ref name=ssdi>{{cite web|url=http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi|title=Social Security Death Index|publisher=ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=July 6, 2011}}</ref> was an [[American Baptist Association]] clergyman and denominational author who in the 1950s founded the defunct Eastern Baptist Seminary in Somerset, [[Kentucky]].

'''Irvie Keil Cross''', known as '''I. K. Cross''' (March 21, 1917 -- December 10, 2008),<ref name=ssdi>{{cite web|url=http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi|title=Social Security Death Index|publisher=ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=July 6, 2011}}</ref> was an American Baptist Association clergyman and denominational author who in the 1950s founded the defunct Eastern Baptist Seminary in Somerset, [[Kentucky]].

Cross was born in Huntington in Tuscaloosa County, [[Alabama]], to William Earl Cross (1889-1985) and the former Bertha Frances Harris (1893-1984), who were residing in Tulsa, [[Oklahoma]], at the times of their deaths.<ref name=ssdi/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.featherstone-society.com/Indexes/usa/featherstone%20findings/volume%2018/pages-29-34.htm|title=12. William Earl Cross|publisher=featherstone-society.com|accessdate=July 6, 2011}}</ref>

Cross was born in Huntington in Tuscaloosa County, [[Alabama]], to William Earl Cross (1889-1985) and the former Bertha Frances Harris (1893-1984), who were residing in Tulsa, [[Oklahoma]], at the times of their deaths.<ref name=ssdi/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.featherstone-society.com/Indexes/usa/featherstone%20findings/volume%2018/pages-29-34.htm|title=12. William Earl Cross|publisher=featherstone-society.com|accessdate=July 6, 2011}}</ref>

During his lengthy career, Cross worked at the ABA headquarters in Texarkana, [[Texas]], where his colleagues included [[A. T. Powers]], the ABA president from 1957 to 1959. This association led to Cross's publication of  ''Austin T. Powers As I Knew Him''.<ref>Irvie Keil Cross, ''Austin T. Powers As I Knew Him'' ([[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]], [[Arkansas]]: Bogard Press, 1989)</ref> From the middle 1950s to the 1970s, Cross was the founder and president of Eastern Baptist Seminary in Kentucky, established through the auspices of the Langdon Street Baptist Church in Somerset.<ref>Billy Hathorn, "Austin Toliver Powers and Leander Louis Clover: Planting the American Baptist Association in Northwest Louisiana during the Middle Twentieth Century," ''[[North Louisiana History]], Vol. 41, Nos. 3-4 (Summer-Fall 2010), p. 138</ref> [[L. L. Clover]], another ABA figure, received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Eastern Baptist in the spring of 1957.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~clover/vr/la.html|title=Clover Family Research Compendium: Louisiana records|publisher=freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=July6, 2011}}</ref><ref>Cross, ''Austin T. Powers As I Knew Him'', p. 22</ref>Cross was included in the publication ''Who's Who in Kentucky, 1955,'' as a resident of Bullitt County in suburban Louisville, prior to his move to Somerset in southern Kentucky.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://files.usgwarchives.org/ky/bullitt/misc/whoabcd.txt|title=''Who's Who, Bullitt County, 1955''|publisher=usgwarchives.org|accessdate=July 9, 2011}}</ref>

During his lengthy career, Cross worked at the ABA headquarters in Texarkana, [[Texas]], where his colleagues included [[A. T. Powers]], the ABA president from 1957 to 1959. This association led to Cross's publication of  ''Austin T. Powers As I Knew Him''.<ref>Irvie Keil Cross, ''Austin T. Powers As I Knew Him'' (Little Rock, [[Arkansas]]: Bogard Press, 1989)</ref> From the middle 1950s to the 1970s, Cross was the founder and president of Eastern Baptist Seminary in Kentucky, established through the auspices of the Langdon Street Baptist Church in Somerset.<ref>Billy Hathorn, "Austin Toliver Powers and Leander Louis Clover: Planting the American Baptist Association in Northwest Louisiana during the Middle Twentieth Century," ''[[North Louisiana History]], Vol. 41, Nos. 3-4 (Summer-Fall 2010), p. 138</ref> [[L. L. Clover]], another ABA figure, received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Eastern Baptist in the spring of 1957.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~clover/vr/la.html|title=Clover Family Research Compendium: Louisiana records|publisher=freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=July6, 2011}}</ref><ref>Cross, ''Austin T. Powers As I Knew Him'', p. 22</ref>Cross was included in the publication ''Who's Who in Kentucky, 1955,'' as a resident of Bullitt County in suburban Louisville, prior to his move to Somerset in southern Kentucky.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://files.usgwarchives.org/ky/bullitt/misc/whoabcd.txt|title=''Who's Who, Bullitt County, 1955''|publisher=usgwarchives.org|accessdate=July 9, 2011}}</ref>

Cross's theological works include: ''We Engage: Church Covenant'' (1955), ''The Truth About Conventionism'' (Seminary Press 1955, reprinted 1966), ''Israel in Prophecy'' and the related ''Those Lectures on Israel in Prophecy'' (both 1974),<ref>''Those Lectures on Israel in Prophecy'' (Little Rock: Bogard Press, 1974, ISBN:0892110813, 93 pp.</ref>''Baptist Heritage Abandoned: The Protestant Position of the Southern Baptist Convention'' (1981), ''Glover's Church Manual'' (co-authored in 1983 with [[Conrad N. Glover]]), and ''Paul's Lectures to Timothy and Titus: An Exposition of the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus'' (1986)<ref>{{cite books|url=http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=I.%20K.%20Cross|title=Books by I. K. Cross|publisher=Bogard Press, titles listed on amazon.com|accessdate=July 6, 2011}}</ref>Cross frequently criticizes both the biblical legitimacy and the policies of the [[Southern Baptist Convention]], which he claims places the denomination in a position over the local church.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.landmarkbaptist.org/documents/Baptist_Heritage_Abandoned_IK_Cross.pdf|title=Baptist Heritage Abandoned|publisher=landmarkbaptist.orgt|accessdate=July 7, 2011}}</ref>He also claims that the SBC leadership, prior to the conservative resurgence which began in that denomination in 1979, had been sympathetic to some goals of the [[National Council of Churches]]. The SBC never joined the National Council.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://stpaulsseminary.com/Sophomore%20Year/Department%20of%20History/Ecclesiastical%20History/First%20Semester/Baptist%20History/Baptist%20History%20Collection/LIBRARY/Lesson%2033.PDF|title=The Truth About Conventionism|publisher=stpaulsseminary.com|accessdate=July 7, 2011}}</ref>

Cross's theological works include: ''We Engage: Church Covenant'' (1955), ''The Truth About Conventionism'' (Seminary Press 1955, reprinted 1966), ''Israel in Prophecy'' and the related ''Those Lectures on Israel in Prophecy'' (both 1974),<ref>''Those Lectures on Israel in Prophecy'' (Little Rock: Bogard Press, 1974, ISBN:0892110813, 93 pp.</ref>''Baptist Heritage Abandoned: The Protestant Position of the Southern Baptist Convention'' (1981), ''Glover's Church Manual'' (co-authored in 1983 with [[Conrad N. Glover]]), and ''Paul's Lectures to Timothy and Titus: An Exposition of the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus'' (1986)<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=I.%20K.%20Cross|title=Books by I. K. Cross|publisher=Bogard Press, titles listed on amazon.com|accessdate=July 6, 2011}}</ref>Cross frequently criticizes both the biblical legitimacy and the policies of the [[Southern Baptist Convention]], which he claims places the denomination in a position over the local church.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.landmarkbaptist.org/documents/Baptist_Heritage_Abandoned_IK_Cross.pdf|title=Baptist Heritage Abandoned|publisher=landmarkbaptist.orgt|accessdate=July 7, 2011}}</ref>He also claims that the SBC leadership, prior to the conservative resurgence which began in that denomination in 1979, had been sympathetic to some goals of the [[National Council of Churches]]. The SBC never joined the National Council.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://stpaulsseminary.com/Sophomore%20Year/Department%20of%20History/Ecclesiastical%20History/First%20Semester/Baptist%20History/Baptist%20History%20Collection/LIBRARY/Lesson%2033.PDF|title=The Truth About Conventionism|publisher=stpaulsseminary.com|accessdate=July 7, 2011}}</ref>

"The only place to determine the true nature of a [[New Testament]] church is the New Testament itself. Just what did [[Jesus]] declare He was going to build, and what did His apostles and other New Testament writers understand the nature of the churches to whom they ministered and wrote to be? Did Jesus call it together Himself, or did He leave it to the minds of theologians to determine for themselves in later centuries? Does it have distinct teachings set forth in the New Testament, or are men free to make their own? ..."<ref name=bhist/></blockquote>

"The only place to determine the true nature of a [[New Testament]] church is the New Testament itself. Just what did [[Jesus]] declare He was going to build, and what did His apostles and other New Testament writers understand the nature of the churches to whom they ministered and wrote to be? Did Jesus call it together Himself, or did He leave it to the minds of theologians to determine for themselves in later centuries? Does it have distinct teachings set forth in the New Testament, or are men free to make their own? ..."<ref name=bhist/></blockquote>

At the time of his death at the age of ninety-one in Texarkana, Texas, Cross had retired from the ministry and was a member of the County Avenue Baptist Church. He had been married since 1939 to the former Johnnie Maxine Sharp (born 1920), who survived him. Cross is interred at East Memorial Gardens in Texarkana, Texas.<ref>''[[Texarkana Gazette]]'', December 12, 2008</ref>

At the time of his death at the age of ninety-one in Texarkana, Texas, Cross had retired from the ministry and was a member of the County Avenue Baptist Church. He had been married since 1939 to the former Johnnie Maxine Sharp (born 1920), who survived him. Cross is interred at East Memorial Gardens in Texarkana, Texas.<ref>''Texarkana Gazette'', December 12, 2008</ref>

==References==

==References==