Biography
Stanley Monroe Horton was born on March 5, 1916, in the United States, in a Christian family. He grew up in a devout home and was converted in his youth. He received the baptism in the Holy Spirit as a teenager. He felt a call to the ministry and studied at Central Bible Institute, in Springfield, Missouri, an Assemblies of God school. He took further studies at Gordon Divinity School, in Boston, and at Harvard University, where he earned a doctorate in theology. He was a scholar with a deep respect for the Bible. He also learned Hebrew and Greek and studied the biblical languages.
He began to teach at Central Bible College in 1948, and then at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. He taught for more than fifty years. He was known as a devoted teacher with a quiet and gentle manner. He was a man who treated students with courtesy and kindness. He also taught at Evangel University. He was a man of wide learning, who gave special attention to the Old Testament and to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. He was a conservative scholar, who held to the full inspiration and authority of the Scriptures.
He wrote more than fifty books. Among them are What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit, published in 1976, which has been a standard work in the Pentecostal world. He also wrote commentaries on Acts, on the Corinthian letters and on Daniel and Revelation, and on the book of Isaiah. He wrote The Promise of the Spirit and Our Destiny, a study of the last things. He was the editor of the major work Systematic Theology: A Pentecostal Perspective, published in 1994, in which several Assemblies of God scholars took part. He was a member of the committee that translated the New International Version of the Bible.
He was a firm supporter of the doctrines of the Assemblies of God and took part in the defense of the distinctive Pentecostal view, that the baptism in the Spirit is a work separate from conversion and is evidenced by speaking in tongues. He held to the view with conviction, while seeking to be gracious to those who differed. He was also a man of faithful church life. He was a deacon and a Sunday school teacher. He and his wife, Evelyn, were married for many years.
He had few critics, though some thought that his approach was too cautious and that he was slow to engage with the issues of modern scholarship. He worked to defend the Bible against liberal criticism. He was a patient and generous man, who gave his time to his students. The record of his life should be checked against fuller sources, as I have not been able to confirm every detail. He died on January 28, 2014, in Springfield, Missouri, at the age of ninety-seven. His life shows the effect of a quiet teacher who gave his life to the training of ministers and the writing of books for the church.