 Unlike his predecessor George W. Truett, Criswell preached dispensational premillennialism and the pretribulation rapture of the church.While he never spoke in support of racial segregation in his sermons and was not opposed to integration in principle, Criswell was at first critical of the Supreme Court's decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" and of federal intervention against de jure southern segregation.In 1956 he made an address denouncing forced integration to a South Carolina evangelism conference, and a day later to the South Carolina legislature.