“This is Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile,” and Neither is Bob Jones University

In 1988 General Motors introduced a new redesign for Oldsmobile’s Cutlass Supreme. Significant styling changes were made to attract a younger generation seeking a sleek, sporty new look. The slogan for the refresh was, “This is Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile. This is the New Generation Oldsmobile.”  The campaign and redesign(s) never really took hold.  There were some successes, but the brand was squeezed out by other GM and competitors’ models. Oldsmobile, after 106 years in business, shut down forever in 2004.

And so it is with Bob Jones University. The school today, “Is not your father’s BJU.” Pastor Travis Smith (1977 BJU Alumni) in A Failure to Stay the Course, writes,

“For more than 15 years I have observed a pattern of change at Bob Jones University that is all too familiar.  Like a ship slowly, imperceptibly drifting from its course, the University is adrift from the disciplines that shaped the character of generations of Christian students in its past.”1

Dr. Steve Pettit inherited and ushered in changes that have created controversy at the consternation of many alumni, friends, pastors and churches.

• A modernized “casual” dress code, that strays from modesty for Christian young women. 
• Faculty members, Drs. Lonnie Polson and Jeffrey Stegall, serve as pastor and music director respectively of a Southern Baptist Church.2
• Dr. Pettit participating in a local Presbyterian Church of America: Here We Stand: Greenville Conference on Reformed Theology (Oct. 11-13, 2019). 
• In October 2018 Dr. Horn shared a conference platform in joint ministry with two Southern Baptist pastors.3
• High profile evangelical speakers including Ken Ham and Tim Tebow.
• Dr. Billy Kim and the Korean Children’s Choir on campus.4
• Cantus Men’s Vocal Ensemble performed on campus.5

These things strongly suggest BJU has evaporated as a separatist school.

“Some leaders operate on the principle that they will use speakers who are well-known even though they may be shaky in their convictions in some areas-because they have special abilities that are helpful and thus can be a blessing to their congregations. The wisdom, however, of following this course of action is very doubtful…. But a man is more than his pulpit message. He brings to the pulpit a lifetime of associations, actions and perhaps writings. He comes as a total person. Is he in his total ministry the type of person you would want the young people at the separatist college to emulate? If he is a compromiser, his example would be harmful, and the college president would be at fault for setting him up as such. The separatist cause is not advanced by featuring non-separatists.” (Dr. Ernest Pickering: Biblical Separation: The Struggle for a Pure Church, Implementing Separatist Convictions, Whom to Invite to Your Platform, p. 229.)

We have seen above BJU VP Sam Horn in cooperative ministry with SBC pastors, BJU retaining/hiring SBC ministers. Would these have been common at your father’s BJU?  Dr. David O. Beale, long time BJU faculty member wrote, S.B.C. House on the Sand? It was published by BJU’s Unusual Press (1985).

“Outwardly, the SBC appears to be continuing its Baptist tradition, with conservatism gaining in strength. Inwardly, however, the deadly diseases of apostasy and compromise run rampant and unchecked. Although Southern Baptist conservatives have discovered the presence of the malignant cancer of apostasy in the body, they have refused a complete diagnosis and removal of that cancer until it is now terminal. Conservative voices within the SBC are not expressing, nor have they expressed since J. Frank Norris’s day, any real commitment to removing the cancer completely. At best, contemporary conservatives are officially expressing only a desire that truth receive a hearing alongside error.” (p. 187.)

“Someone argues, ‘But we shall turn the SBC colleges, seminaries and other institutions over to the liberal unbelievers?’ The truth is that you have already done that…The cancer has permeated every area of the body, and no Bible believer should continue to feed it.” (p. 190).

“Another may argue, ‘I will stay in the SBC and fight from within. At least I will be an inside voice.’ The simple truth is that you only stay in because you feel more loyalty to a denomination than to Christ and the Bible. As long as you are ‘within’ associated directly or indirectly with apostasy you are in no position to ‘contend for the faith’ (Jude 3).” (p. 190).

Sam Horn, Steve Pettit, and others may argue they are reaching out to so-called “conservative” SBC churches; in reality they are compromising, if not rejecting, BJU’s legacy as a separatist institution. Are they trying to court the favor of those churches and recruit their students? The SBC cooperative program sustains apostasy within the SBC and its seminaries in particular. BJU retaining an SBC pastor and music minister aligns the University “indirectly with [the] apostasy” of the SBC. This would never have happened at your father’s BJU.

Does BJU Believe it Can Succeed Where All Those before Failed?
The history of smaller colleges like Tennessee Temple, Pillsbury Baptist Bible College, Clearwater Christian College, Calvary Baptist Seminary and Northland International University, formerly Northland Baptist Bible College, should be fresh in mind. New leadership made changes taking those schools far from their foundational moorings. Alumni and friends were alienated, and the schools folded.7

As BJU’s new trajectory steadily alienates supporting pastors and alumni they will lose much of its constituency. The school may not remain viable. Alumni have contacted Dr. Pettit with their concerns over the school’s change of direction.  They get a cordial hearing, but the administration and board appear determined to continue down this path.

BJU has shed a significant percentage of its student population highs. To attract a new student segment BJU has advertised in Christianity Today (CT).  Why would BJU seek a student population through New-Evangelicalism’s flagship publication? Why would BJU invest advertising dollars in CT, which props up New-Evangelicalism? This would never happen at “your father’s BJU.”

For decades the propagation of Calvinism and Lordship Salvation was not allowed in classroom lectures or dorm room debates. Today, however, Calvinism and Lordship Salvation have found a welcoming space at BJU. In recent weeks two separate pulpit committees interviewed several BJU graduates. Each of these candidates (5) proclaimed they are Calvinistic in their theology and that they agree with the Lordship Salvation (John MacArthur) interpretation of the gospel. They were, of course, passed over. The obvious question was: How did they come out of BJU with those core doctrinal positions?

Again from Pastor Travis Smith,

“It is with sorrow I confess, while many of the University’s alumni have stayed the course, the board, administration, and faculty have not. The erosion and decay of BJU has manifested itself openly.  The institutional drift has taken the University far from its distinctive moorings.  I fear Bob Jones University is too far gone and what was once the flagship of Bible fundamentalism is a shadow of her past.”8

What we have considered above begs the questions: “Is BJU trying to become a small fish in the big evangelical pond?  Was being a big fish in a small fundamentalist pond not satisfactory?”

BJU has become a marginalized shell of its former self.  Steve Pettit’s redesign has transformed the school into something that is, “Not Your Father’s BJU.”  You can’t come into an institution and take a hard right or hard left and expect to have your alumni with you. Continuing its current trajectory BJU will continue to diminish, and very possibly as with the Oldsmobile brand, it will go away.


LM

See the next article for a Continuation of this discussion.

Footnotes:

1) A Failure to Stay the Course

2) White Oak Baptist Church, “A Southern Baptist Church.” At the BJU site neither of their bio pages makes any mention of their positions at this Southern Baptist Church.

3) BJU’s Rejection of Ecclesiastical Separation: Is This Northland All Over Again?

Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary's annual E3 Pastors Conference, October 2018. Guest speakers included two Southern Baptist Convention pastors Dr. Richard Caldwell, Dr. Rick Holland...and BJU Executive VP Dr. Sam Horn. Sam Horn has a history with the SBC, John MacArthur, The Master’s Seminary and Rick Holland. Sam Horn’s involvement at NIU contributed to its demise. Is it not reasonable to wonder if Sam Horn has planted seeds of compromise at BJU?

4) At the FBFI’s Proclaim & Defend blog Dr. Bob Jones, III took responsibility for and explained the rationale for Dr. Kim and the children’s choir appearance on campus. Nevertheless, the optics of Billy Kim on the BJU campus were, at the time, terrible.

5) Cantus appeared January 2015. Cantus is partly comprised of practicing homosexuals.

6) Dr. Beale wrote, “…the deadly diseases of apostasy and compromise run rampant and unchecked.” The SBC went through a great upheaval in the 1980’s.  A so-called “purging” was led by men like Adrian Rogers and Charles Stanley in response to the apostasy that had crept in and taken over SBC schools. How does one claim a purging of the SBC took place when today a compromising, non-separatist occupies the president’s office of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention?  Need we be reminded that SBTS president R. Al Mohler was chairman for the Louisville Billy Graham crusade (2001), Mohler signed the Manhattan Declaration (2009), Mohler honored liberal theologian Duke K. McCall (2009), Mohler met with Rick Warren at Saddleback with the SBTS executive committee (2013), Mohler joined hands with the Mormon Church (2013). Examples like Mohler leave the idea of a purging highly suspect. Updating: It has been reported that earlier this year (2019) Dr. Mohler quietly requested his name be removed from the Manhattan Declaration. 

J. D. Greear is the current president of the SBC. The church he pastors, a mega-church, does not even identify as “Baptist.” It is simply “Summit” Church.

The 1980’s purge in the SBC opened the door for another movement and divide within the convention, especially its schools.  That movement was the rise of Calvinism. The Southern Baptist Founders Conference was established in 1982. (The organization was renamed Founders Ministries in 1998.) Early speakers, the primary advocates of modern day Calvinism, included “Al Mohler, Timothy George, John Piper, John MacArthur, J. I. Packer, Tom Nettles, Ligon Duncan.” (Ernest C. Reisinger and D. Matthew Allen, A Quiet Revolution: A Chronicle of Beginnings of Reformation in The Southern Baptist Convention, p. 57.)

7) What Do Northland, Pillsbury, Clearwater and TTU Have in Common?

Closure of Calvary Baptist Seminary: Predictable and Repeatable

8) A Failure to Stay the Course

Related Reading:
BJU: It’s a Question of Doctrine

BJU’s Soteriology: “Turn From Their Sins,” for Salvation

Biographies of Great Men: Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.

Where Are SBC Leaders Headed: Homosexuality?

This article addresses an issue arising from the Southern Baptist Convention's ERLC1 conference "The Gospel, Homosexuality and the Future of Marriage," held in Nashville, October 2014.

Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler addressed more than 1,000 evangelical pastors and others attending the three-day conference hosted by the SBC's Ethics & religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, stated that he was wrong years ago when he said same-sex attraction could be changed.2

With Al Mohler's track record of movement toward New Evangelicalism* (see below) there is the possibility of another compromise of Scripture in the making.  Does anybody sincerely believe that Mohler's statement that he was wrong about same-sex attraction could be changed will be as far as the SBC goes on the homosexuality issue?**  In my opinion, this is simply the first of what will be a series of incremental steps, over a long period of time, toward increasing tolerance for homosexuality in the church. 

In a previous article, from the Nashville convention, it was reported that,

"[Matthew] Vines met privately with Mohler, who had written an e-book response to Vines, titled "God and the Gay Christian?" Both men said the meeting was a cordial discussion of Scripture and they planned to stay in touch. Separately, about two dozen Christian advocates for gay acceptance and evangelical leaders who participated in the conference also met privately Monday night. Participants agreed they would not comment afterward."3

Met privately, no comment afterward, more dialogue to come. The Bible is very explicit (1 Cor. 5:1-5; Rom. 1:26-28; Rom. 16:17-18; Ephesians 5:3; 1 Thess. 4:3; 2 Thess. 3:6, 14-15). Yet, Al Mohler, as has been his pattern, will dismiss, ignore these God-given mandates. Instead Mohler will keep up a dialogue where there should be none other than to plead with the LGBT participants to recognize the authority of God, see their lifestyle as He does, and call on them to repent of it.

Why does this matter to Independent Fundamental Baptists? 
Because there are men in IFB circles who for years have been "heaping lavish praise" on the so-called "conservative" evangelicals, especially Al Mohler.  With essentially no warnings whatsoever of the serious doctrinal and practical pitfalls of the evangelicals Kevin Bauder and Dave Doran (among others) have encouraged learning from, attending the conferences of and cooperative ministry with "conservative" evangelicals, including, but not limited to Al Mohler, John Piper and Mark Dever. Instead of at least offering serious cautions along with their lavish praise for evangelicals Bauder, Doran and the pseudo-fundamentalist Sharper Iron site have ignored, tolerated, allowed for or excused virtually every doctrinal aberration, ecumenical compromise and cultural relativism. 

Bauder and Doran hold up the star personalities of evangelicalism as examples to emulated.  Under the guise of a so-called "separation in academic contexts" we have seen scores of younger men encouraged to neuter, water down or dismiss the doctrine of biblical separation for the sake of cooperation with compromising evangelicals. Kevin Bauder, Dave Doran, et., al. have by their own example encouraged the next generation to cooperate with evangelicals, and thereby tragically put them on the road toward New Evangelicalism.

Pastors, Christians in leadership in the church, school, homes: The apostle Paul's admonition to the Ephesians elders is as practical and timely today as it was to the first century church, and I close with his admonition.

"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears," (Acts 20:28-31).

Yours faithfully,


LM

Related Reading:
Just days before the SBC's conference on homosexuality Al Mohler, on behalf of the SBC, received as a gift the former Northland Baptist Bible College (NIU). Very sad. See, Northland Joins Southern: Culmination of a Modern Day Tragedy.

*Al Mohler sat as Chairman for the 2001 Billy Graham Crusade in Louisville, KY.
Al Mohler Signs the Manhattan Declaration, and never repented of it

Al Mohler Endorsed RAP music for the Church
Al Mohler in Cooperative Ministry with Rick Warren
Al Mohler Joins Hands with the Mormon Church

**I have no dogmatic position on whether same-sex attraction can be changed, I don't know.

Footnotes:
1) ERLC: Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
2) News Now: Where are Southern Baptist Leaders Headed re: Homosexuality?
3) News Now: Southern Baptists tell pastors: Hold Line on Gays

Northland Joins Southern Seminary: Culmination of a Modern Day Tragedy

Not that today’s joint NIU, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) announcement should come as any surprise, but NIU made it official, and has come under the umbrella of the SBTS.  Is it, however, simply a “strategic partnership,” or has something deeper transpired here?

Daniel Patz, president of Northland since 2013, attended the meeting and told trustees “This is a gift from Northland to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. But really, I feel almost, even more so, it is gift to us in order for this legacy and this mission to continue....”

The NIU website carries the same announcement and quote from Daniel Patz. The Southern News headline, “Southern Seminary Trustees Accept Gift of Wisconsin University Campus.”

From those joint statements one might reasonably conclude that NIU has been sold to or otherwise turned over to the Southern Baptist Convention.

NIU has become the property of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary!

In the same Southern News release the irony of this note should not be lost, “Trustees also celebrated the 20^th anniversary of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Ministry.” Billy Graham, the high priest of New Evangelicalism, honored by SBTS.  Today, the former Northland Baptist Bible College (NBBC) is now in formal partnership with Graham’s legacy of betraying the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

For the many fine former NBBC faculty, staff and graduates this is indeed a tragic and closing chapter for their alma mater.  Northland once was unique and unwavering in its fidelity to the whole counsel of God.  Under Matt Olson’s tenure as president the school was steadily lead into compromise and ultimately ruined for the cause of Christ.

The slide that Matt Olson initiated finally landed Northland in the mire.  One need look no further than Daniel Patz warmly shaking hands with Al Mohler to understand that NIU has aligned itself with a modern day leader of New Evangelical like compromise.

Al Mohler Signs the Manhattan Declaration

What Does John Piper and Al Mohler Have in Common? Rick Warren!

Al Mohler Joins Hands with the Mormon Church

So ends the once fine ministry of Northland Baptist Bible College.  We have been witness to a modern day tragedy for the New Testament church.

LM

Links to the Announcements:
Northland Joins SouthernSeminary

Southern Seminary Trustees Accept Gift of Wisconsin University Campus

Related Reading from NIU:

A Woman Preaches in Northland’s Chapel

Is NIU “Unchanged?”

NIU Plunges Headlong Into Liberal Entertainment Ministry

Is NIU Opposed to the Modern Day Charismatic Movement?

Al Mohler: “So Much for Sola Scriptura”

Last week Pastor Brian Ernsberger published a new article on yet another ecumenical compromise by Dr. Albert Mohler.

“There is a serious problem when men who supposedly stand firmly on the self-sufficiency of the Scriptures go off into human reasoning to justify their positions/actions. So much for Sola Scriptura being the call words of evangelicals…. [Al] Mohler has betrayed the very basic, the primary distinctive that Baptists have clung to for centuries, that the Bible is the sole authority for faith and practice.”

I invite you to read Mohler’s Homo Ratio at Parsings of a Preacher.

LM

Site Publisher’s Commentary:

Dr. Al Mohler has crossed a line that irrefutably shows he is and has been a New Evangelical, masquerading as a so-called “conservative” evangelical. Pastor Ernsberger’s article documents Al Mohler’s latest and most egregious betrayal of the Word of God to date.

The Mormon Church, its leadership and membership are deadly enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ, (Phil 3:18). The doctrine of the “God Makers” is responsible for countless millions of souls in or on the way to the Hell’s eternal fire. Mohler’s betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Word and the Church is only the latest in a long line of egregious errors and compromises on his resume. 

2001 Billy Graham Crusade

• ·      Sat as chairman for the 2001 Billy Graham Crusade in Louisville.
• ·      Signed the Manhattan Declaration, and has never biblically repented of it.
• ·      Embraced the ministry of Rick Warren.
• ·      Joined Hands with the Mormon Church.
• ·      Endorsed RAP Music for the church.*

Al Mohler has, furthermore, praised the Vatican and the Pope.

“I also appreciate the spiritual concern reflected in this document. The artificial and deadly dangerous game of ecumenical confusion has obscured issues of grave concern for our souls. I truly believe that Pope Benedict and the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith are concerned for our evangelical souls and our evangelical congregations...I actually appreciate the Pope’s concern.” (R. Albert Mohler, (from Albert Mohler.com) Courage and Controversy: The Vatican Takes on Feminism, August 4, 2004. [accesed Feb. 5, 2013.]

For years Dr. Kevin Bauder (to a similar extent Dr. Dave Doran) has been heaping “lavish praise” on Al Mohler and other alleged “conservative” evangelicals. For example for having signed the Manhattan Declaration Kevin declared that to be merely, “a single episode…one time inconsistency,” which was in fact another in an already well established line of ecumenical compromises. When Dr. Bauder does not give cover for or excuse these things, he ignores them, and he has happily worked in cooperative effort with Mohler. So, here we are, yet again with another serious compromise by Al Mohler.

In October/Nov 2013 Kevin Bauder gave his thumbs up to and excused Al Mohler for having, in an official capacity, spoken at The Mormon Church’s Brigham Young University (BYU).  He wrote,

“In short, nothing in Mohler’s appearance at BYU violates any of the Bible’s teachings about ecclesiastical separation. Mohler did not transgress any biblical precept or violate any biblical principle by speaking to Mormons, nor did he somehow betray his calling when, in an academic role, he chose to address cultural and intellectual issues instead of preaching a sermon. No legitimate, biblical criticism can be directed at Mohler in this instance.” (In the Nick of Time: Mohler, Mormonism & Militancy, 10/25/13)

That reaction is reminiscent of, and in keeping with how Dr. Dave Doran redefined biblical separation for  “academic contexts.” See, Is There a Second Definition for “Separation” in Academic Contexts? This novel redefinition of authentic biblical separation is how men, who claim to be “militant” separatists, neuter and side step biblical commands to have their fellowship with compromisers and/or the unbelieving.  This is a mantra of the new wave of New Evangelicalism being circulated in Baptist circles.

Pastor Ernsberger wrote,

“The Mormon Church stands diametrically opposed to everything a Christian holds as Truth. They are indeed an enemy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Any kind of accommodation of Mormonism will only enrich Mormonism’s positions to the detriment of the Truth….”

Following Mohler’s signing the Manhattan Declaration, embracing Rick Warren and speaking at BYU this was simply the next logical step for him.  IMO, what biblical restraints Al Mohler might have had at one time he no longer does. There will be more of this from him, much more.

Isn’t it high time for Kevin Bauder, who alleges absolute fidelity to the entire Word of God, to speak out as decisively against Mohler’s betrayal of the Scriptures as he has these past years in “lavish praise” of Al Mohler?  No honest Bible-believing Christian can honestly, and in good conscience tolerate, allow for, ignore or excuse Al Mohler for this latest betrayal of God’s Word. Because he has shown no previous proclivity to do otherwise I suspect Kevin Bauder will once again choose to ignore or excuse Al Mohler’s embrace of the Mormon Church.

Al Mohler has crossed biblical lines that demand obedience to the Lord’s commands:

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us…. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother, (2 Thess. 3:6, 14-15).

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.  For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple, (Romans 16:17-18).

There is no subjective decision left to be made with Al Mohler. There is no more room for benefit of the doubt to be given. No chalking this up to a novice in the ministry.  Since as early as 2001 we have a consistent pattern of Al Mohler committing numerous ecumenical compromises and/or betrayals of God’s Word.

LM

*Over a month ago Dr. Kevin Bauder promised to comment on Mohler’s RAP issue. We’re still watching and waiting.