946. The History of the BJU Creed

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Every school day, chapel is a time for the students to gather together around God's Word. Through faithful preaching and teaching, the students are challenged to know, love and serve God from the sermons preached from the chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we'll begin a study series based on the creed that students recite each day in chapel services. This creed is a formal summary statement of foundational truths and summarizes the doctrines of our Christian faith. Today's sermon will be preached by Dr. Steve Pettit, President of Bob Jones University, helping us understand the history of the creed. Our doctrinal theme this semester is actually working through the Bob Jones University creed. And so as we come to our Wednesday chapel hours, we will be working through the creed and the statements of the foundational truths of our Christian faith, which really what our creed is all about. And so this morning in light of the creed, I'd like to just sort of spend some time talking to you today about the creed and how it came to be and why it is so important to us and why we would take a whole semester to study it. Have you wondered why it is that we say the creed every day in chapel? Yes, I know that there'll be some days that you'll say the whole creed and have no memory at all of what you've said.

I get that. Or if you're like me, I always stumble over certain phrases in the creed, like the regeneration through the Holy Spirit, and somehow it just comes out not right when I say it. But there's a reason why we say it every day and why it's a part of who we are. When I came to Bob Jones to be the president, I heard lots of suggestions regarding chapel. Some of them were actually regarding the saying of the creed. So I decided to take some serious time to really think through and study the history of our creed, why it was written, and the viewpoint of our founder, Dr. Bob Jones Sr. And then as I did that, I began to realize how massively important and how big a deal the creed really is. Because the Bob Jones University creed is not really on the same par as many of the other things that we do here at the university. I can say it this way, from the level of importance, the Bob Jones University creed is actually the single most important thing that we have here at the school. Now I'm not talking about the Bible, God's word, I'm not talking about you as an eternal soul, I'm just talking about the university. It is the single most important thing that we have here because everything else that you see here on campus one day inevitably will not be here. Buildings that will not be here, certain majors that will not be here, certain activities that we have, or certain things that we own. But the Bob Jones University creed is something that is permanent.

It will literally outlast the university. Because the Bob Jones University creed is foundational and core to who we are, that's our identity, and what we do, that's our activity. So let me just ask a number of questions this morning that I'll try to answer with regard to the creed. And first of all, let's just begin with a basic, what is a creed? A creed is a formal summary statement of Christian belief.

So it's what we believe put in a package. A creed is authoritative as it accurately summarizes the teaching of the Bible, which is its primary purpose. So obviously the creed is not scripture, but what it says about scripture then is the truth. Creeds being a summary therefore are relatively short in length. So throughout church history there have been creeds like the Apostles' Creed, which is 113 words. Or perhaps the Nicene Creed, which is 218 words.

Or the Bob Jones University Creed, which is 97 words. Many churches, many denominations and institutions have said creeds for years, so this is not uncommon. The church I attended as a boy growing up would say the Apostles' Creed every single week. And though I was not a Christian at the time, I am very grateful that I began to learn the Gospel truths through the creed and I didn't believe it as far as faith is concerned, but inevitably I came to believe it. So saying a creed is historically not an unusual thing.

So that leads me to the second thing and that is this, what makes the BJU Creed so unique? Well I think in order to understand the creed, you really need to understand our founder, Dr. Bob Jones Sr., his background in history and the times in which Bob Jones University was started as a school in 1927. Throughout history, many, many universities were founded as Christian institutions, but over time they left their theological roots and they drifted into liberalism or secularism or the denial of the scripture and they denied the fundamental truths of the Christian faith.

So schools like, like what? Like Harvard or Yale or Princeton. Princeton was known as a revival school. It was a school for revivalists. Yale had students like Jonathan Edwards and Timothy Dwight who attended there.

And many other schools are like that. And so when Bob Jones University was founded in 1927, it was actually during a time of intense conflict between two groups. Those who are theologically liberals and those who are called fundamentalists. And they were founded in many different denominations. So it could have been Baptists, it could have been Methodists, it could have been Brethren, it could have been Presbyterians, it could be a variety of denominations, but all the denominations were struggling between theological liberalism and what we call fundamentalism. German rationalism had influenced the American seminaries in the late 1800s and early 1900s and so a battle raged within these mainline Protestant denominations in the United States and these two groups came out of that. So what was a fundamentalist? A fundamentalist was what we would call an evangelical Bible believer who believed in the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, the things that we confess in our creed. So they were called the fundamentalists.

The liberals were those who basically moved away from the foundational truths of the Christian faith and they began to forsake the supernatural aspects of our faith. The things that we say in our creed, think about our creed and how much of the supernatural do we confess every day? Like I believe in the inspiration of the Bible, that's supernatural. The creation of man by the direct act of God, that's supernatural. The incarnation and virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, those are supernatural acts. The atonement of Christ on the cross for the sins of mankind, one man who died for all. The new birth, that's a miracle through the regeneration.

So what we're really doing, though we may not recognize it when we're saying it, we are actually confessing our belief in the supernatural and God has revealed himself. So Bob Jones Sr. was living during that time and he saw the negative effects of liberalism within his own denomination for Bob Jones Sr. was a Methodist. And Bob Jones Sr. seeing its effect over time had no patience and toleration for doctrinal liberalism. And he also had no patience for the denominational hierarchy that would run the organization and they would lead it into liberalism. So when he founded this institution, he wanted a creed.

That was his start. That was the foundation that would clearly state the fundamentals of the Christian faith. So what were these doctrines? Well, there was actually some disagreement of maybe one or two, but basically the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith are centered around these things, the verbal inspiration of the Bible, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, his vicarious sacrificial atonement on the cross for our sins, his victorious resurrection from the grave, and then his visible return coming back the second time.

Now obviously there are elements in our creed that differ, but those are the basic fundamentals. He believed that if we stayed true to a sound creed, then the school would stay true to its Christian faith and would not doctrinally compromise and fall into error. So Dr. Bob wanted to write the creed, but he struggled in putting it all together. So the creed was actually written by a good friend of his. His name was Sam Small.

Mr. Small was a journalist for the Atlanta constitution. He was visiting Dr. Bob Sr. in his office one day before the college was started and Dr. Bob asked if he would help him write the creed. So he sat down and on the back of an envelope, you know how we write on the back of if we're sitting in the dining common and we take a napkin and write on it, same kind of thing. He sat down and wrote out the Bob Jones University creed and he inserted it into the college charter. So let me read for you the charter of Bob Jones University. The general nature and object of the corporation shall be to conduct an institution of learning for the general education of youth in the essentials of culture and in the arts and sciences, giving special emphasis to the Christian religion and the ethics revealed in the holy scriptures, combating all atheistic, agnostic, pagan, and so-called scientific adulterations of the gospel, unqualifiedly affirming and teaching the inspiration of the Bible, both the old and the new testaments, the creation of man by the direct act of God, the incarnation and virgin birth of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, his identification as the son of God, his vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind by the shedding of his blood on the cross, the resurrection of his body from the tomb, his power to save men from sin, the new birth through the regeneration by the Holy Spirit, and the gift of eternal life by the grace of God.

And then it concludes, this charter shall never be amended, altered, or changed as to the provisions herein before set forth. The charter with the creed reveals the uniqueness of the university. The creed tells us our identity as believers. Here's what we believe and what is the core of our beliefs. So you could say this, the Bob Jones University Creed is essentially a historic fundamentalist confession. You see it all in the creed.

And as far as I know, Bob Jones University today is the only Christian university in the world that daily affirms a creed. So it's a big deal. So that leads me to the third thing and that is why do we say it every single day? Now we don't have to say it every day. We could say it every Monday and every Thursday, begin the week, end the week with it. We could do that. But let me give you a couple of reasons why I believe it's important that we say it on a regular basis.

First of all, for the sake of permanence. Would you agree with me that we are living in a world today where everything is changing? Five years ago was a long time ago. However, God's truth is changeless.

And the truth that is in this creed is changeless. I came to Bob Jones University as a student 40 years ago. 40 years, that's a long time ago.

That's what the children of Israel did in the wilderness. That's how long. 40 years ago. And 40 years ago we said the exact same creed we said this morning. Amen. That's a blessing. Do you know how many things have changed at Bob Jones University since I came in circa 1978?

A whole lot of things. But there are some things that have not changed at all. They are permanent. Everything in the creed was written for succeeding generations. Nothing was put into it that had to be adjusted in the future because it's outdated. All Bible believing born again people will be able to agree with the creed. What are you going to disagree with if you're a Christian? These truths are essential to the faith and they are necessary for salvation.

We call these primary truths. When schools changed in the past somebody made a decision to change. Something was given up. Somebody was appeased.

Something was adjusted. Nothing in this creed needs to change. We can be flexible on some things but we must be inflexible on these things. Therefore saying the creed daily recognizes the permanence of the truth that is in the creed. If we continue to believe the truths in this creed then the school is not going to drift in the theological compromise. For example we require every professor to sign a statement that they believe the creed. For example, we have here at Bob Jones University I believe personally, just my own personal feeling, I think we have the greatest science department in the world.

And I say that without hesitation. We have at least 23 PhDs in our science department. They have degrees from all over the world. But they could not work here if they didn't believe the creed.

And a part of that creed affects them. That is they believe in the creation of man by the direct act of God. If a professor in science here at Bob Jones University believed that evolution is a fact or if he taught that it was an option to believe something different concerning origins then his employment would be terminated immediately. Bob Jones University believes that God created the world in six literal days. That position today is called young earth position. I didn't know what young earth meant.

All I knew is I believe God made the world in six days and not just because Genesis 1 and 2 say it because it does say it but also Exodus chapter 20 and verse 11 Moses testified that God made the earth in six days. So that's important. So this is a permanent creed that is to never change. Fact is if it ever changed then the school by law could be legally closed.

Listen to what Dr. Bob Jones Sr. said on March 2nd, 1950 in a chapel here. He said the charter was so written that any student in this school could come into this community under the law and close this school by law if you ever permitted this creed to be repudiated at the school. If you repudiated and change it you can close this institution. So why do we say the creed every day? Well we don't say it just so you won't forget it but that's important because repetition is a key to learning and not basically so we hope you'll believe it though we hope you'll believe it. We say it because the creed is fundamental to who we are. We are believers. This is our identity. This is what we believe.

Change this and everything has changed. So we say it because of permanence but there's a second reason it's really important and that is for the sake of unity. You know we have people that come to Bob Jones from all kinds of different backgrounds. When we say the creed every day we are actually unifying the student body. Dr. Bob Jones Sr. is an evangelist, held lots of evangelistic campaigns with different denominations cooperating together for the purpose of advancing the gospel. So he would go into a community and he would have Methodists come, Baptists come, Presbyterians come, and they all basically believed the same truths of the gospel though they were different and secondary and tertiary issues. So Sr. wanted a creed that would unite and not divide Christians.

He wanted something that we could agree upon. He maintained a non-sectarian approach throughout his career and was determined that the college should not overemphasize any scriptural interpretation that he saw as divisive. He wanted to unify orthodox believers around the fundamental precepts of the word of God. Therefore the school Bob Jones was founded as a non-denominational, it was actually at the time an inter-denominational institution that could be supported by all Protestant denominations who subscribe to the fundamental truths of the scripture as they are stated in the college creed. Different denominations were represented in the faculty and declared that the denominational integrity of every student would remain unchallenged. Fact is Dr. Bob said we would not ask students coming to Bob Jones from different denominations and traditions to change their denominations.

Fact is back when services were held here on campus for many years on Sundays, students actually went to Sunday school and they had to go to the Sunday school class of their denomination. Because he believed something that's very important and I want to emphasize this. He believed in the possibility of denominational cooperation without organic church union. He said we can have church cooperation without church union.

You say what do you mean by that? He's basically saying this, if you're a Baptist, stay a Baptist. If you're a Methodist and you believe what the Methodists believe, stay a Methodist. Because you put a Methodist and a Baptist side by side and basically the creed that we confess, they believe that. So where do they differ?

They differ on secondary issues, third level issues. There was nothing wrong Dr. Bob said with different groups who had different convictions about things. Dr. Bob Sr. said that he saw this as the way to keep things right. For example, he said if Baptists believe that the church is going liberal, they can go and start another church that is true to the faith and Baptists are good at that. Do you know that there are almost 700 Baptist churches within a 35 mile radius of this campus?

Fact is everybody down here is Baptist except those that got messed with, so I mean everybody is. When Dr. Bob Sr. spoke about unity, he was not speaking about organic unity. He didn't believe in bringing churches together to make one great big church. He believed the unity of the church was not found in one church but in all the churches that love the truth. Each group has its own convictions.

Some are pre-mill, some are all-mill. Some follow the Westminster Confession of Faith, some follow the New Hampshire Baptist Confession of Faith. Some are Calvinist, some are more Armenian. Some believe in deep water Baptism.

Others believe in sprinkling. Some believe in one pastor. Some believe in elder rule in the church.

Some use the King James Version and others use a modern translation. This is what Dr. Bob Sr. believed. He stated this, I think all Protestant denominations are called into existence to underscore something that should be underscored. But all of them are built upon the same essential foundations of the Christian faith. And I made up my mind that a school could be built that would appeal to all evangelical Christian groups if we would stick to the fundamentals. I don't want to divide God's people. I want to unite them on the essential fundamentals of the faith. He believed the evangelical Christians were not a divided army.

Stick to the fundamentals. Don't try to underscore something that some special group underscored. He said that most people that divide God's people are people that underscore something that may have a place but it's not supposed to be underscored. So example, here Bob Jones, there's no problem if you hold a different view about something.

That's okay. But if you push your view on everybody else, then we're going to have a problem. And that was core to our mission. So when the school was founded, Dr. Bob Sr. was determined to have a creed which all Christians could agree to, a creed that will allow us to work with people who are different because he said we should go as far as we can on the right road. And what is the right road?

The right road is the gospel. Now, let me make it clear that the founder did not believe that we should cooperate with anyone in religious matters who deny the creed. We do not give Christian recognition to those who deny the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Furthermore, we're not going to cooperate with any Christians who give Christian recognition to those who deny the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. We're not going to cooperate with liberalism or those who are cooperating with liberalism. We're going to take our stand.

Finally, let me say this. Though we firmly believe our creed, it's not the only thing that we believe because Bob Jones has always had historically some clear distinctives. For example, one of our distinctions is this. We do not operate under the control of any religious denomination. No one group is controlling Bob Jones University, no church body. We're an independent school operating under a board of trustees. Let me also say that historically we have been identified with fundamentalism.

Why? Because fundamentalism was the militant side of evangelical believers and we have made a commitment to the truth and to take an aggressive stance against religious liberalism. So if it's liberal, we're going to be against it. Let me also say that within American and church culture, Bob Jones University has always been educationally and socially conservative. So we happily promote that we're a conservative institution. We're conservative in our worldview. Our education is with a biblical worldview.

We have a BJU press that reaches into one million students' lives with a biblical worldview and academic excellence. We also believe in a conservative viewpoint of life. I believe if you take the Bible for what it says, you're going to come out a particular kind of a person.

I think it's very clear from scripture when you look at the ethics of the scripture, this is for all people in all cultures. And so we're going to tend to those kinds of things. I think it's very clear here at Bob Jones.

We're very conservative in our music approach and we should be. And we find there are a large number of students that come to Bob Jones because of these distinctives. These were the things that made the difference in a student coming to Bob Jones in the past. And that's good because there should be a school among Christians like Bob Jones University where believers with shared convictions can come and learn and grow.

No one should ever ask Bob Jones University to change its convictions simply to attract more students. Our uniqueness is found in our distinctives. But let me say this. When it comes to our relationship with other believers, it can be on various levels. I think we understand we can have unity in the essential things and we can be different in non-essential things. And our working with people or our cooperating with people may be that we may not work with certain things simply because we feel like it may be a compromise of our conscience. Presbyterians and Baptists are not going to work together all the time simply because they've got differences.

Okay, great. But how do they treat one another? They treat one another with respect. And when they can work together, they should work together for the sake of the Gospel.

We should be strong in what we believe and at the same time we should have a spirit of charity towards all believers and we should cooperate with them as long as we can in a good conscience for the sake of the Gospel and the testimony of Jesus Christ. As I finish this morning, this is a statement that I heard as a student when I was here in 1978. It was from our president at the time, Dr. Bob Jones III. I went on to look this statement that he gave that has been credited to a variety of people, one being the famous theologian Augustine. However, whenever you do more study, you find out more details. This was a statement that came from a German Lutheran theologian during the 17th century.

His name was Rupertus Meldonius. He's not very well known, but he wrote a phrase that occurred in a track on Christian unity written around 1627 during the 30-year war, a bloody time in European history in which religious tensions played a significant role. And here's what he said that I think is very, very helpful. He said, in essentials, we should have unity. In non-essentials, we should have liberty.

And in all things, we should have charity. That's why we have a creed. Father, thank you for what we have learned. And Lord, help us to live consistently and help us to live with charity, help us to live with conviction, help us to do the right thing on a daily basis, and help us to most importantly, advance your Gospel in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Steve Pettit about the Bob Jones University Creed, which is a summary of the doctrines of our Christian faith. Thanks again for listening. Join us again tomorrow as we continue this study here on The Daily Platform.