What IS Bob Jones University?

Hi, I'm Joanne Vickner, Memaw with It's Storytime Memaw, an answered prayer for stories that point children to God on the Truth Network for kids. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. We're on the campus of Bob Jones University with the president of the school, Dr. Stephen Pettit, an evangelist, pastor turned college university president. Dr. Pettit, what an honor to sit with you.

We can hear the clacking of the plates and the silverware and the eating of this delicious, the food is delicious in this cafeteria. We think it's pretty good. And thanks, Stu, it is a thrill to be here today and really just to share with you what God's doing here at Bob Jones University.

Amen. Well, many folks have heard you from your podcast. They've heard this national radio show that's fairly new, still called The Daily Platform. Okay, what is Bob Jones University? Let's start from the very basics. Then we're going to ask who is Stephen Pettit?

Well, I'll tell you what our founder said. In the 1920s, Dr. Bob Jones Sr. was concerned about the negative influence of the secular and the liberal education of the United States of America in the 1920s. He saw things happening in his country that were literally changing the country and it was becoming a different country from what he had grown up in. And there were three great forces going on. Number one was the rise of liberalism and mainline denominations where they were rejecting the authority of the Bible. Secondly was the rise of evolutionary teaching in the universities in the country, so there was a rejection of God as creator.

And then the third was the rise of Marxism and socialism politically in the United States in the 1920s. And so among the believers, there was this great concern. They were concerned about young people going off to college and coming back with no faith. So Bob Jones was started 95 years ago and it was centered around exactly what our Bible conference was all about last week, which the theme was contending for the faith. We need young people who believe the Bible and they stand on the Bible. So that's really the heartbeat of the school. Dr. Pett, as you describe the 20s, it seems like you're describing modernity right now. So many kids, I heard one Christian apologist say that up to 80% of kids that go to a secular college after church, you know, after graduating, leave their faith.

They walk away. And so you're still battling that in this day where even, you know, these institutional schools, even schools that have the word Christian in their name aren't teaching the word and they're teaching socialism, communism. They've drifted way away from what God has designed us for. Well, we use a term here that's very common. It's called a biblical worldview.

We didn't use that term 40 years ago. We just said biblical. But why biblical worldview? Because of the rise of a secular worldview, particularly in our educational institutions today where people growing up with basically a materialistic viewpoint of life.

Life is only material. And so we teach a complete and thorough biblical worldview. We stand on the inspiration of the authority of the Bible that God has spoken and he has given us divine revelation.

And so everything that we do here is centered around that biblical worldview in every single subject. That's Dr. Steven Pettit, the president of Bob Jones University and Seminary. I'm here on their campus in their cafeteria. You can hear the fun noise here.

It's a great environment, Dr. Pettit. I've interviewed other Christian schools. I'm really encouraged. My heart's broken because there are just like there's little C Christians, big C Christians. There's little C Christian schools that don't really hold to the Bible. They teach evolution. They teach all kinds of political nonsense. But there's big C Christian schools like Bob Jones, like other schools that really hold to the fidelity of scripture. But another another knock that Christian schools have gotten in the past is, well, you teach the Bible, you believe in all that. You got great preaching. But the academics are a little bit subpar. Can you talk about the academic disciplines and how you guys try to bring the kingdom of God to bear in excellence in that area as well? Absolutely. So, you know, as has been mentioned, we teach a thoroughly biblical worldview, not just in chapel services that we have daily here on the campus, but in every single class.

But let me even take it further than that. So the real question is going to come down to is the excellence in your teaching. And from the very beginning of the school, our founder said that no school will out outdo us in the thoroughness of our preparation for our subjects. And so here at Bob Jones University, we are obviously not only are we accredited, but we're ranked as one of the top universities regionally in the south. We have incredible academics here. And so the level is very, very high. And we are on competition with what we're ranked as one of the top five schools in the state of South Carolina.

So you got Clemson, Carolina, Furman, Wofford and little old Bob Jones. Wow. The big firms come and recruit your students. They want a kid that's honest.

They want a kid that's going to work hard. It has good ethics. And that's really what you're trying with every every different discipline represented here, which you have quite a few, don't you?

Yes. When we have over 100 majors here and in the in the real world of the workplace, in one way, your degree matters. In one way, it doesn't. What matters is what kind of person you are. And of course, we teach here. We teach here what we call character qualities. The world calls it soft skills. So the ability to communicate, the ability to work together, the ability to collaborate, the responsibility of being on time, getting your work done, finishing it on time, leaving things better after you got them, then before you got them, being self-motivated, all of those things that everybody wants to hire people with. That's what we teach here. It's a part of our educational process. Dr. Stephen Pettit, tell us about your journey to Christ, your journey through life and how you ended up as president of Bob Jones University.

We want to hear a quick snapshot of that. Well, just obviously, if I'm here, it's by God's grace. I came to know the Lord my freshman year of college. I was a cadet at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, heard the gospel through friends of mine, especially through sports.

I played on the soccer team, came to the Lord, got saved. I'd grown up in a very liberal church. I started seeking a Bible preaching church. And after four years of being at the Citadel, I graduated, felt the call to preach. And back in those days, which had been 1978, Bob Jones University was a very strong, conservative, fundamental school.

And I came here because of their stance on the Bible. Finished my seminary degree. I went into the youth ministry for five years in Michigan in 1985, went into full-time evangelistic work until 2014, when I came here to be the president. When the school began to look for a new president, they were looking for, they were going back to the roots. That really was what the board wanted. They wanted an evangelist.

And so I was full-time in evangelism, and I was on the board here of Bob Jones. And so they asked me to come to be the fifth president back in 2014. Well, you look at our country, you look at what's happening. There's chaos. There's potential war. We've been through this pandemic.

Your school's handled it really well. All these things going on. Dr. Pettit, what is your burden for the next generation? What is, as the Lord stirs in you, what are your thoughts and your prayers for our country, for the church?

Just share some, share your heart on that, would you please? Yeah, because I'm in this world here, I live in this educational world, I go back to 1945. It was right before the end of World War II, and Dr. Bob Jones Sr. got up and he preached a sermon on the intention and the purpose of Bob Jones University. He said, our goal is to educate Christian leaders for a world of chaos. And when I first read that in one of his old sermons, I sat up and I said, that's our mission. We're educating biblical leaders for a chaotic world. And so we do three things. We educate, give them an outstanding academic education.

It's biblical, that is, we have a biblical worldview. And leadership. Leadership is learned. You have to learn what it means to be a leader.

Bob Jones University is a test tube for leadership. So, when you ask me what my burden is, it's to educate biblical leaders for the chaotic world we're living in. Parents listening, young people listening, everyone listening about the critical importance of education. I think about Psalm 1 myself.

My mom taught me that when I was a wee little lad. What's your wisdom for the next generation in terms of as they think through this education? They're going to be potentially married to the ideology of the institution that they attend.

They spend all that money. They might get a free ride to a school that's going to absolutely destroy them and indoctrinate them in evil. What would you say from a broader, the importance of a Christian worldview school, and there are others besides Bob Jones and we're just so grateful, but specifically even for Bob Jones. Why would you challenge and speak about that? Yeah, when we think of Christian young people today growing up, the tendency is to seek to give them a Christian education up through the 12th grade, and after that they're good to go.

And I want to tell you something, they're not good to go. At 18 years old, you still have not, you have not solidified what you believe, your faith, your future, what you believe about the family, marriage, morality, friendships. And that 18 to 23 year old time frame today is one of the most crucial times in your life. It is at that time that young people are making decisions.

They need to be in an atmosphere that supports their faith and at the same time challenges their character and then gives them the kind of education that actually will make them useful in the world. And I'm telling you here at Bob Jones University, that's what we've got. It's an amazing place and by God's grace we're doing it. Wow, that's from the lips of the president of Bob Jones University, Dr. Steven Pettit, in the cafeteria. We're talking, all these students are walking by and professors getting their lunch and heading in and out.

And it's quite a crazy, busy place. Randy Page, a lot of fun. You've never been a part of one of these things, have you before?

I have not, this is great. Awesome. Bob Jones University, he's the host of the Daily Platform. Awesome daily teaching program that really emanates from the chapel services, great speakers. And then Dr. Pettit, of course, is preaching there a lot. He's an author, an evangelist, now he's the president. And Dr. Pettit, you also have your own podcast too, right? I do.

It's entitled, Highest Potential. And we cover a lot of the practical subjects here at Bob Jones University. I just did an incredible podcast with one of our professors. He's from the Ivory Coast. He not only is a medical doctor, but he's a PhD in World Health. And he's the one that guided us through COVID.

We followed CDC regulations, but we needed somebody that really understood what was going on. And he did. And I did an interview with him two years looking back. I asked him all the elephant in the room questions about COVID. And his answers were incredible and people really need to listen to that. Highest Potential.

Highest Potential. Just Google it and you can find it wherever the podcasts are, as well as the Daily Platform. As well as Bob Jones University, which I think is just BJU, right? BJU.edu.

Easiest college, university website on the planet. God bless you. Thanks for hanging out with me today, Dr. Pettit. Thank you, sir.

My privilege. What is the mission of Bob Jones University? If there's a mission statement, one encapsulating phrase that's kind of a dominant theme here, what would you say it is, Dr. Pettit? Really, our mission is to educate biblical leaders. And that is to go out and serve in the world and to serve in the church. To give God the glory and to continue to follow along following the Lord.