WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CHURCH & SCHOOL
HAVE THE "PRIMACY" OVER JESUS CHRIST
CHRISTIAN HYPOCRISY: FUNDAMENTALISM IN NAME ONLY;
GRADUALLY ADOPTING THE WORLD'S WAYS THINKING THEY ARE
MORALLY NEUTRAL
LIBERAL BETTER THAN CONSERVATIVE NOW?
A GOOD MAN, BUT WHERE IS HIS DISCERNMENT?
STEPHEN D. PETTIT, BOB JONES UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT
EXCERPT FROM:
NO MENTION HERE OF JESUS CHRIST! WHY?
“I’m overwhelmed by the opportunity to serve as BJU’s president,” said Pettit. “For decades, I’ve
appreciated the ministry of BJU and the Jones family to me and my family. I truly desire to honor
BJU’s heritage and continue—by God’s grace—to fulfill its mission. I particularly want to emphasize
the primacy of the local church, encourage relational discipleship among our students, faculty and
staff, and continue the emphasis on academic excellence and living a godly life.”
ADAPTING MUSIC FROM PROBLEMATIC SOURCES
AND CALLING IT CHRISTIAN:
THE PETTIT TEAM HAS NO PROBLEM USING MUSIC FROM CONTEMPORARY "CHRISTIAN" MUSICIANS WHO ARE ECUMENICAL, CHARISMATIC, AND HAVE CATHOLIC CONTEMPLATIVE ASSOCIATIONS SUCH AS KEITH & KRISTYN GETTY, AND STUART TOWNEND. THEY ALSO USE MUSIC FROM SOVEREIGN GRACE MINISTRIES, A "REFORMED" CONTINUATIONIST DENOMINATION.
SEE:
SEE:
ANALYSIS OF A "TOWN HALL" INTERVIEW FROM DAVID CLOUD'S OF WAY OF LIFE:
SEE:
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
November 11, 2014 (Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org;)
he following report is by Don Jasmin, The Fundamentalist Journal, August-September 2014, djfbmhosea46@charter.net.
I thank the Lord for Dr. Jasmin’s spiritual discernment and his willingness to speak out for the truth’s sake. It appears to me that the vast majority of Bible-believing preachers today are perfectly content to watch the battle from the sidelines.
If this were our report, we go further in warning about Bob Jones University, including the error of fundamentalist interdenominationalism. (See the free eBook In Essentials Unity, available from www.wayoflife.org.)
________________
AN ANALYSIS OF A “TOWN HALL” INTERVIEW MEETING WITH DR. STEPHEN PETTIT, THE NEW BJU PRESIDENT
By Don Jasmin
djfbmhosea46@charter.net
On July 7, 2014, Dr. Steve Pettit, the new President of Bob Jones University was interviewed live in a town-hall format by Marshall Franklin, a BJU “Executive Vice-President,” concerning his goals and plans for BJU, an interview which the F. D. editor watched and took extensive notes. The following article is a personal analysis of this interview.
THE POSITIVES
1. CONVERSATIONAL TONE: Dr. Pettit maintains an excellent “conversational” speech tone rapport with his audiences. He possesses the personal demeanor of a congenial likable gentleman, who also has a unique sense of humor in his public remarks.
2. GENUINE SPIRITUAL BURDEN FOR STUDENTS: The new BJU President obviously has a genuine burden for the spiritual life of BJU students. He desires to “make the chapel program the highlight of the day” for students, a noble goal. [During his seven years as a BJU student, the daily chapel program was truly the “highlight” of the now F.D. editor’s day! Yours truly could hardly wait to get to his seat for those daily chapel sessions!]
3. EMPHASIZES PREACHING: Dr. Pettit states that there is “no virtue in bad preaching.” He desires the best quality in the BJU pulpit and sincerely believes that students “need the old Bob Jones Sr. type sermons,” perhaps as much as any trait in the daily chapel sessions.
4. DESIRE FOR REVIVAL: The BJU evangelist-president believes there is a great need to pray for revival.
THE NEGATIVES
1. ATHLETICS
The “BJU Bruins” athletic sign/symbol dominated the background for the town-hall program, located directly in the center of the backdrop. When questioned about inter-collegiate athletics, Dr. Pettit stated that it was “not a problem,” that it was a “wonderful thing” and that he was “for it.” He was glad that inter-collegiate sports has been “added” to the BJU program. It should and will received a lot of attention.
[Fundamentalist Journal Ed: For 85 years, BJU successfully operated an “intramural” [in house] sports program only. Inter-collegiate sports has proven to be the spiritual death for every Christian college that has ever utilized it!!]
2. ACADEMICS-ACCREDITATION
Dr. Pettit approves it. He noted that BJU has been accredited for 10 years by TRACS, a religious national accrediting association. He also stated that BJU is preparing to submit an application to the regional secular SACS, for which two years’ work will go into the process.
Fundamentalist Journal Ed: Several decades ago, Dr. Bob Jones III wrote a booklet entitled Taking the Higher Ground: The Accreditation Issues from the Bible Point of View. In that booklet he unapologetically declared: “The compromises implicit in an unholy accreditation alliance may not appear at first, but it is evident that no man can serve two masters (p.4)….Regional accreditation is a sellout to the gods of the secular educational world (p.6).” Question: Who has changed? BJU or the Bible? It’s not the Scripture!
3. BIBLE TEXT ISSUE
Dr. Pettit stated that he “understands” the Bible text “issue carefully,” since he has studied it for 35 years. Both BJU and he take the same stand “as what I was taught” at BJU. Dr. Pettit says he “holds [the] right position” on the Bible. According to Dr. Pettit, the “use or non-use of the KJV should be a non-issue” to Bible-believers.
Fundamentalist Journal Ed: BJU adheres to the apostate critical text composed by Bible-denying liberals! The KJV is not a “non- issue” for discerning obedient perceptive Bible-believing Christians, it is a vital issue that correctly places professing Christians into two contrasting theological camps: The traditional Received Text—the text received by Bible churches down through the centuries, based upon 98.5 % of extant manuscripts, versus the Critical Text, the text concocted and promoted by apostate liberals based upon 1.5% of the manuscripts.
An Important Omission
In his answers, Dr. Pettit stated that at BJU there are three Bible texts that are sold and used: the KJV-NKJV and NASV. However, Dr. Pettit made an important omission: He failed to state that BJU sells the English Standard Version [ESV], 91.5% of which is word-for-word nothing less than the old liberal Revised Standard Version [RSV]. He also failed to mention that as of 2013, there were 20 shelve rows of ESV for sale at the campus book store [F.D. editor’s count], a number that is “inching” close to the number of KJV shelve rows!
Dr. Pettit somewhat reluctantly noted that BJU has about 2850 students enrolled in the undergraduate and graduate divisions for 2014. This writer believes that this decreasing enrollment can be partly attributed to the fact that BJU has lost much of its former KJV Biblicist Fundamentalist constituency due to its defective Bible text stance.
4. THE MUSIC ISSUE
When queried about BJU’s stance on the vital music issue, Dr. Pettit simply claimed that BJU took a “centrist” stance on music, a middle “balanced” stand, on which he never elucidated or made any qualifying remarks.
Another Notable Omission
When given the opportunity to delineate BJU’s position on the essential music issue, Dr. Pettit simply claimed a “centrist” policy for BJU, never once clarifying what the term “centrist” might mean from a musical viewpoint. Here was a golden opportunity for the BJU president to state the university’s bold clear outspoken opposition to Contemporary Christian Music [CCM-religious rock!] and Dr. Pettit totally forfeited this choice to make a plain statement. CCM music is the music that is rapidly destroying the inner character of Bible-believing churches, yet the new BJU president did not make any statement of any kind about CCM’s destructive traits.
Dr. Pettit’s silence here actually speaks volumes, since one of his closest friends, Dr. Fred Coleman., the “Department Head” [Dean] of BJU’s music division, recently produced a hymnbook that contains 30 hymns by Charismatic heretics whose associations include ecumenical R.C. and New-Age connections! Sadly, that hymnal was published by Dr. Pettit’s own publishing company, Heart Publications!
5. CHANGES IN DRESS CODE
When asked about BJU’s changes in dress codes, Dr. Pettit readily admitted that BJU had made some changes, but claimed that those “changes in dress code” are “just like [the] changes in your local church,” and that BJU was “doing pretty good” in that regard.
This writer readily admits that most local churches have made changes—gradual changes—over several decades in clothing apparel codes, but that these changes for the most part are for the worse, not the better! Apparel standards have dropped, and these lowering
As he visits the BJU campus each year, this writer can readily note the gradually lowering apparel standards there.
6. BJU’S RELATIONSHIP TO GREENVILLE, S.C. LOCAL CHURCHES
Dr. Pettit rightly stated the importance of students knowing the importance of local churches to student’s lives, declaring that of the three most important influences on BJU student lives: (a) Bible classes (b) other classes and (c) local churches; that local churches played the most influential part in the students’ lives.
He said he strongly supports the former BJU President’s choice to permit dorm students to attend local churches on Sunday morning. He said that he recently met with 52 pastors from Greenville, SC area churches and that it was his desire to work with “like minded” churches, However, he never defined what he meant by that term.
The BJU President said that 17% of S.C. students at BJU come from just 10 Greenville, SC area churches, a fact in which he seemed greatly delighted. QUESTION: Are these 10 churches the same pro-BJU churches that have adopted the ESV and are now also utilizing pro-CCM/CCM music in their services and special music? [While he doesn’t possess exact statistics, there are about 10 Greenville area pro BJU churches that have done just that!]
A Conflicting Dilemma?
When Dr. Pettit was questioned about changes at Northland International University [NIU]. Dr. Pettit indicated that he had worked for nearly 30 years for the Northland Camp & Conference Center, 20 years as the evangelist and 9 years as the full-time camp director. He then declared that he would “not [say] one negative thing about a place I love,” but then said he was “uncomfortable with changes” taking place there. Ed: You can’t have it both ways!
7. NO STATEMENTS OF ANY KIND ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF EVANGELISM, THE GREAT COMMISSION AND THE DEFENSE OF THE FAITH.
Since BJU was built by Dr. Bob Jones Sr. on an intensely evangelistic soul-winning foundation and the corresponding militant defense of the faith, this writer was surprised that not even one time were either of these two dual Biblical emphases mentioned, suggested or even inferred by Dr. Pettit. Staunch BJU advocates might claim this was due to lack of time during the one-hour session, but this writer does not concur with that argument.
CONCLUSION
Old-line BJU grads who had hoped for a return to the Bob Jones Sr. type ministry at BJU will be gravely disappointed. In this writer’s view, Dr. Pettit is going to continue to pursue the same policies and practices that have been taking BJU down the wrong road for several decades. If you are looking for a Fundamentalist school to endorse and support, this writer suggests that you find a Baptist Bible institute or Baptist College that is owned and operated under a Baptist, N. T. local church auspices.
ADDENDUM
A local Greenville, SC newspaper contained a large picture and accompanying article of a high school senior, along with his family, with the article title that the young man “signs with BJU Bruins” to play “intercollegiate” basketball there while he majors in “Sports Management” at BJU.
Fundamentalist Journal Ed: The public newspaper pictures from BJU all feature intercollegiate athletics. Where are the newspaper pictures for young men who sign up as “preacher boys” at BJU?
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BJU MUSIC HEAD PROMOTES CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP MUSICIANS
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research
purposes:
(Friday Church News Notes, December 14, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - I recently learned that Hymns Modern and Ancient, published by Heart Publications, a ministry of Steve Pettit Evangelistic Association, contains 29 songs by Keith Getty. The compiler, Fred Coleman, heads up Bob Jones University’s Department of Church Music. He writes positively of the Oxford Movement, which was a subtle and very dangerous back-to-Rome movement within the Church of England in the late 19th century. This shows a frightful lack of spiritual discernment on Coleman’s part, but to recommend both the Oxford Movement and contemporary worship is consistent, because they represent the same spirit, as we have documented in the video presentation “The Foreign Spirit of Contemporary Worship Music,” which is available as a DVD or a free eVideo download from Way of Life.Earlier this year we reported that Majesty Music’s Rejoice Hymns, features about 10 songs by Getty/Townend, as well as ones by David Clydesdale, Scott Wesley Brown, Steve Amerson, Bob Kilpatrick, and Chris Christensen, all of whom are out-and-out Christian rockers and radical ecumenists who are using music to build the end-time, one-world church. The inclusion of a contemporary song or two in a hymnbook in itself is not evidence of compromise. We all make mistakes and we are all learners. Exceptions aren’t rules, but the commitment to building bridges to contemporary worship on the part of many prominent music people among fundamental Baptists is quickly becoming the rule.
When people are informed of how dangerous contemporary worship music is and how that even the most “conservative” contemporary “hymn writers” are using their music as an ecumenical bridge to connect “traditional” churches with “the broader church,” as Getty/Townend have admitted, and instead of repenting of using it, they become the defensive and justify their actions, THAT IS CLEAR EVIDENCE OF COMPROMISE. Justifying the use of contemporary worship is a loud warning that a ministry is heading in the wrong direction, yea, a most dangerous direction. If you justify it, you are justifying the end-time apostasy that ALL of the mainstream contemporary worship musicians represent. You are justifying the breakdown in biblical separatism.
If you justify it, you will use more and more of it, and you will give your family and church an appetite for it, and you will build bridges to that extremely dangerous world: bridges over which your church will eventually walk. Those who are justifying the use of contemporary worship music are playing with fire. (See The Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, a free eBook available from Way of Life for documentation -- www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/.)
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FROM:
"The philosophy of music is changing rapidly among fundamental Baptist and other fundamentalist churches. It is becoming popular to “adapt” contemporary praise songs by selecting ones with Scriptural lyrics and toning down the rhythm. This is being done by Majesty Music, Soundforth, Bob Jones University and its president Steve Pettit, and West Coast Baptist College, for example. They excuse the practice in various ways, such as likening the use of contemporary praise to the use of a Lutheran or Methodist hymn, but it is a different thing altogether. While I have never heard of a fundamental Baptist church becoming Lutheran or Methodist by singing old hymns, many are moving rapidly in the direction of the contemporary philosophy by using contemporary music."
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CANTUS: HOMOSEXUALS PERFORM AT "FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN" BOB JONES UNIVERSITY~NOT THE FIRST "CHRISTIAN" SCHOOL OR CHURCH EITHER
"CHRISTIAN GAY MEN'S CHORUS"?
STEVE PETTIT'S NON-JUDGMENTALISM
ON DISPLAY
AT BOB JONES UNIVERSITY
OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENTS, ETC.
TO LEARN:
"PRIDE, IDENTITY, UNITY"
WITH OPENLY GAY SINGERS
SEE:
EXCERPT:
“Anthems are an expression of identity and create a way for communities to show support for a cause, belief, a heritage, or even a sports team,” says Cantus tenor Aaron Humble. “If you have once sung a song in a group, that music forever after will conjure the emotions of that moment for you: pride, identity, unity.”
SANG ALSO AT MESSIAH CHRISTIAN COLLEGE,
GRANTHAM, PENNSYLVANIA IN 2011
HOMOSEXUALS PERFORM
AT "FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN"
BOB JONES UNIVERSITY
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
“The music drift continues in ‘fundamentalism’ as Bob Jones University, under new head Steve Pettit, hosted the men’s music group Cantus for their Artist Series, Jan. 27, 2015. I called the school because I have friends and family that attend BJU, but no one would talk to me and my call has not been returned. Cantus’ web site contains information about the performers. Tenor Zachary Colby says the person he most admires is Oprah Winfrey. Tenor Blake Morgan said that his idea of a great evening is ‘sunsets and craft beer’ and he is ‘a huge fan of vocal jazz.’ Tenor Aaron Humble is a homosexual who commutes from Minneapolis, where he works, to Seattle, where his ‘husband’ lives with their two cats. Tenor Shahzore Shah lives in Saint Paul with his ‘husband,” and his most admired living person is Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist master.”
CONCLUDING NOTE FROM BRO. CLOUD: Someone wrote to Pastor Rogers with the following comment: “It is common knowledge that BJU has always had secular artist groups in as part of their Artist Series. This is hardly a ‘drift’ as it has been going on for decades. The University has a liberal arts philosophy that exposes the students to various classical expressions of art and culture. Whether you agree with it or not, it is nothing new and unsaved classical performers have always come to the campus for these events. ... I believe the leadership also uses it as an opportunity to give the gospel to these accomplished performers.” In response to that I would say that I truly doubt that BJU has had open homosexuals with “husbands” as performers before. Therefore, this probably does represent a further drift and a sad milestone for the school. And though the “art” thing might explain their action, it doesn’t justify it before God. Sharing the gospel (assuming they do that) does not justify bringing unbelievers and mockers of God’s holy laws on campus to entertain Bible students. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).
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Our research supports the above by these links:
"I got married in December but shortly there after my husband had to move to Seattle for his job." "Lately, I’ve been pretty impressed with Pope Francis."
"Shahzore lives in Highland Park, Saint Paul with his husband, Daniel."
"Which living figure do you most admire?
Thich Nhat Hanh – Zen Buddhist master of our time, philosopher, teacher and prolific writer on mindful living."
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ALSO SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS REFERENCING "THICH NHAT HANH" AND BUDDHIST "MINDFULNESS":
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The following article is similar to the accusations, charges and demands made by pastor Witmer recently to this blog:
"Pastor Demands That I Remove His People from My Mailing List"
Oct/22/15 05:55
See end of report to Print/Share/Send to Kindle
October 22, 2015 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article)
Recently I received the following email from a pastor:
“There are church members here that have developed a critical mindset from various sources, including your website and subscription to your emails with Way of Life. I respectfully ask that you take members of ------ Baptist Church from ---------- off your subscription list without bashing me and by keeping out of this local New Testament issue. --------- and ----------- do not need critical influence because they are babes in Christ and their Pastor (that's me), sees spiritually fit for you to take your emails off their sending list. If you do not then I will take this further. This is not up for debate! God hates discord and that is final. Thank you for respecting the authority of this local N. T. Church.”
REPLY FROM BROTHER CLOUD
Hello, Pastor --------.
I am sorry to hear from you under these circumstances. It would not be ethical for me to remove the names. These men subscribed of their own free will, and it is up to them to unsubscribe. To remove them on your request would be like going to the post office and demanding that a stop be placed on someone else’s mail without their knowledge and approval.
As for a critical mindset, if the church members you mentioned have a truly critical mindset and are causing carnal divisions in the church and are not showing proper respect to the pastor, they did not learn that from me and I would reprove them for such a thing. I warn about that frequently. See my reports such as “Keys to Fruitful Church Membership,” “I Am Not Your Pastor,” “A Critical Eye,” and “The Pastor’s Authority and the Church Member’s Responsibility.” All of these are freely available at the Way of Life web site.
But testing things by the Word of God is not a “critical mindset.” No preacher is above being proved by God’s Word and being reproved by God’s Word if he is found to be in error. Jack Hyles, one of the most influential independent Baptist preachers, believed that he was above such “criticism” and demanded unquestioning loyalty, and that type of thinking has spread widely among some pastors, but he was wrong and he doubtless knows that now.
As for protecting the church from error, you certainly have that responsibility, and I understand this very well.
I was a pastor in Tennessee in the 1970s, and since 1979 I have held a position similar to a pastor as a missionary church planter.
The pastor has the authority and responsibility to build up his people in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God and to protect them from error.But the way he protects the sheep from error is not to bully them and demand unquestioning submission to his authority and to treat their challenges as carnal divisiveness. That is the way of an emperor, not a pastor (1 Peter 5:1-3). The way that a biblical pastor protects the sheep is to train them in the truth so they have good spiritual discernment. This is how the pastor “shuts the mouths” of heretics (Titus. 1:9-11).
If one of our church members starts reading Reformed theology or something else that I consider to be in error, I am not going to contact the preacher or the author and demand that he remove our church members from his mailing list or try to force him to stop publishing his material.
I am first going to make the effort to find out exactly what is being taught by reading the material or listening to the sermons for myself. I am not going to depend on second-hand information or what someone else says about that preacher or author.
Then I am going to teach that church member why I believe that particular author is wrong and why he should not follow him, and if I believe that the wrong doctrine is dangerous, I am going to urge him to stop listening to it.
The pastor has the authority and responsibility to do this.
He does not, though, have the authority to keep his people from hearing other preachers that speak the truth, even if he doesn’t appreciate who they are.
That is what Diotrophes was guilty of, and the apostle John described his sin in very strong terms (3 John 9-11). Diotrophes tried to forbid his people to hear the truth spoken by other preachers. It wasn’t a matter of protecting them from heresy; it was an issue of maintaining his authority over people’s lives.
In my long experience, most pastors that get upset at me for supposedly interfering in their “local church affairs” and for supposedly stirring up their people “to criticism” have not made the effort to carefully and prayerfully read what I had said (or to watch the music videos, etc.) and have not proven that I am actually in error. Often the problem has to do with something I have said about one of their preacher heroes like Jack Hyles or Paul Chappell or Clarence Sexton or whoever. They react knee-jerk fashion without carefully checking out what I have said and why I am concerned, and they automatically charge me with causing division.
The truth causes division, just as surely as error does. The prophets of old caused great discord and division. Jesus caused tremendous discord among the Jews, and He continues to cause discord in this sin-cursed, error-afflicted world. He said He did not come to bring peace but division (Lk. 12:51). Paul stirred up discord throughout his ministry.
God does not hate “discord” that is the product of truth.
If I have spoken the truth about the compromise of some well-known preacher, or if I have spoken the truth about the music issue or the evangelism issue or whatever issue it might be, and that truth causes division among some independent Baptists, that is not sin. It only exposes the fact that there are a lot of independent Baptist compromisers and heretics.
It would be a good thing and not a bad thing, a godly thing and not a carnal thing, for independent Baptists who are faithful to the truth of God’s Word to divide from those who are following pragmatic human thinking rather than God’s Word and who are compromising the truth by moving in a worldly, contemporary path, etc.
The real problem lies in the fact that so many independent Baptists are men followers more than Christ followers and are committed to many errors that they have learned from their misguided heroes. Instead of testing everything by God’s Word as a true Berean (Acts 17:11), they test things by their tradition (all the while giving lip service to being Biblicists).
It is frightful that so many independent Baptist preachers are so shockingly ignorant of these fundamental and basic biblical truths.
In Christ,
Brother Cloud
