Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Rick Phillips

Rick Phillips & Carl Trueman on BJU and Fundamentalism

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Here are links to some fascinating recent blog posts:

  1. Rick Phillips: “Fundamentalism, Christian Schooling, and the Antithesis”
  2. Rick Phillips: “The Price Is Not Right”
  3. Rick Phillips: clarification in comment 2 on my post “Rick Phillips on Bob Jones Academy and Fundamentalism“
  4. Rick Phillips: “More on Bob Jones”
  5. Carl Trueman: “Cheese in an Aerosol Can“
  6. Rick Phillips: “In Praise of Aerosol Cheese“
  7. Chris Anderson: “Wowzers. Rick Phillips Defends BJU, Fundamentalists“
  8. Sean Michael Lucas: “Cheese, Fundamentalism, and the Antithesis, no. 1“
  9. Sean Michael Lucas: “Cheese, Fundamentalism, and the Antithesis, no. 2“
  10. Bob Bixby: “The ‘Emerging Middle’“
  11. Rick Phillips: “Some Good Cheese“

Rick Phillips on Bob Jones Academy and Fundamentalism

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Update: See Rick Phillips’s gracious reply below (comment #2) and clarification on his blog entitled “More on Bob Jones.” He’s a gentleman.

Rick Phillips, who recently became a PCA pastor at Second Presbyterian Church just a few minutes down the road from Bob Jones University, shares his evolving thoughts on fundamentalists after deciding to enroll his children at Bob Jones Elementary School. See his blog post “Fundamentalism, Christian Schooling, and the Antithesis.” (Cf. his follow-up post “The Price Is Not Right.”)

A few thoughts in reply:

  1. I’m delighted to hear Phillips’s thoughts. BJ often gets an unnecessarily bad rap. Phillips is right that (1) BJ is culturally conservative and upholds some relatively strict rules and (2) BJ is straight on what matters most: the gospel.
  2. For what it’s worth, I’d like to point out that BJ is not an Arminian institution. I can see how someone might get this impression based on some of their history (e.g., Bob Jones Sr. was a Methodist), methodology, chapel speakers, and administrators over the years, but I’m not aware of a single Arminian professor who currently teaches on the their undergraduate or graduate Bible faculty; most (or at least many) of the Bible professors are Calvinists of the Amyraldian variety. (I don’t pretend to be an official spokesperson for BJU, but both my wife and I are somewhat familiar with the BJ system. We both earned degrees at BJU, and my wife also attended BJ through seventh grade. For the first two years of our marriage, we lived right next to BJES and passed it nearly every day either in a car or on foot. We each have many friends and family members who have attended BJ ranging from nursery-age up through Ph.D. studies, and I still keep in touch with several of the professors.)