What follows is an excerpt from a radio sermon preached Easter Sunday, 1960 by Bob Jones, Sr. — the founder of Bob Jones University (BJU). This sermon was reproduced in printed form and sold in the BJU bookstore. No blacks were permitted to attend the college until 1971 — three years after the death of Bob Jones, Sr. Even then, only married black students were permitted to enroll. Five years later, BJU allowed single blacks to enroll, but strengthened its rules against interracial dating and marriage, leading to the IRS revoking BJU’s tax exempt status. Wikipedia states:
In 1976, the Internal Revenue Service revoked the university’s tax exemption retroactively to December 1, 1970 on grounds that it was practicing racial discrimination. The case eventually was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982. After BJU lost the decision in Bob Jones University v. United States (461 U.S. 574)[1983], the university chose to maintain its interracial dating policy and pay a million dollars in back taxes.
It would be twenty-four more years before BJU would finally allow blacks and whites to date and marry.
Bob Jones University regained its tax-exempt status in 2017.
Is Segregation Scriptural?
My friends, I am going to bring you today one of the most important and most remotely messages I have ever brought. I hope you will sit close to the radio. Do not let anything disturb you. I want you to hear this message through.
Now, we folks at Bob Jones University believe that whatever the Bible says is so, and we believe it says certain fundamental things that all Bible-believing Christians accept; but when the Bible speaks clearly about any subject, that settles it. Men do not always agree, because some people are dumb; some people are spiritually dumb; but when the Bible is clear, there is not any reason why everybody should not accept it.
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All orthodox, Bible-believing Christians agree on one thing; and that is, that whatever the Bible says is so. When they had old religious debates, they used to get together and say, “Well, we will discuss this subject.” One man would say, “The Bible says this” and another man would say, “You are mistaken. It says this.” They argued about what the Bible said. They agreed that whatever it said was so, but they argued about what it said.
In recent years there has been a subtle, Satanic effort to undermined people’s faith in the Bible; and the devil has helped the race along until men have put their own opinion above the Word of God. You will find that practically all the troubles we are having today have come out of the fact that men in many instances have ceased to believe in an authoritative Bible.
For instance, we are living in the midst of race turmoil all over the world today. Look at what they are facing in Africa, and look at what we are facing in this country. It is all contrary to Scripture — it is all contrary to the Word of God. I am going to show you that the Bible is perfectly clear on races — just as clear as it can be.
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God Almighty did not make of the human race one race in the sense that He did not fix the bounds of their habitation. That is perfectly clear. It is no accident that most Chinese are in China. There has been an overflow in the world, but most Chinese live in China. There are millions and millions of them there, and there are no greater people in the world. I have never known lovelier and more wonderful people than the Chinese.
We were over in Formosa a few years ago and conferred an honorary degree on Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and I never met a greater man. I never met a man of more intelligence or a more wonderful Christian; and Madame Chiang Kai-shek is a wonderful woman. There they are. Now, what happened? They married each other. She was a Christian Chinese woman educated in America. When she finished her education, she went back to her home in China. How God has used Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek — not only as Christian witnesses but also in other ways. I was never with a man who pulled me to him with stronger ties than Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek when I was over there and conferred an honorary degree on him. All right, he is a Chinese. He married a Chinese woman. That is the way God meant it to be.
Paul said that God . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men . . . . But He also fixed the bounds of their habitation. When nations break out of their boundaries and begin to do things contrary to the purpose of God and the directive will of God, they have trouble. The world is in turmoil today because men and nations go contrary to the clear teaching of the Word of God. Let’s understand that. The Chinese people are wonderful people. They have internal troubles, of course, because Communism has gone into China and disturbed a great deal of the population. But the Chinese people are wonderful people. The Japanese people are ingenious — they are wonderful people. The Koreans are wonderful people. The Africans are wonderful people. In many ways, there are no people in the world finer than the colored people who were brought over here in slavery in days gone by.
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What happened? Well, away back yonder our forefathers went over to Africa and brought the colored people back and sold them into slavery. That was wrong. But God overruled. When they came over here, many of them did not know the Bible and did not know about Jesus Christ; but they got converted. Some of the greatest preachers the world has ever known were colored preachers who were converted in slavery days.
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God Almighty allowed these colored people to be turned here into the South and overruled what happened, and then He turned the colored people in the South into wonderful Christian people. For many years we have lived together. Occasionally there will be a flare-up. But the white people have helped the colored people build their churches, and we have gotten along together harmoniously and peacefully; and everything has come along fine. Sometimes we have a little trouble, but then we adjust everything sensibly and get back to the established order.
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White folks and colored folks, you listen to me. You cannot run over God’s plan and God’s established order without having trouble. God never meant to have one race. It was not His purpose at all. God has a purpose for each race. God Almighty may have overruled and permitted the slaves to come over to America so that the colored people could be the great missionaries to the Africans. They could have been. The white people in America would have helped pay their way over there. By the hundred and hundred they could have gone back to Africa and got the Africans converted after the slavery days were over.
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If we would just listen to the Word of God and not try to overthrow God’s established order, we would not have any trouble. God never meant for America to be a melting pot to rub out the line between the nations. That was not God’s purpose for this nation. When someone goes to overthrowing His established order and goes around preaching pious sermons about it, that makes me sick — for a man to stand up and preach pious sermons in this country and talk about rubbing out the line between the races — I say it makes me sick. I have had the sweetest fellowship with colored Christians, with yellow Christians, with red Christians, with all sorts of Christians — the sweetest fellowship anybody has ever had, we have had. Christians have always had it. We have never had any trouble about that.
The trouble today is a Satanic agitation striking back at God’s established order. That is what is making trouble for us. Of course, it is easy to look back over the years and see the situation from another standpoint; but when the folks up North went to Africa and brought the slaves over to this country and sold them to the Southern people, the Southern people should have been Christian enough to have said, “We will not have any slaves. We are not going ahead.” But, you know, they went ahead.
Only a small percentage of the Southern people held slaves. Only a small percentage of them were slave owners. A great many people in the South in the old days did not believe in slavery — they stood against slavery. But they went ahead, and the commercial element was dominant; and people bought slaves and sold them. This slavery was not right. It should not have been. What we should have done was to have sent missionaries to Africa. Yes, that is what we should have done. That would have been in line with Scripture.
God put the Africans over there. They are fine people. They are intelligent people. Do not think they are inferior in every way. It is not so. But we should have sent missionaries over there, and Africa should have been a great nation of colored Christians. If we had done what God had told us to do and sent the Gospel to them and made a Christian nation out of them instead of bringing them over here and selling them into slavery, Africa could have been a great nation of colored Christians. What we did was wrong. It was not right. It cannot be justified. We should not try to justify it. But people went along. Some good people fell for it and went ahead with it; and God overruled it.
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But racially we have separation in the Bible. Let’s get that clear. Any race has a right to come to America. We do not mean that when we came over here we wiped out the line between races. We did not do that. We should have let the Africans stay in Africa instead of bringing them here for slaves, but did you colored people ever stop to think where you might have been if that had not happened? Now, you colored people listen to me. If you had not been brought over here and if your grandparents in slavery days had not heard that great preaching you might not even be a Christian. You might be over there in the jungles of Africa today, unsaved. But you are here in America where you have your own schools and your own churches and your own liberties and your own rights, with certain restrictions that God Almighty put about you — restrictions that are in line with the Word of God. The Jews have lived a separated race. they have been separated from the other races of the world. They have been miraculously preserved. Now they have a homeland. They are back there today, and what a wonderful thing is happening.
The time has come when we good folks down here in the South — the good colored people and the good white people — need to use our heads. We should not let this outside agitation disturb us down here. Now, listen just a minute. You colored people are entitled to good schools. You ought to have them. I would like for you to remember something. Just remember that the South went through reconstruction and had a hard time. It was not easy. Then remember something else, too. When your ancestors were slaves in the homes of these Southern people, they got a breath of culture that they could not have gotten even in the schoolrooms of America. They heard the old-time preachers. I have said many times that the greatest preachers who have lived since the Apostolic days were the preachers of the South — the preachers who preached to the colored people. And back there the slaves had the Gospel. They were it and were converted. They were saved.
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Now, I am appealing to you colored people and to you white people. Let’s use our heads. Let’s be intelligent. Let’s not try to kick the Bible off the center table. Keep your Bible where it belongs. When they tell you that God Almighty is not the author of the boundaries of nations, you tell them that is wrong. You tell them it is perfectly clear in the Bible that God made of one blood all nations but that He also fixed the bounds of their habitation. There is nothing unscriptural about that.
Listen just a minute. We are trying to bring a few people from other lands here to Bob Jones University so we can educate them and help them. We have two Chinese gentlemen teaching here in this school. They are Christian men. They are intelligent men, and they understand what we are doing. They know where we are going. We honor and respect them.
There is no problem here. But it could be a problem. It could be a problem in California. It could be a problem anywhere. Whenever you get a situation that rubs out the line that God has drawn between races, whenever that happens, you are going to have trouble. That is what is happening today in this country. All this agitation is a Communistic agitation to overthrow the established order of God in this world. The Communistic influence is at work all about us. Certain people are disturbing this situation. They talk about the fact that we are going to have one world. We will never really have one world until this world heads up in God. We are not going to have one world by man’s rubbing out the line that God has established. He is marking the lines, and you cannot rub them out and get away with it.
The established order cannot be overthrown without having trouble. That is what wrecked Paradise. God set up the order of Paradise. He told Adam and Eve how to live and what food to eat and what not to eat. He drew the lines around that Garden; and when Adam and Eve crossed over the lines of God, thorns grew on roses. The first baby that was born was a murderer and killed his own brother. So it has gone down through the ages. It is man’s rebellion (due to the fall) against a Holy God to overthrow the established order of God in this world.
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When you run into conflict with God’s established order racially, you have trouble. You do not produce harmony. You produce destruction and trouble, and this nation is in the greatest danger it has ever been in in its history. We are facing dangers from abroad and dangers at home, and the reason is that we have got away from the Bible of our forefathers. The best Christians who ever put foot on this earth since the Apostolic days were the men and women in America back in the old days. Some of them owned slaves, and some of them did not; and some of them were slaves, and some of them were not. Back in those days they believed the Bible, and God called this nation into existence to be a witness to the world and to be true to the Word of God. Do not let these religious liberals blowing their bubbles of nothing over your head get you upset and disturbed. Let’s get back to the Word of God and be sensible.
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Our heavenly Father, bless our country. We thank Thee for our ancestors. We thank Thee for the good, Christian people — white and black. We thank Thee for the ties that have bound these Christian white people and Christian colored people together through the years, and we thank Thee that white people who had a little more money helped them build their churches and stood by them and when they got sick, they helped them. No nation has ever prospered or been blessed like the colored people in the South. Help these colored Christian not to get swept away by all the propaganda that is being put out now. Help us to see this thing and to understand God’s established order and to be one in Christ and to understand that God has fixed the boundaries of the nations so we would not have trouble and misunderstanding. Keep us by Thy power and use us for They glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
You can read the entire sermon here and here. Transcribed by Camille Lewis
Woww, unreal
Just one notch below the kkk on the bat$#!+ crazy scale. Seriously wtf was he smoking
That’s a lot of hot preacher air but he never references the Bible. The argument is “God made the races for a purpose”, without stating the purpose nor is a purpose readily apparent. (If God made the races for a purpose he could have well made the races incapable of mixing.)
This is a good post: it is a glowing example of where religion gets it wrong.
Fucking hypocrite. He starts off ranting about the bible being the guide for life then hangs his arguement on 2 lines out of context. The whole book of Galatians is about how different races should mix in the church.
My concern began when he opens up referring to the bible as clear, then keeps repeating it. If I read passages from the bible that purport to support slavery, or beating my wife, then I’m told by apologists that I’m not reading the bible properly, that it must be read in context. When it gets really tough for them then I’m told I should read it in its original language (so why both bloody well translating it?).
It seems to me that one thing the bible most certainly isn’t is clear, whether read literally or otherwise.
As far as sermons go, this was not — structurally, technically, and homiletically — a very good sermon. Quite repetitive, with very little attempt to exegetically prove his assertions. He was older by this time, so this might have been the ramblings of a senile racist.
This sermon puts a whole new light on Jones for me. The college I attended had societies for men. John R Rice, Billy Sunday, Charles Spurgeon, and Bob Jones. I was a member of the Bob Jones society. At the time, I knew nothing of his racism. The president of the college, Tom Malone, attended and graduated from Bob Jones College. Surely, he had to know about Jones’ racism. Malone was from Alabama, so that might of played a part in how he viewed Jones,
It seems to me that one thing the bible most certainly isn’t is clear, whether read literally or otherwise.
It is designed and edited to provide the very best viral infection needed for the individual ‘weakness’ presented. So, it can be interpreted to mean that I need to have slaves and God demands that this be respected or, that having slaves is evil and must be punished. The overall purpose is to harm while using doublespeak and singing Jesus Loves Me.
Let us prey and ask God’s guidance.
As the author of “The Death of Endless Damnation” (by myself Terry lee Miller Sr.) which can be googled, of course I love the KJV Bible and will preach it till I die, but, BUT also have to go to the originals (Textus Receptus) for clarification at times. The Bible emphatically teaches that ALL and I mean ALL will ultimately be saved one day, and that Jesus is not a sadist who will burn people will fire and brimstone for eternity if they refuse to accept Him. Yes there is a real lake of fire and hell where the atheists, infidels, whoremongers, etc. will be punished severely by a just creator, and that punishment will be ‘according and in proportion to their works, but not endless. That punishment will be like a permanent attitude adjustment for good, and then ‘…every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess…unto salvation and the new birth for eternity. As far as interracial dating and marriage I will say the following. It emphatically is not a sin for two races to marry. However to those who intermarry they are discriminating against their own race (which every man should be proud of no matter what race he is of! ) by beginning to push its color to a different complexion, watering it down and causing the children to not reflect pride in their heritage as black, white, red, or yellow etc. I.E. not to be a pure Caucasian, Jew, Indian, Chinese, Negro etc. If you are proud of your race, and you should be, no matter what color you are, then why attack it by intermarriage with another race, watering it down and pushing it in a different direction???? While it is not a sin to marry a person of another race, and nowhere in the Bible does it say it is a sin, it can certainly can be a dumb thing to do due to the cultural/life style differences and cause great strain in a marriage relationship and maybe damage it. I would never marry a true dyed in the wool Chinese woman! You say why? Because I hate Chinese food, that’s simple. Also Chinese women do things a Chinese man may love, but I with my Caucasian heritage would not put up with. God made the races. Maybe you have not noticed there are definite and distinct races today only because many people were and are proud of being black, white etc. God made all races, loves all races equally, and no man is superior to another because of his race, and we should love and respect all races equally. Read my book and find out that all men who die unsaved/lost will ultimately be saved. Jesus loves all men, but he hates their sins, and will eventually win all men to himself. (Key being that Jesus never taught ‘endless’ punishment’ but rather ‘limited/indefinite duration punishment for the wicked. The word ‘everlasting’ in the KJV did not exist in the English language untill 1300 a.d. and in the Greek is not ‘endless’ but ‘indefinite’ duration which Greek is Aionios, not Adios, Adios which is endless. Over and out.
Good grief. *sigh*
Sorry Bruce. That’s all I could manage. 🙁
Lol – enjoyed this post. Must say you fooled me as I didn’t realise you were joking at first! Great satire of the ridiculousness of particular ministers.
You hit the nail on the head with your piss take of the up them selves Christian minister – mentioning qualifications before and after their name as if a Mickey Mouse doctorate/degree from a Christian college makes them an authority, the faux academic reference to a point of Greek to back up their particular obscure theological position which just goes to show how unclear their god / bible is, the irrelevant ramblings about race and idiotic insistence on the KJV above more accurate translations.
Way to bookend a comment with a promo for your book.
He’s certainly not doing a great job. It’s been available since 2015 and there are precisely no reviews of it on either US or UK Amazon.
Why is it that everybody who comes up with some whacky interpretation of the bible and who writes a book, would think that anybody else is going to waste a precious part of their life reading it? As the great Christopher Hitchens said ‘I’ve heard it said that everyone has a book inside of them. In most cases it’s best it stay there’.
Dr. Terry Lee Miller Sr. is what is sarcastically referred to as a “self published genius”. There are a good number of vanity press businesses that will take your money ($1-2 grand) and allow you to give yourself the ultimate pat on the back and publish your own book. This is why there are no reviews on his book.
On amazon you can’t look inside the book mentioned, but an earlier book “CALVINISM” THE TROJAN HORSE WITHIN does allow a view inside and it looks like typical in your face Bible tracts that you sometimes see with bold ominous looking headlines.
It is possible to sell a book this way, though the usual prerequisite is a successful blog that yields enough of a following to get some traffic to your book.
As for Dr. (tee hee!) Miller’s comment, God didn’t create the races, they are the result of geographic isolation. There is a biological preference for humans selecting mates that look like dear old dad (or mom), though 10% or so do prefer an exotic phenotype.
Now if you attribute God for what I’d call nature, the curious observer will note that reproductive barriers do occur in the process of speciation. An example widely seen in the plant kingdom are barriers to selfing where pollen from the same plant is rejected (through various means). There are also barriers in animals of related species due to the problem of hybrid sterility. The evidence is clear if God wanted to prevent races from comingling barriers would be in place. Of course it is evolution that created these barriers for the simple reason that avoiding birthing hybrid and sterile offspring allows such organisms to get more of their genes in the next generation.
I want to add that co-mingling of the human races do not produce hybrids and are not typically sterile. Human beings are one species, the races are trivialities.
Terry sent his response to me instead on posting it here. Here is what he wrote:
Dear Troy, Tee Hee: Thank you for your interest in my post. I was shocked at the following statement you made following……
Of course it is evolution that created these barriers for the simple reason that avoiding birthing hybrid and sterile offspring allows such organisms to get more of their genes in the next generation.
1. “Evolution created.” I ask you how can a non intelligent theory (evolution) create an ‘intelligent’ circumstance (barrier) to propagate skin color? Intelligence coming from non intelligence?? Sounds kooky. Something coming from a “chance nothing”? I don’t think so. It takes a million times more faith to believe that than to believe there is an omnipotent God who created (intelligently so) all there is.
2. So lets see, according to you ‘evolution’ is the reason for skin differences. Well I had rather believe the Bible that God made man in His image, and that all men are equal though with different skin colors and nationalities. There is not a superior race according to the Bible and we are all made equal before God, red, yellow black and white, and Jewish. With your ‘evolution design on skin color” I would wonder if you would go to the ‘Black Lives Matter,” to the NAACP, or the Black Panthers or Nation of Islam and tell them that they came from evolution, and that they do not really ‘have a distinct race’ and that they evolved from lower forms of life like monkeys and chimpanzees? That is the idiocy of evolution! NO God made all races, and loves all races equally, and all races are equal before God, and no we are not products of (non intelligent design chance evolution) chance evolution! Jesus loves you still, and will bring you into His fold in the end, though you will have much suffering to go through first. And no Jesus does not endlessly torment souls in the Lake of Fire, but only punishes them there according to their works, temporarily so. One day you will gladly bow at his feet and become born again. “Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…..”
It would take all day to dissect what’s wrong with BJ’s horrific opinions, but I focussed on Chiang kai-shek. Wasn’t he the wrong kind of x-tian, a methodist with confuscian leanings? He also had concubines and an STD.
And Dear Terry Miller: If I was stranded on a desert island with nothing but your book to read, let me say, I wouldn’t need to gather wood that night to keep me warm.
Terry sent me his comment instead of posting here. Here is what he wrote:
Hello Matilda: Jesus loves you despite your ignorance of who the real Jesus is. Yes He is God come in the flesh, and will save you one day. Yes you will be saved, and no He is not the Jesus of the Damnationists who torments souls in the Lake of Fire for eternity. But, BUT, you will no doubt have to suffer greatly when you stand before the Great White Throne and have sentence passed according to your works. When that severe punishment is concluded, then you will gladly bend your knees and claim Him as your God and Savior, thanking Him for offering you free salvation. “Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…..’
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Thanks for posting. One of the best examples of how NOT to teach. He provides no scriptual evidence for “his” stated belief from the bible. He blasphemes God character by attributing such beliefs to God.
God made Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden. The garden is somewhere in or near Ethiopia according to Genesis 2:10-14. Adam name means “the red man”. God gave them two commands. The first was “be fruitful and multiply”. All people came from them. God said about his creation that it was “very good”. God confounded man’s language in Genesis 11:9 “the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.” The reason, Gensis 8:17 violated in Gensis 11:4. God chose a chosen people from Abram. He came from Ur, Genesis 11:31 -12:5. Ur is modern day Iraq. Any person could become a Jew if they converted. Jews were not allowed to marry non Jews. Christians are not allowed nonchrstians. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what Concord hath Christ Belial?”
America has produced more false teachers and aberrant teachings than any other country in the 20th century. From Mormonism, Jehovah Witness, Pentecostalism, Seventeenth Day Adventism, Prosperity gospel. Satan really has found his tool in the good old USA. Very sad for those who are willing to look at the facts.
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