Sermons

BJU Bible Conference Messages

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If the Bible is all about Jesus don’t you think Bible conference messages would mention him with at least the frequency that they mention… tithingpersecutiontheendtimesmoralismtherulesallhailbobabortiongayspoliticsoldtestamentlawhimom
godsperfectwillforyourlifefleeingyouthfullustsrockmusicsoulwinningdidwementionkeepingtherules?

You’d think so. At least I would.

For your edification I’m live tweeting whatever messages I can on Twitter @fundysermons.

126 thoughts on “BJU Bible Conference Messages”

  3. Some of these people worship the KJB as if it were the fourth member of the trinity. I still believe in the KJB but it ain’t God. I want to hear about Jesus, not just the book. 😈

    1. No kidding. Husband and I went to a funeral for a good friend we’d known for many years. It was preached by the ex-pastor of the last Fundy church we went to. Of course he had to get in his KJV-Only rant during the funeral sermon.

    2. While I don’t support BJU wholeheartedly in everything, I will say they are definitely not in the KJV-only category of fundamentalism (actually KJV-onliests consider BJ liberal). They do still preach from KJV, but you’ll find probably a majority of students, and I’d venture to say faculty and staff, carrying around new versions, mostly ESV. The bookstore probably has more ESVs than KJVs.

    1. I believe Jesus said, “If ye love me keep my commandments.” Is a commandment a rule or just a mere suggestion about the rules? I love all these Mote and Beam moments. I just wonder what God thinks when so many people harbor all this bitterness.

      2. “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love… My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you…This is my command: Love each other. – Jesus (John 15:10,12,17)

        Obeying Jesus is so much more simple — and so much more challenging — than simply don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t go to movies, avoid worldly hairstyles, don’t read any version but the KJV, don’t listen to CCM, go to church every time the doors are open, and all the extra-Biblical standards that men add in order to try to achieve holiness.

      3. @m&b

        Is a commandment a rule or just a mere suggestion about the rules?

        Could ya refresh me memory a wee bit, what are the “rules” again? And please be specific, I wouldna wanna be breaking any rules just because you didna tell me they was rules in th’ first place.

  5. Oh, but he did — well, sorta. If you take the gospels and sorta twist them sideways and squint a bit and then stand on your head . . .

  7. “‘If it’s inappropriate then don’t do it, but join hands with someone around you.’ (how is joining hands ever inappropriate?)”

    Well, I do recall one time when I had a cold, and I had just sneezed into my hand …

    1. I would consider joining hands with Bob Jones to be inappropriate but not for sexual reasons, he’ just pretty despicable.

  8. Modestystandardsfundamentalismneoevangelicalbitternessattitudenewagemovementdrbobsaid to name a few others.

  9. I can see that the machinery cranking out this paranoid persecution rhetoric is still as well-oiled as ever. If there was ever planned obsolescence, this is not the place. I wish that my water softener and furnace could crank out stuff spit-fire fashion like this for a century or so.

    Jack VanImpe has a television program Sunday mornings, and I watch it sometimes as I get ready to leave for church. So much paranoia and so little Gospel. He sure knows how to spit out the verses. It’s a shame that he doesn’t really know what they mean within their context. Every week he harps about something called Chrislam. I looked it up, and I can’t find anything on it except from VanImpe’s conspiracy babble.

    1. “Jack VanImpe Presents” is nothing but an infocommerial to sell his latest DVD. It’s all about je$u$.

      1. Van Impe is an interesting one. Back in the 80’s he wrote a book that hammered BJU and the royalty there hard for their hyper separatism, printing letters revealing some of the pettiness and then he went off on his own, speaking where he wanted to. (His wife was a BJU’er). I have never cared for most current event, er, prophecy “teaching” but I have been very annoyed by Van Impe with his outright nuttiness the last few years. He has gone after Rick Warren for saying “you should take crosses out of your church’ when Warren’s church has three VERY prominent crosses around their campus and other similar nonsense. Says Warren is responsible for “bringing rock music into the church”, “is a false teacher”, blah, blah, blah. Having been a friend of Warren for nearly 30 years I know such claims are just crazy. He may have just “lost it” with age…..or the desire to sell DVDs.

    2. Christlam is the agglomeration of Christianity and Islam from the Sci-fi movie Pitch Black. Why Jack van Impe thinks it pertinent is anyone’s guess.

  10. This here: Steps to victory #1 Just Say No. Brilliant. #bibleconference

    Reminded me of the addiction recovery program at my parent’s church.

    This was the tweet from their site:
    http://bit.ly/GAf4tL

    1. Lot was vexing himself! What a revelation! It was all his fault, he just needed to stop it! Sounds like fantastic advice to addicts… 🙄

  11. Darrell, this tweet made me lol: “‘What temptation are you struggling with right now?’ I think I’ll go with boredom. #bibleconference

    1. LOL, that was my temptation every spring. 😆 I got to the point where I couldn’t sit with certain friends because after hearing the same drivel over and over, we’d start to giggle uncontrollably. Or we’d play candy games (since it’s harder to smuggle drinks into the FMA) & eat a Skittle or TicTac for every mention of “Dr. Bob, Sr.” or “standards” or some such. 😉

      1. What a fun game! I wish I’d thought of it. I was always earnestly taking notes, but I could have added the extra entertainment of listening for certain phrases and rewarding myself with a Skittle!

  12. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but it was bizarre to me that they didn’t mention Jesus Christ except for in closing a prayer “in Jesus name.” Yikes!! 😳

  14. I love the “hi mom”, and the tweets are awesome! Was kind of hoping that would happen again this year, but had no idea when Bible Conference was.

  15. I totally forget how both pompous & foreboding fundy U’s design their platforms. Outside if hanging a sign that says “we think we are better than you scumbags”, I don’t see how you could do much more to demonstrate your self importance.

  16. That’s the problem with fundies. They’re 99% Leviticus and 1% Luke. They know the words of Paul by heart but have to look up the words of Jesus, the one they’re allegedly following.

      2. Oh, following Jesus can get you in a whole world of trouble.
        Especially with church authorities.

      3. As Rich Mullins sang on his last album,
        “Well, who’s that man who thinks He’s a prophet?
        Well, I wonder if He’s got something up His sleeve
        Where’s He from? Who is His daddy?
        There’s rumors He even thinks Himself a king
        Of a kingdom of paupers
        Simpletons and rogues
        The whores all seem to love Him
        And the drunks propose a toast”

    2. Kira, I’ve got some sobering news for you. They don’t know the words of Paul by heart any more than they know the words of Jesus by heart.

      1. My church never ever preaches from Paul. They might throw out a verse here or there, but nothing deep.

    1. Nothing like Old Paths “Dark and foreboding” to liven up a sermon. All they need is a good ol’ dirge to cap it all off.

      1. Oh, that happens every Sunday during “morning Mass.” 😕 Although I’ve heard dirges that have more joy than some of the droning that passes for worship at BJU.

  18. Our Fearless leader is standing in the Gap, tweeting up a hedge about one of Fundieland’s most famous institution’s indoctrination event.

    Godspeed Sir. We salute you.

  21. Fundamentalist preachers seem to have a pathological need to deny the power of Christ as it is defined in the Scripture, even as they claim to be preaching the Bible.

      2. Yep! That pulpit’s huge, and it would take a huge ass to fill it. Thankfully, BJU has people who are up to the task! 😆

    2. And who are those six guys hiding in the shadows back there? The whole scene looks eerie.

    3. It all looks like a scene from a dystopian sci-fi story.

      Or like Comrade Stalin is addressing the Party Congress.

  24. I liked Darrell’s comment about yesterday’s sermon on the end times:

    “It’s so much easier to fret and worry about faceless people dying ‘someday’ than it is to love my icky sinful neighbor. #bibleconference”

    Sometimes this realization DID manage to sneak through my fundy self-satisfaction in year’s past as I’d realize that we were hypothetically concerned about unsaved people, but in actuality, we spent most of time avoiding having any contact with them!

  25. I actually went there for a spring semester 23 years ago. 1 semester was all I could take. It appears NOTHING in that auditorium has changed.

  26. Just when you think BJU student life cannot possible be more oppressive and just downright depressing, along comes Bible Conference to remind you that, while other normal 21 year olds are enjoying the beach, YOU have the priviledge of 4 fire and brimstone sermons a day, plus the pressure to “sell” your personal belongings in the dorm hallways, so that you may donate the proceeds to such noble causes as the new BJU parking deck, or the new foyer for Rodeheaver. Ah, memories…..

      1. No way…Say it isn’t so!!! BJU is getting slack! First the lifting of the “nylons til 5 p.m.” rule, students wearing “slacks” around town, and now this. Slippery slope indeed…Students these days dont know what true suffering is…. lol

  28. Wow, I watched about 3 minutes of their live feed and my nervous twitchyness has returned. Honestly, I don’t know how that place staying going. Must be some deep pockets somewhere.

  29. Mercado wandered in and out of babbling this morning. He was just about incomprehensible. A few things stuck out: He tried to assert that the Lord Jesus had full human cognition from birth of God the Father and His own intended role; and the ability to articulately pray to God. And yet Mercado denies believing that Christ has two separate nations indwelling Him. He also seemed to be saying that all the Jews would be raptured from every corner of the earth to Israel. And then he moo’d. Twice.

    1. He does seem to lapse into a sort of poetic trance at will.

      The notion of a “airlift to Israel” does sound like fun. Boy with they be surprised!

      1. Yes, it was something about how all creation groans and travails. And then he mooed like a cow a couple of times and told us that this was how cows prayed.

        It was rather surreal.

  30. tithingpersecutiontheendtimesmoralismtherulesallhailbobabortiongayspoliticsoldtestamentlawhimom
    godsperfectwillforyourlifefleeingyouthfullustsrockmusicsoulwinningdidwementionkeepingtherules?

    Tithing? (check)
    Pesecution? (not really)
    The end times (check)
    moralism (not really)
    the rules (check)
    all hail bob (not bob – hyles at my former church)
    abortion (rarely)
    gays (rarely)
    politics (during election)
    Old Testament Law (maybe)
    Hi Mom (yes)
    God’s perfect will (yes)
    Flee youthful lusts (rarely)
    rock music (yes)
    soul winning (check check check check check check)

    1. The above list was at a former church… the “rules” were admitted to be man-made, but “an obedient Christian will not have a problem following his authority’s rules” — or so we were told.

  31. I am very thankful for my current church; Jesus is exalted and lifted up… I think it here on SFL that we were challenged to actually count references to Jesus in the message, as opposed to the preacher referring to himself, or to his family. Pretty eye-opening.

  32. How does one get to the live stream of this thing? I am strangely intrigued. (No, don’t worry; I won’t become a fundy, honest!)

        1. The 1:30 speaker just told a story about baptizing a fat guy. It had no point, and it was even before he started the actual “sermon”.

        3. Please let me explain to our non-Baptist friends: If you’re not Baptist, this is part of the duties of Baptist pastoring. You have to be able to hold a 400 pound weight under water for a split second and then lift it up again, without saying anything like “Son of a b—!”. And you need a good working knowledge of algae control.

        4. I’ve actually seen pastors get a couple of assistants to help him in the tank when a plus sized congregant is getting dunked.

  33. Big loser of a sermon by Efaw, but I suspect that he has gotten the message that people are watching online and offering critiques. He seemed MUCH, much more on point today. Fewer stories. The text was I Samuel 17:38-51, and he promised it would not be a sermon on faith in faith, but that’s what it was. He never addressed God, the source and object of David’s faith. He never exalted Christ, the pioneer of our faith who has given us so much: His Sonship, His righteousness, His acceptance with the father. After hearing this sermon, you’d still have no idea of what, exactly, faith in Christ is.

    1. Compared to the pain that was VP of Finance John Matthews, Efaw’s sermon was relatively tame.

        1. Yes. The one who made the joke about him being his wife’s “john”, told the guys that a wife was a good investment since she can make up to 20k A YEAR, and then said it was a shame that all these “good looking girls” are sitting at dining commons tables without a MAN.

          The whole thing was a train wreck.

          Edit: This guy http://www.bju.edu/about-bju/administration/matthews.php

        3. I mean really, when the CFO of your college is suggesting that female graduates could earn all the way up to 20k a year (in tones that suggest that these are really good wages) it just goes to show exactly what kind of future they think their grads will have.

          “No, you sweet young thing, you’re never going to run a company or be a talented executive. Your degree qualifies you to either teach in church-run schools or work in retail. Enjoy!”

        5. He was definitely more cohesive today if not more accurate.

          I just assumed that today he was preaching a message he’s done many times before and last night he was trying something new.

          At least that’s how it struck me.

        6. PS to Darrell: Can’t believe I missed a BJU VP putting his foot in his mouth. Then again, I’m sure the opportunity will come around again….

        9. To Fundamentalists all women are whores waiting to ensnare their precious preacher boys. That’s why they keep excusing their preacher boys from sins of rape and child molesting.

        10. Since I didn’t attend BJU, I had to visit the page that tells me who the heck these fellows are. They should have their statements written out. Also, did you get the one about the Easter hunt for the kids, it sort of sounded like you could hunt for kids who are 12 and under. And here I thought it took 9 months!

  34. Two statements from Efaw tie for the stupid star. Here’s the first:
    “Your faith can accomplish God’s plan for your life.” D’OH! Do you think your lack of faith will in any way thwart God’s plan? When Peter sank in the waves and cried out to be saved, wasn’t his very failure an opportunity for Christ to manifest His grace and power? God does not depend upon our faith. Our faith depends upon God.

    1. Yeah, I caught that one. The following story about the tract on the hippie van to prove his point was just really confusing.

      1. Well Darrell, does it really qualify as a Fundy sermon if it is missing the obligatory long haired hippy? He could have substituted in a devil worshiper, of course, or gypsy child, or converted African native, but I guess he wanted to go more low key.

  35. Stupid Star #2: “God uses people who rely upon Him.” Nuts to that. God uses whoever He darn well pleases to use. He causes the wrath of the wicked to praise Him.

    1. My former fundy pastor recently said something similar. He was being quoted on fb as if it were some profound statement.

      It was flatout wrong!

      This is a manipulation technique meant to keep people inline so that they might find favor with God and be used in his plan.

      How anti-gospel is that?

      I am accepted in the beloved, not because of my works but because of what Jesus did for me.

      God used Jonah, even when Jonah was not obedient.

      God used Pharoah to bring Himself glory, and Pharoah was not a believer.

  36. Wow! I’m just really embarrassed for Bob Jones. They call themselves Christians, but there’s nothing about Christ in these messages. And this is the propagation of their own teaching. These speakers are graduates who have returned–ostensibly the “cream of the crop,” and they are preaching what they’ve been taught. This is it–the best of the best–and it’s pretty bad. And for an administrator to be such an embarrassment–I have no words. It hardly matters what version of the Bible they’re using–because they’re really not using it at all. :*(

  37. So Hartman really coughed out garbage in lieu of a sermon last night. Tonight is Mercado, the guy who was mooing in the pulpit yesterday and rambling about God airlifting all the Jews back to Israel. He said he would follow up tonight. Looks like another whack-a-doodle sermon on tap for this evening.

    1. So glad I’m going to be in an Evening Prayer service this evening – where we sing the Psalms & Magnificat, listen respectfully to the scriptures appointed for the day, have a 3-minute homily (really!), and prayers – all in 30 minutes – but a **whole lot** more spiritually uplifting…

      1. Trying not to feel jealous! Next year at Lent I am looking forward to going to services every day. I have heard more gospel in my current church than I ever did in the BJU-oriented churches I grew up in. Just such a sad commentary on the state of things in the IFB world. Thanks a lot Joneses. :*(

        1. In spite of my best intentions to listen to Mercado’s sermon on Wednesday night, I was in bed by 7:30. There must be something soporific about having caught the two daytime sermons….

  38. I think Flesher just preached the shortest sermon in the history of Bible Conference.If I counted correctly, it was only about 18 and a half minutes long.

  39. In review, Flesher stuck to the Bible more than any Bible Conference preacher I have yet heard (and he’s only the third I’ve listened to). But he failed to define terms, in my opinion. The history of Fundamentalism is a history of character assassination and slander. He certainly failed to reference that. He did not call for repentance and correction of one of the oldest traditions of Christian Fundamentalism: the practice of the bully pulpit to beat down adversaries and those who disagree in good conscience. It’s NOW that he wants people to stop “slander and gossip”. And while James himself did not refer to the necessary confrontation that is a part of church accountability and the purity of Christianity, Flesher’s sermon is still too open ended in that he also failed to review the context in which James was writing. The sermon was better than anything I heard preached as far as it went. But it still failed to consider its own history: a sermon on the evils of slander from a pulpit that has slandered the brethren and failed to speak on behalf of the oppressed IN CHRISTENDOM. A sermon that condemned gossip and slander and yet failed to define what slander and gossip are. Still, if the mooing Mercado may be pulled up as evidence, too little is much better than too much at Bible Conference.

    1. Such an EXCELLENT point. The irony would choke me if I had to sit there and listen to that.

  40. Ahhhh, good ol’ Bible Conference at BJU. NOT! Does Ian Paisley still preach there every year? His sermons made no sense whatsoever. In my days at BJU I was an avid notetaker, and could never get a decent outline from him. Not to mention all the other speakers left you thinking “What did they just say?”
    I still find it interesting that in IFB History, nothing happened from the Apostles to 1611. How do they think we got the Bible we have? From the Catholics and the Pope in the 300s AD. Then Martin Luther tried to remove 14 books from the Bible, but only succeeded at removing 7 from the OT and had to leave Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, Revelation, etc in the NT. He would have nixed those too…

  41. There are two Paisleys speaking at Bible Conference (Nepotism is not dead!) but Big Daddy Paisley is laid up with heart trouble right now.

  42. Royce Short’s 1:30 sermon – I cannot believe that an educated person could preach an entire sermon on Hebrews 11 and mention Christ ONCE in passing, and then only as our example, and not as the source and founder of our faith. Once again, a Fundamentalist preacher gets a great, incredible passage down to doing your duty to imitate the moral virtues of people. How can a man know so much about the Bible and yet know nothing at all about the Bible? He got into that pulpit and completely missed what faith is about. He preached an entire sermon on faith and got it down to imitating men of faith and NEVER TAUGHT WHAT WE HAVE IN CHRIST or CHRIST THE SUSTAINER OF OUR FAITH.

    I swear the guy who moo’d did a better job of preaching. That was Royce Short’s lesson from Hebrews: imitate the men of faith. Make a decision to exercise faith. And he never preached on Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, the One who sustains our faith. This was the most depressing sermon of what I have heard so far.

    1. Wow, that’s especially disappointing about Royce Short. How does this happen? Do they get so used to eliminating Jesus Christ from the equation that they can’t ever get him in? I remember when Royce Short was a GA–I recall he was the brightest of the bright. This is just so sad. And from a parent’s perspective now, I am so glad my children aren’t going there anymore. I’m convinced it’s far more dangerous for our children to listen to this wrong headed bloviating than to be going to the secular universities and hearing whatever it is they will hear. They critically analyze what they hear at the secular university and tend to accept all the wrongness a BJU is offering. God help them.

      1. “They critically analyze what they hear at the secular university and tend to accept all the wrongness a BJU is offering.”

        Yep, that was me when I was a BJU freshman. Even worse, I was a preacher boy for one year. Thankfully I realized that wasn’t really me. I eventually finished there with an accounting degree, and I left my fundy-ness there forever.

  43. I was going to synopsize Bruan Green’s sermon this morning, but BJIII got up and openly said he instructed Green to preach a sermon on Ian Paisley. There is no way I am listening to that.

  44. I liked this from Darrell’s tweets: “Who sits down to prepare a bible conference sermon for college kids and thinks ‘what they really need is more escatology!’ #bibleconference”

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