“Lashed to the Cross”                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                 Vol. IX, No. 8, September 1996

This Heritage selection is taken from B.H. Carroll, Baptists and Their Doctrines, Timothy & Denise George, eds., Broadman & Holman, 1995, p. 178. It was part of a sermon by Carroll titled “God and the Devil” B.H. Carroll was a giant among Southern Baptists, born 27 December 1843. In the Introduction to Baptists and Their Doctrines the Georges write of Carroll:

“A conspicuous figure in Southern Baptist life, for thirty years Carroll preached at almost every annual meeting, and in 1878 he delivered the Convention sermon. Besides his extensive committee work, he was the Texas member of the Foreign Mission Board for years and a trustee of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (I 894-1911). Denominational leaders relied on his advice at almost every critical juncture: hence, John R. Sampey's comment to him, "You are now -- since Broadus is gone -- our natural leader in the Southern Convention." He convinced Texas Baptists to align with the Southern Home Mission Board (HMB) rather than with the Northern Home Mission Society, which promised greater financial aid. In 1888 his Convention address at Richmond persuaded messengers to give the HMB their vote of full confidence instead of dismantling it. Two years later at Fort Worth, his oratorical skills helped J. M. Frost convince the Convention to establish its own Sunday School Board. Likewise, in Chattanooga (1906), he turned the tide in favor of establishing a department of evangelism in the Home Mission Board. ...

“Carroll's crowning achievement for theological education grew out of a vision he had in 1905 while traveling by train in the Texas panhandle. Believing Christ had commissioned him to establish a theological seminary in the Southwest, he immediately began to raise funds. In August he obtained the Baylor trustees' approval to constitute Baylor Theological Seminary and to start classes that fall. This faculty consisted of Carroll, A. H. Newman, L. W Boolan, C. B. Williams, and Calvin Goodspeed. The state convention at San Antonio (1907) voted to separate the seminary from Baylor University, and it was chartered as Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Waco on May 14, 1908. That year Carroll created the first chair of evangelism in any seminary. The "chair of fire," as he called it, was filled by L. R. Scarborough. Finally, the seminary moved to Fort Worth, which had raised one hundred thousand dollars for its support and provided a suitable site just south of the city: with seven faculty members and 126 students, Carroll's dream was fulfilled when the doors of the new campus opened on Monday, October 3, 1910.

“B.H. Carroll died November 11, 1914, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Waco, Texas. His deathbed commission to his successor, Scarborough, provides a succinct commentary on Carroll's theology [and, we might add, of his view of the role of seminaries]:

Lee, keep the Seminary lashed to the cross. If heresy ever comes in the teaching, take it to the faculty. If they will not hear you and take prompt action, take it to the trustees of the Seminary. If they will not hear you, take it to the Convention that appoints the Board of Trustees, and if they will not hear you, take it to the great common people of our churches. You will not fail to get a hearing then.”

On the so-called "higher criticism” Carroll wrote: “...these modem devotees of higher criticism must wait each week for the mail from Germany to know what to believe or preach, to find out how much, if any, of their Bible remains." {Higher criticism proceeds from the presumption that the Bible is a human book inspired only like other human books and that God never interrupts natural laws. Thus miracles by definition could not have happened.]

From his book, An Interpretation of the English Bible: "The modern cry, 'Less creed and more liberty,' is a degeneration from the vertebrate to the jellyfish, and means less unity and less morality, and it means more heresy. ... It is a positive and very hurtful sin to magnify liberty at the expense of doctrine."

[Editorial Comment: Carroll’s vision and commitment to doctrinal purity, while not always honored 100% at the seminary he founded, have produced the world’s largest seminary of any denomination. Praise God for the recent return of all six Southern Baptist seminaries to the full authority of God’s Word. Readers are invited to compare Carroll’s doctrinal stance with that described in this month’s Anti-Heritage.” TCP]