No Christian Ever Needs to Support Anything That Is Wrong or Compromise With Modernism to Stay in a Church

(Chapel Address on February 1, 1957.)

       I would like to suggest that all of you read carefully the fourth chapter of the book of James.  I quote the last verse:  "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him is sin."  We remember that in this chapter certain people who considered themselves Christians were frustrated.  They wanted something, fought to get it, and seemed to have conflict within their own hearts.  They did not get answers to their prayers because they wanted to consume anything that God might give them upon themselves.

    The writer of this chapter makes it clear that anybody who is a friend of the world is an enemy of God.  They had accepted the standards of the world, and that is exactly what a big percentage of the church members of America have done in our day.

    You will remember that this epistle is written to the "twelve tribes which are scattered abroad."  They evidently knew what was right, so he said, 'If you know what is right and will not do what is right, it is a sin.'  It is a sin for a man not to do what is right even if he does not know what is right but could know what is right.

    You students in Bob Jones University know what is right.  We have told you over and over again that the two biggest words in the English language are the two little words, DO RIGHT.  We have said over and over again, 'Do right regardless of the consequences.  Do right if the stars fall."

It Costs Something to Do Right

    There has never been a time in the history of this country when it was more important to stand for principle than it is today.  We believe that Bob Jones University, which is now in its thirtieth year, was called into existence by God, and has trained students through the past thirty years to meet the issues of the day.  This university is not going to compromise.  We are going to stand true, let it cost what it may.  Since the school was founded, when the institution has had to meet an issue of any kind, we have not asked, "What is the convenient thing to do?"  We have asked, "What is the right thing to do?"  The principle of right is being sacrificed on the altar of convenience in denominational schools and in pulpits that are supposed to be Christian and in a big percentage of the religious movements of our day.

    Since Adam and Eve by their disobedience not only wrecked Paradise but brought spiritual death to all unborn generations, it has been easy to do wrong and hard to do right.  It was not easy for God Almighty to find a way to save lost men.  It cost God something to let His Son hang on a cross in agony and blood, bearing the sins of a fallen race.

    The Lord Jesus Christ made it plain that anyone going with Him has to carry a cross.  It is clearly taught in the Bible that people who live godly will  suffer persecution and in this world Christian people will have tribulation.

    All down the ages man has made some kind of effort to get out from under a cross and out from under the burden and tribulation and persecution.  Remember, the measure of a Christian's tribulation, persecution, and opposition in this world is:  first, the measure of his uncompromising stand against that which is wrong and for that which is right, and, second, the measure of this influence for the right and against the wrong in the day and generation in which he lives.

    You can scarcely find today in any American pulpit a great, outstanding preacher preaching against sin.  You rarely ever find a strong evangelistic voice denouncing that which is evil and calling on people to do right.  Fifty years ago, when I was a young preacher, nearly all the Monday morning daily papers in our big cities carried a sermon (and sometimes more than one sermon) by some preacher or preachers attacking sin.  You rarely ever see that kind of sermon in print any more.

To Preach the Gospel but Not Take Sides Against Wrong Is Sin

    Even among the orthodox crowd, you have preachers saying, "Well, we will preach the Gospel and just let that do the work."  Well, the Gospel is in the Bible.  The Gospel "is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."  All Christians are supposed to know the Gospel and give the Gospel to people.  But that is no all we are told to do in the Word of God.  We are told to stand for something.  It is made plain to us that we are either for the Lord Jesus Christ or we are against the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Bible makes it plain that the friendship of the world is enmity with God.  The trouble in America today is that religious people have sacrificed the principle of right on the altar of temporary convenience.

    Now, young people, remember that whatever problem you have to me in life, you can know how to meet it and can meet it if you sincerely wish to know what is right and are determined in your heart by the grace of God to do what is right regardless of the consequences.  These two little words, DO RIGHT, ought to be put over every pulpit in America because these modernistic preachers are not doing right, and these preachers who are supposed to be orthodox who are not courageous enough to denounce religious liberalism in America even in their own denomination are not doing right, and the compromising orthodox Christian laymen who are supporting any program they know is modernistic are not doing right.  They are doing wrong, and the Bible makes it plain they are doing wrong.

    No sinner could ever do wrong and get away with it, and God will not even let one of His born-again children do wrong and get away with it.  The compromising Bible-believing preachers are not getting away with what they are doing. They are sacrificing principle on the altar of compromise.  Every man in the Bible who did that suffered the consequences.  Lot did it, and other Bible characters did the same thing, and they all suffered the consequences.  They hurt their testimony and did harm to their constituency and often to their own families.

No Christian Should Support Any Denominational Program That Includes Some Modernism

    Practically everywhere I go I have some good, orthodox Christians come up to me and say:  "My pastor believes the Bible, and he preaches the Gospel.  He, however, urges us to support our church program, and I know we have some schools that we are supporting that are modernistic, and I know there are some other causes in our denomination that are not in line with our Bible doctrines, and yet we are going ahead and supporting  these things.  I do not want to get out of my church.  I believe the doctrines of my church, and my pastor preaches the doctrines.  What am I going to do?

    My answer always is this:  "Do right.  Start in right now. Tell your pastor and, if need be, the board of your church, and, if necessary, tell the whole church that you are not going to support anything in your own denomination that you even think might be contrary to the Gospel the pastor preaches and the fundamental doctrines of the Bible upon which your church is supposed to be built.  Now, just take your stand and stand there if the stars fall.  If taking that kind of stand puts you our of the church, let them throw you out.  It is wrong to do wrong to stay in a church."

    Remember, it is never right to do wrong.  It is not right to do wrong to get a chance to do right.  It is not right for a preacher to support a modernistic program to get an opportunity to preach the Gospel of God's saving grace.  God tells us to preach the Gospel, but He also tells us in plain words that if we bid Godspeed to anybody who does not accept the doctrine of Christ, we are lining up with the Antichrist and are a partaker of the evil deeds of an antichrist.  Yet you have preachers all over this country who say:  "Oh, yes, we are orthodox.  We believe the Bible."  And Sunday after Sunday they take a collection for a program and urge their people to support this program when, if they have any sense at all, they know they are supporting something in the program contrary to the Gospel, and at the same time they claim to believe and love the Gospel they preach.

A Modernist Does Not Compromise to Co-operate but We Do

    Some time ago a liberal preacher wrote to me:  "Dr. Bob, we  liberals like you.  We think you and your son, Dr. Bob Jones, Jr., are doing a great deal of good.  But we think we are doing good too.  Why don't you be friends with us?  We are friends to you."

    I wrote him:  "You say you think we are doing good, so you cam be friendly to us and want to work with us.  I think you are doing harm; and if I went along with you, I would be violating the clear teaching of the Word of God; and I would be doing wrong.  According to what you say, you do not have to compromise to stand with us, but we would have to compromise.  We will go along with you as an American and stand for religious liberty; but when we have to violate a principle of right to go with you, we will not do it:  we are going to do right.  We are not going to compromise."

    The modernists do not have to compromise when they go into evangelistic campaigns and co-operate with their "orthodox brethren" in sponsoring "religious revivals," because they do not think it matters so much what a person believes.  It is the orthodox crowd that compromises, and they are doing wrong and are trying to defend it, and they have no defense.  The Bible is clear about that.

    Now young people, I have been preaching for a long time.  I have made many mistakes.  I never held myself up as "the pink of perfection."  I am very human.  I have Irish blood in me.  I have a tempestuous temperament.  So I do not think I am "super perfect."  But as God is my judge, I have tried through the years, as a preacher of the Gospel, to face every issue in just one way, and this is the way:  What is the right thing to do?  What does the Bible say about it?  I am not to judge it by appearance.  A think may seem to be good that is bad.  What is the right thing?  I settle every problem in my life on that basis.  I have had to make some enemies.  I have had to produce friction because you can't move down the right road and not produce friction.  But as the years have piled up and I begin to count up the very few years I may have ahead of me, I have a peace in my heart.  I love everybody.  I love my enemies.  But I love Jesus Christ too much to sell Him down the river or sacrifice the principle of the Gospel on the altar of any human convenience.

Joined Methodist Church When Methodists Believed the Bible

    Now I am going to tell you something about my experience and the tests I have had to meet, and you won't find anybody who has had a much harder time to stand than I have had.  I was converted at a Methodist altar when I was just eleven years old.  I did not know much.  I had read the Bible, and my father had family prayer.  I knew Jesus had died for me and I could not save myself; and I knew if I was going to be a Christian, I had to take the Christian side of an issue.  We were told that we must count the cost and if we were willing to go ahead and trust Jesus Christ and take our stand with Him and take on His enemies, He would give us grace to do what He wanted us to do.  I knew just a few little fundamental things.

    My mother was a Baptist, but there was not any Baptist church in the immediate community.  Back in those days, out in the country, if you asked a Methodist if he had been baptized, he would probably say, "I have been sprinkled, but I haven't been baptized."  Since my mother was a Baptist, she believed that immersion was baptism.  I told the Methodist preacher I wanted to be immersed, and he said, "That is fine.  I was immersed, too."  So I was baptized in a country creek.

    When I was taken into the Methodist church, they asked me a question about what I  believed; and I was told what the Methodist church believed.  The Methodist church believed the Bible.  It believed in the virgin birth, the incarnation, the vicarious blood atonement, the bodily resurrection,  and all the fundamentals that all orthodox Christians believe.  All of these fundamentals are incorporated in the Apostles' Creed.  The Methodist ritual had my answer written down, and I had to answer that way.  Here is the answer:  "All this I steadfastly believe."  After this question was asked, they asked me if I would be subject to the discipline of the church, attend upon its ordinances, and support its institutions; and I said I would.  Now, I joined the church with the definite understanding the church believed certain things, and I believed those things, and I agreed to support this church because the church did believe these things.

Took Ordination Vows to Preach and Defend Sound Doctrine

    Now, remember that I was an eleven-year old country boy when I joined the Methodist church.  I began to preach and conduct evangelistic meetings in the country districts of Southeast Alabama when I was just thirteen years old; and when I was fifteen, I was licensed to preach and was later ordained.  When I was ordained to preach, I took an ordination vow that I have never forgotten and never repudiated.  I was asked if I would drive away strange and erroneous doctrines contrary to the Articles of Religion (or doctrines) of the Methodist church, and I agreed to do it.

    When I started out conducting evangelistic meetings, all the Methodists, Presbyterians, and members of other denominations flocked to our meetings.  I preached the Gospel.  I stuck to the fundamental doctrines of the Bible which are accepted by all orthodox Christians.  There is no difference between the orthodox Baptist, and orthodox Methodist, or and orthodox Presbyterian and orthodox members of any denomination when it comes to the verbal inspiration of the Bible, the virgin birth, the incarnation, the vicarious blood atonement, the bodily resurrection, and salvation by grace through faith in Christ's atoning blood.

    After being in evangelistic work for a few years, I began to hear certain questions about the orthodoxy of certain preachers.  I did not hear about many of them because it was a terrible sin in those days to be guilty of heresy.  I remember when I was just a young fellow, a Methodist preacher wanted me to hold a meeting for him in a big city church; and I had not been in many big city meetings; and it appealed to me very much. But I have learned from what I considered reliable sources that the preacher did not believe n the inspiration of the Old Testament as a Methodist preacher was supposed to believe, and I wrote him a letter and told him I could not come and hold a meeting for him and boost his ministry if what I had heard was so and that I must refuse to work under the sponsorship of a man whose ministry I could not boost.  I took that stand then, and the stand was right, and it is the stand I have held through the years.

    As time passed, I began to learn that there were some questions about what was being taught in certain schools that had been built by the gifts of orthodox Methodists; and from what I knew from some of my contacts, I knew that the reports were true.  And knew there were Methodist preachers who no longer thought it necessary to believe in the virgin birth, the incarnation, the blood atonement, and such other fundamental doctrines that I had to accept to join the Methodist church; and I had pledged when I was ordained that I would drive away doctrines contrary to the fundamental doctrines I had to accept and was glad to accept when I joined the church.  So I saw that I could not support everything in the Methodist church and keep my vow of church membership and could not possibly keep my ordination vow; so I told the pastor where I stood and told him I refused to support anything even in my own church contrary to the fundamentals upon which the church was built.  Some of the brethren said, "We understand."  But the liberal brethren and the compromising brethren began to give me some trouble.  The liberals will generally go along with you while you preach the Gospel if you will not reprove them publicly and if you will support what they want you to support while you preach the Gospel.

Leaving a Modernist Methodist Church for Conscience' Sake

    I got along pretty well for a few years following that method.  Then one day the pastor of the church where I held my membership brought a modernist into his pulpit.  One Sunday I was not able to go to church; and Bob, Jr., came home from the service and said, "Well, Dad, I had to take a stand today."  He said, "The pastor had in his pulpit Dr. So-and-so.  You know I majored in the university in Hebrew history for my Master's Degree, and I had to study pretty carefully the Old Testament in connection with the course, and I think I know something about the Old Testament.  This modernist today in the pulpit trampled on the inspiration and historical facts of the Old Testament as no other man I have ever known.  At the close of the service, I asked the pastor if he brought this man to his church knowing what he stood for, and he said, "Yes."

    So Bob and I took our membership out of the church.  I was what you call an ordained local Methodist preacher.  I kept my church letter for a while, wondering where I could put it and continue to be consistent.  One day I was notified by the pastor that, according to the laws of the church, I had to keep my membership in the church in the community where I lived or I would lose my credentials.

    Now remember, I would lose my credentials if I kept my ordination vows.  I had taken an ordination vow to drive away strange and erroneous doctrines, and yet the denomination that required me to take that vow passed a law that I had to hold membership in a local Methodist church (where the pastor had taken the same ordination vow I had taken) and for me to put my membership in that church and lend my influence to that pastor and his pulpit would be violating my ordination vow to drive away strange and erroneous doctrines contrary to the doctrines of the Methodist church.  So I simply said, "I have got to be consistent.  I have got to do right.  I believe the fundamental doctrines I had to declare I believed when I joined the Methodist church.  I believe that I ought to keep my ordination vows, and I believe in being true to my word.  I can't preach one thing and support something else.  I can't preach certain doctrines and support something contrary to those doctrines."  So I surrendered my credentials and took care of my ordination in another way.

    I have many friends who are Methodist preachers and a great many friends who are Methodist laymen.  Some of them are grieved about what they should do.  It was not hard for me to know what to do.  I had to do right.  I had to surrender my credentials or lend my influence to that which is opposed to what I said I believed and which I promised to drive away.

    It is sometimes hard to do what a fellow ought to do.  So I am telling you young people here:  just make up your mind, when you face a problem, to do the right thing.  Now, you do not have to be crazy or be eccentric or go off on a tangent or act a fool.  If you positively know what is the right thing to do, you do not have to ask anybody.  If you do not know what is the right to do, get down your Bible, read it, and pray over the matter, and then, if necessary, ask somebody who does know and who has stood for the right (not somebody that has compromised) and get advice from him.

    Remember now, if you want to do what is right, you can always find a way to do it.

The Same Problems Face People in Baptist, Presbyterian, and Other Churches

    Don't get the idea that I am at this chapel program just jumping on the Methodist church.  Almost all of the great denominations today are ecclesiastically supporting things that well-taught orthodox Christians know are wrong, and every last one of them that is doing it is sacrificing that which is right on the altar of that which is convenient.  Because of the connectional system in the Methodist church, influences may spread more rapidly than in denominations where the church is supposed to have local self-government; but in this day and time, Bible-believing Baptists, Presbyterians, and others are supporting causes contrary to their doctrines.  Twenty-five years ago I felt that the Southern Baptist denomination could save us, but the Southern Baptist denomination today is going just like the rest of them..

    Many of my friends in the North say to me:  "The Southern Baptists want to get up into this country.  What about them?  They say they are orthodox."  Orthodox Baptist preachers in this country are supporting and urging their people to support certain things that they know are contrary to what they believe.  The say, "Let's go along and support them.  Let's not wash dirty linen in public."  I have never known preachers who talked about not washing dirty linen in public that ever washed dirty linen anywhere.  The only way you can wash dirty ecclesiastical linen is to wash it in public and by doing so let the public know that the denomination stands for clean orthodox linen.  So don't any of you Methodists think that I am just talking about you.  I am talking about how the Lord Jesus Christ is being sold down the river and how the fundamental doctrines which all orthodox Christians have believed through the years are being trampled underfoot.

    We are not telling you students, especially you young preachers, to get out of your denomination if you believe the doctrine of your denomination and those doctrines cover the fundamentals of the faith, but we are telling you:  don't do wrong even if they throw you out of the church.  The hour has struck in this country when we have to have an army of men and women who will stop doing the convenient thing and go to doing the right thing.

Decide to Do Right at Any Cost and You Can Live a Victorious Life

    Maybe some of you young men are in love with a girl who is not a Christian, and maybe some of you girls are in love with a boy who isn't a Christian.  Now, what are you going to do about it?  Are you gong to do what God told you to do and not marry that sinner, or are you going to do what you feel inclined to do and marry the sinner?  It is so easy to try to sell yourself on what you want to do.  You know the Bible says that a double-minded man is unstable in all ways.  A fellow wants to do right, but he has a temptation to do wrong and he just staggers from one side of the road to the other.

    If you will make up your mind that you are going to settle every question on just one principle and that is the principle of right, you have got the victory already.  Whenever you begin to debate whether you are going to do the convenient thing or the right thing, you will wind up doing the convenient thing.

    There has never been in my lifetime as much religious compromise as now.  "Well, suppose I can't make up my mind?"  Well, if you wonder if a thing is right, give God the benefit of the doubt.  Don't give the Devil the benefit of the doubt.  If you do something and wonder if you should not do it, you should not do it; and if you do something you think you should not do, you are doing wrong.

    A man one morning was standing at a window with his collar in his hand.  His wife said, "Breakfast is ready.  Come on."

    He said, "All right.  Just a minute.  I am just trying to see if this collar is dirty."

    His wife said, "If it is doubtful, it is dirty."

    If you do something and wonder if it is right while you are doing it, you are doing something wrong.  You never ask if snow on a mountain peak is white.

    Now, if all of you people in this auditorium today would just make up your minds that these two little word, DO RIGHT, are going to dominate your lives, you have already prepared yourselves for the problems you are going to meet.  DO RIGHT.  Do right if all the guns mounted on Hell's battlements are turned on you.  Do right if the stars fall out of their silver sockets.  Do right if you have to die.  It is better to die for the right than to live for the wrong.  If all the Bible-believing preachers left in America would just start in and preach for six months along this line and would come out against sin like they ought to do and stand for the Word of God like they are supposed to do, we might be able to hold back the awful tide of destructive influence that is sweeping over our land.