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 Any
good student
of Baptist history knows that the Southern Baptist Convention
was founded in Augusta, Georgia in 1845. Few realize however
that the real genius of that convention was born a year later
with the conversion of a theology student at Brown University.
While the Southern Baptist Convention was born in 1845 it
was grounded in the mind and heart of James Petigru Boyce.
James
Petigru Boyce was born in Charleston, South Carolina in January
of 1827 to Amanda and Ker Boyce. Ker Boyce was among the wealthiest
men of South Carolina and exerted great influence over the
affairs of his day. Amanda Johnston Boyce came from a strict
Presbyterian family but had been brought to Christ through
Basil Manly Senior, the pastor of First Baptist Church. In
God's providence, Amanda's baptism came one year before the
birth of her son, James. 1
God's sovereign hand can be seen even in the way that Boyce's
mother came to Christ. Days before her conversion Basil Manly's
son had died from a disease. It was through the sermon that
Manly preached after his son's death that Amanda Boyce was
saved. On this fact John Broadus
comments:
"And
who would have thought that Mrs. Boyce's little boy, near
the same one as the one he had lost, was in the course of
Providence to preach Basil Manly's funeral sermon." 2
After
two years of education at The College of Charleston, James
headed off to Brown University in Providence Rhode Island.
At Brown, Boyce sat under Francis Wayland, one of the great
leaders of the Triennial Convention. 3
Both Wayland's theology and teaching methodology made a profound
influence on Boyce for the rest of his life.
Francis
Wayland was not only a great theologian but he had pastor's
heart. He prayed often and deeply for students at Brown who
had yet to openly profess Christ as Lord and Savior. In 1846,
Boyce went home to Charleston for Spring Break with the conviction
of God resting heavily upon his heart. So it was that James
Petigru Boyce came to the Lord and was baptized by Richard
Fuller in his home church. Boyce had been a great man before
his conversion but now he was a changed man. One of he professors
at Brown, a Dr. Guild, noted:
"He
returned to college a changed man. He at once joined the
religious society, and with characteristic energy and zeal
engaged in efforts to promote a revival of which his conversion
may be regarded as the beginning." 4
In 1849,
Boyce headed for Princeton where he would study until 1851.
By the mid eighteen hundreds, Princeton University had become
the bastion of Old School theology in America graced by the
likes of Archibald Alexander and Charles Hodge. Like most
Baptists of the south, Boyce was already a committed Calvinist
when he arrived at Princeton. It was there, however, that
he found the Scriptural and philosophical foundations for
those doctrines. It was under men like Charles Hodge that
Boyce came to see the majesty of God and the depth of His
grace. From then on he was committed to helping others know
God in His fullness.
Timothy
George notes that J.P. Boyce was "consumed with the greatness,
majesty and grace of the Sovereign God, the Lord of heaven
and earth." 5 Years after
Princeton a student of Boyce's recalled a Sunday afternoon
conversation among some students at Southern Seminary:
'We
heard the greatest sermon of our lives today."
"Who preached it?" "Jim Peter" (Boyce)
"What was his text?" "God" "What was his theme?" "God"
"What were the divisions of the discourse?" "God"
That was the man 6
After
pastoring for two years at the First Baptist Church of Charleston,
Boyce was called to be professor of theology at Furman University.
His inaugural address there stands as perhaps the most important
moment in the early formation of the Southern Baptist Convetion.
One should never underestimate the long-term impact that educational
institutions have on denominations. It is in the schools that
the next generation of preachers, missionaries, and teachers
develop their beliefs and commitments. Boyce's address, now
known as the Three Changes laid the groundwork
for generations of believers in the Southern Baptist Convention
and for theological education in general.
Timothy
George identifies the outline of these Three Changes that
Boyce proposed as follows: 7
Openness:
Seminary students up to this time were required to have
a College education in the classics before entering graduate
work. This prevented men who had not had the advantage of
such an education from being Seminary trained. Boyce proposed
a seminary that had no such restrictions.
Excellence:
While the classics should not be required this did not mean
that scholastic laziness was acceptable. Baptists should
produce the best-trained men in the world for the cause
of Christ.
Confessional
Identity: There should be a set of doctrinal principles
that all students and professors adhere to. More will be
said about this later.
Boyce's
message on the changes that should take place in theological
training was not an academic wish. Instead it was a vision
planted by God which would take root in Greenville, South
Carolina in a place called Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
"Boyce's bold initiative took root in humble circumstances.
Southern Baptists' first seminary began classes on October
3, 1859, in a borrowed building with 26 students and four
professors - Boyce, John
A. Broadus, Basil Manly, Jr., and William Williams. The
early faculty brought untiring commitment and sterling academic
credentials to their duties. They held degrees from schools
such as Princeton, Brown, Harvard, and the University of Virginia."
8
The third
point of the Three Changes was a call for a standard creed
which teachers must adhere to. This took shape in the Abstract
of Principles of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
which is used to this day. Commenting on this requirement
at Southern, Boyce said:
"The
theological professor is to teach ministers, - to place
the truth, and all the errors connected with it, in such
a manner before his pupils that they shall arrive at the
truth without danger of any mixture of error … He cannot
do this if he have any erroneous tendencies, and hence his
opinions must be expressly affirmed to be, upon every point,
in accordance with the truth we believe to be taught in
the Scriptures." 9
Baptists
are often called a non-creedal people. But to claim such shows
an obvious ignorance or ignoring of our heritage. It is true
that we believe in the Priesthood of the Believer but believers
are not independent from each other. We have a duty of love
to maintain the doctrines once handed down by faithful witnesses.
This is what J.P. Boyce was committed to.
No sooner
had Southern Seminary gotten off to a start than the War Between
the States erupted. Both Boyce and Broadus became chaplains
to the Confederate Army. As a state senator, Boyce had been
firmly opposed to secession. Like most Southerners, however,
he supported his state once the action was taken.
Once the
war was over, Boyce and the other professors met in Greenville
to consider their prospects for the seminary. Things could
not have looked worse. The effects of the war have been well
documented. Families that had been prosperous contributors
before the War were left with less than nothing. Wealthy businessmen
found themselves saddled with impossible debts. The seminary
struggled on for six more years until a decision was made
to move to a more stable area. So in 1872, Boyce and his faculty
moved the school to Louisville, Kentucky where it remains
today.
J.P.
Boyce was a man of deep doctrinal convictions. His good humor
and gentle spirit were coupled with a tenacious desire to
uphold the truth. Sometimes he could reprimand other's faulty
thinking with a bit of a joke. It was well known among the
students that Dr. Boyce was quite the seamstress. Once at
a Southern Baptist Convetion, a colleague lost a button. Boyce
offered to sew it back on. When thanked for the kind act,
Boyce replied, "Ah, Brother - I only wish I could mend your
theology as easily." 10
There
were times that a joke was not enough to end a doctrinal straying.
One sad chapter in the life of Dr. Boyce and the seminary
was the problem with Professor Toy. It became
apparent that Toy was teaching doctrine contrary to the
Abstracts. Like others of the day. Dr. Toy had become
enamored with the Higher Criticism of Germany leading him
to deny the full inspiration of Scripture. After much effort
to turn Toy back, he was finally moved to offer his resignation.
Boyce was on no witch-hunt however. It hurt him deeply to
see his friend leave the narrow road and take off on the broad
road. At one point, while standing next to Dr. Toy, Boyce
raised his own arm and said, "Oh, Toy, I would freely give
that arm to be cut off if you could be where you were five
years ago, and stay there." 11
After leaving Southern Seminary, Toy went on to teach at Harvard,
becoming a Unitarian and denying the divinity of Christ. There
was another who recognized Toy's straying from the truth.
Her name was Lottie
Moon. She had been in love with Toy but broke it off,
unwilling to marry one who denied the truths of Scripture.
After
many years of service, J.P. Boyce died in Southern France
while on his only trip to Europe. The legacy he left behind
was immense. He understood, as his contemporary Charles
Spurgeon in England did the danger of a people of God
not having the proper theological moorings. Like Spurgeon,
Boyce often lamented the inroads that Arminianism was making
on Baptist life. He saw the fate that awaits the Church when
it trades the sovereignty of God for the sovereignty of man.
Boyce also warned against the dangers of hyper-Calvinism that
had taken root among Baptist in the south in the form of Primitive
and Hard-Shell Baptists. He was a Calvinist who was so committed
to evangelism that he offered the Seminary grounds to D.L.
Moody when he brought his tent to Louisville.
A Jewish
Rabbi A. Moses wrote of Boyce at his death:
"This
deep humanity and sympathy made Dr. Boyce, as nearly as
a mortal man can be, an absolutely just man … He would not
have been rude to anyone, even if he had tried … Had he
turned his attention to politics, what a Senator he would
have made! What a President! If he had been thrown among
savages, he could have tamed and civilized them, for he
was a born leader of men … He was a God-fearing, a God-seeking,
and a God-loving man. Before I came to Louisville, I knew
Christianity only in books, and it was through such men
as Boyce that I learned to know it as a living force … God
grant that Christianity may long to continue to produce
such men; for men like Dr. Boyce ring heart to heart, and
draw us all toward that goal of which we have only glimpses
- that is, God, and the Kingdom of Righteousness forever."
12
Take
some time to read Boyce's Abstract of Systematic Theology
at the Founders Web Site. Be sure and use your back button
to return to The Baptist Page.
Return
to the Portraits Page
1 Baptist
Theologians by Timothy George and David S. Dockery, Broadman
Press, 1990, p. 249.
2 Memoirs
of J.P. Boyce by John A. Broadus, A.C. Armstrong and Sons,
1893, p.9.
3 Baptist
Theologians, p. 250.
4 Memoirs
of J.P. Boyce, p.46.
5 Baptist
Theologians, p. 262.
6 Boyce
and Broadus: Founders of the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, by David M. Ramsay, p.4.
7 Baptist
Theologians, pp. 252-53.
8 History
Of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Web Site of
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
9 Memoirs
of J.P. Boyce, p. 139.
10 Ibid.,
p. 49
11
Ibid., p.264
12 Ibid.,
pp. 347-48.
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