Benajah Harvey Carroll
Encyclopedia
Benajah Harvey Carroll, known as B.H. Carroll (December 27, 1843 – November 11, 1914), was a Baptist
pastor
, theologian, teacher
, and author
.
in Carroll County
in north central Mississippi
, one of twelve children to Benajah Carroll and the former Mary Eliza Mallard. His father was a Baptist minister. The family moved to Burleson County, Texas in 1858.
Carroll served in the army of the Confederate States of America
from 1862-1864. In 1865, at the age of twenty two, he converted to Christianity at a Methodist camp meeting after taking up a preacher's challenge to experiment with Christianity. In 1866, he took as a second wife the former Ellen Virginia Bell. The first wife was divorce
d for her infidelity while Carroll was at war. After her death, he married the former Hallie Harrison in 1899.
Carroll was a denominational leader both in the Baptist General Convention of Texas
(of which he was a leading founder) and the Southern Baptist Convention
. Much of his rise to prominence developed through proving himself a formidable foe in controversy - including debates with Texas politicians, standing for board policies and convention authority in the Hayden
controversy in the Baptist General Convention, and opposing the president of Southern Seminary during the Whitsitt controversy at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
. While Carroll had Landmark tendencies, he was not the champion of the Landmark Movement
some have made him to be. Of the four major controversies involving Landmark ideas, Carroll sided against the Landmarkers in three of the four. Only in the Whitsitt controversy did Carroll side with Landmarkers and, for Carroll, that controversy was about trustee authority, not Landmark beliefs.
Carroll's theology can best be described as moderately Calvinistic, postmillennial, and thoroughly Baptist. His postmillennialism was associated with neither the social engineering of Walter Rauschenbusch
, nor the expectation that every soul in every community would be converted. Instead, Carroll held such a strong confidence in the work of the Holy Spirit
, Christ's Vicar, that churches who accepted their role as God's instruments on earth would not ultimately fail in the Holy Spirit's mission to bring about the conversion of the vast majority of humanity, at which time Christ
would return to fully institute His kingdom on earth. Carroll vehemently attacked Roman Catholicism for the papal claim that usurped the Holy Spirit's role as Christ's representative, dispensational premillennialism for their pessimism about the success of the Holy Spirit and the success of churches, the Restoration Movement
for their reliance on human apprehension and denial of direct revelation, and modernism
for the over-reliance on scientific method to the exclusion of Divine revelation and historical evidence. He led in founding the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Fort Worth, Texas
in 1908, which moved from Waco to Fort Worth in 1910. He served as president of the seminary until his death.
Carroll's younger brother, James Milton Carroll
, was also an important Baptist leader in Texas. His son, B.H. Carroll Jr., would later become Tarrant County school superintendent and the namesake of the Carroll Independent School District
in Southlake
, Texas.
Carroll's affinity for cigar
s was originally captured in the painting of him that hangs in the Rotunda at Southwestern Baptist Seminary. The painting showed him holding a cigar, that was blackened out due to pressure from fundamentalists who were uncomfortable with the presence of the cigar. Popular opinion about the propriety of cigars forced Seminary administrators to have the painting changed. According to eye witnesses, the cigar in question was present in the painting as late as the early 1980's.
Carroll published 33 volumes of works, and is best known for his 17-volume commentary, An Interpretation of the English Bible. Benajah Harvey Carroll died November 11, 1914, and is buried at the Oakwood Cemetery in Waco, Texas
.
Harold Lindell extensively outlined Carroll’s position in one of his works. Lindell also stated, This volume [Inspiration] should be republished today and read by tens of thousands of Baptists so that they would better understand the theological roots from which they have sprung.” The year after Lindell published those words, Thomas Nelson reprinted ‘’Inspiration’’, including two additional prefaces. One was by Paige Patterson, a leader in the resurgence and future successor to Carroll as president of Southwestern.
The other preface was by W. A. Criswell, who in that preface saw the reprint as “timely,” and coming at “a crucial time in our history.” Criswell had earlier served as a catalyst for the resurgence in his publication, Why I Preach that the Bible Is Literally True, in which Criswell had referred to Carroll. Other members of the conservative resurgence also included Carroll in their defenses of the inerrancy of Scripture.
The historian Joseph E. Early, Jr., assistant professor of theology at Campbellsville University
in Campbellsville
, Kentucky
, maintains that Carroll had an overbearing, even "bullying", tendency and rarely failed to gain his way in matters of Baptist faith and practice. For instance, Carroll worked through the trustees to obtain the separation and removal of the seminary from Waco to Fort Worth in 1908, while Baylor president Samuel Palmer Brooks
was away from the campus. He constantly quarreled with the editors of the Texas Baptist Herald even though the denominational newspaper published his sermons. He did not hesitate to remove erring churches from the denomination.
"These modern 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 Bibles remains." -- Theological Seminaries and Wild Gourds
"The modern cry 'less creed and more liberty' is the degeneration from the vertebrate to the jelly fish, and means less unity and less morality, and it means more heresy."-- An Interpretation of the English Bible
"It is a positive and hurtful sin to magnify liberty at the expense of doctrine." -- Ibid.
Speaking of his false conversion as a child: "I did not believe, in any true sense, in the divinity or vicarious sufferings of Jesus. I had no confidence in professed conversion and regeneration. I had not felt lost, nor did I feel saved. There was no perceptible, radical change in my disposition or affections. What I once loved, I still loved. What I once hated, I still hated." -- My Infidelity and What Became of It
Speaking on the humanistic philosophies he studied before his true conversion: “They were destructive, but not constructive. They overturned and overturned and overturned; but, as my soul liveth, they built up nothing under the whole heaven in the place of what they destroyed. I say nothing. I mean nothing.” -- Ibid.
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
, theologian, teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Biography
Carroll was born near CarrolltonCarrollton, Mississippi
Carrollton is a town in Carroll County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat of Carroll County. The population was 408 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area-Geography:...
in Carroll County
Carroll County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 10,769 people, 4,071 households, and 3,069 families residing in the county. The population density was 17 people per square mile . There were 4,888 housing units at an average density of 8 per square mile...
in north central Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, one of twelve children to Benajah Carroll and the former Mary Eliza Mallard. His father was a Baptist minister. The family moved to Burleson County, Texas in 1858.
Carroll served in the army of the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
from 1862-1864. In 1865, at the age of twenty two, he converted to Christianity at a Methodist camp meeting after taking up a preacher's challenge to experiment with Christianity. In 1866, he took as a second wife the former Ellen Virginia Bell. The first wife was divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d for her infidelity while Carroll was at war. After her death, he married the former Hallie Harrison in 1899.
Carroll was a denominational leader both in the Baptist General Convention of Texas
Baptist General Convention of Texas
The Baptist General Convention of Texas is the oldest surviving Baptist convention in the state of Texas. The churches cooperating with the Baptist General Convention of Texas partner nationally and internationally with both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,...
(of which he was a leading founder) and the Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
. Much of his rise to prominence developed through proving himself a formidable foe in controversy - including debates with Texas politicians, standing for board policies and convention authority in the Hayden
Samuel Augustus Hayden
Samuel Augustus Hayden was a Baptist pastor, denominational leader and newspaper publisher. Hayden was born in Washington Parish, Louisiana, U.S. on April 7, 1839. He was the son of Allen and Nancy McLendon Hayden. S. A...
controversy in the Baptist General Convention, and opposing the president of Southern Seminary during the Whitsitt controversy at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...
. While Carroll had Landmark tendencies, he was not the champion of the Landmark Movement
Landmarkism
Landmarkism is a type of Baptist ecclesiology--it may also appear as Old Landmarkism in some works. Adherents are normally styled Landmark Baptists or simply Landmarkers within the United States, but are known as Landmarkists in the United Kingdom. The term Landmarkism originates in : "Remove not...
some have made him to be. Of the four major controversies involving Landmark ideas, Carroll sided against the Landmarkers in three of the four. Only in the Whitsitt controversy did Carroll side with Landmarkers and, for Carroll, that controversy was about trustee authority, not Landmark beliefs.
Carroll's theology can best be described as moderately Calvinistic, postmillennial, and thoroughly Baptist. His postmillennialism was associated with neither the social engineering of Walter Rauschenbusch
Walter Rauschenbusch
Walter Rauschenbusch was a Christian theologian and Baptist minister. He was a key figure in the Social Gospel movement in the United States of America.-Evolution of Thought:...
, nor the expectation that every soul in every community would be converted. Instead, Carroll held such a strong confidence in the work of the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
, Christ's Vicar, that churches who accepted their role as God's instruments on earth would not ultimately fail in the Holy Spirit's mission to bring about the conversion of the vast majority of humanity, at which time Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
would return to fully institute His kingdom on earth. Carroll vehemently attacked Roman Catholicism for the papal claim that usurped the Holy Spirit's role as Christ's representative, dispensational premillennialism for their pessimism about the success of the Holy Spirit and the success of churches, the Restoration Movement
Restoration Movement
The Restoration Movement is a Christian movement that began on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century...
for their reliance on human apprehension and denial of direct revelation, and modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
for the over-reliance on scientific method to the exclusion of Divine revelation and historical evidence. He led in founding the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a private, non-profit institution of higher education, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention...
in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
in 1908, which moved from Waco to Fort Worth in 1910. He served as president of the seminary until his death.
Carroll's younger brother, James Milton Carroll
James Milton Carroll
James Milton Carroll was an American Baptist pastor, leader, historian, author, and educator.- Early life and education :...
, was also an important Baptist leader in Texas. His son, B.H. Carroll Jr., would later become Tarrant County school superintendent and the namesake of the Carroll Independent School District
Carroll Independent School District
The Carroll Independent School District is an independent PK-12 school district serving the city of Southlake, Texas and portions of northwest Grapevine, far northern Colleyville, and eastern Westlake.-History:...
in Southlake
Southlake, Texas
Southlake is a city in northeast Tarrant and southeast Denton counties, Texas. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 26,575. A suburb of Fort Worth and Dallas, Southlake is known for exemplary public schools, Southlake Town Square, and Carroll High School's 7-time state champion football...
, Texas.
Carroll's affinity for cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
s was originally captured in the painting of him that hangs in the Rotunda at Southwestern Baptist Seminary. The painting showed him holding a cigar, that was blackened out due to pressure from fundamentalists who were uncomfortable with the presence of the cigar. Popular opinion about the propriety of cigars forced Seminary administrators to have the painting changed. According to eye witnesses, the cigar in question was present in the painting as late as the early 1980's.
Carroll published 33 volumes of works, and is best known for his 17-volume commentary, An Interpretation of the English Bible. Benajah Harvey Carroll died November 11, 1914, and is buried at the Oakwood Cemetery in Waco, Texas
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
.
Southern Baptist Conservative Resurgence
While Carroll was known for his expositional preaching and had agreed with the first article of the New Hampshire confession of faith, which said that the Scriptures contained "truth without any mixture of error for its matter," the doctrine of Scripture was not the most notable tenet of Carroll's theology and work. His work on the subject, inspiration of Scripture, was compiled and published posthumously by J. B. Cranfill in 1930. Beginning in the late-sixties and having its height in the late-seventies and early- to mid-eighties, the conservative resurgence looked toward Carroll as a foundation for their own arguments and as an example of the historic Southern Baptist position on the inerrancy of Scripture.Harold Lindell extensively outlined Carroll’s position in one of his works. Lindell also stated, This volume [Inspiration] should be republished today and read by tens of thousands of Baptists so that they would better understand the theological roots from which they have sprung.” The year after Lindell published those words, Thomas Nelson reprinted ‘’Inspiration’’, including two additional prefaces. One was by Paige Patterson, a leader in the resurgence and future successor to Carroll as president of Southwestern.
The other preface was by W. A. Criswell, who in that preface saw the reprint as “timely,” and coming at “a crucial time in our history.” Criswell had earlier served as a catalyst for the resurgence in his publication, Why I Preach that the Bible Is Literally True, in which Criswell had referred to Carroll. Other members of the conservative resurgence also included Carroll in their defenses of the inerrancy of Scripture.
The historian Joseph E. Early, Jr., assistant professor of theology at Campbellsville University
Campbellsville University
Campbellsville University, also known as CU, is a private university in Campbellsville, Kentucky, the seat of Taylor County. Founded as Russell Creek Academy, a Baptist institution, the university currently enrolls more than 3,000 students and is open to students of all denominations...
in Campbellsville
Campbellsville, Kentucky
Campbellsville is a city in Taylor County, Kentucky, United States. The population within city limits was 10,498 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Taylor County, and the home of Campbellsville University...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, maintains that Carroll had an overbearing, even "bullying", tendency and rarely failed to gain his way in matters of Baptist faith and practice. For instance, Carroll worked through the trustees to obtain the separation and removal of the seminary from Waco to Fort Worth in 1908, while Baylor president Samuel Palmer Brooks
Samuel Palmer Brooks
Samuel Palmer Brooks was the President of Baylor University from 1902 to 1931.-Biography:Samuel Palmer Brooks was born in Milledgeville, Georgia on December 4, 1863. He graduated with a B.A. from Baylor University in 1893, and from Yale University in 1894. At Baylor, he roomed with later Governor...
was away from the campus. He constantly quarreled with the editors of the Texas Baptist Herald even though the denominational newspaper published his sermons. He did not hesitate to remove erring churches from the denomination.
Quotations
"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." --deathbed commission to Lee Scarborough, his successor as president of Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary."These modern 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 Bibles remains." -- Theological Seminaries and Wild Gourds
"The modern cry 'less creed and more liberty' is the degeneration from the vertebrate to the jelly fish, and means less unity and less morality, and it means more heresy."-- An Interpretation of the English Bible
"It is a positive and hurtful sin to magnify liberty at the expense of doctrine." -- Ibid.
Speaking of his false conversion as a child: "I did not believe, in any true sense, in the divinity or vicarious sufferings of Jesus. I had no confidence in professed conversion and regeneration. I had not felt lost, nor did I feel saved. There was no perceptible, radical change in my disposition or affections. What I once loved, I still loved. What I once hated, I still hated." -- My Infidelity and What Became of It
Speaking on the humanistic philosophies he studied before his true conversion: “They were destructive, but not constructive. They overturned and overturned and overturned; but, as my soul liveth, they built up nothing under the whole heaven in the place of what they destroyed. I say nothing. I mean nothing.” -- Ibid.
See also
- Southwestern Baptist Theological SeminarySouthwestern Baptist Theological SeminarySouthwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a private, non-profit institution of higher education, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention...
- B. H. Carroll Theological InstituteB. H. Carroll Theological InstituteB. H. Carroll Theological Institute is an unaccredited Christian Baptist institution in Arlington, Texas with multiple sources of funding and a self-perpetuating board of governors. It is named after Benajah Harvey Carroll and teaches Baptist principles and practices. It operates in cooperation...
- List of Baptists
- List of preachers