Our Theological Perspective

Foundations Bible College - About FBC

The following theological position was set forth by the founder of Foundations Bible College, Dr. O. Talmadge Spence. Dr. Spence passed away July 17, 2000. Current leadership of the Bible College, Church, and Schools is under the direction of his son, Dr. H. T. Spence, President.

Foundations Bible College commenced with a church worship service, June 2, 1974, and formally opened the doors of the college, September 30, 1974. The purpose of the church was to start a non-denominational undergraduate and graduate school as well as a Christian academy for anyone who conscientiously accepted the separatist, fundamentalist teachings of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. From this unpretentious beginning, the Foundations Church and Schools were born of God for a time such as this.

In 1980, Foundations Christian Academy was added to the ministry, and in 1984, the Graduate School was initiated. In 1993, Foundations Theological Seminary was established especially for the divinity students. In twenty-five years this academic laboratory has been set in place to train and educate students from kindergarten through doctoral studies. The entire structure has been built upon the old Oxford system of English education, which includes a living, present teacher in all classrooms. Graduate studies commenced only because of the academic necessity in our generation. Examinations include research papers and oral presentations.

The Foundations Bible Collegiate Church pulpit has been the backbone and heartbeat of this entire spiritual and academic purpose. The mother church has desired to set up a holy experiment in a biblical laboratory while maintaining a high academic presentation in the midst of the twentieth and twenty-first century apostasy.

The theological center has, from the first day, been maintained upon the separatist, fundamentalist position rather than a strict, demanding theological system. The Foundations Schools represent a non-denominational atmosphere where anyone in the body of Christ might come and be at home with an emphatic biblical loyalty. All theological systems of balanced origin which came into existence after the Protestant Reformation will be at home in this academic environment. Protestantism was born in the midst of a Reformation against Romanism; from it came the theological systems of Lutheranism, Calvinism, Wesleyan-Calvinism, Wesleyism, Methodism, Baptisticism, Congregationalism, and Anglicanism. A careful and prayerful observance of these Protestant proliferations will yield the honorable observation that God has truly used evangelists, pastors, teachers, and scholars from all of these. There are historic affinities to these entities, yet a hyper position to any one of these destroys the balance itself. The George Whitefield heart and spirit sets forth the tone of the theology.

The presupposition of the Foundations Schools, a spirit set by the founder and first president, Dr. O. Talmadge Spence, has been to open its doors to any Bible-believing Christian who holds dear the formal fundamentals of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who maintains a separatist position in personal sanctification and corporate ecclesiasticism, and who places practical emphasis upon the Christian life, sanctified evangelism, and spiritual revivalism. It has never been the position of the Foundations Schools to demand a historic theological system as the presupposition for the acceptance of staff, faculty, or student. Dr. Spence, personally, was well known for having made an exodus, initiated in 1969, from his own family denomination. After this exodus, he was active in the World Congress of Christian Fundamentalism, both as a regular speaker and member of the International Committee. He was personally committed to the formal Resolutions of the Congresses.

In the first twenty-five years, the Foundations Schools have accepted children to the academy because their Christian parents accepted the above biblical fundamentals, the distinctives of the Foundations pulpit, and the writings of its founder and first president. During the first twenty-five years, the Foundations Schools have accepted students to the undergraduate and graduate schools who were of varying theological backgrounds. Only rarely have there been problems in this regard. In fact, many of the students have spoken to the founder and to others of the balanced teaching which they received from our schools, having gone away strengthened in their understanding of all the theological systems in the light of biblical exegesis, exposition, history, and biblical theology. We believe we have honorably presented the theological systems in the light of their biblical worthiness and have given central acknowledgment to the biblical fundamentals and biblical distinctives.

Foundations Bible Collegiate Church has ordained over 100 men in these years, and we believe we have an honorable variety without division, a unity without a demanding union, and a balance without glib generalities. At times we have exhorted our ministries and ministers of their danger, personally, of going too far in their systems occasioning estrangement of themselves from the body of Christ around the world. For years prior to the Foundations Experiment, the president wondered if it was possible to have such a unity of the brethren; indeed, our fellowships have had a healthy relationship.

As the founder and first president, Dr. Spence was pleased if God gave to Foundations Bible Collegiate Church ordained men whose personal identities were of varying theological backgrounds, as long as the heart of the ordained one was as consecrated to the Lord as the mind was in its distinctive persuasion. Biblical balance is not compromise; neither in a growing person’s knowledge of God is all change a sign of lukewarm neutrality or of bold extremism.

In 1997, the Foundations Schools entered into a new divinity facility called Anvil House. At the center of the 45,000 square-foot complex is Whitefield Sanctuary, named for George Whitefield, an abiding friend of Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley. These latter two men were unlike in their theological positions, yet the bond that Whitefield gave to their divergent theological emphases was immeasurable.

Anvil House sets forth over 1,650 different art pieces, furnishings, and pieces of furniture which, if God wills to use, may express a true biblical ecumenicity in a generation when an apostate ecumenical movement has increased its error in the earth to the breaking of man’s unity with God. There is a true biblical ecumenicity; false ecumenicity is a perverted unity.

Unless God’s people are able to sift away the chaff from the wheat in this desert of theological presumption, God has revealed that He cannot and will not give the revival we need. Foundations does not seek mere union; it seeks unity. This presupposition must be first evangelism for all unbelievers and second revivalism in the midst of all believers as the Word of God clearly declares and exhorts to all of God's people.

With over fifty years of ministering in Bible institutes, colleges, and seminaries, Dr. Spence personally taught about 2,500 students. The above-defined presupposition has always been the basis of his personal dealings with each of them. As they kept calling him back through the years, he kept giving them the same answer.

The Foundations Schools seek for both students and ordained ministers, with their respective distinctives, to join our hope. The Christian Purities Fellowship was originally brought in place to welcome such ministers and their ministries to join this hope for the communion and fellowship of saints without the control and demand upon either the minister or his ministry. Only the fundamental biblical message and character of the man are requested, as we all live in a time of the desperate need of the true brotherhood in the body of Christ without compromise.