Robert Reynolds Jones Sr. (1883 - 1968)

Ancestors Descendants

Biography

Robert Reynolds "Bob" Jones Sr. (October 30, 1883 – January 16, 1968) was an American evangelist, pioneer religious broadcaster, and the founder and first president of Bob Jones University.

Jones came from a very Christian religious family. His mother was Primitive Baptist while his father was a Methodist. At 12 years old, he held his first revival in his home. By age 15, Jones was a licensed circuit preacher for the Alabama Methodist Conference. He has become an American evangelistic minister traveling across Appalachia to preach the gospel and convert the sinners. He would speak to crowds up to 15,000. He has said that by age 40, he has preached to over fifteen million people and converted tens of thousands.

His next career decision would be to start Bob Jones University, near Lynn Haven, Florida, and the doors opened on September 12, 1927. When the Great Depression came, the University barely survived and moved to Cleveland, Tennessee in 1933. After WWII and the introduction of the GI Bill, the University began to flourish. So much so that a larger campus was needed. In 1947, the University moved to Greenville, South Carolina where it remains today.

He started his ministry career in Southern Appalachia where older fundamentalism was widespread. Later in his life, a disagreement between his teachings and that of fellow minister, Billy Graham, started showing the breaking of up "old time religion" that was so popular throughout all of Appalachia. Graham wanted to bring fresh modern sermons to the people and Jones felt by doing so it would go against the Bible, specifically violating 2 John 9-11.

The disagreement created a permanent distance between the two former friends and also had a very real effect on South Central and Southern Appalachian Christian teachings. A new generation of Bible-believers now felt they had to make a choice between smaller fundamentalist and larger evangelical factions.

Bob Jones passed away at the age of 86 in Greenville, South Carolina.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Jones_Sr.
• "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JPJC-226 : 19 May 2014), Robert Jones, Jan 1968; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJ1-1Y52 : 13 December 2015), Bob Reynolds Jones, 1968; Burial, Greenville, Greenville, South Carolina, United States of America, Bob Jones University Campus Grounds; citing record ID 1801, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com. Find A Grave: Memorial #1801

See also:

• Wikipedia: Bob Jones Sr.
• Wikidata: Item Q3306213, en:Wikipedia