Marty Marriott Named Maranatha President

Marriott

Marriott has recently been serving as pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Warren, MI, and president of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Associaton of Michigan (IFBAM).

Press Release

Bio

Staff Page at Faith Baptist, Warren, MI

Discussion

[Faith Baptist Web Site] in 1971 Marty Marriott entered the University of Cincinnati pursuing an engineering degree. Several people gave him a gospel witness and he was finally converted in November of 1973. Shortly after his salvation, he was directed to a fundamental Baptist church. He became thoroughly involved in the study of the Word and soul-winning efforts. In a short time, Marty was given opportunity to preach; the Lord blessed his efforts and confirmed upon his heart that should prepare for the Gospel ministry.

Marty transferred to Maranatha Baptist Bible College in 1974 graduating with both the Bachelor (BA) and Master (MA) degrees; he immediately pursued further training receiving a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). Recently, Maranatha Baptist Bible College honored Pastor Marriott with a Doctor of Divinity degree
[MBBC Bio] Marriott earned a BA in Bible and Pastoral Studies (1976) and an MA in Biblical Studies and Languages (1977) while at Maranatha. He also earned an MDiv from Temple Baptist Theological Seminary (1979) and a BS in Business Management from Liberty University (1990). Marriott received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Maranatha in 2007.
Is the PhD statement inaccurate, or just not being mentioned for some reason?

Greg Linscott
Marshall, MN

From http://www.ibnet.org/FBCwm.htm
Pastor Marty Marriott attended Maranatha Baptist Bible College and Graduate School of Theology (B.A., M.A), Temple Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and Louisiana Baptist University (Ph.D.). He is a former church-planter. He currently serves as a trustee on the boards of Maranatha Baptist Bible College, Baptist World Mission, the Michigan Association of Christian Schools and the Independent Fundamental Baptist Association of Michigan (elected President in 2003).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Baptist_University] Wikipedia entry on Louisiana Baptist University

Greg Linscott
Marshall, MN

[tlange] After reading this, it makes me wonder how long it will be before Maranatha descends into KJV Onlyism?

http://www.faithbaptistchurch.info//index.php?option=com_content&task=v…
In my time at MBBC (1977-1981), the school Greek NT in the bookstore and the classroom was the TBS blueback TR. The schools position was more pro-Burgon than KJVO.

Taking a look at the position cited above, I see it as a well reasoned one. It reflects the view of a man who studied under Drs. Hollowood and Weeks. Remember, MBBC when Dr. Marriot attended was not BJU or a GARBC school. Drs. B. Myron Cedarholm, Richard Weeks, and M. James Hollowood were products of Northern Baptist Schools and Seminaries and ran MBBC accordingly.

Hoping to shed more light than heat..

I met Marty Marriott several times when I was an assistant pastor in the Metro Detroit area. He is a godly man who has a good ministry at Faith. He is a product of Maranatha Baptist Bible College. As such he takes some positions that are different from many on Sharper Iron. However, they are theological differences that historically have been considered solidly within the scope of Fundamentalism. Differences on text types, Calvinism, soul winning techniques, polity, etc. have always existed in fundamentalism. The positions I have know Pastor Marriott to hold have always been reflective of the influences of men like Myron Cedarholm. They have never been heterodox, like some of the extremes in fundamentalism.

He is also the son-in-law of the late David Cummins of Baptist World Mission. David Cummins left the pastorate of Faith to work at Baptist World and Marty Marriott followed him as the pastor of Faith. They have both been squarely in the Maranatha, Baptist Fundamentalist orbit.

I believe he will represent a good continuity for Marantha. He is an alumnus who was one of Myron Cedarholm’s preacher boys. I think this makes a lot of sense for the school, unless one is looking for the school to radically change.

T. J. Klapperich Winter Garden, FL www.cbwg.org

Isn’t Louisiana Baptist University a degree mill? Kind of like Trinity in Newburgh, Indiana and Luther Rice? I went to Tennessee Temple under David Bouler who had a Ph.D. from Trinity and it was a disaster. He had no idea about academic quality and the school has suffered terribly since.

LBU is a degree mill. Look at some of the people that have PhD’s from there! A lot of “life credit” given and requirements are far less than even some Masters Degrees. It was probably not mentioned so that the controversy would not arise. They have forgotten that this is the digital age..

I don’t think MBBC would view the source of the PhD as an issue. I could be wrong, but it doesn’t seem to me that they have viewed the role of president as a mainly academic one, but a more pastoral one. Jaspers was an evangelist. Phelps a pastor. So the academic credentials are seen as more important for the academic deans, profs and so forth, I expect.

Edit: I’d add that I don’t think it’s accurate to call a school with more than a thousand students and forty some odd faculty a degree mill. It may very well not be up to par academically, but the term for that is “academically weak” not “degree mill.”

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

[Aaron] I don’t think MBBC would view the source of the PhD as an issue.
Just curious- how would you explain its omission from any official MBBC releases introducing Marriott then, Aaron?

Greg Linscott
Marshall, MN

Well, that would be pure speculation, but I’ll speculate a little… a. They are not all that concerned about the source of the PhD (they hired him) and b. They are concerned about public perception of the source of the degree. But that’s just guessing and not a big deal to me either way. For those concerned about it, It might be interesting to compare announcements of past presidents and see if the sources of their degrees was highlighted or not, etc. Maybe they don’t normally mention it. Maybe they wanted to shorten the blurb and it was a handy item to cut. Maybe there was a rush to release and someone didn’t have time to look it up. Who knows.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

What you would say would make more sense if they had at least mentioned the PhD in a statement, regardless of its origin. They did not- which would lead me to conclude that they themselves, as a degree-granting institution, would not view the degree as a credible PhD.

Greg Linscott
Marshall, MN

[Aaron Blumer] Edit: I’d add that I don’t think it’s accurate to call a school with more than a thousand students and forty some odd faculty a degree mill. It may very well not be up to par academically, but the term for that is “academically weak” not “degree mill.”
I agree. I don’t know this school in particular, but I’ve always thought of a diploma mill as a guy in an office with a really nice PC and printer mailing out diplomas in exchange for checks received. Maybe a short thesis gets worked in there somewhere, but never seriously looked at.

Hey! I just had a great idea for a church fund-raiser!