Tennessee Temple University was a four-year private Christian university, with its focus on liberal arts education, located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Operating there, also, was Temple Baptist Seminary, the university's graduate school of Christian theology.Tennessee Temple was founded in 1946 under the leadership and vision of Dr. Lee Roberson. As the pastor of a prominent Southern Baptist church, Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Roberson saw the need to train people for ministry through higher education. Believing that God was leading him to act upon this need, he began an evening Bible institute which would eventually blossom into a Bible college and a liberal arts college. Later, a seminary would be added.The close relationship that the school maintained with Highland Park Baptist Church, one of the early megachurches of the modern era, created many ministry training opportunities for the students of Tennessee Temple. This model would be the inspiration for the Rev. Jerry Falwell to begin what would become Liberty University.
