Mid-Atlantic Christian University was founded as Roanoke Bible College in 1948 by George and Sarah BonDurant to train preachers for churches in eastern North Carolina and the Tidewater region of Virginia. The BonDurants had previously founded Atlanta Christian College in 1937 and George BonDurant served as its first President until 1947, when he left over a dispute with the trustees. George BonDurant then found employment as an evangelist of the Roanoke District Churches of Christ in eastern North Carolina in 1947. Less than a year later, the BonDurants founded MACU due to the extreme lack of preachers in the area at the time. Classes began in 1948 with 12 full-time students. The first group of transfer students graduated in 1950 and the first class to complete all four years at MACU graduated in 1952. MACU has graduated a class every year since. MACU has been accredited by the Association for Biblical Higher Education since 1979. It has been accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools since 1999. MACU absorbed the remaining funds, library holdings, and equipment from Eastern Christian College when it closed in 2005 after nearly 60 years of operation. Eastern's academic records are now archived at MACU. MACU officially changed its name to Mid-Atlantic Christian University in the summer of 2009. Enrollment at MACU reached 178 students in the fall semester of 2010. On October 3, 2010, sophomore Jonathan Schipper was shot to death in his room in the Pearl A. Presley Hall, bringing MACU national news attention. The school's official policy does not allow guns on campus. This is the only violent crime ever reported on MACU's campus during its history. Fellow student Christopher Amyx, a part-time police officer, was later convicted to first-degree murder in 2013.

Mid-Atlantic Christian University is an undergraduate institution of Christian higher education whose mission is to impact the world by transforming ordinary people into extraordinary Christian leaders.

As of 2010, over 3,000 students have attended MACU and 1,140 have graduated William A. Griffin BA 1962, former president of MACU Ajai Lall BA 1982, Christian missionary to India and founder of Central India Christian Mission Barry McCarty BA 1975, National radio host and former President of Cincinnati Christian University

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