The school was founded in 1949 under the name United Baptist Bible Training School (UBBTS), and served as both a secondary school and a Bible school. Over two decades, the focus of the school gradually shifted toward post-secondary programs. In1968, UBBTS became a Bible and Junior Christian Liberal Arts College, and in 1970 the name was changed to Atlantic Baptist College (ABC). A sustained campaign to expand the school's faculty and improve the level of education resulted in ABC being able to grant full Bachelor of Arts degrees in the early 1980s. The college moved to a new campus in 1996, and due to continued academic expansion, the name was changed to Atlantic Baptist University.