"New Age Bible Versions" & the "King James Only" Controversy - A Refutation

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• published: 09 Feb 2011
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Larry Wessels, director of Christian Answers of Austin, Texas/ Christian Debater (YouTube channel CANSWERSTV athttps://www.youtube.com/user/CAnswersTV ; see our playlist on "King James Onlyites" at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2CDA855486B09128&feature;=plcp, websites http://www.BIBLEQUERY.ORG, http://www.HISTORYCART.COM & http://www.MUSLIMHOPE.COM) interviews Christian author & apologist James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries (website http://www.AOMin.org) about a book that King James Onlyites such as Texe Marrs of Flashpoint newsletter & "Living Truth Ministry" hold very dear. "New Age Bible Versions" by Gail Riplinger is supposedly a "scholarly" work revealing that modern Bible translations such as the New American Standard and the New International Version are "New Age" in philosophy & are therefore Satanic. Riplinger also claims that the translators of these versions as well as those who would dare to defend these versions are not just non-Christians but anti-Christians who are opposed to the work of God in this world (G.A. Riplinger claims these people want everyone to worship Lucifer). Conspiracy? Hardly; sensationalistic bogus sales hype by a non-scholar named Gail is the real story in this bizarre tale of Bible Translations. Those wishing more information on this issue can reference our website BIBLEQUERY ORG & once on the homepage click the "Experience" box in the middle upper left side. Once on the "Experience" page just scroll down to the newsletter section & look for the newsletter entitled, "The Unlearned Men, The True Genealogy & Genesis of King-James-Version-Onlyism." This newsletter contains an excerpt from James White's excellent booklet, "New Age Bible Versions Refuted" along with a very revealing lead article on the origin & history of the "King James Only" movement by Doug Kutilek (MA, Baptist Bible College & PhD candidate at Hebrew Union College). Those wishing to see other videos by Christian Answers of Austin, Texas/ Christian Debater can simply type LARRY WESSELS in the YOUTUBE, GOOGLE VIDEO, or VIMEO VIDEO search boxes. The following can be found at our website BIBLEQUERY.ORG in our newsletter section (click the "Experience" box on homepage & scroll down & click "Unlearned Men - KVJ Only") - by Doug Kutilek: Benjamin Wilkinson - In the investigation of King-James-Version-Onlyism, (KJVO) just such a genealogy of error can be easily traced. All writers who embrace the KJV-only position have derived their views ultimately from Seventh-day Adventist missionary, theology professor and college president, Benjamin G. Wilkinson (d.1968), and then through one of two or three of his spiritual descendants. In 1930, he wrote "Our Authorized Bible Vindicated," a book of several hundred pages which attracted almost no attention in its day (no doubt because it was awash in a vast ocean of unmitigated error). In that book, Wilkinson attacked the Westcott Hort Greek text, in large measure by attacking Westcott and Hort personally (the common but fallacious ad Hominem method. He also expresses a strong opposition to the English Revised Version New Testament (1881), in particular objecting to it because it robbed Adventism of two favorite proof-texts, one allegedly teaching Gentile Sabbath keeping (Acts 13:42), the other misused by the Adventists to teach soul sleep (Hebrews 9:27). J.J.Ray - Wilkinson's book lay unused and unknown (and how good it would have been had its errors died with him!), until 1955 when J.J. Ray, who is self-described as a "business manager, missionary, and Bible teacher" published a little volume, "God Wrote Only One Bible" (Ray is apparently still living, but we can find out nothing about him, and he refuses to reply to certified letters; if anyone can supply specific information about this man, we would greatly appreciate it). In his book, Ray heavily plagiarized, without note or acknowledgement, Wilkinson's book, repeating and propagating wholesale Wilkinson's errors and misstatements (the fact of Ray's plagiarism and dependence is documented in the article, "The Real 'Eye Opener'," Baptist Biblical Heritage, vol. 2, no. 1). Ray's book has gone through numerous printings, with total copies numbering perhaps in the tens of thousands. I first saw a copy myself in 1971 as a first year student at Baptist Bible College, Springfield, Missouri, where I was also introduced—by students from Ohio—to Ruckman's "Bible Babel" and Fuller's "Which Bible?" It is of interest that Ray acknowledges that there are some erroneous translations in the KJV which do demand revision (pp. 30, 31, 102). A position today's KJVO mainstream would consider rank heresy.