Answering the myths, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• Answering the Myths on the Bible Version Debate -- “The Bible is not a first grade primer. It is God’s book. It is a book that must be diligently read.”
• Glenn Loury: The bluffing equilibrium -- “Look at what the West African immigrants are managing the make of their lives here, they’re black too!”
• Latchet of whose shoes -- “Instead of criticizing the the King James Bible out of his own ignorance, he would be much better off by learning more about his own English language.”
• Texas realtor on Capitol riot: ‘I’m glad I was there’ -- “She now fears that all Trump supporters are going to be branded terrorists and silenced under President Joe Biden.”
• The so called “oldest and best manuscripts” (Short Version) -- “...be it remembered that the omissions, additions, substitutions, transpositions, and modifications, are by no means the same in both.”
• The Providential Preservation of Scripture -- “...by the time of the mid-nineteenth century, the emergence of both the Higher Critical and Liberal movements began to have an adverse effect upon what should be considered Scripture...”
• The Turtle Observed Pineth Away - James White follies -- “The Hebrew word is translated both as turtle and turtledove in the King James Bible and several others too.”
• Two Relatively Recent Bible Translations Tested -- “This paper will compare two somewhat recent translations of the Holy Bible (the NIV2011 and the KJVER) with the faithful and reliable King James Version.”
• WALSH: As Biden Prepares To Take Office, Democrat Leaders Are Suddenly Interested In Opening The Economy Again -- “They have switched course like this, with timing as convenient as this, and they apparently expect us not to notice.”
• Which Version? -- “More extreme in its departure from a formal-equivalence method of translation is a revision of the NIV New Testament: Today’s New International Version.”

Better is the end of a thing

“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.” Ecclesiastes 7:8 

We see this principle manifested in the first recorded miracle of the ministry of the LORD JESUS. HE turned water into wine at Cana of Galilee. When the ruler of the feast tasted that wine he remarked “thou hast kept the good wine until now.” (John 2:10) We see its ultimate glory in that which Paul describes, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1 Cor. 13:12) “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev. 22:20) 

Mike McInnis

Excellence of Faith

Baptist pastor Daniel Turner (1710-1798) penned this hymn, called “Excellence of Faith” (or “The Power of Faith). He became pastor of the Baptist church in Reading in 1741, until 1748. From Reading, he went to the Baptist church in Abingdon. Turner remained pastor there until his death, a service of fifty years.

Turner prepared two works of devotional poetry – Divine Songs, Hymns and other Poems in 1747, Poems Devotional and Moral in 1794. This hymn, with three others, was included in A Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, by John Ash and Caleb Evans in 1769. It also appeared in A Selection of Hymns by John Rippon (1787). Arlington, Azmon, and Evan are good stout tunes for its use. Azmon may be the most common.

1. Faith adds new charms to earthly bliss,
And saves me from its snares;
Its aid in every duty brings,
And softens all my cares:
 
2. Extinguishes the thirst of sin,
And lights the sacred fire
Of love to God, and heavenly things,
And feeds the pure desire.
 
3. The wounded conscience know its power
The healing balm to give;
That balm the saddest heart can cheer,
And make the dying live.
 
4. Wide it unveils celestial worlds,
Where deathless pleasures reign;
And bids me seek my portion there,
Nor bids me seek in vain:
 
5. Shows me the precious promise sealed
With the Redeemer’s blood;
And helps my feeble hope to rest
Upon a faithful God.
 
6. There, there unshaken would I rest,
’Till this vile body dies;
And then on faith’s triumphant wings,
At once to glory rise.

Every word of God is pure

Every word of God is pure, Proverbs 30:5.

Commentary by John Gill:

Every word of God is pure,.... The whole word of God. “All Scripture”, given by inspiration of God, to which Agur directs, as giving the best account of God, of his name, nature, and perfections; of his Son, person, offices, and grace; being pure, very pure, “purified” like silver, purified in a furnace of earth. The whole of Scripture is pure, free from all falsehood and error; coming from the God of truth, who cannot lie, and therefore called “the Scriptures of truth”: every promise is pure as well as precious, made without dissimulation, faithfully performed, and all yea and amen in Christ; every doctrine is pure, free from the mixtures and inventions of men; the sincere milk of the word; consistent and all of a piece, not yea and nay; and tending to promote purity of heart and life; wholesome words, and doctrines according to godliness; see Psalm 12:6”

The King James Only “Movement”

Some have defined the “KJV Only movement” as “an organized effort that believes the King James Version of the Bible is the only preserved Word of God in the English language.” Some have talked of it endlessly while leaving it undefined (as to what they mean by movement). Identifying it as a “movement” allows ignoring the existence of any King James Only “movement” before the “movement” came to view.

Independent Baptist pastor Thomas Cassidy wrote, “I don’t see KJVOism as a ‘movement.’ It includes Pentecostals, Protestants, Baptists, and even a Mormon or two. It is much too broad to have the consistency necessary for it to be a ‘movement.’ It is simply a broad spectrum of people who have a similar view of a single doctrine, quite often rejecting any other similarities.”[i] He adds, “I think it is always dangerous to pigeon-hole people based on a single characteristic.” It may be that this is pigeon-holing with purpose! 

If there is such a thing as a modern “KJVO Movement,” it grew out of the opposition to the Revised Standard Version of the Bible of 1952. Much of the language and rhetoric of the KJV support since that time can be traced to the debate surrounding the RSV. Each “KJVO movement” in history appears to have a catalyst (e.g. see HERE and HERE), and the RSV was the primary catalyst of the 20th century.

Nevertheless, among the anti-KJV all-other-Bible adherents, speaking of the “KJV Only movement” often becomes a mere debating tactic rather than a sensible historical investigation. Their people create a “KJVO movement” with a very specific timeline, and then in their debates discredit anyone before “the movement” – why, they could not be “King James Only” because it did not start until ____. This makes “KJVO” a modern invention rather than an historical position held by some of our forefathers in the faith. I do not disagree that a strong “movement” favoring only the King James Bible grew aggressively in latter half of the 20th century. I disagree when people claim there was no “KJVO” before 1950, or 1930, or whatever date they decide to put on it to create their strawman. Some of these same people also excel in talking out of both sides of their mouths! They will claim some view is “KJVO” when someone writes or says it today. However, when we find someone who said it in 1927 or 1900 or 1817, these same people start crawfishing – no, those people were not really “KJVO”. Consistency thou art a jewel. Anti-KJVs, please find your “just weights and measure.”

__________________

[i] In Fundamentalism and the King James Version: How a Venerable English Translation Became a Litmus Test for Orthodoxy Jeffrey P. Straub agrees, writing, “...even from this brief survey of the contours of the KJV-only landscape, it is clear that there is no unified movement.”

Various Voices for the KJV

Licking Association of Particular Baptists of Kentucky

It is the opinion and advice of this Association, to the Churches composing her body, that they use the common version of the New Testament, in preference to any other whatever. God has blessed it to the souls of His people for a long time; and our hopes and our prayers are, that He will in much mercy continue to do it. 

Lewis Corbin, Moderator, Thomas P. Dudley Clerk; 1827

We find the most palpable discord between the “Mother of Harlots” and her Protestant daughters – while she charges those daughters with apostasy, they charge her with being the Apocalyptic Beast. All would be left in doubt, but of “the sure word of prophecy.” No wonder that the Old Mother forbids to her children the use of our Bible! The wonder is, rather, that her Protestant daughters submit, with so much seeming patience, to the grand-children, having recourse to the “King James translation of the Holy Scriptures.” 

Thomas P. Dudley, Lexington, Ky., Aug. 30, 1859

We, beloved, have a Book of Truth, a “sure word of prophecy,” given by inspiration of God, which is profitable. The truth of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures being admitted by us – blest with the Book of God – we concur in the acknowledgment that we have the last will and testament of Jesus Christ, and that we prefer it to any other and all other books in the world. We are willing to risk the supposed delusion in relation to its version, that is, the common version [i.e., King James or Authorized, rlv] the good old book – and are willing also that people may pity; pity our ignorance, should they think it such, in this determination; believing with all our hearts, that its contents will be ratified in Heaven.

“What is Truth?” Joel Morehead, 1892 Circular Letter of Licking Association of Particular Baptists of Kentucky

M. W. Gilbert, First Colored Baptist Church, Nashville, Tennessee

Our common English Bible, our King James’ Bible, translated by seventy eminent men, not one of whom was a Baptist, will lead one aright, though he know not one letter of Greek. Thousands of men and women have joined the Baptist churches by their own unaided reading of the word of God. And thousands more will join it thus. Oh, that we could get everybody of every church to read the word of God for himself! Read the word of God for yourself. Read it with a view to discover truth and unearth error. Read it to find out your duty. Read it for instruction. Read it for your sanctification. “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me,” Jesus said. 

“Baptism,” M. W. Gilbert, (Pastor of the First Colored Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn.) in The Negro Baptist Pulpit: A Collection of Sermons and Papers, Edward Macknight Brawley, editor, Philadelphia, PA: American Baptist Publication Society, 1890, p. 136

Amen and awoman

U. S. House Representative Emanuel Cleaver II, a Democrat from Missouri’s 5th Congressional District, lit up the internet world with his Opening Prayer for the 117th Congress – punctuated by the affirmation “Amen ... and awoman.”

The transcription below is that Opening Prayer for the 117th Congress.[i] Representative Emanuel Cleaver II is also an ordained United Methodist minister.

Let us pray.
Eternal God, [noiselessly] we bow before your throne of grace as we leave behind the politically and socially clamorous year of 2020. We gather now in this consequential chamber to inaugurate another chapter in our roller coaster representative government. The members of this august body acknowledge your sacred supremacy, and therefore confess that without your favor and forbearance, we enter this new year relying dangerously on our own fallible nature. God, at a moment when many believe that the bright light of democracy is beginning to dim, empower us with an extra dose of commitment to its principles. May we of the 117th Congress refuel the lamp of liberty so brimful that generations unborn will witness its undying flame. And may we model community healing, control our tribal tendencies, and quicken our spirits that we may feel thy priestly presence even in moments of heightened disagreement. May we so feel your presence that our service here may not be soiled by any utterances or acts unworthy of this high office. Insert in our spirit a light so bright that we can see ourselves and our politics as we really are, soiled by selfishness, perverted by prejudice, and [inveigled] by ideology. Now may the god who created the world and everything in it, bless us and keep us. May the lord make his face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us. May the lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us and give us peace; peace in our families, peace across this land, and dare I ask, O lord – peace even in this chamber; now and evermore. We ask it in the name of the monotheistic god, brahma, and god known by many names by many different faiths. Amen ... and awoman.

On the surface, this prayer may seem to be ecumenical, bipartisan, inclusive, and non-offensive. It is not. Anyone who wants to be offended should be able to find something offensive here!

• This prayer is addressed to “Eternal god.” That should offend the atheists and agnostics.
• This prayer twice speaks of a god addressed in the masculine gender – “his face” and “his countenance.” That should offend the feminists.
• This prayer uses charged political terminology. That should be offensive to those with “tribal tendencies.”
• This prayer mentions our “fallible nature.” This should offend those who reject the doctrine of a depraved sin nature.
• This prayer acknowledges a “god who created the world and everything in it.” That should offend the evolutionists.
• This prayer the god of many faiths. That should offend all Bible-believing Christians (as well as his not praying in Jesus’s name, and, and…).
• This prayer genderizes “amen” (“so be it”) by adding “awoman.”[ii]  This should offend all who support Nancy Pelosi’s gender-inclusive House resolution, and all those who believe there are more than two genders.

Something here for (or not for) everybody. Probably much more.

---

[i] In the two places with brackets, I am not sure what is said. I think the rest of it is correct.

[ii] Representative Cleaver’s later explanation that he added “awoman” as some sort of joke (“I concluded with a light-hearted pun”) should offend all who believe in the sincerity and reality of prayer. [Note: “awoman” is used opposite “amen” – rather than awomen – because many of us, including Rep. Cleaver, pronounce “amen” closer to “aman.” That might offend someone as well.]

A Love-O-Meter, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• A Love-O-Meter: Love Does Not Rejoice In Iniquity And Does Rejoice In the Truth -- “The Bible is a love-o-meter. What Paul wrote is a simple love-o-meter. Use it.”
• Billy Graham and the End of Evangelical Unity -- “I know [The Sword of the Lord] does not speak for you when it exposes the modern unbelief and lack of scholarship in the Revised Standard Version which you recommend.”
• CBGM: Sowing Doubt with a Technological Flare -- “Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM) is a relatively new approach to textual criticism using a computer program in order to determine the validity of a reading (somewhere between 1997 and 2000).”
• How To Have a Strong Family Unit -- “The husband should set godly standards and lead the way by living up to those standards himself.”
• New Lowell Methodist, Org 1845, Clay County, Georgia -- “The community of Lowell was settled about 1820 along the falls of Pataula Creek, which provided water power for several commercial enterprises including a saw mill, cotton gin and grist mill.”
• Not the Onion: Democrat Ends Prayer With ‘Amen...and A-Woman’ -- “We ask it in the name of the monotheistic god, brahma, and god known by many names by many different faiths.”
• Sen. Cruz: Democrats and Big Tech’s Desire to Silence Dissent Is A Dangerous Totalitarian Instinct -- “It’s dismaying listening to the question from our Democratic colleagues because consistently the message from Senate Democrats is for Facebook, Twitter, and Google to censor more.”
• Seven Pictures of Divine Tenderness -- “The Scriptures present us with several illustrations and pictures of God’s tenderness...”
• The Ancient Text of the New Testament -- “Is the majority vote of a few modern scholars worth more than the majority vote of the old manuscripts?”
• The Blind See -- “The Kingdom of CHRIST is one which can be observed only by the eye of faith.”
• The King James Only Baptist Civil War over Inspiration -- “Using a Biblical term in a non-Biblical way opens a new avenue of attack for the enemies of the King James Bible. There is no reason to make it easier for them to make their unholy attacks.”
• The Latest of Modern Movements: Or What About The Revised Version Of The Bible? -- “Finding no certain help in philosophy and skepticism of the Higher Critical type, God’s people have thought to return to the faith of their fathers.”
• Why the King James Bible of 1611 Remains the Most Popular Translation in History -- “Not only was it the first ‘people’s Bible,’ but its poetic cadences and vivid imagery have had an enduring influence on Western culture.”
• Why We Hold to the King James Bible -- “Even to imply that one believes the Textus Receptus to be nearer the original text than the Westcott-Hort text is, lays one open to the suspicion of gross ignorance or unmitigated bigotry.”

Anne of Green Gables is fired

Try to imagine someone armed with directives from Ottawa marching up to Anne Shirley, now a teacher, and telling her that she must instruct the little boys in “sexual expression” and “transgender rights.” When she narrows her eyes and wonders who gave the government official the authority to dictate to her what is best for her charges, rendering their parents irrelevant and obnoxiously presuming to overrule nature itself, she is subject to a barrage of contempt–from someone who has not one fiftieth of her knowledge of arts and letters or of the human realities of men and women, boys and girls. If Anne of Green Gables persists, she is fired and replaced by someone–usually a woman, call her Susie of the Sex Shop–who is strangely eager to impart this instruction, though we may question her equal eagerness to impart what little knowledge she may have of poetry or Scripture or British history. 

Anthony Esolen, Out of the Ashes, p. 51

Shepherd who forsook a throne

This Common Meter hymn is No. 72 (p. 76) in One Hundred and Forty-four Hymns adapted for Sunday Schools and Families, London: G. Morrish, 1860. I have found it set to music, but it could be sung to most any good common meter tune. Ortonville or Evan would certainly be suitable.

1. That Shepherd who forsook a throne,
Whom tenderest pity drew
To seek such straying sheep as I,
Such wandering lambs as you.
 
2. Who, for vile wretched man became
The victim of the grave,
Was stretched upon the bitter cross
And bowed his head to save.
 
3. But from the darkness of the grave,
Ascending soon, he rose,
And, high in heaven, now sits enthroned
Triumphant o’er his foes.
 
4. There, rich in majesty divine,
He pleads his sufferings past;
And all who rest upon his blood,
Shall dwell with him at last.
 
5. To them a new and contrite heart
Is by the Spirit given:
They join the ransomed flock on earth,
And joy with them in heaven.
 
6. Then haste to know this Saviour, friend,
And take him for your guide;
And know that he has promised to
Be always by your side.

Church discipline is an advance warning, and other quotes

The posting of quotes by human authors does not constitute agreement with either the quotes or their sources. (I try to confirm the sources that I give, but may miss on occasion; please verify if possible.)

“If you are not saved from your sins you will never be saved from your problems.” -- David Jeremiah

“Church discipline is an advance warning to the erring brother of the inevitable end-time judgment against his sin.” -- Chopo Mwanza

“The doctrine of the fall explains why my desires don’t always match the purposes for which my body was made.” -- Mark Ward

“The geography of heaven visibly (though temporarily) shows up on earth when local churches gather.” -- Jonathan Leeman

“I beseech you, regard not what this or that man saith, but inquire all things of the Scripture.” -- Credited to John Chrysostom in The Orthodox Creed

“As anchors are a security to a ship, the believer’s hope secures the soul especially in the day of suffering, hardship, or persecution.” -- Jack Dawsey

“Nobody on earth breathes pure, spiritual air.” -- Kent Brandenburg

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” -- Margaret Mead

“It is foolish to increase present distresses by anticipating those that are to come.” -- Joseph Benson

In other words, flotsam and jetsam

• bicky, noun. A biscuit.
• flotsam, noun. The part of the wreckage of a ship and its cargo found floating on the water. Compare jetsam.
• futurism, noun. A belief that biblical prophecies, especially those contained in the book of Revelation, will be literally fulfilled at some point in the future.
• futzing, noun. Ineffectual or trifling activity; messing about; tinkering. Chiefly with around.
• homoeoteleuton, noun. An occurrence in writing of the same or similar endings near together (as in neighboring clauses or lines) whether happening by chance or done for rhythmical effect.
• howzit, interjection. Used as a greeting or to enquire about a person’s well-being: “how’s it going?”
• iotacism (or itacism), noun. In Greek, the pronunciation of eta (η) as iota (ι, long ē); a misspelling resulting from such pronunciation.
• ipsissima verba, noun (plural). The precise words.
• jetsam, noun. Goods cast overboard deliberately, as to lighten a vessel or improve its stability in an emergency, which sink where jettisoned or are washed ashore. Compare flotsam.
• kerygma, noun. The proclamation of religious truths, especially as taught in the Gospels; The Apostolic proclamation of religious truths.
• meeja, noun. The mass media; the members of the mass media, regarded as an identifiable social group.
• nirl, verb (transitive). To shrivel, shrink; to pinch with the cold.
• non sequitur, noun. A conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement; a statement containing an illogical conclusion. (Latin, it does not follow.)
• paranoid, adjective. Characterized by the belief (especially when viewed as irrational) in the goodwill of others or the pervasiveness of serendipity. Compare paranoid.
• preterism, noun. A belief that interprets biblical prophecies as events which have already happened in the first century A.D. (as opposed to remaining to be fulfilled in the future).
• pronoid, adjective. Characterized by the delusion of persecution, unwarranted jealousy, or exaggerated self-importance. Compare pronoid.
• teh tarik, noun. Sweet tea with milk, prepared by pouring the liquid back and forth repeatedly between two containers so as to produce a thick foam on top; a drink of this. (A borrowing from Malaysian.)
• Throgmorton Street, noun. Allusively: the London Stock Exchange; London Stock Exchange members or traders collectively; the financial sector of the City of London in general.
• Wall Street, noun. Allusively: the American money market or financial interests.
• zeroth, adjective. Of an item in a series: coming before the item conventionally regarded as the first.

John Dowling and KJVO

Baptist pastor John Dowling (1807-1878) at times is cited as a supporter of the King James Bible. That is certainly true, but from his writing, it does not appear that he approached it from what we might normally consider a “King James Only” point of view.

In 1850, John Dowling was pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in New York City. He published “The Old-Fashioned Bible,” or Ten Reasons against the Proposed Baptist Version of the New Testament (New York, NY: Edward H. Fletcher). He opposed “a corrected version of the English New Testament,” prepared under the supervision of the Spencer Cone, President of the American and Foreign Bible Society, and William H. Wyckoff, Corresponding Secretary. Whatever other changes were conceived, the primary was to changed baptism to immersion, baptize to immerse, and so on. Dowling primarily objected to the “sectarianism” of producing a “Baptist Bible,” on the one hand, and to what he considered the giving up of Baptist principles on the other. He also dissented from doing it under the auspices of the American and Foreign Bible Society. The following excerpts from The Old-Fashioned Bible demonstrate some of this reasoning.

“The fact is that the common version which it is proposed to amend, is, taken as a whole, a wonderful translation, and although it may be conceded that it is not perfect—for what human performance is so?—yet it is exceedingly doubtful, whether a translation has ever been made from any ancient book, Greek, Latin, or Oriental--which in point of faithfulness to its original can be compared with this, or which has fewer errors in proportion to the entire amount of its contents.” (pp. 11-12)

“Yes, my brethren, the precious words of this cherished volume are incorporated throughout our whole religious literature, and treasured in the memories and enthroned in the hearts of all the followers of Jesus; and to attempt to supplant it by a ‘new version,’ or to introduce any material alterations, would be like ‘gilding refined gold,’ and would inflict a painful shock upon the religious sensibilities of the whole of English Christendom.” (p. 13)

“...if generally adopted by the Baptists, would be regarded as an admission that we cannot sustain ourselves with the present version of the Bible, and are therefore compelled to make another.” (p. 24)
“...by expunging the word baptize from the New Testament, we give up the word entirely to those who practise pouring and sprinkling, and thus aid in identifying the English word baptize with the idea of affusion or pouring.” (p. 30)

“In conclusion, then, I say, brethren, sisters and fathers, cling to your old-fashioned Bible! Never consent to exchange for that cherished and blessed volume, a book which every other Christian but a Baptist will spurn from him with indignation and grief.” (p. 35)

My conclusion is that John Dowling eagerly supported the King James translation, but did not often couch that support in terms familiar to the “King James Version Debate.”

Some other writings by John Dowling include A Vindication of the Baptists from the Charge of Bigorty (1838), The Burning of Bibles: Defence of the Protestant Version of the Scriptures (1843), and The History of Romanism from the Earliest Corruptions of Christianity to the Present Time (1845).

Lectures on Primitive Christianity, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• Another review of Lectures on Primitive Christianity -- “Mr. Wallin, in his Preface, laments the degeneracy of the times, and the great indifference to religious ordinances, which prevails among numbers who preserve some decency of conduct in other respects.”
• God’s Name Jehovah: What Does It Mean? -- “The Jews do not pronounce the name Jehovah. This practice of not using the name Jehovah initially was perhaps an expression of reverence, but later became superstitious in nature.”
• IMPORTANT: Everything you need to know about Critical Race Theory -- “Quite literally, it is racism masked as anti-racism. It is the height of irony.”
• Joint Statement from Senators Cruz, Johnson, Lankford, Daines, Kennedy, Blackburn, Braun, Senators-Elect Lummis, Marshall, Hagerty, Tuberville -- “America is a Republic whose leaders are chosen in democratic elections. Those elections, in turn, must comply with the Constitution and with federal and state law.”
• Joseph Harold Davis on the Book of Acts -- Let us learn one more lesson from the Apostle Paul.
• Latin Vulgate, Greek Textus Receptus, and King James New Testament -- “This bible is an excellent bible study tool for those who like to compare different translations. It shows a verse by verse comparison of Jerome's Latin Vulgate, the Greek Textus Receptus, and the King James translation of the New Testament with each verse side by side.”
• Lectures on Primitive Christianity, in doctrine, experience, worship, discipline and mannners -- “Another thing which eclipses our glory, is this, namely, the little concern of many, who have a name in the churches, to understand the nature, or practice the duties of their sacred covenant with one another in the Lord.”
• McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia -- “The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature contains nearly 50,000 articles pertaining to Biblical and other religious literature, people, creeds, etc.”
• Pastor killed, two other people injured in Texas church shooting -- “Woolen was a suspect in two drive-by shootings in the city of Marshall, about 50 miles east of Winona.”
• Scriptural Church Association -- Scriptural Church Association is then defined as a group of scriptural churches uniting as partners in carrying out the work of the Lord in such a way as not to violate the Scriptures in any way.
• Statement of Doctrine of Holy Scripture -- “The aim shall be to produce or select versions whose textual basis is as close as possible to the Hebrew Masoretic and the Greek Received texts underlying both the English Authorised Version and translations of comparable standing made from these texts into other European languages at the time of the Protestant Reformation.”
• The Creeping Danger of Materialism -- “After warning against the inroads of false teachers in First Timothy 6:1-5, we are given cautions about the dangers of falling under the grip of materialism.”
• This Is the “Strongest, Most Consistent” Sign You Have COVID, Study Says -- “According to the study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, these two COVID symptoms are actually the clearest signs that you’ve got the virus.”
• Which Version by Philip Mauro -- “The Bible is the one Book in the world which is constantly under scrutiny; and the scrutiny to which it is subject is of the most searching kind, and from the keenest and best equipped minds in the world...”

In search of J. J. Ray

While searching for biographical information on J. J. Ray, author of God Wrote Only One Bible in 1955 (1976 edition at link), I ran across a June 14, 2004 Baptist Board thread by Paul of Eugene (Oregon) titled Can any body tell me about JJ Ray? Paul was looking for information on Ray for Maurice Robinson of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Paul and Maurice may have found what they were looking for by now. As for me, I could not find much of anything readily available, so went through Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com to see what I could find. In doing so, I have tried to answer some of the questions originally put forward.

...what denomination JJ Ray was...Was he also 7th day adventist? ...any other work JJ Ray was involved in besides his book. If he was a missionary or pastor in any capacity for any denomination... What was his “world-wide ministry”? I wonder if he was someone using a pseudonym? Any other Rays in that town? Children, grandchildren?

WorldCat library catalog lists only the one book by Ray. His initial foray in the subject appears to be an 8-page pamphlet titled The Eye Opener: an Unbiased, Non-sectarian Examination of the Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted in 1953. It even elicited a response in A Malicious Attack on the Revised Standard Version of the Bible: A Review of the Booklet “The New Blasphemous Bible” by Dr. Gerald B. Winrod and “The Eye Opener” by J. J. Ray, by Rev. Carl J. E. Nelson of Colorado Springs, Colorado that same year. In 1978, Ray published “The New Eye Opener,” a tract apparently about the TEV Bible. Those were the extent of his writings, so far as I found. The current Eye Open Publishers of Eugene keep for sale “The New Eye Opener” and an updated version of God Wrote Only One Bible.

Readers of this book claim that Ray copied from Our Authorized Bible: Vindicated by Benjamin G. Wilkinson (1930). In The Real Eye Opener Gary R. Hudson wrote, “As I continued reading Ray’s material, something kept seeming familiar...And then it suddenly hit me—ah ha!—why, it’s old Benjamin G. Wilkinson all over again!” Wilkinson was a Seventh-day Adventist missionary, educator, and theologian. Though using the material of a Seventh-day Adventist, it is very unlikely that Ray was affiliated with that denomination. He was a preacher and moved in evangelical circles. I never found what his membership was. From the Mind of God to the Mind of Man: A Layman’s Guide to How We Got Our Bible (edited by James B. Williams) called J. J. Ray “a Baptist minister.” Unfortunately, he gives no source. The obituary of Ray’s mother says she was a Methodist. Ralph H. S. Wolverton – husband of Ray’s sister – was a Baptist pastor.

In 1920, he was the manager of a dry goods store in New Plymouth, Idaho, but by 1930, he is listed in the census as a Secretary of Home Missions. The Oregon Exchange (Newspaper Directory), Volumes 5-6 lists Ray as an owner, with Thomas Nelson, of the Junction City weekly Times in December 1922. (Nelson was Ray’s father-in-law.) In 1934, living in Junction City, Oregon, he is listed as a missionary in the Eugene City Directory. In 1936, he became the new missionary for the American Sunday School Union in the Lane Field (Lane County and vicinity). He apparently was already with the ASSU before then, and he remained with them as long as I found any such references, into the early 1960s. He preached and did Sunday School work in many different denominations – Baptist, Bible Churches, Christian & Missionary Alliance – but there was nothing that ever identified him with any particular denomination.

According to God Wrote Only One Bible, Ray’s world-wide ministry was his publishing business. “The Eye Opener Publishers is a world-wide ministry operating on a no-profit basis. It is international and absolutely non-sectarian, serving the entire body of Christ.” (unnumbered page 2)

Eye Opener Publishers is what appears to be in Oregon considered an “Assumed Business Name.” (Apparently this is the same as what we call in Texas “Doing Business As” or DBA.) J. J. and Ruth E. Ray are mentioned as the owners of this Assumed Business Name in the Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon), February 4, 1959 (Wednesday, p. 7B). There is someone still doing business as Eye Opener Publishers at present in Eugene, Oregon.

Jasper James Ray was born July 10, 1894 in Montana, the son of T. H. Ray and Sadie Glassley. He died 1 September 1, 1985 in Lane County, Oregon. Ruth Etta Nelson Ray died April 4, 1973. They are buried at Rest Lawn Memorial Park at Junction City, Oregon. Their children (actually still living when Paul made his initial inquiry in 2004) are also deceased.

Both KJVO and anti-KJVO writers often cite J. J. Ray. Both sides might be surprised that he wrote the sentences below! 

“The Revision of 1881 [et al.]...are in no true sense a revision of the King James of 1611. If they were, they would follow the same Greek text, the Textus Receptus. All that they should have done, was to replace the obsolete words, correct a few errors in translation, and clarify some hard-to-be understood expressions...The crying need of today is still for an honest, trustworthy revision of the King James Bible. However, it remains the very best English translation now extant.” God Only Wrote One Bible, pp. 30-31)

Albany Democrat Herald, September 20, 1947, p. 4

Behold the man

Satan promised man to be as gods (Genesis 3:5). Now behold the man, see how god-like he is, with his fig-leaf aprons, filled with shame and confusion, hiding among the trees (Genesis 3:7-8). 

[With tribute to John Gill]

Different from present habitual pursuit

Much of what is thought of as ministry today is better categorized as institutional advancement facilitated by both managing and suppressing the fickle appetites of come-and-go-consumers, in the power of human ingenuity. We are in danger of telling ourselves that we are indeed alive (or believing it because we’ve built such a reputation) simply because we are busy, complex, and “state-of-the-art” (see Rev. 3:1).

I share that last part because the first Christians did not have our “ministry delivery system” and they grew by millions and millions of people in a matter of decades. They had (and they lived) the (five) Great Commission(s) in organic, every-day, intentional ways.

These five texts tell us our focus, our activity, and our mission no matter who we are or where we live. The Great Commission is utterly non-dependent on so many of the things we have come to see as essential to the work of the Church of Jesus. In fact, I am in a place in my own life where I am convinced that doing without many of those things will allow me to finally do what these texts envision without all the clutter, baggage, and diversion of resources away from the mission of God and His people.

Kenny Burchard

O God, be merciful to me

Magnus Brostrup Landstad wrote the hymn posted below. Landstad was born October 7, 1802 in Måsøy, Norway, the son of Hans Landstad (1771-1838), a minister, and Margrethe Elisabeth Schnitler (1768-1850). Magnus Landstad married Wilhelmine Margrete Marie Lassen (1808-1892) in 1828 or 1829. They had twelve children.

In his early years, Landstad was educated by his father. He then studied at the University of Christiania (Oslo), earning a theology degree in 1827. He was a Norwegian Lutheran minister, psalmist, poet, and collector of traditional Norwegian ballads. Landstad compiled and published the first collection of authentic Norwegian traditional ballads in 1853, Norske Folkeviser (or Norwegian Folk Ballads). He also prepared a national hymnal (Kirkesalmebog, or Church Hymn Book), which included about fifty of his own hymns. Magnus B. Landstad died October 8, 1880 and is buried in Vår Frelsers Gravlund at Oslo, Norway.

Carl Døving translated a number of Scandinavian and German hymns into English, including in 1909 this hymn by Magnus B. Landstad. Døving was born March 21, 1867, in Norway, and died October 2, 1937, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. He is buried at the Lutheran Cemetery, Decorah, Winneshiek County, Iowa. Carl Døving was a Lutheran minister. There are two versions of the hymn (below) both of which I have seen credited to . One is probably his original translation and the other reflecting changes made in it. (I do not know which is which.)

English version 1

1. To thee, omniscient Lord of all,

In grief and shame I humbly call;

I see my sins against Thee, Lord,

The sins of thought and deed and word.

They press me sore; I cry to Thee:

O God, be merciful to me!

2. O Lord, my God, to Thee I pray;

O cast me not in wrath away!

Let Thy good Spirit ne’er depart,

But let Him draw to Thee my heart

That truly penitent I be:

O God, be merciful to me!

3. O Jesus, let Thy precious blood

Be to my soul a cleansing flood.

Turn not, O Lord, Thy guest away, 

But grant that justified I may 

Go to my house, at peace with Thee:

O God, be merciful to me!

English version 2

1. To Thee, O Lord, the God of all,

With contrite heart I humbly call,

And view my sins against thee, Lord,

The sins of thought and deed and word;

In my distress I cry to Thee,

O God, be merciful to me!

2. My Lord and God, to thee I pray,

Oh, cast me not in wrath away;

Let thy good Spirit ne’er depart,

But draw me closer to thy heart;

This is my penitential plea,

O God, be merciful to me!

3. Let thy beloved Precious Blood

Be to my soul a cleansing flood,

To wash my sins and guilt away;

That, pardoned by thy grace, I may

Go to my house with peace from thee;

O God, be merciful to me!

The hymn is in meter of 8s, 6 lines, and usually sung to the tune Vater Unser. Vater Unser is named for the first words in Martin Luther’s German hymn “Vater unser im Himmelreich” (“Our Father in Heaven,” a paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer from 1538). Valentin Schumann paired this hymn with Luther’s words in Geistliche Lieder, a hymnal he produced in 1539. This tune is called Old 112th in some hymnals, where it was used as a setting for Psalm 112.

Confessional Bibliology and Ecclesiastical Text

Confessional Bibliology - a specific view of bibliology (the study of the Bible) that affirms God’s providential preservation of Scripture in the traditional Reformation-era texts of the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament. The view establishes as “authentical” the consistent text of this era and rejects modern text critical reconstructionism. Confessional Bibliology holds the Masoretic text in Hebrew and the Textus Receptus in Greek as the pure and authentic “ecclesiastical text” of the churches. The view is “confessional” through being rooted in and supported by confessions such as Westminster (1646, Reformed), Savoy (1658, Congregational), and 2nd London (1677, Baptist). Chapter 1 (Of The Holy Scriptures), section 8 of these Confessions states:

“The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical; so as in all controversies of religion the church is finally to appeal unto them.”

Confessional Bibliology argues that the authentic text had been kept pure, already existed at the time these confessions were adopted, and therefore is not to be changed, discovered, or reconstructed through means of modern textual criticism.

Note 1. Paragraphs two & three of the confessions define the canon of Scripture. Note 2. Similar views, if not rooted in and supported by Reformation-era confessions, technically are not Confessional Bibliology but may be consistent with it. Note 3. Confessional Bibliology should not be conflated with so-called “King James Onlyism” (which itself is often caricatured by opponents through most extreme examples); Confessional Bibliology is rooted in the original languages of Scripture, while so-called “King James Onlyism” focuses on the English translation.

Ecclesiastical Text (also, Confessional Text, Received Text, Standard Sacred Text) - The standard biblical text that has been used over centuries in the mainstream churches (particularly or especially in those of Baptist, Congregational, Independent, Protestant, and/or Reformed heritage). These are the texts that were copied, preached, and used in these churches. For the New Testament Greek, this means the Byzantine manuscript tradition, most particularly the family of printed texts called the Textus Receptus (in practical terms, the 1881/1894 Scrivener text being most commonly used). For the Old Testament Hebrew, this refers to the Masoretic Text, especially the 1525 Daniel Bomberg Hebrew text.

Critique of House Church Ecclesiology, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• A Critique of House Church Ecclesiology -- “The authors have seen the error of the one-man show, and trying to correct it, have foolishly gone into the other ditch – only dialogue in the church meeting.”
• A List of Sermons in the Book of Acts -- “The sermons recorded in Acts give us a window into the preaching ministries of Peter, Stephen, Philip, James, and Paul, along with the immediate impact those sermons had.”
• Higher Ed’s Biggest Gamble -- “The debate over whether or not general thinking skills, or GTS, actually exist is well traveled within a relatively small circle of researchers and thinkers, but virtually unknown outside of it.”
• How Can We Simultaneously “Submit to Every Ordinance of Man” and “Obey God Rather Than Men”? -- “We must obey the government (1) unless the government explicitly tells us to disobey God, or (2) unless the government exceeds its jurisdiction so as to speak authoritatively into a sphere regulated by another, God-instituted authority.”
• How Church Discipline Aims at Heaven -- “Church discipline is an advance warning to the erring brother of the inevitable end-time judgment against his sin.”
• I Love Christmas. And I Hate Christmas. -- “...when the Cultural Christmas invades the church it runs dangerously close to idolatry.”
• On Earth as in Heaven: A (Very) Brief Biblical Theology of Heaven -- “Heaven and earth now overlap not in a place but in a person.”
• President James A. Garfield: Educated By Free Will Baptists -- “James A. Garfield, destined to become the 20th President of the United States in 1880, was one of Samuel Dwight Bates’s pupils.”
• The Church ~ Healthy Body Life -- “In Acts the portraits of Jerusalem church life in the summary narratives are presented in an exemplary way for readers to learn from and imitate.”
• What Kind of Theologian are You? -- “The academic theologian’s work is often directed predominately to other academic theologians.”