Bible Bill, King James, Western Canada, and the World

Why Bill? Which Bible? (As promised back on April 4th, I am getting around to a biographical effort on William Aberhart.)

Bible Bill’s biography

William Aberhart was a school teacher, principal, Bible teacher, radio evangelist, and the premier of Alberta (from 1935 till his death in 1943). Aberhart was often called “Bible Bill” in the press, probably in an effort to diminish or ridicule his political status.[i]

William Aberhart was born December 31, 1878 in Perth County, Ontario, Canada, the son of William Aberhart and Louisa Pepper. Aberhart married Janet Maria “Jessie” Flatt (1878-1966) in 1902. They had two daughters, Khona Louise (1903-1998) and Ola Janette (1905-2000).

Aberhart trained at Queen’s University and became a teacher. In 1915 he became the principal of Crescent Heights High School in Calgary. The same year he became the “unofficial minister” at Westbourne Baptist Church (he was not ordained). He continued to serve as principal of Crescent Heights High School until 1935.

Aberhart was a passionate preacher, Bible teacher, and radio evangelist. He started the Calgary Prophetic Bible Conference at Westbourne Baptist Church in 1918. He began broadcasting Bible teaching over CFCN in 1925. At the time CFCN was the most powerful radio station west of Montreal. Aberhart opened the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute in October 1927. A popular and well-known American fundamental Baptist preacher, William Bell Riley, preached at the grand opening of the building. In the midst of controversy yet by mutual agreement, in 1929 Aberhart separated from Westbourne Baptist Church (then still at least nominally affiliated with the Baptist Union of Western Canada)[ii] with authority to form a new church with his supporters. He organized the Bible Institute Baptist Church (an independent fundamentalist church).

Though Aberhart’s religious views are considered to the right, he adopted a political view (Social Credit) that was on the left, a form of socialism.[iii] Is this political position one reason some King James defenders tend to shy away from William Aberhart? Perhaps for some of his contemporaries, though it may be more likely for modern defenders that they simply have not heard of him. William “Bible Bill” Aberhart died May 23, 1943 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is buried there in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burnaby.

Bible Bill’s Bible

William Aberhart stood tall as a proponent of the King James translation and an opponent of the Revised Version. Booklets, Institute course outlines, lectures, memories, and newspaper accounts stand as a reminder of that fact. Perhaps Lecture No. 12 in the God’s Great Prophecies series – “The Latest of Modern Movements,” or “What about the Revised Version of the Bible?” – is the most complete surviving statement of Aberhart’s views. Here are a few excerpts.

“Can we estimate the effect upon the rising generations to have nothing settled? Are the Holy Scriptures a mere nose of wax to be turned and twisted to suit the caprice of the reader? or Are the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, the WORD OF GOD, and the only infallible guide of faith and manners? Every earnest person must answer these questions.”

“Contemporaneous with this splendid movement back to the scriptures there has arisen the latest modern religious movement, which is settling down upon the human race like a dense fog. I refer to the popular, apparently insatiable craze to undertake the seemingly insignificant task of correcting the Bible by revision.”

“The Authorized version is reliable. I believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.”[iv] 

In this lecture, Aberhart follows lines of argument in common with many modern King James Bible defenders. He:

• Gives biblical warnings and assurances
• Speaks of the fog of higher criticism
• Addresses the modern craze of correcting the Bible by revision
• Warns against multiple translations and following modern scholarship
• Allows for changing archaic words that no longer mean the same
• Calls attention to Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Alexandrinus
• Talks about Westcott, Hort, and the revisers
• Examines the revision itself, comparing verses with the King James Version

In “The Present Eastern Question in the Light of Prophecy” (p. 7) Aberhart says the Presbyterians and Baptists arose “from the faithful ones who had preserved God’s Word in the caves and hiding places of the Alps.” (emphasis mine)[v] 

In Bible Bill (p. 36), David Elliott reminds us that William Aberhart’s rallying cry was “‘The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible!’ He held that the King James Bible of 1611 embodied the literal, unabridged, and undiluted Word of God” and that he “deplored the confusion and disagreement among those making new translations, his bête noire being the Revised Version of 1884.”

Bible Bill’s Bearing

William Aberhart had connections with leading fundamentalists in Canada and the United States. In 1925, the Prophetic Conference, Westbourne Baptist Church, and other sponsors brought T. T. Shields (pastor of Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto) and P. W. Philpott (pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago) for a series of meetings against modernism. Harry Rimmer lectured at the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute in 1930. Aberhart visited the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA) at least two summers while preaching in Los Angeles.[vi] 

“William ‘Bible Bill’ Aberhart was very much a home-grown Canadian…Mr. Aberhart also believed in the inerrancy of the King James Version of the Bible, claiming that the text on which the KJV is based had been preserved by God in the Swiss Alps, beyond contamination of the Roman Catholic Church.

“In the 1920s, Mr. Aberhart began broadcasting Sunday School lessons over the radio in Calgary. By 1935, he was broadcasting five hours every Sunday over several stations, reaching hundreds of thousands of people.”[vii]

Barrie Oviatt also hints at the scope of Aberhart’s influence by 1935:

“The vast audience to which Aberhart was able to speak is evident from the fact that during a broadcast in April 1935, he read several letters from ‘as far distant as Quebec, the maritimes, and Pennsylvania.’ At its peak in 1935 Aberhart’s radio audience was computed at three hundred thousand (it is likely that not more than 65 per cent of the three hundred thousand were Albertans), while the Bible Institute listed one thousand two hundred and seventy-five supporters and the radio Sunday school with its printed lesson material reached eight thousand families. Such was the influence Aberhart wielded through his radio broadcasts and Institute in 1935.”[viii]

What bearing does William Aberhart have on the development of the King James Only position. He was a contemporary of Philip Mauro and Benjamin Wilkinson. His reach was probably distinct from Mauro’s and wider than Wilkinson’s. Anti-KJVO authors (such as Kutilek and Hudson) have arbitrarily appointed Benjamin Wilkinson the originator of KJVO. KJV defender David Cloud briefly mentions Aberhart in connection with Mark Buch, as well as printing excerpts from “What about the Revised Version of the Bible” on his Way to Life site. David Otis Fuller reprinted works by Mauro and Wilkinson, thereby securing their names in the modern King James Only movement.

It is equitable to place the Bible view of William Aberhart in the realm of “King James Onlyism” – that is, within what may be generally regarded as that viewpoint. He started a radio program in 1925 that within 10 years could be described as “reaching hundreds of thousands of people.” He organized a Bible Institute in Calgary, Alberta in 1927 (which taught his views on the King James Bible). Notably, both the radio program and Bible Institute preceded Benjamin Wilkinson, who on the other side of North America published Our Authorized Bible Vindicated in 1930.

More research needs to be done on Bible Bill Aberhart’s influence in the realm of the Bible versions debate.[ix] He influenced men such as Ernest Manning, Cyril Hutchinson, and Mark Buch, who carried the banner after him. His expansive outreach in print and on the radio make it likely that his influence was greater than has been remembered or credited.

My sense is that William “Bible Bill” Aberhart was more influential than has been previously supposed, and that he should take his place with Mauro and Wilkinson as important opponents of the Revised Version in the first half of the 20th century. Aberhart – as well as Mauro and Wilkinson – drank deeply from Dean Burgon’s well,[x] provided early 20th century opposition the use of the English and American Revised Versions, and provided ammunition for the rise of the mid-century opposition to the Revised Standard Version.[xi]

Through a Bible Institute, radio, travel, and interaction with other fundamentalists, “Bible Bill” Aberhart left an imprint, sometimes no longer acknowledged, not only in Western Canada, but also in other parts of the world.

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[i] My limited newspaper research suggests journalists began using this terminology after William Aberhart became premier of Alberta. Searching the U.S. and Canadian papers available at Newspapers.com, I did not find the term used in reference to Aberhart before 1936. 

[ii] Westbourne church later connected itself to the Regular Baptists associated with T. T. Shields. Bible Bill: a Biography of William Aberhart, David R. Elliott, page 30 and page 90. 

[iii] I am not familiar with “Social Credit” and have not tried to understand it. George Palmer, a Calgary resident writing to the newspaper against “Social Credit,” called it a pseudo-economic-politico-religious conglomeration. For general reference, though somewhat biased against him, see the entry “William Aberhart” in the Canadian Encyclopedia.

[iv] William Aberhart, “The Latest of Modern Movements,” circa 1925. The online booklet from which I quote is undated and may represent a “final product” on the subject. However, a listing on the Aberhart Foundation site shows a lecture from the 1920s titled “The Latest Modern Movements or the Growing Craze for Bible Revision,” indicating he had already developed this lecture in the 1920s. The foundation states that there “appears to be at least 3 different publications of God’s Great Prophecies which have some differences in Lecture Numbers and Titles.” 

[v] With knowledge of Aberhart’s views on the Bible, we certainly may understand this in reference to the survival of a pure text. However, it also seems that Aberhart may also have in mind the faith delivered to the saints and pure worship – as opposed to that of the Roman Catholics. 

[vi] Bible Bill, pages 62, 71, and 72. See The Los Angeles Daily Times, Saturday, July 14, 1923, p. 16, showing he lectured at Biola in the summer of 1923; and Saturday July, 17, 1924, p. 3, part II, showing he held a Bible Conference at the YMCA building in 1924. Calgary Herald, Saturday, September 20, 1930, p. 18.

[vii] “God: Americans Spread Gospel northward,” The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), Saturday, June 20, 1998, page B3.

[viii] The Papers of William Aberhart as Minister of Education, 1935-1943, Barrie Connolly Oviatt, Master of Education Thesis, University of Alberta, 1971, p. 18.

[ix] One important factor is to confirm more definitely just exactly when Aberhart publicly rejected the Revised Version and espoused a stance for only the King James translation. It seems likely at least by the mid-1920s, making it possible to be influenced by Philip Mauro, but unlikely by Benjamin Wilkinson. The Aberhart Foundation site has a photocopy of a Bulletin of the Calgary Bible Institute which they date 1925. It shows Aberhart was already teaching on the Bible versions, and specifically against the Revised Version (Systematic Theology, Course A, pp. 4-7). The reference “What about the Revised Version” seems to be to Aberhart’s lecture by that title (p. 4). It also shows that the Institute required students to have the Authorized Version of the Bible among its necessary books (p. 1).

[x] David Cloud wrote, “Mark Buch testified to me that Aberhard (sic) used Burgon’s material in his Bible institute classes.” 

[xi] Aberhart associates and students such as Mark Buch, Cyril Hutchinson, and Ernest C. Manning were among active opponents of the RSV. See, for example, “Says New Bible ‘Fraud’ But Sales Are Booming,” The Calgary Albertan, Wednesday, December 17, 1952, page 1, section 2; “Vancouver Minister Scores New Bible,” The Calgary Herald, Wednesday, December 17, 1952, page 27; “Manning Hits Out At ‘Revised’ Bible,” The Calgary Albertan, Monday, April 23, 1962, page 3. Ernest Manning became premier of Alberta after the death of Aberhart. “The Revised Standard, Manning said, results in modernization of God’s Word to the point where the original intent is lost…The premier said the King James Version of The Bible contained God’s True Word and should not be defiled (or defied)…The original Word, as it appears in the King James Bible, was blessed by God Himself and should remain untouched.” Perry F. Rockwood (1917-2008) was another Canadian fundamentalist who staunchly supported the King James Version, but it is not clear that he was influenced by Aberhart.