5 Questions For Stephen Kotkin, 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.

• 5 Questions For Stephen Kotkin -- “Xi Jinping...spent a great deal of his time and resources figuring out why that collapse happened in the Soviet Union and why it would never happen in China.”
• 1963 Annual of the North American Baptist Conference -- “The Baptist Jubilee Advance is a Cooperative Witness for Christ in which seven Baptist groups in the U.S.A. and Canada representing over 19 million people are cooperating.”
• A Look At Baptists Around the World (in 1995) -- “...in Canada, Baptists...almost have the status of a sect, never attaining the prominence and influence of the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church and United Church in that land. There are at least 14 different Baptist groups in Canada...”
• Black Americans See the Biggest Shift Away from Faith -- “Over more than a decade, the share of Black Americans who say that they have no religious affiliation has risen more dramatically than whites, Hispanics, or Asians.”
• Durham says Democrat-allied tech executive spied on Trump’s White House office -- “Special counsel John Durham says he is building a case to show the technology executive with whom an indicted Democratic lawyer on the payroll of Hillary Clinton’s campaign was working to build a Trump-Russia collusion narrative gained access to internet traffic at the White House...”
• Focus on Texas: Public Art -- “‘A true work of art takes at least an hour,’ wrote Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip.”
• Is Intelligent Design a Science Stopper? -- “The upshot of all this is that evolution does not follow the evidence, it follows a rule. The intellectual necessity does not allow for exceptions. Evolutionists must adhere to a strictly naturalistic origins story, regardless of the evidence. The science doesn’t matter.”
• Late-night reports suggest CIA collecting more data on Americans -- “The revelations have prompted calls from civil rights organizations and privacy hawks in Congress for legislative action to strengthen protections for Americans.”
• Levi Brand Boss Exits After Dispute Over School-Mask Opposition -- “Jennifer Sey, who was the company’s global brand president, said she passed up a $1 million severance package that would have come with a nondisclosure agreement so she could publicly discuss the circumstances of her departure.”
• Making sense of contemporary Charismatic Apostolates: An historical and theological appraisal -- “...as a whole, the Baptist Church has produced influential Charismatic leaders such as Jack Taylor, Ron Phillips, and Gary Folds, as well as the prominent Christian television presenter, James Robison...”
• Mark Ward’s KJV Parallel Bible - a glaring example of his poor scholarship -- “So just in that one exercise, if 3 places in one chapter was in error, and there are 260 chapters in the New Testament, we could be looking at 700-800 places he has overlooked.”
• KJV Parallel Bible -- “Using the KJV Parallel Bible, English speakers can see for themselves the differences between the two major textual traditions.”
• Outline of Baptist Persecution in Colonial America -- “1775 – Baptists presented petitions [in Virginia] calling for the abolishment of the established church; one petition garnered 10,000 signatures, including Presbyterians and some Anglicans.”
• Swedish Reformation Bible Society -- “In Google you can choose translate to translate this site into English.”
• Symbiotic Lichens Showcase Our Creator’s Ingenuity -- “Despite the errant views of Darwinists, we’ve come to realize that mutually beneficial creature systems widely pervade nature among both plants and animals.”
• The Baptist Scene Today in the U.S.A. -- “The bewildering disarray which the flourishing Baptists of the United States manifest is as confusing to the average American as it is to the on-looking Englishman. (old, 1963, but interesting)
• WM 226: André Juthe, Swedish Reformation Bible Society -- “The second edition of the New Testament Reformation Bible is expected to be published shortly. It is primarily a direct translation of the Greek Textus Receptus, but also a revision of Charles XII’s Reformation Bible.”
• Woodland Cemetery -- “Located off of Magnolia Road in Henrico, Virginia lies the historic Woodland Cemetery. It is estimated that about 30,000 people have been laid to rest here in its 29 acres.”

Let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay

There were, we know, whole worlds of mischief at work among our Lord’s hearers and contemporaries in the matter of oaths: as first, that some were regarded as more binding than others; that those made in the name of God must indeed be performed, while of those by the altar and the gift on the altar, by the temple and the gold in the temple, some obliged, while others were of no force at all; and the spiritual rulers of the people, blind leaders of the blind, had made a scale of the obligation of these several oaths on the consciences of men (Matt. xxiii. 16-22). Then, too, men had learnt to think that if only God’s Name were avoided, there was no irreverence in the frequent oaths, ‘by heaven,’ ‘by the earth,’ ‘by Jerusalem,’ by their own heads—and in these introduced on the slightest need, or on no need whatsoever; just as now-a-days men who would not be wholly profane will substitute for the Name of God sounds that nearly resemble, but are not exactly it, or the name, it may be, of some heathen deity; and this out of a lingering respect for that Holy Name.

Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886), Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, drawn from the writings of St. Augustine (4th Edition, Revised), London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., 1886, pp. 217-218.

Looking for a loophole

Matthew 5:34-36 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

Matthew 23:16, 21-22 Woe unto you, ye blind guides … And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 

While studying Jesus’s teaching about oaths, and thinking about the Pharisees “looking for a loophole” when they swore their oaths – the “looking for a loophole” phrase made me think of the phrase “looking for a city” in the gospel song by W. Oliver Cooper and Marvin P. Dalton.

From thence, I came up with the following text to fit Looking For a City: 

1. Here among the shadows (living) in a land of lies (so obscure),
We’re a band of fibbers in this world;
(By nature) burdened down with evil, (with our) ideas on the rise, 
(We are) looking for a loophole built on words.
 
Chorus:
Looking for a loophole (madly) 
In the oaths we swear (just hoping)
Others do not notice (ever)
That we do not care (to truth-tell);
When we find our deceit (glory!)
And our loophole too (we pray),
May none ever detect (no never)
That our words aren’t true (all our words aren’t true).
 
2. Here in disappointments (often) practicing our fraud,
(We earthly) men no longer speak one word of truth;
(But truly) we have found a loophole, (that we) never mention God,
(When we) swear our oaths to heaven and to earth.
 
Repeat chorus.

My “hymn” was written January 17, 2022. It expresses how not only those Jesus addressed but we as well in modern times, are all too often looking for a way out of keeping our word.

W. Oliver Cooper (words) and Marvin P. Dalton (music) wrote Looking For a City, probably around 1943. Cooper wrote a number of songs, including Heaven Will Surely Be Worth It All in 1945. Dalton also wrote quite a few songs. Perhaps one of his better known is What a Savior.

Here among the shadows (living) in a lonely land (with strangers),

We’re a band of pilgrims on the move; (through dangers)

Burdened down with sorrows, (and we’re) shunned on every hand,

(But we are) Looking for a city built above.

When the rich wage war, 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.)

“When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.” -- Jean-Paul Satre

“So completely was Jesus bent upon saving sinners by the sacrifice of himself, he created the tree upon which he was to die, and nurtured from infancy the men who were to nail him to the accursed wood.” -- Octavius Winslow

“When people throw stones at you, don’t throw them back. Instead, collect them and construct something worthwhile.” -- Unknown

“We are led by the logic of faith to the Masoretic Hebrew text, to the New Testament Textus Receptus, and to the King James Version. -- Edward F. Hills

“The Bible is the examiner, and we are the thing examined.” -- Peter Van Kleeck, Jr.

“War does not determine who is right – only who is left.” -- Often attributed to Bertrand Russell, but more likely from an anonymous source.

“Common sense is a flower that does not grow in everyone’s garden.” -- Unknown

“Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right. ”-- C. H. Spurgeon

“Jesus may have instituted the last supper but a church with gluten-free bread has perfected it.” --Babylon Bee

“A beautiful face will age and a perfect body will change, but a beautiful soul will always be a beautiful soul.” -- Unknown

“Often the only difference between a medicine and a poison is the dose.” -- General knowledge (hopefully)

“The law, being the standard of righteousness, showed what was required of Christ to the redemption and justification of his people from its demands.” -- Samuel Trott

A Panegyric in Honour of John Clarke, 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 Panegyric in Honour of John Clarke -- “Dr. John Clarke did start the first Baptist church in America in 1638. That church (Union Baptist) is still active, and although not a KJV church, it still is somewhat evangelistic and has saved people in it. John Clarke and his fellow Baptists were persecuted for their faith (as Baptists).”
• A Taxonomy of At-Risk Pastors -- “Some pastors have more resilience and capacity than others, but no one is immune to profound emotional and spiritual exhaustion.”
• Abrams Cast Iron Grave Covers: Exploring Greenville, Ala.’s Pioneer Cemetery, Part I -- “I headed for Greenville, Ala. I’d long wanted to visit Greenville because it was the home of Joseph R. Abrams, inventor of the cast iron grave cover.”
• Amanda America Dickson House, 1871, Hancock County -- “Upon David Dickson’s death in 1885, Amanda inherited the majority of his estate, worth well over 8 million dollars in today’s dollars.”
• Capitol rioter awaiting sentencing dies by suicide, coroner says -- “Matthew Lawrence Perna died on February 25, 2022 of a broken heart. His community (which he loved), his country, and the justice system killed his spirit and his zest for life.”
• Dickey Presbyterian, Rural Gem in Calhoun County, Org. 1871 -- “The name of the original church, located one mile south of the present structure, was the Pachitla Presbyterian Church – then located in Baker County.”
• Don’t Be an “Orphan Church Plant” -- “The parents reading this quickly remember just how needy newborns and toddlers are. Teens are less needy, yet only slightly more self-sufficient.”
• ERICKSON: An Unserious People Confront A Serious Man -- “...no living American remembers a world in which the United States was not a superpower. Putin intends to show us that world.”
• Famous Baptist Succession / History Quotes In Context -- “Many Baptists have pointed out some amazing quotations made by non-Baptist historians...weighty non-Baptist sources affirm the Baptists’ historical succession from the days of Christ to the present day.”
• John William Burgon: Rescued, Resuscitated, and Reconsidered by Theodore P. Letis -- “Ted Letis earned a Ph.D from the University of Edinburgh in ecclesiastical history, and was an Author, Lecturer, and President and Executive Director of the Institute of Renaissance and Reformation Biblical Studies.”
• Ketanji Brown Jackson: Five Things To Know About Biden’s SCOTUS Pick -- “Judge Jackson’s record of reversals by the left-leaning D.C. Circuit is troubling for anyone concerned about the rule of law.”
• Obama’s White House Doctor Demands Biden Take Cognitive Exam As Russia Starts War: ‘He’s Incoherent,’ ‘Looks Confused’ -- “The whole country is seeing his mental cognitive issues on display for over a year now, and there’s really no question in most people’s minds that there’s something going on with him...”
• Radical Abortion Bill Fails in U.S. Senate -- “Anti-Life U.S. senators failed to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) Monday. This bill would have banned states from passing Pro-Life laws and was originally passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last September in response to the life-saving Texas Heartbeat Act.”
• Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s account locked for tweet criticizing transgender athletes in women’s sports -- “Her tweet said: ‘Women’s Sports are for Women, not men pretending to be women.’”
• Scriptural Baptism -- “Here are four basic elements to scriptural baptism. 1. Scriptural administrator/teacher 2. Scriptural candidate 3. Scriptural mode 4. Scriptural action.”
• St. Paul CME, Hancock County, Org. 1857 -- “The St. Paul CME church was organized in 1857 by slaves on the Dickson Plantation. In 1870, property near the brush arbor where services were conducted was deeded over to the church.”
• The Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius Baptist Succession Quote: Is it Legitimate? -- “Yes...the quotation about Baptist succession by Roman Catholic cardinal Stanislaus Hosius is absolutely accurate, and he certainly did say it. Those who deny that he said it failed to research the matter properly.”
• The State of Theology -- “It may be unsurprising that the majority of the general U.S. population rejects the deity of Christ, but now almost a third of evangelicals agree that He was merely a great teacher.”
• To Stay and Serve: Why We Didn’t Flee Ukraine -- “My wife and I have decided to remain in our city near Kyiv. We want to serve the people here along with Irpin Bible Church where I joined the pastoral team in 2016.”
• Top 5 Church Denominations That Use KJV Bible the Most -- “The original research for the project was based on open source versions of the Bible, including data from the Pew Research Center, Google Analytics, and YouVersion.”
• Ukraine: The left spews an amazing banquet of stupidities -- “It reminds me of the boobs in that 1996 movie Independence Day, who, when greeted by hostile ships from outer space in midtown New York City, started a Times Square-style party to ‘welcome’ the aliens. The aliens zapped the revelers on the spot with one laser shot, killing them all.”
• We Are Miles Away But Still Walking -- “While I appreciate Ward’s tone and demeanor, his claim that the Confessional position or even the KJVO position is the divisive side of the version argument is plainly false...”
• Where KJV Leaves the Beza 1598 for Stephens 1550 or Another Text -- “In this study each deviation from Beza is noted. In the first section are general deviatiations. In the second section are deviations which reportedly follow the Latin Vulgate Bible.”
• Why are the promoters of modern bibles so silent about Jennifer Knust? -- “I wonder if ANY critical text advocate will say anything about him or her? We as TR/KJV proponents have to denounce any association with people like Gipp or Ruckman every second paragraph, but these rank heretics are never spoken against!”

The Cromwell Souldiers Bible

In discussions of the Geneva Bible “versus” the King James Bible, the name of Oliver Cromwell often appears. Cromwell (1599–1658) was an English military leader who led the Parliament’s armies in the English Civil War against King Charles I. He served as “Lord Protector” from 1653 until 1658. He was a committed Puritan often associated with the exclusive or primary use of the Geneva Bible. That is part, but not all, of the story.

In 1643, a “pocket Bible” – The Souldiers Pocket Bible – was issued for use by the soldiers in Cromwell’s army. Some few still think this was an entire Bible, but it was in fact a pamphlet with excerpts of different Bible verses related to the army, soldiers, and war. The pamphlet was 5-1/2" X 3" with approximately 125 Bible verses on 16 pages. There is one verse on the title page. Writers usually claim that it contains verses from the Geneva Bible – which is generally correct, with at least two exceptions (and with the understanding that sometimes the verses in Geneva and King James are the same).[i]

“The Soldier’s Pocket Bible was composed of just 16 pages which contained 150 verse quotations from the Geneva Bible.”[ii]

“Originally published in 1643 during the English Civil war, the booklet is a collection of 125 verses from the Geneva Bible translation to encourage soldiers in Oliver Cromwell’s army.”[iii]

Here are a few excerpts. The Souldiers Pocket Bible did not always contain complete verses, and perhaps not always exact replicas of either version. For examples:

• Deuteronomy 23:9, When thou goest out with the host against thine enemies, keepe thee then from all wickednesse.
• KJV: When the hoste goeth foorth against thine enemies, then keepe thee from every wicked thing.
• GNV: When thou goest out with the hoaste against thine enemies, keepe thee then from all wickednesse.

• 1 Samuel 17:45, Then said David unto the Philistine, Thou commest to me with a sword, and with a speare, and with a shield, but I come unto thee in the name of the Lord of hoasts, the God of Israel...
• KJV: Then said David to the Philistine, Thou commest to mee with a sword, and with a speare, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hostes, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
• GNV: Then said David to the Philistim, Thou commest to me with a sword, and with a speare, and with a shield, but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hoastes, the God of the hoast of Israel, whom thou hast rayled upon.


• 1 Samuel 18:17, Be valiant and fight the Lords battels.
• KJV: ...onely be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lords battels...
• GNV: ...onely be a valiant sonne unto mee, & fight the Lords battels...

In his facsimile reprint of The Souldiers Pocket Bible, Francis Fry quotes George Livermore’s observation about the pamphlet.

“The selections from Scripture are almost all from the Genevan version…Only one text (Eccles. ix. 2.) is unquestionably from the latter version [i.e., King James, rlv]. The variations from the Genevan consist in a occasional transcription of words, the substitution of a synonym, or similar looseness of quotation, as if memory alone had been relied on.”[iv]

• Ecclesiastes 9:2, All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked, to the good and to the cleane, and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner: and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
• KJV: All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the cleane, and to the uncleane, to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner, and hee that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
• GNV: All things come alike to all: and the same condition is to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the pure, and to the polluted, and to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner, and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Perhaps even Fry and Livermore had not paid close attention to the Bible verse on the cover page (Joshua 1:8) which, other than a few words left out of the last clause (which are in both Geneva and KJV), matches the text of the King James Bible rather than the Geneva Bible.

• Joshua 1:8, This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou maiest observe to doe according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and have good successe.
• KJV: This book of the law shal not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to doe according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good successe.
• GNV: Let not this booke of the Law depart out of thy mouth, but meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe and doe according to all that is written therein: for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good successe.

It seems there was no “grand conspiracy” to exclude all use of the 1611 translation. Though the preponderance of verses favor the Geneva Bible, there are places where the KJV and Geneva match, and places in the pamphlet that do not match either translation. Furthermore, Hamlin and Jones suggest that Cromwell was not deeply committed to use only the Geneva Bible.

“Although one might think that the Puritan Commonwealth would have been committed to the Bible most associated with English Puritans (the Geneva), even Oliver Cromwell now favored the KJB (printed by John Field, first Printer to Parliament and then ‘one of His Hignes [i.e. Cromwell’s] Printers’)’...Even before the end of the Commonwealth, no one was printing anything but the KJB, and its domination of the English Bible market was assured for the next 250 years.”[v]

For whatever reason – hatred of the KJV, love of the Geneva, sloppy research, repetition of “Christian urban myths,” riding the bandwagon, assumption the “scholars” are right – often the transition from the use of the Geneva Bible to the use of the King James Bible is presented in very controversial terms that are not cleanly supported by all the facts.

---

[i] That is, they usually state it not meaning that it simply contains, but that it only contains, verses from the Geneva Bible.
[ii] The Significance of Cromwell’s Soldiers’ Pocket Bible, Khanh Nguyen, page 1.
[iii] They Read the Same Bible: Bibles from the American Civil War.
[iv] Francis Fry quoting George Livermore of Boston, Massachusetts, who owned a copy. “Introduction,” The Souldiers Pocket Bible, 1643, Reproduced in Facsimile, Edmund Calamy, Francis Fry, London: Willis and Sotheran, 1862, pp. v-vi.
[v] “Introduction: the King James Bible and its reception history,” by Hamlin and Jones, in The King James Bible After Four Hundred Years: Literary, Linguistic, and Cultural Influences, edited by Hannibal Hamlin, Norman W. Jones. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 8.

Thomas Helwys, Roger Williams, and the Midland Confession

A few more investigations of the early use (or not) of the King James Bible of 1611.

The Thomas Helwys’ Confession of 1611 has two of what appear to be intended as direct quotes of scripture.

Deuteronomy 30.19, I call Heaven and Earth to record. This day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.
KJV: I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
GNV: I call heaven and earth to recorde this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore chuse life, that both thou and thy seede may live,

It is unknown to me when Helwys’ confession was written in 1611 in relation to the availability of the new 1611 Bible. Though both versions match his quote (with the exception of his punctuation and slight spelling differences), it is most likely he used the Geneva Bible at this time, considering the verses on the cover page of A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity, and that the new translation likely was not available to him. Helwys lived in Holland circa 1609-1613.

Hosea 13:9 Thy destruction O Israel, is of thy self, but thy help is of me.

Thus far, I have not found any English Bible translated in Hosea 13:9 as above. Perhaps this is Helwys’ own translation, a paraphrase, or an inexact quote from memory.

A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity (published in 1612) includes two Bible verses on the cover page. These (except for minor variations of spelling and punctuation) match the Geneva Bible rather than the King James Bible.

Jeremiah 51:6, Flee out of the midst of Babell, and deliver every man his soule: be not destroyed in hir iniquity, for this is the time of the lords vengeance: he will render unto hir a recompense.
KJV: Flee out of the middest of Babylon, and deliver every man his soule: bee not cut off in her iniquitie; for this is the time of the Lords vengeance: he will render unto her a recompence.
GNV: Flee out of the middes of Babel, and deliver every man his soule: be not destroyed in her iniquitie: for this is the time of the Lords vengeance: hee will render unto her a recompense.

Hosea 10:12, Sow to your selves in righteousnes, reape after the measure of mercie, breake up your fallow ground, for it is time to seeke the Lord, till he come & rain righteousnes upon you.
KJV: Sow to your selves in righteousnesse, reap in mercie; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seeke the Lord, till he come and raine righteousnesse upon you.
GNV: Sowe to your selves in righteousnesse: reap after the measure of mercy: break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seeke the Lord, till he come and raine righteousnesse upon you.

In The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, 1644 by Roger Williams the first quote appears to be a paraphrase of Titus 3:11, and does not match either version. The second quote matches the King James translation rather than the Geneva. Without doubt, there are many other quotes that could and should be checked. Also note that the edition I used in an 1848 printing and might be edited from the original.

Titus 3:11, He is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself; that is, of his own conscience.

KJV: Knowing that hee that is such, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himselfe.

GNV: Knowing that hee that is such, is perverted, and sinneth, being damned of his owne selfe.

Proverbs 17:14 (Solomon once spake) The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water, therefore, saith he, leave off contention before it be meddled with.

KJV: The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be medled with.

GNV: The beginning of strife is as one that openeth the waters; therefore, or the contention be medled with, leave off.

The Midland Confession of Faith of 1655 has 16 articles of faith. It provides scripture references, but does not provide any direct quotes. However, article 2 uses 1 John 5:7 as a proof text showing that the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit are one (thus supporting the Greek Textus Receptus, though not one particular early English translation).

Why “Which Textus Receptus”?

“Which Textus Receptus” and Related Online Responses.

• Which Textus Receptus? A Critique of Confessional Bibliology -- “I argue that neither mainstream KJV-Onlyism nor Confessional Bibliology can justify dividing from the majority of evangelical biblical scholars over its doctrines: their views differ only in degree and not in kind from the majority view of textual criticism.”
• Which Textus Receptus?! A Response to Mark Ward’s Critique of Confessional Bibliology -- “Although Ward’s paper is to be welcomed for thoughtfully engaging CB, his insistence to forge the position as a kind of KJV-Onlyism is overreaching.”
• This Textus Receptus: A Response to Mark Ward’s Critique of Confessional Bibliology -- “I discuss several apparent misunderstandings evinced by Ward which I believe impair his ability to rightly ‘summarize’ both ‘Mainstream KJV-Onlyism’ and ‘Confessional Bibliology.’”
• Responding to the “Which TR?” Objection -- “In the end, once more we can affirm that these minor differences are not the same either in ‘scale’ or ‘kind’ with those encountered by those using the modern reconstruction method.”
• Editions of the TR Argument and Excellent Preservation Versus Perfect Preservation -- “Ward and others conflate the very few differences between the TR editions into an eclectic text position, as if the modern textual critics believe the same as those who wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF). This isn’t true. ”
• Various Editions of the “Which TR?” Question in a Debate about the Preservation of Scripture -- “The one word for which opponents of verbal plenary or perfect preservation are seeking or desiring does not contradict the logic of faith. It does not veto the theology, the doctrine.”
• Which Edition of the Received Text Should We Use? -- “According to Scrivener’s extensive comparisons, there are 252 places in which the Erasmus, Stephanus, Elzevir, Beza, and Complutensian Polyglot disagree sufficiently to affect the English translation.”
  
• Which Textus Receptus? -- “Some people hold out the question “Which TR?” to Received Text advocates as if a definitive answer is needed or it is a deal breaker for the position.”

Introduction.

In 2020, Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal published Mark Ward’s “Which Textus Receptus? A Critique of Confessional Bibliology.”[i] Two years later, Mark Ward believes this has not been answered. Two years later, I have found about a half-dozen answers to “Which Textus Receptus.”[ii] The discrepancy, apparently, is that the writers believe they have answered Ward, and Ward believes they have not. This addition to the pot is not my “answer to’ but some “thoughts on” Mark Ward’s “Which Textus Receptus.”

“Which TR” is not a question of fact.

Why does Mark Ward ask “Which Textus Receptus?” The question is not a question of inquiry about a fact. By that, I mean Mark does not actually want or need to know whether Robert Vaughn uses the 1881/1894 Scrivener, Doug Wilson uses the 1550 Stephanus, and so on. He is already aware, for example, that “There is one edition of the Greek New Testament that [the mainstream KJV-Only movement, rlv] consistently uses in its various educational institutions: Scrivener’s TR, particularly the edition put out by the Trinitarian Bible Society.”[iii] He further notes, “This 29th and final TR is the one used today by basically all who prefer the TR.”[iv] In addition, “Various influential defenders of the TR have pointed to Scrivener (Riddle, Truelove, the Trinitarian Bible Society, and many others), Stephanus (Douglas Wilson), and Beza (Chuck Surrett, who later pointed to Scrivener instead), as the best—or, in some cases, the perfect—exemplar of the TR tradition.”[v]

That “Which TR” is not a question of fact can be seen when Mark answers his own question. Regarding the group discussed first, he says, “the answer of mainstream KJV-Onlyism to the question, ‘Which TR?’ is: ‘The KJV’.”[vi] Regarding the second group, he summarizes, “Confessional Bibliology’s answer to the question, ‘Which TR?’ is ‘The KJV’.”[vii]

So there you have it. Mark Ward is not inquiring of us who use the Textus Receptus to find out which TR we use, or what we believe about it. He inquires for a different purpose – a reason that is set out in his “Abstract.” His idea is to demonstrate that TR proponents should not divide from evangelical textual critics over bibliology, since the views of TR proponents “differ only in degree and not in kind from the majority view of textual criticism.”[viii]

Ostensibly, the basic argument of his paper is “meant to build a bridge between TR defenders and that majority evangelical position.” Apparently, he thinks that bridge can be built by convincing TR advocates that we all “are in the same boat” – that is, the TR is just as much a critical text as the Critical Text (“our views differ only in degree and not in kind”). On the other hand, in my opinion, he shoots his entire premise in the foot by concluding that all TR advocates are simply covert KJV-Onlyists.

“Which TR” is a stratagem of debate.

By stratagem here, I mean a skillful plan or maneuver used to gain an advantage over the opposing disputant. Knocked off balance, perhaps the TR supporters will be confused, unable to answer, and begin to see the “error” of their ways.[ix]

Mark delicately crafts a list that totals “in fact, twenty-eight TRs,” strikingly equivalent in quantity to the numbering of Nestle-Aland editions of the Greek New Testament. Additionally, he speaks of the Scrivener-created TR as the 29th, which will be the number of the next published NA.[x] I question the equivalency beyond a numerical coincidence, and even that coincidence. In a blog post, Mark makes a comparison between the number of TRs and NAs, writing, “But by my count, Scrivener’s TR was actually the 29th major TR.”[xi] However, for example, in “Which Textus Receptus? A Critique of Confessional Bibliology” he wrote, “Theodore Beza produced five major and five minor editions of the TR between 1565 and 1604.”  Minor editions are not major editions and therefore not counted as such.[xii]

I think others have pushed back on the differences in kind between the TR and NA. I do not intend to go there. Let others do so. I merely point out that we are settled with what we have. We do not rush to correct and change the Textus Receptus in light of every new discovery. All must acknowledge that it true, because that is one of the continual complaints of modern textual critics to TR advocates. It is old, outdated, untouched by the oldest, latest, biggest, and best. As Mark writes, there is a “final TR.” There will never be a “final NA,” and I perceive Christians will be no better off for that fact.

This coincidence of numbering, however, is not Mark’s main point, but more of an accidental one. The “nuts and bolts” of “Which Textus Receptus” is this:

…I demonstrate that two particular TR editions carry all but one of the same kinds of differences that occur between the TRs and the critical texts of the GNT. I argue that neither mainstream KJV-Onlyism nor Confessional Bibliology can justify dividing from the majority of evangelical biblical scholars over its doctrines: their views differ only in degree and not in kind from the majority view of textual criticism.[xiii]

The basic argument of this paper, then, is meant to build a bridge between TR defenders and that majority evangelical position. It is meant, to use another image, to reveal that they—we—are in the same boat. The Lord in his good providence has not given any Christian warrant to claim exhaustive and perfect certainty in our textual criticism of the New Testament. TR defenders must stop claiming to have a “pure” and “absolute” text; that claim is, quite simply, causing brothers and sisters to divide unnecessarily.[xiv]

I ask, “Who is dividing from whom?” I sit where I have always.

We Traditional Text and KJV advocates are not all agreed on all the details about the KJV. No, all TR proponents are not rabid KJV-Onlyists.[xv] However, I think we are all agreed on this – we are not interested in modernizing the King James Bible. No lasting good can come of it. It will only further divide a consistent group of Christians (the KJV is still the Bible more English Christians read than any other) who, in the face of hundreds of Bible translations available to English-speaking people, continue to share a continuum, community, and commitment to one Bible, the Authorized or King James Bible. We do not wish to give that up.

Conclusion.

I was raised in a church made up of people who  believed they possessed the Bible, the words that God gave. The inspired Bible. They were not KJV-Onlyists of the modern kind, but they only used the KJV. They never talked about being KJV biblicists, KJV believers, KJV-Only, or any such talk. They mentioned nothing about other translations beyond the occasional talk of the RSV, such as the “young woman” vs. “virgin” issue.[xvi] The average members knew the Bible, what it said, what they should believe, how they should live. They knew no Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek, not much of the history of Bible transmission, and nothing about textual criticism. Yet, their lives proved they knew and believed their Bibles. Somehow, I cannot help but believe that they were better off in their world than the morass in which we now live.[xvii]

I am reminded of a story I heard long ago when I was young. Now I am old. The story tells of an old man and old woman, husband and wife, who were riding along in their old Chevrolet pickup truck.[xviii] Sitting by the passenger door, she looked out the window and began to reminisce about old times. Remember going here. Remember going there. Remember doing this. Remember doing that. Then she waxed a bit wistful, “Remember how we used to sit so close in this old truck?” He looked at her affectionately, with a bit of a wry grin, and replied, “I haven’t moved.”

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[i] Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal, Volume 25, 2020, 51-77.
[ii] By this, I mean I have found their existence by Google searching. I do not mean I have read them all.
[iii] “Which Textus Receptus? A Critique of Confessional Bibliology,” page 56.
[iv] Ibid., page 53.
[v] Ibid., page 60.
[vi] Ibid., pp. 56-57.
[vii] Ibid., page 54.
[viii] Ibid., page 51.
[ix] This is neither a charge nor a complaint, but merely a simple assessment. Debaters use strategy to make their points.
[x] “An international and interconfessional editorial board is currently preparing the 29th edition. It will bring many changes, especially in the Gospel of Mark and the Acts of the Apostles.” “The Novum Testamentum Graece (Nestle-Aland) and its history”
[xi] Bold emphasis mine. “Is the Textus Receptus Perfect in Every Jot and Tittle? Ambrose vs. Scrivener” Accessed 2021,
[xii] I suppose one might also discuss whether all the NAs are “major” editions.
[xiii] “Which Textus Receptus? A Critique of Confessional Bibliology,” page 51.
[xiv] Ibid., page 77. “Causing brothers and sisters to divide” could encompass actively splitting churches or simply something keeping us from working together. In The History of the King James Only Controversy within the Independent Baptist Churches: Its Effect and Importance, 1964-2000, Frederick Widdowson wrote, “As a controversy it split churches apart” (p. 9). However, neither his thesis shows nor my own research indicates that such individual church splits have occurred in abundance. It is my opinion this is greatly exaggerated. As far as the other, I suspect the Bible versions issue seldom is the sole cause of keeping us separated. While Mark chides us as separationists (i.e., the reason for division), he is actively engaged in a speaking and writing war that will divide the Christians who agree on using the Authorised or King James Version of the Bible (and will not unite those who disagree on the TR vs. CT).
[xv] For example, I believe there could be changes introduced, but do not believe they can be profitably agreed upon by the aggregate of King James Bible readers. Therefore, leave it alone. In the late 19th century Westcott, Hort, and company broke the stable thread of progressively minor updates to the King James translation of the Bible and ruined the possibility of effectively doing so in the future.
[xvi] Which might be brought up in Sunday School literature.
[xvii] That said, I realize we are not going back to simpler times.
[xviii] Our old pickups had bench seats way back when.

The Trail of Blood

Just recently read a recommendation of J. M. Carroll’s The Trail of Blood. It reminded of some thoughts I have had on the booklet, which I see I have never included at “Seeking the Old Paths.”

James Milton Carroll (January 8, 1852 – January 10, 1931) was born in Monticello, Arkansas, the son of Benajah and Mary Eliza Carroll. His father was a Baptist preacher. So was his better-known older brother, Benajah Harvey (B. H.) Carroll.

J. M. Carroll was a Baptist pastor, author, and educator. He was an amateur ornithologist, and reputedly owned one of the largest collections of bird eggs in the state of Texas. Carroll founded the Education Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He was a founder and the first president of San Marcos Baptist Academy. He served as president of both Oklahoma Baptist University and Howard Payne University.

In addition to his well-known book The Trail of Blood,[i] he compiled several other books, including Texas Baptist Statistics (1896), A History of Texas Baptists, B. H. Carroll, The Colossus of Baptist History, The Eternal Safety and Security of all Blood Bought Believers, and Just Such a Time: Recollections of Childhood on the Texas Frontier, 1858-1867. Carroll died in Fort Worth, Texas, and is buried at the San Jose Burial Park in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

The Trail of Blood is neither “academic” nor comprehensive. It is a book for the Baptist people; a booklet to put iron in Baptist blood. The booklet is a compilation of notes of five lectures that J. M. Carroll gave on church history. J. W. Porter encouraged Carroll to prepare a manuscript for publication. He died before the book was produced, and Porter brought it out after his death. (However, letters between Carroll and the Baptist Sunday School Board indicate that he sought to have them print it several years prior to this. See, “The Dead End Trail,” Harrison, pp. 58-62.)

The thesis of The Trail of Blood is that there has been a continuation of biblical teachings and a succession of biblical churches from the time of Christ to the present. J. M. Carroll believes this succession was always Baptist in principle, if not in name.[ii] These churches stood outside of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches, refused to accept their legitimacy in either faith or practice, rejected infant baptism, and practiced believers’ baptism by immersion.[iii]

In modern times, The Trail of Blood has become something of a “whipping boy” for those who deny the premise that Baptists (or baptistic churches) existed in all ages from the time of the New Testament. James Edward McGoldrick produced a book titled Baptist Successionism, somewhat of a response to Carroll’s work. He writes:

Since The Trail of Blood appears to remain the most widely circulated expression of the successionist interpretation, this study will, with the exception of the Bogomils and the intriguing question about St. Patrick, be confined to those sects cited by Carroll. (pp. 3-4)

To date [1994] no one has produced a point-by-point reply to The Trail of Blood... (p. 149)

Since the time of McGoldrick’s work, there are a number of internet refutations of The Trail of Blood.[iv]

It is much easier to critique a little booklet of 50 or so pages than to take on critiquing Joseph Ivimey’s 4-volume A History of the English Baptists; the almost 600-page Baptist History: From the Foundations of the Christian Church to the Close of the Eighteenth Century, by John Mockett Cramp, President of Acadia College, Wolfville, Nova Scotia; the two-volume A History of the Baptists, by John Tyler Christian, Professor of Church History at the Baptist Bible Institute, New Orleans, Louisiana (later renamed the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary); or any of the large new works on Baptist perpetuity.

The Trail of Blood is a little booklet with which I have been familiar for as long as I can remember. At times in the past, I have included it in packets given to new church members. On the one hand, I believe Carroll errs in identifying some groups as Baptists or baptistic when they cannot be positively demonstrated as such. Some of this history is shrouded in too much mystery to determine at this late date whether all of these anabaptist anti-paedobaptist groups were most assuredly Baptist in faith and practice.[v] Curiously, however, those quickest to condemn Carroll for identifying heretical groups as Baptists are often those who will reject almost no modern Baptists as heretics (and therefore not Baptist), whatever freakish things they believe. I guess it is only heretics of the past who can’t be Baptists, and not those we know to be heretics in the present!

On the other hand, even if Carroll may have misidentified some, he got others right. While some may suffer in our eyes because of insufficient evidence, there is sufficient evidence to identify them as persecuted and despised. I believe there is merit in remembering that Christians who simply tried to follow the principles of the Bible (whether Baptist or not) often left a “trail of (a lot of) blood” let by their persecutors who held the power of state.[vi]

One final point and I close. J. M. Carroll was an ecclesiological “Landmarker.” Nevertheless, the position of Carroll on Baptist succession is not solely a Landmark view, as some modern anti-Landmarkers would attempt to pigeonhole it. It has been held by many Baptists, including non-Landmarker Charles Spurgeon and anti-Landmarker R. B. C. Howell. It was once the dominant Baptist historical view before the modern critical views of the late times. That in itself does not make it right, no more than the current dominant English Separtist view’s majority status makes it right. It does indicate, however, it is not merely a “Landmark” view of Baptist history.

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[i] The full title is The Trail of Blood, Following the Christians Down through the Centuries. The History of Baptist Churches from the Time of Christ, Their Founder, to the Present Day. Note this especially in reference to those who claim that Landmarkers believe John the Baptist started the church. Carroll calls Jesus Christ Their Founder.
[ii] I agree with the doctrine of church perpetuity, church successionism, or “Baptists in all ages.” I believe Jesus promised to build and be with his church and has kept that promise through the ages of time to the present. I love history, and I love the Lord’s churches. However, I think the “trail of faith,” often identified by the “trail of blood” those of that faith left, is not historically demonstrable at all times from the first century to today. Sometimes the stream flows underground, so to speak, moving forward and onward, while not visible to the human historians’ eyes. As a doctrine, church perpetuity stands or falls on the infallible word of God rather than the fallible record of human historians.
[iii] In his introduction to The Trail of Blood, Clarence Walker noted that Carroll’s research for the truth “led him into many places and enabled him to gather one of the greatest libraries on church history. This library was given at his death to the Southwestern Baptist Seminary, Ft. Worth, Texas.”
[iv] A Primer on Baptist History: The True Baptist Trail, by Chris Traffanstedt is apparently considered one of the primary online answers to The Trail of Blood. The Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius Baptist succession quote has been regularly dismissed as illegitimate. However, pastor historian Thomas Ross has discovered the source of this quote. He has written about it HERE and HERE. Even though The Trail of Blood is just a popular work, because of its great popularity as well as its voluminous critiques, there is need for an annotated edition; it could correct citations, add citations, and acknowledge where there are citations that cannot be substantiated.
[v] I just read a “refutation” of Carroll in which a Greek Orthodox “proves” that most of Carroll’s succession groups were Gnostics. Intriguingly, though, in doing so he admits the existence of one group (the Waldensians) that held views “like those of baptists today” and then acknowledges them back to the 4th century and up to the 16th century, when he mentions the rise of the Anabaptists, whose views are “similar to the baptist views now.” While he falls short of admitting these are direct predecessors of the Baptists, he nevertheless shows that a Baptist succession would not necessarily even need, at least after the 4th century forward, any of the groups that he identifies as Gnostics! (In mentioning that this writer views Montanists, Donatists, Paulicians, etc., as Gnostics, I am not admitting he is right. I have found this history too mixed up to sort it out, and do not agree that this writer has done so either.)
[vi] Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and van Braght’s Martyr’s Mirror demonstrate this point in great detail.