Gail Riplinger has a new book, and what does it argue? All Greek and Hebrew texts are faulty. Yes, all, including the Textus Receptus. Scrivener was a heretic, apparently, as bad as Westcott and Hort. TBS are denounced as promoting heretics. Lest any think I am over-egging the pudding, Part 3 is titled: All AVAILABLE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT TEXTS ARE FAULTY, and part 5: ALL CURRENTLY AVAILABLE HEBREW OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS ARE FAULTY. Chapter 29 is The Occult & Catholic Origin of Greek & Hebrew Focus. Yes, that's right, even though the Council of Trent declared that the Latin Vulgate was the standard (Fourth Session), a focus on the original languages is Catholic. Why? Because the men who revived the study of the original languages were members of the Roman Catholic Church!
So what are we to do if God's Word is not preserved in the original languages? Simple, God inspired the King James Bible. Never mind that she would probably regard some of the teachings promoted by the King James translators as heretical. Lancelot Andrewes, for example, was an Anglican Bishop, a high churchman (his writings were published in the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology), and a promoter of forms of prayer. Hadrian Saravia was an advocate of the Monarchical Episcopate, the ruling Bishop. Thomas Ravis was a pluralist, a man who at one point held nearly half-a-dozen church posts, being Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford (whose main function was to train ministers), a Canon of Westminster Abbey, Rector of Islip, Oxfordshire and Vicar of Wittenham Abbey Church in Berkshire. He was made Bishop of Gloucester, then of London, where he was a determined persecutor of the Puritans. These are only three of the 'worst', of course, and there were many good men among the translators, including George Abbot, Thomas Holland and John Reynolds - who were all Calvinists.
Of course, the King James Translators were all students of the ancient languages (Henry Savile, another of the translators, significantly shortened his life by the efforts he made in editing the complete works of the Greek Father John Chrysostom), and relied on the very texts that Gail Riplinger's new book deprecates. The only people at the time of the Reformation who taught that all Greek and Hebre texts were faulty and that we should instead rely on a translation that had been divinely inspired were... well, the Romanists. Not that I am accusing Ms. Riplinger of being a Romanist, I know she isn't one (otherwise she'd be promoting the Latin Vulgate), but that she is thinking like one at this point. Surely the crowning irony!
This is all rather silly. It's one thing to say that the AV is the most accurate English translation in existence, but to basically spend a thousand pages rubbishing all study of the original languages is surely over the top!
This is a silly book, and belongs with the works of the Jesus Seminar.
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11 comments:
Ordinarily I would assume that a college president giving the book a commendation named 'Norris Belcher' was something out of a goon show. But it seems he is real. How apt.
As indeed, sadly, the book is real!
Why don't you read it before you say it's silly. Your other honest option is to say nothing at all.
That modern lexicons are faulty is hardly a silly argument. That published Greek and Hebrew texts are faulty (including Scrivener's TR, which is not saying there is "no" unfaulty TR) is hardly a silly argument.
Riplinger is not English preservationist (a term James White was not even aware of when he channeled the counter-Reformation and coined the sophistry of his 'King James Only.'
Riplinger forces you to assess what you comfortably take for granted. Yes, that can be annoying. It can also be enlightening.
Here is Dr. Norris E. Belcher, Jr.'s bio below. Notice just alone the names of his three children. I wonder if they are worthy of being associated with the term 'goon show' because they inherited the same surname?
I wonder that if upon just a moment of reflection you might consider your comment to have been a bit shallow, not to mention other things?
______
Dr. Norris E. Belcher, Jr.
1990-1993
Pastor Norris began his ministry at Ridgewood, September 16, 1990, and carried on a very effective ministry here until
October in 1995, when he was called to be Senior Pastor of the Church of the Open Door in Westminster, Maryland.
During Pastor Norris' ministry, the church saw its outreach programs continue to flourish, including an emphasis on the
bus ministry, which saw over 200 saved as a result. The "Forward in Faith" program contributed to several major
improvements on the building and grounds, including roof repairs, sound system installation, and a gym floor. Also during
these years, Pastor Keith Richardson was called to be our Youth and Music Minister.
Pastor Norris was saved at the age of sixteen, and he was called to preach just six months later. He attended Bob Jones
University to prepare for the ministry, graduating in 1977. After completing his education, he went back to W. Virginia to
start a church in a rural area where very little gospel preaching could be found. After that church became self-supporting,
he moved to a small community of three hundred people in the mountains to pastor a church. The church grew to an
average of 200 for six years, after which the Lord led him to his hometown to pastor the Twin City Bible Church, in Nitro,
W. Virginia. The church grew to capacity, averaging 650 each Sunday. During his twelve years at Nitro, the church had
an annual budget of over $100,000, a staff of four pastors, a daily radio broadcast, an annual missions conference, and
many souls being saved weekly.
Pastor Norris has traveled extensively in preaching ministries. He has preached many revivals in his home state and
many neighboring states. He has also been to Guyana, South America, on several occasions to preach revivals. Several
years ago he was privileged to go to the Soviet Union to distribute Bibles, meet the Christians, and preach in the
churches.
He preaches frequently for Sword of the Lord Conferences, and is a member of their Executive Board.
He has been married for over twenty-four years to the former Karen Singleton of St. Albins, W. Virginia. They have three
children: Joshua, Lauren, and LeighAnn.
Dear 'Puritan', I fully intend to read the said book. But surely oe of the points of advertising is to state what the book says. Think of this as a pre-review notice.
I'm glad to hear that Ms. Riplinger is not an 'English Preservationist'. But if all currently published Greek texts are faulty, and a focus on the original language is 'Catholic', then where is the TR to be found? Pray tell me if you can.
It amuses me, I'm afraid, to hear the accusation that focus on the Greek and Hebrew is 'Catholic', when it was the Reformers who insisted on the original languages against the Counter-Reformation's insistence on the Latin Vulgate. I will be most interested to see by what process of reasoning Ms. Riplinger is able to thus reverse history.
It seemeth to me that it is Ms. Riplinger who is, on this point, channeling the Counter-Reformation.
P.S. The Bible says 'Prove all things; hold fast that which is good,' (1 Thess. 5.21, AV. Geneva, 'Try all things, and keep that which is good'). It is a good thing to assess what you comfortably take for granted. I am not afraid of the truth, or of Ms. Riplinger, for that matter, which is why, God willing, I shall be reading her tome as soon as it arrives. All of it in the light of the Bible, of course, for the dark things cannot stand the light.
The Jesuits in the counter-Reformation made the attack on the Received Text their main line of attack. They knew if they could downgrade the authority of the Word of God in the minds of people they could replace it with the authority of the word of man (by for instance the appeal to numerous variants and questionings of reliability of manuscripts, etc., that require a priesthood of scholars to 'divine'). This is Riplinger's point. This attack was not successful in the 16th century, but the devil like Muslim Jihadists takes the long view, and their tactics were eventually successful in the massive downgrade on the Word of God in the 19th century. With nary a fight put up, to the great shame of Protestants who should have known better. But God's own do in fact know better and sound the alarm up to this day, which greatly annoys both the devil and the newly installed priesthood of scholars.
Riplinger, by the way, in this area has more respect for Calvinists (and states it) who fought for the pure and whole Word of God against that counter-Reformation attack (and indeed during the Reformation and prior to it itself, Wycliffe, Huss,
Waldensians, etc.) than modern day Calvinists who can't even discern the battleline or the devil's actions in this most foundational thing.
>I shall be reading her tome as soon as it arrives. All of it in the light of the Bible, of course, for the dark things cannot stand the light.
You'd better read it in the light of your Geneva then, since the point of the book is modern versions are based not only on corrupt manuscripts but bad translational choices based on corrupt lexicons and so on. (You can also read it in light of the King James Version! The KJV won't bite you...and if it does it will be in a good way.)
My dear Puritan, I have no fear whatever of the AV, I have read it for many years, and I still read and preach from it. Nor, however, do I fear even the NIV - or even the NEB. I do, however, detest the NEB and dislike the NIV!
Obviously I shall have nothing further to say about this book until I have read it.
May I ask where the TR has ever been made an article of faith in any creed or confession? I ask because I wish to know!
The voice of the Shepherd, and the Holy Spirit, don't need confessional status for God's own to discern them and value them as the Word has been preserved by God, I don't believe, but having said that...
There are very knowledgeable Reformed Christians on the PuritanBoard who might suggest the Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 1 does in fact reference the AV. You'd have to go through the Translations and Manuscripts forum over there. Thomas Weddle and Dr. P. S. Ferguson over there would probably be the two that would argue this. I don't have any direct links to that particular topic. Ferguson's handle is ThomasCartwright; Weddle' is Thomas2007. Also Mathew Winzer might also argue it. His handle is armourbearer.
You can see from the comment above how our friend 'The Puritan' confuses the TR and the AV. The AV is an English translation, and the WCF specifically makes the Greek and Hebrew the test of doctrine.
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