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[On our web page you will find another article I have written
refuting Mr. Marrs' wild accusations regarding God allegedly
striking Dr. Don Wilkins of the New American Standard Bible
dumb on the John Ankerberg Show. I also document there the
language of Texe Marrs, and how in his first communication
with me, he called me a "servant of Satan."]
The following article came to me electronically. It was
preceded by the following notice:
[The following is a very interesting and accurate analysis
of one of the biggest two-faced, lying fakirs in the Body of
Christ: Mr. James White. We recently documented him to have
lied seventy nine times in 271 pages of text (The King James
Only Controversy), and here we see the facade under which
Jimmy operates. This excellent article is by Texe Marrs, who
publishes some excellent material on the King James Bible and
present world conditions as they head up to an International
Police State with global control and Genocide for Christians
and Jews. - BBB]
The material is coming, then, from the Bible Believer's
Bulletin, the publication of the most rabid of the KJV Only
advocates, Peter Ruckman. If you are sensitive to constant
insults, unfounded accusations, and twists and turns of logic
that can make the sensitive stomach (and mind) queasy, you may
want to stop here. Ruckman, and Marrs, are known for their wild
language, and their wilder theology and argumentation.
Before we begin with the actual article, keep a few items in
mind. Mr. Marrs has been challenged to debate me in public. He
was invited to do so on KIXL radio in Austin, Texas, back in
1994. He refused. He did call in while I was discussing textual
issues with Dr. D.A. Waite. You can hear how he behaved, and how
he was shown to be dishonest, by simply picking up the phone and
dialing (#Temporarily Unavailable), and
following the directions to the KJV Only area. There you can
listen as Marrs calls in to the program. His comments will be
even more relevant when we see a section of his article below.
Also, keep in mind that Mr. Marrs is not a scholar of anything.
In fact, he seems to be proud of that, and engages in the
all-too-common "anti-intellectualism" of much of modern
fundamentalism. He has not taken the time to even do as Paul
exhorted Timothy, to be zealous in one's preparations for
ministry. For some reason, he seems to think that ignorance is a plus
in ministry, and regularly takes shots at anyone who has
dedicated themselves to learning so as to be able to more
accurately, and truthfully, handle the Scriptures, history, and a
defense of the faith. This fact comes out with painful clarity in
the article that follows.
The reader is warned to beware of Marrs and his type. He is
feeding off the body of Christ, drawing disciples away unto
himself, spreading half-truths and pure lies at the expense of
the sheep of Christ. He is a loner, not under the authority of a
local church or elders, unaccountable to God-ordained authority.
As for me (and the question is honestly asked, in light of what I
just said), I am a member of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church,
under the authority of the eldership of that local assembly.
James White, a boastful King James Bible opponent,
continues on his baseless crusade to bash King James only
believers. It makes for a rather sad spectacle to observe
critics of the King James Bible like Mr. White humiliate
themselves and show disrespect for servants of God. I am
praying he will be given a repentant heart and know the grave
damage he is doing to the kingdom of our Saviour.
First, we notice that
Marrs, like most KJV Only advocates,
cannot break out of the circularity of his own system. I am not
an opponent of the KJV. I am an opponent of KJV Onlyism. There
is, of course, a vast difference. I defend the KJV for what it
really is, and for this, those who wish to pervert it into
something different, label me an opponent of the KJV. Their
writings are filled with this kind of word-twisting.
Next, I would encourage the reader to compare my book, The
King James Only Controversy, with just a few months worth of
Texe Marrs' Flashpoint newsletter. Compare the language,
the backgrounds, the style of writing. Ask yourself who is on a
crusade. Ask yourself who is boastful. Ask yourself who is
bashing whom. I think the answer is plain to any fair-minded
person.
Before they are sucked into this man's flawed arguments,
Christians should carefully consider the downside of Mr.
White's seamy attacks on the King James Bible. Mr. White
calls his organization "Alpha and Omega
Ministries." It must be very embarrassing to White when
people ask him about Revelation 1:11. You see, most of the
satanic and confused new "Bible" translations Mr.
White so avidly supports have butchered Revelation 1:11 and
stripped the correct wording as found in the King James
Bible. In the King James, we read Jesus Christ's glorious
declaration, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the
last..." But -get this!- the false new versions
shamelessly delete the very words "Alpha and
Omega."
Now, since Mr. White's organization is, strangely enough,
named" Alpha and Omega," you can see what a royal
problem that is for him to try to explain away. I'm sure
he'll desperately attempt to claim that the words "Alpha
and Omega" are also found elsewhere, in Revelation
22:13. Fine, Mr. White, for now. But what are you going to do
when the apostate Bible scholars remove these holy words from
that passage as well?
As I documented in my response to Gail Riplinger's book, New
Age Bible Versions Refuted (soon to be added in text format
to our web page), Mr. Marrs originally thought this variant was
in Revelation 1:1. When I wrote to him, providing him with all
the textual information on the variant, I corrected his confusion
about the location of the variant. Did he even bother to read
what I wrote for him? Obviously not, since when he wrote back
(returning my faxed letter with red-ink on the front calling it
"garbage") he wrote on the envelope, "Revelation
1:1." Finally, when he called in to the radio program on KTKK, he again said "Revelation 1:1." This seems
to be about the only textual point Mr. Marrs brings up against
me. I again corrected him on the air, and he dishonestly avoided
the correction by saying, "That's what I said. Revelation
one . . . one one." If you don't believe anyone would be
that misleading, call (602) 973- 0318 and listen for yourself.
Now Mr. Marrs has not taken the time to read The King James
Only Controversy, or any other work that explains textual
criticism. He has no idea upon what basis textual decisions are
made, nor does he seem to care. He doesn't realize that his own
KJV was based upon textual decisions made by men like Desiderius
Erasmus, Stephanus, Theodore Beza, and the KJV translators. He
doesn't seem to recognize that they used the same kind of means
of making such decisions as modern scholars. Blind to these
facts, Marrs asks me what I'm going to do when "apostate
Bible scholars remove these holy words from that passage as
well" (i.e., Revelation 22:13). [The reader should realize
that any Bible scholar who disagrees with KJV Onlyism is an
"apostate." That's how KJV Only devotees view the
world.] If Marrs knew something about how such decisions are
made, he'd know that is not in the realm of possibility. He'd
know that textual scholars (believing textual scholars,
men who believe in Christ and confess His name) are seeking to
give us what was originally written, and since the phrase
"Alpha and Omega" appears in the earliest and best
manuscripts of the book of Revelation, no one can simply come
along and "remove" the phrase. What Texe Marrs doesn't
seem to realize is that by defending a merely traditional text as
he does, he is in fact saying that we should believe whatever
later scribes thought the text should say.
Just give them time, and they will, too. Nothing is
sacrosanct with the new translation scholars. If they can so
callously omit thousands of other holy and majestic words
from the King James Bible, even converting God into "Our
Father-Mother," these wicked scribes might do anything.
Marrs is again confused. He doesn't seem to be able to
differentiate between translation of the original text,
and the transmission of the text over time. He also fails
to recognize the vast difference between the liberal concepts
that lie behind such egregiously silly "translations"
as "Father-Mother" and the conservative, God-honoring
concepts that lie behind a translation like the New American
Standard Bible. Throwing all translations into one pile as he
does shows how little Mr. Marrs cares about fairly representing
the facts. Yet, despite his ignorance of the issues surrounding
translations and texts, Marrs is unafraid to speak of
"wicked scribes," casting this accusation against
liberal and conservative alike, believer and unbeliever, all in
the same breath. It is this kind of reckless behavior that has
caused so many in the believing community to identify Marrs as a
dangerous influence.
I also note that Mr. White has signed correspondence with
the pompous and arrogant title, "Scholar in Residence,
School of Christian I Studies, Grand Canyon University."
Scholar in Residence? We checked to see . If such an
institution as Grand Canyon University, which I'd never heard
of before, even exists. It does. But, we discovered that its
teeny-tiny and just begun "School of Christian
Studies" has only "2, 3, or 4 instructors on
staff." And Mr. White? Well, yes, the school confided,
he is listed as a "Scholar in Residence." But the
official we talked to couldn't explain why. The school told
us flat out that James White is not "in residence,"
has no office on campus, and has never taught a single course
there, though he's expected to do so starting this spring -
in an adjunct status. (How curious - to claim to be a lofty
"Scholar in Residence" when one is not even in
residence!)
Here we begin to see how shallow is
Marrs' research, and how
desperate he is to do nothing more than attack those who present
conclusions he cannot even begin to dispute. I was installed as
Scholar in Residence in the College of Christian Studies at Grand
Canyon University by Dr. Bill Williams, the President of the
University, in June of 1995. Mr. Marrs' comment about not having
heard of the school is somewhat humorous: does Mr. Marrs claim to
be an expert on higher education? Grand Canyon has existed since
1948, and is owned by the Southern Baptist Convention. Until
recently it was named Grand Canyon College. The name was changed
to Grand Canyon University at the beginning of this decade as
growth allowed the change. Mr. Marrs doesn't seem to understand
that universities are made up of individual colleges, such as the
College of Business or the College of Biological Sciences, etc.
In the case of Grand Canyon, the process of transitioning into
university status did not happen overnight. Certain areas of the
school immediately became colleges unto themselves; others were
joined together under broader categories until growth allowed
them to become independent units. The Christian Studies
department originally continued under a broader banner of liberal
arts until 1995 when it became its own college, the College of
Christian Studies.
Grand Canyon University is a private, liberal-arts college,
with approximately 2000 students in its various programs. It is
not the largest educational institution in the world; it is not
the smallest either. It has a good reputation as a liberal arts
school, and I am very pleased to teach on the staff.
Now, Mr. Marrs' methods of "research" are rather
sadly exposed by his desperate attempt to attack me on a personal
level (I'm sure the reader has already noted that Marrs does not
even attempt to provide any kind of meaningful factual
rebuttal or argument). Who did he contact? The secretary
of the college, a young lady who does the clerical work, keeping
student records, etc. She has not long worked at the school, and
hence was unaware that I have, in fact, taught at Grand Canyon
before, as early as 1990. I taught Church History in both 1990
and 1991, as the records show. This does not include substitute
teaching in Greek that I have done for just as long. Marrs, of
course, isn't really concerned about speaking the truth
about me or my background. He has only one goal: to obfuscate the
issues, to attack a man who presents facts that he can't refute,
and can't begin to deal with.
Mr. White has written a confusing and sleazy book knocking
the King James Bible. It's no doubt popular with the growing
flock of so called "scholars" who promote the
satanic, new "Bible" versions; but apparently,
White's book has otherwise met with indifference since its
release and has flopped in the Christian marketplace.
Notable, the book was published by Bethany House, a press
that, until the advent of Mr. White's "scholarly"
tome, had mostly gained a measure of fame for publishing a
series of romance-type, feminine, western novelettes.
I'm sure my book is confusing to Mr.
Marrs. Any work of
scholarship will be confusing to a person who refuses to even attempt
to understand or even read it. I invite the reader to look
at my book and see if there is anything "sleazy" about
it. This kind of mud- slinging is the sign of a desperate man,
unable to even begin to interact with what the book says.
Marrs likes to make up "facts" to substantiate his
conspiracy theories, his theology, and his unusual
interpretations of prophecy, etc. Here he makes up some more
"facts." My book is in its second printing. More than
twice the normal number of copies were printed in the first run.
For a non-fiction work the book has done tremendously well.
Marrs is simply lying.
As to Bethany House, the publisher does publish fiction works,
many of them. But, Marrs forgot to mention such works as Walter
Martin's Kingdom of the Cults or any of the other
non-fiction works published by Bethany. Why? Because he is on a
crusade, and those who engage in crusading don't care about the means
they use to accomplish their ends.
Mr. White's book is pitifully flawed. In fact, it is so
bad that, in his newsletter, Dr. Peter Ruckman, a well-known
proponent of the King James Bible, has actually been
encouraging his readers to buy Mr. White's twisted and
distorted book and read it. According to Brother Ruckman,
once you've read and digested White's book, you'll know for
sure why the King James is God's only preserved Bible
available today in English. White's error-filled propaganda
book is his own worst enemy.
The reader will notice that Marrs is long on insults and
attacks, but very short on facts. Ruckman's ravings against my
book have, in fact, done little more than prove what I said about
him in it. Knowledgeable people who review Ruckman's writings are
naturally repulsed by his incredible attitude, which in many ways
exceeds even the vitriol of Marrs. My files continue to expand
with letters from those who have, by God's grace and the means of
my book, been released from the deception foisted upon them by
the likes of Ruckman and Marrs.
I believe that if it had not been for Dr. Ruckman
supporting the sales of the book in this way, Mr. White's
unscholarly volume would really have been a marketplace bomb.
Such commentary stands as its own refutation.
Interestingly, Mr. White's book attacking the King James
Bible is endorsed by a Mr. Norm Geisler -his name is right on
the cover. Now, Geisler also just happens to be a strong
promoter of the ungodly Catholics and Evangelicals Together,
the unity document put together by Chuck Colson and apostate
Catholic priest Richard Neuhaus. That's the papal approved
treatise which warns Protestants not to evangelize Catholics,
among other atrocities. It is telling that White uses the pro
Catholic, ecumenical Norman Geisler to publicly endorse his
book.
Of course, it is Dr. Norman
Geisler, not Mr.
Norm Geisler. Dr. Geisler is not a "strong
promoter" of the ECT document. If Mr. Marrs would bother to
check his facts, he'd know that Dr. Geisler wrote a book with Dr.
MacKenzie titled, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals that
questions many of the conclusions of the ECT document.
The whole idea that there is any connection with Roman
Catholicism in my book, or my ministry, is so silly that those
outside the small, shrinking world influenced by Texe Marrs can
only laugh at such accusations. Marrs has never even bothered to
find out what other books I've written, or anything about me and
my ministry. If he had, he'd know that there is not a single
Protestant apologist in the United States that has engaged in
more public, open debates against the leading Roman Catholic
apologists than I have. And while this article was probably
written prior to the publication of my next book with Bethany
House, The Roman Catholic Controversy, it is truly ironic
that he would make such absurd accusations in light of that work
and my entire ministry to Roman Catholics.
The fact is that it is people like Texe Marrs that bring so
much reproach to the cause of Christ in evangelizing Roman
Catholics. Their surface-level, easily refuted arguments that
come from the same unwillingness to do real, honest work
in their writing and speaking (as seen in this attack upon me and
other scholars working in the area of biblical translation and
textual study) that provide Roman Catholic apologists with
"target practice." Since such items as consistency,
honesty, and integrity do not find a place in Marrs' attacks upon
believing Christian men, why should we expect him to be fair even
in his attacks upon error? But when bad and easily refuted
arguments are used against error, the cause of truth is damaged,
for when those arguments are refuted, all arguments
against untruth are likewise weakened.
Let's put two and two together. First, we know that the
Vatican has for centuries detested and assaulted the King
James Bible. Understandably so, for it is the Holy Bible used
by dedicated missionaries who over the years have won so many
lost Catholics to Christ. We also know that the papacy loves
and endorses the new, false "Bible" versions -just
like the ones promoted by Mr. White and Mr. Geisler. Anyone
see a connection there?
Here we see some more of Mr.
Marrs' ability at creating
connections and conspiracies where none exist. I have
demonstrated how such irrational thinking can be used to prove anything
in the pages of The King James Only Controversy.
Mr. White, unknown at the time, first gained notoriety
when he began to slam Mrs. Gail Riplinger's bestselling,
heavily documented book, New Age Bible Versions. He became a
hero of the Bible bashers by authoring a "report"
attacking the Riplinger book. However, Mr. White's report
quickly had to be redone because, as it turned out, in the
report the brilliant "Scholar in Residence" had
repeatedly misspelled Mrs. Riplinger's first name. He had it
as "Gayle,"rather than correctly as
"Gail."
Mr. Marrs, so utterly unprepared to deal with anything of
substance, has only two notes he can play in his song. The first
is Revelation 1:11, the other the fact that when I first wrote my
article responding to New Age Bible Versions, I
incorrectly guessed at the spelling of Gail Riplinger's first
name. So lame and is Marrs' response that most people have to
read his words twice just to figure out that he is really
asserting that my error has some impact upon my work on
translation issues. You see, Mrs. Riplinger never put her
first name in her book. She simply put "G.A. Riplinger," which, as she said later, represented to her,
"God and Riplinger: God as author, Riplinger as
secretary." I knew her name was "Gail" only
because I had heard her addressed as such on a radio program. So,
I had to guess at the spelling of her name, and I chose Gayle.
When someone said she spelled it "Gail," I changed the
spelling in subsequent editions.
Now, Mr. Marrs has had at least two full years to
develop meaningful arguments against my documentation of the
errors in Gail Riplinger's work. Yet, in two years, all he's done
is repeat his assertions about Revelation 1:11 (without once
showing the first bit of evidence that he's even looked at
the textual evidence I provided to him) and the spelling of
Riplinger's first name. I leave it to the reader: if that's all
he can come up with in the space of two years, what does that
tell you?
Mr. White reportedly lays claim to being a "Reformed
Baptist." Now, the very liberal Dr. Robert Schuller is a
proud member of the "Reformed Church." l also know
I of Reformed ministers who wear fancy robes and who practice
Catholic-style sacraments, including infant baptism. Some of
the Reformed are into hyper-Calvinistic doctrines and are
theocratic. They utterly reject the Bible's teaching of the
rapture of the church and other prophetic teachings. I don't
know if Mr. White is of this theological bent. Who knows his
true doctrines other than that he definitely seems to abhor
God's pure Word, the King James Bible?
Mr. Marrs obviously has no idea whatsoever of the meaning and
application of the term "Reformed." He admits ignorance
of my personal beliefs: yet, why should he be ignorant of them?
He could find out quite easily enough, if he really cared to be
accurate. He could have picked up Letters to a Mormon Elder
(Bethany House, 1993), and derived a great deal of information
about what I believe from its pages. He could have requested from
our ministry our statement of faith (it's on our web page as
well), or any number of other books I've written, such as God's
Sovereign Grace, Drawn by the Father, Justification by Faith,
etc., and could have found out exactly what I believe, and
exactly what a Reformed Baptist is. In fact, he could have called
the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, where I am a member, and
found out what the church I belong to believes about all these
things. But did he? No, of course not, because he is simply
interested in casting aspersions upon my character, and nothing
more. If he's worried about infant baptism, maybe he could listen
to my debate on the topic against two Reformed paedo-baptists
from last summer. But he's really not worried about infant
baptism: his goal is clear, and when the facts get in the way, he
simply ignores them. It's the way of the conspiratorialist.
Recently, Mr. White was invited to debate the King James
only issue. Dr. Ruckman, president of Florida's Pensacola
Bible Institute, tendered the invitation after White bragged
he wanted to take Ruckman on. But apparently, the brave Mr.
White suddenly got cold feet. He declined to go and debate.
Doesn't it seem that a "Scholar in Residence" like
Mr. White would jump at the chance to show off all his
worldly-gained knowledge? What's he afraid of? Dr. Ruckman,
of course, is one of the planet's top Bible scholars: A real
one. He doesn't have to cavort around pretending to be a
"Scholar in Residence." Dr. Ruckman, for example,
has an earned doctorate, and Mr. White does not. He's
authored countless books defending the King James Bible.
Could this be a factor in Mr. White's embarrassing reluctance
to debate?
The reader is directed again to our web page where he or she
can read for themselves the correspondence between the person
that Marrs identifies as "one of the planet's top Bible
scholars" and myself. There you will find that Ruckman is
the one who will not, and cannot, engage in a public, scholarly
debate on these issues. It's ironic: Marrs has been invited to do
this, and it is in fact he, not I, who is unwilling to appear in
public to debate these topics. I renew my challenge to Marrs to
engage in a fully-moderated, public debate, of a minimum of 2 and
one half hours, in Austin, Texas, if he wishes (his place of
residence), on the topic of the King James Only controversy.
Marrs has had this challenge for quite some time now. He
continues to decline it.
I challenged Peter Ruckman to debate. He insisted that since I
issued the challenge, he got to determine the format. He
immediately refused to do a real debate. Anyone reading
the correspondence will see he did not wish to allow anyone to
fully develop their points, to engage in cross-examination, or to
do anything remotely resembling a responsible interchange.
Instead, he wanted to do short little sections on ten verses, and
that was it. I suggested a modification that would at least allow
some kind of development. Eventually, as the
correspondence demonstrates, not only did he become tremendously
abusive, addressing letters to "Dear Apostate" and
"Dear Slick," but he began to use profanity and gross
insults, and eventually presented an ultimatum: do it his way, at
his time, or not at all. He demanded that the debate take place
April 1st (we had never discussed this date until he
demanded that I appear at his "April Fool's Day"
gathering) and that it follow his unreasonable format.
Again, I truly doubt that Mr. Marrs has even read the
correspondence. But that is no excuse for his making comments
based upon ignorance. If he wants to accuse me of something, let
him do so on the basis of facts, not on the basis of his own
ignorance of the real situation.
This, then, has been a brief look at Bible critic, Mr.
James White, who rejects the Truth but prides himself on
being a "Scholar in Residence." How pitiful and
tragic is the man who trusts in worldly scholarliness, who
deceitfully hides behind a vain title. How blessed, in
contrast, is that man whose identity comes not from college
degrees or earthly distinctions but from Jesus Christ our
Lord. In Him we are all equals. The blood of Jesus alone is
our banner of strength and wisdom.
It is truly a shame that someone will use Christian
terminology and language as a cover for a dagger of hatred. Mr.
Marrs has not provided anyone with a "brief look" at
me. He has provided lies, ignorance, and half-truths, and he
covers this over with pious platitudes so as to deceive the
followers of Christ. That is the true shame.
I am thankful to the Lord for the opportunity of serving the
body of Christ. He has given me many opportunities of service,
including Grand Canyon University (where I am currently teaching
Church History), Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary's AZ
Campus (where I am teaching the Systematic Theology core classes,
and have taught Greek), and Faraston Seminary. I love to teach,
for it allows me to focus upon God's truth, and leave, for a
while at least, the distressing and sad field of combat created
by troublers of the Church like Texe Marrs, Peter Ruckman, and
Gail Riplinger. For a while, at least, I can focus upon the great
truths of the faith, and encourage young and old alike in the
things of God.
In closing, I invite my readers to take a test. Gather
together copies of Texe Marrs' writings. Gather what you can of
Peter Ruckman. Gather as well my books, including the works on
the KJV issue, Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, etc. Read. Consider.
Look at who is doing real research and providing you with sound
biblical teaching. Look at the use of phrases like
"fool," "apostate," "Bible hater,"
and the like. See who is dependent upon emotionally-charged words
that cloud the issue, and who can provide an argument without
relying upon such poor tactics. Then decide for yourself. I think
the facts speak for themselves.
James White
8/20/96
Director, Alpha and Omega Ministries
Author, The King James Only Controversy
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