Doubting Thomas

This comes from a book entitled, "King James Version Ditches Blind Guides" in which Gail Riplinger, the author is doing rebuttals to those who have written lies about her and her book, "New Age Bible Versions". That book is shaking the religious world in a negative sense and the Christian world in a positive sense. Get it and read it, you will be glad that you did.

DOUBTING THOMAS

Robert Morey, an NASB editor, wrote a review for John MacArthur's Master Seminary Journal. It's frightening to find a purveyor of such misinformation, counted among bible translaters. Such untruths as my having "degrees in architectural and structural engineering, who lives in Ravenna, Ohio," begin his downhill course. He slides past all the incontrovertible documentation in the book. He tries to snowball a few flakes into a storm of protest, but they melt in his handling.

DOUBTING THOMAS "New Age terminology related to today's New Age movement [viz. the term 'new age' itself] was entirely unknown at that point in history." [Westcott's time]

----- FACT ----- Both the term 'new age' and the movement itself preceeded Westcott. The early orgins of the term and its underlying philosophies are seen in books by New Agers themselves or Christian experts like Marrs, Kirban, Hutchings, Barela, Pride, Hocking and Ravenhill, ALL of whom have recommended the book New Age Bible Versions.

DOUBTING THOMAS "The contents of the letter gives no indication of Westcott's being a spiritualist."

-----FACT----- It slowly becomes apparent that doubting Thomas wasn't all there when the facts were presented. He pretends she is "building her proof for labeling him 'a Spiritualist'... on an excerpt..." He evidently skipped over many pages and quotes which prove Westcott was a spiritualist, the most pointed of those by his OWN SON, said he quit the Ghostly Guild but "NOT" because he lacked "faith in what, for lack of a better name, one must call Spiritualism..."

DOUBTING THOMAS "These hardly tie him to Satan."

-----FACT----- Men like Thomas, who wince juxtaposing Westcott and Satan or the NASB and the New Age, do so because they have read so narrowly. Thomas sees as innocent Westcott and his Hermes Club's research into the "Eleatic School of Philosophy," not knowing that it was a school of radical monism holding that all that is true is a static plenum of Being; its teaching of the caolescence of existence and thought is not only reminiscent of Goethe and Spinoza, but was no doubt the foundation for Westcott's 'one life' philosophy. It is not within the scope of this response to give Thomas a primer in Classical Theology; if he will study the Hermes Club's subjects of interest (viz. the Funeral Ceremonies of the Romans, Theramenes et al.) he will find the very paganism and "philosophy" the scriptures tells us to avoid (Col. 2:8). How cna noe be a "man of God," as Thomas describes Westcott, and disobey the commands of scripture?

DOUBTING THOMAS "If she had aimed for accurate representation, she would have noted that Westcott's statement is probing how to deal most effectively with Mr. Maurice's inadequate view of the Atonement."

-----FACT----- Thomas may quarrel with Maurice and find his views "inadequate," but Westcott and Hort did not. Maurice was dismissed form his professorship for his heresy (found in letters between he and Hort); Westcott and Hort did not want their sympathies with him and his views broadly known, lest they too lose their jobs. Princeton University Press' recent book, by Peter Jones, states, "Westcott was a Maurician through and through" (P. 179). Thomas' narrow understanding of the debate is shown to be wrong, as both The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics and the Encyclopedia Britannica (1911) speak of Westcott's sympathies with Maurician philosophy. Hort denied the Atonement, flatly; his comments regarding it are cited in the book and his Life and Letters.

DOUBTING THOMAS "Logston's only tie with the NASB was his personal friendship with Dewey Lockman."

-----FACT----- Letters and documents on Lockman Foundation stationary document that Logston was a translator for the Lockman Foundation and wrote the entire preface, seen today in the NASB. A tape recorded testimony of Logsdon himself, discussing his foundational and pivital role in the NASB, is available through the catalogue of A.V. Publications. Thomas overlooked one word, which lets the cat out of the bag, in his own statements regarding Logsdon. Thomas said Logsdon's letter denouncing the NASB, read at the meeting of the Editorial Board of the Lockman Foundation, was "declaring his desire not to have any FURTHER association with the NASB." Why would Lockman read a personal friend's letter, who really had NO association with the NASB. If you hear Logdon's own words on tape, you will know why they are shuddering and trying to rewrite history.

Thomas' article, The King James Controversy, written for MacArthur's Masterpiece magazine (Jan./Feb. 1990) intertwines fact and fantasy like the ivy which slowly surrounds the walls and halls of many formerly sound schools. Ivy league schools like Princeton began with fiery preachers like Jonathan Edwards; when Hodge, Machen, and Warfield brought in 'texual criticism', it "choked the word."

Thomas' notion that the Byzantine text-type "did not exist before the fourth century" and "the earliest church father to use a Byzantine text in his quote.... lived in the late fourth century" show he has not kept up with the literature in his field since the papyri have been throughly sifted and analyzed (1970- 1990). Neither is he versed in the findings of the recent collations of early church fathers. Out-of-date professors are plentiful at any college or seminary.