Featured In search of J. J. Ray

Good find. I had Mrs. Ray's maiden name, but had not connected her to the Thomas Nelson her husband was in business with.

This may explain Ray's initial move to Junction City. Looks like his work with the Sunday School Union may not have started till the mid 1920s.

 

Gerald B. Winrod

Carl J. E. Nelson

 

Not specific to Ray, but since he was dependent on Wilkinson...

I may just be coming late to the party, but I didn't realize that Benjamin Wilkinson wrote a second book, a response to the objections to Our Authorized Version Vindicated, called Answers to Objections.

What was the impetus Wilkinson's book? Was something going on among the Adventists at this time? Seems Our Authorized Version Vindicated was ostensibly a reply against the Revised Version and the American Revision of 1901. But why in 1930, nearly 30 years later? The timing of the works of Hills, Ray, et al. is easier for me to understand. The Revised Standard had recently been produced and there was much objection to it.

 

I guess I'd never thought of the SDA's having a fundamentalist/modernist controversy going on at the same time as many other denominations. I found an online Our Authorized Bible Vindicated, and I see that he launches right into that in chapter 1 -- linking the Revised Version to modernism, then following with an example of articles in 1928 and 1929 about who killed Goliath. So I see what you are saying about the timing.

I'd say that shows bias and willingness to give in to that bias. I have no thought on his expertise or the lack thereof, but I have noticed some random comments in places that seemed to imply that Wilkinson might not have had a doctorate, or received it from a less than reputable source. According an excerpt posted online, purported to be from the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, Wilkinson studied for the ministry at Battle Creek College, received a B.A. degree from the University of Michigan in 1897 (which I was able to confirm on Ancestry.com), and received a doctoral degree from George Washington University in 1908. (A Master's in not mentioned.) Being well-educated and not being an expert in certain fields are not mutually exclusive (I know that's not what you mean, but I am thinking along this line because I have just been researching a bit about the person Wilkinson.)

 

Good point to show that we need to be discerning -- and make enough effort to learn as much about any given topic that we can -- since the letters before and behind a person's name (or lack thereof) may or may not mean anything about them knowing the topic they are discussing.

Thanks. I had noticed a mention of that book title somewhere, but hadn't followed up on it.

While Wilkinson apparently did make an original contribution to the Bible versions debate, these kinds of things seldom originate out of thin air.

 

Strangely enough, I found this book advertised twice in May 1930 in Word and Way, a Kansas City, Missouri Baptist publication. Wondering why they would advertise a book by a Seventh-Day Adventist -- and say "Every Bible student should have it in his library," I searched and discovered W(illiam) P. Pearce was actually a Baptist preacher. I then wondered why a Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing House (Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain View, CA) would publish a book by a Baptist preacher. Perhaps he had a brief stint as an Adventist. Haven't found out yet.

 

Ad for Pearce's book:

 

Author is pastor of First Baptist Church, Albion, Michigan: