Featured A Timeline of the KJVO Movement

Excellent addition to the thread.

 

1894—Edward Scrivener edits a Greek NT to represent the text used by the KJV translators.

1917—Some say that W. B. Riley stated in his book "The Menace of Modernism" (New York: Christian Alliance Publ. Co., 1917) that there was a group of men called the “old conception” that believed in an inerrant KJV. However, this is actually reading Riley wrong. His term “old conception” did not describe a group, but a concept. (His “new conception” was modernism.) I tried to upload the book here, but the file was too big. What Riley actually wrote was that he had never met anyone who believed in a perfect translation. See for yourself on pp. 9-123. (Follow the Riley link here: Indiana Authors and Their Books - Home)

1924—Philip Mauro writes Which Version? opposing the original language text behind the Revised Version. (Download a pdf file at: Which Version by Philip Mauro : Mauro, Philip : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive). Mauro is claimed by some as an early King James advocate. The book also does not launch a movement.

 

I have to sneak in more years in the timeline, just in case a nattering nabob of negativity sidetracks the thread.

1930—Benjamin Wilkinson writes Our Authorized Bible Vindicated. Since Wilkinson was a Seventh Day Adventist, this work was virtually unknown to independent Baptists. Therefore, it also did not launch a movement. Later, when it was included in Which Bible, ed. by David Otis Fuller (1970), Baptists finally noticed it.

1955—God Wrote Only One Bible, by Jasper James Ray, is published by Eye Opener Press. It is somewhat of a mystery to this day who Ray is or was. The book has very little circulation or influence until the 1970s. Ray plagiarized much of his book from Benjamin Wilkinson’s previous work, according to Gary Hudson in “The Real Eye Opener” (Baptist Biblical Heritage, Vol. II, No. 2, Spring 1992). Ray’s book was little known outside of his own circles, so it did not launch the movement, though later on it had influence through reprints.

These two books, flawed as they are, are still referred to often by KJVO writers. D. A. Waite credits them, along with Believing Bible Study by Edward Hills (1967), as influencing him in The Case for the King James Bible.

 

1956—Influenced by Burgon, Presbyterian scholar Edward Hills publishes The King James Version Defended: A Christian View of the New Testament Manuscripts. As a genuine textual scholar who had done work in the Ceasarean text (Th. D. in textual criticism from Harvard with liberal textual critic Kirsopp Lake as one of the readers), Hills commands respect among the founders of the KJVO movement, though he himself was not KJVO. Among others, Ruckman quoted from him extensively, though Hills would certainly not have agreed with Ruckman. Hills’ innovation was to teach a doctrine of preservation based on what he called the “logic of faith.”

1963—John R. Rice edits and publishes A Coffer of Jewels about the Bible. Included is an essay by W. A. Criswell on “The Preservation of the Word of God,” which does not mention anything about a KJVO movement, evidence that the movement was not yet in existence at that time based on Rice’s irenic positions.

1964—Peter Ruckman publishes his first book in defense of the KJV, Bible Babel (Pensacola, FL: Bible Believer’s Press, 1964). However, it does not launch a movement as of yet. Few preachers pay any attention to it, especially in the independent Baptist movement.

1967—Edward Hills publishes his second book on preservation, Believing Bible Study. Though his two books did not teach KJVO doctrine, his teaching on providential preservation provided a doctrinal basis for the movement. However, most in the movement ignore the difference in providence (necessary for preservation) and miracle (necessary for inspiration).

1969—John R. Rice publishes his magnum opus, Our God-Breathed Book, the Bible. Though Chapter XIX is on preservation, there is nothing about a controversy involving the preservation of the KJV, evidence that there was not yet a definable movement in 1969. If there had been a movement at this point, Rice would surely have written about it.

Tomorrow: the big reveal--when the KJVO movement actually became a movement.

Next week: How and when Jack Hyles joined the movement, using research from my upcoming book on John R. Rice.

 

Good points. At any rate, Riley was quite vague about the whole thing. He gave no illustrations or descriptions of those who actually held the view in his day, except for the questionable story from the modernist about a farmer who thought the Bible had fallen from Heaven.

I tried to link to an actual PDF of Riley's book that I was able to download, but kept getting an error reading from the BB. But it is possible to read the whole book online from your link. Good job!

 

Thanks. That's more information than I could ever find.

 

Thank you, Master Researcher Jerome! (And I sincerely mean that title.)