Featured A Timeline of the KJV-Only Movement

Update from a friend: Since then, Hudson has apostasized and become an atheist, running a guitar shop in Florida. Kutilek continues serving the Lord in many capacities.

 

We can add this to the 2000s

2008--Life Bible-Presbyterian Church (LBPC) launched a lawsuit against the Far Eastern Bible College (FEBC), which is one of an extremely few non-US bastions of KJV-Only doctrine, and is connected to the Dean Burgon Society. This college is Bible Presbyterian, a group led by Carl McIntyre out of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church to be completely fundamental. The FEBC had their facilities in LBPC at the time. The beef LBPC had with the college was that the college had come out for Verbal Plenary Preservation (VPP), a doctrine invented by H. D. Williams, who at the time was a DBS member. This doctrine teaches that the KJV is perfectly preserved. The college lost the lawsuit, but then won on appeal. See more information at: https://www.febc.edu.sg/introducing_the_college

Confusing? You bet!

 

2000s

Throughout first decade of the new century, D. A. Waite and The Bible for Today produce many short works, including defenses against Bob Jones U. (Bob Jones University’s Inconsistent Position, 2000) and Central Baptist Theological Seminary (Central Seminary Refuted On Bible Versions, 1999). On the anti-KJV-Only side, two major works by Rick Norris and James Price appear.

Controversy arises among KJV-ONLY advocates with some saying that the term “inspiration” can be applied to a translation (Shelton Smith of the Sword of the Lord, Gail Riplinger, etc.) and others saying it must not (the Dean Burgon Society, Jack Schaap of First Baptist Church of Hammond, IN, etc.).

Early 2000s (From a friend in the know)—D. A. Waite expels some Ruckman and Riplinger followers from the Dean Burgon Society.

2001—Jack Hyles (1926-2001) passes. His son-in-law takes over the pastorate of First Baptist of Hammond, and the leadership of Hyles-Anderson College.

2001—In his book Touch Not The Unclean Thing (subtitle, “The Text Issue and Separation”), author David Sorenson takes the stand that to separate on the basis of a Bible translation is squarely in the mold of the original fundamentalists. While taking a stand against Peter Ruckman’s position, he also opposes the Hodges/Farstad Greek New Testament as being edited from a “rationalistic philosophy” (p. 39, fn 5).

2003—Rick Norris publishes The Unbound Scriptures, with the subtitle of “A Review of KJV-only Claims and Publications.” This is a major contribution against the movement of 479 pages, including the Appendixes, with a massive 49 page bibliography.

2003—On the KJV-Only side, a publisher named Hyles Publications brings out posthumously The Need for an Every-Word Bible, by Jack Hyles (1926-2001). This is from a set of messages preached by Hyles in the Wednesday night services of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. Much of the book is controversial, such as when he names non-KJV Bible translations as being from the Devil. For example: “A children’s Bible that is not exactly the King James text is one of the Devil’s bibles” (sic; p. 94).

2005—A new Greek New Testament based on the Byzantine text type with the title The New Testament in the Original Greek, and the subtitle, Byzantine Textform. The editors are Maurice A. Robinson of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and William G. Pierpont. Robinson, who has a PhD in textual criticism, is a well-known scholar of that discipline, and the most effective advocate to date of the Byzantine/Majority text type. The editors are not at all KJV-Only, though some ignorantly call them that.

2006—Fundamentalist professor James D. Price publishes King James Onlyism: A New Sect. An Old Testament editor of the New King James Version and widely known as a Hebrew scholar, Price is well respected even in broader evangelicalism. At 621 pages, including Appendixes, this is perhaps the most erudite critique of the KJV-Only movement.

2008—Life Bible-Presbyterian Church (LBPC) launched a lawsuit against the Far Eastern Bible College (FEBC), which is one of an extremely few non-US bastions of KJV-Only doctrine, and is connected to the Dean Burgon Society. This college is Bible Presbyterian, a group led by Carl McIntyre out of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church to be completely fundamental. The FEBC had their facilities in LBPC at the time. The beef LBPC had with the college was that the college had come out for Verbal Plenary Preservation (VPP), a doctrine invented by H. D. Williams, who at the time was a DBS member. This doctrine teaches that the KJV is perfectly preserved. The college lost the lawsuit, but then won on appeal. See more information at: Far Eastern Bible College | Introducing the College

2009—Until now, the Waites and Gail Riplinger got along famously, with The Bible for Today even selling Riplinger’s book, New Age Bible Versions. The problem is that Riplinger had been deceiving the Waites, since she was on her third husband, having been divorced twice. Letters and article flew back and forth, with other DBS members being involved: H. D. Williams and Phil Stringer. The upshot was that there was a complete break between the two parties. The issue had been building since 2008, but finally came to a head in 2010, when the final break occurred.

2009, February—Jack Schaap is leading Hyles-Anderson College, but co-founder of the school Russell Anderson chastises him in a letter for believing that we should not use the word “inspiration” in relation to the KJV.

2013—Northland Baptist Bible College begins allowing other versions than the KJV. This does not sit well with the alumni, and the school closes its doors in 2015 for this, music choices, etc.

2013, March—Jack Schaap sentenced to federal prison. John Wilkerson replaces him as pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond.

Around 2015—A group exits the Dean Burgon Society to form the King James Research Council. According to a friend in the know, the main issue is said to be the heavy handedness and over control of D. A. Waite. The departing members include: Phil Stringer, David Sorenson, H. D. Williams, etc.

2015—Russell Anderson writes Pastor Wilkerson demanding that the name “Anderson” be removed from the name of Hyles-Anderson College. The reason? Wilkerson failed to remove all college staff who did not believe in the inspiration of the KJV. The college name does not change.

2016—Peter Ruckman passes. No one among his followers appear to be able to replace him and lead his movement.

2018—A fundamentalist scholar named Mark Ward is taking on confessional bibliology and what is left of the KJV-Only movement. His book, Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible, is endorsed by some major evangelical scholars.

 

Here is an important event I should have included in the 1990s. It caused a big stir at the time.

1998—Pensacola Christian College (PCC) hosts an “Enrichment Conference” with Dell Johnson, the head of their new seminary, and Lutheran Theodore Letis. In the conference, Bob Jones University (BJU) is accused of spreading a leaven of a defiling leaven throughout fundamentalism, a leaven that does not tout the KJV as the only version to use. PCC then sends video tapes of the conference to their mailing list, understandably angering the leaders of BJU. Bob Jones III then writes the BJU mailing list, sending a rebuttal. An open letter is sent to Arlin Horton, head of PCC, with a complete rebuttal of the video tape by BJU prof Thurmond Wisdom, dean of the BJU School of Religion.

 

Last entry unless someone adds something:


Present Day

2024—Donald Allen Waite (1927-2024) passes. No one among his followers appears to be able to replace him and lead his branch of the KJV-Only movement, though Kirk DeVietrio is said to be the heir apparent. In my opinion, there is virtually no one among KJV-Only advocates who show the leadership or writing ability of Ruckman or Waite or Hyles. Those who might be able to lead the movement are now senior saints. KJV-Only churches and preachers have essentially decided who and what ministries they will fellowship with. In my view the movement is dying. If there is a leader, it is one of the elderly men of the King James Research Council (King James Bible Research Council). There are some younger men on the council, though, but do they have leadership ability? I don’t know, I only ask.

 

I think I'm done with the timeline. I'll wait a couple of days and see if anyone adds to it or if I think of an event or person or book that should be on it. Then I'll produce a PDF and put it on here for those interested in a complete copy.

 

Very interesting, but I'm not sure how it applies to the KJV-Only movement.

 

You got me, dead to rights!

 

You make some good points, but I have to say that once you get past the "thee" and "thou," the KJV is not that hard to understand. I've been discipling an elderly ex-Charismatic for a couple of years (still a ways to go--ex con, etc.), and someone gave him a KJV so he has been using it and liking it. Granted, though he is still learning the lingo.

Nevertheless, I understand why and how things are changing linguistically.