Category Archives: Reliability of the Bible

The Old King James!

By John D. Chitty on | 13 Comments
Here’s a little ditty I came up with about 12 or 13 years ago, back when I was a flaming King James Onlyist who was currently reading through Riplinger’s New Age Bible Versions for the second time straight. Now, for those of you who don’t know, that’s unusual for me. I’m a slow reader, but I found the steam to plow through almost 700 pages of mediocre writing and even worse scholarship twice in a row! Truly, New Age Bible Versions was, I repeat was, one of the landmark (no pun intended) experiences in my theological journey. Of course, my first wife had just left me at the time, so I guess that’s where I found all the free time.
There’s another product from that little “sabbatical” of sorts related to my zeal for the Old King James that I intend to share with you one day, but for now, I’ll introduce you to one of my masterpieces. The song, “The Old King James,” is written to the tune of a song featured in the movie which is my namesake, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The original song is entitled, “Me ol’ Bamboo.” It was an entertaining song and (dare I say it? There are Baptists reading this!) dance routine featuring Dick Van Dyke, portraying inventor Caractacus Potts, who is hiding out from a hostile pursuer whom he’d just victimized at the fair with one of his lame-brain inventions.
This period of “divorce recovery” was early in my membership at my previous church, as well. At that period of my life, I was a subscriber to Peter Ruckman’s “Bible Believer’s Bulletin,” and an avid reader of his books, so when I found out that this new church I was considering went to camp every year on the week when the camp director welcomed Ruckman to preach, I signed up without any more ado! One summer, after I wrote this song, I even had the privilege of forming a quartet and performing this song in the presence of the man himself–The king of the King James Onlyists! The speed-readin’ German with the mouth that puts Luther to shame! The one, the ONLY (God is gracious!), Dr. Peter S. Ruckman!!! I didn’t have the heart to look behind me on the platform where he sat after we sang our song, but my good friend with the guitar said Ruckman was slapping his knee and cracking up.
After the good Doctor ended his sermon, and the chapel service concluded, a young lady representing one of the youth groups in attendance approached me for a copy of the song so that they may edify themselves in their faith in “The Bible God uses and Satan hates” back home. I hope they’re still enjoying it! And I hope my KJV-Onlyist readers enjoy it as well, and for those of you who are not of that persuasion, I think you may find it likewise serves as quite a parody, if you ‘ve got the stomach for it. So, may I now introduce to you . . .
The Old King James
by John D. Chitty, circa 1994-5
(sung to the tune of “Me ol’ Bamboo,” from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)
A new king named James Stuart
came to England long ago,
He called a group together
to see how to run the show.
They said, “Let’s make the Bible
to be cherished far and wide!”
In seven years came the Old King James,
we call the Authorized!
Oh!
The Old King James, the Old King James,
You better-never-bother with the Old King James!
It’ll judge you when Christ comes to reign,
So you better-never-bother with the Old King James!
1611!
1611!
The Scribes and Pharisees may think
their versions fill the bill,
But nothing else will ever better
manifest his will!
The Bible’s quick and powerful,
and sharper than a sword,
To make a wayward sinner come
and call upon the Lord!
Oh!
The Old King James, the Old King James!
You better-never-bother with the Old King James!
It’ll judge you when Christ comes to reign,
So you better-never-bother with the Old King James!
1611!
1611!
In the word of a king
is the power to win souls!
Any less authority
is likely full of holes!
God said it! So believe it!
Now, you know that it is true:
“For God so loved the world,
he gave his ONLY BEGOTTEN Son to die for you!”
Oh!
The Old King James! The Old King James!
You better-never-bother with the Old King James!
It’ll judge you when Christ comes to reign!
So you better-never-bother with the Old King James!
1611!
1611!
The Reformation Bible
keeps sound doctrine as it is!
It don’t delete the message
like the Catholic Bible did!
The Authorized King James Bible
is what it claims to be:
The Word that God inspired,
translated and gave to me!
Oh!
The Old King James! The Old King James!
You better-never-bother with the Old King James!
It’ll judge you when Christ comes to reign,
So you better-never-bother with the Old King James!
Posted in: Baptist, Captain Headknowledge: The Early Years, Fundamentalism, King James Version, KJVOx, Music for Mind and Heart, Peter Ruckman, Video

A Dark Day for KJV Onlyists . . .

By John D. Chitty on | 1 Comment
On this day in Christian History:

May 17, 1881 — The Revised Version (RV or ERV) of the New Testament was first published in England. The Old Testament was completed in 1885. In 1905 the American Standard Version (ASV) — based on the textual foundation of the ERV–was published in the U. S.

KING JAMES ONLYISTS, PUT ON YOUR SACKCLOTH AND ASHES!!!

Lately, I’ve been reading Kim Riddlebarger’s doctoral dissertation on B. B. Warfield, which partially discusses his interest in the burgeoning field of higher criticism. The “Lion of Princeton” was convinced that this methodology would help recover the original text of the Bible, and could also be useful in demonstrating the inerrancy of Scripture, if it’s used objectively!Warfield recognized, however, that due to the concurrent rise of evolutionary scientific naturalism, most European scholars were not using higher criticism objectively, and that goes, I’m sure, to some extent, for Westcott and Hort, the men who spearheaded the 1881 Revised Version’s “Critical New Testament,” but were, in fact, subjectively looking at the facts from their naturalistic viewpoint. In other words, having a prior committment to the idea that God has not inspired or preserved an inerrant canon of Scripture, the vast majority of liberal higher critics were too often using this inductive scientific method to destroy Christian orthodox confession regarding its Sacred Text. However, even as blind squirrels often find nuts, the advent of Westcott and Hort’s critical text did at least manage to break the Byzantine Text’s undue dominance in the church’s understanding of the transmission of the New Testament.

 

On this side of the pond, Warfield’s use of higher criticism contributed to his influence in the modern evangelical understanding of the inerrancy of Scripture! So you see, higher criticism is neutral and can aid us in the search for truth when used in an objective manner; at least that was Warfield’s conviction.

It is true that theories come and go, including some of the theories of Westcott and Hort and the liberal higher critics. But if we are committed to Christian orthodoxy, and with Anselm, “believe in order to understand,” we will find that, in part, through the ordinary means of higher textual criticism, God has providentially allowed us to arrive at a far closer proximity to the original text of Scripture than we’ve ever reached before!

Happy Birthday, Revised Version and all modern English translations!

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Posted in: King James Version