Dr. Sam Gipp Sends Me a Gift

Dr. Gipp’s Gift and the King James Only Response

Over the past number of months, we have been responding to some videos that have been released by Dr. Sam Gipp, and we've commented the quality of the videos, as far as videography is concerned, have been very, very good.

But we've also demonstrated that in each one of, especially the initial videos, there were substantial errors of fact and logic and argumentation, which is endemic to the King James Only position. A couple weeks ago, Dr. Gipp released another of this series, and I haven't responded to it for the simple reason that there really wasn't much to respond to.

It was just a conversation that basically said that, well, if God wants to supernaturally preserve a particular text type or a particular translation, then he has the right to do so, which of course is not the issue.

The issue is, what does the evidence demonstrate, when we look at history, do we see any evidence whatsoever that God has acted in this particular way, that God has chosen to preserve his word in the way that King James Only advocates would tell us that he has.

And so, given that I have been very busy of late, finishing up a book on the Quran, and in fact, as of the recording of this program, we'll be flying to London tomorrow, and in just a matter of hours after that, we'll be debating in the South London Mosque, East London Mosque, I'm sorry, originally it was going to be the South London Mosque, but the East London Mosque, I just haven't had time to be working too much with anything that Sam Gipp has to say, especially since there really wasn't much there to dig into in responding to it, but Dr. Gipp, being the kind, scholarly gentleman that he is, prompted me to respond to that video, because he sent me a gift in the mail, and it was very kind of Dr. Gipp to do this.

Here's what the gift was, here is his, it's a coloring book, called The Time When There Was No Bible Coloring Book by Dr. Sam Gipp, so there it is, it's a coloring book and it has little stories in it, and you can color the pages and things like that, I really haven't gotten busy on that.

Now this one's an interesting page, it says, God had placed his New Testament church in Antioch and was once again speaking to his people, but down in Alexandria, Egypt, some very bad men by the name of Philo and Origen didn't believe the Bible, so they were cutting parts of it out as fast as they could, and of course that makes anyone who actually knows anything about history break out in hives, but it's still, it's just a, it's a coloring book, and what would a coloring book be without a brand new, and I mean brand new, I checked, I looked, remember, remember what it was like when you're a kid, you check and make sure that, see they're, they're all pointy, they are not used, these are brand new crayons, so he put out some bucks to send this to me, I'm gonna tell you that, so I was very, very appreciative of Dr. Gipp doing so, and he provided a very kind letter as well, signed by Dr. Gipp himself, that he sent to me, and it's on the letterhead of a friend to Churches Ministries, www .samgipp .com, and it's even got his phone number and everything, I guess I could give him a call and we could chat about this, but here's, here's what it says, it's dated September 4th of 2012, addressed to me at our PO Box, it says, James, you looked so lonely down there in your basement, talking to your computer, so I thought I'd send along my newest book to give something more meaningful to occupy your time, one that is more on your level of understanding, maybe this will help you leave your error behind and gather up enough faith to actually believe God has a perfect book, capitalized B, somewhere on this planet, please remember the two more most important rules, number one, stay within the lines, and number two, don't eat the crayons, looking forward to the day you turn from your error, Dr. Samuel C. Gipp.

Cultic Mockery as a Substitute for Engagement

Well, it's so kind of Dr. Gipp to forward me this, this letter and this wonderful coloring book, it does seem to be about the level of Dr. Gipp's argumentation, certainly as it was demonstrated when Dr. Gipp had the opportunity to demonstrate how completely wrong I was and other people like Dan Wallace and others on the John Ankerberg show many years ago, I think any fair-minded person would say it was the King James only side that not only contradicted itself amongst its members, but was tied in logical knots, and you would think that if my responses, especially to the first few videos where we actually got into factual matters, historical matters, logical matters, were so bad that the best I can do is to be warned not to eat the crayons while coloring in a coloring book, that it would be easy for Dr. Gipp to point these items out, but as we have discovered over the years, King James only advocates, they're not interested in dialogue, they're only interested in a monologue, and when refuted, they don't respond to the refutation, they don't refute the refutation, they don't correct it.

Instead, as Peter Ruckman, his mentor, always has done, you respond with mockery, you respond with, well, this kind of thing, sending someone crayons and a coloring book, you respond with insults, you don't respond, because from their perspective, if you actually respond, then you're acknowledging that the other side has something to say, and from the King James only perspective, nobody but them has anything to say at all.

Now, you may be thinking with me, that's cultic mindset, that's how the cults think, exactly. Dr. Gipp represents the cultic aspect of King James onlyism, along with Gail Ripplinger and Peter Ruckman and the other radicals like that.

Now, there are non-cultic King James only folks, who would never think of doing something like this, but they seem to be in the minority in that particular group. So, I wanted to share with you, just what kind of response you get, and just invite the viewer, listen to Sam Gipp's videos, listen to our responses, and by the way, this is my office.

Phoenix, Arizona, and the Practicalities of the Office

Dr. Gipp evidently is unaware of the fact that here in Phoenix, Arizona, we don't have basements. The ground really isn't, it wouldn't be much of an advantage in the Phoenix area. It's very hard, and it gets very hot.

The ground temperature right now, it's just now starting to cool off here in Phoenix. It's probably about 90 to 93 degrees at its warmest in August, and so it really wouldn't be of any advantage. So, we don't have basements.

This is actually my office, which we rent from a local church, but I'm not lonely down here. I'm quite busy, and really, I've got plenty of reading to do to keep me busy. In fact, a brand new book just arrived today.

Very thankful that someone was kind enough to buy it for me. It's a very large work. The Early Text of the New Testament, Ed. by Charles E. Hill and Michael J. Kruger from Oxford. This is pretty decent stuff, and this is the newest work on this subject.

And of course, we're all waiting for that Brill book to come out in February or March of next year that has the material on the new papyri. And none of these things would have any relevance to a King James onlyist.

Manuscript Evidence and Theological Training

Sam Gipp's not going to read that book. I don't know that he could understand that book. I don't think he has sufficient training and scholarship to even follow the arguments of that book. So, they're not going to be concerned about those things, but those of us who are actually engaging the Muslim world and the atheists and debating people like Bart Ehrman or John Dominic Crossan, we actually have to keep up with that kind of stuff.

It's a lot easier when you're a King James onlyist because you've just got the King James. You don't have to worry about new manuscript fines or anything like that. Of course, an attitude utterly unknown amongst King James translators, which is one of the great ironies of that particular movement.

But I wanted to share this with you, give you an idea of what kind of responses we get from King James only folks when you actually seek to engage them on a factual, historical, logical, and biblical level.

Thanks for watching.