Gail Riplinger vs. James White, 1993, KRDS Radio Part I

I was walking out the door, getting ready to go home late one afternoon in 1994, and a volunteer called and said, there's this lady on the radio and she's saying some pretty odd things about the King James Version of the Bible.

Well, I pretty well immediately knew that we had a King James only-ist on the radio, so on the way home I listened. And I think, I don't remember now if I actually got, I didn't get in to ask a question.

I didn't get home in time to do so. It was a local radio station, it was interviewing Gail Ripplinger. But I talked to the host of the program and he said, hey, you know, she says no one will debate her, so if you'd like to be on to debate her, that would be great.

However, you have to come down and pick up her book, because she won't debate anyone who hasn't read her book. Her book's 700 pages long, so something like that. And so I went down to the radio station, I believe it was KRDS back then, I don't think they're on the air anymore, as was 14 years ago, and picked up the book and began reading it and was just amazed.

I had never seen a book that could have more errors on a single page than anything Gail Ripplinger's ever written. She makes the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons and everybody else look like just absolute scholars as far as their biblical material goes.

It was incredible. And so I wrote a bunch of notes and went to the radio station. We did two days. Each was, I think it was only a half-hour program, as I recall. And after the first day, the host said she won't be back.

That was so bad she won't be back. But she did come back the second day, but that was because they set up callers to help try to defend her, as you'll see. And so I thought what would be useful would be to take the audio from 14 years ago and provide it again because, for some reason, her stuff's still floating around YouTube.

There's still people who, for some reason, listen to something that Gail Ripplinger has to say. It's hard for me to even begin to imagine that. But I know one thing. This was the last time she allowed herself into a situation like this.

It's very clear. I've listened to things she's done after this. It's very clear that from then on she would send questions, and she would only go with the questions she was asked. She would never put herself in a position of being examined by anybody who knew what they were talking about ever again.

So you're not going to hear Ripplinger in a debate. She was invited to be a part of the Ankerberg program. We did that in 1995, but she, of course, wouldn't come. Dr. Chambers took her place. If you've ever watched any of that, you know how that went.

But this was the first time she was ever really seriously challenged, and pretty much the last time too. She just wouldn't expose herself to anything like this after this. This was, I think, two half-hour programs on KRDS.

I'll try to provide some text so you can follow along a little bit. Obviously, there's no video of it. It was a radio program. But this is from 14 years ago, myself and Gail Ripplinger on a local radio station here in the Phoenix area.

Gail Ripplinger's King James Only Claims and the Radio Debate Setup

Well, she's caused no small stir among Christians across the country, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, I even got a call from Houston, Texas today about the book we're going to be discussing. How has she done it?

Well, she's written a book which she's entitled New Age Bible Versions, the subtitle of which reads thusly, An Exhaustive Documentation, Exposing the Message, Men and Manuscripts, Moving Mankind to the Antichrist, One World Religion.

Now, folks, in this 696-page book, which includes 1 ,480 reference footnotes, Gail Ripplinger presents a case against the New International Version, the New American Standard Version, the New King James Version, the New Revised Standard Version, the Living Bible, the J .B. Phillips Translation, and just about every other version of the Bible in existence.

So what version of the Bible does she suggest that Christians use? Well, it won't come as any surprise if I tell you she recommends the one and only Bible for believers as the King James Version, will it?

The idea of KJV only isn't something new, folks. But this book has caused no small amount of uneasiness for some Christians, and the reviews, to say the least, are mixed. Well, I told you last week that I was attempting to arrange a debate, bailing someone who disagreed with her conclusions.

So enters Mr. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries, who is here in the studio with me today. I have dedicated two previous programs to Gail Ripplinger, and now, in fairness to those who might disagree with her conclusions, we will dedicate the program today and tomorrow to an opposing viewpoint.

James White disagreed with Gail Ripplinger, so I've asked him to read New Age Bible versions, and then come on the air and confront those specific points of disagreement in her book. Now, I'm not going to take any calls today.

I want to give the remainder of our time to Gail Ripplinger, who is online from her home in Ohio, and James White, who is here in the studio. And, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to give James White about five minutes to sort of set up where he's going, and then we can begin some discussion.

So, James, I'll just turn it over to you.

Why Ripplinger's Book Is Accused of Misrepresentation

Well, thank you, Pat. It's good to be with you. The issues raised by Gail Ripplinger are very important, if only for the fact that in this book, professing Christian men, who I believe lived godly lives, are attacked and are associated with men who were anything but godly or concerned about Christian truth.

Orthodox Christian theologians are indiscriminately associated with heretics without any thought as to the consistency of such an action. And since we have in this book serious allegations of downright satanic actions on the part of Christian leaders, I feel Mrs. Ripplinger should be held to the highest standards of scholarly acumen and accuracy.

Yet, Ripplinger claims in her book, quote, objectively and methodically documents the hidden alliance between new versions and the New Age movement's one-world religion, end quote. However, I feel an even semi-unbiased review of Mrs. Ripplinger's book reveals that this book is neither methodical nor objective in any way, shape, or form.

Now, we need to remember, right up front, that New Age Bible Versions is not a nice book. It plainly and obviously identifies anyone who was involved in the production of modern Bible versions or who would dare to defend translations, such as the New American Standard Bible or the New International Version, as not just non-Christians, but as anti-Christians who are opposed to God's work in this world and actually want everyone to worship Lucifer.

Anyone who opposes Gail Ripplinger's unique view of the world and theology is, in fact, a New Ager in sheep's clothing. Now, a quick review of her book bears this out. She alleges that these new versions prepare the apostate church of these last days to accept the anti-Christ, his mark, his image, and religion, Lucifer worship.

She describes the New American Reformed Doctrine of Regeneration, a doctrine taught by Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, the crafters of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Puritans, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, B .B. Warfield, G .I. Packer, and R .C. Sproul, as a belief that, quote, an orthodox Christian would find shocking, end quote.

Ripplinger connects Christian men such as Edwin Palmer with everyone from Blavatsky to Charlie Manson. All are in one boat, according to New Age Bible versions. No opportunity is missed to attack those who would dare to oppose this position.

Now, in light of this, I hope no one will take too much offense at my less than sparkling review of Gail's book. Now, as an apologist working on the front lines and dealing with the claims of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, and debating Roman Catholic apologists all across the United States, I have only once or twice encountered a work that contained more misrepresentation of historical facts, cited sources of documentation, and the writing of those who are being reviewed than this book.

New Age Bible version shows not the slightest concern for accurately re-representing its opposition. Context is a term that is utterly lost in the maze of disconnected citations thrown at the reader on almost every page.

Utterly illogical argumentation carries the day in Gail's attempt to find a New Age conspiracy behind every bush. Even the deity of Christ is undermined so as to maintain the supposed inerrancy of a translation, that being the KJV, and of course we'll get into that later.

And worst of all, in my opinion, Gail Ripplinger attacks the memories and characters of good men of God, such as Edwin Palmer, without once differentiating between the beliefs and actions of such men and the likes of New Age wackos and Satanists.

She misrepresents their writings and words over and over and over again. Now those are some pretty harsh words, but the documentation of these statements is easily found. All one has to do is take Gail Ripplinger's book, New Age Bible Versions, and then take the time to find such books, such books as Barker's The NIV, The Making of a Contemporary Translation, which is cited very frequently in her book, Palmer's The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit, and John Kohlenberger's Words About the Word, and examine the references provided at the end of the book.

The number of citations and altered quotations will quickly prove the correctness of my statements. Now given the small amount of time we have today, I'll only be able to provide a few examples, but I could literally expand the list indefinitely.

Specific Examples of Alleged Errors in the Book

First, one simply cannot believe the facts that are presented in this book, for quite often they are not facts at all. There are dozens and dozens of charts throughout the book allegedly comparing the KJV with the supposed New Versions, which she calls Mutant Versions.

Yet over and over again, these charts are simply wrong. On page 22, we are told that the New Versions delete the call to take up the cross, when they do not. We are told that while the KJV tells us to bless our enemies, the New Versions tell us to call our enemies bastards, which of course they do not.

At times the facts are 180 degrees opposite of what is claimed by Gail Riplinger. For example, on page 99 we read, "...all New Versions, based on a tiny percentage of corrupt Greek manuscripts, make the faithfully frightening addition of three words in Revelation 14 .1.".

She then quotes the passage from the NIV which reads,. "...the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144 ,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads.". The phrase, "...His name and..." is not found in the KJV.

She continues on page 100, "...will the unwary reading Revelation 14 .1 in a recent version be persuaded that the Bible sanctions and encourages the taking of His name on their forehead before they receive His Father's name?".

Such sounds truly ominous, until one discovers that in point of fact, it is the Textus Receptus, the Greek text of the New Testament utilized by the KJV translators, that alone does not contain the disputed phrase, "...His name.".

The majority text contains it, as do all the Greek texts. What we have here is merely a mistake on the part most probably of Desiderius Erasmus, the Roman Catholic priest who collated what became the Textus Receptus.

He had major problems in producing the text of Revelation, and merely skipped over the phrase referring to the Lamb's name. Sadly, someone reading New Age Bible versions could be led to attack the NIV on the basis of such a basic mistake.