"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." (Jude 1:3)

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (Ephesians 5:11)

The purpose of this column is to present notes, comments, points of interest. corrections, answers, exposures, and opinions, from this writer, as the opportunity avails or the need arises. It is our aim to be contenders for the faith without being contentious.

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Occasional we publish ads in THE FLAMING TORCH that someone does not like. As most of our readers know, it is impossible to please everyone and particularly Baptists.

The criterion for publishing ads is, they must be separated, soul winning, King James Bible Believing Independent Baptists. We do not get involved in other areas, such as the way a person conducts his personal ministry. Even then, we reserve the right not to print any ad we do not want to print without giving a reason.

Letters

We always appreciate getting letters. It does not matter if you agree with everything printed in the TORCH. There are articles that we print, once in a while, that we do not agree with, one hundred percent. Your input is always valued.

Occasionally we get letters from people who do not sign their name, asking us to print or answer their letters in the TORCH. If you do not have enough character to sign your name, don't expect us to do anything with your letter except deposit it in file thirteen.

Others write and sign their name but do not want us to print their name. This is fine and we will not print your name if you so request. We try to answer most letters. Some are e-mail. Due to being very busy, we are not always able to answer as promptly as we would like.

Articles

We appreciate the articles that we receive. By experience we know the thought, work and time involved in writing. Please do not get upset if we do not print your masterpiece. Bro. Edwards informs me that he could publish every month and still not use all the material he has on hand. WE STILL WANT OTHER ARTICLES.

When the Lord provides the funds for us to be able to print more issues per year, we will have more space to print various articles sent in. Some articles are not written on the subjects we would want to print. Some are too controversial or doctrinally incorrect. Some are good and very well written.

THE FLAMING TORCH prefers articles more of a Biblical nature, rather than a political nature. We believe all Christians should take a stand for right and for our country but we are called to fish, not clean up the aquarium.

If you write an article for publication, it should be type written and double spaced. Hand written or hand printed articles are almost sure not to be used.

Thanks

Thanks to all of our supporters of the TORCH. It is a good way to show our appreciation to Don and Mary Edwards for all these years of faithfulness. They do all of the typesetting and keeping of the mailing list and the mailing out of the paper. In addition to this they both work on full time jobs and Bro. Edwards goes out on week-ends to preach in the various churches.

THE FLAMING TORCH has gone forth for forty years, shining the light of truth. No other publication in the world has taken such a stand for right and truth, for so long. Please pray that more folks will get involved that we may print six issues per year instead of the current four.

May we all keep on keeping on till Jesus comes back.

Baptist Bible Fellowship

The BBF Tribune publishes a paper called The Baptist Preacher. In the September/October issue, Editor, Mike Randall writes an article called "Fightin' Words in the Translation Controversy". The attempt by Brother Randall is to cool the differences among the brethren in the BBFI over the inerrancy of the King James Bible.

Some BBFI preachers believe it is only a good translation, needing some changes, and others believe it is preserved, inerrant, inspired and don't mess with it. The latter is this writer's position.

In his article, Randall writes on page six in a bold type cutout: "To me, a translation is God's Word preserved insofar as it renders the meaning of the original words. In that sense, the KJV is God's Word preserved in English."

This means that the editor of the Baptist Bible Tribune has no preserved "words" in the end time English Bible. All he has is some "MEANINGS" of some words that no longer exist. Randall, like others who like to appeal to the "originals," have an invisible Bible they have never seen, or a Bible they can hold in their hands with mistakes in it.

Therefore it is left up to the "scholars" to determine which verses have mistakes and which verses we can rely on.

In another place he wrote: "I believe it is impossible for any translation to be equivalent to the originals because no two languages are equivalent. Personally I believe English is inferior to both Hebrew and Greek."

At this point I would like to insert a portion of an answer that Pastor Dallas Bunch wrote regarding RANDALL'S BELIEF THAT THE ENGLISH IS INFERIOR TO BOTH HEBREW AND GREEK.

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Brethren,

It is noticeable in any discussion of the King James Bible, that the critics seem enamored by the "originals". They insist that the "originals" must be greatly superior to any translation, particularly the King James Bible. Now let us consider:

1. Is not a Bible I can hold in my hand superior to a Bible I cannot ever possess?

2. Is not a Bible containing all the books superior to a Bible containing only some of the books? The originals were never gathered together in a Book.

3. Is not a Bible in my language superior in a practical way to a Bible written in some foreign language?

4. Is not a Bible with chapter and verse divisions superior to a Bible with no chapter and verse divisions?

5. Is not a Bible with spaces between words superior to a Bible with no spaces between words?

6. Is not a Bible with small and large letters superior to a Bible with only one size letters?

7. Is not a Bible I can carry in my hand superior to a Bible I cannot carry in my hand? Even if I could find the "originals" they would not be in a form I can carry in my hand.

8. Is not a Bible God is presently using to win souls, build churches, edify the saints, and send missionaries superior to a Bible God is not presently using in these areas?

9. Should I not be grateful that God has perfectly preserved His Word in these last days for the English speaking peoples in the King James Bible instead of requiring us to seek for the lost "originals" which no living person has ever seen, heard or preached? It always amuses me to hear someone correct the KJV with the "originals" which the corrector does not possess, and if he did, would not know if it was the original or not. I hope some Bible critic will consider these questions and respond.

Brother Dallas Bunch

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These are serious and honest questions. Any true Bible Believer has no difficulty answering yes to all of these questions. At this time, Dr. Randall has not answered them.

If you would like to answer them, send your e-mail answers to: dbunch@mail.gcnet.net (Bible Baptist Church). Or you can write Pastor Bunch, snail mail at P.O. Box 162, Barton, MD 21521

Randall's overall position on the King James Bible is little different than that of the late Noel Smith. Dr. Smith told us, in class, to "be careful of spurious passages in the KJV" and if there was ever any doubt about a verse, check it out in the ASV.

He said he read from the ASV every morning, out loud, and it was the closest version to "the originals." (which he never saw) Of course, being "ignorant" of these things, I went down to the BBC bookstore and bought a NASV.

The bookstore did not have an old ASV, as I remember. Later, after doing a comparative study, I realized the NASV and ASV are as corrupt as the NCCC's Revised Standard Version.

As former editor of the Baptist Bible Tribune, Noel Smith is highly regarded among many preachers in the BBFI. However, when it comes to Bible versions, he was a dud!

Smith, like J.H. Melton and some other professors at BBC, ruined the faith of many King James Bible believing students that sat before them by criticizing their Bible in class while USING it!

The American Standard Version is such garbage that The Holy Spirit would not be found anywhere near it. It sold in the bookstores like pork brains and chicken feet sell at the meat market. Not a very big line waiting to buy them!

The ASV/NASV lies to you in the very first verse in the Bible as well as a host of others throughout the Bible, (check out: Geneses 3:5 cf. Daniel 3:25, and Mark 1:1-3)

The ASV/NASV makes Joseph the father of Jesus in Luke 2:33, denies the deity of Christ in 1 Timothy 3:16, removes the blood from Colossians 1:14, casts doubt on the resurrection in Acts 1:3, removes Acts 8:37 from scripture leaving the poor Ethiopian eunuch lost but wet, (making him a Campbellite), confines the Lord Jesus Christ's reign only to Heaven, never to return to this earth in John 18:36.

This is the "bible" we were supposed to correct the old King James Bible with, according to Noel Smith! The new name for the ASV/NASV should be called the "RV", that is, "The Regurgitated Version." I recommend taking Dramamine about thirty minutes before opening it and dozing off before you come to the word "heavens" in Genesis 1:1.

Most of the hierarchy of the BBFI have not changed their "unbelief" about the King James Bible. They do not believe it is inerrant. What would they tell their students at BBC if they had a Bible with no mistakes in it? How could the Greek Professors correct the English KJV with their Nestles Greek text as Hunter Sherman did when I was at BBC?

They only smile and tip their hat to the "ignoramuses" in the fellowship, who believe the King James Bible is inerrant, preserved and inspired.

The BBFI has had many social climbers over the years. Some are self imposed and self deluded Bible correctors like Dr. R.L. Hymers Jr. (D.Min., Th.M. B.S., B.U., P.U. and D.U.M.) And then there was the late Dr. Truman Dollar. Someone said, "you should not talk about a dead man." He won't mind, NOW.

Dollar wrote a letter to a young Bible Believer in 1982. You may find it interesting.

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Kansas City Baptist Temple

Truman Dollar, Pastor

December 28, 1982

Dear______________

After reading your letter I suppose that I should ignore the whole affair. I feel constrained, however, to meet this issue head-on. I am convinced that to allow young men, like yourself, to go unchallenged is a serious problem for fundamentalism. I do believe that kind of ignorance level that you have displayed will ultimately be a cause of great concern for our entire movement.

I am sorry that you were hurt and shocked at what I had to say. You do need to read very carefully what I have to say in this letter. You do need to understand that the position you have taken is one of heresy and it arises because of your ignorance of the issue about translations. It has nothing to do with your confidence in the Word of God.

The issues is ignorance. (sic) Again, I find it incredible to know that you believe that the King James translation is inerrant. Even the most radical Ruckmanite does not believe that. You even seek to prove your position by offering expert testimony.

You have sent me a copy of a resolution passed by the Baptist Bible Fellowship in Bangor, Maine regarding the King James Version of the Bible. That resolution was signed by the president. Dr. A.V. Henderson. Surely you know that Dr. A.V. Henderson is a member of the New King James Translation Committee. He served with me during the entire time of the preparation of the translation. I find it incredible that you would use him as authority.

In the second place, you have sent me a letter by Dr. W.E. Dowell. You surely know that Dr. Dowell does not believe in the inerrancy of the King James Translation. He, like me and other men who you have named, believe that the King James Version of the Bible is an adaquate (sic) and good translation. He does not, however, believe that it is inerrant.

That position is not inconsistant (sic) with his belief in the inerrancy of the original autographs. The inerrancy of the original autographs is precisely what the Baptist Bible Fellowship and the New Hampshire Confession of Faith subscribes to.

Your confusion over the inerrancy of the original autographs and inerrancy of the King James Translation is obviously what creates such a problem for you. Charles Hadden Spurgeon, while he believed in inerrancy, did not sub scribe to inerrancy of the King James Version Translation. (sic) That position is ludicrous. You would be laughed out of every school in this country, including fundamentalists schools . . . Tennessee Temple University, Lynchburg Baptist College, Bob Jones University.

You know you have a simple degree from Baptist Bible College. It is not a particularly scholarly degree in the first place. Your background in languages is obviously very limited if you went to Baptist Bible College. I can't believe that you are spending your time discussing and defending translations when you have absolutely no credentials whatsoever to be involved in that kind of a discussion.

You make an absolute fool of yourself. In fact, the people whom you quote, in private conversations with me discuss the affair and find it laughable. While you were seriously writing and quoting them, in private conversations they were making fun of you.

Please understand how absurd your whole position is.

You also fail to understand that your belief in inerrancy of the King James Translation is precisely what I have called it. It is heresy. It is a belief in continuing revelation. We believe that the revelation stopped with the original cannon (sic) of the scripture in the original autographs. You believe that revelation extended to 1611 at the completion of the King James Version of the Bible.

That position is not Baptistic, that position is heresy, and that position militates against every article of faith that we have held precious of the last 300 years. If you only understood how absurd everybody considers your position you would understand why I find your letter cannot be taken seriously.

I suppose you are concerned as to why Dr. Dowell would not answer your letter. Most of the people who have any background in these issues consider people, like yourself, (sic) dangerous. The men who are leaders of the fellowship are afraid of people like you.

They know that you do not understand the issues. Their letters are designed ONLY TO PACIFY YOU. They are not going to discuss their views in detail. They do that with me privately. They simply want to get you to stop writing letters so that you will not make it a public issue. The difference between them and me is that I am willing to confront you because I realize that you are dangerous if your position is not challenged. I am writing to challenge it because I think that it is stupid and heresy. I do not plan to let this issue lie. You are wrong and somebody must say so.

Sincerely,

Rev. Truman Dollar

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Just imagine. This poor, dumb, ignorant, stupid, young "Bible Believer" (whoever he was) had the audacity to write to such a great "scholar" as the Pastor of the Kansas City Baptist Temple and suggest that God had preserved His Bible without any mistakes in it. Such ignorance! Such heresy! Such stupidity! Such fear! Such a ludicrous position!

After all Christ could not have meant it when He said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." God could not have preserved His words in English!

The arrogance of Dollar's letter is just too much. The demonizing of this young man is typical of people who are devoid of the truth and unable to make an intelligent argument based on scripture. Dollar gave no scripture to back up his argument against this young man and his King James Bible.

It is reminiscent of Slick Willies' spin doctors lying against the iron clad evidence against him. "Truth is fallen in the street." (Isaiah 59:14)

This is what happens, when a man is elevated to heights of grandeur, supposing himself to be some great one. (Acts 8:9)

The line I liked best in Dollar's letter is: "The issues is ignorance." (Emphasis mine)

The discerning reader will also note that Dollar did not understand the difference between "Revelation" and "Preservation." Revelation stopped with the writing of the book of Revelation. Preservation and Inspiration continues. (Psalms 12:6-7; 2 Timothy 3:16)

We will not make any blanket statements about the positions of the Pastors of the BBFI regarding their beliefs about the King James Bible. There are many good preachers who still take a stand for the inerrancy of the book. Too bad Brother Randall and some of the other BBFI leaders do not. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump!

Jesus said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63) "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)

"BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT." (Numbers 32:232b)