David Otis Fuller

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David Otis Fuller (1903 - 1988) was a graduate of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois and Princeton Theological Seminary. He pastored Chelsea Baptist Church in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the well known Wealthy Street Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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[edit] Biography

Thirteen-year-old Fuller committed to the Christian faith in April 1916 at a Chapman-Alexander (John Wilbur Chapman and Charles Alexander) revival meeting in North Carolina and was baptized in the First Baptist Church of New York City by Dr. I. M. Haldeman.[1] The title of the sermon he heard that day was "What Wilt Thou Say When He Shall Punish Thee."

Dr. Fuller served as a United States Navy chaplain in World War II[2], then for the next 45 years he was a pastor in a civilian capacity. He served as the editor of the General Association of Regular Baptists' "Baptist Bulletin" for 50 years.

He was the founder of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids (at the time named Baptist Bible Institute), serving as president from 1941 to 1944.[3] and the founder and president of the "Which Bible?" Society.

He helped establish the Children's Bible Hour in 1942, and was the chairman of this large ministry [it is on nearly 600 radio stations] for 33 years. He also cared deeply for world missions and was for 52 years on the board of the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism.

A great love for the Bible was one of the distinguishing features of Fuller’s life and ministry. By the time he retired from 40 years as pastor of the Wealthy Street Baptist Church in 1974, he had read the Bible through 75 times.

Fuller dedicated much of his life to the defense of the Byzantine textual tradition as embodied in the Textus Receptus (King James Version).

In February 1988, Fuller died at Blodgett Memorial Medical Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.[4]

[edit] Published works

Fuller’s three volumes on the subject of texts and versions contain the full or summarized works of many older authorities on the textual issue, including John Burgon, Herman Hoskier, Philip Mauro, Joseph Philpot, Samuel Zwemer, and George Sayles Bishop, as well as the works of a number of contemporary writers, including Edward Hills, Terence Brown, and Wilbur Pickering.

The Baptist researcher Doug Kutilek in his article The Unlearned Men has traced some of this book's ideas to Seventh-day Adventist scholar Benjamin G. Wilkinson who wrote Our Authorized Bible Vindicated (available online or here because the copyright has expired).

[edit] Books

  • Which Bible? Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids International Publications, 1970. 3rd ed. 1972. ISBN 0-944355-24-2
  • True or False? The Westcott-Hort Textual Theory Examined Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids International Publications, 1973. ISBN 0-944355-12-9
  • Counterfeit or Genuine? Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids International Publications, 1978. ISBN 0-8254-2615-4

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Salvation Testimony, Life Changing Sermons
  2. ^ Military Citation, A Tribute to David Otis Fuller
  3. ^ Past Presidents, Cornerstone University
  4. ^ "David Otis Fuller, 84, Fundamentalist Pastor", Associated Press in New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-06-07. "The Rev. David Otis Fuller, a fundamentalist preacher who helped establish a children's radio ministry and the Grand Rapids Baptist College and Seminary, has died at the age of 84."