Gail Riplinger

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Gail Anne Riplinger (born Gail Anne Ludwig in 1947) is an American author known for her advocacy of the King James Only.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Gail Riplinger was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1947, to Wilson and Helen (Frech) Ludwig.[1] Riplinger obtained degrees in Interior Design (B.A.), a branch of Architecture, in Home Economics (M.A.), and in Art (M.F.A.) from Kent State University, where she also taught in the Home Economics department from 1981 until 1988.[2] Riplinger has said she did some postgraduate study at Harvard and Cornell Universities.[3] Riplinger has said she was saved when she was twenty-six years old, while attending graduate school, in 1973.[4]

Riplinger is married to her third husband, Michael, and as of 1994 they reside with their daughter, Bryn (a singer and song writer), in Ararat, Virginia, where they maintain the family business and publisher of Riplinger's books, A.V. Publications, Corp.

[edit] Controversy

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New Age Bible Versions is controversial because its central theme involves a side-by-side comparison between most of the major Bible versions and the King James Version, with Riplinger claiming that there are significant differences between the KJV and the modern versions. Riplinger's views have been controversial by both those support and opposing KJV-onlyism.

Riplinger has referred to the King James Bible (the Authorized Version) as being like an "atomic bomb" and has stated, "I call the Authorized King James Version the 'Atomic Version,' the A.V. [...] I call it the Atomic Version because it says in Hebrews 4, 'the weapons of our warfare are powerful..."[4] In a video lecture at Temple Baptist Church of Knoxville, TN, Riplinger, referring to her King James Bible, said, "This is my ammunition pack here. This is my sword and we'll take a few heads off if we have to."[2]

Riplinger has pointed out that the very first question mark in the Bible occurs in Genesis 3 and has said of the question mark: "The question mark sort of looks like a serpent, doesn’t it? Hanging from a tree with an eye on the end of it. It’s the very first question mark in the Bible. And it’s a picture of the devil there..."[4]

Nine minutes into the Berean Baptist Hour video, Riplinger says that 2 Peter 1:21 is a reference to the King James translators, stating that since the verse reads that "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" that this means the KJV was written under direct inspiration from God. This is Riplinger's confirmation of the King James Only belief that the translators of the King James Bible were "inspired" by the Holy Spirit to choose and write down the English words of the KJV in the same way that the Bible's original writers (i.e., Moses, Isaiah, the Apostle Paul) had been inspired to write the original documents (the autographa) in the Hebrew and Greek.[4]

[edit] Misquotes

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A large portion of Riplinger's books and interviews have been found to contain gross errors, such as misquotations of the people she mentions in her material. Two of the individuals most misquoted by Riplinger are Bishop Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort, 19th-century British scholars who worked on a Greek text of the New Testament which was used in the translation of the English Revised Version of 1881 and the American Standard Version of 1901.

In New Age Bible Versions, Riplinger claims that God has struck some "new version" Bible editors with the loss of their voice; Westcott is one of the editors of whom Riplinger has made this claim:

Westcott's biographer cites that in 1858 "he was quite inaudible" and by 1870 "His voice reached few and was understood by still fewer."[3]

Riplinger cites this as coming from the book Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, Vol. 1, written by his son, Arthur Westcott. The first misquote is from a line that actually tells of Westcott as a young man, as remembered by a Sir Dalrymple, who recalls, in a letter, Westcott's early years at Harrow School and that he was "shy, reserved, sensitive, a laborious student." Here is the actual paragraph from where Riplinger took her misquoted words:

He [Westcott] took his turn of preaching in Chapel, but he dreaded and disliked the duty, and he was quite inaudible to many of the boys. We knew all the same that his were no common sermons. It has been truly said "the sentences were closely packed with meaning, and the meaning was not always easy."[5] [Bold text added to show the words Riplinger took out of context.]

The second misquoted line was again taken from Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, Vol. 1. In this case, a Dr. Butler gives another remembrance of Westcott in a letter to his son. Butler says:

You have kindly asked me to give you some impressions as to your father's work and influence at Harrow. [...] The years to which my words will refer are, speaking roughly, from 1860 to 1870. [...] At that time Mr. Westcott, not yet thirty-five years of age, held a very peculiar position at Harrow. He was little known in the School at large. He was not a Form Master. He had no "Large House" to administer. His voice was not yet a force in the chapel. It reached but few, and it was understood by still fewer. But even then he had at least two spheres of influence - his own pupils on the one hand, and the Masters on the other.[6] [Bold text added to show the words Riplinger took out of context.]

Riplinger not only cut the two quotes from two different places in the original source but she also quoted the source incorrectly, leaving out the words that make the context clear, and making up her own quotation. Westcott never permanently lost his voice; he was simply known to have a quiet voice when he preached.

Riplinger also accuses Westcott of being a "spiritualist," although there is no evidence of this in any of Westcott's or his son's books. In New Age Bible Versions, Riplinger states:

The Greek Text used to translate the NIV, NASB and others was an edition drastically altered by a Spiritualist (one who seeks contact with the dead through seances), who believed he was in the "new age."[3]

Here Riplinger cites Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, Vol. 2, by Arthur Westcott. There is nothing in the book implicating Westcott as a "spiritualist"; the page cited contains a letter written by the Bishop in 1898, concerning the uncertainty of changing times as a new century was about to begin and the Industrial Revolution was advancing more rapidly. In the letter, Westcott notes "the struggles of a new age."[7] The "new age" Westcott is referring to was the "new era" of change. The term "New Age", as it is used today, was not yet heard of in 1898.[citation needed]

On page 676 of New Age Bible Versions, at endnote 128, a bold and unfounded false accusation against B.F. Westcott is found. There Riplinger implies that B.F. Westcott and W.W. Westcott were the same person:

The articles on Hermetic doctrine in Blavatsky’s Theosophical Dictionary “were contributed at the special request of H.P.B. [ Helena Blavatsky ] by Brother W.W. Westcott [ William Wynn Westcott ].”

Riplinger does not cite the page number in Blavatsky’s book where this quotation can be verified. Riplinger continues (same page):

She [Blavatsky] mentions B.F. Westcott, the subject of this past chapter, several times in her other books.

Riplinger does not say what these “other books” by Blavatsky are and offers no references. Riplinger continues (same page):

B.F. Westcott’s son points out that his father’s signature was almost always read as W., not B., preceeding [sic] his last name. (See Life of Westcott, p. 450.)

Riplinger does not mention whether it is page 450 in Volume 1 or Volume 2 of Life and Letters of Westcott. References to B.F. Westcott’s handwriting are actually found on page 449-450 of Vol. 2. Nowhere on page 449-450, or elsewhere in the two volumes, does Arthur Westcott say his father’s signature was almost always read as a W preceding his last name. On page 449, Arthur Westcott quotes from several letters written by his father's colleagues who remarked that Westcott's handwriting and signature were often illegible or not decipherable. One of the colleagues mentions that he had come up with fifty possible interpretations for Westcott's signature.

Riplinger continues (same reference note) to draw false parallels between B.F. Westcott and W.W. Westcott:

The similar identity of these two is not a matter of historical record. W.W. Westcott was the name given by the London Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn as its founder. [Bold text added for emphasis]

Riplinger does not tell her readers that the birth dates and death dates (the historical facts) of both of these men are entirely different. Anglican Bishop B.F. Westcott was born 1/12/1825 and died on 7/27/1901; William Wynn Westcott was born 12/17/1848 and died on 7/30/1925. These two men were born 23 years apart and died nearly 24 years apart. William Wynn Westcott’s name was not the name given to him when he became the founder of the London Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; it was his name from birth. History shows there is no similarity between these two men, except they had the same last name. Despite this, Riplinger continues, in the same footnote, to draw parallels by writing of W.W. Westcott’s occultic activity with the assumption that it somehow matches the life of B.F. Westcott:

Strangely W.W. Westcott’s motto “Vincit omnia veritus” [sic] (Truth conquers all things) rings like B.F. Westcott’s “they loved truth more” and Blavatsky’s “There is no religion higher than truth.” (Riplinger misspelled veritas.)

After stating more information about the life of W.W. Westcott and implying a parallel between him and B.F. Westcott, Riplinger says:

The connection between B.F. Westcott and the activities attributed to the possible allonym W.W. Westcott are speculation on my part. [Bold Text added for emphasis]

Despite the obvious difference in birth and death dates, Riplinger calls W.W. Westcott's name an "allonym" of B.F. Westcott.

As for accusations that B.F. Westcott was an “evolutionist,” the name of “Darwin” is mentioned only two times in Life and Letters of Westcott, (Vol. 1 only). On page 217, Westcott’s son reports that in a letter his father wrote:

Every one is busy with controversy, and one gentleman announced that “the feelings of scorn and contempt were given us by Almighty God to wither such empty sciolists as” Darwin and all naturalists in mass….

B.F. Westcott was borrowing someone’s quote about “empty sciolists” to express his opinion of “Darwin” and “all naturalists in a mass.” The mention of “naturalists” appears to be a reference to Darwin’s theory of “natural selection.”

On page 335 of Life and Letters of Westcott, Vol. 1, Bishop Westcott is replying in a letter to Mr. A. Macmillan (his publisher), thanking him for giving him some book reading suggestions:

My dear Mr. Macmillan — Very many thanks for the Bishop’s sake, and many for myself. I shall be very glad to have “George Eliot.” Romola is, I think, the greatest novel of the time. Darwin I have already. If you happen to come across Mill’s letter, I shall be very glad to have it.

B.F. Westcott especially enjoyed reading the works of “George Eliot.” The mere mention that Westcott already had something written by Darwin does not prove that Westcott was an “evolutionist,” in the same way that owning a copy of the Koran does not make one a Muslim.

The words evolution, evolutionary, evolutionist, and evolutionist do not exist in either volume of Life and Letters of B.F. Westcott and there are no references in any of Westcott’s personal books and writings that proclaim any such belief in Evolution.

[edit] "Lucifer"

An example of Riplinger misquoting sources and facts in a way that slanders some "modern versions" of the Bible is found on page 41 of New Age Bible Versions:

Historically, Isaiah 14 has been used as the singular biography of Lucifer…The intervening verses expose his pride in the five “I wills,” each a rung in his descent into hell. (“I will” is also the official motto of the U.S. city sporting zip code 60606. In 1966, this same city hatched the NIV.) (New Age Bible Versions, fourth printing, 1994.) [Italics and parentheses in the original]

The "U.S. city" with the zip code 60606 is Chicago, even though Chicago has more than one zip code, such as 60601, 60602, 60607, 60610, 60656, et al. The circular reasoning and conspiracy theory in Riplinger’s quotation implies that because one of the zip codes of Chicago contains 3 sixes (666), this proves the NIV as evil since the number 666 in the Bible is related to the Antichrist.

Chicago has more than one motto, such as “Urbs in Horto”, meaning “City in a Garden.” In actuality, the Chicago motto “I will” does not hold the negative implication that Riplinger has assigned it in her book.[8]

According to the preface of the NIV, the translation was first “conceived in 1965…”, not in 1966; that it was sponsored by the New York Bible Society (now International Bible Society); and that the "group of scholars met at Palos Heights, Illinois..." not Chicago.[9] It appears that Riplinger changed 1965 to 1966 to match the double sixes with the "666" connotation. This is an example of the false attachment utilized many times by Riplinger in her books.

[edit] Misrepresentation of Modern Bible Translations

In the Berean Baptist Hour video, while displaying the front cover she ripped from an NIV Bible, Riplinger points out that the "new versions" are not "holy" because they change "holy angels" to say just "angels," "removing the word holy." She said that by doing this the modern translations are "secularizing the Bible" and making it difficult to distinguish good angels from bad angels. However, Riplinger does not mention that out of the 94 times that the word angels appears in the KJV, only four of those times list them as "holy angels." This means that the other 90 places in the KJV where angels are mentioned, they are not called "holy angels" but just "angels," the same as in the modern Bible versions. Using Riplinger's argument, the KJV also makes it difficult to determine good angels from bad angels in those 90 places. The modern versions say "holy angels" in three out of the four places that the KJV does, meaning that in only one instance the word holy is left off the word angels in the "new versions," yet the context of the passage in the modern versions makes it clear as to what kind of angels are being mentioned. Unjustifiable accusations against the modern Bible translations such as these have caused some of Riplinger's critics to susupect that she is actually out to attack the word of God rather than to defend it.[4]

[edit] Books

  • Riplinger, Gail (1993). New Age Bible Versions: An Exhaustive Documentation of the Message, Men & Manuscripts Moving Mankind to the Antichrist's One World Religion. ISBN 0963584502. 
  • Riplinger, Gail (1994). Which Bible Is God's Word?. ISBN 1879366819. 
  • Riplinger, Gail (1995). King James Version ditches blind guides. 
  • Riplinger, Gail (1998). The Language of the King James Bible. ISBN 0963584510. 
  • Riplinger, Gail (2004). In Awe of Thy Word: Understanding the King James Bible Its Mystery and History Letter by Letter. ISBN 0963584529. 

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gail Riplinger Public Records - Divorces & Marriages. AVPublications.org. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.
  2. ^ a b Riplinger, Gail. Questions and Answers, New Age Bibles, Riplinger. AV Publications. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.
  3. ^ a b c Riplinger, Gail (1993). New Age Bible Versions: An Exhaustive Documentation of the Message, Men & Manuscripts Moving Mankind to the Antichrist's One World Religion. ISBN 0963584502. 
  4. ^ a b c d e Riplinger, Gail. Modern Translations Over View. AV Publications. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.
  5. ^ Westcott, Arthur (1903). Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, Vol. 1. Macmillan Publishers, 198. 
  6. ^ Westcott, Arthur (1903). Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, Vol. 1. Macmillan Publishers, 272-273. 
  7. ^ Westcott, Arthur (1903). Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, Vol. 2. Macmillan Publishers, 252. 
  8. ^ Chicago, IL Facts. VacationsMadeEasy.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.
  9. ^ New International Version (Stats & History). Zondervan. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.

[edit] External links