A friend who runs my church's bookstore along with her husband asked me the other day to read Gail Riplinger's just-updated edition of her New Age Bible Versions, originally published in 1993, and take notice of any changes, including corrections, deletions and additions.
In going page by page with the brand-new copy next to my well-worn old copy, the first thing I noticed different was just inside the cover. A testimonial quote from world-renowned Texe Marrs on page 2, immediately preceding the table of contents, is omitted. It read in the original, "It may be the most important book ever written . . . Unparalleled . . . stunning expose."
If you go to Wikipedia's entry on Riplinger, one paragraph reads, "One of Riplinger's most criticized actions is her belief that she is doing God's will. House goes on to suggests that Riplinger 'claims some sense of divine inspiration for her work'.
"New Age Bible Versions has the author's name 'G. A. Riplinger', which stands for 'God and Riplinger':
Riplinger is quoted saying, "Each discovery was not the result of effort on my part, but of the direct hand of God — so much so that I hesitated to even put my name on the book. Consequently, I used G. A. Riplinger, which signifies to me, God and Riplinger — God as author and Riplinger as secretary."
"David Cloud calls this statement 'amazing and frightful', and says that 'even the most radical charismatic prophets hesitate to use such intemperate language.' "
So, on page 495 of her latest edition of the book, in a new subsection she entitles, "NASB: A Warning?", Riplinger writes:
"Often diminution of speech is slow, yet progressive. NASB translator Don Wilkins may have experienced a warning when he temporarily lost his voice on a television program when asked, 'Do new version translators lose their voices?' John Ankerberg, host of the televised John Ankerberg Show, called and asked if I would be a guest on his show, along with the chief editors and translators of the new versions (i.e. Kenneth Barker (NIV and NASB), Arthur Farstad (NKJV), Don Wilkins (NASB), Daniel Wallace (NET) and James White, a new version proponent who sports a big tattoo.
"New Age Bible Versions had caused no small stir and the translators wanted to stop it. I agreed to be on the program with them, giving as my only stipulations that the exchanges be timed, so that I was not unfairly given less time, and that I was able to set up my own recording equipment in addition to his. They flatly refused to debate me and soon cajoled several other King James Bible proponents to agree to an untimed free-for-all, where the new versions editors were given free reign to speak most of the time and interrupt any solid responses by the KJV proponents.
"I fasted for three days prior to the taping of the programs, praying that the Lord would prevail and more specifically, that a new version editor would lose his ability to speak, as other new version editors had (and I documented in New Age Bible Versions). Lo and behold, when the cameras were rolling, Ankerberg asked Donald Wilkins, a NASB translator, what he thought of my claim that the translators had lost their ability to speak. Wilkins could not speak to answer! Ankerberg immediately called for the film to be stopped and backed-up, expunging the shocking incident forever, to the strong objections of the KJV proponents witnessing the marked intervention of God."
*****
She says she believes God intervened on her behalf, answering her prayer that came with a three-day fast! Anybody who understands right division and the grace message would surely not relay this anecdote in their international best seller (over 260,000 sold) used as a "textbook in scores of Christian colleges, such as Pensacola Christian college," as the "About the author" section in the updated version even informs you.
Riplinger goes on to write, "Wilkins' silenced-scribe-syndrome was temporary--a warning perhaps . . . After Wilkins regained his voice, Ankerberg asks him a different question, about other documentation in New Age Bible Versions. Wilkins haltingly replied, clearing his throat, sipping water, and nervously joking about losing his voice earlier.
"Since the telling film-clip, in which the NASB editor could not speak, was taped over, the new version editors and proponents are free to pretend that the incident never occurred, even lying and claiming that the later clip of Wilkins, where he merely cleared his throat, was the missing dramatic footage. God knows. The KJV proponents, who were not six feet away from Wilkens when he lost his voice, have gone on record, witnessing to the warning God gave the NASB's Don Wilkins."
(new study tomorrow for sure)
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