Battle of the Bibles - Present Truth

BATTLE OF THE BIBLES 2C
H. H. MEYERS
Chapter Twenty-Two
A Twentieth-Century Burgon
Benjamin G. Wilkinson Phd, Dean of Theology at Washington Missionary
College, Washington D.C., was a man with a very inquiring mind. Brought up in the best
Protestant tradition of the "Bible and the Bible only", he was concerned that the Bible on
which his faith had been founded was increasingly being neglected. In fact, in the
academic world in which he moved, the idea was gaining ground that those who
persisted with the King James Authorised Version were merely evincing inferior
judgment and poor scholarship.
Wilkinson had devoted considerable study to the history of Christianity and the
preservation of apostolic truth throughout the Dark Ages, also the hazardous struggles of
those who launched and consolidated the Protestant Reformation. He was later to
record his research in his classic work, "Truth Triumphant", which was published in 1944
by Pacific Press Publishing Association, and ran into several reprints. During his
research, he found that the history of the New Testament Text was inextricably entwined
with the struggle to maintain apostolic Christianity against paganism and, later, factional
Christianity. It became clear that it was the church which was "driven into the wilderness"
that had maintained apostolic truth because it had also been the guardian of God's Holy
Word. This line of Scripture is what was known as the Traditional or Byzantine Text,
which was later incorporated into the Greek New Testament by Erasmus and then used
by Luther, Tyndale and the King James translators. It is now commonly known as the
Received Text.
Wilkinson realised that he had sufficient material to bring out a book on this
subject alone, so in 1930 he published his findings under the title, "Our Authorised Bible
Vindicated". Apparently he had difficulty in finding a publisher for his book, an indication
perhaps of a growing preference for modern versions, for he had to act as his own
publisher. Hence, the book's comparatively restricted circulation during his lifetime.
Wilkinson's book indicates that he was in possession of Dean Burgon's "Revision
Revised" and that he was in complete agreement with Burgon's contention that the very
title "Revised Version" is a misnomer and a fraud. But Wilkinson went much further. He
dealt with his subject in its historical settings and demonstrated how the diversions from
the Received Text affect basic Christian doctrine; eg. the divinity of Christ, the Trinity,
and the way in which they are biased toward Roman Catholic theology and against
fundamental Protestantism.
But further, he demonstrated the highly damaging effect on the beliefs of the
church which employed him as an ordained minister - namely the Seventh-day Adventist
Church.
Incredibly, although his book enjoyed wide acceptance among his ministerial
colleagues, it was rejected outright by a "Committee of Review" set up in 1930 by the
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists with headquarters in Washington D.C.
The term "incredibly" is used deliberately, for this denomination was one which
arose in America around the mid-nineteenth century as a direct result of the prevalent
interest in the study of the Bible and its prophecies. Many students of prophecy in
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