Gail Riplinger

[엘리야후]

Mike Hollner invited me to start a thread on Riplinger, who I consider to be a huge cause of trouble in fundamentalism and elsewhere. I'm embarrassed that so many independent Baptists believe and follow her, and even have her in their churches to "preach," though they might call it "teaching" instead. Whether "teaching" or "preaching," it's wrong according to the Bible. Fundamentalists who support Riplinger or have her in to preach are disobeying the Bible, which says, "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence" (1 Tim. 2:12).

Again, I stand for revival theology: soul winning, mass evangelism, both individual and corporate prayer, confession and forsaking of sin, walking with God daily. When did Gail Riplinger ever encourage soul winning and revival? I've never read in her works of her winning a soul to Christ, spending much time in prayer, or anything else that revival means. I consider it far more important to obey the KJV than to defend it. As I tell my students: "The Bible is a sword, and you don't defend a sword, you fight with it."

"But," her defenders might say, "She's a big help in opposing modern Bible versions." My answer is that she is not qualified to do that. As far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong):
1. She does not have any Bible degrees.
2. She does not have any formal linguistic training.
3. She claims to be a linguist because she once taught English to foreign students. Having spent 1000s of hours and 1000s of dollars to become a linguist, I don't accept someone as linguist with this incredibly meager background.
4. She has no training in Greek or Hebrew.

On the spiritual side:
1. She has been divorced and remarried twice, and is on her third husband.
2. Her books never encourage revival: personal and corporate prayer, soul winning, church attendance, etc. (She very briefly encourages the reader to pray for understanding of Scripture in Appendix C of New Age Bible Versions.)
3. So, the Great Commission is the last and greatest command of Christ, but where in her works does she speak of it?
4. Along that line, I was a missionary for 33 years, and was the lead translator of the Lifeline Japanese NT (due out soon). Where has she advocated fulfilling the Great Commission by missionary Bible translations?
5. She threatened a fellow believer (D. A. Waite) with a lawsuit, which is contrary to Scripture).

Tell you what, I'll stop there, but surely this is enough to show what a mess her "ministry" is.

In her book Hazardous Materials, she makes a very bizarre comparison. Amidst all of her railings at how awful it is to consult a Greek lexicon, Greek grammar, or even an interlinear Greek New Testament, she compares what I do to showing pornography. Yes, that's right, teaching college kids to read and translate Greek is just like teaching them pornography.

Page 51: "Greek grammars and lexicons do not teach Greek. They teach unbelief. Young Bible school students are given an assignment to translate a portion of a book of the Bible. A floodgate of lexical definitions and textual variants soon pours into their souls. Each student’s translation is bound to be different, as 'Every man did that which was right in his own eyes' (Judges 17:6). By changing the Bible [she means only the KJV--, to her the Greek NT is not the Bible, even though God gave it--JoJ] the young men have just destroyed their weapon of defense, the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit."

On the same page she then writes, "The professor may just as well have shown the students pornography and proclaimed, 'The ‘original’ Eve actually looked like this. Your wife’s version is inferior.' Lexicons have the exact same destructive effect and are, in effect, ‘Christian’ pornography." This is an incredibly awful attack. Have you ever known anyone addicted to pornography? It destroys marriages and lives.

I'm almost done teaching Greek 101. So far the students have only gone through a grammar (David Alan Black's Learn to Read New Testament Greek), and translated simple sentences, with only a couple of actual Bible verses in the assignments, such as, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." They do not yet have a Greek NT or lexicon. But Gail would have you believe that even that is like giving pornography to them. By the way, Dr. Black is a fine Christian Greek scholar. He was my son's mentor for his PhD, and I know him through my son. For many years he went overseas on missions trips. Has Gail Riplinger ever taken a missions trip? If so, I've never heard or read about it.

Next semester, I'll teach the same kids the rest of the textbook in Greek 102, and then divide them into committees to simulate a missionary Bible translation effort, and we'll work on 1 John. They absolutely love doing this, and you know what? Some of them will become actual missionary Bible translators. We also have an MA in Bible Translation. Two of my students have been recently accepted by a mission board. One is working on a Farsi OT already, and the other is on deputation to go to Africa and work with an existing Bible translation effort.

Gail Riplinger would stop this! She believes my efforts to train future Bible translators is like giving them pornography. Shame on her! She is a disgrace to fundamentalism and the cause of worldwide missions.

"You cannot teach some people anything because they already know so much that is not so."--J. B. Gambrell, Texas preacher
"If there be any one point in which the Christian church ought to keep its fervour at a white heat, it is concerning missions to the heathens."--Charles Spurgeon
My new biography of John R. Rice: John R. Rice: The Last Revivalist of the Twentieth Century | On to Victory Press

#2John of Japan, Nov 29, 2021

https://www.baptistboard.com/threads/gail-riplinger.122791/