Alpha and Omega Ministries

More 25th Anniversary E-mails

James White, December 13, 2008, Testimonies

Greetings Dr. White and fellow AOMIN laborers. I have a wonderful testimony to share about how the Lord used your ministry to open my partially blinded eyes. It would take multiple pages to relate. So, I’ll heavily abridge it and try to just hit the major points. For some years I was deeply involved in KJV Onlyism. I was an

Testimonials During Thanksgiving Week

James White, November 24, 2008, Testimonies

I want to praise God for what he has done through you guys. My introduction to your ministry came through The King James Only Controversy. Then as I was learning about the doctrines of grace you were again very helpful in both my understanding and defense of those truths. From Mormonism to Jehovah’s Witness to now Islam, your ministry has

I Really Didn’t Like You…

James White, October 14, 2008, Testimonies

James, I didn’t like you when I was first introduced to you and Alpha and Omega ministry. I was a staunch and vocal KJV-Only apologist and I thought you were a pompous academic windbag who used clever argumentation to deny the truth about God’s one and only Bible. Of course, that personal evaluation came from a 23-year old punk who

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A Personal Word of Thanks

James White, October 13, 2008, Personal

I had pretty much despaired of using this image. When I had purchased the photocopied version of Erasmus’ 3rd edition of his Novum Testamentum (1522) I had been very disappointed when it arrived. The image backgrounds are dark, dark grey, making the writing next to illegible. But when I decided I wanted to include a scan from the text in

Want to Get Your Mind off of Financial Chaos? Listen to the Dividing Line!

James White, October 9, 2008, The Dividing Line

Tired of all the doom and gloom, about which you can do absolutely nothing (except possibly sin by getting angry, self-centered, and worried?). Well then take a break and listen to the DL! Talked about a lot of exciting things today, from debates in London to the next edition of The King James Only Controversy to more on the sola

Of Air Guitars and the Way International

James White, October 7, 2008, Testimonies

I will briefly summarize how Alpha & Omega ministries helped change the direction of my life to the glory of God. As the end of my college career approached, I was unsure about my future and even more doubtful of my Christian beliefs. I was recovering from a serious drug habit, and also still grieving the loss of a best

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BBC = Bumbling By the Carload

James White, October 6, 2008, Textual Issues

The SillyBrit pointed me to another wonderful example of the “yeah, we are biased, we don’t care, its the new journalism” mentality of the modern Left. Here is a BBC article making the rounds, written by Roger Bolton. I would like to think Mr. Bolton was not purposefully trying to be a complete snob toward believing Christians, but his writing

From a Fellow Chess Player

James White, October 4, 2008, Testimonies

Dear Dr. White, I first discovered Alpha & Omega Ministries about eight years ago. I was looking at the NIV website, and at the bottom was a link to ?New Age Bible Versions Refuted.? I had never even heard of the King James Only issue, but I read your article and eagerly looked for more. That was only the beginning!

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Announcement: Debate in Durham, North Carolina in November

James White, August 9, 2008, Islam

I have received confirmation, thankfully, that I will be debating Dr. Zulfiqar Shah on the topic of the deity of Christ in Durham, North Carolina in November. I can now let you know that I have been arranging the London trip to allow me to fly to the UK, debate there, minister, preach, etc., then fly back to the US.

Intellectual Fisticuffs: Mark Shea on the Apologetics Scene (With Combox Update)

James White, June 23, 2008, Roman Catholicism

Over the years I have commented on the attempts of particular antagonists to paint yours truly as a fire-breathing zealot. Part of the ploy is to ignore the entire range of my work as a part of the attempt to make it look like I lack balance, and hence should not be worth the time one might invest in reading

An Introduction to Textual Criticism: Part 12–The Eclectic Text Position: “Reasoned Eclecticism”

Colin Smith, June 13, 2008, Textual Issues

If the various Byzantine positions represent the extreme documentary approach to textual criticism, relying mainly on external evidence, and the Thoroughgoing Eclectic position represents the extreme evidential approach with regard to the text contained within those manuscripts, relying mainly on internal evidence, then the Reasoned Eclectic position, at least as it claims, sits somewhere in the middle. This position, while

Acts 13:48 Revisited and Dishonesty Exposed

James White, May 3, 2008, Reformed Apologetics

You know you are really busy when something that took place only a matter of weeks ago seems like it took place long ago. A month ago now we did five programs during which I debated Steve Gregg on the doctrines of grace. Since then, I have debated Jalal Abualrub on the deity of Christ, and a sociologist in northern

Bob Ross: the Danger of Becoming a Mirror Image

James White, April 21, 2008, Misc

Up until the day I dared to inform Bob Ross that he had gone way, way over the line in his personal attacks on John MacArthur, we were on friendly terms. But once I dared point out that accusing MacArthur of the things he was involved egregious violations of simple logic (let alone proper behavior), I began to experience the

An Introduction to Textual Criticism: Part 1–Introduction

Colin Smith, March 18, 2008, Textual Issues

The study of the various manuscript witnesses to the New Testament, commonly referred to as New Testament Textual Criticism, is, without doubt, of the most critical importance for the Christian church. For the non-Christian academic, the precise wording of the original Greek language texts is of scholarly interest, but nothing more. For the Christian, however, the text under examination is

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Who is That Skinny Guy with the Big Glasses?

James White, February 3, 2008, Misc

1994, Austin Texas. Riding more than 5,000 miles a year on a road bike. Still had just enough hair to try to do a flat-top. Couldn’t get a word in edge-wise with Larry for the first five minutes of the show! Here is a nearly hour long video on the deity of Christ recorded nearly a decade and a half

Mormonism 101: Second Level Statements (More)

James White, June 18, 2007, Mormonism

More from Joseph Smith While the preceding discourse is certainly the longest extant presentation of the LDS doctrine of God and man from the Mormon Prophet, it is certainly not all he said on the subject. Indeed, in the few years before his death in 1844, Smith spoke often of this concept. He encountered a good bit of opposition, even

Revelation 5:9-10 1st Person (“us”) or 3rd Person (“them”)?

Dr. Alan Kurschner, June 16, 2007, King James Onlyism

In the past, I have been asked more than once what the correct readings are in Revelation 5:9-10. Once again, today someone emailed me asking whether the King James Version readings are correct, or the modern translations are more faithful to the original reading. So this has prompted me to write a brief post explaining these variants. There are at

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The Roman Moonbats (Updated)

James White, May 4, 2007, Roman Catholicism

This morning Jimmy Akin verified the Beckwith story here. You will note, “The source through which the matter was made public happened to be James White’s blog, and as you can imagine, Mr. White is not happy.” But, Akin provided the link to my comments, and I am grateful that he did so. I’m not sure why anyone would think

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Greetings from Anchorage!

James White, April 26, 2007, Personal

Just a quick hello from sunny, but rather cool (32 this morning–I saw folks in short sleeves), Anchorage, Alaska. I’ve been pretty busy since I got here, so I have not had a chance to do much on line. I have had a wonderful time with the brethren here, and will be speaking again this evening on developing a proper

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Dean Burgon and His Phantom Manuscripts

Dr. Alan Kurschner, April 19, 2007, King James Onlyism

One of the most bizarre arguments made from King James Only advocates is the claim made popular by the late 19th century Dean Burgon. Attempting to explain why there are no extant Greek manuscripts with distinct KJV readings (or more specifically, distinct readings from a Greek Byzantine form of text) from the first 300 years of church history, he claimed

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Street Abusers: Mesa

James White, April 4, 2007, Mormonism

As soon as the music ended, the screaming began. The band of street abusers (they call themselves preachers, but that has a particular biblical meaning that is utterly disconnected from their disjointed harangues) with their barely relevant signs held high began yelling out at those gathered on the front lawn of the LDS Temple in Mesa, Arizona, “Mormonism is a

Kevin Johnson Pits the Gospel Against Defending the Gospel

Dr. Alan Kurschner, March 8, 2007, Textual Issues

Kevin Johnson writes, There are those who actually advocate that textual criticism is an essential thing for people to understand in practicing and exercising the faith. I don’t need to advocate this, given that it is believers themselves who want to learn such matters when they ask “Where did we get our Bible?” and “Is the Bible we have today,

Reasons Why Textual Criticism is Essential for God’s People

Dr. Alan Kurschner, March 7, 2007, Textual Issues

During the past month, Dr. White gave an instructive primer on Textual Criticism, explaining the history of the transmission of the text, textual methods, and its practice in concrete Biblical examples. It should be self-evident that this apologetic field is essential for defending the faith and providing confidence that our source for the knowledge of God is true. Because the

Bibliology Course

Jeff Downs, March 3, 2007, Misc

As some of you know James is in Massachusetts teaching a class on Bibliology at Bethlehem Bible Church. Here is the description of the course: Canonicity, inspiration, inerrancy, transmission, and preservation of the Biblical text will be evaluated in this course. The reliability of modern translations as accurate representations of the original manuscripts (along with provocative topics such as the

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A Blast from the Past

James White, February 17, 2007, King James Onlyism

It is hard to believe my son, now engaged to be married, was only nine years old when this video was shot. This is from the John Ankerberg series on the King James Only movement (available here). Look at those glasses! Ah, but you can see the hair on the top is thinning, and that quickly. Oh well. This was

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I Just Could Not Resist

James White, October 31, 2006, Textual Issues

Jeff Downs sent me a link about the reading of 1 Timothy 3:16 in Codex Alexandrinus, and though I have a ton of things to be doing this morning before the DL (mainly packing!), I just could not resist taking the time to do what I love to do. Here’s a close up of the text. For those who are

Amazing Calvinist Rant…

James White, October 2, 2006, King James Onlyism

In the brief citation from Pulpit Crimes posted below I made a very quick comment about the rendering of the KJV at I Timothy 6:10. Here is what I had written on the text a dozen years ago now in The King James Only Controversy: The Root or A Root? Another favorite passage of KJV Only adherents is found in

Brian Flemming and Debating

James White, May 10, 2006, General Apologetics

When I was speaking in London earlier this year I played a few sections from The God Who Wasn’t There, the film produced by Brian Flemming. I did so because the work is such an excellent example of leaps of irrationality, confident presentations of falsehoods as facts, and simply bad argumentation—and yet, it is so representative of the kind of

On Painting with Broad Brushes

James White, March 20, 2006, King James Onlyism

A lot of you were a bit shocked at the vitriol expressed by Mr. Dries a few days ago. Believe me, in the years since I wrote The King James Only Controversy I’ve seen it all before. “You God-hater! You Bible-hater! You are trying to destroy people’s faith!” etc. and etc. Emotionalism is an ever-present part of dedication to that

The Puritanboard and the Comma Continued

James White, March 13, 2006, King James Onlyism

The discussion continues in articles posted on the Puritanboard by my fellow Reformed believers regarding the Comma Johanneum. Two immediate things: I have been asked why I don’t just join the Puritanboard and post there. Simple answer: I don’t have time to join all the web boards out there where relevant conversations are taking place. However, I have received a

Replying to My Reformed Brethren

James White, March 12, 2006, King James Onlyism

I would like to offer some replies to those commenting on the textual issue on the “Puritanboard.” However, it’s unfortunate that White has a bee in his bonnet about the Greek Text. What heresy is one imbibing if one holds to the Johannine Comma? That 1John 5:7 is true is beyond dispute. Why all the fuss? I believe I have