Merchants of Doubt

by Pastor Jonathan Everhart

As I watched a conference video in which the speaker, Calvin George, was speaking on the subject of the Spanish Bible, I was struck by the confusion he was attempting to defend. He said, “Now, as fallen creatures we have a desire and an innate need for certainty and that is normal. God created us with such a need; however, we should not abuse that need for certainty.”

I would have to say that some statements don’t age well, but this one arrived in about as good of shape as a used piñata. He is saying if we take certainty too far, we are abusing it. Is he certain about that? Just how certain are we allowed to be concerning Bible doctrine, before we are abusive? Some people want clarity. Others want doubt and confusion because they profit from it. If certainty is the enemy, confusion is the weapon and it’s sold as scholarship.

Calvin George is the director of Trinity Baptist Seminary out of Frontier Baptist Missions in Mercedes, Texas. He is likely the biggest defender of Critical Text corruption in the Spanish Reina Valera 1960 Bible. In case you aren’t aware, this is the Bible commonly used in Hispanic fundamentalism today. The problem is, it is a well-known fact that it is tainted with Critical Text and contains translation errors.

One example is found in Luke 2:22. The Reina Valera 1960 reads “the days of their purification…were accomplished”. This should say “her” but it includes Jesus. Jesus needed no purification. You can get further clarity on this by simply reading Leviticus 12. This is certainly an error. Instead of admitting an error, George muddies the waters and creates confusion and doubt in the minds of our Spanish speaking brothers and sisters.

George states, “According to Leviticus 12:2, when a woman gave birth, she became unclean. Since the mother would naturally have physical contact with the newborn every day, the child [Jesus] would logically remain unclean with her until the ritual was completed.” He seems very certain of his own logic rather than the Scripture he left out. Verse 7 of chapter 12 clearly states, “Who shall offer it before the LORD, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born a male or female.” The sin offering was for her, and the law was for her. Jesus was not unclean and needed no purification or sin offering. That is for certain.

Calvin George runs a website called literatura bautista (Baptist Literature). He has written many articles on this site. There are some good articles, but for the articles concerning the Spanish Bible issue I wish he would move them to a different domain name, such as literatura basura. He does little more than peddle doubt concerning the Word of God. He has decades’ worth of writing in which he has maligned good men. In his writings he has smeared pastors and good men of God and the ones that believe the King James Version is the Final Authority, he accuses of extremist views. He also calls them Ruckmanites or accuses them of having Ruckmanite views.

I like what Dr. Phil Stringer said, “A Ruckmanite is what you call someone when you are losing an argument.” Remember, don’t be too certain. Stay ignorant, confused, and doubtful of God’s Word. God’s Promise of preservation has no value to these merchants selling in the markets of doubt.

Regarding not having an argument, it seems like many lean on Calvin George to do their speaking for them at these conferences about the Spanish Bible. It was at one such recent conference that Calvin George attended, a very well-known pastor, Ezekiel Salazar, accused those that want a pure Spanish Bible of racism. Such statements are not scholarly to say the least. They do not give clarity. It is just an attempt to manipulate people’s emotions, because there is no defense for the Critical Text, no matter how loud one screams such uncharitable words. I believe the goal here was to generate heat and not light.

I know men that have been misled by Calvin George. I know of some that, after their encounter with George, are not so certain about the King James Version. I have been asked by several if I have read his book on the Spanish Bible. I have read every article of his and every book of his that I could get my hands on, that are written about the Spanish Bible. They are full of spin, half-truths, doubts, and create questions where answers already exist. In short, his writings are deceiving.

On his website he has an article titled “Reina-Valera-Gomez? More than 20 reasons why I can't approve of this new revision”. In this article he mentions a list created by Dr. Rex Cobb who is the director of the Baptist Bible Translators Institute. He has done incredible translation work and has a thorough comparison list of several Spanish Bibles, and it shows how many times a particular Spanish Bible Version departs from the Textus Receptus. Calvin George mentions this in his article and calls this list misleading. He says this because this list is a comparison of Spanish Bibles against the FINAL text of the Textus Receptus, which the King James Version is translated from. Calvin George would prefer that Dr. Cobb includes all variants from all editions of the Textus Receptus. In other words, he wants a multiple choice. Remember, you can’t’ be too certain or that’s abusive.

The Textus Receptus was a working text. There were errors in different places among the different editions. One example is, In Erasmus’ first two editions of the Textus Receptus, the Comma Johanneum is missing. This is the portion of 1 John 5:7 that is the most powerful verse on the Trinity. It’s important to note that this verse is indeed in the Reina Valera 1960, but what a coincidence that George in his writings states that “by faith” he believes it should be a part of the text. He seems interestingly “certain” of this. And so it is that when certainty cannot be refuted, it is often rebranded as “misleading”.

I believe we Independent Baptists have failed miserably in our mission efforts regarding the truth of the Word of God. There is an abundance of apathy and ignorance concerning the PURE Word of God in foreign bible translations. There are a lot of politics and financial issues at play. But the Word of God should never be negotiable. Some of the greatest men of God I know use the 1960. It’s a tragedy. They have never had a completely pure Bible until recent years. Our Spanish speaking brothers at the very least deserve to be told the truth, instead of hiding behind the majority. They deserve a Bible that is pure in the Spanish language. They deserve a Bible they can be completely confident in. They will find all this in the Reina Valera Gomez. Let’s throw away the doubt and take hold of the God given certainty.