WOW! After living in Pensacola for over twenty-eight years, the very cradle of the KJVO movement (May it be called a “movement”?), you would think that I would have heard (or at least read) every argument for and against the KJVO stand. I know of some that claim to stand on the very version that the most noted king of Israel used: “The good ol’ Sling James”!

Two churches, where I ministered there, were of the KJVO persuasion. I had made up my mind years before as to which Bible I loved and used. I had already committed much of it to memory and found it confusing when someone read from another version. I seldom carry a Bible with me while on visitation and usually ask the person I am visiting if I could read to them from their Bible. I have seen people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior after I read to them from The Living Bible, the NIV and even Good News For Modern Man. So, you see, I am not really a KJVO man.

I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior in October 1956 and shortly after, asked Roy Tippett if he would help me buy a Bible. He was our new pastor and was a graduate of Tennessee Temple College. In a couple of weeks, he handed me a red leather backed Schofield Reference Bible … a good old King James.

About the same time, a good friend of mine (one of my old high school buddies), Ed Cavender, came up to me and said that if Jesus could change me from what he knew, that he would rededicate his life and live for HIM too. He even ordered himself a new Bible … A Revised Standard Edition Bible.

I took his Bible in one hand and mine in the other … I admitted to Ed that his was easier to read and that I liked it better but I had invested a lot of money in that Old Schofield and I had better stick with it. I read it through from cover to cover at least once during that first year as a Christian. I underlined and put notes in the (very narrow) margin of each leaf. Someone looked at it sometime later and asked if that was “the Gospel according to Otmer?”

Ed Cavender is still one of my closest friends; he lives about four or five hundred miles from me but through the miracle of email, we still communicate regularly. I don’t know what Bible he is using these days but I do know he is still a devoted Christian and teaches an adult Sunday School class at Starcher Baptist Church.

It wasn’t long after I was saved that I heard Theodore Epp teaching from the Book of Revelation. He went through those churches of Asia Minor with such great skill and I hung on every word. He explained that those churches were actual churches which were on the mail route and taught on them one by one. He told us that those churches were also seven different types of Christians and if we would study those chapters, we could find ourselves somewhere in there. He explained that they were also seven different types of churches … even the types of churches that would exist during the time of the second coming of Jesus Christ. That was also the first time that I had ever heard that He was coming again.

I noted that Dr. Epp also agreed with Dr. Schofield that those churches were seven different “church ages” leading up to the time of the Second Coming. When he got to the Church at Philadelphia, I almost jumped out of my skin.

Rev. 3: 7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

“… hast kept my word … “ It seemed that the Holy Spirit spoke to me and settled it for me. The very Bible that was used during the time of the Philadelphian age was my Bible. Of course, it had been revised to make it easier to read but that was MY Bible.

Do I insist that everyone use MY Bible? Of course not! I still don’t carry one with me while on visitation. I have friends who carry a Bible so large that some of them have handles like a suitcase and are as large as an unabridged dictionary sitting on a stand at the public library. I don’t need a badge; I don’t turn my collar around backwards. I just still ask to read from the Bible that is the closest (if they know where it is). I can relate to the old story about the grandmother who asked her grandson to “Bring me that old book that grandma reads from all the time" … and the little boy brought her the Sears and Roebuck Catalog.

I still love my Bible … I have many other versions in my library and even nine or so on my computer and PDA. I still use it for my Bible study augmented with the Greek and Hebrew and may even use the others as a commentary (I even have a New World Translation on my shelf across the room).

Don’t look down on me because of my conviction. Don’t even criticize me for the reason I made my choice. Just be thankful that God saved a wretched sinner on that morning of October 17, 1956 and don’t forget to pray for me. I so long to be with my Savior … I feel it won’t be long now but that is up to Him. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

God bless you all,

Bro. Ott

__________________
The one great fallacy of fundamentalism is that we actually believe that while we are confessing the sins of others that the Lord will not look as intently on our own.

As I have gotten older, I have tended to become less dogmatic over certain issues: "(1 Cor 2:2 KJV) For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."



www.otthorn.com

www.jcfaith.com/otmerhorn