Note. This information was gleaned from reading Pastor Joey Faust’s new book, to be published soon.
Click here to listen to a message by S. Frank Logsdon on the Word of God in English.
Click here to go to King James Bible page.
Dr. S. Frank Logsdon was a popular author, conference speaker and Baptist pastor. He pastored the Moody Memorial Church of Chicago (1950 to 1952); the Central Baptist Church in London, Ontario (1942-50); and others:
“One of the most popular and best loved pastors is the author of this book. Mr. Logsdon is an uncompromising defender of the faith once delivered to the saints, and each Sunday in Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, thousands of people gather to have their souls refreshed from the divine springs of Christian truth.” (Lest Ye Faint; from the cover)
Logsdon began to see two of the most important foundations in the life of believers:
- The Holy Scriptures (inspiration and preservation).
- The Fear of God (the Judgment Seat of Christ).
Satan questions the words of God, and raises doubts concerning His warnings: Genesis 3:4 “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: Therefore, he seeks to deceive believers today by down-playing the Judgment Seat of Christ, and the consequences for sin and sloth in the Christian life: Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”.
Below is Logsdon’s testimony regarding how his eyes were opened concerning the preservation of the Scriptures in the Authorized Version:
“…we are in the end time. And this end time is characterized by a falling away…And when there is a falling away from truth, concurrently there is always confusion…Back in 1956-57, Mr. F. Dewey Lockman of the Lockman Foundation contacted me. He was one of the dearest friends we’ve ever had for 25 years; a big man, some 300 pounds, snow white hair, one of the most terrific businessmen I have ever met. I always said he was like Nehemiah; he was building a wall. You couldn’t get in his way when he had his mind on something; he went right to it; he couldn’t be daunted. I never saw anything like it; most unusual man. I spent weeks and weeks and weeks in their home, real close friends of the family. Well, he discovered that the copyright [on the American Standard Version of 1901] was just as loose as a fumbled ball on a football field. Nobody wanted it. The publishers didn’t want it. It didn’t get anywhere. Mr. Lockman got in touch with me and said, ‘Would you and Ann come out and spend some weeks with us, and we’ll work on a feasibility report; I can pick up the copyright to the 1901 if it seems advisable.’
“Well, up to that time, I thought the Westcott and Hort was the text. You were intelligent if you believed the Westcott and Hort…At any rate, we went out and started on a feasibility report, and I encouraged him to go ahead with it. I’m afraid I’m in trouble with the Lord because I encouraged him to go ahead with it. We laid the groundwork; I wrote the format; I helped to interview some of the translators; I sat with the translators; I wrote the preface. When you see the preface to the New American Standard, those are my words…
“I just took for granted that it was done as we started it, you know, until some of my friends across the country began to learn that I had some part in it and they started saying, ‘What about this; what about that?’ Dr. David Otis Fuller in Grand Rapids. I’ve known him for 35 years, and he would say (he would call me Frank; I’d call him Duke), ‘Frank, what about this? You had a part in it; what about this; what about that?’ And at first, I thought, now, wait a minute; let’s don’t go overboard; let’s don’t be too critical. You know how you justify yourself the last minute. But I finally got to the place where I said, ‘Ann, I’m in trouble; I can’t refute these arguments; it’s wrong; it’s terribly wrong; it’s frightfully wrong; and what am I going to do about it?’
“Well, I went through some real soul-searching for about four months, and I sat down and wrote one of the most difficult letters of my life, I think. I wrote to my friend Dewey, and I said, ‘Dewey, I don’t want to add to your problems,’ (He had lost his wife some three years before; I was there for the funeral; also a doctor had made a mistake in operating on a cataract and he had lost the sight of one eye and had to have an operation on the other one; he had a slight heart attack; had sugar diabetes; a man seventy-four years of age), ‘but I can no longer ignore these criticisms I am hearing and I can’t refute them. The only thing I can do…I must under God renounce every attachment to the New American Standard’...I tell you, dear people, somebody is going to have to stand. If you must stand against everyone else, stand. Don’t get obnoxious…If we could hear His voice we would have no trouble learning His Word from the Authorized Version…Let’s be people of the Book…It was Moody’s Book; it was Livingstone’s Book. J. C. Studd gave up his fortune to take this Book to Africa. And I don’t feel ashamed to carry it the rest of my journey. It’s God’s Book.”
“When questions began to reach me, at first I was quite offended. However, in attempting to answer, I began to sense that something was not right about the NASV. Upon investigation, I wrote my very dear friend, Mr. Lockman, explaining that I was forced to renounce all attachment…The product, however, is grievous to my heart and helps to complicate matters in these already troubled times.” (Logsdon’s letter to Cecil Carter, June 9, 1977)
Logsdon spent his final days doing all that he could to make restitution by turning believers to the Authorized Version:
“As a pastor, I write this for the people in our church. On occasion, I have been asked why we, in our church, use the outdated King James Version…In Proverbs 22:28 the Bible says to ‘Remove not the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set.’ A landmark is a surveyor’s term and refers to a benchmark or property marker. Today, in most jurisdictions, it is against the law to move or alter a survey landmark. Christianity has its foundations in an authorizing and governing document. That document is the Bible…Because the Bible is in every sense the final and absolute foundation of what we as Christians believe and practice, it only is prudent that we be concerned that the foundation is sure and the benchmark has not been altered…
“In the year 1611 A.D., King James I of England was influenced to provide a common Bible for the English speaking world. Hence, he authorized a translation of the Bible into English that came to be known as the Authorized Version…Their product, the King James Version of the Bible, has been, until just recently, the universal standard for Bible believing Christians of the English-speaking world…
“‘WE BELIEVE THAT THE CRITICAL TEXT IS CORRUPT!…In viewing the distortions, deletions, corruptions, dilutions, changes and questionable associations of the critical text and its resultant modernist translations, we will stick to the venerable King lames Version of the Bible that our forebearers so faithfully used. It is an ancient landmark. Down through the centuries, it has been the Bible used for every major revival to sweep across portions of the English-speaking world…’ (Why We Use the King James Version)
“Logsdon’s understanding of the perilous judgment that unfaithful believers will experience at the Second Coming was likely one of the prime motivators for his taking such a stand. Remember, he testified: “I’m afraid I’m in trouble with the Lord…”
Note. The above information was gleaned from reading Pastor Joey Faust’s new book, to be published soon.
Simply Church 