You may have heard about the hullabaloo online last week. A very sweet saint posted a David Reid video on her timeline on Facebook. The new editor of the Berean Searchlight decided to leave this comment: “I’d be careful; KJV Only groups are very cultish. I’ve heard him say that you are an idiot if you don’t believe the KJV is God’s preserved translation.”

First, I’ll set aside the hilarious contradiction of him calling people a name and then complaining about another pastor calling people a name. I’ll also set aside the fact that nobody knows what he is talking about with respect to David Reid. As of this writing, he has yet to provide the receipts.

What I’d like to talk about is “cultish.” If KJV-only people exhibit “cultish” behavior, well, what are we to make of that? If you’re “cultish,” does this not mean you are in a cult?

According to him, you’re not simply “cultish.” You’re “very cultish.” There’s nothing ambiguous about what he said. If you are a King James advocate of any kind whatsoever, the Editor of the Berean Searchlight thinks you are in an extreme cult. As if it is so irrational to think, as believers have been thinking for centuries, that you can hold in your hands the very Word of God. This is so irrational, according to him, that he must label you all as “very cultish.”

Apparently, this is the new Berean Bible Society (BBS) strategy of winning friends and influencing people. “Hey, let’s smear a large group of grace believers by painting them all as crazy cultists for thinking differently than us!”

I have to say – for love’s sake itself, just stop. Okay? Please? I beg you. Just stop this nonsense. These people are not crazy cultists. They are simply normal people who believe that they are holding in their hands the Word of God. And, believe me, they are amazing – full of life and joy and grace and peace, and I love them beyond all words. Are they perfect? Who is? But I wouldn’t trade a single one of these saints for anyone else on planet Earth.

You smear what you don’t understand.

It would seem that the BBS is content now to promote themselves by publicly disparaging others. And what have they accomplished? They’ve only fomented more division, more strife, bitter feelings, and toxic public discourse. Make no mistake – grace believers the world over are sick to death of this juvenile behavior.

This is why people say, “Where’s the grace?”

But I’d suggest a deeper issue at play here. I suspect there is institutionalized thinking at the BBS in that they view themselves as the gatekeepers of the grace message, which entitles them to attack others. This goes back to C.R. Stam, who always felt HE was the gatekeeper of the grace message, and he was a fighter.

Stam had a lot of great qualities. He was a fantastic wordsmith. He wrote with precision. He had a big booming voice that made for epic sermons. He could defend Paul’s apostleship like no one else. He also wrote the classic book, “Things that Differ,” which brought many of us into the grace message.

On the other hand, Stam was certainly not perfect. He could be kind and generous, but he could also be highly confrontational. Perhaps he still had a bit too much of that fighting Dutchman spirit in him. Some have told me that they used to call the Berean Searchlight “The Scorchlight” because Stam was often attacking somebody.

The bigger point is this: Stam was never the gatekeeper of the grace message. The Berean Bible Society has NEVER been the gatekeeper of the grace message. Richard Jordan has never been the gatekeeper of the grace message. Grace School of the Bible has never been the gatekeeper of the grace message. I, Mike, Hal, and Fred with our little Grace Life Podcast would never presume to think of ourselves as gatekeepers of the grace message.

Being influential in a positive way does not mean that you’ve been appointed the next gatekeeper of the grace message.

Who then is the gatekeeper?

The gatekeeper will always be the Word of God.

This is God’s unbound book (2 Tim. 2:9).

The grace message isn’t about a few elites in Wisconsin. It’s about the Word of God in the hands of the people because the Word of God is what persuades the people above everything else. After that, it’s the people who go out to share the grace message with others. It’s the people who keep the ministries going. It’s the people who support local churches and institutions like Grace School of the Bible. It’s the people who keep alive the legacies of men like J.C. O’Hair after they’re gone. It’s the people who will preserve the grace message because it’s out of the people that we will get future grace pastors who will carry on this glorious message for generations to come.

Pastors, podcasters, writers, publishers, etc., are nothing more than servants of the people, and it’s the people who will keep the grace message alive.

As a servant, you should be looking up at the people. Not down.

I would also suggest one thing: everyone should go through Bryan Ross’s From This Generation Forever series. He’s a reasonable, critical thinker at the top of his game. He’ll forever alter the way you think about translations and the KJV. You’ll never regret it.

And, finally, there’s a story I’ve told at a couple of grace conferences that is so perfect for this subject.

Except I have now changed the ending.

A grace believer once told the story of how he met another grace believer in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge. He said: “I was standing in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge admiring the view when another man walked up alongside of me. I heard him say quietly, ‘What an awesome God.’ “I turned to him and said, ‘Are you a Christian?’ “He said, ‘Yes, I am a Christian.’ “I said, ‘So am I,’ and we shook hands.

I said, ‘Are you a liberal or a fundamental Christian?’

“He said, ‘I am a fundamental Christian.’

“I said, ‘So am I!’ and we smiled at each other. I said, ‘Are you a Covenant or a dispensational, fundamental Christian?’

“He said, ‘I am a dispensational, fundamental Christian.’

“I said, ‘So am I!’ We slapped each other on the back. I said, ‘Are you an early Acts, mid-Acts or late Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?’

“He said ‘I am a mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.’

“I said, ‘So am I’ and we agreed to exchange Christmas cards every year. I said, ‘Are you a pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?’

“He said, ‘I am a pre-trib, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.’

“I said, ‘So am I,’ and we decided to exchange kids for the summer. I said, ‘Are you a 12 in or 12 out, pre-trib, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?’

“He said, ‘I am a 12 out, pre-trib, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.”

“I said, ‘So am I!’ and we made vacation plans together. I said, ‘So, are you a King James or a King James only, 12 out, pre-trib, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?”

“He said, ‘I am a KJV-only, 12 out, pre-trib, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.’

“And I said, ‘You heretic’ and pushed him off the bridge.”