Did a famous occult philosopher say the quiet part of the Bible version conspiracy out loud? As some KJV-only authors claim, is KJV-onlyism the greatest hindrance to the New World Order? Is there an important lesson KJV-onlyists can learn from the writings of one of the greatest occult philosophers of the last century?
At the Bible Version Conspiracy, we are on a mission to expose the conspiracy we believe manipulates and controls the modern Bible version controversy. Many KJV-only and some modern Bible version proponents also believe in this controversial conspiracy, both sides offering evidence to justify their suspicions. Responsibility demands that we explore these claims and verify their accuracy before accepting them and promoting them as proof of the conspiracy we seek to expose on our YouTube channel and website. After the hundreds of “facts” from KJV-only authors that we have been able to verify as falsehoods, we were anticipating finally having a claim that checks out.
Please note, our friend Joey Faust is the first to offer a fascinating and mysterious quotation as proof of an occult conspiracy against the King James Bible. Brother Joey and us have discussed it briefly before this article was completed, and we have barely scratched the surface. Brother Joey and us have been friends for years, and we appreciate the wisdom he has to share. We occasionally disagree, often strongly, but we want to be clear that we have no ill will toward him or his books, even if they contain serious errors. This article is designed to document our fact-check, findings, and opinions as transparently as possible.
Hall and Faust in the Balance of the Scales
Manly Palmer Hall (above) was a famous esoteric philosopher, astrologer, globalist, founder of the Philosophical Research Society, and author of The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Several KJV-only authors accuse Hall of being an accomplice in a conspiracy to supplant the KJV and possibly even a mastermind behind modern versions of the Bible. Joey Faust, author of The Word: God Will Keep It, quotes Hall from 1944, when he wrote:
“The way of…conditioning would be the one used in Central Europe to condition Nazi minds…[It there] began in the public schools…[and] with the small child; which is where we will have to begin…To make things right we will have to undo much that is cherished error. The problem of revising the Bible shows how difficult it is to do this. For the last hundred years, we have been trying to get out an edition of the Bible that is reasonably correct; but nobody wants it. What’s wanted [by the majority of people] is the good old King James version, every jot and tittle of it, because most people are convinced that God dictated the Bible to King James in English…The solution to this whole problem…is…psychology…it should be an absolute requisite of education from the grammar school up…We must begin in the home with small children…[and] with the churches teaching the integrity of the religions of other peoples…We have to be conditioned…”
(Manly P. Hall, Horizon, “Asia in the Balance of the Scales,” Volume 4, No. 1, 1944)
The Word: God Will Keep It by Joey Faust. Note, all those “…” are Joey’s. Page numbers are excluded since we reference his searchable PDF.
Although Faust wrote a fascinating book on the 400-year “History of the KJV-only Movement” (specifically intended to dispel the claims that KJV-onlyism is a “new sect”), this quotation does not do the context justice and grossly misrepresents Hall’s statement. Sadly, we have found such misrepresentations among KJV-only works far more often than can be accounted for by simple human error.
Did Manly P. Hall hate KJV-onlyism, seeing the movement and the KJV as obstacles to the New World Order? Or is this a delusion of grandeur conceived in a Riplinger-level overactive imagination? A few vocal KJV-only advocates have taken up Faust’s quote and used it for their purposes.
Hall also admitted that he (and his “associates”) had been laboring to change the world through a mass indoctrination program that includes promoting revised versions of the Bible! They worked to change and replace the King James Bible.
…
It is probable that these men, with such diverse backgrounds, were connected and organizedmore than is often realized, through various secret societies, etc. However, it is certain that the prince of the power of the air (the god of this world) is organized, as he labors to unite men philosophically toaccomplish his goals.Things are “progressing” quickly according to such occult plans. Evil men and seducers arewaxing worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13). Yet, in the early 1940’s, Hall was complaining that KJV Onlyism was a major roadblock to the devilish goals of ushering in a one world religion, etc. (see Daniel 8:25, Revelation 13, 17, etc.). The great awakening of so many people to the King James Only viewpoint in recent decades continues to be a hindrance to their agenda.
…
Many [sic] P. Hall was one of the most influential occult writers. He was also a 33º Mason. In theabove quote, this occultist is complaining that their “plans” were being hindered by KJVOnlyists! It is clear from such testimonies that there were enough KJV Onlyists around to trouble men like Hall:
…
The occult plan is plainly confessed above.
Joey Faust, The Word: God Will Keep It
Okay, never mind that he totally made up a false teaching to slam the King James Bible-believers.
…
I asked the question, “Who is ‘we’?” Let’s take that apart right now. And while we’re at it, we’ll see what the Sinaiticus might have to do with it. By “we,” it seems that Hall is referring to some very high-up people in the occultic and political world. These people were the intelligent leaders who were to create a New World Order.
…
Six: The evidence suggests that this Bible found by Tischendorf in 1844 is what occultist Manly P. Hall was referring to, when he said, in 1944:
“For the last hundred years we have been trying to get out an edition of the Bible that is reasonably correct; but nobody wants it. What’s wanted is the good old King James version, every jot and tittle of it.”
David W. Daniels, Is the “World’s Oldest Bible” a Fake? p. 48, etc. He quotes Hall four times throughout the book and serves a central role in thus book’s thesis.
He is clearly insisting that it was the KJV believers who slowed down the works of the modern Bible. Those Christians who force other Christians to have a firm belief in modern versions of the Bible will surely be accountable for their sin.
…
He believed that the verses in the KJV taught these [erroneous] doctrines that he didn’t agree with, that is why he put out another bible to correct those “wrong theological notions.”
Missing or Corrupted Verses in the Modern Bibles by Gene Kim
Now for the most important occult quote of them all:
…Did you catch that? Hall says that “they” had spent 100 years trying to replace the King James Bible with a different version. This quote comes from 1944 – exactly 100 years from the time Codex Siniaticus was discovered – the same codex which Hall claims corrects the errors of the King James Bible.
HOW THE BIBLE SURVIVED FOR 2000 YEARS UNDER FIRE by GodSessions.com
The “last hundred years” from the date of publication of Hall’s article would have been 1844. It is interesting that around that time there were reported activities by the Jesuits, a Roman Catholic order that was created to fight the Protestant Reformation, to pursue an objective to take control of the Bible.
Satan Targets the Bible by TheCammandmentsofGodandthefaithofJesus.com
In the spring of 1944, exactly 100 years since the Jesuits’ created the Textus Vaticanus [sic] and Textus Sinaiticus [sic] forgeries, he made a following statement:
…
Who are “we”? Let’s take that apart right now. And while we’re at it, we’ll see what the Sinaiticus might have to do with it.
…
By “we,” it seems that Hall is referring to some very high-up powerful individuals in the Occult and Political world. That was the focus of his 1944 article,
…
But to accomplish this enslavement, Hall and his masters needed to muddy the understanding of anyone reading a Bible in the common tongue. Once again, they cloaked the Word of God in an ancient language and offered a counterfeit in the common tongue to the unwary masses.
…
In other words, presenting modern Bibles with Jesuit-edited errors as an alternative to confusing, antiquated translations.
…
Hall cunningly pitted himself on the side of “reason” by contrasting the need for modern translations against the minority of misguided Christians who consider the King James translation, itself, “inerrant”.
Vatican Freemasons Control All Reality From “Science” To “Shakespeare” by Johnny Cirucci (Note: Johnny’s is a pretty unhinged article, and some of it seems suspiciously familiar, but he makes some interesting points.)
If the KJV is the only infallible Bible in history, why wouldn’t Satan hate it with all his being? If it is truly “the only real Bible”, how could it be anything but a hindrance to his plans for world domination? Seeing your movement as Satan’s most formidable foe seems to afford a degree of comfort. Every KJV-only advocate who references Hall’s statement seems to agree. We think the scenario put forward by the above authors is logical. Whether or not these claims are based in reality is another question entirely.
The clearest evidence that the passage is being misunderstood by the authors above is the simple fact that Hall is not speaking about KJV-onlyism as we know it today, since it did not even exist in 1944, and certainly did not constitute “the majority of people” (Faust) in 1944 which will be important later. The “totally made up” claim about “the King James Bible-believers” (Daniels) was not describing the convictions of a narrow cross-section of fundamentalist Christians, but, almost sarcastically, to represent Western society’s view of what constitutes “the Bible” after 300 years of exposure to only one. Hall’s quote encompasses Western believers and non-believers in every walk of life, not simply “the King James Only Movement”. This becomes clear when we read Hall’s article for what it says rather than for what we want it to say or wish it said. (Much of the pre-Ruckman KJV-only history presented throughout Faust’s book may likewise be unrelated to the KJV-only movement we all know and love. A distinguishing belief seems to separate pre-Ruckman and post-Ruckman KJV exclusives, that there was no perfect Bible before 1611.)
Unfortunately, examining the context further reveals that our authors reached the same conclusion because they shared biases, not because they carefully, fairly, and independently read the article to see what Hall said. Modern KJV-onlyism has serious questions to answer in an age where references can be fact-checked online. Since the entire volume containing “Asia in the Balance of the Scales” is available for free on the Internet Archive, how many readers will test the accuracy of KJV-only authors for themselves? And if they are inaccurate, how much longer can the truth be avoided?
Context is King
Who are the “we” people mentioned by Hall who have been trying to bring out a reasonably accurate Bible? Check out the immediate context below.
Manly Hall died in 1990, so we can’t email him to ask what he meant. However, from reading the context, it is clear that Hall’s “we” is not a secret society, “some very high-up people in the occultic and political world”, or a shadowy Bible translation cabal. The Faustian reading of Hall’s article makes some parts of it very confusing (i.e., the “totally made up false teaching” described by Daniels above), but careful reading of the article in question brings many of the statements Hall made to a place where they can be easily understood.
Taking the entire context of the article into consideration, Hall is clearly speaking of occidental Bible translators in the West who were struggling to overcome the widespread ignorance of Bible history in their society. He wrote this before most modern Bible versions were published and became popular, but the American Standard Version of 1901 was highly regarded as one of the most formally accurate to the original Bible languages. Unfortunately, the uninformed position regarding the KJV that Hall describes could be held by anyone, Christian or non-Christian. The translator’s plight, mentioned in passing, is but one example of how “cherished error” can get in the way of progress in any field. Despite the movement’s high concentration of cherished error, Hall is not discussing KJV-onlyism as we know it today, not even close.
Closely held opinions, preferences, and traditions can cause unnecessary strife and division, making us unable to consider things from any other perspective. This is the entire point of Hall’s statements, not some secret plot against the KJV. Hall’s love of psychology as a solution to these problems is because it is “the first systematic effort to analyze human thinking” and a great step toward bringing formal training in seeing things from others’ point of view to public education. Admittedly, globalism has done a lot of harm in its battle for utopia, but maybe Hall had a little wisdom to share after all. The call for cooperation and understanding among men of different persuasions is overlooked by Faust and company in favor of a failed attempt to give KJV-onlyism way more credit than it deserves.
As showcased by Faust, the passage leads the reader to the conclusion that Hall and the “we” see KJV-onlyism as a major obstacle that must be ripped down so the NWO can march forward and conquer the globe. We believed Faust’s view was the case for years and actively promoted his book, but we have unfortunately discovered the flaws in his treatment of the passage over the last several weeks. Perhaps the overuse of “…” should have alerted me sooner since it seems to be the trademark of Riplinger-level documentation among KJV-only authors. And, yes, Joey says he read Hall’s entire article and many others by him before he wrote The Word, and he stands by the statements he made above. As always, we highly encourage you to read Hall’s article for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
Other vocal KJV-only authors and bloggers have borrowed this segment from Faust to demonstrate a conspiracy behind modern translations (above). Unfortunately, their insights add nothing to our understanding of what the passage originally said, serving only to confuse their readers further. It makes one wonder whether any of them (other than Faust and Daniels) have even seen the article before. Trust for KJV-only authors – whom some KJV-only adherents feel are the only authors you can truly trust –, proof of a deeply held conviction about a conspiracy behind modern Bible versions, and a chance to justify authors they trust (such as Gail Riplinger) prove too delicious to resist.
Despite our disagreement with Joey’s reading of “Asia in the Balance of the Scales”, we do agree that what is meant by reasonably accurate translations in the last hundred years refers especially to the efforts of the English Revised Version and the American Standard Version. The rest of The Word: God Will Keep It pretends that modern translations are only viewed as more accurate than the KJV because Christianity is being secretly influenced by liberals, Jesuits and occultists. Perhaps it is, but probably not. We’ll have to look into this later. (I have a hunch that Joey’s suspicions hinge on the claims of a certain woman focusing on the translation of a certain word in Isaiah that starts with “L”.)
Sadly, as seen in another work of his, brother Joey tends to ignore heaps of information that don’t fit his thesis and pretend the opposing viewpoint is only held by “cultists”. Sound familiar? It’s not a perfect parallel, but this error in Joey’s book reminds me of Gail Riplinger’s quotation of Vera Alder to prove there is a plan to create a New World Order Bible. (New Age Bible Versions (2021), p. 613) There is always just enough information that can be trimmed away from such quotations so they can be squeezed into the KJV-only conspiracy narrative. It is easy to prove that Faust’s artificial occultists-hate-KJV-onlyism scenario is not the case in Hall’s article.
How many other statements in The Word: God Will Keep It have been skewed to fit the Faustian narrative? We trust there will not be any more serious misunderstandings or misrepresentations in the book, as Joey is a good friend of mine, but only time and fact-checking will tell. We will discuss other clear problems in Joey’s work in the future. All this being said, we deeply appreciate that so far, Joey has received our criticisms in the spirit they have been intended, and we are encouraged that he has been willing to listen to and discuss at length our observations and arguments in the background.
We were hoping the evidence behind these claims would pan out. Why? Because we are on the hunt for 100 rock-solid pieces of evidence that there is a conspiracy behind the modern Bible translation controversy. Have you found something you think we should consider? Feel free to drop us a note!
God bless!
Joseph Armstrong
“Conviction plus patience is an almost unbeatable combination.” — Manly P. Hall, Asia In the Balance of the Scales, p. 14.
Bible Version Conspiracy 