A Rebuttal to John Bedson's Article
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A REBUTTAL by Aleck W. Crawford1 This REBUTTAL—apart from these introductory comments— to the following article — takes the form of endnotes added to John Bedson’s article, as there were too many graphics The Physician Who Doctored & tables to use foot-notes. I have the Truth2 not used quotation marks in the An article3 contributed4 by article apart from what was 5 already in the article as I have John Bedson . presented the whole of JB’s article taken from the Internet “The time has come for honest (apart from changes noted in men to denounce false endnote 3). Obviously the teachers and attack false endnote reference #s are not 6 part of ex-Christadelphian John gods.” – Luther Burbank Bedson’s article. As a child nurtured in the “The first to plead his case seems just, Until another comes and examines him” Christadelphian faith from my (Prov. 18:17, NASB®). mother's womb my infant mind was steeped in Christadelphian On first reading John Bedson’s myth and legend from an early article, he seems to plead a valid 7 case against Bro. Thomas, but age . My father would tell me as the Proverb says, when the bedtime story of how the “another comes and examines founder of Christadelphianism, him”, the vast majority of his the brave Dr John Thomas at claims turn out to: the age of twenty eight8 in a) be almost completely 1832 was nearly shipwrecked wrong, or b) be factually incorrect, or aboard the Marquis of c) contain several typos. Wellesley ship while en route to America. He made a vow to On second reading it is clearly noticeable that JB does not God that if his life was spared tackle our beliefs from Scripture he would devote himself to but from distorted human discovering the truth about reasoning. We encourage religion9. readers to take the time to read the main arguments proving JB wrong. A REBUTTAL by A. Crawford to J. Bedson’s–“The Physician Who Doctored the Truth” p. 1 of 154 God saved the good doctor from his distress and upon reaching New York he set about reading his Bible. He soon discovered The Truth that humans had lost for nineteen hundred10 years and published his findings in his book "Elpis Israel" in which he also predicted the return of the Jews to Palestine11. He later explained every word and phrase of the Biblical book of Revelation in intricate detail12 in his three volume work "Eureka". Dr Thomas was a man "raised up by God for this great work" I was told13 and my young, impressionable mind believed every word, not realising that I was being indoctrinated into a religion that14 made about as much sense as Flat Earth Theory15. I read “Elpis Israel”, “Eureka”, “Faith in the Last Days”, “Exposition of Daniel” and “Christendom Astray” when I was eleven16 and I made up my mind that baptism was a primary goal in my life. It was twenty years later that my dearly beloved and greatly missed friend17, brother John Allfree gave me a very old copy of the five volume work "Horae Apocaliptica" by a writer named Eliot18. It is a preterist19 exposition of the Biblical book of Revelation. The book was published prior20 to Dr Thomas's work Eureka. In Eureka Dr Thomas frequently heaps fiery scorn and derision21 on Elliot and his work22, so I was interested to read this work that I thought would be junk. Imagine therefore my shock when I discovered that practically 80% of Eureka23 had been lifted24 out of Hoare Apocaliptica25! Eureka was NOT an original26 work at all; Dr Thomas had plagiarised Elliot's work mercilessly and passed it off to the Christadelphians27 as an original28. Further investigation convinced me that much of "Elpis Israel" 29, "Anatolia",30 "The Exposition of Daniel" and practically everything31 else that Dr Thomas wrote had been taken from other writer's work32 but not acknowledged by him33. Even most of the doctrinal material34 and the prediction that the Jews would return to Palestine35 was NOT original work.36 He was simply lashing together other people's material and publishing it as his own ideas. The man that I had venerated as someone A REBUTTAL by A. Crawford to J. Bedson’s–“The Physician Who Doctored the Truth” p. 2 of 154 "raised up by God" to rediscover37 The Truth was a charlatan as bad as any corrupt American TV evangelist in our own times.38 It would take me many hundreds of pages to thoroughly expose39 Dr Thomas's plagiarism in full and as I have disposed of all my religious books it is now an impossible task for me40. But I strongly recommend that others take up the task of repeating the work that I undertook in the early Nineteen Eighties. I would have written it all down then, but I got so far and gave up in disgust that I had been hoodwinked by Dr Thomas for so long. However it would be unfair to leave this subject without at least one illustration of what I mean, so I submit the following as a tiny fraction of the material that is available. "Anatolia is original throughout” 41 wrote Doctor Thomas in the introduction to that work. Let us test that statement by comparing the following quotations from "Anatolia" with another work published forty years earlier in 1814 by Granville Penn entitled "The Prophecy of Ezekiel concerning Gog":42 Dr John Thomas in "Anatolia": "The question as to what nations are signified by Rosh, Meshekh, and Thuval has long since been determined by the learned. The celebrated Bochart, about the year 1640 observed in his elaborate researches into sacred geography, that43 ROS, Ros, [the Hebrew word is omitted]44 is the most ancient form under which history makes mention of the name of RUSSIA; and he contended that Rosh and Meshekh probably45 denote the nations of Muscovy and Russia. 'It is credible,' says he, 'that from Rosh and Meshekh (that is the Rhossi and Moschi) of whom Ezekiel speaks, descended the Russians and Muscovites, nations of the greatest celebrity in European-Scythia.' We have indeed ample and positive testimony that the Russian nation was called Ros by the Greeks in the earliest period in which we find it mentioned, as Ethnos de oi Ros Schnthichon, peri ton archtoon Towron; that is, the Rosh are a Scythian nation A REBUTTAL by A. Crawford to J. Bedson’s–“The Physician Who Doctored the Truth” p. 3 of 154 bordering on the northern Taurus! and their own historians say, 'It is related that the Russians (whom the Greeks call Ros, and sometimes Rosos, Rosos) derived their name from Ros, a valiant man who delivered his nation from the yoke of its tyrants.'" p. 6546 Granville Penn in "The Prophecy of Ezekiel Concerning Gog": "If we next enquire what nations are signified by those three proper names we shall find that this question also has been long determined by the learned. The celebrated Bochart, about the year 1640, observed in his elaborate researches into sacred geography that ROS, Ros, is the most ancient form under which history makes mention of the name of RUSSIA; and he contended that the two first of those names properly denote the nations of Russia and Muscovy. 'It is credible,' says he, 'that from Rosh and Mesech (that is the Rhossi and Moschi) of whom Ezekiel speaks, descended the Russians and Muscovites, nations of the greatest celebrity in European-Scythia.' We have indeed ample and positive testimony that the Russian nation was called Ros by the Greeks in the earliest period in which we find it mentioned. Ethnos de oi Ros Schnthichon, peri ton archtoon Towron47. 'The Ros are a Scythian nation bordering on the northern Taurus.' This testimony is given by Cedrenus, Zonarus, Leo Grammaticus, and Tzetzes; and their own historians thus report, 'It is related that the Russians (whom the Greeks call Ros, ROS, and sometimes Rosos, Rosos) derived their name from Ros, a valiant man who delivered his nation from the yoke of their tyrants.'" p. 19 John Thomas: "And thus the three denominations, Rosh, Meshekh, and Thuval, united in the prophecy point out, with equal capacity and conciseness, those widely extended regions, which, at the present day, we denominate collectively THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE." p. 66 A REBUTTAL by A. Crawford to J. Bedson’s–“The Physician Who Doctored the Truth” p. 4 of 154 Granville Penn: "And thus the THREE DENOMINATIONS united in the prophecy point out, with equal capacity and conciseness, those widely extended regions, which, at the present day, we denominate collectively THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE." p. 22 John Thomas: "Since the name of Scythae, or Magog, is to be considered not by itself, but in geographical connection with Galatae, or Gomer, we have only to enquire, whether any geographical affinity is really ascribed by the Greeks to the Scythae and Galatae? and to ascertain to what regions of the earth those names so associated, were applied. If we can discover these two points we ought thereby to have discovered specifically the Magog of the prophecy, which is to be associated with the region, or people, of Gomer." - p. 67 Granville Penn: "But, since the name of Scythae (i.e. Magog,) is here to be considered, not by itself, but in geographical connection with GALATAE, or GOMER, we have only to enquire, whether any geographical affinity is really ascribed by the Greeks to the Scythae and Galatae? and to ascertain, to what regions of the earth, those names, so associated, were applied.