David Otis Fuller (November 20, 1903 – February 21, 1988) was an American Baptist pastor. He was a graduate of Wheaton College in

Wheaton, Illinois Wheaton is a suburban city in Milton and Winfield Townships and is the county seat of DuPage County, Illinois. It is located approximately west of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 52,894, which was estimated ...

and

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of t ...

. He pastored Chelsea Baptist Church in Atlantic City, New Jersey and the Wealthy Street Baptist Church in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

Biography

In April 1916 when he was 13 years old, Fuller became a Christian at a Chapman-Alexander (

John Wilbur Chapman John Wilbur Chapman (June 17, 1859, Richmond, Indiana – December 25, 1918, New York, New York) was a Presbyterian evangelist in the late 19th century, generally traveling with gospel singer Charles Alexander. His parents were Alexander H. ...

and Charles Alexander) revival meeting in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

and was baptized in the First Baptist Church of New York City by Dr. I. M. Haldeman. The title of the sermon he heard that day was "What Wilt Thou Say When He Shall Punish Thee." Fuller served as a United States Navy chaplain in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, then for the next 45 years he was a pastor in a civilian capacity. He served as the editor of the General Association of Regular Baptists' "Baptist Bulletin" for 50 years. He was the founder of

Cornerstone University Cornerstone University is a private Christian university in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Cornerstone University has undergraduate and graduate programs, two seminaries ( Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and Asia Biblical Theological Seminary based ...

in Grand Rapids (at the time named ''Baptist Bible Institute''), serving as president from 1941 to 1944 and was the founder and president of the "Which Bible?" Society. Fuller helped establish the Children's Bible Hour in 1942, where he was chairman for 33 years. He also was on the board of the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) for 52 years. A great love for the Bible was one of the distinguishing features of Fuller's life and ministry. By the time he retired from 40 years as pastor of the Wealthy Street Baptist Church in 1974, he had read the Bible through 75 times. Fuller dedicated much of his life to the defense of the

Byzantine text-type In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Majority Text, Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main text types. It is the form fo ...

as embodied in the

Textus Receptus ''Textus Receptus'' (Latin: "received text") refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus's ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant deno ...

and, largely, the King James Version. In February 1988, Fuller died at the Blodgett Memorial Medical Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Published works

Fuller's three volumes on the subject of texts and versions contain the full or summarized works of many older authorities on the textual issue. The most notable influence being Benjamin G. Wilkinson. Others include

John Burgon John William Burgon (21 August 18134 August 1888) was an English Anglican divine who became the Dean of Chichester Cathedral in 1876. He was known during his lifetime for his poetry and his defence of the historicity and Mosaic authorship of G ...

Herman C. Hoskier Herman Charles Hoskier (1864–1938), was a biblical scholar, British textual critic, and son of a merchant banker, Herman Hoskier (1832–1904). Hoskier, as textual critic, generally but not entirely supported the Byzantine text-type against th ...

, Philip Mauro, Joseph Philpot,

Samuel Zwemer Samuel Marinus Zwemer (April 12, 1867 – April 2, 1952), nicknamed The Apostle to Islam, was an American missionary, traveler, and scholar. He was born at Vriesland, Michigan. In 1887 he received an A.B. from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, ...

, and George Sayles Bishop, as well as the works of a number of contemporary writers, including Edward Hills, Terence Brown, and Wilbur Pickering. The Baptist researcher Doug Kutilek in his article ''The Unlearned Men'' has traced some of what Fuller wrote in his book, ''Which Bible?'' to the discussion of the textual debate in '' Our Authorized Bible Vindicated'' by

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

scholar Benjamin G. Wilkinson.

Books

* ''Valiant for the Truth: a Treasury of Evangelical Writings.'' McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1961 (1st ed.). , 9780825426131 * ''Which Bible?'' Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids International Publications, 1970. 3rd ed. 1972. * ''True or False? The Westcott-Hort Textual Theory Examined'' Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids International Publications, 1973. * ''Counterfeit or Genuine?'' Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids International Publications, 1978.

References

External links

Which Bible Is Preserved Of God?
Article by David Otis Fuller {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller, David Otis King James Only movement United States Navy chaplains Princeton Theological Seminary alumni Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni 1903 births 1988 deaths 20th-century poets Cornerstone University faculty 20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States

Biography

Published works

Books

See also

References

External links