Ian Richard Kyle Paisley (1926- ) is Pastor of a noted Free Presbyterian congregation in Ireland. He is a revivalist and preaches evangelistically across that land. He also founded the Democratic Unionist Party to help stem the efforts to unite Ireland under Catholic authority. In 1970, Paisley was elected to the North Ireland Parliament. He was then elected to the British Parliament, and in 1979, to the European Parliament. Paisley's popularity is seen in that in this latter election he received more votes than any politician in all United Kingdom electoral history. His popularity has not waned. In 1994 he received even more votes than he had in the 1989 election. David Beale gives an overview of Paisley's life in his history of Fundamentalism:

"Paisley's father, Rev. J. Kyle Paisley, was a Baptist pastor who separated from the apostate Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1935 and became an independent Fundamentalist leader in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. American Fundamentalists like J. Frank Norris and T.T. Shields preached for him in the independent church he established in Ballymena, county Antrim. On his retirement, the church that he founded and pastored became the J. Kyle Paisley Memorial Free Presbyterian congregation in Ballymena, and it is today one of the largest churches in the group.

"Ian's mother led him to Christ when he was six years old. He began preaching during his mid-teens. The little mission hall at Six mile Cross, county Tyrone, where he preached his first sermon, later became a thriving Free Presbyterian Church. When a beautiful new church building replaced the old mission hall, the hall was dismantled and re-erected on the grounds of the Whitefield College of the Bible for the use of the students there.

"Paisley prepared for the ministry in the Barry School of Evangelism, S. Wales. After completing the program there, he went on to study in the Theological Hall of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland.

"Liberal influences had been at work for many years in the Irish Presbyterian Church. For example, after a famous heresy trial back in 1926, the denomination had acquitted a noted modernist professor, J. E. Davey. It later promoted him to the position of principal at the assembly's college, a ministerial training school for Presbyterians, and during the 1950s Davey became the denomination's moderator. As a result of such inroads of modernism, many Christians had left the denomination and established the Irish Evangelical Church (better known as the Evangelical Presbyterian Church).

"In 1946, twenty-year-old Ian Paisley accepted a call from the Ravenhill Evangelical Church in Belfast. This church was formed by a major secession from Ravenhill Irish Presbyterian Church. Seventy families, the entire eldership but one, the church committee, and almost the entire Sunday school staff withdrew. The new church remained independent and did not join the Irish Evangelical Church. ... The Ravenhill Evangelical Church ordained young Paisley, and since then he has faithfully ministered to his congregation, known around the world as the Martyrs' Memorial Free Presbyterian Church. ...

"In 1969, with the construction of the largest Protestant church to be built in the British Isles in this century, Paisley's Ravenhill congregation became the Martyrs' Memorial Free Presbyterian Church ... The denomination has placed churches or missions in Canada, the United States, and Australia. ... In 1981, Paisley opened the Whitefield College of the Bible, near Gilford, Northern Ireland" (David Beale, In Pursuit of Purity: American Fundamentalism Since 1850, p. 332,336).

Paisley's bold, uncompromising stand for the truth has brought him into a lot of trouble through the years. In 1966 he was imprisoned for three months with two of his colleagues on a trumped up charge of supposedly participating in an illegal assembly. Irish Prime Minister Terence O'Neill, who hated Paisley's political and religious stand, instituted the court proceedings. In 1969 Paisley spent several more months in prison, "sentenced to hard labor like a common criminal." Paisley has also been arrested in Vatican Square for giving out copies of the King James Bible. In October 1988, Paisley was beaten and carried unceremoniously out of a European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg, France. The occasion was a speech made by Pope John Paul II before the Parliament. As the pope began his message, Paisley stood and held up a red sign painted in black letters with the words "John Paul II ANTICHRIST." Paisley shouted, "I refuse you as Christ's enemy and Antichrist with all your false doctrine." These were the words spoken by Archbishop Cranmer before he was burned at the stake for his testimony. Paisley tells what happened at that point:

"I have read in the Book of Revelation the power of the word of testimony, but I never realised what power was in a martyr's testimony. If I had brought a ton of explosives and let them off in that Assembly it could not have had a greater effect. That vast Assembly erupted, and the books started to fly and the punches started to be thrown, and the kicking started, but I held my ground and maintained my testimony. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EUROPE TODAY AND EUROPE IN REFORMATION TIMES. This afternoon I read again the story of Luther, at the Diet of Worms. Who presided over the Diet of Worms? The Emperor Charles, Head of the Holy Roman Empire. Who was he? He was a Hapsburg. It is interesting to note that one of the men who attacked me is the last of the Hapsburgs-Otto Hapsburg, the Pretender to the Crown of Austria and Hungary. I said to myself, 'The Hapsburgs are still lusting for Protestant blood. They are still the same as they were in the days of Luther.' The members of the Roman Catholic Party of Mr. Le Pen of which John Taylor is a member were round me battering away at me as hard as they could.

"I have some little experience of protests. I know if you go to protest with one poster it is not any good, because if they tear it down your protest is over. So I filled my pockets with posters. The woman reporter in the R.T.E. said I was like a conjurer, from every pocket I was bringing out posters! When one disappeared a second one took its place. When the second one disappeared, a third one took its place. With some exaggeration she said I had posters in every pocket. Well, I did not have them in every pocket, I had them in one pocket. I knew if I had them in the outside pockets they would tear them, so I had them buttoned here inside. I had folded them in such a way that they opened up almost simultaneously when I got them out of the pocket and held them up.

"Eventually I was hauled out. The Security men had allowed a vicious attack on a Member of the House, a violation of all the laws of the Parliament. Yet the President never once rebuked anybody who did the throwing of books or the vicious attack upon me physically. All he did was attack me for what I said. I sustained injuries to my legs and spine and have lodged a claim against the Parliament.

"If there be some Roman Catholic with us tonight we are glad you have come to hear the truth of the Gospel, and I implore you to turn away from your Church. I do not ask you to turn to Protestantism. I ask you to turn to Jesus. He alone can save your soul. I am not going to Heaven because I am a Protestant; I am going to Heaven because I am saved by the grace of God that I defend the great truths of the Bible and protest against all errors which are contrary to these Truths of God's Word. 'Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved'" (Ian Paisley, "None Dare Call Him Antichrist," sermon preached in Martyrs' Memorial Free Presbyterian Church, October 16, 1988).

In 1989 Paisley publicly opposed Billy Graham's ecumenical crusade in London because of the open participation of the Roman Catholic Church. He turned down an invitation to lunch with Graham, saying that he would have no fellowship with those who deny the faith.

Ian Paisley is a strong defender of the King James Bible. He has preached frequently on the superiority of the King James Bible and has written a number of papers on this subject, including The Living Bible: The Livid Libel of the Scriptures of the Truth; The New English Bible, New Testament-A Corruption of the Word of God; and The New English Bible, Old Testament-Faithful Translation or Faithless Interpretation? His position on the Bible was made plain in a message he preached before the World Congress of Fundamentalists at Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina, August 1983. This was published in Bob Jones University's Faith for the Family magazine, October 1983:

"My subject this evening is a very vital and timely one in the present state of thinking and controversy on this subject amongst our fundamentalist brethren. 'The authority of Holy Scripture versus the confusion of modern English translations.' I'd like to bring you to one text of God's Holy Word this evening. It's the 160th verse of Psalm 119. 'Thy Word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.' ...

"As I take up this holy volume tonight I would like you to consider with me four most important and vital matters. It is essential that we have crystal-clear views on these, for they lie at the very foundation. They are indeed fundamentals. ...1) I want to speak about the Bible's Revelation; 2) I want to speak about the Bible's Inspiration; 3) I want to speak about the Bible's Preservation; and 4) I want to speak about the Bible's Translation. ...

"And now I come to the hot water, to the controversy. ... I want to say to the fundamentalist brethren who will disagree with what I am going to say: Please don't think I'm a nut because I hold the views I do, and I can assure you I don't think you're a heretic or an apostate because you hold the views you hold because good men, and godly men, and great contenders differed on these particular issues. I don't think we fundamentalists should sweep them under the carpet today. I think we should get down with our brethren to a proper discussion of them because they are vital issues and they are of the utmost importance to us all. ...

"The Bible's preservation is another fact. ... This book has been miraculously and mysteriously preserved. The many promises of God concerning its preservation have been gloriously fulfilled. ... The faith has not been delivered to a school. Thank God it has been delivered to the saints. 'The faith once for all delivered to the saints.' ... I believe that the believers accepted the genuine text and rejected the corrupt and the counterfeit text. ...

"Attacked from all quarters, this Bible has never given any quarter. It has had an Ishmaelite experience. Every man's hand has been against it, and its hand has been against every man, but it dwells in the midst of the brethren. Princes, philosophers, prelates, and poets have all conspired against it. It has been insulted by the scorn of fools. It has become the jest of infidels and the joke of skeptics. It has been assailed consistently and persistently by professed scholars. It has been made the butt of every so-called 'higher critic.' Assaulted by every known plan of hell-bless God, it has come forth unscathed from the inferno.

"Like the three Hebrew children it has been in the fire, and if you smell it, there is not a smell of smoke upon it. It has endured the flame because there's one walking in the midst of it, and He is the Son of God. The fire has yet to be kindled that can burn this Bible. The steel has yet to be forged that can wound it. The scholarship has yet to be developed that can discredit it. The science has yet to be created that can demolish it. The plan has yet to be devised that can annihilate it. The cunning of hell and the craft of earth have combined against the Bible, but it stands unmoved. ...

"But HE WHO WROTE THE BOOK PROVIDENTIALLY IN KEEPING WITH HIS PROMISE GLORIOUSLY PRESERVED IT UNTIL THE TIME OF REFORMATION CAME. THEN THERE AROSE A GLORIOUS COMPANY OF TRANSLATORS WHO SET TO WORK TO GIVE THE NATIONS THE BIBLE IN THEIR MOTHER TONGUE. ... I HAIL THIS BOOK THIS DAY. IT REMAINS AMID THE PASSING AND INJURIES OF TIME A HOLY TEMPLE, UNPROFANED BY THE FOOT OF THE ENEMY. IT REMAINS AN INVINCIBLE BUILDING OF GOD AMIDST THE CRUMBLING RUINS OF THE CENTURY. GOD HAS PRESERVED HIS BOOK AND WILL PRESERVE IT.

"And now we come to the Bible's Translation. ... The Reformation of the sixteenth century was the greatest revival the church had known since the day of Pentecost. It was brought about by the translation of God's Word, and its propagation and preaching. The Reformation did not give us the Bible. The Bible gave us the Reformation. ... This is a dynamic book. The devil fears it. The pope fears it. I was arrested for giving out copies of it in Vatican Square some years ago, so I just stepped across the border into Italy and continued to give out the dynamite of God's Word. ...

"And now I say lovingly to my fundamentalist brethren who will differ from me in this: I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT IT WAS AN ERRONEOUS TEXT THAT BROUGHT ABOUT SUCH A SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION OF ALMIGHTY GOD. NOR CAN I ACCEPT THAT THE MOST RELIABLE TEXTS WERE NOT THEN DISCOVERED. In fact, they weren't discovered, we are told, until the nineteenth century when one was found in the trash can of a monastery and the other in the Pope's library. Because of that I can accept what is known as the Majority Text. And I believe that this is the text which originated the line of what we might call our English translations. They were all based on that text. The line through which the King James or Authorized Version has come-it comes to us via Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible, and the Geneva Bible. ...

"Let me state again emphatically that no translation is given by inspiration of God. Inspiration applies only to the original autograph. Inspiration has to do with the giving of the Scriptures, not their translation. And those who speak otherwise deceive those that they address.

"But what is more, the King James Version is a revision rather than a completely new translation. It is unique and special because it comes to us providentially as a direct result of the great Reformation and its line of Bibles. ... SO THE KING JAMES VERSION WAS THE APEX-THE CLIMAX OF THE REFORMATION ENGLISH BIBLES AND CAME WITH A SPECIAL SEAL OF HEAVEN UPON THAT GREAT REFORMATION WORK.

"The King James Version is based on the Majority Text, on the Traditional Text, or the Received Text-received by the believers right up to the Reformation period. Again the King James Version was produced by men absolutely dedicated to the verbal inspiration of the Bible-hence, their use of italics to indicate an English word for which there is no equivalent in the original Hebrew and Greek.

"The language of the King James Version is terse and reverent and is in timeless English that a child can read, learn, and understand. Its very rhythm has led to sanctity of thought, holy awe, and a worshipful approach to God. It is equally suitable to both private and public reading. THE KING JAMES IS SPECIAL AND UNIQUE, NOT BECAUSE IT IS OLDER, BUT BECAUSE OUT OF MORE THAN 100 ENGLISH VERSIONS OFFERED, IT IS IN MY OPINION THE BEST TRANSLATION. We cannot and will not exchange it for an inferior version. Its excellence, its faithfulness, its power, and its witfulness have been proved in our own hearts and in the hearts of millions more.

"Now the question is asked, 'Have I got God's inspired Word in my hand?' I want to answer it. 'YES, I HAVE GOD'S INSPIRED WORD IN MY HAND.' THE AUTHORIZED VERSION IS A RELIABLE AND ACCURATE TRANSLATION OF THE VERBALLY INSPIRED WORD OF GOD, and I can pin my hopes on its promises knowing them to be the Word of a God that cannot lie. I CAN ABSOLUTELY DEPEND ON THIS BOOK. IT BRINGS TO ME ACCURATELY AND CLEARLY THE INSPIRED WORD OF THE LIVING GOD-the word eternally begotten in Heaven, and thank God, eternally settled in Heaven. ...

"What is the devil doing now? He's flooding the markets with a rash of counterfeit and corrupted Bibles. ...

"I trust this night that sinners shall find a way to heaven, that backsliders shall be restored to their Lord, and that God's people will have a holy fire set alight by God the Holy Ghost within their hearts that we're going to read this book, we're going to obey this book, we're going to preach this book, we're going to defend this book, and we're going to propagate this book. May God make the fundamentalists men and women of the one book for Jesus' sake. Amen" (Ian Paisley, The Authority of the Scriptures vs. the Confusion of Translations).

We praise the Lord for men like Ian Paisley who, in an evil and apostate generation, stand without compromise for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for the preserved Word of God in the English language.

[This is excerpted from For Love of the Bible: The Battle for the King James Bible and the Received Text from 1800 to Present, by David W. Cloud, copyright 1995, Way of Life Literature, 1219 N. Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277. This 460-page hard cover book is $29.95 + $4 S/H.]