Not this man. He was recommended to me by the professor of ancient languages who taught at my Bible college who was associated with Harvard during WWII as a translator during the war.
This man many pastors used for their personal study of the Bible.
https://www.rbthieme.org/index.html#tabs-3
He taught class six nights a week!
Studied regularly for eight hours a day .
Became known through by word of mouth...
Look at how many hours of the Scripture he taught over the years!
https://www.rbthieme.org/PDF/LessonListingForWeb2014.pdf
grace and peace ............
Grace and peace Genez.
That's pretty cool that you knew R.B. Thieme too!
My former church hosted Col. Thieme many years. I respected his scholarship and him personally as a gifted teacher.
We rented conference rooms and many churches attended from the tri state areas of Western Pa, MD, and WVa.
I studied under one of his main students in my part of the country since I was a teenager.
One of the issues that I noticed in my church was that nobody but the pastor could read or speak Greek, so who were they to trust?
Would it be another English speaker who could only quote what relatively little he memorized? Children grow up in Cypress speaking and reading Greek. They have little problem with understanding the Traditional Text, the TR. Then the Colonel's student brags about" the oldest and best manuscripts really say in the original autographs such and such!!" Then he mocks the Bible I'm reading along with quite fluently in my lap.
I wouldn't fall for the hype. I have an inner Teacher Who is infinitely better than the one behind the pulpit.
I checked out many hours of his false accusations and found him wanting. I was sorry to hear tapes of he and his own pastor sounding much alike on certain subjects.
There were those I attended church with who thought...
A. He knew more Greek than Erasmus and all the translators of the King James Bible. Rather than challenging claims made by the extra-biblical footnotes in their newer translations and from the pulpit, it was settled for them. I'm reminded that there was a reason that the Bereans were more noble than those at Thessalonica. That wasn't a popular stance there.
B. When my pastor or Colonel Thieme taught it was almost as if they were speaking Ex cathedra to our church.
It made for some serious division if I would disagree with so much as their Gap hypothesis. You'd think I criticized them as harshly as they criticized the Bible they once held in respect.
C. However, I noticed serious marital issues, like adultery in the congregation when my pastor made unbiblical excuses for separation and divorce. He went so far as to lead my fiancee to believe in the weird heresy that the wife is Not to love her husband. That began with Thieme and my pastor's lopsided teaching that isolated classes on marriage to Ephesians 5:33. Those men could certainly milk a lot out of one verse to the exclusion of many others when lambasting others for their lack of exegesis. Anyhow, I credit my ex fiance for gullibility and idolizing those men rather than those fleshly idols.
False doctrines like those I heard do have a significant effect on others needless to say.
E. One year RB Thieme made his theme his argument why Judas Iscariot was saved and in Heaven now. He was making a case for once saved, always saved. I have no problem with the doctrine of eternal security. He blasted others for doubting his case for Judas'salvation with the confidence of a General Patton yelling at his troops.
Guess what he spoke about at the next conference when he came back?
His case that Judas was lost!
I might have that backwards as to which conference was first, but he had the same proud exclamation for the opposite case as the previous one. He wasn't preaching against eternal security, but I hope you get my point better than friends at church.
The point is that in spite of the great teachings, there were errors too. I am far more impressed with the confirmation that I get when comparing Scripture with Scripture than I am with any contemporary authorities these days who judge my Bible by the Critical texts.
F. Those who used to trust the Bible, transfered their faith to those who spake boldly about "original autographs" that were not even available to them. Therefore they trusted that the pastor was THE authority and the KJ Bible not worthy of reading. All due respect to RB Thieme and his protege, our church if asked, would reject the fact that the scholars who translated our KJ Bible were at a level that would exclude both my pastor and Colonel Thieme from any consideration as translators of such a project.
That said, I enjoyed Col. Thieme's teaching mostly and my pastor as well, or I would not have invested so much into the church.
Regardless of who says to the contrary, I truly believe that God preserved His Words and they continue to be pure words as a silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times.
Grace and peace