Bryan C. Ross’s short study Rightly Dividing E. W. Bullinger is a timely, measured look at a man whose labors still shape dispensational study. Ross frames his work from the opening pages using the King James Version and a Dispensational Publishing House lens, and he follows Bullinger’s life and writings in order to let the man and his ministry speak for themselves rather than caricature them.
Ross records the facts of Bullinger’s life plainly: born in Canterbury in 1837, trained at King’s College, ordained in the Church of England, and propelled to broader influence by the publication of his Critical Lexicon and Concordance (1877) and the ensuing honorary Doctor of Divinity (1881). Those accomplishments set the stage for his long editorial work on Things to Come (beginning 1894) and the many serial and book publications that followed.
On dispensational matters, Ross traces a clear theological journey. For a large portion of Bullinger’s ministry his writings display what Ross identifies as a mid‑Acts dispensational standpoint: an insistence on rightly dividing prophecy and mystery, a careful separation between kingdom promises to Israel and the distinct calling of God’s new creation, and the conviction that Paul knew the mystery before the close of the Acts period but withheld fuller disclosure until the right time. Ross points readers to The Mystery (1895) and The Church Epistles (1898) as key mid‑Acts works in this development.
Ross also shows how Bullinger’s earlier emphases—Ten Sermons on the Second Advent and The Kingdom and the Church—laid the groundwork for a disciplined right‑division approach that refused to conflate kingdom prophecy with the present calling of the church. In those years Bullinger repeatedly urged that we should not join together what God has put asunder, and Ross commends the clarity such distinctions can bring to Scripture study.
Equally important, Ross does not sentimentalize Bullinger’s later years. He demonstrates that close friendships and conversations—most notably with Sir Robert Anderson—contributed to a gradual reconfiguration of Bullinger’s view toward what later has been described as the Acts 28 position. Ross carefully traces those influences without reducing Bullinger to a single label, and he emphasizes the historical and personal dimensions of that change.
For pastors and students committed to KJV and to right division, Ross’s volume is pastorally useful: it preserves appreciation for Bullinger’s labors in lexicography, exposition, and the promotion of disciplined Bible study, while also warning that some late positions warrant careful examination. Read Ross to learn the man’s strengths, to understand his theological journey, and to exercise charity and discernment as you follow the faithful rule of rightly dividing the word of truth.