- [Voiceover] For nearly 2,000
years the Bible has remained
the most controversial and
contested book of all time.
While we in our modern world
take for granted the abundance
of biblical translation,
there was a time when men
who handled or even read
this sacred book had
to consider whether
it would cost them
their very life.
Since the crucifixion of Christ,
for whom the gospel
record was set forth,
it might be said that
the Bible has become
the most blood stained
book in all of history.
Men have fought for it,
been burned at the stake for it.
Believers have been
imprisoned, beaten, k*lled
and even buried alive
just for reading it.
- [Buried boy] Our
Father who art in heaven-
- [Voiceover] While others have
had their bones disenterred
and for their faith
in the word of God,
been accursed to the uttermost.
- [Man] We judge him
down with the Devil
and his angels and all the
recremate to eternal fire.
- [Knight] So be it.
- [Voiceover] Please, no, no!
- [Voiceover] Bible believing
Christians have suffered
all this and more for
daring to communicate
the powerful words
of the holy scripture
to a lost and dying world.
Through the centuries,
there have always been those
who desired to share the
love of the Gospel message.
And with them, others who
were determined to destroy it.
Yet for those who believe,
the light of God's word
shines through even
the darkest of times.
- [Voiceover] 2,000 years
ago, the life and death of a
Jewish carpenter named
Jesus of Nazareth,
forever changed the world.
He was condemned for
heresy by the Jewish people
for claiming to be the Messiah
promised in the Old Testament.
He was crucified,
died and was buried.
In fear, his followers
initially abandoned him.
But in time, they
were soon strengthened
and emerged testifying
of an empty tomb
and telling all
the world that God
had raised Jesus from the dead.
- For David speaketh
concerning him,
thou wilt not leave
my soul in Hell.
neither will thou suffer thine
Holy One to see corruption.
He seeing this before spake
of the resurrection of Christ,
that his soul was
not left in Hell,
neither his flesh
did see corruption.
This Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we all are witnesses.
Let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that
God has made that same
Jesus whom ye have
crucified, both Lord and Christ.
- [Voiceover] Upon hearing
this the Jewish people
were pricked to the heart.
When they asked,
"What shall we do?"
They were told,
- [Man] Repent and be baptized
everyone of you in the
name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins
and ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost.
- With the passage of time
and the saving of many souls,
the same Gospel preached
at first to the Jews,
would also be preached
unto the Gentiles
at the house of a devout
man, Cornelius the Centurion.
- [Peter] Of a truth
I perceive that God
is no respecter of persons.
But in every nation
he that feareth him,
and worketh righteousness
is accepted with him.
The word which God sent
unto the children of Israel,
preaching peace by Jesus Christ,
he is Lord of all.
That word, I say, ye know,
which was published
throughout all Judaea
and began from Galilee,
after the baptism
which John preached.
How God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Ghost and with power,
who went about doing good,
and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil,
for God was with him.
And we are witnesses of
all things which he did
both in the land of the
Jews and in Jerusalem,
whom they slew and
hanged on a tree.
Him God raised up the third
day, and shewed him openly.
Not to all the people, but unto
witnesses chosen before God,
even to us, who did
eat and drink with him
after he rose from the dead.
And he commanded us to
preach unto the people,
and to testify that it is
he which was ordained of God
to be the judge
of quick and dead.
To him give all the prophets
witness, that through his name
whosoever believeth in him
shall receive remission of sins.
- [Voiceover] From the house
of Cornelius the good news
of Jesus Christ spread among
both Jews and Gentiles alike.
In time the Apostle
Paul would appear
establishing many churches.
And as the Gospel
spread, it would be said
that those who preached it had
turned the world upside down.
By the middle of the first
century the testimony of
Jesus Christ began to be
recorded in the four Gospels.
Along with these were letters
written by the Apostles
which would
collectively establish
the record of the New Testament.
The clearest connection
between the Old Testament
and New is found in prophecy.
The scripture says that,
The scriptures foretold
of the first coming
of Christ into the world,
and look forward to
his second coming,
when he will judge the
quick and the dead.
But before that time,
Jesus had warned that
the church would endure
great trials and afflictions
for the sake of the Gospel.
The Apostle Paul gave
a similar warning
when he bade farewell
to the Ephesian elders.
- [Roger] Paul and
others warned about
what would take place.
Paul, for example, said,
"After my departure
"there will come wolves,
grievous wolves who will
lead the sheep away."
- [Voiceover] Paul
was so adamant about
this eminent threat
that he said, "Therefore
watch and remember
"that by the space of three
years I cease not to warn
"everyone night and
day with tears."
He not only warned of grievous
wolves but also of the
While the Apostle Peter
warned that false teachers
would bring in, what he
called, damnable heresies.
And that many would follow
their pernicious ways
and because of them,
the way of truth
would be evil spoken of.
- [Roger] Satan is very clever
in his ways of deception.
He will form a
counterfeit spirit,
a counterfeit Christ and
a counterfeit Gospel.
- [Voiceover] Jesus had also
foretold that his disciples
would be persecuted and
k*lled for their faith.
He said,
The Apostle Paul had also
been aspired to write;
Jesus said,
In fulfillment of
these warnings,
the Church was persecuted
in the early centuries.
Christians were hated and
hunted by a succession
of Roman emperors beginning
with Nero in the first century
and ending with Diocletian
at the start of
the fourth century.
But by 313 A.D., the face of
what was called Christianity,
would undergo a
dramatic transformation,
when the Roman emperor
Constantine the Great
won his famous battle
at Milvan Bridge,
a victory that would
ultimately make him
the sole emperor of Rome.
Before the battle,
Constantine claimed he had
seen a vision of a cross
emblazoned on the sun
and heard a voice tell him,
"In this sign conquer."
Adopting the symbol,
he went forth
and conquered his enemies.
A short time later
Constantine would sign
the Edict of Milan granting
tolerance and protection
to Christians.
With the emperor's
reported conversion,
Christianity would eventually
become the state religion.
- There was no
Church of Rome when
the book of Romans was
written but ultimately
when Constantine comes to power.
I don't think it was a
good thing for the church.
I think was a corrupt thing.
He began to put his
cronies in power
but ultimately the church
begins to develop it's doctrine
and appoint popes and
separate them over the leity.
- After Constantine
was converted and
he issued the Edict
that the Christians were to
be protected at least until
331 A.D. when he issued
another edict that
those who have not come
under the authority of Rome
were to be arrested
and persecuted in their
churches and records and
all those things burnt.
- [Voiceover] But if
Constantine were a true believer
how could he turn and
persecute other Christians?
Some researchers believe
it was because his
faith was divided.
Researcher Dave Hunt writes that
while heading the
Christian Church,
Constantine continued to
head the Pagan priesthood
to officiate at
Pagan celebrations
and to endow Pagan temples.
Even after he began to
build Christian churches.
For the cause of
unifying the empire,
the Pagan practices of Rome
were eventually combined
with what was called the
Universal, or Catholic, Church.
But many Christians
saw in this new system
an apostate union
between the church
and the powers of the world.
Through Constantine would
begin the persecution
of those who oppose the
new universal faith.
As a result of his
edict against heretics,
it would be said that more
Christians were persecuted
after his conversion
than before it.
When the Roman empire would
eventually suffer its decline,
the bishops of
Rome would rise up
and take to themselves
the titles of Constantine;
Pontifex Maximus,
Bishop of Bishops,
and Vicarius Christi, the
Vicor or substitute of Christ.
As 17th century historian
Thomas Hobbes wrote,
Because of his influence,
some researchers mark
the so called conversion
of Constantine the Great
and his persecution of
Christians as the real beginning
of the dark ages.
Jesus had warned his
disciples saying,
While some may attribute the
beginning of the Dark Age to
to Constantine, the record of
history shows that the name
of this era was given because
the Bible was forbidden.
The psalmist writes,
But in the 13th century,
Rome made a concerted effort
to put out that
light and to keep men
from the knowledge
of the scriptures.
The conflict began with
a Catholic priest named
Dominic Goodsman.
It could be said that Dominic,
along with Pope Innocent III,
were the two original founders
of Rome's most dreadful
engine of terror and
destruction, the Inquisition.
The Inquisition itself began,
not because of witches,
or as a crusade against
Muslims, but rather
because of Bible
believing Christians.
These particular believers
were known as the Albigenses.
So named because of the
city of Albi in France.
The Albigenses often debated
with the Catholic priests,
most notably, with
Dominic Guzman,
today known as Saint Dominic
in the Catholic Church.
Though Dominic accused the
Albigenses of believing
heretical doctrines,
his famous testimony
against them reveals
important details about
their true faith.
He said,
Dominic argued that the
holiness of the Albigenses
was counterfeit and
should be overcome
by the allegedly true
holiness of Catholicism.
Initially, Dominic tried
to oppose the Albigenses
through preaching, but his
efforts met with little success.
The Albigenses were
known for their extensive
knowledge of the
scriptures, and they refused
what they saw as Dominic's
apostate teachings from Rome.
In the year 1206, the
Albigenses made a confession,
It was at the Colloquy
of Montreal in 1207 A.D.
where the final theological
debate took place
between the Catholic
priesthood, represented by
Dominic Guzman and
the Albigenses.
Historians relate what was
clearly seen as a defeat
for Dominic, who was
said to be no match
for the Albigensian
leader, Benoit de Tormes.
Researcher James
McDonald writes that,
to his opponents.
To carry out his threat,
Dominic would eventually form,
the Order of the
Dominicans, which became
the chief instrument of
Rome's holy Inquisition.
Two years later, partly
inspired by Dominic's fury,
Pope Innocent III ordered
the famous Crusade
against the Albigenses.
The bloody effort was led by
a close friend of Dominic's,
the nefarious Simon de Montfort,
remembered by Catholics
as a brave crusader,
yet by Protestants
as a brutal mass m*rder*r
who was determined to
wipe out not only
the Albigensians,
but all traces of
their teachings.
We read that,
By 1233 A.D., Pope
Gregory IX would establish
the Inquisition as
official church doctrine
and thus began some
600 years of bloodshed
against Bible believers.
As a direct result of
the Albigensian Crusade,
the Popes began to outlaw
the translation, possession
or reading of the Bible.
Historian David
Cloud explains that,
Beginning with the Albigenses,
Rome's Inquistion continued
it's bloodthirsty
cause for centuries.
It's estimated death
toll was recorded by
historian John Dowling
in 1845, who wrote,
In modern times, it is
traditionally thought that
Roman Catholicism was the
only form of Christianity
until the Protestant
reformation.
But history shows that
Bible believers have always
existed outside the Roman
church and were hated
by Rome because of it.
A history of these groups
can be found in the book,
The Pilgrim Church
by E.H. Broadbent.
Broadbent shows that what
these groups had in common
was that they did not
submit to the Roman papacy,
and they sought to
follow God's word
as their final authority.
The Albigenses were one
of these ancient groups,
and with them were
the Waldenses.
- The Waldenses, as a
Bible believing people
actually go back, although
this is disputed by
some Bible critics, they
nevertheless go back to
the second century.
And it appears that they
had what was, in effect,
an old Latin Bible called
the Italic version,
as far back as the
second century.
And they were known as
the Vaudois, which means
the people of the valleys.
Rome persecuted the
Waldenses again and again
through the centuries
for over a thousand years
and tried to wipe them out.
But because, by the grace
of God, they were located
in an area which was easily
defended, the mountains
of northern Italy, they were
able at least to cling on
to survival for centuries.
- [Voiceover] The Waldenses'
commitment to the scriptures
was legendary.
Their early Bibles
were in Latin,
but in the 12th century,
their most famous leader,
Peter Waldo, would
translate the Bible into
what was called the
Romaunt language.
Romaunt was a combination of
Middle English and Old French.
Yet Waldo's translation was
rejected by the Church of Rome.
Pope Alexander III expelled
him and his followers.
While Pope Lucius III pronounced
a papal curse on them.
- They were persecuted,
their records were burned,
destroyed, their
names slandered.
Our true church history
though, must ever seek to find
this silver stream of
believers that were never
a part of Rome, they were in
the valleys of the Piedmont,
between northern Italy
and southern France,
in the south of France.
They went by different
names, the Waldenses,
the Albigenses, the
Cathars, the Donatus.
- [Voiceover] Yet in
spite of Rome's efforts
to destroy them, the ancient
faith of the Pilgrim Church
would prevail.
And their example would
influence the great men
of faith that would follow.
When the Reformation
occurred in the 16th century,
Rome would accuse
Martin Luther, saying,
But before the time
of Luther, the faith
of the Pilgrim Church would
shine forth in the man
who would be known
as the Morning Star
of the Protestant Reformation.
The first complete Bible
in the English language
is attributed to John
Wycliffe, who would translate
the scriptures from
Latin into what is called
Middle English by about 1384.
- John Wycliffe is really
called the Morning Star
of the Reformation because
Wycliffe believed things
that the Reformers
picked up and believed
more than 100 years later.
Like William Tendall and
Martin Luther and those
and those Reformers
at that time.
- [Voiceover] Wycliffe trained
his followers to go out
and preach to the people.
They were known as Lollards
and were so effective,
it was said that if a man
met two men on the street
in England, one of them
would be a Lollard.
But because England was
still a Catholic country,
Wycliffe's followers
suffered greatly,
and many of them
were put to death.
- During the 14th
century, before the onset
of the English
Protestant Reformation,
Lollards, when
they were captured,
they were burned at the stake.
And if they had any copies
of Wycliffe's translation,
then those translations were
tied around their necks.
And those translations were
burned along with their owners.
- [Voiceover] Like
the Pilgrim Church
that had come before
him, Wycliffe taught that
the authority of the
scriptures was greater than
the authority of any man.
He said that,
In addition to translating
the scriptures,
Wycliffe became
known for rejecting
the most deadly doctrine
of the Dark Ages,
transubstantiation.
- J.C. Rial makes it
clear in his writings
why the reformers
were under attack,
because they went against
what the Roman Catholic
church was for.
For example, here's what he
wrote, "The point I refer to
"is a special reason why
Reformers were burned.
"The principal reason they
were burned was because
"they refused one of
the peculiar doctrines
"of the Romish church, on
that doctrine, in almost
"every case, hinged
their life or death.
"If they admitted
it, they might live.
"If they refused
it, they must die."
The doctrine in question
was the real presence
of the body and
blood of Christ in
the consecrated elements
of bread and wine
in the Lord's Supper.
- Just about everybody
who was tried, was tried
for their rejection
of transubstantiation.
And so what we have here,
is Rome coming down hard
and saying you know, you
have to bow to the host,
because that is Jesus Christ.
And that's why you don't let
the host drop on the ground,
because that is Jesus Christ.
And you have the whole
development of the Mass,
which is a recrucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ
because literally, they teach
that the body and the blood
of Christ is
literally, physically,
actually there in the elements.
- [Voiceover] As stated before,
Wycliffe boldly rejected
this doctrine.
In his lifetime, the
Catholic authorities tried to
condemn him for heresy,
but failed repeatedly.
Nevertheless, decades
after his death, Rome would
officially occurse
him to the uttermost.
- Rome hated Wycliffe so
much for bringing forth
the Bible in English, it
was the first complete Bible
in English, and Rome hated
him so much for that,
that they actually
exhumed his corpse
and smashed it to pieces.
And actually burnt
the bone fragments.
- [Voiceover] The Archbishop
of Canterbury, Thomas Arondell,
had called Wycliffe a
child of the old devil,
who had crowned his
wickedness by translating
the scriptures into
the mother tongue.
In 1428, the Church of Rome
ordered Wycliffe's bones
dug up and burned.
- He's here, I've found
him, the heretic is found!
- [Voiceover] One can only
imagine the intense hatred
Rome must have had to
dig up Wycliffe's bones
44 years after his death.
While Wycliffe had never
been excommunicated
in his lifetime, the Council
of Constance had officially
anathemitized or occursed
him after his death.
In the Middle Ages, when a
person was anathemitized,
a ritual was held, known as
the Bell Book and
Candle ceremony.
The words to which
are well documented.
Wycliffe's official
cursing may have sounded
something like this.
- We separate this same
Wycliffe, together with
his accomplices, and the
batters, from the precious body
and blood of the Lord, from
the society of all Christians.
We exclude him from
our Holy Mother,
the Church in
heaven and on earth,
we declare him
excommunicate and anathema.
We judge him damned, with
the Devil and his angels,
and all the reprobates
to eternal fire.
So be it.
- They dug up his bones
out of the Ludderworth
church yard, they
burned him to ashes
and dumped him into
the River Swift.
Now the historians say that
the River Swift ran into
the Severn and the Severn
into the narrow seas.
Thus illustrating how
Wycliffe's doctrine
spread throughout the world.
- [Voiceover] Indeed, the
teachings of John Wycliffe,
and the Bible he translated
would continue to influence
Christianity, right
up to the present day.
And would dramatically
impact the greatest event
of the Middle Ages.
As the Council of Constance
had condemned John Wycliffe,
it also condemned one of
his most notable followers,
a passionate Reformer in
Bohemia, named Jan Huss,
whose disciples were
called Hussites.
Inspired by Wycliffe,
Huss opposed the doctrine
of papal infallibility
and asserted the authority
of the Bible over the
opinions of Church leaders.
As a result, he was condemned
as a heretic and burned
at the stake in 1415.
But before he died, he
claimed that God had given him
a promise.
The name Huss means "goose"
in the Czech language,
and so the Lord had told him,
A century later, inspired in
part by the sermons of Huss,
Martin Luther nailed his 95
thesis to the Church door
in Wittenberg, Germany,
an event that would launch
the beginning of the
Protestant Reformation.
While it is often thought that
the Reformation was somehow
an anti-Catholic movement,
the reality is that most of
the Reformers began
as Catholic priests.
- All these guys, originally
were Roman Catholic priests.
Wycliffe was a Roman Catholic
priest, but he came to know
Christ as his Saviour, and
that changed his theology.
And then the same way
with William Tyndale.
He was defrocked there
in Vilvoorde castle.
He was a Roman Catholic priest.
- [Voiceover] The same was
true of Jan Huss and others
such as John Knox, Ulricht
Zwingley, and most famously,
Martin Luther.
It might be said that
Luther had broken the dam
of a great flood that had
been gathering for centuries,
because of the controversies
with the Albigenses,
and the Waldenses, because of
John Wycliffe and Jan Huss,
and Jerome of Prague, a friend
of Huss who with many others
were condemned by Rome
and burned at the stake
for reading and believing
the Holy Scriptures.
There can be no question
that the Bible itself was
the w*apon of choice used by
the Reformers who took up,
Yet there were certain
conditions that came about
in Luther's time that made
a Reformation possible,
not just in Germany, but
throughout all Europe.
One of them was the
invention of movable type
by a man named Johann
Gutenberg in 1440.
- Johann Gutenberg who has
invented not the printing press,
but the movable type that
you could take apart,
put back together.
Gutenberg started
out as a goldsmith.
There had been printing on wood
blocks for quite some time,
but he makes it easy because
you can make type, and then
reformat that type, and
so they start producing
numerous books of the
Reformation, numerous Bibles
of the Reformation.
- [Voiceover] Prior to
Gutenberg's invention, producing
just one Bible took
the average scribe
some 10 months to copy.
But in 1455, Johann Gutenberg
published the now famous
Gutenberg Bible, along with
200 copies in a single year.
For centuries, Rome had been
burning bibles, along with
the books written by men
like Wycliffe and others.
But now, these books
could be reproduced
at unprecedented levels.
- And that's why Luther
could have such an influence.
That's why Tyndale could
have such an influence.
That's why books were just
starting to be printed
that a scribe didn't have
to sit down and 10 months
to do a Wycliffe Bible.
You could do it in a
matter of weeks now,
a bunch of them
and get them out.
So boy that's what really
fueled the Reformation.
- [Voiceover] Gutenberg's first
Bible was based on the Latin
Vulgate originally translated
by Jerome in the 4th century.
- Vulgate simply means
vulgar, the common language.
- [Voiceover] John Wycliffe's
translation had also
been based on Latin manuscripts,
although it has been
disputed what
manuscripts they were.
Yet Wycliffe and others
acknowledged that the original
writings of the Bible were
mostly in Hebrew and Greek.
The Jewish scribes had
carefully preserved the writings
of the Old Testament
in the Hebrew language,
with selected
passages in Aramaic.
Meanwhile, the writings
of the New Testament
were recorded in Koine Greek.
Which brings us to
the second great event
that brought forth
the Reformation, the
The city of Constantinople
was so named because
it had been built by
Constantine the Great
in the fourth century, and
was originally intended
to replace Rome as the
capital of the Empire.
But after Constantine's
death, the Roman Empire
was divided, East and West.
While the West was primarily
dominated with Latin
as their earliest form of
scripture, in the East,
the people continued to read,
write, and speak in Greek.
In time, they would be known
as the Byzantine Empire.
Then in 1453, the Ottoman Turks,
led by the Islamic sultan,
Mohammed the Second,
conquered Constantinople
in a victory that stunned
the Western world.
As a result, many of the
Byzantine scholars fled into
the West, bringing with
them thousands of ancient
Greek manuscripts
including many copies of
the Greek New Testament.
- You had them fleeing and
taking their manuscripts
with them, so you have
Mohammedism coming in,
the Ottoman Turks coming
in, and they're taking over.
So they're fleeing
to Western Europe.
- [Voiceover] In the years
that would follow, many of
these Byzantine scholars
would begin teaching
the Greek language in the
universities of Europe.
One of them was a man
named George Hermanimus,
or Hermanimus of Sparta.
It's said that he was the
first person to teach Greek
at the University of
Sorbonne in Paris.
Among his famous students
was the great intellectual,
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.
- The Reformation gathered
momentum and indeed
was sustained by the work of
the great scholar Erasmus,
who produced the first
Greek New Testament
as a single edition.
- [Voiceover] For Erasmus and
many scholars of the time,
the introduction of the
Greek New Testament into
the Western World, opened
a whole new understanding
of the Bible.
- [Voiceover] The religious
thinking that was modified
had to do with a more in depth
and detailed understanding
of the word of God.
Erasmus wrote that, "Latin
scholarship, however elaborate,
"is maimed and reduced
by half without Greek.
"For whereas we Latins have
but a few small streams
"a few muddy pools, the Greek
possess crystal clear springs
"and rivers that run with gold."
- When the Greek manuscripts
became available,
and scholars began to compare
the Vulgate against the Greek,
it became very evident very
quickly that the Vulgate
went off in it's own direction.
- Erasmus says that the
Vulgate was so corrupt,
he made a completely new
translation of the Latin
based upon the Greek and
people who could read Latin,
read Erasmus's Latin text,
and the Latin Vulgate
of the Roman Catholic
church, they said, whoa,
this doesn't agree.
- [Voiceover] Erasmus recognized
that what he uncovered
through the Greek and
what he would write about,
would strike at the very
heart of Catholic tradition.
- [Voiceover] It was Erasmus
who confronted certain
key corruptions in the Latin
text, translations that had
greatly affected
the understanding of
the Christian faith.
- For instance, there's a
whole big difference between
the word "penance"
and "repentance".
Jesus says, except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish.
Well, it had gotten
translated in the Latin,
except you do penance, you
shall all likewise perish.
Erasmus said, except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish.
Not to get into doctrinal
things, but there's a whole
big difference between
repentance towards God,
and doing penance on
the part of a man.
- [Voiceover] Penance, according
to the Catholic church,
is a sacrament that
requires absolution
from a Catholic priest.
Before granting this
forgiveness, the
priest may require
fasting, alms giving,
prayer, or some other labor
on the part of the
person being forgiven.
The Council of
Trent stated that,
Yet the word "repent" carries
with it a different meaning,
a change of heart and mind.
to turn away from sin
and toward faith in God.
And so, as one author puts
it, "because of Erasmus,
"the Church's complex and
somewhat cumbersome mechanics
"of penance was thus
converted at a stroke,
"into a simple demand for a
personal change of heart."
- Repent and be baptized,
every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins.
And ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost.
- [Voiceover] Erasmus
also discovered another
major corruption in the Latin.
One that pertained
to the Virgin Mary.
For centuries, it had been
believed that Mary was somehow
in charge of the grace of God.
The reason is because
of the Latin translation
of Luke, chapter one, where
the angel Gabriel announces
the birth of Christ to Mary.
The Latin Vulgate reads, "An
angel went in and said to her,
Church historian, Allistair
McGrath writes that,
But McGrath says that
Erasmus was scathing
about this translation.
Still, some Catholics, like
Louise Marie de Montfort,
whose writings inspired
Pope John Paul II,
took the Latin reading to
an extreme, asserting that
all grace comes
only through Mary.
Yet in the Greek New Testament,
we are told that it is
Jesus, not Mary who is
Needless to say,
Erasmus's discoveries
in the Greek manuscripts
were like a bombshell
impacting the Church
of the Middle Ages.
The crystal clear springs of
knowledge that he wrote of
laid the groundwork for the
Reformation that would follow.
In addition to his Greek texts,
Erasmus wrote extensively
against the immorality of
the priesthood at that time.
Condemning the Inquisition
and teaching that the Bible
should be read by all.
Meanwhile, Martin Luther had
discovered Romans, chapter one,
where the apostle Paul says,
Luther, who had spent years
as a monk, struggling to
please God through penance
and the works of Catholicism,
realized that
according to the Bible,
men could only be
justified by God's grace,
his free gift through
faith in Christ alone.
- [Voiceover] To him give all
the prophet's witness that
through his name,
whosoever believeth in him
shall receive remission of sins.
- [Voiceover] Armed with a
newly revealed Greek text
published by Erasmus, Luther
would produce a German
translation of the
New Testament in 1522.
And so it would be said
that Erasmus laid the egg
that Luther hatched.
- Let's remember that
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam
he went far and wide
collecting manuscripts
and manuscript reading.
What he did is, he went
and collected readings and
read manuscripts and wrote
down portions of them,
and then what he does is
brings those all together
in 1516, he publishes his
first edition but it was done
kind of hastily.
So he does another one in 1519.
And it's the 1519 edition
that Martin Luther uses
for his September Bible of 1522.
And then his 1522 edition is
the one that William Tyndale
uses in 1526 to give
us our English Bible.
- [Voiceover] William
Tyndale has been called
the Apostle of
England, and by some,
one of the finest
men who ever lived.
He was a man loved by
those who loved God.
But hated and hunted by Rome
because he was the first
to translate the Bible
from Greek into English.
He was ultimately betrayed
by a trusted friend,
and then imprisoned for a
time before being strangled
and burned at the stake in
a place called Vilvoorde.
- There are not many people
here in Vilvoorde who know
who our William Tyndale are,
they have forgotten him.
- [Voiceover] Vilvoorde is
located just north of Brussels
in Belgium.
While most people there have
no idea who Tyndale was.
- [Voiceover] Do you know
who William Tyndale was?
- [Voiceover] I just told him,
I just had that conversation.
- [Voiceover] Still,
there are some who keep
his memory alive.
A grim stone monument
bears his name, along with
a bronze plaque of his likeness.
Elsewhere in the town is
a local Protestant church
that also houses
the Tyndale museum.
- [Voiceover] What
does that say?
- Lord speak because
your servant listens.
Samuel three, verse ten.
- [Voiceover] Here the curator
tells us the important role
played by William Tyndale
in the development of
the English Bible and the
Protestant Reformation.
- In 1517, he was consecrated
as priest, that's one thing.
In the same year, Martin Luther
nailed his 95 propositions
on the little church
of Wittenberg.
- [Voiceover] Tyndale was
influenced by the example
of Luther, along with John
Wycliffe, and those who had
come before who desired
to communicate the gospel
to the common man.
But from the time of Pope
Innocent, it had been declared
by Rome that,
In Tyndale's time, England
was still a Catholic country,
and the priests communicated
the Mass only in Latin.
A language the common
people could not understand.
While Tyndale knew Latin, he
desired to know Greek also,
so he could better
understand the scripture.
- He went to the University
of Oxford, and in 1515,
he had already had
his Master of Arts.
But he want to be a theologist.
And because in Oxford,
everything was in Latin,
he went to Cambridge.
Because in Cambridge,
they teach also Greek.
Why Erasmus,
- [Voiceover] Some think
Erasmus may have taught Tyndale
directly, while others think
Tyndale arrived at Cambridge
shortly after Erasmus departed.
In either case, it
was at Cambridge that
Tyndale's conflict
with Rome seems to have begun.
A young Tyndale spoke out
against Cardinal Woolsey,
a powerful clergyman, who
was also the Lord Chancellor
of England in the court
of King Henry VIII.
- Sir Woolsey visits
University of Cambridge,
he wore golden rings,
golden, he was very,
and William Tyndale shout
out that it was a shame
that clergymen lived in such
wealth and the poor people
are so poor they don't
understand what I say.
They don't know
any word in Latin.
The Chancellor went
away very angry.
But he came back, John
Welch in Little Sudbury.
- [Voiceover] Tyndale
was convicted that,
Some believe it was at
Little Sudbury where he began
his translation of
the New Testament.
- He started
translating, I believe,
at Little Sudbury Manor
where he had that horrible
run-in with the Catholic
priests, because Sir John Walsh,
the Knight there, would
invite the Catholic prelates
and the high Church
officials there and Tyndale
was the teacher of his
children and the pastor
of his church that was
behind his house at the time.
And as they were
eating dinner one time,
they began talking and
every time the priests
would say something,
Tyndale would say,
well the Word says this.
And he'd say, well the
Word says this, and the guy
finally got mad and said,
we would be better to be
without God's law
than the Pope's law.
- [Voiceover] Tyndale in
his great zeal spoke against
what he saw as blasphemy.
He famously declared, "I defy
the Pope and all his laws,
"if God spare my life,
'ere these many years,
"I will cause a boy that
driveth the plow to know
"more of the scriptures
than thou dost."
- Tyndale got in real
big trouble for that.
Tells us in Fox's Book of
Martyrs, that he had to appear
before the local
religious officials,
ecclesiastical officials,
and it says they berated him
as though he were a dog.
But Tyndale had the burning
desire to get the scriptures
into the language that
the plowboy could read,
because as he would be
up in his little room,
at Little Sudbury Manor
there, he'd look out across
the Severn valley and he
would see the plowboys
plowing the fields and he knew
that unless they could read
the scriptures, they wouldn't
come to a saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That was his driving force,
to get the scripture out
so the people could read
it and come to know Christ.
- [Voiceover] For Tyndale,
his declaration about
the plowboy was not spoken
in vain, but would become
his life's work for
which he would be hated
and persecuted by Rome.
As the Apostle Paul had
written, "I suffer trouble
"as an evildoer, even unto
bonds, but the Word of God
"is not bound, therefore,
I endure all things
"for the elect's sakes,
that they may also obtain
"the salvation which
is in Christ Jesus
"with eternal glory."
- We have William Tyndale
being burned because he claimed
that salvation was by
grace through faith.
He claimed that praying
to the saints did no good.
He affirmed that
people needed the Bible
in their own language.
So they defrocked him, they
did show him some mercy,
if you can call it mercy,
because they strangled him
before they burned him.
- Inquisitors find he was
innocent, and therefore,
before burning on the burn
stake, they strangled him.
- [Voiceover] This is the
approximate location where
Tyndale was k*lled, outside
the castle at Vilvoorde.
While the castle itself
has since been destroyed,
the Tyndale museum has a
model of what it would have
looked like on display.
They have also built a
replica of the prison cell
where Tyndale was kept.
While paintings of him
in captivity present
an almost romantic prison
setting, the reality
seems to have been
quite different.
The replica was made to
scale and is the same size
as the one in which
Tyndale was held
for some 16 months
before his execution.
- I show you a copy of his
prison, how he was prisoned.
- [Voiceover] Now is it
believed that the room
was this small?
- [Curator] Yes, yes certainly.
Because the restored
correction that is built
with the stones of the
old castle, and there are
old cells they are
no bigger as this.
Here he sleeps, and
there was his toilet.
It was very, very cold here.
- [Voiceover] Centuries
later, and debates continue
about Tyndale's life and death.
The European Institute
of Protestant Studies
even believes that Tyndale
was not fully k*lled
by strangulation and
continued to suffer
while being burned alive.
There is even contention
about exactly why
he was put to death.
- [Curator] The only mistake
he did, he didn't recognize
about the chief of the
Church, the Catholic Church.
- [Voiceover] Why was
William Tyndale put to death,
what's the real history?
- I suppose essentially
because he translated the Bible
into English and there
was a strong feeling that
the Bible shouldn't be
translated into the vernacular
shouldn't be translated
into English.
He also fell foul of
Henry VIII, from a point
where he supported Henry's
move towards becoming
Supreme Head of the Church.
Tyndale moved into opposition
to Henry's divorce.
He was put to death
ostensibly because he was
a heretic, because there was
great unease about making
the Bible available in
English, where everybody
could read it and get, have
their own personal relationship
with God rather than paying
attention to the hierarchy
of the Church.
Being under the authority
of their betters as it were.
- [Voiceover] There is no
question, but that the politics
of England at this
time were complicated.
King Henry VIII went to
great lengths to achieve
an annulment of his marriage
to Catherine of Aragon.
The term "red tape" is said to
have originated from all the
red seals Henry had obtained
in his petition to the Pope.
While Henry would eventually
cast off the papacy
and make himself the temporal
head of the Church of England,
at heart, his loyalties
were much toward Rome.
So much so, that he was
once cautioned about giving
too much honor to the Pope.
To which he replied,
"There is no such thing
"as giving too much
honor to the Pope."
Henry's Lord Chancellor
of England at this time
was Sir Thomas Moore, who
would become the chief opponent
of William Tyndale
and his Bible.
Sainted by Rome for his
undying loyalty to the papacy,
Moore caused Tyndale a
beast and a hellhound
in the kennel of the devil.
All in all,
When King Henry made his
break with Rome, Thomas Moore
was condemned as a
traitor and put to death
because of his continued
allegiance to the Pope.
This may be why Pope John
Paul II, in the year 2000,
named Saint Thomas Moore,
This declaration was
made on October 31st,
which is known as Reformation
Day in parts of Europe.
The anniversary of the
day when Martin Luther
nailed his 95 thesis to the
church door at Wittenberg.
Could this have been intended
as a modern day insult
to the Reformation?
Some Protestants in
Europe found Moore's
Patron Sainthood disturbing
because Sir Thomas Moore
not only hated Tyndale and
spent years trying to hunt
him down, but also had a
number of his followers
tortured and burned
to death for heresy.
Moore even had his Chelsea
home equipped with stocks
and a whipping tree so
he could interrogate
heretics himself.
Moore had written,
Protestant historians, to
this day, believe it was Moore
who orchestrated Tyndale's
betrayal and execution.
But in the end, Tyndale's
final prayer would overcome
his opponents.
Before he died, he
famously cried out,
"Lord, open the King
of England's eyes!"
- The sadness in all this
story is that six months
after the death of William
Tyndale, the King ordered
Miles Coverdell to translate
the Bible in English.
And therefore, he used the
Bible, the translation,
that William Tyndale had made.
- [Voiceover] To this
day, men believe that God
answered the prayer of Tyndale.
Not only would King Henry
authorize the translation
of an English Bible, for
the first time in history,
but Tyndale's work as a
translator would go on
to influence nearly every
English Bible that would follow.
- Tyndale has a very
large impact that's still
with us today.
I think the most
obvious quotation is,
"Let there be light."
Which is often used.
The one that I like best
is, "The powers that be."
Which of course occurred in
a quite different context.
Tyndale's is the first
widely disseminated
translation of the
Bible into English.
- William Tyndale, in his
1526 New Testament, is the one
who laid the foundation for
the English language
as we know it today.
- Tyndale's given English
to the English, if you like.
Because his Bible is
printed, and he's been
widely disseminated, it's
helping the language to develop.
- The Bible became
the most read book,
because previously,
it was anathema.
You couldn't read it, the
common man couldn't read it.
So it helped people
to learn to read.
- [Voiceover] While previous
Bibles were very large,
and kept in churches, the
idea of Tyndale's Bible
was to make it smaller
in size so that a person
could carry it with
them wherever they went.
Because most of Tyndale's
Bibles were destroyed
by the Inquisition, only
a few copies remain.
One of them is at the
British library in London.
- Our copy is a very
pretty book, it's also
a very important book in
terms of it's language.
Because although it
was printed in 1526,
it's so familiar to us still
today because it survives
in the language of later
copies of the Bible.
Notably, the King
James Bible of 1611.
With which it's
usually exhibited
in our treasures gallery here.
So that people can
draw comparison between
the languages of the two
versions that are nearly
100 years apart in printing.
- [Voiceover] Before his
death, Tyndale would also
be the first to translate
much of the Old Testament
from Hebrew into
English, including
the first five books of Moses.
Then from Joshua to
Second Chronicles
and the book of Jonah.
While he was not able to
finish his Old Testament
translation, all his
material became the basis
of what was called
the Great Bible,
commissioned by Henry VIII.
And the basis for the Geneva
Bible, that would be known
as the Bible of the Reformation.
Modern scholars, using
computer technology,
even believe that some 83
percent of the King James Bible
was based on the work
of William Tyndale.
What follows are just
a few of the well known
biblical phrases that come
directly from his translation.
- This is the current
facsimile of the Tyndale
New Testament and it's
approximately the same size
as the original, perhaps
just a little bit bigger.
You need a big pocket for this.
The original is
definitely a pocketbook.
He produces a wonderful
translation of
the New Testament.
The issue is a pocketbook of
the Bible, that's the idea
of it, your own Bible.
So familiar to people,
Tyndale is the man
who sort of got there first.
Given that Tyndale's Bible
was ordered to be burned,
we've only got
three copies left.
It's amazing that we have,
what's almost a complete copy
left and that it's so
beautifully decorated.
It was somebody's
prize possession.
I have to say I think it's
a very beautiful book.
It's a very touching book.
It's a very important volume.
The whole thing comes together.
You can see why it's
such an attractive story
to people, it's the Word of God.
Something that people prize,
and it's a precious object.
And it's a very rare object
and a very special object,
associated with
a remarkable man.
- [Voiceover] To this day,
some scholars still consider
William Tyndale to have
been the single best
of all the English translators.
But his enemies fought
hard against him,
burning his Bibles and
burning those who dared
to read them.
Furthermore, the Bishop of
London, Cuthbert Tunstall,
along with Sir Thomas Moore,
declared that Tyndale,
the so-called hellhound,
had thousands of
errors in his Bible.
Tyndale's reply was,
Tyndale knew the
importance of men knowing
the true Words of God,
because Jesus said,
A brief history of how the
the English Bible developed
from the time of Tyndale
onward, might be told this way.
Miles Coverdale had been
a friend of Tyndale's
from their time
together at Cambridge.
Making use of Tyndale's
work, Coverdale finished
the translation of
the Old Testament
and produced the
Coverdale Bible in 1535.
This was the first
complete Bible with
the Old and New
Testaments to be printed
in the English language.
Tyndale was ex*cuted
in 1536, and afterward,
one of his followers, a
man named John Rogers,
would publish a complete Bible
under the pseudonym,
Thomas Matthews.
The Matthews Bible of 1537,
combined the work of Tyndale
with that of Miles Coverdale.
This was the first complete
Bible to be printed in England.
Before this, Tyndale's
New Testament was printed
in Germany and the Coverdale
Bible in Switzerland.
Both had to be smuggled
illegally into the country.
But after Tyndale's dying
prayer, Thomas Cromwell
compelled King Henry VII
to officially authorize
an English Bible for the
new Church of England.
Cromwell then commissioned
Miles Coverdale
to revise his
original translation.
The result was the
Great Bible of 1539.
It was called the Great
Bible because of it's size.
But is also known as
the Cromwell Bible,
or the Cranmer Bible
because of the preface
written by Thomas Cranmer,
the Archbishop of Canterbury.
This was the Bible,
commanded to be put in all
the churches of England,
where it was then called
the chained Bible, since it
was chained to the pulpit,
as shown here.
As a result of this
authorized Great Bible,
the Word of God in English was
openly and freely proclaimed
to the people of England.
Needless to say, the Catholic
clergy were not pleased.
Since England had not only
cast off the authority
of the Pope, but now all
the people could read
and hear the words of the true
gospel, which from the days
of Dominic and even before,
were always contrary
to the papal teachings of Rome.
But then, in 1547,
King Henry VIII died,
and his nine-year-old
son, Prince Edward
VI took the throne.
The new King Edward believed
in the cause of the Reformers
and with the help of
Archbishop Cranmer,
England would
become, for a time,
a firmly Protestant nation.
The new King Edward was
seen as a Josiah figure,
who was to fully reform England
from idolatry and popery.
There is no question but
that English Protestants
saw their cause as
a struggle between
the Word of God and
the deceptions of Rome.
This painting shows the
young Edward sitting
on the throne with
the Pope at his feet,
and the words,
idolatry, superstition
and all flesh is grass,
written about him.
While above the Pope's head
is an open book that reads,
the word of the Lord
endureth forever.
A typical view is portrayed
in this Protestant allegory,
where the four evangelists,
Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John are stoning
a fallen Pope.
As if crushing him
with the Word of God.
At age 11, the young King
Edward even wrote that,
But the reign of the
new king was short lived
and within six years
he fell ill and died.
Edward tried to preserve
the Reformation by naming
his Protestant cousin, Lady
Jane Grey, to be his successor.
But she would be known
as the "Nine Days Queen",
because within such a short
time, Edward's Catholic sister,
Mary, would object
and claim the throne.
The would be Queen
Jane was put to death
and the reign of
Bloody Mary took hold.
Queen Mary's nefarious title
would begin with her desire
to deliver England back
into the arms of Rome.
Author Gary DeMar writes,
But not content with
that, Mary would also burn
those who were
reading the Bibles,
including some of
the translators.
The first martyr she
burned at the stake
was John Rogers, who had
published the Matthews Bible.
But he died in faith
and it was said that
even his children assisted,
comforting him in such
a manner that it seemed as if
he had been led to a wedding.
Thomas Cranmer, the
Archbishop of Canterbury,
who had written the
preface to the Great Bible,
was also put to death.
When his life was threatened
by Mary, the elder Cranmer,
out of fear, agreed
to renounce his faith
and write things
in favor of Rome.
But his conscience overtook
him and he recanted again
and was sent to the stake.
Before they burned
him, Cranmer said,
And so, thrusting his
hand into the flames,
Thomas Cranmer was
burned at the stake.
And with him, many other
Protestant believers
during the days of Bloody Mary.
John Dowling, in his history
of Romanism, writes that,
With this outbreak of
persecution, some 800
English scholars
fled the country.
Many of them found
refuge in Geneva,
under the protection
of John Calvin
and the Reformers
of Switzerland.
Among the English exiles
were Miles Coverdale
and the renowned Scottish
Reformer, John Knox.
At Geneva, they determined to
produce yet another revision
of the English Bible.
This time, one that would be
based on the best manuscripts
of the original Hebrew and
Greek languages, without
the limitation of either the
crown of England or Rome.
Before his death, William
Tyndale had produced
a revision of his New
Testament in 1534.
At Geneva, they made use
of this edition to produce
the first part of the
Geneva Bible in 1557.
The following year,
Queen Mary died,
and her Protestant
sister, Elizabeth,
ascended to the throne.
By 1516, a complete version
of the Geneva Bible,
Old Testament and New, was
published and dedicated
to the new Queen of
England, Elizabeth I.
- The first Bible that
was translated completely
from the Hebrew, the
Aramaic, and the Greek,
was the Geneva Bible
of the Pilgrims.
- [Voiceover] The Geneva
translation is often called
the Bible of the Pilgrims
because it was this Bible
that they brought with them
to America when they landed
at Plymouth in 1620.
- And they loved that Bible.
- [Voiceover] The
Geneva translation
became the most popular
and widely used English Bible
that had ever been produced.
With over 200 editions
from 1560 to 1644.
It is also considered
the first study Bible
because it was filled with
extensive footnotes from
the leading Bible
scholars of that era.
Including John Calvin,
Theodore Beza, John Knox,
Miles Coverdale and other
Reformers of the time,
with over 300,000
words of commentary
on the Holy Scripture.
- It was like a Bible
college education.
There's all kinds of
the Reformer's notes
packed into the Geneva Bible.
- [Voiceover] The Geneva
translation was the Bible
used by John Bunyan, John
Milton, Oliver Cromwell,
William Shakespeare
and William Bradford.
It was also the first
complete Bible to divide
up the scriptures into
chapter and verse.
Chapter divisions had been
established in the 13th century
by Stephen Lankton, the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
While the verse divisions for
the Old Testament were done
by the Jewish rabbi,
Nathan, in 1448.
Meanwhile, it was Robert
Stephanus, who was also
at Geneva with the Reformers,
who had first employed
verse divisions for
his publication of
the Greek New Testament in 1551.
And so the translators
of the Geneva Bible
made use of all these methods,
Old Testament and New,
for a complete
English Bible in 1516.
- It's the first Bible
to have verse divisions.
So the people loved that,
because that's the first time
there's a John 3:16.
- [Voiceover] The Geneva
translation would continue
to dominate until it was
replaced by the Bible destined
to be called, "the best
selling book of all time",
the King James version of 1611.
But this would only occur
after the Geneva Bible
was outlawed in England.
With some even being
arrested for owning it,
it seems to have been
forbidden because of
the very footnotes that
had made it so popular.
Commentaries that represented
the collective views
of the Reformers at the time,
but were in direct opposition
to the church of Rome.
Rome's ongoing persecution
of Bible believers
only convinced them
that she was indeed
the great whore of
Revelation chapter 17.
The woman that sits atop
the scarlet colored beast,
full of names of blasphemy.
In the Geneva
translation, we read,
The scripture says
the woman is a city
that sits upon seven
mountains or hills.
The Geneva translators wrote,
Meanwhile, their view
of the Pope is shown in
Revelation 11:7,
which speaks of,
The Reformers wrote,
Needless to say, these teachings
were offensive to Rome.
But had been handed
down for centuries.
After the death of King James,
his son, Charles
I, took the throne.
King Charles was a
controversial monarch,
accused by Protestants of,
And was suspected of supporting
It was during his reign that
the Geneva Bible was outlawed.
Could the footnotes
concerning Rome
have been the reason why?
Originally, the word
"Protestant" was a
reference to those
who protested the claims
made by the Roman church.
Even in the 19th century,
Charles Spurgeon said,
But in times past, such
teachings from the Albigenses,
the Waldenses, and to a great
extent, those of Wycliffe
and the Lollards were suppressed
and nearly stamped out
by the Crusades
and Inquisitions.
Yet, with movable type
and the printing of books
and Bibles, faster than
the Popes could burn them,
the teachings of the Reformers
spread like a fire
across Europe.
But some claimed that it
was not simply the teaching
of salvation by grace
that brought the Reform,
but the recognition
of the papal system
as the fulfillment of God's
greatest warnings to the Church,
as set forth in the
prophesies of the Bible.
Was it this teaching that
created such determination
in men like Tyndale,
Luther, and others?
Protestant minister,
Dr. Ian Paisley writes,
Yet Luther himself acknowledged
that what he was teaching
did not begin with him,
but had been handed down
from centuries earlier.
He wrote,
Believing that the papacy
is anti-Christ was standard
for Reformed believers,
who claimed the Pope was
the prophetic fulfillment of
the Apostle Paul's warning.
They held to this view
because in the New Testament,
the church is called
the Temple of God.
And the Popes were well
known for exalting themselves
in the midst of the church.
Paul wrote,
Early Christians, and
the Reformers, were
very familiar with
the blasphemous declarations
from the papacy,
which were often the
subject of intense debate.
Because from ancient times,
the Popes had declared
themselves to be equal to God.
Jesus said,
Yet the Popes took to
themselves the name Holy Father,
along with all claims of
authority that might be
assumed by such a title.
Pope Innocent III, who
fathered the Inquisition, said,
Meanwhile, Pope Nicholas
said of himself,
Nicholas even claimed that
the Popes had the power
to change the Gospel
itself, saying,
But in the Bible, Jesus says,
The Apostle Paul warned that,
Yet despite these biblical
warnings, the Popes
repeatedly claimed they were
equal to, and above God.
And were even
called by Catholics,
The Lateran Council, while
addressing Pope Julius II,
said to him,
In the 19th century,
Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto,
who would later become
Pope Pius X, declared,
Jesus said of himself,
Yet Pope Pius IX,
blasphemously declared,
The Popes have not only
made claims to be God,
but have insisted that
salvation itself depends
directly upon obedience to them.
Pope Boniface VIII, said,
Pope Clement VI said,
Even in modern times, Pope
John XXIII, in 1958 declared,
In 1984, Pope John Paul
II was quoted as saying,
The quote was based on a
Los Angeles Times article,
which reported,
Furthermore, according to
traditional Catholicism,
obedience to the papacy
is said to be required,
no matter how dreadful
the Pope might be.
Catherine of Sienna, one of
the patron saints of Italy,
whose mummified head
is still preserved
in Rome today, said,
Such demands for blind
obedience were confirmed
by the Popes themselves, but
confronted by the Reformers.
By men like Martin
Luther, who said,
Because of this evidence,
Luther declared,
It is important to understand
that this belief was not
just confined to Luther, but
was held by all the Reformers
from John Wycliffe,
in the 14th century,
to Charles Spurgeon in
the late 19th century.
Spurgeon said,
The Westminster confession
of faith, along with
the Savoy confession, the
old Baptist confession,
and the Methodist views of
John Wesley, all included
the declaration that,
This was also the belief
of the men who translated
the King James Bible.
In their opening dedication,
they commended the King for
The view of the anti-Christ,
not as a single man,
but of many men in a single
office, was based in part
on a teaching of John Wycliffe.
In the Gospel of Matthew,
the disciples ask Jesus,
"What shall be the
sign of thy coming,
"and of the end of the world?"
Jesus said to them,
Wycliffe believed that the
many who say, "I am Christ",
are in fact, the Popes.
The Popes' title, Vicarius
Christi, literally means,
another Christ.
Wycliffe concluded that,
In further explaining
the Pope's title,
author Dave Hunt writes,
But the view of the papacy
as anti-Christ is not
widely held by
Protestants today.
Still, there are those
who continue to uphold
the Reformers' original beliefs.
Perhaps it has something
to do with this official
Vatican portrait of
the current Pope.
It is called,
But can this really mean,
that in the modern world,
there are some who
still believe the Pope
to be equal to Christ, and God?
- Mr. President, final question.
- Yes, Sir.
- You said, famously,
when you looked into
Vladimer Putin's eyes,
you saw his soul.
- Yeah.
- When you look into Benedict
XVI's eyes, what do you see?
- God.
- Good way to end the interview.
- Thank you Sir.
- Thank you Sir, my pleasure.
- [Voiceover] In
contrast, Dr. Ian Paisley
is a Protestant minister,
with a long history
of opposing Rome's
influence in Great Britain.
He has been a member
of the British
and European Parliaments
and retired in 2008
as the first Minister
of Northern Ireland.
Paisley considers himself
a modern successor
of the Reformers.
What follows is typical
of his preaching.
In 1988, when Pope John
Paul II delivered a speech
at the European Parliament,
Paisley opposed him,
shouting the words of
Archbishop Cranmer,
who had been burned
at the stake.
Like the Reformers of old,
Paisley held up a sign
and announced the Pope
as the anti-Christ.
- [Pope John Paul II] Permit
me to say how much I...
- Mr. Paisley, I call you
to order and I ask you
to stop this disturbance.
- [Voiceover] There was
another poster in his pocket
for each one snatched away.
Waiting with a text that
spoke of Europe as a beacon
of civilization, looked
on with faint amusement.
- [Member of Parliament] Mr.
Paisley, I now exclude you
from this house and for
the remainder of the city.
- [Voiceover] Mr. Paisley
claims that he was punched
and that he later received
a personal apology from
the head of security for
failing to protect him.
The poster stated simply,
"John Paul II Antichrist".
- [Paisley] I am in the
historic succession of
the Reformers, I mean what we
levy, wrote in to the press
and said I wrote the
confession of faith and called
the Pope the anti-Christ.
I mean, I was far from the
first person who accepted
the fact that the church
of Rome was a false church.
And therefore was the church
as depicted in the 17th chapter
of the Book of Revelation.
Now that has
historic Protestants.
- [Voiceover] Paisley makes
it clear that he still
believes the Pope or papal
system, is the fulfillment
of the biblical warnings
about anti-Christ.
Yet it is only fair to
acknowledge that many
prophesy teachers today
believe that the anti-Christ
is yet to come.
But like the Popes, he will
claim to be equal with God.
- Someday, there
will emerge a man
who proclaims that he is God.
And, of course,
according to the Bible,
this will be the
anti-Christ, but he is a man.
But the Bible says
Satan will empower him.
- [Voiceover] But for the
Reformers, the anti-Christ
had already been revealed,
through the papacy.
John Wycliffe was so convicted
about it, he even said,
In Second Thessalonians,
when warning about
the man of sin, Paul wrote,
Martin Luther believed
that the Reformers were
themselves as the Spirit
of the Lord's mouth.
And by preaching the Word
of God, they were consuming
the papacy, even as fire
consumes a bundle of wood.
Luther wrote,
Luther believed that the
papal anti-Christ would
continue to be thus
consumed until the Lord
completely destroys
him at Armageddon.
As such, the need for
translating and publishing
the Word of God was
greater than ever.
- Luther recognized that
people were being held
in darkness because they did
not have the Light of the Word.
So when the Word was
translated so the people could
understand what it had to
say, of course this is what
brought the Reformation about.
People were being led
away from Catholicism
to true Christianity.
- One thing about the
Roman Catholic church,
they adhered very strongly
to what I would call
sacramental salvation.
And John Fox in his Fox's
Book of Martyrs, that's where
he takes Rome to task
because, you know,
you had to take the
communion, and you had to do
all these sacraments
for salvation.
John Fox says that they
built a whole new foundation
for the Roman Catholic
church and left the original
salvation which was by
grace through faith,
that was free, it
was the gift of God.
In other words, Rome
you have to work for it.
- [Voiceover] In Catholicism,
the concept of suffering
for one's own sins,
and the sins of others,
runs throughout.
The work of Atonement
is centered around
the Catholic Mass, in
which the priest summons
the presence of Jesus
Christ into the Eucharist,
where he is offered over
and over again to atone
for the sins of the living
and the dead in Purgatory.
- The idea of transubstantiation
places the power
or the ability in the
hands of a priest,
to take a wafer and
conjure up the presence
of Jesus Christ, and
then offer this wafer
as Christ, as an unbloody
sacrifice for the sins of man.
- [Voiceover] Through the
regular practice of the Mass,
an ongoing atonement is
made for the dead souls
that are burning in Purgatory.
These are said to be
true believers who need
to spend some time
burning to have their sins
completely purged.
This image from
a Catholic church
shows the process perfectly.
The priest offers the Host,
then conjures forth Christ,
who is pouring out his
blood again and again,
each time the Mass is performed.
For the sake of the souls
who are still suffering
in Purgatory, because
supposedly their sins
have not yet fully
been atoned for.
According to Rome, only an
ordained Catholic priest
has the power to call forth
Christ into the Eucharist.
Also,
- So a priest then,
intervenes, or becomes the one
that's necessary in
dispersing salvation unto man.
Because it's necessary to
take part in the sacrament
of the Eucharist, which
requires a priest.
- [Voiceover] Furthermore,
Rome makes it clear that
a person does not have the
freedom to believe that
the Mass is merely symbolic
and not a literal sacrifice.
She declares that,
Let them be accursed.
- See, this whole idea
that a church has to
disperse salvation, in no way
is found in the scriptures.
- [Voiceover] It was this
doctrine that the Reformers
fought so hard against.
According to the Gospel of
John, when Jesus was crucified
he cried out, on the cross,
As was revealed in the
Greek manuscripts, the word
for finished is,
And so, in the book of
Hebrews, we read that,
- It is absolutely clear
that Jesus Christ died upon
the cross, his blood was shed,
and the sacrifice was made.
There's no other sacrifice
that can be made.
- [Voiceover] The message
of salvation was plainly
set forth in the New Testament.
When the Philippian jailer
asked Paul and Silas,
They simply answered,
- But the church, headed
by a man and other men,
came up with the idea that
they would disperse salvation.
And that people would
have to go through them.
It is completely contrary
to what the Bible teaches.
- They had, in my opinion,
a neat little thing going.
You could get money for
this, and money for that.
You have the mendicant
friars going around begging.
The poor people were even
supposed to give to them,
provide them food and
all this kind of stuff,
cause that was all a
part of their salvation.
And then at the end, you
had to pay money to have
Masses said to get your
soul out of Purgatory.
- [Voiceover] The Reformation
itself, had begun over
the issue of merchandising
the souls of men
through the sale of Indulgences
that were literally,
written licenses authorized by
the Pope as pardons for sin.
The Indulgences were sold
to pay for the building of
Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
This was the principal
issue that compelled Luther,
and the rest of the
Reformers, to speak out.
- They all rediscovered that
salvation wasn't of works.
It was as the Bible
said, a free gift.
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only
begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him shall
not perish but have
everlasting life.
Rome didn't like that.
- When the Reformation,
the Protestant Reformation
was gathering momentum,
thanks to Martin Luther,
and other great
Protestant leaders,
Rome was desperate obviously
to counter the Reformation.
- And so obviously, if the
God of this world is behind
the deception, there's going
to be a counter attack.
And that's what took place.
- [Voiceover] After more
than 20 years of preaching
the gospel of grace,
and denouncing the Pope
as anti-Christ, the world had
been turned upside down again.
And the authority of Rome
was greatly diminished.
But in response, the
powers of darkness
would not be silent.
- Satan raised up individuals
in the name of Christ,
who would then
attack those who were
becoming true Christians.
- Counter Reformation is
definitely Rome's plot
to destroy the
Protestant Reformation.
- [Voiceover] What happened
next was as if the bowels
of hell itself had
opened, and spat forth
the most dreadful and wicked
society ever assembled.
In the New Testament, the
Apostle Paul warned that,
This was certainly through
of the progressive efforts
Rome put forth to fight
against the teachings
of the Reformers and the
widespread publication
of the Word of God.
In 1540, just one year
after England had published
the Great Bible, Pope
Paul III would commission
a new Order in Rome.
Their purpose was to
specifically combat
and if possible,
overthrow the
Protestant reformation.
- When Rome saw the
consequence of the Word of God
being translated so that
the people could understand
without the priests,
they had to meet this
with some sort of opposition.
- [Voiceover] This new
company of priests was founded
as a military order, by
a former Spanish soldier
named Ignatius Loyola.
- Ignatius Loyola, actually
his name was Inigo Lopez,
born in Spain, 1491, has
become known as the founder
of the Jesuits, or
the Society of Jesus.
Without question, the major
group of individuals who
throughout history have
played a significant role
in an attempt to bring the
separated brethren back
to the mother of all churches.
- [Voiceover] The term,
separated brethren,
is a reference to Protestant
heretics, who are to be
reunited with Rome by
whatever means necessary.
Historically, the Jesuits
are known for their insidious
methods of deception,
spying, infiltration,
assassination, and revolution.
- I believe you can not
understand history unless
you understand the Jesuits
and the role that they played.
- [Voiceover] In his
book, The Babington Plot,
author J.E.C.
Shepherd writes that,
President John Adams, in a
letter to Thomas Jefferson,
once wrote,
19th century author,
Edwin Sherman, called them
the Engineer Corps of Hell.
In this modern copy
of his book, we see
the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln on the front cover.
Because it was claimed by
19th century Catholic priests,
Father Charles Chiniquy
that the Jesuits
were responsible for
the k*lling of Lincoln.
Chiniquy details this
in his own book, titled,
Lincoln himself had said,
Even in the 20th century,
author Edmond Paris,
in his book, The Secret
History of the Jesuits,
documents how the society
influenced Adolf Hitler,
and his n*zi party.
In particular, he says,
Hitler referred to
Heinrich Himmler as
his Ignatius of Loyola.
And even obtained the swastika
symbol at a Catholic abbey,
from a priest
named Father Hagen.
The Jesuit General, a position
created by Loyola himself,
is often referred to as,
Because of the black
robes he wears,
and the tremendous power
he is said to hold.
Former Jesuit General,
Michelangelo Tamborini,
once boastfully said,
Even in modern times, Ian
Paisley has spoken openly
against the Jesuit order
in mainstream media.
He had this to say,
To justify his association
of the Jesuits with
the Gestapo, Paisley quoted
from the book by Edmond Paris.
He related words that were
published under the authority
of Francisco Franco,
the Spanish dictator
during World w*r II, shown
here with Adolf Hitler.
- [Voiceover] Concerning this
quote, Edmond Paris writes,
During the second World
w*r, it was the Jesuit Order
who put forth that,
In all their history,
the ultimate aim
of Loyola's Society
is said to be the same
as it was from the beginning.
Within less than a century
after their formation,
Rome's Jesuit order would
become an elite company
of spies, assassins,
and intellectuals.
Hated and feared by kings
and commoners alike.
With all these things in
mind, consider that it was
this Society that was
specifically commissioned
by the Pope to launch
Under the direction
of Ignatius Loyola.
- He decided, and along
with his friends, to form
some kind of an organization
that would be loyal
to the Pope, and that would
counter the Reformation.
So that's exactly what occurred.
The Counter Reformation
was a way to resist
what had taken place, the
Reforming that had occurred,
and take people back
to Roman Catholicism.
- [Voiceover] Countless books
and essays have been written
about the Jesuits,
repeatedly warning the church
and others of their grand
scheme to take over the world
to take over the
world for the Pope.
But exactly how
would they do it?
- In various ways,
through education,
through social programs,
and through infiltration
of organizations to
advance the cause
of the Roman Catholic church.
- [Voiceover] There is
perhaps no more chilling
and enlightening detail
than the dreadful oath
the Jesuits are made to swear.
This oath was well known
prior to the 20th century,
and can be found in the
Library of Congress.
The oath begins with
an admonition from
the Jesuit Superior, one
that reveals the methods
of infiltration used
by the Order, he says,
- The contribution of Loyola
and his followers
to the Inquisition
and to opposing the
Reformation, would be
in the academic and
educational sphere.
And that they would become
leaders in all disciplines
of learning, and that they
would pursue an intensive
academic, intellectual
strategy which would capture
the universities and
the centers of learning.
- [Voiceover] The plan of
the Society was to overthrow
the Bible based education
of the Protestants.
In his book on the
Jesuits, Rulers of Evil,
F. Tupper Saussy writes that,
In the 19th century,
Charles Spurgeon warned of
the impact of Jesuit education.
He spoke of certain
preachers saying,
But even with their
intellectual methods,
the Jesuits would not abandon
the centuries old practice
of persecuting heretics
who would not convert.
As the rest of their
dreadful oath reveals,
the initiate is made to swear
that he will do the utmost
in his power to destroy all
opposition to papal authority.
He says,
Once the bloody oath
is finished, the
Jesuit Superior says,
Professor Arthur Noble writes,
Among the horrors the
Jesuits instigated
were the Saint Bartholomew's
Day m*ssacre of 1572,
in which some 70 to
100,000 Protestants
were slaughtered
throughout France.
They also famously
manipulated King Louis XIV,
to revoke the Edict
of Nantes in 1685.
Which had once protected the
rights of French Protestants.
It's revocation made the
Protestant faith illegal,
and ultimately,
King Louis' father confessor
was a Jesuit priest
named Pierre LaChase.
His revoking of the Edict of
Nantes outlawed the reading
of the Bible in France
for the next 100 years.
In England, the
Jesuits worked closely
with WIlliam Laud, the
Archbishop of Canterbury,
who had outlawed the
printing or importation
of the Geneva
Bible into England.
We read that,
One prominent Protestant,
William Prynne,
Laud was eventually found
guilty of conspiring
with Jesuits to bring
England back under popery,
and was put to
death for treason.
Among his private papers
was found a letter,
addressed to the Jesuit
Superiors in Brussels.
The Jesuits would also
continue Rome's centuries old
persecution of the Waldenses,
in their dogged attempts
to finally annihilate them.
Several of the Reformers
explained why Rome hated them.
Theodore Beza,
called the Waldenses,
He said,
Meanwhile, Heinrich
Bullinger said,
- The most well known
persecution of the Waldenses,
happened in the year 1655.
And it was really the
armies of the Duke of Savoy,
who was another papal
puppet, who was sent in to
wipe these people
out once and for all.
Now the Waldenses managed
to resist the first attack,
but then, again, the Jesuit
subtlety, the Catholics
resorted to a different
tactic and they persuaded
the Waldenses that they
would have another army,
which would come
in to protect them.
And sadly, the Waldenses
believed this and when
the army, when the troops,
these Vatican troops were
billeted amongst them, the
Waldenses, they turned on them,
and carried out the
most horrific m*ssacre.
And it's known in history as
the m*ssacre of the
Piedmont, and it's even
commemorated by the
England poet, John Milton.
It was called, On the
Late m*ssacre at Piedmont,
to commemorate the
sufferings of the Waldenses.
There are some famous
lines which go,
Avenge oh Lord thy
slaughtered saints,
whose burns lie scattered on
the alpine mountains cold,
even they who kept thy
truth so pure of old,
when all our fathers
worshipped stock and stones,
that is to say, idols.
And, surviving Waldenses
actually appealed,
or managed to appeal, to Oliver
Cromwell who was at the time
the Lord Protector of
England for protection.
And Oliver Cromwell successfully
managed to negotiate
with Cardinal Mazarin of
France to actually get
the persecution lifted.
But I think it's worth
remembering the words,
the eyewitness account of one
of the Waldensian pastors,
Jean Leger, he actually
tried to persuade his
Waldensian fellow believers
that they should not fall
for Rome's duplicity.
Which then, as I said,
resulted in the m*ssacre.
After the m*ssacre,
he managed to escape.
He came and tried as best he
could as a Christian pastor,
to minister to these
shocked survivors.
And he even wrote
about it, and he said,
"The tears mingle with
my ink when I write about
"these deeds of darkness,
yea, worse even than the deeds
"of the Prince of
Darkness himself."
Because he saw first hand
the horrible cruelties
that these Catholics
had inflicted
on these innocent
Bible believers.
- [Voiceover] During the
Middle Ages, the Jesuits were
without question, the most
radical society ever conceived.
Professor Arthur Noble writes,
The Society was repeatedly
repressed, and became
known and feared
for their revenge.
In a letter to Thomas
Jefferson, John Adams wrote,
Pope Clement XIV suppressed
the Order in 1773
by a perpetual decree,
A year later, he died by
poisoning, and is said
to have perished in great agony.
But for Rome, the real
stronghold of the Reformation
was in England.
The Jesuits made more than
25 attempts on the life
of Queen Elizabeth I.
And tried repeatedly
to invade the country
with foreign armies.
The reason for their
tenacity was summed up by
Cardinal Manning
in 1859, who said,
To understand the Jesuit
goal, we must consider
the statue of founder
Ignatius Loyola, which can
be found inside Saint
Peter's in Rome.
Loyola stands with an
open book in his hand.
On one side is written
the constitutions of
the Society of Jesus.
On the other side, is a
Latin phrase, meaning,
"to the greater glory of God".
Meanwhile, the Jesuit's
foot is found on the neck
of a wild-haired figure,
with a serpent beneath him.
The figure is said to
symbolize Protestantism.
Notice that Protestantism
has a book beneath his arm.
While there are no
discernible markings on it,
we ask the viewer to consider
what that book might be,
as we unfold the
following evidence.
Through the Middle Ages, the
source of Protestant authority
was the Holy Bible, the
words of God which justified
all rejection of the papacy.
The Bible became known as the
paper Pope of Protestantism,
a term of derision
applied by Rome.
To counter the authority
of the Bible, the Jesuits
developed a confession
for Protestants to make
who converted to
Roman Catholicism.
Protestant converts
were made to say,
Let the viewer consider
that these confessions
are confirmed by a
number of sources
in the 19th and 20th centuries.
We have listed only
one of them here.
On the intellectual front, the
Jesuits were largely behind
the Council of Trent,
which began in 1545.
- The Counter Reformation
really got underway
to a major extent when
Pope Paul III convened what
became known in history
as the Council of Trent.
And the Council actually
ran in, I think, at least
three sessions for 18 years,
up until the year 1563.
- [Voiceover] Trent was
specifically designed to refute
the doctrines and teachings
of the Reformation.
- So whatever the
Reformers were for,
the Jesuits were against.
- [Voiceover] The key
point of contention
was the issue of
grace and salvation.
The Council declared that,
It is worth noting that
the declarations of Trent
were reconfirmed by Vatican
Council II in the 20th century.
Vatican II is the
most up to date
doctrinal declaration from Rome.
But also on the agenda at
Trent, were the Jesuit's
att*cks against the
Bibles which had been
translated by the Reformers.
- And the Council was certainly
dominated by the Jesuits,
who, as I've said before,
captured the universities,
and majored in academic
and intellectual endeavors.
And it was by their
intellectualism
and their scholarship
that they ultimately aimed
to discredit the
Protestant Bibles.
Well they dominated the
Council and it appears that
the major resolutions of
the Council were all against
the pure Bibles, the
Protestant scriptures.
- [Voiceover] In his
book on the history of
the English Bible, author
Benson Bobrick writes that,
- And it appears also,
that what the Council did
was actually take from the
writings of none other than
the great Reformer, Martin
Luther, and they just
condemned these directly.
For example, they
condemned the belief that
the apocryphal books which
are in the Catholic Bibles
as part of the Old Testament,
they condemned the belief
that the apocryphal
books were not scripture.
And they were quite
prepared to punish by death
any so called
heretic who said that
the apocryphal books
were not scripture.
- Now it is true, it is
true, that the apocrypha was
in the early Bibles.
I have early Bibles in my
office, just across the hallway,
where you see the apocrypha
was, some people say it's not,
but in the 1611 King James
version of the Bible,
the apocrypha was there.
And previous to that, the
Geneva Bible, the apocrypha
was there, except in
some bootleg editions
of the 1599, where
it was left out.
But mind you, it was
never to be accepted
on the level of scripture.
It was never considered
to be inspired.
While the Roman
Catholic church makes
a pronouncement that it is.
- [Voiceover] But Rome
and her Jesuits would not
be content with merely
condemning Protestant doctrine.
They intended to counter
the Reformation Bibles.
- The next step of the Jesuits
was to produce their own
version in English of the New
Testament, that became known
as the Jesuit Reims version,
because it was compiled
by Jesuit scholars in the
town of Reims in France.
It later on became known
as the Douay-Reims version.
- [Voiceover] The Jesuits
inserted curious words
and footnotes into
their translation,
in part to justify
Catholic doctrine.
- That's why they worked
so hard to translate
the Douay-Reims Bible, because
in Matthew chapter six,
instead of saying like
Wycliffe did, like Tyndale did,
like the Geneva Bible, "give
us this day our daily bread",
they say "give us this day
our super substantial bread".
And so they change, and
the Greek word is not
"super substantial"
whatsoever, but nonetheless
they do that to
be able to support
their doctrine of
transubstantiation.
- [Voiceover] The
Douay-Reims also countered
the Reformers' view that
the Church of Rome had been
mass murdering the saints
through the Inquisition.
In Revelation 17:6, where it
describes mystery Babylon,
saying she is drunken with
the blood of the saints,
and with the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus,
the Jesuit footnote reads,
Oddly enough, the Douay-Reims
also acknowledged that
the whore of Babylon
symbolized the city of Rome.
But they insist it must
have been pagan Rome,
during the time of Nero.
But by far, the most nefarious
conspiracy the Jesuits
set forth during
the Middle Ages was
the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
- The Gunpowder Plot
came about because
when Elizabeth I died in
1603, Rome was very interested
to have a Catholic
monarch on the throne.
And the Pope at the time,
sent the Jesuit Provincial,
Father Henry Garnet of England
two Bulls which set out
this strategy and urged
him to ensure that no one
should ascend the
throne of England unless
they declared themselves to
be a faithful Roman Catholic.
What happened of course,
was that James I, when he
ascended the throne, he declared
himself to be a Protestant.
And therefore, Rome decided
that he had to be removed.
- [Voiceover] The instrument
Rome would employ to get rid
of the new King, was a Spanish
soldier named Guy Fawkes.
A man whose name is remembered
every year to this day,
as the English burn effigies
of him on Guy Fawkes night.
Why?
Because Fawkes planted some
36 barrels of gunpowder
beneath the houses of
Parliament, intending to blow up
King James and the entire
government of England.
Out of the chaos
that would follow,
Rome and her Jesuit
Order had planned
to re-establish
control of the country.
- Well Guy Fawkes was
what I think we would call
a Jesuit co-agitator, he
wasn't a Jesuit priest
as such, to my knowledge.
But he was a professional
mercenary soldier,
and he had fought in the
Catholic army of Spain.
- [Voiceover] Fawkes was
discovered just moments
before detonating the gunpowder,
in what the English people
clearly saw as an act of God.
Fawkes was publicly ex*cuted,
as was his fellow conspirator,
the Jesuit Provincial,
Henry Garnet.
But Garnet was not
the only Jesuit
to be involved in the plot.
At the trial, the esteemed
lawyer, Sir Edward Koch, said,
Tupper Saussy writes that during
this era, the play Macbeth,
by William Shakespeare,
was actually a so-called
"powder play" commemorating
the Gunpowder Plot,
and that,
But the year before the
Jesuit plan was overthrown,
Puritan leader, John
Reynolds, had proposed that
a new Bible translation
be set forth.
King James gave his
approval, and the work began
on the King James Bible.
Was it just a coincidence
that one year later,
the Gunpowder
Treason took place?
- Certainly, an expected
outcome of a successful plot
would be that all work on
the new Bible translation
which was taking place at
that time, it started in 1604,
that all that work
would be terminated,
and terminated permanently.
There's no doubt
in my mind that,
that is what the Jesuits
intended as well.
- [Voiceover] But by the grace
of God, the Gunpowder Plot
was overthrown, and King
James would survive to see the
famous Bible that would bear
his name come to completion.
After nearly 100 years of
laboring through the fires
of persecution and bloodshed,
all the while, their chief
object being the
preaching of the Gospel
and the communication
of the Word of God
in a language the
people could understand,
the English Reformation
arrived at what many believed
to have been their
finest achievement,
the translation of the
King James Bible in 1611.
- Since 1526, there was a
rash of Bible translation
and Bible publication, and it
all came to a screeching halt
after the King James
Version of the Bible.
They finally got it right,
they finally, because as we
follow through, Tyndale only
gave us the New Testament,
although he did Genesis through
Second Chronicles and Jonah.
But they were published
individually, they were never
in a Bible, so Coverdale took
his work, and then they added
translated from the
German and from the Latin,
and makes the first
English Bible.
However, it's not completely
from the original languages,
so John Rogers comes and he
takes all of Tyndale's work,
and puts it in there, but he
has to use some of Coverdale.
And so, we get done with that.
And finally, we get
to the Geneva Bible.
And the Geneva Bible does
all the translation from
the original languages.
But in my opinion, it's
still a little rough,
though it's based on
the Textus Receptus.
And the Hebrew Masoretic
text, it's very close
to the King James, but I can see
where there's some rough spots.
So now you have the King James.
It's all of the Hebrew,
Aramaic and Greek stuff,
and it is accepted.
- [Voiceover] In the
preface to their work,
the King James
translators wrote,
to the reader, in which they
spoke of those translators
and translations which
had come before them.
They said,
- And we would look
to translators, who,
like the preface to the readers,
the A.V. translators sought
Him that hath the key of David.
And they were humble men,
and they were scholars,
but they were spiritual men.
- [Voiceover] The King James
committee deemed it important
to confess their faith
that the Holy Scriptures
were given by
inspiration of God.
- Inspiration refers to the
author, holy men of God spake
as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost.
That's the original.
- [Voiceover] Concerning the
Greek and Hebrew scriptures,
they said,
- All scripture is given
by inspiration of God,
pasa graphe theopneustos.
So God gave it, the
Church recognized it.
- [Voiceover] In their preface,
the King James committee
also said,
They went on to say
that, to that purpose,
there were many chosen
that were greater
in other men's eyes
than in their own.
- These men, every one
had to be so skilled
in the languages
that they themselves
had to do the translating.
This was a team
technique unsurpassed
either before or since.
- [Voiceover] 54 scholars
were originally chosen,
but it is said that only 47
of them actually took part.
What followed, over the next
seven years, was perhaps
the most ingenious,
the most detailed,
the most exhaustive, and
systematic translation process
ever conceived or carried out.
- So they had, they called
them companies, they had
six companies, in
three different cities
and then London.
It's called the
special team technique.
Each of the men had two
divisions, each of the teams
had two divisions, Old Testament
and New Testament in the team.
And they had a very ingenious
method of translating.
They had an average
of seven men per team,
just take that as an average.
They went through every
word of the King James Bible
fourteen times.
Here's how they did it.
Each man on the team had
to translate for himself
that portion of Scripture,
Old or New Testament,
assigned to him.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven.
Seven different translations
came in, and they met with
their team and they went
over everyone's translation,
which is the best.
Throw out the bad,
keep the good.
That's the eighth time
they went through it,
in the team.
Then the King James was very
specific, I want you to take
what you have in
each team and give it
to the other five teams.
So here's eight and
five, is thirteen times,
the other teams went into it.
When they looked at things,
and they wanted to change
some things, they didn't
agree with these teams,
then they had a fourteenth
time at the end of the time,
when it was finished.
Two from each of the
teams, twelve men,
the leading men, at the
final, went over everything.
So there were 14 times
everyone went through it.
And that wasn't the end
of it, because the King
was very specific.
Each of the bishops, or leaders
of the Church of England,
had a copy of this draft
of the King James Bible.
And they sent these
bishops, sent to everyone
in their charge who
were skilled in Hebrew,
skilled in Greek, to
go over this and see if
there's any problems that
they had, and to give that
information to
these teams in these
three different cities,
the six different teams.
And that was the way
the thing was done.
Their method there that
was used, two things,
verbal equivalence and
formal equivalence.
Verbal equivalence meaning
they wanted to translate
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek
words into English words.
Not messages, or thoughts,
or ideas, but they wanted
to have words and words
wherever possible.
The formal equivalent had to
do with the forms of the words.
They wanted to be as surely
as they can of a noun
in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek,
put it over in a
noun in English.
Pronouns to pronouns,
adjectives to adjectives.
They didn't want to have
dynamic equivalents, which is
add, subtract and change
of the words of God.
They didn't want to change
any of these things.
- [Voiceover] In addition to
it's detailed translation,
the King James committee
was instructed to keep
the footnotes of the
new Bible to a minimum,
only providing cross
references to other Scriptures,
or brief notes on the
original languages.
Because of it's simplicity,
trusted accuracy,
and the poetic beauty
of the language,
in time, the King James
version would overtake
all the other
English translations.
- It ultimately, down the
road a little ways, replaces,
not right away, but down the
road replaces Geneva Bible.
People had a rough time
giving up their Geneva Bible
because it was like a
study Bible you know.
But then there wasn't
any need to do that.
- [Voiceover] English
Protestants would become
very familiar with the
Bible and it's doctrines.
And the King James translation
would come to symbolize
the unified efforts of
all the Reformers who had
hazarded their lives for
the sake of the Word of God.
- The authorized version of
the Bible is seen as almost
as a unifying text for
English Protestantism,
produced in 1611.
This is the first edition
of the King James Bible.
And what actually happened in
the first instance of course,
it was produced to
be put in churches.
So as you can see, it is
a very large folio volume.
And i just opened it
to the beginning of
the Gospel according
to Saint Luke.
This is the final
chapter of Mark.
An angel declareth the
resurrection of Christ
to three women, Christ himself
appears to Mary Magdelene,
two going into the country,
then to the apostles.
Who he sendeth forth
to preach the Gospel
and ascendeth into Heaven.
- [Voiceover] Sometimes
called the bestselling book
of all time.
There is perhaps no other
version that has brought about
more controversy.
The translation was no
sooner completed than it
came under attack by Romanists
and some Protestants.
One scholar in particular, a
Puritan named Hugh Broughton,
said he would rather be torn
to pieces by wild horses
than to impose the
King James Bible on
the poor churches of England.
Yet there are other curiosities
about Hugh Broughton.
Dr. Matthew McMahon writes that,
In centuries past,
the Jesuits were known
for seducing men with
money and laudation.
And it was not
uncommon for someone
to outwardly oppose Rome,
while secretly supporting
their cause and doctrines.
But could this have been the
case with Hugh Broughton?
The famed English poet,
John Donne, who would become
the Dean of St. Paul's
in London, and who lived
during this era,
recorded the following
in one of his letters, he said,
According to John Donne,
Broughton was offered
a stipend to avoid controversies
with the Catholic church.
It seems that he cooperated
to some extent, since he
compelled his
congregation to refrain
from conflict with Rome.
We read that,
To modern eyes, Broughton's
words are curious.
Especially when one
considers this image
of Rowan Williams, the
Archbishop of Canterbury,
and religious head of
the Church of England,
bowing down to
Pope John Paul II,
and kissing his ring in 2003.
Or this image, of
Britain's Prime Minister,
Tony Blair, signing
the Constitution
of the European Union
beneath the gigantic statue
of Pope Innocent X.
The agreement was signed
on Capitoline Hill,
which is one of the
seven hills of Rome.
Could these things
suggest that Rome's
Counter Reformation
continues even today?
- I believe that the Counter
Reformation continues
to this day, yes.
I think there are a number
of indications of that.
Britain is of course, part
of the European Union,
And the European Union,
although it's based
in Brussels, is very definitely
a Vatican project and
is described as such
by a researcher
named Adrian Hilton
in the book, The Principality
and Power in Europe.
Very definitely,
a Vatican Counter,
ongoing Counter
Reformation tactic.
- [Voiceover] Just
before leaving his office
as Prime Minister, Tony
Blair had a private audience
with Pope Benedict
XVI in July of 2007.
- [Voiceover] This was a
meeting the Prime Minister
was unlikely to miss.
His visit to the
Vatican was to be
his last foreign engagement.
Significant, certainly
to some Catholics.
And though today there
was no mention of whether
he might one day convert,
there are plenty
who think he will.
Which perhaps explains
the Prime Minister's
choice of gift.
In the frame, were photographs
of Cardinal John Henry Newman,
a former Anglican priest
who did convert to Catholicism.
In the 19th century, he was
a major figure in trying
to bring the Church of England
back to it's Catholic roots.
- [Voiceover] John Henry
Newman is a very significant
character in the history of
England, Rome, and the Bible.
In a nutshell, he is
the perfect symbol
of Rome's Counter Reformation.
Newman began as one of
the Protestant leaders
of what was called
the Oxford Movement
in the middle of
the 19th century.
- The Oxford Movement, which
began in 1833, was an attempt
effectively to Romanize
the Church of England.
And to get the Church of
England away from the Scriptures
and back to the ritualistic
practices of Rome.
- [Voiceover] Some believe
that a parallel to the
Oxford Movement is the current
emerging church movement
in America today.
- In the emerging church, where
people are being encouraged
to go back and find the
experiences of the past
that brought people to church,
where are they being led?
To Roman Catholicism, to
statues, idols, icons, incense.
These various kinds of things.
Contemplative Christianity,
going back and studying
the monastic disciplines.
None of this is in the Bible.
The inherent Word of God
is under attack by people
who have ideas and beliefs
that are unscriptural.
- [Voiceover] Such
was the environment
of 19th century England.
John Henry Newman was
one of the leading lights
of the Oxford Movement,
and caused many Anglicans
to turn away from
the Church of England
and convert to
Roman Catholicism.
Newman himself became
a Catholic priest
and was eventually
made a Cardinal.
Two of his chief admirers
were Brook Foss Westcott
and Fenton John Anthony Hourt.
It was these two men who
developed a new Greek manuscript
in the late 19th century.
One that would radically
change the world
of Biblical scholarship.
But what was their
real intention?
For over 100 years,
debates have continued
about their work
and whether or not
it was a deceptive effort.
- This is not what
they claim it to be.
They claim it to be being
the version set forth
in A.D. 1611, it is not, it
is an entirely new translation
based on the new Greek text
created by Westcott and Hourt.
- [Voiceover] Considering
that both men spoke favorably
of the Oxford Movement, and
greatly admired Cardinal Newman,
is it possible that Westcott
and Hourt were somehow
a part of Rome's
Counter Reformation?
It is curious that their
revised Greek text would be
further developed by the
Nestle Aland Committee
in the 20th century,
whose members included
Carlo Maria Martini, a Jesuit
priest who would also become
a Roman Catholic Cardinal.
To more fully consider the
significance of a Jesuit priest
on a Bible committee, we
looked to the year 1825,
shortly before the beginning
of the Oxford Movement,
and to a famous meeting
of Jesuit leaders
in the town of Chieri, Italy.
The meeting was recorded
by a Jesuit initiate
named Abbate Leone.
In his book, Leone records
how the Jesuits spoke of,
As part of their plan
for world domination,
Leone wrote that the Jesuits
intended to take control
of the Bible.
In particular, one
Jesuit Superior said,
- And the main target is
the crowning achievement
of the Protestant
Reformation, which of course
is the 1611 authorized
King James Holy Bible.
That is the fruit of the
Reformation that the Jesuits
want to destroy above all.
Because until they do
that, they cannot be sure
of getting, indeed
the entire world,
and especially England, back
under the thrall of the popery.
- [Voiceover] 18 years after
the Jesuit meeting in Chieri,
a German scholar named
Constantine von Tischendorf
would travel to Rome for
what he described as,
with the Pope.
One year later,
Tischendorf arrived at
St. Catherine's monastery,
at the base of what is called
Mt. Sinai in Egypt.
Here, he discovered a
manuscript that he claimed
was more ancient than any of
those used by the Reformers.
In time, and after further
visits to the monastery,
the manuscript he found would
be named Codex Sinatticus.
Oddly, it had more
corrections or changes in it
than any other manuscript
in Biblical history.
- Tischendorf claimed there
were some 14,800 corrections
done in the manuscript,
is that true?
- It sounds about right.
- Sinatticus is the most
corrected manuscript
or Greek manuscript,
of the Scriptures.
- [Voiceover] Years later,
after Tischendorf published
the manuscript, a copy would
be presented to Pope Pius IX.
The Pope would send a
letter in which he expressed
his highest appreciation
of the publication.
About this same time, a
second manuscript emerged
from the Vatican library,
named Codex Vaticanus,
the Vatican Book.
Also said to be more
ancient than the manuscripts
used by the Reformers.
- Vaticanus now has a
very strange appearance,
when you look at it,
as a manuscript expert,
although you know that
people tell you that it's
a 14th century manuscript,
it actually looks like
a 15th century manuscript.
And there's one very
simple reason for that.
Almost the entire text
has been overwritten
by a 15th century scribe.
- [Voiceover] Vaticanus
and Sinnaticus are the two
Greek manuscripts
that would be embraced
in the 19th century as
older and more reliable
than the texts used
by the Reformers.
Westcott and Hourt would
combine them into what is
now known as the critical
Greek text that would be used
for Biblical translation
throughout the 20th century.
According to the Vatican
website, Cardinal Martini
completed his studies
in Theology at the
Faculty of Theology
in Chieri, Italy,
where he was first
ordained a priest in 1952.
In 1967, with the help of
a man named Eugene Nida,
the United Bible
Society entered into a
The term, functional
equivalence,
is another way of
saying "paraphrase".
Many believers have
expressed a concern over
the progressive use of
paraphrase in the newer Bibles,
with each edition becoming
farther and farther removed
from the original languages.
Since the Scripture says that,
How do such changes
impact the faith that was
once delivered to the saints?
- In Luke 18:8 I believe it
is, when the Son of Man cometh,
will he find faith on the Earth.
That word "faith", which
is pistus, is articular
with an article.
"Hapus" the faith, will he
find the faith on the earth.
Every time, in the Greek
language, the New Testament,
whenever "The faith"
is mentioned, it means
the body of doctrine,
held by the churches.
The doctrine of the
deity of Christ,
the bodily resurrection, the
blood atonement, the miracles,
all these doctrines,
"The faith".
And so that is implied, he
will not find "The faith".
As it says in other
portions of Scripture,
there will be deceivers,
deceiving and being deceived.
All these different
signs of the last times.
- [Voiceover] In October
of 2008, delegates from
the American Bible Society
presented Pope Benedict XVI
with a special polyglot
Bible that bears the seals
of the Vatican and the
American Bible Society.
The American Bible
Society also publishes
the contemporary English
version, a newer Bible
that has now completely
removed the word "anti-Christ"
from it's translation.
In it's place, they use
the term "enemy of Christ",
which removes half
the original meaning.
- "Anti" has two
meanings in Greek.
"Anti" means "instead
of" and also, "against".
The anti-Christ is against
the Lord Jesus Christ and
he's in replacement
of the Lord Jesus.
And to have a version like
the CEV that takes away
"anti-Christ", and all these
things, it's making provision
for this man who calls
himself God, as it says
in Second Thessalonians,
chapter two.
The Man of Sin, who says
he's God and goes into
the temple, says, maintains
he's deity, that's anti-Christ.
- [Voiceover] How
these prophetic events
will fully unfold,
only time will tell.
But the understanding of
Bible prophecy will surely
be affected by how the
words of God are translated.
Some are even predicting that
a new international
Bible is being planned,
one that will completely
omit the Book of Revelation.
Through various Bible societies,
the Vatican now influences
Biblical translation in
hundreds of languages
around the world.
The question that all
Christians should ask is,
after a thousand years of
persecuting and k*lling
the saints for reading
the Holy Scriptures,
has Rome now turned
over a new leaf?
Or, is she simply
pursuing new tactics
to achieve an ancient agenda?
A Lamp in the Dark: The Untold History of the Bible (2009)
Moderator: Maskath3
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