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Did the Roman Catholic "Church" give us the Bible?

[Note: when people say, "the Church," "Church," etc. with a capital "C", they are often times referring to the Catholic Church, which is the case here in the excerpts from Dave Hunt's book, A Woman Rides the Beast]

I've heard it asserted that the Roman Catholic church gave us the Bible--but the fact is that she tortured, tormented, and killed people who believed the Bible and the Bible was on her index of prohibited books. For someone to publicly say that Roman Catholic Church gave us the Bible, says that either the speaker does not know history or else that he is lying and knows that his audience, on the whole, is profoundly ignorant, credulous, bewitched, misinformed, and deceived.

Excerpt from our index page--

According to John Dowling's The History of Romanism, From the Earliest Corruptions of Christianity to the Present Time" (1853), the above incident (Roman Catholic priests burning Bibles in the United States) took place "no longer ago than October 27, 1842." He called the incident, "another instance of the intolerance of Popery, and its determined hatred to the bible in the vulgar [common] tongue." This incident appeared to be led by "a Mr. Telmont, a missionary of the Jesuits," who came with one or more associates. There were several burnings (Mr. Telmont was "prominent" at all "movements"), one was public at which Mr. Telmont brought out armfuls of Bibles that had been collected from Catholics.

Roman Catholic priests burning Bibles in Champlain, New York...Does this show that Rome has loved the Bible or does it indicate that she has abhorred and hated it? One might ask why is she now so interested in these unauthorized versions? given her historic abhorrence to the Bible in the common tongue, why are her scholars involved with various translation projects and "interconfessional" Bibles?

"Then the Bible, that serpent which with head erect and eyes flashing, threatens us with its venom while it trails along the ground, SHALL BE CHANGED into a rod AS SOON AS WE ARE ABLE TO SEIZE IT... for three centuries past this cruel asp has left us no repose. You well know with what folds it entwines us and with what fangs it gnaws us." (The Jesuits in History, Hector Macpherson, Ozark Book Publishers, 1997, Appendix 1). [emphases ours]

Yes, she was still burning Bibles in the 1800s but it did not work. She could not set up the auto-de-fe in the United States of America whereby she could do a parade and burn up "heretics." Fulminations and hateful displays did not work. What does the historical record further reveal about her and the Bible? Below are excerpts such as

  • The Roman Catholic Church, her Jesuits, and Modern Bible Versions
  • those from the book entitled, "POPERY, The Enemy and THE FALSIFIER OF SCRIPTURE. Or, Facts and Evidences, Illustrative of the Conduct of the Modern Church of Rome, in PROHIBITING THE READING AND CIRCULATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES IN THE IN THE VULGAR ["COMMON"] TONGUE; and also of the FALSIFICATION OF THE SACRED TEXT IN TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE EXECUTED BY ROMANISTS." (1844, emphases ours)
  • Why Does Rome Support the Modern Critical Text and Translations?
  • If Rome did not give us the Bible, how do we know about the Bible and what it is contains?
  • The New Testament did not come from Roman Catholic Church councils
  • Did the Roman Catholic Church give us the Bible? History says an emphatic "No!!!"

An excerpt from our index page--

* * * The Roman Catholic Church, her Jesuits, and Modern Bible Versions * * *

Does Rome have anything to do with the modern unauthorized Bible versions? "If it is true that 'all roads lead to Rome,' then there needs to be somebody standing at the crossroads, directing the traffic. It is true, and there was such a man. His name was Eugene Nida...a founding member of Wycliffe Bible Translators, Executive Translations Secretary of the American Bible Society, a founding delegate of the United Bible Societies, and an adjunct professor of the **JESUIT** Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome...This man stood at the crossroads of virtually every modern translation, and of every modern revision of a previous translation..." (excerpted from Why They Changed the Bible: One World Bible For One World Religion by David W. Daniels, Chick Publications). Also included in the book is information on a machine-like system, individual events piggy backing on their predecessors. In chapter 13, "A Few Well-Placed Jesuits," Mr. Daniels includes more information on the role of Nida as well as Jesuit Walter Abbott and his article featured in the Jesuit America magazine--"This seemingly innocuous article started a ball rolling on the Catholic side" (ibid, p. 103). He noted the roles of Jesuit Augustin Bea, Jesuit Carlo Maria Martini, and Jesuit-instructed priests Alfredo Trusso and Jorge Mejia. "Everything fits together like a jigsaw puzzle, if you focus long enough" (ibid, p. 107). I have seen this to be the case. As one keeps gazing, things become extremely obvious).

A talk by the late Dr. Frank Logsdon (who wrote the preface to the New American Standard Version) reveals that the critical text that underlies almost all modern Bible versions is BASED ON MANUSCRIPTS THAT CAME OUT OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC INSTITUTION. But Rome used to BURN Bibles and people who believed the Bible. William Tyndale, our Christian brother, was burned up for translating the Bible (during the reign of Henry VIII). In 1824, the Pope was still condemning the Bible societies--see Ubi Primum by Pope Leo XII. The pope speaks of keeping the "flock" from the "deadly pastures" of the Bible Society (#19) which was working "to have the holy Bible translated...into the ordinary languages of every nation" (#17). He said that his predecessors published "many constitutions" "to prevent this evil" (#18). He references Pope Pius VII's two briefs which "show how harmful to faith and morals this wretched undertaking is" (#18). In Ubi Primum, Leo XII wants his religious troops to do what they can to hinder the Bible translations and tells them that the secular rulers will powerfully support them in this evil endeavor (#24).

The Roman Catholic institution BANNED Bible reading--but people kept reading the Bible anyway and getting saved anyway. Alexander McClure (1858), said it like this in speaking of the Authorized Version of 1611 of the Bible--

"The printing of the English Bible has proved to be by far the mightiest barrier ever reared to repel the advance of Popery, and to damage all the resources of the Papacy." (Translators Revived, by Alexander McClure, 1858)

Why is there now a Jesuit Pontifical Biblical Institute? Why are many modern Bible versions based on manuscripts that came out of Rome herself (not all believe that those so-called "older and better" manuscripts are authentic. Do not forget the "Donation of Constantine" forgery.)? In a telling quote from "The Jesuits in History", the author quotes from a Jesuit meeting in Cheri, Italy in 1825,

"Then the Bible, that serpent which with head erect and eyes flashing, threatens us with its venom while it trails along the ground, shall be changed into a rod AS SOON AS WE ARE ABLE TO SEIZE IT... for three centuries past this cruel asp has left us no repose. You well know with what folds it entwines us and with what fangs it gnaws us." (The Jesuits in History, Hector Macpherson, Ozark Book Publishers, 1997, Appendix 1). [emphases ours]

The Church of Rome has been charged with historic falsification of the scriptures (not everybody believes that the widely touted Codex Sinaiticus, found in the bosom of Rome, is authentic)--

As this Encyclical Letter [speaking of an encyclical by Pope Gregory XVI (June 8, 1844)]* refers with approbation [approval] to the efforts of those pontiffs, his predecessors, who, in the plenitude of their usurped supremacy, denounced [put down] all Protestant versions of the Bible; we think (at least we, hope) that we shall render a service to the reader of these pages, by placing upon record some documentary evidence on this subject: and since Gregory XVI. has thought proper to charge Protestant versions with being "corrupt," we shall proceed to adduce some convincing testimonies, which will demonstrate, that WHERE THE CHURCH OF ROME CANNOT altogether PREVENT THE HOLY SCRIPTURES from being translated and circulated, SHE HAS MADE NO SCRUPLE [HESITATION] OF FALSIFYING THE TEXT."

The above was excerpted from:
Popery, The Enemy and the Falsifier of Scripture.
Or,
Facts and Evidences,
Illustrative of the Conduct of the Modern
Church of Rome,
in prohibiting the reading and circulation of the
holy scriptures in the vulgar [this means "common"] tongue;
and also of the
FALSIFICATION OF THE SACRED TEXT IN TRANSLATIONS
OF THE BIBLE EXECUTED BY ROMANISTS.
"Ye have taken away the key of knowledge."--Luke XI.52. [Luke 11:52]
LONDON:
William Edward Painter, 342, Strand.
MDCCCXLIV [1844]., p. 4

Another excerpt. This one is from Rome and the Bible by David Cloud (ISBN 1-58318-003-6; wayoflife.org), pp.271-272--

Why Does Rome Support the Modern Critical Text and Translations?

The principal and simplest explanation of why the Roman Catholic Church changed tactics so dramatically in the 20th century is that it was forced to do so. In the early part of the century, an authority on Rome's tactics testified: "That the Roman Church seems to tolerate the Bible at all anywhere, is due to the fact that she has to pay deference either to Protestantism or to an enlightened opinion [people who know some truth]; for where these do not exist it does not hesitate to condemn and destroy it, and to persecute and even murder those who disseminate it" (Alexander Robertson, The Papal Conquest, 1909, p. 163).

The Roman Catholic Church has demonstrated what it will do when it has the ability. The past fifteen centuries provide irrefutable evidence of this. The Roman Catholic Church grants men liberties of speech and religion only when it is forced to do so, but the times have changed. Rome can no longer control the kingdoms of this world as it once did.

Her time will come again, briefly, during the last hours of this sin-sick age. She and her daughters will join hands with the Antichrist for a few hours, before she is destroyed. The Bible [book] of Revelation describes this amazing scene (Revelation 17-18).

There is more to the matter than this, though. It has been one of Rome's age-old tactics, NOT ONLY TO CHANGE the Word of God AND TO ADD to the Word of God, BUT ALSO TO CORRUPT the Word of God AND TO DIMINISH ITS AUTHORITY BY SETTING UP CONFLICTING TEXTS. Thus, the modern critical Greek texts and the multiplicity of translations thereof play right into the hands of Rome.

If Rome did not give us the Bible, how do we know about the Bible and what it is contains?

According to Dave Hunt in his book, A Woman Rides the Beast, "A favorite question of Catholic apologists is, 'How do you know that Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke or that Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew?' They claim that Roman Catholic tradition contains this information."

The apologists ask, "How do you know?" There are number of areas to consider in answering this question.

  • Christians through the ages have had an unction from the Holy One. There is a spirit world and the things of God are known by divine endowment given to his people.
    I John 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

    21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

  • The holy men who wrote down the scriptures did not write down their own private interpretation, they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
    2 Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
  • The bodies of Christians are the temple of the Holy Ghost; what he has done and approved bears witness with our spirit.
    1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
  • Christians are able to discern things that the natural man cannot. We have received the spirit which is of God and the Holy Ghost teacheth us.
    I Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

    11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

    12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

    13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

    14 But the natural man receiveth not THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because THEY ARE SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED.

    15 But HE THAT IS SPIRITUAL JUDGETH ALL THINGS, yet he himself is judged of no man.

    16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST.

    The true Christian church, from the beginning, has known what to accept and what not to accept as scripture. In the times of the apostles, Christians were studying the Old Testament scriptures and were receiving and studying the New Testament scriptures. They knew that the epistles were scriptures and they knew the holy men who were writing them down. The apostle Peter called the apostle Paul's epistles (letters) "scriptures".

    2 Peter 3:15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

    16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

    God's people have copied the scriptures and passed them down from generation to generation. We, today, are the recipients of scriptures that go back approximately 3,500 years. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but God's words shall never pass away. The scriptures are still being passed down and transmitted from one generation to another.

The New Testament did not come from Roman Catholic Church councils

An excerpt from A Woman Rides the Beast (p. 336; emphases ours)--

Catholicism's claim that the New Testament comes from the Church by decision of the councils is false. No early council even ruled on what was canonical; yet in these councils, to support their arguments, both sides quoted the New Testament, which had obviously been accepted by general consensus without any conciliar definition of the canon. The Synod of Antioch, in A.D. 266, denounced the doctrine of Paul of Samosata as "foreign to the ecclesiastical canon." The Council of Nicea in 325 refers to "the canon"; and the Council of Laodicea in 363 exhorted that "only the 'canonized' books of both Old and New Testaments be read in the church." Yet none of those councils deemed it necessary to list the canonized books, indicating that they were already well-known and accepted by the common consent of Christians indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

"Not until the Third Council of Carthage, in A.D. 397, do we have the first conciliar decision on the canon....History proves that the books of the New Testament were known and accepted by Christians and in wide circulation and use at least 300 years before Carthage listed them. Historian W.H.C. Frend writes:

...in Polycarp's* short letter there is an astonishing amount of direct and indirect quotation from the New Testament: Matthew, Luke, and John, Acts, the letters to the Galatians, Thessalonians, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Romans, the Pastorals, 1 Peter particularly, and 1 and 2 John are all used...

The Christian Scriptures were quoted so familiarly as to suggest that they had been in regular use a long time.19 19. W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity (Philadelphia 1984), p. 135.

*[Christian brother who was born around 69 A.D. and martyred as an old man around 155 A.D.]

Did the Roman Catholic Church give us the Bible? History says an emphatic "No!!!"

The following is an excerpt from Friday Church News Notes, Vol 12, Issue 14 - April 8, 2011 (http://wayoflife.org/friday_church_news/12_14.php)--

USA TODAY SAYS CATHOLIC CHURCH HAD SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE KJV (Friday Church News Notes, April 8, 2011, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - A USA Today report on a traveling Bible exhibit makes the amazing claim that the Roman Catholic Church had a significant role in the King James Bible. The exhibit, called Passages, is set to open at the Vatican in October. “The announcement was made at the Vatican Embassy to highlight the Catholic contribution to the best-loved English text, the 1611 KJV, which draws about 80% of its majestic language from an earlier translation by a Catholic priest” (“New Museum to Use Science to Tell Bible’s History,” USA Today, April 8, 2011). What the reporter forgot to mention was Rome’s most significant role in that project, which was burning that “Catholic priest” in a public spectacle in Vilvoorde, Belgium. The “priest” in question was William Tyndale, who published the first printed English Bible and the first English Bible translated directly from Greek and Hebrew. Though he was an ordained Catholic priest, he renounced the Roman Catholic Church and its heresies and called the pope the Antichrist. In The Practice of Prelates, Tyndale likened the pope to an ivy which climbs up a tree and gradually saps the strength of the host and kills it, emphasizing that this is what the pope had done to England and every other nation under the papal thumb. Tyndale called Roman Catholicism “a nest for unclean birds.” Tyndale also brazenly disobeyed Rome’s law that forbade the translation of the Bible into the common languages of the people without ecclesiastical permission. When the Tyndale New Testament was smuggled into England (because the Roman Catholic authorities there forbade its distribution) large quantities were confiscated and burned, beginning in 1526. By 1528, the prisons were filled with those who had committed the “crime” of reading the New Testament in English, and in 1529 Thomas Hitton became the first in a long line of believers who were burned at the stake for possessing the Tyndale Bible. (Others had previously been burned for possessing the Wycliffe Bible.) In May 1535, Tyndale was arrested for his “heresies” and for his audacity at thumbing his nose at papal laws. After being imprisoned for nearly a year and a half in a cold, dreary dungeon in the castle at Vilvoorde, William Tyndale was taken out to the public square, strangled, and his body burned. Roman Catholic authorities also burned John Rogers, the translator of the Matthew’s Bible, another Bible in the lineage of the 1611 King James. Further, the Geneva Bible, which was the most popular English Bible before the KJV, was produced in Geneva, Switzerland, instead of England for the simple reason that the Roman Catholic Queen Mary was pouring out such vicious persecution upon Bible believers that many fled to Geneva for safety. And going back before Tyndale to the first English Bible, let’s not forget that the Roman Catholic Church condemned John Wycliffe of “heresy” for translating the English Bible and so hated his memory that they dug up his bones and burned them nearly 44 years after his death. Yes, the Roman Catholic Church did have a major role in the English Bibles preceding the King James, and let’s not forget it!

It is almost amusing that someone would have the nerve to say that the Roman Catholic Church gave us the Bible. Upon hearing such an assertion, a series of "rights" might come to one's mind, as in, "You're kidding, right?" "You are joking around, right?" "You're pulling my leg, right?" It seems that such an outlandish assertion would not be made for fear of ridicule and discrediting oneself--but history shows that such statements have been made, seemingly with the assurance that ignorance will continue to increase and that practically all of society will be equally ignorant and credulous--including the people that learn such obvious lies in a graduate school classroom.

"The Roman Catholic Church gave us the Bible."
It is conceivable that some people may make such an assertion out of ignorance;
but there are others who say this from high places that must assuredly know the truth--
if so, they are lying with a straight face, they have the microphone,
and they put that lie out there for the public consumption.

Jude exhorts us to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. From generation to generation, the saints are to contend for the faith and hold forth the truth. We received the faith from those who passed it down. Now this generation must contend for the faith and pass it down.

Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

The night cometh when no man can work.

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