December 2010

G od’s
Word or Man’s Word -
Who is in charge? Who has the say? Part 2 - Historical Facts
After we have covered some (some, for there is much more to explore,
if one is willing to study for himself) of the claims the Bible puts forth
about itself in our last Newsletter, it is necessary to have another close
look upon this issue only from a largely different angle, because it might
not be sufficient enough for some to believe that the Word of God is
infallible on the fundaments of the written Bible itself. So this months’
issue will deal with the preservation of and the enmity against the Bible
throughout the ages since its compilation.
Nowadays there are Bibles thick on the ground. In large numbers they
are printed, many people own a Bible, even though it might be hidden
under a pile of dust on some forgotten shelf. Several societies endeavor
to get the Bible circulated on the entire globe. TBS1 counts roughly
6 million sales a year and in addition gives Bibles away for grant. The
Gideons International2 claim to have given out more than 1,46 billion
Bibles in hotel rooms, and the number increases with every year. It’s the
most natural thing for people at least of the western countries to run
across the Bible every once in a while. But do we actually know that the
Bible was the most fighted book ever since its compilation up until now?
The History of the Bible appears a miracle. History has constantly
revealed an immense effort put forth to destroy the Word of God and
its effect upon those who earnestly seek to learn its truths. The Bible
and its adherents have been fighted against the most cruel and subtle
way men can imagine. Fact is, that the Bible in vulgar tongue was put
on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum3 - the Index of Prohibited Books.
Quite rightly you may ask: Who put the Bible under interdict and what
was the motivation to do so? In order to answer that question we have to
reach back to the dark middle ages.
The conquest of Western Europe brought along the more or less willful
conversion of the people to the Christian – that means Catholic – faith.
And with Christianity, the Bible was introduced to the people. However
in a much different way than we might think. The Clergy was in pos-
session of the Holy Scripture indeed, but did make use of it in such a
way as to withhold the true, practical and delivering meaning of it from
the people. They knew, if they ever should disclose the pure teachings
of the Word, a new era would begin. The dawn would brake upon the
minds of humanity and free the tradition and error-burdened souls
from their vain endeavors to cast off the chains of sin. The Roman
Catholic Church well knew how to maintain the subordination of the
nation and fetter them with superstitions.
They encoded the words of The Book and thus made it inaccessible for
those who searched the truth. The distinctive language of the clergy was
Latin in these times. The Bible existed in Latin and the Mass was read
in Latin only. This was to make sure that the people might not be led
to the idea they could approach the throne of God through Jesus as the
only mediator, how it was written in the Bible. The Catholic Church in
this way acted as a custom officer, inquiring and demanding her por-
tion before granting people absolution, and disguising genuine salva-
tion, which the Bible claims to only be able to be wrought through the
“one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” 1 Timothy
2:5. Like the shepherds described in Ezekiel 34, Rome treated her flock:
“Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are
fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened,
neither have ye healed that which was sick; . . . but with force and with
cruelty have ye ruled them.” Rome let her flock starve and abused it. In
reply the Lord GOD says: “I will feed my flock, and I will cause them
to lie down.” Ezekiel 34:3.4.15. And the Bible as revealing all these pro-
ceedings was thus dealt with enmity by the unjust shepherds, who were
becoming more offensive as the people began to discover the veiled
truth. And the Lord caused men of understanding to translate the Bible
and let it circulate, to scatter the gloom with rays of light and bring to
people their Saviour along with the free gift of mercy. The Waldensians
living in secluded mountain valleys worked hard for the handwritten
duplication of Scripture and disguised as merchants
or peddlers sent out missionaries to every part of Europe in order to
bring the Good News amongst the people. Wycliffe, Hus and Jerome of
Prague are only a few to name, who did the population of these times
a great favor in opening the Scriptures to them either by writings and
translations into the vulgar tongue or introducing divine service in the
language of the nation. The Reformers arose throughout whole Europe:

Luther in Germany, Zwingle and Calvin in Switzerland, Lefevre and

Farel in France, in England, Scottland, Nederlands, Bohemia, all over
the continent “appeared tokens of the coming dawn.”4 But all these
keen and bold invasions against the Holy Mother Church were at a high
cost.
The Wicked cannot bear truth, because truth will reveal the wicked.
Therefore the profane upholders of the Catholic faith endeavored to
misrepresent the just cause of the reformers and depict them as the
agents of Satan. No means were spared to discredit the reformation as
well as the translated Bible, and the Inquisition was set up to root out
heresy once and for all. The root of the so-called heresy was the Bible.
Reformation had sprung from its straight teachings, so the Wicked
strived to make them stumble by extinguishing the word – the light unto
their path. They confiscated the Bible radically and tried to hinder
its circulation in the most rigid and cruel way. Also those who did pro-
claim the Word of God where thrown into prison and had to endure
the most abhorrent torture until they found relief in death. They “were
tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better
resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings,
yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were
sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” Hebrews 11:35-38
This era closes with one of the bloodiest accounts in earth’s history.
How many people suffered a daily martyrdom more difficult to endure
than death itself can only be estimated. By an endless number of stakes,
serving as a pulpit for dying martyrs, numerous crusades and military
campaigns against the heretics a considerable number of suspected
10.000.000 victims5 yielded their lives for their faith and a countless
number was anathematised, persecuted, tortured, abused and terrorised
without mercy by the very Institution which professed to occupy the
treasure chest of pardon.
By the way, according to pastor Harm Schilder “the interdict imposed
on Protestantism in the sixteenth century at the council of Trent is still
in force, for a council cannot be revoked and one council cannot be
inconsistent with another preceding council.”6
The efforts to silence the word of power were in vain. Of such an atti-
tude were the believers of the new faith: “You may torment, afflict, and
vex us. Your wickedness puts our weakness to the test, but your cruelty
is of no avail. It is but a stronger invitation to bring others to our per-
suasion. The more we are mowed down, the more we spring up again.
The blood of the Christians is seed.”7 And indeed, where people met the
radiant, peaceful countenances of the dying martyrs, scorn, bitterness
and hatred where transformed into pity, meekness and love. Wherever
the Church was about to destroy the sect, it went not long before all the
more believers were born into the new faith. Protestantism on founda-
tion of the sola scriptura was finally established, but persecution lasted
until after 1800.
 Open attacks
cannot destroy
the Scriptures nor
its believers. The
word of God
cannot be burnt
nor broken, for
God says: “Is not
my word like as a
fire? . . . and like a
hammer that
breaketh the rock
in pieces?” Jeremi-
ah 23:29. The Bible
prevailed in its true form until today. Enlarge upon the great controver-
sy, you will find out that this ancient book is just in the middle of it!
The fight has always been between truth and error, between darkness
and light, right and wrong, good and evil, ultimately between God and
the devil. And the object of this controversy has since the entrance of
sin into this universe been the WORD and one who wanted to excel its
author (which will be explored in the next of our newsletters).
The enemy knows that whoever carries the Scripture in his heart, will be
fit to meet trials and temptations until death, and he will not have won
the fight, but even lost the more souls to the kingdom of heaven. Just as
military strategies change with their inefficiency, so the enmity against
the Word of God has reached another level. Even now the enmity exists,
imperiling the salvation of the humans. Old, but still working is the
strategy that now takes effect against the Holy Scriptures. The enemy
tries to “gain by artifice what he had failed to secure by force.”8 While
it is now credited with approval and even encouragement to read the
Bible, agents are with subtlety working offstage to pervert and misre-
present its content to make it fit to their teachings, after all the Church
claims to be the authorized interpreter of GOD’s Word. What do you
think is the purpose of at least some of the new translations that we
have today? Also doubt is cast upon the minds of the people concern-
ing the accuracy and the divine origin of the Scripture by the
Church of Rome itself. They say “the Church must offer the gospel
in ways appropriate to changing times, intelligible and attractive
to our contemporaries.”9 The gospel as it is the Word of God does
not change, just as God is immutable, it is so simple, that even a
child can grasp its meaning, and it does not need to be bent to the
perverted taste of today’s population. Either it attracts, or it repels,
the individual has to decide either to accept or to reject. But the
church is cautioning that the fundamentalist view of the Bible holds
“significant dangers.”10 What is Rome trying to say? Where leads the
tendency? Do we stand on the verge of another outbreak of intoler-
ance against the so-called ‘intransigent’ believers, which are true to
the written Word of God and the principles found therein? They are
called intolerant, but no: For it is the truth being intolerant. Two
and two equals four, not five, not eleven, not fifty-one. The truth
is unbending, it is unyielding, it is exclusive. And Jesus says in His
Word: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6.

* * * * *
1
Trinitarian Bible Society: www.trinitarianbiblesociety.org/site/ar179.pdf
2
www.gideons.org/AboutUs/OurHistory.aspx
3
www.hol.com/~mikesch/ILP-1559.htm
4
Ellen G. White; The Great Controversy 1888, 79
5
Der Spiegel, 23/1998 - http://www.kirchenopfer.de/
6
Kerkredactie; October 27, 2010 - http://www.refdag.nl/nieuws/banvloeken_tr
ente_gelden_nog_1_511372 > translated from Dutch into English.
7
Ellen G. White; The Great Controversy 1888, 41
8
Ellen G. White; The Great Controversy 1888, 42.3
9
The Times; October 5, 2005 - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/
europe/article574768.ece
10
Ibid.

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