All language subtitles for A Lamp In The Dark - The Untold History Of The Bible (2009).ENG

- [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, killed

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
killed 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 murderer
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 weapon 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 killed, 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 killed

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 executed
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 killing 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 Nazi 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 War II, shown
here with Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] Concerning this
quote, Edmond Paris writes,

During the second World
War, 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 massacre 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 massacre.

And it's known in history as

the Massacre of the
Piedmont, and it's even

commemorated by the
England poet, John Milton.

It was called, On the
Late Massacre 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 Massacre.

After the Massacre,
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

attacks 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 executed,
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 killing

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?