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BATTLE OF THE BIBLESH. H. MEYERS
"The English (as well as the Greek) of the newly 'Revised Version' is hopelessly at fault.... "It is however, the systematic depravation of the underlying Greek which does so grievously offend me: for this is nothing else but a poisoning of the River of Life at its sacred source" (Dean Burgon, "The Revision Revised", Dedication, p VI).
Having briefly traced the development of the diverging streams of Scripture in the setting of early Christianity, we can appreciate, at least to some extent, the great disparity between the Bible which instigated and later consolidated the Protestant Reformation, and Jerome's Latin Bible which Rome calls the Vulgate. It was by this latter Bible that Rome sought to control the religious and political destinies of men as instanced during the Dark Ages and later through its progeny the Douay Bible with which she sought to stem the Reformation tide. With the failure of the Rheims-Douay Bible to impress the English-speaking world, the Authorised Bible of King James remained supreme. Its success was faithfully mirrored in the prosperity of the countries, which were later to emerge as the British Empire, the state churches of England and Scotland, and the numerous non-conformist Protestant churches, which derived their beliefs from the study of an open Bible. But even as the Reformation was prospering in the English-speaking world, its decay continued elsewhere, especially in France and Germany. There, the Reformation was rapidly drowning in the rising tide of modernism and "higher criticism" of the Bible. If Rome could not succeed in replacing the Protestant Bible with her own, her new tactic was to cause the Protestants to lose confidence and faith in their Bible. This is what "higher criticism" is all about. One of the earliest contributors to the art of critical enquiry was a French scholar, Richard Simon. The Catholic Encyclopedia proudly confers on him the title of "Father of Biblical Criticism" (Vol. IV pp 492, 493). Between the years 1689 and 1695 he continued to attack God's Word by publishing a series of commentaries on the New Testament text. Needless to say, he was partial to the text used by the Jesuit translators of the Rheims-Douay Bible, an Anglicanised version of the Latin Vulgate of Jerome. His discrediting of the Received Text line of Bibles opened the flood-gates of doubt on the very foundation of Protestantism as numerous critics broached theories and conjectures which tore various parts of the Bible to shreds - especially those parts dealing with the supernatural. (By the late nineteenth century, these contaminating theories were to bear poisonous fruit as demonstrated in the efforts of two traitorous Anglican clergymen, Drs Westcott and Hort. Their hatred of the Received Text and the lasting effects of their Roman-inspired attack on the King James Bible will be discussed at length in chapter eighteen). Not surprisingly, this climate of doubt and questioning gradually led to a general loss of faith in Christianity, and in France there arose a savage backlash against the organisers of the debacle. In 1773, the Jesuit Order or Society of Jesus was banned. This action was merely a precursor to the impending bloody French Revolution, which occurred sixteen years later. During the following quarter-century, the revolutionary armies of Napoleon rampaged over Europe in an orgy of antireligious conquests which were seen by some as "The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit" (Revelation 11:7). Even the pope was dethroned and Christianity, especially as practised by the Roman Catholic Church, appeared to have received a mortal blow. Careful students of prophecy realised that they were watching the fulfilment of prophecy where the Beast of Revelation was "wounded to death" (13:3). Had these same students studied with more understanding, they would have noticed that the "deadly wound" was later to be "healed" (Verse 12). After the overthrow of Napoleon in 1812, in which the British played no small part, there emerged a confused and changed Europe. In France we find the pope's faithful lackeys - the Bourbons - being rapidly restored to power and the reinstatement of the previously banned Jesuits. Although England had escaped the upheavals of the revolution, plans were rapidly set in place to educate Englishmen in European Catholic seminaries in order that they might re-enter Britain as theological warriors of Rome. Many of these were clerics who had been trained in the Church of England's newly acquired tradition at Cambridge and Oxford. One such person was Nicholas P.S. Wiseman who went to Rome ostensibly to undertake Oriental studies, yet incredibly, he returned to England as an "expert" in textual criticism! His theories which denigrated the Received Text, and consequently the Authorised King James Bible, were avidly adopted by scholars whose names have since become synonymous as revisionists, not only of the Authorised Version, but of Anglicanism itself. However, we are indebted to Wiseman for revealing the true source of his theories which actually came from his close association with Jesuits. In later life he was to admit: "Without this training I should not have thrown myself into the. Puseyite Controversy at a later date" (Ward, "Life and Times of Wiseman", Vol. I p 65). (The Puseyite Controversy here mentioned refers to the activities of Dr Pusey who took Newman's place in the Oxford Movement). Not surprisingly, Wiseman soon openly defected to Romanism and was later rewarded with a Cardinal's hat. Another of Dr Wiseman's contemporaries, John H. Newman of Oxford, also defected to Roman Catholicism after going to Rome and exposing himself to the poison of the papal bug. In order that the reader might gain an insight into this era of papal intrigue and subversion of English clerics, we shall devote the following chapter to a more detailed account of Newman's fatal attraction to the ritualism and traditions of Rome. His story will graphically illustrate the importance which Rome attaches to displacing Bibles of the Received Text and how Newman and his kind, established in Anglicanism's main theological college a malignant virus which soon grew into what is known as the Oxford Movement, also known as Tractarianism.9 (9 The Movement published ninety "Tracts for the Times" (1833-1841). As well as writing twenty-four of them Newman edited the entire series. ("Encyclopedia Britannica" 1986 Vol IX p 30).)
"Lead Kindly Light amid the encircling gloom, Lead thou me on! The night is dark and I am far from home; Lead thou me on. " Countless numbers of Christians have sung these stirring words penned by Church of England clergyman Dr John H. Newman. No doubt many have drawn from them strength and courage in their resolve to follow their Master. But it is quite unlikely that many would attach to them the sentiments which inspired the author of this famous hymn. In the year 1833, Newman was returning to England by ship, following a visit to Rome. There, he and his compatriot and companion, Herrell Froude had fallen under the bewitching spell of the "city of celestial traditions". As he stood on deck, gazing out into the blackness of a Mediterranean night, his thoughts wandered back to his Protestant upbringing. He now realised that "The superstitions of his youth, that Rome was the 'Beast" which stamped its image on mankind, the 'Great harlot' who made drunk the-kings of the earth, were dispelled" (Cadman, "Three Religious Leaders", p 496). So enthralled by the pomp and splendour of the papacy were these two Oxford professors, that they were presumptuously led to inquire of the papal prelates as to the terms on which the Church of Rome would receive the Church of England back into her bosom. "The answer came straight and clear, without any equivocation - the Church of England must accept the Council of Trent" (Wilkinson, "Our Authorised Bible Vindicated", p 128). Both Newman and Froude were very much aware of the first four resolutions adopted by the Council of Trent back in the mid sixteenth century. These had to do with papal authority in relation to the Bible. Briefly stated, the resolutions claimed that: 1. Papal tradition was on level with Scripture. 2. The Apocryphal books were equal with the Canonical. 3. The Roman Vulgate Bible contained no errors. 4. Only the Roman Catholic clergy had the right to interpret Holy Writ. And, when the papacy referred to "Holy Writ" it was not talking about the Authorised Bible of the Church of England. No, No! It had scornfully been dubbed: "The Protestant's paper pope", for it had become Britain's rule of life and had overthrown the authority of papal tradition. Newman loved tradition and ritualism. As for the Bible, well, he had already imbibed so much of Origen's philosophy that he looked upon it largely as allegory; hence it needed tradition to be its interpreter. And who were the custodians of tradition? Were they not the fathers of the Roman Catholic Church? A sudden lurch of the ship caused Newman to grasp the handrail: "Keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see The distant scene; One step enough for me. " Newman's mind was made up. Within five days of arriving back in England in July 1833 he took that "step" by initiating what later became known as "The Oxford Movement". It eventually led him to openly embrace Catholicism and become a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.. Oxford University was the logical place for an assault on Protestantism for this institution had become the bastion and backbone of the Church of England. While a student at Oxford, he and others of his friends had fallen under the spell of Jesuit influences from Germany and France. Froude's father was a High Churchman "who loathed Protestantism and denounced Evangelicals and brought up his son to do the same" (Cadman, "Three Religious Leaders", p 459). Newman's early fond attachment to his friend Froude had become so great that later. "Following the early death of his friend, he wrote endearing verses to his memory ... Newman himself had chosen the celibate life, and no doubt Froude's passionate tendency towards Romanism answered in Newman's breast those social yearnings which men usually satisfy in married life" (Wilkinson, "Our Authorised Bible Vindicated", p 127). It is not surprising then, that with such a friendship, Newman's infatuation with ritualism and formalism should be bolstered by Froude's hatred of Protestantism. Dr Wilkinson tells how they attracted to their cause many Oxonians who banded themselves together with - "Aggressive determination to attack weak points wherever they could make their presence felt by precipitating crises in the control of the University.... They grouped round them the students of the University and changed the course of Oxford thinking. They published a series of tracts which threw a flood of fermenting thought upon the English mentality .... By voice and pen, the teaching of Newman changed in the minds of many their attitude toward the Bible. Stanley shows us that the allegorising of German theology under whose influence Newman and the leaders of the movement were, was Origen's method of allegorising. Newman contended that God never intended the Bible to teach doctrines. Much of the church history read, was on the Waldenses and how they had through the centuries from the days of the apostles, transmitted to us the true faith. The Tractarians determined that the credit of handing down truth through the centuries, should be turned from the Waldenses to the Papacy" ("Our Authorised Bible Vindicated", pp 130, 131). Thus the work of subverting Protestant England through its own institutions continued in many forms and many areas. Another imposter who became a notable Romaniser was Dr Pusey. He "Scandalised some of the less ardent spirits by visiting the Catholic monasteries in Ireland to study monastic life, with a view to introducing it into England" (ibid p 131. See Walsh, "Secret History", p 282). Perhaps it was because of the growing influence and success of the Puseyites that Dr Newman felt that the time had come when he could take another "step" by discarding his role as a traitor and come out into the open to embrace Roman Catholicism. Wilkinson describes the scene: "On the night of October 8, [1845], Father Dominic of the Italian Passionists arrived at Newman's quarters in a downpouring rain. After being received, he was standing before the fire drying his wet garments. He turned around to see Newman prostrate at his feet, begging his blessing, and asking him to hear his confession" (ibid p 135). Newman, the traitor had indeed arrived "home" where he belonged, and the mantle of leadership now fell on Pusey's shoulders. From now on, the Church of England rapidly took on a ritualistic form of service: "The passion to introduce the Mass, the confession, the burning of candles, holy water, the blessing of oils, and all other gorgeous accompaniments of Catholic ritualism went forward so strongly that the movement since 1845 is known rather under the name of Ritualism" ("Our Authorised Bible Vindicated", p 136). The ritualistic climate was very favourable to the spread of Catholicism. According to Ward, during the period from 1830 to 1863 the number of priests in England alone increased from 434 to 1242! During this time, the convents increased from a mere sixteen to one-hundred and sixty-two! ("Life of Wiseman", Vol. II p 459). And now came the opening salvo of the expected attack on the Authorised Bible of King James. In 1860 there appeared a series of essays by prominent Church of England clergymen against such vital Protestant doctrines as "the inspiration of the Bible" and "justification by faith"; also the Protestant stand against purgatory was attacked. Dr Fenton J.A. Hort was invited to contribute to the attack on the Scriptures but he declined - probably because he was already secretly engaged with Bishop Brooke F. Westcott in translating their Greek New Testament from the corrupted Alexandrian manuscripts of Rome. He realised that without a Catholic slanted English Bible any attempt to refute Protestantism in England was premature and likely to fail. In recognition of the role which the Received Text had played in the success of the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholics and their sympathisers displayed bitter hostility towards the King James Bible. Dr Faber, a passionate Romaniser and associate of Newman, referred to the King James Bible as "That stronghold of heresy in England" and Newman claimed that it could not be a true comment on the original text as it was made and authorised by "Royal commands" (Newman, "Tract 90"). Soon after declaring himself a Roman Catholic, Newman was invited to return to Rome. The Vatican had concluded that Newman could be entrusted with the task of bringing about the demise of the King James Bible, disparagingly referred to by the papists as: "The paper Pope of the Protestants" (Von Dobschutz, "The Influence of the Bible" p 136) In a letter written from Rome to his compatriot Wiseman, dated January 17, 1847 Newman, disclosed some details of his mission to Rome: "The Superior of the Franciscans, Father Benigno, in the Trastevere, wished us out of his own head to engage in an English Authorised Translation of the Bible. He is a learned man, and on the Congregation of the Index.10 What he wished was, that we would take the Protestant translation, correct it by the Vulgate ... and get it sanctioned here. This might be our first work if you Lordship approved of it. If we undertook it, I should try to get a number of persons at work (not merely our own party). First, it should be overseen and corrected by ourselves, then it should go to a few select revisers, eg. Dr Tait of Ushaw, Dr Whiny of St Edmunds, (a Jesuit)" (Ward, "Life of Wiseman", Vol. I p 454 - Cited in "Our Authorised Bible Vindicated", p 147). 10 The Index is a list of books or writings prohibited by the papacy. Obviously, this included the Protestant Bible. It is very important that the significance of Ward's documentation be noted. Here is a traitor to Anglicanism confiding instructions from the Congregation of the Papal Index to another English traitor. Note that the King James Version had obviously been condemned, banned and damned by the Congregation of the Index and that all concerned were aware of the vital importance of the King James Version to Protestantism and therefore, the necessity to nullify it. To achieve this goal, it should be "corrected" by the Latin Vulgate by a group of Catholics and non-Catholics under the supervision of both Wiseman and Newman, and then be finally reviewed by Catholic scholars, one of whom was a Jesuit by the name of Whitty. Patently, the inclusion of non-Catholics was simply a farcical ploy to make it appear a Protestant initiated effort to produce an authorised update of the King James Version. But such a deception was more easily proposed than carried out. In order for the plan to succeed, important, timeconsuming ground work needed to be put in place. First, a whole generation of theological students at Oxford and Cambridge, as well as influential clergy, must become sympathetic to Romanism with its ritualistic forms of worship. Such subverters would need the moral support of a revitalised Roman hierarchy in Britain. In 1850 the pope had invested Wiseman with the princely title of Cardinal and appointed him Archbishop of Westminster. He soon established a chain of command throughout England consisting of twelve Catholic bishoprics through which Roman philosophy and religion could now be broadcast. A measure of the hostility to this increased Roman activity can be gauged by Protestant reaction in Salisbury, where effigies of the pope, Wiseman and the twelve bishops were paraded and then burned. Ward describes the scene: "Castle Street was so densely crowded that no one could pass to the upper part of it. Shortly after, some hundreds of torches were lighted which then exhibited a forrest of heads ... The effigies were taken to the Green croft where, over a large number of faggots and barrels of tar, a huge platform was erected of timber; the effigies were placed thereon, and a volley of rockets sent up" ("Life of Wiseman", Vol. I pp 551, 552). Such outbursts only emphasised the need for further caution and more preparation on the part of the Romanists. By this time, Anglican clergymen were being caught up in a new type of theology engendered by a terrific barrage of German Biblical Criticism. Many tracts appeared containing essays and reviews attacking the Protestant position on the inspiration of the Bible, justification by faith and Protestant objections to Roman dogma, such as purgatory and the Mass. As an example of the tremendous turn-around taking place in the Protestant clergy. B. G. Wilkinson cites the case of a Protestant writer: "One of these essays was written by Professor H.B. Wilson, who earlier had denounced Newman's "Tract 90" for its views on the Thirty-nine Articles [of the Church of England]. Twenty years later, however, he argued in favour of the very views which he had denounced previously" ("Our Authorised Bible Vindicated", p 140). In his "Tract 90", Newman had also portrayed the King James Bible as a spurious text, devoid of divine authority, having been authorised by royal command and he contrasted it with the Catholic Vulgate which was "A true comment on the original text". Of the many Anglican clerics who had been influenced by the bombardment of pro-Catholic writings emanating from the Newman-led Oxford Tractarians, there are two names, which stand out as examples of the success attending the efforts of the ex-Anglicans, Cardinals Wiseman and Newman. They are the Oxford trained Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort. As these two men were shortly to emerge as the leading players in Rome's plan to destroy the authority of the King James Bible we shall dwell a little on their background. At the age of twenty-two, Westcott revealed his doubts on the inspiration of Scripture. In a letter to his fiancee, dated Advent Sunday, 1847 he wrote: "The battle of the inspiration of Scripture has yet to be fought, and how earnestly I pray that I might aid the truth in that" ("Life of Westcott", Vol. I p 95). In the same year, he wrote from France to his fiancee disclosing his fascination for the Catholic doctrine of Maryworship: "After leaving the monastery, we shaped our course to a little oratory which we discovered on the summit of a neighbouring hill ... It is very small; with one kneeling place; and behind a screen was a "Pieta ", the size of life. [The Virgin holding the dead Christ in her lap] ... I could have knelt therefor hours" (ibid Vol. I p 81). Eighteen years later he divulged his pre-occupation with the mystery of Mariolitary when he wrote to Archbishop Benson: "I wish I could see to what forgotten truth Mariolitary bears witness" (ibid Vol. I p 251). About this time, his compatriot Hort, revealed his affinity with Westcott, and his deplorable lack of understanding of the plan of salvation: "I have been persuaded for many years that Mary worship and 'Jesus' worship have very much in common in their causes and results" And, in 1867 Hort wrote to Dr Lightfoot confirming his penchant for the ritualistic worship of the priesthood: "But you know I am a staunch sacerdotalist"** ("Life of Hort", vol II pp 49, 86). (** One who believes in the system of the priesthood) Among Hort's subverted friends in the Anglican ministry we could mention a brilliant student of Oxford and Cambridge, Frederick Maurice. The son of a Unitarian minister, he had written books which Hort claimed "Deeply influenced him" (ibid p 155). Because of his gross heresy, Maurice was eventually dismissed from his position as principal of Kings College, London. (The effects of this association with Unitarians will be apparent as we later note the composition of the committee appointed for the revision of the King James Version). Hort's son claimed that his father had been profoundly impressed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge whose strange religious philosophy had been expressed in many of his writings. In discussing Coleridge, Hort wrote to Westcott in 1864: "I believe Coleridge was quite right in saying that Christianity without a substantial church is vanity and disillusion; and I remember shocking you and Lightfoot not so long ago by expressing a belief that 'Protestantism' is only parenthetical and temporary" ("Life of Hort", Vol. II p 30). Again he shows his affinity with Coleridge and his Higher Criticism when writing to John Ellerton: "I am inclined to think that no such state as 'Eden' (I mean the popular notion) ever existed, and that Adam's fall in no degree differed from the fall of each of his descendants, as Coleridge justly argues" ("Life of Hort", Vol. I p 78).
Hort's friend, Westcott, had no problem with such criticism. He wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1890: "No one now, I suppose, holds that the first three chapters of Genesis, for example, give a literal history - I could never understand how anyone reading them with open eyes could think they did" ("Life of Westcott", Vol. II p 69). One could go on reciting the aberrations of these men who drew their stipend from the Anglican Church. But, in terms of shear hypocrisy, it would be hard to imagine a situation more morally bankrupt than the following citation of the proverbial "biting of the hand that feeds it". Hort wrote to Westcott in 1864: "With that world Anglicanism, though by no means without a sound standing, seems a poor and maimed thing beside the great Rome" ("Life of Hort", Vol. II P 30). Is it any wonder that these two Anglican traitors caught the attention of other kindred spirits in the persons of the aforementioned apostates - Wiseman and Newman. With their cooperation, it would now be possible to have professing Protestants substitute the Latin Vulgate for the Protestant Bible and all this could be achieved under the guise of a Protestant inspired revision! It was quite apparent to most scholars that the Rheims-Douay Bible was a dead horse. One reason for its poor acceptance was due to its New Testament parentage - the Latin Vulgate. Therefore a new Greek Testament, to counter that of Erasmus's would provide an "authentic" source. With this plan in mind, back in 1853 Westcott and Hort had quietly started work on a Greek translation of the New Testament. That it should take twenty years to complete is indicative of the patience and dedication so often displayed by those who, like moths which exhibit a fatal fascination for a searing flame, respond to a seemingly irresistible urge to embrace and promote the hellish mysteries of Rome. That the real purpose of this Greek translation of the New Testament remained hidden from all except a few trusted revisionists who quietly injected the Vulgate into the "Revision", is yet another indication of the stealth employed by Rome and her facile minions in order to achieve their subversive goals. All that was needed now was a program of agitation for Bible revision. As we shall now see, the Oxford-led disciples of Newman and their followers were not backward in supplying it. |
