Satan (Part 22) - The Epic War: False Bibles Flood the World (Part A)

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9. Satan floods the world with false Bible versions. A. Since persecution had not been very successful, the devil tried another tactic: perverting the word of God. B. He experimented with this tactic early on in the days of the apostles (2Co 2:17). C. Satan began corrupting the scriptures in earnest in the second century. i. "It may be safely said that the greatest spiritual battle that was ever fought on this planet was fought between the powers of Darkness and Light during the first two centuries after our Lord ascended back to Heaven. With the LIVING WORD returned to glory, Satan turned all of his fury upon the WRITTEN WORD." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 80) ii. "While John lived, heresy could make no serious headway. He had hardly passed away, however, before perverse teachers infested the Christian Church. These years were times which saw the New Testament books corrupted in abundance. Eusebius is witness to this fact. He also relates that the corrupted manuscripts were so prevalent that agreement between the copies was hopeless; and that those who were corrupting the Scriptures, claimed that they really were correcting them. This rising flood, as we shall see, had multiplied in abundance copies of the Scriptures with bewildering changes in verses and passages within one hundred years after the death of John (100 A.D.)." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 129) D. Satan flooded the world with counterfeit Bibles. i. As the above quote shows, Satan flooded the world with perversions of the scriptures from very early in the history of Christianity. ii. It seems that in the mid-19th century Satan began to corrupt the English Bible using the Greek manuscripts that he corrupted centuries earlier. iii. There have been over 100 English "versions" of the Bible published since the 1880s that have flooded the world. iv. This could be the flood that serpent cast out of his mouth to carry away the woman (Rev 12:15). v. The word of God comes from God's mouth (Pro 2:6; Isa 55:11; Eze 3:17). a. Satan wants to be like the most High (Isa 14:14). b. It would follow then that the corrupted scriptures proceed out of Satan's mouth. c. God's doctrine is as rain and dew upon the grass that causes it to flourish (Deu 32:1-2). d. Satan's bibles instead come as a flood which destroys (Rev 12:15). vi. Satan's bibles are watered down versions of God's Bible. vii. The earth (the people of this world) helped the woman (the church) by accepting all of Satan's counterfeit bibles (Rev 12:16). E. The Septuagint. i. The Septuagint is abbreviated as LXX. ii. It is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. iii. The original Septuagint is said to have been translated by 72 Jewish elders in Alexandria, Egypt in the 3rd century B.C. a. "Its precise origins are still debated. A letter, purporting to be written by a certain Aristeas to his brother Philocrates during the reign of Ptolomy Philadelphus (285-246 B.C), relates how Philadelphus, persuaded by his librarian to get a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures for his royal library, appealed to the high priest at Jerusalem, who sent seventy-two elders (six from each of the twelve tribes) to Alexandria with an official copy of the Law. There in seventy-two days they made a translation which was read before the Jewish community amid great applause, and then presented it to the king. From the number of translators it became known (somewhat inaccurately) as the Septuagint. The same story is told with variations by Josephus, but later writers embellish it with miraculous details. "Aristeas' letter belongs in fact to the 2nd century B.C. (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia suggests a date about 100-80 B.C.). Many of its details are exaggerated and even legendary, but it seems fairly certain that a translation of the Law only was made in Egypt (in the time of Ptolomy Philadelphus), primarily for the benefit of the Greek-speaking Jews there. This was the original Septuagint. The remaining books were translated piecemeal later, with the canonical books done some time before 117 B.C. Reference is made to them by the grandson of Sirach (a man after whom one of the Apocryphal books is named) in the prologue to that Apocryphal book. Subsequently the name Septuagint was extended to cover all these translations. The Apocryphal books are interspersed among the canonical books." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 13-14) iv. The original Septuagint is said to have been loved by the Jews and later used by the 1st century A.D. Christians to prove that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. a. In the 2nd century A.D., revisions were made to the Septuagint by Judaizers who wanted to remove the references which proved that Jesus was the Messiah. b. "Jerome of Bethlehem, who saw these Greek translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotian, makes it quite plain that these men were Judaizing heretics, and that their versions were made out of hatred to Christianity. "Before the birth of Messiah the Jews used to observe a feast in memory of the translation of the Septuagint. Philo the Jew, who lived in the time of Caligula the Roman Emperor, while the Apostles were fruitfully engaged in the preaching of the Gospel, tells us in his Life of Moses that to that time they kept a yearly feast in memory of the Scriptures having been translated into Greek by the seventy-two interpreters. After Philo's days, the Jews turned the feast into a fast, lamenting that such a translation had been made. As the version became more popular with Christians, it fell from favor with the Jews, who preferred to use a version which the Christians could not so easily apply to the Messiah. "As an example of their tampering with Messianic prophecy, in Isaiah 7:14 Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotian departed from the rendering of the Septuagint PARTHENOS (Virgin) and substituted NEANIS, a term which may be applied to "a young married woman." Gooding in commenting upon the revisions of the Septuagint says, "Now, laborious as is the work of eliminating revisers' readings, it is of practical importance. The expositor who appeals to some LXX word or phrase must be sure that it was not introduced by a reviser after New Testament times. Thus the original Septuagint may have been faithful in translating verses of Messianic prophecy, but this becomes marred by later revision." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 16) F. In the third century AD, a man named Origen Adamantius of Alexandria, Egypt did much to corrupt the scriptures. i. His work formed much of the foundation for Bible corruption to the present day. a. "Origen (185-254) - He is considered by many to be the most profound mind in the history of the church. But in fact it may be said that he had a greater corrupting influence on the early church and on the Bible itself than any man." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 91) b. Origen was one of the infamous four. c. "Wilkinson stated, "Beginning shortly after the death of the Apostle John, four names stand out in prominence whose teachings contributed both to the victorious heresy and to the final issuing of manuscripts of a corrupt New Testament. These four are Justin Martyr, Tatian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 88) d. "In order to estimate Origen rightly, we must remember that as a pupil of Clement, he learned the teachings of the Gnostic heresy and, like his master, lightly esteemed the historical basis of the Bible. As Schaff says, "His predilection for Plato [the pagan philosopher] led him into many grand and fascinating errors." He made himself acquainted with the various heresies and studied under the heathen Annonius Saccas, founder of Neo-Platonism. He taught that the soul existed from eternity before it inhabited the body, and that after death, it migrated to a higher or a lower form of life according to the deeds done in the body; and finally all would return to the state of pure intelligence, only to begin again the same cycles as before. He believed that the devils would be saved, and that the stars and planets had souls, and were, like men, on trial to learn perfection. In fact, he turned the whole Law and Gospel into an allegory." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 130-131) e. "He was given to wild allegorizing of Scripture, saying "The Scriptures are of little use to those who understand them as written."" (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 91) f. "The fact that the Catholic Bibles contain the seven additional books known as the Apocrypha may be traced to Origen's inclusion of these books in his own "doctored" Greek manuscripts." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 92) ii. Origen wrote a six-column version of the Old Testament called the Hexapla which contained the Hebrew OT, a few previous Greek translations of it, and his own translation. a. "By the time of Origen, A.D. 185-254, the text of the Septuagint had become woefully corrupt. Origen's Hexapla was a colossal undertaking to revise the LXX text. It contained five columns in Greek. The first column consisted of the consonantal Hebrew text then current. The second comprised the Hebrew text rendered in Greek letters, the third, Aquila's version, the fourth, Symmachus' version, the fifth, the Septuagint revised by Origen and the sixth, Theodotian's version." (Unger's Bible Dictionary, Versions of the Scriptures, 1. The Greek Septuagint - (5) Early Recensions of the Septuagint, p. 1148) b. The fifth column of Origen's Hexapla became the Old Testament of the Roman Catholic Church commissioned by the emperor Constantine. c. "(quoting from Wilkinson) "...As Constantine embraced Christianity, it became necessary for him to choose which of these Bibles he would sanction. Quite naturally he preferred the one edited by Eusebius and written by Origen. The philosophy of Origen was well-suited to serve Constantine's religio-political theocracy." "Kenyon says, "The Emperor himself instructed Eusebius of Caesarea, the great historian of the early church to provide fifty copies of the Scriptures for the churches of Constantinople; and the other great towns of the Empire must have required many more for their own wants." "More specifically Ira Price says, "Eusebius assisted by Pamphilus issued with all its critical remarks the fifth column of Origen's Hexapla." This then was the source of the Emperor's Bible in the O.T. Vaticanus and Sinaiticus are examples of this "Bible."" (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 132-133) iii. Origen was "the leading Christian critic of antiquity" (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 70). a. An example of Origen's textual criticism is how he decided that Jesus' words "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" must have been added to Mat 19:17-21 because that commandment encompasses all of the law, and if the rich young ruler kept it then he would have been perfect, which, in Origen's mind, contradicted what Jesus said about him (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 70-71). (i) Who inspired Origen to think this way and pervert the scriptures? (ii) How about the first Bible critic who said in the garden, "Yea, hath God said..." (Gen 3:1)? b. "Reumann in The Romance of Bible Scripts and Scholars says that Origen had a team of scribes whose purpose it was to "correct" the manuscripts (pp 50-56). Westcott refers to his alteration of Mark 6:3. Hills states that he altered Matthew 19:17-21 and Burgon that he altered Luke 2:14." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 92) c. "Wilkinson says, "When we come to Origen, we speak the name of him who did the most of all to create and give direction to the forces of apostasy down through the centuries. His corrupted manuscripts of the Scriptures were well arranged and balanced with subtlety. The last one hundred years have seen much of the so-called scholarship of European and English Christianity dominated by the subtle and powerful influence of Origen." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 93) G. The King James Version (Authorized Version of 1611) was translated from the Greek Textus Receptus. i. Textus Receptus is Latin for the "Received Text." ii. The Textus Receptus (TR) is representative of a group of manuscripts known as the Traditional Text, the Majority Text, the Syriac Text, and the Byzantine Text. iii. The TR was a printed Greek New Testament that was compiled by Erasmus in the early 1500s. iv. It was not a new version, but a printed Greek New Testament that was representative of 85% or more of the surviving 5000+ extant manuscripts of the N.T. that closely agree with one another. v. The manuscripts underlying the TR originated in Syria where the apostle Paul was based out of (Act 11:26). H. Nearly all modern English Bible versions published after 1881 were translated from the Westcott & Hort Greek NT (or the similar Nestle-Aland Greek NT or the United Bible Society Greek NT which succeeded it). i. The Westcott & Hort Greek NT. a. The Westcott & Hort Greek NT was published by two Anglican clergymen, Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828-1892). b. Westcott and Hort published their Greek New Testament in 1881. c. It was based heavily on two corrupt 4th century manuscripts named Vaticanus (B) and Sinaiticus (Aleph). d. "The two editors favoured two manuscripts: Vaticanus and Sinaiticus." (Westcott-Hort, Wikipedia, 1-25-2019) ii. The Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament differs from the Textus Receptus in thousands of places. a. "The Westcott and Hort Text changes the Textus Receptus in over 5,600 places. Do you know how many changes they made? My own personal count, as of August 2, 1984, using Scrivener's Greek New Testament referred to above, was 5,604 changes that Westcott and Hort made to the Textus Receptus in their own Greek New Testament text. Of these 5,604 alterations, I found 1,952 to be OMISSIONS (35%), 467 to be ADDITIONS (8%), and 3,185 to be CHANGES (57%). In these 5,604 places that were involved in these alterations, there were 4,366 more words included, making a total of 9,970 Greek words that were involved. This means that in a Greek Text of 647 pages (such as Scrivener's text), this would average 15.4 words per page that were CHANGED from the Received Text. Pastor Jack Moorman counted 140,521 words in the Textus Receptus. These changes would amount to 7% of the words; and 45.9 pages of the Greek New Testament if placed together in one place." (D.A. Waite, Defending the King James Bible, p. 41) b. The KJV and the modern English versions are most definitely not translated from the same Greek Bible. iii. The two manuscripts (Vaticanus and Sinaiticus) underlying the Westcott and Hort Greek NT came from Alexandria, Egypt and either originated from, or were heavily influenced by, Origen (see quotes above). iv. These two manuscripts disagree with the Textus Receptus in thousands of places. a. Vaticanus (B) - (discovered in the Vatican in 1448). (i) "B agrees with the Textus Receptus only about 50% of the time. It differs from the Majority Greek in nearly 8000 places, amounting to about one change per verse. It omits several thousand key words from the Gospels, nearly 1000 complete sentences, and 500 clauses. It adds approximately 500 words, substitutes or modifies nearly 2000 and transposes word order in about 2000 places. It has nearly 600 readings that do not occur in any other manuscript. These affect almost 1000 words." (G.A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions, p. 551) (ii) "B does not consider the following as part of the bible: Revelation, Phil., Titus, I and II Timothy, large parts of Samuel, Kings, Nehemiah, the Psalms, and Genesis. B omits crucial parts of Mark and Luke. In their place it adds apocryphal books such as Bel and the Dragon, Tobit, Judith, and the Epistle of Barnabas." (G.A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions, p. 551). b. Sinaiticus (Aleph) - (discovered in a garbage can in Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai in the mid-1800s) (i) "Because of its blatant omissions and alterations, it lapsed into a wastebasket in a monastery, where it was ‘discovered’ by Constantine von Tischendorf in the mid-eighteen hundreds." (G.A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions, p. 553) (ii) "There are about 9000 changes in this text from that of the Majority and Traditional Text, amounting to one difference in every verse. It omits some 4000 words from the Gospels, adds 1000, repositions 2000 and alters another 1000. It has approximately 1500 readings that appear in no other manuscript; this affects nearly 3000 words. The following omissions are just a few examples. • The end of Mark and John. • Thirty-nine words from Joh 19:20, 21; twenty words from Joh 20:5-6; nineteen words from Mark 1:32-34; fourteen words from Mark 15:47. • John 5:4, Mat 16:2-3, Rom 16:24, Mar 16:9-20, 1Jo 5:7, Act 8:37, Gen 23:19-24, 46, Num 5:27-7:20, 1Ch 9:27-19:27. • Exodus, Joshua, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, Hosea, Amos, Micah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Judges. • In Luke 8, for example, 19 out of 34 words are changed. In Matthew chapter one, 60 words are changed. • It adds apocryphal books such as Bel and The Dragon, Tobit, Judith, The Epistle of Barnabas, and The Shepherd of Hermas, among others." (G.A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions, pp. 552-553) v. Vaticanus (B) and Sinaiticus (Aleph) also disagree with each other in thousands of places. a. "Not only do they disagree with the Majority of manuscripts, but they do not agree with each other. The 8000 changes in B and the 9000 changes in Aleph are not the same changes. When their changes are added together, they alter the Majority text in about 13,000 places. This is two changes for every verse. Together they omit 4000 words, add 2000, transpose 3500, and modify 2000. They disagree with each other a dozen times on every page. Colwell says they disagree 70% of the time and in almost every verse of the gospels. Burgon says, “It is easier to find two consecutive verses in which these manuscripts differ than two in which they agree." (G.A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions, pp. 554) b. "Hoskier's very technical comparison of B with Aleph showed these two corrupt manuscripts to be in contradiction one with the other in over 3,000 places in the Gospels alone!" (D.A. Waite, Defending the King James Bible, p. 59) vi. It's not so much a matter of the modern Bible versions being inaccurately translated (they are), as it is that they were translated from corrupt manuscripts. vii. "Two manuscripts, one in the Pope's library, the other in a wastepaper bin in a Catholic monastery; and two Anglican clergymen--are the reason why the late 20th century Church is awash with modern versions." (Dr. Jack Moorman, Forever Settled, p. 266) I. The modern Bible versions (Satan's bibles) translated (or paraphrased) from the Westcott & Hort NT such as the New King James Version (NKJV), New International Version (NIV), English Standard Version (ESV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), American Standard Version (ASV), Revised Version (RV), New Revised Version (NRV), Living Bible (LB), New Living Translation (NLT), The Message (MSG), etc. attack the preservation of the scriptures, do violence to the Trinity, degrade Jesus Christ, corrupt the doctrine of salvation, remove condemnations of moral sins, and help to bring in a new world order. i. Note: the NKJV was supposedly translated from the TR, but it often follows the Critical Text in its text and its footnotes as will be shown below. ii. Satan's bibles (of course) attack God's promise to preserve of the scriptures and change verses that say that wicked men change verses. a. Psa 12:6-7 (KJV) - The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. 7) Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. (i) (NIV) - And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times. 7) You, Lord, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked, (ii) (ESV) - The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. 7) You, O Lord, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever. (iii) (NASB) - The words of the Lord are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. 7) You, O Lord, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever. (iv) (NLT) - The Lord’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over. 7) Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect the oppressed, preserving them forever from this lying generation, (v) (MSG) - God’s words are pure words, Pure silver words refined seven times In the fires of his word-kiln, Pure on earth as well as in heaven. God, keep us safe from their lies, From the wicked who stalk us with lies, From the wicked who collect honors For their wonderful lies. b. 2Co 2:17 (KJV) - For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. (i) (NKJV) - For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ. (ii) (NIV) - Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God. (iii) (ESV) - For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. (iv) (NASB) - For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. (v) (NLT) - You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us. (vi) (MSG) - No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can. c. Rom 1:25 (KJV) - Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. (i) (NKJV) - who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (ii) (NIV) - They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. (iii) (ESV) - because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (iv) (NASB) - For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed [b]forever. Amen. (v) (NLT) - They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. (vi) (MSG) - And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes! iii. Satan's bibles attack the Trinity. a. 1Jo 5:7 (KJV) - For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. (i) (NKJV) - For there are three that bear witness [a]in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. a. NU (Nestle-Aland / United Bible Society texts), M omit the words from in heaven (v. 7) through on earth (v. 8). Only 4 or 5 very late mss. contain these words in Greek. (ii) (NIV) - For there are three that testify: (iii) (ESV) - For there are three that testify: (iv) (NASB) - For there are three that testify: (v) (NLT) - So we have these three witnesses— (vi) (MSG) - A triple testimony: