How the Church Got To Where It Is Today pt.3

Fred Whitman is a missionary supported by our local church. He is the Founder and president of a fundamental radio station in Italy. He also planted and pastors a Baptist church there as well. The following is a booklet that he wrote and gave away to those who wanted it. I am presenting it here essentially untouched and unedited. It may take several installments. My hope is that others will find his thoughts insightful and be blessed. Pray for Brother Fred and his family as they ministers to those in Italy.

In His fellowship,
Brother John

How the Church Got To Where It Is Today
By Fred Whitman

The Bible was outlawed, for over 300 years the Bible was actually outlawed by the Roman Church. People want to rewrite history. They want to say, "Did that really happen?" Well, I have my proof. It’s a little Testament that I found in an antique bookshop in Italy. It was printed in Holland in 1665, probably brought down into Italy by some reformed missionary. This little Testament looks just like new. Now, how could a New Testament be 350 years old and be like new? Well, on the flyleaf of this New Testament is written the word "Proibito." This Bible was confiscated. Who knows where the owner ended up, but this is a testimony of this terrible time when in the Council of Trent, the Bible was outlawed. I should add that for about 1,000 years, any translation outside of Latin was prohibited. Very few common people would understand Latin. In the Council of Trent was designed the Counter — Reformation. How could the Church fight what was going on? A new order was formed, the Jesuit Movement. Ignatius Loyola became the head general of these soldiers for Jesus, responsible only to the Pope.

Their purpose was to eliminate the heretics. In fact, I have another book I picked up that was printed in the 1600s, printed by the Roman Church, The Inquisition, explaining how to identify, prosecute, and eliminate heretics. Now a heretic could be a word for a believer, like us, it could also be a Jew, or it could be an atheist. They didn't care. But it was a terrible, terrible time for fear and persecution coming out of the Council of Trent. That lasted for 300 years. It's interesting; 300 years were at the beginning in which the church was grouped under the persecution of the pagan Roman emperors, and 300 years now under the Counter - Reformation emanating out of Rome under the direction of the Popes. New groups were springing up all over the place. Of course, we can thank the Counter - Reformation for the fact that we're Americans irt this country, because the Pilgrims came here to get away from that. They wanted to find a place where they could worship the Lord in peace and tranquility. And that's why they came to America, founding a new nation.

Another important decision at the Council of Trent was there were some additional books of the Bible added that were never, never included in inspired writ; never, by Jews or by Christians. But they were added in the Council of Trent, because one of these books talked about purgatory, one of these books talks about when a person is dead, and some of these things. What happens is, they are sincerely looking, and they read the Catholic Bible, and they read our Bible, and they say, "Hey! These Bibles say the same thing!" Then they read the bottom of the page where the Catholic Bible explains everything, and they say, "Well, that explanation has nothing to do with what that verse says," and then they read the Bible, hi my opinion, the key (KEY) book for dealing with Roman Catholics is the book of Hebrews. It is a difficult book, and maybe if you get somebody to read it together with you, you can share your faith. It talks about the priesthood of the Jews, replaced by our eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ. There are so many parallels from the book of Hebrews that are drawn over into what the Lord Jesus actually did on the Cross and has accomplished through us.

(To be continued)