Reading this chapter of an Understandable History of the Bible by Samuel Gipp, is a lot like reading a bad Dan Brown novel such as the DaVinci Code. It’s got all of the conspiracy and drama of a thriller novel with half of the research! But who needs facts when you’re writing fiction anyway!
I’m not going to try to debunk any of this stuff. The thoughtful readers will look facts up if they are so inclined. The cult of Candy folks will just take it as the Gospel truth and nothing I say will dissuade them, so what’s the point!
Here are some of my favorite lines though!
Let it be remembered, Jesuits do not give up. They would have to bide their time. They would once again resort to undercover activities as they had so many times before. Their task would be a difficult one, yet for the unfaltering Jesuits, not impossible. They would have to discredit the Reformation. They would have to dislodge the Universal Greek Text from the firm position it held in the minds and hearts of English scholarship. They would have to “wean” Protestantism back into the fold of Rome. To do this they would use the same plan as they had in similar situations: captivate the minds of scholarship.
Insert scary music here.
Men have long been worshippers of education. If an educator makes a claim, the “common” people will follow, because they have convinced themselves that anyone with that much education can’t be wrong.
Translation: Scholars are idol worshippers. You just can’t trust them. They’re in on the conspiracy too!
Insert scary music with big crescendo here!!!
The Jesuits’ task was to entice Protestant scholarship back to Rome. They knew that they could not wean the leaders of Protestantism back into Rome as long as the stubborn “heretics” clung to the pure text of the Reformers. This Bible would have to be replaced with one which contained the pro-Roman Catholic readings of Jerome’s Vulgate and the Jesuit translation of 1582. It would be necessary to “educate” the Protestant scholars to believe that their Reformation Text was unreliable and that their Authorized Version was “not scholarly.” Once thus programmed, the egotistical scholars would spontaneously attack their own Bible and believe that they were helping God.
The most important objective to be realized would be to replace the Bible as the final authority.
YAWNNNN feel the suspense building? No… neither do I.
Fifty years ago, a Fundamentalist preacher was considered a backwoods “hick” with no education and was able to preach nothing more than “hell, fire, and damnation.”
Dueling banjos in the background.
Today, the world has awakened to the fact that Fundamentalism is a powerful force
Followed by Onward Christian Soldiers.
Fast forward through Gippism revisionist history and attempts to discredit scholarship. Insert theme from Lost in Space.
Newman, in fact, was so taken in by the spell of Rome that he, in 1845, left the Church of England and formally joined the Roman Catholic Church, following a similar apostate, named Ward, who had written a book teaching the worship of Mary and “mental reservation.” Mental reservation is the act, condoned by the Roman Catholic Church, of lying to keep from revealing your ties to Rome.
Insert theme from the James Bond movie – any of them. It doesn’t really matter at this point.
I think Candy might even be a little bored with this drivel too. She certainly didn’t expound much on the rest of this chapter.
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