SATAN INFILTRATES
        THE CHURCH:        By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.

 Modern translations based on faulty, inferior codex vaticanus, codex siniaticus cause serious misunderstandings in the church!

Pope Paul V1 stated, "The smoke of Satan has entered the sanctuary." I am afraid that Satan has entered some Protestant churches, as well, through the devious work of  Bible translators bent on revising the Holy Bible to their own liking!

Dr. Frank Logsdon, who worked on the feasibility study, interviewed some of the translators, and wrote the preface for the New American Standard Version (NASV), has denounced his work on that Bible and urged all Christians to return to the Authorized Version (KJV).

After much soul searching and an extensive study of all the texts involved, the highly respected, godly Bible translator Dr. Frank Logsdon concluded, “I’m in trouble with the Lord; I can’t refute these arguments; it’s wrong; it’s terribly wrong; and what am I going to do about it?”

I'M IN TROUBLE WITH THE LORD!

The arguments he referred to were pointed out by his old friend, Dr. David Otis Fuller, who put his finger on the many errors of the Roman Catholic Text used in all modern Bible translations, which include the NASB and today’s NIV! Dr. Logsdon shocked NASB publisher Dewey Lockman with his refutation: “I must under God renounce every attachment to the New American Standard!”

Repenting of his involvement in Satan’s plan to corrupt God’s Word, albeit ignorantly, Dr. Frank Logsdon - like Saul of Tarsus - then began to travel extensively, warning people of the corrupted translation which he had helped to create and urging them to return to the pure, unadulterated Authorized Version (KJV).

The Roman Catholic Text he referred to are the inferior, faulty and possibly tampered with manuscripts known as Vaticanus (A) and Siniaticus (B). Many theologians, Dr. Logsdon included, had swallowed the lies that these inferior manuscripts were more reliable than the time-tested and true Textus Receptus, only because they were older!

DR. FRANK LOGSDON states: “When there is an omission that might be observed, they put in the margin, ‘Not in the oldest manuscripts’. But they don’t tell you what those manuscripts are. What oldest manuscripts? Or they say, ‘Not in the best manuscripts’. They don’t tell you. You see how subtle this is? The average man sees a little note in the margin which says ‘not in the better manuscript’ and he takes for granted they are scholars and they must know, and then he goes on. That’s how easily one can be deceived.”

After the great translator had agonized over the work he was involved with, he realized he had assisted in changing the very Word of God, by removing many verses out of the Holy Scriptures! Logsdon declared, “The deletions are absolutely frightening.”

He advised those who are pressed by somebody to abandon the Authorized Version (KJV): “You don’t need to defend it; you don’t need to apologize for it. Just say, ‘Well, did this new version or this translation come down through the Roman Catholic stream? If so, count me out!”

THERE IS DEFINITE PROOF THAT MARK 16:12-20 IS AUTHENTIC! HONEST SCHOLARS QUESTION THE RELIABILITY OF VATICANUS (A) AND SINIATICUS (B) TRANSLATIONS!

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In My name shall they cast out devils (demons); they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark 16: 17-18)

For too long, Evangelicals have done almost nothing to refute false and misleading statements by ‘modernist theologians’ who cast doubts upon the Word of God, as though they were privileged by some divine right and superior knowledge to do so!

These triflers speak with authority as though they know everything. The Bible is primitive, they say, not to be taken literally and is out of touch with our modern world, especially in areas where their personal bias and pride prevents them from accepting the truth!

A case in point is the way many Evangelicals have accepted almost unquestioning the ‘BIG LIE’ that Mark 16: 12-20 is not reliable because, “these verses were not found in the oldest manuscripts”.

Nothing could be further from the truth! In this apologetic, I will prove without a shadow of a doubt that the two manuscripts used by ‘modernist theologians' to disprove these sacred texts, are themselves inferior and inadequate translations!

And even more serious, is the proven fact that these verses of Holy Scripture may have been deliberately omitted or tampered with because of ulterior motives, in order to cast doubt on the availability of God’s power for the Church today!

And to compromise the Gospel and confuse Christians by opening the floodgates to numerous inferior translations of the Bible, some of which remove the ‘Blood of Jesus' and other vital truths from the Holy Text! How sad, deplorable and blasphemous!

Honest scholars must ask the questions: “Are Vaticanus (B) and Siniaticus (A) inferior translations”? Are they deliberately misleading and spurious in their treatment of these texts?”

I am indebted to a number of honest scholars who have soundly refuted this almost universally accepted falsehood! Dr. Charles Trombley, who escaped from the heretical, deceptive ‘Watch Tower’ cult “can smell a rat” when he sees one and he has flushed out this one. Praise God! Some of what I will share here, has been gleaned from his article ‘Is Mark 9:12-20 Genuine?”

And the excellent book ‘Final Authority’, by William P. Grady confirms my long standing doubts of the veracity of the Vaticanus (B) and Siniaticus (A) and the “two false witnesses” who used their deceptive anti-protestant-reformation bias and the two above mentioned defective manuscripts, to stop the continued use of the far superior Authorized Version in Great Britain’s Anglican Churches.

The subtle and devious work of the two carnal-minded and unsaved theologians, Hort and Wescott (admirers of pagan philosophers Socrates and Plato and evolutionist Charles Darwin) hoodwinked the Christian community into believing that the inferior, flawed and possibly altered spurious manuscripts in question, were in fact more reliable than the TEXTUS RECEPTICUS from which the Authorized Version (KJV) was translated by 54 of Great Britain’s greatest, most godly and learned theologians.

THIS IS QUITE A COUP WHEN YOU REALIZE THAT HORT AND WESTCOTT WERE ONLY SECOND OR THIRD RATE THEOLOGIANS WITH A LIMITED GRASP OF HEBREW & GREEK AND ACCORDING TO SOME OF THEIR CORRESPONDENCE HAD POSSIBLE HOMOSEXUAL LEANINGS AND DESIRES!

However, the theologian mostly responsible for initiating this controversy was Johann J. Griesbach. In his second edition of the Greek Bible (1796-1806), he questioned the genuineness of the last twelve verses of St. Mark’s Gospel because of a blank space in two Greek manuscripts! He therefore concluded that the 16^th chapter ended with verse 8, making the rest of the chapter spurious!

The two so-called “oldest manuscripts” are in fact the two most unreliable of all, and possibly the target of tampering by enemies of God’s Word! The two fourth-century Greek manuscripts in question are the VATICANUS (B) and SINIATICUS (A). These do not contain the controversial 12 verses, but both manuscripts leave a special space for them as if the copyist was not certain about adding or deleting them. The facsimile of the Vaticanus (B) even has the lines marked for their insertion!

HOW TRUSTWORTHY

ARE THESE TWO MANUSCRIPTS?

1. The VATICANUS (B) has left out Genesis chapters 1 to 46.
2. The VATICANUS (B) has left out Psalms 106 to 138.
3. The VATICANUS (B) has left out the Pastoral Epistles.
4. The VATICANUS (B) has left out the Book of Revelation.
5. The SINIATICUS (A) has left much of the Old Testament.

Dr. Trombley writes: “With these obvious omissions can anyone use them to challenge the genuineness of twelve missing verses in Mark when whole chapters and books are missing? Should we reject 1^st and 2^nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon and the Book of Revelation since they too are missing? Should we question the genuineness of the creation account, Abraham’s calling and life since the first 49 chapters of Genesis are missing?

“And what about the 32 missing Psalms? As believers we must be honest. We must question the genuineness of the other missing chapters, books and verses if we challenge the genuineness of Mark’s twelve verses”.

If these verses were added since the 4^th Century, the much older manuscripts would not contain them, but that is not the case! Here are the plain facts!

1). The SECOND CENTURY SYRIAC, called the ‘Peshitto’ and the THIRD CENTURY CURETONIAN, were the first and oldest translations of the New Testament. Both the Syriac and the Curetoni, which are much older than the Vaticanus (B) and Siniaticus (A), CONTAIN THE MISSING VERSES!

Here is an irony: Of the more than 4200 extant (preserved) Greek Manuscripts (MSS), only (B) and (A) omit Mark’s verses and they are NOT the oldest available manuscripts! Only an IDIOT would conclude that these twelve verses were added after the fourth century, when you know that both the Syriac and Curetonian include them!

2). THE LATIN VERSIONS CONTAINED THE TWELVE VERSES: Jerome, who lived in AD 382, had access to much older MSS than is now extant (available today). His VULGATE which was a revision of the older ‘Vetus Itala’, believed to be from the SECOND CENTURY, contained the missing twelve verses!

DR. CHARLES TROMBLEY writes: “Rather than these verses being added since the fourth century, it appears that the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus left them out on purpose!”

3). The Gothic, the Egyptian, Memphitic or Coptic versions of the third and fourth century CONTAINED them also!

HERE IS WHAT EARLY CHURCH FATHERS                   SAY ABOUT MARK 16: 12-20!

More than 100 Church Fathers are older than the two manuscripts in question and another 200 lived between A.D. 300-600. All these referred to the twelve last verses of St. Mark, but only those who lived and wrote before Vaticanus (B) and Sinaiticus (A) can be used to prove the genuineness of those verses!

PAPIAS, who lived about A.D.100 – about 4 years after St. John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos – quoted from Mark 16: 18. He wrote, “Justus, surnamed Barsabas, experienced no consequences after drinking noxious poison.” (Eseubius Hist. Ecc.1139)

JUSTIN MARTYR (A.D.151) quoted v. 20 (Apol Ic.45), HIPPOLYTUS (A.D. 190-227) quoted vv. 7-19 (Lagarde’s ed; 1854, p.74. The ACTA PILATI (second century) quotes vv. 15,16,17,18 (Tishendorf ‘s ed. pp. 243, 351. And history records that the copy of the Gospels used by the BISHOP OF LYONS in A.D.180 contained all twelve verses!

Now, I ask you: “Who is lying? Who is seeking to hide something, compromise a doctrinal position or pervert some truth?” Again, I ask: “Could a true child of God deliberately seek to pervert the Word of God to advance his own agenda?”

Of course, the answer is that only an “Enemy of the Cross” could do such a thing, for a true Christian with the ‘fear of God’ in his or her heart would be scared to death to tamper with God’s holy, sacred Word”!

Almighty God has given us this admonition and emphatic warning: “The words of the LORD are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.” (Ps.12:6, 7)

MOSES declared: “Ye shall not add unto the Word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” (Deut. 4: 2); “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” (Deut. 12: 32)

JESUS warned: “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Rev. 22:18,19 )

ST. PAUL warned: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel: Which is not another; But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Gal.1:6-9)

HOW ONE VIEWS THE BIBLE AND JESUS CHRIST,

PROVES MORE ABOUT HIM THAN EMPTY RHETORIC!

JOHN WESLEY emphasized, “I build on no authority, ancient or modern, but the Scripture. I want to know one thing - the way to Heaven: how to land on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book. At any price, give me that Book of God!”

The founder of the Methodist Church was a genuine born-again Christian who took the Bible as God’s Word, and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to multitudes, changing the spiritual complexion of England!

His love for Jesus Christ and God’s Word, stands in stark opposition to the unholy fruit that flowed from the two spiritually perverted theologians, HORT and WESCOTT.

From the beginning of the Church Era until today, it has always been easy to separate true believers from hypocrites. Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” (John 10:10)

ST. JOHN declared: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt upon them.” (John 1:1-14) 1 John 1:1-14)

The Bible records that, “great was the company of those who published it.”(Ps. 68:11); “many priests were obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7) Jesus’ followers were warned by the chief priests not to “speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.” (Acts 4:18) Peter and John, however, countered by saying: “…Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20)

The REVIVAL grew to such an extent that, “believers were the more added unto the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter might overshadow some of them.

“There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed everyone.” (Acts 5:15-16)

The religious leaders were infuriated and had the leaders cast into the prison, but God sent His angel to open the prison gates to free them. The next morning the report came back to the high priest that they were not in jail, but standing in the temple preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

This unnerved the high priest so much so that he asked them: “…Did we not straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? And, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.

“Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5: 28-31).

The “ENEMIES OF THE CROSS” made this accusation: “These that have turned the world upside down, have come hither also.” (Acts 17:6) The Bible says: “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” (Acts 5: 42)

St. Paul stated: “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the council of God. Therefore watch, and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.”(Acts 20: 27, 31) He admonished Timothy, “Preach the Word…” (2 Tim.4: 2)

Fourth century Church Father CHRYSOSTOM (c.347-407) coined the words ‘The Bible’ in reference to the Holy Scriptures; in the Greek- literally ‘The Book’. He cajoled Christians: “But still you will say, ‘I cannot understand it’! What marvel? How shouldest thou understand it, if thou will not read nor look upon it?” (Alexander McClure, Translators Revived)

In his epistle to the Church in Corinth, CLEMENT OF ROME……??.. ..

In his book, ‘Reasons to Believe’, JOSH MCDOWELL answers the critics thusly: “Although these arguments seem, on the surface, to be conclusive they break down upon closer examinations of the evidence. While it is true that the two oldest manuscripts which contain Mark 16 do not have the last twelve verses, there is enormous external evidence that supports it being original. Although omitted by the two oldest Greek manuscripts, these verses are found in virtually all the remaining Greek manuscripts that contain the end of Mark. All of the Latin versions and Syriac versions contain these verses with only a few exceptions.

“ More important is the fact that early church fathers quote from it and are aware of it (Justin Martyr, A.D.150; Tatian, A.D.175; Irenaeus, A.D.180; and Hippolytus, A.D.200) These men lived 150 years before the composition of Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus (about A.D.325) showing that these verses were in existence at that time.

“For some reason, they were not included. But the reason was not that they did not exist. If this long ending is not original then why is there such wide and diverse testimony as to its authenticity? External evidence favors it as being authentic.

“Internal evidence against these verses being original likewise is unsatisfactory. Arguments regarding style and vocabulary are weak at best. Bruce Metzger, points out that there are 17 words in these twelve verses that are found nowhere else in the Gospel of Mark. This supposedly proves that this section is not authentic. (The Text of the New Testament, p.227)

“However, JOHN BROADUS did a study of the twelve verses which preceded the ones in question (Mark 15:44 –16:8) and found 17 words in that section that are found nowhere else in the Gospel of Mark…(see John Burgon, Last twelve verses of Mark, Reprint, pp.222-270)

“The miraculous signs promised to our Lord’s disciples in Mark are not new, for both Mathew and Luke record the promise and fulfillment of these signs. (Matt.10:1; Like 10:17,18) Moreover, Hebrews 2:2, 4 indicate that signs did follow believers…

“On the other hand, three strong arguments can be given for accepting these verses as original: (1) No satisfactory theory has been advanced to explain how Mark could have or would have ended his gospel at verse 8: (2) no objection has been raised against these last twelve verses that cannot be answered; (3) the arguments given to explain the tremendous amount of objective evidence as to the varied and wide testimony in the Greek manuscripts, translations, church fathers, are unsatisfactory… see ‘The Interpretation of Mark’s Gospel, by R.C.H. Lenski.” (pp.42,43)

A HISTORY CHECK ON HORT & WESCOTT: THE MEN WHO ENGINEEREDTHE DRAMATIC MOVE TO THE INFERIOR & FLAWED MANUSCRIPTS!

It is important to know the background and the spiritual condition of the men we trust as “men of God”, to tell the truth and translate the Word of God faithfully and correctly!

Unfortunately, the two men who worked so diligently on their secret plan to pervert the Holy Scriptures - Drs. HORT and WESTCOTT – were UNSPIRITUAL MODERNISTS who rejected the Miracles performed by Jesus Christ and hungered to get the Church back under the sway of the Vatican and away from personal salvation through Christ!

Here are a number of excerpts from their personal letters and books written about them, showing their carnal, anti-biblical bias in regards to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Two such books that open our eyes to their perversion were written by their sons: the ‘Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westctt’ by his son Arthur Westcott (1903), and the ‘Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort’ by his son Arthur Fenton (1896).

In his book ‘Final Authority’, WILLIAM P. GRADY writes: “While Arthur Westcott confirmed that such terms as “unsound”, “shadowy” and “mystical” were frequently applied to the senior Westcott, Arthur Hort brought in the most embarrassing evidence of all. Referring to his own grandmother, Annie (Collett) Hort, daughter of a Suffolk preacher, he wrote: “Her religious feelings were deep and strong. Circumstances had made her an adherent of the Evangelical school…the Oxford Movement filled her with dread and anxiety as to its possible effect of her son.

“She (Westcott’s mother) was unable to enter into his theological views, which to her school and generation seemed a desertion of the ancient ways, thus pathetically enough, there came to be a barrier between mother and son...She studied and knew her Bible well, and her own religious life was most carefully regulated.”

In a letter to Bishop Lightfoot, DR. WESTCOTT wrote: “I intend to turn heresyseeker”. ‘The Churchman’, I see praises the book on the canon as a necessary article in a clergyman’s library. It is strange, but all the questionable doctrines which I have maintained are in it”. (Westcott, Life and Letters of Westcott, 1:290)

Here is an excerpt from DR. HORT’S letter to Rev. John Ellerton: “...I wrote to warn him (Harold Brown) that I was not safe or tradition in my theology, and that I could not give up association with heretics and such like”. (Hort, Life and Letters, 2:165)

Writing about his father, Arthur Westcott states: “He took a strange interest...not very long after that time, especially in MORMONISM...I recollect his procuring and studying the ‘Book of Mormon’ about 1840”.

WILLIAM P. GRADY writes: “As early as 1847, a twenty-two-year old Westcott acknowledged his inability to believe in Bible miracles: “I never read an account of a miracle but I seem instinctively to feel its improbability, and discover some want of evidence in the account of it!”

WESTCOTT WAS A RANK UNBELIEVER DOING HIS BEST TO SABOTAGE THE WORD OF GOD, AND CHRISTIANS TODAY READ HIS WORKS AS OF A TRUTHFUL RIGHTEOUS MAN.

Hort and Westcott were the beginning of a gigantic fifth column within the Church to slow its progress and bring Protestants back under the heel of Rome and of that goal they spoke openly! Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you FREE!” (John 8: 32)

St. Paul warned: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own Blood.” (Acts 20:28)

Note: By the grace of God, I will write more about the methods and people that Satan uses to destroy the Church that Jesus gave His precious blood for! - MS