believe that!" The Whore of Rome teaches those very words and now she is continuing to seduce the Protestant church to use the same Greek text upon which the Roman Catholic Latin Vulgate of Jerome is based (as well as the more modern Roman version, the Rheims-Douay). The Catholic church has almost succeeded in doing away with the Word of God as translated by Tyndale, which God has providentially watched over all of these years. We are always seeing footnotes (such as the Great Commission as given in Mark 16 and many other passages) that inform us that "the oldest, best, most reliable, most trustworthy, manuscripts read differently." What this means in simple language is, according to the scholars, an "untrustworthy manuscript" is one written on poor quality paper, and done in the handwriting of a non-professional scribe. A "trustworthy" one is written on high quality paper or vellum, and obviously prepared by highly educated professional scribes or scholars in neat capital letters - despite the fact that there may be many misspellings and omissions. However, they are referring to less than ten manuscripts and almost always only two - Vaticanus and Sinaiticus Aleph.

This is no more logical than if an alien came from another planet1 in outer space and perhaps found a Bible with notes written on the edges and words highlighted or underlined. If he reasoned as our modern scholars, it would be judged as corrupt and untrustworthy. By the same logic, a Bible on a shelf which had never been used except for occasional reference would be declared good and trustworthy because it was clean and neat.

An example, as noted above, is Mark 16:9-20 where many Bibles contain a very dishonest footnote which states that the oldest and most reliable Greek MSS do not contain these verses. As noted on page 1, we have over 3,000 N.T. Greek manuscripts, none of which is complete - neither does any contain all four of the gospels in their entirety. Over 1,800 contain Mark 16:9-20 and only three do not.2 So you see, the footnote is both very dishonest and misleading. As mentioned previously, Vaticanus even has a space left exactly the size of those verses. More than ninety-nine percent of the Greek manuscripts have those verses; they are THE WORD OF GOD.

THE CANON

8 The Old Testament was canonized prior to Jesus' incarnation; tradition says that Ezra probably was the leader of this compilation. Regardless, we know there was something that was recognized by the populace as "Scripture" to which Jesus referred, and He said that it could "not be broken". The people of Jesus' day knew what He meant when He referred to the "Scriptures". Rabbinical writings tell us that the O.T. canon was confirmed by a council meeting of Rabbis and Pharisees in Jamnia c.100 A.D. However, that meeting did not determine the canon as some churches and seminaries teach for it was a synod of Jews who had rejected the gospel of Jesus meeting after the Temple had been destroyed. No canon ever was established by unsaved men but by God through men who believed in Him! The Old Testament was canonized before Jesus came. Jesus said "the" Scriptures so the canon had been settled previously. When Jesus spoke the word "Scripture", no one in the audience raised his hand and asked Him to clarify - everyone knew of which He spoke.

1 This of course is not a possibility for there is no one out there. We have not even found another planet in all the vast regions of space other than the 9 in our own solar system although scientists constantly allude to such entities to the end that the laymen are deceived about such matters. We already know that no higher forms of life (if indeed any forms at all) exist on these planets other than the earth itself. Further, Psalms 115:16 teaches us that the abode of mankind is the earth. Thus all men in existence will be found upon the earth. Lastly, there can be no superior alien life forms in space as man was created a "little lower than Angels" and in "the image of God". What could possibly be superior to that?

2 Again, this was gleaned from Dr. Wilbur N. Pickering's taped interview before the Majority Text Society in Dallas, Texas (Summer 1995). In Burgon's day (1871 A.D.), 620 of the then extant mss contained Mark 16; only Vaticanus B and Sinaiticus Aleph did not have verses 9-20, Burgon, The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark, op. cit., p. 71.

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