Persecution to the Bible

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In 538 A.D., emperor Justinian adjusted the “complete subservience of the Church of Christ to the Pagan state”. The “highest-priest” was wrapped by the temporal power, in order to proceed against the opponents. The persecution to the faithful then started to assume another aspect, much more sanguinary. The period of “great affliction” had just began, such as never existed since the beginning of the world”. Under the oppression of pagan emperors, the church of Christ suffered terrible persecution. The world had become an immense field of blood. The faithful Christians were placed towards the dilemma: renounce their integrity, their faith, their fidelity to GOD’s laws, and agree with the heretical innovations of “papism”, or being launched to the dungeons, suffer torture, die martyred, at the edge of the sword or by the fire. Hundreds of thousands of Christians were martyred like “heretics” during the long period of “papal” supremacy (1260 years), mainly by the Inquistion.

But the evil decided to take one more step in his plot. He knew that while the Holy Scripture was freely accessible to the people, men could discern between the truth and the mistake, thus guarding against the acceptation of heresies. It was by the Scripture that Christ confronted the evil in the desert, when he was tempted. The “it is written” was the weapon used by Christ (Matthew c.4 v.4 to 10). And the prince of darkness knew that this same weapon would be constantly used against him, with efficacy, by Christ’s followers. Therefore, determined to strip people from the Word of GOD, the Holy Scripture, so that they would remain in ignorance regarding the truth and would not discern lie and mistake. Decrees were sent, like the following: “Lay people shall not own the books of the New and Old Testaments; they shall not own but the psaltery, the breviary or Mary’s devotionary, and even these ones shall not be translated into vulgar language” (Hefele, Councils’ History V, page 982).

J.J. Scheffmacher, in his “Catechism of Controversies”, published in Strasburg, with Episcopal authorization, says what follows on page 282: “We insist that all those who have learnt well and know their catholic catechism can easily dispense the Bible and gain Heaven, as the catechism contains the whole faith, while the Bible does not”. Therefore, the catechism elaborated by the traitors of the divine cause, fallible men, substitutes the Holy Scriptures, which contains the perpetual divine law.

Along the darkness of Middle Ages, the Bible was so severely forbidden to the people and those who owned it in whole or in part were so atrociously persecuted, to the point that the darkness almost prevailed completely. But thanks to the divine providence, the light of GOD’s word still remained lit and alive in many places. In the solitudes of forests and mountains, amidst the sheltering rocks and in the caverns of Earth, the victims of such cruel persecution found refuge, which were those who chose obeying the law of GOD and refused to obey the prescriptions of men.

Whoever spreads this message will be gifted with heavenly blessings.