DVD recommendation

I recently discovered there was a Catholic bookstore called In His Image, which was relatively close to my home — just 15 miles or so away.

I was actually looking for an affordable Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition bible. While they didn't have one, they did have this DVD. As an amateur history buff, the title is what actually piqued my interest. I am happy to say that the topics covered in it vindicated my decision to become a Catholic rather than join a Protestand denomination.

The documentary is called Where Did the Bible Come From? It's a three-disc set and it is definitely worth the $35.00 I paid. Where Did the Bible Come From? is heavy on the history behind the bible and it reveals how and where men like Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, and John Calvin took it upon themselves without authority of any kind to single-handedly rewrite the Latin Vulgate, which was used by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries, to suit their own beliefs.

But far from translating the Latin Vulgate, these men rewrote it; they changed it for the worse. For example, Cuthbert Tunstall, the Bishop of London, estimated that there were upwards of 2,000 errors in William Tyndale's bible, and Thomas More, sainted by Pope Pius XI in 1935, commented that looking for errors in the Tyndale bible was like looking for water in the sea.

The first two discs reveals the problem with the translations used by the some 40,000 Protestant denominations (the producers' estimation): they are flawed edited versions of the Latin Vulgate. Martin Luther, for instance, removed seven books of the Latin Vulgate (Tobit, Judith, I Maccabees, II Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch,) and he also removed parts of Esther and Daniel. Luther's reasoning? He didn't think they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. He even added to it to at his whim. And his animus was not restricted to the Old Testament. He had qualms about a number of New Testament books, too. Romans 3:28 is specifically mentioned and examined in detail.

Many of the various Protestant denominations use the King James Version exclusively and consider it infallible. However, that's complete nonsense; the King James Version was written in 1611, years after Luther had corrupted the Latin Vulgate.

The third disc is a lecture given by Michael Voris of St. Michael's Media. Almost immediately, Voris makes a wager with the audience members that if any of them are able to logically refute any of his four propositions, he'll renounce his Catholic faith. Mr. Voris is, to my knowledge, not a Protestant at this time.

Where Did the Bible Come From? is a "Catholic" documentary in the sense that it explores the corrupted versions used by Protestant denominations and shows how Baptists, Methodists, and other Protestants are being lied to. The producers took the high road; there is no Protestant bashing here.

I think newcomers to the Catholic faith and longtime, "cradle" Catholics alike will enjoy Where Did the Bible Come From? It can also be purchased at Amazon.com.