History is our friend and “tells all.”
You can view a nice free video of “Origin of the Bible” at the following link:
alabamacatholicresources.com/Bible.html
Also, historically, Martin Luther broke from the Church because there were certain individuals in the Church who were abusing the doctrine of indulgences. They were selling indulgences, which is not allowed and certainly not part of Catholic doctrine. Here’s how that all came about, though…
When the black plague hit Europe, some of the first people to die were priests, because when you’re dying, who are you gonna call? The priest! To give you the Sacraments, etc. So, it wiped out about 90+% of the priests in Europe. All these guys were educated in the faith very well. But, the Church kind of panicked and started ordaining untrained/uneducated men, some of whom couldn’t even read (they’d memorize the Mass and recite it from memory), because the Church had to have the Mass said, the Sacraments given, etc. A lot of these poorly educated/trained priests were also not well formed spiritually, and got into selling indulgences, making a lot of money.
Martin Luther was correct about the problem, but he was incorrect in his response to it. In fact, he never really intended to leave the Church or start Protestantism. He just wanted to fix the problem. But, he had a horrible temper and got into a tiff with the Pope and the Church because they didn’t move fast enough for him, among other things. Then, he began disassembling Catholic theology. He reasoned that if selling of Indulgences was wrong, Indulgences were wrong. If indulgences were wrong, you didn’t need the Mass to pray for the dead. And if you didn’t need the Mass, you didn’t need priests to say Mass. And if you didn’t need priests, you didn’t need bishops to make them priests, etc., etc. He ended up with nothing except the man made doctrines of Sola Scriptura (the Bible alone) and Sola Fide (faith alone), which he made up out of thin air. At the end of his life, he deeply regretted what he had done.
With regard to changing the Bible, the biggest change that remained was seven books in the Old Testament which Protestants no longer have (well, at least most of 'em). Back when Jesus walked the earth, there were two versions of the Old Testament: the Hebrew version and the Greek version (Septuagent), which was translated for those Jews living in Egypt (there was a very large contingent of Jews around Alexandria, Egypt). The Septuagent had the seven books, and scholars have proven that approximately 80% of the direct and indirect references to the Old Testament in the New Testament were from the Septuagent version. So, they reasoned that this was the version Jesus and the Apostles used and kept that. The Jews, for their part, didn’t codify their Old Testament till the late first, early second century, after Christianity (Catholicism) had already started. They made up criteria which included the fact that the books they accepted must be 1) written in Hebrew and 2) written on Hebrew soil. What you don’t hear is that one of the motivations for doing this is that the new Christians were converting Jews using the Septuagent version of the Old Testament, and that didn’t sit too well with them!
Keep in mind, too, that the "Word of God’’ is not something. It is Somebody, namely Jesus Christ! The Bible and Oral Tradition (a.k.a., Holy Tradition), which St. Paul talks about in 2 Thes 2:15, are the two main “modes” of transmission of the Word of God to us. But they are only so when the Magisterium of the Church guides us in our translation/interpretation thereof. So, the Word of God is transmitted to us in a trinitarian manner, just like God is transmitted to us in a trinitarian manner. The Church says that wherever you find one member of the Trinity, you always find the other Two. For example, wherever you find Jesus, you find the Father and Holy Spirit. Likewise, the Word of God, properly transmitted to mankind, consists of Holy Tradition, Holy Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church. You cannot have the Word of God correctly transmitted if you leave out any of the three.
), Islam have many denominations as well?