SEVEN STARS OF THE REFORMATION

“Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Heb 13:7–8).

Reformation 500

This year 2017 is the 500^th anniversary of the 16^th Century Reformation. In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the castle door of Wittenberg which led to a worldwide exodus out of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Church preached a false gospel of salvation by works—that forgiveness can be bought with money. The Bible says that salvation is purely by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone, and totally free (Eph 2:8–9).

Although the Protestant Reformation is traced back to 1517, it actually happened much earlier, not in Germany but in England. It began in the 14^th century with John Wycliffe of Oxford who preached that it is Christ who is the Head of the Church and not the Pope, who preached that salvation is by grace alone and not by works, who translated the Bible into English so that people could read and know the gospel truth for themselves and be freed from the superstitious yoke of the Roman Church. Wycliffe was the “Morning Star of the Reformation”.

Besides John Wycliffe, there were three other Johns—Hus, Calvin, Knox—who were also Reformation Stars. William Tyndale and Ulrich Zwingli also shone brightly for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Altogether seven stars (cf Rev 1:20, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches”). The stars are angels and the Greek angelos means “messenger”.

I will be lecturing on the “Seven Stars of the Protestant Reformation” at FEBC’s Daily Vacation Bible College (DVBC), May 1–4, 2017. It will be held at the Resort Lautan Biru, Mersing. There will be an exam on Saturday May 6 at the FEBC Hall. One credit if you pass the exam. Get the DVBC brochure and registration form at the reception table. Closing date for registration is April 23.

Here is a glimpse of one of the Reformation stars:

Sixth Star: Tyndale (1494–1536)

William Tyndale was born a hundred years after Wycliffe died, and came from a farming family. He was schooled at Oxford University and then at Cambridge.

Tyndale lived in a time when the priest did that which was right in his own eyes, and the people were totally ignorant of the Scriptures except for those who could get their hands on Wycliffe’s Bible or portions of it. He admired the Lollards for their work of evangelism and Bible distribution. According to Sir Marcus Loane, “[T]he struggle of men like the Lollards … was slowly to take the shape of the form of a resolution to turn the Book of books into the kind of speech which the common people could read and understand. This was the grand motive behind all that he sought to do; it ran through his life and work like a thread of gold. There was little perhaps in the English Reformation so fine as the deliberate forgetfulness of self and the entire consecration of life which he brought to his task for God.”

The Renaissance had brought the study of the original languages into the University. Tyndale took a great delight in studying the Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek and even expounded the Scriptures to his classmates. He was well liked by his peers and was good in preaching. He eventually graduated with a BA in 1512, and an MA in 1515. After which he enrolled into the University of Cambridge. There he was influenced by the teachings of Erasmus and of Luther.

In 1519, Thomas Bilney got saved by reading the Greek NT. His enthusiasm of having found Christ could not be contained. He started a fellowship group in Cambridge and they had meetings in the White Horse Inn. Tyndale was one of the early members of this fellowship.

In 1522, Tyndale left Cambridge to become a tutor to the children of Sir John Walsh of Gloucestershire. He would often dine with Walsh and his guests—Deans, Abbots and Archdeacons—and talk about the views of Luther and Erasmus, and the Scriptures. To these ignorant bigwigs he would teach the Scriptures plainly and defend the views of Luther. They soon got fed up of Tyndale and would no longer attend the dinners of Walsh. However, Walsh and his wife heard Tyndale gladly.

Tyndale also preached in the villages around and even the Augustinian monastery. The priests and friars in the monastery called Tyndale a heretic and reported him to the Chancellor. Tyndale said about the Chancellor, “He threatened me grievously and reviled me, and rated me as though I had been a dog, and laid to my charge [things] whereof there could be none accuser brought forth.” Tyndale masterfully defended himself and was vindicated. He was freed but he knew that his enemies would return to attack him again. He sought the advice of his Oxford teacher William Latimer who was a friend of Sir Thomas More and Erasmus. The elderly Latimer told Tyndale, “Do you not know that the Pope is very Antichrist, whom the Scripture speaketh of? But beware what you say; for if you shall be perceived to be of that opinion, it will cost you your life.”

Tyndale was convinced that all the evils in the Church were a result of people’s ignorance of the Scriptures and of salvation. The only solution was to open the eyes of the people by giving to them the Bible in their own language: “I perceived by experience how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue.” Wycliffe had translated the Bible from the Latin, but Tyndale wanted the Bible translated from the Greek. Luther was by that time translating the German Bible based on the Greek Textus Receptus. God was to use Tyndale to translate one for England. Tyndale said, “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life, ere many years pass, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scriptures than thou dost.”

Tyndale went to London but found no help for his translation work there. In 1524, he went to Germany and settled in Wittenberg—the birthplace of the German Reformation. He spent about 10 months there, and completed his English NT. In 1526, he went to Worms and there he ordered the printing of 6000 copies of his English NT (only 2 copies of this first printing survived till this day). These 6000 copies were smuggled into England by German merchants. The Archbishop of Canterbury did all he could to buy up and burn up all of them.

In 1527, Tyndale started translating the OT from the Hebrew Masoretic Text. He was by this time denounced by the court as a rebel and a heretic. He was constantly on the run, but was finally caught in Antwerp, betrayed by a “friend”. While in prison, he wrote a letter to the prison warden entreating him to grant him his overcoat and winter cap, and for his Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dictionary that he might resume his work of translating the Bible.

Tyndale and VPP/KJV

Despite limited resources, and painful hardships, Tyndale’s translation of the Bible into English from the original languages was a remarkable piece of work. It was so good, so accurate to the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, that the KJV translators retained more than 80% of Tyndale’s translation.

Jonathan D Moore (PhD, Cambridge) in his article “The Authorised Version: The Influence of William Tyndale’s Translations” says, “There can be no doubt about it that the aspect of his translation work that was most important to Tyndale was accuracy. At first this might seem strange to some in the modern church where ease of communication seems to trump accuracy almost every time. How would Tyndale’s ploughboy be adversely affected in any noticeable way by ironing out a few of the complexities of ancient Semitic culture or Greek grammar? We therefore cannot understand Tyndale aright as a translator until we understand him as approaching a single sacred text. Not the partially restored and tentative, fallible texts of the modern academy, but a providentially preserved and infallible sacred text.”

For his faith in God and a 100% Perfect and Preserved Bible which he translated accurately into English, Tyndale was burned at the stake. He must be doing something right! JK

Tyndale’s last words: “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”