The Daring Mission of William Tyndale

"Many people misunderstand the main point of the Reformation. It wasn’t a worship war between the Roman Catholic Church and those who were protesting. It wasn’t a mere protest. It certainly wasn't a petty squabble over insignificant truths.  It was about God raising up faithful men who would protect the gospel of Jesus Christ from the perversion of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church...

How was this possible? It was necessary to bring the Bible out of the shadows. For ages, the Bible had been locked away in a dungeon and the religion of Rome insisted that people could only hear the Word of God spoken in Latin (even though people couldn’t understand it). They were certainly not permitted to have the Bible in their own homes. Therefore, the protection of the purity of the gospel came through a rediscovery of God’s Word.

Standing upon the shoulders of Martin Luther was another man—William Tyndale. He was born in 1494 in rural western England. At age 12, he entered a preparatory grammar school at Oxford University. He learned grammar, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, rhetoric, logic, and philosophy. He had a gift for the languages and made great progress as he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1512 and his master’s degree in 1515.

While studying theology, he came into contact with the writings of Martin Luther. In 1521, Tyndale stepped away from academic atmosphere in order to pursue his thoughts on the Reformation. During this time, he would be called upon to preach in small churches. His beliefs were aligning with Luther and people were noticing it. He would have meals with priests often and he became appalled at their ignorance and false doctrines.

Sola Scriptura: The Heart of the Reformation (and the True Christian Faith)

"Within a year of posting his Ninety-Five Theses, Martin Luther was summoned to appear before Cardinal Cajetan to be examined for his accusations against the Roman Catholic Church’s theology and practice. When the Cardinal pressed him on the issue of the church’s authority, Luther responded, “The truth of Scripture comes first. After that is accepted one may determine whether the words of men can be accepted as true.”[i] Now, Luther was not discrediting the words of men completely, rather, he was claiming that, far and above anything or anyone else, Holy Scripture was first and foremost. This led to the development of Sola Scriptura—“Scripture alone.” But in order to examine this principle within the context of the Reformation, we first need to explore the doctrine of Scripture itself. For the rest of this article, we will examine four foundational claims regarding the Word of God: its inspiration, inerrancy, authority, and sufficiency.

The Issue of Inspiration- The most dynamic and explicit passage in all of Scripture about the nature of the Bible’s own divine inspiration comes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. The Apostle Paul writes:  “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

In the Greek, the word theopneustos is used to describe how Scripture came to be; it was literally “God-breathed”. It was as if the Lord took a deep breath in, and then exhaled Holy Scripture. Further, the means by which God brought Scripture about was through the pens of human writers—“men [who] spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformers did not disagree about divine inspiration. What was and is still contested, however, is the content of the revelation.

Paul’s use of the word “all” in 2 Timothy 3:16 leads us to examine: What books of the Bible are contained in the “all” of Scripture? This is the question of the canon. The word “canon” comes from the Greek word kanōn, meaning “measuring rod”, which came to be used in speaking of a “rule” or “standard”. And in the most general sense, the canon is “the authoritative books that God gave his corporate church.”[ii] Historically, the accepted canon consists of 66 books—39 Old Testament books (Genesis to Malachi) and 27 New Testament books (Matthew to Revelation).

During the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church asserted that there were additional books inspired by God, which belonged in the canon. What came to be known as the Apocrypha consisted of the books of Tobit, Judith, the Additions to Esther, the Additions to Daniel, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (also called Sirach), Baruch (Hebrew for Blessed), the Letter of Jeremiah, and 1st and 2nd Maccabees. In response to the Reformers’ claims that many of the Catholic Church’s practices were unbiblical, the Council of Trent (1545-1563) canonized the Apocrypha, thus deeming it to be the inspired and authoritative Word of God. But after 1,500 years of being absent from the canon, did the Apocrypha suddenly deserve to be included? Certainly not.

Luther’s Advice for the Christian Life

What do the sovereignty of God, salvation by grace, justification by faith, and new life in union with Christ mean for the living of the Christian life?

For Luther, they carry four implications:  The first implication is the knowledge that the Christian believer is simul iustus et peccator,1 at one and the same time justified and yet a sinner. This principle, to which Luther may have been stimulated by John Tauler’s Theologia Germanica, was a hugely stabilizing principle: in and of myself, all I see is a sinner; but when I see myself in Christ, I see a man counted righteous with His perfect righteousness. Such a man is therefore able to stand before God as righteous as Jesus Christ—because he is righteous only in the righteousness that is Christ’s. Here we stand secure.

The second implication is the discovery that God has become our Father in Christ. We are accepted. One of the most beautiful accounts found in Luther’s Table Talk was, perhaps significantly, recorded by the somewhat mel- ancholic, yet much loved, John Schlaginhaufen:  God must be much friendlier to me and speak to me in friendlier fashion than my Katy to little Martin. Neither Katy nor I could intentionally gouge out the eye or tear off the head of our child. Nor could God. God must have patience with us. He has given evidence of it, and therefore he sent his Son into our flesh in order that we may look to him for the best.2

Third, Luther emphasizes that life in Christ is necessarily life under the cross.3 If we are united to Christ, our lives will be patterned after His. The way for both the true church and the true Christian is not via the theology of glory (theologia gloriae) but via the theology of the cross (theologia crucis). This impacts us inwardly as we die to self and outwardly as we share in the sufferings of the church. The medieval theology of glory must be overcome by the theology of the cross. For all their differences in understanding the precise nature of the sacraments, Luther and Calvin are at one here.

The Heart of the Reformation (500 Years Later)

Wolf Hall and the Protestant Reformation

My wife and I have enjoyed watching a new series called "Wolf Hall" on PBS Masterpiece.  In this intriguing show history is retold through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, "the enigmatic advisor to King Henry VIII, as he maneuvers the corridors of power in the Tudor court. This six-part series follows the back-room dealings of this accomplished power broker, from humble beginnings, who must survive deadly political intrigue." 

One of the things that I like to do while watching a show like this is to utilize my smartphone to 'fact check' the details.  For example, did Queen Anne Boleyn ever commit incest or was it a false charge trumped up against her because she failed to produce a male offspring?  What were the actual circumstances surrounding her death?  As a Christian, I am also very interested to know what role genuine believers played during the English Reformation?

For those of you interested in learning more about the heroes of the faith I recommend the following books: Katherine Parr: A Guided Tour of the Life and Thought of a Reformation Queen (one of the many wives of Henry) by Brandon Withrow.  I also would recommend chapter four in Christopher Catherwood's, Five Leading Reformers: Lives at a Watershed in History.    Finally, I would encourage you to read J. C. Ryle's classic book, Five English Reformers.