What about the Reformation?

This subject of tremendous importance was crucial for the church yesterday as well as it is today: Namely “the protestant Reformation”. Many of the reasons why the reformation was necessary, and all the concerns to which God opened the eyes of Martin Luther in the 16th century, are still troubling the church today. But how did it all start back then? Luther was not the first one to stand up and speak; There were previously some godly men and Martyrs who spoke against such issues whom we know very well of.

John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe, the morning star of the reformation, His life until its end, was the beginning of a recovery of the Scriptures and the Gospel from the corrupt and power hungry Church of Rome.

Wycliffe broke with tradition by refusing to claim that the Church was the final authority in matters of faith. In 1378 he authored The Truth of Holy Scripture in which he claimed that the Bible alone was the authority for believers. He stated that church councils, tradition, and even the Pope himself were to be held accountable to the authority and teaching of Scripture.

He also proclaimed that every Christian should be able to read the Bible for himself! This was novel, for the church not only controlled and interpreted the Bible for its members, but only the clergy were even allowed to own or read Bibles! Wycliffe’s answer was to publish the Bible in the everyday language of the people.

Wycliffe went on to say that the office of Pope was an invention of men and not based on Scripture. He said that the Pope was indeed the Antichrist, exalting himself in the place of Christ the Lord. Further, he stood up against the doctrine of transubstantiation – the idea that at the offering of the mass, the Eucharist, that the priest offered Jesus again as a sacrifice for God’s people and that the people then ate bread and wine which was literally the physical body and blood of Jesus.

As Wycliffe continued in the teachings and tradition of Augustine his greatest contribution to the world was the Bible translated into everyday language.

Charles H. Spurgeon said: 

“ The blood of martyrs is on the bible, the blood of translators and confessors. The doctrines we preach to you are doctrines that have been baptized in blood.”

John Wycliffe, the predecessor of the reformation died in 1384, of a stroke in Lutterworth, England.

John Hus

John Hus carried on the teachings of Wycliffe after his death. Hus, from Bohemia, not only encouraged the translation of the Word of God into the language of the people, but he preached in the language of the people instead of in Latin. He wanted the gospel to be heard and believed by those to whom he preached.

Hus also rejected the power and authority of the Pope, and while at a meeting to discuss his views in 1415 was arrested and burnt at the stake for his “heresy.” The council also took the opportunity to proclaim Wycliffe a heretic, even though he had been dead for almost 40 years. In fact, they dug up his bones and burnt them in contempt for his teaching and its influence on Hus.

At the end of Hus’ trial, when asked if he would appeal to the Pope for mercy, he responded:

“I do affirm before you all, that there is no more just or effectual appeal, than that which is made unto Christ. Who is a higher judge than Christ?“

When the chain was wrapped around his neck, binding him to the stake, he cried out:

“My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake, and why then should I be ashamed of this rusty one?“

As Hus was dying, being burned alive at the stake, he proclaimed:

“What I have taught with my lips I seal with my blood. You are now going to burn a goose, but in a century you will have a swan which you can neither roast or boil.“

The name Hus, means literally “goose.” In the 100 years from 1415 to the early 1500s another man came on the scene, a man whose family crest was the picture of a swan. That man was Martin Luther, who the Lord God used as an instrument to further his will in the reformation of the church. We will see about him in our next article.