“Translated
the Bible into
English,” reads Tyndale‘s
epigraph; in the Protestant blossoming, this Herculean academic labor
was also of itself a dangerous religious and political manifesto.
As with Martin
Luther’s translation
of the Bible into German, Tyndale’s English version threatened,
and was intended to threaten, papal ecclesiastical authority. In
undertaking the work, Tyndale defied
the 1408 “Constitutions of Oxford”, an English clerical pact
further to the suppression of the Lollards and kindred post-John
Wycliffe heresies which expressly prohibited rendering scripture in
the vernacular.
In Protestant
hagiographer John
Foxe‘s Book
of Martyrs, a young Tyndale exasperated with a Romish divine
memorably declared,
“I defy the
pope, and all his laws;” and added, “If God spared him life, ere
many years he would cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more
of the Scripture than he did.”
Tyndale would
give his life to, and for, that ploughboy. On the lam in
Protestant Germany, Tyndale produced an English New Testament, and
then an Old Testament, of startling poetry.
REVIEWING A PARTIAL HISTORY OF THE ENDURING POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CHRIST'S CHURCH
By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
The Church of Jesus Christ has survived throughout 2,000 years and will continue to press forward against the powers of darkness, until Jesus our Saviour returns for His own. Early believers suffered under the Jewish Religous System in Jerusalem but they couldn't stop their former Enforcer, Saul of Tasrsus, who met the Living Christ in a blinding light on the Damascus Road. The Roman Empire tried to crush the Church and tortured and killed countless thousands of believers in Yeshua Ha Maschiach, but they had to bow to Jesus Christ our Lord. When the Church was rich and powerful, it became the persecutor of the True Believers who wanted to cleanse the Church. Consequently, the Imposter Church in Rome killed millions during the Dark Middle Ages under the 'Bloody old Vatican Wolf' and his lap dog Emperors. Dr. Martin Luther was the first Protestant Prophet to challenge the corrupt church and make his STAND FOR CHRIST and His Righteousness, without being killed. God protected him to lead the CHURCH back to God and Christ's Kingdom. Others like Savonarola, Jan Huss, Latimer, Riddley and Wycliffe were martyred by Satan's disciples! The Church suffered terribly under the murderous, cruel despots of the Arabian Peninsula and untold Believers in Jesus Christ were and are still being raped, kidnapped, starved and killed by pagan hordes. Millions more died at the bloody hands of Communist leaders like Lenin, Marx, Stalin, Mao! The Church of Jesus Christ, however, marches on. JESUS CHRIST stated: "I will build My Church and the gates of Hell shall NOT prevail against it." All Glory to God forever and ever. AMEN.
