HISTORY FROM THE REFORMATION
TO THE PRESENT
Nov
29, 2018 by Dr. Stephen Jones
The
Reformation first secured a foothold in Germany and Holland. England was next,
although at first this was motivated more by King Henry’s political dispute
with the pope than by a desire for biblical teaching. In fact, although he had
broken away from Rome and had become the head of the Church of England, he had
taken with him all of Rome’s doctrines and practices.
Nonetheless,
the king saw that it was virtually impossible to keep the Bible out of the
hands of the common people, so he allowed English translations of the Bible to
be placed in every parish.
These
were times of upheaval, especially on the main continent of Europe. Henry read
Tyndale’s 1528 book, The Obedience of a Christian Man, and thought that
Bible study would make the people docile and obedient. In actuality, it turned
every tavern into a house of debate, where everyone questioned the traditions
of both church and state. The ideas of rulers’ rights and people’s liberties
were front and foremost on their lips.
The
general consensus among the people was that rulers were stewards who remained
under God and were responsible to rule responsibly and righteously. If not,
they had no right to rule. From the king’s point of view (derived from papal
doctrine), the ruler was to be obeyed regardless of his righteousness, because
God had appointed him king or pope, and this meant he had absolute authority,
for better or for worse.
Henry
soon issued a second edict forbidding people to read the Bible. Yet it was too
late, for although he had penned the edict in his own handwriting, it was never
issued or published. King Henry died in 1547, and his ten-year-old son Edward
VI took the throne. Under his rule England’s break from Rome was solidified,
and the council took steps to ensure a succession of monarchs who would remain Protestant.
More
often than not, however, the monarchs thereafter were Roman Catholic inwardly
while Protestant outwardly. Hence, the struggle persisted but was largely
hidden in the background. Perhaps more to the point, the kings of England never
renounced their view of the divine right of kings, which they had received through
papal doctrine. In this, they were opposed by the Puritans who arose with their
more biblical view of the divine right of King Jesus to establish or depose His
steward monarchs.
The
short reign of Mary I from 1553-1558. As a Roman Catholic, she tried to reverse
course and return England to submission to Rome, burning more than 300
Protestants in the course of five years. It was a time of great religious
turbulence. Protestants called her “Bloody Mary.” After her death in 1558, her
younger half-sister, Elizabeth took the throne, and her long reign is known as
the Elizabethan Era.
The Geneva Bible
A
year after Elizabeth took the throne in England, the Geneva Bible was published
in 1559 in Switzerland. It was the first to be translated by a committee of English-speaking
Calvinist scholars who had been exiled during the reign of “Bloody Mary.” Their
notes reflected the conditions and events that were current in their time.
Papal sovereignty had been fully ingrained in the minds of Roman Catholics
since Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303). In his Unum Sanctum, he had
written:
“Furthermore
we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for
salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”
Protestants
contradicted that, insisting that all must be subject to Christ to receive
salvation.
Within
a generation, this Bible, with its footnotes and explanations, transformed the
thinking of the common people. However, it had been published in Switzerland,
and its distribution in England was somewhat limited. Yet it was the Bible that
was used by the Pilgrims who later came to America in 1620.
“It
is no exaggeration to say that the Geneva Bible was the most significant
catalyst of the transformation of England, Scotland, and America from slavish
feudalism to the heights of Christian civilization.” (The History and Impact
of the Geneva Bible, p.1)
But
the Geneva Bible was not without its critics, the chief of which was King James
I of England, who objected to its notes that denied the divine right of kings.
For example, we see the time preceding the birth of Moses, when the Pharaoh had
ordered all of the male Israelite children to be cast into the Nile. Exodus
1:17-21 says,
17 Notwithstanding the midwives feared God, and did not as the King of
Egypt commanded them, but preserved alive the men children. 18 Then
the King of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done
thus, and have preserved alive the men children? 19 And the midwives
answered Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the women of Egypt; for
they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come at them. 20
God therefore prospered the midwives, and the people multiplied, and were very
mighty. 21 And because the midwives feared God, therefore he made
them houses.
In
the footnotes, the Geneva Bible comments on these verses, saying,
1:19
Their disobedience herein was lawful, but their dissembling evil.
1:21
That is, God increased the families of the Israelites by their means.
1:22
When tyrants cannot prevail by craft, they burst forth into open rage.
The King James Version
The
Geneva Bible was revised and reprinted in 1599. King James I became king of
England in 1603. He was furious with these notes in the Geneva Bible, which
made disobedience lawful and calling the King of Egypt a “tyrant.” Hence, in
1604 he authorized the translation of a new Bible to replace the Geneva Bible.
Published in 1611, the King James Version was first called the “Authorized
Bible,” in 1814.
The
1611 Bible used the English letters that were standard at the time. Their “S”
looked more like an “f.” Further, there was no letter “J” at the time, so Jesus
was spelled “Iesus,” and Jew was spelled “Iewe.” The first use of the “J” was
in the 1629 Cambridge revision, which also corrected about 1600 misprints,
including the commandment, “Thou shalt commit adultery!” For that infraction,
the earlier misprinted Bible was called “The Wicked Bible.”
The
King James Version of today, though still somewhat antiquated in its language,
is actually an update from 1873, known as the Cambridge Paragraph Bible,
modernized and re-edited by F. H. A. Scrivener.
Although
the KJV utilized much of the Geneva Bible translation, it left out the notes
and simply gave the people an English text. Even so, nine years later the
Pilgrims were still using the Geneva Bible when they came to America.
Gradually, however, the KJV replaced the Geneva Bible and soon standardized the
English language.
In
the secular field of literature, we should also give credit to the final editor
of the King James Bible, Sir Francis Bacon, the founder of two secret
societies: Rosicrucianism for the upper class, and Freemasonry for the working
class. He believed as well that good works should be done in secret, as Jesus
suggested, so he wrote many great works of literature under the name of William
Shakespeare, giving him credit for his plays.
He
had a fine sense of humor and so in the middle chapter of the Bible (Psalm 46)
he translated verses 3 and 9:
3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake
with the swelling thereof. Selah.
9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the
bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire.
This
was a subtle signature of “Shakespeare,” who was 46 years old in 1610. At any
rate, the literature of Shakespeare also shaped the language of literature and
standardized the English vernacular.
Intellectual and Spiritual
Skills
The
Bible and Shakespeare’s plays not only provided motivation to become literate
but also aided the development of cognitive skills. The tavern debates over the
divine right of kings created an intellectual and spiritual revolution that
previously had been limited mostly to academia. Protestantism had let the genie
out of the bottle. Once men began to taste the freedom of thought and
conscience, they took the responsibility upon themselves to learn the truth. No
longer was truth determined by the pope or even by King Henry VIII.
They
learned that all men were authorized to discover truth and to seek God for
themselves. They learned that God wanted to have a personal (direct)
relationship with each individual. Men did not have to know God indirectly from
a distance through priests. Neither did salvation come through church
membership or submission to men.
Of
course, all authority comes with an equal level of responsibility.
Protestantism gave authority to every individual to know truth. Catholicism had
followed the earlier philosophies of the Greeks, which had come from the
tradition that ultimate knowledge (truth) was not attainable. Hence, the church
solution was to set apart a class of priests under a single head who presumably
stood above ignorance and untruth. A thousand years of history, however, had
produced only the Dark Ages, along with intellectual and spiritual oppression
and bondage.
By
restoring the right of individuals to seek God directly and to receive
revelation directly from the word of God, the entire culture was turned on its
head. But this new-found freedom was a mixed bag, because people were then free
to believe lies as well as truth. True freedom, after all, is not the freedom
to believe truth but to believe a lie. True freedom is not only the freedom to
act wisely but also to act foolishly. Each person must take personal
responsibility to the extent of his level of authority.
New Movements
Papal
authority was never eliminated because Catholics continued to revere their
popes. But they could not help but be influenced by the new-found freedom,
especially as Rome gave up ground as time passed. In the Vatican II Church
Council, it officially gave up its attempt to stop Catholics from reading the
Bible.
Today,
many Catholics, having been given much freedom, have less reason to be
Protestant, although now there is a rising groundswell of opposition against
Pope Francis’ refusal to deal with pedophilia in the priesthood. If the pope
does not do something about these clear abuses, he will have another Protestant
Reformation on his hands.
More
broadly speaking, European culture took two paths: secular and religious. The
rise of Secular Socialism in the 1800’s blossomed in the 1900’s. Protestantism
as a movement lost its spiritual roots as it embraced Socialism. The
Evangelical and Pentecostal movements replaced Protestantism as the carriers of
the gospel of Christ, though not without internal disputes.
The
success of Socialism has finally alarmed these Christians, beginning primarily
with the legalization of abortion in 1973, followed by America’s bicentennial
(1976), which began to create a nostalgia to reestablish the Christian roots of
the American Republic. This, I believe, was the beginning of the next (third)
Great Awakening, which is now erupting and causing consternation among the
Socialists who claim that their latest version of “American values” is the
valid one.
The
current struggle has its roots in the two different paths of knowledge and
truth that opened up to the common people during the Protestant Reformation.
Those who sought the knowledge of God developed science in order to understand
God through His creation. Those who sought knowledge as a secular matter sought
to disprove the existence of God through Darwin’s theory.
Secularism
won the battle in the past century, because over all, the beast systems of
government, beginning with the fall of Jerusalem in 604 B.C., were still
empowered by divine contract to bring judgment upon the world. The beast
dominion, however, ended in October 2017, as I have explained so often
previously. We now stand at the beginning of a major spiritual shift that will
bring the next Great Awakening.
We
now prepare for that seismic shift, for it will usher in the Kingdom of God in
a greater manifestation than has ever been seen in past history.
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