Scripture for Today, 2-28-17

Series: History of the Holy Bible in English, Installment #7: William Tyndale 1536 AD

After only five years as priest in the Roman Catholic Church, in 1526 William Tyndale was first to bring holy scriptures to the common man all in English. He was quoted as saying:

"I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life, ​ere many years I will cause a boy who drives the plow to know more of the scriptures than you do!"
 
While William was held for eighteen months in the castle dungeon before his trial for heresy for printing the Latin Bible to English; he wrote a letter stating the following:​

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1. "First, faith alone justifies.
2. "Second, to believe in the forgiveness of sins, and to embrace the mercy offered in the gospel, was enough for salvation.
3. "Third, human traditions cannot bind the conscience, except where their neglect might occasion scandal.
4. "Fourth, he denied the freedom of the will.
5. "Fifth, he denied that there is any purgatory.
6. "Sixth, neither the Virgin nor the Saints pray for us in their own person.
7. "Seventh, neither the Virgin nor the Saints should be invoked by us." ​

In August 1536 AD William was convicted as being a heretic at the pageant of casting him out of the Church. In the town square a crowd gathered. The great doctors and dignitaries assembled in due pomp and array taking ​their seats on the high platform. Tyndale was led out, wearing his priest's robes. He was made to kneel and his hands were scraped with a knife or a piece of glass as a symbol of having lost the benefits of the anointing oil with which he was consecrated to the priesthood... he was summarily tied to the stake and burned. 

The Lord Jesus said:

"You will be hated by everyone on account of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. v9 they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
Matthew 10:22; 24:9

"When they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost."
Mark 13:11

"They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake."
​Luke 21:12

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​John Rogers, 1st of Many Christian Martyrs
1501-1600 Church History Timeline
In 1555 AD John Rogers burned to death at a stake at Smithfield, England