Latest / Providence Baptist Church - Sermons / Origins of the Bible
Transcript
- 0:00This is an enormous topic, and it might almost sound more like a lecture, like Nathan said, than actually a sermon tonight.
- 0:07I definitely think that we have much to be encouraged from and much to learn, though.
- 0:12I do love history, but I do think that every believer should make an effort to know church history, particularly.
- 0:20There's much to learn, much to be encouraged by, and much to be exposed.
- 0:24It actually is something I've been trying to go through with some guys I'm discipling this year.
- 0:29And I think they've found some really good benefit in it.
- 0:34But there's going to be a lot of questions that come up tonight.
- 0:36We definitely don't have time to cover everything.
- 0:39But we might have to take a little stretch about halfway through this and keep going on.
- 0:44I'm going to really try to finish before 10, but if I don't, you know, you can come or go, you know, like whatever you need to say.
- 0:51Just roll with it tonight.
- 0:54But I want us to start out by saying that God's Word is a gift of grace to us.
- 1:04We need to learn to treasure the Word.
- 1:08I think that we're just so used to having 10 copies of it laying around our house,
- 1:12and we forget that even today there are nations and languages out there that don't have the Word written in their tongue at all.
- 1:19And it's just a blessing to have this in front of us.
- 1:23In theology, there's two kinds of revelation that we talk about.
- 1:29There's something that we call general revelation,
- 1:33which is basically this idea of like how creation testifies that there is a God and that He is real and that He has made this.
- 1:42And that's like what we call general revelation.
- 1:45It talks about that in Romans 1.
- 1:46It's enough to tell us that God is because He made all these things.
- 1:52But the sad part is because of sin, general revelation is not enough to save somebody.
- 1:59We need specific revelation.
- 2:01And specific revelation is what you're holding in your hand, or hopefully have.
- 2:06If you don't have it in your hand, you have it somewhere else.
- 2:08It specifically tells us who God is and who we are, and we must understand those things.
- 2:14It's God's direct Word to us, and it's for the salvation of our souls so that we can know God and glorify Him again.
- 2:23But that's why you can go to tribes all over the world in the most remote places, and they understand that there's a God.
- 2:30They're like, yeah, obviously.
- 2:31I try to do some stuff with the Cherokee Indians up in North Carolina on the reservation, and I've learned a little bit about their religion, their ancient religion.
- 2:44And they're like, yeah, there's a Creator who made all of this, and He used to be revered and respected and honored.
- 2:50And so, like, wherever we go, like, there's general revelation, but we need specific revelation.
- 2:57That's what the Bible is.
- 2:59But the whole point is, like, God didn't have to do this.
- 3:03He could have just left us to ourselves, and we could have just been destroyed.
- 3:07But He chose to give us His Word, so we've got to learn to see the Bible as grace, like it's something that we didn't deserve that God gave to us.
- 3:14This is a quote by Martin Luther.
- 3:19It says,
- 3:19Oh, how great and glorious a thing it is to have before one the Word of God.
- 3:25With that we may at all times feel joyous and secure.
- 3:28We need never be in want of consolation, for we see before us in all its brightness the pure and right way.
- 3:35He who loses the sight of the Word of God falls into despair.
- 3:39The voice of heaven no longer sustains Him.
- 3:42He falls on the disorderly tendency of His heart and world vanity, which lead Him to His own destruction.
- 3:51Some of us know that to be true.
- 3:53But the Bible is a gift of grace, and the Bible has a lot to say about itself, which is pretty cool.
- 4:01The Bible proves itself without any kind of outside attention at all.
- 4:07It, like, says that it is the Word of God.
- 4:09And this is some things that I want to have in my life and I want you to have in your life.
- 4:16But I want us to hunger after the Word of God, like to desire it, to want it, to want to know it, and to understand it and believe it.
- 4:24Job said,
- 4:26I have not departed from the command of His lips.
- 4:29I have treasured the word of His mouth more than my necessary food.
- 4:33That's awesome.
- 4:34I'll move on down to the third one.
- 4:39Oh, how I love your law.
- 4:41It is my meditation all the day.
- 4:43If you want to look at one psalm that just specifically talks about the Scripture,
- 4:47Psalm 119 is the largest one in the book, in the whole Bible, actually, the largest chapter in the whole Bible.
- 4:52It specifically talks about the Word of God and the law of God.
- 4:57So this is really good to go back and read for all this.
- 5:00Psalm 119, same psalm of all these.
- 5:04It says,
- 5:05I have not turned aside from your ordinances for you yourself have taught me how sweet are your words to my taste.
- 5:13Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth.
- 5:16Read and learn to crave and hunger after God's Word.
- 5:19Something else about your Bible.
- 5:24You need to understand that this didn't just pop up out of the printing machine one day.
- 5:30This has been a long process over hundreds and even thousands of years to get the Bible to us.
- 5:39It's a bloodstained book.
- 5:41It's something that Charles Spurgeon said.
- 5:43Remember that our Bible is a bloodstained book.
- 5:45The blood of martyrs is on the Bible.
- 5:48The blood of translators and confessors.
- 5:51The doctrines we preach to you are the doctrines that have been baptized in blood.
- 5:55Swords have been drawn to slay the confessors of them.
- 6:00And there is not a truth which has not been sealed by them at the stake or the block.
- 6:05So like burning or having to be beheaded at the block.
- 6:11Well, they have not been slain by the hundreds.
- 6:13And so as we begin to kind of talk through this, some things might be hard to hear.
- 6:21I understand that, you know, we're going to talk about the Reformation a little bit
- 6:26and some of the things that happened during the Protestant Reformation,
- 6:29specifically the English Reformation.
- 6:31And there's going to be...
- 6:35I'm aware that some of you may be Roman Catholic or know people that are Roman Catholic.
- 6:41I have a lot of really close friends that actually are Catholic.
- 6:46And I plead with them to understand, like, what the Scripture says about salvation
- 6:51and about the grace of God.
- 6:53So I don't take this lightly.
- 6:54So we're going to get to that in a minute.
- 6:58But we're going to start in the Old Testament and talk about how we got the Old Testament.
- 7:04It's working pretty good.
- 7:07All right.
- 7:09So the background of the Old Testament, written roughly between 1445 B.C. to 424.
- 7:17That's an estimation.
- 7:20So it's been in the making for a while.
- 7:23A whole variety of different kind of authors wrote the Old Testament from all the different kinds you see here.
- 7:30Prophets, kings, soldiers, poets, shepherds, historians.
- 7:34So it's not just like one type of God.
- 7:36This is many different people from many different walks of life that are writing about the same thing.
- 7:42Languages, mostly Hebrew, probably some Aramaic mixed in.
- 7:46Hebrew scribes over the centuries have copied down the Scripture.
- 7:53You should really know a lot about Hebrew scribes.
- 7:55When they copied down the Old Testament, what they would call Torah or the prophets or the wisdom writings,
- 8:06as they copied it, they probably did it like on papyrus or whatever.
- 8:11But if they ever messed up, like just one little bit, let's just say that he wrote a whole scroll
- 8:16when he's copying Isaiah, for instance.
- 8:18Even if he was like in the last little crate and he messed it up, like made a bad mark,
- 8:24he would throw the whole thing away.
- 8:26It was like a really serious deal.
- 8:27Like they wanted to make sure that what was being transcribed was exactly what was there and nothing less.
- 8:33So the canonization of the Old Testament, you know, like a canon is not just talking about a piece of artillery.
- 8:41We're talking about an accepted number of books into something.
- 8:46Some of them say, yeah, these are a part of what we believe.
- 8:49That's like what the canonization is.
- 8:52Move to this.
- 8:55Josephus Flavius was a first century Jewish historian.
- 8:59He was captured by the Romans after Jerusalem was destroyed.
- 9:04And he eventually became a historian.
- 9:07He wrote down a lot of stuff that is really beneficial to us today to understand a little bit more about the context.
- 9:12He even wrote about Jesus.
- 9:15He wrote about Pilate.
- 9:16He wrote about John the Baptist, James, the brother of Jesus.
- 9:19He wrote about all these things.
- 9:21And he said about Jesus, like, yeah, this guy, something else.
- 9:25That's kind of like where he says, paraphrase, he said he did all kind of wonderful miracles and amazed people and could have been the Messiah.
- 9:34He doesn't.
- 9:35He wasn't.
- 9:35I don't think he actually believed that.
- 9:37But this was Josephus.
- 9:39And this is what he wrote about the Old Testament canon.
- 9:42All right.
- 9:43Now, understanding that this guy had knowledge of things that we probably don't have access to today.
- 9:49He had that tradition passed down to him.
- 9:52He actually was a Pharisee.
- 9:54This is what he wrote.
- 9:56We have not in a numeral multitude of books among us disagreeing from and contradicting one another like the Greeks have.
- 10:05So he's trying to say that the Greeks are not consistent in their literature.
- 10:08That's what he's trying to say.
- 10:10He's trying to say that what we have is exactly what has always been there.
- 10:14But only 22 books which contain the records of all the past times, which are justly to believe to be divine.
- 10:20And of them, five belong to Moses.
- 10:24That's the first five books.
- 10:25That's the Torah.
- 10:26Genesis through Genesis, Exodus, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, written by Moses.
- 10:32Wrote down on what was done in their times in 13 books.
- 10:36The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for conduct of human life.
- 10:42So the prophets and the wisdom writings.
- 10:45If you look in your table of contents, we have more books than 22.
- 10:51That's only because we split them apart a little bit, like 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles.
- 10:58We even split Jeremiah and Lamentations.
- 11:01So it's the same thing.
- 11:02So what is in the...
- 11:05I've got to make this distinction.
- 11:08What the evangelical or Protestant canon would be is what the Hebrews actually considered to be divine.
- 11:16And they don't...
- 11:18There's also the Apocrypha.
- 11:19Some of you have heard of the Apocrypha before that's included in a lot of Roman Catholic Bibles.
- 11:26Well, we don't have those in the Protestant canon because the Hebrews themselves didn't consider them to be inspired by God.
- 11:36They're just, like, included in.
- 11:37And so what you have, most of us have in our Old Testament is exactly what the Hebrews had in there.
- 11:46So they considered these to be divine and nothing else.
- 11:49So we kind of, like, followed that idea.
- 11:55So the Old Testament manuscripts.
- 11:57There was a problem for the longest time.
- 12:01The oldest complete Hebrew manuscripts we possess are from 900 A.D.
- 12:05That's bad.
- 12:07Why is that bad?
- 12:08It's because we have tons of prophecies about Christ in the Old Testament, right?
- 12:15Tons of them.
- 12:15Particularly Isaiah.
- 12:16Like the huge book that has a ton of prophecies about Christ.
- 12:22That would be a problem because it would be easy to say they went back and wrote these things way after Christ ever came.
- 12:27Just to kind of prove, you know, that He was who He said He was.
- 12:31So the question is, how could we be so sure of their accurate transmission since before the time of Christ in the first century A.D.?
- 12:42And that's a really big question.
- 12:44Which leads us to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
- 12:47There's actually a picture of them there.
- 12:48You can go to Israel and actually see them today.
- 12:50It says they were found around 1947 and they contained copies of all the Old Testament except the book of Esther.
- 13:00That most date back to 125 B.C.
- 13:02That's pretty good.
- 13:03That's a long time ago.
- 13:04And it was found by a shepherd boy that was kind of looking for a lost sheep up near the Dead Sea in Israel.
- 13:12That's why they're called the Dead Sea Scrolls.
- 13:16They had been preserved in excellent condition for 1,900 years.
- 13:20It's pretty awesome.
- 13:22And here's something even cooler.
- 13:23When they took the Dead Sea Scrolls, okay, they date way back B.C.
- 13:28They took those and laid them right beside the ones that we have from A.D., okay, like the ones that are way after that.
- 13:36They said the exact same thing.
- 13:38So there wasn't any difference.
- 13:40That's pretty awesome.
- 13:41So even the ones that we have from 900 A.D. didn't contradict the ones that were B.C. at all.
- 13:47So that just kind of speaks to the testament about the accurate transmission from the Hebrew scribes over the centuries.
- 13:53They've put down exactly what was there and it hasn't changed at all.
- 13:57So, really cool.
- 14:03All right.
- 14:03Something else I thought I might read to you real fast is something else Joseph said about the scriptures.
- 14:09It says,
- 14:10We have given practical proof of our reverence for our own scriptures.
- 14:14For although such long ages now have passed, no one has ventured either to add, to remove, or to alter a syllable.
- 14:21And in it is an instinct with every Jew from the day of his birth to regard them as decrees of God, to abide by them, and if need be, cheerfully die for them.
- 14:33Time and again, here now, the sight has been witness of prisoners, enduring tortures, death in every form in the theaters.
- 14:41He's talking about like the Roman amphitheaters and Colosseum.
- 14:47Colosseum wasn't built yet, but rather than utter a single word against the laws and allied documents.
- 14:51So, main point, it's a big deal to the Hebrews.
- 14:55Okay?
- 14:56They weren't going to like mess this up.
- 14:58So, you can be sure that like what's there is what God has preserved for thousands of years, like a long time.
- 15:04So, that's our Old Testament.
- 15:06Moving into the New Testament.
- 15:13All right.
- 15:14Background.
- 15:15Getting around the first century A.D.
- 15:18All right.
- 15:20Again, a variety of authors.
- 15:23Yeah, fishermen, rabbis, tax collectors, physicians, scholars.
- 15:27One of the greatest testaments about the Bible compared to a lot of other books, like the Koran or anything like that,
- 15:37is that you have a ton of different authors.
- 15:39I think it's over 50 different authors that wrote the Bible over a course of a long time, like thousands of years.
- 15:46And they all tell you the same story.
- 15:49That's pretty awesome.
- 15:50There is a God.
- 15:51He's holy.
- 15:52He takes sin seriously.
- 15:54There is a Messiah coming.
- 15:55The Messiah came.
- 15:57That's all these guys from all these different backgrounds over a long period of time saying the same thing.
- 16:02There is a huge testament to the Bible.
- 16:04So, you don't just have one guy writing things down.
- 16:08The language is according to Greek and some Aramaic.
- 16:12So, you should go find the day.
- 16:17Oh, man, I messed that up.
- 16:21Backing up.
- 16:22Sorry.
- 16:24Oh, man, I'm too still.
- 16:25This isn't going.
- 16:27I can't see it.
- 16:30Okay.
- 16:30Well, I can tell you where it is.
- 16:36Oh, well.
- 16:39I can tell you where it is.
- 16:40I had a chart that showed the Bible compared to other ancient documents.
- 16:46Okay.
- 16:47I'm just going to use one.
- 16:48I'll tell you all the ones I have there.
- 16:49Take you on.
- 16:50Let's just compare it to, like, Homer's Iliad.
- 16:52Okay.
- 16:53The earliest copy that we have, we have no original manuscripts from any ancient text.
- 16:59You shouldn't have that.
- 17:00We don't have any originals at all.
- 17:02They're all destroyed because they're really old.
- 17:05They'll just rot and be no more.
- 17:06So, there is a time gap between when the originals were written and then the actual copies that we have in our hand today.
- 17:17For Homer and the Iliad, I want to say it was around, man, I don't want to get it wrong.
- 17:27It doesn't matter.
- 17:27I want to say, I think it's around, like, maybe 800 years.
- 17:31That's a long time gap between the original and the ones that we have today.
- 17:35So, people don't have a problem with that, you know, because people try to say, well, the Bible, you don't have any original manuscripts.
- 17:42And you're like, well, there's not any original manuscripts from any ancient text.
- 17:47And, matter of fact, the Bible has the smallest time gap between the originals and the ones we have today.
- 17:55I think the largest manuscript or the only manuscript we have that has the largest time gap is 150 years.
- 18:02That's not that bad.
- 18:02And then a lot of them date, like, just 70 past, like, when the origins were written at all.
- 18:09So, they have the smallest time gap.
- 18:11And I think we have somewhere around 5,400 different manuscripts of the New Testament.
- 18:19Homer's Iliad, remember, almost like an 800-year difference.
- 18:24We only have 600 manuscripts.
- 18:25So, the New Testament has more manuscripts in our hands today that dwarf everything else, more than Caesar's histories, more than anything.
- 18:35And there's the smallest time gap between the originals and the ones that we have today.
- 18:40Some people may say, watch the clock.
- 18:44We don't have any of the originals.
- 18:45So, how can you know that what we have is exactly what they had?
- 18:51Because we don't have the originals.
- 18:53So, it could have gotten messed up.
- 18:55Here's an analogy for you.
- 18:57Our U.S. Constitution is in a museum in Washington, D.C.
- 19:01You can go see it.
- 19:02I think I saw it when I was in middle school, I think.
- 19:07You know, like, everybody's seen the movie where Nicolas Cage steals the Declaration of Independence and stuff.
- 19:13It's probably that same museum.
- 19:15But, let's just say that somehow, like, that building got blown up.
- 19:22All right?
- 19:23And our Constitution was, like, burned.
- 19:25Like, we don't have it anymore.
- 19:27Like, the original is gone.
- 19:28Now, when our government, mostly our government doesn't buy by the Constitution anyway, but this may not say.
- 19:36Maybe they should.
- 19:37They're probably saying this is a lot of math.
- 19:39But, all right, sorry.
- 19:41I'm ready to go there.
- 19:42But, if that happened, would our government all of a sudden say, man, we don't know what the Constitution says anymore?
- 19:50That would be really stupid, wouldn't it?
- 19:52Why?
- 19:52Because, like, we've made copies of the original 1,000, 100 times over, right?
- 19:58And so, we have, like, in our hands, none of them date back to 17.
- 20:03Uh-oh.
- 20:04I can't remember.
- 20:05Doesn't matter.
- 20:07None of them date back to that time.
- 20:09But, we have tons of copies of the copy.
- 20:11Tons of them.
- 20:12So, we would never really say, you know, that's not, we can't rely on that.
- 20:17It's the same thing in the New Testament.
- 20:18We have tons of copies of the copy that have been passed down.
- 20:21So, we can be sure that, like, what was there is actually what we have.
- 20:26So, all right.
- 20:29Now, a lot of people have asked me, hey, you know, the church has kept some books out of the Bible.
- 20:36That's messed up and wrong.
- 20:38Not really.
- 20:39Not if you're a pastor and you're trying to protect God's truth from heresy.
- 20:42It's not.
- 20:42So, who decided what stays in and what stays out?
- 20:48Well, there was a series of councils that met around this time.
- 20:51Like, the defining one was the Council of Carthage in 397 A.D.
- 20:56Tons of elders and pastors and bishops from all over North Africa.
- 21:03At that time, it was still the Roman Empire.
- 21:06Came to Carthage to talk about it.
- 21:08And this was their criteria for letting a book in or keeping a book out.
- 21:13First one.
- 21:15Whether or not the document was written by an apostle or one in a close association with an apostle.
- 21:21So, he was either there or he talked to the guy who was there.
- 21:27And it doesn't go beyond that.
- 21:28So, you have like Paul who was there.
- 21:31Matthew who was there.
- 21:32John who was there.
- 21:34And then you have a guy like Luke who knew Paul.
- 21:37Right?
- 21:38So, that's kind of like how the connection goes.
- 21:40It's not all kind of information passed down to five or six people.
- 21:45It's not telephone.
- 21:46Put it that way.
- 21:46It's just like either he was there or he talked to the guy who was there.
- 21:49Secondly, whether or not the document was recognized as authoritative by the early church.
- 21:56At this time, a lot of the guys, by tradition and acceptance, they would know the early church fathers accepted these books.
- 22:06They were kind of not cool with these.
- 22:08They would understand that.
- 22:09So, it was not that far away.
- 22:11It seems crazy to us today because we weren't living way back then.
- 22:15But a lot of that was still around so they would know if it was accepted or not by the earlier church.
- 22:21Thirdly, whether or not the document was confirmed to the high standards and truths taught already and recognized scripture.
- 22:32All right.
- 22:32So, it would be easy to say we know that John is inspired.
- 22:37You know, he walked with Christ.
- 22:39He was there.
- 22:39He saw the resurrected Lord.
- 22:41So, we know that what is taught here and then also what is taught in the Old Testament teaches us about God.
- 22:48All right.
- 22:49So, if we just get some random book and it just kind of says, God's cool with sin.
- 22:55Jesus didn't die for sin.
- 22:57So, God's not holy.
- 22:59He's not going to punish sin.
- 23:00There's no hell.
- 23:01We'd be like, huh.
- 23:02That doesn't conform to what we know is already authoritative.
- 23:06So, it would be cast out.
- 23:07So, this is a really, really good criteria, in my opinion.
- 23:11I don't think I can come up with better criteria.
- 23:14But that's what you have in your New Testament is what they decided on at this point.
- 23:21So, obviously, there are certain books that fly around that we reject because they teach wrong things.
- 23:27They're not accurate.
- 23:28They're not true.
- 23:30They are all over the place.
- 23:32So, let's see.
- 23:33Let's move into this next part.
- 23:34All right.
- 23:36Now, this is what I was talking about a minute ago.
- 23:40We're going to talk a little bit about the Reformation.
- 23:44Okay.
- 23:45Now, the Dark Ages are called the Dark Ages for a reason.
- 23:48It means that there was just ignorance.
- 23:51People were not educated.
- 23:53And they were told what they believed, what they were told by the official church at the time.
- 23:59And my goal is not to talk a lot about this tonight.
- 24:06But it just needs to be mentioned.
- 24:09The papacy didn't just...
- 24:11The papacy is the Roman church, the Pope.
- 24:14It didn't just happen overnight.
- 24:15It was kind of a process.
- 24:16And for the longest time, though, the church in Rome was a really good organization, actually.
- 24:21They were really instrumental in combating heresies.
- 24:24St. Augustine and a lot of earlier church fathers were really big in the church of Rome.
- 24:30And they actually upheld the Scripture and the Gospel of Grace.
- 24:35You can go back and read their writings.
- 24:37They preached the same gospel that we believe today.
- 24:41But over time, monarchs began to kind of like convert to Christianity, you know.
- 24:47And a lot of times they would enforce Christianity on their people.
- 24:51This is what we're going to do.
- 24:52We're not going to worship these pagan gods anymore.
- 24:54And this is what we're going to do.
- 24:56So over time, monarchs began to kind of place certain bishops in a position that would favor them.
- 25:05And so just slowly there was this transition of the church coming under control of the state.
- 25:11Okay?
- 25:12Which was never meant to be that way.
- 25:14It's always more of a...
- 25:16The church is its own entity.
- 25:17It's not ever a part of the state.
- 25:20And so that's why empires rise and fall, but the church remains.
- 25:24And it will remain.
- 25:25It will be the only thing left one day.
- 25:28But he has something called like a hierarchy in the Roman church.
- 25:33The pope, cardinals, and bishops.
- 25:36Only their occupations could honor God at this time.
- 25:40They taught that every other occupation was secular.
- 25:42So you couldn't be a teacher.
- 25:44You couldn't be a farmer.
- 25:46And you couldn't glorify God and the work you did because it was secular, not sacred.
- 25:53The pope at this time, still a lot today, hasn't changed too much.
- 26:00He is the sole interpreter of scripture.
- 26:02If he says this is what scripture teaches, then this is what you have to believe in a lot of ways.
- 26:08He's like the official dictator over scripture.
- 26:11The pope actually means the vicar.
- 26:13He's called the vicar of Christ.
- 26:14It means the person who stands in the place of Christ.
- 26:19Saying that he represents Christ on the earth in a way is what he's trying to say.
- 26:25And so the church in Rome itself carried equal authority with the Bible on the same level.
- 26:32All right.
- 26:33They said that you have to have this in order to know what's right and what's not.
- 26:37Last week I talked about justification a little bit.
- 26:43And we'll kind of revisit it here.
- 26:46But in Roman theology, and even today, this hasn't changed.
- 26:50That is, it's a, it's a works-based salvation saying that I have to believe the right thing and I have to do the right things.
- 26:57And at this time, particularly, how salvation would be achieved was through merit.
- 27:04You had to achieve a certain amount of merit in order to inherit eternal life.
- 27:10And the number one way you would do this is through the work of penance.
- 27:14All right.
- 27:15Now, penance is a sacrament in the Roman church.
- 27:18And it's more like self-rebasement and devotion.
- 27:22This performed externally is like a work you do to show your sorrow or your remorse over sin that you've committed.
- 27:29So this is the Roman idea of penance.
- 27:32So where does God's grace come in?
- 27:35God's grace was something that kind of gave you a little bit of help, but it didn't see the work through.
- 27:40And you had to kind of keep up with the grace of God.
- 27:44Like, if God gave you a little bit of grace, you needed to kind of make the most out of it and kind of go on to the next stage.
- 27:49And then he might give you a little more grace.
- 27:51And it was this process of becoming righteous.
- 27:56So, as I said last week, a paraphrase of what was taught was God helps those who help themselves.
- 28:04It's an easy way to help understand their theology when it comes to salvation.
- 28:08That you have to do for your own.
- 28:10And if you do, God will help you a little bit.
- 28:13So, in their system, God would only justify the ungodly when the ungodly had made themselves godly.
- 28:27Okay?
- 28:28So they had to, like, get to that point where they were godly.
- 28:30And then only then would it be right for God to justify them and to give them salvation.
- 28:36So it was a works-based salvation.
- 28:39And it still is today.
- 28:42What we read in Scripture in Romans 4 that it is not about works, but faith alone.
- 28:50It says that God justifies the ungodly because of the work of Christ and what Christ did on the cross.
- 28:56So, in regard to salvation, you should know this, though, that the Roman church taught, actually, that no one in this life could actually achieve salvation.
- 29:07They said that no one could ever gain enough merit in this life to have eternal life.
- 29:12So, instead of despairing, they kind of put up a safety net for that, which was purgatory.
- 29:20It's a place that you could go to after death to be purified by hundreds and even thousands of years of torture and pain.
- 29:29And only then we got to a certain point where you were pure enough, cleansed enough, that you actually could go to heaven.
- 29:37So, which is, it's not in Scripture anywhere.
- 29:40This is what a lot of the Reformers at the time were like, where are you guys getting this?
- 29:44This is just not here.
- 29:46It was something they made up to kind of, like, that backed up the works-based salvation thing because you would despair if you thought, well, man, there's no way I can do it in this life.
- 29:55If that's true, then what am I doing even trying?
- 29:58So, purgatory was your safety net in a way.
- 30:04Indulgences, pilgrimages, and relics were all things that you could do to cut down your time in purgatory.
- 30:14Pilgrimages would be like going to Rome or going to Jerusalem, going to a place where a saint is buried.
- 30:19Indulgences were an official written statement from Rome that absolved you of sin.
- 30:28It could be like a lot of your sin or it could be all your sin.
- 30:31And indulgences could be obtained by a financial donation or by a service performed, like going on a crusade.
- 30:40It would tell a lot of the crusaders, if you go on this crusade, you come back and you survive.
- 30:45It will give you an indulgence and you'll be absolved of all your sin.
- 30:47And this is what you even learn in school.
- 30:50Dr. May of North Georgia talked a lot about this in his crusade class.
- 30:56So, relics were some kind of object that somebody in the Bible had contact with.
- 31:04So, this could be like, this was the staff that David used, or this could be the cloak that John the Baptist had.
- 31:14And if you owned it or you could even look upon, it would cut down time in purgatory.
- 31:20Indulgences were the thing that really set Martin Luther off years later.
- 31:24When he went to Rome and he found out that if he just looked and came up and looked at these nails that were supposedly on the cross of Christ,
- 31:32he could have, I think he said, 500 years off purgatory just for looking at them.
- 31:38So, it was just kind of a superstition that wasn't anywhere in the Bible.
- 31:42So, the Inquisition was more like a religious tribunal, if you want to put it that way.
- 31:50If you disagree with what Rome taught, then you'd be brought before the cardinals and the bishops,
- 31:58and they would try you.
- 31:59And if you refused to recant or take back what you said, you usually would be put to death.
- 32:04So, it was like a religious tribunal that went on throughout the medieval ages.
- 32:09A lot of us have heard of the Spanish Inquisition before.
- 32:12That was probably one of the most famous ones in history.
- 32:17So, in the state of Christendom, that just means where Christianity is,
- 32:21the majority of the scriptures were in Latin.
- 32:23The majority of the ones that people had access to were in Latin.
- 32:27And the Latin Vulgate was really, really common.
- 32:32So, you've heard people say, like I said earlier, the Bible has some errors in it, right?
- 32:38But that's what I heard.
- 32:40Somebody told me that, so I don't know if we can really trust it.
- 32:43Well, this is where that might actually come in.
- 32:46A guy named Diderius Erasmus was a brilliant scholar.
- 32:54Don't really know if he was a believer or not.
- 32:55I'd like to think he was.
- 32:56But he was the guy who kind of had it out with Luther later about salvation.
- 33:00But he wrote a Greek New Testament.
- 33:05All right?
- 33:06So, you could go and read the original Greek.
- 33:09He put one together.
- 33:11And you could read the Latin right beside it.
- 33:13And when they did this, he discovered there was a lot of errors in the Latin Vulgate.
- 33:18And he kind of pointed out the Pope.
- 33:21He gave that to the Pope again in that Greek New Testament.
- 33:24The Pope was like, thanks.
- 33:26Like he's kind of nervous.
- 33:27It made him really nervous.
- 33:28Because when people start getting their hands on the Scripture, stuff starts being exposed.
- 33:33But this is one example of a translation here.
- 33:36Matthew 4.
- 33:37Matthew 4.17.
- 33:39This is reading out of ESV now.
- 33:42It says,
- 33:43For that time, Jesus began to preach, saying,
- 33:46Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
- 33:50So, this is what that says right there in Latin.
- 33:53The problem is, the Vulgate, you see that one word close right there at the end?
- 33:58Penitatium.
- 33:59Penitatium.
- 34:00It means penance.
- 34:02It's saying, do penance.
- 34:04So, basically saying, do a lot of good works.
- 34:08Abase yourself.
- 34:10Abase yourself.
- 34:11Show like some kind of external expression of how much you hate your sin.
- 34:16Okay?
- 34:17Which Calvin later pointed out that that's not what God wants.
- 34:21Remember Psalm 51?
- 34:23The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart.
- 34:27And Erasmus actually translated this, repent or change your mind.
- 34:32That's what he wrote.
- 34:33That's what Erasmus was saying.
- 34:34That's what the Greek says, man.
- 34:35He's saying like, so it's talking about an inward transformation.
- 34:38Like you hate your sin out of your heart.
- 34:41And you understand that it's evil.
- 34:42It's not just saying, well, I really like my sin.
- 34:47But if I do this and abase myself, God will be happy.
- 34:50God is more concerned about the heart than your outward action.
- 34:52So, that was one error of many in the Latin Vulgate.
- 34:59So, Rome began to kind of get afraid.
- 35:02Like, well, if that's messed up, what other parts might be messed up?
- 35:06So, going on to the sermons and music were Latin.
- 35:11Now, you understand that like most people in Europe at that time, they didn't understand Latin.
- 35:16It was just mainly certain elites knew Latin.
- 35:20And if you went to law school or something like that, you were taught Latin.
- 35:24And the sermons at this time were not like you'd hear today.
- 35:27You wouldn't come to a service back then or a mass and hear them teach just right out of the Bible.
- 35:34You know, doing expository preaching.
- 35:37Most of their sermons were trivial pursuit and storytelling.
- 35:42And they followed more of the teachings of Plato and Aristotle rather than what the Bible said.
- 35:47Just like sadly today, and I hope and I pray that you don't go to a place like this where it's like pop psychology and all the cool stuff today.
- 35:59It's like kind of taking over.
- 36:00Tell me five ways to have a good marriage.
- 36:02Five ways to have a nice day.
- 36:04And like that's the kind of sermons you hear.
- 36:06It's more pop psychology than it is the Bible.
- 36:09It was the same thing back then.
- 36:10And so that was their sermons and also mystery plays.
- 36:17This is just, again, just plays that they did to kind of represent things that happened in the Bible.
- 36:23Stories that you saw in the Bible.
- 36:26So here's a question.
- 36:29I asked this question before.
- 36:30So at this time, during this huge period of time in the Dark Ages and medievalism,
- 36:37was there anybody who actually taught like the real Scripture and taught the real Gospel during this huge span of time?
- 36:43Was there just nothing going on?
- 36:45Which one was it?
- 36:47And the answer biblically to that is God always has His people somewhere.
- 36:54And we'll get to that in just a second.
- 36:56But I wanted to bring this up.
- 36:59We'll kind of run through this real fast.
- 37:01Scripture availability.
- 37:03Most people just didn't have a copy of the Bible at all.
- 37:07Had no idea.
- 37:09They were all handwritten.
- 37:10There were a few copies.
- 37:12If you had one, it was very, very, very expensive to have.
- 37:16And the ones that they did have were like locked and secured.
- 37:18So you just didn't have access to it.
- 37:20You couldn't just go to Bible Gateway on your computer and look it up.
- 37:24Nobody had this.
- 37:25So during this time, was there any kind of preservation?
- 37:30And the answer is yes.
- 37:31God always sovereignly has His people and has His Word.
- 37:35It's what we might call in history isolated torches of light in the dark.
- 37:41And one of the most well-known groups out there were called the Koldees.
- 37:46And it means vassals of God.
- 37:49And there's a huge branch of them in Ireland.
- 37:51They were called Selde, which was God's sworn ally.
- 37:55And at this time, they were a monastic order of settlements in Ireland, Scotland, and England.
- 38:04They taught the gospel that you hear today.
- 38:08They had access to the original Greek Hebrew.
- 38:13They preached the gospel by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.
- 38:17There wasn't anything different.
- 38:18They understood that the Bible was the ultimate authority and not a human being, not a person.
- 38:23And so, all this was going on.
- 38:26And now we're going to kind of transition into England a little bit, okay?
- 38:30Because that's how we get our English Bibles.
- 38:33Most of us speak English.
- 38:34So that's what we're going to kind of go for.
- 38:36But the Reformation was going on all over Europe.
- 38:39But we're going to start moving that way in just a little while.
- 38:44John Wycliffe, he called the morning star the Reformation.
- 38:50He kind of came, he was before Martin Luther.
- 38:54He was a product of the Codys.
- 38:57All right?
- 38:58Like we just looked at.
- 38:59So he had been taught this stuff.
- 39:01So he was in England, and he was a professor at Oxford.
- 39:04He was a very wealthy, prestigious, powerful man.
- 39:07And he began to teach at his university.
- 39:12He was kind of one of the first well-known guys to stand up and say,
- 39:17the Pope and the church in Rome is not God's voice on the earth.
- 39:21The Bible does.
- 39:22He was kind of, that was like a crazy idea, you know?
- 39:25So he was saying, the Scripture is our ultimate authority for everything.
- 39:30Just like he says right there.
- 39:31So he began to kind of teach this stuff.
- 39:35And people would come from all over Europe to Oxford to kind of sit and hear him lecture.
- 39:39And they'd just be like taking notes like crazy.
- 39:42And they would take it back to whatever country they were from.
- 39:46It was like ammunition, basically, just to understand like what the Bible taught.
- 39:51He eventually translated from the Latin Vulgate into English.
- 39:54So it was called the Wycliffe Bible.
- 39:58But he only used the Latin to write to English.
- 40:01He didn't read.
- 40:03He didn't understand Greek or Hebrew at the time.
- 40:06So he's called the Morning Star of the Reformation.
- 40:10And he was in England.
- 40:11And when he died, Rome hated him so much that he actually dug up his bones,
- 40:17burned them, and scattered his ashes so nobody would ever know where he was buried.
- 40:24So, Reformation does roll around.
- 40:30Does anybody know what the 31st is this month besides Halloween?
- 40:35Reformation Day.
- 40:36Cool.
- 40:38That's when Martin Luther supposedly nailed the 95 Theses to the door of Edinburgh.
- 40:43It was October 31st, All Saints Day.
- 40:47So, post-tenebrous looks.
- 40:49That means it's a phrase that's used to describe the Reformation.
- 40:53And it means after darkness, light.
- 40:56Pretty cool.
- 40:58Pretty cool phrase.
- 41:00Because the light of God's Word began to kind of break back into the people.
- 41:04I mentioned this briefly last week.
- 41:06The five solos of the Reformation.
- 41:09These are pillars of what we would believe today that we teach here at Christ's Family.
- 41:14And these were the key truths that were taught in the Reformation.
- 41:20And all these are huge.
- 41:21But basically, I'm going to try to connect them together for you.
- 41:25That salvation, okay, comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
- 41:35All right?
- 41:37By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
- 41:42And the loans are really key because Rome taught, yeah, you're saved by grace, but not grace alone.
- 41:49Yeah, you're saved by faith, but not faith alone.
- 41:52It was also up to you to do a lot of the stuff.
- 41:55The works of righteousness, the penance, taking part in the sacraments, confession to a priest.
- 42:00All these things were necessary for salvation, but the Reformation said, no, it's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
- 42:09And all of that is to God's glory alone.
- 42:13And the biggest indictment that a lot of the Reformers had on Rome was that they were trying to steal glory from God in salvation.
- 42:23All right?
- 42:24And that's why John and I have been doing this series, because it is in salvation that God has brought the most glory to himself by redeeming man, by sending his son, by showing us grace.
- 42:36And their biggest indictment was, like, you guys are trying to steal glory from God in salvation.
- 42:41And it's clear in Scripture that God is the only Savior, and he doesn't share his glory.
- 42:47He's the only one.
- 42:48So, to God, along be the glory.
- 42:51So, so would David Gloria.
- 42:52Yeah.
- 42:53And, okay, so, so Rome says, okay, where are you getting all that?
- 42:58Where are you getting all that?
- 42:59And they would say, sola scriptura.
- 43:02Scripture alone is our authority, not, and the church.
- 43:06It's not unequal authority.
- 43:07Scripture alone is our authority.
- 43:11So, that's the five solas.
- 43:14You should do a study on those sometime on your own.
- 43:16And so, the reformers' view of sola scriptura stood against the Roman view of Scripture.
- 43:23Like I said, it was the ultimate authority.
- 43:26The ultimate say-so.
- 43:27But what the reformers did teach was they, you don't throw out creeds and confessions and church history altogether.
- 43:37All right?
- 43:38Because the gospel has been passed down throughout the centuries.
- 43:41Okay?
- 43:41So, what we believe today has been believed throughout the centuries by real believers.
- 43:46So, it's not like you disconnect yourself from the past.
- 43:50But you don't put the creeds of the church on equal authority with the Bible.
- 43:54It's just a helpful way to help understand the Bible.
- 43:57People have always taught the Scripture.
- 43:59So, one day, if you just wake up and you say, I'm going to believe this.
- 44:04And it's a new idea that has never been discovered by any Christians for 2,000 years.
- 44:11Or has been seen in church history to be heretical, like Arianism, which taught that Jesus was not really God.
- 44:19Way back when.
- 44:20In the Council of Nicaea.
- 44:23It's probably a good idea that you just need to throw away your interpretation, if that's true.
- 44:27Because there's not any new truth out there.
- 44:29It's always been the same.
- 44:30So, the Reformers weren't saying throw away truth.
- 44:34Or throw away church history.
- 44:35They were just trying to say that it's not the equal authority with the Bible.
- 44:38It's just not on the same level.
- 44:41And they would also say that the Pope is not to interpret Scripture alone.
- 44:47Every believer has the right to interpret Scripture.
- 44:50Okay?
- 44:51And to read it.
- 44:52And to have it.
- 44:53And possess it.
- 44:54But the number one rule that they had for interpretation was this.
- 44:59It's called Sacra Scriptura Sui Interpretes.
- 45:03Which means, Sacred Scripture is its own interpreter.
- 45:08Okay?
- 45:09So, how do we know what the Bible means?
- 45:11Because of what the rest of the Bible says about that verse.
- 45:14The Bible is its own interpreter.
- 45:16Scripture interprets Scripture.
- 45:17Scripture.
- 45:18So, if you want to know what this means, come over here to find out.
- 45:22You know?
- 45:22So, how do we know?
- 45:23And so, what you do is just over studying the Word, you understand that certain doctrines
- 45:28and certain principles are taught over and over and over again.
- 45:32Just like about heaven.
- 45:34Which, Mr. Overton's here.
- 45:35You ought to hear him talk about heaven sometime.
- 45:37Like, we look at all these passages that deal with heaven.
- 45:39And it helps us get a bigger picture about what heaven actually is.
- 45:44You know?
- 45:45You say, what does that mean?
- 45:46You read here and it tells you.
- 45:48So, Scripture is to be interpreted by Scripture.
- 45:51What is the rule?
- 45:53And that's a safeguard against error.
- 45:56So, that's the Reformers' view of Scripture.
- 46:01Gutenberg Pring Press.
- 46:02Okay, we're really getting historical now, aren't we?
- 46:04But really, God uses everything eventually for good and for His glory.
- 46:11All things.
- 46:12So, this made printing and reading materials quicker.
- 46:16Made reading materials more available to commoners.
- 46:19And increased the literacy rate.
- 46:21So, aka, ideas could spread a lot faster.
- 46:26You know?
- 46:26So, these things that these scholars like Calvin and Martin Luther are putting out,
- 46:31they can be easily put in print and sent out to people to read.
- 46:34They don't have to, like, hand copy everything anymore.
- 46:38So, big invention.
- 46:40So, we're about to move into the English Reformation,
- 46:43but I need to mention two people who had an enormous influence on the English Reformation.
- 46:50Martin Luther.
- 46:50When he was asked to recant, you know, his teachings about how salvation is by grace
- 46:59and the Word of God is the only authority,
- 47:02he said,
- 47:03My conscience is held captive to the Word of God.
- 47:05And he was instrumental.
- 47:09Like, he was the...
- 47:10If you think about the Reformation,
- 47:11most people think about Martin Luther.
- 47:13Pretty incredible guy.
- 47:15Not a flawless guy.
- 47:16He had a lot of serious problems.
- 47:17He had a lot of serious issues in his life.
- 47:20He wasn't, like, a perfect guy by any means.
- 47:23But he just understood...
- 47:24The thing is, he understood that.
- 47:26He understood, like, man, I'm a wretched sinner,
- 47:28and I need the grace of God.
- 47:31So, that's what he taught.
- 47:33He eventually translated the Bible into German.
- 47:36John Calvin.
- 47:38This guy really blows my mind.
- 47:42No doubt,
- 47:44if you go back and look at what this guy did,
- 47:45he did the work of 20 men in his life.
- 47:48It's just crazy.
- 47:50He had an enormous influence on the Reformation in England as well.
- 47:57He actually wrote a lot of systematic theology.
- 48:00He took, like...
- 48:01So, the Reformation,
- 48:02all these big events going on,
- 48:03he was actually a scholar who was able to say,
- 48:05this is what's going on here.
- 48:07This is what this is really about.
- 48:09Salvation by grace alone,
- 48:10through faith alone.
- 48:11Two things he said.
- 48:16Really cool.
- 48:17This is about the Scripture itself.
- 48:19Let us become submissive to God,
- 48:21and then He will convey to us by His Word
- 48:23nothing but sweetness,
- 48:25nothing but delight.
- 48:27We owe the Scripture the same reverence
- 48:29for which we owe to God,
- 48:31because it has proceeded from Him alone,
- 48:33and has nothing of man mixed with it.
- 48:35The experience teaches us
- 48:37that the highest proof of Scripture
- 48:39derives in general from the fact
- 48:41that God in person speaks in it.
- 48:43Like I was saying earlier,
- 48:44Scripture proves itself.
- 48:46It's just...
- 48:47It's amazing.
- 48:47It's beautiful.
- 48:50Anybody need to kind of stand up and stretch?
- 48:53We've got about 20 more minutes, I think.
- 48:55I'm trying to move fast.
- 48:56We don't feel like...
- 48:57If you're getting kind of like warm and cozy,
- 48:59you need to move, that's fine.
- 49:02Wow, what happened?
- 49:05Do that again.
- 49:07Oh, well.
- 49:07It says the English Reformation.
- 49:10So, that's a picture of England, Scotland.
- 49:15For those of you who don't know,
- 49:19Thomas Bilney,
- 49:20he was kind of like a forgotten figure
- 49:22in the English Reformation.
- 49:25He was a scholar,
- 49:27and like a lot of people,
- 49:28he got a hold of one of Erasmus'
- 49:31New Testament,
- 49:32or Greek New Testaments.
- 49:34All right?
- 49:35Now, he had been brought up in Roman theology.
- 49:38And one night,
- 49:39he kind of like...
- 49:41kind of got by himself,
- 49:42got in a corner,
- 49:44and started reading this by a candlelight.
- 49:46And he read 1 Timothy 1.15,
- 49:48where it says,
- 49:49or Paul says,
- 49:51This is a faithful saying,
- 49:53worthy of all exception,
- 49:54that Christ Jesus came into the world
- 49:56to save sinners,
- 49:59of whom I am chief.
- 50:01And that just exploded in the world.
- 50:03He's like,
- 50:03Wow, Paul is the chief of sinners?
- 50:05Because Paul is made out by Rome
- 50:06to be like this sinless,
- 50:08beautiful,
- 50:10most, you know,
- 50:11right under Jesus type guy.
- 50:13And Paul's like,
- 50:14I am the chief of sinners.
- 50:15And Christ came to save sinners.
- 50:17And that's just something he said
- 50:19as a result of that.
- 50:21So imagine that the world you live in,
- 50:23like right now,
- 50:24is really common to kind of believe
- 50:26a certain idea.
- 50:28And people that say otherwise
- 50:30are imprisoned or put to death.
- 50:33And you read something like this,
- 50:34it just kind of like,
- 50:36says contrary to what you've always heard.
- 50:38And you're like,
- 50:38What do you do?
- 50:39Well,
- 50:43Bill and he actually went out
- 50:44and began to preach the gospel to people.
- 50:46Preached God's word to people.
- 50:48When he was cast out of the pulpit,
- 50:50he began to kind of preach
- 50:51in the countryside.
- 50:52Just out in the countryside,
- 50:54the English countryside.
- 50:56Eventually he was caught
- 50:57and he was imprisoned for a year
- 51:01in the Tower of London.
- 51:03One of his biggest things
- 51:05that he rejected
- 51:06other than, you know,
- 51:06salvation by works
- 51:09was the Roman idea
- 51:12of transubstation.
- 51:14That's a big word.
- 51:15It's basically the Eucharist,
- 51:16like the Lord's Supper.
- 51:19Rome taught
- 51:20that when you actually partook
- 51:23of the Lord's Supper
- 51:24and you ate the bread
- 51:25and you drank the wine,
- 51:28in that moment,
- 51:29it literally turned into
- 51:30the blood of Christ
- 51:32and the body of Christ.
- 51:33You were like eating him.
- 51:34And this was a way for you
- 51:37to have grace in your life.
- 51:38It was kind of to
- 51:39take care of Christ
- 51:40and get their explanation
- 51:42from that in John
- 51:42where Jesus says,
- 51:45He who wants to have
- 51:45eternal life
- 51:46must eat my flesh
- 51:47and drink my blood.
- 51:48But he was speaking figuratively,
- 51:50not literally.
- 51:52So,
- 51:54which is what the rest
- 51:54of the Scripture teaches anyway.
- 51:56So,
- 51:57have you ever heard,
- 52:01see if this sounds familiar to you.
- 52:03In the Roman Eucharist,
- 52:05they used this phrase,
- 52:07Hocus Ium Corpus.
- 52:09And,
- 52:10that's the Latin for something.
- 52:14Hocus Ium Corpus Miam.
- 52:17Alright?
- 52:19That's where it's saying,
- 52:20you know,
- 52:20this is my body,
- 52:21literally in Latin.
- 52:23But,
- 52:25sometimes the priest
- 52:27that would actually
- 52:27perform the Roman Eucharist
- 52:29would like stumble
- 52:31with the Latin
- 52:31like they didn't really know
- 52:32Latin.
- 52:32They were like,
- 52:33even like you listening to
- 52:35somebody speaking their language
- 52:36and just trying to imitate
- 52:36what they said
- 52:37because you didn't really know
- 52:38the language,
- 52:39it turned into Hocus Pocus.
- 52:41That's where you get that from.
- 52:43It was like this magical thing
- 52:45that,
- 52:46and that's what the people
- 52:46would joke about,
- 52:47it was like they're magically
- 52:48turning the wine and the bread
- 52:51into the body and blood of Christ.
- 52:53You know,
- 52:53Hocus Pocus,
- 52:54that's kind of like
- 52:54where that actually comes from.
- 52:57So,
- 52:57Bill and he rejected that
- 52:58and it was really common
- 52:59for most reformers
- 53:01to reject that idea.
- 53:04As we would teach it,
- 53:05it's just symbolic
- 53:06of the body and blood of Christ.
- 53:09So,
- 53:10like I said,
- 53:11he was in prison
- 53:11in the Tower of London.
- 53:13They said,
- 53:13we're going to release you,
- 53:14but if we do,
- 53:15don't come back
- 53:16and keep preaching.
- 53:18So,
- 53:18they released him,
- 53:19and he went out
- 53:19and started preaching again.
- 53:22But eventually,
- 53:23he knew this was going to cost him.
- 53:25You know,
- 53:26he was in prison again
- 53:26and eventually he was executed.
- 53:29And,
- 53:30but this is just one guy
- 53:32of many,
- 53:32I thought I would just mention him.
- 53:34Big Henry.
- 53:35We've got to talk about Henry.
- 53:37Definitely,
- 53:38probably not a Christian,
- 53:39okay,
- 53:40but God uses even evil men
- 53:41to accomplish his purpose.
- 53:44All right?
- 53:46His divorce from
- 53:47Catherine of Oregon.
- 53:49Okay?
- 53:49He married Catherine,
- 53:52which was his brother's widow,
- 53:54and she had numerous miscarriages
- 53:57and couldn't produce
- 53:58like a male heir.
- 54:00She gave birth to Mary,
- 54:02a daughter,
- 54:04and Henry at this time
- 54:05was really afraid
- 54:06that anyone might go
- 54:07into another war of the roses.
- 54:08That's just
- 54:08what it was all about.
- 54:10Like,
- 54:10who has the right
- 54:11to inherit the throne of England?
- 54:14And so he was really worried
- 54:15about this
- 54:16and he was upset
- 54:17because she wasn't giving him
- 54:18a male heir
- 54:18like it was all her fault.
- 54:20You know?
- 54:22This is just like drama
- 54:24at its best.
- 54:24This is like Jerry Springer
- 54:25back in the Reformation days.
- 54:27It really is.
- 54:28So,
- 54:29he saw a divorce.
- 54:30He went to the Pope
- 54:31and he said,
- 54:32look,
- 54:32this isn't working out.
- 54:34I need a male heir.
- 54:35He pulled some scripture
- 54:38out of context
- 54:39out of Leviticus.
- 54:39I remember he was like,
- 54:40you can't marry
- 54:41your brother's wife
- 54:41and all kinds of stuff.
- 54:43Not really what I meant.
- 54:44But,
- 54:45he thought he was
- 54:47legitimate
- 54:48in his need to be divorced.
- 54:51The Pope refused
- 54:54for several reasons.
- 54:55He said,
- 54:56no, Henry,
- 54:57and he was mainly afraid,
- 54:59okay,
- 54:59because Catherine's nephew
- 55:01was Charles V,
- 55:03the Holy Roman Emperor.
- 55:04He had a lot of power.
- 55:05Like a lot of power.
- 55:07And he,
- 55:07at one time,
- 55:08before this,
- 55:09had actually sacked Rome
- 55:11because the Pope
- 55:12had defied him.
- 55:13So,
- 55:13the Pope's like,
- 55:14I can't make this happen
- 55:16because I do.
- 55:17He's going to come down here
- 55:18and wipe me out.
- 55:19That was his fear.
- 55:20So,
- 55:21he told,
- 55:21you know,
- 55:22Henry,
- 55:23no go,
- 55:24man.
- 55:24Not getting a divorce
- 55:25from Catherine.
- 55:27And,
- 55:27and so,
- 55:28so,
- 55:30so Henry comes back
- 55:31to anywhere
- 55:31and he's kind of talking
- 55:32to his,
- 55:32his homies about it.
- 55:35And things are not working out.
- 55:39Hey,
- 55:39I need to jump ahead
- 55:40real fast.
- 55:41So,
- 55:41he eventually broke up
- 55:42with Rome.
- 55:48And,
- 55:48I need to go back again.
- 55:50so eventually,
- 55:52he declared himself.
- 55:53All the clergy in England
- 55:55said,
- 55:55you have the right
- 55:56to be the head
- 55:57of the church,
- 55:57man.
- 55:58Like,
- 55:58just as the Pope
- 55:59is the head
- 55:59of the church of Rome,
- 56:00you have the right.
- 56:01Why shouldn't you
- 56:02to be the head
- 56:03of the church of England?
- 56:04And to split away
- 56:05from all this nonsense,
- 56:06you know.
- 56:07Henry's like,
- 56:08that's right.
- 56:09What are they going
- 56:09to do about it?
- 56:10I'm a monarch.
- 56:11I have an army.
- 56:11I have a navy.
- 56:12What are they going
- 56:12to do about it?
- 56:13They can't,
- 56:13they can't mess with me.
- 56:14He was a pretty
- 56:15powerful guy.
- 56:17So,
- 56:17he declared himself,
- 56:18you know,
- 56:19this is a piece
- 56:20out of the act
- 56:20of supremacy.
- 56:21He says,
- 56:22the king's majesty
- 56:23and rightly is
- 56:25and ought to be
- 56:26the only supreme
- 56:27head in earth
- 56:28of the church of England.
- 56:30So,
- 56:30he declared himself
- 56:31to be the head
- 56:32of the church of England.
- 56:33He broke away
- 56:33from Rome.
- 56:35So,
- 56:36this was huge.
- 56:37Even though,
- 56:38you know,
- 56:39back to that.
- 56:40Then it got into like,
- 56:41he has some
- 56:42wife swap action
- 56:43going on
- 56:44numerous times.
- 56:47But,
- 56:47normally,
- 56:48a pope would not
- 56:49have a problem
- 56:49with like,
- 56:51making some accommodations
- 56:52for a monarch
- 56:53like Henry.
- 56:54But,
- 56:54he was in a
- 56:55sticky situation.
- 56:56So,
- 56:58moving on.
- 57:01This guy
- 57:01is an amazing guy.
- 57:03If you ever get to
- 57:03read about a person
- 57:04in church history,
- 57:06read about this guy.
- 57:07William Tyndale.
- 57:09I've heard of
- 57:10Tyndale House Publishers.
- 57:13Tyndale was
- 57:15the guy
- 57:16who did believe
- 57:16in like,
- 57:17the solos
- 57:18of the Reformation
- 57:19that were going on.
- 57:20He was a brilliant guy.
- 57:21He was a gifted linguist.
- 57:22He spoke,
- 57:23he spoke fluently
- 57:24in French,
- 57:25German,
- 57:26Italian,
- 57:27Latin,
- 57:27and Spanish.
- 57:29And he knew
- 57:29Greek and Hebrew.
- 57:31So,
- 57:31this guy
- 57:32was like,
- 57:32a really huge instrument
- 57:34in God's hand,
- 57:35for sure.
- 57:36he was hanging out
- 57:39with like,
- 57:40a clergyman one day.
- 57:42I think he was just a priest.
- 57:43And this priest said,
- 57:45man,
- 57:46they're talking about
- 57:47obeying God's law,
- 57:48obeying the Pope's law.
- 57:49And the guy said,
- 57:50we had better obey
- 57:51the Pope's law
- 57:52before we obey
- 57:53God's law.
- 57:55And he said,
- 57:55because the Pope
- 57:56can kill us, man.
- 57:57Like,
- 57:57we need to obey him.
- 57:59And,
- 57:59and Tyndale was just like,
- 58:00are you,
- 58:01you know,
- 58:02this is what he said
- 58:03back to that guy.
- 58:04I defy the Pope
- 58:07and all his laws.
- 58:08And if God
- 58:09would spare my life
- 58:10these many years,
- 58:11I will make it possible
- 58:13for the boy
- 58:14who drives the plow
- 58:15to know as much
- 58:16scripture as you do.
- 58:17That's like what
- 58:18he told the guy.
- 58:19So,
- 58:20so he did.
- 58:21He set out on this,
- 58:22this journey
- 58:23to translate
- 58:25the Bible
- 58:25into English.
- 58:28He developed
- 58:29like a translating strategy
- 58:31and avoiding detection.
- 58:32And he was on,
- 58:33he was hunted
- 58:34for nine years.
- 58:35He imagined that
- 58:36like just going,
- 58:37living like a nomad,
- 58:38going from place to place,
- 58:39translating the Bible.
- 58:41And he was using,
- 58:43let's see,
- 58:45he was using,
- 58:47I'll go back,
- 58:48sorry.
- 58:49He was using Greek
- 58:50and Hebrew texts,
- 58:52Latin texts.
- 58:53He was,
- 58:53he had all these different
- 58:54things to use
- 58:56at his disposal
- 58:56to come up with
- 58:57the accurate translation
- 58:58of the New Testament.
- 58:59and this is something
- 59:01that he said,
- 59:03he was talking about
- 59:04how Rome has,
- 59:05Rome wants to like
- 59:06keep the scripture
- 59:06away from people.
- 59:08He said,
- 59:08they have ordained
- 59:09that no man
- 59:10shall look on the scripture
- 59:12until he be nozzled
- 59:14in heathen learning
- 59:15for eight or nine years
- 59:16and armed with
- 59:17false principles
- 59:18with which he can
- 59:19not understand
- 59:21the scripture.
- 59:22So,
- 59:22they immerse him
- 59:23so much in Roman
- 59:24teaching and Roman
- 59:25doctrine,
- 59:26but when they get
- 59:26the scriptures,
- 59:27they don't,
- 59:27most of them
- 59:28can't really see
- 59:28the difference.
- 59:31Luther saw the difference
- 59:32and he said,
- 59:33this isn't,
- 59:34this isn't true.
- 59:35So,
- 59:37oops,
- 59:37man,
- 59:39what I'll do,
- 59:43all right,
- 59:44told you,
- 59:47eventually he finished
- 59:48the translation
- 59:49of the New Testament.
- 59:51He went to Germany
- 59:51and he met with Luther
- 59:52and how you say that
- 59:54is bumps,
- 59:55kind of sounds,
- 59:56not worms,
- 59:56but bumps,
- 59:57returning,
- 59:59returned to England
- 59:59with 6,000 copies
- 1:00:00of the New Testament.
- 1:00:03Eventually,
- 1:00:03he was betrayed
- 1:00:05by a friend
- 1:00:06for money,
- 1:00:07caught,
- 1:00:07and he was tried
- 1:00:08and he was executed.
- 1:00:10And he got on
- 1:00:11Henry's bad side
- 1:00:12because he told Henry,
- 1:00:14sorry,
- 1:00:15bro,
- 1:00:15scripture just says
- 1:00:16that this isn't good
- 1:00:17for you to divorce
- 1:00:18your wife,
- 1:00:18you know?
- 1:00:19And so Henry
- 1:00:20didn't really,
- 1:00:21Henry had it out
- 1:00:21for him,
- 1:00:22Rome had it out
- 1:00:22for him,
- 1:00:23but eventually
- 1:00:24he was executed
- 1:00:25and he was strangled
- 1:00:27and then he was
- 1:00:28burned at the stake.
- 1:00:31What an awesome guy,
- 1:00:32like just that desire
- 1:00:34to get like the word
- 1:00:34of God
- 1:00:35in people's hands.
- 1:00:38So later on,
- 1:00:40a guy named
- 1:00:40Miles Coverdell,
- 1:00:41he's a really
- 1:00:41handsome guy.
- 1:00:46Eventually,
- 1:00:46Henry decided,
- 1:00:47you know what?
- 1:00:48to make my break
- 1:00:49final with the
- 1:00:51Church of Rome,
- 1:00:52what we really need
- 1:00:52is my own,
- 1:00:53our own English Bible
- 1:00:55that I oversee
- 1:00:56and, you know,
- 1:00:56this will be like
- 1:00:57our final,
- 1:00:58you know,
- 1:00:58the final,
- 1:00:59the trial breaks
- 1:01:00the camel's back
- 1:01:01to his day.
- 1:01:02So he hired this guy
- 1:01:03because he looked bored
- 1:01:05and said,
- 1:01:07he told him,
- 1:01:09you know,
- 1:01:09a translator,
- 1:01:10what do you use
- 1:01:11to translate from?
- 1:01:12Look at that,
- 1:01:12the Latin Vulgate
- 1:01:13and what do you
- 1:01:14intend to do
- 1:01:14with the New Testament?
- 1:01:15He was like,
- 1:01:16I can't do a better
- 1:01:17job than this guy.
- 1:01:18That's kind of
- 1:01:18what he was thinking.
- 1:01:19So he tried to like
- 1:01:19take some from that,
- 1:01:22you know,
- 1:01:22and so that's like
- 1:01:24what he used to translate
- 1:01:25and it was called
- 1:01:25the Coverdell Bible
- 1:01:26and people could come
- 1:01:28to inside of,
- 1:01:29you know,
- 1:01:30the church
- 1:01:31and read it.
- 1:01:32It was just chained up
- 1:01:33so not everybody
- 1:01:33had a copy of it yet.
- 1:01:35So that was
- 1:01:36the Coverdell Bible.
- 1:01:39Eventually,
- 1:01:41Edward was the successor
- 1:01:43to Henry
- 1:01:44when Henry died.
- 1:01:45He tried to keep
- 1:01:46the Church of England
- 1:01:47going.
- 1:01:47A little bit more.
- 1:01:49He wasn't the leader
- 1:01:50Henry was
- 1:01:51and so when he died,
- 1:01:53Henry's first daughter
- 1:01:54from Catherine,
- 1:01:56Mary Tudor,
- 1:01:58became queen
- 1:01:59over England
- 1:01:59and she was a
- 1:02:01really devout
- 1:02:02Roman Catholic
- 1:02:03and like her mom,
- 1:02:05Catherine.
- 1:02:06And so she tried
- 1:02:07to bring Catholicism
- 1:02:09back to England
- 1:02:10and she did it,
- 1:02:12you know,
- 1:02:12militantly,
- 1:02:13like arresting people,
- 1:02:15imprisoning them,
- 1:02:16executing the leaders.
- 1:02:17She is recorded
- 1:02:20and she burned
- 1:02:21around 300
- 1:02:22of England's
- 1:02:23like top scholars
- 1:02:24and theologians
- 1:02:25that were
- 1:02:25at this time
- 1:02:27teaching and
- 1:02:27preaching the Word of God.
- 1:02:29so,
- 1:02:31you know,
- 1:02:33it was,
- 1:02:33that's where you get
- 1:02:34Bloody Mary from,
- 1:02:36obviously.
- 1:02:38And,
- 1:02:39let's see,
- 1:02:41moving on here.
- 1:02:42This was one guy
- 1:02:43named John Rogers
- 1:02:44who was a Bible scholar
- 1:02:46and translator.
- 1:02:47He tried to continue
- 1:02:48William Tyndale's
- 1:02:50Old Testament
- 1:02:51and he had started
- 1:02:53and eventually
- 1:02:54he was caught
- 1:02:55and he refused
- 1:02:56to kind of like
- 1:02:56throw away
- 1:02:57like what he believed
- 1:02:57and his phrase
- 1:02:59was that
- 1:03:00which I have preached
- 1:03:03I will seal
- 1:03:03in my blood.
- 1:03:05And,
- 1:03:06so he didn't recant.
- 1:03:08He told the people
- 1:03:08that were about to kill him
- 1:03:09that he would be
- 1:03:09praying for them
- 1:03:10and praying
- 1:03:11for their salvation
- 1:03:12so he kind of
- 1:03:13held it together
- 1:03:14to the very end
- 1:03:15so to say.
- 1:03:17Eventually,
- 1:03:17he was put to death
- 1:03:18and this is where
- 1:03:19you can go
- 1:03:19in England
- 1:03:20to see where
- 1:03:21that actually happened.
- 1:03:25The Geneva Bible.
- 1:03:27During this time
- 1:03:27when Bloody Mary
- 1:03:28was going on
- 1:03:29a lot of English
- 1:03:30citizens fled
- 1:03:32to Geneva,
- 1:03:33Switzerland
- 1:03:33which was a safe haven
- 1:03:35for Protestants
- 1:03:37at this time.
- 1:03:38And,
- 1:03:39that's where
- 1:03:40John Calvin was
- 1:03:41and a lot of other
- 1:03:42awesome reformers
- 1:03:43were there
- 1:03:44teaching the scripture.
- 1:03:46A lot of them
- 1:03:47fled there
- 1:03:47and eventually
- 1:03:48they translated
- 1:03:49that made
- 1:03:50the Geneva Bible
- 1:03:51and they used
- 1:03:52Greek and Hebrew
- 1:03:53text,
- 1:03:54Tyndale's translation
- 1:03:55and Miles Coverdale's
- 1:03:57translation.
- 1:03:59So they had a lot
- 1:03:59of different sources
- 1:04:00to come up with
- 1:04:01a really good
- 1:04:01accurate translation.
- 1:04:03It was the first
- 1:04:04Bible that contained
- 1:04:05study notes,
- 1:04:06separated chapters
- 1:04:08and verses
- 1:04:08so that's where
- 1:04:09we get that from
- 1:04:10is a study Bible.
- 1:04:11You can actually
- 1:04:12buy them today.
- 1:04:13It's really hard
- 1:04:14to read
- 1:04:15because they don't
- 1:04:16speak that kind
- 1:04:17of English anymore.
- 1:04:18William Shakespeare,
- 1:04:20I believe he actually,
- 1:04:22he quotes
- 1:04:24the Geneva Bible
- 1:04:25around 5,000 times
- 1:04:26in his plays
- 1:04:26and his stories.
- 1:04:29The Geneva Bible
- 1:04:30was the Bible
- 1:04:30that the pilgrims
- 1:04:31brought over
- 1:04:32to America.
- 1:04:33John Bunyan
- 1:04:34who wrote
- 1:04:34Pilgrim's Progress.
- 1:04:36This was all
- 1:04:36from the Geneva Bible.
- 1:04:38This was the
- 1:04:44preface to the
- 1:04:45Geneva Bible.
- 1:04:46Listen to this.
- 1:04:47The Bible is the
- 1:04:48light of our past,
- 1:04:49the key to the
- 1:04:50kingdom of heaven,
- 1:04:51our comfort and
- 1:04:52affliction,
- 1:04:53our shield and sword
- 1:04:54against Satan,
- 1:04:56the school of all
- 1:04:56wisdom,
- 1:04:57the mirror in which
- 1:04:58we behold God's
- 1:04:59face,
- 1:05:00the testimony of
- 1:05:01his favor,
- 1:05:02and the only food
- 1:05:03and nourishment
- 1:05:04of our souls.
- 1:05:06That's an awesome
- 1:05:08statement.
- 1:05:08about the word.
- 1:05:10So,
- 1:05:10eventually,
- 1:05:11Mary died.
- 1:05:13She had no heir
- 1:05:14to follow.
- 1:05:15And,
- 1:05:16back in Henry's
- 1:05:17wife's days,
- 1:05:18you know,
- 1:05:18who came after
- 1:05:19Catherine,
- 1:05:20was,
- 1:05:21anybody know?
- 1:05:23There's even a
- 1:05:24TV show about
- 1:05:24this.
- 1:05:24Come on,
- 1:05:25guys.
- 1:05:25It's not really
- 1:05:26that guy.
- 1:05:26You shouldn't
- 1:05:27watch it.
- 1:05:28But,
- 1:05:29Anne Boleyn
- 1:05:30is who he
- 1:05:31married after
- 1:05:32Catherine.
- 1:05:34And he had
- 1:05:35a daughter with
- 1:05:35her.
- 1:05:36He had her
- 1:05:37and her
- 1:05:37kind of like
- 1:05:38this series
- 1:05:39of wives
- 1:05:39started going
- 1:05:39on.
- 1:05:40But,
- 1:05:41Elizabeth was
- 1:05:41her child.
- 1:05:43And,
- 1:05:44she assumed
- 1:05:45the throne
- 1:05:45because she
- 1:05:46was the only
- 1:05:46other right
- 1:05:47to heir,
- 1:05:47had any
- 1:05:48kind of
- 1:05:48royal blood.
- 1:05:50And,
- 1:05:50she did
- 1:05:52lean more
- 1:05:53with Protestant
- 1:05:54theology.
- 1:05:56I don't
- 1:05:56really know
- 1:05:57if she was,
- 1:05:57I mean,
- 1:05:57nobody does,
- 1:05:59if she was
- 1:05:59really a believer
- 1:06:00or not.
- 1:06:00but,
- 1:06:01but,
- 1:06:01her main
- 1:06:03goal when
- 1:06:03she became
- 1:06:04queen was,
- 1:06:05I'm tired of
- 1:06:06us just
- 1:06:06killing each
- 1:06:07other.
- 1:06:08Why can't
- 1:06:08we all get
- 1:06:09along?
- 1:06:09She wanted
- 1:06:10to really
- 1:06:10bring more
- 1:06:12of a national
- 1:06:12identity to
- 1:06:13England.
- 1:06:14And,
- 1:06:15so what she
- 1:06:15did was she
- 1:06:16said,
- 1:06:17she made
- 1:06:17like some
- 1:06:18concessions.
- 1:06:18She said,
- 1:06:19okay,
- 1:06:20we're going
- 1:06:20to have,
- 1:06:21we're all
- 1:06:22going to
- 1:06:22break away
- 1:06:22from Rome.
- 1:06:23That was
- 1:06:23called the
- 1:06:24act of
- 1:06:24uniformity.
- 1:06:26We're going
- 1:06:26to break
- 1:06:26away from
- 1:06:27Rome.
- 1:06:27We're going
- 1:06:27to come
- 1:06:27back to
- 1:06:28the
- 1:06:28Church
- 1:06:28of
- 1:06:28England.
- 1:06:30I'm going
- 1:06:30to be
- 1:06:30the head
- 1:06:31of this.
- 1:06:32And,
- 1:06:32we're going
- 1:06:33to have,
- 1:06:33basically,
- 1:06:34this is all
- 1:06:34paraphrased,
- 1:06:35they kept
- 1:06:36Protestant
- 1:06:36theology.
- 1:06:38Also,
- 1:06:39really,
- 1:06:39it was just
- 1:06:39in essence
- 1:06:40Calvinism,
- 1:06:40which was,
- 1:06:42you know,
- 1:06:42being taught
- 1:06:42from Geneva.
- 1:06:45Just summing
- 1:06:46up that,
- 1:06:47salvation by
- 1:06:47grace alone
- 1:06:48through faith alone.
- 1:06:50But,
- 1:06:50they kept
- 1:06:51all the pomp
- 1:06:52and ritual
- 1:06:53and robes
- 1:06:55and things
- 1:06:56like that
- 1:06:56that looked
- 1:06:57like the
- 1:06:57Roman
- 1:06:57mass.
- 1:06:58So,
- 1:06:58that's why
- 1:06:59if you
- 1:06:59go to an
- 1:07:00Anglican
- 1:07:00church today,
- 1:07:01that's why
- 1:07:02it's really
- 1:07:02liturgical
- 1:07:03and formal.
- 1:07:04That's why
- 1:07:05they have
- 1:07:05the robes
- 1:07:06and things
- 1:07:06like that.
- 1:07:07So,
- 1:07:07this was
- 1:07:08the model
- 1:07:10we have
- 1:07:11in the
- 1:07:11Anglican
- 1:07:11church today,
- 1:07:12the Church
- 1:07:12of England.
- 1:07:14So,
- 1:07:14she authorized
- 1:07:15the Geneva
- 1:07:15Bible for
- 1:07:17the Church
- 1:07:17of England.
- 1:07:18So,
- 1:07:18she's like,
- 1:07:19this is going
- 1:07:19to be our
- 1:07:19Bible so
- 1:07:20everybody
- 1:07:20can have
- 1:07:21a copy.
- 1:07:22So,
- 1:07:23this was huge.
- 1:07:24Her reign
- 1:07:25is called
- 1:07:25the Golden
- 1:07:26Age of
- 1:07:26England
- 1:07:26because
- 1:07:27it went
- 1:07:28from a
- 1:07:28really
- 1:07:28impoverished,
- 1:07:30unorganized,
- 1:07:31messy country
- 1:07:31to almost
- 1:07:32a world
- 1:07:32power by
- 1:07:33the time
- 1:07:33of the
- 1:07:34rain.
- 1:07:35The Spanish
- 1:07:36Armada,
- 1:07:37all that stuff,
- 1:07:38they defeated
- 1:07:38Spain.
- 1:07:40John Knox
- 1:07:41brought the
- 1:07:42Reformation
- 1:07:43to Scotland.
- 1:07:44He has
- 1:07:45an awesome
- 1:07:45beard.
- 1:07:47He outdoes
- 1:07:48everybody.
- 1:07:50I've
- 1:07:52actually
- 1:07:52been to
- 1:07:53Edinburgh
- 1:07:53and I've
- 1:07:54been in
- 1:07:54the house
- 1:07:55that he
- 1:07:55lived in
- 1:07:55and seen
- 1:07:57a lot
- 1:07:57of the
- 1:07:58what was
- 1:07:59that?
- 1:08:02That's a
- 1:08:03picture of the
- 1:08:03Geneva Bible
- 1:08:04that I made
- 1:08:05at his
- 1:08:05house.
- 1:08:07It was
- 1:08:08kind of cool
- 1:08:08to go there.
- 1:08:09I saw
- 1:08:09some of these
- 1:08:09places where
- 1:08:10a lot of
- 1:08:11people were
- 1:08:12martyred and
- 1:08:12beheaded
- 1:08:12for
- 1:08:13believing the
- 1:08:15gospel.
- 1:08:16Presbyterianism,
- 1:08:20that's why
- 1:08:20the main
- 1:08:21denomination
- 1:08:22in Scotland
- 1:08:22today is
- 1:08:23Presbyterianism.
- 1:08:25And,
- 1:08:26again,
- 1:08:27brought the
- 1:08:28Geneva Bible
- 1:08:28back and
- 1:08:29there's a
- 1:08:29law passed
- 1:08:30in Scotland
- 1:08:31in 1579
- 1:08:32requiring every
- 1:08:33household
- 1:08:33sufficient means
- 1:08:34to have a
- 1:08:35copy of the
- 1:08:36Geneva Bible.
- 1:08:37So,
- 1:08:38God's word
- 1:08:39was like
- 1:08:39getting to
- 1:08:40the hands
- 1:08:41of people.
- 1:08:41It was just
- 1:08:41an awesome
- 1:08:43time.
- 1:08:43There's all
- 1:08:43kind of other
- 1:08:44things to say
- 1:08:44about this,
- 1:08:45but I'm
- 1:08:45going to
- 1:08:47move on.
- 1:08:49Singing God's
- 1:08:50word.
- 1:08:51All right?
- 1:08:51So,
- 1:08:52I understand
- 1:08:53people were
- 1:08:54just used to
- 1:08:55hear Roman
- 1:08:56teaching and
- 1:08:56it was just
- 1:08:57again more
- 1:08:57like Plato
- 1:08:58and Aristotle
- 1:08:58and had all
- 1:09:00these songs
- 1:09:00they sang
- 1:09:01that were
- 1:09:01in Latin
- 1:09:02that weren't
- 1:09:02really biblical
- 1:09:03a lot of
- 1:09:03them.
- 1:09:04So,
- 1:09:05the people
- 1:09:06in Scotland
- 1:09:06were like
- 1:09:07we're only
- 1:09:07going to
- 1:09:07sing
- 1:09:08scripture.
- 1:09:09That's it.
- 1:09:09We're not
- 1:09:10going to
- 1:09:10sing anything
- 1:09:11else.
- 1:09:11We're only
- 1:09:12going to
- 1:09:12sing
- 1:09:12scripture.
- 1:09:13So,
- 1:09:13they wrote
- 1:09:14the Scottish
- 1:09:14Psalter,
- 1:09:15which is
- 1:09:15a way
- 1:09:16that you
- 1:09:16can sing
- 1:09:17the songs
- 1:09:18out loud.
- 1:09:19Now,
- 1:09:19I don't
- 1:09:19know if
- 1:09:20I got this
- 1:09:20worked out
- 1:09:20less.
- 1:09:21Can you
- 1:09:22hit that?
- 1:09:22Like the
- 1:09:23groove
- 1:09:23shark thing?
- 1:09:24I just
- 1:09:24want you
- 1:09:24to hear
- 1:09:25a piece
- 1:09:25of this.
- 1:09:25I'll tell
- 1:09:25you when
- 1:09:25to stop.
- 1:09:26This is
- 1:09:26Psalm 43
- 1:09:28that they
- 1:09:30were singing.
- 1:09:32It doesn't
- 1:09:32work out.
- 1:09:32It's okay.
- 1:09:33It should
- 1:09:40be on there.
- 1:09:41I'll
- 1:09:41pull it
- 1:09:41up on
- 1:09:41groove
- 1:09:42shark.
- 1:09:44It got
- 1:09:45closed.
- 1:09:47Just type
- 1:09:47in Psalms
- 1:09:48of Scotland.
- 1:09:49Psalms of
- 1:09:50Scotland.
- 1:09:52Then go
- 1:09:52to Psalm
- 1:09:5343.
- 1:09:55But this
- 1:09:56is what it
- 1:09:56would have
- 1:09:56sounded like.
- 1:09:59Kind of.
- 1:09:59Minus the
- 1:10:00organ.
- 1:10:00organ.
- 1:10:01But there
- 1:10:01is an organ
- 1:10:02in this.
- 1:10:02I think it's
- 1:10:03pretty cool.
- 1:10:03They're just
- 1:10:03like singing
- 1:10:04the scripture.
- 1:10:06Any day
- 1:10:07now.
- 1:10:12I'd probably
- 1:10:12be in the
- 1:10:13highlands.
- 1:10:13Probably not
- 1:10:14down in
- 1:10:14Edinburgh
- 1:10:14though.
- 1:10:16Yeah.
- 1:10:17That would
- 1:10:17be cool.
- 1:10:18I like
- 1:10:18bagpipes.
- 1:10:21I thought
- 1:10:21I'd wear
- 1:10:21my kilt
- 1:10:21tonight.
- 1:10:22I thought
- 1:10:22y'all
- 1:10:22be so
- 1:10:22distracted.
- 1:10:28You can't
- 1:10:28hear it
- 1:10:29that way.
- 1:10:30a
- 1:10:30bagpipes.
- 1:11:00There's a lot that we need to do.
- 1:11:04Yeah, we'll move on.
- 1:11:05That's kind of like what it sounded like.
- 1:11:06It was just them singing, you know, God's Word out loud.
- 1:11:10Really cool.
- 1:11:11I mean, a new idea, you know, to them.
- 1:11:15Puritans, you can't leave them out of this.
- 1:11:19Awesome guys.
- 1:11:20Guys who really understood the Bible like you would not believe.
- 1:11:22They're actually called, historically, the physicians of the soul.
- 1:11:26Like they understood the Scripture is how we live life.
- 1:11:30And if you have an issue, the Scripture is the answer, not this or that.
- 1:11:35The Word of God must be a rule and square whereby we are to frame and fashion all our actions according to the direction received thanks.
- 1:11:45We must do the things we do or leave them undone.
- 1:11:50So, he had the word Puritan from the idea that there were a sect in England that thought there was too much that looked like Rome.
- 1:12:00In the Anglican Church.
- 1:12:01And they said that, you know, we want all that gone.
- 1:12:03We want anything that looks like Rome to be there.
- 1:12:06And the English Civil War, the Cavalier and the Roundheads.
- 1:12:11The Puritans were like in the Roundhead branch.
- 1:12:13The Cavaliers were Charles I.
- 1:12:17I don't get into all that.
- 1:12:18Sorry.
- 1:12:18But the Puritans were really huge on the Word.
- 1:12:21I'll go and definitely read some of them.
- 1:12:23King James.
- 1:12:24The Bible that Jesus himself wrote, which a lot of people think that.
- 1:12:31How did this come about?
- 1:12:32Eventually, James I came from Scotland because there wasn't a legitimate heir from the throne of England.
- 1:12:40And he was the closest they had.
- 1:12:42So, he actually became the king of England.
- 1:12:44And over time, some of his counselors began to say,
- 1:12:49Hey, man, the Geneva Bible over here, it says that Christ is the head of the church.
- 1:12:58Not the king.
- 1:13:00Not the queen.
- 1:13:01Not anybody.
- 1:13:02No earthly figure is the head of the church at all.
- 1:13:04Only Christ is.
- 1:13:06So, that diminishes your power, big boy.
- 1:13:08That's kind of what they told him.
- 1:13:09And he was like, oh, man.
- 1:13:11That's not good.
- 1:13:11I don't want to be able to have some authority around here.
- 1:13:14So, he commissioned this translation.
- 1:13:18Which is not a bad translation.
- 1:13:2050 scholars translated from Greek and Hebrew texts in the Geneva Bible.
- 1:13:24But nearly 80% of King James is taken out of the Geneva Bible.
- 1:13:29So, I hate to break it to a lot of people up here in Appalachia,
- 1:13:31but the King James is not the first English translation that ever came out.
- 1:13:36But it's a really good Bible.
- 1:13:39You notice it doesn't have any study notes.
- 1:13:41Right?
- 1:13:42It just has, like, cross-references, but no study notes like the Geneva Bible did.
- 1:13:47So, King James Bible.
- 1:13:51Let's move on.
- 1:13:52So, God has a plan that he's working out and is being really successful at
- 1:14:00to get his word into the hands of every nation.
- 1:14:03Okay?
- 1:14:04And to hear the gospel preached in every tongue, no matter where it is.
- 1:14:08And it's our call, our duty, our joy, like, to take them to God's word,
- 1:14:17no matter where they are.
- 1:14:18So, whenever you sit down and read the word and act like you know, like, where it came from.
- 1:14:23There's a lot more to say about all of this.
- 1:14:26But I just thought these would be some helpful things for you to look at,
- 1:14:31for us to look at together and to know.
- 1:14:35We're past 10 o'clock.
- 1:14:37I understand that.
- 1:14:38But we don't have anything else after this.
- 1:14:39So, I'm going to pray for us.
- 1:14:40Next week, come back.
- 1:14:43Swan Dog up here.
- 1:14:44Dale Swanson is going to come and teach.
- 1:14:46He's going to teach about adoption.
- 1:14:48What it means to be adopted into God's family.
- 1:14:50So, come back and hear him next week.
- 1:14:52It'll be really good.
- 1:14:55If it's not, he just won't teach again.
- 1:14:57So, let me pray for us.
- 1:15:04Holy Father, we are grateful for the word that is in our hands.
- 1:15:11Your word that has been spoken down, passed down throughout hundreds of years.
- 1:15:17And that many men have died to get into our hands.
- 1:15:22And, Lord, how often we neglect and take for granted and just don't think it's of that importance to have the Scripture in our hands.
- 1:15:33I pray that, as Joshua said, that we would meditate upon it day and night.
- 1:15:41That we would do all things in it.
- 1:15:43That we would learn to just love your Scripture.
- 1:15:48See it as the means by which you have given us to know you, to walk with you, to be saved.
- 1:15:56It has everything we need in it, Lord.
- 1:15:58It tells us who you are.
- 1:16:01It tells us who we are.
- 1:16:02And our need for your grace.
- 1:16:04It points to Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross, Lord.
- 1:16:09And this all brings us to a head.
- 1:16:11That the consummation will go and going to come for us.
- 1:16:16And that we're going to be with you in eternity.
- 1:16:19To abide in your presence forever.
- 1:16:22Lord, just help us to treasure your word.
- 1:16:25We love you.
- 1:16:26We give you praise.
- 1:16:26In Christ's name.
- 1:16:27Amen.
- 1:16:27Amen.
- 1:16:28Thank you.