David Pawson on Church History Part 5 - 17th Century 1600s

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Thoughtful Thoughts by John Dunning. 4.4.25.

The Christian Story Pt 5; Battle for the Bible…

Introduction…

Our western civilization was transformed from paganism because of the Bible, yet we know so little about it.

When Henry 8th came to the throne in 1509, England had been Catholic since William the Conqueror invaded in1066. However, by the time he died in 1547 Henry 8th had replaced the Pope with himself, yet leaving most of the Catholic beliefs in place. 

In the days when Henry 8th was ruled by the Pope, he had written a book endorsing Catholic theology and been given an honour for it by the Pope. So as Henry had “nailed his colours to the mast”, it was a bit difficult for him to take it back.

Although Henry replaced the Pope with himself in 1531, it was not until 1538 that the Pope took back the title he had given Henry 8th, of “Defender of the faith”. Henry had not taken back his Catholic theology, he had only changed who sat on the throne. 

When the Pope took back the title he had given Henry, it shows that it had more to do with rewarding those who supported the Pope for the top job.

As Henry continued murdering protestants, often by burning them alive, which the Pope had been doing, it shows that Henry’s theology or heart had not changed. That puts into perspective what followed on…

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1). THE GREAT BIBLE; The 1st version of the Bible to be authorised.

a). Tyndale

Publishing Bibles had been like trying to get blood out of a stone, except that it was at the cost of the blood of the martyrs. After breaking away from the Pope it showed what could be done without the Catholic church being able to prevent Bible publishing. 

The Catholic Church murdered the Bible translator, William Tyndale, (1494-1536), at the age of just 42 in the Netherlands in 1536. But God did not allow his martyrdom to pass in vain, because after the Pope lost control of England, Tyndale’s translation of most of the Bible, went into the first version of the Bible to be authorised by a monarch of England; meaning no one could stop it - and it happened like this… 

After Henry 8th broke away with Rome, Thomas Cromwell (not to be confused with Oliver Cromwell), & friends, engineered the King’s approval for an authorised version of the Bible to be provided in churches. That Bible came to be called “The Great Bible”, and was published in 1539, in English, the language of the people. The Great Bible was essentially the Tyndale Bible. As Tyndale was murdered by the church before he could finish the task, another translator finished the job in 1538, called Coverdale. 

In 1543, Parliament decided to pass a law to give Henry the title “Defender of the faith”, which the Pope had taken away! 

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b). Snakes and ladders…

After Henry 8th died in 1547, his son Edward swung the church’s theology from being Henry’s high Catholic theology to being genuinely more Christian.

Henry’s daughter Mary was a staunch Catholic, and hated what Edward did. Edward knew he was going to die young, and saw the danger of his Catholic half sister, Princess Mary, coming to the throne, and handed his throne over to Lady Jane Grey, who was a Protestant, so she legitimately came to the throne as Queen, recognised by the Privy council. Because Mary arrived on the scene with her forces, the Privy Council then very cowardly went back on their recognition for Lady Jane Grey after just nine days, and they quite illegally tried the teenager for treason. She was later executed illegally just to get her out of the way, because her uncle opposed Mary. 

As soon as Mary came to the throne, she handed England back to the Pope. 

Mary gained the nickname “Bloody Mary” for burning nearly 300 Protestants at the stake, which was only stopped because she fortunately died of cancer after a few years.

That fortunate turn of events meant that Elizabeth 1st became Queen, who said she would not be looking into men’s souls to see what they believed, which enabled a degree of freedom of religion, but many clergy still gave their allegiance to the Pope, which made life extremely dangerous for Elizabeth, which we come to next…

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c). Queen Elizabeth…

Queen Elizabeth 1st stood against enormous pressure from the Pope, because there were some twenty assassination attempts made against her, including a “gift” from the Pope of a poisoned dress, which killed Elizabeth’s “Lady In Waiting”, when she tried it on. 

The Spanish King tried to retake England for the Pope, sending his enormous navy to retake England, known as the Spanish Armada. He became famous for dividing the whole of the American continent up between Spain under the Pope, and the Portuguese under the Pope. However, because the English Navy grew in strength, their plan didn’t work out quite as planned, especially as we all know what happened to North America.

Anyway, back to the Spanish Armada! The weather blew the Spanish Armada up the English channel, around the top of Scotland, down past Ireland and only half the fleet ever made it back to Spain. It was a disaster! The ships that were not sunk limped back to Spain severely damaged by the storm. The Spanish King had emptied his country’s bank account trying to take England for the Pope, and even tried again, but which was also a dismal failure. 

The Spanish King had been praying fervently to his deity for victory, but none of them were heard as his galleons were either lost at sea, or badly damaged. 

As Drake was only responsible for sinking a tiny number of  ships against the Armada, I think I can say in the words of insurance companies, it was “an act of God”, as it was almost entirely the weather and not Drake that brought the victory. 

The Royal Navy lost no ships in combat;- but Drake had deliberately set fire to nine “fire ships”, to create panic at night, which worked. 

After that, Elizabeth’s reign became known as the “Golden Age” in the history books. 

The importance of all this for England was that Protestants had a lot more freedom to translate the Bible during Elizabeth’s reign… 

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2). THE KING JAMES VERSION;- The 2nd Bible version to be authorised; 

King James 1st of Britain.

After Elizabeth 1st died, the Scottish King, James 6th, became the first King of the whole of the United Kingdom, which made him James 1st of both countries (1603-1625). So Scotland and England were united by a Scottish King. 

a). Attempt at blowing up parliament…

The Roman Catholic, Guy Fawkes, tried to blow to James 1st with his government, as he opened Parliament. It was all uncovered just in time, and an act of Parliament created a day for it to be remembered on November 5th; (nicknamed “Guy Fawkes” night). That law was only revoked a couple of hundred years later. 

b). The King James Version of the Bible…

After that murderous attempt failed, James went on to authorize the King James Version of the Bible, to be placed in every church. The complete version of that Bible was finally published in 1611, which was in the language of the day, (Shakespearean English), but at the time it was the language of the people. 

As it was authorised by the monarch, it was copyright free, so it was mass produced in the millions. As that Bible was to be placed in every church by decree of the King, no one could stop it. It also shows how fast things were moving forward.

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3). CONCLUSION…

One of the most dangerous professions for a thousand years was to be a Bible translator who was not approved by the church. A few faithful Bible translators were honest enough to risk their lives using texts that were not the Catholic approved ones. 

It was only as late as 1943 and again in the 1960s that the Vatican gave tacit approval for Catholic lay people to read the Bible; (which meant their version). But by then, giving permission had become irrelevant, as Bibles were already everywhere, including most hotels, (thanks to the “Gideons”.) The constant attempt to put the truth out of reach meant it was a spiritual battle. 

4). EPILOGUE…

The price paid for us to have a Bible has been extraordinary, as so many lost their lives just to make the Bible available, that sacrifice should not be wasted. 

The easiest book to start with is Mark, and we are currently using it for our weekly devotional; Give God Time…

And that is a good place to pause this week’s journey into how we got our Bible. 

This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

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