Page 15 - Uncompromising Sermons By Bobby Cabonce

be burned alive in a stake and the man-
uscript will be used to kindle the fire.

I would like to explain very briefly about
the Bible: The Old Testament was written
mostly in Hebrew. There are parts or
sections in Daniel and Jeremiah written
in Aramaic, a related Semitic dialect
that, after the exilic period, gradually
took the place of Hebrew as the common
language of the Jews. The New Testament
was written wholly in Greek.

At the end of the fourth century A.D. Saint
Jerome translated both the Old and the New people should be permitted to read the
Testaments into Latin vulgate. Then time Bible in their own language, and they
came when Latin language became a dead should oppose the tyranny of the Roman
language. No one can understand it unless church that threatened anyone possessing
one has especially studied Latin. a non-Latin Bible with execution. Hus
was burned at the stake in 1415, with
Christianity did not begin in Catholicism. Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles used to kindle
Catholicism began during the reign of for fire. The last words of John Hus were,
Constantine the Great 306-337 A.D. The “in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose
period from the reign of Constantine calls for reform cannot be suppressed.”
the Great to the Great Reformation Almost exactly 100 years later, in 1517,
was called the dark ages in history. Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses
of Contention (a list of 95 issues of heretical
John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, theology and crimes of the Roman Catholic
scholar and theologian, produced the Church) into the church door at Wittenberg.
first hand-written English Language Bible The prophecy of Hus had come true!
manuscripts in 1380’s. He was well known
throughout Europe for his opposition to the Foremost among those who were called to
teaching of the organized church, which he lead the church from the darkness of popery
believed to be contrary to the Bible. Wycliffe into the light of a purer faith, stood Martin
produced dozens of English language man- Luther. Zealous, ardent, and devoted,
uscript copies of the Scriptures. They were knowing no fear but the fear of God, and
translated out of the Latin Vulgate, which acknowledging no foundation for religious
was the only source text available to Wy- faith but the Holy Scriptures, Luther was the
cliffe. The Pope was so infuriated by his man for his time; through him, God accom-
teachings and his translation of the Bible into plished a great work for the reformation of
English, that 44 years after Wycliffe died, the church and enlightenment of the world.
(in which many believed he was murdered)
the Pope ordered the bones to be dug-up, While one day examining the books in the
crushed and scattered in the river. library of the university, Luther discovered a
It would be hundreds of years before Latin Bible. He had before heard fragments
men like Martin Luther resurrected the of the Gospels and Epistles at public worship,
reforms of which Wycliffe dreamed. and he thought that they were the whole
of God’s Word. Now, for the first time, he
One of Wycliffe’s followers, John Hus, looked upon the whole Bible. With mingled
actively promoted Wycliffe’s ideas: that awe and wonder he turned the sacred pag-
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