The first handwritten English language Bible manuscripts were created in the 1380s AD by John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, scholar, and theologian.
Wycliffe’s work resulted in the creation of numerous English-language copies of the scriptures, making them widely accessible to people.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Wycliffe passed away in 1384. The Catholic Pope was extremely angered by his teachings and his translation of the Bible into English. Forty-four years after Wycliffe’s death, the Pope ordered for Wycliffe’s bones to be exhumed, crushed, and scattered in the river.
Johann Gutenberg revolutionized communication with his invention of the printing press in the 1450s.
William Tyndale made pioneering use of Gutenberg’s movable-type press to produce the scriptures in the English language.
In 1526, the Tyndale New Testament made history as the first printed edition of the scriptures in the English language.
The Catholic Church, and subsequently the Church of England, condemned Tyndale as a heretic and declared his Bible to be heretical.
The availability of God’s Word in the English language, accessible to the public, meant disaster for the church as they would no longer control access to the scriptures.
If people could read the Bible in their own language, the church’s income and power would crumble. They could not continue to sell indulgences (the forgiveness of sins) or sell the release of loved ones from Purgatory.
The contradictions between God’s Word and the priests’ teachings would open the public’s eyes, and the truth would set them free from the grip of fear that the church held.
John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Salvation through faith, not works or donations, must be prioritized. The need for priests must be eliminated. The veneration of church canonized Saints and Mary should be rejected. The scriptures in English were seen as the greatest threat imaginable to the church.
Tyndale’s Bibles were swiftly confiscated and burned by the Bishop, and possession of one meant death by burning.
Bibles were brought into England along with bales of cotton and sacks of flour. Tyndale was arrested, convicted of heresy, and then strangled and burnt at the stake in the prison yard on Oct. 6, 1536.
Tyndale’s last words were Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes. That prayer would be answered just three years later, in 1539, when King Henry VIII funded the printing of an English Bible known as the Great Bible.
Today, only two known copies of Tyndale’s 1526 First Edition are left.
Common people have already had a problem affording a Bible, and many could not read.
Because of its size, the Great Bible was first published in 1539 and became the first English Bible authorized for public use. The clergy were encouraged to read this Bible to their people.
Queen Mary, also known as Bloody Mary, ascended to the throne in the 1550s. She aimed to reinstate Roman Catholicism in England, making it illegal once again to print English Bibles.
In January 1555, John Rogers, Bible translator and Protestant preacher, was burnt at the stake with his wife and eleven children, one an infant in the mother’s arms.
“This sad sight,” remarked chronicler John Foxe, did not move him, but he cheerfully and patiently went on his way to Smithfield, where he was burnt to ashes in the presence of many people. Rogers was the first of many Protestants executed during the reign of Bloody Mary.
In 1582, the Church of Rome knew they were losing their fight to keep the Bible out of the common people’s hands, so they brought out their version. The official Roman Catholic English translation used the Latin Vulgate as the only source text, which was full of multiple distortions and corruptions.
So what they had accused Tyndale’s English version of being heresy, they had succeeded in making a Bible that was full of heresy.
The Catholic Church threatened to kill anyone who read the scripture in any language other than Latin though Latin was not an original language of the scriptures.
Elizabeth 1 took the throne in 1588 and died without an heir. The crown was passed to James I of Scotland, and he promoted and supervised a new biblical translation, which still used the King James Bible of 1611.
Protestants today are largely unaware of the Bible’s history or the people who were murdered so that we can read the Bible today in our language.
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is God breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Matthew 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2 Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
1 Peter 3:17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
1 John 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
Luke 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
Less than half of practicing Christians in the U.S. spend serious time engaging with their Bible, according to the American Bible Society, and the rest of the country is even worse.
The American Bible Society presented evidence gathered from a six-year assessment of the state of the Bible conducted by the Barna Group, which shows that just 18 percent of the American population generally reads the Bible.
1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
1 Peter 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
Read more at: Born Again by the Word of God (transformedbythetruth.com)
Proverbs 2:6 For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Read more at: Why is it important to read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs? (transformedbythetruth.com)
Read more at: Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind (transformedbythetruth.com)
Read more at: The Foundation of the Bible is Rejected by many Americans (transformedbythetruth.com)
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