5/27/12- Knox on Reforming the Church

Sanctify them by the truth- your word is truth. (John 17:17- a verse that influenced Knox's conversion to Christianity).

(John Knox pointing to the Bible)

Thoughts:
  John Knox was one of the great Reformers, and his statue is in Geneva next     to Calvin's as a person who stood up for truth in a day of immorality and the decadence of the church.  Knox was born in Haddington, Scotland.  He was ordained a catholic priest, but studied under George Wishart who had accepted the doctrines of Tyndale and Luther that no human being had the right or power to determine what was moral or blessed by God apart from or contrary to God's written Word in scripture.  In the name of the "experts" of their day, the people were discouraged from reading and interpreting the Bible for themselves.  The experts of the day were keeping the people biblically illiterate saying it was impossible to rightly understand scripture if we didn't know all the nuances- and we should not take what the scripture says at face value.
    Wishart was burned at the stake for standing up for sola scriptura.  Knox was put in a French Galley ship as a slave-rower for three years.  Knox later fled to Geneva and studied under John Calvin.  Knox spoke of Geneva as "the most perfect school of Christ that was ever on earth since the days of the apostles."  Knox became Chaplain to the young king of England.  Knox was invited back to Scotland in 1555, and in 1560 at the Treaty of Berwick, Scotland officially became Protestant and catholic France was forced off Scottish lands and the English influence prevailed.
    Knox was fiery for his time, but without his zeal the church would not have been reformed.  It could be argued that Knox did not seek to leave the catholic church, the catholic church tried to imprison or kill him and those who followed in his ways.  He was part of a remnant of believers, persecuted for their faith- who stood up for what they believed.  He did not seek to simply change the church according to some ideal.  He sought to enable the church to reform to be more like the church of scripture.  The motto of the Reformation was not simply semper reformanda (ever reforming), but ever reforming according to the Word of God.
    Today, there is vast skepticism; attacks on the scripture in pseudo-scholarship; and a vast illiteracy of what the Bible says.  No one needs to defend God or the Bible- but we also do not need to shrink into the shadows before the skeptics whose faith is but a shadow.  The church in America is at a crossroads.  It could shrink to be like the church in Europe who has bought into biblical skepticism and unbelief in the power of God.  Or we could explode like a live shoot from a stump and once again be light and salt in a dark, tasteless world.  The power is not found in an idea but in God- and God's power is not found apart from obedience, repentance, and reforming to His Word. 


Prayer: Help me, O Lord, to be true to you.  Let me not waver- despite the criticism and skepticism of many- against you or your Word.