Wycliff & Hus

Wycliffe

Oxford professor

Believe in explicit truth and implicit truth from Scripture

What can be understood from reading explicitly and what can be understood from understanding the implicit truth, from understanding what is implied

For example, the Trinity

Known for his attacks on the Roman Catholic church

Huss

Learned by the writings of Wycliffe

Reformation Month

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself why certain things exist?

like camoflauge golf balls

pre-peeled bananas in plastic wrappers

huggies diaper change app

There are good things that exist too

Many of us would say our phones are great resources to us

Cars - imagine having to ride a horse to school each day

Amazon - 2 day shipping is fantastic

Have you ever stopped to think about why this (the Bible) exists....and not just exists, but the fact that it exists in our English language?

We often take this for granted, but around 500-600 years ago, this wasn’t the case.

In fact, the Bible was found mainly written in Latin

I took Latin in high school, heres the thing, Latin can’t be spoken. It can be read, but you can’t speak in Latin

So if the only guys who could read it also thought he was the only guy who could speak about it, you can see how problems would arise right?

Not only this, but nobody had a copy of the Bible because:

They didn’t know Latin

They couldn’t read Latin

The church (Roman Catholic) considered themselves the only ones able to read and understand God’s Word

Now think through this with me, God’s command was that His truth would be taken to the ends of the earth

That couldn’t happen this way ---- God’s glory was being snuffed out

Which brings us to our topic for the next 5 weeks....The Reformation

This month of October represents the month of the reformation celebration, with October 31, 2017 being 500 years to the day of when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the wittenburg castle

What I want to do for the next 5 weeks, is pause and take a look at some important church leaders that led up to this act of Martin Luther, which was absolutely pivotal in the Christian church life.

People like Peter Waldo, Wolfgang Capito, Lady Jane Grey, Thomas Cranmer, and so on

You may be asking yourself, who cares, why does it matter, or saying to yourself I hate history.

But this history is vital to why for instance, we can carry this book around.

This history is vital to why we are free to worship God according to what His word says and not according to the pope

This history is vital to who we are as believers.

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it” - George Santayana

So we are going to kick this off by looking at 2 people today, John Wycliffe and John Hus

Both of these men are referred to as the morningstars of the reformation

A morning star is Venus, that is visible before sunrise. So these men, were vital to the reformation of Luther, but happened before it came to light

John Wycliffe

Born in 1330, so almost 700 years ago, near Yorkshire, England

He lived in a time period where the Roman Catholic church was the ultimate authority, higher than any country government or king/queen

He lived in a time period where it was a crime punishable by being burnt alive at the stake to have a copy of God’s Word in English, let alone teach from it.

He attended Oxford University, one of if not the most prestigious university worldwide of it’s day.

He then began lecturing at Oxford in philosophy, but felt the pull of Biblical studies on his life, so he began to study Scripture and theology non-stop, pouring over it

Now remember, in this day, most people did not have access to Scripture. It was controlled by the Roman Catholic church

But as he did have access to it in Latin, he began to realize some key errors in the roman church:

1. Papal Authority was not Scriptural

Meaning: The Pope and bishops didn’t have authority to control the understanding of Scripture and church doctrines. The only thing that had that control was Scripture itself

So he wrote “On Divine Dominion” to address this

Not a popular move of his day to go against the church

2. He then realized the error of the church being over countries governments

Meaning, countries and towns were forced to give to the Roman church

So he wrote “On Civil Dominion”

Again, countering the church

3. He revisited the authority of Scripture, addressing deeper the issues that the church was acting as authority, when it should be Scripture alone

So he wrote “On the Truth of Sacred Scripture”

These writings were transported to Prague and across Europe, where John Huss got a hold of them, and we’ll visit him in a second

But these writings were not the most important thing that he did

In his 3rd writing, Wycliffe called for the Bible to be translated into English

According to Roman Catholic law, this was a heresy to have the Bible in common language, and this was punishable by death.

So Wycliffe and some friends started, BY HAND, making copies of the Bible in english. They did this for 11 years

And as they made them, men who were reading and believing the truth of the Bible for the very first time, headed out to preach it!!!

Not only in England, but across Europe.

The Pope declared that Wycliffe should be put to death

Wycliffe declared to one of his students, “I am ready to follow the teachings of Scripture even unto death if necessary.”

Wycliffe never shirked or backed down from his claim. Boldness --- empowered by the Holy Spirit as we’ll see in our study through Acts!

The Pope died unexpectedly so the hunt for Wycliffe was put off while they found the next pope

So Wycliffe kept going, kept teaching and preaching, until he died of a stroke in 1384

In 1428, at the Council of Trent, the leaders of the roman catholic church dug up his remains and burnt them at the stake, which is what they would have done had they had the chance to when Wycliffe was alive.

Thanks to Wycliffe, we have the Bible in the English language. The Bible you have access to day in and day out came at the risk of life by John Wycliffe and his friends because he believed in the authority of Scripture

We can learn a thing or two from him in how high and holy we regard this book can’t we?

I know for me, as I’ve been studying and reading into the reformation period and the struggle that these men and women went through for freedom is remarkable and....

When I look at how little regard I have for this book, how little respect I have for God’s Word being in a language I can read and understand, I’m embarrassed.

Today, in our world, there are over a billion people who don’t have what Wycliffe fought so hard for English reading people to have, a Bible in their own language.

The jobs not finished. The ends of the earth need to hear.

John Huss

Born in 1369

Professor and president of the University of Prague, in modern day Czech Republic

Translated the NT into Czech and also spoke out against the church, because of Wycliffe’s writings and his understanding of the truth

He carried the torch on after Wycliffe’s death

Which is what we’ll see with all of these heroes of the faith....the torch being carried one to the next

so, in 1412, a papal bull was issued against Hus, which was basically an order to seize Hus, forbid his preaching, excommunicate him from the church, destroy his church Bethlehem chapel, and ultimately execute him

His church stood for him when they came to get him and so it was uneffective

John Hus kept teaching and preaching, despite the attempts to capture him

He would cite the disciples command to go into all the world and preach, stating that Christ’s work could not be stopped.

He was kicked out of Prague for fear of what was coming, so he started holding services in field and forests outside of the city

“A good death is better than a bad life.” was his response when pressed to lay low by some friends

Finally, under a statement of protection the king of Bohemia convinced Hus to go stand before the council and defend his stance against the roman catholic church.

Hus knew he wouldn’t be returning

Upon arrival he was thrown in a cell by an open sewer

Vomiting fits and headaches

Starved

Chained day and night

After several months he was brought before the council

They demanded he recant his writings and beliefs

He responded “I am ready to retract anything in them, if I am shown from Holy Scripture where I am in error.”

He was condemned to death by fire

Put a robe on him and stripped it off of him....sound familiar?

He was led through the city in front of everyone

Bound with his hands behind his back, and strapped his head to a stake

Piled wood and straw around him up to his neck

All while being encouraged to recant his faith and belief

He responded, “What error should I recant? I shall die with joy today in the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ which I have preached.”

As they lit the fire, he began to sing, “Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy on me.”

And he was burnt alive to death, his ashes being thrown in the Rhine River.

Hus, like Wycliffe, was so convinced and enamored with God being glorified that he risked his life, gave his life, so that through the Bible being in a common language, God would be just that....glorified

How are we doing here? Is our goal the glory of Christ?

Would we be willing to die, to be burnt alive, for Him to receive that glory?

These two men were pillars of the reformation, this period in the history of the church where the glory of God’s Word was longed after, the glory of God’s Word was found, and the glory of God’s Word was priority

The challenge for us is to get back to this point! Let’s not fall into religion, but let’s glorify Him through our relationship with Him, and let’s make Him known to the ends of the earth.