Sola Scriptura - William Tyndale

Quick joke, I thought it would be helpful if we all got shock collars to wear tonight so if we over our time limit, we could just get a little shock to let us know!

That idea didn’t fly with the others.

There are 5 Solas that were part of the Reformation, and there is one Sola that the other four built off of, and that Sola is known as Sola Scriptura. Is is through Sola Scriptura that:

Sola Fide (Sola Feeday)

Sola Gratia (Sola Graycha)

Solus Christus

and Soli Deo Gloria

are found to be right and true and good.

What is Sola Scriptura?

It simply means “Scripture Alone”

It means that “Scripture Alone is the only final, decisive authority for discerning, teaching, and defending these truths.”

And these truths that are found are justification by faith alone, through God’s grace alone, on the basis Christ alone, for the glory of God alone

It means that God’s Word is the final authority. It means that God’s Word is the supreme authority. It means God’s Word is sufficient, standing alone. It means that God’s Word has no equal:

The absolute truth is:

There is no man, no council of men, no other book, no other thoughts, no tweets or facebook posts that qualifies to be esteemed as a believer’s final authority.

And as a church, can each of us say that in our own lives, there is no other person, no other book, no personal thoughts, no news channel, no social media that we look to for our final authority?

God’s Word is the means for all of our theology.

Are there other good authorities of which we can look to, yes! But always in light of the Scripture and how they stand up against it!

Sola Scriptura is the foundation of the Reformation, and Sola Scriptura can and should be the foundation of our lives as well.

Church of the day

It was the year 1516, a watershed moment for the Reformation, for it was in this year that Erasmus, a devout Roman Catholic, translated the New Testament from Latin into Greek.

This was the first time the Greek New Testament had been “printed”, thanks to the invention of the printing press in 1440.

Why this is such a pivotal moment in the Reformation is that it gave people access to the New Testament in the original language, not Latin.

I took Latin at Calvary, and it was a struggle if I’m perfectly honest.

And what I do know is this, even after translating from Latin to English, it still didn’t make any sense!

And so, to go from Greek to English, made a world of difference.

It gave people like Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, Tyndale, the ability to read and understand Scripture in a way they had never experienced.

There was a problem in the Catholic church of the day that talks about:

, “ 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

This was a problem for the Roman Catholic church of the day, the most powerful entity in the world

This was a church who:

Were preaching a gospel contrary to the Gospel of Christ

Were doing things like selling “indulgences” to gain political power

Were designed in a way where common men were seeking the approval of man.

But worst of all, a church who suppressed the authority of Scripture, and put more power in the priests and bishops and councils of the day, than the word of God.

A church who deemed it heresy to possess the Scriptures in any language but the Latin Vulgate, for reasons which are all to clear

A church who went as far as killing people for walking against the church.

And it is this environment that a certain William Tyndale walks into, one of my absolute favorite reformers.

Tyndale was born in 1494 in the Gloucestershire region of England, to a family who made a living off of cloth-making and trade

At the age of 28, Tyndale, himself an ordained Catholic priest, was serving as a tutor in the house of John Walsh, a prominent Catholic himself

It was here that Tyndale himself found access to Erasmus’ Greek New Testament

And it is here that we see the final authority of Scripture playing out in the heart of Tyndale, as the more he read and dug into the New Testament, the more he understood the failings and errors of the Catholic church, and the need in his own life of justification by faith, through God’s grace, by the work of Christ on the cross, for the glory of God alone

The truth’s of God’s

And it is also upon his conversion that we find one of my favorite quotes from Tyndale in response to a Catholic scholar that reads like this, “I defy the Pope and all his laws....If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow, shall know more of Scripture than thou dost.”

It was Tyndale’s understanding and acknowledgement of God’s Word as the final, supreme, sufficient authority, against the Catholic church’s suppression and addition to God’s Word that drove him to dedicate his life to the translating of Scripture to the common English language.

He knew that as long as the catholic church, the pope, the bishops or councils, as long as they were acting as the supreme authority, that mankind was going to be denied the truth of God’s Word.

In 1526, Tyndale, living in exile outside of England, always looking over his shoulder, made good on his famous quote and finished the translation of the Greek New Testament, and began to smuggle printed editions into England, via ship captains like Richard Bayfield, whom Tyndale knew from his family’s business in the cloth making industry, as the Bibles were layered between bales of cloth.

The providence of God never ceases to amaze.

Tyndale, not content there, while still in exile he added Hebrew to the seven languages he was already proficient in, printed a revised edition of the New Testament in 1534 due to his now better understanding of the OT prophecies quoted throughout the NT

Not only that, but Tyndale started to also translate the OT into the common English language, successfully translating the Pentateuch, Joshua through 2 Chronicles and Jonah, before his martyrdom in 1536.

Tyndale’s work was so well done, so carefully crafted, that when King James authorized the English Bible in 1611, 9/10ths of the New Testament edition can be credited to him. Other estimates attribute 80% of that entire Bible to Tyndale’s efforts.

William Tyndale though, was betrayed by a “friend” and a year and a half later he was strangled and burned alive for his beliefs in 1536.

And I close with this:

There was a man named Stephen Vaughan who was commissioned by King Henry VIII in 1530 to find Tyndale and convince him to return to England. He was unsuccessful.

Stephen Vaughan, in a letter to King Henry VIII, had this to say about William Tyndale. “I find him always singing one note.”

What was that note?

God’s Word was the sufficient, supreme, and final authority, and all of man was to have access to these truths in their own language.

Tyndale after being betrayed by a quote on quote friend, was strangled and burned to death on October 6, 1536....but that note he was singing was still ringing loud and clear.

And that same note still rings true to this day, as we can open up God’s Word and read it in our language, and see the truths that are in it

God spared his life long enough that Tyndale’s goal was achieved. A Bible in the english language, where even the most common of us, yes, even a boy that driveth a plow, can look to this book, can read and understand it, and “taste and see that the Lord is good.”

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever”.

I never altered one syllable of God’s Word against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all that is in earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches, might be given me.