This summer our main Sunday School class (led by John Lookabaugh) has been considering the Reformation, both the causes and the results. We often think of Martin Luther as the main reformer, but it was helpful in this last week’s class to consider the early reformers: John Wycliffe and John Huss. Both men were convinced that God’s Word is the final authority and were willing to die for that belief.
For us living in America, we have not had to sacrifice to own and read the Word of God. It was handed to us from our earliest years and more often than not we have not just one Bible, but several to spare. Yet, this word of God in English was paid for by the sacrifice of those early reformers. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who were willing to stand by their conviction that every person should have a Bible in their language and be able to read, understand, and obey God’s Word without interference from any man.
As Tertullian famously said: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.”