Listening to the Giants

This blog post is for everyone, because everyone gets angry, even the great John Wycliffe.  His biographer states,  “Wycliffe found no rest at Lutterworth (where he stayed during the last two years of his life) and perhaps he did not really seek it. There was in every sense too much unfinished business, both positive and negative. He was full of anger and resentment. His language breaks into violence in sermon after sermon. It is hard to escape the impression that he had more enemies than close friends.” Anger and resentment. Yeah....I hear you.  Here are 4 things I try to remind myself about anger: #1--Anger is a serious sin. Don’t minimize it. Don’t rename It. (This is when we say things like, “I am frustrated” or “I am just working through some stuff” or “I am just processing”, etc.). Let us not forget that Jesus makes it clear that God takes anger very seriously. Matthew 5:21-22 "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT C...

This was no small complaint by the Oxford scholar. This would be similar to mentioning "a bomb" at any U.S. airport. Wycliffe's biographer states,  “Wycliffe is no longer in favor of bishops. He thinks that the only orders of ministry ought to be those of priest and deacon, since, although the vocabulary of the New Testament is hard to interpret, it does seem to be consistent in referring to only two orders, deacons and presbyter-bishops (elders). Wycliffe lays down the important principle that a distinction of duties or office does not necessarily require a difference in order. ‘For as far as the power of the order is concerned all priests are equal in power’. The simple priest has as much ‘plentitude of power’ as the Pope.” Well….that will do it. Tell everyone the Pope’s authority is invalid and your common priest is just as powerful as the Holy Vicar of Rome. This will put you on Rome’s most wanted list. Here are a couple questions for the Christian toda...

John Wycliffe’s last work was called Gospel Work . His latest biographer assessment of it is interesting. She states, “The drift of this last book on Scripture seems clear. There are no automatic, special, divine preferences for any particular class of Christian, priest or monk or friar; it is personal virtue which counts. The Bible is not reserved for the educated or the ordained. The Bible is for all the people of God.” History states that the heart of Wycliffe was for the laity, so that they could own and read the scriptures for themselves. Because of his passion for God’s word, millions of Christians have multiple bibles in their homes. And yet many Christians often lament that they themselves, though they own a bible, are unable to understand the Bible. Here are 6 main reasons Christians struggle to understand the Bible. ***Please understand when I write “you”, I mean you, me…any Christian who struggles with this. Reason #1—You do not ask for Divine...

As I finished reading this biography on John Wycliffe, this simple fact hit me hard. John Wycliffe lived as a Roman Catholic priest. John Wycliffe died as a Roman Catholic Priest. Or to say it another way: The Morning Star of the Reformation was a Roman Catholic. Sort of ironic, don’t you think? So here is the $144,000 question I want to try to answer: Can a Roman Catholic be a Christian? Well….before I give my answer, I need to make a couple general statements. First, please understand I am not intentionally trying to pick a fight or offend any Roman Catholic. I mean it. I was very hesitant to write this blog post because I have many family members that I love dearly that are Roman Catholic. Second, the main issue is the gospel. This is always the main issue. The only way that Roman Catholics and Christians are the same (i.e. they belong or identified as the same group) is if their understanding of the gospel is the same. So before we can answer the primary...

The life of John Wycliffe (1324-1384) WYCLIFFE’S TIMES In Wycliffe’s day Rome ruled England and Europe with an iron fist.  One hundred years earlier, Pope Innocent III had humbled King John of England. The king had done things that displeased the pope, so the pope excommunicated him and issued a decree declaring that he was no longer the king and releasing the people of England from obeying him. The pope further ordered King Philip of France to organize an army and navy to overthrow John, which Philip began to do with great zeal, eager to conquer England for himself. The pope also called for a general crusade against John, promising the participants remission of sins and a share of the spoils of war. The Scriptures was forbidden in the common languages of the people in Wycliffe’s day. One of Wycliffe’s enemies, Knyghton, a canon of Leicester, complained that by translating the Scriptures into English and thus laying it “open to the laity and to women who could read”. This...

To begin, I want to be clear on one thing: Though in this post I encourage all pastors to be “scholars”, I am not referring to men with multiple degrees or the priority of doing your graduate work overseas. Rather, a scholar is simply “a learner person” or “a specialist in a given branch of knowledge”. All pastors can and should pursue a reasonable and self-defining level of biblical scholarship. It is without debate that John Calvin is the standard par excellence for the Pastor-Scholar. One author wrote, “As far as John Calvin was concerned, almost nothing was more urgent for the church than the reformation of pastoral ministry. For centuries, most ministers had been shockingly ignorant of the Scriptures and thus ill-equipped to preach the gospel. As Calvin said in one debate with a Catholic cardinal (pretending to defend the Protestant cause before God): “Those who were regarded as the leaders of faith neither understood Thy Word, nor greatly cared for it. They drove...

P erseverance of the Saints Definition:  The Perseverance of the Saints means that all those who are truly born again will be kept by God's power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives, and that only those who persevere until the end have been truly born again. Did John Calvin teach this doctrine? Absolutely. Calvin’s Commentary on I John 3:9 1 John 3:9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. “ And he cannot keep on sinning ” Here the Apostle ascends higher, for he plainly declares that the hearts of the godly are so effectually governed by the Spirit of God, that through an inflexible disposition they follow his guidance.” Later on: “John speaks here far otherwise; for he not only shews that we cannot sin, but also that the power of the Spirit is so effectual, that it necessarily retains us in continual obedience to righteous...