Burned At The Stake
By Robert Garner
Rutherford County
A little math in our year of 2021 puts us more than 500 years past the Protestant Reformation days of Martin Luther. Judgment and salvation are clearly on display over these past 500 years of time which spiritually represents the number five in the Bible; or multiple 100’s of five. i.e., five wise and five foolish virgins, five loaves, five hundred reeds, five thousand men. The year 1517 marks the start of the Protestant Reformation (a Christian crusade against the Roman Catholic Church) brought about by Martin Luther rejecting the doctrines and various dictates of the Catholic Church.
The focus of the reformation was the failure of the RC Church in England to allow Bible translation from Latin into the common man’s language or dialect. The Vulgate (Greek, Biblical texts translated into Latin) was the official Latin Bible of the Catholic Church. A particularly grievous doctrine was that of indulgences; (a theology reducing your time in purgatory, a place of sin cleansing) by paying money to the Church for sin forgiveness prior to death; the doctrine of Purgatory is not found in the Bible.
The corruption uncovered in the RC Latin Vulgate Bible translation was massive as various scholars such as Erasmus, who assisted Tyndale, proved the Latin’s deception when translated into Greek. The Vulgates’ trustworthiness soon began to crumble and was considered doomed by the evil doctrine contained within it. Pope Leo X’s declaration that “the fable of Christ was very profitable to him” enraged the people of God. Luther declared his intolerance with the church corruption on Halloween, 1517, by nailing 95 Theses of Contention to the Wittenberg Church Door.
The invention of the printing press allowed for the spread of the Greek and Hebrew knowledge of the Scripture. John Wiclif (old English) or Wycliffe (Wiclif Bible_1380) gave an English translation in the script from the Latin Vulgate. William Tyndale (Tyndale Bible_1534) was the first to publish in print the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament in English from the original Greek and Hebrew.
Tortures and torment on account of The Word of God were horrific and many. A prohibition on possessing any part of the Bible’s Scripture in English was religiously enforced. Any English translation of the Scriptures was considered to be poison. Anyone found with English Scripture in their possession was consider to be a heretic (Rejecting RC Church Doctrine) and was subject to a burning death. William Tindale was reported to be at the age of sixty when he was tied to a stake, strangled, and burned. His only crime was printing Bibles in the English language! His dying prayer was written in old English script, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes”. Surely the hand of the LORD was upon these men, and many others, for their awe-inspired devotion to bringing the Word of God to the multitudes of mankind.
In the city of Coventry, England, seven persons were burned for having taught their children and families the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandants from an English translation found in their possession.
“And when he had open the fifth seal, I saw under the alter the souls of them that were slain for the word of God; and for the testimony which they held; And I John saw these things, and heard them”___ Revelation 6:9, Rev.22: 7,8,9.
Five major English Bible translations stand out in history which steered the Reformation of Christianity to the final translation of the King James Bible. Wiclif-1380, Tyndale-1534, Cranmer-1539, Geneva-1557, Reims-1582, and finally The King James-1611. The King James Bible is revered as God’s Book, The Lamb’s Book of Life. 2 Peter 1:21 “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Proverbs 30:5; “Every Word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him.”
The King James Bible translators numbered about fifty men. They were divided into six companies, each company being responsible for a certain section of the Scriptures. Among the translators were Lancelot Andrews (1555-1626), Dean of Westminster, Edward Lively (1545-1605) Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, and John Harding, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford (1591-8 and 1604-10). The results of their labor were subject to mutual criticism and then underwent nine months of final revision by the King’s committee sitting in London.
2 Timothy 2:15; “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
The King James Bible was printed in England under the King’s copyright. During the American Revolution, the Congress of the United States would usurp the King’s copyright and authorize the first English printing in the “New World”. That event set the stage for America to bring the Light of the World, The King James Bible, to the masses by means of the great Bible Societies like the American Bible Society formed in 1816. John 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
Schedule a Very Unique Bible Study
Anyone can schedule an amazing Bible Study for your group or organization, see the email below. Five major reproductions of the original English Bible translations containing the New Testament will be brought to the study for everyone’s inspection. Compare your favorite Bible verses in the New Testament dating back to the year 1380. Check out the Anglo-Saxons, Old English, as you compare scripture progression into modern English. Why were the Bible scholars under the veniauncis of God Almighty, (old English for vengeance and plagues) as they translated the Hebrew and Greek languages into English? Hold in your hand an original “Bible Leaf”, laminated between plastic, from the first edition of the King James Bible printed before the year 1650. A Bible Leaf is a recovered page of an old Bible that has had its binding deteriorate over time. Finally, take part as a modern-day English Bible scribe translator; everyone will be shocked with what the group will learn from this exercise of comparing scripture with scripture. This study is guaranteed to be absolutely amazing because it’s all about God’s Word, the Bible.
Mathew 10:8,” freely you have received, freely give. John 5:39, search the scriptures; John 5:47, but if you believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my word?”
Scheduling for Bible Study, contact email; valleygravel@outlook.com. Your comments are always appreciated.
Historical Credit Reference and Copy: The Bible Museum, Goodyear, AZ. An Original Leaf From The First Edition Of The 1611 King James Bible. The English Hexapla, Persecutions On Account Of The Word Of God, 1519-21. Page 88, 89. The Forbidden Book, DVD, Authorized KJV.
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Robert W. Garner and his wife live in Union Mills, Rutherford County, NC. He’s a Christian Bible study researcher/writer/coach allied with other Biblical Scripture investigators unaffiliated with any church denominations. Their Scripture research spans 600 years of Christian Bible languages which include English, Hebrew, and Greek. As God Almighty commands in 1 Corinthians 2:13 we search the scriptures; “not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but what the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual with spiritual”; which is a scripture with scripture.
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