When John Knox cried out to God in passionate prayer, ‘Give me Scotland, else I die’, he was revealing his heart to us. Here was a man whose soul loved God, the church, and his nation. Unswerving and relentless he pursued the righteousness of God, walking through a storm of besetting accusations, misunderstanding, slander, and hatred. Of all the characters of Scottish history John Knox has to be the most loved, or hated. His passion for truth is the sharp sword which divided people. When most caved in to pressure, Knox was still there, calling his people to repentance and faith in Christ, and resisting compromise. Lord Randolph said of Knox that his preaching in one hour was able to put more life in them ‘than 500 trumpets continually blustering in our ears.’ At his graveyard Lord Morton could say ‘There lies he who never feared nor flattered any flesh.’
John Knox was born in Haddington and was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in St Mary’s church there. As a young man he was a private tutor to the children of nobles and he began to hear of reformation in the church breaking out in Scotland and Europe. Reformation needed to come because the church had become so corrupt in belief and practice. Bishops ruled in palaces like princes, and many of them led debauched lives. Pagan idolatry had crept into the church in the form of praying to the Virgin Mary and the saints, and in the communion, which was called the Mass. In the Mass it was believed that the priest could say the Latin words hoc est corpus meum, ‘this is my body’, and the wafer and wine would supernaturally turn into the body and blood of Christ. The wafer, known as the host, was worshipped as God.
The hallmark of the reformers was Sola Scriptura – Scripture Alone – for the authority of the church, rather than the traditions of men. The price of this freedom to bring the church back to a more Christian model, and to dismantle a controlling and antichristian hierarchy, was paid for in the blood of thousands.
Whilst he was a tutor Knox heard the preaching of George Wishart and was converted to Christ. He appointed himself as Wishart’s bouncer, guarding him with a claymore sword, until he came to understand that the Christian’s sword and weapon is the word of God, the Bible. Heartbroken he witnessed the burning of his friend and mentor, George Wishart, at St Andrews by the corrupt church council in 1546. A group of young nobles stormed St Andrews Castle, and killed the cruel Cardinal Beaton. Knox found himself being roped in as their preacher until the French captured the castle, and he was taken away to become a slave on a French galley ship. Later he was freed and became one of the court preachers in England for the teenage Protestant King Edward VI. Next week we will look at Knox’s short, but clear influence on the church in England.
‘Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression.’ (Isaiah 58:1, NKJV)
Image: John Knox preaching from a pulpit, museum at St Andrews, photo: Paul James-Griffiths