I have been studying the life of John Wycliffe and while I have not had time to write exclusively for my blog, I have decided to pass some of my research along simply because it has been a tremendous blessing to me. While it is easy to write history off as being somewhat boring, we must remember that it is our heritage. Everything that has meaning has meaning because of history. The people that are important to us as individuals hold a special place in our hearts, not because of the thin line of the advancing present but because of the history and memories we share with them. With that in mind, turn to history realizing that every figure in history was a living, breathing person just like we are. They had loved ones who were important to them just was we do; they wrestled with hard decisions and struggled to honor God with every breath they took just as we do. We now look back several centuries to consider a the man who started a movement that has brought us the God’s Holy Scriptures in the English language.
John Wycliffe is a well-known name in the scope of church history, both in the contexts of Bible translation and the Reformation. While Wycliffe did not actually live during the period of the Reformation, he is still considered highly influential to the Reformation in that many of the ideas he promoted became the battle cry of the Reformers, who came just over a 100 years later. The primary issues that drove Wycliffe were the Roman abuses of indulgences, justification by faith, and the strongest belief in the idea that every person should have a Bible in his or her own tongue. It was his daring stand against the Roman Catholic Church and his faithful work in translating the Bible that sparked a firestorm. Despite the preventative measures of the Roman Catholic Church, the English Bible quickly became established, thus making it impossible to uproot. By God’s great providence and the use of this humble man named John Wycliffe, the English Bible came, and it had came to stay.[1]
For that reason, Wycliffe has aptly been called “the Morning Star of the Reformation.”[2] The term is actually a biblical reference that appears only in three places (2 Pet 1:19; Rev 2:28, Rev 22:16) and carries with it absolutely beautiful imagery. In Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible, Barnes gives a tremendous summation of the imagery accompanying the term “morning star” and is quite fitting to insert here. He states,
The ‘morning star’ is that bright planet - Venus - which at some seasons of the year appears so beautifully in the east, leading on the morning - the harbinger of the day . . . It appears as the darkness passes away; it is an indication that the morning comes; it is intermingled with the first rays of the light of the sun; it seems to be a herald to announce the coming of that glorious luminary; it is a pledge of the faithfulness of God.[3]
Considering the imagery, it is easy to see why it has been applied to Wycliffe. In essence, he brought the first rays of the Reformation light; he heralded the coming of the glorious Scriptures; he stands as a pledge of God’s faithfulness in making Himself known to man. It could be said that such a saint of God could wish for no greater title . . . At the end of his life, Wycliffe suffered a massive stroke . . . he died on December 31, 1384 only three days later. Amazingly, he was never excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. He passed on to meet the Lord by natural causes.[4]
While John Wycliffe passed away quietly in his bed, his accomplishments would ring in the ears of the Roman Church for years to come. David Hill gives an excellent concluding summary of Wycliffe’s life. He states, “It was symbolic that John Wycliffe died on the eve of a new year, for his life was the dawn of a new age. His voice was stilled, but the burning torch of freedom he lit burned on with an even brighter flame. . . . For the ‘Morning Star of the Reformation’ had lit a fire that could never be quenched.”[5]
[1] Brake, Donald L., A Visual History of the English Bible: The Tumultuous Tale of the World's Bestselling Book (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2008), 46.
[2] Rawlings, Harold, Trial by Fire: The Struggle to Get the Bible into English, (Wellington, Fl: Rawlings Foundation, 2004), 33.
[3] Barnes, Albert, Barnes' Notes on the New Testament, (Electronic Edition: e-Sword 8.0.6, 2009), [Rev 2:28].
[4] Rawlings, Trial by Fire, 55.
[5] David C. Hill, Messengers of the King (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1968), 28.
