My dear readers,

 

1. Faith is the Victory

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen … without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb11:1, 6). Without faith it is impossible to work the works of God; but with faith, God gives the victory.

 

By faith Moses chose "rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt … By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible" (Heb 11:25-27).

 

For the deliverance of His people Israel from the bondage of Egypt and the Pharaoh, God raised a man of faith, Moses, who persevered through forty years against the murmurings and rebellion of his people. By faith he kept the Passover, led the people through the Red Sea. By faith the walls of Jericho fell.

 

It was faith in the God who called and raised him, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that won the victory.

 

2. The man God raised

In every day and age, God raises men of faith to fulfil His purpose. In 16th Century England, God raised a man, William Tyndale, to stand up for his people. An entire nation held in the vice-like grip of the priesthood, kept in the darkness of ignorance of God’s Word, they were without light, without truth, without hope.

 

God had given Tyndale a gift of language and a consuming passion to give his people the light of God’s Word. Until every man and woman had free access to the Word, to read God’s Book without hindrance of the priesthood, William Tyndale could not rest.

 

Facing opposition from the highest quarters – King Henry VIII and his nobles, including Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas Moore – Tyndale despaired for man’s help. But had not the Lord who called him promised, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Heb 13:5b)? Surely, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Heb 13:6b). By faith, Tyndale held fast to his calling to translate the Bible from the original languages into the vernacular. The English people must have God’s Word in English!

 

If his own country was made unsafe and inhospitable, then, for the sake of his life calling, Tyndale was willing to go into exile. On the Continent he found asylum, even though unsafe at times, for Europe also was under the Roman power. Living the life of a fugitive, never far from the reach of the Pope’s agents, Tyndale pressed on with his work.

 

While in Germany, Tyndale finished the translation of the Greek New Testament, by faith and dogged determination, labouring under the most trying conditions. But God gave the victory. Many thousands of the freshly printed New Testament, the first ever translated directly from Greek into English, were smuggled into England, hidden in merchandise such as bales of cloth or sacks of grain.

 

The English New Testament literally set England on fire. For once, the common people could read God’s Word for themselves, without the intermediary of an ungodly and ignorant priesthood. God’s light began to shine into men’s heart everywhere. People were receiving God’s truth unhindered.

 

For the first time in history, the Greek New Testament was available in English and in print. Before Tyndale there were only hand-written copies of the Bible in English translated from Latin by John Wycliffe.

 

Driven on by the same indomitable spirit, William Tyndale started work on the Old Testament, translating from Hebrew manuscripts, until he was martyred in 1536. By then, he had completed the Pentateuch, Joshua, and up to 2 Chronicles, and Jonah.

 

William Tyndale’s contribution to the King James Bible is largely obscured by the corporate fame of the 1611 "Authorised Version" under the auspices of royalty and officialdom. Little known by the common person is the fact that 84 percent of the KJV’s New Testament and 75 percent of the Old Testament were the original work of Tyndale.

 

The perfection of translation and English idiom by Tyndale was such that the company of scholars who had received the royal commission to translate God’s Word from the Hebrew and Greek Texts, could do no better than to adopt whole-sale the bulk of Tyndale’s work.

 

Tyndale! What a man did God raise!

 

Consider the debt we owe Tyndale for leaving us timeless expressions of God’s Word which too often we have quoted as "KJB," little realizing that sayings such as these following had flowed from God’s servant.

"Am I my brother’s keeper?" (Gen 4:9).

"The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace" (Num 6:24-26).

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).

"There were shepherds abiding in the field" (Luke 2:8).

"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted" (Matt 5:4).

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name" (Matt 6:9).

"The signs of the times" (Matt 16:3).

"The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt 26:41).

"He went out … and wept bitterly" (Matt 26:75). Those two words are still used by almost all modern translations (NIV, NASB, ESV, NKJV). It has not been improved on for five hundred years in spite of weak efforts like one recent translation: "cried hard." Unlike that phrase, "the rhythm of his two words carries the experience."

"A law unto themselves" (Rom 2:14).

"In him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels" (1 Cor 13:1).

"Fight the good fight" (1 Tim 6:12).

To be continued ….

 

Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service,

Dr SH Tow, Sr Pastor