Vol 82 Issue 02

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.   Minister Activities  Since our last “News” three of our vacant congregations have formed new trios from which they soon will call a pastor. The Edgerton, MN PRC will call from a trio of Rev. Bruinsma, Rev. S. Houck, and Candidate John Marcus. Covenant PRC in Wyckoff, NJ has a trio of Rev. M. Dick, Rev. S. Houck, and Rev. A. Spriensma. The Loveland, CO PRC has a trio of Rev. A. Brummel, Rev. S. Key, and Rev. J. Laning.  Congregation Activities  The evening of September 14...

Rev. Shand is pastor of the Winnaleah congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia. Though John Wycliffe (c.1329-84) died some 130 years prior to Martin Luther’s nailing of his ninety-five theses to the church door in Wittenberg, he is rightly described as “The Morning Star of the Reformation.” The sixteenth century Reformation did not arise in Europe as something entirely new and unconnected with the past, but it had a lengthy gestation period, arguably beginning with Wycliffe. Luther is often credited with igniting the Reformation, but many of the views that he espoused had previously been articulated by Wycliffe...

Rev. Langerak is pastor of the Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The year 1400 was a bad time to be a Lollard. For many English people, the dawning of the new century renewed hope. But for the Lollards the situation looked ominous. Lollards were disciples of John Wycliffe. Using itinerant preachers armed with newly translated Bibles and teaching in the mother-tongue, they spread Wycliffe’s views throughout England, from fish-mongers and farmers in remote hamlets to noblemen and aristocrats in castles. For almost 20 years after his death, they were relatively unmolested by the Catholic Church and civil...

Prof. Cammenga is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.   Background to the Wycliffe Bible  English-speaking Christians living in the twenty-first century take for granted having a Bible, and having a Bible in their own language. We all have Bibles, many Bibles, Bibles that are readily accessible. We have Bibles in our homes, at school, at the workplace, in our car or pickup truck. Bibles are available to us in our church pews for worship on the Lord’s Day. Even the children can follow along as the minister reads the Scripture portion from which the...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Errors in practice are rooted in errors in doctrine. And, by the providence of God, John Wycliffe, who began his work of reform by condemning the papacy’s secular and foreign control over the English people, was led to look deeper and to expose the corrupt doctrines of this false church. He was one who searched the Scriptures, and the more he did so the clearer he saw the corruption of the Romish Church. Probing deeper into the truth, he came to recognize that one of the fundamental false...

John Wycliffe wrote much on the evils in the church. One treatise consists of 43 chapters critiquing the clergy.* Wycliffe focused particularly on the fact that the clergy were not caring for souls by preaching, but were guilty in other ways of doing great harm to the souls of men. His criticisms reveal that the situation seemed to be almost as desperate in Wycliffe’s day as in Luther’s times, some 150 years later. A few excerpts are given below. Importance of Preaching  In the first chapter Wycliffe shows that our Lord and His apostles were devoted to the work of...

Rev. Stewart is a missionary in the Protestant Reformed Churches, currently working in Northern Ireland. In John Wycliffe’s day (c. 1324-1384), most of Europe professed to be Christian. The Roman church was dominant in the west and the Orthodox churches in the east. Godly Waldensians worshiped in the Alps and their environs, and there were also heretical groups in diverse places. In Europe, only Lithuania yet remained pagan, and southern Spain was under Muslim control.  Babylonian Captivity, Papal Schism, and Black Death Two major events lowered the status of the papacy in the fourteenth century. First, during the “Babylonian captivity”...

Rev. Koole is pastor of Grandville Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. In the celestial firmament of the New Testament church age some luminaries have burned more brightly than others. Amongst these “brighter luminaries” John Wycliffe (c. 1320-1384) of England deserves to be numbered. He is universally acknowledged as “The Morning Star of the Reformation.” And not without merit. Through his careful study of God’s Word he arrived at doctrinal positions (and criticism of Rome’s major errors) that anticipated and prepared the way for Luther and the sixteenth century Reformers. No less a pre-Reformer than John Hus of Bohemia was...

What a clear and lovely thought in the midst of the hopeless confusion of Pelagianism! The church of Christ is the company of the elect! A ray of hope it was in the theological darkness of the fourteenth century church, which in effect construed the church as a man-made institution, what with a man as its head and salvation dependent on the works of men. Over against that is the heartening word, the church is the company of the elect! It was the 1370s in England, and John Wycliffe was engaged in a fierce controversy with the hierarchy of the...

Sermon of John Wycliffe. “And behold there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, etc.  And there came unto him a centurion beseeching him, etc.”  Matthew 8:2, 5 This gospel tells of two miracles that Jesus did and contains much instruction about these two miracles. The history tells how Jesus came down off the hill, when He had given His law to His disciples. Much people followed Him, for the devotion that they had to His law and His words. And, lo, there came a leper man and bowed to him, and said, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou mayest heal...