Previously: Revelation 10: the little scroll, part two
The first post in the Revelation series
Then
the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go,
take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing
on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and told him to
give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will
make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”
And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It
was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was
made bitter. And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many
peoples and nations and languages and kings.” Revelation 10:8-11
Of course, we know why the little scroll, when eaten, was sweet as honey in the mouth,
but bitter in the stomach. The Word of God is sweet to those who love
the Lord, but those who began reading it for themselves, as Wyclife,
Hus, Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Calvin, Menno Simons, Tyndale, and
many others did; discovered that they were at odds with a corrupt
Church, which persecuted them fiercely. Many ‘heretics’ were burned at
the stake, and many thousands of Bibles were burned, not by atheists,
but by the Church; because those Bibles were not the Vulgate. Bibles by
this time were being printed so cheaply now that the printing press had
been invented, that even plowboys were reading it behind the plow, as
Tyndale had said.
1380-84 Wyclife translates the Vulgate into English
1402-18 Jan Hus of Bohemia preaches reform at Prague, and is burned at the stake as a heretic
1440-55 Gutenberg invents and perfects printing from moveable metal type
1453 Ottoman Turks capture Constantinople; end of the sixth trumpet
1455 Gutenberg Bible printed (so closely the little scroll follows on the sixth trumpet!)
1483 Inquisition begins in Spain
1498 Savonarola of Florence burned at the stake
1501 Pope orders the burning of all books which question papal or Church authority
1516 Erasmus publishes the Greek-Latin New Testament and encourages the
translation of the New Testament into the European languages
1517 Martin Luther posts 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg church
1521 Martin Luther faces Diet at Worms and begins German translation of the Bible
1523 First translation of the Bible into French
1525 Tyndale publishes the New Testament into English
1536 Tyndale burned at the stake for heresy; Calvin publishes Institutes defining Christian doctrine
1536 Henry VIII places a copy of the Bible in English in every English church, based on Tyndale’s translation
1560 Geneva Bible published
1611 Publication of the King James Version of the Bible
Even
though many people were burned at the stake, and many wars were fought
over religion, which were not ended by 1611, the Bible had by 1611 been
translated into all the languages of Europe, and Bibles were being
printed faster than they were being burned. Even today, Wycliffe Bible Translators
continues to translate Bibles into the languages of the last obscure
tribes on Earth. The little scroll was indeed prophesying again, about
many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.
To be continued …
***
Update: continued in Revelation 11: time, times, and half a time
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