Since few ministers are Bible scholars, they do not know their Bibles, therefore, they use them as if they are nothing more than the user’s manual that came with the monitor on their computer. They never dig into it so the Holy Spirit can break through their calloused hearts with the pure truth from God. This is seen vividly if we listen to their sermons or teachings. They are nothing more than pep talks on how to get by in this life instead of the pure milk from God’s Word. Oddly enough Tyndale wrote about this very thing that was prevalent in the Catholic church of his day.

14 Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:14-15 (NASB)

One of the lynchpins of whatever it is that God calls us to do to take up the slack in the battle for the truth is that we must be those who do indeed present ourselves to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of Truth. What does it mean to “rightly handle the Word of Truth?”

I am a big fan of William Tyndale. Yes, I know he has been dead since the early 16th Century, but he worked and wrote in a time when Protestant Reformation was young and still being defined by Luther and his followers and others. Tyndale was in exile in the Antwerp area of modern day Belgium when he wrote his classic work, The Obedience of a Christian Man. Henry VIII was on the throne of England and had just broke from the Roman Catholic Church. All of Tyndale’s old Catholic enemies had either been imprisoned, killed, or were in exile themselves because King Henry had confiscated all of the property of the monasteries and Catholic churches. However, Tyndale had to stay on the continent because King Henry still did not approve of an English Bible and that was William’s primary passion. He had already published several editions of an English New Testament that had been smuggled into England where it sold rapidly to people starving for the truth of God’s Word.

Tyndale was working on a new edition of his Bible that would include an updated version of the New Testament along with the Old Testament. During this time William published The Obedience of a Christian Man which, I feel, is his finest work outside of translating the Bible. If we look at the reformers and their struggles and passions we should come away from that with a sense that our modern form of Christianity has become highly superficial. These men risked it all to get the Bible into the people’s hands and the gospel into their hearts. It was a risk because both of those were resisted vehemently by the Roman Catholic Church, most Kings and their nobles, and the civil authorities who were at the beck and call of those in power.

The superficiality of the Compromised Church is manifest most tragically in how it’s ministers treat the Word of God. Since few of them are Bible scholars, they do not know their Bibles, therefore, they use them as if they are nothing more than the user’s manual that came with the monitor on their computer. They never dig into it so the Holy Spirit can break through their calloused hearts with the pure truth from God. This is seen vividly if we listen to their sermons or teachings. They are nothing more than pep talks on how to get by in this life instead of the pure milk from God’s Word. Oddly enough Tyndale wrote about this very thing that was prevalent in the Catholic church of his day. Here is an excerpt from The Obedience of a Christian Man.

Thou shalt understand therefore that the scripture hath but one sense which is the literal sense. An that literal sense is the root and ground of all, and the anchor that never faileth whereunto if thou cleave thou canst never err or go out of the way. Neverthelater the scripture useth proverbs, similitudes, riddles or allegories as all other speeches do, but that which the proverb, similitude, riddle or allegory signifieth is ever the literal sense which thou must seek out diligently. As in the English we borrow words and sentences of one thing and apply them unto another and give them new significations. We say let the sea swell and rise as high as he will yet hath God appointed how far he shall go: meaning that the tyrants shall not do what they would, but that only which God hath appointed them to do. Look ere thou leap, whose literal sense is, do nothing suddenly or without adivisement. Cut not the bough that thou standest upon, whose literal sense is oppress not the commons and is borrowed of hewers.

So in like manner the scripture borroweth words and sentences of all manner of things and maketh proverbs and similitudes or allegories. As Christ saith (Luke 4), Physician heal thyself. Whose interpretation is do that at home which thou doest in strange places, ant that is the literal sense. So when I say Christ is lamb, I mean not a lamb that beareth wool, but a meek and patient lamb which is beaten for other men’s faults. Christ is a vine, not that beareth grapes: but out of whose root the branches that believe suck the spirit of life and mercy and grace and power to be the sons of God and to do his will. The similitudes of the gospel are allegories borrowed of worldly matter to express spiritual things. The Apocalypse of Revelation of John are allegories whose literal sense is hard to find in many places…

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