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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ001102A
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00:04 Five hundred years ago an event took place here that shook the 00:09 world and changed the course of human history. A young German 00:13 monk strode to this door and challenged the power and 00:17 authority of the most powerful empire on earth, an empire that 00:22 had ruled for a thousand years. His actions put him on a 00:26 collision course with the most powerful people of his time, 00:31 the Emperor and the Pope, and set in motion a train of 00:35 revolution, war and conflict that would reshape western 00:39 civilization and lift it out of the dark ages. The historical, 00:44 theological significance of Martin Luther is encapsulated in 00:48 a memorial in the center of Worms. Luther is surrounded by 00:52 some of the most important people who paved the way for the 00:55 reformation. They include John Wycliffe, Jan Huss and Girolamo 01:01 Savonarola. They laid the foundation for Martin Luther. 01:07 And what's more, it's the story of the birth of the modern age. 01:11 But perhaps even more importantly it's a story that 01:16 could bring you peace and freedom and change your life 01:20 forever. You won't want to miss it. 01:22 ♪ ♪ 01:37 The Rhine River is one of Europes grand waterways. 01:40 It passes through six different countries as it flows 1320 km 01:46 from Switzerland all the way to Holland and the North Sea. One 01:52 of the most appealing and spectacular sections of this 01:55 mighty river flows through Germany's Rhine Valley. This is 01:59 an area of outstanding beauty. It's just as if it's straight 02:04 out of a picture book. Idylic villages appear around each 02:08 bend. The half timbered houses and Gothic church steeples 02:12 seemingly plucked from the world of fairy tales. Forested 02:17 hillsides alternate with craggy cliffs and steep terraced 02:22 vineyards. Romantic castles are perched on virtually every 02:27 hilltop. Someone called this section of the Rhine flowing 02:32 history. On its banks charming towns like Rudesheim and 02:36 Bacharach were thriving centers of the Rhine wine trade in the 02:41 middle ages. The terraced vineyards that stripe its steep 02:46 banks descend from vines planted by Ceasar's legions. The hilltop 02:50 castles standing high above its waters or sometimes even in the 02:56 river itself were erected by medieval kings and princes who 03:00 built more castles here in the Rhine Valley than in any other 03:04 valley in the world. This section of the river is only 03:10 50 km in length yet is has more than 30 castles and abbies. It's 03:14 genuine castle country. Yes the Rhine Valley is a place of 03:20 romance and beauty, but its peaceful setting belies the 03:25 unrest that rippled through this region 500 years ago in the 03:29 early 16th century. Picture the scene that fateful afternoon 03:35 of October 31, 1517. Here the university town of Wittenberg 03:45 not all that far from the Rhine River a young German monk 03:49 strides down the busy street to Wittenberg's castle church, the 03:54 most prominent and important building in the town. On the 03:58 church door he nails a sheet of paper with a list of 95 theses 04:02 that challenges the power and authority of the most powerful 04:07 empire on earth, an empire that had ruled for a thousand years. 04:13 Now he's on a collision course with the most powerful people of 04:18 the time, the Pope and the Emperor. With the posting of his 04:23 95 theses Martin Luther launched what became known as the 04:28 reformation. The blows of his hammer were soon heard in every 04:33 country in Europe and marked a turning point in history and the 04:37 beginning of a new epoch in our civilization. Back in the first 04:45 century Christianity was a crime Christians worshiped God and not 04:51 the emperor. They were seen as a threat to the empire and so 04:56 firestorms of persecution swept through the church as Nero and 05:02 other Roman emperors massacred thousands of believers in Jesus. 05:07 Those early Christians suffered horrifying deaths because of 05:11 their belief in Jesus. The enemies of Christ tried to 05:16 destroy the church with persecution. Christians were 05:21 tortured and thrown in dungeons, or burned alive or torn apart by 05:26 wild animals in the great Roman colesiums. They were hunted like 05:32 wild beasts. But despite this terrible persecution as long as 05:37 the apostles were alive the church stood firm and true to 05:42 the Bible and the pure teachings of Jesus. In fact the fires of 05:48 persecution served the purify the church and start the spread 05:53 of Bible truth. The blood of the martyrs was a seed that sprang 05:58 up everywhere. But sadly, with the second and third generation 06:03 of Christians came compromise with paganism and apostasy. 06:09 Here's the record of history: 06:26 Quietly and gradually the cancer of apostasy spread. The church 06:32 in general suffered a serious loss of faith. In the fourth 06:38 century Emperor Constantine tried to hold the Roman empire 06:43 together by uniting pagans and Christians in one great system 06:48 of religion. As a direct result Christianity was corrupted. 06:53 One historian writes: 07:19 Another historian says: 07:38 Yes, false teachings crept into the church and many of the great 07:43 truths Jesus gave were lost. The church, the fortress of 07:53 truth that Jesus and the apostles built was weakened and 07:57 reduced to ruins by the insidious introduction and 08:00 spread of pagan beliefs and practices. Now should this 08:05 surprise us. Didn't the Bible predict that this very thing 08:08 would happen to the church? That apostasy would prevail in the 08:13 church. Notice the warning of Peter the apostle in II Peter 08:17 chapter 2 verses 1 and 2: 08:30 And this is exactly what took place, just as the Bible 08:34 predicted. It didn't happen overnight. The decay of truth 08:39 took centuries. At first, the enemy of God tried to destroy 08:45 the church with persecution. It didn't work. So he resorted to 08:50 deception. He determined to undermine Christianity from 08:56 within. Using clever compromise and false teachings he succeeded 09:01 in crippling the faith once delivered to the saints. It's 09:06 important to keep in mind that the Bible wasn't available to 09:10 everyone back there as it is now. Doctrines were passed along 09:14 by word of mouth until the people could scarcely 09:18 distinguish between scripture and tradition. Few really knew 09:23 the truth as was taught by Christ and his disciples. And so 09:27 for centuries the truth lay buried beneath tradition. 09:31 Rites and ceremonies that Jesus, Paul and Peter never heard of 09:37 crept into the church. The church had been corrupted. 09:44 Instead of freely offering the gospel of Jesus, the church 09:47 turned religion into a business and began to sell forgiveness 09:52 and salvation. A process was developed whereby the church 09:57 sold forgiveness for every imaginable sin and crime. Even 10:01 murder had its price. The more the people sinned the richer the 10:06 church became. By selling entrance to heaven the church 10:10 became the wealthiest most powerful organization in the 10:15 world. The people were banned from reading the Bible. In fact, 10:21 the death penalty was enforced on anyone caught reading the 10:24 Bible. In this way, the corrupted church kept its 10:28 adherents blindly following its false teachings and as the light 10:34 of God's truth was hidden from the people an age of darkness 10:38 descended upon the world. No wonder this period of history is 10:43 known as the dark ages and it was dark. But the night is 10:50 always darkest just before the dawn of a new day. Just when it 10:54 seems that the darkness will never end the morning star 10:58 appears. It's a messenger of hope that promises light as a 11:04 new day approaches. And just so a new day began to dawn. God 11:10 wasn't caught unprepared. God in his mercy sent messengers to 11:14 reform the church. Virtually all of these great reformers came 11:19 from within the established church heritage itself. Most of 11:23 them were priests. They didn't set out to form new 11:27 denominations nor did they seek to break from the established 11:31 church. Rather they passionately desired that the church reform 11:37 from within and correct the abuses that had crept in over 11:42 many generations. One of the first and most influential of 11:52 these men was John Wycliffe, often called the morning star of 11:56 the reformation. He was an English priest and the leading 12:00 philosopher of the 14th century who spent most of his career as 12:04 a scholar and professor at Oxford University, the most 12:08 outstanding university in the world at the time. He became 12:14 master of Balliol College, one of Oxford's five halls where he 12:18 lectured on the Bible. He began to study the Bible in depth as 12:22 he prepared for his classes and discovered that the church was 12:27 teaching doctrines and practices that he justs couldn't find 12:31 anywhere in the Bible. This greatly troubled him. The more 12:36 he studied, the more he became convinced that the Bible is 12:41 God's word and that the church therefore should use the Bible 12:45 and the Bible only as the source for all its beliefs and 12:50 practices. While studying and lecturing here at Oxford 12:54 Wycliffe also discovered that the Bible was given by God to 12:58 everyone and so nothing was more important to Wycliffe than 13:02 getting the Bible and its message of salvation through 13:05 Jesus Christ to the common people in their own language. At 13:11 that time the only Bibles were written in Latin and were 13:14 chained into monastery walls. So very few people could read them. 13:18 Wycliffe began to preach against the false teachings of the 13:22 church and also against its corruption and abuses. This 13:27 brought the wrath of the church against him. He was banished 13:36 from his post at Oxford and sent as pastor to the church at 13:40 Lutterworth. Here he undertook the monumental task of 13:44 translating all of the Bible into English for the common 13:50 people. Some of Wycliffe's students followed him here from 13:53 Oxford. He trained them to become traveling preachers and 13:57 sent them out to preach a simple message, the simple good news 14:02 about Jesus in the language of the people based on the Bible. 14:06 Wycliffe was condemned by the established church and died of a 14:11 stroke in 1384 but his writings and influence continued so 14:17 strongly that he was formally condemned by the church again 14:21 30 years later. Orders were give for his writings to be 14:26 destroyed. His grave was desecrated, his bones exhumed 14:31 and burned and his ashes thrown into the nearby River Swift. The 14:37 church authorities thought that by burning his remains they 14:41 would get rid of his memory, his life and his teachings. But a 14:47 new day had dawned. The promise and hope that the morning star 14:53 brings could not be extinguished The light of truth began to 14:57 shine and spread. A royal marriage between the houses of 15:01 England and Bohemia saw a Bohemian princess involved in 15:05 taking the writings of Wycliffe to Prague, one of the most 15:09 beautiful cities of Europe. Princess Anne of Bohemia grew up 15:15 Prague castle, the largest ancient castle in the world. 15:19 The complex comprises a number of palaces and church buildings 15:23 including St. Peter's Cathedral. Its spires, towers and turrets 15:28 dominate the city skyline. Princess Anne was the eldest 15:33 daughter of Emperor Charles IV of the Holy Roman Empire and was 15:38 engaged to be married to Richard II of England. Leaving 15:43 the castle for the last time she walked along the Royal Mile, the 15:47 pathway taken by the kings and queens of Bohemia for centuries. 15:52 She crossed the 500 meter long Charles bridge with its 30 15:56 statues and on through the magnificent old town square that 16:01 is counted today as one of Prague's national treasures with 16:04 its churches palaces and clocks. She was an intelligent young 16:10 woman with an inquiring mind and she carried her most treasured 16:15 possession with her, a copy of the Bible that she loved to read 16:19 and study. Anne and King Richard were married in Westminster 16:26 Abbey on the 22nd of January 1382 and two days later Anne was 16:32 crowned queen of England. Anne's love for the Bible brought her 16:37 into contact with John Wycliffe. She read and respected his 16:41 writings and was deeply influenced by his Bible 16:44 teachings. Anne protected Wycliffe from his enemies and 16:49 intervened on many occasions to protect him from persecution and 16:54 to save his life. With Queen Anne's encouragement Bohemian 16:58 students came to Oxford to study under Wycliffe. Many of them 17:05 carried his writings and teachings back to Prague where 17:09 they influenced a young Huss, the bright young priest and 17:12 lecturer at the University of Prague. As Huss studied the 17:16 Bible he became convinced that John Wycliffe was correct and 17:22 the church needed reformation. Some of its beliefs and 17:25 practices simply couldn't be reconciled with the Bible. 17:35 And so here in the Bethlehem chapel while still in his mid 17:39 20s young Huss began speaking out boldly against the false 17:45 teachings and corruption of the church. It was here that he 17:49 preached the good news of Jesus to the people of Prague in their 17:53 own Bohemian language. He denounced the often immoral 17:56 and extravagant lifestyles of the clergy. He said that Christ 18:00 is the true head of the church, not some human being. 18:04 He claimed that God alone can forgive sins and he said that 18:09 the Bible alone is the authority in all religious matters. Huss 18:21 dreamed of seeing the church that he loved remove the false 18:25 teaching and corruption. He dreamed of seeing the church 18:28 restored to the pure teachings of Jesus as found in the Bible. 18:33 Well the teaching and activity of Huss challenged the great 18:37 medieval church of the day. It could mean only trouble for his 18:42 beliefs. In 1415 he was summoned to the city of Constance on the 18:52 Swiss/German border to defend his teachings. The emperor 18:56 guaranteed his safe conduct and passage regardless of the 19:01 outcome of the trial. However, when he arrived Huss was 19:05 imprisoned and then taken through a mockery of a trial in 19:09 the Constance Cathedral where he wasn't allowed any defense. 19:13 He protested his innocence and refused to renounce his beliefs 19:17 unless he could be shown otherwise from scripture. 19:23 The plaque marks the place where he stood as he was condemned to 19:27 be burned at the stake for his beliefs. On the 6th of July 1415 19:34 Huss was taken to a location on the outskirts of Constance. 19:41 A large stone marks the placer where the fire was prepared. 19:42 Before being chained to the stake Huss knelt down and 19:48 prayed Oh Jesus Christ gladly and in humility will I bear this 19:53 shameful death for the sake of your holy gospel. Forgive my 19:58 enemies. He was then chained to the stake and a fire was lit. 20:03 Once the flames had done their task the ashes of John Huss were 20:09 taken and thrown into the Rhine River. Today the Huss monument 20:16 _ in Prague's busy old town square commemorates a man 20:22 willing to die for the truth of the Bible. He was a courageous 20:24 reformer, but he wasn't alone in his desire to see his church 20:29 reform and return to the pure teachings of Jesus as found in 20:34 the Bible. Others began echoing Huss' call for the church to 20:42 reform and return to the Bible including Girolamo Savonarola, 20:47 the Dominican priest in the Italian city of Florence. The 20:51 Bible became his most treasured possession. It's the only book 20:56 he read for the last eight years of his life. He based all his 21:00 beliefs and preaching directly on the Bible. As he studied the 21:05 Bible at St. Mark's Dominican Convent Savonarola, like other 21:11 Bible students before him, soon realized that the church had 21:14 wondered from the pure teachings of Jesus and the apostles. 21:18 Thousands came to hear him preach in the Duomo the main 21:23 cathedral. He was a fearless preacher. He tried to reform the 21:27 church he loved by preaching the great truths of the Bible. 21:32 Amongst other things he preached that only God can forgive sins 21:36 and that the Bible alone must be the source of Christian belief 21:41 and teaching. He denounced church corruption, despotic rule 21:45 and the exploitation of the poor. Savonarola's preaching 21:50 attracted the ire of the church and the local authorities. He 21:54 was sighted before the city council, found guilty of heresy 21:58 and sentenced to death. On the 23rd of May 1498 the sentence 22:05 was carried out in the great square outside the old palace 22:09 in the heart of Florence. A plaque marks the place where 22:14 Savonarola was hanged on the gallows and then publicly burned 22:18 As the fire burned his body was stoned. Wycliffe, Huss, 22:24 Savonarola and others were priests and monks who came from 22:29 within the heritage of the established church. As the Bible 22:33 became available to them and they began to read and study the 22:37 sacred scriptures for themselves they became aware that the 22:41 church had drifted from its pure faith and fallen away from Bible 22:46 truth. They realized that the church had become corrupted. 22:52 They loved the church and passionately desired that it 22:55 reform from within and correct abuses and false teachings that 23:00 had crept in over many generations. The Bible and its 23:04 message made a difference in their lives. The principles of 23:09 God's word were not only something to live for but 23:12 something to die for. To these men faith, loyalty, obedience 23:19 and truth mattered. Sadly the church rejected their calls for 23:24 reform and either attacked or executed these men. However, 23:29 their efforts were not in vain because their work, vision and 23:33 sacrifice laid the groundwork for the dramatic events that 23:39 were soon to follow. You see the martyrdom of Huss and 23:43 Savonarola was to have far reaching implications. As the 23:48 church continued to burn those who endeavored to bring about 23:51 reform from within the church other reformers were beginning 23:56 to question if it would ever be possible to reform the 24:00 established church. And it was this realization that led the 24:13 Augustinian monk Martin Luther to nail his 95 theses to the 24:18 Wittenberg Cathedral door and the launch of the protestant 24:21 reformation which brought a new freedom of thought that led to 24:27 our modern world. But more importantly it brought about a 24:31 change in the way the common people viewed God and their 24:35 relationship with him. As people began to read the Bible for 24:39 themselves they realized that God is a God of love and that as 24:45 Wycliffe, Huss and Martin Luther discovered, salvation is the 24:50 gift for the guilty not a reward for the righteous. We are not 24:55 saved by good works, but by trusting in the work of Christ. 25:00 That's how we find peace with God and now God is our friend 25:05 and we can come close to him. If you'd like to make that same 25:11 discovery and experience inner peace and the assurance of 25:15 of salvation in your life, why not ask for it right now as we 25:20 pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank 25:25 you that we have a God in heaven who loves us and who 25:29 cares for us. We've all made mistakes in our lives and done 25:33 things that we know are wrong and that we regret. We thank 25:37 thank you that through Jesus all of our sins and mistakes can be 25:41 forgiven and we can experience inner peace and the assurance 25:45 of salvation. Grant us that privilege in the name of 25:49 Jesus we pray, Amen. 25:53 In the 14th century Oxford was the most outstanding university 26:01 in the world and John Wycliffe was its leading theologian and 26:05 and scholar. As he studied and prepared for his classes he 26:08 discovered that the Bible was God's way of communicating with 26:12 people and that it contained the secret of how to find peace and 26:15 and true happiness. He realized that the Bible really made a 26:20 difference to people's lives and was the answer to the challenges 26:24 that people face in everyday life. If you're facing 26:27 challenges in your life and are looking for peace and happiness 26:31 then I'd like to recommend a free offer we have for all our 26:35 viewers today. It's a booklet entitled The Morning Stars. This 26:40 booklet shares the secret of how we can find hope and true 26:43 happiness in our lives. This booklet is our gift to you today 26:48 and is absolutely free. There are no costs or obligations 26:52 whatsoever. Don't miss this wonderful opportunity to receive 26:57 the free gift we have for you today. It could change your life 27:01 forever. Here's the information you need: 27:04 Phone us now on 0481315101 or text us on 0491222999 or 27:18 visit our website theincrediblejourney.tv to 27:23 request today's free offer. So don't delay. Contact us 27:27 right now. If you've enjoyed today's journey, be sure to join 27:34 us again next week when we will share another of life's journeys 27:39 together and experience another new and thought provoking 27:43 perspective on the peace, insight, understanding and hope 27:47 that only the Bible can give us. The Incredible Journey truly is 27:52 television that changes lives. Until next week remember the 27:58 ultimate destination of life's journey. Now I saw a new heaven 28:02 and a new earth. And God will wipe away every tear from their 28:06 eyes. There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. 28:10 There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed 28:14 away. 28:16 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2021-09-20