The Period of Bible Scholar-translators

and the

Coming out of the 1260 year "wilderness"

The Protestant Reformation which brought about the beginning of the Gentile Christian era's or revivals within the Body of Christ first had its origins in the accurate translation of the Bible into both the German and English languages, particularly the English language. As you saw, Gentile Sunday worshippers (Anabaptist, leading to the Baptists) actually first began to appear in the midst of the slaughter being brought down on the Thyatira era Sabbatarians, the Waldenses and Albigensians. Significant numbers of them switched to observing Sunday, retaining much of their strong beliefs in the Word of God, and aversion to infant baptism. These people became the Anabaptists, and that is essentially where the Baptist denominations first came from, during the French Inquisitions instigated by popes Innocent III and IV, as well as others (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/history/BaptistHistory.htm). In 1517 Martin Luther comes on the scene, and it is here that J. Vernon McGee (in his commentary on Revelation 3) likes to lump all Protestants in the Protestant Reformation as being the Sardis era of the Church, going from 1517 (Luther) through the 1800s. Martin Luther and John Calvin are very important people, because they sort of really got the ball rolling, restoring important doctrinal understanding from the Word of God, preparing the harvest fields for God to plant specific revivals, Gentile Christian, Sunday observing Christian revivals, that would truly be Holy Spirit indwelt and spiritually alive. But judging from the actions of Martin Luther and John Calvin, as well as the Calvanist churches and the Lutheran churches that came from John Calvin and Martin Luther, I cannot in good conscience call them real Holy Spirit indwelt parts of the Body of Christ. Many in those two denominations ended up fighting against each other in the bloody Thirty Years War in Europe. There were of course some born-again believers in their midst. But Martin Luther was one in the midst of a very special group of people who would lay the foundation for the genuine Christian revivals that God would raise up after 1585AD. He was part of a group of highly skilled Bible-scholar-translators who would bring about the accurate translation of the Bible from its original Greek and Hebrew languages into both the German and English languages, especially English. The first person in this distinguished group was John Wycliffe, an Oxford scholar and professor, whose followers, oddly enough were the Lollards left off (Walter Lollard was a Sabbatarian leader of the remnants of the Thyatira era, Waldensians and Albigensians that escaped to Holland, and then came to England). This was in 1380s AD. Following in this illustrious list was John Hus (1415AD), building on the work of Wycliffe's translation; Johann Gutenberg starts printing the Bible in German with the west's first printing press (1450sAD); Thomas Linacre (1490sAD); John Colet (1496AD); Erasmus (1516); Martin Luther started working with (1517AD) William Tyndale onward through 1536, when Tyndale was martyred; Myles Coverdale (1535AD); John Rogers 1549AD onward to the 1550s AD. It is essential to understand the foundation God had to lay in order for him to raise up the genuine revivals that would follow. Access to the written Word of God, the Bible, had been denied to the average individual by the Catholic Church, going all the way back to 325AD, but especially during the Middle Ages, or Dark Ages as some call them. Most ordinary people couldn't read Latin, the only language the Bible was allowed to be written in. And each Bible at that, had to be hand copied. It wasn't like you could go out and buy your own copy. Peter de Waldo, in the midst of the Thyatira era (1100s to early 1300s) had been making hand-written translations of the Bible into the Provincial French language, and we see where that got the Waldensians and Abigencians. So, literally, he was the first to have the Bible translated, but the few copies they had never left France, and probably ended up being destroyed. But this group of courageous Bible-scholar-translators appeared on the scene in England (and Germany) starting in the 1380s and going on through to the 1560s AD. By the 1500s the ball was rolling with such force that the Catholic Church couldn't stop it. For an excellent short history of how these courageous men, Bible-scholar-translators, laid this essential foundation for the Sunday observing Christian revivals to come, be sure to log onto and read "English Bible History"at: http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/.