From Here to Forever

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Tyndale Translates the English New Testament

Driven from home by persecution, he went to London and there for a time labored undisturbed. But again the papists forced him to flee. All England seemed closed against him. In Germany he began the printing of the English New Testament. When forbidden to print in one city, he went to another. At last he made his way to Worms, where, a few years before, Luther had defended the gospel before the diet. In that city were many friends of the Reformation. Three thousand copies of the New Testament were soon finished, and another edition followed. HF 155.2

The Word of God was secretly conveyed to London and circulated throughout the country. The papists attempted to suppress the truth, but in vain. The bishop of Durham bought a bookseller's whole stock of Bibles for the purpose of destroying them, supposing that this would hinder the work. But the money thus furnished purchased material for a new and better edition. When Tyndale was afterward made a prisoner, his liberty was offered him on condition that he reveal the names of those who helped him meet the expense of printing his Bibles. He replied that the bishop of Durham had done more than any other person by paying a large price for the books left on hand. HF 155.3

Tyndale finally witnessed for his faith by a martyr's death; but the weapons he prepared enabled other soldiers to do battle through the centuries, even to our time. HF 155.4

Latimer maintained from the pulpit that the Bible ought to be read in the language of the people. “Let us not take any bywalks, but let God's word direct us: let us not walk after ... our forefathers, nor seek not what they did, but what they should have done.”5 HF 156.1

Barnes and Frith, Ridley and Cranmer, leaders in the English Reformation, were men of learning, highly esteemed for zeal or piety in the Romish communion. Their opposition to the papacy was the result of their knowledge of the errors of the “holy see.” HF 156.2