One characteristic of the Middles Ages is the combination of drastic fall of the Church from one reigning as supreme with the risen Lord in the heavens to one earthly minded and having lost its savor. There are many important lessons that we can get from the Middle Ages but one prominent event that plays well into the modern history of nations is the

There would have been no modern world as we know it today without the man who brought freedom movements into the fray. Truth spoken under the anointing has a prophetic authority unrivalled in this world.

reformation. This was the time when truth was finally unshackled and loosed from the hands of thugs and deceivers  so that peasants and whole nations came to light and the modern national freedom movements appeared gradually on the scene.

It seems that whenever truth is brought to the open, the speed of its proclamation and the power of its light brings freedom to the captives. In fact this was still a consequence of the proclamation of Jesus that He came to set the captives free, that you will know the truth and the truth will make you free (John 8:32). When the Church buried its light, became sluggish and cold to the Word of God, she easily became a victim of its derelict leaders and were easily made captive to the works and traditions of men rather than the Word of God. This can be viewed as Peter being rebuked by Jesus for having put man’s interests over that of God’s (see Matthew 16:23).

Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.

Although it can be argued that the Church was a strong light during the Middle Ages, the degeneration of the Roman Empire into chaotic estates after the move to Constantinople by Constantine to govern the Eastern and Western section of the Empire unimpeded by its width, can be said as a tactical error. The plan of God was not theocracy for the Age of the Gentiles, rather it would be to bring out the nations from the grip of Imperial reigns and develop them individually. However, because of the untimely meddling together of the Church to the state or the State to the Church, this brought about long-term consequences for the Empire as well as the Church that could only be assessed as failure and a mistake. As the Lord has said, no one can serve two masters at the same time. Either we serve the purposes of God alone and bring that to earth or we give our minds to the world wholly and undivided. We cannot do both and excel in one. When the Church tried to do it, this only brought chaos and was only rectified after the Reformation and the doctrine of the separation between church and state has been made in effect.

Some may wonder why the Lord has also allowed this but it is also true that just as Solomon has wisely thought, Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil (Ecclessiaster 8:11). But it does not mean that God is sleeping when He seems to have not acted in defiance to these things. His nature is still connected to His rule, justice and righteousness are the foundation of His throne (Psalm 89:14; 97:2) and even if Christians did unchristian acts, these did not go unpunished and will not go unpunished for His justice will come. Those who do righteousness are still more blessed than those who do evil.

The carnal persecutes the spiritual

Terrible persecution is released whenever religious bigotry becomes the motivation of man rather than freedom and truth as Jesus has spoken up, “where the Spirit of the Lord, there is Liberty,” where truth is, it sets men free. He therefore came to give life and to do that to liberate men from the lies of the devil. But whenever men have turned to darkness and use its methods rather than Christ’s, our acts becomes like what we behold and imitate. The most grotesque act of darkness may not have been done by Saddam Hussein or Stalin for there were Popes who lived in gross immorality, sin and wickedness even destroying much human lives for the sake of filthy lucre and land. Because of failure to understand the divine revelation of separate authorities for the church and the state, religious men besmirched the name of Christ for the sake of material gain and reigning.

We are told in John 8:31 that we are truly His disciples to the degree that we abide in His Word. And when we do, we are set free from deceptions because truth sets us free. But when we follow cunningly devised fables, traditions and the interests of men more than the glory of God, we have become worldly and captive to the devil. Carnal ways expresses whom we obey and follow no matter how many times we may sanitize it. Even so, the Church will not be built on these ways nor the Kingdom come by the spirit of this world but only through the Holy Spirit. And basic to this is His holiness. Whenever we depart from His ways, we are moving to the substitute, which is the spirit of the anti-Christ.

Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:19-20)

Whenever we act like the world does and copies their ways, we too are becoming like them, and John says that the world lies in the sway of the evil one. Therefore we are finding a substitute of Jesus Christ, we are looking for a god that tries to display or keep itself in the recesses of our hearts whenever we become crafty and lawless. To be subtle and crafty is the main description of Satan in Genesis 3 which also means to bend the rules so that one can get away with it. This resulted in murder, which he did by taking away the dominion and relationship of Adam and Eve with God. Because of this, he still is trying to display himself as if being God. By stalking in the darkness, Satan is the boss of the works of darkness that can only be exposed by being in the light.

Forerunners of the reformers

A peculiar English scholar preceded Martin Luther by more than two centuries, his name was John Wycliffe. He endeavored to bring the masses to the attention of using the Bible as the final authority over their life and not the Pope. He translated the first English Bible from the Latin vulgate thereby enabling the laymen to gain spiritual knowledge of what was being taught. In his day most priests preached in Latin, which was a hindrance to the understanding and

Wycliffe is the forerunner of all reformers, unpopular in his teachings, bold and fearless, yet he stood as the greatest example of true spiritual authority in his generation.

maturing of the people of God. They could not gain any spiritual profit and fruit. Seeing that this was the case, Wycliffe translated the Bible into English so that his parish could understand for themselves the Scriptures. He knew well that just as Jesus spoke in the tongues of the people, he must also preach in the same so that the people can derive life from spiritual nurturance he was giving them. Wycliffe endeavored to do the same and reach more people for the Lord even with the disdain of his colleagues and friends. Just as the Master too was opposed by the religious establishment of His day, Wycliffe was continually opposed by those whose lives and properties have increasingly been tied to this world, unable to break free from their material possessions and filthy lucre.

He was not certainly the last messenger who spoke of the Scriptures as the basis of authority for every believer, but the first of a series of men whom God called to shake the world from its dormant state by standing for truth regardless of consequences. Truth is our most valuable commodity and by shining our light on truths that we stand for, we establish that truth is our basis more than anything else in this world. The more truth we know the more accountable we become of the knowledge or light that we have been given. Truth is light because truth sets us free from ignorance where darkness dwells. The most important thing that we are facing right now is to walk in the truth that we have been given and to use that for the enlightenment of others whether they agree with us or not.

This was exactly what Wycliffe did. When the Pope said no to his writings, Wycliffe, supported by prince John Gaunt was quick to assay the pope as an anti-Christ and obsessed of ruling without the character or nature of Jesus Christ. In his later years, he founded a spiritual revolution that culminated in the nailing of the 95 theses of Martin Luther. By understanding that no bishop is above every other bishop but those who seem to be chief should be the servants of all, Wycliffe sent itinerant preachers (two by two) to preach the gospel to every village in England. He was a man ahead of his time and anticipated the reformation by preaching the Word of God in its pure form and giving to the masses the Word of God in their native tongue. This he did so that it can be accessible to all and lead to their intimacy with Jesus Christ.

Though his movement, Lollardy was stamped out and persecuted by the Pope, his ideas travelled far and wide enough so that his influence did not stay only in England but was continued by another priest-reformer named Jan Hus. It was Jan Hus who would sow the seeds for another revival that will eventually culminate in the tearing down of the ignorance and fear that so enveloped the world at the time. Wycliffe was right when he said “I believe that in the end the truth will conquer.” (A personal note from the author: Edison has written two books, The Surpassing Peace of God and the Restorers of the breach that deal in depth about disasters, lawlessness, and terrorism and how such can be repelled. Send your request to his email: edmacusi@gmail.com and he will send it to you free.)