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This Interruption is part of the Grant and Barbara now in Scotland adventure series!
It’s rumored that Mary Queen of Scots once said that she feared the prayers of John Knox more than any army. Knox was a Protestant reformer; Mary Queen of Scots was a Catholic monarch.
With John Knox founding the Presbyterian Church in Scotland during the reign of Queen Mary and often preaching against her policies and actions—probably only her fear of the prayers of Knox kept her from having him arrested and executed.
Preaching against the Queen in an age of execution for religious offenses, where did John Knox get his courage?
When Knox was on his deathbed, his wife brought him his Bible, and he read from John 17 . . .
But now I am coming to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word … I’m not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from the evil one … Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth (vv. 13-17, ESV).
A favorite quote of John Knox was, “The Bible is the ultimate authority on matters of faith and life.”
I was raised at First Christian Church in Springfield, Ohio. This church was part of the Restoration Movement, a movement of churches started by Presbyterians on the American frontier in about 1800.
So, I grew up hearing this motto, “Speak where the Bible speaks and stay silent where the Bible is silent.” This phrase, though epitomized by the Restoration Movement, probably had its origin with John Knox.
A few years ago, a copy of the Old Testament owned by Knox was discovered in a large group of Bibles bequeathed to the University of Glasgow in 1874. This Old Testament had the original Greek on one side of a page, and next to it in another column was a Latin translation.
Let me go book geek for a moment and say, “Wow!” And the Bible was signed, “Jo’ Knox 1561.” Let’s pause for another “Wow!”
This heritage of reading, memorizing, and practicing only the Bible—seeped from the Scottish Reformation to the American frontier’s Restoration Movement, to my father Clinton Edwards, to me, and now to you.
I remember my dad reading his Bible daily. I have his Bible, and there are many annotations in the margins. Since I was a young Christian, I’ve enjoyed reading and meditating on God’s Word.
When I was a pastor, many would describe their difficulty in forming the habit of Bible reading. It’s never been a problem for me.
It’s as if the passage that John Knox read on his death bed, “Sanctify them in your truth; your word is truth,” has been answered in my life.
And I hope—and pray—that through my ministry in Interruptions, you will be consumed by a passion for God’s Word.