Earlier this year a Spanish couple were climbing the steep steps of Warriston’s Close in Edinburgh. The husband noticed a plaque which stated: “Near this spot stood the manse in which lived John Knox 1560-1566”. As he took a photo, three others, all Scots, came up behind them. One of them asked, “Who is John Knox then?” The Spaniard gave a very appropriate answer, which included the statement: “Scotland and its subsequent history cannot be understood without grasping this liberating message of the Reformation: that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone”.1 Most Scots of this generation know, at best, only a caricature of their country’s great Reformer – great because of God’s grace working in him. Yet not only has it largely forgotten Knox, but also Knox’s God.
Knox was born in Haddington, east of Edinburgh, probably in 1514, so that this year marks the five-hundredth anniversary of his birth. He studied at St Andrews University and became a priest. He was helped in his search for the truth by Thomas Guillaume, a prominent friar, and especially by the better-known George Wishart. He profited both from Wishart’s sermons and his private conversations. He acted as a tutor to two boys in East Lothian and, when conditions became more dangerous in 1547, they continued their studies under Knox in the relative safety of St Andrews Castle.
It was there he was called to the ministry and, in the town’s parish church, in a sermon on Daniel 7:24-25, he showed his clear understanding of the fundamental problem with the Roman Church. Previous Reformed preachers in Scotland had focused on particular errors in doctrine and practice. “Knox”, says Thomas M’Crie, “struck at the root of popery, by boldly pronouncing the Pope to be Antichrist, and the whole system erroneous and anti-scriptural.”2 This was the position of all the major Reformers and, in a generation which has rejected the unique authority of Scripture, we should not be surprised that people generally do not look at Rome from Knox’s basic perspective.
1 Reported in The Banner of Truth magazine, October 2014, p 8.
2Thomas M’Crie, The Life of John Knox, Free Presbyterian Publications reprint, 1991, p 35. This volume is still available and is particularly recommended for its spiritual understanding of Knox. All other references to the book in this article are given in brackets in the text.
Even at this early stage he was propounding the regulative principle in these terms: “In the worship of God, and especially in the administration of the sacraments, the rule prescribed in the Scriptures is to be observed without addition or diminution; and that the Church has no right to devise religious ceremonies and impose significations upon them” (p 36).
Just a few months after entering the castle, a French fleet appeared off the coast and the castle came under siege. Those in the castle were forced to surrender and Knox was one of those taken prisoner to France, becoming a galley slave for 19 months. The following summer Knox’s galley was being rowed off St Andrews. A fellow crew member pointed to the land. “Yes,” said Knox, though he was ill at the time, “I know it well; for I see the steeple of that place where God first opened my mouth in public to His glory; and I am fully persuaded, how weak soever I now appear, that I shall not depart this life till that my tongue shall glorify His godly name in the same place”.
After his release, Knox spent time as a preacher in England, particularly in Berwick and Newcastle, during the time of Edward VI. When Edward died in 1553, he was succeeded by his sister Mary; and Knox had to flee to the Continent. In 1558, still concerned for their spiritual well-being, Knox wrote to the people of Newcastle and Berwick: “Openly and solemnly you did profess, by receiving the sacraments (not as man had appointed, but as Christ Jesus, the wisdom of God the Father, had instituted), to be subject in all things concerning religion to His yoke alone, to acknowledge and vouch Him before the world to be your only lawgiver, sovereign prince and only Saviour. . . . But O, alas, how are you changed? How are you corrupted? Whitherunto are you fallen? And how have you deceived the expectation of those that then did labour in planting and watering you, and now do sob unto God for your ingratitude, calling with tears unto His mercy for your conversion, and that unfeigned repentance may suddenly appear in you?”3
But Knox was also well able to comfort. He sent his Exposition of the Sixth Psalm to encourage his friend Mrs Bowes, in the North of England, whose daughter Marjory he was later to marry. He wrote, “How piercing are the eyes of faith that, in so deep a dungeon of desperation, can yet espy, in the very midst of this troublesome darkness, plentiful goodness to remain in our God; yea, and such goodness is sufficient and able to overcome, devour and swallow up all the iniquities of His elect”.4
Much of Knox’s time in Europe was spent in Geneva, where he pastored the English congregation. A close friendship developed between him and Calvin; “there was”, says M’Crie, “a striking similarity in their sentiments
3Selected Writings of John Knox, Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1995, p 558.
4Selected Writings of John Knox, pp 132-3.
and in the prominent features of their character” (p 65). “In other places,” Knox commented, “I confess Christ to be truly preached; but manners and religion so sincerely reformed, I have not yet seen in any other place.”5 In late 1555 Knox visited Scotland. He was disturbed to find those who were sympathetic to Reformed doctrine continuing to attend mass. During discussion, Knox demolished all the arguments in favour of that practice, and it was agreed to stop going to mass. As M’Crie notes, this formal separation from the Roman Church in Scotland “may justly be regarded as an important step in the Reformation” (p 78). Knox’s preaching in various parts of the country was a major factor in consolidating the Reformation movement.
Knox left Geneva for the last time at the beginning of 1559. Early in May, Knox was back in Scotland and found that the Queen Regent, James V’s widow, was determined to suppress the Reformation, with support from the French forces stationed in the country. Knox was “uncertain as yet what God shall further work in this country, except that I see the battle shall be great. For Satan rageth even to the uttermost” (p 103). The battle was great, but God in His providence so worked that 1560 saw Scotland officially declare itself Protestant. On the human level English forces helped to defeat the French, but above all we must note the blessing that accompanied the preaching of Knox and his brethren in the ministry. Knox became minister of Edinburgh, and continued to speak forthrightly from the pulpit on the issues of the day, from a biblical perspective, no matter who was present.
In 1562 Mary Queen of Scots, a confirmed Roman Catholic, returned from France to Scotland as head of state. Though she was only able to keep her throne for about five years, her return left the Protestant cause weaker. Knox soldiered on in the face of many adversities until his death in 1572. When, through the strength of opposition in Edinburgh, he had to leave the city, he preached in St Andrews in spite of failing health. He had to be helped into the pulpit, but before he finished his sermon, he became so energetic that it seemed as if he would beat the pulpit in pieces.
Much has changed in these last 500 years. Perhaps the Scottish Church reached its highest point in 1638, during what is often called the Second Reformation. There has been much declension over the last century and more, but one thing is clear: God is still the same and He is able to restore all the years the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25). By His great power He is able to bring about a third Reformation: so pouring out His Holy Spirit that multitudes will be swept into His kingdom. Let us seek this earnestly at the throne of grace. And when God will so work, Knox will again be remembered in Scotland with thankfulness. “Nothing is too hard for the Lord.”
5Quoted in Jasper Ridley, John Knox, Oxford University Press, 1968, p 215.