Facing Death for Sharing Christ

In 1525, William Tyndale published the first English translation of the Bible. He went back to the original Greek to translate the New Testament for English readers.

There was only one problem. An English version of the Bible was forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church and the King of England. Tyndale lived in Germany at the time, but copies of the Bible soon found their way into his native country. He remained exile for 10 years.

Finally, in 1535, Tyndale was betrayed. He was arrested and sent to the Netherlands to stand trial under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. They tried and convicted him. As a result of his "crime," he was tied to a stake and then strangled to death. After his death, his body was burned.

Tyndale did nothing wrong. He simply made God's word available for English speaking people to read. For that, Tyndale faced death.

We have a hard time with stories like this. We want to think that God will intervene and spare people who do good things for his kingdom. The reality, though, is sometimes God does not. People have died for the cause of Christ.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew this all too well. They refused to bow down to golden statue Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar had made. They faced certain death by defying the king. Yet, they made a bold statement. They expressed confidence in God's ability to save them, but they also acknowledged that he may not. Either way, they were determined now to worship an idol.

Now, we know the rest of the story. God saved them. That doesn't make their statement any less true. Sometimes God does not choose to spare people death for following him. The last century was full of people martyred for faith in Christ.

So why doesn't God spare his children? For one, heaven is greater than anything here. For another, sometimes their deaths and suffering help to further the cause of the Christ and grow his kingdom. Sometimes more is accomplished by death than by life.

In 1535, as Tyndale died, his last words were reported to be "Lord, open the eyes of the King of England." Within four years, the king legally allowed the English Bible to be distributed. In 1611, when King James commissioned a Bible, many of the scholars relied upon Tyndale's translations. By his death, the gospel was spread.

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