Welcome back to Shemis Pilpary. I'm Joe Heschmire. And I want to address today this idea that the Protestant reformers, I'm going to focus particularly on Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Knox, for reasons that'll become clear very soon, whether they really are the sort of uncompromising figures we think of them as. Because there's this idea that these were people who are bold enough to proclaim the gospel or their version of the gospel in season and out of season, whether it helped their cause or whether it hurt them or even put their life at risk.

And so I'm not addressing here the question of whether they're right or wrong about their beliefs.

We'll leave that for another day.

I want to particularly address

sort of the hagiography around them. This idea of them is these great saints who are uncompromising

and unflinching in their proclamation of the gospel. Because that is a very popular Protestant

view, and I can understand why it's held by so many. So for instance, Josh Beiss, the head of the evangelical ministry, G3 Ministries, he can say things like, we can be certain, we can be certain that Luther, Calvin, Knox, Tyndale, and other figures of the Reformation were not making decisions about defending the faith by calculating their career advancement and protecting their platform.

Faithful men stand up. Faithful men speak up. Now, to be very clear, I agree with Bice's sentiment that we should,

as I said before, we should preach the gospel in season and out of season to use St. Paul's expression.

But I'm fascinated by the number of people who try to prove that point by appealing to the alleged unflinching nature of the beliefs of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox.

And Bice is not alone.

Our old friend Mike Jenner appeals to those exact same three figures as if they were these great heroic martyrs.

So many evangelicals today are compromising the very truths that the reformers were tortured and brutally murdered for defending.

For these reasons, it will do us good to reflect on three of these reformers,

Martin Luther and John Calvin and also John Knox.

For some reason, it never seems to occur to the people who talk about them in this way,

that none of those guys were tortured or brutally murdered.

That just didn't happen.

The closest you get is in John Calvin's Geneva,

where Calvin helps to make sure that Michael Servetus, who was another heretic,

was arrested and executed.

And then later defended himself on the grounds the state should have the ability

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