2
May 1559 A.D. Scots
Reformer, John Knox, Returns from Geneva and Steps Ashore in Scotland
Mr. Myers tells the story.
Myers, David T. “May 2: An
Invitation to Return to Scotland.” This
Day in Presbyterian History. 2 May
2014. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/05/may-2/.
Accessed 2 May 2014.
May 2: An Invitation to Return to Scotland
2 May, 2014
Consternation! He’s Back!
It was the happiest time in the ministry of John Knox in
the sixteenth century. Ministering in what he had called “the most
perfect school of Christ that ever was on the earth since the days of the
apostles,” Geneva, Switzerland was where John Knox spent his exile from his
beloved Scotland. It was not a vacation in any sense of the word. He preached
three sermons a week, ministered to the English and Scottish exiles there, and
studied the Scriptures in the Hebrew and Greek for the purpose of translating a
new version to be known as the Geneva Bible afterwards.
On the tenth of
March, 1557, Knox received a communication from five nobles in Scotland
which stated that the faithful believers in Scotland “have a godly thirst day
by day of your presence ” back in Scotland. Further, these believers are “not
only glad to hear of your doctrine, but are ready to jeopardize their lives and
goods in the forward setting of the glory of God, as He will permit.” In
essence, John Knox was missed by the faithful back in Scotland who wanted
him to return to them.
After receiving counsel from John Calvin and other godly
ministers in Geneva, they with one consent urged him to return home. He
left at the end of September, 1557, reaching Dieppe, France, on February 19, 1559. He had been there
once before, and preached with great success to the Protestants of that area.
However, upon arriving, he received two letters which brought him grief, as
those same five nobles now urged him to delay his return to Scotland. He
replied with vigor, urging them to change their minds about this delay.
Meanwhile, in the intervening seven weeks before he was to receive an answer,
he preached the Word of God in Dieppe with great results, with the number of
the faithful increasing in that area.
John Knox finally received an answer with a renewed
invitation to return to Scotland. Accompanying that letter was a bond or
covenant in which the Protestant nobles pledged themselves to “maintain, set
forward, and establish the Most Blessed Word of God and His congregation.”
With that, Knox tried to enter through England, but was
not permitted to do so by the Queen. So he sailed directly to Leith, Scotland,
landing on May 2, 1559,
never again to leave his place of birth. It was said that the provincial
council had been meeting for several days scheming on how to proceed to the
trials of Protestant ministers in the kingdom. When they were in the midst of a
meeting on May 3rd, one of the number rushed into the chamber to say, “John
Knox! John Knox is come! He is come! He slept last night in Edinburgh!” Panic
struck the meeting as they broke off their meeting with great haste and
confusion. Nothing better could prove the importance of his timely arrival than
the consternation it brought in the hearts of his antagonists.
Words to Live By: We will ever see attempts by Satan to hinder the great
work of Reformation, both then and now. We thus need to see with the eyes of
faith the oft quoted conviction of the apostle Paul, when in 1 Corinthians 16:9
, he exclaimed that “a wide door for effective service
has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” Nothing has changed today
for biblical faith and life. For every wide door for service, there will be
many adversaries of the gospel. Be faithful, and despite their presence, work
for Christ now.
, he exclaimed that “a wide door for effective service
has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” Nothing has changed today
for biblical faith and life. For every wide door for service, there will be
many adversaries of the gospel. Be faithful, and despite their presence, work
for Christ now.
“I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that
have set themselves against me round about.” —(Psalm 3:6, KJV)
)
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