Equipping Eve: Back to the Future

Equipping Women with Truth in Christ Jesus

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus? Well, it's true there's no shortage of candy-coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women, No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies-only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio, and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

Back to the Future with the Availability of Scripture

Well, hello, ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve. This is the show that seeks to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word. I am your host, Erin Benzinger, and today I thought we would do a little time travel.

And so get in your time machine, get ready. Let's do a little back to the future. You know, that actually might be appropriate. Back to the future, because of what we're going to talk about. I do believe that it is something that is coming in the future.

It's present now, but will increase in the future. So there you go. I think I just found the title for this episode. Anyway, back to the future. Do a little time travel today, because the Word of God has been around for a very long time.

And we have multiple copies of it. I venture to say that probably 99 of you listening have multiple copies of the scriptures in some form available at your fingertips. You probably have more than one Bible that you can hold in your hands.

You probably have more than one translation. I do. And you probably have it accessible to you on some sort of electronic device, whether it's your computer, your iPad, your phone. I mean, the Bible is readily available to us in the Western world today, isn't it?

And we should be incredibly thankful for that. And I say we because I am so guilty of this myself. We don't appreciate that. We don't let that reality hit us enough or let it hit us hard enough that that is a gift.

That is not a right. It is a privilege. And we are so blessed that God has placed us in an age where that is our reality. And not only do you have multiple copies of the scriptures sitting around, you have ready access to men who teach and exposit the scriptures so that you can learn more about it.

And you have access to books that have been written throughout history that speak to the word of God and delve into it and teach and preach that word so that you can understand it. We have study Bibles.

We have lectures online. We have podcasts. Hey, this is a podcast. I mean, it's mind-blowing when you think about how much is available to us. And when you think how not that long ago in the grand scheme of world history, even though it's not millions of years old, you know, the world is only a few thousand years old, six to 10 ,000 years old.

But even in the grand scheme of world history, it was not that long ago that the word of God was not readily available to everybody. And so I think it behooves us to take a little step back in time and remember just how it is that the scriptures came to us.

John Wycliffe and the English Bible

With that, I want us to start by taking a look at John Wycliffe. And this is going to be a very brief look, but just to get a reminder of who John Wycliffe was. So John Wycliffe was one of the early reformers.

He's known as the morning star of the Reformation. And I'm getting my information here from Fox's Book of Martyrs. Again, something you probably have readily available to you. If it's not sitting on your bookshelf, you can get it online.

I think it's probably free somewhere online. You can get it on your Kindle. I mean, it's just amazing the way that we've been blessed to have so many amazing resources at our fingertips. So I'm really kind of skimming here through John Fox's account of John Wycliffe.

So Wycliffe was born in 1324, approximately. And John Fox writes about John Wycliffe. He says, It's interesting, isn't it? You didn't know that, perhaps. Wycliffe, writes Fox, had long held these religious friars in contempt for the laziness of their lives and had now a fair opportunity of exposing them.

He published a treatise against able beggary in which he lashed the friars and proved that they were not only a reproach to religion, but also to human society. The university began to consider him one of their first champions, and he was soon promoted to the mastership of Balliol College.

It's kind of interesting, isn't it? That, oh, we should be begging as a way of Christian life. That's not even scriptural. I don't even know how you get to that. You know, if a man does not work, neither shall he eat.

But anyway. So without reading you the entire history of John Wycliffe here, he eventually comes to stand against the Pope. And Fox records that in his lectures against the Pope, his usurpation, his infallibility, his pride, his avarice, and his tyranny are things that Wycliffe wrote about.

He was the first to term the Pope antichrist. Well, that will get you just loved by everyone who loves the Pope. From the Pope, he would turn to the pomp, the luxury, and trappings of the bishops and compared them with the simplicity of primitive bishops.

Their superstitions and deceptions were topics that he urged with energy of mind and logical precision. From the patronage of the Duke of Lancaster, Wycliffe received a good benefit, but he was no sooner settled in his parish than his enemies and bishops began to persecute him with renewed vigor.

The Duke of Lancaster was his friend in this persecution, and by his presence in that of Lord Percy, Earl Marshal of England, he so overawed the trial that the whole ended in disorder. Excuse me. So moving again through history, in the year 1378, a contest arose between two popes, Urban VI and Clement VII, which was the lawful pope and true vice regent of God.

This was a favorable period for the exertion of Wycliffe's talents. He soon produced a tract against popery, which was eagerly read by all sorts of people. Again, not a way to get popular with the Catholic Church.

About the end of the year, Wycliffe was seized with a violent disorder, which it was feared might prove fatal. And eventually he did recover, and at that point he set about a most important work, writes John Fox, the translation of the Bible into English.

So that's what we're getting at. John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English. So again, with the advent of the internet, we have so much more available to us, and we can kind of narrow things down and find things that are just so helpful and so wonderful at summarizing things.

And so I thought, you know, what's another really good resource here to learn a little about John Wycliffe? So I went to gotquestions .org, which is a great website, to type in a question, and they've probably written an answer to it.

Here and there I might find something I don't entirely agree with on there, but overall I think this is a great website, a great resource for you. So who was John Wycliffe? And in this article here at GotQuestions, it says, Why were the teachings of John Wycliffe so controversial?

Because he attacked the authority and doctrines of the Catholic Church, which was the church in power in England at the time. He rightly believed the scriptures are the standard by which all traditions, popes, and other sources must be measured.

Scripture is sufficient in and of itself for salvation, Wycliffe argued. This meant the authority of the pope and the doctrines of the church were subject to the teaching of scripture. When doctrines or popes are in a foul of scripture, they should be rejected.

Eventually, Wycliffe concluded the papacy itself was a man-made institution and the Antichrist, which we just read. He was the first to coin the pope as Antichrist. He didn't just oppose the papacy. He rejected doctrines such as transubstantiation and argued against those unbiblical teachings.

And because Wycliffe had such a high view of scripture, that is why he desired then to translate the Bible into English. And because of that, and because of his preaching, GotQuestions knows that he had widespread and lasting influence.

And we're about to see that because I actually don't intend for this whole episode to be about John Wycliffe. He believed the Bible to be the final authority for doctrine and practice and believed that it should be read by everyone.

And we believe that today, don't we? That's why we have it available to us. And so Wycliffe died in 1384, but he had a great many disciples and followers by that point. And in history, his followers are called Lollards, which was actually a derisive term meaning mumbler.

And GotQuestions knows that his ideas spread as far as Bohemia, where a priest named Jan Hus applied them, or John Hus for our lovely Americanized English here. And Jan Hus is another early reformer who I encourage you to read about.

And I think you'll learn a lot and come to appreciate these scriptures that we hold even more. And so moving forward through history, so Wycliffe dies in 1384. But in 1428, long after he was dead, the Bishop of Lincoln in England condemned him.

He had been dead 44 years, and he ordered that the remains of John Wycliffe be exhumed and burned and the ashes thrown into the River Swift. That is how much this man was hated, because he rejected the papacy and multiple doctrines of the Catholic Church, unbiblical doctrines, and more so because he translated the Bible into the common language of the people.

Joan Broughton and Faithful Witness Under Persecution

Okay, so that, ladies, is John Wycliffe. And remember, he had a great many followers. His teachings did not die with him. And now I want to read to you very briefly about one of those followers we so often hear about, the men of church history.

But do you know, ladies, do you know Joan Broughton? Diana Lynn Severance has written a couple of books that are incredibly, I think, important. And I encourage you actually to read some of these. So she's written a book called Feminine Threads, Women in the Tapestry of Christian History, and that was given to me as a gift this past Christmas.

So thank you for that, because I read through that and really almost couldn't put it down. It just gives these brief biographical sketches of these women throughout church history, and their theology wasn't all perfect.

You know, church history isn't perfect. It's not, you know, 100 what we would ascribe to all the way down. But that's okay. That's the way it is. And that doesn't make these individuals throughout church history any less important if perhaps they had a little wonky point of doctrine here or there, didn't have everything entirely figured out.

Because not all of us are going to get to heaven and find out we were 100 right about everything. I mean, I will, but I don't know about the rest of you. I'm kidding. All right. So Diana Lynn Severance has also put together a devotional.

It's called Her Story. When I first saw the title, I thought, oh, dear. And then I looked at the subtitle, and it's 366 devotions from 21 centuries of the Christian church. And I thought, oh, well, that sounds interesting, and it is.

So I've been reading that this year, and I came across John Broughton. So she lived from approximately 1414 to 1494. And Severance writes of her, since so many of his teachings were also those of the later Reformers, John Wycliffe has been called the morning star of the Reformation.

Okay, so we're starting here with John Wycliffe. Yet, many continue to cherish manuscripts of the forbidden English Bible and follow Wycliffe's teachings of a Christianity rooted in the scriptures. Joan Broughton was a disciple of his teachings who was tried for heresy in 1494, the ninth year of the reign of King Henry VII.

The church threatened to burn Joan alive unless she repented of her support of Wycliffe's doctrines. Joan obstinately replied that she was so beloved by God and his angels that the fires that threatened would not hurt her.

John Fox noted that, quote, she said nothing by their menacing words but defied them, for she said she was blessed of God and of his holy angels that she feared not the fire. Joan was executed at Smithfield on April 28, 1494, becoming the first female martyr in England.

Do you know Joan Broughton? The first female martyr in England. As the fire came around her, she cried for God to take her soul into his holy hands. Joan's daughter, Lady Jane Younger, wife of a merchant mayor of London, was also executed the same year.

Joan Broughton was at least 80 years old. She was a follower of the teachings of John Wycliffe. She refused to not read the Bible in English, which was forbidden at the time, and so she was burned at 80 years of age.

And so here she is considered the first female martyr in England, and yet I had never heard of her before. She appears very briefly in pages of history, and even then, as far as I can tell, not many pages at all.

There is a book that Severance referenced in her work, a book by the Reverend Thomas Timpson, called British Female Biography, being select memoirs of pious ladies in various ranks of public and private life.

And I found that on Google Books, and I found the little excerpt about Joan Broughton, and it's still not very long. There's not much written about her life, but she died so well. Didn't she? She refused to recant her belief in scriptures, because she said she was beloved of God and of his holy angels, and so she did not fear the fire.

Remembering the Cost of the Bible and the Reality of Persecution

Now we've paused before in a previous episode to think about some of the brave martyrs of the faith, and particularly some of the female martyrs of the faith, because we don't hear about them as often.

And that's not to lessen those men who have died for our faith, who have done so many good works, but they are so often elevated, and that's all we hear about. We all know the name John Wycliffe and John Huss, and then we move through history and Calvin.

And so we know these men of the Reformation, and we know these martyrs, but it's so important for us to realize that, as I've said before, Rome burned women too. It's so important to realize that persecution knows no gender barriers.

And I think, just as it's important for us to reflect on, really, the history of that word of God that we hold in our hands and we take for granted, it's important for us to reflect on these brave martyrs of the faith regularly, not to sit there and mourn them.

In fact, I would argue to rejoice, to rejoice in their lives, to rejoice in their deaths, because God was honored in each one of them, and to rejoice in the fact that they are with their Savior, and they served Him well right up until the very last.

But when we pause to think about that, it helps to take our minds off of our First World, 21st Century problems, doesn't it? I mean, think about some of the issues that we deal with. And I'm not belittling our trials, because I have plenty of my own that I wouldn't want anyone to belittle, because they're big, they're big deals.

We have big things that we're going through, big decisions to make, and nothing's easy. But then we also have things like, oh, it's snowing outside, and I have to shovel my driveway before I can leave for work.

That's not something that I would grumble about, but in the grand scheme of things, that's very, very minor. And so remembering our history, and I say our history as the Church of Jesus Christ, it serves as a necessary reminder of a few things, that our Bible has come to us on a river of blood.

I'm sure you've heard that before. And that we stand, secondly, on the shoulders of giants. I'm sure you've heard that as well. And these shoulders are the shoulders of men and women. Because let the bravery and the courage of Joan Broughton encourage you.

She was 80 years old. And it should serve as a reminder, a reminder that we need once in a while, that we are promised persecution in this life. Now, it may not look like being burned in the fire. It may not look like being murdered right now for our faith, or martyred for our faith.

It does look like that in some countries. Here in America, where I am, where many of you are, it doesn't look like that. And where many of you other listeners, I know there are listeners around the globe, and I'm so thankful to God for that.

It doesn't necessarily look like that. Persecution doesn't necessarily look like that for you. Praise God that it doesn't, right? But if it did look like that for us, we shouldn't really be surprised, should we?

And I fear more and more that it could look like this for our children or for our grandchildren. And, you know, I'm sure that Christians throughout the ages have thought that. And so we do not know. It all depends on how long the Lord tarries before He returns to take us home.

But remember, 2 Timothy 3, verse 12 says, All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. That's an important reminder. And Paul goes on and says, Evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

In other words, things are not getting better around here. I do not understand those who hold to the idea that the world is just going to get better and better, and then Jesus is going to come back. Because I just feel like, you know, what lollipop world do you live in?

I'd like to move there because my world doesn't look like that. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. So we've talked recently about looking like Jesus and having it be that people would recognize that we've been with Jesus.

And that means living a godly life in Christ Jesus. So that's righteousness, that's holiness, that's abstaining from sin and temptation and staying away from those things. And again, we're not perfect.

We do all of this by the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us at the moment of salvation. You're not pulling yourself up by your own spiritual bootstraps. I feel like I have to say that every time because I don't want to come across as saying that we have to do-do-do all this stuff on our own.

But when we are transformed by Christ, we have new desires, minds, wills, hearts, right? So we desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. And we have compassion and patience and love. But all who desire to live that godly life will be persecuted, Paul says.

And persecution takes many forms, today especially. Maybe it's being passed over for a promotion or losing your job. They say there's no religious discrimination, but I'm positive it's out there. Maybe losing friends.

There are all sorts of persecution, much, much more, much lesser than what we see in the annals of church history. But it's there. But we can take heart in the midst of that because it's kind of discouraging, isn't it?

And you say, okay, well, I remember that I promised that, but it doesn't make it any easier necessarily to deal with. But let's remember. Let's remember the first century Christians. Peter wrote, 1 Peter 4, verse 12, he said,.

So we share in the sufferings of Christ. Paul even wrote back in Philippians that he wanted to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings in Philippians 3 .10. And think about a very common passage that I'm sure you're familiar with.

Maybe some of you are even thinking of it right now, the Beatitudes. Back in Matthew 5. Matthew 5, 10, and 11 say,. And I was thinking about that passage, those verses last night. And so I pulled out my book by Martin Louis Jones on the Sermon on the Mount.

It's called Studies and the Sermon on the Mount. And it's a very large book. And he goes verse by verse as Martin Louis Jones was wont to do and belabors the Sermon on the Mount perhaps a little too much.

But anyway, it's a fantastic resource and I do commend it to you. But I do think MLJ probably went a little too far sometimes. He just, not in what he said, just in saying it over and over and over again.

But this book has been compiled in such a way that it is not too verbose, I don't think. And he makes a point, he brings us back to scripture and he says, Think about Christ and think about the apostles and think about the early Christians and think about the Christians who Jesus was preaching to here and who Peter was talking to.

They weren't persecuted due to their own folly because they did something stupid. But they were persecuted for the sake of righteousness. That's what we see right here in Matthew 5, 10. Blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

He's not saying blessed are you who are persecuted because you stand up for a cause or a certain political stance. Blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. And what is being righteous?

It's being like Christ. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, going back to Timothy. So the persecution comes because we're being like Christ. So we've had a lot of talk in fairly recent episodes about what it's like to look like Christ and talking about the new nature and our new wardrobe and whether people can recognize if we've been with Jesus.

But this is the endgame a lot of the time. It's persecution in some form, maybe not in every area of your life, but there's persecution that comes with looking like Christ, which kind of separates the wheat from the tares, right?

Because if you still desire to look like Christ, even in the midst of adversity, well, that's a true Christian. As opposed to someone who goes, whoa, wait a minute, I didn't sign up for this. I want everyone to like me.

I don't want any hardship. Martin Lloyd-Jones calls this, Matthew 5, 10 and 11, the most searching of all the beatitudes. And asks, you know, are we being persecuted? And that doesn't mean it's a way of life for you, but has it happened to you in your past or even on these lesser extent of the spectrum of persecution?

Has there been some element of that as a means of assuring us of our faith? Now, I don't want us to get insecure because, like I said, it doesn't have to be extreme. This doesn't have to be a way of life.

Like, oh, I've been kicked out of my apartment and I'm living in a box in a van down by the river. But there will be some element of persecution at some point in our life. Even if it's just losing a friend who says, you know, I don't like this Jesus stuff that you have going on.

Or you're no fun anymore. Because you don't talk like I talk and enjoy the things we used to do ever since you started with this Jesus stuff. But we take heart when we think about our Lord. Because do we desire to look like Him?

But would we be unwilling to endure the hardships? Talk about persecution, right? And then Martyn Lloyd-Jones also goes on and he points out something that I think is so interesting. I'll just touch on this briefly.

And he says that some of the most grievous persecution was at the hands of religious people. Think about it. Jesus, it was the scribes and the Pharisees and Sadducees. The apostles were persecuted by the Jews.

Fox's Book of Martyrs, you have the religious institution, the Catholic Church. How many people did Rome burn? And so as MLJ notes, the Bible is substantiated by church history. I think that's interesting.

That some of the most grievous persecution comes from religious people. And it may not even be always by blatantly false religious people. I mean, I know of people who have left a Christian church and been shunned just because they decided to worship elsewhere, to attend another Christian church.

That's persecution. Because there's something wrong with a Christian church that shuns brothers and sisters in Christ just because they don't attend that church. So I thought that was an interesting point that MLJ brought up.

Looking Like Christ in a World That Rejects Him

But we're running short on time, ladies. But I just want us to think about, while we're striving to look like Jesus, we must realize this. That to our fellow Christians, living godly in Christ Jesus, exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit, putting on that new wardrobe, desiring that others would recognize that we have been with Jesus.

To our fellow believers, this will be a lovely thing. And that's how we know each other. Do you ever meet someone randomly in the store or the airport or something, and you just kind of have a connection, then you find out you're both believers?

It's the coolest thing. So looking like Christ is lovely to each other. But to the world? Some elements of it will be okay, because, you know, we're nice people. Or, you know, I don't know. But at the end of the day, to the world, in the majority of circumstances, looking like Christ will be unlovely to them.

Because, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians, we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.

But nevertheless, let us desire to look like Christ and serve him well while we're here, even to death, if that's what he calls us to. All right, ladies. Until next time, get in your Bibles, get on your knees, and get equipped.

Thanks for listening.

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus? Well, it's true. There's no shortage of candy-coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women, No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies-only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name's Mike Ebendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio, and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.