Messages 2011
The Grace of Faith.
January 28th, 2011
Berkeley, California
Received by FAB
I am here, William Tyndale.
You have watched a film tonight about my life. I watched it with you. I feel it really captured the essence of what I tried to do. [The film was “God’s Outlaw”, 1986.] I had a soul sense that I would be vindicated, and I was. I watched with excitement and joy after my death as my work began to be accepted.
I did not find death a hardship, for I had reached a point in my spiritual development where the things of God possessed me, so everything else was easier to handle. I experienced the truth and strengthening grace of faith. My education continued over here, and I discovered that many things I thought were true were not so.
In terms of the present moment, I wish to say that there is a very big plan that God Is Preparing, and it will be obvious to all.
William Tyndale (sometimes spelled Tindall, Tindill, Tyndall; c. 1494 – 1536) was a 16th century scholar and translator who became a leading figure in Protestant reformism towards the end of his life. He was influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus, who made the Greek New Testament available in Europe, and Martin Luther. Tyndale was the first to translate considerable parts of the Bible into English, for a public, lay readership. While a number of partial and complete translations had been made from the seventh century onward, particularly during the 14th century, Tyndale’s was the first English translation to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, and the first to take advantage of the new medium of print, which allowed for its wide distribution. This was taken to be a direct challenge to the hegemony of both the Roman Catholic church and the English church and state. Tyndale also wrote, in 1530, The Practyse of Prelates, opposing Henry VIII’s divorce on the grounds that it contravened scriptural law.
In 1535, Tyndale was arrested by church authorities and jailed in the castle of Vilvoorde outside Brussels for over a year. He was tried for heresy, strangled and burnt at the stake. The Tyndale Bible, as it was known, continued to play a key role in spreading Reformation ideas across Europe.
The fifty-four independent scholars who revised extant English bibles, drew significantly on Tyndale’s translations to create the King James Version (or final “Authorised Version”) of 1611 (still in mainstream use today). One estimation suggests the King James New Testament is 83.7 % Tyndale’s and the Old Testament 75.7 %. (Source: Wikipedia)