Conflict In Scotland Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The story of the Reformation is a story of conflict. It was marked by riots, bloody insurrections, Christians killing each other, queens being put to death. But remarkably, the Gospel was once again heard after being hidden for over a millennium.

Today, a final look at what happened in Scotland with John Knox versus Mary, Queen of Scots. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, I want to thank you for giving our listeners a detailed look at the good, the bad and the ugly of a significant period of church history.

What's the bottom line lesson you want us to take home? You know, Dave, I think that you answered your own question when you made the remark that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which had been covered up through centuries of tradition, was uncovered. And amidst all of the conflict, amidst all of the sin, amidst all of the arguments, what surfaced was simply this, that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone, through faith alone.

But something else happened. And that is, as we look back, we can see the tremendous price that was paid for the Gospel and how people so confidently believed in the Gospel that they were willing to give their lives for it. I've written a book entitled Rescuing the Gospel, the Story and the Significance of the Reformation. And this is the second to last day that we are making this resource available.

I hope that you go to the phone and call 1-888-218-9337, or on your computer or iPhone, go to rtwoffer.com. The story and the significance of the Reformation. Mary Queen Elizabeth came to the conclusion that indeed Mary Queen of Scots was plotting her death and wanting to take the throne of England. So what does Elizabeth do?

She asks that she be given a number of pieces of paper. And without looking at what she was signing, she signed all of them. And one of them was the death warrant for her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. Mary Queen of Scots, after 18 years in captivity in fathering gay castle, is taken and she is brought to trial in 1586 where she protested her innocence. But the letters that she had written condemned her. The trial was unprecedented. The trial of a queen for conspiracy to take the life of another queen. But at stake was also Catholicism versus Protestantism because Mary Queen of Scots, strongly Catholic, Elizabeth the first Protestant. So the execution was on February the 8th, 1587 in the great hall of fathering gay castle. Mary wrote her last letter to her brother-in-law, the King of France.

She asked him to pay her servants as she had no money. Tonight after dinner, I have been advised of my sentence. I am to be executed like a criminal at eight in the morning.

I scorn death and I vow that I meet it innocent of any crime. The next day she behaved with impeccable decorum because she knew that if she faltered, it would immediately go into the propaganda tracts of the day. She embraced her two servants who accompanied her. She removed her black outer gown and underneath she was wearing a scarlet robe, the color of martyrdom. She was going to her death as a martyr of the Catholic Church. When the executioner asked her to forgive him for what he was about to do, she replied, I forgive you with all my heart for now I hope you shall make an end to all of my troubles. The executioner did not do a good job.

It took three strokes of the ax before she was finally killed. All right, Queen Elizabeth dies over the throne of England in 1603, the Virgin Queen. Unmarried, no heir. Who is going to become the king of England? Who is going to be an heir to the throne? But James, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots. He is the next king of England and Scotland so you have the United Kingdom and he unifies the tutor and the Stuart line. And James rules and he rules as a Protestant because remember Mary, Queen of Scots did not bring up her own child.

She never had that alternative. That was mean. And Mary, Queen of Scots who lost in life, literally losing her head, being executed, she won in death because her son achieved what she couldn't, namely to be the monarch of England and every single monarch that England has had since then is a descendant of the son of Mary, Queen of Scots. Well who is this James? Although he was a Protestant, James the sixth of Scotland and he became James the first of England, same person, did persecute Puritans. It was under his rule that the Puritans came because they felt that the Church of England was not sufficiently reformed. It is this James who commissioned a new translation of the Bible.

About 50 scholars were brought together and over a period of months they translated what became known as the best English translation and the most widespread in all of history, the King James version of the Bible. That's the son of Mary, Queen of Scots. From John Knox came the impetus for the Presbyterian Church denomination and if Scotland had not gone Protestant as it eventually did thoroughly, completely Protestant, England would never have been able to defend itself against the Catholics. It was really because Protestantism grew in Scotland and Scotland eventually became the most Calvinistic slash Protestant country in the world as time went on. What about the Westminster Confession of Faith which is the basis of the Presbyterian Church? It came about later in 1643. What happened is there was an uprising between Scotland and England over doctrine over the Anglican Church versus the Calvinistic Church and they said that what we need is a common confession for both England and Scotland. So you have many many divines meeting for a period of three years and they came up with the famous Westminster Confession of Faith which has had a huge impact upon Christian theology and is still the basis of the Presbyterian Church today. And actually the impetus here of John Knox is clearly seen because Knox wrote a document like it which kind of became the basis for the Westminster Confession of Faith. Now you say well Pastor Lutzer why all this?

Why this? This is an intriguing story but what does this have to do with me or life and so forth? What you need to realize is that in those days, in those days theology and truth was incredibly important. It was always said that theology was the queen of the sciences.

Today the queen is losing her crown. People don't want doctrine. They don't want doctrine.

Grady Wilson, Billy's associate who's in heaven now was a preaching in Texas one time and they said Grady was sure love your preach and no doctrine or nothing. And people don't realize that what you believe is incredibly important. Is there a question more important than how you go to heaven, how grace is received, whether or not salvation is a free gift or whether it comes through the sacraments? There is no question that's more important than that. All other questions aside, it's so much more important than the question of how can Jesus help me to be a better business man or how can I get God to answer my prayers so I can become rich? There was a family, a Muslim family that converted to the Christian faith and they went to a church in Texas hoping to be inspired and the pastor preached on the topic how to have a proper diet so that you can be healthy.

Well that's good, you know, to know how to be healthy and have a proper diet. Is that why we come to church or is it to learn the gospel and to learn how to share the gospel? Is it that important to this generation or were these people just fanatics?

That's the question. Finally, I don't know how to couch this lesson but I take this to be very, very important. Scotland today is one of the hardest mission fields in the world. Manila is open to the gospel in comparison to Scotland. When I was in Scotland I met some missionaries there in a church who told me that we have been missionaries in Germany and Germany is as hard as cement. But he says we have been in Scotland for many, many years and Germany seems soft spiritually speaking in comparison to Scotland. People do not want to hear the gospel.

They want nothing to do with the gospel or Christianity in Scotland except little pockets of believers here and there. When I was in St. Giles Church of course I wanted to go to the grave of John Knox. Preachers always like to go to graveyards. They have this deep conviction that they're headed there. Then there are other people who show up there too. It's amazing the statistics on death. I wanted to go to the grave of John Knox, the great reformer.

So what do they tell me? They say you go out to the parking lot and you go to car stall number 11 and you will see there on the pavement a little marker and John Knox is buried under the parking lot and if all the parking lot is filled you can't even find the marker unless you poke your head under the cars. So John Knox they just decided there was a cemetery there near the church and they needed parking. Of course parking is important and so they just leveled the cemetery and they paved over it and they put a little marker there about this big you know and if you know it the average person wouldn't have an idea what the marker is but if you ask John Knox is buried there. That is a good symbol of the Reformation in Europe.

We just pave over the whole thing. You know what's happening in France? They are having rallies with militant atheists because the atheists say that we can no longer simply ignore religion. We have to be active to fight against Islam and did you get that email about how they they're having these huge rallies and atheism is just huge because they think to themselves if we're going to fight against Islam we have to fight against all religions because Christianity and Islam are essentially the same thing. My dear friends God has blinded the minds of Europe. They are spiritually apart from of course there are exceptions because there are believing people and believing churches but as nations God has just written them off and just said I'm done with you and he's turned his back on Europe. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to evangelize.

I wonder if that could happen here. What is the secret for keeping the fire of the gospel alive generation to generation so that we don't lose our young people and so that we in America do not go the same way because I think we are so we need to pray we need to seek the face of God so that the that the gospel would remain alive in our culture. How did the Presbyterians get to the point where they have totally lost their faith as a basis and their foundation? They no longer believe in the gospel. You're absolutely right but not all of them. You have a number of different Presbyterian groups.

Interesting question in light of last night. Last night I was somewhere where I sat next to some folks who attend a liberal Presbyterian church and I could say very interesting things about that. What happened is this that in the 20s and 30s where you have liberalism just marching along you have many of these mainline denominations who bought into all of the liberal ideas that Jesus maybe even was God but he's not unique that if you're good everybody goes to heaven who's good and there is no hell. Now if they believe that in some of these churches they don't preach it. Liberal theology which began in our seminaries permeates the congregations in some but there are some very hot on fire Presbyterian churches because you have different ones that exist. Could you give a brief summary of the Catholic Protestant conflict in Northern Ireland?

No I can't. I don't know too much about that conflict but I will say this it is very political. It isn't as simple as simply two religions duking it out. That conflict has a huge long history and I really don't feel qualified to comment on it but but it's ugly.

I think that Ian Paisley is a Christian but some of his speeches seem to be filled with anger and a vitriolic spirit which I think he's changing but years ago when you saw him it was hard to see Jesus so it's ugly. Who had the authority to forbid Mary Queen of Scots from raising her own son? Under what authority could someone take her some from her? Not a pretty picture but when little James was born after he was about a year old and she was she had to go to a castle he was basically taken and raised by Protestants. So I don't know who made the decision exactly but that's just the reality and that should not happen a mother should be able to raise her child but isn't that interesting you look back in history and you say yeah but God ended up using him as a Protestant you know the King James Version of the Bible the whole bit but that does not justify the wrong that was done to her. I feel sorry for Mary Queen of Scots. What factors in Scotland did the Holy Spirit use to develop the doctrinal base in the 16th century?

Do we have that opportunity today? What factors cultural or spiritual? Well what happened in Scotland was that people got together and the doctrine was hammered out largely Calvinism from Geneva. See when John Knox went there he studied under Calvin for two years he came back and that's why the Presbyterian Church in Scotland was so Calvinistic so if you remember the lecture on Calvin that's basically what Scotland was. Is Presbyterianism more similar to Catholicism or Protestantism?

Well Presbyterianism is Protestantism yes it'd be like John Knox and so forth in its history but today as we noticed Presbyterians there are some of them that have left the faith. All right and what do you think of the emergent church and its challenge to sound doctrine? Why is it so appealing to young Christians? The emerging church teaches us that people are interested in relationships so from that standpoint it teaches us something.

It is a huge challenge to Christian doctrine because doctrine is downplayed in favor of relationships and I quote the man who was instrumental in beginning and some people say well he didn't mean everything he said well that's fine but he wrote an article in which he said the day is going to come when doctrine is going to be like the architecture of a medieval cathedral interesting to a few but irrelevant. I'm here to tell you tonight that if that day comes we will be on our way to become like the church in Scotland totally dead unless the doctrines are preached with relevance and with conviction and people understand especially that cluster of doctrine that relates to Jesus Christ and salvation and its implications unless that is explained to people we've lost the heart of everything we we want to have a wheel but we insist that we don't need a hub and the spokes are lying all over the ditches so I think the emergent church has some things to teach us but it also has some dangers. Let me say this that even here tonight if there's somebody who hasn't believed the gospel don't leave here unless you do that because at the end of the day it is what Jesus did for us and the salvation that we have in his name that is the most important thing and father we ask in Jesus name that you might give us the same fervor but with love that the reformers had for the gospel. Help us to know that there are some things worth dying for, some things worth living for, some things worth striving for. Burn within us these convictions we ask and lead us in the everlasting path in Jesus name. Amen. One of the things that we must remember is that no matter how famous a person is such as Martin Luther he was still a human being and when his 14 year old daughter Magdalena died he held her in his arms and he said you little Lenkin that's actually a nickname for her you will rise and shine like the sun how strange to know that you are at peace and all is well but I am so sorrowful and then he went on to talk to one of his friends you have heard that my dearest child is born again into the eternal kingdom of God we ought to be glad at her departure for she is taken away from the world the flesh and the devil but then he goes on to talk about his deep grief and her tombstone is a tribute to her and by the way I've seen that tombstone because it's brought into a church in Wittenberg because of the bombing of World War II history is fascinating well I want to emphasize that all this comes from my book Rescuing the Gospel and this is the second to the last day we are making this resource available hope that you have a pen or pencil you can write this down go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 did I say that too quickly go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 the name of the book Rescuing the Gospel the story and the significance of the Reformation I hope that you respond to our offer right now time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life Juanita here's running to win on WDLM in East Moline Illinois she says I'm concerned about the rise of Islamic Jihad and its spread into all the world I've read many books on the subject and I can barely stand to read more this evil has spread deep into the Western world and our leaders seem oblivious to the dangers I'm concerned also about the Christians who are being murdered but I think they'll be going to heaven soon is there any way to present Christ to Islamic radicals Juanita first of all I want to commend you for doing enough reading and enough studying and being aware of the fact that we are facing a huge challenge to Western civilization and that is true around the world and it's not just Isis it's all kinds of Islamic groups all of them essentially share the same vision of an Islamic world with a caliphate and that is what they are working toward in various ways some more peaceful than others but sharing a common goal so thank you for being aware of what is happening in answer to the question of sharing Christ with the radicals I don't know how to do that I think that the greater challenge that you and I should face is sharing Jesus Christ with our Muslim neighbors most of whom most assuredly are peaceful they don't agree with what the radicals are doing they are interested in Christianity they are interested in us to build those kinds of bridges trusting God that we will be able to to meet together to connect to enjoy a meal together all of that becomes important to open doors to present the gospel and we must realize here that when we do that we can't expect instant results though that sometimes does happen it's ultimately a matter of relationship and relationships lead to the gospel so that I think is the greater challenge as far as the radicals are concerned I have no idea how we can possibly penetrate them but there are some Christians living in these countries that we should be praying for because they have a greater opportunity to connect with the radicals and to show them Christ than we do bottom line let's all do what we possibly can to represent Christ to reach out to build relationships and to share with as many people as possible the good news of the gospel thank you Dr. Lutzer for those words of counsel if you'd like to hear your question answered go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337 that's 1-888-218-9337 you can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614 Salvation is more than just a ticket to heaven when we die Christ has given believers many wonderful gifts that accompany that salvation next time on Running to Win we begin a series that takes inventory of what each believer has through the work of Jesus don't miss the inheritance of the redeemed thanks for listening for Pastor Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.