Marcus Serven explains in this audio message that the Reformation brought about a transformation of culture, one that had been hurt by the traditions of men. What happened then can also happen today. God used and continues to use ordinary people that He raises up to accomplish extraordinary deeds for the Kingdom of Christ.
Matthew 16:26 (NKJV) - "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Marcus Servin with the following message entitled, Give me Scotland or I die, the life and ministry of John Knox Well, hold on hold on to your seats because we are going to go racing back in history and look at a man and the ministry that God gave him and his faithfulness in that ministry. Of course you've already heard the title, Give Me Scotland or I'd Die, and the life and the ministry of John Knox. Now sometimes people ask if we're at a conference on the Great Commission and what for what reason are we looking back to the Reformation of all places 500 years ago to get any information or help on how to be better at obeying the Great Commission. And the reason we look back to the past, and I'll give you a number of reasons, first and foremost, is because the Reformation was that time when the Gospel was recovered. We have to remember that, that the gospel had been encumbered by the traditions of men.
So much so that it was buried under the weight of that tradition and as a result, something needed to change. And this was brought about by God himself, a period of recovery, of going all the way back to the first century and retooling, as it were, the Gospel as it was articulated then. That's what happened at the Reformation. It was a recovery of the Gospel. Secondly, we talk about this time because the Reformation was just not a short revival a week here or a week there.
Think about this. The Reformation was a period of revival that went 133 years or more. Starting roughly 1517, taking that all the way to the 1650s. Think about If God were to bring that kind of revival to this time in which we now live, 150 years or more of Reformation change. I've seen cultures and nations change for the sake of the Gospel, and that's what happened at the time of the Reformation.
Thirdly, the Reformation was a period of time when the Gospel penetrated down to every class of people. It wasn't just the idea of what the Roman Catholics would call sacerdotalism, the power of the priestly class, that exalted category of people that in many ways ruled over everybody else. The Reformation was a time of rediscovery of seeing what we call the priesthood of every believer. That every Christian is able to stand before a holy God knowing that their high priest, Jesus Christ, is the one interceding before them and that's all we need. We need the Church, of course, to give us direction and guidance and to hold us accountable, but when it comes to this whole issue of who stands between you and Almighty God, well it is Christ himself.
We don't need a priestly class that holds that power or retains that power. And so in that regard, the Reformation stripped away all these class distinctions between people so that the candlestick maker and the baker and the cobbler and all the rest saw themselves as equally spiritual in their task as well as any other thing or discipline. Now there is a fourth reason why we look back to the Reformation. I've already alluded it to some degree, and that is that the church had been encumbered by the traditions of men. So think of the church in this way.
Think of the church as a giant ship plowing through the waters, through the ocean. And over time, as the various doctrines, which are known as traditions of men, begin to cling to its side so that it gets lower in the water and slower as it goes through the oceans. And in that way, we find just prior to the Reformation, the church was so encumbered with all these false ways of thinking, all these ways that were extra biblical or completely unscriptural so that it was barely going through the water at all. It was almost at a dead stop. And how does that change?
Well, God raised up the reformers. And God raised up men and women who would stand clear and firm on the doctrine of grace. And in many respects what they did is they took that ship into the dry dock and they cleaned all the sides off and they scraped off all the barnacles and the seaweed and all the other encrusted things that had gotten on the side of the ship and they repainted the hull and then set it back out in the ocean and it plowed along at 30 knots once again. That's what happened at the Reformation. A glorious transformation of culture as the culture that had been hurt by the church with the traditions of men all of a sudden found itself in a place where the Gospel was rediscovered and culture was liberated.
A fifth reason why we look back to the Reformation is that what happened then can also happen now. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God could raise up people to serve him again and they could recover the Gospel, They could strip away all the various accretions and additions that have been made over the years and we could get back to that pristine gospel. And we could have a view of optimism and liberty and success and victory when it comes to the expansion of the Kingdom of Christ? Is that possible?
I believe that it is. And I believe that God is in the business of doing that. Here's a basic thesis for what I'm going to talk about in regard to Knox, and that is this. That God uses ordinary people that he raises up to accomplish extraordinary deeds for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. I'll say it again.
God uses ordinary people, like you and me, And he equips them so that they can do extraordinary deeds for the advancement of the Gospel. And so in that respect, God who worked at that time can also work in our time. And He can cause the church to go forward in the way it needs to go forward again. Now I want to make one qualification before I start on the life of John Knox. And that is this, my title says, give me Scotland or I die.
The problem is there are a lot of good men, very fine scholars, who have been looking for that particular quote and we can't seem to find it. Now, nobody doubts that Knox ever said it. In fact, there are many historians who would swear on a sack of Bibles, so to speak, that yes, absolutely, he said that, but we cannot find the precise document. Nevertheless, I think that quotation, give me Scotland or I die, wonderfully summarizes the heart of John Knox. And so when you think of the man, you think of who he really was.
This is the way he operated. This is the way he thought. And so for that reason and since no one disputes the fact that he ever said it, I'm going to claim it for John Knox as what he actually said. Now a little bit about Knox as we get into his life. First of all, let's remember that John Knox was born in 1514, which by the way means that in two years time we will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Knox.
So we all got to get ready for this. Got to start thinking about how we're going to rejoice in God and celebrate that event. Knox himself was born in the year 1514 to a farmer. He lived on a farm all his growing up years. He was raised in southern Scotland.
He was not a noble, He was not a landowner, he was a commoner. And that's the way everyone saw him. Now, John's father did have enough money to send him off for education, and he was committed to having his son become a Roman Catholic priest. That was the desire of his father. And so he sent John to St.
Andrew's University, and while he was there, he studied in God's providence under a very unique theologian. A man by the name of John Major. Or in some places, you may see his name as John Mayor. The interesting thing about John Major was this, that he was a learned professor, well respected in Roman Catholic circles, but yet at the same time very lovingly challenging Roman Catholic doctrines and practices. So much so that he argued that the leadership of churches ought to be in the hands of local elders and deacons, rather than in the hands of ecclesiastical potentates who lived in other places.
He argued that principle. He also felt that it was necessary at times for there to be presbytery's incentives to solve more difficult problems but that for the most part issues at the local church should be handled at the local church. And in each church, called its own pastor. Now that's a very different way of thinking than the traditional Roman Catholic medieval mindset that was so predominant at that time. Now John Major also taught his students to familiarize themselves with the doctrines that were coming out of Germany from the prolific pen of Martin Luther.
And so there was an emphasis on recovering the doctrine of justification by faith alone, which was a completely revolutionary way of thinking rather than having a justification by works or justification by works of the saints which you hope might be applied to you. There was justification by faith alone. So John Major was encouraging that. Now there's no question that John Major had an impact on Knox and maybe started his theological wheels turning in his head. Nevertheless, when he graduated, when he was 26 years of age, he followed his father's wishes and he became a Roman Catholic priest.
And he had a few things to do as a priest. Obviously, he participated in the worship of the church and conducting masses, but beyond that he became a papal notary so that he was one who was authorizing documents of canon law and so forth. He made a good living doing that, by the way. And his father was in many respects satisfied by all that his young son had accomplished. His young son had the endorsement of the church, he had the prestige of higher education, and he had sufficient work and money from his job as a notary.
But even though the earthly father of John Knox was satisfied, the heavenly father of John Knox was not. And the heavenly father had other plans for this young man. The Heavenly Father was in the business of bringing to that spiritually dry land known as Scotland a recovery of the Gospel. And on those parched shores the Gospel began to come away. It came in little dribbles at first, in small little doses, but God was on the move revitalizing his church and he was going to raise a man up who would bring the gospel fully back to Scotland where it had been many years before during the time of the Celtic churches in the first, second, and third centuries.
Now at the time of John Knox's ordination in 1540 when he was 26, we have to remember that King Henry VIII was on the throne in England. Henry had divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragorn and he had formed his own national church called the Church of England or what later became known as the Anglican Church. And without knowing it, in many respects, Henry had aligned himself with Protestantism. And since he had done that, the gospel had a way of getting into England a little bit quicker and a little easier than it did in Scotland. Scotland, on the other hand, which was separated from England both ecclesiastically and politically, they looked to France, not to England.
They looked to France and the Roman Catholic Church. And so as that result, anybody with Protestant ideas in Scotland was immediately looked down upon and they were seen as a threat to the establishment. And so when Knox, even though he'd become a Roman Catholic priest, I think he began to realize, if I go this other way, if I go the way of Protestantism, my name's going to be on the blacklist. My life is going to be in jeopardy. He didn't have to think too hard and too long to remember back to Patrick Hamilton, who gave up his life at St.
Andrews, and he could see the very spot as a student there where Hamilton was burned to death. And so he was cautious about this whole idea of becoming a Protestant, yet God had plans for Knox in his Providence to help him become a great champion of the Protestant cause in Scotland. Now when Knox was 29 years of age, he began serving as a tutor to a number of Scottish lords to educate their sons. And so he taught them the traditional languages of Latin and also some Greek. He introduced them to philosophy and mathematics, to the Roman Catholic catechism, and also he began to teach them a little bit of Bible.
God used all of that to work in in John Knox's heart. In particular, when he was lecturing through the Gospel of John, he came to the 17th chapter in John and he read these verses from John 17 1 & 2. Father, the hour has now come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to whom you have given him." When Knox read those words, he realized that God was in the process of giving him a faith that he was hungrily desiring and that God was beginning to work in his heart. So much so, he said later on his deathbed, reflecting back upon that chapter in the Gospel of John, that was where I first cast my anchor, he said.
That was where he first cast his anchor in terms of his belief and trust in Christ. His exact conversion is a little different difficult to pin down. But yet we see the evidence of a changed hearts a few years later in 1545 when he begins to show the evidence of a willingness to identify himself with the Protestant cause. Well, how does he do this? Well, there's a very popular preacher of that age by the name of George Wissart.
Wissart was used of God to, as it were, like John the Baptist, to prepare the way for another man to come. John Knox became the bodyguard of George Wissart. He carried a large two-handed sword, a very heavy sword. And he used to stand behind Wissart whenever he would preach with his sword at the ready to deal with any assassins who would come up. In fact, there's one famous story of a Roman Catholic priest that had worked his way up to the very front of the crowd listening to Wissart.
And he pulled out a dagger and rushed at Wissart. Wissart was a strong man and he tripped up the assassin. And Knox was ready to deal with him and give him a death blow. And Wissart said, nay, nay, we're not going to have any bloodshed today, and began to preach the Gospel all the more to the Catholic priests. So Knox was very much ready to shed blood for the sake of the Gospel and the Protestant cause, So we see, as it were, this very steady change from his first awakening to a full orb commitment to Protestantism.
As wizards foes grew ever bolder in their threats, the controversial preacher urged Knox to flee eventually. And he said, nay, return to your barns, your students, and God bless them. One is sufficient for a sacrifice. And it wasn't long after that, that Whissert was betrayed, that he was captured. Cardinal Beaton, who was well known in his disagreements with Protestantism, had him arrested.
He was tried. He was burned at the stake as a heretic on March 1st, 1546. And that became an even more crucial turning point for John Knox. Can you imagine your friends being captured for the sake of the gospel, being tried malicious false charges brought against him, and then burned at the stake, it would make a very large impression upon all of us. And it made that kind of impression upon Knox So that he fully identified with the Protestant rebellion.
Now it wasn't long after Wissert's death that a number of young Scottish wards took up a spirit of revenge. They broke into the castle at St. Andrews and they assassinated Cardinal Beaton. And as a result, they all then took up quarters in St. Andrews' castle and many other Protestants kind of flocked to St.
Andrews and they holed up there. One of whom was John Knox. He was there as a tutor, as I said, to the Scottish Lord's sons. They had taken up residence at the castle as well as many other people. Now there was one chaplain who served the castle garrison.
His name was John Ruff. And imagine just for a moment if a pastor came into your church and then began to single you out by name with a certain message from the pulpit. You would feel a little uncomfortable with that, wouldn't you? Well that's what happened to John Knox. John Ruff came in one day to the service where They were speaking about the election of ministers and Ruff said these words to John Knox.
He pointed his finger at him and said, Brother, you shall not be offended, albeit I speak unto you that which I have in charge, even from those here present who have given me this charge in the name of God and of his son Jesus Christ in the name of these that presently call you by mouth I charge you that you refuse not this holy vocation as ye tender the glory of God the increase of Christ in his kingdom, the edification of your brethren, and the comfort of me, oppressed by the multitude of labors that you take upon you, the public office of preaching, and even as you look to avoid God's heavy displeasure and desire that he shall multiply his graces upon you." Well here's Knox sitting there, you know, maybe in the first row of the service and John Ruffus pointing his finger down at him and what does he do? He bursts out in tears and he flees from the chapel. And he goes to his room and he locks the door behind him and he stays there for three days, just weeping and calling upon the Lord because the last thing in his mind was to become a preacher like Wissert.
The last thing in his mind was to take that public role. He did not seek it. He did not desire it, but God was, as it were, using rough as that hammer, as those thunder and lightning to force him. Now that's a public call to ministry, I'll tell you. Something that you need to think about.
Well, after receiving that external call, he came very sweetly over time, over those three days, to an internal call of sensing that yes indeed, God was calling him to the ministry. And so he assumed his duties along with John Ruff as a chaplain to all the people in the garrison there at St. Andrew's Castle. And they began to pray. They began to pray that an English fleet would appear in the harbor and liberate them from the Scottish people who were loyal to Cardinal Beaton and wanted to revenge his death.
But instead, their prayers were answered in this way. Instead of it being an English fleet, it was a French fleet that showed up. A Roman Catholic fleet that showed up and they began to bombard the castle a very short time. The castle realized there's no way we can sustain ourselves in the castle. We're going to all be killed and so they lost hope and they surrendered to the French.
And the Scottish lords were taken into captivity, they were treated fairly nicely, but all the commoners like John Knox were enslaved and they became those who rode the galley ship around. They were slaves and they were ensconced on the French ship called the Notre Dame. Now the life in the galleys was a miserable existence. You sat, First of all, chained to the ship, and you sat in the open air and all the sun and the weather and all of that, 24 hours a day. It was a miserable experience.
He called that time when my life was filled with sobs and cries. That's the way he described it. He spoke of some interesting experiences during that time. One was this. When the ship was in the harbor in France, I don't know what sea port it was in.
Here it is in Nantes. John Knox speaks of this in the history of the Reformation in Scotland. He says, soon after their arrival in Nantes, a great salve was sung, a song of salvation, of tribute to the Virgin Mary. And a glorious painted lady, meaning the Virgin Mary, that statue, was brought in to be kissed and among others it was presented to one of the Scottish men then chained. Now Knox is speaking in third person here but he's probably speaking of himself when he says one of the Scottishman, he's speaking of himself here.
He gently said, trouble me not, such an idol is accursed and therefore I will not touch it. But the patron of the ship, the skipper, and the Argason, the lieutenant, with two officers having the chief charge of all such matters, said this, Thou shalt handle it. And they violently thrust it into his face and put it betwixt his hands. And he seeing the extremity, then took the idol and advisedly looking around him this way and that way he cast it into the river and he said let our lady now save herself she is light enough let her learn to swim well you can be assured that no other Frenchman placed the Virgin Mary statue into the Scottish hands anymore, nor did they urge the Scotsman to kiss the idol. So Knox tells us that interesting story.
But another more poignant story happens when he was a slave on the Galley ship. The ship, the Notre Dame, had been rowed over to the northern coast of Scotland and it was lying between Dundee and St. Andrews. And John Knox at that time was very, very sick from the ravages of the sea and the difficulty of the work that he was forced to do. And a lot of people were convinced that John Knox was probably going to die at that time.
And one of his friends by the name of Master James Balfour said to Knox, and he asked him this question, did he ever think that perhaps they would be delivered? Do you think we'll ever be delivered? And Knox answered in this way. He said, God will surely deliver us from this bondage to his glory, even in this life. And then Balfour said to him and asked him if he noticed the tower in the distance.
And Knox lifted up his head. He was looking through just a little scuttle in the ship. He could see out that small hole and he could see the cathedral spires in St. Andrews and he said this, yes, I know that place well. I the see the steeple of that place where God first in public opened my mouth to his glory and I am fully persuaded, however so weak I now appear that I shall not depart this life until my tongue shall glorify his holy name in that same place." Now people have seen this as a bit of prophetic language from John Knox.
He's basically saying, I'm not going to die, and I'm convinced that God is going to allow me to preach there again. The problem was that he was so sick, everyone thought he was going to die, and liberation from any one of the galley ships was a very slim possibility at best. But in God's providence, all of that happened. He recovered. And through the negotiations with the English king, Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII, John Knox, as well as many others were freed.
John Knox was able to make his way to England where he then lived for a number of years and became a preacher in northern England at a town called Berwick. After that he became a preacher at Newcastle and became one of the chaplains to Edward VI and was identified as one of the king's preachers. More importantly he also met his wife-to-be, a girl by the name of Marjorie Bowes. And John became very much acquainted with her extended family, and in particular, her mother, Elizabeth Bowes. And Knox carried on a very lively correspondence over the years with his mother-in-law.
And so he married at that time and also established himself as a pastor. Now in 1553, after having a number of years of serving as a minister of the Gospel in England, of all places, then there was a change in the leadership of the land. And King Edward VI died an untimely death at 16 years of age. He was replaced by his half-sister who was Mary Tudor, who is that infamous Bloody Mary, who came to a very quick, short, and sharp time of reigning over the land of England. She was determined to restore Roman Catholicism as the religion of the land and she severely persecuted many Protestants.
You can read those stories. Banner of Truth has some excellent material out there where you can read the testimonies of all these men who died for the sake of the gospel, some of them being Thomas Cramner, Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, they were all executed for their faith, captured by the agents of Bloody Mary. However, there were many other people in England who realized that they needed to flee England, and Knox was one of those. And so he very quickly fled to the continent. He secretly returned to bring his wife with him, and they went to Geneva, Switzerland for a short time, where later he was called to Frankfurt and preached in an English congregation there for a while and then came back again to Geneva where he finished out his time in exile.
Knox wrote a letter to a friend of his saying of the academy in Geneva and sitting at the feet of Calvin in the discussions that took place every day of the week, lectures on the Bible and various books of the Bible. And by the way, just as a side note, when you look at Calvin's commentaries, all of those different comments that are in the commentaries for the most part are lecture notes from John Calvin. And they were all transcribed by the deacons of the church in Geneva, they would take them down word by word and Calvin sometimes had the opportunity to edit them a little bit, but often times he didn't. And so that's why you'll see at the end of some of those comments that the bell rang and they all left or there was a big storm outside and the lightning was fierce or things like that. So these were real lectures and Knox was sitting there.
But this is what he said about his time in Geneva. He said regarding the Geneva Academy, It is the most perfect school since the Apostles. In other places I confess Christ is to be truly preached, but in manners and religion so sincerely reformed I have not seen them so well in any other place." And so Knox was deeply appreciative of all that he was learning in Geneva. He kept busy there pastoring an English speaking church. His wife bore him two sons, but His mind was oftentimes on Scotland.
And it was there and also in France later when he was hoping to go back to Scotland for a quick preaching tour in 1557 that he wrote the controversial tract, the first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women. Now let me just dispel any notions you might have about that tract. Knox was not against women. Knox, however, delivered a torrid criticism against the women rulers of his day who had, he believed, had offended God by disabusing the laws of God and even secondly not even obeying the laws of their own lands. They become tyrants.
That's what he was against. And so he singled out three women that he wrote against in the first blast of the trumpet. First of all, Bloody Mary of England. He had seen many of his own friends be martyred under her terrible reign. Catherine de Mendisi of France, who later on would be one who instituted the great St.
Martha's Day disaster and attack against the French Huguenots. And also Mary of Guise, who was the queen mother, the mother of who would be known as Mary Queen of Scots, who would return to Scotland in 1561. And So he wrote against these three women and that's who he was speaking of. He wasn't against women in general. Now beyond that, if we look at his married life and many of his correspondents, he had a very sweet, tender married life.
There's no question of that. And then he also had many women that were correspondents to him. Different women of note, those who helped support his ministry, and all the rest. And so it's a difficult case when you even go just slightly below the surface in the character of John Knox to see that he was not against all women, not at all. Finally, when Knox was 45 years of age, Knox began to believe that it was possible that there could be a renewed influence of the gospel in Scotland.
He spent his time in England. He had been well equipped in Germany and also in Switzerland. And he resolved to go on a number of short, clandestine preaching tours in Scotland. And he did that. And then as a result became convinced that yes indeed he could he could return to Scotland and preach the gospel when the time was right and that time became right in the year 1559 when Mary, Bloody Mary, had died.
Suddenly she was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth. Elizabeth had at least a somewhat benevolent feeling toward the Protestants, at least in those early days she did. And so Knox determined to return to Scotland. Five days after his arrival in Edinburgh the Scottish authorities placed a price upon his head. One of his first letters back to his congregation in Geneva asked for some extra funds, for what purpose?
So he could buy a faster horse. So he could escape his enemies. One critic of the Protestant cause said this about John Knox's preaching, he said that the preaching of Knox could put life into them more than 500 trumpets. And so his critics began to realize here's a very serious player, here's a man who's committed to the spread of the gospel throughout Scotland and we've got to somehow capture this man and put him to death. But none of that happened.
Now think back 10 years prior to that day when Knox was the galley slave. He was so sick everyone thought he would die. And he gave forth those words that in this life he would preach on some day, he didn't know when, at St. Andrews. And now that day came, ten years after his words.
He tells us in his history of the Reformation these words, the Archbishop affirmed that he would not allow to have John Knox preach. And considering that by his commandment the picture of the said John was therefore burnt, and the Archbishop willed therefore an honest gentleman, Robert Colville of Claysh, to say to all the Scottish lords that in case John Knox presented himself to the preaching place in this town and the principal church that he should gar or cause him to be saluted upon his nose with a dozen culverns." Culverns are the Scottish word for muskets. And so the archbishop basically was ordering the assassination of John Knox. That all the Scottish lords would show up at the preaching place, they would take their aim as he stood there in the pulpit and they would cause all those balls to hit right on his nose and put him to death. Well, that was the bishop's good will toward John Knox, but that's not what happened.
What happened is this. Knox answered in this way. He said, God is my witness that I never preach Christ Jesus in contempt of any man. Neither mind I at any time to present myself to the place, having neither respect to my own private commodity or yet to the worldly hurt of any creature, but to delay to preach on the morrow, unless the body be violently withholden, I cannot of conscience. In this town and church began God first to call me to the dignity of a preacher, from which I was reft by the tyranny of France, by the procurement of the bishops, as you all know, how long I continued prisoner, what torment I sustained in the galleys that were the sobs of my heart is no time now to recite.
This only I cannot conceal, which is more than one can have heard me ever say when the body was far absent from Scotland and my assured hope was an open audience to preach in St. Andrews before I departed this life. Therefore my Lord's seeing that God above all the expectation of many hath brought the body to the same place where first I was called to the office of a preacher, and from which I most unjustly was removed, I beseech your honors not to stop me to present myself to my brethren. As for the fear of danger that may come to me, well let no man be solicitous. My life is in the custody of him whose glory I seek.
Therefore I cannot so fear their boast or tyranny that I will cease from doing my duty, when of his mercy he offerth me to the occasion. I desire the hand or weapon of no man to defend me, only do I crave audience, which if it be denied here unto me at this time I must seek further where I may have it. So saith John Knox." And so John Knox went ahead and preached that day at St. Andrews. No one prevented him.
No one rioted outside the church. No one showed up with their muskets. God protected him and God raised up this man to electrify the recovery of the gospel in all of Scotland. Well what happens after John Knox showed up in Scotland? Well he began preaching and all of those who had been timid in their faith rose up to follow him and Many of these men were also gifted preachers, and so the Gospel began going all over Scotland.
Now the people who were there who were loyal to the Roman Catholic Church and the status quo didn't just sit there and let this happen. They formed an army, and France sent 6, 000 armed soldiers to bring Scotland back to its duty. That's the way they said it, or back to allegiance to the Catholic crown and to Roman Catholicism. But Knox was such an electrifying preacher and in many places that he preached to the army of the Scots and as a result they were able to so harry and harass the the French soldiers that eventually, in about six months time, the French then left. Beyond that, John, along with five other men, penned the Scots Confession.
And this is very important because any new church has to have some doctrine that they're committed to. And the idea that there can somehow be no doctrine at all is really a silly notion. We have to have something that we're in allegiance to. In that respect, Knox then pens the Scots Confession, a very early document in the Reformation, very much alive and exciting to read. I would commend that you read it.
You can find it online in many, many places, or also in Shaft's creeds of Christendom, and you'll delight in reading it. Sadly, after Knox returned to Scotland after a short time his wife Marjorie died, leaving him the single father of two young sons, Nathaniel and Eliezer. And then four years later, when Knox was 50 years old, he determined he would marry again. It caused a little bit of a scandal, because here's a 50 year old man marrying the daughter of one of his great supporters. The problem being that she was at that time only 17 years old.
So a large difference, 33 years between them. Yet this second marriage turned out to be just as beautiful and wonderful and close a relationship that Knox had with his first wife, Marjorie. The second wife's name was Margaret Stewart, and she bore John Knox's three daughters, Martha, Margaret, and Elizabeth. In the year 1561, we see Queen Mary, or what's known as Mary Queen of Scots, taking the place of her mother who had formerly been the regent, Mary of Ghez. And she returned to Scotland.
She had been born in Scotland, and when she was only six days old, she had been taken away off to France, where she had been raised, all of her years in France, raised and drank deeply from the well of Roman Catholicism and was determined in coming back to Scotland to force Roman Catholicism upon that land which had fallen into a Protestant way of thinking and a Protestant way of worshiping God. When she showed up, the English ambassador to Scotland said this of Mary, Queen of Scots, and keep in mind she's a young lady, only 19 years old at this time, very beautiful, and a witty conversationalist. He said that all were enthralled by her presence, saving John Knox, he that thundereth out of the pulpit, and of him all men stand in fear." So an interesting tribute to Knox by the English ambassador. Now Mary Queen of Scott said of John Knox when she got to know him and understand who he was, she admitted, I fear the prayers of John Knox more than the army of 10, 000 men. And indeed, Knox was to become, as it were, the tip of the spear in Scotland advancing the Gospel and advancing the Protestant cause.
For six years, we see the struggle between Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox. Six years, and thanks to Thomas McCree, all of those interviews and the gist of them and even some of the particular conversation has been preserved. So you can read McCree's biography of John Knox and just get all that information, it's a glorious tribute to the very patient, loving, careful way in which John Knox spoke to the young queen. What was the problem? Well, as I mentioned before, Mary, Queen of Scots came determined to force Roman Catholicism upon the land.
And so she had her own entourage of Roman Catholic priests and various hanger honors in her court. And she began holding private masses in the chapel at Holyrood, which would be the castle there in Edinburgh. And so Knox would show up and would ask for an audience with Queen Mary of Scots and would rebuke her for that. On what basis? On the basis of the second commandment, that she was not to in any way fashion an idol and worship it.
His belief was that in the Roman Catholic mass, there not only was the worshiping of the Virgin Mary and the various statuary that was there, but beyond that there was trouble in terms of the doctrine of transubstantiation and the worshipping of the host, the worshipping of the bread and of the cup, because the Catholics would assert that it contained the real presence of Christ and that it became itself Christ and so is worthy of worship. John Knox called that idolatry. Another issue they quarreled over was the issue of the divine right of kings. Mary affirmed that God had given her, by divine right, authority over all the Scottish people. Knox contended back in this way that if she was a faithful monarch and she lived and ruled by the law of God, then he would have no quarrel.
But if she was arbitrary and made up her own rules, then the divine right of the people to demand that there would be a king or queen under the authority of God must be put forward. And so they quarreled over that issue. In essence, it was the whole struggle over the idea of whether God's law was higher or man's law was higher. Which was it? Was it God's law or man's law?
And Knox was very committed to the doctrine that God's law was above all things, that Christ reigned preeminent, that Christ was the true king, and that Mary or any other king or queen ever in the world is in allegiance to Christ first. That was his compelling principle.