John Knox (c1505 – 1572) was the leader of the Scottish Reformation. He was born near Haddington, and some think he received his basic education at the University of St. Andrews. He became a Catholic priest. He began a study of what became known as the “church fathers.” He became strongly attached to George Wishart, a well-known Scottish reformer.
Wishart travelled extensively in fear for his life all over Scotland, denouncing Catholic doctrine. He was investigated for heresy and was finally put to death. His early martyrdom did not stop Knox in his studies, but rather stirred him to continue further to examine and preach against Catholic doctrine. He became the chaplain of St. Andrews Castle, where Protestants sought refuge, but it did not last for long.
The queen of England, Mary of Guise, decided that this little Bastille of Protestantism of about one hundred and thirty people who had taken refuge inside the castle could only be taken by force and requested the king of France, Henry 11, to intervene. French galleys approached St Andrews on the 31st of July 1547. Knox was forced to row on a galley-slave boat until his release in 1549.
Galley slaves were chained to benches and rowed throughout the day without a change in posture while an officer watched over them with a whip in hand. They were tortured if they did not give proper signs of reverence when mass was performed on the ship. Knox recounted an incident in which one Scot was required to show devotion to a picture of the Virgin Mary. The prisoner was told to give it a kiss of veneration.
He refused, and when the picture was pushed up to his face, the prisoner seized the picture and threw it into the sea, saying, “Let our Lady now save herself: she is light enough: let her learn to swim.” In February 1549, after spending a total of nineteen months in the galley prison, Knox was released. It is uncertain how he obtained his liberty.
He preached in England until the accession of “Bloody Mary” in 1553, when he fled for his life to Europe. In Geneva, he came into contact with the Frenchman John Calvin. It has been said that he became more Calvinistic than Calvin.
Having been a student of Greek in his earlier years, he helped to translate the Geneva Bible while in Geneva. Receiving a call from Scotland to return to his homeland, he did so in 1559. He now saw the emergence of a new Protestant nation.
Knox’s boldness and influence were unsurpassed, and he was not ashamed to speak out against the Catholic Church before hostile rulers. Today, he is probably more widely known as the founder of the Church of Scotland, which later on in America became known as the Presbyterian Church.
Having been a student of John Calvin, we assume it would only be natural that he would become an advocate of the doctrine of Predestination. Predestination is God’s eternal decree, by which He determines within Himself what He has willed for each person. All are not created in equal condition.
Eternal life is foreordained for some and eternal damnation for others. Being ordained for eternal damnation is not an unjust act. All are guilty of falling short of God’s will and, as such, deserve damnation.
By electing some to have eternal salvation, God is merely exercising His free will in mercy. Those not elected are only receiving their just rewards for their lack or failure to reach His requirements.
It is not God’s knowledge of someone’s future works which he uses to determine if they deserve eternal life. His knowledge is such that there is nothing future or past, but all things are present. God sees all of time, past time, present time, and future time as all being in the “present tense.”
God’s election is decided on the basis of God’s free will. It seems evident that with Knox, no one deserves eternal life. It is purely what God chooses without the merits of the one being predestined. A person’s presence in the church may be an indication that he is among the elect, or else he might not be there.
Knox was opposed to the rule of women. He wrote a pamphlet against such. He said that it was “unnatural.” He had in mind Queens like Mary Tudor, Queen of England, and Mary Queen of Scots.
Knox’s prejudices against women were not unusual in his day; however, even he was aware that the pamphlet was dangerously seditious. He therefore published it anonymously and did not tell Calvin, who denied knowledge of it until a year after its publication, that he had written it.
In England, the pamphlet was officially condemned by royal proclamation. A year after its publication, Elizabeth Tudor became queen of England. Although Knox had not targeted Elizabeth, he had deeply offended her, and she never forgave him.
With a Protestant on the throne, the English refugees in Geneva prepared to return home to England. Knox decided to return to Scotland. He left in January 1559, but he did not arrive in Scotland until May of 1559 due to Elizabeth’s refusal to issue him a passport through England.
On August 1, 1560, the Scottish Parliament met to settle religious issues. Knox and five other ministers were called upon to draw up a new confession of faith. Within four days, the Scots Confession was presented to Parliament, voted upon, and approved. A week later, Parliament issued three acts in one day.
First, it abolished the jurisdiction of the pope in Scotland. The second condemned all doctrine and practice contrary to the reformed faith. Third, it forbade the celebration of mass in Scotland. Knox and other ministers were given the task of organising the newly reformed church, or the Kirk, as the Scots called it. Each church was free to choose or reject its own pastor, but once he was chosen, they could not fire him.
Each parish was to be self-supporting, as far as possible. The bishops were replaced by ten to twelve “superintendents.” Baptism and Communion were a central part of the Church of Scotland. They practised infant baptism. When Queen Mary came to the throne, it was inevitable that friction would arise between the queen and Knox. She was Catholic, and Knox was Protestant.
There were several heated confrontations between the two. It is a wonder Knox survived. He would have lost his head had it not been for the popularity of the reformed church in Scotland, of which he was the guiding light. He brought some of the queens to tears with his blunt conversation with them.
Knox was one who would never back down from his convictions, even if his life were in danger. An example of firmness can be seen in his capture by the French and being placed on a galley-slave boat to row for almost two years. He suffered physically during this period and almost died at one point.
One interesting trait of the early Presbyterian Church was its terminology concerning the place of worship. Early Presbyterians were careful to distinguish between the words “church” and “meeting houses.”
Very few referred to the place of meeting as the church. The people were the church, and the places where they met to worship were simply a “meeting house.” Early meeting houses were very austere in appearance.
The Presbyterians of today will, in most cases, be quite different from what they were when John Knox was alive and preaching. Very little has been written about the death of Knox, although we know that many nobles attended his funeral.
Even his burial place is not known for sure. The area around St. Giles in Edinburgh is paved and has become a parking lot. Some think he is buried somewhere beneath the present-day parking lot.