Mr Charles Scott-Pearson of the Protestant Alliance https://www.protestant-alliance.org, Pastor David Carson and Pastor Peter Simpson engaged in a public Christian witness at Smithfield in central London at the site of the burning at the stake of the 16th century Protestant martyrs John Rogers, John Philpott and John Bradford. The gathering was a memorial to the martyrs, and was also an opportunity to engage in gospel preaching. At this location at Smithfield in EC1 there stands a special monument to these martyrs which was erected by the Protestant Alliance.
In Pastor Carson’s address he explained how the apostle Peter is not himself the rock on which the Church is founded; nor is he the first pope in an apostolic succession which has continued from him reaching up to the time of the present pope. Far from Peter being the foundation rock on which the Church is built, this is rather Christ Himself and His precious teaching, because we are plainly told in 1 Corinthians 3:11, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”.
That this is the case is reinforced by the fact that the majority of the early church fathers believed that, when the Lord says to Peter in Matthew 16:18, “Upon this rock I will build my church”, He was referring to Peter’s declaration just made in verse 16, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”; He was not referring to Peter, the man.
It was Peter’s Christ-centred teaching, along with that of all the other apostles, which is the foundation of the New Testament Church. When the Lord speaks to Peter in Matthew 16:18, He is not in the least referring to any primacy of Peter over the other apostles, but of Peter’s special role as ONE of the apostles, who are all of equal status with each other. It is the apostolic teaching, along with all that the Old Testament prophets foretold of Christ, which is the true foundation of the Church (see Ephesians 2:20).
When the Lord says to Peter in Matthew 16:19, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”, Pastor Carson explained that the keys to the kingdom are not vested in Peter and his alleged successors, the popes, but the keys are the preaching the gospel as established and set forth by the apostles. It is on the basis of the acceptance of apostolic truth that men are accepted into Christ’s church. In that sense, all the apostles, not just Peter, hold the keys to the kingdom. “That the apostles as a group exercised this right … (to) determine who should be admitted and who must be refused admission (to Christ’s kingdom)…is clear from the entire book of Acts” .
Mr Scott-Pearson, the Secretary of the Protestant Alliance, spoke about the enormous debt owed to William Tyndale, who first translated the Bible into English from the original Hebrew and Greek, John Wycliffe’s previous English version (1382) only being a translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible.
Mr Scott-Pearson also focussed on the life and ministry of John Frith, who was martyred in 1533, being aged only 30. Frith particularly opposed the Roman Catholic doctrines of purgatory and transubstantiation. At one point Frith left England and went to the continent, where he helped Tyndale in his translation work, for Tyndale had had to flee from England precisely because of official hostility to the work in which he was engaged in of bringing God’s word to the English people in their own tongue. It was Sir Thomas More, the Chancellor of England, who would eventually condemn Frith to death. More had also written against Frith’s teachings on purgatory, being strongly opposed to the young Reformer’s Biblical emphases.
Pastor Simpson preached a simple gospel message which began in the following way :
“The Christian gospel is all about eternal life and eternal death. The great question that everyone has to consider is , What will happen to me when I die? You see, man is not just an evolved animal. He is not descended from the apes. Realise that you have an immortal spirit, and when the body dies, the spirit lives on, either in the place of eternal happiness or the place of eternal condemnation. We only have this life in which to make our peace with God. There are no second chances after death. You cannot go to hell and then come out of hell. There is no place called purgatory : “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). And there is a great urgency about responding to the Christian gospel to be saved form one’s sins. “Today, if ye will hear (God’s) voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:15).
Before the special martyrs memorial gathering began, Pastors Carson and Simpson mingled amongst a nearby crowd of people who were playing loud amplified music which would have made the giving of the addresses at the martyrs’ memorial impossible, had they not moved on after half an hour or so to avoid confrontation with the Police. Many of them belonged to a group called ‘Reclaim the Streets’, an environmental group which believes in “the community ownership of pubic spaces” and which desires the car on the public highway to take second place to the pedestrian. So they endeavour to ‘occupy’ busy streets for short periods of time to have social gatherings and parties, before the Police intervene because of the illegal obstruction which they are causing. However, knowingly to break the law in this way (traffic had to be diverted), even for a short period of time, is of course sinful in God’s sight.
Pastor Simpson offered people in the crowd a gospel leaflet, saying that he was a Christian minister and that the leaflet was an important Christian message. Some refused to accept the tract, but others were willing. Conversations were entered into where possible, with the pastor challenging one young man as to whether he was a good person or not. He said that he thought he was, and so he was immediately told that the Bible teaches that no one is essentially good, but all have hopelessly broken God’s commandments and need to come to Jesus Christ for mercy.
The minister also explained to another member of the crowd, when he made the same point about man’s lack of goodness, that even newborn babies come into the world with hearts which have a natural inclination to sin rather than holiness, and as the child begins to grow, he always has to be taught how to be good, never how to be bad, because an inclination to selfishness is already present in the child’s heart. This is the predicament of all men in their fallen state, a predicament which only the Lord Jesus Christ can reverse by giving to them, upon their repentance and faith, brand new hearts in the power of the Holy Spirit.
On a day when the 16th century martyrs for Biblical truth were particularly remembered, how appropriate it was to also engage in what is the essence of true Protestantism, namely proclaiming the sole authority of God’s word, taking this word to ordinary people in the streets, and explaining to them the sinner’s great need, along with the only solution of fleeing to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.