Article #390
by Bill Nugent
Scholars define the Middle Ages (Medieval Times) as roughly the period from AD 400 to AD 1500. Additionally, they break this down into the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages. The Middle ages are called middle because the Middle ages are the center of the three periods of human history. These three periods are Classical Antiquity (ancient times to AD 400, the Middle Ages (400 – 1500), and the Modern Period (1500 – present).
The Church of medieval times was in a state of corruption and decline. This decline in the life of the church was caused by the syncretism (blending) of the Bible and the classical philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. The Bible warns us not to be deceived by worldly philosophy. In Colossians 2:8 it is written: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
The leaders of the early medieval church were educated in the pagan philosophy of Plato (427 BC-347 BC) and other philosophers that formed a philosophical system called neoplatonism. The Bible was seen through the lens of Plato. Neoplatonism dominated Europe for roughly 800 years, from the 300s to the 1100s.
In the 1100s, the writings of the other most famous classical philosopher, Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC), were rediscovered and brought to Western Europe. This was during the time of the Crusades, when the crusaders made contact with Muslims in the Middle East who had preserved the works of Aristotle.
Scholasticism
The syncretism of the Bible and Aristotle’s philosophy continued roughly from the 1100s to well into the 1700s in the universities. The blending of the Bible with ancient Greek philosophy is called scholasticism.
The blending of biblical Christian faith and Greek philosophy muddied the waters and concealed the plain biblical teaching on salvation and walking with God. The syncretism concealed the plain teaching of the scriptures which reveal that Christ is our Savior who died for our sins.
We receive the benefits of Christ’s work on the cross by faith and receive the gift of salvation. Once we receive the gift of salvation and are reborn and filled with the Holy Spirit, we can begin to do good works with love for all humanity.
Widespread Illiteracy
The Middle ages was also a time of almost universal illiteracy. Even the royalty were more often than not, totally illiterate. Only the clergy: the monks, priests, bishops, Cardinals and the Pope could read. Also, the writings that were available were only in Latin and Greek. The Bible and other literature was not in the languages of the people of the nations of Europe.
The clergy was also extremely powerful during this time. Kings trembled before bishops. Since a clerical career yielded wealth and power, all sorts of corrupt people were attracted to it. The priests, bishops and Cardinals were often evil men who lusted after wealth and political power.
Sacerdotalism: Salvation Mediated by Priests
Church doctrine reinforced the power of the clergy by what is known as sacerdotalism. Sacerdotalism is the teaching that there must be human mediators between Christ and the Christian people. These mediators were an ordained priesthood; the Catholic priesthood.
Also, there arose sacramentalism, which was the overemphasis on the sacraments, especially baptism and communion as the means by which people receive salvation. The sacraments could only be officiated by Catholic priests.
The medieval Church taught that salvation was obtained by good works. This is called pelagianism, named after the 4th century monk named Pelagius. Pelagius taught that salvation could be obtained by self-effort in doing Good works.
The Roman Catholic Church condemned pelagianism. Nevertheless, the actual teaching of the medieval church emphasized good works to such an extreme degree, it resulted in the de-emphasis and concealment of salvation (justification) by faith.
Christ earned our salvation by His death and resurrection. We receive salvation as a gift from Christ by faith (Romans 4:1-16).
Early English Translations of the Bible
In the late medieval period, there began to be some serious pushback. John Wycliffe (ca. 1328-1384), was a Catholic priest, scholastic philosopher, and Oxford University theology professor. He has been called the evening star of scholasticism and the morning star of the English Reformation.
Wycliffe was highly critical of the church and of the wealth and opulence of the clergy and that many of the clergy were living in sin. Most significantly, Wycliffe led the translation of the Old and New Testaments from the Latin Vulgate into the medieval English language. This was the first English translation.
Wycliffe and his followers were persecuted by church authorities. After Wycliffe’s death his followers were called Lollards and their faith was an early expression of Evangelical Christianity. Lollards were also persecuted.
More than a century later there arose William Tyndale (ca. 1494-1536). He was a leader in the Protestant Reformation. He was also the first to translate the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek languages in which the Bible was written, rather than from the Latin Vulgate.
King Henry the Eighth
Tyndale was seriously persecuted by England’s King Henry VIII and church authorities in England in the early 1500s. Tyndale fled to France and later Germany where he completed his translation of the New testament in 1526 in the city of Worms. He was eventually captured and executed.
Myles Coverdale (1488-1569) was a colleague of Tyndale and he finished the translation of Tyndale’s Bible. This is the Coverdale Bible, printed in 1535. By the late 1530s, during the Protestant Reformation, Henry VIII and the church authorities reversed their opposition to translation of the Bible into English. This led to Church of England Protestant scholars building on Coverdale’s work to produce the Great Bible of 1539. This was the first officially sanctioned Bible in English.
The Great Bible was approved by Henry VIII and contained a preface by Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury. Henry VIII, in 1538, commanded that the Bible be read in all the churches. Most of the people at the time were illiterate and had to have the Bible read to them. The Bible was publicly read day and night and even during church services. Pastors complained that the reading of the Bible partially drowned out their sermons.
When Queen Mary took the throne and ruled from 1553 to 1558 she persecuted the Protestants. She was a devout Roman Catholic. This drove the Protestant scholars out of England and they took sanctuary in Switzerland. They produced the Geneva Bible, published in 1560. This was the first Bible with numbered chapters and verses. It also contained detailed footnotes, annotations, introductions to books and maps. The Geneva Bible was the first study Bible.
When Protestant Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne, the Protestant scholars returned to England. Soon thereafter, The Bishop’s Bible, authorized by the Church of England, was published in 1568. In 1611, the King James Version was published. It is also called the Authorized Version.
So we see that in the medieval church, the Bible was suppressed and was available only in Latin and Greek and only to the favored few, which was the clergy, consisting of monks, priests, bishops and cardinals. They suppressed any attempt to translate the Bible into the vernacular, which is the language of the people.
The Bible was Read and Studied All Across Europe
During the Protestant Reformation the Bible was published, widely distributed and read by millions of people. The Bible was translated into German, Dutch and other languages of the common people. This was the first time in world history the Bible was available to all people across an entire continent.
This began to transform Western civilization. Protestant educators emphasized teaching all people to read. The Bible’s teaching on theology, salvation, morals, nature and civic virtue transformed European civilization. This was the beginning of the modern era.
The biblical worldview gives us the clear teaching that we cannot save ourselves by our own good works. This is repeatedly stated in the New testament. “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Romans 3:28 NASB).
In the Old Testament, in Isaiah 64:6, we read: “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (NASB). If our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment (compared to God’s holiness) how can such good deeds save us?
One thousand years of suppression of the Bible ended. The message of salvation went forth all across Europe and missionaries took the good news of eternal life to the ends of the earth.
The Beginnings of Modern Experimental Science
The Bible gives us the view of nature that nature is a creation of God. The Bible is against pantheism which is the teaching of eastern religions that claims God is infused throughout all of creation. God is separate from creation. He is superior and He is above all of nature.
God gives laws to man and God gives laws or governing principles to nature. It is in this frame of mind that we derive the regularity principle. The regularity principle is the claim that nature is uniform, consistent and guided by God’s physical laws.
The ancient Greek and Roman pagan philosophers believed nature was chaos. At first glance, nature does appear to be chaotic. You see jagged rocks and boulders, strewn all around. You see mountain ranges with jagged peaks. It all looks chaotic and jumbled together.
The ancient Greeks and Romans were brilliant architects who built fabulous buildings but they did no inductive experiments on nature. They didn’t have a scientific mindset or the scientific method which presupposes an orderly universe created by a rational, orderly God, the God of the Bible.
In early modern times, scientists, who at the time were called “natural philosophers,” did a closer examination of nature. They realized that we can do experiments on nature and the results of the experiments are consistent throughout all of nature. Water freezes at a certain temperature in the valley and also on the mountain top. Gravity affects an apple falling from a tree and gravity affects planets in the night sky according to the same consistent principles.
Early Modern Scientists Were Bible Believing Christians
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) formulated the scientific method. This led to stunning scientific breakthroughs in the 1600s. Almost all the fundamental breakthroughs of modern science occurred in the 1600s which was not coincidentally the century after the Protestant Reformation when the Bible was made available for the first time across the entire continent of Europe.
Robert Boyle (1627-1691) was a devout Puritan Christian who made the fundamental breakthroughs in the science of chemistry. He took chemistry from medieval alchemy to true modern, experimental chemistry. He was a devout Christian and he left provisions in his will for his fortune to be committed to funding a series of lectures titled “Defending the Faith.”
The Royal Society in England, founded 1660, was the world’s first scientific think tank. Its early membership was composed almost entirely of conservative Bible believing Christians.
Many scientists in our own time are devout Christians The extreme complexity of even the simplest living cells is so mind-boggling that they know there must be a super-intelligent Creator of all living things.
Our Creator Redeems Us
Everybody gets what they want. If you love and serve God in this life, you get to be with God in the afterlife. If you choose to reject God in this life you will be separated from God and separated from the goodness of God in the afterlife. Choose to be with God!
Our Creator is also our Redeemer. God the Father sent Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, the Messiah of Israel, to suffer and die taking the penalty of our sins upon Himself. This is called substitutionary atonement. God is the one who saves us through the work of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Old Testament prophets foretold that Christ would suffer and die for the sins of the people. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
The New Testament reveals that Jesus Christ fulfilled the ancient prophecies. Of Christ it is written: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (I Peter 2:24 NASB). “To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood” (Revelation 1:5 NASB).
God has great love for all humanity. The prophets foretold that Christ would rise from the dead to offer forgiveness of sins to all who turn to Him in repentance. I invite you to turn to Christ today to receive forgiveness of sins
(c) Copyright 2025 William (Bill) Nugent all rights reserved except permission granted to quote or republish for Christian outreach.
Steps to salvation:
Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Prayer to receive salvation:
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:
“Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!