John Hus: A Pre Reformation Reformer

(This is told by John MacArthur in "Forty Years of Gospel Ministry." The humorous comment by R.C. Sproul at the end is priceless. )


"At the Ligonier Conference I talked about this and went back to John Hus. I think it was July 6, 1415 burned at the stake and there were basically three reasons they burned him...because he said the true church is made up of all predestined believers. That doesn't sound too revolutionary...Hus was in agreement with Wycliffe that all predestined believers are the church. This was unacceptable to them, absolutely unacceptable. The other big issue was that he said the pope was not the head of the church, and for that he was burned at the stake.

R.C. Sproul told me an interesting story, a little bit of history. When Hus was burned at the stake, you remember he was called "the Goose," he was from Husinec but he shortened it to Hus, the Goose. That is where we get the phrase "the goose was cooked." But when Hus was being martyred he made the statement that "you could kill me" something like this "but there will come another after me that you will not be able to silence." Well that was a hundred years later, exactly. That was Martin Luther. Martin Luther was rummaging around in a library and found a whole bunch of papers of Hus' sermons, and he found Hus to be a Pre Reformation Reformer who was dealing with the same doctrinal issues and even Hus came out strongly against indulgences. So Luther found a real partner, that's why some paintings of Luther you'll find a goose in the background because Hus was like a hero. Hus was sentenced to die by the Bishop of Council of Constance and he died in the flames singing psalms. One hundred years later Luther comes along, picks up his sermons, he's a hero, even adapts the idea of being a goose. Luther is the fulfillment, in a sense, of that prophecy "one will come after me that you will not be able to silence."

Curious note, R.C. Sproul told me: Luther was ordained at Erfurt and when you were ordained in those days you had to lay on the ground flat on the floor below the alter with your arms spread extended...in the sign of a cross. And Luther was lying there in that position when he was ordained and he was lying on a crypt and the crypt was the crypt of the Bishop of Constance who had condemned Hus to death. And R.C Sproul imagines that when Hus said, "You may silence me but there will come one after me you will not silence" that maybe the Bishop of Constance said, "Over my dead body."