The Roman Church also persecuted those who opposed their false tyranny and were pleading for a restoration of the Word of God as the source of truth. John Huss, for example, thought that Catholicism was a corrupt institution that neglected scripture. He demonstrated his disgust with the perverse Church of Rome by hanging pictures of the popes in all their rich clothing next to images of the poverty-stricken Jesus. He believed that neither pope nor cardinal could establish doctrine that was contrary to the scriptures and that there was no obligation on the part of any Christian to obey an order which conflicted with the teachings of the Word of God. He was a fundamentalist. For this he would be called before the Inquisition. While there he would be questioned and the following happened:

As he was about to open his mouth to answer, all this mad herd began so to cry out upon him, that he had not leisure to speak one only word. The noise and trouble was so great and so vehement, that a man might have called it a bruit of wild beasts, and not of men, much less was it to be judged a congregation of men gathered together, to determine so grave and weighty matters. (1)

You see, the people who were crying out like brute beasts were not the crowds of common people, they were the religious leaders, the council of cardinals and bishops! For the stand he took, Huss would be burnt at the stake. Those who reject Christ have a way of becoming irrational, violent, and hateful in a flash. It has been shown to be true over and over in history. Yet the fundamentalist, that is, the one who trusts in, relies on, and honors the Bible as the inspired Word of God is loving, truthful, and courageous.

Fundamentalist Christians are the greatest heroes of history!

(1) John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (Pittsburgh, PA: Whitaker House, 1981), 110.