FAMOUS CHRISTIAN PEOPLE THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Following is a list of famous Christian people. You may know the names well, but do you really know who they are? Where they are from? What they accomplished? Or why they are famous? It’s likely that you don’t know as much about them as you think they do. Famous Christian people are often only mentioned for a particular Christian accomplishment. But there is usually more to them than meets the eye.

Well, you will know a few of those things by the time you get finished reading here today. In fact, you may find yourself excited to explain the details about these famous Christian people to your friends and family.

John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe, born in 1330, is known to have produced some of the very first translations of the Bible into English, particularly the New Testament, making them available to as many people as possible. He was also a lay preacher, a philosopher, and a theologian as well as being a translator. He was a critic of the Catholic Church and most agree that he led the first movement that later became known as the Protestant Reformation.

Wycliffe studied at Oxford as a young man in the fields of natural science, theology and well as mathematics. His focus, however, sat primarily on theology and studying the Bible. He caught the attention of the Archbishop of Canterbury with his deep understanding of law and in 1365, he was appointed as the Canterbury Hall head.

Wycliffe preached in London, where he was very popular, and he had many followers who agreed very much with his view of Scripture. Along with the favoritism, however, he also gained a good many critics who did not agree. In fact, those who disagreed with his teachings attacked him right up until his death in 1384.

William Tyndale

Born in 1494 in England, William Tyndale began studying at Oxford University when he was only 12 years old. He achieved both a Bachelor’s of Arts as well as a Masters of Arts, and then went on to study his very favorite subject: Theology.

However, he disliked the fact that a person had to study for a great deal of time before they could move on to studying the Bible. Because of this, he created groups for the sole purpose of studying the Bible with those who felt the same way that he did.

While most people considered Tyndale to be a man of good character, he quickly gained the label of “unorthodox” as he started to translate the Bible into the English language. This was a radical religious move at the time, as the Catholic Church was deemed the translator of the Bible to the people.

After leaving Oxford, Tyndale went on to Cambridge where he became an acclaimed Greek professor. From there, he led a church in Little Sodbury, but went on to leave the country after attempting to translate the Bible into English.

He continued his translation efforts in Worms, Germany, where one of his translations was finally published. Eventually, copies of this Bible found their way back into England and along with his writings about the divorce of King Henry VIII, the King was driven to fury. He was eventually tried on heresy charges in Brussels, and convicted to be burnt at the stake. While his body was burned, he was concurrently strangled, but managed his last words: “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes!”

John Wesley

Born in 1703 in England, the son of a rector, Wesley had a very early introduction to a deep sense of religion in life. He was rescued from a rectory fire when he was five years old and he interpreted this as nothing less than the very grace of God. However, during his school years, he was continually bullied by other students, leaving him with a deep sense of traumitization.

In 1735, Wesley left England, bound for American where he and his brother were to become new parish ministers. It was on this trip that he was intrigued by the deep faith of the Moravian people who were fearless in the face of storms, which they encountered at sea. While others feared for their lives, these people were calm and joyful in praying and singing.

After experiencing a bad relationship with a woman who claimed that she and Wesley were to marry, he returned to England where he became a very well known Anglican preacher. One of the evangelists to whom he looked up to the most was George Whitfield. Whitfield was known to preach sermons outdoors, particularly seeking out those that did not affiliate with a church. Wesley soon followed suit, traveling the entire country, preaching wherever they allowed him to preach.

C.S. Lewis

Most anyone can tell you that Lewis was the famous author of The Chronicles of Narnia. However, he was also a Christian apologist as well as a leading essayist. He was born in 1898 in Belfast, Ireland to a protestant family bearing the name “Ulster”. His strong Irish roots led him to take a deep interest in the literature and myths surrounding the Celtic lifestyle.

In 1916, Lewis began his education at Oxford University under a scholarship where he earned three top degrees, known as a “triple first”. In 1917, he put his education on hold to serve in World War I with the British army. After the service, he did return to Oxford where he completed his degrees, after which he taught English there from 1925 until 1954.

Lewis admits that he lost his faith during his teen years, but became interested in the idea of God’s existence when he returned to Oxford after the war. He had become good friends with people such as J.R.R. Tolkien and was finally converted as a Christian in 1931.

His influence as a Christian apologist came with the Screwtape letters. While he did not write of any particular denomination, he said that he wanted to include those values shared by all Christians. He was forever an Anglican, however, and no matter how much his friends tried to convert him to Catholicism, that never happened.

Lewis’s death in 1963 was due to renal failure. He and John Fitzgerald Kennedy died on the same day.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
But to Your name be the glory
Because of Your love and your faithfulness!