In 1523 William Tyndale asked the bishop of London for permission to translate the New Testament into English. The bishop said no. Tyndale realized the work would not be welcome anywhere in England, so he left. In 1525 in the city of Worms, his New Testament came off the press, the first translation from Greek into English. Copies were smuggled into England. Church and government leaders were furious, and they bought up copies to get them off the streets. Ironically, that money helped fund Tyndale’s next work. He was finally betrayed, and on October 6, 1536, he was executed. John Foxe said he cried out, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!” He did not curse his enemies. He prayed for them.
When Patrick was 16, Irish pirates raided his village in Britain and carried him off. He was sold as a slave and forced to herd pigs. There, in the filth, God began to change his heart. After six years he escaped and made it home. As far as he was concerned, he was done with Ireland. He wrote, “It is not in my nature to show divine mercy toward the very ones who once enslaved me.” Then God changed his heart again. Through a dream, Patrick believed God was calling him back. His friends were horrified. Around AD 432 he paid for a boat with his own money and sailed to Ireland to preach the gospel to the people who had enslaved him.
On March 4, 1865, with the Civil War nearly over, Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural address. Instead of gloating, he spoke of both sides humbly. He said both read the same Bible and prayed to the same God, and each invoked His aid against the other. He added, “let us judge not that we be not judged.” Then came his famous closing: “With malice toward none; with charity for all,” let us strive “to bind up the nation’s wounds.” A witness said the sun broke through the clouds as Lincoln stepped forward. Only weeks later, he was assassinated. Winning is not the goal. Healing is.
In 1947 Corrie ten Boom was speaking in a church in Munich about how God forgives and throws our sins into the deepest sea. Afterward a balding man in a gray overcoat worked his way toward her, and she recognized him. He had been a guard at Ravensbrück, the concentration camp where she and her sister Betsie had been sent for hiding Jews, and where Betsie died. He told her he had become a Christian and knew God had forgiven him, but he wanted to hear it from her lips too. He held out his hand. Corrie stood there, wrestling. She remembered Jesus’ words about forgiving, and prayed for help. Woodenly she thrust her hand into his, and she felt warmth flood through her. “I forgive you, brother!” she cried.
Jacob DeShazer was a bombardier in the Doolittle Raid of April 1942, the first American bombing of Japan after Pearl Harbor. His plane went down in enemy territory, and he spent 40 months as a prisoner, beaten, starved, and held in solitary confinement for 34 months. In the middle of that ordeal the prisoners were given a Bible to share. DeShazer came to faith, and he said God gave him new eyes, so that his bitter hatred for his guards turned into loving pity. After the war he earned a Bible degree, and in December 1948 he went back to Japan, this time as a missionary. A tract he wrote helped lead Mitsuo Fuchida, the man who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, to Christ.
