In 1536, as William Tyndale was strangled and then burnt at the stake, his last reported words were, “O Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes!” Tyndale’s crime? Translating the Bible into English and then smuggling the printed texts back into England. But why was Tyndale’s translation so revolutionary?

Matthew 16:18 reads, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (NKJV). The New Testament word for “church” is ekklesia. In the Bible, ekklesia never refers to a physical building, but to an assembly of people gathered for a specific purpose. Before the Emperor Constantine’s conversion (A.D. 312), Christians met locally in house-churches for fellowship, worship and prayer. After A.D. 312, pagan notions of worship infiltrated Christianity. As a result, the ekklesia ceased to be a dynamic body of believers in Jesus Christ, and the focus switched to physical locations. Contemporary Germanic cultures used the word kirika for such temples/churches, which became kirche in modern German.

Today, we derive the word “church” from kirche. In Matthew 16:18, most English-language Bibles translate ekklesia as “church.” However, this is a poor substitution for the Greek! A kirche is a physical location, but an ekklesia is a gathering of people with a common purpose. You can lock the kirche doors, but you can’t lock down the ekklesia of Jesus Christ!

This is one example of why Tyndale’s translation was truly revolutionary. Not only did he translate the Bible into the common vernacular, but his translation of Matthew 16:18 reads: “And I saye also vnto the that thou arte Peter: and apon this rocke I wyll bylde my congregacion. And the gates of hell shall not prevayle ageynst it.” Tyndale translated ekklesia as “congregation” rather than “church.” In his revolutionary translation, he echoed the Holy Spirit’s care for God’s people as a movement of believers, and God’s love for multiplying disciples rather than edifices.

Today, Tyndale’s revolutionary translation forces all God’s people to ask ourselves some uncomfortable questions:

Are we moving, or are we merely meeting?

Are we really organized around the Gospel Commission’s imperative to proclaim the Gospel to every nation, tribe, language and people?

Are we allocating our resources as if Jesus really is the only hope and Savior of our world, or are we just greasing the squeakiest wheels of an institutionalized church culture?

Do we focus on beautifying our local churches or on the spiritual needs of the unreached?

Are we truly ekklesia or have we settled for kirche?

At AFM, our mission is not to build physical church buildings, but to establish indigenous lay-led church-planting movements. In that sense, we continue Tyndale’s revolution. And in our troubled world, Jesus’ promise that “the gates of Hades will not prevail” against His ekklesia is a true comfort! So, to all the AFM family worldwide, thank you for being revolutionaries for Jesus Christ!

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