John Knox and Lessons on Pastoral Training and Succession

In 2 Timothy 2:2, the Apostle Paul commands Timothy, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” Christianity is an ancient religion—the most ancient of all religions—and the Lord God has miraculously and supernaturally preserved the true Christian faith down through the millennia. But the propagation of this ancient religion has always depended upon faithful men knowing what they believe, knowing why they believe it, and then transmitting it to others through various means and methods.

Knox’s Desire to Raise Up Future Pastors

At the heart of every successful pastoral ministry, then, ought to be the desire to not simply grow the Kingdom of God numerically through evangelism, but also to spiritually mature Christians through discipleship. Both of these things—evangelism and discipleship—go hand in hand, and without both, the successful transmission of Christian truth down through the ages would be all but impossible.

These were some of the great concerns shared by the Protestant Reformers. Their grand desire was to see the true and unadulterated gospel permeate the lands in which they lived, to see countless souls saved and added to the Kingdom of Heaven, and to disciple those souls in such a way that they would be strong in their faith and able to transmit those doctrinal beliefs to others.

While John Calvin may be one of the most well-known when it comes to training other men to become elders and pastors, the Scottish Reformer John Knox also did a great deal of work to make sure he was entrusting the Christian faith to faithful men who would then teach others also.

When John Knox passed away on November 24th, 1572, his final words were, “Lord, grant true pastors to Thy kirk.”[1] After decades of patiently working to reform the Scottish nation, risking life and limb for the cause of the gospel, his final prayer was that the Lord would raise up more gospel ministers. 

The Transmission of Truth and Gospel Successors

Why was this so great a concern for Knox? Because he was born into an age in which having a genuine minister of the gospel was not a given. 

Today, many Christians take it for granted that there that the true gospel is being proclaimed all around, and true Christian teaching is easily accessible. True, there may still be many false churches, false teachers, and less than adequate doctrines making the rounds today, but there has been, over the past several decades, a true recovery of the gospel and the core tenets of the reformation. It is relatively simple—if one desires—to find podcasts, sermons, and books filled to the brim with biblical theology, gospel clarity, and doctrinal precision. But, during the lead up to the Protestant Reformation, it was nearly impossible to find such teachings. There were, of course, no podcasts or sermons to download, but there were also rarely ministers who knew how to preach, either. 

For men like Knox, the time in which they were born was a spiritual wasteland. To discover the gospel was akin to finding an oasis when death by dehydration was all but assured. To make sure that the gospel continued to be preached and offered to sinners was tantamount to making sure that others didn’t die in the wasteland. This absolutely required that Knox train other men to become shepherds of God’s Kirk.

The Expanse of the Kingdom and Preserving Doctrine

Thus, Knox’s final prayer was for more gospel ministers. To end one’s life with a prayer for the good of the church is not only encouraging to read, but the exact sort of attitude to which Christians ought to aspire. Knox was, if nothing else, a man who loved the Lord Jesus Christ and earnestly desired the gospel to spread far and wide. The good of the Church at large and the salvation of sinners absolutely depended on more faithful men being called into ministry. In fact, another of his famous prayers was, “Lord, give me Scotland or I die.”

Some may misinterpret such prayers as being the height of arrogance, as though the one praying must believe that they have some strange right to govern and rule over others. But Knox was not a man interested in ruling or governing, nor did he imagine himself to be greater than others. Rather, Knox’s prayer for Scotland was centered in a love for Christ and a love for his Scottish nation. His great desire was that, just as he had come to know the saving power of Jesus, so too would his fellow countrymen come to know Christ and the salvation He alone offers. 

Through coming to know Christ, Knox believed they would also begin to share in the great blessings of Christ, the joy of the doctrines of the Scottish reformation, and would thus leave behind the false doctrines and sinful teachings that had plagued the medieval church.

Knox understood, fundamentally, that the Great Commission is fulfilled and Christ’s Kingdom spreads when the unadulterated gospel is proclaimed and believed. The Kingdom only expands so far as doctrinal truth and clarity are preserved. 

Doctrine matters because, through it, God has revealed in the Scriptures who He is, who we are, and how we ought to live in light of these truths. But to spread the gospel and true, biblical doctrine, faithful witnesses must be trained up to teach others.

Knox’s Lesson for Christians Today

John Knox’s final prayer ought to act as a challenge for Christians today. As a pastor, I have a special interest in training up young men to become future elders in our church. As a Christian school administrator and principal, I have a special interest in training up our young people to know what they believe and why they believe it. And, as a Christian in general, I have a special interest in seeing the truth of God’s Word continually spread.

Knox’s prayers are both an encouragement and a challenge to us today because they remind us to ask the questions, “Who are we investing in? Who are we training up for the future?” 

Let us be sure that we are investing time in and entrusting truth to faithful men who will later teach others these same truths. Christianity is ancient because it is true, and it depends upon faithful transmitters. 

Jacob Tanner’s latest book is Resist Tyrants, Obey God: Lessons Learned from the Life and Times of John Knox, which releases this April through Founders Ministries. If you would like to help support him by pre-ordering a copy or sharing it with others, you can do so at this link.

[1] Kirk comes from the Old Norse word kirkja, which means church. The Scotts basically took Kirk as a loanword, whereas Church went through a number of linguistic changes in English.