“Make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions” (Daniel 6:7b).
Unlike Persian rule where Daniel was thrown to lions for his religious practice, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”
Thomas Jefferson provided background for these rights when he famously wrote: “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg….Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error.”
Since such freedom grants atheists the same legal standing as Christians, it’s tempting for believers to think we should have religious laws making it illegal to espouse Hinduism or deny the Trinity. God commanded the Jews to punish deviation from truth, so why shouldn’t we? When Jefferson argued atheism “does me no injury,” one might argue error is contagious, and its free promulgation might land many a soul in Hell. The alternative to such freedom, however, is instructive.
In sixteenth-century Geneva, Protestantism became law. Rulers required church attendance. Tribunals prohibited gambling and dancing. Preachers enforced orthodoxy as they understood it. Of course, Geneva was simply a Protestant version of many Catholic cities.
Such laws caused trouble for Michael Servetus. Born in Spain around 1511, he excelled academically in Spanish and French institutions. He immersed himself in medical studies, becoming the first European to understand the pulmonary circulation of blood.
Servetus emphasized Christianity. “Read the Bible a thousand times,” he said. But his studies led him to reject Christian thought. In 1531, he penned On the Errors of the Trinity, placing him in danger from both Catholics and Protestants. Corresponding with Geneva pastor John Calvin did no good. When the Reformer mailed him a copy of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Servetus penned insults in the margins and sent it back.
The doctor’s anti-Trinitarian writings forced him into hiding. He recalled: “For many years I lurked among strangers in sore grief of mind.” He hid because almost all organized religion thought “just as the amputation of a putrid member may save a body, so the stake may turn tares into wheat or may protect the wheat from the insidious scab.”
In April 1553, Catholics apprehended Servetus in Lyons, France. One morning at 4:00 a.m., dressed in robe and nightcap, the wily doctor requested access to the prison garden to tend to “necessities.” The jailor never suspected the inmate was fully dressed under his nightclothes. The Spaniard climbed a roof and escaped.
In August, Servetus reappeared in Geneva and was promptly arrested. Found guilty of heresy, authorities sentenced him to the stake. Calvin’s suggestion of beheading instead of burning was ignored.
October 27, 1553, they chained the heretic to a stake and bound his book to his arm. Placing a crown of straw on his head, they lit the fire. He cried out: “O Jesus, Son of the Eternal God, have pity on me!”
Had he been able to say, “O Jesus, Eternal Son of God,” they would have released him.
About the Columnist: Paul V. Harrison has pastored Madison FWB Church in Madison, Alabama since 2015. Previously, he pastored Cross Timbers FWB church in Nashville, Tennessee, for 22 years. He was an adjunct professor at Welch College for 17 years, teaching church history and Greek. Paul is the creator of Classic Sermon Index, a subscription-based online index of over 66,000 sermons, with clients including Harvard, Baylor, and Vanderbilt, among others: classicsermonindex.com.
