Jenny Geddes Of Scotland

Have you ever heard of Jenny Geddes? Her story is worth remembering. If fact, it is one of my favorites from church history.

Before we get to Jenny, we need some background. Charles I became King of England and Scotland in 1625. He was strongly influenced by his Roman Catholic wife and his belief in the divine right of kings. So he continued the policies of his brother which included opposing the Puritan reformers and supporting the Catholics.

Along the way he developed a theological henchman he pushed up the ranks until he became the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. Charles I then had Laud write a new version of the Book of Common Prayer. This new version contained a liturgy built on the old Roman Mass.

Now we get to Jenny. She was a faithful member of the St. Giles Church. On July 23, 1637 the new prayer book was to be read from the pulpit at St. Giles. The membership was unaware of the plans to use this new prayer book.

Jenny came to church that day carrying her stool like many other members because the cathedral didn’t have pews. It came to the part of the service where they were seated on their stools as the prayer book was read. She heard what the minister was reading and she recognized it immediately as something different. In fact, it was a departure from the truth they believed and confessed.

Stephen Nichols describes what happened next. “She stood up, she grabbed her stool, and she hurled it. In fact, as the historical reports have it, she ‘chucked’ it and she chucked it right at the minister’s head as he was reading from the Book of Common Prayer.”

If that wasn’t enough, Jenny is reported to have shouted to the minister, “The devil cause you colic in the stomach false thief! Dare you speak the Mass in my ear.”

Now I ask you, wouldn’t you have loved to seen that? Wouldn’t you like to meet Jenny? What a sight! That was a church service to remember.

Let me be clear here. I am not supporting “chucking” items at speakers we don’t like or with whom we disagree. What I am supporting is her ability to recognize false teaching and her willingness to speak and act against it. Let me put it in the form of a couple questions: Do you know the truth of the Word of God so well that you can identify false teaching as soon as you hear it? Are you willing to speak against false teaching?

God considers this a serious matter. Note the words of Galatians 1:6-10, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

To paraphrase Paul’s words, there are “different” gospels being preached in our culture. They are really not Good News. They confuse people and distort the true gospel of Christ. You can recognize them because they want the approval of people more than the support of God’s Word. They serve their own desires and ends and pretend to serve Christ. Do you recognize these false gospels because you are so familiar with the gospel of Christ?

I close with the warning of Jude 17-21, ”But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said, ‘In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.’ These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in the most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” Let’s determine to follow the example of Jenny Geddes of Scotland.

Your elder,

Jim Gordon