[Zwingli] announced that henceforth he would no longer restrict himself to the prescribed biblical passages selected to be read for each Sunday of the year, but instead would preach on the entire gospel of Matthew from cover to cover with the Greek text in front of him upon the pulpit. The modern generation can scarcely reconstruct the excitement which such an announcement produced. A young humanist was in Zwingli’s audience, Thomas Platter by name, who has left us a most charming autobiography. So great was his ardor for the ancient tongues that he supported himself through manual labor by day and at night studied with sand in his mouth, that the gritting against his teeth might keep him awake. This lad, so passionately eager to master the wisdom of the ages, when he heard from the pulpit the complete, unadulterated Word of God, for so many centuries withheld from the people, declared that he felt as if he were being pulled up by the hair of his head. (The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, Roland H. Bainton, 82-3)
Alpha and Omega Ministries is a Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. James White, director, is a professor, having taught Greek, Systematic Theology, and various topics in the field of apologetics for numerous schools.
