Why Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and its influence?
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs was written by John Foxe. John Foxe wrote about the early Christian and Protestant martyrs, first published in 1563 by John Day. March 2013 marked 450 years since Foxe’s 1563 publications. Patrick Collinson (emeritus Regis’s Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge, occupied the chair from 1988 to 1996) confirmed that Foxe was indeed a worthy scholar and that his text was historiographically reliable in 1985, and set in motion the British Academy’s funding for a revised critical edition in 1984, completed by 2007.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxe%27s_Book_of_Martyrs#Foxe’s_source_reliability
The influence of Foxes Book of Martyrs has profoundly affected the teachings of the Doctrine of the OTW. Foxes book is brought into the teachings of the OTW by skilled teachers repeating the martyrs contributions to unlearned and understudied congregations. They used Foxes’ book as a weight and measure, making Foxes’ evidence for the doctrine of the resurrection much more credible.
It has been my experience that some preachers focus at least fifty percent of their sermons on the Foxes Martyrs when teaching the doctrine.
This is done to make their congregation feel awkward about asking any questions about the validity of the Doctrine of the OTW. How could anyone deny the truth of what Foxes Martyrs endured in the name of Jesus Christ? In accepting Foxes Book of Martyrs, surely the story of the resurrection of the OTW should also be accepted as truth?
The purpose of Foxes’ book is to connect the empathy of congregations with the resurrected saints of Matthew 27:52-53.
The purpose of this is to provoke a response related to Foxes and OTW martyrdoms. The shared martyrdom is used as a preponderance of evidence to support pre-resurrection for the OTW.
Through manipulated empathy, the OTW are granted an undeniable special pre-resurrection status based upon congregational emotional acceptance of these resurrected saints’ worthiness, taught by influential teachers of this traditional doctrine. Instead of using godly logic emotional response becomes a key factor of acceptance.
The Saints Arose 