The Third Man Program No SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW

Transcription

1 It Is Written Script: 1372 The Third Man Page 1 The Third Man Program No SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW This is It Is Written. I m John Bradshaw. Thanks for joining me. He s been called the leader of the Swiss Reformation. Which is quite a title to bestow upon somebody, considering the Swiss Reformation influenced the world. He was born on New Year s Day in Now, that s just a few weeks after the birth of Martin Luther. And he was born in the village of Wildhaus, a stunningly picturesque alpine village in the northeast of Switzerland, over near the border with Lichtenstein. Earlier this morning I came here from Geneva, the city influenced by William Farel and John Calvin. I ve come to Zurich. This is the city set on fire for the reformation by Huldrych Zwingli. The Huldrych Zwingli story had to be a remarkable story. John Calvin influenced religious thought to the extent that today there s a branch of theological understanding named after him, Calvinism. There s no Zwinglianism today. But this man was called the third man of the Reformation, Martin Luther and John Calvin being the other two. Now, that s heady company. So who was Huldrych Zwingli and why is what he did hundreds of years ago important to us today? When Zwingli lived in Zurich, he was one of about six or seven thousand people who lived here. And what brought him here was really interesting. He was a bright child, so bright that his father sent him away from that picturesque little village to attend a prestigious school in Bairn. In fact, it was one of the most prestigious schools in all of Switzerland. This boy was a capable writer, a good speaker, and an excellent musician, and so in that school he attracted some unwanted attention. The monks wanted to get hold of him and put him in a monastery. Now, when his father found out, he was appalled. He considered the monks to be worthless, good for nothing, and idle. No son of his was ever going to become a monk. So Dad sent for Huldrych, retrieved him, and brought him home. But before long he was gone again, this time to study in Basal. It was while he was studying in Basel that a teacher who had read the Bible suggested to him that it was the death of Jesus that was the sinner s only hope. Now, this started a change in Zwingli that would change him and result in changing the world.

2 It Is Written Script: 1372 The Third Man Page 2 From Basel he was called to minister as a priest in a small alpine village near his childhood home. And then from there he was called to Einsiedeln, notable then as it is now as being the home of the Black Madonna. In Zwingli s day, thousands of pilgrims every year would come to Einsiedeln to venerate that image. They had been told that by coming to the shrine they could receive a plenary indulgence for sins. Now, this bothered Zwingli no end when he saw how people related to the image of the Black Madonna. Now, if you re wondering what that is, I ll tell you. An indulgence is the extrasacramental remission of the temporal punishment due in God s justice to sin that has been forgiven, which remission is granted by the church in the exercise of the power of the keys through the application of the superabundant merits of Christ and of the saints, and for some just and reasonable motive. A plenary indulgence is the remission of the entire temporal punishment due to sin, so that no further expiation is required in Purgatory. Now, will you find that in the Bible? No, you won t. But by now Zwingli had been studying the Bible. And the more he studied the Bible, the more he saw the clear distinction between the light of the Bible and the errors and the heresies of his church. He began to see the Bible as the only infallible guide, and he wasn t afraid to say so. He saw the people trafficking in indulgences, and he declared that indulgences were nothing more than superstition. He declared to the people, Can unprofitable works, long pilgrimages, offerings, images, the invocation of the virgin and the saints, secure for you the grace of God? Of course, there were some people who were not happy to be told that their long journey to Einsiedeln was all for nothing. And there were more than a few who couldn t understand what he could possibly mean, that salvation could come by grace, freely, as a gift from God. For some people it was easier to listen to a priest and trust to a pope than to receive salvation freely from Jesus. Now, his church wasn t very impressed with what he was doing. They had a choice: kick him out and deal with the trouble that that would cause, or hold him in as part of the fold and work with him over time. They chose option B, which gave Huldrych Zwingli more time to let the light of the Word of God shine. That light began to shine brightly, but letting that light shine would ultimately cost him his life. I ll have more in just a moment. EVERY WORD One of the biggest headaches the Apostle Paul encountered was dealing with people who promoted ideas that they thought were important but were really nothing more than

3 It Is Written Script: 1372 The Third Man Page 3 tradition. Traditions can be good. Celebrating the fourth of July for your national holiday, for example. Brides wear white. Your annual summer vacation at the beach. Traditions. But in Christianity some traditions aren t so good, when they run counter to God s will. Here s what Paul wrote in Colossians 2:8: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ NKJV. Why do you do what you do? Is it because of what the Bible says, or is it simply a tradition? If your religious traditions contradict the Bible, then you ve got some real problems. Let s live today by Every Word. RETURN TO PROGRAM This is It Is Written. I m John Bradshaw. Thanks for joining me today in Zurich, Switzerland. It was from here that the world was profoundly influenced by a man that the world has largely forgotten. This man said, The Word of God cannot fail. It is bright. It teaches itself, it discloses itself. It illumines the soul with all salvation and grace, comforts it in God, humbles it so that it loses and even forfeits itself and embraces God. If you re accustomed to the Bible being always available, and if you re familiar with the thought of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, this might not seem to you to be a big deal. But in Europe in those days there was essentially only one church, and it s taught that salvation came through the church. It taught that there was benefit in pilgrimages, in giving offerings, in bowing before images. The people who accepted these teachings were held by them. Huldrych Zwingli wanted people to be liberated to know God for themselves. In 1518 or 1519, Zwingli came here to Zurich, Switzerland to work as a priest. Zurich has changed just a little bit since Zwingli s day. There have been people living here for 2,000 years, and today there are 1.8 million people in metropolitan Zurich. Zurich is the wealthiest city in Europe. It s often described as having the best quality of life in the world, and much of what you ve heard about Swiss banks--zurich. It s a beautiful city, an expensive city, a city rich in culture and big in sport. Soccer s governing body, FIFA, has its headquarters here. And Zurich is a city that was one of the most important centers of the Protestant reformation. While what happens in Zurich today affects the economies of the world. What happened here 500 years ago shook history Now, there s no need to think that Huldrych Zwingli was a man who didn t have any faults. His detractors would have had no difficulty finding some faults to point to. As a young priest, he had relationships that didn t really mesh with the church s expectations

4 It Is Written Script: 1372 The Third Man Page 4 when it came to the conduct of priests. In fact, he and a number of others petitioned the bishop to allow priests to marry. Interestingly, the bishop had plenty of incentive to refuse the request. You see, back in Zwingli s day, if a priest wanted to keep a mistress, he could as long as he paid a sum of money to the bishop. If that mistress were to have a baby, no problem, as long as that same sum of money was paid again to the bishop. When immorality is a cottage industry, there s really very little incentive to get rid of it. Theologically, he had his issues too. He believed strongly in infant baptism, and he disputed hotly with anybody who would disagree with him. There was a debate held on the subject in Zurich and it was decided that anybody who refused to have their infants baptized should be kicked out of town. Later, the town council upped the ante a little bit. A law was passed that stated that anyone refusing to have their infants baptized, or anybody who would baptize an adult, should be put to death. Some Anabaptists came to town and they disregarded that law. A man named Felix Manz baptized adults. He was arrested, he was put on trial, and he was sentenced to death. Sentenced to death for baptizing somebody by immersion. Well, then they had to decide what penalty to levy against him, or at least how to carry out the death sentence. Back in those good ol days, people normally were sentenced to death by being burned at the stake. But they said for Manz, something different; because his crime involved baptizing by immersion, they decided that he would be bound hand and foot, put in a boat, taken out here in Lake Zurich, and drowned. But in general Zwingli stood very much on the Bible. And in an era when the Bible was ignored, that s significant. Instead of preaching the mass, Zwingli began preaching from the Bible, taking Bible passages and proclaiming them and applying Bible truths to the lives of the people. He experienced a deeper conversion, and not long after coming to the Grossmunster cathedral, it was filled to overflowing with crowds of people who came out to hear of the saving grace of God. And the church leadership wasn t happy. People were regularly burned at the stake for following the Bible rather than the church. It was about this time that Luther appeared at the Diet of Worms, and it was only the providence of God that got him out of there alive. The Bishop of Constance sent deputies to Zurich to order Zwingli to stop preaching the Bible. They said he was teaching people to disobey the church, and was therefore endangering society. Zwingli was able to point to the effect that the teaching had on the lives of people who heard him, saying that Christianity is the best safeguard of general security.

5 It Is Written Script: 1372 The Third Man Page 5 He was a man who wasn t easily scared. He said he feared the representatives of the bishop as much as a cliff fears the waves that crash at its feet. He was a brave man, Zwingli. In 1520 the Plague struck Zurich while he was away on vacation. But instead of staying away, he returned to Zurich to do what he could to help administer. One in four people in Zurich--some say as many as one in three--died from the plague. Zwingli got sick himself and came close to death. But he survived. God s hand was over this servant who still had so much left to do. Now, you d think, wouldn t you, that with Luther and Zwingli being contemporaries, with them both believing in the Bible, both of them refugees from a broken system, both men loving God, you d think that because they had all this in common, that because really they were in the crosshairs of the most powerful church on the planet, you d think that Zwingli and Luther would get on like a house on fire. Well, if you thought that, you d be wrong. And what was the interesting event that started the Reformation in Switzerland, and what did it have to do with sausages? Zurich, Switzerland is the beautiful city where Protestant reformer Huldrych Zwingli ministered in the early 16th century. Called here to serve as a priest, he led the congregations at this cathedral, the Grossmunster. People came here and heard him lift up the Bible. And people had never heard such things before. This was light shining in the darkness. But what got the Reformation started in Switzerland in the first place is interesting. Many say it was the affair of the sausages. The church taught at that time that meat should not be eaten during Lent. Now, Lent is a period of about six weeks leading up to Easter. And there were many churches that maintained that people should fast during Lent. Well, at that time, Zwingli s church, also his employer, the Roman Catholic church, was firm. No meat during Lent. Well, during one Lenten period, Zwingli was invited to the home of a printer in Zurich named Froschauer for a sausage supper. There were a number of people at Froschauer s home, Zwingli among them. Zwingli didn t eat any of the forbidden sausages, but Froschauer did. And when Froschauer was arrested, arrested for eating sausages, Zwingli defended him. Well, there you have it. The battle was now on. And all because of a sausage. Now, you d think that Zwingli and Luther would have been each other s biggest supporters, Luther in German, Zwingli in Switzerland. Zurich and Wittenberg or about 450 miles apart. And the two first met in October of Both men were almost 36 years old, and they met at a council called by a German prince who was a strong supporter of the Reformation. Philip was hopeful that Zwingli and Luther could iron out their theological differences. And for the most part the two reformists found that they were in total harmony with each other, even though they

6 It Is Written Script: 1372 The Third Man Page 6 developed in their understanding of the Bible independent of each other. They were taught by the best teacher of all, the Holy Spirit. Martin Luther had sounded his opposition to indulgences. So too had Zwingli. In fact, before Luther had. Both men believed in salvation by grace through faith, and not through the church. The Bible says that in Ephesians 2, verse 8: For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God KJV. Both men believed faith in God didn t require sacraments such as those offered by the church. Jesus said, Whoever comes to me, I will by no means cast out (John 6:37). Hebrews says we should come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Both men believed faith in God would be revealed in a changed life. Paul wrote to Titus that God s grace teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world (Titus 2:12). Both men agreed the Bible was to be the foundation of a believer s faith. Paul wrote that all scripture is given by inspiration of God (II Timothy 3:16). Both men agreed that priests should be allowed to marry. If you believe the Bible, you find no prohibition against that of any kind. In the Old Testament, the priests were allowed to marry. God said, It s good that the man should not be alone. In fact, the only place you find priests being forbidden to marry is paganism. Both men believed confession of sins should not be made to a priest, but should be made directly to God. The Bible says there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (I Timothy 2:5). Both men rejected the concept of the mass as a sacrifice. But when they came to the council at Hesse, it was discovered that the men had one major disagreement. In fact, this was an insurmountable obstacle for them. They disagreed over the communion service. Luther taught that the bread and the wine used in the communion service were the actual body and the actual blood of Jesus. Zwingli took the more biblical position, that the bread and the wine or the juice are merely representative of or symbols of Jesus body and Jesus blood. It seems there was no way the two men could find common ground on this subject no matter how hard anybody tried. Luther came to the place that he felt that Zwingli was a fanatic. You see, Luther believed that whatever wasn t forbidden in Scripture was allowed. Zwingli thought Luther wasn t taking the Reformation far enough. Zwingli believed that whatever was not expressly commanded in Scripture shouldn t be tolerated. Now, really, it s no surprise that these men would have disagreements. It had only been about this long since both men had come out of a life entirely without the Bible. So if

7 It Is Written Script: 1372 The Third Man Page 7 one or the other or both should be wrong about something, we shouldn t be surprised at all. Zwingli tried to be kind toward Luther. It seems Zwingli was more kind than Luther could manage to be. When news came to Luther that Zwingli had died out on a battlefield, all Luther was able to say was, Those who take the sword shall die by the sword. There was no love lost there. Well, let s consider Zwingli. He was a giant because he brought light at a time people didn t have the light. He insisted people could know Jesus personally, that they could find forgiveness personally, and that the church shouldn t control a person s conscience. Perfect? No, he wasn t perfect. But God uses imperfect people, like Peter, and James and John, who were so imperfect Jesus referred to them as the Sons of Thunder. In 1529 a Protestant missionary was burned at the stake for preaching the gospel in a Catholic canton. In retaliation, Zurich boycotted that canton. But then in 1531 war broke out, and at Kappel 8,000 Catholic soldiers warred against 1,500 Protestant soldiers. The result was really never in question, and Huldrych Zwingli was among those who lost their lives that day a life that began here in beautiful Wildhaus in the Togganburg Valley. I don t know if the cows then wore bells around their necks as they do now, but if you could hear what I hear now, you d hear the sound of cow bells all around. It s still a beautiful, scenic, pristine place. In Zwingli s day it had to have been even more so. It was here that a life began, that went on to change the world and still affects you and me today. OFFER I hope you'll get the book I'm offering you this week. It's called "Revelation Today." It unfolds the end times scenario presented in the book of Revelation. It untangles the end times prophetic scenario to let you see how the battle between good and evil ultimately plays out. Just call or write, and I'll send you "Revelation Today." There's no cost, no obligation. It's absolutely free. All you need to do is call , and ask for "Revelation Today." You can call 24 hours a day. If the line s busy, please, just keep on trying. You can also request your free copy of "Revelation Today" by writing to It Is Written, P O Box 6, Chattanooga, TN 37401, and we'll mail a copy to your address in North America. To get it right away you can download a free electronic version of the book "Revelation Today" form our website ItIsWritten.com. Now, It Is Written is a faithbased ministry made possible by viewers like you. Thank you so much for your kind support. Your help makes it possible for us to share God s good news with the world. Your tax deductible gift can be sent to the address on your screen, or you can support us online at ItIsWritten.com. Thank you for your continued gracious support. Our toll-free number is , and our web address is ItIsWritten.com. PRAYER Let s pray together. Our Father in heaven, how good you are to send light into this world. You raised up people like Huldrych Zwingli for a purpose: to advance the light of

8 It Is Written Script: 1372 The Third Man Page 8 truth, to take the Gospel to people in desperate need of the light of heaven. And I thank you today that you are still in the business of reaching the hearts of men and women with your good news. And Father, I want to pray now for that man, that woman, that young person who is reaching out to You. He or she who knows in his or her heart that what is needed in that individual s life is Jesus Christ. Friend, I want to encourage you, if you ve not accepted Jesus as your Savior, or if you ve been half-hearted in your relationship with Christ, reach out to God now, and know that He accepts you and pledges through Jesus to save you and give you everlasting life. Now, Father in heaven, I thank You that You offer us eternity, and that before eternity arrives, eternity can begin in our hearts, while we live our lives connected to You. We thank You for that Christ-centered life, that life that leans on Jesus. Give us grace to live that life, and in this life live with joy and hope and confidence for now and for the future, for an eternal future. We thank You that Your Spirit has caused light to shine in the dark. Let Your light shine in our hearts now and always, I pray and thank You in Jesus name. Amen. It Is Written PO Box 6, Chattanooga, TN USA Tel: Fax: