Ulrich Zwingli and the Reformation in Switzerland. We're heading to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation launch from Zurich by Ulrich Zwingli on the 1st of January 1519. So we're approaching this and there's going to be a major conference church council in Zurich this coming year to mark that. Based around the solace of the Reformation, scripture alone is the ultimate authority, salvation is by faith alone, it's by grace alone, received by faith alone. Ulrich Zwingli, the reformer of Zurich, ran a parallel Reformation to that of Martin Luther in Germany. And so he's the father of the Swiss Reformation. And he was born and raised in the Alps. Ulrich Zwingli is one of the most colorful and audacious characters in Swiss history. He was a devout student of scripture. Ulrich Zwingli was transformed and shaped by the Word of God. He has been described as an amazing combination of intellect, passion, and wit. This is Wilthaus. That's where he was born, on the slopes of the mountain. Born at an altitude of 3,600 feet or 1,100 meters, Now, MacLear's beacon is just over a thousand meters. And this is what the Swiss call the foothills of the Alps. That's what it looks like in winter. This is what his house looks like in summer. I've been there. Amazing thing. A man was born in this very house over 500 years ago and the building still stands. I mean, what a tribute to workmanship. Ulrich Wengli studied in Bern, in Basel and Vienna. In 1506 he received his master's in theology degree. As a pastor in Glarus, Zwingli served as a chaplain with Swiss mercenary soldiers fighting in Italy. The Swiss regularly hired out the men to fight for foreign powers. At that time the Swiss generally believed that the national economy depended upon the war industry. They felt like we've got nothing much to export, we're an agricultural society, we need our riches by fighting. And so they sent the young men out to fight. During the Italian campaign, Ulrich Zwingli saw 6,000 Swiss youths die at the Battle of Maragon in the service of the Pope. He returned home convinced that selling blood for gold was not only a waste of young manhood through senseless violence, but that it was also corrupting men's souls through avarice, pride and greed. He observed that the entire country was deteriorating spiritually and morally under the lure of gold from foreign princes, that they're willing to send the youngsters off to fight and die for cause that had nothing to do with them. Zwingli spoke out boldly. This situation is very serious, he said. We are already contaminated. Religion is in danger of ceasing amongst us. We despise God. Zwingli's outspoken preaching against his lucrative profession cost him his pulpit and glories. He was forced out of glories and he was able to secure a pastoral position at Einseln. where he continued to preach against mercenary service. When Erasmus' New Testament in Greek appeared in 1516 Ulrich Zwingli immediately purchased a copy of the Greek New Testament. Zwingli taught himself Hebrew and Greek and he wrote out and memorized Paul's epistle in the Greek New Testament. He carried around his little pocket edition with him, that's in Greek, that is the Greek New Testament, memorizing much of the New Testament in Greek and later in German. Zwingli was shocked to find that there was a world of difference between the teachings of the Bible and the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. This is where the Reformation was launched from, Grossmunster or the Great Cathedral in Zurich. When Ulrich Zwingli was appointed pastor at Grossmonster, the great cathedral in Zurich, he began his duties on his birthday, 1st of January. It was 1519, and he began his duties by preaching through the Gospel of Matthew. Starting in Matthew 1, verse 1, he systematically expounded verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through every book of the New Testament. This marked the beginning of expository preaching. is not my word like a fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. Here you can see Zwingli's pulpit in Grossmünster, that's the great cathedral. And that's his pulpit. This bold action of replacing the mass with the preaching of the word as the central focus of church services marked the beginning of expository preaching. No longer was the mass, the sacrifice, the center of the church, but now it's the preaching and teaching and expounding of God's word. Shortly after he became the pastor in Zurich, the city was hit by the plague, the bubonic plague. Zwingli showed great courage by giving no thought to his own safety, but he stayed in Zurich and he ministered selflessly to the highly contagious victims. Now, bearing in mind one in three people died from the plague, so this is absolutely terrifying. Most people then didn't know what caused it. It was actually rats carrying the lice from China that spread the plague, which killed one-third of all of Europe. Some cities as much as two-thirds. He himself was soon struck down with the plague and he nearly died. While in a grip of this debilitating illness, Ulrich Zwingli wrote The Song of the Plague, in which he shows a vibrant faith in the all-sufficiency of God's grace in Christ Jesus. Help me, O Lord, my strength and rock. Low at the door I hear death's knock. Uplift thine arm, once pierced for me, that conquered death and set me free. Yet if thy voice in life's midday recalls my soul, then I obey. In faith and hope, earth, I resign, Secure of heaven, for I am thine. My pains increase, haste to console, For fear and woe seize body and soul. Death is at hand, my senses fail, My tongue is dumb, now Christ prevail. Lo, Satan strains to snatch his prey, I feel his grasp, must I give way? He harms me not, I feel no loss, For here I lie, beneath thy cross. My God, my Lord, here by thy hand upon the earth once more I stand. Let sin no more rule over me. My mouth shall sing alone to thee. Ulrich Zwingli recovered from this ordeal. His faith deepened and matured and his mind resolute. He called the people to return to the Bible as the sole standard of faith and practice. To recognize Christ as the only true head of the church. It's not tradition. It's the Bible. It's not the Pope and the Cardinals. It's Christ. Zwingli attacked one Roman doctrine after another. He attacked unbelief, superstition and hypocrisy. Eagley strove after repentance, applying Christ's lordship to all areas of life in Christian love and faith. Christ suffered for the expiation of our sins by the most ignoble and sordid punishment, that he might leave no depth of humiliation untried and unsounded. Unless we repent, unless we are disgusted with ourselves, unless we are shamed of ourselves, Christ does not become saving and valuable to us. Until we've understood the bad news of human depravity, we're not ready to know the good news of the grace of God. Until we recognize that we are hell-deserving sinners, we're not ready to hear the way of salvation. Christ, having sacrificed himself once, is to eternity a certain and valid sacrifice for all the sins of all the faithful. Our confidence in Christ does not make us lazy, negligent or careless, but on the contrary, it awakens us, it urges us on, it makes us active in living righteous lives and doing good. There's no self-confidence to compare with this. We need God-confidence, we need Christ-confidence. We mustn't be self-centered, we must be Christ-centered. The Christian life then is a battle, so sharp, so full of danger that effort can nowhere be relaxed without loss. Every day is a spiritual battle. We cannot afford to let down our guard. I beseech Christ for this one thing only, that he will enable me to endure all things courageously, and that he break me as a potter's vessel. I remember a chorus that was very popular when I was converted in the 70s. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. I remember singing it quite carelessly and later on realizing what I was singing was actually not an easy thing to go through. It's one thing to sing it, it's another thing to experience it. But Ulrich Zwingli asked for the Lord to break him as a potter's vessel. He emphasized the need to care for widows and orphans, protect widows and orphans, to maintain law, to uphold justice. Ulrich Zwingli also was concerned that our personal Christian faith and love must result in social justice, in justice established by the laws of the community. At the heart of the Swiss Reformation was a dynamic sense of Christian community. We are God's family on earth. The church is a genuine community, one in body and spirit, having the grace of Christ in common and bearing the fruit of the spirit and the fruit of Christ and the spirit of God. And so this is not just head knowledge. This is heart knowledge. It's a real experience. This unity must extend beyond the matters of the spirit to social concern for the entire community. If you love God and you love your neighbor, this has to result in action. As Wingly systematically preached through the New Testament, he laid the foundations for the Reformation in Switzerland. In 1523, the City Council of Zurich voted to become Protestant. At the first Zurich Disputation in 1523, the City Council and 600 citizens convened in the City Hall to observe a debate between Ulrich Swingli, their pastor, and four delegates from the Bishop of Constance over whom they were meant to be under his authority, Catholic-wise. At this gathering, the city formally adopted the Reformation and encouraged Ulrich Zwingli, continue with your reforms. Zwingli's 67th thesis, you've all heard of the 95th thesis of Martin Luther, but less people have heard of the 67th thesis of Ulrich Zwingli. He made them public at the first Zurich Disputation, 29th of January, 1523. Of the third thesis, Christ is the only way to salvation for all who ever were, are, or shall be. For the Old Testament saints, they had to look forward in faith to the coming Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We need to look back, but there's one provision for salvation for all ages. Christ on the cross, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 19, Christ is the only mediator between God and ourselves. Not Mary, not the saints, not the churches or the priests, popes, cardinals, Christ and Christ alone. 42. If ministers are unfaithful and transgress the laws of God, they may be deposed in accordance with God's will. All authority is limited authority. All authority is delegated authority. And so the pope, bishops, priests, cardinals, they have no authority except insofar as they are in submission to God and in obedience to his word. And therefore if they violate any of the key principles, they can be deposed. If they are false teachers, false shepherds, false preachers, they should not be submitted to. 56. Whoever remits any sin only for the sake of money is a companion of Simon Magnus. The one who tried to buy the power, the spiritual power from the Apostle Peter. When he saw how Peter could lay hands on people and they'd be filled with the Holy Spirit, he says, give me this power and he offered money. And the Apostle Peter responded and said, may your money be cursed with you. May you burn in hell for this. You cannot buy or sell the graces and gifts of God. And Balaam, who of course was willing to, for money, put a curse on God's people. If anyone remits sin only for the sake of money is a real messenger of the devil. So these people who want to take money for indulgences to supposedly set people free from purgatory or hell. They are a messenger of the devil. The whole 6-7 theses have been published at different times. Diethelm Rust, the mayor of Zurich from 1524 to 1544, that's a long time, 20 years mayor, he became the chief supporter of Zwingli's reformation in Zurich. Without Rust's support and protection, it's unlikely that Zwingli's reformation would have succeeded. If you think that Martin Luther had the protection of Duke Frederick the Wise, the Prince of Saxony protected him, and later his brother, and that's critical because if you don't have the protection of a political leader then the reformers are going to end up like Huss burned at the stake at Constance like Savonarola, Burnden, Florence. If it wasn't for the protection that Professor Wycliffe had in England from Queen Anne and from John of Gort, then he would have also died a violent death instead of a natural death. And so time and again you can see the importance that while you've got the minister of grace in the church, you've got the minister of justice in the state, they're both under God and they've got separate spheres but there should be a protection for the minister of justice and there should be spiritual support, counsel and guidance for the minister of grace. We're meant to work like parallel tracks on a railway line. You don't exactly meet but you're going in the same direction or should be. Ulrich Zwingli was a patriotic Swiss Republican. He was able to create an entirely new Switzerland without any compromise with old and biblical customs, and free from all foreign bondage and interference, which is quite remarkable. His reformation is a very unique one. And it's worth noting that Zwingli was a Republican, belonged to a city-state, as opposed to Martin Luther who was a monarchist living in a kingdom. And so there's a difference in mindset again between the Swiss Reformation and the German Reformation in Saxony, or the one in England for that matter. With the support of the City Council, Ulrich Zwingli launched a comprehensive program of reform on all areas of life, body, mind and spirit. The City Council of Zurich put an end to mercenary service. A lot better things the youngsters could do than go and fight and die for the Pope or France or Italy. All images, statues and relics were removed. Crucifixes out, everything that looked and smacked of idolatry was removed from the buildings. The Mass was abolished. Christ has died once for all, never to be repeated sacrifice. We cannot re-sacrifice Christ at the Mass. out to the mass, out, and so they stripped the great cathedral of all the trappings of superstition that used to be there. The altar was demolished, processions, smells and bells, waving of incense bulbs and all that, all gone. All these superstitions, crossing yourself, bowing to the altar, all this, nope, out. The school system was reformed. The monastery buildings were turned into hospitals and orphanages. The Bible became the basis for all law. All Zurich clergy were instructed and ordered to preach from the scripture and the scripture alone. And this is the Zurich Bible which Ulrich Zwingli translated. Priests, monks and nuns were now permitted to marry. Zwingli worked hard to shift the Swiss economy from dependence on mercenary military service to agriculture and trade, and he urged the people to productive labor. It's been pointed out to me by friends in Switzerland that all the great names that you can think of, if you're thinking of Swiss chocolates, Lint, Lederer, Protestant names. If you're thinking of Swiss clocks and watches, Protestant names. If you're thinking of the Swiss rifles and all of their engineering. Protestant names. He said, it's interesting how the Protestants dominate the cities, the Protestants dominate the trades and arts, and the Catholics' names don't really feature when it comes to the things that you know as distinctively Swiss engineering and so on. And this he attributes to the Protestant work ethic that Ulrich Zwingli taught. You are a tool in the hands of God. He demands your service. How fortunate you are that he lets you take part in his work. Good work, well done, is to the glory and honor of God. Ulrich Zwingli compared the moral sickness and the spiritual death of sin to the plague. The plague which had killed one out of three people in Zurich. And he compared their physical recovery and health to the need for spiritual reformation of church and society. And the plague, or sickness, is a good physical, visible, material example of sin. and we need a miracle to save us from sin, just as much as they need a miracle to save them from the plague. Ulrich Zwingli began to translate the scriptures into Schweizerdeutsch, or Swiss German, and this is a cover title inside page from one of the early copies from a 1560 edition of Ulrich's Bible, which you can actually see in the museum in Zurich. His lively, dynamic translation reflects his upbringing amidst the towering mountains and the lush valleys of Switzerland in the Alps. For example, Psalm 23, In schöne Alp werde ich mich. In the beautiful Alps he tends me. Zwingli compared the Word of God to the mighty Rhine River that flowed out of the Alps. For God's sake, do not put yourself at odds with the Word of God, for truly it will persist as surely as the Rhine follows its course. One can possibly dam it up for a while, but it's impossible to stop the river. It will keep flowing all the way down to the ocean. Ulrich Zwingli took his pastoral duties most seriously, writing that they inspired me more fear than joy because I knew, and I remain convinced, that I would give an account of the blood of the sheep which would perish as a consequence of my carelessness. Not many of us should be teachers, James said, for we teachers will be judged with greatest strictness. Too much is given, much is required. Too much more is given, much more is required. It's a serious, solemn thing to handle eternal souls. Earlier, on behalf of eleven other priests, Zwingli had written to the Bishop of Constance seeking permission for priests to marry. This the Bishop had refused. Now, after two years of secret marriage, this man was a serious rebel. Two years of secret marriage. Imagine time when priests were not allowed to marry. He really had to be sure that this was scriptural, that ministers could marry. I mean, after all, the Bible speaks about Jesus healing Peter's mother-in-law. So Apostle Peter couldn't have a mother-in-law without having a wife. There's only one way to get a mother-in-law. You must be married. And we read in Paul's letters that does he not have the right to take a wife with him on his travels as Peter and all the other apostles do? Then you get Timothy and Titus saying that the requirements for a minister, including bishops, is to be a husband of one wife, to bring up his children in fear of the Lord. So throughout the scriptures, far from there being a prohibition on ministers marrying, there's a command that they must be married. So he was so convinced that standing against hundreds of years of Catholic tradition, He has a secret marriage for two years with Anna Reinhardt, a young widow who already had three children. So Ulrich and Anna Zwingli were blessed with another three children in their marriage. Zwingli preached in the marketplace on Fridays that the crowds from surrounding villages might come to hear the word of God. He proclaimed the sufficiency of faith in Christ, the deficiency of superstition and indulgences, the necessity of true repentance and holy living. He also emphasized the importance of caring for the poor and the needy, for the widow and for the orphan. Grace cannot be bought or sold. Zwingli confessed his own sins publicly, including an affair with a nun while he was a priest in Einsleden. and he declared Christ's saving grace to be sufficient for the salvation of all who truly repent. Zurich's freedom-loving city, known for the efficient army, for the love of political independence, found themselves drawn to this dynamic preacher and reformer. Its unfortunate that attempts to bring about a unity between the Swiss and the German reformations failed. Philip, the Prince of Hesse, in his attempt to bring about a political alliance of the Protestant states, sponsored the Marburg Colloquy between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli, the two greatest reformers. This historic meeting was held at Prince Philip's castle in Marburg. Although Zwingli and Luther agreed quickly on 14 articles of the faith, there was sharp disagreement on the 15th article concerning the Lord's Supper. Luther and Zwingli came from different backgrounds. One's a monarchist, the other's a republican. They came from different perspectives. Bear in mind Martin Luther was first and foremost a lawyer before he became minister, whereas Ulrich Zwingli had started as a priest. At several points the debate was harsh and acrimonious. At other points the parties appeared to seek one another's forgiveness for name-calling and for the breakdown of charity. Ultimately, however, their attempt to forge a theological union, which could be the basis for political and military alliance, failed. As reformers, Zwingli and Luther had so much in common. They both rejected the authority of the Pope. They both held the authority of scripture alone. They both agreed to the principle of justification by faith alone. They rejected the concept of the mass as a sacrifice. Zwingli had been very complimentary of Martin Luther, describing him in classical allusions that one Hercules who slew the Roman boar Zwingli attributed biblical titles to Luther. Indeed, you were the only faithful David anointed here and to by the Lord and furnished likewise with alms. But Zwingli did not think that Martin Luther's reformation went far enough. While Martin Luther taught that whatever's not condemned in scripture is permitted, Zwingli taught whatever's not specifically commanded in scripture should be prohibited. These are two pretty different points of departure. Luther regarded Zwingli as a schwarmer, a fanatic. Luther insisted they had to take the Lord's words, this is my body, literally. In fact, at one point he wrote on the table in chalk, in Greek, this is my body, and then slammed the chalk down. Zwingli maintained this has to be understood as a metaphor, such as I am the vine and I am the bread of life. After his resurrection, Christ ascended bodily into heaven. He sits at the right hand of God. Christ is omnipresent only in his divinity. He's not omnipresent in his humanity. The spirit gives life. The flesh is of no avail. The chief significance to Ulrich Zwingli of the Lord's Supper was that it's a meal eaten in celebration, it's a remembrance service, it's a thanksgiving service, but it's not a sacrifice. He doesn't believe in transubstantiation, he wouldn't even believe in consubstantiation. For what God has done in Christ, we give thanks, we celebrate, we remember, but there's no magical power, there's no supernatural power in the Lord's Supper. It is a memorial supper. But to Martin Luther, while he rejected transubstantiation, he held to consubstantiation. That the presence of God, there's a real presence of Christ in and with and above and throughout the elements. And so there was a difference of opinion. You and I may not think this is a very big enough difference of opinion to break fellowship over. I mean, I look at Ulrich Zwingli and Martin Luther as both my fathers in the faith. greatly respect and revere and honor them both and yet I can understand why they didn't agree because these people are so concerned for truth. They come from very different directions and they weren't the kind of people who could back down on a single point. Now for us, we wouldn't split fellowship with a person over their interpretation of Lord's Supper, but they did. On Sunday worship, Zwingli had limited the number of Eucharist, or Lord's Supper, services to four times a year, while Luther's Eucharist services were held every single Sunday. Zwingli maintained, I believe that the real body of Christ is eaten in the Lord's Supper, sacramentally and spiritually, by the religious, faithful, and pure mind, as also Saint Chrysostom, who was the pastor of Constantinople in the fourth century. And so in this famous Marlburg castle of Prince Philip, this momentous discussion took place which had so much implications for the future. It was one of Zwingli's greatest regrets that he and Martin Luther could not come to a point of agreement on the 15th doctrinal point. They agreed on 14. You would think disagreeing on one out of 15 is not serious? For them it was. So Ulrich Zwingli urged toleration for the different views. And Martin Luther regarded Zwingli's plea for toleration as an indication that the Zurich pastor did not take his own views seriously enough. Now Zwingli was seeking to be honoring to the older and the foremost reformer, and so he was being more gracious, but Martin Luther could not take that. With the forces of Charles V, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, mobilizing against him, Prince Philip of Hesse was frustrated in his attempts to bring about a union between the Protestants of Switzerland and the Protestants of Germany. What a great unity that would have been. What a great confederation or military alliance if they could have stood together against the Pope and against Emperor Charles V. From that time that Zwingli began his expository preaching on the Gospel of Matthew, on the 1st of January 1519, he only had 12 years to establish a reformation in Switzerland. 12 years. He died in battle fighting to defend Zurich from attack in 1531. And these are two of his swords and that's his helmet and this is the flag he fought under. I took this picture in the museum in Zurich. In 1529 a Protestant missionary from Zurich was burned at the stake for preaching the gospel in the Catholic canton of Schweiss. Zurich stopped trading with Schweiss in protest and so the Catholic cantons declared war on Zurich and Zurich was actually surrounded by Catholic cantons. They were a Protestant enclave in a sort of sea of Catholicism. In October 1531, 8,000 Catholic soldiers met 1,500 Protestant soldiers in the Battle of Kappel. Historian Miconius describes Zwingli's death at the Battle of Kappel. Three times Zwingli was thrown to the ground by the advancing forces, but in each case he stood up again. On the fourth occasion, a spear reached his chin and he fell to his knees saying, they can kill the body, but not the soul. Zwingli's successor Heinrich Bullinger added these details. While the Catholic forces were looting the bodies of the dead and dying, they found Zwingli still alive, lying on his back with his hands together as if he was praying, his eyes looking upward to heaven. He was stricken with a mortal wound, so they asked whether a priest should be fetched to hear his confession. At this, Zwingli shook his head. They encouraged him to call on Mary, the mother of God, and upon the saints. When Zwingli again shook his head, the Catholics cursed him, said he was one of those obstinate, cantankerous heretics who should get what he deserved, and won the Catholic captains through a sword and thrust Zwingli through. They didn't have specific uniforms, and so it was easy for them to be confused. Are you on our side or on theirs? Because they're the same. I mean, they were Swiss. But he had no distinguishing mark that they could immediately tell he was a Protestant. When his body was identified there were tremendous shouts of joy throughout the Catholic camp and it was decided to court his body, burn the portions, throwing into the fire the entrails of some pigs and then mixing the pig offal with Zwingli's ashes, scattering it to prevent any burial of the great reformer. So great was their petty vindictiveness. Well Ulrich Zwingli does need a grave to be remembered, honoured and respected. Here you can see the people in Zurich gathering to dedicate this famous monument to Ulrich Zwingli over 100 years ago and this is the monument you would have seen in many different shapes and forms Ulrich Zwingli with his massive Bible and with his enormous sword standing looking upwards towards God and that says a lot He was a soldier, he was a warrior, he was a reformer. Although Zwingli's career had been cut down at the Battle of Keppel, he had laid firm foundations which were built upon by Heinrich Bullinger and John Calvin. Ulrich Zwingli had succeeded in establishing a thoroughly reformed church in Zurich, which served as a model for the Swiss National Protestant Church. Zwingli's model of reform was adopted in Bern, Basel, Schaffhausen, Zurich and later in Geneva. Here you can see the green areas are where the Protestants were the majority. And you can see the brown areas for the Catholic and the yellow where Catholic and Protestant are kind of mixed up. You can see Geneva, of course, green. You can see Basel in the green area. Baden and Zurich, of course, in green. Bern, the capital of Switzerland, is in green. But Zurich is heavily surrounded by Catholic cantons. He can see in the year 1531 the Confederates, the Confederation of Switzerland, gathering together to discuss how to respond to this attack on the Protestant faith. His courageous preaching was successful in putting an end to the Swiss custom of selling their soldiers for mercenary service to the French and to the papacy. Although you'll notice, although the Protestants don't sell their soldiers off as mercenaries, the Catholics still do. Because all the bodyguards of the Vatican and of the Pope still come from the Catholic part of Switzerland. The deep internal divisions between the various Protestant cantons were healed shortly after Zwingli's death by a military alliance called the Christian Civic Union. Now, the way Switzerland's set up, it's a model of how do you take people from different languages, different cultures, and different religious convictions to work together. Total decentralization. Each canton has its own independence. They've got their own police force. They've got their own taxation system and their own laws. So, for example, you can have a totally Protestant German Zurich, you can have a Protestant French Geneva, you can have a Catholic Swaz, which is German-speaking, you could have Italian Catholics, Italian Protestants, French Protestants, French Catholics, French or German Catholics and German Protestants. And so the Canton system makes it possible for people of different backgrounds and convictions to work together on a good fences make good neighbors policy. This succeeded in securing the independence of Switzerland from the Holy Roman Empire. Zwingli's dream of establishing a European-wide alliance against the Habsburgs was not fully realized. But Bern, the strongest of the cantons, did make an alliance with Hesse and Strasbourg and Constance in Germany. And without Bern's military support, Geneva could never become the international center of Protestantism, which it achieved under the leadership of John Calvin. Ulrich Zwingli's successes and sacrifice were effectively built upon by his successor, Heinrich Bullinger, who from 1531 to 1575 served as pastor in Grossmunster. Until the founding of the Geneva Academy by Calvin in 1559 in Geneva, the Carolinium in Zurich was the only theological college in Europe where students could study Reformed theology. Many of the English Puritans learned the Reformed faith at the Carolinium in Zurich and in later at the Academy in Geneva. The Academy in Geneva and the Universities of Heidelberg in Holland are built upon the good foundations laid in Zurich. The English Book of Common Prayer, the 39 Articles, which is the foundation of the Church of England, the Puritan emphasis on head and heart, on doctrine and devotion, as well as reformed episcopacy, all adopted by the Church of England under King Edward VI, were all built upon the teachings of Heinrich Bullinger and Ulrich Zwingli, which English exiles learned during their time in Zurich when they were fleeing from Bloody Mary. Heinrich Bullinger, William Farrell, Pierre Verrett, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, all built on and continued the Reformation begun by Ulrich Zwingli. Here you see a statue of Farrell lifting the Word of God open above everything. The Word of God is our ultimate authority. When you go to Geneva, it's primarily a reformation war to commemorate the French reformers and you see up front John Knox, Ulrich Zwingli, Theodor Bezer and Knox, Bezer, Calvin, who's the fourth one? But at the cornerstones, you get Ulrich Zwingli and Martin Luther on each side, recognizing the German reformers who laid the foundations for the French Reformation. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. They may kill a body, but they cannot kill the soul. Ulrich Zwingli is one of our chapters in the Greatest Century of Reformation. We've got articles on our ReformationSA.org website. You can go to Geneva and see right by the river this magnificent monument to Ulrich Zwingli and his faith. And I've had people complain to me, why is there a sword in the Frontline Fellowship badge? And I say, for the same reason that Ulrich Zwingli is carrying a sword out there in your statue. This Swiss man actually had to go to the window and have a look out because he had forgotten that Ulrich Zwingli's monument had a big sword. It's all the spirit, but there's also a time that you need a big metal sword too. Ulrich Zwingli, great leader of the Reformation, along with Martin Luther, one of the two greatest reformers of all time. Now, you see his image in quite a few stained glass windows. When you get to the doors of Grussmunds, the great cathedral, notice the doors are very intriguing. You get close and you can see the High Row, which is Christus, and the Alpha and the Omega, so Jesus' beginning and the end, and it says, in this house of God, the reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, ministered. Now, they've got an intriguing amount of detail in the door here. When you look close, you can see it's all sorts of Bible doctrines and teachings. And you can see everything from the fall of man. You can see the serpent lifted up on the stake in the wilderness, depicting numbers. You see the three friends of Daniel being burned at the stake. There's all different Bible stories in metal in the door. But you can also go to another door in the side and you'll see a history of the Reformation in Zurich as well being depicted all the way along including getting rid of the idols of the church and the battles and key parts played by Ulrich Zwingli in particular. Then just to the right of the door when you face it you see a monument to Heinrich Bollinger 1504 to 1575. Because Heinrich Bollinger was the successor to Zwingli and he was the consolidator of the Reformation. Heinrich Bullinger was Ulrich Zwingli's successor and for 44 years he pastored Grossmunster in Zurich. Considering the important role that Bullinger played and the prodigious quantity of his writings, it's remarkable that Bullinger is one of the least known of all the reformers. In fact, there's a lot of people who haven't even heard of him. Born on the 18th of July 1504, the fifth son of a priest, Henry Bullinger, Heinrich was sent to study at the prestigious Emmerich Seminary on the Rhine River. at age 12. That's not unusual that someone could be sent to university at age 12. That happened with people like Andrew Murray and also Martin Luther and John Calvin. They all entered university about 12. At age 15 he enrolled at the University of Cologne, earning his Bachelor of Arts the next year. So he was 16 when he already had his Bachelor of Arts. It was at this time that he was converted to the Reformed faith through the studying of the Latin and Greek Fathers of the Church. In 1523 Bullinger was called to teach at the Cisterian Monastery of Kappel near Zurich. Here he taught on epistles of Paul and he proposed to Anna Adelsfehler, a nun who remained in a deconsecrated convent and Bullinger's proposal in writing is still preserved. Do you want to share with me sorrow and joy and under my protection live in love according to God's order? And a yes was uttered at Grussmunster where Ulrich Zwingli was the pastor officiating at their marriage. Right here. After the death of reformer Ulrich Zwingli at the Battle of Kappel in 1531, Bullinger was chosen to become a success as pastor of Großmilster, the great cathedral. Appointed the first minister, which was equivalent to a reformed bishop because he is the overseer of a lot of other churches, Bullinger and his family moved to the house of Zwingli, right here, and took responsibility for caring for the widow and the two dependent children of the reformer who had been killed in battle. Heinrich Bullinger's marriage to Anna was long and loving and it produced 11 children. And all of their sons became Protestant ministers. That's 11 children plus two that they had adopted of Zwingli's. For the next 44 years Heinrich Bullinger presided over the destinies of the church in Zurich, consolidating the reformation begun by Zwingli. Bullinger was a prolific writer and he widely published works including decades of sermons, which we've got right here, the decades of sermons. We've got two volumes. These are basically a sermon, one a week for the year, and it comes in two volumes. Here he provided for his pastors to preach all the key doctrines of the scripture in 50 sermons, one given year, and those decades of sermons became required reading in the Church of England, amongst other things. He wrote the history of the Reformation and the diary. Because of his growing authority as a respected theologian, his conciliatory spirit and his diplomatic gifts, he became the friend of John Calvin and Theodor Beza. And he became the recognized head of the Reformed Churches of Switzerland. He maintained an important correspondence with political and religious leaders throughout the whole of Europe. More than 12,000 of his letters are preserved at the Central Library in Zurich. 12,000. Through his sermons and publications, including Bible commentaries, he exercised a lasting influence on the reform movement worldwide. Now here you can see a family of reformers. Now the one sitting at the table would be the first generation of reformers. Of course, Martin Luther, most prominent for the Bible and the candle right in front of him. Melanchthon, his follower and successor right next to him. John Calvin is actually a second generation reformer, but he's right there. Theodore Beza is next to him. John Wycliffe is at the far side here. John Huss would be at the far left, because they are two of the pre-reformers. Here you can see the Pope and the demons and the monks and so on, trying to blow out the light of the candle. It's in the foreground, they don't manage. Now, when you look at the back, you can start to see some of the other key individuals, but notice you get, for example, Martin Busser, who is the mentor of of Kelvin in Strasbourg. You can see interesting assortments but at the far left that's Heinrich Bollinger. Sort of like a pillar. on the side. Very influential man. You can see also some interesting individuals you may not recognize but they're well known in Hungary. And you notice Hungary has at this moment got a reformed Christian as the Prime Minister who is standing firm against the whole of the EU on a whole lot of things and Islam. Bullinger's decades were many times republished and translated to French and English. Bullinger's correspondence included Henry VIII of England and Henry VI of England. And when in 1570 Queen Elizabeth needed to prepare a response to the papacy when they tried to excommunicate her, she turned to Heinrich Bullinger to draft her reply on behalf of England. That's the extent of Heinrich Bullinger's learning, his respect, the foremost position he held in the Protestant world. Bullinger's contributions to systematizing the doctrines of Zwingli and organizing the churches of Reformed Switzerland were decisive. In 1537 he wrote the first Helvetic confessional, the first confession of Switzerland, which was adopted by the church of Zurich, Bern, Basel, Schaffhausen, St. Gaul, Malthausen and Vienna. In 1549, here along with John Calvin, wrote the Zurich Agreement on the Lord's Supper. In 1566, Bullinger's brief exposition of the faith became the basis for the Second Helvetic Confession, which remained for centuries the basis for the Reformed Church of the Swiss Confederation. The Helvetic Confessions were widely known and respected amongst the Reformed Churches of France, England, Scotland, Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia, and they left an imprint on the Presbyterian churches in the USA. And if you were to have a look at comparing the different confessions, this has all the different confessions separated out and then comparing where they each stood on different points. And it's intriguing what a major influence the Helvetic confessions have had on all the others. One historian commented about the Helvetic confession, this confession is the most natural and simplest of all. It says in the clearest way what it means. one of its reprints and here we've got the reformed confessions harmonized so that one can study all different confessions and see what they have in common and what one emphasizes or expands on more than the others. Ulrich Zwingli wrote concerning Bullinger, this young man is very learned. He compares everything, he reconciles everything. See how in this stained glass window you've got Ulrich Zwingli with the sword and the Bible and next to him there's Bullinger. The two generations that first laid the foundation the other built upon it. John Calvin praised Bullinger in these words, After Melanchthon came Bullinger, who has rightly earned great praise, because with doctrine he had an ease which made him most easy to read. Bertolt Haller of Bern wrote, God gave you the gift of explaining simply, of lifting the bushel and letting the light of the Holy Word shine. Conrad Pelican of Basel wrote, a bishop in his youth, pious, loyal, educated, true and devoted, an incomparable preacher, the words of whom act within as the pen of Christendom, a man of God." The Archbishop of Canterbury in 1586 instructed the ministers of the Church of England that they should read a chapter of the Bible each day and one of Bullinger's sermons every week. The foreword to the English translation of the decade states, These sermons are comparable to a gold mine. The deeper you delve, the richer they are. The abstruseness of Calvin is here replaced with an extraordinary clarity of expression. The successor of Calvin, Theodor Bezer, who had been won to the Reformed faith at age 16 by a tract written by Heinrich Bollinger, Beza wrote, we were used to being strengthened by you. Beza referred to Bullinger as our rudder and as his father in the faith. Bullinger was a devoted pastor whose home was constantly open to the hungry, to the lost, to the persecuted, to the spiritual seeker. And although his salary was meager, he gave many gifts, giving up of his own small income to hospitals and institutions of mercy. Wollinger's powerful preaching and his pen seldom rested. For 44 years he maintained an average of preaching seven times a week. That's 365 sermons a year. His pastoral heart produced one of the first Protestant books on comforting the sick and the dying. Wollinger built upon a solid foundation laid by Ulrich Zwingli and provided an ecclesiastical and theological order that was thoroughly reformed. and hence quite appropriate that he's remembered on the cornerstone of the church as he was a pillar, reformer, church politician, and historian. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. This is what Zurich is like today. I've had the joy of going there on numerous occasions, at all kinds of services and meetings, and conferences, and this coming year we'll be back in Zurich, God willing, with the Coalition on Revival Church Council. Both Bullinger and Zwingli formed two of the chapters in the Greatest Century of Reformation book, which we've greatly expanded, and also in our Reformation 500 audio boxes, audio and visual, and he's one of the chapters in Victorious Christians Change the World, Zwingli is. Not only that but in the heroes of the faith they also have a key role. Now this year we have produced the Biblical Preaching Handbook largely as a result of the Reformation 500 coming up in Zurich because it's Ulrich Zwingli who This coming January, five years ago, launched Expository Preaching. And so to call our people back to biblical preaching, expository preaching, this is what the Africa Reformation Overland Mission that Aubrey's just been busy on, and what Daniel was busy on, has been trying to teach the folks in order to do biblical preaching. We've been distributing these books to students, lecturers, principals, barber colleges throughout Africa as far up as Tanzania. And it's one of our leadership resources now with the audiovisual box set as well. In this coming year, where we are seeking to get together representatives of denominations and colleges and missions in Zurich to consider the Reformation 500 core coalition revivals, working together for a fellowship for international reformation and evangelism, FIRE. These are some of our supporting organizations for this whole movement. This coming week we'll announce the winners of our next Reformation 500 Art and Essay competition, which needs to be completed by the beginning of next week in time for our Reformation Day celebration on Wednesday the 31st of October in Friendship. And for those who haven't had it before and would like guided tour, I'm giving guided tour from 10 o'clock around the Huguenot Museum. The Coalition on Revival which Dr. J. Grimstead started many years ago with the support of James Kennedy and R.C. Sproul and many other good friends. And the International Church Council Project are uniting together with us for this Reformation 500 Church Council in Zurich, 15th to the 20th of July. near Zurich this coming year to make a bold stand for biblical stands in this day of compromise and confusion. We've got some of the leaflets in the stand over there at the back and if anyone's interested and would like to promote it on our web as one of the upcoming events. We've got a website just dealing with Reformation 500 fire. And of course we mentioned some of these aspects in each edition of the Christian Action magazines. And the ReformationSA.org website's got most of the lectures given at the Reformation Society over the years, which now has been going for 13 years. So we've accumulated a lot of presentations, audio, video, PowerPoint, and digital library in different languages, 95 theses in different languages. And our Reformation 500 Facebook page is often very busy. Also Reforming Our Families, another basic building block in this sort of battle, and many of these books available through Christian Liberty Books as resources to empower people to work for reformation and pray for revival today. There's a difference between reformation and revival. Reformation is our work, our duty. Revival is God's sovereign move. We can't organize a revival. There's nothing we can do to make a revival. Revival is our sovereign move of Almighty God. We can pray for it. But, as far as Reformation goes, that's our duty. That's when we take God seriously, when we get back to the Bible, when we have decisive action to put our lives in line with God's Word. So, Reformation is our duty, but revival, that is in the sovereign hand of God. Of course, our next Great Commission course will be working on laying foundations for this next Reformation 500 year. These are some pictures I took in Switzerland on You can just see how the mountains are so high and it's just extraordinary the distance you can go up there. When I spoke about being in the Alps, they said, no, these aren't the Alps, these are the foothills. And they weren't trying to be funny. The mountains there go very high. Switzerland has got 48 mountain peaks that are above 4,000 meters. Now, Table Mountain is 1,000 meters high. They've got 48 mountain peaks higher than 4,000 meters. That's very high. And so you can imagine, I mean, this is just Wiltzhaus. This is where Ulrich Zwingli's father was mayor, where he was born. Wiltzhaus, they call this, no, these aren't the Alps, this is the foothills. And that's already 1,000 meters up. And here you can see Grossmunster in Zurich. And what a view. Gristminster and Zurich. You can see so many spires. Just speaking of the great Protestant Reformation in Switzerland. And Gristminster again. This is the church on the other side of the river from Gristminster across the bridge. At night Gristminster is still very imposing. Really gets your attention. But you can see a city dominated by church spires. It's our prayer that we will be able to do good outreaches and challenge our friends in Switzerland to get back to the Bible and to work for a fresh biblical reformation and pray for new revival in our times today. Now when you think of Switzerland and notice here you've also got some of the swans. Swans are always a very reformation type of bird coming with the prophecy of Jan Hus. But many a time I've walked these streets and crossed those bridges, although normally in summer. This would be a very different sort of place to go in winter when everything's spread with a carpet of snow. But Zurich is the epicenter of the Reformation in Switzerland and Grussmünster is the epicenter of Ulrich Zwingli's Reformation. Now you notice, here's Grussmünster, here's this chapel. This monument to Ulrich Zwingli is on the right in front of the chapel, not Grussmünster. Grissman's entrance, stripped of all ornaments, very straightforward. But now, if you go across the bridge, or I should say it's still the same side, you've got the chapel here, and now you can see Zwingli's monument is just in front. When we think of Dresden, which was the capital of Saxony, and the great reformation work done by Martin Luther, We think of the bombing of Dresden in 1945. The first thing they repaired after it was they put the monument of Martin Luther back, even before they rebuilt their homes and rebuilt the church. But today it is rebuilt. And it reminds us of the work of reformation we must do in rebuilding in our own lives the faith and doctrine that has been forgotten. And in a sense, we're building amongst the rubble. This is like Operation Nehemiah. Our mission has been working for reformation and revival for a long time. Back in 2005, I went to the epicenter of the reformation in Europe, where it all started on 31 October 1517, where Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses in the church door of the Schlosskirche, the castle church in Wittenberg, and the whole idea, standing in Luther's Pulpit, 2005. The vision to launch the Reformation Society here and to work for Reformation 500 was crystallizing in my mind. This is May 2005. I was on a mission to Europe, to 11 countries in five weeks. And it was a phenomenal ministry from as far as Northern Ireland all the way through to Romania, up to Poland, Germany. A tremendous opportunity. This is another pulpit Martin Luther preached in. This is in the Stadtkirche, downtown. Schlosskirche was for the university students. Stadtkirche was for the normal people in town. And so this was another church that Martin Luther would have preached in frequently. This is the Luther Room and Luther House with exactly the same paneling and everything that had five years ago. They've left it untouched in all these years. Luther House is the greatest reformation museum and storage house and library in the world with the printing press, the reformer's friend, the tyrant's foe. Martin Luther at one point dominated the printing industry to such an extent that 80% of all the printed works in the world at one point during his lifetime were Martin Luther's works. He beat the Pope with the printing press. Notice here you've got the town hall, the right house, Lady Justice holding the scales of justice and a big sword and in front Martin Luther holding up the Word of God. This is a common theme in Protestant countries. The minister of grace and a minister of justice separated. but mutually in support, both under God. The minister of grace has the keys of the kingdom, the minister of justice, the sword of justice. We are not to interfere with the state, the state is not to interfere with the church, but we're meant to pray for and guide them and they're meant to protect the church as we carry on our work. And so I got to Wilthaus, I got to Grossmünster. I, all in 2005, got to the museums, saw Geneva. I was doing a whole lot of ministry. It wasn't meant for me to just go on a tour, but Bill Bathvin, who interlinked with my tour, particularly made sure I got to Wittenberg. And that was where a whole lot of these things fell into place for me. Geneva has this tremendous 90-meter fountain. reminding us of the fountain of life that flows from biblical teachings. When you get back to the Bible, it's living waters, which affects everything. Sola Scriptura. One of the people I met who played a key role in other things coming, Mike Evans, who Bill Bathman had recruited into missions, who ended up being the head of OM in France, and then he was running the Geneva Bible Institute when I was there. This is Saint-Pierre behind us. great reformer John Calvin ministered for 26 years in this phenomenal cathedral. And this is where we had our Calvin 500 back in 2009. Looking out at the Geneva Lake and here you can see it's William Farrell, John Calvin, Theodore Beza and John Knox, the four great reformers in the French-speaking world. Although John Knox you'd say isn't exactly French, no, but the French virtually controlled Scotland at the time that the reformer John Knox started his work there. And looking at this wall, it's very imposing. There's very interesting developments all the way along the wall. It's got the Geneva Bible, the Lord's Prayer, it's got the Apostles Creed in French, it's got German, French, English, Dutch, it's recognised all the different sites, it's recognised key reformers from the Hungarian Reformation all the way through to England. Oliver Cromwell is in this wall as well. So they recognize a wide range. This is the Geneva Bible Institute where I've ministered. Mike Evans is the preeminent we mobilized praying for this Reformation vision. And so our Reformation study was launched in 2005. on the five solas. Our ReformationSA.org website was launched early in 2006. January 2006, we began our Reformation Society meetings every Thursday night here. And Avril, there you are. One of the first people here, right at the beginning. And this is one of our early stages, back when we still had curtains around the side here. And at the Huguenot Monument, where we launched our Greatest Century Reformation book, debate with the Roman Catholics at a Catholic school nearby, giving the vision to Christians for Truth Conference at Cuesta Banta Mission, and at Ministers Conference at Cuesta Banta in the new auditorium, a Reformation and Revival rally in the town hall in Cape Town, and inspired by Martin Luther and John Knox, we presented an imprecatory prayer proclamation signed by over 100 leaders, pastors, and others in Cape Town, calling on Thabo Mbeki to repent of paganizing this country, legalizing abortion, pornography, and all these other evils, in which we said that if he will repent and bring in laws that will protect the most innocent lives of all pre-born babies, we would pray for God's blessings to be upon him. But if he refused, we would pray that his days in office would be few and that another would take his place. That wording got straight out of John Knox's empirical prayers he published for Bloody Mary, Mary, Queen of Scots, this wicked witch of Scotland, and Surprised were we, when just a couple of months later, Atab Mbeki was kicked out by the vice-president he had fired, and who was being investigated for how many hundreds of cases of fraud and all the rest of it, and rape. And next thing you know, another took his place. Who could have seen that coming? But anyway, we also posted a copy of this imprecatory prayer proclamation on the doors of Poland, which got them very angry. And it got quite a lot of media opportunities too. Every 1st of February, or the closest days to it, we will be at the gates of parliament reminding our government that they're a bunch of pagans, murdering innocent people through abortion. Union buildings, sometimes we've organized prayer rallies like this on National Days of Repentance, gathering people to pray on the greens below union buildings for national repentance. Zambia's been far more responsive, like General Ronnie Shikapasha. He was head of the Air Force in Zambia, crippled narcotics and told he'd never walk again. His wife got converted, he got converted. He became Minister of Information, Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Hosted us many a time, organized for us to meet President Levi Mwanawoso. We managed to minister on radio many times in Zambia, at the Bible colleges, teacher training colleges, getting into schools, ministering to teachers, libraries for teachers, in the Congo, in fact one of our biggest biblical worldview seminars ever with 3,000 people attending a three-day biblical worldview seminar with judges and generals and presidential candidates attending in Lubumbashi in the Congo. After the first five months of the Reformation Society, we brought out the Greatest Century of Reformation book, which was pretty quickly rushed out in time to be able to launch it at the Quasimodo Minister's Conference in Europe. People from 11 nations were gathering together, 400 delegates. You can see here French and Romanian and English and so on, all over, so you could have your earphones in to get translation. There's so many languages present. And so at this Croisavantu conference in Kaltbrunn in Switzerland, we launched the Greatest Century of Reformation book. And then shortly after that came out to the Power of Prayer handbook. and reforming our families being, how do we reform our prayer life? How do we reform our families? How do we work for reformation internationally? The Christian Action Magazine started to take more of a historical reformation flavor from 2005 as well. And in 2013, we launched a 95 thesis for reformation today, which has been translated into Afrikaans, German, into Spanish, French, and Netherlands. Coalition Revival's documents we've put together in a manual, which has been updated, also a fire manual to help churches work for Reformation today. And in every 31 October, for 24 years, we've been holding Reformation Day celebrations at the Huguenot Monument. Two years ago, we invited the Eurochoir to Cape Town, managed to get the amphitheater at the waterfront which is really one of the busiest tourist centers around in Cape Town and we were able to have an outreach for a full hour with the Eurochoir singing Tremendous opportunity without charge. We've got this Our donated to us that we could and we as you can see we had a camera people around This is a full Mobilization of a comms office. We did quite a few of these things live Streaming we recorded we've produced DVDs on it. You can actually see people who came from far and wide to this event and a beautiful day. Our biggest concern was that the Eurochoir people would all get sunburned because coming from Europe's winter, we were deeply concerned that they would not manage very well. They were so pale they made me look tanned. And we made sure they put on lots of sun cream. But ministry opportunities, literature distribution, evangelistic discussions that flowed. On the Sunday, Reformation Sunday, two years ago, we were in the oldest church in the southern hemisphere still operating. It's a Lutheran church, Strand Street. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Notice the swan, very prominent, and even the swan in the pulpit, because the swan reminds us of the great reformer of Prague. Professor Jan Hus, who when he was being burned at the stake, he made a joke. He said, my goose is cooked. Now the name hus means swan. Sorry, the name hus means goose in Bohemian. My goose is cooked, he says, but a hundred years from now, a swan will arise whose voice you will not be able to silence. Now, interestingly enough, The man who made that challenge, calling on Hus to recant of his views, Hus said, I would not for a chapel full of gold recant or recede from the biblical truth I've taught. I will gladly seal with my blood the truths I've taught of my life. Now, he then followed that up with saying that a hundred years from now, a swan will rise whose voice you will not be able to silence. Ein Festerberg is also God. A mighty fortress is our God. Martin Luther, a hundred years later, came and interestingly enough when he was ordained and the Catholic way of ordination he required to be lying face down cruciform form on the cold stone in the front of the cathedral in Erfurt. He was lying directly over the grave of the very bishop who had burned Hassett the stake and had called on him to recant. And so you could imagine when Huss told that bishop a hundred years from now a swan will arise whose voice you will not be able to silence. He might have said something like over my dead body. And sure enough Martin Luther was ordained over his dead body. Strand Street Lutheran. You can see by the organ a depiction of the great harpist, the psalmist, King David. It was a great day, a wonderful opportunity. Here's the choir. We fit the whole Eurochoir in. We pulled out all of our people to do filming and it's a beautiful venue, a lovely day, a wonderful opportunity of worship and of honoring the Lord. And people came from far and wide, including from Gronadendal, Moravian Church, which is the oldest mission station in South Africa. Gronadendal mission came out here too. And we've got the whole Eurochoir in Cape Town DVD as part of our Reformation Firebrand box set. It's on our website as well. And a key part was focusing on Monday the 31st of October at the Huguenot Monument and later in the Dutch Formed Church in Franschhoek. Again, couldn't have asked for better weather. Beautiful weather, wonderful opportunity, and it was such a special occasion to celebrate entering the 500th year of the Reformation. This is 499th. This is Reformation Day in 2016. So opening up the next year leading up to Reformation 500, we had across a bunch of people from Europe, guiding, helping, leading, leading us in song. We never sing Amazing Grace at the waterfront. Many of the people passing by joined in. And of course here we were all able to sing A Mighty Fortress is Our God. And with people who came from 11 different nations. It's quite an opportunity. And then over to the Dutch Formed Church in Franschhoek. This church was once a rectangle, like all the Dutch Formed Churches originally were. But in 1860 the revival occurred, which required them to actually expand the church to the left and to the right in a cruciform style and to add the upper galleries. And so these upper galleries came about as a result of the Reformation in 1860. And you can go to just about all these churches and they'll have a sign there saying in 1861 or 1862 these side panels and the upper galleries were added. Just another physical testimony to the 1860 revival. And these poor people, I think many of them were battling beginnings of sunburn and so on by this stage. But to the Europeans, coming at the sun, they just starved of it after coming through any of their winters and so on. So this was a good opportunity. They went on to cross the Banta Mission, of course. The big year was last year, 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation launched by Martin Luther. But we noticed it was also 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. And so 500 years of Reformation, 100 years of revolution, reformational revolution, and then the middle verse of the Bible, the middle verse, Psalm 118 verse 8. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put your confidence in man. Bolshevik Revolution, man's solutions. Reformation, God's word. Are we going to put our trust in man? And today we've got people who still think the Bolshevik Revolution is a good idea. Last year I didn't see anyone marking the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia or Eastern Europe. looked, scoured, saw no evidence. There was no one interested. Somebody even asked Putin, are they going to mark the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution? He said, there's nothing to celebrate. But in South Africa, the EFF had a rally to commemorate 100 years after the Great October Revolution, as they called it. So we've got people in this country who are pushing for revolution. That's a good enough reason for us to push for reformation. And that was the theme of many a message and Frontline News, Reformation Revolution. And so our new, expanded, updated Greater Central Reformation book came out in time for the Reformation 500 mission around Europe. I had Reformation 500 conferences in Pennsylvania, in Lancaster County, with Amish and Mennonites attending Reformation 500. And you can imagine the first question they were asking What about the reformers persecuting Anabaptists? So you can imagine what answer could one give. And they were particularly, one of my first presentations was on Ulrich Zwingli. And so a midnight stands up and says, what about Ulrich Zwingli drowning Baptists in Lake Geneva? And so I had to say we've got a chapter or an appendix in the Great Central Reformation book dealing with this very subject. Did the reformers persecute Anabaptists? Now of course the Anabaptists claim that they did and we've got some massive amounts of books here. In fact this one right here, The Martyr's Mirror, is A tome dealing with Mennonites and Anabaptists who were persecuted by Catholics or Protestants or whatever in Europe over the 16th century in particular. So what's the answer? The original Anabaptists were Marxist revolutionaries. In fact Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels calls the Anabaptists of the 16th century the first true communists. The first Anabaptists were not the nice pacifists that we know of today. And so, yes, Anabaptists were persecuted or dealt with, but the Anabaptists were violent communist revolutionaries who butchered tens of thousands of people, burned hundreds of churches, monasteries, and castles, caused terrible disaster all over, did terrible things. hideous. I mean, there were actually violent terrorists and revolutionaries on the line of the communists of this century. And so everyone, Catholic, Protestant, everything in between, was anti-Anabaptist. But the Anabaptists then were violent revolutionaries. And so yes, the Zurich City Council had two of the Anabaptists who, after giving them a chance to recant, drowned in Lake Geneva, which sounds very harsh. And that was because they saw them as a threat to the social order. It wasn't Protestants persecuting pacifists, mind their own business, separatists like the Mennaites or Amish that we know today, who are very nice people, nice neighbors. You wouldn't want to harm them. And in fact, I think the Amish would make great neighbors. They're really good people. But the Anabaptists around in the 16th century were not like that. And so it's not fair to blame the reformers for opposing violent revolutionaries during a time when there were terrible uprisings. The Peasants' Revolt and so on, which caused huge destruction, lots of loss of life, in terms of hundreds of thousands of lives. That they reacted to it much like we would want to react against the Bolshevik Revolution today. The fact that later people calling themselves Anabaptists developed a very different pacifist separatist idea is of course very different. Anyway, so I actually started my Reformation 500 events amongst a bunch of pacifists, Arminians, Mennonites and Amish in Lancaster County in America, interestingly enough. Went on to Idaho, went on to California, went to Europe, managed to have Reformation 500 conferences in Belgium, including in a Catholic church, which was quite strange. I even saw Catholic churches in Belgium that had 95 theses posters there saying Martin Luther's evangelists came here and preached in this church. So even Catholic churches were celebrating the final anniversary of the Reformation. Interesting. got to Holland, got to Germany and was able to minister in all these places. This is just one advert, nine steps needed for a new reformation today. This is in Netherlands. Well, I wondered how many people are going to come to a camp on Reformation Revival in the Netherlands? Would you believe we had 960 people come for a weekend camp on Reformation Revival in the Netherlands? This was the high point of the Reformation 500 mission last year and they were young people with multiple children. This business of Europeans only having 1.2 children, well, it wasn't true amongst these people. These people had three or four children each and some up to five. And up front they had the five solas of the Reformation. You can see there's the door, there's the cross, and this was a major event with tremendous logistics involved. And we had three prayer meetings a day, packed and powerful, and the presentations were serious. There was no nonsense, it was enthusiastic worship, but it was a lot of hymns and a lot of the great scripture choruses. Here people coming forward at the very end and then off to Wittenberg for the culmination of A mighty fortress of God. This is where Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses for Reformation today. So the door now has it in metal. The original door got burned during the 30 Years War and so on. But the church got badly damaged in the 70 Years War. But here it is restored with the 95 Theses in Latin engraved into metal doors. an incredible and wonderful opportunity to see all that. So, any questions, any comments on Ulrich Zwingli and the Reformation in Switzerland? This is now ending off in Wittenberg, but that's where we were last year. Questions, comments? Is Switzerland being Christians for the country? No, but it's one of the best countries in Europe to this day. I think that church attendance... is something around 12 to 17%. Now considering in Britain it's 4%, in Germany it's 5 to 6%, Portugal is 1% and Czech Republic less than 1% church attendance. So Switzerland, it doesn't sound good when you say 12 to 17%, but it's one of the more religious and Christian places in Europe. Now when you consider also something else that's interesting, for example Germany, Between 2000 and 2010, no from 2000 to 2010, those 10 years, 1,000 churches closed in Germany. of which 700 were Roman Catholic and 300 were state Lutheran. But in the same time period, the same 10 years, in 2010, 2000 and the year 2000, 1,500 evangelical churches were planted in Germany. So in one sense you could say Europe is turning away from the church, but in another sense a lot of people in Europe are turning to Christ. The dead churches, the mainstream or lamestream media, they are often closing. But Bible-believing evangelical churches are popping up. So there's a lot of spiritual life in Europe, but most of it's in Eastern Europe. Most of the evangelical Christians you'll see today are in Russia, Romania, and Ukraine. Isn't that interesting? So, other questions? At present it is. We've got the Operation World and Patrick Johnson was here launching the book just a while ago and was telling us in the Future of Christendom book that the largest and fastest growing churches in all of Europe are all in East Europe. Russia, Ukraine, and Romania. Those are the fastest and biggest. And that's just incredible when you think of the fact that they went through, in Russia, 70 years of communist persecution and atheist indoctrination. And yet the churches come out that better than the churches that were being seduced by materialism and Hollywood and all that and evolutionism in the schools. So Western decadence has been more devastating than communist persecution, atheist indoctrination. It's amazing. Yes? They respond very well, they were very kind people, very gracious. They kept coming back day after day. I was there for a whole week conference in Pennsylvania. And we had a lot of them buying books, very interested, they're reading type people. Interested, thank you, didn't know that, appreciate this thing. They were very, they were turning up with their 10, 11 children per family to some of these events. Yes, I was intrigued. By the way, this is quite funny because we get to Wittenberg and we see this event and we wonder what's happening and we see it's planted a tree. Do you remember the Reformation? Martin Luther was asked, if you knew that the world was ending tomorrow, what would you do today? He said, I'd plant an apple tree today. So they decided to plant 500 trees to mark 500 years of reformation. And so here's some of the trees, pretty substantial sized trees at that. And so 500 trees in Wittenberg. And so they had it all planned, where they're going to be and so on. And here the people are coming along, carrying their trees. It takes two people each to carry it. And what a good positive way to mark a reformation. We're going to plant 500 trees in Wittenberg. and the Luther Rose Garden. Anyway, just extraordinary. I love that sort of idea. I remember when I moved from Rhodesia to Pineland, and in 1977, they said, we're gonna plant trees all along the canal. I wanted people in Pineland to contribute trees to be planted along the canal. You still go along and see them there. In 1972, I remember at school in Rhodesia, the government said, there are five million people living in Rhodesia, 1972, we'll plant five million trees this year. And we planted five million trees that year. And you know, that's thinking for the future. By the way, how do you like this town hall in Wittenberg? And they showed me their cat door. For 500 years they've had the cat door that the cats could go in and out of the town hall because they stored the grain and other food for the harvest in the cellars of the town hall. And so to allow the cats to get to rats and protect their food supply. How's that for reformation balance? They even had a door for the cats. Yes. In a sense, but it was for good cause. So here's John Calvin, 26 years old. very accomplished student. I mean he's already got his doctorate in theology. He's produced one of his great books, one of the greatest books in all time, the Institutes of Christian Religion. And he's wanting to be a permanent student. He's already got his bachelor's, master's, doctorate. He studied law and then theology. So he's also like Calvin, like Martin Luther, he is a lawyer first. And he is a very accomplished theologian. But now he's asked to stay and be part of this battle to convince Geneva and to disciple Geneva. And so he wasn't interested in this whole vision of Pharrell. And so the more he describes, the more he is basically, no, no, I don't want conflict, I just want studies. And so there's time to study. But obviously Kelvin had now passed that point, now he's wanting more than he needed. And the older man, nearly double his age, William Farrell, stands up and thunders, may God curse your studies. If now in an hour of need, you forsake Christ's church. And John Calvin thought the terror of the Lord fall upon him. And so I think that was good because sometimes we need someone to shake us awake if we are going in a selfish or unnecessary path. And there are a lot of people today who just, they get more and more and more and more studies. I've met people who have been, they've just been accumulating degrees and they've never done anything. They just study, study. And I think for some people it's a comfortable environment. So, yes, may we have more William Ferrells to smack some people awake. Get out there and do something, you know. Honestly, it's chronic. We've got, Bill Baffin said the church is dying by degrees. Theological cemeteries. Just like in today's world, if someone dies, doesn't it just come on you stranded on your legs? We have to be careful. The good thing with this one is you look back and you can see the fruit. And we've got the story from Pharrell, and Calvin, and Pierre Ferret, who was standing by as an observer. So we've got perception and depth. At the time, you might have thought, gee, he's trying to manipulate them, but with hindsight, we can see it was a very good thing, because John Calvin was just planning to stay in Geneva one night. and then he is arrested, so to speak, by Farel, and he served 26 years in Geneva, and it was a good thing he did. Good thing for Geneva, good thing for all of us. Yes, we mustn't be manipulative. You've got to be sure you have God's leading, but there may come a time we've got to just speak straight to a person. Sometimes we can see it clearly. what a person's doing is destructive or unnecessary. Maybe the person's concerned can't see it. But sometimes you've got to, from the outside, be a good advice and say, are you out of your mind? No. I mean, just think, for example, how many people make bad decisions in marriage. And everybody can see this is a manipulative loser or something like this. And yet, you know, many go, oh, But nobody understands him. I can alter him. I can change him. And meanwhile, what they're doing is getting themselves into an abusive relationship and they've got to be co-dependents. But they can't see it. Everyone around them can see it. Even the mother of the boy concerned and so on, they're all warning. And this girl, no, she's just rock-soled. So sometimes you do need to kind of say, listen, those of us who have lived longer, let's tell you the way it's going to be. It's as clear to us as this. And a person who gives us a warning like that can be a good friend. I'm sure Calvin didn't appreciate what Pharrell was doing at that time, but later he looked back and said, thank you for saving me from a life of irrelevance in just perpetual studying. So any other comments or questions? some of the great pictures picked up traveling around in Reformation 500 mission last year. Who knows how many thousand pictures I've taken in Wittenberg, Geneva and Zurich over the years. Yes, there were. And then this is our team. We took to Wittenberg and I was giving guided tours around and some of you know Al Baker, Colonel Eidsmer, Joseph Zahn, the great reformer of Romania, Jay Grimsteed, Coalition Revival. People from Romania, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic. Netherlands. Really great. Burma. I came from Burma. Albert Durer. Oh, Albert Durer was certainly a reformer. He was a reformer in art. He studied all Luther's writings, he sort of put a lot of the Reformation teachings into artwork. So just like you could say Bach was a reformer in music, as was Handel. that Jan Sebastian Bach is really a reformer, even though he's from the 17th century now, but what he produced in music was reformation teachings. He had all of Martin Luther's works and he signed every page of his works with, Solly dear Gloria. You know, things like that. That's just one of his marks, that everything has to be done to the glory of God. He's very much, in fact, both Handel and Bach were born the same year, born in Germany, Lutherans, and they're two of the greatest musicians of all time. Handel doing his work in England, as Bach did in Germany, but spectacular, spectacular musicians, and inspired by Martin Luther's work. So some like Durer put it into art, others like Bach and Handel into music, but no, I would call them reformers. Sorry? Yes, it's... Indeed. I don't know how many people are going to be paying attention to Spice Girls or The Beatles in a hundred years time, but, you know, the, but Bach and Handel are going to last forever. I mean, that's, that's excellence. So these are just events we've done in the past and are upcoming. This is the one coming up now, now, as of this Wednesday. So any other comments or questions? We've got some posters if anyone can do anything to help promote or advertise our upcoming events. And of course we've got leaflets in both English and in Afrikaans on this cursed Halloween. We're bound to get a whole bunch of people trying to push that on us very soon. So whatever we can do to counter Halloween and promote Reformation instead.