Heinrich Bullinger, the consolidator of the Reformation. Heinrich Bullinger was Ulrich Zwingli's successor, and for 44 years he pastored Grossmünster in Zurich. Now, I have only been a Christian for 44 years, and Heinrich Bullinger was a pastor for 44 years of the most important church in Switzerland, the most important church in Zurich, Grossmünster, the successor of Ulrich Zwingli. Considering the important role he played and the prodigious quantity of his writings, one of the most prolific writers of all time, it's remarkable that Bullinger is one of the least known of the reformers. 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 at age 12. He became a seminary student at age 12. What were you doing at age 12? I was still in junior school. At 15 years old, he enrolled at the University in Cologne, earning his Bachelor of Arts the next year. It was at this time that he was converted to the Reformed faith through studying the Latin and Greek fathers of the church. In 1523, Bullinger was called to teach at the Cisterian Monastery of Kappel near Zurich. And here he taught on epistles of Paul and proposed to Anna Adolf Schweiler, a nun who remained in a deconsecrated convent. 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 her yes was uttered at Grussmunster, where Ulrich Zwingli was the pastor in this church here. After the death of Ulrich Zwingli at the Battle of Kappel in 1531, Bullingham was chosen to become his successor as pastor of Grossmunster, appointed first minister, which is the equivalent of a reformed bishop. He had many pastors under him. Bullingham and his family moved into the house of Zwingli, this house. And he took responsibility for caring for the widow and for two dependent children of the reformer who had been killed in the battle. Heinrich Bullinger's marriage to Anna was long and loving and produced 11 children. All of their sons became Protestant ministers. For the next 44 years, Bullinger presided over the destinies of the church in Zurich and he consolidated the reformation begun by Zwingli. Bullinger was a prolific writer and his widely published work included decades of sermons. There were 50 sermons on Christian doctrine, which we've got translated to English because the English church, the Reformation church in England, required the pastors to preach through every sermon. There are 52 Sundays, and 50 of these sermons are provided to work through all the doctrines of the Reformation. And these are the kind of practical writings that Bullinger provided. The history of the Reformation is none of his books and also the diary. Because of his growing authority as a respected theologian, his conciliatory spirit, he wasn't the kind of a person like Zwingli and Luther, this is a diplomatic man. He was conciliatory, he could counsel, he could bring together people who were of opposing views. He had diplomatic gifts. He became the friend of John Calvin and of Theodore Beza, the first of the leaders of the academy in Geneva. And he became the recognized head of the reformed churches of Switzerland, not only of the German reformed churches, but of the French reformed churches too. He maintained 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. Those are the ones we've got. There were many more that he wrote. Through his sermons and publications, including Bible commentaries, he exercised a lasting influence on the reformed movement worldwide. And here they've got the different reformers sitting around a table, not that they would have all been there at the time, but the man at the top left is Bullinger. So Bulling is there while Luther and Calvin are sitting at the front of the table, as you'd expect, and Wycliffe is over here to the right. Notice in the foreground you've got the devil and the pope and the monks trying to blow out the candle representing the light of the gospel. So you have the reformers here standing around the word of God, the light of the candle, and you've got the pope, the monks, the friars, and the devil trying to blow out the light. That's the kind of cards they produced at that time. Bullinger's decades were many times republished and translated into French and English in particular. And Bullinger's correspondence included Henry VIII of England and King Edward VI of England. And when in 1570, Queen Elizabeth needed to prepare a response to the papacy who were announcing excommunication, she turned to Bullinger in Zurich to draft her reply. Bullinger's contributions to systematizing the doctrine of Zwingli and organizing the churches of reformed Switzerland were decisive. In 1537, he wrote the first Helvetic Confession, or the first Swiss Confession, which was adopted by the church of Zurich and Bern and Basel and Schaufhausen and St. Gall and Mulhauser and Biena. And in 1549, he, along with John Calvin, wrote the Zurich Agreement. on the Lord's Supper. In 1566, Bullinger's brief exposition of faith became the basis for the Second Helvetic Confession, which remained for centuries the basis for the reformed churches of the Swiss Confederation. The Helvetic Confessions are widely known and respected amongst the reformed communities of France and England and Scotland and Poland and Hungary and Bohemia, what today is the Czech Republic. They also left an imprint on the Presbyterian churches in America who turned to the Helvetic Confessions for the definitive gold standard. And in this way, you can see that Bullinger and his writings and his teaching ministry went far and wide, even to South Africa. One historian commented about the Helvetic Confession. This confession is the most natural and the simplest of all. It says in the clearest way what it means. And this is the Latin version of the second Helvetic Confession. I've got a book on reformed confessions harmonized, but I've got the different confessions, much of which were actually written by Bullinger. Zwingli wrote concerning Bullinger, this young man is very learned. He compares everything, he reconciles everything. Notice the stained glass window here in Zurich, it's got Ulrich Zwingli on the one side and Heinrich Bullinger on the other. And the one with the Bible and sword, the other man just with the Bible. Bullinger was not the fighter that Zwingli was, but he was the teacher and the pastor. 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 ministers that they should read a chapter of the Bible every day and one of Bullinger's sermons every week. The forward to the English translation of the decades of sermons 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. If you find Calvin hard to understand, read Bullinger. He makes it super clear. The successor of Calvin, Theodore Bezer, had been won to the Reformed faith at the age of 16 by a tract written by Heinrich Bullinger. Many key people won by gospel literature. We should use literature. Bezer wrote, we are used to being strengthened by you. Bezer 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, the lost, the persecuted, and the spiritual seeker. Although his salary was meager, he gave many gifts. He gave his own small income to hospitals and institutions of mercy. Bullinger's preaching was powerful and his pen seldom rested. For 44 years, he maintained an average of preaching seven times a week, and at seven different sermons a week. His pastoral heart produced one of the first Protestant books on comforting the sick and the dying. Bullinger laid solid foundations, and he built upon the solid foundations laid by Ulrich Zwingli, and he provided an ecclesiastical and theological order that was thoroughly reformed. 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. Here you can see the churches in Zurich. This is an interesting picture because of the swans. You may recall the swan is symbolic of Luther in Lutheranism. Because when Professor Jan Hus was being burned at the stake, he made a joke. He said, my goose is cooked. Now the name Hus means goose in Czech. So he says, my goose is cooked. But 100 years from now, a swan will arise whose voice the Pope will not be able to silence. And that was 1415. 1415, Jan Hus was burned at the stake in Constance. And 100 years later came Martin Luther. And so the swan is always associated in reformed circles as a reformed bird. By the way, you know that the swan mates for life. They're inflexibly loyal to their mates for life. So this short chapter presentation on Heinrich Bollinger is a chapter in The Greatest Century of Reformation. Here to the right of the main doors to the Grossmünster Great Cathedral you can see Heinrich Bollinger's monument, a very humble, straightforward man and While most people know of Zwingli, his very colourful predecessor, the work of Heinrich Bullinger was very solid, very effective in disciplining and disciplining not only the churches and the communities in Switzerland, but bringing together all the groups, German and French Protestants in Switzerland, to work together and to be a great blessing to the refugees fleeing Bloody Mary's persecutions in England and laying foundations for the reformation that would be in England. Here you can see some of the Alps in the background surrounding Zurich. There's Grussmünster. and it gives you a bit of a feel for the terrain. I've ministered here many a time and it's a very wonderful privilege to go to places of the Reformation and learn from them. We've got a lot of great Reformation resources on our website and I would recommend you to Make the name of Bullinger better known and hunt in the library for books by Bullinger because in it you will find a lot of good resources for any pastoral ministry. Any questions, any comments on Heinrich Bullinger, Consolidator of the Reformation? Can I ask a question? How many of you here knew of Heinrich Bullinger before this morning? Anyone? Oh, oh dear. Okay, so it just shows how it's important. He's a very important reformer, but he is the least known for some strange reason. But it's why we have sessions like this. Any questions on any of the presentations this morning? Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, Heinrich Willinger, yes. where the stone that falls on their head is allowing them to recreate the Kaba. So my question is, what is the reason behind? Why do they have control of that stone? Why? What is their motive? Okay, so this carries on from yesterday when we were talking about what the reformists taught on Islam, and that the Muslims have a mere idol in the place of God, and the Kaaba. All Muslims around the world, 1.7 billion of them, something like that, bow down five times a day if they're all being faithful, towards not just Mecca, but towards the Kaaba. Now, the Kaaba predates Muhammad. This is something very interesting. There's a lot of evidence that there was a Kaaba in Mecca which was a site of pilgrimage going back to the pagans in Arabia. And in fact, Muhammad claims to have come and cleansed the Kaaba and thrown out hundreds of idols. There are apparently hordes and hordes and hordes of idols in the Kaaba. And of course, so the Kaaba and people bowing to it and doing pilgrimage to it long predates Islam. That's a fact. and Muhammad cleansed the Kaaba of the idols. And he left only one stone in it. And that stone is Allah. You can actually see in the British Museum, as I have in London, an idol from Mecca, from Arabia I should say, of a crescent moon. And the name is written on the idol in Arabic, Allah. And this predates Muhammad, that there was a deity. In fact, considering his uncle and his grandfather had names like Abdullah and so on where they were the slave of Allah. Allah was a known name which was being used even as family names in Arabia before Muhammad and before his revelation from an angel apparently. The Kaaba had a lot of idols, and one of the idols or one of the gods that the Arabs in the pagan past worshipped was Allah, who is the moon god. Now, in the Kaaba is a meteorite, a rock, a piece of rock, a black rock, a big one that fell down from the earth. Now, some meteorites hit the earth. And if you're lucky, you're not nearby when it happens because you can imagine Heavy metal. I've seen in Namibia a big crater created by a meteorite. The rock is at the bottom there, but there's this massive hole there. That's just created by a rock that fell from space. Now, it probably didn't come from the moon, but because the moon's the closest planet to us, many people assume not that the moon is a planet. correctly speaking. But a piece of rock falls to the ground. There's a lot of meteorites floating around in the atmosphere, space, but some come through and land at a few places on Earth. And many superstitious people you understand would worship it. Now, Muhammad gets rid of all the idols, all the stone idols and whatever of different gods and who knows what was there, Baal and Asherah or who knows, Tronos, but all he left there was the meteorite which was symbolic of Allah because Allah is the moon god. And so it's an intriguing thing that what the Muslims are actually bowing down to is a rock in a box which predates Islam and predates Muhammad and it's symbolic of the moon god who Arab pagans worshipped even before Muhammad and Islam.