Repairing the Breach

During the 1530s, Bullinger was occupied with simply recovering from the rupture left by Zwingli.

The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, by Matthew Barrett

Heinrich Bullinger became head pastor in Zurich at only twenty-seven years of age.  He would hold this position for four and a half decades – one of the most enduring tenures in any Reformed pulpit.  He was prolific, both in sermon and in book. 

Most importantly, he brought the church back from its near-death experience on the battlefield against the Catholics in Switzerland. 

…Bullinger revived the church by resurrecting its original purpose, the preaching of the evangelical faith.

He would keep the church out of the magistrate’s business – he would not preach on civic governance matters.  There are pros and cons to this, but most importantly, from the Reformer’s point of view, this allowed room for a foundation to be established, a foundation absent due to Zwingli’s approach.

For Bullinger, covenant theology was central to his understanding of the Bible.  Each Sunday, he would remind people that they, like Israel, had entered into a covenant with the Lord.  He consolidated the form of liturgy, ensuring its adoption throughout the Confederation:

·         The minister would first have the congregants examine themselves, in order to humble themselves.

·         Next, they would join hands, reciting the Creed and confessing the faith delivered to them.

·         They would next confess their sins to the Lord.

·         The minister would then assure the people that they were forgiven, thanks to the blood of Christ.

·         After this came prayer and a Scripture reading.

·         Then, an exposition of the text, admonishing the people from the Word of God.

·         Finally, a Communion prayer, the Lord’s Supper, and a singing of the Psalms – ending with a final blessing.

His other focus was to see if it was possible to reconcile the Swiss and German understandings on the Lord’s Supper.  In 1535, some progress was made.  Five articles on this topic were developed.  These found favor with Bullinger, and did not result in wrath from Luther.  It seemed a start.

The First Helvetic Confession of 1536 demonstrated this advance.  Article 22 offered…

…the Lord’s Supper “truly offers his body and blood, that is, himself, to his own,” even if Christ’s body and blood are not “naturally united with the bread and wine or…are spatially enclosed within them.”

While Luther showed no hostility to the Confession, the document of twenty-eight concise articles did not end up uniting the Lutheran and the Swiss Reformed. 

Bullinger wasn’t finished:

If Calvin is remembered for his Institutes, then Bullinger may be remembered for his Decades.

This consisted of a series of sermons delivered from 1549 to 1551.  He used the medium of preaching to solidify the Reformed Church.  Even more, his purpose was to link the Reform to the church universal:

Is the Reformation a departure from the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church – as Rome claimed – or is the Reformation a proper albeit evangelical renewal of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church?

The Church triumphant is the great company of holy spirits; the church militant is a congregation of men on earth, still fighting in the world against the devil and sin; the invisible church is the elect bride of Christ, known only to God; the visible church is mixed. 

His disagreements with Rome were not only soteriological, but also ecclesiological.  Yet his battle was not with the Roman Catholic Church, which he freely admitted was full of Christians; his battle was with the papacy, which he readily identified with the Antichrist. 

So, how would one recognize the true church?  The sincere preaching of the Word of God, and the lawful partaking of the sacraments of Christ.  Yet, against these two requirements, if a church betrays an orthodox hermeneutic, it cannot be a true church.

He did not see apostolic succession as a marker; his focus for qualification to office was true doctrine and piety.  While the true church could never err, as the wicked are mingled in with the good, on earth, there can be error.  All of which comes down to authority: absolute authority belongs only to Christ, and not with any earthly mediator.

His Second Helvetic Confession (1566) offered meaningful improvements to the first.  Protestants across Switzerland, as well as in Germany, France, Scotland, Poland, England and the Netherlands, came to embrace it.  He focused on Protestant distinctives while using conciliatory language on the Lord’s Supper.

Conclusion

A message for our time:

For even in the worst of days, when it appears the light of the church is all but extinguished either due to persecution or corruption, the Christian can rest assured that God is at work across the world to preserve his true body.