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GYC Southeast

Great in God's Sight Season 3

Rhonda Grakov

Martin Luther: Captive Conscience

Ulrich Zwingli: Of Switzerland and Sola Scriptura

Marguerite of Navarre: Faith over France

William Tyndale: Singing the Same Note

Menno Simons: A Forbidden Book

Albrecht Dürer: Brushstrokes of the Reformation, Part 1

Albrecht Dürer: Brushstrokes of the Reformation, Part 2

Katherine Parr: The Survivor

Philipp Melanchthon: Nothing but Heaven

Ursula Von Münsterberg: Escape Artist for God

Hello and welcome to Grading God's Sight, the podcast that explores underrated heroes.

This is Season 3 and we're so glad you've joined us for this episode entitled Ulrich Zwingli of Switzerland and Sola Scriptura.

Please be sure to subscribe and check out the terrific artwork that goes along with today's story on our website, thegreatpodcast.org.

The towering granite peaks faintly glowed in the lingering rays of the golden sun, and shepherds could be seen leading their woolly flocks to their homes in the green alpine valley.

The evening was growing chilly, and fires were already lit in many hearths.

By 1 of these fires, in a small brown cottage on the hillside, sat an elderly woman with a little boy at her feet.

His name was Ulrich, and there was nothing he liked better than listening to his grandmother's Bible stories.

She didn't know very many, but he loved them all the same.

No 1 in Wildhaus village could have guessed at the time, but Ulrich was destined to become the most famous defender of scripture in the history of Switzerland.

Now he was just a little Swiss mountain boy.

Ulrich Zwingli was born on January 1, 1484, only a few weeks after Martin Luther and only a few years before Columbus embarked for the New World.

His family was 1 of the most honored in the village, and a large family it was, with father, mother, 8 sons, and 1 daughter.

Even as a child, Ulrich was passionately fond of his mountain home and its natural magnificence.

Along with the Bible stories, he also heard many tales of Swiss patriotism and bravery, and he loved his homeland with all his heart.

It didn't take very long for Ulrich's father to discern that his third son was gifted with much more potential than a shepherd would ever be able to use.

He arranged for Ulrich to attend school in the big city of Bern, where he did very well, until the monks discovered him.

Impressed by his talents, scheming Dominican friars tried to lure the boy into their monastery, where they were sure he would become a feather in their cap against the rival Franciscans.

When Herr Zwingli got wind of this, he promptly ordered his son to return home to the mountains.

Like Luther's father, he did not wish his son to become a monk, but unlike Luther, young Zwingli obeyed his father and escaped a host of troubles as a result.

Eventually Ulrich returned to school, this time to the University of Basel to study medieval scholastic divinity.

He found it very dull and confusing indeed, and much preferred the ancient classics.

In his leisure time, Ulrich refreshed his mind with music.

He had mastered at least 6 different instruments and found great pleasure in playing and singing with friends.

When he was 22 years old, Ulrich was called to his first post as a priest, in a parish not far from his native village.

He was very much a good son of the church, though not as fanatical as the young monk Luther had been.

He had always been an ardent lover of truth, and as a child had concluded that lying was a worse crime than stealing.

Now his passion for truth and knowledge inspired him to study Greek, in order to be able to draw from the fountainhead of truth the doctrines of Jesus Christ, as he said.

Quite on his own, Ulrich was embracing the principle of sola scriptura, the Bible and the Bible alone, and in the words of a friend, he would have no other interpreter than the Holy Ghost himself.

For Ulrich, this study of the Bible in its original languages and allowing Scripture to interpret itself was the basis of the Reformation.

Once, when accused of being Lutheran, Ulrich retorted, I am not a Lutheran, for I learned Greek before I ever heard the name of Luther." Although he and Luther both discovered much of the same truth independently through their personal studies of God's Word, their faith journeys were worlds apart.

Luther crashed upon the truth, so to speak, during a season of severe crisis.

Zwingli's knowledge of the truth grew gradually and much more imperceptibly over a longer stretch of time.

In 1516, 1 year before Luther penned the Ninety-Five Theses, Ulrich was invited to become the priest at a celebrated shrine of the Virgin Mary, whose statue there was reputed to possess all sorts of wonder-working powers.

Thousands upon Thousands of pilgrims clambered up the mountain each year at the festival of the Virgin to visit the shrine Where they believed they were at the very gates of heaven and would be forgiven all their sins With the fire of scripture burning in his bones Ulrich began preaching to the crowds this simple truth, Christ alone saves and he saves everywhere.

The people were electrified by this message.

Some accepted it and took it with them to their distant homes.

The Offerings to the Shrine of the Virgin plummeted noticeably, and so did Ulrich's salary, but he couldn't have been happier.

Interestingly, Rome responded to Zwingli's preaching in a very different style than they reacted to Luther's.

Zwingli somehow succeeded in presenting the truth less shockingly, yet without watering it down.

Switzerland was also a much more democratic country than Germany, which doubtless also played a part.

But the fact remains that the Church threatened Luther with violence, excommunication, and death, while trying to flatter Zwingli with promises of favors and promotions.

Thank God, neither reformer was shaken from his sure foundation.

Now Ulrich's friends arranged for him to take the prestigious duty of priest at the Grand Cathedral of Zürich.

Here he began a sermon series in which he went over the entire Gospel of Matthew passage by passage, drawing on his knowledge of the original Greek as he explained the life and ministry of Jesus.

They had never heard anything like it before.

The cathedral was bursting to the seams every week.

It seemed the entire city was moved by the Word of God.

There were adversaries, of course, but all Ulrich would say was, if we desire to gain over the wicked to Jesus Christ, we must shut our eyes against many things.

By all accounts, Ulrich was not only a captivating speaker, but a caring pastor and shepherd of his congregation as well.

He would mingle with all, rich and poor alike, and paid attention to the little children, sometimes even playing his lute for their enjoyment.

When the bubonic plague raged through the Swiss cities and came round to Zürich, Ulrich tirelessly attended to the stricken and comforted them with the hope of salvation.

He contracted the plague himself and was so ill that reports were spread about his death, but God mercifully spared him.

All this, plus his winsome personality and wonderful sermons straight from the Bible, made him universally beloved in Zürich, which quickly established itself as the center of the Reformation in Switzerland.

Although the Swiss and German Reformations were parallel to each other, Zwingli and Luther met only once.

Theologically, they were closely aligned, which is remarkable, as Zwingli said sometime before, never has a single line been addressed by me to Luther or by Luther to me, and why?

That it might be manifest to all how uniform is the testimony of the Spirit of God, since we, who have had no communication with each other, agree so closely in the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, there was 1 point which would mar this harmony.

Luther still clung to the belief that during the Lord's Supper, Christians received Jesus's physical body and blood.

Zwingli contended that the bread and wine were strictly symbolic.

Sadly, the 2 mighty Reformers permitted this to create a breach between them that was never mended, reminding us that faults and frailties will unavoidably be present even in the most outstanding Christians.

Martin Luther would have been wise to consider Zwingli's stance on communion from a more scriptural and less emotional standpoint, but there was another area in which Ulrich could have learned much from Martin.

Although Luther had friends in high places, he refused to bear arms and use brute force to advance or protect the Reformation in Germany.

He practiced the scripture that states, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God.

On the other hand, Zwingli was as much a fiery Swiss patriot as a fervent minister of the gospel, and embraced political responsibilities as readily as pastoral ones.

Switzerland was on the brink of civil war, and the Protestants of Zürich, with Zwingli, marched out to battle against several of the Catholic cantons.

By then, Zwingli acutely realized that his political participation and the warlike attitude of the Swiss Reformation were a grave mistake, but it was too late.

The battle was fierce and cruel, and by the end of the day, Ulrich Zwingli lay among the dead.

He had been a devoted soldier of the cross, but how much more he could have accomplished for his master if he had not forgotten Christ's words, My kingdom is not of this world.

Thank God, however, the Swiss Reformation did not die with Zwingli.

Many other reformers would rise from that tiny mountain nation, and today we think of it as the bastion of the Reformation.

In closing, here are some beautiful lines from 1 of Zwingli's hymns, written when he was near death and suffering from the plague.

The hand once nailed upon the tree, Jesus, uplift and shelter me.

Willest thou then death conquer me in my noon day?

Thank you for listening to Great in God Sight, a podcast by GYC Southeast.

We hope you have enjoyed this adventure through time and pray it serves to deepen your relationship with God.

While we strive to bring you a unique perspective on each believer, we encourage you to use your God-given curiosity to explore these topics for yourself.

Please remember to hit the subscribe button and share this episode with your friends via text or social media.

Until next time, we wish you God's blessing as you

Series

Great in God's Sight Season 3

Ulrich Zwingli: Of Switzerland and Sola Scriptura

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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Albrecht Dürer: Brushstrokes of the Reformation, Part 2

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Ursula Von Münsterberg: Escape Artist for God

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Martin Luther: Captive Conscience

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The Celestial Railroad: Part 1

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