Podcasts about swiss reformation

In this episode of Christ the Center, we're joined by Kurt Vetterli, pastor of an ERKWB congregation in Basel, and Florian Weicken, pastor of an EPCEW congregation in Zürich, for a rich conversation on the legacy and ongoing work of the Swiss Reformation. We begin with a guided historical survey of the Reformation in Zürich and Basel, highlighting key figures such as Huldrych Zwingli, Johannes Oecolampadius, and Heinrich Bullinger. From the Affair of the Sausages to the formation of the Second Helvetic Confession, we explore how these cities shaped the theology, worship, and church life of the broader Reformed tradition. Turning to the present, Kurt and Florian share about their ministries in Switzerland today—what gospel ministry looks like in a post-Christian context, the challenges and encouragements they experience, and how the Reformation heritage still speaks into their work. We conclude with a call to pray for the Reformed churches in Switzerland and to consider how listeners might support or participate in this important kingdom work.

In this episode of Christ the Center, we're joined by Kurt Vetterli, pastor of an ERKWB congregation in Basel, and Florian Weicken, pastor of an EPCEW congregation in Zürich, for […]

Welcome to Season 4 of Down Under Theology, a podcast equipping and encouraging Australian Christians to get down and under the theology impacting the life and mission of the church.In this episode, we're joined by Stephen Eccher, author of Zwingli the Pastor: A Life in Conflict (2024, Lexham Press) to talk all things Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation. We examine the impact of Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation on the church today, especially the idea of working vs worshipping together, and the importance of finishing well. Dr Stephen Eccher is the Associate Professor of Church History and Reformation Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, North Carolina.Thoughts, questions or feedback? Get in touch with us at downundertheology@gmail.com.---Episode Hosts:Allister Lum Mow (@allisterlm)Cameron Clausing (@cam_clausing)Murray SmithStephen EccherProducer:Nick RabeEpisode Sponsor:Christ College, Sydney---S4 Episode 11 - Show NotesRecommended Resources - Zwingli the Pastor: A Life in Conflict by Stephen B. EccherPlague and Providence: What Huldrych Zwingli Taught Me About Trusting God by Stephen B. Eccher (TGC Blog Post)Christ College, SydneyPreparing leaders for God's church and its gospel-centred mission in the world.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

A new MP3 sermon from Applegate Community Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation Subtitle: Church History Speaker: Darren Goheen Broadcaster: Applegate Community Church Event: Sunday School Date: 6/16/2024 Length: 27 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Applegate Community Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation Subtitle: Church History Speaker: Darren Goheen Broadcaster: Applegate Community Church Event: Sunday School Date: 6/16/2024 Length: 27 min.

Embark on a captivating journey through the Reformation era with our video, "The Reformation: a revolution of battling beliefs on baptism." Explore the contrasting views of baptism held by influential figures like Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Calvin. Discover the Anabaptists' fearless rejection of infant baptism and their unwavering commitment to biblical authority. This thought-provoking video invites you to reflect on your own beliefs about baptism while uncovering the clash of ideologies that shaped our understanding of faith. Like, share, and subscribe for more intriguing insights into history and theology, and continue seeking the truths that shape our world. New Birth blog: https://www.bendchurch.org/post/a-theology-of-new-birth 0:00 - intro 0:34 - baptism norms in the reformation 2:17 - Felix Manz Anabaptist persecution 2:50 - Martin Luther on baptism 8:47 - Swiss Reformation on baptism 9:50 - Huldrych Zwingli on baptism 16:07 - Anabaptists on baptism 16:42 - Balthasar Hubmaier on baptism 21:07 - outro

The Swiss Reformation and the Sausage Affair that kicked it off.

In his time, Huldrych Zwingli was a deeply polarizing figure. Though clearly a leader of the Swiss Reformation, contemporaries Martin Luther and John Calvin denied Zwingli's influence, due in large part to his position on the Lord's Supper. Unlike his more famous critics, Zwingli would die on a battlefield in Zurich engaged in an armed defense of the Reformation in his homeland. Today's Podcast Wednesday guest Bruce Gordon is the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School and the author of many books on the Reformation. Dr. Gordon joins Jonathan and James to provide a fresh biography of the warrior prophet and a deeper appreciation of Zwingli's contribution to Reformation thought. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/581/29

Zwingli: God's Armed Prophet In his time, Huldrych Zwingli was a deeply polarizing figure. Though clearly a leader of the Swiss Reformation, contemporaries Martin Luther and John Calvin denied Zwingli's influence,  due in large part to his position on the Lord's Supper. Unlike his more famous critics, Zwingli would die on a battlefield in Zurich engaged in an armed defense of the Reformation in his homeland. Today's guest Bruce Gordon is the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School and the author of many books on the Reformation. Dr. Gordon joins Jonathan and James to provide a fresh biography of the warrior prophet and a deeper appreciation of Zwingli's contribution to Reformation thought. We are pleased to offer a few giveaway copies of Gordon's book Zwingli: God's Armed Prophet. To get in the running to receive one, enter here.  

The Swiss Reformation Part 3 - Pastor Mark Ralston

The Swiss Reformation Part 2 - Pastor Mark Ralston

The Swiss Reformation - Pastor Mark Ralston

The Swiss Reformation began with sausage. Scripture Reading (NRSV) Luke 24:28-32 Hymn Low in the Grave He Lay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonMennonite Website: https://houstonmennonite.org

Ulrich Zwingli begins what will be known as the Reformed Movement.

Ulrich Zwingli begins what will be known as the Reformed Movement.

Zwingli is to Switzerland as Luther is to Germany. Although eclipsed in our consciousness by its German counterpart, the Swiss Reformation sprung up simultaneously and was no less transformative. Meet the godly man who spearheaded this movement, Ulrich Zwingli. Born seven weeks after Luther, Zwingli was a dedicated pastor, preacher, and patriot who deserves to be remembered. This episode of Great in God's Sight is one you won't want to miss! Check out the fantastic artwork that goes along with today's story at thegreatpodcast.org!

The Swiss monk Huldrych Zwingli, a contemporary with Luther, started preaching from the Bible instead of the Church Doctrine. Others like Felix Mantz, George Blaurock, and Conrad Grebel, and later John Calvin attempted to reform the Roman Catholic Church of its doctrine. The preaching of the gospel separated themselves and their communities from the Catholic Church. The gospel continued to spread.

A new MP3 sermon from Heritage Baptist Church of Frankfort IL is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Flames Of The Swiss Reformation Subtitle: The Reformation Speaker: Keith Betry Broadcaster: Heritage Baptist Church of Frankfort IL Event: Sunday - AM Date: 5/2/2021 Bible: Psalm 46:1-11; Hebrews 11:32-40 Length: 51 min.

I was going to knock down a few more chapters of "The Language of Creation" but I got back to reading "Reformations" when I saw it on  @Dr G Ashenden  bookshelf. I started reading it when I heard Tom Holland mention it a while ago and wanted to pick it up again.  As I read "The Language of Creation" I often wrestle with whether the book is Evangelical or Orthodox. Understanding a bit more of the Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation helps me see more issues.   @Dr G Ashenden   on  @Jordan B Peterson  conversation with  @Jonathan Pageau  https://youtu.be/qNJ1c3XBL5I and on @meaningcode https://youtu.be/J-3CxAjbVBM Peter Kreeft Symbol Substance https://amzn.to/3f8wUwF Brett Salkeld Transubstantiation https://amzn.to/3fbu9KR Len VanderZee Christ, Baptism and the Lord's Supper https://amzn.to/3djBe9Z The Language of Creation https://amzn.to/3cZvVMy Reformations Carlos Eire https://amzn.to/3fcmRqs   Discord link. Good for just a few days. Check with more recent videos for a fresh link. https://discord.gg/pX5qBdUH Paul Vander Klay clips channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0jIcadtoxELSwehCh5QTg If you want to schedule a one-on-one conversation check here. https://paulvanderklay.me/2019/08/06/converzations-with-pvk/ There is a video version of this podcast on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/paulvanderklay To listen to this on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-vanderklays-podcast/id1394314333  If you need the RSS feed for your podcast player https://paulvanderklay.podbean.com/feed/  All Amazon links here are part of the Amazon Affiliate Program. Amazon pays me a small commission at no additional cost to you if you buy through one of the product links here. This is is one (free to you) way to support my videos.  To support this channel/podcast on Paypal: https://paypal.me/paulvanderklay To support this channel/podcast with Bitcoin (BTC): 37TSN79RXewX8Js7CDMDRzvgMrFftutbPo  To support this channel/podcast with Bitcoin Cash (BCH) qr3amdmj3n2u83eqefsdft9vatnj9na0dqlzhnx80h  To support this channel/podcast with Ethereum (ETH): 0xd3F649C3403a4789466c246F32430036DADf6c62 Blockchain backup on Lbry https://lbry.tv/@paulvanderklay Powerpoints of Monologue videos are available for Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/paulvanderklay Paul's Church Content at Living Stones Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh7bdktIALZ9Nq41oVCvW-A To support Paul's work by supporting his church give here. https://tithe.ly/give?c=2160640

In the next two episodes we're continuing our look at the reformers. We've already looked at the ultimate reformer, Martin Luther, and the Reformation martyress Lady Jane Grey. Now we're moving the lens to the Swiss Confederation and pastor/reformer/soldier Huldrych Zwingli. Zwingli was the original leader of the Swiss Reformation and sometimes rival to Martin Luther. His Reformation arose almost simultaneous to Luther's - fitting as they were only born seven weeks apart - and in some ways his story parallels Luther's but there were irreconcilable differences that continue to linger today.RESOURCES5 Minutes in Church History: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/sausage-supper/Underdog Theology: http://underdogtheology.blogspot.com/2012/09/swingin-zwingli.htmlChristian History Institute: https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/issue/zwingli-father-of-the-swiss-reformationChristian History Institute: https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/zwingli-and-lutherThe Gospel Coalition: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-know-ulrich-zwingli/Intro Music: Country Strumstick Mountain Hop, by Andy Slater

Join us today as we continue our series on heroes of the reformation.  We'll look at Erasmus, who was an early influencer, but not directly a reformer.  Despite this, he had a huge influence on future reformers.  We'll also examine Zwingli, who was the central figure in the Swiss Reformation.  

What happened today in Christian History?  If you're like me, looking at the past can excite, intrigue, and cause one to reflect on the present. Today we look at what happened on January 1st. 

Episode coming soon!

On Sunday, February 16, 2020, Mr. John West lead a discussion on the historical events in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that lead up to and culminated in the Protestant Reformation. Church History, Week 7: Difficult Topics of the Time (AD 1400-1600) 1408: John Wycliffe’s English version of the Bible published; 1415: Jan Hus—Burned at the stake; 1439: Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church leaders agree to a reunification under Rome, Kevian Rus (Russia) forms new Russian Orthodox Church; 1453: Fall of Constantinople, end of the Eastern Roman Empire; 1456: Gutenberg produces first printed Bible; 1478: The Spanish Inquisition begins; 1492: Spain’s monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, give Jews three months to convert or be banished. Columbus departs west for China; 1497: In Scotland, children are required by law to attend school. 1502: Johann Tetzel appointed by Cardinal Giovanni de Medici, later Pope Leo X, to preach the Indulgence; 1512: Michelangelo completes the Sistine Chapel ceiling; 1517: Martin Luther posts his Ninety-Five Theses; 1521: Diet of Worms, Luther refuses to recant; 1523: Zwingli begins the Swiss Reformation; 1524: William Tyndale travels to Germany and in two years releases first printed English New Testament; 1525: Anabaptist movement begins with Conrad Grebel. Influences Menno Simons, founder of the Mennonites;1527: Michael Sattler and Anabaptist leader is martyred for the Schleitheim Confession of Faith; 1529: Protestants emerge at the Diet of Speyer; 1531: League of Schmalkalden formed, Protestants against Rome; 1534: Henry VIII—Church of England established via the Act of Supremacy; 1536: Institutes of the Christian Religion published by John Calvin; 1549: Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury produces the Book of Common Prayer; 1555: Charles V agrees to the Peace of Augsburg, granting Lutheranism official status within the empire; 1559: Establishment of the French Protestant Church, later known as the Huguenots; 1560: Scots Confession ratified by the newly recognized sovereign parliament of Scotland; 1562: Frederick III encourages the development of the Heidelberg Catechism by Olevianus & Ursinus; 1563: Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are issued summarizing the official doctrine of the Church of England; 1572: 24 August, St. Bartholomew’s Day, 3,000 Protestants massacred in Paris. Within three days, 10,000 Huguenots are killed across France; 1589: Moscow becomes an independent Patriarchate, recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church as the fifth most honored office; 1590: William Shakespeare begins publishing plays with the Taming of the Shrew; 1598: Edict of Nantes by Henry IV ends religious wars in France by decreed tolerance between Catholics and Protestants.

On Today in Church His-Story (Episode 36) we unveil a decision that changed the course of history. Ulrich Zwingli is considered to be the father of the Swiss Reformation. But what sparked the fire of reformation in Switzerland? Find out on today’s segment.

This episode is brought to you by our friends at Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. CBTS exists to provide ministerial training in the context of a confessional, local church. They are, among other things, confessional, baptist, affordable, and accessible. They are now fully Accredited by the Association of Reformed Theological Seminaries. You can learn more about them at https://cbtseminary.org/   Evangelism with Dr. Tom Johnston (Episode 35) Dr. Johnston serves as Professor of Evangelism and as the director of the Midwestern Evangelistic Teams. Born in Paris, France, to missionary parents, Dr. Johnston's heart for missions and evangelism was forged in the context of post-Christian Europe. His fluency in French and familiarity with European cultures have served him well in leading evangelistic team in six countries and across four continents. He also brings to his students sixteen years of pastoral ministry experience in the United States and Canada. Dr. Johnston received the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and the Bachelor of Science from Wheaton College. Johnston is married to Raschelle. They have three children and four grandchildren. His research interests include Medieval French history, the Swiss Reformation, and related textual studies in theology and practice. For example, he has written on the evangelistic zeal of Calvin's Geneva and approaches to the Great Commission in the 12th and 13th Centuries in Southern France. His articles have appeared in Trinity Journal, the Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry, Midwestern Journal of Theology, Perichoresis, Preaching Magazine, as well as Decision Magazine, the Lausanne Movement, and Preaching Online. While serving as president of the Southern Baptist Professors of Evangelism Fellowship for six years, and currently as its Secretary-Treasurer, Dr. Johnston edited Mobilizing a Great Commission Church for Outreach (Wipf and Stock), with chapters by 19 Southern Baptist professors of evangelism. Resource Recommendation: http://www.evangelizology.com/ Consumed! A Passion for the Great Commission. by Dr. Tom Johnston:https://www.amazon.com/Consumed-Passion-Great-Commission/dp/0983152675/   Keep up with our Podcast via: Twitter: https://twitter.com/podcastcovenant Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/covenantpodcast/ iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/covenant-podcast/id1464738712 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3xaNyHKd85BZl3Cxw5CUk8?si=T89hvJfVQUCcvmVxvrfEfw YouTube, Podbean, Google Podcasts, Stitcher.     

This episode is brought to you by our friends at Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. CBTS exists to provide ministerial training in the context of a confessional, local church. They are, among other things, confessional, baptist, affordable, and accessible. They are now fully Accredited by the Association of Reformed Theological Seminaries. You can learn more about them at https://cbtseminary.org/   Evangelism with Dr. Tom Johnston (Episode 35) Dr. Johnston serves as Professor of Evangelism and as the director of the Midwestern Evangelistic Teams. Born in Paris, France, to missionary parents, Dr. Johnston’s heart for missions and evangelism was forged in the context of post-Christian Europe. His fluency in French and familiarity with European cultures have served him well in leading evangelistic team in six countries and across four continents. He also brings to his students sixteen years of pastoral ministry experience in the United States and Canada. Dr. Johnston received the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and the Bachelor of Science from Wheaton College.Johnston is married to Raschelle. They have three children and four grandchildren. His research interests include Medieval French history, the Swiss Reformation, and related textual studies in theology and practice. For example, he has written on the evangelistic zeal of Calvin’s Geneva and approaches to the Great Commission in the 12th and 13th Centuries in Southern France. His articles have appeared in Trinity Journal, the Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry, Midwestern Journal of Theology, Perichoresis, Preaching Magazine, as well as Decision Magazine, the Lausanne Movement, and Preaching Online. While serving as president of the Southern Baptist Professors of Evangelism Fellowship for six years, and currently as its Secretary-Treasurer, Dr. Johnston edited Mobilizing a Great Commission Church for Outreach (Wipf and Stock), with chapters by 19 Southern Baptist professors of evangelism. Resource Recommendation: http://www.evangelizology.com/ Consumed! A Passion for the Great Commission. by Dr. Tom Johnston:https://www.amazon.com/Consumed-Passion-Great-Commission/dp/0983152675/   Keep up with our Podcast via: Twitter: https://twitter.com/podcastcovenant Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/covenantpodcast/ iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/covenant-podcast/id1464738712 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3xaNyHKd85BZl3Cxw5CUk8?si=T89hvJfVQUCcvmVxvrfEfw YouTube, Podbean, Google Podcasts, Stitcher.     

Learn about the Swiss Reformation, spearheaded by Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich as well as the formation of the sect of Anabaptists known as the Swiss Brethren, including Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock. Key events covered in this episode include: 1519 Ulrich Zwingli begins Reformation in Zurich 1529 Zwingli and Luther part ways over Read more about 118 Zwingli and the Swiss Anabaptists (Five Hundred 3)[…]

Learn about the Swiss Reformation, spearheaded by Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich as well as the formation of the sect of Anabaptists known as the Swiss Brethren, including Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock. Key events covered in this episode include: 1519 Ulrich Zwingli begins Reformation in Zurich 1529 Zwingli and Luther part ways over Read more about 118 Zwingli and the Swiss Anabaptists (Five Hundred 3)[…]

CH02  Lesson 4: An Uncertain Decade Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation

Message from Trey Richardson on July 16, 2017

Message from Trey Richardson on July 16, 2017

When the Protestant Reformer John Calvin published his book Institutes of the Christian Religion in the 1500s, he couldn't have anticipated the incredibly different purposes his book would come to serve long after he died and was buried somewhere in an unmarked grave by his own request. The Institutes was a blockbuster in Calvin's day, but why, hundreds of years later, did it wind up playing a part in debates about apartheid in South Africa? How did the exact same book manage to help some people justify racial discrimination, but also help others powerfully oppose it? Bruce Gordon answers that and other questions in this episode about his new biography of John Calvin's Institutes. Special Episodes: “Lives of Great Religious Books” This ongoing series of MIPodcast episodes features interviews with authors of volumes in Princeton University Press's impressive “Lives of Great Religious Books” series. Leading experts examine the origins of books like the Book of Mormon, the Bhagavad Gita, Augustine's Confessions, and C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. They trace shifts in the reception, influence, and interpretation of these landmark texts. By looking at other religious texts from a variety of perspectives—worthwhile in their own right—we come to understand other faiths better, as well as our own. About the Guest Bruce Gordon is the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School. His books include Calvin, a biography of the reformer, and The Swiss Reformation. His latest book is a biography of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. It is part of Princeton University Press's Lives of Great Religious Books series.The post #49—The unexpected life of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, with Bruce Gordon [MIPodcast] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

43:39 clean Rev. Walt Marcum info@hpumc.org (Highland Park United Methodist Church)

Today on Theology on the Go, Jonathan Master is joined by Dr. Bruce Gordon, Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale University Divinity School. As a Reformation Era scholar, he has written many books, including The Swiss Reformation, and a biography of John Calvin. Dr. Gordon stops by to talk to Jonathan about the importance of studying church history. Why should we study the past? What good can come from it anyway? Listen in to hear more!

This episode is titled, Taking It Further.History, or I should say, the reporting of it, shows a penchant for identifying one person, a singular standout as the locus of change. This despite the recurring fact there were others who participated in or paralleled that change. Such is the case with Martin Luther and the Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli. While Luther is the “historic bookmark” for the genesis of the Reformation, in some ways, Zwingli was ahead of him.Born in Switzerland in 1484, Ulrich Zwingli was educated in the best universities and  ordained a priest.  Possessing a keen mind, intense theological inquiry coupled to a keen spiritual struggle brought him to a genuine faith in 1516, a year before Luther tacked his 95 thesis to Wittenberg's door.  Two yrs later, Zwingli arrived in Zurich where he spent the rest of his life. By 1523, he was leading the Reformation in Switzerland.Zwingli's preaching convinced Zurich's city council to permit the clergy to marry. They abolished the Mass and banned images and statues in public worship. They dissolved the monasteries and severed ties with Rome. Recognizing the central place the Bible was to have in the Christian life, the Zurich reformers published the NT in their own vernacular in 1524 and the entire Bible 6 yrs later; 4 yrs before Luther's German translation was available.Zwingli didn't just preach a Reformation message, he lived it. He married Anna Reinhart in 1522.In one important respect, Zwingli followed the Bible more specifically than Luther. Martin allowed whatever the Bible did not prohibit. Zwingli rejected whatever the Bible did not prescribe. So the Reformation in Zurich tended to strip away more traditional symbols of the Roman church: the efficacy of lighting candles, the use of statues and pictures as objects of devotion, even church music was ended. Later, in England, these reforms would come to be called “Puritanism.”But more than the application of Reformation principles, Zwingli's bookmark in history is pegged to the Eucharistic controversy his teaching stirred. He was at the center of a major theological debate concerning the Lord's Table. Between 1525 and 8, a bitter war of words was waged between Zwingli and Luther. During this debate, Luther would write a tract and Zwingli would reply. Then Zwingli would pen a treatise and Luther would reply. This went back and forth for 3 yrs. It was a war fought with pamphlets as the ammunition.Both sides rejected the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation—that the prayer of a duly authorized priest transformed the elements into the literal body and blood of Christ. Their disagreement centered on Jesus' words, “This is My body.” Luther and his followers adopted the position known consubstantiation, which says Jesus is present “in, with, and under” the elements and taking Communion spiritually strengthens the believer.Zwingli and his supporters regarded this as an unnecessary compromise with the doctrine of transubstantiation. They said Jesus' words had to be understood symbolically. The elements represented Jesus' blood and body, and Communion was merely a memorial.  An important memorial to be sure, but the bread and wine were just symbols.The debate remains to this day.It should be noted that during his last years, Zwingli seems to have moved to a new position in regard to Communion. He came to recognize a spiritual presence of Christ in the elements, though reducing the idea to words is a proposition   far beyond the capacity of this podcast to do. This later position of Zwingli was the position of Philip Melanchthon, Luther's assistant and spiritual heir.Following hundreds of years of tradition, Zwingli, along with many other Reformers, believed the State and Church should reinforce one another in the work of God; there should be no separation. That's why the Reformation became increasingly political and split Switzerland into Catholic and Protestant cantons, and eventually saw all of Europe carved up into differing religious regions. The terrible Wars of Religion were the result.Switzerland at that time was a network of 13 counties called cantons. These were loosely federated and basically democratic. Culturally, the north and east were German, while the west was French, and the south was Italian. The Reformation spread from Zurich, chief city of the capital canton, to the rest of German Switzerland, who were nevertheless reluctant to come under the politic al control of Zurich. Several cantons remained militantly Roman Catholic and resisted Zwingli's influence for largely economic reasons.As political tensions grew, several Protestant cantons formed the Christian Civic League. Feeling pressed and threatened, the Catholic cantons also organized and allied themselves with the king of Austria. A desire to avoid war led to the First Peace of Kappel in 1529. But as often happens, once a treaty was hammered out, the only option left was war. Sure enough, two yrs later, five Roman Catholic cantons attacked Zurich, which was unprepared.  Zwingli fought as a common soldier in the Battle of Kappel in 1531 and died in the field.The Second Peace of Kappel hammered out at the end of the year prohibited further spread of the Reformation in Switzerland. Heinrich Bullinger, Zwingli's son-in-law, took over leadership of the Protestant cause in Zurich and enjoyed great influence across Europe.An important aspect of Zwingli's impact on the Reformation was that he cast it along civic lines, with a view to establishing a model Christian community. He persuaded the city council to legislate various details of the Reformation. He aimed at political reform as well as spiritual regeneration.The inter-canton struggles of this period led to the growing independence of the city of Geneva, which became the home of John Calvin, the other great Reformation luminary. The Swiss Reformation and Zwinglian movement ended up merging with Calvinism later in the 16th C.Often overlooked in a review of the Reformation are those we might call the REAL reformers – better known as the radical reformers.Not all those who broke with Rome agreed with Zwingli, Luther, or Calvin. As early as 1523 in Zurich, there were those whose vision of Reform outstripped Zwingli's. This movement coalesced around 2 leaders: Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz.On the 21st of Jan, 1525, a little group met in the home of Felix Manz. The Zurich City Council had just ordered Grebel and Manz to stop teaching the Bible. Four days earlier the Council ordered parents to baptize their babies within eight days of birth or face exile. But a group of Zurich's citizens questioned the practice of infant baptism. They met in Manz's home to decide what to do. After a time of prayer, they agreed they'd obey what their conscience told them God's Word said and trust Him to work things out. In an immediate application of that decision, a former priest named George Blaurock asked Conrad Grebel to baptism him in the fashion modeled in the Book of Acts. So, upon confession of His faith in Christ, Grebel baptized him, then Blaurock and Grebel together baptized the others.Anabaptism, another important expression of the Protestant Reformation, was born.As a term, anabaptist means “to baptize again.” The Anabaptists stressed believer's baptism, as opposed to infant baptism. But the term “Anabaptist” refers to diverse groups of Reformers, many of whom embraced radical social, political, economic, and religious views. Some Anabaptist groups are known as the Swiss Brethren, the Mennonites, Hutterites, and the Amish. While those names may conjure up images of buggies, overalls, bonnets and long beards, it's important to recognize that the Anabaptist tradition lies at the heart of a far larger slice of the Christian and Protestant world. Many modern groups and independent local churches could rightly be called Anabaptist in the bulk of their theology, though ignorant of their spiritual heritage.While the theology of the Anabaptist groups ended up being widely spread across the doctrinal spectrum, their main stream adhered to the sound, expository teaching of the Scriptures, the Trinity, justification by faith, and the atonement of Christ. What got them in trouble with some of their Reformation brethren was their rejection of infant baptism, which both Catholic and most other Protestant groups affirmed. They argued for a gathered, voluntary church concept as opposed to a State church.  They advocated a separation of church and state and adopted pacifism and nonviolent resistance. They said Christians should live communally and share their material possessions. Counter-intuitively to all this, they preached and practiced a strict form of church discipline. Any one of these would mark them as distinct from other Reformation groups; but taken together, the Anabaptists were destined to run into trouble with Lutherans and Calvin's followers.That's what happened in Zurich. Zwingli's reforming zeal produced an intolerance of his disciples Grebel and Manz who simply wanted to take the reforms further. They tried to convince Zwingli to follow thru into a genuine NT pattern, but all they did was provoke him to urge the City Council to fine, imprisoned, and eventually martyr them and their followers.The rise of Anabaptism ought to have been no surprise. Revolutions nearly always spin off a radical fringe that feels its destiny is to reform the reformation. Really, that's what Anabaptism was; a voice calling moderate reformers to take it further; to go all the way into a genuine NT model.Like most such movements, the Anabaptists lacked cohesion. By lifting up the Bible as their sole authority, they resisted framing a cogent set of doctrinal distinctives. That meant the movement fragmented into several theological streams with no single body of doctrine and no unifying organization prevailing among them. Even the name “Anabaptist” was pinned on them by their enemies and was meant to class them as radicals at best and at worst, dangerous heretics. The campaign to slander them worked well.In reality, the Radical Reformers rejected the idea of “rebaptism” they were accused of because they never considered the ceremonial sprinkling of infants as valid. They preferred to be called simply “Baptists.” But the fundamental issue wasn't baptism. It was the nature of the Church and its relation to civil government.The Radical Reformers came to their convictions as other Protestants had; by reading the Bible. Luther taught that common people had a right to read, understand and apply the Scriptures for themselves, they didn't need some specially-trained church hierarchy to do all that for them. So, little groups of Anabaptists gathered around their Bibles.Picture a home Bible study. They discover in the pages of Scripture a very different world from the one the official church had concocted in their day. There was no state-church alliance in the Bible, no so-called “Christendom.” Rather, the Church was comprised of local, autonomous communities of believers drawn together by their faith in Jesus and nurtured by local pastors. And while that seems like a massive “Duh!” to many non-denominational Evangelicals today, it was a revolutionary idea in the 16th C.You see, though Luther stressed a personal faith for each believer, Lutheran churches were understood as linked together to form THE Church of Germany. Clergy were ordained by a spiritual hierarchy and the entire population of a region were de-facto members of that region's church. The Church looked to the State for salary and support. In those years, Protestantism differed little from Catholicism in terms of its relationship to the civil authority. If the State was society's arm with the strength to enforce, the Church was its heart and mind with the insight to inspire and inform.Or, think of it this way, for 16th C Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism, in society, the State was the body, the Church was the soul. They saw the Radical Reformers insistence that the Church and State were separate as creating a headless monster destined to do great harm.The Radical Reformers, as we'd suspect, responded with Scripture. Hadn't Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world? Hadn't he told Peter to put away his sword? And besides, hadn't history amply proven that secular, civil power corrupts the Church? All true, but it seems reason and evidence didn't endear the Radical Reformers to their opponents.The Anabaptists wanted to reinstall “apostolic Christianity” by which they meant, the Faith as practiced in the NT, where the only members of the Church were those who were genuinely born again, not everyone who happened to be born in a province with a Christian prince.The True Church, they insisted, is always and only a community of dedicated disciples seeking to live faithfully in the midst of a wicked world.So that little group that gathered in Manz's home in January 1525 knew what they were doing was a violation of Zurich's city council. Persecution was sure to follow. Shortly after the baptism they withdrew from Zurich to the nearby village of Zollikon. There, late in January, the first Anabaptist congregation, the first free church in modern times, was born.The authorities in Zurich couldn't overlook what they deemed blatant rebellion. They sent police to Zollikon and arrested the newly baptized and imprisoned them for a time. But as soon as they were released the Anabaptists went to neighboring towns where they made more converts.Time and warnings passed and the Zurich council ran out of patience. A little over a year later they declared anyone found re-baptizing would be put to death by drowning. “If the heretics want water, they can have it.” Another year went by when the council followed thru on their threat and in Jan, 1527, Felix Manz was the 1st Anabaptist martyr. The authorities drowned him in the Limmat. Just 4 yrs later, the Anabaptists in and around Zurich were virtually wiped out.Many fled to Germany and Austria where their prospects weren't any better. In 1529, the Imperial Diet of Speyer declared Anabaptism a heresy and every region of Christendom was obliged to condemn them to death. Between 4 and 5 thousand were executed over the next several years.The Anabaptists had a simple demand: That a person have a right to his/her own beliefs. What we may not realize is that while that seems an imminently reasonable and assumed axiom for us—it was an idea bequeathed TO US by them! It's not at all what MOST people thought in the 16th C. No way! No how! The Radical Reformers seemed to Moderate Reformers like Luther and Zwingli to be destroying the very fabric of society. There was simply little conception of a society that wasn't shaped by the Church's influence on the State with the State's enforcement of Church policy.We hear the Anabaptist voice in a letter written by a young mother, to her daughter only a few days old. è It's 1573, and the father has already been executed. The mother, in jail, was reprieved long enough to give birth to her child. She writes to urge her daughter not to grow up ashamed of her parents: “My dearest child, the true love of God strengthen you in virtue, you who are yet so young, and whom I must leave in this wicked, evil, perverse world. à Oh, that it had pleased the Lord that I might have brought you up, but it seems that it is not the Lord's will.… Be not ashamed of us; it is the way which the prophets and the apostles went. Your dear father demonstrated with his blood that it is the genuine faith, and I also hope to attest the same with my blood, though flesh and blood must remain on the posts and on the stake, well knowing that we shall meet hereafter.”Persecution forced the Anabaptists north. Many of them found refuge on the lands of a tolerant prince in Moravia. There they founded a Christian commune called the Bruderhof which lasted for many years.A tragic event happened among the Anabaptists in the mid-1530's that's another frequent historical trait. The very thing the Lutherans feared, happened.In 1532, the Reformation spread rapidly throughout the city of Munster. A conservative Lutheran group was the first form of the Reformation to take root there. Then immigrants arrived who were Anabaptist apostles of a shadowy figure named Jan Matthis. What we know about him was written by his critics so he's cast as a fanatic who whipped the Munster officials into a fury of excitement that God was going to set up his kingdom on earth with Munster as the capital.The bishop of the region massed his troops to besiege the city and the Anabaptists uncharacteristically defended themselves. During the siege, the more extreme leaders gained control of the city. Then in the Summer of 1534 Jan of Leiden, seized control and declared himself sole ruler. He claimed to receive revelations from God for the city's victory. He instituted the OT practice of polygamy and took the title “King David.”With his harem “King David” lived in splendor, but was able to maintain morale in the city in spite of massive hunger due to the siege. He kept the bishop's army at bay until the end of June, 1535. The fall of the city brought an end to his and the Anabaptist's rule. But for centuries after, many Europeans equated the word “Anabaptist” with the debacle of the Munster Rebellion. It stood for wild-eyed, religious fanaticism.Munster was to the Anabaptists what the televangelist scandals of the 80's were to Evangelicalism; a serious black eye, that in no way reflected their real beliefs. In the aftermath of Munster, the dispirited Anabaptists of Western Germany were encouraged by the work of Menno Simons. A former priest, Menno visited the scattered Anabaptist groups of northern Europe, inspiring them with his preaching. He was unswerving in commanding pacifism. His name in time came to stand for the Mennonite repudiation of violence.As we end this episode, I want to recommend if anyone wants a much fuller treatment of the Munster Rebellion, let me suggest you visit the Hardcore History podcast titled Prophets of Doom. This podcast by Dan Carlin is an in-depth 4½ hr long investigation of this chapter of Munster's story.

This 85th episode of CS, is titled, Dawn.I want to take a brief moment here at the start to say “Thank you” to all those who've spread the word about CS to their friends and family. We've had a significant bump in subscribers and lots of new likes on the FB page. So—Kudos to all who've spread the word.As most of you know, iTunes is by far the major portal for podcasts. So, if you use iTunes, a review of CS is a great way to boost our rating – and ratings usually translate into new subscribers. Why do we want more subscribers since there's no commercial interest in CS? Because information and knowledge about history are crucial to a well-rounded worldview. I'm convinced an accurate view of history is crucial to overcoming prejudice, to tearing down the walls that divide people. That is when we discover not just WHAT people believe but WHY – it helps puts things in perspective and disabuses us of errant opinions.Anyway, that's my hope.As I've learned about different groups, I've revised my opinions. Traditions almost always have some origin in history, in some ground that at the time seemed perfectly reasonable to the people who created them. We may not agree with them today, hundreds and even thousands of years later, but at least we can respect those who originally framed them; and if not respect, gain a modicum of understanding for the complexities they wrestled with.Okay, back to it …We've come now to one of the most significant moments in Church History; the Reformation. Since it's considered by many the point at which the Protestant church arose, it's important to realize a couple of things.First – The student of history must remember almost all those who are today counted as the first Protestants were Roman Catholics. When they began the movement that would later be called the Reformation, they didn't call themselves anything other than Christians of the Western, Roman church. They began as an attempt to bring what they considered to be much-needed reform to the Church, not to start something new, but to return to something true. When the Roman hierarchy excommunicated them, the Reformers considered it less as THEY who were being thrust forth out of the Church as it was those who did the thrusting, pushed them out of the true church which was invisible and not to be equated with the visible religious institution HQ'd in Rome, presided over by the Pope. It's difficult to say for certain, but you get the sense from the writing of some of the Reformers that they hoped the day would come when the Roman church would recognize in their movement the true Gospel and come to embrace it. Little did they envision how deep and wide the break between them would become, and how their movement would shatter and scatter into so many different sects, just as the Roman hierarchy worried and warned.Second - There'd been groups that diverged from Roman Catholicism and its Eastern cousin the Orthodox Church, for a long time. We've already considered the Nestorian Church which dominated the Church in the Far East for hundreds of years and didn't lose its place of prominence until the Mongol invasions of the 13th C. There were little communities of what can be called non-aligned Christians scattered throughout Europe. And we'll consider some of those as we turn now to the Reformation.Long before Luther nailed his list of 95 topics for discussion to the chapel door at Wittenberg, others had sniped at the theological position of the Roman church.  There'd always had been some who didn't agree with its teaching, and many had broken off into separate religious communities.By way of review …Peter Waldo was one of the most effective of the pre-Reformers. A wealthy merchant of Lyons, France, moved by Matthew 19:21, he was convinced that poverty in the service to Christ was the path to heaven. So three centuries before Martin Luther, he sold his estate and gave the proceeds to the poor. Within a year, he was joined by others, both men and women, who called themselves the “Poor Men of Lyons,” and took on an itinerant ministry of preaching repentance and living from handouts. These were an early form of what came to be the mendicant monks.Thinking themselves to be good Roman Catholics, they appealed to the Third Lateran Council in 1179 for permission to preach but were refused because they were considered ignorant and unlearned laymen. But they were convinced they were like the first followers of Jesus and should obey God rather than men. So, Peter and his followers continued to preach.In 1184, Pope Lucius III excommunicated them for their disobedience. Contrary to what we might expect, this brought numerous supporters, and the movement spread into southern France, Italy, Spain, the Rhine Valley, and Bohemia. That they gained such support after being drop-kicked by Rome leaves the impression the Church's reputation wasn't so grand, at least in the regions where the Waldensians lived and worked.It's hard to know if all those called “Waldensian” were really followers of Peter Waldo or if contemporary opponents just used that term as a blanket description for the many disaffected individuals who opposed the Church. It's possible as well that many smaller groups of non-aligned Christians emerged from hiding to join the Waldensians.Whatever the case, they took the New Testament as a rule of life and used it in what we might call a legalistic sense. They went about 2 by 2, wearing simple clothing, preaching repentance, frequent fasting, and living from the gifts of others. They rejected the doctrine of purgatory, masses and prayers for the dead, and promoted the necessity for translations of Scripture in people's native language. They insisted on the right of anyone to preach, man or woman—but they did have some organization among their clergy, with bishops, priests, and deacons.While Peter Waldo never embraced the doctrines we'd call genuinely evangelical, his emphasis on Scripture as the basis of faith and practice opened the door for his followers to become so.The Waldensians were persecuted harshly for centuries. Part of the reason for their widespread distribution in Europe was that they were driven from their homeland. In Bohemia, they ultimately became part of the followers of Jan Hus. In their mountain retreat of the Alps between France and Italy, their homeland by the time of the Reformation, they met with representatives of the Swiss Reformation in 1532 and adopted the theology and government of the Swiss Reformers. Then, in 1545, about 4000 were massacred in Provence, France. It wasn't until 1848 that they won recognition. Today they number about 20,000, the only medieval separatist group to survive to the present.That brings us to the next pre-reformer, the Englishman JOHN WYCLIFFE, who we've already looked at.John Wycliffe lived about 200 yrs after Peter Waldo. Like Waldo, Wycliffe was determined to derive his theology, both theoretical and practical, from Scripture. Like the Waldensians, Wycliffe encouraged the translation of the Bible into the common language and that anyone ought to be able to preach, not just sanctioned and licensed clergy.Though he personally translated or supervised the translation of parts of the Bible, the version given his name wasn't completed until after his death. Its widespread use had an influence on the development of the English language. Wycliffe was educated at Oxford and later became a master of Balliol College there. For a while chaplain to the king, with access to Parliament, he was able to reach some of the upper-class English. But he also sought to reach the common people, sending out lay evangelists to instruct them.After 1375, Wycliffe's reforming views developed rapidly. Pope Gregory XI condemned him in 1377 for his efforts, but he was protected by some of the nobles and the powerful John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and son of Edward III. These were the days of the Hundred Years War between England and France, when it was unthinkable an Englishmen would surrender one of their most outstanding countrymen to a pope at Avignon, under the domination of England's French foes.To Wycliffe, Scripture, which he interpreted literally, was the sole authority for the believer. Decrees of the pope were not infallible except as based on Scripture. The clergy were not to rule, but to serve and help people. He concluded that Christ and not the pope was the head of the church; in fact, the pope, if he were too eager for worldly power, might even be regarded as the Antichrist. Ultimately, Wycliffe repudiated the entire papal system. He also attacked transubstantiation, the Roman doctrine that the bread and wine of Communion become the actual body and blood of Christ in the Mass.  Wycliffe condemned the doctrine of purgatory, the use of relics, pilgrimages, and indulgences. For all this, he's called the Morningstar of the Reformation.Wycliffe's followers were forcefully suppressed in 1401. Those who held his views went underground and helped to prepare the way for the British Reformation a century later. Bohemians studying at Oxford in Wycliffe's day carried his ideas to their homeland, where they influenced the teachings of Jan Hus, another pre-reformer we've already looked at, but whom we'll consider again now in this set up for the Reformation.Hus was the professor of philosophy at the University of Prague and lead preacher at Bethlehem Chapel.  Historians used to think Hus transported Wycliffe's views to Prague but it seems clear now that while Hus was later influenced by Wycliffe's views, his reforms ran tandem to what was happening in England.Hus's approach was similar to Wycliffe's but his influence in Europe was greater than that of the Englishman's. Luther was greatly impressed with the work of Jan Hus. His greatest work was titled On the Church. He said that all the elect are members of Christ's church, of which Christ, rather than the pope, is head. He argued against simony, indulgences, and abuses of the mass. He demanded a reform in the lives of clergy, and the right of laymen to take both the bread and wine in Communion.Hus became the leader of a reform movement that spread across Bohemia. Almost the entire realm supported him, in spite of being excommunicated by the pope. After Hus's death the reform carried on, and in the middle of the 15th Century the Bohemian Brethren rose out of the embers of the fire Hus lit. They still exist as the Moravians.The 4th pre-Reformer was Savonarola who lived in Florence, Italy in the late 15th C. He was a fiery preacher against the worldliness and corruption of church and society. A Dominican, he was transferred to the priory of San Marco in 1482 and rose in influence and power in the city. His studies in the OT prophets and the book of Revelation made him a powerful preacher against the evils of a decadent society.Savonarola served as the spiritual leader of the political party that came to power in Florence when the Medicis fled the city in 1494. Exercising a virtual dictatorship, he tried to reform both the church and state. But over time, the people of Florence found his rule too strict and used his criticism of the Roman Church as the excuse to remove him from office. Pope Alexander VI's excommunication of Savonarola in 1497 was all the Florentines needed to arrest and try him for sedition and heresy. He was cruelly tortured then hanged in the piazza before the city hall, not far from where Michelangelo's David would stand just 5 years later.Although Savonarola demanded reform in the church, he never took the more advanced position of Wycliffe and Hus. He had no quarrel with the teachings or the organization of the church but seems to have believed in justification by faith.At the same time, Wycliffe and Hus were leading their attempts at reform, a mystical movement flowered in northern Europe. Known as The Brethren of the Common Life, they emphasized Bible reading, meditation, prayer, personal piety, and religious education. The main aim of the Brethren was to secure a revival of practical religion. They gathered in homes rather than monasteries, held property in common, worked to support themselves, and avoided the ill-will of the communities in which they lived by not seeking tax-exempt status or begging. They had good relations with the townspeople but sometimes incurred the suspicion and opposition of the clergy and monks. They attended parish churches and had no peculiar doctrinal positions.The Brethren were committed to education. They established several schools in the Netherlands and Germany that were outstanding for scholarship and piety. Four of their best-known students were Nicholas of Cusa, Erasmus, Luther, and Thomas à Kempis, who's credited with writing the widely distributed Imitation of Christ.Europe was a seething kettle by 1500, ready to boil over. In the realms of economics, politics, education, and religion, the time had come for change. All that was needed was someone who could mold these explosive elements into a single movement. Such a movement could, and eventually would cover Europe.There are a couple of reasons that need to be stated for why the Reformation succeeded—besides the obvious one many Protestant Christians would note first > It was God's Will.The more pedantic reasons are two-fold:First – The Great Papal Schism had left a bad taste in the mouth of many Christians in Europe. How could the Pope, the Vicar of Christ not be able to keep the Church together? And how could the Pope become such an obvious tool in the hand of secular rulers? The corruption of the Church was so obvious, so blatant, even the most devoted churchmen were embarrassed and wrote impassioned pleas for reform.And that leads us to the second reason the Reformation occurred; this was the age when the nation-states of Europe were emerging. Kings and regional governors were coming out from under the thumb of the Church hierarchy. Instead of Popes being king-makers, kings made popes. And some kings decided they didn't want to play Rome's game at all. They wanted to take their ball and go home to start their own game. If only someone would write some new rules.Enter: Martin Luther.In central Europe, the Holy Roman Empire which was essentially a German entity, had an emperor check-mated by numerous states with only slight allegiance to him. Muslim armies knocked at the doors of the empire not long after Luther tacked his theses to the church door at Wittenberg. After toppling Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Turks strolled across Eastern Europe until they stood at the gates of Vienna in 1529.What really happened was this. Charles, a Hapsburg with holdings in central Europe and king of the Netherlands and Spain, was elected in 1519 as Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire. Francis I of France, surrounded by Charles' territory and defeated by him in 1525, made an alliance with the Ottomans in 1526 to apply a pincer movement against Charles. The Emperor needed the help of all his German vassals to defeat the Muslims. When some of the German princes became supporters of Luther, Charles was no longer able to put religious pressure on them. If he did, they'd withhold aiding him politically and militarily. So Charles wasn't able to force Luther's political covering, the powerful Frederick of Saxony, to surrender Luther when the Pope demanded his head on a pike.This is all very fun, isn't it?Now consider this à Just a few years after Luther's birth, Columbus reached the New World in 1492 and launched the Spanish Empire in the West. Shortly after Luther posted his theses, Magellan's expedition sailed around the world. At the same time, the Portuguese were establishing outposts of empire in Brazil, Africa, India, and the Far East.Did you know Columbus and Luther were contemporaries?Let's not forget as well that a whole new world of thought had come in with the tide of the Renaissance. Rediscovering the literature and thoughts of the classical age, contributed to a greater secularization of life.Humanism was one of the main features of the Renaissance, involving a new emphasis on man and his culture and an effort to make the world a better place in which human beings might live. The pull of the future life was not so great for the true child of the Renaissance as it had been for his ancestors during the Middle Ages. As has been said, the Renaissance man would rather eat his pie now than have it in the sky by and by.In harkening back to the literature of the Classical Age, humanists put renewed emphasis on the study of Greek and Hebrew in an effort to read the classics in the original languages. The greatest of all ancient documents was the Bible, and the renewed emphasis on ancient languages led many to the Scripture.The literary humanists included a good deal of biblical study in their academic diet, and it was in the north that the Reformation gained the most headway, among scholars like Zwingli, Calvin, Melanchthon, and Erasmus.Erasmus was a great satirist of the evils of the institutional church and society. That he got away with it and was so popular proves that criticism of Romanism by Renaissance leaders contributed to the success of the Reformation.Adding to the effectiveness of the Reformation was the Renaissance spirit of individualism, which paved the way for Luther's emphasis on the priesthood of the believer and its attendant ideas of the right of believers to go directly to God and to interpret the Scriptures for themselves.Another important ingredient of the intellectual development of Europe on the eve of the Reformation was the invention of movable type and the spread of printing. Without it the Reformers would not have had the same impact. The tremendous literary activity of the Reformers was largely responsible for building the printing trade.Lastly, an important phenomenon of the period was the rapid growth of universities, which provided education for a larger number of people, fostered a critical spirit, and provided a means for leaders of the emerging generation to be reached with Reformation principles.As we end this episode, I wanted to let you know that the donation feature is once more active on the CS site. We had to block it for a while because fraud did a lot of damage. You've heard reports of identity theft. It seems once crooks snag a bunch of credit accounts, they check to see if they're still valid by using sites like CS to post a bogus donation of 1 to $5. If it goes through, they know the accounts good and make real charges. Problem is, EVERY time my account gets one of these bogus donations, the bank charges me a transaction fee. Let's just say, 10K bogus donations made for a hefty cost to the CS account. So we had to block the donation feature until the proper security could be installed. That's done now thanks to the excellent work of Dade Ronan at Win at Web. Thanks, Dade. You're a genius!So, if you'd be so kind, a donation to keep the site up would be marvelous.

This episode is titled, Thrust Into the Game.So far we've marked the rise of 2 of the 3 major branches of the Reformation. We've considered Lutheranism and the Radical Reformers or Anabaptists. Over the next few episodes we'll consider the 3rd branch, called Calvinism, AKA, Reformed Christianity.I begin with a summary of the opening section of Bruce Shelley's excellent, Church History in Plain Language and his chapter of John Calvin.Because the road to Strasbourg was closed by the war between France and Spain, the young French scholar had to pass thru Geneva. His plan was to spend a night. He ended up spending many.The city was in disarray. Immorality was rampant, the political situation a mess, and there was little prospect for help.The fiery reformer, William Farel had preached in Geneva for four years, and masses at the Catholic church were halted. But Geneva's embrace of the Reformation was more out of political ambition than sincere allegiance to Protestant theology. No one had taken the lead in transforming the city's institutions along Biblical lines. Geneva needed a manager; someone who could step into the political and spiritual vacuum and bring order. When Farel heard John Calvin was spending the night, he made it a point to call on him. He found Calvin to be a candidate to meet Geneva's need, and urged him to stay and help establish the work.Calvin begged off, saying he had further studies he needed to pursue. Farel told him, “Bah! You're only following your own wishes! If you don't help us in this work of the Lord, He will punish you for seeking your own interest rather than His.” Calvin was terror–stricken. The last thing he wanted was to offend God. So he stayed and took up the cause of installing the principles of the Reformation in Geneva.Years later, Calvin remarked, “Being by nature a bit antisocial and shy, I always loved retirement and peace.… But God has so whirled me around by various events that He's never let me rest anywhere, but in spite of my natural inclination, has thrust me into the limelight and made me ‘get into the game,' as they say.”Thus >> the title of this week's episode.John Calvin was born in the small town of Noyon, 60 miles NE of Paris. His father was a lawyer and eager to see John and his two brothers become priests. It was clear from an early age John was both intelligent and serious, so a local wealthy family sponsored his education. He entered the University of Paris at 14 and quickly mastered Latin. He then entered the school of philosophy where he showed brilliance in writing and skill in logical argument. People might not like what Calvin said but they couldn't misunderstand what he meant. He left the University in 1528 with a Master of Arts degree. He was 19.John turned to the study of law at the University of Orleans, but after his father's death in 1531, Calvin returned to Paris as a student of the classics, intent upon a career as a scholar. His studies brought him in contact with new and dangerous ideas circulating round Paris. The Reformation had arrived. It wasn't long before Calvin was converted to faith in Christ and the task of Reformation. He gave up his career as a classical scholar and identified with the Protestant cause in France.In the Fall of 1533, Nicholas Cop, rector of the University of Paris gave a strong Protestant address. Many suspected it was Cop's close friend, John Calvin, who'd written it. The University was thrown into such an uproar, Calvin had to flee the city. He took refuge in Basel, Switzerland, where in March, 1536, he published the first edition of his highly influential Institutes of the Christian Religion – the Reformation's first systematic theology.A systematic theology is one that devotes chapters to specific doctrinal subjects. There's a chapter on God …another on Christology = the study of God the Son,one on Pneumatology = the Holy Spirit,Soteriology = Salvation,Scripture,Ecclesiology = The Church,even a theology of Anthropology = Human Beings.Many systematic theologies often conclude with a chapter on what's called Eschatology = the Study of the End Times. Calvin's work was the most cogent, logical, and readable explanation of Protestant doctrine the Reformation produced. It gave its young author overnight fame. Calvin worked on the Institutes for the rest of his life, adding more volumes and editing the existing content. But 20 years later it was essentially the same work though much larger. His core ideas never changed. At first it was a slim volume but five revisions later saw the last in 1559 containing four books of 80 chapters.The preface to the Institutes was addressed to King Francis I of France. It defended the Protestants from the criticisms of their enemies, vindicating their rights to fair treatment. No one had spoken so effectively in their behalf, and with this letter Calvin was assigned the leadership of the Protestant cause after Martin Luther.Speaking of Luther, a comparison between he and Calvin would be proper here. Keep in mind that only about 20 years separated them. Calvin certainly knew of Luther and Luther heard of the young Frenchman in Geneva.While the cornerstone of Luther's theology was the doctrine of justification by faith, Calvin's was the sovereignty of God. They both had a massive sense of the majesty of God, but for Luther that all just added to the richness of the miracle of forgiveness. Calvin's emphasis rested on the unassailability of God's purpose.Calvin shared Luther's four central Protestant beliefs, but he was born a generation after Luther in a different land and was a far different sort of person.Luther was a monk and university professor. Calvin was a scholar and city manager. While both men lived and worked during a time of great social turmoil, their realms of influence were different.Luther saw himself as the point man for an entire movement in the Church, calling it back to what God intended it to be. Calvin followed in Luther's train but to a highly specialized work in it – to implement Biblical principles in the civil sphere.The differences between Calvin and Luther are reflected in their portraits. As Luther aged, he filled out and his face softened, though his tone became more acerbic. As Calvin aged, though thin to begin with, he lost weight. His face became angular and lined. He looks as if he's cut from stone.Calvin's exceptional administrative abilities enabled him to build on the work of Ulrich Zwingli. The reform he started at Zurich spread rapidly in German-speaking Eastern Switzerland. The Swiss Reformation spread to the important German city of Strasbourg where Martin Bucer was more sympathetic to Zwingli than Luther.When Zwingli died at the Battle of Kappel, the Reformation in Switzerland was left without a leader. Zwingli's student Heinrich Bullinger did a fine job of leading the church in Zurich but that was pretty much the limit of his ability. The success of what Calvin was doing in Geneva shifted the focus away from Eastern Switzerland to the West, French-speaking Swiss city of Geneva.When Calvin fled Paris for Strasbourg in the Summer of 1536, his brother, sister and 2 friends went with him.  They put up for a night at an inn in Geneva. But word spread quickly that the author of the Institutes was in town. Farel was ecstatic. Desperate for help, he rushed to the inn and pleaded with Calvin to stay. Upon his consent, Farel convinced the Geneva city council to appoint Calvin to lead the Reformation there. Interestingly, Calvin never held an official political post and didn't even become a citizen until 1559.Calvin's goal was to make Geneva a “holy commonwealth” where the Law of God became the laws of man. He preached daily and twice on Sunday. He started a school for training young people and arranged for the care of the poor and needy. Under Calvin's direction, Geneva became a model of Reformation belief and practice.And by model, I mean EXAMPLE. Protestant refugees from all over Europe flooded into the City. They sat under Calvin's teaching, and when they returned home, took his theology and Geneva's example with them. This explains the dramatic spread of Calvinism throughout Western Europe.In addition to his strenuous preaching schedule, Calvin was a prodigious writer. He penned lectures, theological treatises, and commentaries on 33 books of the OT, along with the entire NT sans Revelation. Church historian Philip Schaff claims Calvin was the founder of the modern historical-grammatical method of studying the Bible.[1] Calvin also carried on a massive correspondence with people all over Europe.But, Calvin's launch at Geneva got off to a rocky start. A mere 18 months into his new position both he and Farel were banished for disagreeing with the city council. Calvin resumed his prior journey to Strasbourg, where he settled down and pastored for 3 years, married the widow of an Anabaptist and became the adoptive father to her two children.By 1541 Calvin's reputation had spread. He wrote three more books and revised his Institutes. He'd become good friends with leading Reformers Martin Bucer and Philip Melanchthon. He was asked to return to Geneva by the authorities, and spent the rest of his life establishing a theocratic society there.Calvin believed the Church should faithfully mirror the principles laid down in the Bible. He argued that the NT taught four orders of ministry: pastors, elders, deacons, and doctors, by which he meant ‘teachers.' Geneva was organized around these four offices.Pastors conducted church services, preached, administered the sacraments of Communion and baptism, and cared for the spiritual welfare of parishioners. In each of the three parish churches, two Sunday services and a catechism class were offered. The Lord's Supper was celebrated every three months.The Doctors or as we would call them, teachers, lectured in Latin on the Old and New Testaments; Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. Their students were mostly older schoolboys and ministers, but anyone could attend.Elders kept an eye on spiritual affairs. If they saw someone was often snockered from too much ale, or that Mr. Smith beat his wife, or Mr. Jones and Mrs. Faraday were seeing a little too much of each other, they admonished them in a brotherly manner. If the behavior continued, they reported the matter to the church's governing body, which would summon the offender for an inquiry. Excommunication was a last resort and remained in force until the guilty party repented.Finally, social welfare was the charge of the Deacons. They were the hospital-management board, social-security executives, and alms-house supervisors. The deacons were so effective, Geneva had no beggars.The system worked so well for so many years, when the Scotsman John Knox visited Geneva in 1554, he wrote a friend that the city “is the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the Earth since the days of the Apostles.”We have a lot more to look at with Calvin and Geneva, but we'll get too it in our next episodes.[1] Schaff, 8:118–119