Vol 96 Issue 03

Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches met from September 25–27, 2019, in Calvary PRC (Hull, IA). The meeting was capably chaired by Rev. Ryan Barnhill (pastor of Peace PRC), who was serving in this capacity for the first time in his ministry. Noticeably absent from the meeting was one of the elder delegates from Immanuel PRC (Lacombe, AB), who remained home to support a family in the congre­gation whose teenage son had recently died in an auto­mobile accident. The night before Classis convened, the delegates gathered with the Calvary congregation to worship God and to hear the specimen sermon...

Classis East of the Protestant Reformed Churches met on September 11 and 12 this year at Southwest PRC. This meeting was chaired by Rev. H. Bleyenberg. Wednesday morning was filled with the examina­tion of Jacob Maatman, pastor-elect of Southeast PRC, Grand Rapids. He preached his specimen sermon on Mark 8:34–35. The sermon critic committee stated it well, “Jacob demonstrated a good ability to expound and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to do so in such a way that a Protestant Reformed congregation would be edified. Jacob’s sermon was faithful and Re­formed in the exposition of the text, well-grounded...

Development of Bullinger’s view The doctrine of the covenant has occupied a large place in the development of the Reformed faith since the days of the Reformation. Much of the impetus for this development is to be credited to the Swiss Reformers, particularly to Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575). More than anyone before him, he gave a large place to the doctrine of the covenant. Bullinger was the first Reformed theologian to write an entire treatise on the covenant of grace. His De Testamento Seu Foedere Dei Unico Et Aeterno Brevis Expositio (A Brief Exposition of the One and Eternal Testament or...

Dazed and vulnerable after the disaster at Kappel, the fledgling Protestant church in Zurich turned to a young refugee pastor for leadership. King Jesus’ rebuke of His servants had been severe. Twenty-five pastors were dead. Among them, Zwingli, whose body was drawn, quartered, and burnt; a grim warning to any who dared replace him. Associates were in hiding. And nearby Bremgarten had just surrendered to advancing Catholic forces. Terms: Expel their pastor. The pastor, Heinrich Bullinger, flees to Zurich. His wife Anna, forbidden to leave, arrives days later. With love stronger than death, she overpowers the guard, lets herself out...

Like Luther in Germany, Zwingli was compelled to deal with Anabaptist “brethren” in Zurich and the Swiss cantons. What is significant about the Anabaptists is that they were supporters of the Protestant movement and the Reformers, men who had been former allies and, in some instances, even personal friends—Carlstadt with Luther, and men such as Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz with Zwingli. For the Reformers, this made having to distance themselves from these former allies, and finally having to denounce them, all the more painful and diffi­cult. “They have sprung from us,” Zwingli was report­ed to have lamented.1 Those who...

The Grossmunster The iconic twin towers of the Grossmunster (Great Minster) still loom large over the city of Zurich, Switzerland. Completed in the thirteenth century after nearly 150 years of construction, the majestic cathedral was built to be a home for holy relics and a grand stage for the mass. But with the coming of Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation in the sixteenth century, that all changed. Today, the Grossmunster is an architectural monument with a story to tell as it whispers its Roman Catholic roots and then thunders forth its Reformation heritage. The Grossmunster holds a special place...

The Sixty-Seven Articles were prepared by Zwingli as “talking points” (theses for public debate) for the First Zurich Disputation held on January 29, 1523.1 In the four years prior to this, Zwingli, a Catholic priest and cleric, had publicly preached against many Roman Catholic practices including the sale of indulgences, the veneration of saints, pilgrimages, the use of images in worship, the requirement of clerical celibacy, and the dietary restrictions of Lent. Practicing what he preached, Zwingli made a bold statement in 1522 by publicly eating sausage during an imposed period of Roman Catholic fasting and by getting married without the...

The settlement known today as Zurich, Switzerland, has a long history. Decades before Christ’s birth, the Romans conquered the area of Germany and Switzerland. On the northwest shore of Lake Zurich, by the Limmat River, they found a settlement of barbarians, uncultured people. These were pagans, of course; Christ had not yet been born, so Christianity had not yet come to that region. Within three centuries of Christ’s resurrection, mis­sionaries brought Christianity to the area. One of Zu­rich’s claims to fame is that it is the site of the martyr­dom of missionaries Felix and Regula, about the year 286. The...

We know Ulrich Zwingli as one of the great leaders of the Protestant Reformation. When speaking of the men God raised up to reform His church, we mention the names of such men as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli all in the same breath. Yet, of these three servants of God, Zwingli is perhaps the least known to us. Zwingli was powerfully used by God to inaugurate the reformation of the church in Switzerland. Zwingli’s ministry laid foundations upon which the next generation of Reformers built. It is worth our while to become more familiar with this servant...

The reformation of the church is God’s work. God loves His church with an everlasting, unquenchable love. God’s eternal counsel with regard to His church includes not only the selection of every member, but also the entire history of the church through time and eternity. That earthly history includes times of reformation in His church. In His perfect wisdom, God determines a process of apostasy, that is, that the church that once maintained the teaching and practices of the Bible, over a period of time, departs from biblical standards. Such departure always involves doctrinal apostasy, setting aside the truth for...