What Luther did in Germany, Zwingli did even more in Switzerland. Ulrich Zwingli was born on New Year’s Day, 1484, in Wildhaus, Switzerland. He would begin a Reformation that resulted in the demise of the Catholic Church in Switzerland.
He was the third of eight boys and two girls born to an official of the city of Zurich. His uncle Bartholomew was a preacher (pastor) of a church, and it was under him that he received his early education. At the age of ten, he was sent to study under Gregory Bunzli, a teacher in the School of St. Theodore.
His higher education was at the University of Vienna and the University of Basel. He was highly educated, acquiring a B.A. degree in 1504 and a Master of Arts in 1506. It was in schools like this that men planted the seeds of reformation in students’ minds. In 1606, he was ordained into the priesthood.
He moved to Einsiedeln, where he saw close at hand the evil practices of Catholicism, such as the selling and buying of indulgences. He began to preach against them and condemned them several years before Luther did.
A plague struck Zurich and destroyed nearly a third of its population. Zwingli, himself, who had been faithfully ministering to the needs of sick people, contracted the disease himself. He emerged from a near-death experience becoming a changed man. After he fully recovered from the plague, Zwingli began earnestly fighting for strict obedience to the literal teachings of scripture.
In Switzerland, reform was brought about by appealing to the magistrates of the city, who would then call for a debate between Roman Catholic theologians and the reformers. Those who defended their position most effectively were almost always reformers who based their arguments solely on scripture. The victor was awarded the right to make, or not make, it a practice.
Zwingli won his first of many successful debates in 1523. Some of the changes brought about by his debates were: the observance of Lent was abolished, clerical celibacy was declared to be unbiblical, churches were severed from any connection with the papacy, and mass was replaced with a simple worship that all in the congregation could participate in.
There were great victories for Zwingli and other Swiss reformers. A debate between Zwingli and Martin Luther was held with the hope of unifying the two groups. They managed to agree on fifteen points of essential reform, but there was one issue of dispute over the Lord’s Supper that they could not agree on.
The Swiss did not agree with Luther’s (Catholic) doctrine of transubstantiation. Zwingli said the Supper was a symbolic act, not a literal changing of the substance of the elements. The elements represented the body and blood of Jesus.
It is said Luther would answer Zwingli by saying that Jesus clearly said, “This IS my body.” Some sources say that Luther harshly disagreed with Zwingli and called a halt to further discussions. Zwingli was greatly disappointed in their attempt to unify the two camps. It is said Luther did not like Zwingli after this debate and made no effort to meet with him again.
Luther could be very harsh and show his dislike for any opponent. They were so close in most doctrines, yet so far from their belief about the bread and the wine used in the Lord’s Supper. The result of this meeting ended up leaving two different camps of Protestantism.
Zwingli came the closest to restoring New Testament Christianity than any of the other reformers. Luther and his views were more widely known, whereas Zwingli’s understanding of the Bible was not very well known outside of Switzerland.
He rejected the veneration of saints. Unbaptized children were not damned to hell or Limbo. However, he defended infant baptism, saying it replaced the circumcision of the Old Testament. He completely did away with the mass.
The churches of Zurich were purged of relics, crucifixes, altars, candles, and all ornaments. The frescoes were effaced, and the walls were whitewashed, so that nothing remained but bare walls, but their buildings were filled by worshipping people. Expensive pictures were broken and burnt. The bones of well-known saints were buried.
Zwingli did away with the communion ware, substituting wooden plates and a cup placed on a rough wooden table. The organ was chopped up. He rejected chanting by a choir in Latin, replacing it with congregational singing of psalms and hymns in the local language. He said that the sole authority for doctrine and worship is to be derived from the Bible only, and it is the only authority in religious matters.
He clearly declared that the word of God is the only rule of faith, not the doctrines of the Bishops, Popes, and councils. He said the Bible produced the church, not the church produced the Bible. This shows how wide the gap had become between Zwingli and the Catholic Church.
We admire Zwingli for what he accomplished. However, he left us with a false doctrine which can destroy the Bible’s concept that baptism is for the remission of sins. Zwingli said that one is saved by faith, which he adopted from Luther, and that baptism has no saving power.
He argued that baptism was only an “outward sign of an inward grace.” Baptism was merely a sign that one was saved. His teaching on Baptism destroyed the possibility of knowing what one must do to be saved. Baptism is reduced to merely a sign or symbol. This doctrine would be passed down primarily to the Baptists and others. It still exists today in the Baptist Church.
Recently, I read a book by a well-known evangelist, Rick Warren. He discusses salvation, emphasising faith in Jesus Christ. Although he does not believe that baptism has anything to do with salvation, He urges his readers, if they have never been baptised, then they should not delay doing it; do it as soon as possible.
Why all this urgency if it has nothing to do with salvation? By simply looking at a person, we can’t tell if that person is a Christian unless we have seen him or her baptised. If baptism is only a sign, then it only lasts for a few seconds at the moment a person is baptised.
Zwingli’s doctrine on baptism has prevented thousands from understanding and obeying a clear command of the Lord that we are to be baptised “for the remission of sins,” Acts 2:38. To his credit, Zwingli came close to restoring the New Testament church. Having died at an early age, he could not continue his efforts to reform the Catholic Church.
The Catholics formed an army and attacked Switzerland in an attempt to bring them under control. Zwingli went with the Swiss forces to serve as a Chaplain and was killed during the battle. How far would he have continued to go if he had lived longer?