October 31st is a day that has grown to have merchandise and themed events that rival more than one or two national holidays. And the ways our culture promotes and engages in traditions of this day might ask if there are all turnitives to Halloween. If a person is not an enthusiast about graveyards, the grim reaper, or the undead, what are the other options? Well, today we’re going to introduce a historic event that may surprise our listeners that it also began on October 31st. That’s October 31st, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95thesis on a church store in Whitberg, Germany. Today we have the opportunity to speak with Heinrich Bollinger about the centrality of God’s Word in worship and in daily life. Welcome to the show, Mr. Bollinger. It is a pleasure to have you with us. Where is home for you? Well, it’s a pleasure to speak with you today. My home is in the city of Zurich, which is in the part of Europe which you call Switzerland. I was born July 18th, 1504 in a little town called Bremgarten, which is about 15 miles away from Zurich. And so where did you go to school? Well learning languages comes naturally to me. It’s a gift. I learned how to speak clearly when I was just three years old. And I started attending Latin school when I was five. I studied at the University of Cologne in Germany. In 1519, when I was just 15 years old, I received my bachelor’s degree and then stayed there a couple more years to finish my master’s degree. Mr. Bollinger, this had the impact of the Reformation. Had that already begun for you? Yes. I was here in Cologne while I was a student that I first heard about the Reformation and where I read the New Testament for the first time. So then what did you do after you graduated? I came back home to Switzerland and took a job at a local monastery. There, I taught the monks the scriptures, starting in the Gospels and then working through the letters written by the Apostle Paul. Before I took the job though, I insisted that I would be allowed to teach the Bible as I had come to understand it using the teachings of the Reformation and the early church. After teaching here for six years, I then became the pastor of the church in my own hometown of Bramgarten. So you are now the head pastor in the church in the city of Zurich? Yes. You see at this time, there was no central government of Switzerland. Instead, there were a bunch of city states or canton’s which would form alliances together. As the Reformation took hold of Zurich under the efforts of my esteemed predecessor Ulrich Swingley, there were other Swiss cities that remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church. Things got very heated and ultimately there was war between the Protestant and Catholic cities. In 1531, the army of Zurich was defeated and Swingley himself was killed. The city of Zurich was able to sign a peace agreement, but one of the conditions was that I resigned from being pastor at Bramgarten. Because I had worked with Swingley before, the city council of Zurich invited me to become the chief pastor, also known as the Antisties of Zurich in Swingley’s place. Mr. Bowlingert, I’m sure there were hard shoes to fill. Indeed they were, but God’s grace enabled me to provide the guidance and stability that the city needed. I served as the chief pastor of Zurich for almost 45 years. In our work to learn more about the Reformation and the importance of that event on October 31st and 1517, last time we spoke with Ulrich Swingley about how important it was for God’s people to recover the scriptures. Yes, and what Swingley said is very true. You see, before the Reformation began, we did not have the scriptures for us to read. So what assumptions might we have about God’s word that we believe now and weren’t true back in your day? Well, reformers like Swingley and I, we read in the scriptures that saving faith depends on the word of God alone, and also that the churches of God are built and preserved by the word of God and not by man’s doctrine. Interesting. Tell us more. Well, we were convinced that God works through His word by His Holy Spirit, especially through the preaching of the word of God in church. This is why we changed the focus of our worship services. In the Roman Catholic Church, the high point of the service was the ceremony of Mass, where the priest made a great show of repeating Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, as if the Atonement of Christ needed to be repeated over and over. No, we read in the scriptures that it is the word of God that changes the hearts and minds of those that God calls to Himself. Thus, when we hear the word of God and when the Holy Spirit exerts His power in our hearts so that we truly receive His word, then it has a mighty force and a wonderful effect on us. So Pastor Bologna, does that mean that faith increases as God’s word gives ongoing power in a believer’s life? Yes, that’s exactly right. For God’s word drives away the misty darkness of errors and addresses ignorance and immaturity. It opens our eyes spiritually. It converts and enlightens our minds and it strikes us most fully and absolutely in truth and godliness. Furthermore, the word of God feeds, strengthens, comforts and confirms our souls. It regenerates, cleanses, makes joyful and joins us to God. Yes, it obtains all things for us at God’s hands, setting us in a most happy state so that there are no goods or treasures in the whole world that compares with the word of God. You know, that’s remarkable. Thank you for sharing that with me. Welcome. Because we placed such a high emphasis on the reading and preaching of the word of God, it became one of the defining ways we could identify if a church was being faithful to or call Him. You know, Mike, in 1562, I wrote what’s called a confession of faith, explaining what I believed the scriptures taught about the major doctrines of Christianity, things like the doctrine of God, the doctrine of creation, man’s sin, how we’re saved and the church. And this confession was later shared with others in Germany and Switzerland. And it was called the second hellevedic confession. So hellevedic is not a word that I and a lot of people are familiar with. Tell us more about it. Yes, it may sound strange to you, but in my day, all scholarly and ecclesiastical, which is really just a big word for church, all these documents were written in Latin first. And the Latin word “Hellevedi” referred to the people of Switzerland. So in other words, the second hellevedic confession was really just the second Swiss confession, the sequel to the first confession that I wrote in 1536. Anyways, in the second confession, I wrote that the true church is that in which we find the signs or marks of the church, especially the lawful and sincere preaching of the word of God, as it was delivered to us in the books of the prophets and the apostles, which all lead us unto Christ, who said in the gospel, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life.” A stranger they do not follow, but they flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. And that comes from John chapter 10. This is why the word of God was so important for us and for the churches of the Reformation. We’re speaking with Pastor Heinrich Bollinger, and our purpose is to talk about the Reformation and the importance of October 31, 1517, and so much that followed. And we’re getting deep, and as we do that, Pastor Bollinger, what does this have to do? What you just spoke with Christians living from Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday, right now and 2024. You know, that’s an excellent question, Mike. The answer is that God’s word, along with the work of the Holy Spirit, not only produces faith in our hearts and guidance for our churches, it’s God’s guidance for believers like you and me in our everyday lives. And this guidance is not just suggestions from God on how to be happy or how to have a good life. We believe that the Scriptures, God’s word, is the highest authority in our lives because it came from the mind of God Himself as He inspired the human authors who wrote the books of the Old and New Testament. In other words, we believe that through the Scriptures, we have a God that is not silent or distant. We have spoken to us by the prophets and the apostles, and His message has been faithfully preserved in the Scriptures. So what that means is this, we believe that the Scriptures are to be taken as giving us true wisdom and godliness. They help us with reformation and governing our churches and providing instruction in all duties of piety. In short, we believe that the Scriptures confirm the doctrines of Christianity. They confute the errors against Christianity and they give us exhortations so that as Paul said in 2 Timothy, “All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine and for reproof.” So when you’re wanting to know how God would have you live your life Monday through Saturday, you can look to His Word for the answers. So Pastor Heinrich, what about the person that says, “The Bible won’t tell me where I should live or what job I should take, so on what way does the Bible God’s Word provide me guidance?” That’s a fair question, right? The Bible doesn’t list out things like that, but it’s because God has given us principles, and list principles, around which we make decisions about how we live our lives, including things like where we work, how we raise our families, and even the way that we eat our food. We seek to follow what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth when he said, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” So if we were to break this down into an even more practical way, what would you say? Well this is how I taught people in my church in Zurich. In God’s Word, like I said before, we’re given timeless principles and general commands, which we then apply to our own particular situation. To help us know how God wants us to live, He gave us the Ten Commandments, which are a summary of His Law. For example, if you know your Ten Commandments, you’ll know that the Fourth Commandment is to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The Sabbath day is one day out of the seven-day week, which is dedicated to worshiping God and resting from our regular jobs. Christians observe the Sabbath on Sunday, and so that’s the general principle from God’s Law. Now, to apply it to my personal life, let’s say I was offered a job that would require me to work every Sunday. If I took that job, it would mean that I would miss worshiping in church on Sunday. Now I don’t have to wonder whether or not God wants me to take this job because I can look to His Word and find how God wants me to shape my life. From this Fourth Commandment that we just looked at, I can see that God wants me to prioritize resting and worshiping on Sunday. And so I would then apply that, and that would help me know what God’s will is concerning whether or not I should take this job. You know during Christ’s earthly ministry, He said that the whole of God, including the Ten Commandments, could be summed up in these two commands. First, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Second, love your neighbor as yourself. Obviously, we’ll never be able to do this perfectly, and sadly, there will be many times that we fail. But this is again where God’s Word reminds us that we’re reconciled to God not because we obey, but because Christ obeyed on our behalf. And that His righteousness and His death on the cross is what reconciled us to God. And so as those who are reconciled, our calling is to yield ourselves to the one to whom we are reconciled, with an earnest desire and zeal to do God’s will and pleasure. So in other words, Mike, we obey not to make ourselves right with God, but as a response of love for God’s forgiveness. Second Timothy 316 says, “We are equipped to obey God, equipped for every good work through the God-breathes scriptures, the very Word of God.” Pastor Bowlinger, thank you for joining us today, and thank you for sharing with us how God’s Word is such a central part of our churches and our daily lives. I want our listeners to know that if they’d like to learn more about the Reformation and how it applies today, then check out the video series called Reformation Profiles from Ligonier Ministries. You’ll find seven episodes that cover essential truths about the Christian faith and individuals that God used to help recover these truths. Go to store.liginear.org that’s L-I-G-O-N-I-E-R and search Reformation Profiles. You’ll even be able to watch the first episode online for free. Again, go to store.liginear.org for Reformation Profiles and find out why the Reformation mattered then and why it still matters now.
