Geneva/Zurich

POST TENEBRAS LUX. This is the Latin phrase meaning “after darkness light,” or in its longer form “after darkness, I hope for light.” This phrase can be found on the reformers wall in the city of Geneva. The Latin phrase became the maxim for the protestant reformation, symbolizing how the protestant church broke away from the numerous encumbrances that the medieval church had adopted in the dark ages. Now that we are out of Italy, most of the history that we will see will be from the time of the reformation to the present day.

On our way out of Switzerland, we had the opportunity to visit a few of the key historical cities of the protestant reformation. The first city we visited was Geneva in Switzerland. This was one of the most beautiful cities that I have ever seen.

The city is most famous historically because the influence of the Protestant reformer Jean Calvin. We had the opportunity to visit the church where Calvin preached.

There were a number of notable things about this church that were much different than any of the other churches that we have visited so far. One of the key things that the reformers were trying to emphasize, is that a relationship with Jesus Christ does not come through an individuals works, but through faith alone in Christ’s finished work on the cross. The Catholic theology of salvation was that the church hierarchy and structure had the right to issue salvation. The catholic churches were incredibly ornate for a number of reasons, but mainly because they believed that every aspect of the church was central to a believers salvation experience. What is significant about the reformers is that had a firm conviction that a believers salvation lied in the authority of God’s Word, and not within the church. They sought to trim all the excess, and place the Bible as the central authority for the salvation of the believer. All that to say, Calvin’s church was indicative of the how the reformers thought about the function of the church. It was not nearly as ornate as any of the churches that we saw in Rome, and there was one thing that was central to the church.

The pulpit. The pulpit was the place where believers heard the word of God preached by Calvin on a weekly basis. The Word was the believers only authority, not and endless system of external obligations. It was in these very walls that believers were freed from having to rely on a set of duties to earn their acceptance before God. They would come and sit in these simple pews and hear that they didn’t need a laundry list of duties to impress God. They came and heard that their salvation was in Christ, once for all. They knew that they poor, but they knew that they had a rich savior. And they were free from the bondage of self, to look upon Christ’s beauty through his Word.

One of the lesser-known characteristics about Calvin’s life and Geneva is his incredible social reform. For Calvin, the purpose of the reformation was not to overthrow the existing social and governmental structures, but to merely reform them. He believed that God instituted government for the purpose of pointing mankind towards God. Calvin worked with the government in Geneva to bring social order, structure and stability in the city. He even designed the cities sewer system. Today Geneva is known as a peaceful center for worldwide negotiations, as well as the birthplace of the International Red-Cross Movement. Much of the cities wealth and prosperity can be traced back to Calvin and his willingness to honor the government’s authority and work alongside it for the good of the people. This is a picture of the reformers wall, dedicated to the reformers who ushered in not only religious freedom, but also social and economic prosperity.

The other city that we had the opportunity to visit was Zurich. This city was just as beautiful as Geneva, and probably one of the wealthiest cities in Europe.

The reformation history of the city is traced back to the reformer Ulrich Zwingli.

 Like Calvin, Zwingli had a radical devotion to the scripture as the sole authority. His church was similar to Calvin’s, with minimal focus on the church adornments, and a central focus on the authority of God’s word.

Zwingli also had a devotion to the government playing a central role in the reformation of the church and society. The majority of the reason that the reformation was so successful in cities like Geneva and Zurich was because the reform happened within in the bounds of government. They worked along side the magistrates and the civil structures to bring about the glory of God.