Magyar Egyház, 1966 (45. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1966-08-01 / 8-9. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

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controversy were selected to prepare a catechism which would unite all men of good will in the Palatinate and bring an end to the unhappy religious strife.

The result of their labor appeared in the year 1563, our present day Heidelberg Catechism. This remarkable work so pleased the Prince that he spread its fame far and wide throughout Europe while he himself was won over to the side of the Reformed cause by its clear and firm witness.

HENRY BULLINGER

Elector Frederick was in real trouble because of his Reformed commitments and his sponsorship of the Heidelberg Catechism. He was called upon to show before the Diet of Augsburg why the Reformed settlement should not be outlawed in Germany. He turned for help to Henry Buliinger who was Zwingli’s successor and spiritual follower in Zürich. Bullinger’s steady hand already was felt in all Reformation lands because of the large correspondence he carried on with countless Reformed leaders, including some in Hungary, such as: Johannes Fejértóthy, Gál Huszár, Lukas Szikszói, Matthias Thuri, Petrus Melius.

In 1562, when people were dying everywhere in a raging epidemic that took many including Bullinger’s father, mother, wife and daughter, he himself, awaiting the expected call of death, gave the hours of his enforced leisure to the writing of a personal testimony of what he believed. It was a quiet overflow of a mature conviction, put into writing without polemy and without ecclesiastical pressure or request. It was the private confession of a man who was ready to face his Lord. The last writing of a scholar and churchman who had been called upon to assist in the preparation of many public Confessions. He did not intend this one to be published until after his death, which he thought would come soon. As it turned out, he lived through the plague.

In 1566 Frederick III. was anxious to prove before the forth-coming Diet that the Reformed profession was not merely an individual and local faith, but rather a system of doctrine held in common by believers in Switzerland, Holland, France, England and other countries. Therefore, he requested Bullinger’s assistance and Buliinger then dispatched his own Confession with the assurance that it was in complete harmony with the confessions of the ancient apostolic, orthodox, catholic church, and likewise with all the faithful who with pure faith profess Christ in many lands.

The Latin manuscript was received with enthusiasm by Frederick and was ordered to be published in a German version in order to circulatte it among the Reformed Churches throughout Europe. In Switzerland it was, with a slight exemption, at once approved, hence the name Helvetic (the Latin name for Switzerland). Then the Eelector presented it to the Diet as an already authoritative document. It was well received and through its testimony the Reformed faith won its right to exist in Germany.

WITNESS OF ONE MAN -CONFESSIONS OF MANY CHURCHES

So the witness of one man became the conviction of many churches. In the same year, 1566, it was accepted by the Reformed Churches of Scotland. In February 1567 it was approved by the Synod of Debrecen in Hungary, where it appeared in 23 editions, second in number to the 24 editions in the German language. Until 1881 the Reformed Church in Hungary was known as the Evangelical Reformed Church According to the Helvetic

Confession. In Austria it is still called the Evangelical Church of Helvetic Confession.

In 1571 the Confession was accepted in France, Poland and many other lands, without supersiding the local standards.

Swiss pastors were generally bound to the Confession by an ordination oath, which practice was abandoned under the anti-confessional influence of the enlightment theology. It remained the official statement in Hungary, in most of the Reformed Churches in Eastern Europe, in the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, in the Calvin Synod of the United Church of Christ. The United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. last year added the II. Helvetic Confession to the 5 selected Reformed standards of the Church. Hungarian Reformed pastors are still bound to the Confession by their ordination oath.

THE CHARACTER OF II. HELVETIC

As to the character and value of the work, as most of the Confessions of the 16th century the Helvetic Confession is expanded beyond the limits of a popular catechism into a lengthly theological discussion. In 30 chapters with an elaborate yet simple and clear voice it bears witness to the central assertations of the biblical and historical faith. It contains valuable instructtion on such implications of the Christian faith as the freedom of the Gospel and human conscience, the ministry of the church, religious meetings, individual piety and appointed times of worship, fast and festivals, cathechizing, the consolation and visitation of the sick, the Christian burial, care for the dead, rites, ceremonies, church property, celibacy and marriage, and the civil authorities. A trusted guidepost which shows the way to useful citizenship on this earth and to a blessed state in the Kingdom to come.

It is thoroughly scriptural and genuinely catholic. It proceeds on the conviction that the Reformed faith is in harmony with the true Catholic faith of all ages, both the Greek and Latin Church.

While it is firm in its assertions, the Confession distinctly recognizes, in the spirit of Christian liberty and progress, the constant growth in the knowledge of the Word of God, and the consequent right of improvement in confessional statements of the Christian faith. Its appearance was the signal for the cessation of theological controversy and unrest among the Reformed churches and for the beginning of the first manifestations of the solidarity of the Reformed family within the fellowship of the universal Church. Thus it paved the way to the ecumenical movement of our century and to the significant interconfessional dialogue of our age. There, too, it is looked upon, due to its biblicism, historicity and genuine catholicity as a still helpful guidepost.

"SEE THOU THYSELF THEREIN ..."

Confessional statements are guideposts. The point to the road’s beginning and its end. Return to such guideposts we must, but as to guideposts only. Then we must turn to our own time and place, refreshed for having made the journey. For the terrain over which we walk as pilgrims in the earth is surely not that of our fathers. The temptations and the errors of our times are different than theirs. But through them, walk we must. And while we walk through the false teachings and temptations of our own time we may be guided by the trusted signposts but must be led by the living voice of the Pioneer of our faith, who blazes the trail for us as He did to our forbearers, that we like them may find our way to God, which is the chief end of our lives.