Insights from Bullinger’s The Old Faith

Written in German to reach to a wider audience, Bullinger's The Old Faith (1537) is one of Bullinger’s most known works alongside his De Testamento (1534).

Two must read articles on this work of Bullinger are E.A Dowey, “The Old Faith: Comments on One of Heinrich Bullinger’s Most Distinctive Treatises” in William van’t Spijker (ed.) Calvin: Erbe und Auftrag: Festschrift für Wilhelm Neuser zu seinem 65. Geburtstag (Kampen – The Netherlands: Kok Pharos Publishing House, 1991), pp270-278 and W.P. Stephens, “Bullinger’s Defence of the Old Faith”, Reformation and Rennaissance Review, vol 6 (no.1), 2004, pp36-55. Stephens article looks at The Old Faith, The Decades and Ecclesias evangelicas.

One unmistakable theme of this work is the emphasis on the unity of the whole canon, the unity of the Old and New Testaments. It is not just a case of the Old Testament being read in a christocentric manner but the conviction that all of Scripture, from beginning (ie since the Fall) to the end is about God’s plan of salvation through Christ, the seed of the woman. It is well known that Bullinger was an histographer. This explains not only the way he wrote but also his attention to dates.

I believe Dowey wrote from his own a priori position as is evidenced by the following comments of his:

“For all the popular charm of The Old Faith and the basic simplicity of its thesis, it is often intricate in details and sometimes confusingly nuanced.”

“The gifted and diligent historian Bullinger used sequence and chronology to show that the Christian faith in substance is not subject to sequence and chronology. He appears to have used history to deny history in this case. This is not the last word to say about faith and history in Bullinger’s thought generally, but it appears to be the problem left with us from at least this one treatise.”

Stephens has a helpful summary of The Old Faith and writes:

“In the final chapter Bullinger says that after the apostles there came false customs, dangerous sects, and persecutions. This leads him to renew his discussion of the city of God and the city of the devil. He has already drawn on Augustine’s view of the two cities, pointing out that there are two kinds of people – one like Abel cleaving to Christ and the other like Cain cleaving to the devil. These two represent true and false believers. Abel reflects the one, becoming the first martyr in the church. Cain reflects the other, boasting about God but no offering him the right service. Can and his descendants are those who murder – which is what the Roman church does. Moreover, the Bible shows that before and after Christ, the faithful face suffering and persecution.

In the final chapter Bullinger gives a brief account of what has gone wrong with the church. He describes how ministers in the past were more concerned with money than with the exercise of their ministry and the good of the church, so they accepted superstition rather than true religion. As a result the church in Bullinger’s day has the abomination of papal power, indulgences, prayers for the living and the dead,merit, the intercession of the saints, the veneration of their bones, idols, ornaments, pomp, paid singing and prayer, and hosts of idle monks. These are not ancient and orthodox. They are novelties and perversions. They have no basis in God’s word, though some try to claim that they are the old faith.”

The following excerpt from Chapter X illustrates how Bullinger emphasized the unity of the Old and New Testaments:

“And though my purpose be now finished, even declared out of the scripture, that the christian faith hath endured since the beginning of the world, yet I will add a short instruction concerning the time of grace and performing of all promises; and I will declare, that God now also through the appearing of his Son would bring into the world and set forth none other religion, none other faith, neither any other salvation, than even the same which was shewed to the old fathers: saving that all things are more evident, more clearly practiced, accomplished , fulfilled, and performed; for the which cause also all figures, sacrifices, and ceremonies do cease: For in Christ is all perfection. Yet shall we not not therefore cast away the Old Testament, as some ignorant, unlearned, and foolish people do, but have it in greater reputation; forasmuch as we know now through Christ, what every thing signifieth, and wherefore every thing was thus and thus ordained, used, and spoken.Now shall every man first have a courage to read the law and the prophets, when he seeth whereupon every thing goeth. And thus at the beginning did the holy apostles preach Christ unto the Jews out of the law and the prophets, as it is oftimes mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. And our Lord himself, when he went with the two disciples towards Emaus, and preached so unto them, that their hearts burnt within them, he began at Moses and went through all the prophets, and opened unto them the old scriptures, and shewed them that so it behoved Christ to suffer, and to enter into his glory. This is the cause also that the scriptures of the New Testament hang all together and refer themselves to the scriptures of the Old Testament; so that these cannot be right understood without the other, no more than the gloss without the text. The text is the law and the prophets, the exposition are the evangelists and apostles.”

“Obwohl nun mein Vorhaben ausgeführt ist, d.h. aus der Schrift aufgezeigt worden ist, dass der christliche Glaube von Anfang der Welt an gewährt hat, möchte ich nun noch eine kurze Unterweisung über di Gnadenzeit und die Erfüllung aller Verheißungen anfügen und zeigen, dass Gott auch mit der Fleischwerdung seines Sohnes keine andere Gottesverehrung, keinen anderen Glauben und keine andere Rettungs in die Welt setzen oder verkünden lassen wollte, sodnern allein das, was auch schon den Alten verkündet worden ist. Daher und sämtliche Sinnbilder, Opfer und die Zeremonien nich mehr wicksam, denn in Christus ist alle Vollkommenheit. Deswegen soll man jedoch das Alte Testament nich wegwerfen, wie es manche unwissende und ungelahrte Narren tun, sondern in umso höheren Ehren halten, weil mir nun durch Christus erfahren haben, was dies alles bedeutet und warum es so und so eingerichtet, ausgeführt und gesprochen worden ist. Jetzt erst wird jeder Lust bekommen, das Gesetz und die Propheten zu lessen, wenn er sieht, worauf sich alles beziehlt. Daher haben auch die heiligen Apostel den Juden Christus anfangs uas dem Gesetz und die Propheten gepredigt, wie in der Apostelgeschichte oftmals berichtet wird. Und als under Herr mit den beiden Jüngen nach Emmaus ging und ihnen so predigte, dass ihnen die Herzen entbrannten, began et selbst bei Mose, durchlief alle Propheten, erklärte ihnen die alten Schiften und zeigte ihnen, dass Christus leaiden und in seine Herrlichkeit eingehen müsse. Daher verweisen und beziehen sich die Schriften des Neuen Testaments ganz auf die Schriften des Alten Testaments, so dass jene ohne diese nicht richtig verstanden werden können, so wie umgekehrt auch die Auslegung ohne den zugrunde liegenden Text nicht verstanden werden kann. Den Text bilden das Gesetz und die Schriften der Propheten, die Auslegung die Schriften der Evangelisten und Apostel.” (Schriften I, pp243,244)