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Examined Doctrine

Huldrych Zwingli on Natural / general revelation

1484 – 1531 · REFORMED
DISPUTED AMONG SCHOLARSNO STANCE FITS
NO STANCE — AND WHY

None of the stances fits without misdescribing the figure

Every listed stance was tested against the sources, and each asserts something the figure does not. The reasoning is recorded in full, and it is the content.

For what do we know of the faith each one has written in his heart by the hand of God? Who does not admire the faith of that holy man Seneca, as his letter XXXIV to Lucilius discloses it?
Declaration Regarding Original Sin (1526), p. 12, Jackson & Hinke trans., The Latin Works of Huldreich Zwingli, vol. 2 (1922)

THE POSITION

No listed stance fits. Zwingli expects to meet Hercules, Socrates, Seneca, the Catos and the Scipios in heaven, and he admires Seneca's letter to Lucilius as an expression of real faith. But he does not get there by natural revelation. He asks who wrote that faith on Seneca's heart and answers that God did, directly; he grounds the whole argument in Romans 9 election and insists that all who come to God come through Christ. So the inclusivist stance describes his conclusion but misdescribes his mechanism — nothing in creation or conscience moves anyone toward faith on his account. And clear-suppressed is wrong at the other end: he explicitly refuses the inference that pagans are therefore without excuse.

SCRIPTURE
ROMANS 2 · BSB

1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 And we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, O man, pass judgment on others, yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each one according to his deeds.” 7 To those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Greek; 10 but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, first for the Jew, then for the Greek. 11 For God does not show favoritism. 12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous. 14 Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 So they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or defending them 16 on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Christ Jesus, as proclaimed by my gospel. 17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; 18 if you know His will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; 19 if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 The one who is physically uncircumcised yet keeps the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. 28 A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. 29 No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God.

WHAT OTHERS HOLD HERE

Objectively clear and sufficient to leave everyone without excuse; the failure is moral suppression, not insufficient evidence — though it cannot itself saveCALVIN · CHRYSOSTOM · JONATHAN EDWARDS · SECOND LONDON BAPTIST CONFESSION · JOHN OWEN · R.C. SPROUL · CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON · WESLEY · WESTMINSTER CONFESSION
Rejected as a real path to knowledge of God apart from Christ and special revelationLUTHER
See all 15 figures on natural / general revelation →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Reformer of Zurich and the first Reformed theologian to leave a confession — the Sixty-Seven Articles of 1523 predate Augsburg by seven years. He pushed further than Luther on the Supper, which split the early Reformation at Marburg in 1529, further than anyone on the reach of election, and further than any other Reformer on who might finally be saved. This entry rests on the Sixty-Seven Articles (1523), the Declaration Regarding Original Sin (1526), the Fidei Ratio sent to Charles V (1530) and the Exposition of the Christian Faith written weeks before he died in battle — the last of these read only in its chapter on eternal life.

13 OF 18 POSITIONS QUOTED
Everything Zwingli holds →
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"Huldrych Zwingli on Natural / general revelation", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/zwingli/natural-revelation (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/zwingli/natural-revelation).

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