Jehan Cauvin & the providence of God

Jehan Cauvin & the providence of God

Where Luther is known for the doctrine of justification by faith, Calvin is more widely known for the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God.  (Sovereignty def, “supreme power or authority.”) Calvin shared Luther’s beliefs in our 4 basic Protestant ?’s:  Ask them…Saved? Authority? Church? Worship? But they were different types of people in different places & different times & though their foundations were similar their structure of doctrine & practice were considerably different. So we’ll contrast some of their beliefs a bit later.

Like Luther’s dad, Calvin’s dad thought it would be best for his sons to become a lawyer, for them to make $ & to move them higher up in social stratus.

So Calvin entered University of Paris at age 14 & developed a brilliant writing style & skill in logical argument.  People may not have liked what he said but they clearly understood his point & his reasons for it. Trained as a lawyer & Calvin broke from the RCC @ 1530

Because of a war between Spain & France, which closed a road, the young French scholar was forced to travel through Geneva, he only planned on staying 1 night.

            Geneva had recently broke from Rome but more due to hostility with their particular bishop than for any theological reasons, they needed a rudder to point them toward more biblical lives, an inflammatory preacher Farel called on Calvin to be this rudder.  Calvin protested preferring peace, privacy & study over leadership, but Farel nearly cursed him, calling him to serve God in Geneva instead of himself in study.  Calvin later admitted he was shy & antisocial & loved retirement & peace but God shoved him into the limelight & “into the game.”

He was chosen as Professor of Sacred Scriptures for the city he wrote up a confession of faith not only for his church but for the whole city to be accepted by everyone who wanted to be a citizen, insisting on church discipline or anyone who’s life didn’t conform to expected Spiritual standards.      Any ?’s so far?

The city resisted initial widespread change encouraged by Farel & Calvin & expelled them. Martin Bucer, suggested Calvin minister to a church of French refuges in Strasbourg, until he was re-invited back to his old church in Geneva.  When the envoy reached Calvin to call him back to Geneva his reaction was 1 of horror in which he later wrote, C-Q#1 “I would rather submit to death a hundred times than to that cross on which I had to perish daily a thousand times over.” But went anyway, believing it was God’s will.

            Famously Michael Servetus, a very intelligent scientist, man of languages, a Spaniard who went by several names to prevent detection traveled through Geneva. Luther had previously condemned his writings & he was regarded by Catholics , Zurich, Basel, Bern, Schoffhause, Spain & Lyon as an anti-Trinitarian heretic & worthy of execution. Servetus arrived in Geneva, was denounced by Calvin & was burned at the stake by the city Council. He wrote on the Errors of the Trinity & wrote against Predestination & infant baptism. There is some debate how much Calvin’s influence had on his execution but the final decision was a civil judicial decision not a church decision. However the outcome of his execution was the eventual Separation of Church & State & civic Religious tolerance.     

Calvin tried to unite Lutheran & Reformed & Anglican (but not Baptist) Evangelical groups but disagreements between Luther & Zwingli on the L.S. kept Lutheran & Refomed groups apart while Archbiship of Canterbury Thomas Cramer of the English Reformation was unable to gather Anglican sentiment to the idea of a union.

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He was the author of the highly influential Institutes of the Christian Religion, the clearest, most logical & most readable exposition of Protestant doctrine that the Reformation produced. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it’s a masterpiece summary of biblical theology that became the normative statement of the Reformed faith. It originally consisted of six chapters that discussed the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and Christian liberty. It was first published in 1536 and was revised and enlarged by Calvin in several editions before the definitive edition was published in 1559.”

In the 3^rd book of the Institutes Calvin answers several of our Protestant questions.  Several chapters are devoted to the subject of justification by faith alone.   Near the end of the book, Calvin describes and defends the doctrine of predestination, a doctrine advanced by the Church Father Augustine in opposition to the teachings of the heretic Pelagius. Fellow theologians who followed the Augustinian tradition on this point included Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther, although Calvin's formulation of the doctrine went beyond the tradition that went before him. C-Q #2 The principle, in Calvin's words, is that "All [people] are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death." Calvin saw the same predestination taught before by Luther, Augustine & Paul as not a brainteaser, or a logic problem to solve but as the deepest source of confidence, humility & moral power for the believer.

            While Calvin did not pretend to be able to detect the divine elect, he did have 3 tests (as good yardsticks) to judge for oneself who might be saved:

1 – participation in sacraments Baptism & Lord’s Supper

2 – upright moral life

3 – public profession of faith

In his mind these were adequate for a disciplined church on Earth

The Institutes 4th book describes what he considers to be the true Church and its ministry, authority, and sacraments. For Calvin, the Church was defined as the body of believers who placed Christ at its head. By definition, there was only one "catholic" or "universal" Church. C-Q#3 Therefore, he argued that the reformers "had to leave them [the RCC] in order that we might come to Christ."

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**Contrast-    1 of the main differences between Luther & Calvin was on the view of the OT Law: neither thought that obedience to the Law itself Saved but Calvin much more than Luther looked to the Law for a pattern for moral character.  Calvin could not contemplate a true Christian without aspiring to a life of holiness.  Were in Luther we might see an overreaction from legalism – Luther would rather you sin but trust in Christ for grace then trust in your own morality as proof of your salvation. While Calvin longed for vigorous pursuit of moral righteousness for his people, C-Q#4 “God calls the elect for a purpose!”  

Political thought

             The aim of Calvin's political theory was to safeguard the rights and freedoms of ordinary people, similar to Libertarianism. Although he was convinced that the Bible contained no blueprint for a certain form of government; he appreciated the advantages of democracy. To further minimize the misuse of political power, Calvin proposed to divide it among several political institutions in a system of checks and balances (separation of powers). State and church are separate, though they have to cooperate to the benefit of the people. Calvin encouraged representative assemblies (Republics, like the US has) & stressed the right to resist tyranny, his teaching lead to modern Constitutional governments. 

End     When Calvin died he left a far more Reformed Geneva & as an avid teacher, leader and missionary trainer he left tendrils of Protestantism & Calvinism all over Europe & even in distant America eager to continue the cause. Calvin did not live to see the foundation of his work grow into an international movement; but his death allowed his ideas to break out of their city of origin, to succeed far beyond their borders, and to establish their own distinct character. Calvin is recognized as a Renewer of the Church in Lutheran churches, and as a saint in the Church of England & the Episcopal Church (USA).

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“Calvin’s theological heritage has proved fertile perhaps to a greater extent than any other Protestant writer. Richard Baxter, Jonathan Edwards, and Karl Barth, in their very different ways, bear witness to the pivotal role that Calvin’s ideas have played in shaping Protestant self-perceptions down the centuries. . . . It is impossible to understand modern Protestantism without coming to terms with Calvin’s legacy to the movement which he did so much to nourish and sustain.”

— Alister E. McGrath

“It would hardly be too much to say that for the latter part of his lifetime and a century after his death John Calvin was the most influential man in the world, in the sense that his ideas were making more history than those of anyone else during that period. Calvin’s theology produced the Puritans in England, the Huguenots in France, the ‘Beggars’ in Holland, the Covenanters in Scotland, and the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, and was more or less directly responsible for the Scottish uprising, the revolt of the Netherlands, the French wars of religion, and the English Civil War. Also, it was Calvin’s doctrine of the state as a servant of God that established the ideal of constitutional representative government and led to the explicit acknowledgment of the rights and liberties of subjects. . . . It is doubtful whether any other theologian has ever played so significant a part in world history.”

— J. I. Packer