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Christianity Today, May (Web-only), 2009 |

THEOLOGY IN THE NEWS

Man of His Time for All Times

W. Robert Godfrey paints popular portrait of Calvin as pilgrim and pastor.

Interview by Collin Hansen | posted 5/18/2009 10:29AM

The occasion of John Calvin's 500th birthday has spawned several books on the much discussed, less understood pillar of the Protestant Reformation. Interest in the Genevan pastor and theologian ...

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Dave	Posted: May 29, 2009 5:18 PM

Those that continued to post negative feedback about Calvin have still failed to answer my question: are you doing so from a first-hand knowledge of his actual writings? Since none have so far been able or willing to do so, I must conclude that you are still reacting to caricatures of him and statements taken out of context. I invite you to read Calvin's writings for yourself before jumping to conclusions about him. I don't mean quick quotes taken out of context, but an actual open-minded study of his writings. If you then continue to object to his work and can demonstrate why based on first-hand knowledge of his writing, your objections to him will carry more weight. Otherwise, I must conclude that you are speaking from ignorance.

Dr. James Willingham

Posted: May 27, 2009 9:56 PM

Dr. Godfrey's article was insightful and helpful, and I rather suspect that his book will be of value, too. I looked at his article on Calvin as The Counselor o the Afflected" in the work edited by Burk Parsons, John Calvin: A Heart For Devotion, Doctrine & Doxology," while perusing this item in Christianity Today. Both works provide a better perspective on Calvin who is still a scholar that merits consideration and attenion. I have to admit, however, that I stll have a real problem with his burning of Servetus, but that might be due to my being a Baptist who really believes in religious liberty.

Johann

Posted: May 27, 2009 10:54 AM


It's kind of funny, in a sad way, when one group of heretics attack another group of heretics. You're all just playing Christianity in made-up churches that aren't even 500 years old. Get real.

Joe Daniels

Posted: May 23, 2009 4:41 PM

Servetus was repeatedly warned to stay away from Geneva. Calvin wrote to Servetus and instructed him to stay away. “If you come, I cannot protect you,” Calvin cautioned. In spite of this warning Servetus continued to mock the church and taunt the teachings of the orthodox Trinitarians. I equate Servetus’s decision to travel to Geneva with Osama bin Laden showing up in New York City expecting to be welcomed and his jihadist poison heard by enthusiastic crowds at Ground Zero. When I read Calvin’s commentaries I sense he is very warm, friendly and outgoing, approachable, and charitable; he is many times very funny and light-hearted too. The Servetus affair seems totally out of character for him. Perhaps future historians will debate whether our own leaders were evil for executing the criminals of, too, as they chronicle our times. History is that of the propagandist, a potent mix of selective truths, exaggeration and falsehood, caricature and conspiracy theories.

PJ	Posted: May 21, 2009 3:01 PM

"(I)t is often incapacity for defending the faith they love which turns men into persecutors." On free will: "One who went to the truth by mere impulse would be a holy animal, not a true man. Relations, truths, duties, are shown to the man away beyond him, that he may CHOOSE them and be a child of God, choosing righteousness like Him. Hence, the whole sad victorious human tale and the glory to be revealed." On charity & orthodoxy: "Every man who tries to obey the Master is my brother, whether he counts me such or not, and I revere him; but dare I give quarter to what I see to be a lie because my brother believes it? The lie is not of God, whoever may hold it." - from Unspoken Sermons, George MacDonald

Sarah

Posted: May 21, 2009 2:19 PM

I don't understand people's love for this despotic heretic. He killed those who disagreed with him- and there were plenty. All Calvinism as a belief system boils down to is a shallow facade over a seculistic materialism, a mechanistic worldview where free will is not possible and peple are arbitrarily thrown into heaven or hell, without any reponsibilty on their part because all is chosen by God. How truly frightening and how very unbiblical. Predestination in Romans is more correctly defined by the concept of corporate election- that there will be a group who conform to Christ, not each and every individual will be catagorized before birth. Corporate Election runs with the rest of what we are told of the Father in Scripture, not against like the angry, venomous reformed platform.

Joe Chip

Posted: May 20, 2009 3:10 PM

"And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him." And Jesus said: "Surely I have dammed this women since before the foundations of the earth, that her soul might perish in Hell for all time! There is no forgiveness in my Father's heart for her." He reached down and picked up a large stone... Hmm! Wait, something don't quite seem right there, but I just can't... can't seem to put my finger on it.... huh. No, wait, it's gone now. All praise John Calvin, Church Father! Holy are his teachings, righteous are his decrees!

Phil	Posted: May 20, 2009 11:49 AM

Jesus said: "By their fruits you will know them." Their fruits reveal whether they are good or evil. Of Him, or not. After looking into Calvin and his doctrine, it is clear, judging by his fruits, that the man was clearly evil (even in Christ's name!), therefore his doctrine is fatally tainted. Calvin was first and foremost a prideful, power hungry, murdering, torturing despot. I can't see how any man can call himself a follower of the Christ and do the things he did. I reject him fully and his evil doctrine. Thank you Jesus for helping me to see the truth here! I follow only You. Not the doctrines of men.

mike ross

Posted: May 19, 2009 11:30 PM

Interesting that today's 'protestant', 'evangelical' and whatnot have forgotten, or more likely never learned what they have bought into. Calvin, for one, confessed not only the Virginity of the Mother of God, BUT, her "Ever-Virginity", as the case is made, that Jesus' "brothers" were actually his step-brothers of St Joseph's earlier marriage. Virgin Mary being his second wife. so that Jesus, when being scoffed at by his 'brothers', was actually the youngest of the clan of Joseph. Did you never wonder why He gave the keeping of the Blessed Mother of John , his cousin, when dying on the Cross..??? This is also supported by Luther's, Zwinglii's and Wesley's writings. In America the suspicion of the Protestants against the Roman Catholic Irish, in the mid 1800's caused a backlash, against the Tradition of the Universal Church (including Orthodox, who the RCC left in 1054..). Jealousy is a deadly thing, esp in the 'church'.

Jonathan E. Brickman

Posted: May 19, 2009 8:18 PM


I wonder how many Calvinists are willing to remember, find out, or care about what their idol did with witches and certain other people, whenever he could. We should not be glorifying yet another sinful man, though the Lord take him. We should be glorifying the Lord.

http://ketch22.wordpress.com

Posted: May 19, 2009 2:17 PM

Christ's sacrifice was for all, not for a select few that God pre-determined before creation. The Scripture clearly says time and again that God loved the whole world, that Christ left the 99 to find the 1, that none should perish, etc... when viewed in context with verses Calvinists use to imply God creates some for salvation and some for damnation for His own glory, it puts a new light on those verses. God created some knowing what they would eventually choose, but still gave them the choice... this isn't predestination... but simply knowing. It is a whole lot different than saying that God has to supply some irresistable grace before you can seek Him... and if He doesn't you have no chance at salvation. You can seek Him... this is when He supplies His resistable grace so you can know Him... after the seeking, not before. You have the choice to seek Him... don't be fooled by theology that says you can't even begin to seek God unless He wants you... because He wants everybody.

Chuck

Posted: May 19, 2009 12:12 PM

It is probably best to make a clear distinction between the man and his ideas. Calvin the theologian was brilliant. Calvin the man was unmitigated evil personified, with a soul so black that no amount of whitewash can cover those bones. He was truly the Joseph Stalin of his day and the only reason he did not become a role model for Stalin is that Geneva did not have an army. That the good burghers of Geneva did not simply assassinate him is one of the great tragedies of history.

Glenn

Posted: May 19, 2009 12:01 PM

Arnie, Please, Please don't speak with out proper understanding and attitude. Your attitude is the reason that Christians talk past each other than with each other. Christian theological development cannot happen when people don't hold the Biblical truths of scirpture in tension when neeed - like a rubberband that is stretched. It is the process of affirming all that Scripture states regardless of our reasonings, emotions, tradition, etc. that thological development happens and we grow in Christ-likeness. As Christ followers we must not drop one side of the truth because we don't like it, but affirm all of the Scirpture as we strive to understand it. Folk Theology, Tabloid theology, or what I call "limp-rubberband" theology (where we don't hold Biblical truths when there is tension) are hurtful to the body of Christ. Let's follow and pursue Christ and his Gospel together. Yes, lets challenge one another with scripture so that we may grow, but let's be together for the Gospel.

Dave	Posted: May 19, 2009 8:41 AM

Excellent article! I remember studying Calvin's life and work in school. I greatly appreciate his work and his wonderful legacy of sermons, commentaries, and teaching. His work helped transform Geneva from a profligate place into a center of godliness. His work continues to inspire people today. I would pose a question to those who seem determined to slam him: have you ever actually read Calvin's writings in depth and studied his life work, or are you only reacting to little quotes and caricatures of him taken out of context by others?

Brent Vermillion

Posted: May 19, 2009 3:53 AM

How can there be an article about Calvin without even mentioning Arminius and the other perspective of Reformed Theology, Remonstrance. Calvin to me, and especially his five points, are too cookie cutter. They certainly were not and are not balanced. John Wesley, on the other hand, brought a balance to things like predestination and free choice that Calvinism simply lacks. Yet, Calvin is still put forth as the Great Theologian. This is nonsense. Calvin would have been no match for Arminius nor Wesley in a debate because Scripture is on their side.

Ronald L. T. Hollands

Posted: May 19, 2009 2:58 AM

I fully endorse the Francis H. Geis' comments. I am deeply saddened by the unjust and vitriolic attacks on Calvin by other comments that have appeared and which make me fear that those who have posted them have no spiritual understanding of the awesome holiness and yet the amazing grace of God, the weightiness of sin and the bondage of the human will, 'fast bound in sin and nature's night.' Thank God for Augustine, John Calvin and all those who rejoiced in and taught 'sovereign grace o'er sin abounding.'

Gregory Peterson

Posted: May 19, 2009 12:29 AM


What idolatry. Someone once pointed out that communism was secular Calvinism, and either way, it's moral and intellectual bankruptcy.

J.	Posted: May 19, 2009 12:17 AM


I have not been happy with Christianity Today for some time now. It's gone so far off the deep end in extoling the Calvinist religion that it should change its name to Reformed Today.

Arnie

Posted: May 18, 2009 11:36 PM

Calvin's beloved doctrine (ever notice how much people LOVE doctrine?) is largely responsible for making a monster out of God. We are always scolded for "making God in our own image" and yet that is precisely what Calvin did -- he picked the attributes he wanted to emphasize, chiefly God's anger, vengeance and total sovereignty (hmmm...wonder who that correspsonded to? Calvin perhaps?) and today we have a bi-polar God -- the one of infinite wrath and vengeance and seemingly arbitrary decision making and the God of love and infinite forgiveness and tenderness. No wonder it's getting harder to win believers. People are getting tired of Calvin's medievalism.

Thomas Jefferson on Calvin

Posted: May 18, 2009 10:21 PM

From his 1820 letter to W. Short. "The Presbyterian clergy are loudest; the most intolerant of all sects, the most tyrannical and ambitious; ready at the word of the lawgiver, if such a word could be now obtained, to put the torch to the pile, and to rekindle in this virgin hemisphere, the flames in which their oracle Calvin consumed the poor Servetus, because he could not find in his Euclid the proposition which has demonstrated that three are one and one is three, nor subscribe to that of Calvin, that magistrates have a right to exterminate all heretics to Calvinistic Creed." To Dr. Waterhouse 6/26/1822 Verily I say these are the false shepherds foretold as to enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but to climb up some other way. They are mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy imaginations, as foreign from Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies have driven thinking men into infidelity..."

Jay Antonic

Posted: May 18, 2009 10:12 PM

Obviously W. Robert Godfrey has never read the work, “The Man from Mars: His Morals, Politics, and Religion", by William Simpson, 3rd ed., Beattle, San Francisco, 1900. Read the Excerpt on http://www.lakenorman.com/index.php?action=articles&cat=19 "It is not simply the mark of intolerance that Calvin earned, but moreover, that of a Theocratic Murderer. "The persecution of Michael Servetus by John Calvin, one of the leaders of the Reformation, was one of the most unjust and inhuman exercises of religious authority that the world has seen." The article goes on to exact with precision the sheer devestation that John Calvin wrought on the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philip Williams

Posted: May 18, 2009 7:07 PM

"Almost all Europeans of Calvin's day believed that heresy should be eradicated". There were Anabaptist in Europe and in Switzerland who knew that Christians did not murder those who disagreed with them." What hypocrisy to use cultural relativism among those who had the example of the Apostolic Church and early Christians! A Christian pilgrim! You mean those not having a land their own and being harassed like sheep all the day long! When will heartless Calvinists show any remorse and repentance. They demonstrate their cold hearts they inherit from their father.

DenisInParis

Posted: May 18, 2009 6:48 PM

"Almost all Europeans/German's in Hitler's day believed that being Jewish was as dangerous as the plague and that civil governments had the obligation to eradicate Jews"... ... Not only is the comparison absurd, but almost no one in Europe, not even in Germany, believed that civil governments had the obligation to eradicate Jews. Not even a majority of members of the Nazi party. The Holocaust was designed by a very small group (after eight years of Nazi power), ordered in secret, and implemented by relatively small groups of people in the context of a totalitarian country at war (that is, without the possibility of rebelling). BTW, Calvin - and Protestants of his era - have much less blood on their hands, than their Roman Catholic counterparts, probably not by coincidence. And if I had the choice, I would prefer to be beheaded, not burned alive, thank you very much.

Francis H. Geis

Posted: May 18, 2009 6:11 PM

I thought the article, overall, gave a fair assessment of John Calvin and his role in the development of Reformation theology. Having a Sovereign Grace Baptist background myself, I appreciate his development of the doctrines of grace, which were first set forth by St Augustine, and which both men argued were the teaching of the New Testament itself. I gather from some of the nasty comments made about Calvin so far that the critics, in part, don't like his exposition in the Institutes of the Christian Religion regarding the sovereignty of God in the salvation and preservation of believers. Fine. Prove Calvin wrong from Scripture, if you can. Also, Phil seems to express what C. S. Lewis once described as the "enlightened snobbery of moderns" toward our forebears. Calvin wasn't anything like Hitler, and to compare him to Hitler exposes an ahistorical prejudice and contempt that is unworthy of any Christian.

BMH	Posted: May 18, 2009 5:44 PM


My thoughts exactly, Phil!

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