Reformed Theologi
Introduction
A. Introduction of
Class
B. Study of History:
Why study church history?
1. History serves to
inspire, warn, instruct, and broaden.
2. History can
deliver us from the tyranny of our own times, the conceit that we are
necessarily wiser than our forefathers.
3. When we
understand history, we better understand ourselves.
4. History serves as
a guide to the understanding of biblical truth.
History
of the Reformation
A. Beginnings of the
Reformation
1. Diet of Worms
a. April 16, 1521
b. “Unless I am
convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason – for I
can believe neither pope nor councils alone, as it is clear that they have
erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves – I consider myself convicted by
the testimony of the Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is
captive to the Word of God. Thus I
cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither
safe nor sound. God help me. Amen.”
2. Martin Luther
(1483-1546)
B. Reformation
Theology
1. Justification:
(being made right with God) is by grace
alone through faith alone because of Jesus Christ alone.
a. Sola Gratia (Grace alone)
b.
Sola Fide (Faith alone)
c. Solo Christo (Christ alone)
d. Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone)
2. Soli Deo Gloria
3. Coram Deo (In the Presence of God)
Before
the Reformation
A.
Introduction
B. The Renaissance
1. Overview
a. The word
“Renaissance” comes from two words meaning “birth” and “back” and expresses the
idea of a rebirth of culture.
b. The Renaissance
took place in most of Europe between 1350 and 1650 AD and it marks the
transition from the Medieval to the Modern world.
2. Importance
a. Humanism – Ad fontes – rediscovery of the treasury
of the Greco-Roman culture.
b. Individualism –
Foundational principle of placing the person before a community.
c. Middle Class – The
urban middle class began to replace the old rural agrarian society of medieval
feudalism.
C. The Forerunners
of the Reformation
1. John Wycliffe
(1328-1384) – The Morning Star of the Reformation
a. A constant
tension between the English and the papacy over papal taxation and control over
the church.
b. Wycliffe called
for the reform of the Roman Church.
(1) He wanted to
eliminate immoral clergy by stripping it of its property which he felt was the
cause of its corruption.
(2) He attacked the
authority of the pope, asserting that Christ was the true Head of the Church.
(3) He argued that
the Bible rather than the Church was the sole authority for the believer. Therefore he translated the Bible into the
vernacular, English. He completed in
1384.
c. He was condemned
in 1382 and was forced to retire.
However his patrons protected him from any further reprisals. His influence continued, however.
2. John Huss
(1369-1415)
a. As the rector of
the University of Prague, he preached the ideas of Wycliffe.
b. Huss was ordered
to appear at the Council of Constance in 1415 with a promise of safe
conduct. However, this promise was not
honored. At Constance he was condemned
and burned at the stake in 1415.
c. Some of his
followers from the Unitas Fratum
(United Brethren), or Bohemian Brethren.
From this group came the Moravian Church. More importantly, Martin Luther was directly
influenced by John Huss.
D. The Fathers:
Augustine (354-430 AD)
1.
Introduction
a. Full name:
Aurelius Augustinus.
b. Bishop of Hippo
in North Africa. Modern day Tunisia.
c. He is the last
great patristic thinker who conveyed theology of the West to the Middle
Ages. Medieval theologians often
referred to Augustine.
d. “Augustine is the
end of one era as well as the beginning of another. He is the last of the ancient Christian
writers, and the forerunner of medieval theology. The main currents of ancient theology
converged in him, and from him flow the rivers, not only of medieval
scholasticism, but also of sixteenth-century Protestant theology.” (Gonzalez)
e. His writings
profoundly influenced the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, especially
Martin Luther and John Calvin.
2. Biography
a. Family
background: Born to African parents in Tagaste in Numidia (modern day Algeria)
on November 13, 354 AD. His father,
Patricius, was a heathen (though he was baptized shortly before his
death).
b. His mother Monica
was a Christian. His father emphasized
education, his mother piety. His
mother’s prayers and stellar example of a virtuous Christian woman were to
prove crucial in his later conversion – “A son of so many prayers and tears
could not be lost.”
c. Life before
conversion
(1) He wrote Confessions when he was 46 years
old. Supposedly he struggled with
laziness as a student. He studies
oratory eventually.
(2) Morally
problematic. He kept a concubine and had
a son out of wedlock. He named the son
Adeodatus (“given by God”) Later, “Oh
God, give me chastity, but not yet.”
(3) At age 17, sent
to Carthage for education. He read
Cicero’s Hontensius (no longer
extant) which set him on his quest for higher truth. He studied philosophy and religion. This knowledge would prove helpful later in
life.
(4) Struggles with
Manichaeism. Mani of Persia taught that
there was a cosmic battle between good and evil. It is a bit like Gnosticism.
d. Augustine’s
conversion
(1) 386 AD – at the
age of 33
(2) Exposed to the
preaching of Ambrose. Augustine became a
teacher of rhetoric. In 385 he was
teaching in Milan when he heard the preaching of Ambrose. Although he was there to evaluate his
oratorical skills (with which he was impressed), he got interested in the
content of the message.
(3) Also, his mother
came to live with him, and persuaded him to send his concubine away and become
engaged to a girl who was not yet old enough to marry. Feeling that he should lead a pure life, but
being unable to do so, he exclaimed to God, “Give me chastity, but not yet.”
(4) In a garden at
Milan, he was in a deep spiritual struggle.
In the midst of this, he heard the sound of a child singing, “Take up
and read.” So he opened the Bible at
random and turned to Romans 13:11-14. He
was especially struck by the portion that said, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ
and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its lusts.”
(5) Easter of 387 AD,
Augustine was baptized by Ambrose in Milan together with his friend Alypius and
his natural son, Adeodatus.
(a)
The same year, his mother Monica died.
(b) Then the
following year, Adeodatus, whose mind showed the same brilliance his father
possessed, died at the age of 18.
(6) He sold his
goods, gave the proceeds to the poor, and entered a monastic life, establishing
a monastery in North Africa.
e. Ordination
(1) 391 AD (5 years
after conversion) he was chosen to fill the position of presbyter in the harbor
city of Hippo. He was actually pressed
into service by insistent people. He served
in this post for 38 years.
(2) 395 AD –
assistant to Bishop Valerius
(3) 396 AD – Bishop
of Hippo
3. Influence of
Augustine
a. A scholar
commented that all of 20 centuries of western theology is a footnote to
Augustine’s theology.
b. Names attributed
to Augustine: The Quintessential ancient theologian, founder of the Middle
Ages, father of the Reformation, the first true modern man (John Paul
Sartre).
4. Augustine’s final
days.
a. Augustine’s final
days were characterized by various illnesses.
b. He was also
greatly troubled over the invasion of the Vandals in North Africa, who pillaged
cities, destroyed villages, and even decimated churches. Just before his death the Vandals were laying
siege to his own city.
c. During the last
ten days of his life, he spent his time in prayer, confession, and repeated
reading the penitential Psalms. He even
had these Psalms written on the wall over his bed, to keep them always before
him.
5. Against Pelagians
(c. 419)
a. Background
(1) Pelagius was
probably born in Great Britain, though scholars disagree.
(2) Pelagius studied
Greek theology. He was an intellectual,
mild, cultured, and moral. He was also
legalistic, self-disciplined, an self-righteous.
(3) Pelagius was a
lay monk. He was outwardly very
moral. He was disciplined in keeping
commandments. He never had profound
struggles with sin. He also had no
concept of salvation by faith. He saw
sin only in terms of outer action.
b. Leading to the
confrontation
(1) Pelagius first
taught his views in Rome in 409-410 AD.
Before Rome fell to Goths in 410, Pelagius and Coelestius went to North
Africa to meet Augustine who was out of town.
Pelagius left Coelestius in North African and went to Palestine to teach
his views.
(2) Pelagius
questioned Augustine’s statement “Command what you will, and give what you command.” Pelagius argued that “ought” implies “can.”
(3) He argued that
Augustine’s theology of grace presented a barrier to moral reform. Augustine seems to teach that we are bound to
sin, and unable to choose good. Pelagius
felt that this contradicted human freedom.
c. Confrontation
(1) When Coelestius
sought ordination at Carthage, he was refused.
In 412, Coelestius was judged heretical in North Africa and excommunicated when he refused to recant
his statements.
(2) Coelestius went
to Ephesus and was ordained there.
Augustine, upon hearing this, appealed to Jerome of Bethlehem in
415. Jerome wrote a dialogue and
appealed to the Bishop of Jerusalem to condemn Pelagius and Coelestius.
(3) The bishop of
Jerusalem refused to condemn Coelestius and held a synod in which Pelagius and
his followers were declared orthodox.
(4) 416 AD –
Augustine held two synods and condemned Pelagius.
(5) Innocent I of
Rome agreed with Augustine. After
Innocent’s statement, Augustine said, “Rome has spoken; the debate is
over.” However, when Zosimus became Pope
in 417, he was sympathetic to Pelagius and declared orthodox.
(6) Augustine
responded by condemning Pelagius in his own synod against Zosimus.
d. Resolution
(1) Pelagius died
around 420 AD.
(2) Pelagianism
officially condemned in Ephesus 431 which also condemned Nestorianism. It was condemned again in Orange in 529.
|
Pelagius
|
Augustine |
Adam |
Adam was not endowed with positive holiness. He was created ethically neutral, with
capacity for either good or bad.
Adam’s sin, therefore, merely serves as a bad example. There is no inherited depravity. His death is a result of physical
creation. |
Adam was created immortal.
Adam had the ability not to sin.
He chose to sin freely. From
this state of posse non peccare et mori
(ability not to sin and die) Adam would have passed to a state of non posse peccare et more (the
inability to sin and die). But because
he chose to sin he entered into the state of non posse no peccare et mori (the inability not to sin and die). |
Fall |
The fall injured no one but Adam himself. Thus human nature is not impaired for
good. There is no “original sin” as
such. The children are born like Adam.
Romans 5:12 does not teach imputation but imitation. |
Through the organic connection between Adam and his descendents, the
former transmits to his posterity his fallen nature, with the guilt and
corruption attached to it. |
Universality of Sin |
Universal but as a result of wrong education and bad example, and to
a long established pattern of sinning. |
|
Will |
There is no evil tendencies and desire in man’s nature which
inevitably result in sin. “Free will”
– “Free choice.” Freedom is the
ability to choose between the alternatives.
The fact that God commands man what to do proves that man is able to
do it. |
As the result of sin man is totally depraved and unable to do any
spiritual good. Augustine racially
affirms free will, but in a completely different sense from Pelagius. |
Grace |
There is a grace of nature which consists in natural endowments. There is also special grace which can help
man overcome evil and is an advantage to him.
With this grace, man can more easily fulfill the commandments. Therefore, Grace is not seen as an inward
working, but only in terms of externals, such as man’s rational nature, God’s
revelation in Scripture, and the example of Christ. |
The will of man need renewal.
This renewal is exclusively a work of grace form start to finish. Irresistible grace. Salvation and regeneration are entirely
monergistic. |
Predestination |
Rejects it |
What God does in time for the renewal of the sinner he also willed to
do eternity. |
Martin
Luther (1483-1546) in Context
A. Biography
1. Luther was born
in 1483 in a little German village of Eislaben.
2. His father was of
peasant origin, but became a part of the growing middle class by working first
as a copper minder, then as an owner of several foundries.
a. After receiving
his education at Erfurt University where he received his Masters degree in
Philosophy, he entered law school at the request of his father despite his desire
to become a monk.
b. After studying
law for a brief time, Luther traveled back home to ask his father to allow him
to join a monastery. Upon his return
journey after his father refused, Luther is almost struck by a lightening and
made a vow: “Saint Ann, I will become a monk.”
c. Two weeks later
he entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt where he studied under Johann
von Staupitz, a staunch Augustinian.
d. 1507 – When his
gifts were realized, he was ordained to the priesthood. He then entered the University of Wittenberg,
where he received his doctorate which led to his teaching at the University of
Meinz (1509-1511).
e. 1512 – He became
Doctor of Bible at the University of Wittenberg.
3. His “Conversion”
a. The first ten
years after his ordination were characterized by great spiritual struggle and
inner turmoil. He had an overpowering
sense of his own sinfulness, a sense that would not leave him, even though he
faithfully performed his acts of penance.
b. No matter how
much he faithfully confessed his sins, he felt that his sins went far beyond
his ability to confess. He testified, “I
kept the rule so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by
his sheer monkery, it was I. If I had
kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading
and other work.”
c. As he preached
through the books of Psalms and Romans, he gradually began a process of
change. No on knows exactly when and how
he changed, but his teaching through Romans and his horrified view of the
corruption of the Roman church provided enough reasons for him to seek other
options.
4. Luther’s
Confrontation of the Roman Church
a. The Indulgence
Controversy
(1) Pope Leo X –
indulgence to raise funds for St. Peter’s Basilica.
(2) John Tetzel –
messenger of the Pope to sell indulgences.
(3) “As soon as the
coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
b. 95 Theses – Theses 71: “Let him be an
anathema who speaks against the apostolic authority of the indulgences.” Note
well: 95 Theses was a Catholic document that criticized the abuses
of the church, not the indulgences themselves.
c. Debates
(1) 1518 – Heidelberg
(2) 1519 – Leipzig
with John Eck
d. Exsurge Domine –
Papal Bull of 1520
(1) Pope Leo X called
Luther a wild “boar from the forest”
(2) Considered Luther
to be seeking “to destroy” the church
e. Diet of Worms
(1521)
(1) Usually known for
Luther’s comments.
(2) R.C. Concern of
Authority: “In this you are completely mad.
For what purpose does it serve to raise a new dispute about matters
condemned through so many centuries by church and council? Unless perhaps a reason must be given to just
anyone about anything whatsoever. But if
it were granted that whoever contradicts the councils and the common
understanding of the church must be overcome by Scripture passages, we will
have nothing in Christianity that is certain or decided.”
5. Luther’s
Contributions
a. His Life
(1) Completed the
translation of the Bible into German in 1534.
(2) Completed the
Small Catechism in 1529.
(3) Married Katherine
von Bora, a former nun.
(4) Disputed with
Erasmus of Rotterdam on the “will”
b. Theology of the
Cross
(1) Luther was not
interested in abstract pictures of God.
(2) The beginnings of
his theology of the cross found in the 95 Theses (92-95). According to Luther, “He deserves to be
called a theologian…who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen
through suffering and the cross.”
(3) His ideas are
based on 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
(4) Most seek the
theology of Glory.
(a)
It urges human beings to trust themselves, to make
their own efforts.
(b) It encourages
people to trust in their own wisdom.
(5) Theology of the
Cross in summary:
(a)
One who seeks the cross finds God.
(b) The cross reveals
God’s perfect love and his mystery.
(c)
The cross clearly reveals our misery. Our sins are so great, only God by dying can
save.
(d) To embrace the
cross is to come to an end of self. To
embrace the cross is to be embraced by Christ in return.
Other
Reformers
A. Ulrich Zwingli
(1484-1531)
1. Introduction
a. Switzerland was
the freest land in Europe at the time of the Reformation.
b. It was divided
into 13 “canton,” each with independent governments.
c. Each canton had
the right to decide for itself which religion it wished to recognize, so for
the most part the Reformation entered Switzerland by legal means.
d. Three types of
Reformation theology developed in the Swiss areas:
(1) The
German-speaking part of Switzerland followed the teaching of Ulrich Zwingli.
(2) Another group of
Christians, mostly former followers of Zwingli and most from the
German-speaking cantons, became part of the Anabaptist movement.
(3) The
French-speaking part of Switzerland (the south) followed John Calvin.
2. Biography
a. His pilgrimage
(1) Zwingli was born
in a small Swiss village in January, 1484, less than two months after Martin
Luther.
(2) After receiving
his formal education at Basel, Berne, and at the University of Vienna, in 1506
he became the priest in the village of Glarus.
(3) In 1512 and again
in 1515 he went on religious military campaigns in Italy with mercenary
soldiers from his district.
(a)
The first campaign was successful, and he witnessed
his parishioners mercilessly looting the conquered region.
(b) The second
campaign was the opposite, and he then witnessed the impact of war on the
defeated.
(c)
This experience convinced him that one of the great
evils of Switzerland was that mercenary service destroyed the moral fiber of
society.
(4) In 1516 he became
a priest at Einsiedeln, a center of pilgrimages.
(a)
While there he went on a pilgrimage.
(b) This experience
led him to conclude that exercises such as pilgrimages could not avail for
salvation, for he could find nothing in the New Testament to support such
practices.
(c)
He also began to oppose some of the abuses of the
indulgence system.
(5) By the time he
became a priest in Zurich in 1518, Zwingli had reached conclusions similar to
those of Luther, although he took the route of the humanist scholar instead of
the anguished sinner.
(6) Another step in
his move away from the control of Rome came when Francis I of France, who was
at war with Charles V, request mercenary soldiers from Switzerland.
(a)
All the cantons sent soldiers except Zurich.
(b) The pope, an ally
of Francis, prevailed on Zurich to send soldiers to the aid of Francis.
(c)
That incident directed Zwingli’s attention to the
abuses of the papacy and he began to attack its unjust use of power.
b. The break with
Rome
(1) After the citizens
of Zurich followed Zwingli’s lead in breaking with several Roman Catholic
rituals because they were not endorsed in Scripture, the authorities called a
public debate between Zwingli and anyone who cared to oppose him. The elected officials would then decide which
faith the canton would adopt.
(2) Zwingli won the
debate and Protestantism became the legal religion of the canton.
(3) Zwingli’s goal
was to restore biblical faith and practice.
(a)
His program differed from Luther’s, however, in that
Luther was willing to retain all liturgical uses which did not conflict with
Scripture, but Zwingli asserted that all that did not have explicit scriptural
support was to be rejected.
(b) This led him to
reject the use of organs in the church, for they were not used in the Bible.
(c)
Finally, he abolished the mass.
(4) By 1525, the
Reformation was completed in Zurich.
c. Zwingli’s death
(1) As the
Reformation spread throughout Switzerland some cantons became Protestant and
others remained Catholic. Thus religious
differences, added to other causes of friction, made civil war seem inevitable.
(2) The Catholic
cantons took steps to seek an alliance with Charles V of Spain, and Zwingli
recommended that the Protestant cantons take the military initiative before it
was too late.
(a)
The Protestant cantons could not agree on the war
questions, however. Finally, against
Zwingli’s advice, they decided to take economic measures against the Catholic
cantons.
(b) In October 1531
the five Catholic cantons responded to the economic reprisals by attacking Zurich
by surprise.
(c)
The Protestants were unprepared, but Zwingli marched
out with the first soldiers who could be gathered hoping to resist long enough
to allow the rest of the army to organize the defense of the city.
(d) Finally, in
Kappel, the Catholic cantons defeated the army of Zurich and Zwingli was killed
in the battle.
(3) A month later the
Peace of Kappel was signed.
(a)
The Protestants agreed to pay for the expenses of
the military actions. In return, the
Catholics agreed that each canton would have the freedom to make its own choice
in matters of religion.
(b) From that time
on, the religious boundaries in Switzerland became firmly established.
d. Zwingli’s
Theology
(1) Because of the
different nature of the religious quests of Luther and Zwingli, the latter had a
more positive view of the power of reason than did the former. Other differences between the two included:
(a)
Predestination
·
For Luther the doctrine of predestination was the
expression and the result of his experience of knowing himself impotent before
his own sin, and therefore finding himself forced to declare that his salvation
was not his own work but God’s.
·
Zwingli saw predestination as the logical
consequence of the nature of God. Since
God is both omnipotent and omniscient He knows and determines all things before
hand.
(b) The sacraments
·
Luther held that an inner divine action took place
when the outer human action was performed.
·
Zwingli refused to grant such efficacy to the
sacraments, for this would limit the freedom of the Spirit. For him, the material elements, and the
physical actions that accompany them, can be no more than signs of symbols of
spiritual reality.
·
Thus for Zwingli faith was the essential element in
the element in the sacraments.
·
This difference in outlook regarding the sacraments
led tot he schism between Luther and Zwingli at the Marburg Colloquy in 1529.
(2) Other key
doctrines taught by Zwingli
(a)
He upheld the absolute authority of the Bible.
(b) Original sin was
seen as a moral disease, but not guilt.
Thus unbaptized children could be saved.
(c)
Salvation is by faith without the need of the aid of
the church.
(d) He upheld the
right of clerical marriage (In 1522 he married Anna Reinhard secretly. The marriage was revealed in 1524).
(e)
The only head of the church is Christ, not the pope.
B. Heinrich
Bullinger (1504-1575)
1. Successor to
Zwingli
2. “Pastor of
Pastors”
3. Decades, 100 Sermons on the Apocalypse
C. Martin Bucer
(1491-1551)
1. German
Reformer. He was born in Germany,
educated by the Dominicans, and was a humanist in training. Left the monastery in 1520 and was
excommunicated by the church in 1522. He
was present at Luther’s debate in Heidelberg.
2. Strassbourg – He
began a reforming movement in this largely independent city leading to the
abolishment of the Mass in 1525. He
tried to develop a good relationship with Lutherans in the north and Zwingli in
the south.
3. Commentary on
Romans – Calvin freely borrowed from him.
D. Peter Martyr
Vermigli (1500-1562)
1. After Calvin, the
most influential theologian.
2. Proposed
modifications to predestination that Calvin did not do.
Calvin
(1509-1564) in Context
A. Calvin and the
Middle Ages
1. Scholasticism
2. Calvin and
Scholasticism
3. Calvin and
Medieval Exegesis
B. John Calvin’s
Biography
1. Introduction -
Calvin as an “historical enigma”[1]
(McGrath, 14-19)
2. Calvin’s
Biography in David Steinmetz, Calvin in Context.
3. The Young Calvin
a. Born July 10,
1509 in the city of Noyon in the
north of France. His family name in
French was Cauvin and Calvin’s Father, Gérard
Cauvin, was a notary who had responsibility for conducting the legal
affairs of the cathedral chapter in Noyon.
b. Montmor family – private tutoring and sent, at 14
years of age, to Paris in order to study for the priesthood at the Collège de
la Marche. He education was financed by
the income from certain benefices arranged through the patronage of the Bishop
of Noyon.
c. Before he can
study theology, he was required to attain his BA in which he was taught
classics, Latin, by Mathurin Cordier,
who was one of the foremost scholars of his time. He was dissatisfied with the beginning class,
and he decided to take over the remedial class himself.
d. Enrolled in the Collège of Montaigu where he spent 5
years. He studied philosophy with the
Spaniard Antonio Coronel. He received
his M.A. in liberal arts.
e. Calvin did not
intend to devote his life to the study of theology. Indeed, Calvin belongs to the company of
lawyers, to which Thomas More, Theodore Beza, and Caspar Olevianus also
belonged, who found themselves overtaken by events and were plunged from the
study and practice of law into the middle of religious controversies.
f. About 1528,
Calvin’s father suddenly changed the plans for his son and sent him
instructions to withdraw from Paris and enroll at Orléans as a candidate for a degree in civil law. Calvin obeyed and sepnt the year studying law
under the distinguished jurist Pierre de l’Estoile, and Greek under the
Alsatian humanist Melchior Wolmar. Wolmar was not only a brilliant classical
scholar, he was also a Lutheran.
g. Theodore Beza, Life
of Calvin – “Some persons, still alive, who were then on familiar terms
with him, say, that, at that period, his custom was, after supping very
frugally, to continue his studies until midnight, and on getting up in the
morning, to spend some time meditating, and, as it were, digesting what he had
read in bed, and that while so engaged, he was very unwilling to be
interrupted. By these prolonged vigils
he no doubt acquired solid learning, and an excellent memory; but it is
probably he also contracted that weakness of stomach, which afterwards brought
on various diseases, and ultimately led to his untimely
death."”(Steinmetz, 7)
h. Calvin continued
his legal studies at Bourges where
the Italian jurist, Andreas Alciati, taught.
Under him Calvin learned the way of explicating the legal text, which
helped his exposition of Scripture.
i. In 1531 Calvin’s
father became seriously ill and Calvin returned as quickly as he could to
Noyon. He arrived to find that both his
father and his brother Charles were excommunicated by the church. Gerard had quarreled with the cathedral
chapter and Charles had, as a consequence, handled two of the officials of the
chapter less gently. When Gerard died
on May 26, 1531, it was only with some difficulty that Charles persuaded the
chapter to allow his father to be buried in consecrated ground.
j. This newfound
freedom allowed Calvin to concentrate on his humanist studies. He returned to Paris to the Collège de
France, where he studied Greek with Danès and Hebrew with Vatable.
k. 1532 – With his
own money, Calvin published De Clementia (Seneca). His comments to his friend Francois
Daniel – Steinmetz, 8.
l. Calvin’s
Conversion: Some date his conversion to as early as 1527 and no later than the
beginning of 1530. They point to Wolmer
and the possible influence of German students at Orleans and Bourges. Others argue that his conversion came
later. It seems inconceivable to them
that Calvin, who was so scrupulous in other matters, would have retained Roman
Catholic chaplaincies after his break with Rome. Since Calvin did not resign his benefices in
Noyon until 1534, his conversion cannot be dated any earlier than 1533.
m. Calvin’s run-in
with French authorities.
(1) All Saints’ Day
in 1533. Calvin’s friend, Nicholas Cop,
the rector of the University of Paris, preached against the Paris
theologians. The faculty demanded the
arrest of Cop and Calvin was searched as well because they thought he had a
part in the sermon. But Calvin escaped. For next few months, Calvin’s movements are
hard to trace.
(2) During this time
he began his Institutes and published
his first Protestant treatise, Psychopannychia. The essay was an attack on the Anabaptist
notion that the souls of the just sleep until the general resurrection.
(3) 1534 – Affair of
the Placards. In October 1534, posters
attacking the Catholic doctrine of the Mass appeared overnight in several of
the important cities in France, including Paris. These denunciations were violent and
uncompromising, and one placard was even found in the king’s chambers. Over two hundred Protestants were arrested
and 20 were executed.
n. Calvin decided to
flee to Basel. In Basel, Calvin
completed the first edition of his Institutes
of the Christian Religion (1536). It
was a comparatively short book with six chapters. An institutio
is a manual that introduces the basic principles of a subject to beginners who
are learning for the first time the terminology and structure of a new
discipline.
4. Geneva
a. Calvin’s family
decided to relocate to Strasbourg.
Unfortunately, the movement of troops on the roads between Paris and
Strasbourg made the direct rout to Alsace hazardous for a party of
civilians. To avoid the danger, Calvin
chose a detour through the south up the valley of the Rhone to the
French-speaking city of Geneva.
b. Calvin did not
spend more than 1 night in Geneva.
Someone, however, told William
Farel, the leader of the Reform movement in Geneva. He announced to Calvin that it was his duty
to stay in Geneva. His comments – Steinmetz, 11.
c. Geneva – It was
not yet a part of Switzerland, but a free republic which had repudiated the
authority of the Prince-Bishop of Geneva, on the one hand, and of the Dukes of
Savoy, on the other. In their
independence, they were supported by the canton of Bern which declared itself
for the Reformation as early as 1528.
As a result, 1536, the city voted to accept the Reformation and align
themselves with the Protestant cantons.
d. In this fledgling
Reformed city, Calvin was appointed a “reader in Holy Scripture.” Over time, he was elected pastor and given the
principal oversight of one of the city churches.
e. Calvin and Farel
set about organizing the city. November
10, 1536, they presented to the city council a Confession of Faith and a
plan for discipline called Articles concerning the Organization of the
Church and of Worship at Geneva on January 16, 1537. It proposed a monthly celebration of the
holy communion (Calvin preferred weekly), a method for the excommunication of
impenitent offenders, congregational singing of psalms in worship, a program of
laws concerning marriage. The city
council accepted most of the proposals in the Articles, adding only its own
Sunday blue laws and restricting the celebration of the Eucharist to once a
quarter.
f. Passing these
were one thing, convincing the Genevans was another. After all, Farel and Calvin were both French,
not Genevese. Some even wonder publicly
whether Calvin was an agent of the French government in order to undermine the
independence of the Genevan republic.
g. Calvin’s
reputation was further tainted by a public quarrel in 1537 with Pierre Caroli,
lukewarm supporter of the Reformation who was then a Protestant minister in
Lausanne. The argument began over the
question of the propriety of prayers for the dead and ended in mutual
recrimination. Caroli labeled Calvin an
Arian. Calvin’s refusal to subscribe to
the Athanasian Creed only lent credence to this charge (although orthodox,
Calvin was reluctant to use non-biblical language).
h. In Easter week,
1538, the tension ended in a riot and Calvin and Farel were ordered by the
Council of Two Hundred to leave Geneva within 3 days. His rigid stance in dealing with his
opposition may have contributed to his departure.
5. Strassbourg
a. When he had to
leave, Bucer and Wolfgan Capito asked him to pastor in Strasbourg. He never regretted this decision.
b. His years in
Strasbourg were happy and productive. In
1539 he published a second edition of his Institutes,
now twice the size of the first edition
In 1540 he published his commentary on Romans. His introduction to the commentary sheds
light on his methodology.
c. Relationship
between his commentaries and the Institutes:
Steinmetz, 14.
d. He married Idelette de Bure. She was a widow of the refugee in Strasbourg
and had no dowry to offer to Calvin but brought with her a son and a
daughter. Farel, in his letter,
indicated that Calvin married an “upright and honest,” “even pretty”
woman.
(1) Calvin took
enormous pride in her good sense, her courage, and her warm and communicable
piety.
(2) Idelette gave
Calvin a son on July 28, 1542, names Jacques after his uncle, but the child did
not live.
(3) She died in March
29, 1549. His letter to Pierre Viret: Steinmetz, 15.
e. Jacopo Cardinal
Sadoleto, Bishop of Carpentras in southern France, wrote a letter to Geneva in
1539 recalling it to the Catholic faith.
The letter was an eloquent appeal for reconciliation and reunion which
accused the Protestant reformers of arrogantly introducing into the Christian
faith heretical innovations that had no foundation in the Christian past.
(1) After a vain
attempt to convince Viret to respond, Geneva reluctantly turned to Calvin for a
response.
(2) Despite his
hesitation, he considered it too important to refuse.
(3) His Response to Sadoleto was a polemical
masterpiece that turned Sadoleto’s argument back on himself and discomfited him
with the very charges he had leveled against the Protestants.
(4) Impressed by his
response, Geneva asked for his return on September 21, 1540. Calvin was understandably reluctant to leave
Strasbourg and return to Geneva.
6. Geneva
a. By 1541, Calvin
agreed to return. Strasbourg gave
permission to “borrow” Calvin for six months.
As it turned out, the loan was permanent. He remained in Geneva until his death.
b. Calvin’s Reforms
(1) Ecclesiastical Ordinances was introduced
with its fourfold ministry of pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons. 12 lay elders were chosen and, along with the
pastors, formed the Consistory, responsible for the enforcement of discipline. Its powers were ecclesiastical rather than
civil.
(2) Lay deacons handled poor relief and
charity. Deacons were divided into two
groups: administrative officers, who guarded the funds, and executive officers,
who actually managed the hospital for the care of the sick and distributed
goods to the poor.
(3) Pastors had the threefold task of preaching the
Word, administering the sacraments, and participating in the administration of
discipline through the Consistory. 5
ministers and 3 assistants oversaw 3 churches, catechisms, and weekday services
on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Calvin himself preached twice on Sunday and once on Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday. He preached on NT on
Sundays, and OT on weekdays.
c. Theological
Controversies
d. Calvin’s health,
which was always delicate, failed rapidly in 1564. In a letter to the physicians of Montpellier,
Calvin complained of gout, kidney stones, ulcerated hemorrhoids, chronic
indigestion, and quartan fever. He was
also suffering, it now appears, from pulmonary tuberculosis, which left him
faint and unable to catch his breath.
(1) His farewell: Steinmetz, 20.
(2) Calvin died on
May 27, 1564. His body lay in state
briefly and was buried in an unmarked grave in the common cemetery.
C.
Controversies
1. Jacopo Sadoleto
a. Jacopo Cardinal
Sadoleto, Bishop of Carpentras in southern France, wrote a letter to Geneva in
1539 recalling it to the Catholic faith.
The letter was an eloquent appeal for reconciliation and reunion which
accused the Protestant reformers of arrogantly introducing into the Christian
faith heretical innovations that had no foundation in the Christian past.
b. After a vain
attempt to convince Viret to respond, Geneva reluctantly turned to Calvin for a
response.
c. Despite his
hesitation, he considered it too important to refuse.
d. His Response to Sadoleto was a polemical masterpiece
that turned Sadoleto’s argument back on himself and discomfited him with the
very charges he had leveled against the Protestants.
e. Impressed by his
response, Geneva asked for his return on September 21, 1540. Calvin was understandably reluctant to leave
Strasbourg and return to Geneva.
2. Jerome Bolsec
a. He was a doctor
in the outskirts of Geneva.
b. He was a fervent
advocate of Calvinist doctrine, except in respect of dual predestination.
c. In 1551, he
developed his arguments at a full session of the Congregation, asserting that
Calvin was making God the author of sin, and rendering him guilty of the
condemnation of the wicked: that “this was to make a tyrant or a Jupiter of
him; item, that one was being led to believe that St. Augustine had been of
that opinion; but neither he nor any of the ancient doctors held it.”
d. Calvin made a
spirited reply “adducing, besides numerous evidences from Scripture, endless
quotations from St. Augustine so exactly that it seemed as if he had read and
studied them that very day.”
e. Bolsec was
immediately arrested and prosecuted. As
the prosecution lasted a while, it was mingled with political and personal
interests.
f. When letters were
sent to other cities in Switzerland, the cities replied asking for
moderation. At one of the next sessions
of the Congregation of pastors, Calvin solemnly formulated his teaching and
obliged all the pastors of the town and district to give it their explicit
adherence.
g. Bolsec was
condemned to banishment for life. Bolsec
took a revenge in the form of a biography published in 1577 in which he
recounted all the calumnies he had been able to collect, a book which continued
for more than two centuries to be the arsenal from which anti-Calvinist
polemics were supplied.
3. Machael Servetus
(1511-1553)
a. Servetus was a
physician who had theological interests and published a work on the doctrine of
the Trinity, De Trinitatis Erronibus (On the Errors of the Trinity).
b. Servetus attacked
the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity, the Chalcedonian Christology, and infant
baptism as the chief sources of the corruption of the church. He ultimately held the Arian view of the
Trinity.
c. This view was
uniformly condemned by the church for over a thousand years. The church believed that this sort of heresy
can only be solved by death.
d. Somehow Calvin
came across Servetus’ work, and wanted to meet him, but Servetus did not show
up at the meeting place. Servetus was
condemned to be burned, yet before the sentence was passed, he escaped from
prison in Vienne.
e. Early in that
same year, Servetus wrote Christianismi
Restitutio (Restitution of Christianity), clearly an attack on Calvin’s Institutes.
f. To give Calvin
trouble, he arrived in Geneva in August 1553.
Those who opposed Calvin used this as an opportunity to harass him, and
so they managed to prolong Servetus’ trial to send out letters to churches and
ask what should be done.
g. The word came
back from various churches that Servetus was a heretic and, thus, he was tried
and condemned to death.
h. Some argue that
Calvin was the judge and the executioner, however, he wasn’t the judge but did
not take part in the prosecution. When
the court declared Servetus guilty and ordered his execution, they ordered that
he be burned alive at the stake.
Calvin’s ministers intervened and asked for a more merciful act of
execution – beheading.
i. We should
remember that the medieval church argued that burning someone at the stake was
an act of mercy since this was a slow form of death, giving the condemned
heretic time to think about his heresy and repent!
j. We do not have to
argue that Calvin was right in his view of how to handle heresy. About 99% of the Europeans at Calvin’s time
would have agreed with him in his view of heresy and that heresy must be
stamped out with the death penalty.
Thus, Calvin was not a notoriously blood-thirsty killer that stood out
among his contemporaries (though certainly we can say that we wouldn’t do what
Calvin or his colleagues did at the present); he was merely ‘medieval.’ This is not to exculpate Calvin, but only to
say that Calvin was a typical 16th century person in that
regard.
k. One of the
crucial things in the study of history is to develop enough historical
imagination to see why people acted the way they did. At that time, heresy was as much a health
problem as diseases are to this day.
During the 16th century, heresy was regarded as a plague, as
an infection, wherever it infected it killed the souls of its proponents. This thought is obvious in the fact that the
society at that time was a Christian society and is such a society, heresy
could not be allowed.
Institutes of the Christian Religion
A. Editions of the Institutes (Wendel)
1. First Edition:
March 1536
a. Out of 6
chapters, the first 4 were devoted to the Law, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer,
and the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper – the classic order of
Luther’s Catechisms.
b. The last two
polemical chapters include false sacraments and the other with the liberty of
the Christians. The chapter 5, Calvin
rejects the sacramental nature of penitence, orders, confirmation, extreme
unction, and marriage.
c. Its popularity is
seen in the quick exhaustion of the first printing. This is all the more worthy of remark since
the work was in Latin, and its appeal therefore limited to a relatively small
cultured public.
2. Second Edition:
1539
a. Due to his
troubles in Geneva, he could not publish the newly edited version until he
arrived in Strasbourg. This too was in
Latin.
b. In order to
facilitate its diffusion in France, a part of this edition circulated under the
name of Alcuin, a transparent anagram for that of Calvin.
c. By this time, his
Institutes included 11 more chapters
and it was 3 times the length of the previous edition.
d. New additions: He
included chapters on the knowledge of God and the knowledge of man. He also included an enlarged exposition on
the Trinity and the relations between the Old and New Testaments. He included a defense of infant baptism and a
section on justification by faith.
e. Under the
influence of Bucer, and of conversations he had had with the Strasbourg
reformer, Calvin was led to insert a chapter on predestination and divine
Providence.
f. 1541: French
edition of the Institutes. It was written in a French style that was
both elegant and highly personal, a style which was to play a part in the
fashioning of the language well into the 17th century. Within the French speaking Reformed churches,
it established itself as the basic manual of dogmatic.
g. Its immediate
influence is recognizable by the fact that the Institutes, both in Latin and in French, was the only work
expressly mentioned in the act of the Parliament of Paris of July 1, 1542,
decreeing the suppression of heretical books.
3. Third Edition:
1543 and French in 1545.
a. The change is
less significant that his revisions in 1539.
The number of chapters was increased by 4 which brought the total up to
21.
b. Two of these new
chapters dealt with vows and with human traditions, while the old chapter on
the Symbol of the Apostles was now distributed among four chapters.
4. Fourth Edition:
1550 and French in 1551.
a. For the first
time the chapters are divided into paragraphs in order to help the
readers.
b. He added new
sections to the discussion of the Holy Scripture and its authority, the worship
of saints and of images, and lastly an original exposition on the human
conscience.
c. The French
version includes sections upon the resurrection of the body, which Calvin did
not incorporate in the Latin editiosn until 1559.
5. Fifth Edition:
1559 and French in 1560.
a. This edition
marks the culmination of life-time revision of his theological
masterpiece. By that time Calvin was
already suffering severely, and in fear of his approaching end he had
determined to produce a new and definitive version of his book.
b. Again being
revised, Calvin divided his work into 4 books with 80 chapters in all. It now increased in size by a quarter from
the previous edition. It has indeed
become, as its sub-title announces, “almost a new book.”
c. He made
significant polemical addition, addressing Osiander, Lutherans on the
Eucharist, and Socinians.
d. The principal
changes are due to the new arrangement of the material, according to a more
systematic plan and a stricter internal logic.
e. Four Books
(1) God the Creator
(2) God the Redeemer
(3) God the Holy
Spirit
(4) Means of Grace
and the Church
f. According Wendel,
what was a catechism structure became the quadripartite division of the
Apostle’s Creed which he adopted in 1543.
g. Wendel’s
assessment: Wendel, 122.
B. Sources of the Institutes (Wendel)
1. Scripture: Wendel,
123
2. Fathers of the
Church
a. Augustine
b. John Chrysostom
c. Origen
d. Secular authors:
Plato, Aristotle, Themistius, Cicero
3. Scholastic
Authors
a. Anselm
b. Peter the Lombard
c. Thomas Aquinas
d. St. Bernard
4. Contemporary
Authors
a. Martin Luther:
the ones he had access to since he could not read German (131).
b. Melanchthon:
especially his Loci communes
c. Martin Bucer
C. Purpose of the Institutes (Wendel)
1. A simple
exposition of Christian doctrine as a whole
a. Dedicatory
letter: pg. 3
b. Letter to the
readers (1539): 21
2. The Institutes as loci communes and disputationes
(Muller)
a. Change in
subtitles
(1) 1536: Of the
Christian Religion, an Institution, embracing nearly an entire summary of piety
and what is necessary to know of the doctrine of salvation: a work most worthy
to be read by all those zealous for piety.
(2) 1539: An
Institution of the Christian Religion, now at last truly corresponding to its
title.
(3) Why this change?
(a)
Perhaps Calvin’s assertion over his editors
(b) Deemphasis of
catechetical model and assertion of the Institutes
as a large-scale theological instruction.
(c)
The work has, for the first time, become an Institutio. Given his attention to
precise literary genre, Calvin was dissatisfied with the initial title of the
work as augmented by the printers; he was also somewhat dissatisfied with the
contents and direction of his own work.
b. loci communes
(a)
Symbiotic
relationship between the Institutes,
commentaries, and his sermons (over 800 published in his lifetime, and over
1500 preserved in manuscript form).
(b) Locus – Calvin frequently refers to the biblical text
he is about to examine as a locus. When common loci are collected together and the argument is built from it, it
is called loci communes, a common
form of theological instruction.
(c)
If this is the case, biblical references in his Institutes function as a
“cross-reference” to the commentaries.
They probably should be viewed as references to the exegetical tradition
and not as “proof-texts” in the sense of tests wrested out of their context in
violation of the principles of biblical interpretation.
(d) As a result, the Institutes must not be read instead of
the commentaries, but with them: the commentaries and the Institutes together provide, in what Calvin thought to be a better
arrangement of materials, what one would find in the commentaries of other
writers.
(e)
This point is further accentuated when his preface
to the commentary on the book of Romans is considered. His method in commentary writing is
“perspicuous brevity” and “ease” or “smoothness of exposition”: brevitas and facilitas. This idea
reflects the classical rhetoric and of humanist expository models.
(f)
Calvin’s application of the principles of perspicua brevitas and facilitas was quite specific: he had objected strenuously, on aesthetic and
methodological grounds, to be the elaborate, diffuse, and highly dogmatic style
of Martin Bucer, which was followed in large part, albeit without quite as much
verbiage, by contemporary exegetes like Bullinger, Musculus, and Pellican.
The
Knowledge of God/Man
A.
The Knowledge of God
1. Knowledge of God
and knowledge of man: 1.1.1
2. What is this
knowledge of God?
a. Incomprehensibility
of God: 1.13.21
b. Twofold knowledge
of God: 1.2.1 (God the Creator and God the Redeemer)
3. What is the
purpose of this knowledge?: 1.2.2
4. How does one
attain this knowledge of God?
a. God shows himself
in nature: 1.5.1
b. God shows himself
in his providence: 1.7.1
c. God shows himself
in man: 1.3.1 – sensus divinitatus
5. What is the
consequence of this knowledge of God?
a. It deprives men
of all excuse before God. 1.3.1; 1.5.15
b. It makes men
suppress their sense of the divine: 1.4.4; 1.4.1
c. Rejection by
human beings because of their lack of piety: cf. 1.2.1; 1.5.1-2
6. Therefore, how
does one attain this knowledge of God? Scripture: 1.6.1-2
7. How do we know
that the Scripture is the Word of God?
a. The internal
testimony of the Holy Spirit: 1.7.1; 1.7.4
b. Credibility built
upon evidences: 1.8.1
8. Calvin’s Doctrine
of the Scripture
a. The Need for
Scripture: Spectacles 1.6.1
b. The Nature of
Scripture
(1) The Word of God:
1.7.1
(2) In human words: Accommodation: 1.8.2
c. The Authority of
Scripture
(1) Authority of
Scripture is not derived from the church: 1.7.1-2
(2) The authority
comes from God Himself: cf. 1.6.1; 2.8.12
(3) The internal
testimony of the Holy Spirit – the emphasis on Scripture’s self-authenticating
authority.
d. The Inspiration
of Scripture
(1) Did Calvin hold
to the dictation theory of inspiration?
(2) Calvin’s comments
(a)
4.8.9 – “sure and genuine scribes of the Holy
Spirit” who composed Scripture “under the Holy Spirit’s dictation”
(b) 2 Timothy 3:16:
“All those who wish to profit from the Scriptures must first accept this as a
settled principle, that the Law and the prophets are not teachings handed on at
the pleasure of men or produced by men’s minds as their source, but are
dictated by the Holy Spirit.”
(3) Possible
interpretations
(a)
Not mechanical, but verbal inspiration
(b) Inspiration of
concepts and ideas
B. The Knowledge of
Man
1.
Knowledge of God dictating the
Knowledge of Man
a. The double
knowledge of God: God the Creator, God the Redeemer
b. The double
knowledge of Man: Man in Creation, Man in Redemption
2. Calvin’s Doctrine
of Man
a. What are the
effects of sin? 1.15.4
(1) Deprived us of
good: 2.1.9
(2) Source of
continuing sin: 2.1.8
b. How did this sin
begin?
(1) The sin of Adam
is pride
(2) God ordained the
fall of man
(3) However, man’s
responsibility since he had free will: 1.15.8
(4) Why not
perseverance? God does not reveal it.
c. How does this
original sin get transmitted?
(1) How is the
original sin transferred? Adam, in fact,
represented the whole of the human race, which was summed up, as it were, in
his person, and therefore the whole of mankind was condemned at the same time
as Adam. 2.1.7
(2) 2.1.8
d. Who is affected
by sin?
(1) All: 2.1.8
(2) Intellect and
Will: 2.1.8
(a) The will can no
longer strive for anything but evil: 2.3.5
(b) 2.2 emphasizes
the loss of free will and the inability of the will to do good.
(c) 2.3.5 – the
condition of the fallen will.
3. Redemption in
Christ
Predestination
Institutes 3.21-24
A. Introduction
1. Central dogma
theory: Predestination, TULIP
2. Augustine’s
influence pronounced in the Reformation
3. The doctrine of
the entirely gracious predestination of certain individuals to salvation was
evident in the writings of Luther, Bucer, and Zwingli.
4. This idea was
carried into the second-generation codifiers of Reformation theology and
developed, particularly by Calvin, Bullinger, Wolfgang Musculus, and Peter
Martyr Vermigli.
5. By the second
half of the sixteenth century, the doctrine had become a major point of
controversy among Reformed, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic and had received a
substantial elaboration and development in the hands of Reformed theologians
and exegetes. Reformed thinkers in
particular were responsible for a full, scholastic, and highly variegated
development of the doctrine as they defended it against Lutheran and Roman
Catholic alternatives and, eventually, against the internal threat of Arminian
teaching.
B. Early Reformation
Views
1. Martin Luther
a. Despite his
opposition to many aspects of late medieval scholastic theology, Luther’s views
on predestination stand in continuity with the strongly Augustinian teaching of
his order.
b. The assumption
that an unconditioned divine will was the foundation of salvation can be viewed
as a significant motif in his theology from the very beginning of his
opposition to the various aspects of late medieval semi-Pelagianism.
c. Assurance of
Salvation: In the Romans lectures of
1515-1516, Luther clearly connected predestination with assurance of salvation,
noting that were salvation dependent on the human will and human works, it
would be utterly uncertain. Our very
ability to will and to work the good depends on the grace and mercy of
God.
d. Writing: The
primary source of Luther’s doctrine of predestination is his treatise De servo arbitrio, published in December
1525 in response to Erasmus'’ De libero
arbitrio of the previous year.
(1) Luther emphasized
the problem of the fallen will and its inability to perform the good – and,
against the background of this problem, drew out a doctrine of the
all-determining will of God as the counter to Erasmus’s view of human
freedom.
(2) Luther argues
that God wills all things, including human sin and error, yet in such a way
that human beings sin by their own fault.
(3) Given the
encompassing character of the divine causality, all things occur by necessity,
although not by compulsion. In this
context, salvation belongs entirely to the will of God, which alone can bring
about human willing of the good.
(4) Luther insists,
moreover, that we must not inquire into the secret will of God in an attempt to
discern why God chooses some for salvation and leaves others to their own
damnation – we must simply accept the revealed will of God and its election of
some to salvation by grace alone.
2. Melanchthon
a. Offers a definite
departure from Luther
b. Although
Melanchthon clearly rested election on the merciful will of God, he balanced
his declarations concerning the cause of election with an insistence on the
universality of the divine promise of salvation and with an assumption that the
cause of reprobation is the sinful and willful rejection of the Gospel.
c. In his loci communes (1543), Melanchthon cites
Saul as an example of one who “of his own free will fought against the Holy
Spirit when the Spirit tried to move him,” and argues that, although the
beginning of salvation lies with God, human beings must necessarily “hear,
learn, and grasp hold of God’s promises.”
3. The Reformed
doctrine of election stands as a clear descendent of the Augustinian theology
of the later Middle Ages and represents a spectrum of opinion rather than a
monolithic doctrinal perspective: it moves between the concept of a single
predestination to salvation and damnation conceived in the mind of God prior to
his permissive willing of the Fall.
Nonetheless, despite the emphasis placed on the doctrine by the
Reformed, predestination cannot be understood as a “central dogma” or
fundamental constructive principle in Reformed theology.
4. John Calvin
a. His doctrine was
developed in connection with the second edition of his Institutes (1539) and his commentary on Romans (1540). In the
different editions of the Institutes
Calvin gave it more and more space and, in consequence of attacks that were
made upon the doctrine, he was moved to defend it in several special
writings.
b. In the Institutes: In the 1536 edition, the
doctrine of predestination was not included.
In 1539, predestination became a topic of discussion but within the
context of ecclesiology, and its outward manifestation with the results of
preaching. But Calvin placed this
further development after the work of salvation and in a chapter also
containing an exposition upon providence.
But in 1559, Calvin once more revised his plan, by placing the
discussion at the end of the doctrine of God, and predestination after the
developments upon sanctification and justification.
c. Shortly
thereafter he engaged in a bitter controversy over the doctrine with Albertus
Pighius. Pighius’s De libero hominis arbitrio et divina gratia libri decem (1542),
dedicated to Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto, Calvin’s opponent in debate over the
nature of the church, argued the case for a cooperation between the will and
grace.
d. The more
politically bitter controversy arose when Jerome Bolsec, a former Carmelite
monk, arrived in Geneva in 1550.
Calvin’s God, he claimed, was hypocritical and more vile than
Satan. Eventually called before the
consistory, he argued that God had elected some to salvation, but reprobated no
one – a view of election with some parallels to that of Bullingers. Bolsec also maintained that grace was offered
equally to all people and that the reason that some are saved and others damned
lay entirely in the human faculty of free choice.
e. This point,
Calvin argued, was utterly inconsistent with any genuine concept of
election. In all of these treatises, as
in his Institutes, Calvin argued the
divine election of some to salvation by sheer grace, apart from any inherent
merit, and the divine reprobation of others to their own sinfully merited
damnation. His doctrine indicates a
strictly defined double decree of
predestination, infralapsarian in form, but unmitigated by any concept of
divine permission for sin.
f. Calvin’s
Statement
(1) Predestination:
3.21.5
(2) Reprobation:
3.23.7
5. Heinrich
Bullinger
a. He voiced
reservations about Calvin’s views in the controversies with Pighius and now
argued for moderation in debate with Bolsec, taught a single predestination of the elect only and understood the
damnation of the unfaithful as resting in their own sinfulness rather than
on a positive will of God.
b. In his Decades (1549-1551) he considered predestination
to be synonymous with election.
C. Early Scholastic
Protestantism
1. Theodore Beza
a. Like Calvin, Beza
maintains that no doctrine contained in scripture should be hidden away – even
the seemingly harsh doctrine of reprobation should be preached if only to teach
the elect humility. He insists that the
number and identity of the elect and reprobate cannot be a subject of
speculation: believers must look to the testimony of scripture that those who
have been predestinated from eternity will be effectually called and, in God’s
own time, be justified, sanctified, and glorified through the grace of God in
Christ.
b. Although the
elect are no more worthy of salvation than the reprobate and the divine will is
the sole reason for both election and reprobation, the human will remains the
immediate cause of sin and the basis for damnation.
c. Beza does argue a
full, double decree of election and reprobation, but he lessens the strict
causal sequence of the decree by introducing a category of divine permission or permissive willing to deal with the problem of
the Fall, as had Musculus and Vermigli.
d. Beza also insists
that damnation justly results from human wickedness and from the obstinate
refusal to accept the blessings of Christ.
2. Zacharias Ursinus
and Girolamo Zanchi
a. Predestination
begins with the eternal, most righteous, and immutable counsel of God according
to which human beings are to be created, permitted to fall, and then brought to
redemption through Christ by grace through faith.
b. Those who are not
chosen for this salvation are to be left in their sins and ultimately condemned
to eternal death.
D. Jacob Arminius
(1559-1609)
1. Biography
a. Birth
(1) Born October 10,
1560. His birth name was Jacob Harmensz,
short for Harmenszoon, or Herman’s son.
(2) His father, a
cutler, died when Arminius was very young.
His mother and his siblings were killed in the massacre of Oudewater in
1575.
(3) From this point
on, he was in the custody of his friends, and he Latinized his name to Jacobus
Arminius.
b. Education
(1) University of
Leiden
(2) Geneva – Studied
under Theodore Beza, the “High Priest” of Calvinist orthodoxy. When he was called to do ministry in
Amsterdam, Beza wrote him a glowing recommendation.
c. Ministry
(1) 1587-1603:
Amsterdam
(a)
Ordained in 1588.
(b) Marriage in 1590:
To Lijsbet
(c)
Controversy over his teaching of Romans 7 and 9.
(2) 1603-1609:
University of Leiden
(a)
Franciscus Gomarus
(b) “Declaration of
Sentiments”
2. His Influence –
Diarmaid MacCulloch, “Arminius and the Arminians.”
a. Criticism of the
dogmaticism of Calvinist successors (29, col. 1)
b. Bitterness of the
debates (30, col. 2)
E. The Synod of
Dordt (1618-19)
1. The Remonstrance
(1610)
a. The Remonstrants
b. Five Points (See
Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom,
Vol. III, 546)
(1) Article 1 –
Conditional Election
(2) Article 2 –
Universal Atonement
(3) Article 3 –
Depravity
(4) Article 4 –
Resistible Grace
(5) Article 5 –
Possibility of Losing Salvation
c. Some responded
with The Contra-Remonstrance – 7
Point refutation.
2. The Synod of
Dordt (1618)
a. Calling of the
Synod
(1) The question of
who has the authority to resolve this problem continued. When some Calvinists called for a national
synod, the Remonstrants, who knew they were in the minority, refused to accept.
(2) After years of
disputation, the Synod was called and it was determined that this synod should
be international. This is considered the
only international reformed synod.
b. Actions of the
Synod
(1) Appointed
committees to translate the Bible into Dutch.
(2) Approved the
Belgic Confession.
(3) Discussed the
first missionary question: Should children born to servants in Christian households
be baptized? If Abraham had his servants
circumcised in his home, then should servant children in Christian homes also
be baptized? A significant minority said
yes, but the majority said that the children be first taught the catechism and
then be baptized, but not until they were given the full knowledge of the
Reformed faith.
(4) Question of the
Sabbath. This issue was raised by the
Puritans from England. The Synod
declared that it did not have enough time to study the issue and said it will
send down a provisional statement. The
Synod said that in the 4th commandment, there’s perpetually a
temporally ceremonial element, and a moral element of the Sabbath. They declared that the first day of the week
shall be set aside for worship and to not engage in any recreation that
interferes with the public worship of God.
The decision at Dordt was that we should cease our ordinary labors and
be engaged in recreation only if it does not stand in the way of worship of
God.
(5) The Synod was
asked to write a new confession that would unite all reformed churches. Since they did not have the time to do this,
they enforced the Belgic Confession.
c. Procedure for the
Arminians
(1) The Synod asked
the Arminians to present their case. The
Arminians, knowing that they were in the minority, tried to delay by political
means. Their plan was to divide the
Reformed orthodox to fight against each other by introducing the topic of
election, dividing them into the infralapsarian and supralapsarian
factions. This failed. Next, they tried to dealy their presentation
by long speeches. So, in the middle of
January, the president of the Synod, ordered the Arminians out. From this point on, the Remonstrants were
required to write their response.
(2) Colleges – the
delegates were divided into colleges (College of England, etc), and each were
asked to respond to The Remonstrance. Once the four (3rd and 4th
articles were combined) areas were answered, they were compiled into
“Canons.”
(3) To whom should
they address the Canon? To scholars or
laymen? The Synod decided to write in
popular language. Thus, in the Canons of
Dordt, there’s not a lot of technical vocabulary. The reason we sometimes have trouble with it
is that since it was written in Latin, it lent itself to very long sentences. And the problem was that when they were
translated, the translations left intact the long sentences.
d. The Canons of
Dordt
(1) Conclusion: Rejection of False Accusations
(2) General Pattern
in Each Head of Doctrine in the Canons of Dordt (W. Robert Godfrey)
(a)
Written in popular rather than scholastic style.
(b) Presents each
head of doctrine as complete in itself (Redundancy).
(c)
Begins with a commonly accepted Christian doctrine
(Catholicity).
(d) Develops the head
of doctrine from the point of catholic agreement to the point of Reformed
distinctive (I, 1-6; II, 1-7; III-IV, 1-2, 4-5; V, 1-2)
(e)
Has one article that gives the basic point of the
specified head of doctrine. (I, 7 and 15; II, 8; III-IV, 3 and 6; V, 3)
(f)
Gives some specific elaboration and applications (I,
8-14, 16-18; II, 9; III-IV, 4-5, 7-17; V, 4-15).
(g) Addresses the
matter of fault and justice. (I, 1,5,18; II, 1,2,6; III-IV, 4,9,15; V, 8)
(h) Examines the
effects of the doctrine on Christian living. (I, 6,12,13,17; II, 8,9; III-IV,
7,9,10,12,15; V, 1-2,4,7,10-15)
(i)
Examines assurance as a recurring concern. (I, 2,16;
III-IV, 13,15; V, 9-13)
(j)
Shows the importance of the means of grace. (I,
3,7,14; II, 5; III-IV, 6,8,11,12,17; V, 14)
(k) Shapes several
articles and many rejections of errors against specific Arminian teachings and
formulations.
(l)
Quotes more Scripture in the rejections of errors
than in the positive articles.
(3) The Canons
(a)
Article 1: Divine Election and Reprobation
(b) Article 2:
Christ’s Death and Human Redemption Through It
(c)
Article 3: Human Corruption, Conversion to God, and
the Way it Occurs
(d) Article 4: The
Perseverance of Saints
(4) Focusing on
Issues
(a)
Infant Baptism (I, 17)
(b) Extent of the
Atonement (II, 3-5)
F. Final Thoughts
1. WCF: Chapter 3.8
– statement on the positive aspect of predestination
a. Assurance of
salvation
b. Praise,
reverence, and admiration of God
c. Humility,
diligence, and abundant consolation to those who obey.
2. About the justice
of God – Does reprobation make God seem unjust?
a. No – if “just”
means retributive justice. They deserve the punishment they receive.
b. Yes – if “just”
means distributive justice. In this idea, like causes should be treated
similarly. If it is true that nothing in
the believer causes God’s grace, then why shouldn’t God save all?
(1) For example, if
three children are drowning, and if the parent could save all three who are in
equal predicament, then choosing to save 2 and letting the third die seem
unjust.
(2) But, we know that
God is merciful and just. Imagine this:
assume that there are many kids in one family.
Sometimes the parents are charged with injustice for treating the kids
differently because of age. For
instance, allowing older kids more privileges or younger kids more
tolerance. The parents may be able to
explain why to the satisfaction of the kids, but its fairness has to be assumed
and trusted.
Faith
Institutes 3.1-2
A. Introduction
1. HC 21
What
is true faith?
True faith not only a
knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in his Word is true; it is
a also a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the
gospel, that, out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but
I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and
have been granted salvation.
2. “Certainty” in
Calvin
a. For Calvin, there
is a thread that runs through his theology that unites various elements of his
theology. Certainty is one of the most important lines of his many thread of
theology. Certainty is important
theologically, and psychologically.
b. There’s a brief
autobiographical note in his preface to the Psalms: “I was attached to the
authority of the church.” There was a
certain authority in the Church, theologically and psychologically. And when he gave up that “certain” church, he
needed another “certainty” to find the truth.
B. A Primer of Faith
1. Implicit Faith is
Wrong (3.2.2-5)
a. Acceptable:
Implicit faith resulting from human finitude
b. Unacceptable:
Implicit faith in reverence for the church.
2. Faith is
Knowledge
a. “Faith consists
not in ignorance, but in knowledge – knowledge not of God merely, but of the
divine will.” (3.2.2)
b. “Faith consists
in the knowledge of God and Christ” (3.2.3)
3. Faith rests on
the Word (3.2.6-7; 3.2.31)).
a. “We now see,
therefore, that faith is the knowledge of the divine will in regard to us, as
ascertained from his word.” (3.2.6)
b. “We shall now have a full definition of
faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward
us, founded on the truth of a free promise of Christ, and revealed to our
minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit” (3.2.7)
4. Faith is trust
5. Faith is a gift
of the Holy Spirit (3.2.36)
6. Faith is certain
(3.2.15-16).
7. Faith does not
eliminate doubt or temptations – but overcoming objectively.
a. “But it will be
said that this differs widely from the experience of believers, who, in
recognizing the grace of God toward them, not only feel disquietude (this often
happens), but sometimes tremble, overcome with terror, so violent are the
temptations which assail their minds.” (3.2.17)
b. How do you
overcome? (3.2.17) Objective trust (3.2.18-19)
8. Faith is hopeful
(3.2.42-43)
The
Sacraments
A.
Introduction
1.
4.1.1: “…God, in accommodation
to our infirmity, has added such helps, and secured the effectual preaching of
the gospel, by depositing this treasure with the Church. He has appointed pastors and teachers…In
particular, he has instituted sacrament, which we feel by experience to be most
useful helps in fostering and confirming out faith.”
B.
The Meaning of the Rite
1.
Rejection of the Roman
Sacraments
a.
Institution by Christ
b.
Perpetuity
c.
Sign and Seal
(1)
According to Calvin, it is a
“token of divine grace towards us confirmed by an outward sign” (4.14.1). Its fundamental nature is determined by the
divine word of promise spoken by Christ He instituted the service
(2)
He declares to us for what
purpose He has set aside the elements of water, bread, and wine (4.17.11). In themselves and apart from the divine
promise of grace these signs mean nothing.
No efficacy is inherent in them as such by which they might acquire for
us sacramental significance and be of use (1.14.3).
(3)
He says: “If the visible
symbols are offered without the Word, they are not only powerless and dead but
even harmful jugglery” (CR 9.21). “What
meaning could it have if the whole assembly of the faithful were to pour out a
little bread and wine without proclaiming aloud that heavenly truth which says
that the flesh of Christ is meat indeed and His blood drink indeed?” (CR
9.21ff).
(4)
Only the preaching “leads the
people as it were by the hand to those heavenly places which the symbols shadow
forth and whither they are intended to guide us” (4.14.4). Thus the certitude of salvation is not
grounded in the sacraments in so far as by these we mean earthly signs and
tokens. The Word of God alone is the
foundation of our faith (4.14.6)
2.
Then why do we need outward
signs?
a.
4.14.3: “Because our faith is
slender and weak…”
b.
God knows that we are week and
that we are tied to mundane things. Not
only does He call us by His Word but He offers us as media tangible, palpable
things. In speaking of His Word He
claims for Himself our faculty of hearing, but through sacramental signs He
claims also our other senses (4.14.3), so that we cannot possibly escape his
gift.
C.
Roman Church’s Lord’s Supper
D.
The Lord’s Supper
1.
History of the Debate
a.
Presuppositions: Luther and
Zwingli began in the mid-1520’s to write on the Lord’s Supper and their
writings became increasingly antagonistic.
The problem was that they came to the issue from very different
perspectives.
(1)
Luther wanted to avoid anything
of works-righteousness. When he looked at the Mass, it was an essence
of works-righteousness. The Mass was
centered around the idea that we offer Christ to God and we get something back
from God. For Luther, he saw the
Eucharistic sacrifice as a works-righteousness where we do the work. This must be avoided.
(2)
Zwingli saw the error of idolatry in the medieval church – the
false idolatrous worship of God. For
Zwingli, the Eucharist was idolatry since it was worshipped; it was worshipped
because of the doctrine of transubstantiation.
b.
Solutions: From the beginning,
Luther and Zwingli had trouble communicating.
This is complicated by certain antagonism that developed between Luther
and Zwingli due to Karlstadt (a radical reformer in Wittenberg), who, in his
travels, goes to Zurich and is welcomed by Zwingli.
(1)
Zwingli
(a)
Zwingli read a treatise by the
Dutchman Hoen where he says that the Lord’s Supper is like a wedding ring. It reminds us of the relationship but it
isn’t the relationship. This undermined
any notion of transubstantiation.
(b)
Zwingli also noted that
“sacramentum” in Latin means “pledge,” or “a pledge of loyalty.” Thus it is not magical.
(c)
Zwingli was afraid that Luther
would stress transubstantiation and have the people worship the Eucharist. Zwingli said that Luther is the one who
doesn’t understand the Bible since the Bible says that Christ ascended into heaven.
(2)
Luther
(a)
The problem is that when Luther
read Zwingli, he saw that Zwingli is still making the Lord’s Supper something
that we have to do, that Zwingli is making remembrance as something that we do,
but the Lord’s Supper is what God has done for us. He accuses Zwingli of being a moralist.
(b)
Moreover, Luther considers
Zwingli a rationalist since he does not believe the Bible. Luther is amazed that Zwingli does not
believe the verse: “This is my body.”
Zwingli, however, feels that this is unwarranted in light of the fact
that God uses a number of analogies.
Jesus says that “I am the gate,” but he does not consider himself a
gate.
(c)
Luther wrote Confession on the Supper of Christ
(1528). When Luther was pressed and
questioned as to how the bread is Christ’s body, or how it is possible for
Christ’s body be in heaven and on earth, Luther would respond by saying that
Zwingli does not understand the communicatio
idiomatum, the communication of properties.
That is, what is predicated of one nature can be predicated of the
other. Therefore, if Christ’s Godly
nature is omnipresent, then His humanity can also be said to be
omnipresent. This came to be known as
the doctrine of the ubiquity of
Christ. Therefore, by the sacrament, God
can be in, with, and under the bread.
Thus Lutherans charge that anyone who separates Christ’s humanity and
divinity is Nestorian.
(d)
The Reformed response is that communicatio idomatum is a verbal and not ontological communication of
properties. When we say that “Christ
died,” we are only talking about a way of speaking, and not the ontological
death of the Son of God.
c.
Meeting at Marburg: Luther did
not want to be there.
(1)
At the beginning, Luther said
to Zwingli, “You have a different spirit,” meaning that Zwingli had the spirit
of the devil and Luther had the H.S.
Luther and Zwingli agreed on almost everything except for the Lord’s
Supper.
(2)
Luther and Zwingli agreed that:
the Mass was not a sacrifice and that both bread and wine should be given in
the Supper, and that the Lord’s Supper was, in a way, a true blood and body of
Jesus Christ and that every Christian should partake spiritually of the body of
Christ.
(3)
Luther and Zwingli disagreed on
as to whether Christ’s body was really present in the bread and wine. They said “Can we agree on the presence of
Christ in the Lord’s Supper essentially
and substantively and not quantitatively, qualitatively, and locally.
(4)
At the end of the meeting, they
were to end with a handshake as brothers in Christ. But Philip Melanchthon convinced Luther out
of it. Less that two years later,
Zwingli died.
2.
John Calvin
a.
Items that Calvin agreed with
Zwingli
(1)
Zwingli said the ascension must
be central in any doctrine of the Supper; in other words, Jesus said He was
going to go away!
(2)
There must be an emphasis on
the faith in receiving the blessing.
Calvin and Zwingli had concerns that Luther wanted to stress too much
the idea that even though there is no faith in the recipient, Christ is
received through the Supper since Christ was so present in the Supper. But Calvin and Zwingli thought, “How can one
receive the blessing of Christ without faith?”
(3)
The Lord’s Supper is a
gift. It is what God does not what we
do. Calvin’s idea of the Lord’s Supper
is God giving something to the congregation and we are not giving anything to
God.
(4)
Zwingli stressed the divinity
of Christ than the humanity and Luther sensed this.
b.
Items that Calvin agreed with
Luther
(1)
Our redemption is based on the
body of Christ (the humanity of Christ), and this agent should never be denied
or undermined. So Calvin said that when
Jesus said, “This is my body,” He wanted to draw our attention to His body as
the sacrifice for our sins. Luther saw
this clearly and so Calvin wanted to stress this too.
(2)
Calvin: “For as the eternal
word of God is the fountain of God, so His body is the eternal channel…in it
was the sacrifice for the atonement of sins…it was filled with sanctification
of the Spirit…it was received in heaven.”
That is, Christ’s body, his humanity, is the channel through which
blessing comes to us, thus, we must also approach Him through His humanity, his
body.
c.
Calvin as an ecumenical
theologian
a.
Zurich Concensus: discussion with
Zwinglians.
b.
Tigurenus Concensus: discussion
with Lutherans
d.
Calvin’s view
a.
Augustine’s phrase: “Eucharist
is a visible word.”
b.
Eucharist presents and gives
what the preached Word presents and gives, but it gives it in different
manner. However, the Word is the
same. Thus, in Calvin, whatever can be
predicated of the preached Word can be predicated of the Eucharist.
c.
Christ is offered to the people
of God and that people are called upon to recognize this and be nourished by
the Supper. For Calvin, the Supper is a
means of grace, and growing in grace.
d.
“How do we receive it?” We receive it through the bread and not in
the bread. Calvin does not want to make
Christ coming down, descending upon the Bread, this would deny Christ’s
ascension. Thus, Calvin says that we are
lifted through the bread. It is the
Spirit who feeds us through the body of Christ.
In Calvin saying this, the Lutherans think that Calvin is merely
spiritualizing the Supper, but they have not really understood Calvin.
e.
Calvin is saying that by the
Spirit we receive the body of Christ. In
private devotions one can have a link with Christ, but through the Supper,
God’s promises are clearly seen and can be believed.
f.
Now the Lutherans worried about
Calvin’s idea of Eucharist because it seemed to undermine Christ’s presence,
his availability. Their concern is that:
Is Christ available? Calvin bends over
backwards and tries to use the Lutheran language to be in consensus with them:
“This is the wholeness of the sacrament…that the flesh and blood of Christ are
no less given to the unbelievers than to God’s elect.” That is, Christ is available! Calvin: “…The wicked by their hardness repel
Christ and does not see Him.” Here,
Calvin is saying that Christ is given in the Eucharist but He is received only
in faith.
The
Church
A. Institutes 4.1: The External Means or
Aids by Which God Invites us Into the Society of Christ and Holds us Therein
B.
Mother of All (4.1.1)
1. Human weaknesses
and Divine aid
2. Church as the
“Mother” of All: Where believers may be “nourished by her help and ministry as
long as they are infants and children” and “guided by her motherly care until
they mature and at last reach the goal of faith” (4.1.1).
3. Visible and
Invisible Church
a. Visible:
Individuals “who, by confession of faith, by examples of life, and by partaking
of the sacraments, profess the same God and Christ” (4.1.8)
b. Invisible: The
Body of Christ which includes all the elect, dead or alive that’s “visible to
the eyes of God alone” (4.1.7).
4. Marks of the
Church
a. Preaching
b. Sacraments
5. Unity of the
Church
a. The marks the only marks of a true church.
b. Minor doctrinal
differences are acceptable.
c. Unholiness of
individual members no basis for disunity.
C. True and False
Church (4.2.1)
1. The Roman church
a false church: Like Israel and Judah before their fall (4.2.7-11)
2. To condone such
church is to deny God (4.2.9)
3. The separation of
the Protestants only because they were “cast” out (4.2.6)
4. Even as he
defends the Protestant separation, Calvin’s conciliatory manner is clear when he
says, “[W]hen we categorically deny to the papists the title of the church, we do not for this reason
impugn the existence of churches among them” (4.2.12). While the Roman Church as an institution is
no longer “true,” the individuals or even individual churches may and do remain
“true” to Christ.
D. The Structure of
the Church
1. Teacher,
Preachers, Elders, and Deacons (4.3.3)
a. Prophets,
apostles, and evangelists are “temporary” offices
b. Teacher: Sound
exposition of Scripture.
c. Pastor
(presbyter, bishops, and pastors used synonymously): Oversee teaching,
sacraments, and discipline.
d. Elders:
Maintenance of good order by discipline (4.3.8)
e. Deacons: The
exercise of charity to those in and out of the church.
2. Who should man
these offices?
a. Calvin spends a
great deal of time with this question.
b. Calling
(1) Internal
(2) External
c. Selection by the
People
d. After the
selection, ordination.
The
Church and State
A.
Calvin and Civil Government
1.
Introduction
a.
Throughout his writings Calvin
stresses his unwavering belief that the high Sovereign of the universe is also
intimately present in the world of mankind.
He sees God’s hand in all historical events, and never doubts that in
our personal affairs and choices, we have “dealings with God” all the days of
our life (in tota vita negotium cum Deo).
b.
The dealings with God to which
Calvin refers include far more than acts of worship and contemplation. The Calvinist piety embraces all the
day-by-day concerns of life, in family and neighborhood, education and culture,
business and politics.
2.
The Letter to Francis I
a.
Calvin wrote no extended formal
treatise on government. His utterances
on the subject are incidental, but they represent a continuous, thoughtful
interest in political matters.
b.
In his introduction to the Institutes he included a letter written
to Francis I of France.
c.
The letter offers a defense of
the French Protestant minority, then subjected to persecution, against the
charges of heresy and sedition. In the
document we come upon statements of Calvin’s fundamental ideas concerning the
duties of kings, and in fact all who bear rule.
d.
It belongs to true royalty for
a king to acknowledge himself “the minister of God.” Where the glory of God is not the end of
government there is no legitimate sovereignty, but usurpation.
e.
One is reminded here of a
celebrated passage in Augustine’s City of
God (5.24): Emperors are happy who “make their power the handmaid of God’s
majesty.”
3.
Christian Freedom (Institutes, 3.19)
a.
Calvin is largely concerned
with the topic of conscience.
b.
It is important that we should
be aware that we have liberty of choice with regard to external matters of the
class adiaphora, things morally
indifferent. If this assurance is lacking, conscience may be entrapped into a
course of meaningless cumulative self-punishment, and be led to despair.
c.
Yet for Calvin the things
indifferent are not to be used in ways that escape more restraint. Ivory and gold, music, good food and wine are
to be enjoyed without excess and without pride or covetousness. Christian liberty is thus opposed both to
unwholesome asceticism and to irresponsible indulgence.
d.
Conscience is by no means
merely an individual matter; it must be exercised with consideration for other
men’s consciences, where no imperative duty is thereby infringed. On the other hand, we must not by yielding
too much “fortify the conscience of our neighbor in sin.” Calvin’s rule is that we are to assert or
restrict our liberty in accordance with charity and a due regard for the welfare
of our neighbor (3.19.12).
e.
Calvin here introduces the
question of obligation to political authority.
He warns against the error of supposing that since the Christian’s
conscience is set free by faith, he may disregard this obligation.
f.
But man stands under a double
government (3.19.15): spiritual and political; these require to be separately
considered. Calvin first examines in
connection with “spiritual government” the meaning of the word conscience, “a kind of medium between
God and man,” which “places man before the Divine tribunal.”
g.
He insists on the principle
that conscience, in the strict sense of the term, is directed to God, not to
human laws. The nature of obligation to
public law and government concerns the relations among men on the temporal
level.
4.
The Duties of Magistracy (Institutes, 4.20)
a.
This chapter is Calvin’s most
systematic statement on government, and summarizes his entire thought on the
subject.
b.
He distinguishes the two
realms, of the spiritual and the temporal, and confines the liberty of the
gospel to the former. On the other hand,
he protests against the notion that civil government is a polluted with which
Christians have nothing to do.
c.
The political state has
functions directly connected with religion.
It protects and supports the worship of God, promotes justice and peace,
and is a necessary aid in our earthly pilgrimage toward heaven – as necessary
as bread and water, light and air, and more excellent in that it makes possible
the use of these, and secures higher blessings to men.
d.
Calvin is eloquent on the
benefits of government in combatting offenses against religion, securing
tranquility, safeguarding private property, promoting honesty and other
virtues, and maintaining “a public form of religion among Christians and
humanity among men.”
e.
The state is not free to
dictate laws to the church, but is obligated to protect it. There is common ground here between Calvin
and St. Thomas Aquinas; but Calvin gives to the state as over against the
church a somewhat larger sphere of action than did the medieval doctor, and in
this approaches more nearly to the position of Dante.
f.
In his warm admiration for
political government, he does not for a moment regard it as a realm of mere
secularity. It is God-given, a
“benevolent provision” for man’s good, and for it men should give God
thanks. The function of the magistrate
is a “sacred ministry,” and to regard it as incompatible with religion is an
insult to God. Calvin has here in mind
the Anabaptists and other enthusiastic groups.
g.
Magistrates are the guardians
of the laws, and their very making and enforcement of law are “presided over”
by God. Theirs is a holy calling, “the
most sacred and honorable” of all. In a
powerful passage it is pointed out that their realization of this should induce
them to pursue zealously clemency, justice, and other virtues becoming to their
office.
h.
Calvin admonishes them as
“vicegerents of God” to avoid bribery, to defend good men from injury, to aid
the oppressed, vindicate the innocent, and justly to mete out punishment and reward. They are obligated where necessary to
suppress violence by force.
5.
Calvin on Law
a.
The treatment of the duties of
magistracy is followed by a discussion of public law. Calvin, a doctor of law, was at home in this
field, but he restrains himself from a lengthy disquisition and handles the
topic succinctly, with primary reference to the Old Testament.
b.
He follows the traditional
distinction of the “moral, ceremonial, and judicial” aspects of the Mosaic law,
of which the first only is of perpetual authority. The judicial law supplied a political
constitution with rules of equity and justice by which men might dwell together
in peace. The ceremonial law aided piety
in the childhood stage of the development of the Jewish nation. Valuable as these were, they were of passing
necessity.
c.
Internal Law: In his Roman
commentary, Calvin affirms that God has set in all men’s minds a knowledge of
himself, including laws which are reflections of God’s holiness.
d.
In his discussion of the Ten
Commandments, he refers to that “interior law…imprinted on the heart of
everyone” which in some sense conveys the teaching of the Commandments.
e.
The inner monitor that
expresses this is conscience, which ever and anon arouses us from moral
sleep. The written moral law of the
Bible is given by God to attest and clarify the precepts of natural law, and
fix them in the memory (2.8.1; 4.20.16).
f.
Thus Calvin adopts, and clearly
enunciates, the traditional view that a primal natural law has been imparted by
God to all men, and that the scriptural commandments bear witness to it.
6.
The Duty of Obedience
a.
Calvin lays emphasis repeatedly
upon the duty of obedience to magistrate as vicegerents of God. So far as the individual citizen concerned,
this rule of obedience applies even to tyrannical rulers who seem to be in no
sense representatives of God
b.
Resistance: Calvin does not
deprive subjects of the right of resistance.
The classical passage is in the Institutes
4.20.31 which is in all editions of the work.
So far as private persons are concerned, they are never permitted to
resist. But if there are magistrates
whose constitutional function is the protection of the people against the
license of kings, it is not only their right but their duty to oppose the
king’s violence and cruelty.
After
the Reformers
A.
H. Reinhold Neibuhr – Christ and Culture
1.
Christ against Culture -
Tertullian, Mennonites
2.
Christ of Culture – John Locke,
Immanuel Kant, Thomas Jefferson
3.
Christ and Culture – Clement of
Alexandria, Thomas Aquinas
4.
Christ and Culture in Paradox –
Marcion, Marin Luther
5.
Christ the Transformer of
Culture – Augustine, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards
B.
Protestant Orthodoxy
C.
Denominationalism
D. Lessons of the
Reformation
1. Its doctrine:
Justification by grace alone through faith alone because Jesus Christ alone. (Coram Deo, Soli Deo Gloria)
2. Its participants:
Scholar/Pastor
3. Its legacy:
Semper Reformanda
4. God’s Providence:
right time, right place, right person.
[1] Alister E. Mcgrath, A Life of John Calvin: A Study in the
Shaping of Western Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1990)
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