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 16^th 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 16^th 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 17^th 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 4^th 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 (3^rd and 4^th 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.

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[1] Alister E. Mcgrath, A Life of John Calvin: A Study in the Shaping of Western Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1990)