Category Archives: Calvin, John

John Calvin on errors in Scripture

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I appreciate the work that Wyatt Houtz has done in demonstrating John Calvin’s approach to various apparent discrepancies in the Bible.

Here’s briefest of summaries.  In most cases, I have elaborated in my Bible Commentary on the various passages.

Gen 1:14:16 – Calvin knows that the Moon is not larger than Saturn, and that the Moon is a dark opaque body and not a luminary.  Calvin concludes that the author of Genesis is justified in using unscientific language, in order for God’s revelation to be understood by ordinary people.…

The threefold use of the law

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According to the Calvin’s classic formulation, God’s law has a threefold use (Institutes, II.vii.6-12).

These are helpfully summarised in the Reformation Study Bible:

Scripture shows that God intends His law to function in three ways, which Calvin crystallized in classic form for the church’s benefit as the law’s threefold use.

Its first function is to be a mirror reflecting to us both the perfect righteousness of God and our own sinfulness and shortcomings.…

The ‘perfect preacher’?

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Tim Keller, in his recent book, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Scepticism, p50, notes:

Theodore Beza was a younger colleague and successor of John Calvin, the founder of the Reformed branch of Protestantism during the Reformation. In his biography of Calvin, Beza recalled the three great preachers in Geneva during those years— Calvin himself, Guillaume Farel, and Pierre Viret. Farel, said Beza, was the most fiery, passionate, and forceful in his sermonic delivery.
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Original sin

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Definition

‘Original sin’, like some other terms (‘total depravity’, ‘unconditional election’, ‘limited atonement’, irresistible grace’ come immediately to mind) requires careful definition if it is to provide useful service in theological discussion.

For Calvin, original sin is

‘a hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused into all parts of the soul, which first makes us liable to God’s wrath, then also brings forth in us those works which Scripture calls “works of the flesh” (Gal 5:19).’ …

Do we have ‘free will’?

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C.H. Spurgeon had a portrait of John Gill, Baptist preacher and commentator, in his vestry.  The portrait, says Spurgeon, ‘represents him after an interview with an Arminian gentleman, turning up his nose in a most expressive manner, as if he could not endure even the smell of free-will.’ (Commentating and Commentaries, p9)

Spurgeon himself, as a good Calvinist, had a similar distaste for the notion of ‘free will’.  I must say that I sometimes feel that an appeal to free will is used too glibly by preachers in order to explain away some of the tougher points of Christian doctrine and experience.…

Calvin on divine providence

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John Calvin deals with this doctrine fairly early on in the Institutes – in Book 1, Chapters 16-18.

In Chapter 16, he begins by asserting that ‘we see the presence of divine power as much in the continuing state of the universe as in its inception.’  In other words, God’s power is as apparent in his works of providence as it is in his work of creation.  The One who made the world sustains and governs it.…

‘Myths About Calvinism’

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My eye was caught by a review in Christianity Today of a recent book by Kenneth J. Stewart entitled Ten Myths About Calvinism.  Stewart writes as a Calvinist himself, but is somewhat critical of some trends and tendencies within the latest resurgence of the movement, especially as represented by the ‘young, restless and reformed’ brigade.

Here are some of the ‘myths’ about Calvinism, as identified by Stewart.  These ones, he says, are all held by Calvinists themselves.…

Calvin and the (in)errancy of Scripture

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It is clear to any reader of the works of John Calvin that he had a very high view of the truthfulness of Scripture.  There are a handful of passages, however, where some have detected hints that the great Reformer thought that the Bible might err in matters of detail.  These are categorised by J.I. Packer as follows:-

  1. Passages in which God accommodates himself to human forms of thought and expression.  Thus, Calvin did not think that we should look to Genesis 1 for scientific teaching on astronomy.
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My Favourite Christian Writers

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My list of favourite Christian authors would look something like this (in roughly chronological order, not order of merit):-

  1. John Calvin – commentaries, Institutes
  2. Thomas Watson – Body of Divinity, Beatitudes, Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commmandments
  3. William Gurnall – Christian in Complete Armour
  4. Matthew Henry – Commentary
  5. C.H. Spurgeon – The Treasury of David, Lectures to my Students, An All-Round Ministry, Commenting and Commentaries (plus, of course, his many printed sermons)
  6. J.C. Ryle – Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Holiness, Knots Untied, Old Paths, Practical Religion, Christian Leaders of the 18th Century
  7. J.
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A Unitarian ‘miracle’?

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Unitarians, as far as I can tell, don’t believe in miracles.  At least, they don’t believe in the kinds of miracles recorded in the Bible, including Christ’s Virgin Birth and resurrection.

However, while spending a bit of time exploring the beliefs and practices of Unitarians, I came across a rather extraordinary statement which, if true, would certainly have to be regarded as evidence for the miraculous.

I was reading the transcript of a sermon recently preached by Unitarian minister Rev Sarah Tinker. …