Posted on 07/06/2008 2:59:42 AM PDT by Gamecock
For many in our culture, the word "Calvinism" is synonymous with a grim form of legalistic religion that chiefly focuses on the doctrine of predestination -- the idea that God has determined from eternity who will go to heaven and who will go to hell.
This shorthand definition was perhaps given additional ground by the famous essay of Max Weber on "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." Weber argued that Calvinism's obsession with predestination led to a "this-worldly asceticism," which caused its followers to reinvest their profits in their businesses rather than to spend them on personal luxuries, hence encouraging the rise of modern capitalism. But neither Weber's, nor the popular, picture of Calvinism really does justice to the rich reality of this branch of evangelical Christianity.
John Calvin (1509-1564), the Protestant Reformer from whom the movement takes its name, was one of the second-generation reformers of the 16th-century Roman Catholic Church. His initial contribution to the reform movement was a systematic theology titled, "Instruction in the Christian Religion, Embracing Almost the Whole Sum of Piety, and Whatever Is Necessary to Know the Doctrine of Salvation: A Work Most Worthy to Be Read by All Persons Zealous for Piety."
Published in 1536, this work was in the style of a catechism that had chapters on the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the sacraments (including a separate chapter on the alleged false sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church), and on Christian freedom and the power of church and state. Calvin continued to work on this text throughout his life, and he published a final, much-expanded edition of the work in 1559. Popularly known as Calvin's "Institutes," it now had expanded to a work in four books and 80 chapters!
THE ACTUAL historical origins of Calvinism as a distinct branch of Protestant theology can be traced to the debates about the Eucharist that emerged among the first-generation Reformers Martin Luther (1483-1546) and Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531). Luther had argued that Christ's body was present "under" the Eucharistic elements of bread and wine, so that when the minister said the words of consecration, "This is my body," Christ's body was really present in the elements. Zwingli thought the words of consecration were a figure of speech, and that the Eucharist was a memorial and thanksgiving for Christ's once-for-all sacrifice on the cross.
Calvin, thinking he could find a compromise formula that would satisfy both the Lutherans and the Zwinglians, argued that at the words of consecration, the body of Christ is really present to the communicants by the power of the Holy Spirit, but not locally in the bread. Unfortunately, this formula satisfied neither the Zwinglians nor the Lutherans, but simply created a third brand of Eucharistic theology -- the Calvinist variety.
As Calvin's theology developed from the first to the final edition of the Institutes, certain key themes emerge that one can take as benchmarks of the movement that bears his name. First and foremost is an emphasis on the unmerited and ever-present grace of God that reaches out to fallen human beings and restores them from sin to divine favor. Often people say that Calvinism emphasizes the sovereignty of God. This is true. But it is specifically the sovereignty of God's grace that is emphasized.
SECOND, THE appropriate human response to God's grace is thankful and obedient service to God in lives lived as God's children. God's grace deserves our gratitude. Third, a humble acknowledgment of the human tendency to sinfulness and idolatry, and a consequent willingness to repent, confess sin, and return to God on a regular basis. There is little patience with perfectionism in this tradition. On the contrary, it has a realistic sense of people's weaknesses.
Fourth, Calvinism gives careful attention to the ways in which people can receive God's grace. These range from participation in the church, to partaking of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, to engagement in civil society. Calvinists understand the world to be the theater of God's glory and grace -- the stage on which the drama of salvation is being played out. That means that engagement with the world is a crucial part of the experience of salvation. Faithful participation in government, for example, is an important part of Christian life.
If I were to summarize the theology of Calvinism in a phrase, it would be "grace and gratitude." John Calvin was a theologian who wrote eloquently and persuaded many followers that there is nothing in the universe more powerful than the sovereign grace of God.
I believe he is right.
Interesting read. I did not realize that Calvin was influenced by the Roman concept of sacraments imparting Grace.
***I did not realize that Calvin was influenced by the Roman concept of sacraments imparting Grace.***
(I’m pinging a couple of TEs to double check me on what I am posting below....)
There is a bigger distinction between Calvin and Rome.
Catholics believe that the sacraments fill the tank with the grace that has leaked out through venial sins since the last fill up. That is why it is so important for them to have last rites before death. After all, if they die with less than with a full tank of grace, it’s off to purgatory.
Calvin saw communion as a spiritual food, a way to nourish our faith, to confirm in our own hearts what we are in Christ. Baptism works in the same way. Our tanks are full of grace. The sacraments confirm that to us.
As a Baptist my view is in line with Zwingili. The ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper do not impart Grace. We are blessed with God's Grace through Faith Alone.
I agree with the Reformed in the 5 Sola's. How does this idea that Grace is being imparted by sacraments get reconciled with them?
Saving grace is not imparted by baptism, or else we would believe in baptismal regeneration. Saving grace is not imparted during the Lord's Supper, or we would all be a little "more saved" every time we participated in it.
However, the goodness and mercy of God which some men call grace but is more correctly termed the goodness and mercy of God is affirmed and more greatly experienced through the administration and partaking of the sacraments. Christ did, after all, tell us to partake of the sacraments for our benefit. There is something being imparted in both sacraments that encourages the Christian in his life and faith which definitely brings us closer to God. And that something is real and "of grace." The sacraments are true declarations by God of our eternal election that bring with them the peace and assurance of God's mercy; they are like a holy kiss from Christ to His own. As we are instructed to "kiss the Son," so are we meant to be kissed.
"Grace" is best defined as God's salvic, specific, redeeming love for His family whom He determined to save from before the foundation of the world through faith in Christ alone. And the effects of that grace are truly experienced by His family in the sacraments.
In contrast with the Reformers, Rome believed (then as well as now) that justification is by grace, through faith and because of Christ, and issued an anathema on those who affirmed that faith alone justifies (at the Council of Trent). However, it is the little word "alone" that identifies the one true biblical Gospel and all other pretenders as false gospels. What Rome does not believe is that justification is by grace alone, received through faith alone, because of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. For Rome, justification is by grace plus merit, through faith plus works; by Christ plus the sinner's contribution of inherent righteousness... How can one say "faith alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone" and then say "propitiatory Mass that never perfects, grace mediated through Mary, temporal punishments, purgatory, and satispassio"? Or to return to the Galatian context, what basis does anyone have to believe that one can say "faith alone in an all sufficient Christ" and "circumcision necessary to have true faith in Christ" at the same time without involving such a contradiction as to render words meaningless? What is it about the Galatian heresy that rendered its proponents anathema that is not present in the pantheon of Roman additions to the gospel? How many times does Rome have to say "no, no, faith alone is not sufficient, you need sacraments, you need the priesthood, you need indulgences, confessions, penances, and a never-perfecting re-presentation of Calvary" before she catches up with the Judaizers in Galatia?... If you can't tell the difference between "faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone to the glory of God alone" and Rome's man-centered, peace-robbing, soul-destroying "gospel," then God has not spoken, He has not even mumbled, and we are of all men most to be pitied." -- Rev. John Samson"The Reformers of the 16th Century called the Church back to the one true Biblical Gospel: With Scripture alone as the firm foundation they affirmed that justification is by God's grace alone, received through faith alone, because of Christ alone, to the Glory of God alone.
It might be helpful when looking at the sacraments as means of grace to look at what other means of grace are, and then how they impart God's grace to us.
Other means of grace include prayer, the reading of Scriptures, and hearing the Word read and preached.
How, then, do the means of grace work? They remind of of the truth of the scripture, and strenghtens our faith by that remembrance; the Holy Spirit also uses the means of grace to teach us, to rebuke us, and to bring us to repentance.
Salvation is an event, but sanctification is a process. And God uses the means of grace that we might know more of Him, and grow in Him.
As Peter ended his second letter: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”
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