Liberty's champion: On his 500th birthday, two cheers for John Calvin

WORLD Magazine ^ | July 04, 2009 | Marvin Olasky

[Alex Murphy]

For the non-Calvinists or anti-Calvinists among us who may worry that this issue of WORLD has several articles about John Calvin, be not afraid: It happens only once every 500 years. July 10 brings the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth—and the great theologian, even with his warts, deserves a better press than he has typically received in recent decades.

Calvin was a fallen sinner, as all of us are, but was he especially mean-spirited? He taught that God created the world out of love and loved the world so much that Christ came down from the glorious kingdom of heaven and plunged into this world's muck. Calvin saw God as a generous giver and His mercy as an abundant resource. Jehovah's Witnesses would later insist that heaven has room for only 144,000, but Calvin understood that God's grace is infinite.

Did Calvin emphasize in-group harshness toward the poor and the alien? No: He wrote, "We cannot but behold our own face as it were in a glass in the person that is poor and despised . . . though he were the furthest stranger in the world. Let a Moor or a barbarian come among us, and yet inasmuch as he is a man, he brings with him a looking glass wherein we may see that he is our brother and neighbor." Everyone is created in God's image and worthy of respect.

Did Calvin want us to abstain from all material pleasures? He wrote that God "meant not only to provide for necessity but also for delight and good cheer. . . . Has the Lord clothed the flowers with the great beauty that greets our eyes, the sweetness of smell that is wafted upon our nostrils, and yet will it be unlawful for our eyes to be affected by that beauty, or our sense of smell by the sweetness of that odor?" He opposed any doctrine that "deprives us of the lawful fruit of God's beneficence."

Calvin also opposed doctrines that deprive us of political liberty. His understandings—that God-given laws are superior to those of the state, the king, and any other institution, and that individuals have direct access to the Bible, without dependence on pope or priest—are common now, but compare them to the political and theological theories fashionable before his time. In ancient times, pagan states revered leaders as semi-divine. Those who argued with such bosses were seen as deserving death. In medieval times, the interpretations of church officials often trumped the words of the Bible itself (which few people could read). They identified God's kingdom on earth with a church monopoly, and hanged, burned, or decapitated some with other ideas.

Calvin and other Reformation leaders, though, separated church and state while emphasizing the importance of believers working to lead the state. Calvin contended that, since God reigns everywhere, His followers should be entrepreneurs in every strategic institution, including government, civil society, commerce, media, law, education, the church, and the arts. This emphasis led directly to what has become known as the "Protestant ethic," with its unleashing of individual initiative and its emphasis on hard work in purportedly secular areas. Many kinds of labor are equally worthy, Calvin argued, and those in charge of one activity should not dictate to others.

Calvin's writings also had an implicit anti-statism. Since fundamental law comes from God, obeying the law means obeying God, not necessarily the state. Rebellion against an unlawful state act, led by "lesser magistrates" such as local leaders, is really a justifiable maintenance of true law. One Calvin disciple in 1579 wrote Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos ("Vindication Against Tyrants"), which emphasized the limits of power.

Would freedom ring? The English jurist Blackstone called "the power and jurisdiction of Parliament transcendent and absolute . . . sovereign and uncontrollable." English lawyers joked that "Parliament can do everything except make a woman a man, or a man a woman." (Some of our jurists and legislators are more ambitious.) But generation after generation of Calvinists read Vindiciae and emphasized that government must be under God. According to John Adams, its doctrines greatly influenced Americans of the 1760s and 1770s.

Calvin's birthday comes six days after the Independence Day that owes much to his teaching. Bake a cake and know that Calvin was not against enjoying it.

[Alex Murphy]

Calvin also opposed doctrines that deprive us of political liberty. His understandings—that God-given laws are superior to those of the state, the king, and any other institution, and that individuals have direct access to the Bible, without dependence on pope or priest—are common now, but compare them to the political and theological theories fashionable before his time. In ancient times, pagan states revered leaders as semi-divine. Those who argued with such bosses were seen as deserving death. In medieval times, the interpretations of church officials often trumped the words of the Bible itself (which few people could read). They identified God's kingdom on earth with a church monopoly, and hanged, burned, or decapitated some with other ideas.

[Terabitten]

But the real question... would Calvin have played a Les Paul or a Strat?

[Corin Stormhands]

A great day for a barbecue!

:-)

[Larry Lucido]

Calvin. An interesting person who, according to his own philosophy, may or may not have been elect.

[Verginius Rufus]

Speaking of barbecues, Miguel Servet (Servetus) is not available for comment.

[agere_contra]

Calvin also opposed doctrines that deprive us of political liberty.

But Calvin promulgated doctrines that would deprive us of spiritual liberty. He taught that God predestined part of mankind to a) sin and b) go to hell.

I won't be baking him a cake.

[Corin Stormhands]

But Calvin promulgated doctrines that would deprive us of spiritual liberty.

C'mon folks. I'm no Calvinist. But there is much we can learn from John Calvin. Whether you agree with him or not you cannot discount his very significant and very positive impact on Christianity and, for that matter, on the founding of this nation.

[Dr.Deth]

[blue-duncan]

“He taught that God predestined part of mankind to a) sin and b) go to hell.”

Do you know of anyone God predestined to go to hell?

[AD from SpringBay]

Do you know of anyone God predestined to go to hell?

Interesting question. Why would it matter? If someone were of the elect then they would be not damned if they did or not damned if they didn't. Why would a person need to worry about it one way or another?

[Dr. Eckleburg]

But Calvin promulgated doctrines that would deprive us of spiritual liberty. He taught that God predestined part of mankind to a) sin and b) go to hell.

Calvin reminded us that all spiritual liberty is a gift from God. Calvin reminded us that Rome had it wrong and that an individual's conscience, either renewed by the Holy Spirit, or left to its own craven desires, is what determines a man's salvation.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Happy Birthday to a fellow saint among saints, saints!

JOHN CALVIN
THE FATHER OF AMERICA

"Very few people today realize that our country was founded on the theology of John Calvin, the Protestant Reformation's greatest leader and organizer, who lived from 1509-1564. Calvin provided our founding fathers with a working model for the separation and co-operation of Church and State. For this and many other reasons many historians have called John Calvin the virtual founder of America. George Bancroft, an American historian, calls Calvin ‘the father of America,’ and adds, ‘He who will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty.’ It is a fact that many of the Pilgrims were Calvinists. Pastor John Robinson, the leader of the Pilgrims, was a Calvinist. The Puritans, who came after the Pilgrims, and who formed the great bulk of the settlers in New England, were Calvinists. John Endicott, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; John Winthrop, the second governor of that Colony; Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut; and John Davenport, the founder of the New Haven Colony, were all Calvinists. It is estimated that at the time of the American Revolution, two-thirds of the colonial population had been trained in the theology of Calvin. More than one-half of all the soldiers and officers of the American Army during the Revolution were Calvinists. All of the colonels of the Colonial Army except one were Presbyterian elders. The war for Independence was spoken of in England as “The Presbyterian Rebellion.” Certainly, it is worthwhile for every American to know what John Calvin taught..."

[Dutchboy88]

Woo Hoo!!! Happy birthday to Mr. Calvin.

[fishtank]

Although I am doctrinally a “Calvinist”, Calvin himself did not want to extend religious freedom to others.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for the article! And Happy Birthday, John Calvin!

[Diamond]

He taught that God predestined part of mankind to a) sin and b) go to hell.

I won't be baking him a cake.

Where in his writings did Calvin ever teach that God's decree to permit the fall affected, excepting Jesus Christ, only part of mankind?

Cordially,

[vladimir998]

LOL True. He’s just toasty now.

[suzyjaruki]

Calvin provided our founding fathers with a working model for the separation and co-operation of Church and State.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." Part of the First Amendment which lead to the phrase “separation of church and state.”

Unfortunately, in an effort to not lose their tax exempt status (a Congressional law that now voluntarily shackles free exercise); Christian churches have so separated themselves from speaking about state matters that they have become marginalized. Meanwhile the State, ironically, is fast becoming “the church.”

[P-Marlowe]

Christian churches have so separated themselves from speaking about state matters that they have become marginalized.

Liberal churches and black churches are exempt.

Meanwhile the State, ironically, is fast becoming “the church.”

That happened a long time ago. The secular church-state has been awaiting their Messiah. Obama is now the Messiah of the Statist.

[suzyjaruki]

Obama is now the Messiah of the Statist

True.

I do pray for him. My prayer is that he will not be martyred. I often pray that he stays out of the rain. It is my understanding that turkeys, like him, who turn their heads up in the rain sometimes drown.