[CondoleezzaProtege]

"As my friend Doug Phillips has pointed out..."

Doug Philips has since resigned from Vision Forum due to allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct. R.C. Sproul has since passed away. The article was written in 2009.

"Servetus was indeed put to death in Geneva , the town where Calvin served..."

Geneva was both a failed theocracy and a terrorist state - the ramifications of which were reflected upon by America's own founders as they pondered the notion of religious liberty in the colonies . This is the case even as John Calvin's contributions to theology overall have had a positive influence on the forging of our constitutional principles.

Calvin himself oversaw the death sentences of numerous people, including women and children. Justifications for their deaths ranged from adultery, to witchcraft, to being disobedient to one's parents (in the case of a child.) The methods of execution ranged from being burned alive to beheadings. Calvin and his men also oversaw the brutal burning and destruction of numerous pieces of sacred art, cathedrals, and other Church property.

"If our theology derived from any lone man, and it didn’t, that man would be Saint Augustine , whom Calvin quoted more than any other scholar."

Saint Augustine? The Catholic?! Shouldn't he get some of the credit for our nation's foundations? Every literate Westerner, every thinker in colonial American times was well-versed in his landmark book City of God. Watch as Protestants find a way divert credit to the Catholic saint for his indelible contribution to our civic life and instead lay blame on him for Calvin's propensity for burning people alive.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Martin Luther was an anti-Semite who Hitler often quoted as numerous Lutheran-identifying Germans embarked upon the Holocaust. John Calvin was a murderer who ruled over the terrorist state of Geneva, Switzerland in the Reformation Era.

Read how the late R.C. Sproul explains what the attitudes of Protestants should be to the sins of these incredibly fallen but otherwise great men...

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

Thanks for posting that. I miss RC greatly.

[HarleyD]

My experience is that those who often criticise John Calvin haven't a clue about his life, works and writings.

BTW-I'm a Calvinist because I FIRST read and agreed with Augustine's writings. John Calvin, in his "Institutes of the Christian Religion" quotes extensively from the early church fathers. I agree with Calvin because I agree with the early church fathers.

[Claud]

Yeah there’s a real tendency to put blinders on when moderns pick up a book of St. Augustine.

They get all giddy on his statements on grace and then forget that he was a bishop who said Mass, celebrated the feasts of the martyrs, and wrote rules for nuns. Not your grandma’s Presbyterianism, that’s for sure.

[Colofornian]

Not a Calvinist, but got to ask: Is it fitting for ANY Christian to adopt the so-called “theology of a man,” especially since he murdered an Egyptian servant? (Moses)

[Colofornian]

Is it fitting for the billions others besides the billions who have embraced the 10 commandments to adopt the so-called “theology of man,” especially one responsible for the manslaughter of Urriah to cover up adultery?

[ConservativeDude]

As my friend Doug Phillips has pointed out...”

LOL. If RC were alive, I bet he’s wishing he could have a do over on THAT particular introduction......

[fishtank]

Doug Phillips...creepy cult leader.

RC Sproul: a theologian of stellar quality

[sasportas]

Calvin, the disciple of the Catholic Augustine?

Calvin, the disciple of Catholic Augustine’s Amillennialism? Which was the main impetus behind Calvin and Geneva’s burning of Servetus...and other assorted victims as described in the lead article. Protestant Europe in Calvin’s time, being the millennial kingdom Protestants, following the lead of the Amillennial RCC before them, must exterminate heretics in God’s “kingdom.”

Calvin, the father of “once saved always saved” theology?

[Big Red Badger]

You have to note that Calvin
Suggested Servetus be killed by
Sword instead of Burned.
You have to give him That.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Is this thread simply to divert attention from the horrific abuse by priests against little ones??

Here is a video of a priest actually abusing a baby. Yes, a baby!

Priest suspended after viral video shows him slapping baby during baptism

[spintreebob]

two men who have had the greatest impact

The author is trying too hard to create a story. Is it possible that Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, Paul and others, just in the religious community, have had a bigger impact on the US than Calvin? Then we could mention Locke and many others in the political and philosophical community.

[vpintheak]

This endless Protestant/Catholic bashing serves no purpose other that making the evil one smile.

[Elsie]

Is It Fitting for Calvinists to Adopt the Theology of a Man, and One Who Murdered Servetus?

Darned good question!!

---

Is it Fitting for Catholics to Adopt the Theology of men who have displayed such Christian lives??

---

 

Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.^[1]

Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.

Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy

Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy

Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.^[2]

Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.^[3]

Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony^[4]

Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Popes

[Elsie]

Saint Augustine? The Catholic?! Shouldn't he get some of the credit for our nation's foundations?

Heck!

He can't even get Catholics on the right interpretation of SCRIPTURE!!

---

 

As regards the oft-quoted Mt. 16:18 (And less understood)

 

 

 

• Augustine, sermon:

"Christ, you see, built his Church not on a man but on Peter's confession. What is Peter's confession? 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' There's the rock for you, there's the foundation, there's where the Church has been built, which the gates of the underworld cannot conquer. — John Rotelle, O.S.A., Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine , © 1993 New City Press, Sermons, Vol III/6, Sermon 229P.1, p. 327

 

Augustine, sermon:

Upon this rock, said the Lord, I will build my Church. Upon this confession, upon this that you said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,' I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not conquer her (Mt. 16:18). — John Rotelle, Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine (New Rochelle: New City, 1993) Sermons, Volume III/7, Sermon 236A.3, p. 48.

 

• Augustine, sermon:

For petra (rock) is not derived from Peter, but Peter from petra; just as Christ is not called so from the Christian, but the Christian from Christ. For on this very account the Lord said, 'On this rock will I build my Church,' because Peter had said, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' On this rock, therefore, He said, which thou hast confessed, I will build my Church. For the Rock (Petra) was Christ; and on this foundation was Peter himself built. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus. The Church, therefore, which is founded in Christ received from Him the keys of the kingdom of heaven in the person of Peter, that is to say, the power of binding and loosing sins. For what the Church is essentially in Christ, such representatively is Peter in the rock (petra); and in this representation Christ is to be understood as the Rock, Peter as the Church. — Augustine Tractate CXXIV; Philip Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: First Series, Volume VII Tractate CXXIV (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf107.iii.cxxv.html)

 

• Augustine, sermon:

And Peter, one speaking for the rest of them, one for all, said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Mt 16:15-16)...And I tell you: you are Peter; because I am the rock, you are Rocky, Peter-I mean, rock doesn't come from Rocky, but Rocky from rock, just as Christ doesn't come from Christian, but Christian from Christ; and upon this rock I will build my Church (Mt 16:17-18); not upon Peter, or Rocky, which is what you are, but upon the rock which you have confessed. I will build my Church though; I will build you, because in this answer of yours you represent the Church. — John Rotelle, O.S.A. Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine (New Rochelle: New City Press, 1993), Sermons, Volume III/7, Sermon 270.2, p. 289

 

• Augustine, sermon:

Peter had already said to him, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' He had already heard, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the underworld shall not conquer her' (Mt 16:16-18)...Christ himself was the rock, while Peter, Rocky, was only named from the rock. That's why the rock rose again, to make Peter solid and strong; because Peter would have perished, if the rock hadn't lived. — John Rotelle, Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine (New Rochelle: New City, 1993) Sermons, Volume III/7, Sermon 244.1, p. 95

 

• Augustine, sermon:

...because on this rock, he said, I will build my Church, and the gates of the underworld shall not overcome it (Mt. 16:18). Now the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). Was it Paul that was crucified for you? Hold on to these texts, love these texts, repeat them in a fraternal and peaceful manner. — John Rotelle, Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine (New Rochelle: New City Press, 1995), Sermons, Volume III/10, Sermon 358.5, p. 193

 

• Augustine, Psalm LXI:

Let us call to mind the Gospel: 'Upon this Rock I will build My Church.' Therefore She crieth from the ends of the earth, whom He hath willed to build upon a Rock. But in order that the Church might be builded upon the Rock, who was made the Rock? Hear Paul saying: 'But the Rock was Christ.' On Him therefore builded we have been. — Philip Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), Volume VIII, Saint Augustin, Exposition on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXI.3, p. 249. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf108.ii.LXI.html)

 

• Augustine, in “Retractions,”

In a passage in this book, I said about the Apostle Peter: 'On him as on a rock the Church was built.'...But I know that very frequently at a later time, I so explained what the Lord said: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,' that it be understood as built upon Him whom Peter confessed saying: 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,' and so Peter, called after this rock, represented the person of the Church which is built upon this rock, and has received 'the keys of the kingdom of heaven.' For, 'Thou art Peter' and not 'Thou art the rock' was said to him. But 'the rock was Christ,' in confessing whom, as also the whole Church confesses, Simon was called Peter. But let the reader decide which of these two opinions is the more probable. — The Fathers of the Church (Washington D.C., Catholic University, 1968), Saint Augustine, The Retractations Chapter 20.1:.

 

[trebb]

Mortal men are just that - it is fallible mortals who "refined" the religions and we can see this (if we choose to open our eyes) in the on-going news about sexual predators running rampant in "The Church".

The Bible (even though compiled and edited by fallible men) is enough but too many religions insist that priests are necessary for one's salvation - IOW - Jesus just isn't enough.....