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It should be noted that John Calvin and followers formulate a supposed doctrine as though representing the New Testament. It is a highly refined individual system, not traceable as a whole to any previous age, and supplants the public teaching of centuries. Calvin, who hated Scholasticism, comes before us, as Luther had already done, in the shape of a Scholastic. His "pure doctrine" is gained by appealing, not to tradition, the "deposit" of faith, but to argument in abstract terms exercised upon Scripture. He is neither a critic nor a historian; he takes the Bible as something given; and he manipulates the Apostles' Creed in accordance with his own ideas. The "Institutes" are not a history of dogma, but a treatise, only not to be called an essay because of its peremptory tone. Calvin annihilates the entire space, with all its developments, which lies between the death of St. John and the sixteenth century. He does, indeed, quote St. Augustine, but he leaves out all that Catholic foundation on which the Doctor of Grace built."

To put it very simply, it is a tragic deviation from Biblical theology attained by parsing, proof texting, irrelevant argumentation, focusing on absolute authority that denies justice, grace - except as uniquely defined in various ways, mercy, and personal responsibility. All scripture must be understood from these presuppositions.