Blogging The Institutes: Blog 4: Preface 5-6

Reformation 21 ^ | January 8, 2009 | Derek Thomas

[Gamecock]

How is the true church to be known? Calvin's response in the preface to the Institutes is clear: it is known by "the pure preaching of God's Word and the lawful administration of the sacraments." Contrary to Roman insistence that the church is always marked by great pomp and is always visible, Calvin (perhaps to the encouragement of beleaguered evangelicals in France secretly meeting is small numbers and without outward show) reminds King Francis that the church often appeared in less than glorious form to the human eye, both in the Old Testament and in church history.

It is important to see this emphasis on the church in Calvin. He commented on psalm 115:17, "The whole order of nature would be subverted, unless God preserved the church. For the creation of the world would serve no purpose if there were no people to call upon God." And it is well to remember that Calvin was, at every point in his adult life and ministry, a pastor as well as a theologian.

The rancid tone of these sections of the preface, aimed as they are against the bishops and prelates of the Roman Church, are not an indication of Calvin's low view of the church and the ease with which one could criticize or leave it. On the contrary, Calvin viewed schism as "the worst and most harmful evil in the church of God" (Commentary on John 9:16), and warned in Book 4 of the Institutes "it is always disastrous to leave the church" (4.1.4). In the words of Charles Partee, "Calvin insisted that the Protestants were reformers of the church, not its deformers." (The Theology of John Calvin [Westminster: John Knox Press, 2008], 267).

[Gamecock]

Blogging The Institutes, Blog 1
Blogging The Institutes, Blog 2: Preface 1-2

[Gamecock]

[cloudmountain]

From the Internet:
John Calvin was born as Jehan Cauvin on 10 July 1509, in the town of Noyon in the Picardy region of France. He was the first of four sons who survived infancy. His father, Gérard Cauvin, had a prosperous career as the cathedral notary and registrar to the ecclesiastical court.
He died in his later years, after suffering two years with testicular cancer. His mother, Jeanne le Franc, was the daughter of an innkeeper from Cambrai. She died a few years after Calvin's birth from an unknown cause. Gérard intended his three sons—Charles, Jean, and Antoine—for the priesthood.

Calvin was an interesting man.
I wonder what he would think of today's Calvinism.

[wmfights]

On the contrary, Calvin viewed schism as "the worst and most harmful evil in the church of God" (Commentary on John 9:16), and warned in Book 4 of the Institutes "it is always disastrous to leave the church" (4.1.4). In the words of Charles Partee, "Calvin insisted that the Protestants were reformers of the church, not its deformers." (The Theology of John Calvin [Westminster: John Knox Press, 2008], 267).

I have great respect for my Reformed FRiends and agree with a great deal of Calvin's theological views. However, this view of schism is the worst error within the Reformed. The RCC teaches a different gospel. They reject salvation by Grace Alone through Faith Alone in Christ Alone and instead claim man must do works to be saved. There can never be any compromise on The Gospel and those that insist there should be are wrong.