Posted on 05/28/2014 7:41:25 PM PDT by ReformationFan
Yesterday marked the 450th anniversary of the death of John Calvin. Here are nine things you should know about the French theologian and Reformer.
1. From an early age, Calvin was a precocious student who excelled at Latin and philosophy. He was prepared to go to study of theology in Paris, when his father decided he should become a lawyer. Calvin spend half a decade at the University of Orleans studying law, a subject he did not love.
2. Calvin wrote his magnum opus, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, at the age of 27 (though he updated the work and published new editions throughout his life). The work was intended as an elementary manual for those who wanted to know something about the evangelical faith—"the whole sum of godliness and whatever it is necessary to know about saving doctrine."
3. Calvin initially had no interest in being a pastor. While headed to Strasbourg he made a detour in Geneva where he met the local church leader William Farel. Calvin said he was only staying one night, but Farel argued that it was God's will he remain in the city and become a pastor. When Calvin protested that he was a scholar, not a preacher, Farel swore a great oath that God would curse all Calvin's studies unless he stayed in Geneva. Calvin later said, ""I felt as if God from heaven had laid his mighty hand upon me to stop me in my course—and I was so terror stricken that I did not continue my journey."
4. Calvin was a stepfather (he married a widow, Idelette, who had two children) but had no surviving children himself. His only son, Jacques, was born prematurely and survived only briefly. When his wife died he wrote to his friend, Viret:
I have been bereaved of the best friend of my life, of one who, if it has been so ordained, would willingly have shared not only my poverty but also my death. During her life she was the faithful helper of my ministry. From her I never experienced the slightest hindrance.
5. During his ministry in Geneva, Calvin preached over two thousand sermons. He preached twice on Sunday and almost every weekday. His sermons lasted more than an hour and he did not use notes.
6. Around 1553, Calvin began an epistolary relationship with Michael Servetus, a Spanish theologian and physician. Servetus wrote several works with anti-trinitarian views so Calvin sent him a copy of his Institutes as a reply. Servetus promptly returned it, thoroughly annotated with critical observations. Calvin wrote to Servetus, "I neither hate you nor despise you; nor do I wish to persecute you; but I would be as hard as iron when I behold you insulting sound doctrine with so great audacity." In time their correspondence grew more heated until Calvin ended it.
7. In the 1500s, denying the Trinity was a blasphemy that was considered worthy of death throughout Europe. Because he had written books denying the Trinity and denouncing paedobaptism, Servetus was condemned to death by the French Catholic Inquisition. Servetus escaped from prison in Vienne and fled to Italy, but stopped on the way in Geneva. After he attended a sermon by Calvin, Servetus was arrested by the city authorities. French Inquisitors asked that he be extradited to them for execution, but the officials in Geneva refused and brought him before their own heresy trial. Although Calvin believed Servetus deserving of death on account of what he termed as his "execrable blasphemies", he wanted the Spaniard to be executed by decapitation as a traitor rather than by fire as a heretic. The Geneva council refused his request and burned Servetus at the stake with what was believed to be the last copy of his book chained to his leg.
8. Within Geneva, Calvin's main concern was the creation of a collège, an institute for the education of children. Although the school was a single institution, it was divided into two parts: a grammar school called the collège and an advanced school called the académie. Within five years there were 1,200 students in the grammar school and 300 in the advanced school. The collège eventually became the Collège Calvin, one of the college preparatory schools of Geneva, while the académie became the University of Geneva.
9. Calvin worked himself nearly to death. As Christian History notes, when he could not walk the couple of hundred yards to church, he was carried in a chair to preach. When the doctor forbade him to go out in the winter air to the lecture room, he crowded the audience into his bedroom and gave lectures there. To those who would urge him to rest, he asked, "What? Would you have the Lord find me idle when he comes?"
Are Catholics Calvinists, then? I thought Catholics believed in free will.
Your responded: "So, prior to the Day of Judgment, people are judged. Some are sent to a ‘place of torment’ while others are comforted. After that, comes the Second Judgment.
That is a remarkable interpretation. Entirely non-Biblical, but quite remarkable.
Of course it is before the final judgement, 3 reasons:
1. The Rich Man is in Hades, not the Lake of Fire (Luke 16:23)
2. If the view of Lazarus and the rich man were after the Final Judgement, why would the Rich Man want Lazarus to go tell his five brothers so they could correct their ways? It would be too late for them as well.
3. Jesus announced that "...they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead (Luke 16:31). He was referring to his own resurrection, that had not occured yet.
I did not think the assertion deserved a response. But since you insist, of course the description of Jesus' birth in Rev 12:1-4 is figurative.
The general hermeneutical principle outlined by Dr. David L. Cooper, the founder of The Biblical Research Society is this:
When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense;
Therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning
Unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light
Of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths indicate clearly otherwise.
Thus, most would say the "great sign in heaven" of Rev 12:1 was allegorical or figurative, whilst the "great white throne" judgement of Rev 20:11 was literal.
Your idea of multiple judgments & multiple destinies/multiple places of ‘flame’ & ‘torment’ is inconsistent with Scripture. From Hebrews 9:27:
“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”
& btw, the real people depicted in judgment, in Matt. 25, don’t act like it is a superfluous non-event. They act like it is the first/only judgment they have faced. The righteous are surprised to be informed that every time they ministered to the poor and/or lonely, hurting, etc., they ministered to Jesus Himself. Likewise the damned are surprised to be judged for not ministering to Jesus when they neglected the poor, the imprisoned, etc. This is not a pointless repetition for either group; it is THE Judgnent.
Which it certainly wouldn’t be if they had been judged prior. I.e.: if some had previously been judged worthy to occupy a place of comfort, & to enjoy Abraham’s embrace, & were marched in from that place to stand judgment (again), while others had been judged worthy to occupy a place of flame & torment, & had been routed from there only to face a second damning judgment, there would be no surprises. Every person present would already have been judged once, & the second time would be redundant.
Of course most importantly the Bible gives no indication of multiple judgments or multiple destinies. According to Scripture, we each live once, die once, and then face judgment. Following judgment some enjoy eternal life with God and some receive eternal punishment. The idea that the damned are judged & punished one way prior to The Judgment, and then re-judged & punished a second way following The Day of Judgment, is non-Biblical.
‘I did not think the assertion deserved a response.’
Why do you feel the need to insult my question? It was a perfectly legitimate question. I have not so far insulted you, & I don’t intend to start. Nor do I see what you gain from it. There’s nothing lost in treating each other with mutual respect.
‘The general hermeneutical principle outlined by Dr. David L. Cooper, the founder of The Biblical Research Society is this:
When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense;
Therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning
Unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light
Of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths indicate clearly otherwise.’
Is Cooper speaking specifically of Apocryphal Scripture? Or is that a more general principle?
You missed the point entirely!
1. In Matthew 25:14-29, the servants are judged on how they invested the money entrusted to them. This does not refer to the final judgement, for it is based on whether a person believed on Jesus (John 3:16-18, Romans 10:9-10) and whether their names were written in the book of life (Rev 20:15, Dan 12:1, Luke 10:20).
2. In Matthew 25:31-46, the nations/people will be divided as sheep and goats {figurative BTW :) }, right and left, righteous and accursed, based on how they treated the brothers of Christ. The righteous receive eternal life, the cursed are thrown into ... the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Matthew 25:46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
One has to determine what "eternal punishment" means: either it means "continuous unending torture" or "final irreversible annihilation".
I choose the latter for several reasons:
1. because other words describing the same event are perish (John 3:16) destroy (Matt 10:28) destruction (2 Thess 1:9, et al) second death (Rev 20:14). All of these indicate cessation of life, consciousness, existence.
2.Many passages used by those that assert "continuous unending torture" are taken out of context, eg your reference to Matthew 25:14-29, and Lazarus in Luke 16:20
3. The idea of "continuous unending torture" requires the condemned to be kept alive, conscious, and in an ever renewing immortal body that is constantly being consumed by worms and fire, but never is consumed. There is no support for this in scripture whatsoever. It is a construct built to resolve the prior interpretation and subsequent dogma.
4. Eternal life means never dying. But for keepers of the "continuous unending torture", eternal death means the same thing. They reinterpret death as separation from God, not the cessation of life.
All scripture.
No, Catholics are not Calvinists. Why would you say that?
Yes, as a summary of the events, that is literally what happened. But, in order to be literate/literal, one must use the information given in the manner given in scripture. For example, we’re told that the serpent and the dragon are the same. The woman, however, is not Mary. The woman is clothed with the sun, and the moon at her feet, and with a crown of 12 stars. The woman is persecuted, she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time (3.5 years from other passages), and a flood is sent to destroy her.
This is not Mary. What other could be said to have given birth to Jesus?
‘You missed the point entirely!
1. In Matthew 25:14-29, the servants are judged on how they invested the money entrusted to them. This does not refer to the final judgement, for it is based on whether a person believed on Jesus (John 3:16-18, Romans 10:9-10) and whether their names were written in the book of life (Rev 20:15, Dan 12:1, Luke 10:20).’
So this is yet another judgment? How many judgments are you up to, now? How do you square all these different judgments with the fact that the Bible says there will be only one judgment? [See the Hebrew verse I quoted.]
“Eternal punishment” means “eternal punishment”. Since you can’t punish a non-entity, the annihilation theory doesn’t make sense. We don’t consider the death penalty to be ‘eternal punishment’. It would be ludicrous to characterize it that way. The idea that ‘eternal punishment’ = ‘death’ in the physical sense is inconsistent. How would you ‘eternally punish’ someone who is no longer in existence?
I just wondered. If you believe in free will, then we have that in common. Glad to hear it.
Apocryphal Scripture is not like regular Scripture. It is a specific style characterized by highly figurative language. Revelation is Apocryphal. We can see from the parts that have already been fulfilled just how figurative it is. As I said before, there would be no consistency in suggesting that the unfulfilled parts will be more literal in their fulfillment than the fulfilled parts. The entire book is Apocryphal. Meaning, every word is true, but not every image is literal.
I did not intend to suggest their are multiple judgments per se. But a person is not judged immediately at death, they go to Hades, sheol, the grave. Whether they are conscious or not, whether they go to heaven or not, is a different debate.
We both agree their is a final, single, solitary judgement for the disposition of men's souls (Rev 20:11-14, Hebrews 9:27), yes?
We do indeed both agree that there is a Day of Judgment. What we seem to differ on is whether this Day is THE Day of Judgment, or whether it is a pro forma event. I.e.: if people have previously been judged, and some sent to a place of ‘flame’ & ‘torment’ while others enjoyed comfort in Abrahams’s presence, then ‘The Day of Judgment’ would not be (1) the only judgment, or (2) particularly important. The division of people into saved & lost would already have occurred, as witnessed by the flame & torment already suffered by the damned & the comfort enjoyed by the saved. The Day of Judgment would hence be only a rubber stamp of the judgment already passed before people were sent either to flame & torment or to comfort.
Or so it seems to me, & I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m just trying to understand how one could suggest that people are judged twice while still holding to the idea of a single Day of Judgment.
Form an earthly perspective, it is! Were it nor for belief in the afterlife, it would be permanent/eternal as well.
I will agree to disagree with you on Annihilation. I am convinced annihilation is scriptural, as I outlined above, and in keeping with the attributes of a merciful, just God.
I also am repulsed by the idea that those who never heard of Moses, the Bible, or salvation through Jesus will be tormented eternally for their lack of faith.
‘I will agree to disagree with you on Annihilation.’
Sounds good! Blessings to you & yours, & thank you for a very interesting & thought provoking discussion.
‘I also am repulsed by the idea that those who never heard of Moses, the Bible, or salvation through Jesus will be tormented eternally for their lack of faith.’
I’m going to post this one more time. It’s that important. God is both just & merciful. He knows infinitely more about what ‘eternal punishment’ entails than we do. We can only go by what He has indicated, & certainly degrees of punishment is Biblical. Here is the text, citation above:
“47 And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, 48 but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”
You do realize that I was quoting from the Bible, don’t you?
Yes.
It is a gift to be chosen to partake of the divine revelation that God wishes to share with those He wants. Who are those who listen to the word of God and receive a special enlightenment while others don’t understand anything? It is a matter of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is likened to the wind – no one knows where it comes from and no one knows where it is going. The Son of God chooses to whom he wants to reveal his face. Many think that those who are chosen are those who deserve, or those who want, and probably it is simply the choice of the Son. Many are called, but few are chosen. And those chosen are not those who are worthy or special, but just the little ones that the Lord wants. “Little ones” means that those who have little securities and little defenses. They are the poor and humble ones who are available and who allow some space in their hearts for the coming of the Messiah. Those who are proud and haughty and those who cling to their gods and possessions will have no space for the Good News. As proclaimed in Isaiah, they have ears but cannot hear, eyes but cannot see. When our senses are obstructed by our attachments to the world, they cannot fathom the Holy Spirit.
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