In my Baptist seminary I had a class that required me to do devotions in John Calvin’s, Institutes of the Christian Religion.  What shocked me was how much Calvin’s theological arguments were inundated with Bible references from the totality of the scriptures (not just parts).  When Calvin spoke of baptism, he spoke from the totality of the Bible, not merely a few references in Acts.  It was in that moment that I saw the stark contrast from my reformed-ish circle.  We talked a lot about the Bible and had a lot of assumptions that we brought to the Bible; but Calvin taught much from the Bible and drew his assumptions about the Bible from the Bible itself.  Continue reading →