A recent correspondent pointed me to a bulletin insert offered by the PCA Christian Education and Publications Committee. The theme of the insert is the “Reformation, Calvin, and Government.” There are two questions here. The first is historical, the second is pastoral . . . Continue reading →
As for public prayers, there are two kinds: the one consists simply of speech, the other of song…And indeed, we know from experience that singing has great strength and power to move and to set on fire the hearts of men in . . . Continue reading →
Therefore, to perceive more clearly how far the mind can proceed in any matter according to the degree of its ability, we must here set forth a distinction. This, then, is the distinction: that there is one kind of understanding of earthly . . . Continue reading →
Kevin DeYoung has a helpful post clarifying what Calvin actually says about the knowledge of God and ourselves. Calvin wasn’t indifferent. He doesn’t say that we can begin either with ourselves or with God.
One of the problems with the notion that Reformed theology is utterly divorced from the rest of Protestantism (i.e., Lutheranism) and the concomitant ignorance of the broader Protestant history and tradition is that we Reformed folk often end up losing our theology. . . . Continue reading →
Materials from the various Calvin conferences held in 2009 (the Calvinpalooza) continue to see the light of day. Most recent is Calvin for the 21st Century, a compilation of addresses given at a conference in Grand Rapids. Of particular interest is Ligon . . . Continue reading →
Wes describes the discovery of a very interesting Genevan practice that we might well adopt.
Thanks to Jeff Downs and the folks at GPTS for posting these: The Psalms and Contemporary Worship Calvin and the Worship of God
The latest volume in the Calvin500 series is the publication of the conference papers delivered last summer in Geneva as part of the year-long celebration (Calvinpalooza) of John Calvin’s 500th birthday. This is a wide-ranging collection of essays by a diverse, international . . . Continue reading →
Re-posted from c. 2007 Dateline Paris, 1534. © Paris News Service By Guy LaFontaine Jean Calvin, 25, of Noyon, a leading scholar of the classics and law student in the University of Paris, has reportedly converted to the evangelical cause. A classicist . . . Continue reading →
For a fellow who has been dead since 1564 and for a movement that, socially considered, is little more than a demographic blip (about 500,000 people in North America) Calvin and Calvinism continue to receive a remarkable amount of attention in the . . . Continue reading →
Five years ago it was a leading premillennialist saying that were Calvin alive today he would, in effect, be John MacArthur. Now, the Secretary-General of the World Council of Reformed Churches, lecturing at Princeton Seminary (HT: Sovereign Grace News), claims that were Calvin . . . Continue reading →
Matt Tuininga, a friend and former student, has an interesting post at Christian in America in which he tells about the conflict between the consistory and some of the people in Geneva over the question of how the people should name their children. . . . Continue reading →
Recently a correspondent wrote to ask about the following: “An interesting story: in 1527, the year he was 18, Calvin was arrested, tried, and convicted of homosexual activity. Instead of being executed (per French law at the time), he was branded with . . . Continue reading →
We, too, when treating of the righteousness of faith, do not contend against the substance of works, but against that quality with which the sophists invest them,1 inasmuch as they contend that men are justified by them. Paul, therefore, divested himself—not of . . . Continue reading →
He says, that believers have no righteousness of their own. Now, it cannot be denied, that if there were any righteousness of works, it might with propriety be said to be ours. Hence he leaves no room whatever for the righteousness of . . . Continue reading →
Wikipedia, that ubiquitous source of unimpeachable scholarship, defines “consolation” as “something of value, when one fails to get something of higher value….” That is precisely the opposite of what John Calvin (1509–64) meant by “consolation.”For Calvin, the consolation that Christ gives to . . . Continue reading →
Part 1: Introduction to Calvin’s Life and His Own Need for Comfort I. Calvin’s Exegesis of Consolation (in Paul) In the first part we saw that Calvin was a pilgrim who himself needed the consolation of the gospel, given by the Spirit, . . . Continue reading →
II. His Theology of Consolation (1559 Institutes) In the previous installment we looked at the way Calvin read Paul’s epistles and how he drew from them a doctrine of consolation, of God’s presence with his people in Christ, by the Spirit, in . . . Continue reading →
Part 3: His Theology of Consolation in The Institutes. III. Consolation and Pastoral Ministry For Calvin, christian consolation is not only a theological reality but it is also the result of good pastoral practice. Christians often fail to appropriate the consolation they . . . Continue reading →