But the chief thing is, that Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, has so irradiated your mind with the light of his Gospel, that you understand that the true way of governing the Church is no other than what is to be derived . . . Continue reading →
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Calvin: Do Christians And Muslims Worship The Same God?
What A Difference Christ The Mediator Makes
For this reason I subscribe to the common saying that God is the object of faith, yet it requires qualification. Continue reading →
Calvin: Adam Was In A Trial Of Obedience
We must, therefore, look deeper than sensual intemperance. The prohibition to touch the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil was a trial of obedience (obedientiae examen), that Adam, by observing it, might prove his willing submission to the command of God. . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On The Substance Of The Covenant Of Works
Because what God so severely punished must have been no light sin but a detestable crime, we must consider what kind of sin there was in Adam’s desertion that enkindled God’s fearful vengeance against the whole of mankind. To regard Adam’s sin . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On Acts 20:28
…to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. But because the speech which Paul uses seems to be somewhat hard, we must see in what sense he says that God purchased the Church with his blood. For . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On Acts 2:39: Against The [Ana] Baptists
And we must note these three degrees, that the promise was first made to the Jews, and then to their children, and last of all, that it is also to be imparted to the Gentiles. We know the reason why the Jews . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Jesus Preached The Law To Teach Us Our Need For A Savior
Now it is certain that in the Law there is prescribed to men a rule by which they ought to regulate their life, so as to obtain salvation in the sight of God. That the Law can do nothing else than condemn, . . . Continue reading →
Calvin Contra Theonomy (1536)
For there are some who deny that a commonwealth is daily framed which, neglecting the political system of Moses, is ruled by the common laws of nations. Let other men consider our perilous and seditious this notion is.; it will be enough . . . Continue reading →
Calvin Contra Sadoleto On the Regulative Principle Of Worship
I have also no difficulty in conceding to you that there is nothing more perilous to our salvation than a distorted and perverse worship of God. The primary rudiments by which we are wont to train to piety those whom we wish . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On The “Rule of Worship” And The “Inventions Of Men”
On the second point, when God is worshipped by inventions of men, he condemns this “fear” as superstitious, though men endeavour to cloak it under a plausible pretence of religion, or devotion, or reverence. He assigns the reason, that it “hath been . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On The Rule Of Worship: The Samaritans Were Wrong
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. The Samaritans at that time did, as we learn from the words of the woman, what is customary with those who have revolted from true godliness, to seek to shield themselves by the examples of the . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On Acts 2:42: God Controls Worship Sola Scriptura
Hereby we may easily gather how frivolous the boasting of the Papists is, whilst that they carelessly thunder out with full mouth the name of the Church; whereas, notwithstanding, they have most filthily corrupted the doctrine of the apostles. For if it . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On Acts 18: Leaving The Worship Of God To Human Choice Is Absurd
Now, when the true God is known, and the certain and sure rule of worshipping him is understood, there is nothing more equal than that which God commandeth in his law, to wit, that those who bear rule with power (having abolished . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Short Treatise On The Lord’s Supper (1541)
The following is Calvin’s Short Treatise on the Lord’s Supper (Petit traicté de la saincte cène; 1541). As general background to theology, piety, and practice of the Lord’s Supper and to Calvin’s doctrine of the Supper, we should put this treatise in . . . Continue reading →
Calvin’s Letter To Five Missionaries About To Be Martyred For The Gospel
MY VERY DEAR BRETHREN,1—Hitherto I have put off writing to you, fearing that if the letter fell into bad hands, it might give fresh occasion to the enemy to afflict you. And besides, I had been informed how that God wrought so . . . Continue reading →
Barth V. The Barthians On The Central Dogma Reading Of Calvin
Unlike many older Calvin scholars, then, I would not try to understand Calvin terms of a single thesis in the Institutes such as the glory of God, predestination, providence, or meditating on the future life, then using this as a master principle . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Leviticus 18:5 Is Law Not Gospel
But let us leave the philosophers aside. The law itself, which contains the most perfect rule of life, could not, as we said, confer righteousness. Not that there was anything lacking in the law; Moses declared that he set before the people . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On Leviticus 18:5: A General Statement Of The Law That Offers Reward To Those Who Obey Perfectly
LEV. 18:5. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes. Although Moses introduces this passage, where he exhorts the Israelites to cultivate chastity in respect to marriage, and not to fall into the incestuous pollutions of the Gentiles, yet, as it is a remarkable . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Pure And Real Religion Follows The Rule Of Worship
Here indeed is pure and real religion: faith so joined with an earnest fear of God that this fear also embraces willing reverence, and carries with it such legitimate worship as is prescribed in the law. And we ought to note this . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: God Gives Us Ministers So As Not To Swallow Us By His Majesty
We have seen heretofore, that Eliu intending to rebuke Job, protested that he himself was a mortal man as Job was, to the end he should not complain that he was handled with too high a power. And so he showed that . . . Continue reading →