There is no other book in which there is to be found more express and magnificent commendations, both of the unparalleled liberality of God towards His church and of all His works. There is no other book in which there is recorded so many deliverances nor one in which the evidences and experiences of the fatherly providence and solicitude which God exercises towards us are celebrated with such splendor of diction, and yet with the strictest adherence to truth. In short, there is no other book in which we are more perfectly taught the right manner of praising God or in which we are more powerfully stirred up to the performance of this religious exercise. Moreover, although the psalms are replete with all the precepts which serve to frame our lives to every part of holiness, piety, and righteousness, yet they will principally teach and train us to bear the cross. – John Calvin (1509-1564), from his “Preface” to his commentary on the Book of Psalms (1557).
Category Archives: John Calvin
God’s Flock
By the word “flock,” Isaiah describes the elect people whom God has undertaken to govern. We are, thus, reminded that God will be a shepherd to none but those who, in modesty and gentleness, will be like sheep and lambs. We ought to observe the character of this flock, for God does not choose to feed savage beasts, but lambs. We must, therefore, lay aside our fierceness and permit ourselves to be tamed if we wish to be gathered into the fold of which God promises that He will be guardian. – John Calvin (1509-1564). Comment on Isaiah 40.11.
A Calvinist Loves Wesley
You know, brethren, that there is no soul living who holds more firmly to the doctrines of grace than I do and, if any man asks me whether I am ashamed to be called a Calvinist, I answer: I wish to be called nothing but a Christian. But, if you ask me, do I hold the doctrinal views which were held by John Calvin, I reply: I do, in the main, hold them and rejoice to admit it. But, my dear friends, far be it from me even to imagine that Zion contains none within her walls but Calvinistic Christians or that there are none saved who do not hold our views. Most atrocious things have been spoken about the character and spiritual condition of John Wesley, the modern prince of Arminians. I can only say concerning him that, while I detest many of the doctrines which he preached, yet, for the man himself, I have a reverence second to no Wesleyan. And, if there were wanted two apostles to be added to the number of the twelve, I do not believe that there could be found two men more fit to be so added than George Whitfield and John Wesley. The character of John Wesley stands beyond all imputation for self-sacrifice, zeal, holiness, and communion with God. He lived far above the ordinary level of common Christians and was one of whom the world was not worthy. I believe there are multitudes of men who cannot see these truths who, nevertheless, have received Christ into their hearts and are as dear to the heart of the God of grace as the soundest Calvinist out of heaven. I thank God we do not believe in the measuring line of any form of bigotry. – Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), from “The Man with the Measuring Line,” a sermon on Zechariah 2.1-2, preached on December 11, 1864.
Called by His Name
The faithful, though they are not entirely perfect, and though they have many sins, are considered to be God’s children. Jesus Christ considers it no dishonor that they are called by His name, for He causes the goodness that is in them and, through His grace, makes them acceptable to God. – John Calvin (1509-1564), from a sermon on 2 Timothy 2.19.
On Calvin
In his personal account of his early career, Calvin speaks of his desire, as his student days ended, for a cloistered life. He tried, at first, to confine himself to library work, but his task as a teacher was thrust upon him by those who came around “thirsting for knowledge.” He, finally, found himself importuned by Farel to work in Geneva. A theologian, he believed, must leave “purposeless…speculative study” in order to “labor in the Word and doctrine.” Labor he, himself, certainly did. In a letter written to Farel during his Strasbourg ministry, Calvin described how a messenger arrived to receive some material for the printer when he was not quite ready for him: “I had about twenty leaves to look through. I had, then, to lecture and preach, to write four letters, make peace between some persons who had quarrelled with each other, and answer more than ten people who came to me for advice.” Fortunately, he was able to add, it was the worst day of the whole year! He wrote to Farel the same day and asked to be forgiven for his brevity.
He had many more such days, later on, in Geneva…
From: Calvin, Geneva, and the Reformation: A Study of Calvin as Social Reformer, Churchman, Pastor, and Theologian by Ronald S. Wallace (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, Publishers, 1998), pp. 230-231.
John Calvin on Sin
There is not the slightest doubt in Calvin’s mind, therefore, about the fact that reason “cannot judge anything of God” nor can the “wise men of the world frame themselves to the Gospel.” From the start, the perverted mind, by its very action, inverts the truth and cannot take any step whatever in the right direction. The more man contrives methods of approaching God, the more he alienates himself. “All the soundness of judgment which is given to men is corrupted and perverted so that not even one spark of light continues to dwell in them.” All action on the part of the perverted reason is the action of self-will, but no self-willed movement can reach God, for it always meets with the divine judgment and is, accordingly, inflicted with blindness. It meets that aspect of the divine majesty whereby God repels men and separates them from Himself, hardening them in their sin and defection and error. It is impossible to reach God except by His will and in the way in which He reveals Himself. He has circumscribed men’s minds by His grace so that they not only owe their origin to grace and depend on grace from moment to moment, but cannot have any true motion except in accordance with grace and within these “barriers.” To transgress these gracious bounds is presumption and sin, and can only end in destruction. Thus, our first parents died when they “erred in not regulating the measure of their knowledge by the will of God.” Being “incredulous at His Word…they began, like fascinated persons, to lose reason and judgment” until their “mind was smitten with blindness and infected with innumerable errors.” Because of this perverse procedure, “all the studies in which men think they attain the highest wisdom” must be pronounced “vain and frivolous.”
From: Calvin’s Doctrine of Man by T. F. Torrance; reprint (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1957), pp. 124-125. Originally published in 1949.
T. F. Torrance (1913-2007) was a Scottish theologian, author, educator, and churchman. He was Professor of Christian Dogmatics at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 1952 to 1979. His best book is The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons, published in 1996.
The Death of Servetus
To Servetus, the sentence seems to have been wholly unexpected, and its first effect was crushing. His courage came again, however, and he never appeared to better advantage than in his last hours. He sent for Calvin and begged pardon for any wrong he might have done the Genevan reformer. He asked an easier death, not because he retracted any of his opinions but lest, in the agony of fire, he deny the truths which he championed. He went, in simple dignity, to the place of execution on the hill of Champel, lectured and urged to repent by Farel, who had come to Geneva for the final scene. At the sight of the flaming torch, Servetus could not repress a cry of horror, but his courage was adequate to his extremity. The unskillfulness of the executioner – not any intention, as has been sometimes charged – prolonged his agony. But the last utterance that escaped his blistering lips, as the flames tortured his body, was a prayer expressive, at once, of his Christian hope and of the peculiar interpretation of the mysterious doctrine of the Trinity which he had championed, and for which he died: “Jesus, thou Son of the eternal God, have pity on me!”
From: Calvin: Revolutionary, Theologian, Pastor by Williston Walker; reprint (Fearn: Christian Focus, 2005), p. 265. Originally published under the title John Calvin: The Organizer of Reformed Protestantism, 1509-1564 (1906).
Williston Walker (1860-1922) was Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The World as God’s Stage
And what is the world but an open stage on which God will have His majesty seen? – John Calvin (1509-1564)
Controlling Anger
We offend God in three ways when we are angry. The first is allowing our anger to arise from slight causes, often from no cause whatever or, at least, from private injuries or offenses. The second is carrying anger beyond proper bounds and rushing into intemperate excesses. The third is directing anger, which should have been directed against ourselves or against our sins, against others.
…We comply with this injunction if our anger is not directed at others but at ourselves, and if we pour out indignation against our own faults. With respect to others, we ought to be angry, not at their persons, but at their faults. Nor should we be moved to anger by offenses against ourselves, but out of zeal for the glory of the Lord. Lastly, our anger ought to subside after a reasonable time without mixing itself with the violence of carnal passions. – John Calvin (1509-1564), comment on Ephesians 4.26.
From: 365 Days with Calvin, edited by Joel R. Beeke (Leominster: Day One Publications/Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008). Entry for September 3.
On Studying John Calvin
The theological and exegetical “conversation” in which Calvin was involved is far more specified than the issue of “context.” It is, at times, exceedingly clear – from Calvin’s prefaces and from references in the text of his letters, as well as his printed works – that his theology was constructed in dialogue with certain thinkers and certain books. Calvin sought advice and counsel from Farel, Viret, and Bucer. He engaged in extended discussions with Bullinger and Melanchthon. He framed his exegetical method with specific reference to the alternative approaches of Bucer, Melanchthon, Bullinger, and others. As I hope to show, there is also a mass of evidence that Calvin engaged in an ongoing methodological dialogue with Melanchthon’s theology, quite distinct from their major disagreement on the issue of human free choice and election. This conversation included, moreover, not only living authors: Calvin’s exegetical and rhetorical work engaged the medieval tradition and classical rhetorical texts like Cicero and Quintillian, whose writings he had ready to hand. The point of identifying this relationship to other authors as a “conversation” is to emphasize that Calvin did not merely cite, use, and agree or disagree with these thinkers but, rather, developed his thought in an ongoing exercise of learning from and, in some cases, with them.
From: The Unaccommodated Calvin: Studies in the Foundation of a Theological Tradition by Richard A. Muller; Oxford Studies in Historical Theology series (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 13-14.
Richard A. Muller (born in 1948) is the premier Reformed historical theologian working in the United States today. His magnum opus is: Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 to ca. 1725; 4 volumes (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003).
