PUBLICATIONS

THE BURNING BUSH
 

Volume 13 Number 2, July 2007

Who was Calvin and what is Calvinism? John Calvin was a great teacher and defender of the Christian Faith in the 16^th Century Protestant Reformation, and the pioneer of Reformed and Covenant Theology. Calvinism, in the words of the Rev Dr Timothy Tow, "is Paulinism systematised." Calvin’s magnum opus—Institutes of the Christian Religion—is a systematic exposition of Pauline theology.

My purpose was solely to transmit certain rudiments by which those who are touched with any zeal for religion might be shaped to true godliness … very many of whom I knew to be hungering and thirsting for Christ: but I saw very few who had been duly imbued with even a slight knowledge of him. The book itself witnesses that this was my intention, adapted as it is to a simple and, you may say, elementary form of teaching.¹

But I perceived that the fury of certain wicked persons has prevailed so far in your realm that there is no place in it for sound doctrine. Consequently, it seemed to me that I should be doing something worthwhile if I both gave instruction to them and made confession before you with the same work. From this, you may learn the nature of the doctrine against which those madmen burn with rage who today disturb your realm with fire and sword. And indeed I shall not fear to confess that here is contained almost the sum of that very doctrine which they shout must be punished by prison, exile, proscription, and fire, and be exterminated on land and sea.²

Indeed, I know with what horrible reports they have filled your ears and mind, to render our cause as hateful as possible to you. … [this doctrine] has in part been violently rejected by the partisanship and power of its opponents, and in part insidiously and fraudulently oppressed by their falsehoods, subtleties, and slanders. It is sheer violence that bloody sentences are meted out against this doctrine without a hearing; it is fraud that it is undeservedly charged with treason and villainy. … for dreadful reports are being spread abroad among the people. … Who can now wonder that public hatred is aroused against it, when these most wicked accusations are believed? This is why all classes with one accord conspire to condemn us and our doctrine.³

The false charges of the antagonists against the Reformed doctrine were these: It is (1) a new doctrine, (2) unknown and uncertain, (3) unsupported by miracles, (4) not taught by the Church Fathers, (5) not the custom of the majority, and (6) schismatic.⁴

Calvin argued that by calling the Reformed doctrine "new," his opponents "do great wrong to God, whose Sacred Word does not deserve to be accused of novelty."⁵ Calvin preached the same Jesus Christ whom the Apostle Paul preached, that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification according to the Scriptures (Rom 4:25, 1 Cor 15:3-4). Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone. Calvin went on to argue that it was "new" to the detractors because they were blind to the truth and that the fault rested solely on their impiety.⁶ The light has always been shining and is not new, but the people were just too blind to see it.

Calvin’s detractors charged him for teaching something that was "doubtful and uncertain" (ie, a theory and not dogma). Calvin replied that they were ignorant, and repeated the complaint of the Lord through His prophet Isaiah, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider" (Isa 1:3). Why did those who professed Christ not hear His voice, nor believe in His words? Did not Jesus say this of those who rejected His Truth, "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:26-27). Calvin testified that believers of the Reformed Faith were very sure of whom and what they had believed, and were not at all afraid to suffer and die for their Faith.⁷

Calvin denounced as dishonest those who demanded miracles in support of the Reformed Faith. Calvin explained, "For we are not forging some new gospel, but are retaining that very gospel whose truth all the miracles that Jesus Christ and his disciples ever wrought serve to confirm."⁸ The ministry and message of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles have been authenticated by numerous miracles as recorded in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, but they would not believe (Mark 16:20, Acts 2:22, Heb 2:4, Rom 15:18-19).

Now, these fathers have written many wise and excellent things. Still, what commonly happens to men has befallen them too, in some instances. For these so-called pious children of theirs, with all their sharpness of wit and judgment and spirit, worship only the faults and errors of the fathers. The good things that these fathers have written they either do not notice, or misrepresent or pervert. You might say that their only care is to gather dung amid gold.⁹

Calvin said that those who quote human authorities "will have nothing certain in religion, inasmuch as these holy men were ignorant of many things, often disagreed among themselves, and sometimes even contradicted themselves."¹⁰

Even though the whole world may conspire in the same wickedness, He has taught us by experience what is the end of those who sin with the multitude. This He did when He destroyed all mankind by the Flood, but kept Noah with his little family; and Noah by his faith, the faith of one man, condemned the whole world (Gen. 7:1; Heb. 11:7).¹¹

Calvin’s enemies charged the Reformed doctrine for creating schisms and divisions in the church. These charges were unjust. Calvin said, "The blame for these evils is unjustly laid upon it, when this ought to have been imputed to Satan’s malice."¹² Calvin observed that Satan becomes most destructive when God’s kingdom of light is gaining ground against his kingdom of darkness. His usual strategy to halt the advance of God’s kingdom is to raise up evil and wicked men to oppress the saints and suppress the truth. Calvin wrote,

With violent hands of men he tries to uproot that true seed, and seeks (as much as lies in his power) to choke it with his weeds, to prevent it from growing and bearing fruit. But all that is in vain, if we heed the Lord our monitor, who long since laid open Satan’s wiles before us, that he might not catch us unawares; and armed us with defenses firm enough against all his devices. Furthermore, how great is that malice that would ascribe to the very word of God itself the odium either of seditions, which wicked and rebellious men stir up against it, or of sects, which imposters excite, both of them in opposition to its teachings! Yet this is no new example. Elijah was asked if it was not he who was troubling Israel (1 Kings 18:17). To the Jews, Christ was seditious (Luke 23:5; John 19:7 ff.). The charge of stirring up the people was laid against the apostles (Acts 24:5 ff.). What else are they doing who blame us today for all the disturbances, tumults, and contentions that boil up against us? Elijah taught us what we ought to reply to such charges: it is not we who either spread errors abroad or incite tumults; but it is they who contend against God’s power (1 Kings 18:18).¹³

The wicked poison of our calumniators has, O King, in its many details, been sufficiently disclosed that you may not incline an ear credulous beyond measure to their slanders. … Your mind is now indeed turned away and estranged from us, even inflamed, I may add, against us; but we trust that we can regain your favor, if in a quiet, composed mood you will once read this our confession, which we intend in lieu of a defense before Your Majesty. Suppose, however, the whisperings of the malevolent so fill your ears that the accused have no chance to speak for themselves, but those savage furies, while you connive at them, ever rage against us with imprisonings, scourgings, rackings, maimings, and burnings (cf. Heb. 11:36-37). Then we will be reduced to the last extremity even as sheep destined for the slaughter (Isa. 53:7-8; Acts 8:33). Yet this will so happen that "in our patience we may possess our souls" (Luke 21:19); and may await the strong hand of the Lord, which will surely appear in due season, coming forth armed to deliver the poor from their affliction and also to punish their despisers, who now exult with such great assurance.¹⁴

In the 21^st century, believers and defenders of the truth of the immutable and impeccable Christ (Heb 13:8), and His verbally and plenarily preserved words (Ps 12:6-7, Matt 5:18) continue to face the same wicked strategies of Satan to attack and destroy the Faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints (Jude 3). Calvin has set for us a good example of what it means to earnestly contend for the Faith. He was no man-pleaser, no fence-sitter, no coward, not lukewarm, not a compromiser, but valiant in the battle for truth, and faithful to His Lord till the very end. Calvin offered to the Lord a heart on fire for Him and His service, "prompte et sincere in opere domini," "promptly and sincerely in the work of the Lord." Dr Timothy Tow testifies, "Through Calvin’s inspirational teaching … this writer has found a new, radiant confidence for living in perilous end-times like these. For, Calvin has taught, as no other theologian, that ‘salvation is of the Lord’ (Jonah 2:9)."¹⁵

¹ John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols, ed John T McNeill, and trans Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 1:9.

² Ibid.

³ Ibid, 1:10-11.

⁴ Ibid, 1:14-15. "Despite this, they do not cease to assail our doctrine and to reproach and defame it with names that render it hated or suspect. They call it ‘new’ and ‘of recent birth.’ They reproach it as ‘doubtful and uncertain.’ They ask what miracles have confirmed it. They inquire whether it is right for it to prevail against the agreement of so many holy fathers and against most ancient custom. They urge us to acknowledge that it is schismatic because it wages war against the church, or that the church was lifeless during the many centuries in which no such thing was heard. Finally, they say that there is no need of many arguments, for one can judge by its fruits what it is, seeing that it has engendered such a heap of sects, so many seditious tumults, such great licentiousness. Indeed, it is very easy for them to revile a forsaken cause before the credulous and ignorant multitude. But if we too might speak in our turn, this bitterness which they licentiously and with impunity spew at us from swollen cheeks would subside."

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Ibid, 1:16.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Ibid.

⁹ Ibid, 1:18.

¹⁰ Ibid, 1:19.

¹¹ Ibid, 1:23.

¹² Ibid, 1:27.

¹³ Ibid, 1:28-29.

¹⁴ Ibid, 1:30-31.

¹⁵ Timothy Tow, ed, An Abridgment of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (Singapore: Far Eastern Bible College Press, 1997), vi.

© Far Eastern Bible College. All rights reserved.