Calvin and Calvinism

He took over Calvin’s place after his death, and controlled the Reformed church with much skill and dexterity. He died aged 86, and uttered this memorable farewell at his death:

Cover, Lord, what has been; govern what shall be. Oh, perfect that which Thou hast begun, that I suffer not shipwreck in the haven.

Truly an end of life statement that has Calvinism written all over it.

I’m sorry I have not blogged at this site for longer than I care for; there have been various things that have prevented me, not least of all my daily struggles in my illnesses and afflictions; I try to keep up at the other sites, a puritan at heart, and 2. Covenanted Reformation, particularly the former, when the sites are all merged into one, I think it will be an aid to being more organized with blogging.

But since I have had little to say, and didn’t want to go another day without having something for the reader, thought I would make three book recommendations, which are not puritan, but are definitely reformed.
There is much it seems to me, ignorance amongst the reformed community, (some of it at least) about what Calvin taught and thought exactly about the insitute of marriage and family. Calvin was very much a man of his times, and to read him in one place it seems like he contradicts himself in others; however, Calvin was no chauvinist, the woman was made equal and the heart of the home in Calvin’s Geneva. Same as the divorce laws we currently have,, originated from Calvin’s Geneva. Before that time, women were not seen as equal to the men in the home, they were treated often as slaves or children, or definitely as inferiors, and Calvin and his time in Geneva changed this, and we are still reaping the benefits of this today.
Yes, Calvin does seem to contradict himself on some subjects, but he wrote and lived so long ago, that we only have the translated works of Calvin, (for English speaking folk) and language and use of it, has changed since his time, and some of what is translated is likely very far from what Calvin originally intended, hence we are left with what often appears contradictions.
But two books on this subject I would reccommend are:

Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin’s Geneva.

Family Reformation: The Legacy of Sola Scriptura in Calvin’s Geneva by Scott T. Brown

And

The third book, if you are an iconoclast though written by a papist it is a very good book to read on this subject by Carlos Eires called
The War against Idols. Which starts pre reformation and goes up to Calvin’s time, and how idols in the Worship of God were seen by the Church.

It is about time, we as Presbyterians took our foot out of Rome, which it is sad to say, much of Presbyterianism is still steeped by Romish superstition.

On  a sermon preached on December 25, 1551, his 20th sermon on Micah,  on  Micah: 5:7-14 Calvin preached:

Now, I see here today more people than I am accustomed to having at
the sermon. Why is that? It is Christmas Day. And who told you
this? You poor beasts. That is a fitting euphemism for all of you
who have come here today to honor Noel. Did you think you would be
honoring God? Consider what sort of obedience to God your coming
displays. In your mind, you are celebrating a holiday for God, or
turning today into one. But so much for that. In truth, as you have
often been admonished, it is good to set aside one day out of the year
in which we are reminded of all the good that has occurred because of
Christ’s birth in the world, and in which we hear the story of his
birth retold, which will be done on Sunday. But if you think that
Jesus Christ was born today, you are as crazed as wild beasts. For
when you elevate one day alone for the purpose of worshipping God, you
have just turned it into an idol. True, you insist that you have done
so for the honor of God, but it is more for the honor of the Devil.

Let us consider what our Lord has to say on the matter. Was it not
Saul’s intention to worship God when he spared Agag, the king of the
Amalakites, along with the best spoils and cattle? He says as much:
“I want to worship God.” Saul’s tongue was full of devotion and good
intention. But what was the response he received? “You soothsayer!
You heretic! You apostate! You claim to be honoring God, but God
rejects and disowns all that you have done” [1 Samuel 15:8,9].
Consequently, the same is true of our actions. For no day is superior
to another. It matters not whether we recall our Lord’s nativity on a
Wednesday, Thursday, or some other day. But when we insist on
establishing a service of worship based on our whim, we blaspheme God,
and create an idol, though we have done it all in the name of God.
And when you worship God in the idleness of a holiday spirit, that is
a heavey sin to bear, and one which attracts others about it, until we
reach the height of iniquity. Therefore, let us pay attention to what
Micah is saying here [Micah 5:7-14], that God must not only strip away
things that are bad themselves, but must also eliminate anything that
might foster superstition. Once we have understood that, we will no
longer find it strange that Noel is not being observed today, but that
on Sunday we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper and recite the story of
the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. But to all those who barely
know Jesus Christ, or that we must be subject to him, and that God
removes all those impediments that prevent us from coming to him,
these folks, I say, will at best grit their teeth. They came here in
anticipation of celebrating a wrong intention, but will leave with it
wholly unfulfilled.

The Westminster Confession of faith, chapter XXI says thus:

I. The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; is good, and doeth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the hearth, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture.

The Directory for The Public Worship of God, also penned by the Westminster Divines, says thus:

THERE is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord’s day, which is the Christian Sabbath.

Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued.

Nevertheless, it is lawful and necessary, upon special emergent occasions, to separate a day or days for publick fasting or thanksgiving, as the several eminent and extraordinary dispensations of God’s providence shall administer cause and opportunity to his people.

As no place is capable of any holiness, under pretence of whatsoever dedication or consecration; so neither is it subject to such pollution by any superstition formerly used, and now laid aside, as may render it unlawful or inconvenient for Christians to meet together therein for the publick worship of God. And therefore we hold it requisite, that the places of publick assembling for worship among us should be continued and employed to that use.

The Reformation was built and stood on the principles of Sola Scriptura. By Scripture Alone. The Regulative Principle also stands on the same principle. Can any Presbyterian, who denies or rejects the teachings of our Reformed fore-fathers, and instead opts for celebrating the Christ mass and Easter, expressly rejected by our Reformed fore-fathers,  and even more importantly has no warrant from the word of God, in truth say they are reformed? Because I humbly suggest they cannot. There is far more to Calvinism than T.U.L.I.P. Calvin’s Calvinism, is not met by the majority of the Reformed churches today, they say they are following Calvin while practicing entirely opposing things to what man himself did.
There is a huge difference in my opinion, in people who are open to the truth, but may not have arrived at a full understanding of this yet,  to those who just utterly reject this principle, on no Biblical grounds whatsoever. Scripture is either sufficient or is it not? And if Sola Scriptura is what the Reformation was built upon, why would Reformed people now want to add to Scripture? The argument is commonly used that God never forbade it. It’s something I don’t have the health to go into at this point in time, but, He never commanded it. And in other places in Scripture one can only draw the conclusion by sure and necessary consequence it is an abomination in his site, and an unacceptable sacrifice.

Is any Presbyterian who may read this, willing to argue against Sola Scriptura?  And if not, if also partaking of man made festival days, we are expressly denying the sufficiency of Scripture while proclaiming with our lips by Scripture alone.  As I have said a thousand times,  Actions speak much louder than words.

These words of Baxter’s from The Reformed Pastor struck a chord with me, not just to and for ministers of the gospel, but to all private protestant Christians and particuarly those who are under the label of Reformed; as what was true in Baxter’s day, in these words he wrote, is surely even truer in our own days:

How long have we talked of reformation, how much have we said and done for it in general, and how deeply and devoutly have we vowed it for our own parts. And, after all this, how shamefully have we neglected it, and neglect it to this day! We carry ourselves as if we had not known or considered what that reformation was which we vowed. Carnal men will take on them to be Christians, and profess with confidence that they believe in Christ, and accept of his salvation. They may contend for Christ and fight for him, and yet, for all this, will have none of him. They perish for refusing him, who little dreamed that ever they had been refusers of him; and all because they understood not what his salvation is, and how it is carried on. Instead they dream of a salvation without flesh–displeasing, and without self–denial and renouncing the world, and parting with their sins, and without any holiness, or any great pains and labor of their own in subserviency to Christ and the Spirit. In the same way did too many ministers and private men talk and write and pray and fight and long for reformation, and would little have believed that man who should have presumed to tell them, that, notwithstanding all this, their very hearts were against reformation—that they who were praying for it, and fasting for it, and wading through blood for it, would never accept it, but would themselves be the rejectors and destroyers of it. And yet so it is, and so it hath too plainly proved. And whence is all this strange deceit of heart, that good men should no better know themselves? Why, the case is plain; they thought of a reformation to be given by God, but not of a reformation to be wrought on and by themselves. They considered the blessing, but never thought of the means of accomplishing it—as if they had expected that all things besides themselves should be mended without them. Perhaps the Holy Ghost should again descend miraculously, or every sermon should convert its thousands, or some angel from heaven or some Elias should be sent to restore all things, or the law of the parliament, and the sword of the magistrate, would have converted or constrained all, and have done the deed. Little did they think of a reformation that must be wrought by their own diligence and unwearied labors, by earnest preaching and catechizing, and personal instructions, and taking heed to all the flock, whatever pains or reproaches it should cost them. They thought not that a thorough reformation would multiply their own work. But we had all of us too carnal thoughts, that when we had ungodly men at our mercy, all would be done, and conquering them was converting them, or such a means as would have frightened them to heaven. But the business is far otherwise, and had we then known how a reformation must be attained, perhaps some would have been colder in the prosecution of it. And yet I know that even foreseen labors seem small matters at a distance, while we do but hear and talk of them. But when we come nearer them, and must lay our hands to the work, and put on our armor, and charge through the thickest of opposing difficulties, then is the sincerity and the strength of men’s hearts brought to trial, and it will appear how they purposed and promised before.

Reformation is to many of us as the Messiah was to the Jews. Before he came, they looked and longed for him, and boasted of him, and rejoiced in hope of him. But when he came they could not abide him, but hated him, and would not believe that he was indeed the person, and therefore persecuted and put him to death, to the curse and confusion of the main body of their nation. ‘The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth (Mal. 3:1-3)? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.’ And the reason was, because it was another manner of Christ that the Jews expected. It was one who would bring them riches and liberty, and to this day they profess that they will never believe in any but such. So it is with too many about reformation. They hoped for a reformation that would bring them more wealth and honor with the people, and power to force men to do what they would have them. And now they see a reformation that must put them to more condescension and pains than they were ever at before. They thought of having the opposers of godliness under their feet, but now they see they must go to them with humble entreaties, and put their hands under their feet, if they would do them good. They must meekly beseech even those that sometime sought their lives, and make it now their daily business to overcome them by kindness, and win them with love. O how many carnal expectations are here crossed!
–Richard Baxter “the Reformed Pastor.”

Luther prayed the prayer below, on the eve of his famous “Here I stand speech” because on the day of the eve of that prayer when called before the diet to answer the charges against him, his answer was so timid it was hardly audible, and he felt that God was not with him. Now this was on the eve of the speech that started the Reformation proper, and the main actor in the drama, the man whose shoulders the whole weight of it bore down upon to represent God’s truth and His cause, God left him; this should be some solace, for those of you, who if like me, feels at times God’s desertion in the hours we feel we most need him. Yet Luther went to God, like a picture of godly King David under desertions in the Psalms, also going to God in prayer.

Almighty, eternal God, what a contemptible thing this world is! Yet how it causes men to gape and stare at it! How small and slight is the trust of men in God. How frail and sensitive is the flesh of men, and the devil so powerful and active through his apostles and the ‘wise’ of the world! How soon men become disheartened and hurry on, running the common cause, the broad way to hell, where the godless belong! Their gazes fixed on what is splendid and powerful, great, and mighty! If I too were to turn my eyes to such things, I would be undone! The verdict would already have been passed against me, and the bell that is to toll my doom would already have been cast.

O God, O God, O Thou my God, my God, help me against the reason and wisdom of all the world! Do this! Thou must do it, Thou alone, for this cause is not mine, but Thine! For myself, I have no business here with these great lords of the world! Indeed, I too desire to enjoy days of peace and quiet and to be undisturbed. But Thine, O Lord, is this cause, and it is righteous and of eternal importance! Stand by me, Thou faithful eternal God. I rely on no man! Futile and vain is all; lame and halting all that is carnal and smacks of the flesh. God, O God, dost Thou not hear me, my God? Art Thou dead? Nay, Thou canst not die! Thou art merely hiding Thyself. Hast Thou chosen me for this task? I ask Thee!

I am sure Thou hast. Were so, let it be, then. Thy will be done. For never in my life did I intend to oppose such great lords. Never had I resolved to do this! O God, stand by me in the Name of Thy dear Son, Jesus Christ, Who shall be my protector and defender, yea, my mighty fortress, through the might and the strengthening of Thy Holy Spirit. Lord, where tarriest Thou? O Thou my God, where art Thou? Come, O come! I am ready to lay down my life for this cause, meek as a lamb, for the cause is righteous and it is Thine. I will not separate myself from Thee forever. Be that decision made, in Thy Name!

The world must leave my conscience unconquered even though it were full of devils and though my body, the work and creation of Thy hands, should be utterly ruined! But Thy Word and Spirit are a good compensation to me, and after all, only the body is concerned. The soul is Thine, and belongs to Thee, and willingly it will remain eternally. Amen. God help me. Amen.

Returning next day, Luther made a bold speech, and owned his writings which were called heretical, and this bold speech was repeated in Latin for Charles V, by Luther. But they still asked of him to recant. And finally, after such eloquence as a few minutes previously, to Eck and then in Latin to Charles V the holy roman emperor he put it simply, and plainly, so that no one could doubt that he meant what he said.

He was demaned of to answer candidly and without horns, did he repudiate the errors which his books contained. And Luther’s famous reply, which gives me goosebumps, was as below.

Since your Majesty and your Lordship’s desire a simple replyI will answer, without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason, I do not accept the authority of the Popes and counsils for they have frequently erred and contradicted themselves. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot, I will not, recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me, Amen.

That is the great heritage of all Reformed Christians; let us also vow in word and by deed, to not squander our heritage and that our consciences be bound by the Word of God, and no other will ever do. Let us not drop the baton that Luther handed down to us, but let us run with it!

Happy Reformation Day!

There is a famous quote by puritan Richard Rogers, that goes: “I am so precise, because I serve a precise God.” I have often heard it argued, by both professing Calvinists and non-calvinists alike, that the puritans, the westminster divines, if taken as literally as the neo-puritans take their works today, is too strict, too rigid, it doesn’t tie in with their idea of a gracious and merciful God to have such high standards for holiness, and such high requirements for the Christian life, for them to have the mark, stamp and seal of being true Christians, the seal given by having the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, who enables us to perform with delight and a cheerful heart, what we would otherwise find a burden, and still feel like those of the Old Testament under the yoke or burden of the law, because without the Spirit of God to enable us to meet those high standards and holy requirements of the Christian life, we are left in exactly the same position as those of the Old Testament, never being justified before God, so never given the grace to perform what God requires of us.
God does not leave His elect people, unable to fulfil his requirements and having to do it in their own strength. That falls back to exactly the Old Testament way, because on our own strength we never will live up to the Christian calling or have a hope of entering heaven; only on the strength of Christ’s imputed righteousness, and the work of a thorough conversion by the Spirit of God, working in us, and enabling and wiling us to do God’s will, to obey his moral law to live up to His standard, in our own strength or power we are left hopeless, so the only reserve left to us in that situation is to lower God’s standard to meet our abilities of our own strength, rather than striving after seeking God with all our heart and not giving up knocking at the door till He gives us the grace we need to not have to lower his standard because it is too precise, too strict, for us to ever have a hope of every living a holy life, and the righteous standard, we need to lower God’s standard so our consciences can sleep, because if we lower the standard we may at least pass some semblance of living a holy or righteous life and the Biblical standard.
God is a God of grace and mercy, but the gait is narrow and few will enter in, because his standard is much higher than many professing believers ever believe or will adhere to or even try to seek out the truth for themselves. Those who think that God has lowered his standard on the account of the love of Christ from the Old Covenant to the new, do not know the character of God at all well. He is a God who stands on the small things as well as the big. As Richard Rogers so aptly put it, I am so precise because I serve a precise God.
Now don’t mistake this for perfectionism, as even the best of Christians fall far short of ever being anywhere near perfect, or keeping the law perfectly. But it is for those who strive after doing so, and recognize the standard and just how high God’s standard is, but in our human frailty still mess up and get it wrong, and are disobedient at times, those are the sins that Christ’s blood was shed, for His elect people, because God knew that no mater how hard the most earnest of Christians strive to do HIs will and be obedient children, we will never be perfect in this life, but they do recognize the standard nonetheless and seek and strive after it, but imperfectly. We need Christ’s blood, to cover our imperfections.

Again, like a post last week, this is not a blog post about the fourth commandment, but again I will use it as an example. If setting the whole day aside for religious duties and sanctifying the day completely to God, denying ourselves our livings, (paid labour), our recreations, or doing the things we do on the other six days for our own pleasure and delight, is burdensome, wearisome, and something you say is not a requirement of God, that it is too strict, too precise, we are back again to lowering the standard so that our consciences may sleep, and we may make some semblance of respectability among like-minded Christians. Yet if that is the case, since Heaven is an everlasting Sabbath, how do you think anyone who finds setting one day aside per week for the performance of devotions and praise and religious duties, aside from the works of necessity or mercy, will belong or fit in or enjoy an everlasting Sabbath in heaven, when one has so defiled and despised the Sabbath day in this world?
If God lowers his standard to the standard that would suit many people, then God would be a sinner, his word would be a lie, and there would be no standard of righteousness to meet. But there is.
If you find keeping the whole of the Lord’s Day set aside for religious dutie burdensome, then why would you want to even go to Heaven for the everlasting Sabbath when it is so distasteful to you here? It makes no sense.
And yes, people plead ignorance on the fourth commandment because it is not a clear, thou shalt not do this or that, or thou shalt do this or that command, but then that reflects sloth and lack of diligence on their part; we need to know the mind of God, as much as we can by being diligent in the Word of God. Ignorance will never be an excuse that justifies oneself before God that he gives leave to be “Okay” for the Christian to remain ignorant about the fourth commandment or any other aspect of import in the Christian life.

Joseph Alleine wrote on ignorance:

(Hos. 4:6). O how many poor souls does this sin kill in the dark, while they think verily they have good hearts, and are all set for heaven. This is the murderer that dispatches thousands in a silent manner, when they suspect nothing, and do not see the hand that destroys them. You shall find, whatever excuses you make for ignorance, that it is a soul ruining evil (Isa. 27:11; 2 Thess 1:8; 2 Cor 4:3). Ah, would it not have grieved a man’s heart to see that dreadful spectacle when the poor Protestants were shut up in a barn, and a butcher came, with his hands warmed in human blood, and led them one by one, blindfold, to a block where he slew them one after another by scores, in cold blood? But how much more should your hearts bleed to think of the hundreds that ignorance destroys in secret and leads blindfold to the block. Beware that this is not your case. Make no plea for ignorance; if you spare that sin, know that it will not spare you; and would a man keep a murderer in his bosom?

You see if you have been a Christian many a year, and are still pleading ignorance over the fourth commandment or any other important matters of Scripture, then you have real cause to doubt your conversion, because there is no excuse; ignorance really is a choice; but when ignorance reigns in the heart about what God has left us to tell us how he wants us to live, His standard for the Christian, His Holy Word, it can only be because we chose to spend our time on other things, of much less importance, to spend our time on trvials because they were more pleasing to our flesh than spending the time it takes to seek out what God says, about this subject or that subject, until we are sure in our mind, and have been taught by the Holy Ghost Himself straight out of the pages of Scripture, and have been like the Bereans and searched the Scriptures, not taken what Calvin said, as the last word, or our pastor or learned friends, only what God teaches us Himself by our diligent study of the Bible is living real faith, anything else is the same thing as the implicit faith of the papists, because this man or that man or woman says so we believe it, without knowing what God says about it HImself. Unless our beliefs be firm and sure, and we are convicted that this is what GOD HIMSELF teaches, then we will remain a loose canon who can easily be talked out of such and such a belief by someone else as equally learned as the first person who talked us into the belief in the first place. The patristic fathers, our learned friends are all good helps and aids for our study, but they should never be the final authority, the only final authority should be an appeal to Scripture and what does God say.
Every soul is heaven born, though we all enter this world at enmity with God, we are God’s prized creation for we alone bear his image in us; Yet we live so often in ignorance of what God says and of lowering His standard, to our level, rather than us upping our game to Biblical Christianity and seeking him with all our hearts souls and minds; and what a travesty and tragedy to see the lords of this lower world preferring the husks in the sty like the prodigal, rather than feeding on manna from heaven.
Does anyone believe God left us His written word, and preserved it through all the persecutions of the past, and brought the greatest event since the Apostolic age about in the Protestant Reformation to set it free again, for us to remain ignorant of what He says in it?
Yes, I agree, the Westminster divines, and Calvin’s brand of Calvinism, which is often not the same Calvinism we frequently see today, and the puritans did have strict, precise standards, and it was exactly as Richard Rogers says, that he was so precise, because he served a precise God. Like the true neo-puritans of today, they recognized just what the standard of righteousness and holiness is for us required by God, and did not try to lower it, to meet their humanity, but upped their game as they matured in their faith, to rise higher and higher though still imperfectly, but knowing it was the only rule for righteousness and the only standard acceptable to God.
I shall close this blog post with another quote by Joseph Alleine, on something that he heads as: “A secret Enmity against the strictness of religion.”

Many moral persons, punctilious in their formal devotions, have yet a bitter enmity against strictness and zeal and hate the life and power of religion. They do not like this forwardness, nor that men should make such a stir in religion. They condemn the strictness of religion as singularity, indiscretion, and intemperate zeal, and with them a zealous preacher or fervent Christian is but a wild enthusiast. These men do not love holiness as holiness (for then they would love the height of holiness) and are therefore undoubtedly rotten at heart, whatever good opinion they have of themselves.
—Joseph Alleine

O Eternal God and most merciful Father, we confess and acknowledge here before thy divine Majesty, that we are miserable sinners, conceived and born in sin and iniquity, so that in us there is no goodness. For the flesh evermore rebelleth against the spirit, whereby we continually transgress thy holy precepts and commandments: and so purchase to ourselves through thy just judgment, death and damnation. Notwithstanding, (O heavenly Father) forasmuch as we are displeased with ourselves for the sins that we have committed against thee, and do unfeignedly repent of the same, we most humbly beseech thee for Jesus Christ’s sake to show thy mercy upon us, to forgive us all our sins, and increase thy Holy Spirit in us, that we acknowledging from the bottom of our hearts, our own unrighteousness, may from henceforth not only mortify our sinful lusts and affections, but also bring forth such fruits as maybe agreeable to thy most blessed will, not for the worthiness thereof, but for the merits of thy dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our only Saviour, whom thou hast already given an oblation and offering for our sins, and for whose sake we are certainly persuaded that thou wilt deny us nothing that we shall ask in his name, according to thy will. For thy Spirit doth assure our consciences, that thou art our merciful Father, and so lovest us thy children through him, that nothing is able to remove thy heavenly grace and favour from us. To thee therefore (O Father) with the Son, and the holy  Ghost, be all the honour  and glory world without end. Amen.
From the back of 1599 Geneva Bible, Calvin Legacy Edition

And was not as described like many of the Reformed it has been my dark providence to know who come under the label of the Frozen chosen.  If those folks I Have known, are truly chosen, then they will not remain frozen, if they do, however,  then I fear for their eternal future.

That blog post created some controversy, though I also had some positive feedback about it away from this blog site itself, but it was not my declaration that all Calvinist’s are the frozen chosen, in fact, it was my contention that to be so, is the most uncalvinistic and even more, unchristian outlook one can have. One filled with self and not with God.

Calvin himself, the man of whom Calvinists take their name, though not their faith, but he was the man who after a thousand years of popish darkness set forth the true religion once again, by his immaculate writings that could have only come from the mind of a genius.  From his first edition of the Institutes in 1536, he never varied  from those doctrines, even though he was a young convert at the time.  By the time the last edition was published however, in 1559, he had expanded on them enormously, because his first edition was only six chapters, and he wrote it for the french refugees and Protestants of France as a simple manual or summary of Christian doctrine.  His last edition however,  was more of an introduction to Scripture for any student of God, and particularly of pastors. Since his final edition has over 7,000 Scripture references in it, it can be truly said it is an introduction to Scripture and Biblical doctrine.

I plan to start a series on Calvin, to again debunk many of the myths, fables, and in some cases downright malicious lies that have existed and been handed down the centuries about him, as a monster or the dictator of Geneva.  There is more than ample proof to prove these literary pieces that started the ball rolling in the time of Calvin was nothing more than malicious propaganda and a fulfilling of Isa.:5:20

But going back to my post on Calvinist’s should not be the frozen chosen, the very point of that post is that to be a Calvinist and yet act like the frozen chosen towards the brethren, is an oxymoron. And those who do, shame the name of Calvinism, and it’s noble heritage and this short quote by B.B. Warfield shows how the man himself of who Calvinist’s take their name from was nothing like that.  I have had the dark providence to know many who were not one iota like Calvin, but  I have the good providence in more recent times, to have new Calvinist friends, among many are not like those I formerly knew.

Calvin was a man of letters, no one can dispute that. HIstory bears it out and the works he has left us, about which only half thus far have been translated into English.  But much of his writing comprised of letter writing. The ones that have remained, fill four full volumes of works, and its a sure dunk that many didn’t stand the test of time and got lost. Most of the Reformation itself, and the very real spiritual war that was going on, was conducted by letter.  People who criticize the use of email don’t seem to know their history very well,  as email is just another form of letter, and in those days when it could take a whole year for a single letter to arrive somewhere, it seems to me with the technological tools we have today, we should also be able to conduct our own reformation with much more power because we are not in those primitive times.

B.B Warfield writes:

Of one other product of his literary activity, however,  a special word seems demanded. Calvin was the great letter-writer of the Reformation age. About four thousand of his letters have come down to us, some of them almost of the dimensions of treatises, many of them practically theological tractates, but many of them also of the most intimate character in which he pours out his heart. In these letters we see the real Calvin, the man of profound religious convictions and rich religious life, of high purpose and noble strenuousness, of full and freely flowing human affections and sympathies. In them he rebukes rulers and instructs statesmen, and strengthens and comforts saints. Never a perplexed pastor but has from him a word of encouragement and counsel; never a martyr but has from him a word of heartening and consolation. Perhaps no friend ever more affectionately leaned on his friends; certainly no friend ever gave himself so ungrudgingly to his friends. Had he written these letters alone, Calvin would take his place among the great Christians and the great Christian leaders of the world.
Benjamin B. Warfield Calvin and Calvinism Vol 5 of the Works of B.B. Warfield.

You see Calvin was not the frozen chosen, he knew how to be a friend to those in need. And he accomplished his labours not only in primitive times, but in the worst of circumstances that anyone could have.  And anyone claiming to be a Calvinist who acts like the frozen chosen is an oxymoron. To be the frozen chosen is to be an antinomian, because if you do not love one’s neighbour as oneself, then the whole of the law is broken, and the whole sum of the law, and one’s love to God questionable. As only when we love God aright, will we also love our fellow man aright also.

This is a series that will be continued on Calvin uncovered.

Deut 19:14
Deut 27:17
Prov 22:28
Prov 23:10-12
Hos 5:8-10

Why the Westminster Standards are more important than ever today:

An image of the kind of person that the Westminster Standards type of Presbyterianism bred, in the lands of those times they were authored.

One person, describes The Scottish Peasant of those times, as the most remarkable man in Europe. Furthermore, the writer who said that, was an Anglo-catholic, rather than a Calvinist.

Dignity, intellect and character, of the typical Scottish peasant, largely flowed from the memorization of the shorter Catechism. They were far more equipped as a result of memorizing the shorter catechism, for conceptual thinking, than most 21 st century citizens of England or America.

They lived in huts, and toiled the land, wore kilts, and often seemed intellectually stinted due to their simplicity, in living, yet they are described as the most remarkable men in Europe. In the days when Education started to be esteemed and prized and sought after, it was the Scottish peasants, who were the most remarkable. And that was a result of the effect, of them memorizing, applying and believing, the Westminster Standards. What a man believes, so he is.

Nowadays, those entering the ministry are taught it, whereas it was written for children, and most 8 year olds in those days, had it memorized. How far we have fallen! What a tenth of their nobility we desire and should crave.

The covenanters had a strictness of life and behaviour and worship By that, I mean, they were a self denying lot in following the word of God. Their whole lives were regulated a by the Scriptures.

These men and women were courageous to the last. They had a high regard for people in need, and denied themselves to fulfil that need, and their courage seemed to know no bounds , as the list of martyrs shows us. They counted it a joy to sacrifice for the Lord. They lived in dangerous times, deadly times to believe and uphold the Truth of God that they did, but their actions proved by far more than speech, and didn’t only defend causes where they had very little to lose like we do today, in our self indulgent soft societies.

Calvinist’s in those days, were marked by a love of God and truth, justice, purity of character , and historically, they always shone in all these virtues above any other professing group of Christians.

One person wrote of the Calvinist’s of those times:

“We may with confidence maintain, that the world has never known, a higher type of Stalwart manhood, nor a gentler, purer, or more lovable womanhood, than has prevailed amongst those people in whose hearts and lives has entered the Calvinist creed. ”

Rather than the slant that is put on puritans historically, and the spin, which distorts the truth, and calls evil good and good evil, and presents those men and women as harsh, severe, unloving fanatics, the above is the truth, and history bears witness to testify to the truth of it.

Do you think the Covenanters or Calvinists today are producing the same kind of character? I would say unhesitatingly, a resounding no in many cases! Some of those traits remain, but the ones that made them stand out a head and shoulders above others, is no longer the typical Calvinist or Covenanter, of either England or America. I get infuriated at times, by how much it is not true. How their luke warm sense of serving, is a joke as compared to those days. As to my mind, it disgraces the great, rich, noble heritage that the name today trades on, yet fails to live up to in many cases. Today Reformed doesn’t always mean reformed. That’s where the crux lies I believe.

The Biblical picture we have of the true Christian home, is built on the standards and beliefs and practices of the Westminster Divines; they lived and breathed Scripture; the family homes were the nurseries of the church.

The democratic nations we live in, where the individual is upper most in importance, where political correctness is the emphasis, means Presbyterianism, built upon the Westminster Standards has been squeezed out. And man has become his own god. The landmarks and boundaries have not just been removed, they have been eradicated, as if they never existed. The covenants, made and swore to in Scotland, are no longer remembered, or even known anything about by most Christians in my country, even though it is their own country, that historically was at the fore of all these events.

Everything is now relative, on if it fits man’s taste, rather than us bending to God’s will, again, man is Sovereign of his own destiny, sovereign of our own behaviour and conduct, his own god. Discipline, both in our family homes, and self-discipline, is a dirty word.  Ignorant people within the so-called Reformed church but where Deformed would be the better term, believe that practicing it, and denying ourselves, makes us no better than the monks, of trying to win God’s favour, by our works, rather than the truth being of simply being obedient to what God desires and doing it cheerfully, not counting it a burden but a joy.

Presbyterianism, as set forth by the Westminster Standards, give us liberty. Presbyterianism and Tyranny cannot co-exist.. The same is true of the true Calvinistic or Reformed faith. We don’t need to be genius’ or above intelligence any more than anyone else. Some of us are distinctly below the majority! But again, where Calvinism and ignorance meet, one of them leaves the field.

We have an heir to the throne here, who will have to change the constitution if and when he takes the throne, to not be Defender of THE faith, but to become as he has said he will, “Defender of Faiths.” And that all faiths are equal. That is a scary thought to my mind, and I also wonder if he will take the oath as his mother did before him at the Coronation, for her to uphold the True religion in Scotland, as that is still included in the coronation oaths. She apparently took it but her son plans to openly defy that. Christ is the ruler of the Kings of the earth, but Charles seems in some form to be resurrecting to some degree, the divine right of kings by what he proposes. As the Scripture references above clearly show, God pours out his wrath on the removing of the landmarks and boundaries, and I believe the spiritual decay and decline that exists in England is evidence of that.

All the men who just before the writing of the Westminster standards, who were at the front of upholding tyranny, like King Charles, I and Archbishop Laud, were executed shortly after the completion of the Standards, and tyranny started to be squeezed out. Tthose works of Westminster, gave us liberty. True Liberty. The only True Liberty is liberty in Christ, which we find in the pages of Scripture.

Most faiths are accepted in our society, on a live and let live basis. If you take a different view you are seen as an intolerant bigot.  It is only the True Faith, the Reformed faith, based upon the Biblical teachings of the Westminster standards that today, makes for there being hostility against us. Universalism, popery, and arminianism, will be gladly tolerated. Yet try and tell people from a world view based on the Westminster Standards your point of view, you will not get the toleration or live and let live attitude you will be an outcast, someone who is causing “schism” because you hold to the truth, among the brethren here who hold to otherwise. Furthermore, the choice will have to be made, between pleasing the Lord and holding to the truth, or pleasing men, and your Christian brethren on one’s own doorstep, at the cost of betraying the truth you love. There is no contest! Yes, we need the courage, and nobility, of those Scottish peasants, that were so remarkable, even among the best of Christians, we are not prepared to go so far, or be as fierce and have the same goals and the same priorities. Our courage we leave behind the door, by comparison to protect ourselves and put ourselves first, which is why the easy way out of almost any situation, is the most oft chosen option. We are not prepared to suffer unduly, for either the Truth or the brethren. In doing so, we move the landmarks and make them shaky. The nobility that lived in a grass hut, among the Scottish peasants, in the fields of Scotland, put us to shame. They had so little, yet were willing to part with it all, even with dear life. We need to get our landmarks and boundaries put back in place. Only then, can or will England and America revive. And Scotland can once again glory, in the upholding of the Covenants!

“Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? I shall not die.’ Then, just before the end, he lifted the napkin from his face, and cried, ‘The Covenants, the Covenants shall yet be Scotland’s reviving!’ [from an account of James Guthrie’s martyrdom]

[Blog owners note: of course there are may faithful calvinists around today, but sadly, there are also those who shame the name and noble heritage. And within the Reformed faith on the days of those Scottish peasants in the hills of Scotland that was not the case.  And Calvinism in these days, often doesn't represent Calvin's Calvinism at all, but a luke-warm, watered down version of it.  Those who hold to the same Calvinism as Calvin, are for the most part faithful Christians. There will always be the exception in any faithful church, as theology maketh no Christain, not on its own at least.  But Presbyterianism has taken on some many forms since those days, that Presbyteiranism in our day, doesn't always mean reformed.  They should call  themselves something other, to not degrade, defame and shame the noble history of Calvinsim.]

I have heard it said, and I’m sure many of you may have experienced it to some degree, that those within the Reformed faith community can be unloving. Sadly, this is often the case, but it should not be.   Being God’s elect should not make us the frozen chosen.

John Calvin who is quite greivously slandered and misrepresented in death as much as he was in life, made this well known statement:

Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue, but of the life; is not apprehended by the intellect and memory merely, like other branches of learning; but is received only when it possesses the whole soul, and finds its seat and habitation in the inmost recesses of the heart.

Experimental religion doesn’t just appear as good theology, and doctrinal learning, it reaches into every recess of our lives and practices, it affects the whole man in the whole of life. It certainly doesn’t make us blocks of stone, because true Christianity, is about having tender hearts, and having the attributes that God does, though in a less perfect way, some of those ways being compassion, loving-kindness, long-suffering, and a few others I could mention.
This is a subjet that until a short time ago, I could not have written about without it turning into a rant at the cold, discompassionate Christians I have known, who have only sought their own or immediate families welfare, and anyone outside of that doesn’t count, and their soul is not worth nurturing, but now I am detached enough from the hurts I have felt for a very long time, since first being strapped to a sick bed, and left to basically die alone, by Christian “friends” both in my local vicinity and “friends” in the online world, whose faith didn’t extend outside their own four walls, or barely at least. But it is long over-due for saying even so.
In the times of the Reformers and puritans and Scots Covenanters, these people had a deep care and concern for the welfare of their brethren. Calvin never heard of an afflicted church, or someone awaiting martrydom, but he would write them a letter of comfort and consolation even if they were in different countries. He was not one of the frozen chosen.
This was displayed clearly in his concern for Servetus. Forget the fables you have read about that whole case, if you want to read an accurate account of events of Calvin and Sevetus then I may suggest you read an accurate and well researched account I posted some time ago, HERE.
If Michael Servetus at the last, escaped the flames of hell, it would have been because of how God used John Calvin to talk him out of his heresy. And there are some reports that when in the flames the last words he was heard to utter was, “eternal Father, accept my Spirit” I hope that is the case. But Calvin persevered so tirelessly in the case of Servetus because of his concern for his soul. It is why he was so frequent a visitor to him in his prison cell as he awaited execution, because he wanted him to repent before he died. Calvin certain wasn’t one of the frozen chosen.

The Wesminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God says this about visiting the sick:
Concerning Visitation of the Sick.

IT is the duty of the minister not only to teach the people committed to his charge in publick, but privately; and particularly to admonish, exhort, reprove, and comfort them, upon all seasonable occasions, so far as his time, strength, and personal safety will permit.

He is to admonish them, in time of health, to prepare for death; and, for that purpose, they are often to confer with their minister about the estate of their souls; and, in times of sickness, to desire his advice and help, timely and seasonably, before their strength and understanding fail them.

Times of sickness and affliction are special opportunities put into his hand by God to minister a word in season to weary souls: because then the consciences of men are or should be more awakened to bethink themselves of their spiritual estate for eternity; and Satan also takes advantage then to load them more with sore and heavy temptations: therefore the minister, being sent for, and repairing to the sick, is to apply himself, with all tenderness and love, to administer some spiritual good to his soul, to this effect.

He may, from the consideration of the present sickness, instruct him out of scripture, that diseases come not by chance, or by distempers of body only, but by the wise and orderly guidance of the good hand of God to every particular person smitten by them. And that, whether it be laid upon him out of displeasure for sin, for his correction and amendment, or for trial and exercise of his graces, or for other special and excellent ends, all his sufferings shall turn to his profit, and work together for his good, if he sincerely labour to make a sanctified use of God’s visitation, neither despising his chastening, nor waxing weary of his correction.

If he suspect him of ignorance, he shall examine him in the principles of religion, especially touching repentance and faith; and, as he seeth cause, instruct him in the nature, use, excellency, and necessity of those graces; as also touching the covenant of grace; and Christ the Son of God, the Mediator of it; and concerning remission of sins by faith in him.

He shall exhort the sick person to examine himself, to search and try his former ways, and his estate towards God.

And if the sick person shall declare any scruple, doubt, or temptation that are upon him, instructions and resolutions shall be given to satisfy and settle him.

If it appear that he hath not a due sense of his sins, endeavours ought to be used to convince him of his sins, of the guilt and desert of them; of the filth and pollution which the soul contracts by them; and of the curse of the law, and wrath of God, due to them; that he may be truly affected with and humbled for them: and withal make known the danger of deferring repentance, and of neglecting salvation at any time offered; to awaken his conscience, and rouse him up out of a stupid and secure condition, to apprehend the justice and wrath of God, before whom none can stand, but he that, lost in himself, layeth hold upon Christ by faith.

If he hath endeavoured to walk in the ways of holiness, and to serve God in uprightness, although not without many failings and infirmities; or, if his spirit be broken with the sense of sin, or cast down through want of the sense of God’s favour; then it will be fit to raise him up, by setting before him the freeness and fulness of God’s grace, the sufficiency of righteousness in Christ, the gracious offers in the gospel, that all who repent, and believe with all their heart in God’s mercy through Christ, renouncing their own righteousness, shall have life and salvation in him. It may be also useful to shew him, that death hath in it no spiritual evil to be feared by those that are in Christ, because sin, the sting of death, is taken away by Christ, who hath delivered all that are his from the bondage of the fear of death, triumphed over the grave, given us victory, is himself entered into glory to prepare a place for his people: so that neither life nor death shall be able to separate them from God’s love in Christ, in whom such are sure, though now they must be laid in the dust, to obtain a joyful and glorious resurrection to eternal life.

Advice also may be given, as to beware of an ill-grounded persuasion on mercy, or on the goodness of his condition for heaven, so to disclaim all merit in himself, and to cast himself wholly upon God for mercy, in the sole merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, who hath engaged himself never to cast off them who in truth and sincerity come unto him. Care also must be taken, that the sick person be not cast down into despair, by such a severe representation of the wrath of God due to him for his sins, as is not mollified by a sensible propounding of Christ and his merit for a door of hope to every penitent believer.

When the sick person is best composed, may be least disturbed, and other necessary offices about him least hindered, the minister, if desired, shall pray with him, and for him, to this effect:

“Confessing and bewailing of sin original and actual; the miserable condition of all by nature, as being children of wrath, and under the curse; acknowledging that all diseases, sicknesses, death, and hell itself, are the proper issues and effects thereof; imploring God’s mercy for the sick person, through the blood of Christ; beseeching that God would open his eyes, discover unto him his sins, cause him to see himself lost in himself, make known to him the cause why God smiteth him, reveal Jesus Christ to his soul for righteousness and life, give unto him his Holy Spirit, to create and strengthen faith to lay hold upon Christ, to work in him comfortable evidences of his love, to arm him against temptations, to take off his heart from the world, to sanctify his present visitation, to furnish him with patience and strength to bear it, and to give him perseverance in faith to the end.

That, if God shall please to add to his days, he would vouchsafe to bless and sanctify all means of his recovery; to remove the disease, renew his strength, and enable him to walk worthy of God, by a faithful remembrance, and diligent observing of such vows and promises of holiness and obedience, as men are apt to make in times of sickness, that he may glorify God in the remaining part of his life.

And, if God have determined to finish his days by the present visitation, he may find such evidence of the pardon of all his sins, of his interest in Christ, and eternal life by Christ, as may cause his inward man to be renewed, while his outward man decayeth; that he may behold death without fear, cast himself wholly upon Christ without doubting, desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, and so receive the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul, through the only merits and intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, our alone Saviour and all-sufficient Redeemer.”

The minister shall admonish him also (as there shall be cause) to set his house in order, thereby to prevent inconveniences; to take care for payment of his debts, and to make restitution or satisfaction where he hath done any wrong; to be reconciled to those with whom he hath been at variance, and fully to forgive all men their trespasses against him, as he expects forgiveness at the hand of God.

Lastly, The minister may improve the present occasion to exhort those about the sick person to consider their own mortality, to return to the Lord, and make peace with him; in health to prepare for sickness, death, and judgment; and all the days of their appointed time so to wait until their change come, that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, they may appear with him in glory.

The whole document can read at one of my sister sites 2. Covenanted Reformation.

William Perkins, who is said to be the father of English puritans, and the first puritan, first  congregation was in a jail in Cambridge. He worked tirelessly with these men, many of them facing execution for their crimes, and he worked often never seeing the wages for his work.  One day however, a young man was awaiting execution at the jail, came to him in great distress about facing death, and his fear of it.  Perkins begged him and pleaded with him in tears, to accept Christ, telling him of the Gospel and how he could be sure of being like the thief on the cross and after execution be with Christ in paradise.  His tears and pleadings so affected the young prisoner that he did accept Christ, and he faced his execution with great courage, and it was a testimony to God’s grace at how bravely he met his death.  William Perkins, was not one of the frozen chosen. Neither were the Westminster divines who penned the Director of Publick Worship.

It is often said of Samuel Rutherford, that his life was one self sacrifice and consisted of: “always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechising, always writing and [always] studying.”   Samuel Rutherford, was not one of the frozen chosen.

If you read for any time through Calvin’s letters, you will see his words of comfort and consolation to those facing death, awaiting martydrom, exhorting them to be constant to the end, not only out of his pastors heart, but out of real concern for their souls.

Oliver Cromwell, whatever one may think of him in history, is another one who was deeply moved by the sufferings of the puritans.  Oliver Cromwell was not one of the frozen chosen.

If people are sick, and facing death or uncertain futures, they need to be built up and prepared to die, to be ready to meet their maker, for their souls to matter enough to spend time in trying to get them  to a good spiritual estate.  I was blessed to have one friend who was not one of the frozen chosen.

Richard Baxter in his “The Reformed Pastor” wrote his of ones duties towards the sick and/or dying.

We must be diligent in visiting the sick, and helping them to prepare either for a fruitful life, or a happy death. Though this should be the business of all our life and theirs, yet doth it, at such a season, require extraordinary care both of them and us. When time is almost gone, and they must now or never be reconciled to God, oh, how doth it concern them to redeem those hours, and to lay hold on eternal life! And when we see that we are like to have but a few days or hours more to speak to them, in order to their everlasting welfare, who, that is not a block or an infidel, would not be much with them, and do all he can for their salvation in that short space!
Will it not awaken us to compassion, to look on a languishing man, and to think that within a few days his soul be in heaven or hell? Surely it will try the faith and seriousness of ministers, to be much about dying men! They will thus have opportunity to discern whether they themselves are in good earnest about the matters of the life to come. So great is the change that is made by death, that it should awaken us to the greatest sensibility to see a man so near it, and should so excite in us the deepest pangs of compassion, to do the office of inferior angels for the soul, before it departs from the body, that it may be ready for the convoy of superior angels to the “inheritance of the saints in light.” When a man is almost at his journey’s end, and the next step brings him to heaven or hell, it is time for us, while their is hope, to help him if we can.
—Richard Baxter, “The Reformed Pastor” B.O.T. pp. 102

Richard Baxter was not one of the frozen chosen. But through my pilgrimage through this world in such an afflicted condition the last few years I seem to have sure come across and known and even been friends with alot of the frozen chosen, or as Baxter calls them “blocks or infidels.”
It is not always the case among Calvinists today, but sadly it is too rife and I have seen and experienced that from the sharp end. Doctrine and theology maketh no man. A man with good doctrine and all his theological ducks lined up, and maybe even with the voice of an angel for the holy words he speaks, if his actions say otherwise, it counts not one iota, and the puritans and reformers, of which just a few instances there are above and there could be countless others added to it, were both theologically astute, but also practiced experimental religion and were very self denying and self sacrificing. Their brethren’s sufferings mattered to them, they wept with those who wept, and had concern for their souls.
But finally, what does our good Lord say about the frozen chosen? In Matthew 25:31-46 he says thus which should deter anyone from being so self seeking or self serving only, to not be those mentioned in this passage because of the end that is threatened to them

Matthew 25:31-46 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Faith and religion is not passive, or just holy sounding words. Actions speak far louder than words, and show the inclination of our hearts, much more readily than any amount of holy sound words can ever do. Let us get back to the days of experimental religion. In the above example the whole sum of the law is broken, by not loving our neighboutr as ourself. And if we do not do so, then we do not love God aright either. As only when we love God rightly, we will be able to love our fellow man aright too. It does not only apply to Pastors, because we are all part of the royal priesthood

one often hears of the great names of the Protestant Reformation, and they are usually all men. We sometimes hear of the women behind them, that were such good help-meets to their husbands, that their tenacity for caring for the home and any children left their husbands free to work tirelessly for Reform and the establishing of the Protestant Church. Luther had his Katie, and Calvin had his idellete. And very blessed they were in their marriages.

But what one doesn’t hear of often at least, is that their were women, separate from the circle of Reformer’s themselves who played pivotal roles in the furtherance and continuance of the Protestant Reformation.

Calvin carried on quite voluminous correspondence with many French noble-women. Remnants of his letters to at least 18 French noble-women are still in existence, but it is not out of place to expect there were more besides.

One of them was with the King of France’s Sister, Margeurite Queen of Navarre. Her brother the King was a staunch papist and persecutor of the protestants, and yet his sister, while supporting and defending the Refomation and Reformers, remained his confidante and counsellor to his dying day.
The famous speech that Nicholas Cop gave, that is believed to have been penned by John Calvin was in defense of of a play of Margeurite’s which had been delivered at the university that had strong Protestant sympathies call the Mirror of a sinful soul. And it was after this speech delivered by Cop, and Calvin’s name being associated with it, that Calvin was forced to flee, because the work of Margeurite’s had been condemned by the Sorbonne.

Margeurite would perhaps be best described as a Biblical humanist. All the noble-women that Calvin carried on lengthy correspondence with, were all learned women and well-capable of theological debate. He didn’t see them as inferior because they were women, as is often reported of the Reformers.

Erasmus, which, whatever one’s personal opinion of him and the way he ended his days, one cannot ever say anything other but that he had a brilliant mind. Erasmus himself said this of Queen Margeurite:

For a long time I’ve observed all the many excellent gifts that God bestowed upon you. Prudence worthy of a philosopher; chastity, moderation piety, amazing strength of soul and contempt for all the vanity of this world. Who could keep from admiring a great King’s sister with such qualities so rare.

It was largely by letters that the Reformation spread, and Calvin’s correspondence with the Queen of Navarre was no exception. All the women that Calvin wrote with, could take part in intense theological debate, could read the Bible, sing hymns and argue tirelessly with their superiors and mentors about the “new doctrines” which were sweeping in. Of course the doctrines were not new, but as old as the Bible itself, but it appeared that way to those of that era.

The Protestant Reformation gave women a new standing.They were valued and uplifted just as the men were. The doctrines of the Sanctity of marriage and the Priesthood of all believers gave rise in part to this.
Many of these women were married to staunch papists, and yet they raised godly children who took on the doctrines of the Reformers. They exerted far more influence in the home than their often poor husbands, most likely by their example of piety, where many of the husbands of the homes were debauched.

King Francis, of France, Margeurite’s brother, and was the King who Calvin addressed his epistle dedicatory to in the Institutes of Christian religion, despite the differences of faith between his sister and himself loved his sister dearly, as she did him.
Margeurite and Anne Boelyn were close friends and it is said both were converted to the Protestant faith at the same time while attending the same meeting. They were also similar in temperament. King Henry VIII himself at one time had expressed interest in courting Margeurite and considering her as a future Queen.

Margeruite came to be known as the Mother of the French Reformation, for all her assistance to refugees and help to those who fought the cause. She used her wealth to assist and hide and save the lives of many refugees.
The Mirror of the sinful soul, which has first brought her to the attention of Calvin was translated into English by Anne Boelyn’s 12 year old daughter. The future Queen Elizaebeth I of England.

When her brother, King Francis died, it is said the light went out of her life, and she took the loss hardest of all and went into deep mourning, barely speaking to a soul for 40 days and never going out in public. Given their differences, and how her brother had often come to her aid to defend her and had come under criticism for doing so, just the same as she had remained faithful to him, despite their differences, really seems to show how in some cases, blood really can be thicker than water or that where real familial love and affection exists, nothing will drive a wedge to divide and split it.
During her own final illness, the last few days of her life, she lost the ability to speak. After three days of not uttering a word, she suddenly said, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” and the great queen went to be with the Lord she had faithfully and not without danger served for most of her life.

Calvin was no less slandered in life, than he is in death, and you can see from the excerpt of this letter he wrote to the Queen of Navarre, even in disagreement,  just what high esteem he held her in:

CALVIN VINDICATES HIMSELF FROM THE CHARGE OF
HAVING INTENDED TO ATTACK HER IN HIS BOOK AGAINST
THE LIBERTINES.

FROM GENEVA, this 28th April 1545.
MADAME, — I have received a letter from a man of this town, written, as he said, by your command, by which I understand that you are very ill-pleased with me because of a certain book by me composed, the which I have intituled Against the Libertines. f484 I am sorry to have saddened you, except in so far as it was for your welfare; for such sadness, as saith St. Paul, is so profitable that we have no occasion to repent having caused it.
But I do not know, Madame, wherefore or how this book has been able to make you so angry. The man who has written to me alleges as the reason, that it is forasmuch as it is composed against you and your servants. So far as you are concerned, it has not been my intention to touch your honor, nor to lessen the reverence which all the faithful ought to bear you.
I mean in addition to the reverence which we all owe to you, because of the royal majesty in which our Lord has exalted you, the house whence you are descended, and all the excellence that is in you, as regards the world. For those who are acquainted with me are well aware, that I am neither so barbarous nor so inhuman, as to despise, nor to go about to bring into contempt the principalities, the worldly nobility, and what belongs to human policy. Besides, I know the gifts which our Lord has put on you, and how he has engaged you in his service, and has employed you for the advancement of his kingdom, which affords reason enough for
honoring you, and holding your honor in estimation. Likewise, Madame, I pray you do not allow yourself to be persuaded by those who excite you against me, seeking neither your advantage nor my damage, but rather to estrange you from that good-will and affection which you bear to the Church of God, and to discourage you from the service of our Lord Jesus, and of his members, which you have rendered to this hour. As regards your servants, I do not think that you value your household so highly as
to reckon it more precious than that of our Lord Jesus, of which one member is called a devil, yea, forsooth, a servant who had been seated at his Master’s table, and appointed to so honorable a condition as to be ambassador of the Son of God. But although I have not been so inconsiderate as to name your household, rather, indeed, concealing that those of whom I have to speak are any way attached to you, I have spoken in truth, and as before God. It remains for you to consider whether I have taken pleasure in casting reproach upon them, or whether I have been constrained by great and just occasion, yea, even of necessity, to tax them in this way. Now, Madame, if you have been well informed of the whole, I think so well of you, that not only you will excuse what I have
done, but you will reckon my simplicity worthy of praise.
I see a sect the most execrable and pernicious that ever was in the world. I see that it does much harm, and is like a fire kindled for the general desolation and destruction, or as a contagious disease to infect the whole earth, unless some remedy is applied. Since, then, our Lord has called me to that office, my conscience constrains me to resist it so far as it is possible for me. And, more than that, with strong and earnest entreaties, I am seriously importuned by the poor believers, who see with concern the Netherlands of the Emperor altogether corrupted, that as soon as possible, and without delay, I put my hand to the work. Nevertheless, even after
such requests, I have put off a whole year, to see whether the malady would be lulled asleep by silence. If any one should allege that, I could well, indeed, write against the wicked doctrine, letting the individuals alone, I have my more than reasonable excuse; it is that, considering what ruin Messieur Antony Pocquet has spread in the country of Artois and of Hainault, according to the relation of the brethren who have come hither expressly on that account, having heard the same repeated here; and considering that Quintin pretends no other object than to draw the poor simple souls to that more than brutal sect, and not so much by the report
of others as having heard with my ears, understanding that they are always very bitter in opposing the doctrine of holiness, to draw poor souls into perdition, to beget in the world a despising of God, judge, Madame, whether it would have been lawful for me to dissemble? A dog barks and stands at bay if he sees any one assault his master. I should be indeed remiss, if, seeing the truth of God thus attacked, I should remain dumb, without giving one note of warning, I am quite persuaded that it is not your mind, that in order to favor you I must betray the Evangel which God has committed to me. Wherefore I do beseech you, Madame, not to be offended, if, being constrained by the duty of my office, under penalty of incurring the offense of God, I have not spared your servants, without, however, addressing yourself.

I have often written about our comfortable days today, and how that incites us to want everything for ease and comfort and our own convenience and yet years ago, no cost was too high for the faith of the true religion. The martyrs blood, whether in the hills of Scotland, or the puritans ashes in England, or the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and umpteen other places and occasions one could cite speak to that being true.

It is sad to see the things that are out there today, which fit into our desire and quest for comfort and anything we gain to be had with the least effort possible. The 100 minute Bible would be a good example

An abridged version of Calvin’s the institutes of the Christian Religion would be another good one:

It has 271 pages as opposed to one of the more popular unabridged versions on sale today of 2 hardback volumes of 1,600 odd of the John T. Mcneil’s Ford Lewis Battle edition.

One can make a case, that if one is dealing with babes in Christ, the 271 page would be a good start for them, without overwhelming them. Or even if you are trying to get someone of false faiths or false religions to pick up as a first copy. But it doesn’t stop there. Research shows and statistics prove, that the greatest majority of evangelical Protestant Christians today, including many among the Reformed Faith have not read Calvin’s institutes in their entirety, and even more concerning is that this includes many reformed pastors.

Yet, if one had to make a list of the 10 most important books to ever be in the world, The Bible should take first place, and Calvin’s institutes unabridged should also be on the short-list. Many people who claim to be Calvinist’s know very little about what Calvin taught. So their claim is a vain one, one I think at times, has a lot to do with pride, because being a Calvinist is sometimes worn like a badge of honour, and a sense of grandiose. Yet these men and women who claim to be Calvinist’s and do not know what Calvin taught, often betray and shame the Reformed faith–not intentionally–but through ignorance. Ignorance very often is a choice.

We all have to make choices every day. One of them being how we will spend our time, once the daily grind of occupational work, and family business is out of the way. Playing computer games, watching garbage on the TV that will not be spiritually helpful and could be quite harmful in the long run by what we are filling our senses with; Now I am not against recreation at all. I want to make that clear. Everyone needs time to wind down, and have some enjoyment, or leisure, but not to the detriment of one’s own soul by indulging in it excessively. Despite popular opinion and folk-lore, the puritans were not against recreation, enjoyment, mirth, or dancing or merry making in general. Oliver Cromwell at his daughter’s wedding is said to have danced till 3 am. But one thing the puritans were big on, is temperance. All things in moderation, and that the main business of all professing believers of faith should be that of eternity.

As Solomon wisely said. There is a time for everything. [Eccles 1]

When any one who has professed faith through their lives, comes to being on their death bed, you often hear of the things they regret about their lives. One never hears though, that they regretted the time they spent on eternal matters, or making their salvation sure. One often hears quite the reverse.- a regret that they wasted so much time.

I have not read the entirety of the Institutes just yet though I have the greater part, but I aim to soon rectify that, and say it to my shame. If you can say the same thing, then I exhort you to also set aside some time, and read it and study it. The institutes is not just a cold book of Theological doctrine; it has over 7000 references to Scripture in it, it is also a tool along side the Bible that will help us all grow in our love for God and our external consequences of that by growing in piety and righteous living. You cannot read them, with a right heart, and remain unchanged or unmoved.

John T. McNeil in the unabridged version above, in his introduction describes it as being one of a “short-list of books that have notably affected the course of history.” Who would not want to read such a book, when written by John Calvin if a Calvinist? He adds that it has: “moulded the beliefs and behaviour of generations of mankind.” Elsewhere he said: that it is “admired as an incomparable exposition of Scriptural truth and a bulwark of evangelical faith.”
It teaches us of “Christian doctrine and social duty.”

The original edition which only had six chapters in it, and was the size of average paperback today was titled: “The institute of the Christian Religion containing almost the whole sum of piety and whatever is necessary to know in Doctrine and Salvation. A work well worth reading by all persons zealous for piety and lately published. A preface to the most Christian King of France in which this book is presented to him as a confession of faith. Author John Calvin, of Noyon Basel.

(Some of the length of original titles of these old books are hysterical by our standards today.)

The King referred to, was a stanch papist and opposer and persecutor of the Protestant faith. And even after the said King’s death in future editions, Calvin still included the original preface written to him in it.
A few short months previously to the Institutes first publication, King Francis of France had tried to ban all printing, but his attempt to do so failed. God was determined that Calvin’s magnus opus would be published, just as he has always kept his own Word from being destroyed. Don’t we have a duty to our own souls, to the heritage that we come from, and a duty to God, to read and study this fine master-piece. Not to gain knowledge and learning for it’s own sake, but so that we will also experience the natural consequence of doing so, of understanding the life of faith better, be more useful in the kingdom, and learn to do our duties as Christian to grow in understanding of the Scriptures and to have more piety and righteous living in our lives because we have read this book.

Six months after publishing the first edition, Calvin began his work in Geneva. The second edition when published had grown from the original six chapters to now seventeen chapters. And in this second edition he quoted the patristic father’s extensively such as Augustine and Origen and others. In this second edition Calvin stated that he saw it as a textbook to be used in the “preparation of candidates in theology for the reading of the divine Word.”
Wouldn’t that describe you and I, as are we not all of the priesthood of believers?

An ignorant Christian, particularly ignorant Calvinist’s are a liability and dangerous to the cause of true religion. To the Biblical doctrine that is contained within the doctrine simply known as Calvinism.

Many people will say they need nothing more than the Word of God to know what to believe. They have the holy Spirit, so they will sit at home with their Bible, studying it, without any outside works to help them understand it. No confessions of faith, commentaries or other books written by godly men. Yet what an arrogant attitude this is. Calvin made reference to Augustine around 400 times in his final edition of the Institutes, which grew each time it was published in his life time, till it now stands at the size we know it now. Calvin didn’t think he was above being taught by the learned men who had gone before him. And yet it was B.B. Warfield who described Calvin as the “theologian of the Holy Spirit.”

Calvin didn’t get his vast wealth of Biblical understanding, by taking short-cuts to everything that the Christian needs to be armed in life for the Spiritual warfare we face daily and the duties we must perform. He got it by years and years of hard laborious study and labour. Even when too ill to work, and was ordered to rest, and told to rest by his friends and associations. He answered with the words: “What, would you have the Lord come, and find me idle”

Yes, recreation and enjoyment and leisure has it’s place. The Christian life however, has no right to have other things above in priority the work of eternity. Whether it is working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, or trying to help others along the way.
He would find abhorrent the 100 minute Bible or abridged version of his Institutes.

There is no place in God’s kingdom for people ignorant of the doctrines of the Bible or the way of life for Christian living. Ignorance very often is a choice. If we have been Christians for many years, and have never read the Institutes, that has been a choice. If we have been Calvinist’s many years and know little of what Calvin taught about almost anything, then that is also is a choice. AND if we have been a Christian many years, and know little of what the Bible teaches in truth, and even less live it out as experimental religion, that is also a choice in many instances. Christ’s kingdom has no place for sloth.

So let us set our eyes on eternity, and head heavenwards, and not indulge and be firmly grounded in the world as we make our pilgrimage through it to a better place. Let us be like Abraham, strangers in a foreign land, and let us not be carried about and tossed in the wind by many strange doctrines. (Heb 13:9). God gave us this treasure, (His Word) entrusted it to us to keep it. Let us not betray that trust; and let us not feel safe and presumptuous without a sure foundation for that assurance and presumption as many seem to do. Those men who were for many years, some of the best known teachers of Calvinism, have betrayed the faith they professed to love by the federal vision heresy. Yet who would have that? None of us is beyond being deceived.

Let us not profess the true religion and build our houses on the sand. Let us be like the text of Hebrews 11 where almost each line starts with “by faith.” And if called to suffer for the truth of God, we shall be prepared and ready to. Whereas now, many of those who think they would stand strong, while not well taught in the ways of faith, and have no excuse or reason not to be, suffering would soon show how they spoke in presumption, because words are easy for anyone. But when in comfortable times, and we are not even prepared to deny ourselves one day a week, to give it to the Lord; not set aside some time each day to put down our toys and recreations, and to pick up God’ Word or study tools, then their proclamations really show how vain they are. Because the life of the Christian, and especially the suffering Christian is all about self-denial. And if we do not do that in the small things, when we are so comfortable it would be easy for us to do so, then it is vanity to think we would do it if ever called to it without comfort and in great need, because we have professed faith.

The statistics show that around 15% of the visible church is made up of true believers. It is not our job to find out which is which, and in fact Paul speaks against doing so in Romans. (Rom 10) But if God sends us plagues or famine, he may just sift out the tares from the wheat. And don’t think it can’t happen in our days because it can. God will deliver his True church, and one of those ways will be to build her up so that it is not so weak and so full of false professors as it is now. And let’s be armed and ready for when that happens, by our faith having a sure foundation and being grounded in the Rock. But that wont’ happen by choosing the life of comfort and ease and not denying our own pleasures to pick up the Word of God or other tools to help us better understand it, and so become better Christians.

Let’s set our eyes on eternity, and keep them there; and not take them off, until we have reached the Christian’s true Home. Let’s set out to heavenwards, and let the world and all that glitters in it, not be the thing that robs us of eternity by our being more dazzled by the world we can see that glitters, rather than the hope of things invisible (Heb 11:27) that are yet to come, yet would make this glittering world, look like a bottomless pit.

I hope to get a series of posts out this week, on Reformation history, and how we can apply that to our lives today. This is the first.

Sometimes  Apostolic creeds and confessions and Standards such as those developed at Westminster are given a whole barage of  reasons as to why they are not Biblical or warranted.  Here’s a few short refutations against some of those objections,  and a few reasons why  Creeds and Confessions are  warranted by the Word of God:
1 Tim 3:14-15;  2 Tim 1:12

The Mission of the church:

A creed  should be  adhered to out of the God given commandment to guard  the word which has been entrusted to the church.

Deut 26:17  (jesus will be ashamed of us if we don’t confess Him)

Matt 16:15  Jesus asked: “But who do you say that I am?”

Thou shalt confess with thy mouth and  in your heart know that  Jesus is Lord.

The standards or creeds of the church  are Subordinate to the Scriptures, and  not binding on us,  only in so far as,  and no further than, they are  a faithful  summary of the word of God.  They help us  understand and apply the Scriptures they derive from,  but are subordinate to,  and are dependant on the Bible.
1st Objection:

“We have no creed but life, and no law but love.”
2nd Objection:

“Its nothing but a paper pope.” (Wrong!)

The standards are always open to interpretation  of if they agree with the word of God.
3rd Objection:

“Human creeds add to the Word of God.”  (wrong!)

They are simple declarations of  Biblical truths.  And not adding to anything  in the Word of God.  No more than a sermon or commentary would be.
4th Objection:

“When you impose  creeds on a church you restrict the  liberty of the church to believe what they believe.”  (wrong!)

We are not at liberty to believe what we want to believe.   Otherwise we  are at liberty to  take in and believe every new heresy that gets churned out.

If the creeds are a faithful representation of the Word of God,  then they are not  restricting  liberty,  they are protecting that liberty.
Question:

What doctrine does it teach?

Answer:

Calvinism,  Reformed Faith,  covenant Theology.
Calvinism =  Biblical Doctrine.   He didn’t invent the doctrines of Calvinism,  but he unearthed the true Biblical  truths and true theology of the Bible,  which was buried for a 1,000 years,  under the tryranny and apostasy  of  Catholicism.     It was given his name, because of his writings,  but anyone who calls themselves a Calvinist is not declaring they are following John Calvin,  they are declaring they are following the Biblical truths of the Bible,  which was bought to the forefront and  unearthed  for the first time since the early church  by John Calvin.  If you accept Calvinism,  you accept the Word of God.

Question:

What do we  mean by Calvinism or Reformed Faith.

Answer:

Either terms is Christianity in its purest expression.   A Calvinist is someone who is God intoxicated. Calvinism is pure, True Religion,  and Religion in its purest form,  It means utter dependance on God. Its not an icy cold intellectualism.  It affects the mind and the heart and  every aspect of man’s being.

“In proportion as our own religious life flows in a deep and broad stream,  in that proportion will we find spiritual delight  in the Westminster Confession of Fath.”  (J.A. Wylie)

And again:

Was the Confession of Augsburg to come in the room of the Bible to the Protestants? Far from it. Let us not mistake the end for which it was framed, and the place it was intended to occupy. The Confession did not create the faith; it simply confessed it. The doctrines it contained were in the Confession because they were first of all in the Bible. A terrestrial chart has authority and is to be followed only when for ever island and continent marked on it there is a corresponding island and continent on the surface of the globe; a manual of botany has authority only when for every term on its page there is a living flower or tree in the actual landscape; and a map of the heavens is true only for ever star named in it there is an actual star shining in the sky. So of the Augsburg Confession, and all Confessions, they are true, and of authority, and safe guides only when every statement they contain has its corresponding doctrine in the Scriptures. Their authority is not in themselves, but in the Word of God. Therefore they do not fetter the conscience, or tyrranize over it, except when perverted; they but guard its liberty, by shielding the understanding from the usurpation of error, and leaving the conscience free [J.A. Wylie]

And as Benajamin B. Warfield, very ably put it:

The Calvinist is the man who has seen God, and who, having seen God in His glory, is filled on the one hand with a sense of his own unworthiness to stand in God’s sight as a creature, and much more as a sinner, and on the other hand, with adoring wonder that nevertheless this God is a God who receives sinners. He who believes in God without reserve and is determined that God shall be God to him in all his thinking, feeling and willing – in the entire compass of his life activities, intellectual, moral and spiritual – throughout all his individual social and religious relations, is, by force of that strictest of all logic which presides over the outworking of principles into thought and life, by the very necessity of the case, a Calvinist.The Calvinist is the man who sees God behind all phenomena,and in all that occurs recognizes the hand of God, working out His will; who makes the attitude of the soul to God in prayer the permanent attitude in all its life activities; and who casts himself on the grace of God alone, excluding every trace of dependence on self from the whole work of his salvation.

Do you see God?

Conversion also made him docile. This too, was a crucial element in Calvin’s humility. We are thinking of Calvin as a servant of God’s Word–a man must be divinely  humbled before he becomes capable of this service. Proud man naturally leans to his own understanding; he would far rather speculate and follow his own ideas than listen to God speaking in Holy Scripture. Calvin, however, was humbled and made teachable by Divine grace, and from then onward his overmastering intellectual concern was to learn the truth taught by Scripture; to function as a faithful echo of Scripture in his own teaching; and to make an accurate application of Scripture to men and situations. There never was a less speculative, less opinoinated thinker than John Calvin. No theologian or preacher has ever been more consistently and exclusively dependant on Holy Scripture. Thus, though the Instituio is a work of tremendous power, learning and ability, a book which reveals a truly staggering intellectual grasp at every point, one cannot read  a page of it without realizing that, for all its positiveness of assertin and sharpness in controversy, it is fundamentally a humble book. Though learned, it is the very opposite of sophisticated; it reveals its author as a man of a simple child-like spirit. For Calvin never says: this is my idea. He only ever says: this is what Scripture teaches. The author of the Institutio displays no other intellectual interest than to echo and explicate the written Word; in other words, to be a loyal servant of the Word of God.

Such then, was John Calvin, the brilliant boy from Noyon, transformed into a God-centred, God-mastered, God-honouring man who bowed humbly to God’s will and listened humbly to God’s Word, and whose tremendous powers of penetration and insight were put wholly at the service of  Scripture. This was the man whom God could and did use to preserve Protstantism. [J.I. Packer--"John Calvin-A Servant of the Word"]

John Calvin found living his life in humility and service to the Church and his community was his calling. Though that life was well-lived, it was not easily-lived; yet, because he lived it the way he did, many of us, five centuries after his birth, are indebted to him and his service. His Heart was sincerely and promptly offered. [David W. Hall--"The Legacy of John Calvin"]

It is cruelly ironic that in our day, when Protestant doesn’t mean the same thing as in Calvin’s day, the religion and faith the Reformers fought for and died for has been so oblitereated from the Biblical teachings of the Reformation that in some cases among Protestant churches or denominations, it is all but unrecognisable. It is also cruelly ironic that some of Calvin’s harshest critics come from these denoms, who if they only realized it, they too owe him  so much. We owe the heroes and martyrs of the Reformation, no less a debt for the liberty we have in our religion, than we do the military who die on the battle-field to preserve the private liberty of individuals within our own countries. Yet, even among those included among  Proestants, Calvin’s name is often slandered and ridiculed.
And the most saddening of all, is how the Reformed church itself, or at least all churches that go under the heading of Reformed, many of them have wandred far away from Refromed teachings, re-instuted and included popish elements in its worship services, and make the Word of God fit its own ends, rather then being subservient to the Word of God as its only and final authority.
I think John Calvin, in all his humility would turn in his grave if he knew that the Reformed faith bore his name; yet I think he would not only turn in his grave but be utterly and totally abhorred at how even those who still claim to be Reformed, have thrown much of his and others of his time achievements and legacy and battles to the wind and wandered back towards Rome in minor but not insignificant ways.
Oh for more men like Calvin; and oh for more private Christians, who see the Holy Scriptures as the only Authority for the whole of life, and rather than twisting the Scriptures to make it fit our wills, rather we bend out wills and deny our own lusts, to come under the Authority of God’s Holy Word.

Today marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. To mark the event on my blog, I want to quote the chapter from Philip Volmer’s book, “John Calvin–Man of the Millenium” which deals with Calvin’s last days. As it is a most moving account of how his life came to its close.  Today is the anniversary of his birthday, but here is the account of when he really entered life in his enternal rest.

The time now approached when Calvin should lay down the weapons of his earthly warfare. His body, the seat of many disorders, some of them inflicting on him excruciating pain, was rapidly breaking up. For years he took only one meal a day and that a very sparing- one. He never wrote much about his bodily weakness, but the writings of his friends and the minutes of the council furnish us with occasional information.

In January 1546, the council was informed “of the sickness of M. Calvin, who hath no resources,” and voted him ten crowns. Calvin refused the money. Then the counselors decided to buy with the ten crowns a cask of good wine and expressed the desire “that M. Calvin should take it in good part.” Calvin not to give offense, accepted, but he afterwards employed ten crowns of his salary for the relief of the poorest ministers.

Toward the middle of 1563, he began visibly to fail. He experienced pains in his head, pains in his limbs, pain in his stomach, spitting of blood, difficulty breathing, the gout, and gall stones. The Bishop of London urged Calvin to work a little less and to preserve himself for the church which so greatly needed him. But he continued preaching, though it fatigued him very much.

His last sermon was delivered on the sixth of february, 1564. A violent fit of coughing stopped his utterance, and the blood gushed into his mouth. He was obliged to sit down from the pulpit, and his flock understood but too well that he would never enter it again. After this, he was carried to the church on several occasions. On the tenth of March the council ordered public prayers, “for the health of M. Calvin, who has been long indisposed and is even in danger of death.”

In spite of his pain, he continued writing and revising his books. On Easter day, April 2, he was carried to church and partook for the last time of the Sacrament. It was a solemn hour when he was seen approaching the Lord’s table. Never had his finest sermon had half the eloquence of the spectacle presented by that shattered frame and that wasted hand which was stretched out to received the sacred symbols. The large congregation was bathed in tears when he joined with trembling voice in the concluding hymn, “Lord, let Thy servant depart in peace.”

A few days before Easter, on March 27, he was borne to the council chamber and took an affectionate farewell from the members, and a month later, on April 30, the council sent a disputation of twenty-five lords to this house. Calvin solemnly addressed them to their duties, begged them one and all to pardon his faults, and then took a formal and affectionate farewell. On the following day he received the pastors of the consitory and made an impressive, fatherly address to them, “that they should persevere in doing their duty after his death and that should not lose courage, for God would protect the city and the church.”

A few days before this, he had made his last will and testament in the introduction of which he blesses God for having called him to the work of the gospel. He distributed to his nephews and nieces his books and furniture along with two hundred and twenty five crowns, “which is all the property God hath given to me. Ten crowns are to be given to the College and ten to the fund for the poor strangers and refugees.”

On May 2, Calvin received a letter from Farel, who was nearly eighty years old, in which he expressed the desire to see him once more. The reformer advised his fatherly friend not to fatigue himself by coming to visit him. But Farel was already on his way; dusty and exhausted (for he had come from Neuchatel on foot) Calvin saw him enter his chamber. The leave-taking was heart-rending. The scene of the man who in 1536 held back Calvin Geneva embracing the dying reformers was worthy of a painter’s brush.

The nineteenth of ay brought around what were called the “censures,” which he had instituted. The clergy assembled on that day to admonish each other fraternally and afterwards partook together of a modest meal. The ministers met in his house, and he was carried into the dining room. “My brethren,” he said, “I am come to see you for the last time.” Then he offered prayer, but not without difficulty. Before the end of the day he requested to be carted back to his bed chamber. The few days that remained to him were spent almost wholly in prayer. His form was so wasted that it seemed as if only the spirit was left, but his eyes, witnesses tell us, burned with their old lustre till the close.

On May 27, towards eight o’clock in the evening, he died, and as one of his friends wrote: “At the same moment when the sun set, the greatest light on earth in the Church of God was withdrawn to heaven.”

Great was the mourning in Geneva and intense the excitement which the news of his death effected throughout Christendom.

The day following his death, at two o’clock, and immense procession of professors, ministers, students, citizens–all classes of population, many of them in tears–followed his corpse to its quiet resting place in the cemetery of Palin Palais. It was Calvin’s own wish that he should be buried without pomp and that no stone should be raised to his memory.

The only official epitaph which he received is this half-line inscribed by the side of his name in the record of the consistory: “Went to God, Saturday, the twenty seventh.” The exact spot where he sleeps is accordingly unknown. A small stone marked with the simple letters, “J.C.” has for about thirty years marked the supposed place of his internment, but the identification is conjectural.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. (Ps. 116.15)

It is sometimes to my bewilderment and confusion, of why so often the name of John Wesley is associated in the same breath and sentence and in like manner, with reformed theology. Yet he often is. You will often find great Calvinistic works, perhaps on CD, with great reformed theologians of the past, like Edwards, Calvin, Spurgeon and a host of others, and the name that sticks out like a sore thumb among the other names is John Wesley, along with perhaps in some cases that of Charles Finney.

They are both of course, globally recognized historical names of the church.  The true Church? Only God can know that for sure.  But John Wesley was the enemy of the Reformed faith in many ways, his being a rank Arminian.  Of course, no scholar of the Scriptures will ever be wrong about everything.  The same is true of Wesley.  But his name does not belong along side those of the Reformed tradition, do not mistake this.

I have had people use John Wesley to perhaps find a point of agreement with me, because they felt his name was synonymous with my beliefs.  Yet never was it further from the truth.

Recently, I had a commenter at one of my sites, advocating  Wesleyan like Perfectionism, something John Wesley also believed and taught.   I see this as a heresy, because it denies some very fundamental truths of the Scriptures. That of the sinfulness of man, it distorts what is meant by the sanctification of believers, and is just full of error. Whether it be a damnable heresy I would not like to say. But heresy I call it, and believe it is.

As an unbeliever, I knew the name of John Wesley, yet had never heard of Charles Spurgeon. His name goes before him, and his renown is much more out there and visible than more godly men, for the most part.  England is a Calvinistic deadlands, so its not that suprising it should be the case, since Wesley was an Arminian, and in that sense an enemy of the Reformed faith. Enemy of God?  Only God knows that.

In the book of Job we have Job in the opening sentences described as a perfect man who was upright and eschewed evil. [Job 1:1} Does this mean that Job had attained to this state of perfection that Wesley taught?

NO!

Perfect: Not that he had a legal perfection; such a perfection as the Papists now contend for; and assert possibly attainable, yet actually attained by many in this life: For what is man that he should be clean? And job himself, presses, Job.  9:20, If I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse; he acknowledeth, Job 7:20. I have sinned. The perfection here spoken of is not an absolute legal perfection. [Joseph Caryl, "Practical observations on Job Vol 1]

You see, Wesley really was an enemy of the Reformed faith, because his Wesleyan perfectionism is actually papistry at its core.  So please can we quit, using the name of John Wesley, in Reformed circles or orthodox circles to think it carries any weight or has much credence associated with it.  And please can we quit turning out CD’s with the likes of Calvin, Edwards, and Spurgeon on accompanied also by the name of John Wesley works, because the former have little to nothing in common with the latter!

I have over the past few weeks, read two or three biographies on John Calvin, and I have to say I am somwhat suprised how much of the things he is often criticises for, I see in myself and get the same criticism. He was accused of being too harsh in the written word, and yet some of those same critics could not believe the same man they sat across the dinner table from, enjoying fellowship and gracious communion with, had penned those same words they had criticized.

He couldn’t see and felt impatience, because others took a lower or less black and white view than he did about what is right and wrong from a Biblical perspective; again, I often have the same frustration. I tend to see most things in life in black and white terms, but I also believe Scripture, and good evil can only be black or white–good or evil.

He felt people took a low view of the Gospel, of its teachings, and were resistant to it, for their own safety’s sake. I again level the same criticism, yet I feel the people in his day had more justification for being less open and less willing to stand up and be counted, because to do so then, could cost them their lives.  Today, it would cost people for the most part, a little comfort,  and same as in those days, when the stakes were much higher, most people won’t. And I have a hard job to feel patience about it, or toleration.

I could go on in other similarities,  but I won’t; tho I am not in any way claiming his intelligence or his achievements; except we both do what others  of our day at least if as ill as he and as ill as me, would not do, to try and further the truth. Peoples early life does shape them I think; and in some ways,  there is a link between the road that Calvin was taken on, and my own, in hardship from a young age, and maybe it takes certain sufferings or certain things to make the personalities that will not lie down when others would only be able to lie down and do nothing but be invalids.  Calvin, wrote in his sermons on Job that earlier sufferings prepared us for greater and harder ones, and both he and I can see how that has been true.  But I feel much of the impatience, much of the frustration that he did over the same things,  peoples lack of enthusiasm being another one.  Yet I guess I feel it even sharper in the safety we have to today to stand up for and defend the truth, as if one’s life is at risk for doing so, whose going to say they would do any different if living in those times. But today, mostly, peoples lives are not at risk,  the cost is a little comfort! And comfort and ease in my opinion are two of the idols of our age amongst the visible church. Sometimes I am glad to be in such abject poverty, and discomfort, or without a doubt I would fall foul to it too, but I never get the opportunity to.

Calvin wrote that in Geneva he died a thousand a deaths a day; and I can honestly say I have said the exact same words to some folks, before I ever knew he said it. The last week has been tougher than I could hope to describe in adequate terms so that most or anyone reading this would be likely to understsand in any reality,  in the biography of Calvin I am currently reading, “John Calvin–A pilgrim’s life,” you read of Calvin saying:

“Today I urgently prayed and begged God at least twenty times that he may let me die.” but Calvin knew  God did not always answer prayer in the affirmative,  and so he was to stay in Geneva , and to stay there alive.

But to read of Calvin having the same criticisms, that I have had directed towards me, by both Calvinst and non-calvinists alike, I find rather reassuring.  Many people will say they are Calvinists, without knowing much about the man, or having read much if anything in its entirety of what he wrote.  The Scriptures say that the student will become like his master. And yes, it is talking of Christ of course, and his diciples, those who follow him. But as Calvinists, we should also kow what Calvin thought, believed and said about certain  issues. Not take his word on those things that they are correct without first  checking whether what Calvin said, wrote, or belived, can be supported by the Scriptures, Calvin, the Westminster Standards or any other reformed writings should always be subordnate to the Scriptures, but as refomred belivers, they are not of no import to us.  A Christian who does not study Church history, and actually know it for themselves, rather than second hand, will never be a good Christian.  God’s dealing with his people through the church down the ages, is HIS-story.  But the student is never wiser than his master, and Calvin was a student of the Scripture most of all, but he still read widely the patristic fathers of his day, such as Augustine.   So, even though different imes, different aims, I guess I have found a Christian I can relate to in Calvin. Some will even today, criticise his view, and that is their right of course,  yet what is Calvin doing apart from putting the teachings of Scripture at the forefront of everything.  People today will often claim the Scriptures are infallible and sufficient, and yet live  as if they don’t believe that at all. What a man belives so he is. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Our actions will always tell others what is really in our hearts no matter what we may claim with our lips.

But if you are going read Calvin, or any books on Christian history, then read them with a critical viewpoint. Because many of these works are unscholarly at best, dishonest at worst.  The Scriptures is the only book one can gurantee is a hundred per cent authentic.  It is why, if you are reading about Calvin, or the Puritans, or the Scots Covenanters, you need to know them for yourselves, as far as their teachings and thoughts on any given issues.  Because without that, given the  way some writers today misrepresent history, in some cases distort the truth, you will believe alot of stuff about Calvin, the puritans, and Scots covenanter that has no basis in truth. Whereas if you have enough understnading of what they teach on certain issues, how they thought, how they lived, how the interprted certain things, you will have the critical eye needed to read any book of history.  Because many historians today, have ahidden agenda; many of them are written by pagans and heathens, so of course they have an agenda.  And if you do not know to start with what they thought and believed, then it will be a case of the blind leading the blind, and you both falling down a ditch as far as believing things that are inaccurate.

Learning the truths of the Bible, and letting the word dwell in us richly comes by diligent study of the word; learning the truth about Calvin, the puritans the socts covenanter or any other individual or aspect of church history, again, comes by diligent study. It doesn’t happen by surfing a few websites, for a few quotes here and there, that my impress a forum, (or may not do) but whatever men may think of us, whether it is good or ill, the only opinin that should really mater to us, is that of the Lord Jesus, and to be assured of our standing with Him. That can, and will only come by diligent study, not by sloth, or indiffierence, or indulging the flesh in recreations or pleasures in excess.  The Christian life should not be a comfortable life for the most part, but one of hard work, often very lonely, often very afflicted,  but always, always, leading us closer to Christ and heaven.   John Calvin was an example of that in action. He is a good figure for any Calvinist to study, and as Calvinist’s I would say it is even our duty to.

I for one have been much encouraged in learning of Calvin the man, as well as the Theologian. In his great physical exteremities of course he has been a source of encouragment and comfort that way, given my own physical extremities. But, I also take cofort, that the same criticisms, and same narrow views that he was accused of having, are often the same as my own, and will I belieive, make the criticisms bounce off easier without leaving much of a mark.  In fact, I parted from a  “friend” just this last weekend, because they said my views were too “narrow.”

John calvin--A Pilgrim's Life

Sometimes, John Calvin’s lack of addressing a subject at any length, his comparative silence on any subject, the opposers of what he taught, and the position of the historic reformed Church, the Biblical position is under-minded purely on the basis of Calvin NOT saying much about it! How’s that for a positive negative?

The one that immediately comes to mind, is Calvin’s view on Keeping the Sabbath Day. In his institutes he said little about this, and from that, and the fable, (yes I say that as fact, even though I was not there, because so many of Calvin’s writings if you read them you know it has to be fable as it would be against everything he taught and practiced) that he went bowling one Sabbath day, which is mere conjecture, are used to prove Calvin was not a strict Sabbatarian. I have read enough however in other sources to know that this was not true.

Calvin having penned certain hymns, is also something often used to say he was not an Exclusive Psalmodist. Yet ascribing certain hymns to his having written that have never been proved to have been his, is again, somewhat lame and clutching at straws. Let’s deal with fact. A thorough read of just a few of Calvin’s writings would soon make known that Calvin believed the Regulative Principel of Worship, and was in part its founder as far as bringing it back into practice in the public Worship of God. Same as for his being a strict Sabbatarian.
But I would like to quote Malcom H Watts, from a little booklet he wrote in response to Iain H. Murray’s rather poor, in my opinion attempt to say why hymns were okay in worship, called “The Psalter–The only hymnal” Watt’s wrote a response called, “God’s hymnbook for the Christian church” of which a little is from below:

Given Calvin’s strongly held views on Scriptural psalmody, it is unlikely–to say the very least–that he would written a hymn for public worship. Further more, it is significant that this hymn did not appear in the 1539 Strasbourg Psalter, for which Calvin was responsible, but in the 1545 Psalter, which was prepared by Jean Garnier, the Pastor of the French Church in that city… 1) When the hymn first appeared in 1545, Calvin had been back in Geneva for four years; and 2) the hymn next appeared in the 1553 Strasbourg Psalter which, once again, was the work of Garnier…. attention should be drawn to an important letter Calvin wrote to Conrad Hubert, on May 19th, 1557. In that letter Calvin said: “By nature I was inclined to poetry, but I have bit it farewell, and for twenty five years I have composed nothing, except at Worms, followign the example of Philipp and Sturmm, I was led to write for diversion that poem you read [Epinicion Christo Cantatum--a Latin Poem against the papacy. MHW.] It would appear from this statement, contrary to popular belief, Calvin did not compose any hymns for worship and therefore he was not responsible for the hymn in question. This hymn cannot be produced as evidence that Calvin supported the cuase of uninspired hymnody. [Malcom H. Watts–”God’s hymnbook for the Christian Church.”

Whether it is going back to forms of worship they had formerly condemend and may still silently condemn in their heart while tkaing part in it, [as Paul says in Gal 2:18] or in various others ways. Calvin’s words are no less relevant today than they were when he wrote them:

What shall I say of those, who, after having tasted the gift of God, instead of opposing the insufferable tyranny with all their force as they ought, conceal on the contrary, despite their real opinions, the sad state of the [persecuted] Church. OUt of real consideration for their reputation or for their wealth they suffer in silence these iniquitous judgments, and they would regard it with dishonour if they were to be the objects of the least suspicion. Moreover, in order not to expose themselves to the reproach of impiety, they allege that the doctrine of the gospel causes so many scandals. They go shouting to anyone who will listen to them, that public peace is endangered by those whom they call the new followers of the gospel, and though they are very eloquent, on the other hand their lives are but little conformed to the gospel. These fastidious reverend gentlemen, that is high ecclesiastical dignitaries and fawning abbots, who are quite content to have the gospel and chat about it happily and merrily with the ladies, provided that that does not prevent them living as they see fit. I classify these spoilt darlings of the court with ladies who have never learnt to be anything but pampered and , for this reason, are incapable of understanding anything apart from compliments paid to their elegance. I am in no way amazed if the whole lot of them band together against me as if they had taken a great oath, and all condemn my excessive severity with one voice. I seem to hear them saying, “Let’s have no more talk of Calvin, he is too inhuman. What! If we were to believe him, he would not only make us beggars he would lead us straight to the stake. Is there any need to hurry us on in this way? We are doing very nicely here, let him stay where is is and leave everyone else in peace.” The conclusion is that I don’t know now what the world is like. When they have told each other all sorts of flattering tales, they thin that they have taken vengeance on me. Very well. But what will they do before God to whom I refer their case, and will summon them by the sound of the trumpet [i.e. to appear before the last judgment]? A reverend gentleman may well merrily defy the crucifix and live a fast life in feasting, gaming, dancing, and all sorts of gallantry, at its expense. For a crucifix is nothing but a little idol. but God will not be mocked in this way… Instead of their holding forth continually against me and having a good laugh at my warnings, I should like to get them to think that one day they must appear before God to be judged by this same Word that I set before them now. For my part, I have not been hired to tickled their fancy.”

“Whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever willsoever his life for my sake shall find it.”

If the faithful in the early church had said as much [as the Nicodemites]. what would have become of Christianity. Would it not have been crushed and swept away before it came into existence? All the theology of the ancient martyrs lay in knowing that there is one God who must be adored, than in Him alone man’s entire confidence must be centred, that the true service which he requires is adoring him and calling upon his name. Their knowledge of these beliefs was not so lofty that they could present them as the results of subtle and detailed deductions, but they held them in all simplicity. Yet withal they would run with a merry heart to the fire or to any other death to which they were condemned. Nay, the women even took their children thither. We who are mightily learned and can so cleverly discuss all these matters, we do not know what it is to testify to the truth of God in the hour of need and to prove our Christianity.

Calvin lived in both poverty and exile. In my own lot in life I could claim similar though in a different sense but those two words are still not strangers to my lot in life.

Calvin was the master of self-denial. With those two things alone, plus his very many extreme phyiscal maladies, plus his only child dying as an infant, plus the shortness of his marriage of which he seemed to truly have found his soul mate yet he was to only have her for nine years  before she died, but his love towards her and the place in his heart of her was obvious when he wrote these words, at her passing:

“I have been deprived of my excellent life-companion, who, if it had been necessary, would have faced with me, not only exile and poverty, but even death. As long as she lived, she was my faithful helper in the ministry. She was never the least hindrance to me.”

When you think of the above, and picture a man not only with those losses and exile and poverty, but in so much pain he had to be carried around in a chair or on a stretcher, that he rarely slept, ate only one meal a day, had regular bouts of kidney stones,  had TB, gout, migraines and something that severely affected his stomach, what a picture of utter self denial he must have been, when he continued his labours as he did when up against all the above and more physical things besisdes not listed here.  The cause of Christ alone was all that mattered to him. And the things he wrote against, he once poured out:

“But O Lord, thou hast enlightened me by the brightness of of thy Spirit…thou hast placed before me thy Word as a lamp to show me how pernicous and evil these things are; thou hast touched my heart in order that I might truly abominate them.”

In Book III Chapters Vi-X of his institutes he wrote of self-denial in these words, and who more than he was speaking from first hand experience and knowledge when the above was his life? He wasn’t writing from some detached viewpoint, of never having known what it was to suffer want.  He as much as anyone in history, knew exactly what it was to suffer want, need, and comfort. When someone writes with first hand knowledge, rather than cool detachment, I always find the words so much more powerful and meaningful. Because for any of us, words are cheap and easy,  and  things are very easy to say,  but when it comes to doing them, often it is a different matter entirely.

We are not our own, we belong to the Lord. We are not our own. Let our reasons and our wills then never predominate in our thinking and in our acting…We are not our own. Let us then forget ourselves as much as is possible.. O how well a man has profitted if he has recognized that he is not his own and has taken the lordship and rule of himself away from his own reason and handed it over to God!”

“I offer my heart to God as a sacrifice, promptly and sincerely.” Those are the words on Calvin’s seal, and how apt.

I don’t need or intend to go into details of my own lot in life, only it is one of being in need, and in a very real sense of poverty and exile even if in a different sense to Calvin’s.  But his example has helped me,  and I am also trying to lose myself, and remember even during my hardest moments, that we are not our own, and that comes straight out of Scripture of course.
But for anyone else, who may not be on such hard times, and may not use all they have for the glory of God so much as furthering their own ends and comforts and riches rather than  bringing in the Kingdom, then I exhort and implore you folks too, to remember, that we are not our own, and a Christian who will not practice self denial in the Biblical sense, for the glory of God and the good of his church, is a Christain only at half power.  How much more could the church grow and thrive if  people today were willing to practice Calvin’s  example of self-denial, because all that mattered to us, was the cause of Christ, just like it was to him.   That was what kept him working and labouring, when he should have been an invalid incapacitated.  I heard it said of Martin Luther, that he didn’t know what the words “I can’t” meant.  And i think that is probably doubly true of Calvin.

I have other heroes of the faith, as well as Calvin, but he will always be amongs the top of them. Not because he bears the name of we who call ourselves Calvinists or because of his theology or doctrine, but his self sacrificing and self denying  to the uttermost, so that he became nothing to himself, is what made him able to labour and toil, when many people would not have even been able to read a book if in his shoes.

We need to Calvinize Calvinists,  so that we can get back to the ole paths,  and stop wandering on our  present course of sef-fulfillment, and  self serving,  but  take up his ensignia too, “I ofer my heart to God as a sacrifice, promptly and sincerely,” because if we all vowed to do that in sincerity and followed it through, the rest would naturally follow.
As the man whose does have the name of the REforemd faith we follow, his life and sacrifices and self denying to the uttermost of the cause of Christ, should be an inspiration to us all, and an encouragment and exhortation to be more like him in those ways. We don’t just need his theology and doctine, we also need his spirit and self sacrificing heart, or we will be like card board cut out Calvinists or Mickey Mouse ones. And we who come from such a noble heritage, should want o ape those who went before us to give it the nobility it has. The cause of Christ is a noble cause, and only a noble fight and those with a noble spirit, will be at the front, trying to gain ground agains the flesh and the devil and the prince of this world, and yet we only have to look around us to see how the world is becoming more entranced and bewitched by the devils teachings, and he is making more impact than us, so we need to act and think like an army, the army of Christ, who with a plan and strategy, and he examples we have before us of history, and not forgetting most of all the sinless man who sufffered more than anyone else ever had done or ever will do, rather than resting in our comforts and ease, and trying to improve our own riches while the church of Christ gets poorer, because it is not getting our help or support or time or energy, or we not only trash our noble heritage, we are als ingrates, for Christ gave his all for us, and yet how much are we prepared to give for Him?

We are not our own, we were brought for a price. The precious sweet blood of Jesus Christ. It is a debt we can never repay, but it seems to me we have fogotten where our loyalties should lie a lot of the time, and have become self serving, and self centred rather than serving Christ and self sacrificing.
We need to get back on the holy highway and follow the old paths. And use men like Calvin’s example, of what human beings can achieve even in the worst of circumstances, when the power of God is driving someone on. How much more could and should be achieved in the best of circumstances by comparison?

This is addressed to those readers who also belong to the Reformed Faith.

Are you suffering from Calvinania this year which is celebrating the 500th year of the birth of John Calvin?  I started out with a very ignorant, very unworthy opinion of it all, when it first started to come to my attention towards the later half of last year. It is the first “big” or notable anniversary I have expereinced as a Christian, and my ignorant opinion didn’t see very much point to it all or what it would achieve or how it could possibly do any good in real terms.

I have since had a big change of heart on this matter however.  Thankfully this is one ignorant opinion I kept to myself when it seemed as it did at first to me. But you may have noticed how many posts of late have been about Calvin and different aspects of his life and work this is of course as a direct result of this year of Calvinania.

I have found personal encouragment and inspiration from the life of John Calvin, particuarly in how he fought on in the face of such illness and how much he achieved in the midst of so many terrible physical maladies.  For someone in my physical condition, the story of the heroic  accomplishments of John Calvin when so up against the wall in his body, at times moved me to tears,  and I felt he was weeping with me, because it felt so very personal because of my own mulitple phyiscal extremities.   The amount he achieved when up against so much, truly defies and beggars belief.  And one thing I have set myself the goal of doing, in light of reading how he overcame such terible ill health  is to d the same as he did, and to lose himself, so that no matter what he was suffering, his cause of Christ was always at the forefront of everything that drove him on, in what seems like total self denial, and self sacrifice.   Please excuse me though, when at times,  I seem to scoff at how people today with a simple cold are suddenly incapaciated invalids,  but in the face of Calvin’s noble struggle and what he achieved, I  can’t help but feel that to be put out of actoin completely by a simple cold, lke many people are is more than a bit wimpish and unmanly, if we are talkng about otherwise healthy men.

So back to the question, have you been touched, affected, inspired, are planning to perhaps attend any of the big events perhaps even in Europe to celebrate the birth of John Calvin 500 years ago? if you have your own  stories to tell of how you have been touched, moved, inspired,  or encouraged by this event, then please share in the comments.

But my ignorant opinion I started out with about this, was just that An ignoratnt opinion, one of  not knowing any differnt, and one I feel shame at holding until I knew better and discovered some of the good things that can come from commemorative events such as this for myself.

This is a quote about a different commemorative event of the Reformed faith, yet the excerpt I am quoting still holds true for this year of Calvinania too and perhaps other commemorative events of other things that may follow in other years.

What a family or a church celebrates signals the values they cherish. Commemoratives are spiritual versions of family reunions, which are filled with the notes of deep family love, aspects of celebration and renewal, recollections of the past, and even complete with sibling rivalries and infighting. The srength of commitment to underlying traditions is observed when a church (as with a family) carries out those celebrations, even during times of difficulty and opposition. A brief review of previous examples of commemorations may help in appreciating that legacy, as well as give guidance for the future. Such study may also reveal subtle changes of emphasis over time within the tradition of any ecclesiasical family.

The Above was actually referring to the meeting of the Westminster Assembly from Ligon Duncan’s book “The Westminster Confession into the 21st century. But it is no less true for Calvinania.  And since the reformed church has wandered from the path of its origins in very many instances, and away from the teachings of the man whose name it takes after itself,  then maybe this year of Calvinania maybe a year when we can gather our troops, and plan our strategies, about how to get back on the same path that was originally laid out by the Scriptures and which Calvin so ingeniously laid out systematically to us in what we now know as Calvinism. The fact that Calvin’s work was based on Scripture alone, speaks volumes for its value. And though I would never suggest Calvin was right on every point he ever made,  may it never be! The fact he used upwards of 7,000 Scripture references alone in his Institutes, says just how much what we commonly call Calvinism was merely the Gospel clearly explained.  No one should read Calvin or any one else, without an open Bible on their laps to see that what they are being taught is what Scripture teaches about the same subject.  But I bleieve Calvinism is Biblical. If you are a Calvinist then you must do so too. So, are you celebrating Calvinania? Have you profitted from it already? Been encouraged? Inspired? Plan to take part in some of the events around the world meeting to mark th eevent? If so, then good on you, and may you find it as profitable as I have even in my small expereince. But if you are a reformed Christian, and perhaps feel indifferent or share the same ignorant opinon that I started out about it with, then shame on you.

As I saw a young man quote a week or so ago, though the original source escapes me at the present time:” Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeate it.”

We need to get back and follow the old paths that Calvin and his contemporaries were on. Because we have significantly dropped the baton and are losing our way.   Calvinania could be the opportunity to start to do that.

Westminster Confession Into the 21st Century edited by Ligon Duncan

True Calvinists, I mean those who depend on a majestic Sovereign Lord, in the same way that John Calvin did, do not use John Calvin as a paper pope. Sadly, all too often, Calvinists can and do, do this, which makes them little different to the papists they ejaculate against, yet they are doing exactly the same in blindly following the teachings of Calvin, and what Scripture says about anything, is not first on their agenda, but rather, What did Calvin say.   Sadly there are very many bad examples of Reformed Christians in our cultures today. They may not all be in the above kinds of ways, but apart fromt that they share the same theology and doctrine, they have nothing else in common at all, with their calvinist heritage, beacuse they certainly do not have the spirits or the hearts. Yes, we all have faults and weaknesses, I have my own fair share, and you can most likely say the same. But I am coming to realize more and more than the damge that Calvinists sustain in our world today, is not inflicted by our enemies, but most often by our own hands. By either apart from doctrine and theology, our hearts and spirits are far removed from the passion that those men had to serve God above all else, and the courage they had, that they were willing to lose all, to serve God and their fellow man. And in other instances , of using Calvin as a paper pope. No one would find it more abhorrent than Calvin that his opinion would be preferred over Scripture, because before anything else, Calvin was a student of the Scriptures.  In his Institutes of Christian religion, alone, he used over 7,000 references to Scripture, and his thought, the way he systemized the theology we now know as Calvinism, was all drive by his studying the Scriptures and his high view of God and low view of himself.

If someone is putting Calvin’s opinion over and above and before that of what God’s Holy Writ says, then they are a follower of Calvin, in name at least, but they are not a follower of Christ, or its at least questionable.  No Calvinist, should prefer Calvin above God, or Scripture. No Calvinist worth his or her salt ever will do. And the same goes for the Westminster Standards too and any of the other great reformers or historic creeds of the church.

Jonathan Edwards, at the start of his work on the freedom of the will wrote something intersting about Calvinism vs Arminianism, and the final sentences of this quote pretty much says it all.

That the difference of the opinions of those, who in their general scheme of divinity agree with these two noted men, Calvin, and Arminius, is a thing there is often occasion to speak of, is what the practice of the latter, itself confesses; who are often, in their discourses and writings, taking notice of the supposed absurd and pernicious opinions of the former sort…. Nevertheless, at first I had thoughts of carefully avoiding the use of the appellation “Arminian” in this treatise. But I soon found I should be put to great difficulty by it; and that my discourse would be so encumbered with an often repeated circumlocution, instead of a name, which would express the thing intended, as well and better, that I altered my purpose. And therefore I must ask the excuse of such as are apt to be offended with things of this nature, that I have so freely used the term “Arminian” in the following discourse. I profess it to be without any design, to stigmatize persons of any sort with a name of reproach, or at all to make them appear more odious. If when I had occasion to speak of those divines who are commonly called by this name, I had, instead of styling them Arminians, called them “these men,” as Dr. Whitby does Calvinistic divines; it probably would not have been taken any better, or thought to show a better temper, or more good manners. I have done as I would be done by, in this matter. However the term “Calvinist” is in these days, among most, a term of greater reproach than the term “Arminian”; yet I should not take it at all amiss, to be called a Calvinist, for distinction’s sake: though I utterly disclaim a dependence on Calvin, or believing the doctrines which I hold, because he believed and taught them; and cannot justly be charged with believing in everything just as he taught. [emphasis added]

This is often attributed to John Calvin, but  it is no certainty. However, we are sure that it was a prayer Calvin prayed and it was included at the beginning of the 1545 Strasbourg Psalter.

1 I greet my sure Redeemer and my King.
You are my trust; accept the love I bring.
What pain you suffered, Jesus, for my sake;
I pray you from our hearts all cares to take.

2 You are the King of mercy and of grace,
reigning omnipotent in every place;
so come, O King, and our whole being sway;
shine on us with the light of your pure day.

3 You are the life by which alone we live
and all our substance and our strength receive.
Sustain us by your faith and by your power,
and give us strength in every trying hour.

4 You have the true and perfect gentleness.
You have no harshness and no bitterness.
Lord, grant to us the grace in you we see
that we may live in perfect unity.

5 Our hope is founded on your holy Word.
Our faith is built on every promise, Lord.
Grant us your peace; make us so strong and pure
that we may conquerors be, all ills endure.

Listen very carefully, I will only say this once!

I sometimes find with common themes that I keep coming up against, it is useful to make one blog post on the very subject involved, and then in future, when the same thing comes up again, (which it surely will do or I would not feel the need to make this post) I can refer whoever is in question to the alreayd made blog post from a past time the same thing arose.

Although this is a Calvinist blog, this post is not primiarily aimed at Calvinists, though you may find it edifying nonetheless. It is aimed towards mostly other striped Christians who may have very differeing beliefs to me, and who will object or have a point of disagreement when they hear me talking of faith issues, but please note, that it is always without fail, those who are different stripe Christians who bring up the argumentative point of differnece, and we are not the ones (usually at least) who go around trying to alter or detract from what they believe, unless of course they are downright heretical.

But, I want to give a definiteion os what Calvinism is, though of course it is brief and only touching the tip of the icerberg, a simple blog post can never cover such a vast subject, that is what Calvin’s institues, and his commentaries and thousands of other books out there and avialbel to the reader exist for. If the reader this is aimed at wants to know more, then you will have to go the source. But one term that is often used abuot Calivnism, or at least implied is legalists. Because we hold the law as central to the Christian life, so I am hoping by posting this, somehwat short and succinct defintion of Calvinism may help those other stripe Christians to perhaps at least, before labelling us legalists, to understand why as Calvinists, the law is something we esteem.  I get a little weary at times, of having to defend my poistion, when there should be no need, and when I never ask different stripe Christians to do the same, unless they are  clearly espousing heresy.

Calvin stressed that the Christian life, is a life of service to God. This
service is not only the believers responsibility, but also his joyous privilege.  He also taught that the Christian life, is a life of warfare, against the world,  the flesh and the devil. To wage a successful warfare, the Christian must  continually avail himself of the grace of God. The means of grace, are the Word  of God, prayer, fellowship of the body of Christ, and the sacraments of Baptism  and the Lord’s Supper. Through these means, God communicates all the riches of  Christ and of his salvation to the believer.
Calvin also emphasized the centrality of the Law of God, in the life of the  Christian. Although the Christian is not saved by the works of the law,, having  been saved from a life of lawlessness, the Christian now seeks to deny himself,  and to please God by keeping his commandments.
The Law gives the standard for living and the Christian actions for all of life.  Calvin taught that the Christian life is embodied in the process of
sanctification, whereby the justified believer is brought to increasing
conformity to the will of God, and the character of Christ, by the ministry of  the Holy Spirit, working in and through the Word of God.

Calvinism has always had a high view of the Law of God, and its place in the  Christian life, and in the world. The Law of God is the transcript of the Will  of God and God’s own holy nature, and therefore is immutable, and binds all men  in all ages.The Covenant Law revealed through Moses and the Prophets, is the revelation of  God’s will for his people. Calvinism firmly stands against the degrading of  God’s law, by legalism and antinomianism. Legalism is the misuse of God’s Law,  and antinomianism is the rejection of God’s Law, but Calvinism stands for the  love and proper use of God’s Law. [John Calvin, man of the millennium]

And as Benjamin Breken Warfield wrote:

The exact formulation of the fundamental principle of Calvinism, has indeed  taxed the acumen of a long series of thinkers for the last hundred  years…perhaps the simplest statement of it is the best, that it lies in his  profound apprehension of God in his majesty, with the inevitability,  accompanying poignant realization, of the exact nature of the relation sustained  to him by the creatures as such, and particularly by the sinful creature. He who  believes in God without reserve, and is determined that God shall be God to him,  in all his thinking, feeling, willing–in the entire compass of his life’s  activity, intellectual, moral, spiritual, throughout all his individual,  social,  religious relations, is by the force of the strictest of all logic which  presides over the outworking of principles, into thought and life, by the very  necessity of the case is a Calvinist. In Calvinism, then, objectively speaking,  theism comes to its rights;  subjectively speaking, the religious relation, attains  its purity;  soteriologially speaking, evangelical religion finds at length, its fullest  expression and its securest stability. Theism comes to its right, only in  a  teleological conception of the universe, which perceives in the entire course of  events, the orderly outworking,  of the plan of God,  who is the Author,  Preserver, and Governor of all things, whose will is the ultimate cause of all.  The religious relation attains its purity, only when an attitude of absolute  dependence is not merely temporarily assumed in the act, say, of prayer, but  sustained through all the activities of life, intellectual, emotional,  executive. And evangelical religion reaches stability only when rests in humble,  self emptying trust, purely on the God of grace, as the immediate  and sole  source of all the efficiently which enters into salvation and these things are  the formative principles of Calvinism.

Though I have to say, the above quote maybe a fuller descrption but this shorter one by B.B. Warfield nails it for me:

The Calvinist is the man who has seen God, and who, having seen God in His glory, is filled on the one hand with a sense of his own unworthiness to stand in God’s sight as a creature, and much more as a sinner, and on the other hand, with adoring wonder that nevertheless this God is a God who receives sinners. He who believes in God without reserve and is determined that God shall be God to him in all his thinking, feeling and willing – in the entire compass of his life activities, intellectual, moral and spiritual – throughout all his individual social and religious relations, is, by force of that strictest of all logic which presides over the outworking of principles into thought and life, by the very necessity of the case, a Calvinist.The Calvinist is the man who sees God behind all phenomena,and in all that occurs recognizes the hand of God, working out His will; who makes the attitude of the soul to God in prayer the permanent attitude in all its life activities; and who casts himself on the grace of God alone, excluding every trace of dependence on self from the whole work of his salvation.

My article on John Calvin and Michael Servetus can be read HERE:

When you see headlines such as Calvin murdered Servetus, another intersting fact is often over looked. That Servetus as the most renowned heretic in Europe of those days, was as wanted as much by the Roman Catholic Church as he was by the Reformed Chruch for spreading heresy abroad.  Rather than ministering to him, like the account of Calvin did in the above linked article they would have been likely in those days to have inflicted as much torture, and cruelty upon him as they could do.

This was written by a Jesuit Priest, Suarez, in “De Triplic Vritute Theologia Tract 1. dsp. 23 Sect 2) he lays down these assertions:

That all heretics, who after sufficient instruction and admonition, still persist in their error, are to be without mercy put to death.

That all impenitent heretics, though they profess to be Catholics, being convicted of heresy, are to be put to death.

That relasping heretics, though penitent, are to be put to death without mercy.

That is it most probable, that hersiarchs, dogmatists, or the authors of heresy, though truly penitent, yet are not to be recieved to favour, but deliverd to teh civil sword.

Servetus was an unrepentant heretic, with a price on his head no less from the romish church than any other church of the day. What do you think they would have done with him?  But, according to  some accounts of history, though there is no sure way to know if it is true or not, the last words Servetus was heard to utter according to this acccount,  is “Eternal Son of God, recieve my spirit.”  From the man who had been a notorious unitarian heretic all his life. If that story is true, then it was through the labours of  one man.  That of Master Calvin, who it is known, pleaded with him even upon the day of his execution to repent of his heresy. I hope it is true.

The above Jesuit tract was quoted from Naphtali Press “Anonymous writings of George Gillepsie”

Now there’s a provocative subject!

Before Calvin’s conversion, he wasn’t just your average Roman catholic, he loved the superstitoin and idolatory assocated with the external ceremonies of the popish church.  He was utterly bound by the superstition and totally enchannted and enrapt by it.

Now the reason this has significance for us today, (IMHO) is because today, if we have come from a less than Reformed back ground, if we don’t have perfect reformed teaching, we make all excuses for everyone, of this, that and the other, of why they may not see something even after many years of being Reformed Christians sometimes.

So how could Calvin turn immediately from idolatory to orthodoxy and because he knew the sin involved in his former idolatory, embrace and carve out in a systemized way,  in his instuitutes the True Religion that had been shrouded by superstition and idolatory for almost a thousand years?  He did not have the light that we ALL have today, when the Reformation dawned, it was a dim light that slowly grew into a bigger beam, but light dawned slowly because of how enshrouded by darkness and  with what secrecy the Bible had been locked up from the people  in for close to a thousand years.

Again, Calvin serves as an example, of what turning to the Word of God as the sole authoirty and to the exclusion of all else as far as it being the final authority,  and what hard work, study and diligence produced in such a short time.   He was so struck by the sin of his former idolatory that he feared ever going anywhere near it again, and turned right away from it in the opposite direction. Now isn’t that a Biblical picture of repentance, from any sin? So why if someone doesn’t have the perfect church or have some lesser  church than others,  should we give them sympathy and  and patience when the remedy lies in their own hands, if they turn away fromn the things that distract them from the diligence needed  to study the Word whole heartedly to see for themselves what God says on this or that.  Again, the standards have changed, and once again, Calvin is a pattern, a prototype, of true repentance. And whatever our sins were before our conversion, just as Calvin’s major sin was idoloatory,  the remedy and result of repentance when we turn towards God and make a profession of saving faith, and in the Refomred faith, is  not one iota different. And nor, IMHO, should it be viewed so with all the advantages we have today, of information and resources often FREELY available to us,   or certainly within most peoples means to attain financially if needs be.  The only thing that seems to be lacking is motivtion and dilligence which seems replaced with sloth and complacency.

The standards haven’t changed for what constitutes Biblical Christianity.  But we have.  And boy are we reaping the cost of that.

In this 500th anniversary year since John Calvin’s birth it seems fitting to have more than the usual regular posts regarding him, and his life, his achievements and his legacy. I am reading several books at the moment, about different aspects of Calvin the man and his ministry, and one or two to follow afterwards too. I shall give a list at the foot of this post as worthwhile reads for anyone who wishes to read themselves.

Calvin had his plans all laid out, He was to retire in quiet contemplation, meditation and study. He was a man of meditation more than action, which probably suited his naturally meek and timid disposition. God however had other plans.  A quote from Calvin himself regarding  Farel’s  entreating him to stay:

As the most direct road to Strasburg, to which I then intended to retire, was as shut up by thewars, I had resolved to pass quickly by Geneva, without staying longerthan a single night in that city. A little before this, Popery had been drivenfrom it by the exertions of the excellent person whom I have named, andPeter Viret; but matters were not yet brought to a settled state, and thecity was divided into unholy and dangerous factions. Then an individualwho now basely apostatised and returned to the Papists, discovered meand made me known to others. Upon this, Farel, who burned with anextraordinary zeal to advance the gospel, immediately strained every nerveto detain me. And after having learned that my heart was set upondevoting myself to private studies for which I wished to keep myself freefrom other pursuits, and finding that he gained nothing by entreaties, heproceeded to utter an imprecation that God would curse my retirement,and the tranquillity of the studies which I sought, if I should withdraw andrefuse to give assistance, when the necessity seas so urgent. By thisimprecation I was so stricken with terror, that I desisted from the journeywhich I had undertaken.

Calvin heard the call, and had such fear of God, he  laid all his own plans aside to do as he felt called to do, because he had always had a strong sense of duty.

Calvin, in my humble opinion, is the opposite of what is wrong with much of the reformed church today. Today we stay in our little private nooks and crannies and have very insular faith. As long as our little boat is happy, then our belly is full and the work of the Lord,  in building up the church in whatever way that may be, is often laid aside because we choose comfort over  self-denial.  I have seen this up close and personal on numerous occassions.   Calvin was a theological genius of his day, and today, we can have all our theological ducks lined up near perfectly, but knowledge doesn’t maketh the Christian,  to be doers of the Word makes us either an  below average Christian or an good Christian.

Calvin was carried about in the worst of health, and still he laboured. Now, a bad case of the sniffels sends us running for comfort and  ease and rest.  One time he was laid up when particuarly ill, and too ill to preach, he complained about his lack of work that month, yet that single month had written twenty sermons alone, along with other sundry articles.  He worked tirelessly,  and selflessly, yet even amongst the most knoweldgeable at times, these days,  we are very self serving, rather than God serving.  A friend in need, is easy to turn away from, or limit how much we may assist, if  its more comfortable for us to stay at home, in the comfort of our own little shady nook.  I’m sure we can find all kinds of plausible excuses, of why that may do so, yet the brethren are family, and the Spirit that unites the brethren in God’s family should not be thinner than blood. We should serve our brethren when we can, as much as if they were our own blood relatives, because in God’s eyes,  your neighbour and my neighobur are our real brothers and sisters, because we are all God’s children.  Yet you rarely find it practiced that blood is  not thicker than water. And  I see that as very little different, to how when Christ talking about forgiving our enemies or praying for them, , says if you forgive  someone who is not your enemy, how small is that,  to go the extra mile and forgive your enemies and put ourselves out for our brethren in a self sacrificing way,  was the life of Calvin and many of his contemporaries. We can follow the old paths in our doctrine. We can  have all our theology nicely squred with Scripture, but unelss we practice self denial, and self sacrificing to serve Christ, in serving the brethren, then we are not living up to our full potential or glorifying God  very much.

Too often today, even amongst the reformed or perhpas particuarly among the Reformed, because the REformed church can be very unloving and harsh at times it seems to me. It seems like we use the Sovereignty of God as a get out clause, very little different to how the hyper calvinists do over salvation.  It’s all in God’s hands, why should I intervene and try to help?   Calvin was a great man not because of his doctrine, it was because of his work to spread the light of that doctrine, and the way he sacrificed his all for serving the church, even when  often he was so ill he would pray to die.

He had one prayer that went, “Lord, your  hand is heavily upon me, but I am thakful it is your hand, and not anothers.”

I am all for everybody working to have good doctrine, to learn the truth of what Scripture teaches, and  only God’s Word being our final authority on anything.  I am all for the doctrine of the Reformed Church, ie. the gospel  rightly understood, pervading into other churches and the truth  being spread abroad and evangelizing to the lost.  But what I abhor about the Reformed church, in its current state, is the decay and stagnation that lies within it often times. There are faithful, hard working ministers and Christians of course,  and they should get our full support, but the other side  the coin is that there is much stagnation, and decay, where self serving  and only just serving the Lord seems to be the order of the day. We may practice personal piety, we may do all the right things in our own homes, but faith and the church was not meant to  be that insular and so self orieented to only include those under our own roofs, or those we come into contact with in our  occupational duties. We work because we eat and feed our families by working.  It’s not something we cannot do if able,  but if that and our own home is all that we really pay attention to or pour our heart into, then it equates mammnon and comfort as  our motivations for both.

If Calvin and his contemporaries had taken that stance, the reformation would have been a non-starter, a disaster. We need to encourage those faithful minister, and those Christians who serve faithfully, and do sacrifice for the sake of building up the church, but we also need to urge those who  seem to seve  themselves first,  and only their nearest and dearest, to fulfil the duty God has called all of us to.

Yes, we all have times where we feel too tired, too worn down, and we just need to sit a while and rest. But when it is constant and a continuous state of affairs then something is seriously wrong with that. It’s unbiblical, its not without gretat sin, and it shows how highly we prize ourselves above our brethren.

The Covenanters when thrown our of their manses and occupations, didn’t just  suffer persecution and  hunger and starvation themselves. Their wives, children and any other independants were also thrown out to fend for themselves penniless and with no place to rest their heads.  And feeding or sheltering those thrown out, was a capital offense,  one that could cost their lives, yet they did. Even the prisoners in Grey Friars church, and the puritans in  England, they had to rely for food, by it being brought in by theose who visited them. Those who visited them bringing food, risked arrest and imprisonment themselves, by doing so,  yet they did it for their brethren because they were willing to sacrifice for Christ and his crown and the brethren  who were also God’s children.  Calvin is a pattern, almost, of a living sacrifice. His work cost him his health.  Yet he gave it all for the glory of God and was a living sacrifice. What made Calvin great, was not his doctrine, or his theology on its own, it was how he put his sense of duty and serving God and by that serving his brethren  and was willing to deny himself everything to do so.  Calvin is a pattern for Calvinists to follow. Not only in his doctrine, but also in his service and quest for  building up the church and supporting the brethren in any way he  could do. Calvin had a pastors heart,  and  we are all part of the preisthood today. Whether ministers or you, or I, or  whomever it maybe, we all have a duty to self deny and serve God  first and foremost, and our own comfort, and shady nook, being preserved so that it causes us as little disturbance of inconvience as possible,  laid aside. The sense of duty that Calvin had should inspire us all to stirive for similar. Rather than  doing minium service,  and taking the good things in life God gives us, because God can take it all off us in even the enxt hour, because then we have made idols of the things we love best, and we  put them before serving the Sovereign God of Heaven and Earth.

Calvin saw God’s Sovereignty in all its majesty and splendour and greatness, and saw how small and  insignificant he was next to the great God of heaven. And that’s why, he was willing to live a life of almost total self denial and self sacrifce, to serve the Lord he loved. Because if we love anyone,  we will always put them first.  But if those we put first are always our own nearest and dearest at often times the cost to our brethren on our own doorstep almost,  then we love our nearest and dearest more than we love the Lord, and they are the idols of our heart,  and serving them,  comes before serving God.

I myself can lay claim to having been this, and no doubt sitll are at times,  I wonder if any of you may also too, because sin is a unversal condition.

This is a video of an audio lecture of a student lunch by Dr. Clark. I saw it posted on Nate, of Presbyterian Thoughts, blog, but it is likely I have a different set of readers to he. I still have to sort out my blog rolls properly, so if you are not linked yet, then please bear with me, I’m really up against the wall, health wise to achieving and doing all the things I would like to in a timely manner.

It the link takes too long to load, here is the Direct Link.

Calvin was plagued by ill-health most of his adult life. He had  amongst other things, gout, kidney stones, tuberculosis, possibly stomach cancer, or at least something that affected his stomach very  badly. He had to be carried around on a chair, or on  a stretcher, even lying in bed was painful for him. He had no sense of taste, and he was heard to comment, “Even the taste of wine is bitter to me.”  He prayed to die at times, even the great John Calvin, when he was in extremity in those ways physically.  When as illl as I am today, when it would be a mercy t obe removed from thsi world,  John Calvin in the above ways, is a source of comfort and encouragement. One prayer of his during these times was this:

“Oh Lord, your hand is heavily upon me, but I take comfort that it’s your hand but not another.”

Amen to that

Reading as a past-time, particuarly in the last few decades has seemed to have gone out of fashion. School kids who read a lot, or visit the library alot, are “nerds,” and generally stand out from the crowd because they are the exception rather than the norm.

We want everything today, fast. Whether it is food, or posessions, or entertainment. Everything has to be instantaneous, so that we are almost immedialy gratified on the spot as it were.

In the British education system, illiteracy has never been higher than in the present time. Kids are more interested in having kids of their own, when still kids themselsves, at least majority wise, than thinking about having an education, to go on and better themselves, their lives–improve themselves, and by so doing, improve society by being useful members of it.

It is all too common in this day and age, for people in their mid twenties perhaps even mid thirties, to have never done a days paid work in their life since leaving the education system. Not all of these are illerate of course, but  Britian is not known as Booze Filled Britain for no reason,  the drink and drugs  that are so freely available one way or another are stealing our young peoples lives, hopes and prospects of a decent standard of living and a productive life.

Many of these people in that age group, have children. They may be in stead relationships, some of them are in terriby tumultous relationships and they think its an ace idea to bring a baby into such a relationship as that. And then, with neither parent of the infant working, the tax payer has to support the entire family, so that they do not starve. Yet, it is also often the case, that a good proportion of the money they get off the social security, doesn’t go just to feed their family and put nappies or daipers on the babies, but  it also goes towards funding their drink and/or drugs habit, so the cycle can never be broken.

Some people are desperate for help to get out of this cycle. It is usually when they are at an older stage of their life than the aforementioned though, when they have suffered heavy personal losses because of the way their habits and lifestyles have robbed them of everything  they had and all the hopes we all start out with in the first flush of adolescnece now for those people gone forever.

The answer in my opinion is not to keep putting people in rehab when it has failed for them numerous times previously.  It is for rehab plus a support system, so that they are kept on the strangth and narrow and are not thrown out of rehab to cope with the temtation they are faced with every day, staring them in the face, and with no job, no prospects, perhaps alreayd having sustained heavy losses through their addicitons already, they have little motivation or reason to keep off the substance that has robbed them or any reasonable standard of life, and all the blessings that they once had now long gone.

Bug I digress: Teh art of reading and how it is now seen as not in vogue to have your head in a book–the peer pressure that goes along with that, if you are one of the young people who does read extensively, is just a symptom of our ever changing, self auntoamted existence we are making for ourselves I think. And the instant gratification we get from the things that the majority find their entertainment or leisure in, these days,  in my opinion in many ways points to sloth.  Reading a book takes time, you won’t get the instant thrill of gratifictation in an hour. It may take a few days or eve a week or two to read the said book. And you have to work at it, be persistent and finish the task to completion. All qualities that are ailing in our society and have fast become unfashionable.

Good books are like friends I think. My life though one of abject poverty in many ways,  thorugh my illness and my solitude in that illness, would be far poorer without the pure joy at times, in reading many good books.

I spend time in other leisure activities of course, such as watching TV, chatting with friends online, yet sometimes I resent some of these things, because when I think about how we are to redeem the time well, I don’t consider watching TV to be a part of that, yet by the same token when as ill as this, when as alone as I am when as ill as this, we all need time to wind down and do nothing but be entertained that takes very little effort on our part–the TV for me is one of the few things available to me that fits that descript.  But there is still a voice inside of me, which resents it, at times even feels guilty. But part of my having found contentment in this what can be oh so difficult lot in life, is rather accepting the things I cannot do, even if some of the things I feel corned into doing, are not exactly to my liking and would not be my choice if I had a regular life like most people with as many options.  I don’t read fiction, I consider it also an ill way to spend time.  But the books that we have, as Calvinists, the legacy that has been passed down to us by those giants of the faith of long ago, whether Calvin, Luther, the puritans such as Baxter,  and Burroughs, or the Scots covenanters such as Knox, and Renwick, what  a ridch legacy we have been left. And how slow and slothful we must be if we do not take at least some very real advantage from that legacy of words and writings, by going to them, to helping us to grow in knowledge, to become more like those stalwarts of years ago, and to be diligent in studying the Scriptures.

Reading may not be fashionable, or in-vogue by the majority of the world today, but as Calvinists we know, that it sure is profitable. And our real profit lies not in this world, not in the nice new shiny gadget or gizmo we can find  instant gratification from. But the real profit for all of us should be to be making our way home as pilgrims in this world, just passing though it,  and realzing this is a temporary abode, that our real home, and happiness lies in heaven, and to be fit for that, we need to  prepare ourselves in diligence in this life, and make sure we go through the narrow gate,  of which good books, and learning and studying and diligence in the duties of growing in holiness is a part of. While the things that bring us instant gratification, will not help us heavenwards one iota.  Moderation and temperance in all things,  makes nothing that is not sinful unlawful.  But just because something in and of itself is not unlawful or sinful, doesn’t mean we should  spend more time with it than is good for us, because then it becomes sinful in its own right. We can get the instant gratification, from the nice shiny gizmo or gadge, a good book however, diligently studied, and squaring it with what Scripture teaches, will get us more gratification in the next life than we can even dream possible from these vessels of clay we currently inhabit.
Matthew Poole said this:

Ministers are living Books, and Books are dead Ministers; and yet though dead, they speak. When you cannot heare the one, you may read the other.

And as Longfellow in his Psalm of life wrote:

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives subline,
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

And I can think of no truer example of that, in the wealth of books that the Reformers and puritans and Covenanters have left us,  as their legacy to those who  walked in their footsteps as far as fatih. What a pity it would be, no what a disgrace, to not  cherish it, so that we may become spiritual giants in some small way,  by learning from those who went before us, and  from whom we have much to learn from, and a returning to the old paths, must be a priority for Calvinists and the Church at large in general I believe.  But it won’t happen by us being slothful, or by spending our time feasting on the world. It will only happen to applying ourselves to diligence in the ways of holiness and experimental piety, rather than the theoretical that seems to abound in much of todays Reformed church.