Featured Lies About John Calvin Refuted

Here are some of Basil Hall's thoughts in the second chapter:

"Calvin is unjustly treated if he is thought of as a dominating personality wilfully imposing his arbitarily defined views on those who were compelled to listen to them. His works show a remarkably self-effacing quality...which is especially shown in the rarity of his references to himself and his own experiences;always he points from himself to Scripture,to Christ,to the church. It would be unjust to understand his theology as a system in the old scholastic sense, for Calvin would have regarded system-making as an all too human intellectual arrogance. Yet so fresh and profound were his theological insights,given with the lucid precision evident in all his writings,that the major themes of his thought, and the way they were articulated,must for want of a descriptive term be called 'Calvinism'." (pgs.20,21)

 

From Courtenay Studies In Reformation Theology : John Calvin.

This is from the fourth chapter :Calvin the Letter-Writer. It was written by Jean-Daniel Benoit.

"It cannot be denied that Calvin's vocation was one thrust upon him from above. It had not sprung up spontaneously from the depths of his being,but rather he had to be taken by force. he was only a pastor by constraint and in spite of himself,and that twice over. First Farel had made him stay in Geneva;and then, driven out of Geneva,Bucer had summoned him to Strasbourg. He would much rather have pursued his studies in some quiet corner,but in the thundering entreaties of Farel as in the urgent pleas of Bucer,who reminded him of the example of Jonah, he believed that he could discern the very voice of God. He thus accepted 'the teaching charge',that is the pastoral ministry. From then on he was a pastor, and having put his hand to the plough, he never looked back." (p.83)

Chapter eight,Calvin the Theologian, was authored by J.I.Packer.

"...Calvin held that in the Gospel Christ is offered to all,and spent his whole life seeking to spread the Gospel throughout Europe by praying,writing,advising,and training leaders...The popualr idea of him is still of a chilly,arrogant intellectualist --though in fact no Reformation leader was more consistently practical in his teaching,or more humble and adoring in his thoughts of God. Yet all serious Calvin-scholars now know that the Calvin of legend --the slobbering ogre,the egoistical fanatic,the doctrinaire misanthrope,the inhuman dictator with a devilish god --is a figure of fancy,not of fact. The real Calvin was not like that,nor was his theology the monstrous and mis-shapen thing that the legendary image would suggest." (p.150)

 

From Courtenay Studies In Reformation Theology :John Calvin.

More from J.I. Packer's chapter.

"His consistency is remarkable. All that he wrote was homogeneous. He never changed his mind on any doctrinal issue...all his opinions remained identical...his outlook was fully formed before his literary career began, and though as time went on he was able to magnify and augment he never needed to correct or retract...Thus, any statement of view in any of Calvin's writings,early or late, may be taken as integral to his thought throughout...Calvin's theology,first to last,was a great tapestry of biblical strands of thought,masterfully woven,and all of a piece." (p.152)

 

More from Packer's chapter:

"He lived as he preached and wrote,for the glory of God. Good theologians are not always good men, nor vice versa, but Calvin's life and theology were all of a piece. Consistency was his hallmark, both as a thinker and as a man." (p.173)

 

From Bruce Gordon's book on Calvin:

"In the biblical commentaries Augustine and Chrysostom not infrequently are declared to be dead wrong. Nevertheless, for Calvin, as for the other Protestant reformers, the church fathers were so highly regarded that they were constantly quoted and referenced." (p.107)

His "relations" to other Reformers:

"Farel was a loveable, if frustrating, uncle; Bullinger was the close cousin; Melanchthon the good schoolfriend; Beza the son. Bucer was truly the father figure." (p.89)

And I might add that Pierre Viret (1511-1571) was like a brother to Calvin.

 

Ah, maybe you aren't paying much attention?

 

Calvin,by Francois Wendel --translated by Philip Mairet. Some snips follow.

"Thus there was no question,as is so commonly supposed,of a theocratic regime in which the temporal power would be subject to the spiritual power. Calvin not only never succeeded in putting the Genevan Magistracy under the tutelage of the Church;he never even in theory announced the need for such a tutelage,which is precisely what characterizes a genuinely theocratic system." (p.309)

"In September 1548 there came to the knowledge of the public a letter which Calvin had written to Viret three years before,critizing the attitude of the Magistracy in no uncertain terms. Calvin was summoned and required to justify himself: the situation was such that at one moment he thought he would have to leave Geneva. But the Council did no more than call upon him 'to do his duty better another time.' " (p.89)

 

Continuing Quotes From Wendel's Book.

"Servetus,by his own attitude especially in the course of his disputes with Calvin,seemed purposely to stir up the animosity of his accusers,as though for pleasure. If we can believe the official report, his behaviour was in the last degree arrogant and unmannerely." (p.96)

"...Servetus suffered the fate that hundreds of heretics and anabaptists suffered at the hands of Protestant authorities of all shades of opinion,as well as of Catholic authorities;and secondly,that it is contrary to a sound conception of history to try to apply our ways of judging and our moral criteria to the past. Calvin was convinced, and all the reformers shared this conviction,that it was the duty of a Christian magistrate to put to death blasphemers who kill the soul,just as they punished murderers who kill the body." (p.97)

 

Time for a refresher course for some here who want to go down the same path as a recently banned member.

Facts get in the way of convenient theories as J.C.Ryle substantially said.

 

Take note and comprehend.

 

Are you beginning to understand?

 

Yeah, why is that?

 

The above is extracted from Bernard Cottret's book --"Calvin:A Biography."

 

Are you getting the picture now?