Featured Unqualified Rhetoric

Christians should not lie. You are lying DHK.

McGrath :Life Of Calvin

"The image of Calvin as 'dictator of Geneva' bears no relation to the known facts of history." (p.109)

Otto Scott :The Great Christian Revolution

"Calvin never ruled Geneva. The city was not a totalitarian society, but a Republic, with elections and dissent. Calvin held no civil office, could neither arrest nor punish any citizen, appoint or dismiss any official. To argue that his eloquence and logic constituted tyranny is to invent a new standard." (p.57)

Bernard Cottret :Calvin:A Biography

"Geneva, in fact, was never a theocracy...the ministry and the magistracy, were never one and the same...To sum up, Calvin did not take over the state; he was neither a commanding general nor an ayatolla.(p.159)

" The consistory therefore could not inflict any penalties; it had only limited doctrinal competence."(p.166)

"We must avoid the simplistic idea of a religious reformation controlling the civil power to erect a theocratic, indeed fundamentalist state. It fact, it was almost the opposite." (p.114)

Schaff

"The Consistory Court...could only use the spiritual sword, and had nothing to do with civil and temporal punishment, which belonged exclusively to the Council."

"It is a mistake, therefore, to call him the head of the Republic, except in a purely intellectual and moral sense."

Basil Hall

"If Calvin had dictatorial control over Genevan affairs,how is it that records of Geneva show him plainly to have been the servant of its Council which on many occasions rejected out of hand Calvin's wishes...To call Calvin the 'dictator of a theocracy' is, in view of the evidence, mere phrase-making prejudice."

Francois Wendel :Calvin

"Calvin not only never succeeded in putting the Genevan Magistracy under the tutelage of the Church; he never even announced the need for such a tutelage, which is precisely what characterizes a genuinely theocratic system" (p.309)

 

:wavey::laugh::thumbsup::wavey: Rippon nails DHK each and everytime, but DHK maintains such falsehoods.

 

J. I. Packer

"Yet all serious Calvin-scholars now know that the Calvin of legend --the slobbering ogre, the egotistical fanatic, the doctrinaire misanthrope, the inhuman dictator with a devilish god --is a figure of fancy --not fact. The real Calvin was not like that, nor was his theology the monstrous and mis-shapen thing that the legendary image would suggest."

 

Yes, there are loyal Calvinists and their sympathizers that are willing to turn a blind eye to history, just as Catholic historians revise history as well. Did you know that in some schools the Holocaust is denied? All kinds of people change, revise, deny history.

Perhaps you should read Cottret, a university professor who wrote a biography of Calvin.
Bernard Cottrett has published a book entitled, “Calvin: A Biography,” (Eerdmans Pub. Company Grand Rapids, Michigan, copyright 2000).

Cottret gives a favorable portrayal of Calvin. In the book he gives credit to Calvin personally for no less than 38 documented executions. He documents the dates of each of John Calvin’s despicable acts and shows that Calvin’s methods included imprisonment, torture, and execution by beheading and by burning at the stake.
You need to read outside your own little clique of Calvinists.

 

Bernard Cottret :Calvin:A Biography

"Geneva, in fact, was never a theocracy...the ministry and the magistracy, were never one and the same...To sum up, Calvin did not take over the state; he was neither a commanding general nor an ayatolla.(p.159)

" The consistory therefore could not inflict any penalties; it had only limited doctrinal competence."(p.166)

"We must avoid the simplistic idea of a religious reformation controlling the civil power to erect a theocratic, indeed fundamentalist state. It fact, it was almost the opposite." (p.114)
DHK, your eyes have clouded over. If you respect Cottret's book you have to acknowledge the above quotes which puts the truth square to you.

 

I am sure you are selectively quoting.
Here this time I will do the homework for you:

http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/e034rpCalvin_Franca05.htm

http://www.a-voice.org/tidbits/calvinp.htm

http://bible-truth.org/IsCalvinismBiblical.html
This last link is an excellent pamphlet on Calvinism addressing the errors of others as well. Its author is Cooper P. Abrams III, a pastor of an IFB church.

 

who in their right mind would ever want to proudly declare they are calvinist?!!!!!!!!!!! Sick!! And this man is hailed as having the holy spirit teach him the mechanics of election through the word???

 

I have quoted Cottret because he affirms what all honest Church historians and John Calvin scholars have.

Your "homework" is not from Cottret.

The folks you cite are not scholars (as is evident from their poor English). You rely on two-bit hacks DHK. I have quoted more than two dozen Church scholars and John Calvin specialists in the past. They are uniform in stating the facts of Calvin's life. Your sources are disgraceful.

You are stubborn in the extreme and dishonest to boot. You need to value the truth. As a professing Christian and a moderator on a Christian forum you need to go back to the basics of the faith you claim.

 

Cooper Abrahams III is a well respected pastor whose research is well done.
He quotes from Cottret, or did you not notice that:

His booklet is well worth the reading in its entirety.

 

My comments are based on what I have witnessed so far, and if you read back a bit, you'll see that my strongest criticism was of someone from "my side". If I see a Calvinist act as you say, I'm not afraid to speak up because if there were more respect around here there could be more meaningful debate. Speaking of the former, the name is Brian, referring to me as "Bub" just helps prove my point.

 

Lol yeah I thought that when I saw that too....it's hard to see respect in trying to put someone new "in their place" and calling them "Bub".

 

One has to carefully consider when you praise an author. His "research" is an absurd patchwork of lies and deliberate slander.

Here is a sampling of some of Cooper's lies:

"It is difficult to find in the many hundreds of books written about John Calvin many instances of him being a loving, kind, merciful or caring man, or pastor."

"What changed his mind [about returning to Geneva] was that those governing the city offered him lucrative benefits and position if he would return."

"The Consistory, one of the three governing bodies of the city."

"For seven years Calvin sought to capture and try Servetus."

"...Servetus was not a citizen of Geneva, but was only visiting the city. Thus, the misdirected piety of John Calvin claimed but another victim."

"[He] was now conducting his own Reformed Inquisition in Geneva."

"Calvin had 34 women burned at the stake."

"In 1568, the plague returned and Calvin wrote..."

"Calvin was completely devoid of human kindness, and mercy."

"Calvin himself refused to visit the sick, [during the plague] Calvin directed his servants to declare him 'indispensable' he made no effort to comfort, visit or minister to the sick."