Calvinism needs to add words to scripture

[Ascetic X]

Calvinism has its roots in a barbaric, ungodly, murderous attitude. Look at the man himself.

Calvin is heavily criticized for supporting the execution of theological opponent Michael Servetus, who was burned at the stake for heresy in Geneva. Contemporary critics and later observers often described Calvin as testy, stubborn, quick-tempered, and arrogant in his dealings with others.

During the 16th-century Reformation, John Calvin and his followers in Geneva, Switzerland, played a direct role in the execution of several individuals deemed theological opponents or heretics. While Calvin himself did not act as the executioner, he was a key figure in initiating trials and advocating for the death penalty against those who disagreed with his doctrinal positions.

Key Cases of Execution by Calvinists

• Michael Servetus (1553): The most prominent case, Servetus was a Spanish physician and theologian who rejected the Trinity and infant baptism. Having previously warned that he would not let Servetus leave Geneva alive, Calvin had him arrested in 1553. Servetus was burned at the stake, with Calvin advocating for a "more humane" method of execution (beheading) rather than burning, though this was not granted.
• Jacques Gruet (1547): A theological opponent who challenged Calvin's authority, Gruet was accused of being a "libertine" and for placing a letter in Calvin's pulpit calling him a hypocrite. He was arrested, tortured for a month, and ultimately beheaded.
• Other Executions: During the initial years of Calvin's influence in Geneva (population 13,000–20,000), various records indicate high numbers of executions, with 13 people hanged, 10 decapitated, and 35 burned between 1542-1564. Some reports indicate these included individuals convicted of witchcraft or spreading the plague.
• St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen (1622): In a later conflict, Calvinist soldiers in Switzerland stabbed to death St. Fidelis, a Catholic friar active in counter-reformation efforts.

Justification for Actions

Calvin, along with many other reformers of that era, did not believe in the separation of church and state. He followed Augustine’s interpretation of scripture, which justified extreme measures—such as burning heretics—to "compel" people to enter the church, as interpreted from Luke 14:23. Calvin believed that, as a "heretic" and "blasphemer," Servetus deserved to be executed, a view that was supported by various Protestant leaders in Switzerland at the time.

Exile of Dissenters

Beyond direct execution, Calvin also influenced the expulsion of opponents from Geneva, including:

• Jérôme-Hermès Bolsec (d. 1584): Exiled for challenging Calvin's doctrine of predestination.
• Sebastian Castellio (1515–1563): A scholar forced to leave Geneva due to conflicts with Calvin's strict interpretation of Scripture.

 

[atpollard]

Calvinism has its roots in a barbaric, ungodly, murderous attitude. Look at the man himself.

Let’s not.

The 5 points of the Doctrines of Grace were created by the Synod of Dort (1616) in direct response to the 5 points of Arminianism … John Calvin (1509-1564) was DEAD by then, so the 5 points do not originate with Calvin (who was soft on Limited Atonement anyway).

The powerful German State Church (the Lutheran Church) believed that the later reformers of the Second Wave of the Reformation had discarded too much of the Catholic Tradition with their 5 Solas and rejection of things like veneration of Mary and used their control of the press to label the new reformers with the name “Calvinist” as an insult implying that they followed the teaching of a man (John Calvin) rather than the teaching of God (as prescribed in the Book of Concord of the Lutheran Church). This is exactly the same as the term “Christian” was first applied by the Romans and Jews to insult followers of “the Way” by claiming that they were “little Christs” following a man rather than the God of the OT or the Roman Pantheon.

”TULIP” (the acronym) was not created until the 20th Century to describe the 5 points from the Synod of Dort.

So the “man himself” (John Calvin) is 100% irrelevant except as one of many theologians active during the centuries of the Protestant Reformation [like Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, John Knox, and Thomas Cranmer].

 

[Ascetic X]

Let’s not.


So the “man himself” (John Calvin) is 100% irrelevant except as one of many theologians active during the centuries of the Protestant Reformation [like Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, John Knox, and Thomas Cranmer].

The man himself is very relevant when Calvin was a theologian who favored and initiated the execution, even burning at the stake and beheading, of his opponents. This murderous attitude says something about his spirituality and doctrines.

 

[atpollard]

The man himself is very relevant when Calvin was a theologian who favored and initiated the execution, even burning at the stake and beheading, of his opponents. This murderous attitude says something about his spirituality and doctrines.

… but HIS life says NOTHING about the 5 DOCTRINES OF GRACE created after he was already dead by an entire SYNOD of the entire Reformed Movement and named TULIP several centuries later.

Have you read what Martin Luther wrote about the Jews a century before John Calvin? Shall we condemn the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod because of what Luther wrote?

We better DAMN all Catholics for what the Catholic Church has done throughout history that makes Calvin seem like Mother Teresa by comparison!

 

[Ascetic X]

… but HIS life says NOTHING about the 5 DOCTRINES OF GRACE created after he was already dead by an entire SYNOD of the entire Reformed Movement and named TULIP several centuries later.

Have you read what Martin Luther wrote about the Jews a century before John Calvin? Shall we condemn the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod because of what Luther wrote?

We better DAMN all Catholics for what the Catholic Church has done throughout history that makes Calvin seem like Mother Teresa by comparison!

You go right ahead and accept the system of John Calvin, a theologian who favored and initiated the execution, even burning at the stake and beheading, of his opponents.

 

[Martin Marprelate]

You go right ahead and accept the system of John Calvin, a theologian who favored and initiated the execution, even burning at the stake and beheading, of his opponents.

This is what is known in football (soccer) terms as "playing the man and not the ball." As I have pointed out many times before, Calvin was not the propagator of Calvinism. That was the Apostle Paul. But while Calvin was still in short pants, William Tyndale wrote: 'By grace we are plucked out of Adam, the ground of all evil, and graffed into Christ, the root of all goodness. In Christ God loved us, his elect and chosen, before the world began, and reserved us unto the knowledge of his Son and of his holy gospel; and when the gospel is preached to us, openeth our hearts, and giveth us grace to believe, and putteth the Spirit of Christ in us.' William Tyndale, 'A Pathway into the Scriptures, c. 1525.

 

[Jerome]

Calvinism has its roots in a barbaric, ungodly, murderous attitude. Look at the man himself.

Let’s not.

The 5 points of the Doctrines of Grace were created by the Synod of Dort (1616) .… John Calvin (1509-1564) was DEAD by then, so the 5 points do not originate with Calvin

OK, the Synod of Dort...

On 13 May 1619, right as the Synod of Dort closed, a champion of the Arminians, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, was executed! He had been imprisoned for the duration of the Synod of Dort, and was beheaded for ‘subversion of the country’s religion’ shortly after the Gomarists’ form of Calvinism was adopted by the Synod.

Even Ligonier Ministries admits persecuting him “was a shameful act against a Dutch patriot and one of the low points for Dutch Calvinists”:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190717063557/https://www.ligonier.org/blog/arminius-and-remonstrants/

 

[Jerome]

Dutch Calvinist partisans next turned their fury on the long-dead body of an associate of Oldenbarnevelt:

Persecution of Oldenbarnevelt, Grotius and Hogerbeets - Wikipedia

“The next sentence was pronounced on 15 May 1619 over Gilles van Ledenberg, who had been dead since the end of the previous September. Obviously, he could not be executed, but the judges declared in the verdict that he was ‘worthy of death’ and would so have been sentenced if he had been alive. His “exemplary sentence” was that his embalmed body would be hung from a gibbet"

Gilles van Ledenberg - Wikipedia

“It was left hanging for 21 days, and after it was taken down, it was buried....However, the same night a mob disinterred the corpse and threw it in a ditch. This caused sufficient revulsion to cause the Hof van Holland (the main Dutch court) to issue an injunction against further depredations. The body was later secretly reburied”

 

[Jerome]

”TULIP” (the acronym) was not created until the 20th Century to describe the 5 points from the Synod of Dort.

So the “man himself” (John Calvin) is 100% irrelevant except as one of many theologians active during the centuries of the Protestant Reformation

"'TULIP' (the acronym) was not created until the 20th century", you say?

Indeed.

The TULIP contrivance was devised in 1905 by Rev. Cleland Boyd McAfee of Lafayette Ave. Presbyterian Church in New York City!

McAfee is infamous for defending apostate missionary Pearl Buck!

Associated Press, April 18, 1933

Dr. Cleland B. McAfee, secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, said Monday he believed the case of Mrs. Pearl S. Buck could be settled by an informal talk with her in the near future. Mrs. Buck, missionary and novelist, has been charged by some members of the denomination with holding doctrinal views not in accord with those of the church.

"I see no reason why everything should not be cleared up by a conversation," Dr. McAfee said. He declared Mrs. Buck had not been ordered to appear before the board's meeting to date and expressed a doubt that the body even would consider her case.

Calling the missionary, who is associated with her husband in work at Nanking University, China. "a very fine Christian worker," Dr. McAfee said Dr. J. Gresham Machen, of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, who is preparing an overture to the Presbyterian general assembly asking for Mrs. Buck's removal, "has long been known as a critic of the board of foreign missions."