Says Bob Ryan:
John Calvin says:
"[God] devotes to destruction whom he pleases ... they are predestinated to eternal death without any demerit of their own, merely by his sovereign will. ... he orders all things by his counsel and decree in such a manner, that some men are born devoted from the womb to certain death, that his name by glorified in their destruction. .. God chooses whom he will as his children ... while he rejects and reprobates others" (Institutes of Christian Religion, Book III, chap. 23).
Notice the ‘....’ – the omissions!
Now here's what John Calvin says, which BR showed the grace to supply us the place of, otherwise it would not have been recognisable with all his left-outs. In fact, here is another of Bob Ryan's many "impudent and malicious calumn(ies) against this doctrine (of God's Election) that destroys all exhortations to a pious life". (3/23/13)
I must go now, and will fill the readers of this thread in with the 'left-outs' of BobRyan's left-overs, in my next posts, DV.
First, in fuller context, BR’s first clause, quoting - Bob Ryan says -, Calvin (emphasis GE):
3/23/2 “These observations (in 23/1) would be amply sufficient for the pious and modest, and for such as remember that they are men. But because many are the species of blasphemy which these virulent dogs utter against God,, we shall, as far as the case admits, give an answer to each. Foolish men raise many grounds of quarrel with God, as if they held Him subject to their accusations.
First, they ask why God is offended with His creatures, who have not provoked Him by any previous offence; for, to devote to destruction whomsoever He pleases, more resembles the caprice of a tyrant than the legal sentence of a judge; and therefore there is reason to expostulate with God, if, at his mere pleasure, men are without any desert of their own, predestinated to eternal death.”
This, Bob Ryan without a blush, says, Calvin says. Well, Bob Ryan here, as many time before, once again exposes himself for the liar he is.
The reader has before him the text in full in Henry Beveridge’s translation, Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1970, p. 227.
Note the last sentence: “… if, at his mere pleasure, men are without any desert of their own, predestinated to eternal death.” Bob Ryan’s ‘quote’, has, “… they are predestinated to eternal death without any demerit of their own, merely by his sovereign will.” Now there are several translations of Calvin’s ‘Institutes’, even a few manuscripts. So maybe the extra words may be found in one variant or another. But I doubt, because I think no one would use different editions when putting together references from the same book. Methinks those words I underlined, are Bob Ryan’s; not any translator’s. But that’s not so bad, as these statements are supposed by Calvin, the statements of the adversaries of God and of His doctrine of sovereign election.
Nevertheless, Bob Ryan carefully avoided Calvin’s immediate comment on the slander of the adversaries. Or, come to think of it, No, Bob Ryan very negligently, bothered not to go check up the context, but blindly parroted someone else, and therefore he mentions not what Calvin says right after,
“If at any time thoughts of this kind come into the mind of the pious, they will be sufficiently armed to repress them, by considering how sinful it is to insist on knowing the causes of the divine will, since it is itself, and justly ought to be, the cause of all that exists. For if His will has any cause, there must be something antecedent to it, and to which it is annexed; this it were impious to imagine.”
Calvin thinks of those false things attributed to him falsely (by Bob Ryan &co.), as of a sinful kind and impious to imagine – things that should be repressed from the thoughts. But BobRyan maintains these are the things Calvin teaches.
Not so, Calvin taught on these thoughts, where he without stop continues to say, this, its exact opposite,
“The will of God is (Note well Calvin’s explanation of God’s will! GE) the supreme rule of righteousness so that everything which He wills, must be held to be righteous by the mere fact of His willing it.”
Enough for now; to be continued.