We've come to our third and final reformer in this church history class.
And again, as I said, I'd argue that Calvin, more than Luther, more than Zwingli, is the most important reformer out of all of them.
His legacy looms so large that really a lot of people have very polarized opinions of him.
It seems like you either love him or you hate him.
You either commit Calvin phobia or Calvin olatry, as one historian puts it.
Here's some examples.
One from the prince of preachers himself, Charles Spurgeon.
The longer I live, the clearer does it appear that John Calvin's system of theology is nearest to perfection.
Or he said this quote, among those who have been born of women, which is all of us,
there has not risen a greater than John Calvin.
Very, very high praise.
On the flip side here, this pastor, Pastor Jimmy Swaggart, who has claimed Calvin has, I believe,
caused untold millions of souls to be damned.
Or historian Will Durant, who said, we will always find it hard to love Calvin,
who darkens the human soul with the most absurd and blasphemous conception of God.
Very, very stark words.
Even this supposedly unbiased neutral source, the Oxford Dictionary of Christian Churches,
writes, Calvin was the cruel and unopposed dictator of Geneva.
Quite the difference.
No.
So who was this man that we can't seem to agree upon?
Was he Satan incarnate or was he savior of the world?
As one historian says, we do no service to the truth by depicting Calvin as angelically good,
nor diabolically evil.
And so to be able to get to the real truth of who he is, let's take a deep dive into his story.
John Calvin was born in 1509, nearly 25 years after Luther and Zwingli.
And he's born in northern France, in Noyon, to a Roman Catholic family.
At this point in history, the Reformation, it's still in its early stages.
So it hasn't spread all over, hasn't spread all over France just yet.
Calvin's mother, sadly, tragically, suddenly dies when little John is just three or four.
And his father, Gerard, he was a secretary or an accountant to the local bishop.
He was a prominent man, which helps not only with the bills, but helps him gain some connections.
So hoping that little John would have a successful, sprawling career as a pastor in the church,
Gerard sends John to the University of Paris at the tender age of 13.
That sounds very impressive.
And no doubt, Calvin did possess exceptionally gifted skills and an exceptionally gifted mind.
But remember back then, the education system was very, very different.
You didn't have to know math, science, history, all these things that we need to know now.
All you really needed to know was just to know the language of Latin, which was in what all the lectures were in.
And then if you knew Latin, you were accepted.
So 13-year-old Calvin, he's at university.
It's immediately clear to his professors, his fellow students, that he possesses an exceptional mind,
that he's really, really gifted at writing and reading and rhetorical skills in particular.
But during that time, while he's at university to study, to be part of the clergy, something happens to his father.
We're not exactly sure what happens, but it appears that he's implicated in a financial scandal,
accused of misappropriating funds from the church.
And we're not exactly sure whether he did this or not.
It could be, he could just be, you know, the scapegoat.
But either way, he is excommunicated from the church.
And so seeing that the funds run out and seeing that money is tight,
Calvin's dad, he suggests that he should stop studying to be a pastor.
Instead, that he should study law, thinking that that would give him some more money.
And then John, humble John, he accepts that.
If you were here week one, we talked about Luther.
And it's an interesting contrast with him, because if you remember from that,
his father pleaded for him to go to law, but he refused.
He refuses.
So they take very drastic paths to the ministry.
But really, God uses it all to accomplish his will.
And maybe as an encouragement for you, if you feel like,
man, I'm not doing exactly what I want to do.
I want to go into ministry now.
God can do all things and he can lead you down different paths to do that.
It's during that time that he's studying law that Calvin is trained to become a humanist.
Was anyone there last week remember what it means to be a humanist, a medieval humanist?
Do you guys remember what the phrase was?
I think I even have it there.
Anyone remember humanism?
Master.
Master?
I'm sorry.
No, you're good.
You're good.
It's defined by the motto ad fontes, which again means back to the sources.
It's really where Calvin there is encouraged to study the original sources in the original languages
so that he doesn't have to depend on translators.
He doesn't have to depend on really other interpreters, but that he could read them for themselves.
And so he sufficiently, proficiently learns the ancient languages like Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
And he really becomes very skilled at this.
He reads the ancients, gains wisdom from what they said, all reading the original context.
And this is just a really quick appeal to you guys to try studying the original languages of Greek and Hebrew.
It doesn't just have to be for pastors, for seminarians, right?
There are really lots of good resources online for you to study Greek and Hebrew, right?
Lots of you guys speak more than two languages, more than one languages.
You speak two or more.
And you understand how that when things are translated from one language to another, things are lost in nuance.
The original force is not completely captured as you get into this other language.
I think it's kind of like that.
When you know Greek and Hebrew and you're able to study in its original context,
then you kind of get the fuller picture of what the text is actually saying.
And that's not to say that if you don't know Greek and Hebrew that you don't actually understand the Bible, right?
I do think that our English translations are very, very, very good.
But if you have the time and energy, which maybe honestly, frankly, you might not,
a lot of you guys might not have because you're very busy people.
But if you have the time and energy, why not study the original languages
so that you can expand your tool set to understand the scriptures?
So quick appeal.
It's not just for pastors.
You guys can study Greek and Hebrew too.
At the end of his university days, he writes a dissertation in 1532
in which he takes on one of the most popular thinkers of the day,
and his name is Erasmus.
And he tries in particular to challenge Erasmus,
to show the errors of his interpretation of particularly a philosopher named Seneca.
And it seems like he really pours himself into this dissertation, right,
as all PhD students can probably understand.
He has big hopes, big dreams from what this dissertation can accomplish, right?
He thinks that it could prove his genius and that once it gets out there,
people are going to flock to him so that, you know,
they're going to flock to him, giving him job offers, asking him to teach.
But much to Calvin's disappointment, none of that happens.
It completely flops.
Nobody reads it.
Nobody cares.
We even have a letter from Calvin to one of his former professors,
basically pleading for him to add it, add this dissertation to his syllabus,
asking him to require his students to read this dissertation,
probably to, you know, gain some royalties, maybe gain some clout.
But that never pans out.
Nothing works.
And really, Calvin's at a complete dead end.
It's possible, some church historians hypothesize,
that God uses this particular experience of disappointment,
of struggles with obscurity to bring out full faith in his heart.
We don't know very much about his conversion.
One of the tough things about teaching on Calvin is particularly he hardly writes about himself.
Unlike Luther, who is very, very willing to wear his heart on his sleeve
and expound all about the things that are going internally within himself,
Calvin is much more hush.
He doesn't really talk a lot about himself.
But in one of his commentaries in the Psalms, he describes his conversion like this.
God, by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame,
which was more hardened in such manners than might have been expected from one of my earlier periods of life.
And so it's clear that when we are converted, God brings us down first.
He humbles us so that we can truly see God as he really is, lofty and high and mighty.
And so it's really at this point, this pivotal point of his life,
that Calvin becomes convinced of reformational ideas.
Again, he has been Roman Catholic his entire life.
But it's at this point he becomes of reformational ideas that were previously heralded by Zwingli and Luther.
About a year after his published dissertation, the now pro-reformer Calvin,
he particularly finds himself in hot water.
So the story goes, a good friend of his, he's back in Paris.
Remember, Calvin used to go to the University of Paris.
So this friend's name is Nicholas Kopp.
He was the rector at the University of Paris.
And he actually delivers a pro-Lutheran, pro-reformational speech, a message.
And it lands both Kopp and Calvin in huge, huge trouble.
Because it's very likely that Calvin either wrote the message himself,
or at the very least had a very significant role in its development, in its writing.
So in response, both Kopp and Calvin are forced to flee the nation or the country of France altogether
because their very lives are on the line.
Because the Roman Catholic authorities, they were determined to suppress, to squelch,
to remove at all costs the spread of the Reformation.
One significant event that happens during Calvin's flight from France
was called the Affair of the Placards.
It happens in 1534.
So reformers, reformed-minded believers, they post these public notices,
criticizing the mass, criticizing the church in cities all across France.
And the reaction from the Roman Catholic authorities was swift and severe.
A wave of persecution followed,
and many suspected Protestants were then either imprisoned or executed.
And it includes many of Calvin's close associates, close friends.
While Calvin is on the run for his very life,
he lands in Basel, Switzerland.
And it's there, he works on two things of note.
Number one, he works on the French translation of the Bible.
Just like Luther, if you remember,
in the first week, Luther translates the Bible, the Latin Bible,
into the common language of German,
so that everybody can read it.
So Luther does the same thing in French.
Not, sorry, Luther.
Calvin does the same thing in French.
And more notably, he works on his first edition of the Institutes.
Has anybody heard of the Calvin's Institutes?
It's a really famous book.
I'm going to talk a lot about, more about it much later.
So this first edition that he works on,
it's notably shorter than the final edition.
It's only a fifth of the final length.
But that aside, the Institutes of Christian Religion,
it's really Calvin's magnum opus.
It's arguably the most important work of all of the 16th century.
And keep in mind that if you follow Luther's timeline,
he writes this magisterial tome,
this important piece of work,
one or two years after his conversion.
And he's at the tender age of 26.
That's how young he is.
That's how exceptionally minded he is.
Can you imagine writing the most important work,
theological work, in churches,
one of the most important theological works in all church history
at that young age just after you became converted?
It's an extraordinary achievement.
And it basically becomes a bestseller overnight.
And it completely sells out all of its printed copies
in just nine months.
In Basel, he sets his goal to go to Strasbourg,
which was in Germany back then.
But by God's providence,
some fighting, some military battles,
it prevents Calvin from taking the direct route
to get directly to Strasbourg.
So then it forces him to take a detour
to the southeast,
to the city of Geneva, Switzerland.
His eventual plan was to eventually turn north
to get to Strasbourg.
But while he is in Geneva,
he has this conversation
with a fiery man
with fire red hair,
fire red beard,
that completely changes his life
and his life's trajectory.
That guy's name is William Farrell.
I think I'm pronouncing his name right.
William Farrell.
Maybe this conversation,
conversation might not be the right word
to describe it
because it's not so much of a dialogue,
but it's really more of a confrontation.
To give a little bit more backstory on Farrell,
a couple years earlier,
the city council of Geneva,
they decide to turn Protestant.
And if you guys have been here in the past,
you guys know that city councils,
they've done that in the past
because they see that Rome
is taking away power from them.
Particularly a lot of money flows
to the Roman Catholic Church
through indulgences,
through taxes,
through fees,
whatever is like that.
So if they become Protestant,
it's in their best interest
because that money stays internal
and they can basically call the shots
instead of the church
in their particular town.
So they decide to turn Protestant
and they hire Farrell as a pastor
to essentially lead the people
to follow suit.
The problem is
that even after a couple years of ministry,
really not much progress
is being made on that front.
the people are stubborn,
that they don't want to become reformers
or reformed,
that they want to stay Catholic.
And essentially the laity
is threatening to convert back to Catholicism.
So Farrell, he's fiery,
but one particular note about him,
he's humble and self-aware enough
to know that he's not the guy.
He's not the guy who these people need
to lead them in reformational truths.
He knows that Geneva needs
a particular kind of man,
a theologian, an organizer,
better, better than him.
So Farrell, he hears that this precocious author
of the newly published institutes
has come to Geneva.
And so he knocks on his door.
Convinced that God has brought Calvin to Geneva
for a purpose, for a divine purpose,
he urges Calvin to stay
and to serve as a pastor
in public ministry
and shepherding the flock of God
by feeding them the word of God.
It's a free job offer, right?
It's a free job offer served
on a silver platter.
But Calvin,
this embodied everything
that he actually didn't want to do.
In his preface of the commentary
in the Psalms,
we get insights into Calvin's
natural personality a little bit.
He thought of himself
as unpolished and bashful.
What he desired most
was not the limelight of the pulpit,
but he naturally preferred solitude.
He was introverted.
He liked his alone time.
The whole point of going to Strasbourg,
why I wanted to get there,
was because he knew
that there was a great
reformed pastor there already
and that he thought his plan was,
he thought he could find a patron
who would essentially just pay him
so that he could just stay inside,
sit in his room and read and write.
That was his big dream.
But now here is Pharrell
who is desperately urging him
to abandon that dream
and to lead the Reformation in Geneva.
So Pharrell essentially tells Calvin,
God has told me
that you are supposed to stay here.
And Calvin pushes back,
no, no, no, brother.
You see, I'm on my way to Strasbourg
and I'm going to read and write
and study there.
That's the way that I'll contribute
to the Reformation.
But here Calvin himself
describing Pharrell's response to that.
And when he realized
that I was determined
to study in privacy
in some obscure place
and saw that he gained
nothing by entreaty,
he descended to cursing
and said that God
would surely curse my peace
if I held back from giving help
at such a great time of need.
And so Calvin is shaken by this.
He's terrified.
He's terrified by this pronounced curse.
And so he ends up reluctantly,
but submissively,
he decides to stay in Geneva.
And he writes,
in his own words,
terrified by Pharrell's words
and conscience of my own
timidity and cowardice,
I gave up my journey
and attempted to apply
whatever gift I had
in defense of my faith.
He's a humble man,
a faithful man.
So that starts his pastorate
in Geneva.
And frankly,
these were probably
the worst three years
of his entire life.
while Calvin tried
to follow scripture,
implementing biblical practices,
people disliked him
from the get-go.
For one,
Calvin is French,
and so opposing him
becomes a point
of nationalistic pride,
right,
because they're Switzerland.
Who is this French guy
coming here
thinking he could be
our pastor?
And again,
two,
he's trying to lead
Catholic-minded congregants
down the path
of the Reformation.
And so,
hear this response.
Mobs,
they riot outside his house.
They threaten him frequently
that they're going to
just toss him
into the river.
And so,
reflecting on this period
of life,
he writes,
this,
I can truly testify
that not a day passed
in which I did not long
for death
ten times over.
He writes this
about Geneva.
There is no place
under heaven
that I am more afraid of.
I would submit
to death
a hundred times
than to that cross
which I had to die daily
a thousand deaths.
That's how Calvin feels
about his ministry
in Geneva.
It all comes to a head
in 1538
on Easter Sunday.
And this is kind of
a theme
that you're going to see
throughout his relationship
with the city councilors
in Geneva.
The city councilors
on Easter Sunday,
they demand
that the two
administer the Lord's Supper.
Calvin and Pharrell.
But they
believed that the church
was in such disorder
that they couldn't
administer the table
in good conscience.
So they insisted
that as the shepherds
of the flock,
they have the right
to fence the table.
and it's
that the power
doesn't belong
to the city councilors.
So the council
is furious
and they kick
Calvin and Pharrell out
to which I'm sure
Calvin was
more than happy about
because
now he finally
gets what he wants.
He finally gets
to go to Strasbourg.
So he gets to Strasbourg
and he just
loves it there.
It's like his
Disney, Disneyland.
Right?
Without a doubt,
these are the happiest
years of his life.
First,
he gets to do
what he wants
and that's writing.
He finishes
the second edition
of the Institutes.
And honestly,
the first edition
of the Institutes,
not only is it shorter,
but it lacks originality
because Calvin seems
to be very heavily
influenced by Luther
and his writings.
He kind of seems
like it pawns off
a little bit too much there.
It's really the second edition
where his genius
starts to shine.
And he also starts
to write commentaries
as he writes his first one
on the Book of Romans,
more to say on that later.
It's also at Strasbourg
where Calvin,
he gets married.
According to historian
Timothy George,
Calvin was doubtless
the most eligible bachelor
in the entire city.
The pastor there,
Martin Buzer,
the great pastor,
he tries to matchmake him.
And in fact,
there's one story
where he tries to matchmake him
with, I think,
a German or someone Swiss.
And she doesn't speak French
and he doesn't speak German.
So that first date
goes terribly.
And Calvin is like Luther
in that he's not really
all that interested
in getting married.
You really see
how much of a romantic Calvin is
in a letter
that he writes to Pharrell.
It says,
I'm not of the wild race
of lovers
who at the first sight
of a fine figure
embrace all the faults
of their beloved.
This is the only beauty
that appeals to me.
If she is chaste,
if she is not finicky,
if she is economical,
if she is patient,
if she is interested
about my health.
So that's his standard, right?
He ends up marrying
one of his congregants,
Idolette de Burr.
She is a widow
of a French-speaking Anabaptist.
And she converts
to the Reformed faith
and they get married.
Again, we don't know
a ton about their family life
because Calvin, again,
he's reluctant
to speak much about himself.
But we do know
that they loved one another.
They had one child
who was born prematurely
and then dies in infancy.
In another letter
to a friend,
you see how Calvin,
he wrestles with grief,
with suffering.
He writes,
Certainly the Lord
has afflicted us
with a deep, painful wound
in the death
of our beloved son.
But he is our father.
He knows what's best
for his children.
Later, his precious
Idolette would also pass away.
Calvin comments on this,
I am deprived
of my excellent life companion.
Although his child
would pass away,
doesn't mean that his house
was empty.
Idolette,
she brought in two children
from her previous marriage
about whom Calvin
assured to her,
promised to her
on her deathbed
that he would faithfully
raise them.
In addition,
he lived with
his brother's family
and his brother
had eight children.
For most of his life,
Calvin's house
was full of little children.
And I make the excuse
that Theo is so distracting,
always knocking on my door,
wanting to be picked up.
But now I know
to shut my mouth
because you look later on
the sheer output
of Calvin
and how hard he works
and he does it all
in the context
of living with little children.
Most importantly,
in the years
in Strasbourg,
he develops
a close relationship
with the remarkable
pastor there,
Martin Bootzer.
they develop
like a father
and son-like relationship.
And Bootzer,
the older pastor,
takes Calvin,
the younger pastor,
under his wing.
And Bootzer,
it's noted that he has
particularly theological
influences on Calvin.
The first is regarding
church governance,
church policy,
or polity, rather.
Bootzer shows that
there are only
four governing offices
in the church.
And he says that
number one
is the teacher,
is basically
like the seminary
professor,
the professor
responsible for studying
and teaching theology.
Then two,
the teaching pastor,
the one who's
responsible for
the ministry of the word,
for the sacraments.
Number three,
the ruling elders
who have the job
of governing the church.
And then four,
the office of deacon.
What's notably absent
is what Sean
talked about today
in his sermon
was the offices
of cardinal,
of bishops,
of the pope,
right?
Does anybody know
what a bishop
technically is?
Do you guys know?
Yeah?
Yeah, overseer.
Yeah.
In particular,
how the church
polity works
is that
essentially
it's the
local church
pastor's boss.
And so
the bishop
is in control
or overseers
multiple congregants
or multiple
churches,
parishes,
and he's kind of
like the head honcho.
So all these people
need to report to him.
So pastors no longer
are solely responsible
that the church
governance
doesn't belong
to local eldership,
but it ultimately
lands on bishops.
And then,
of course,
you see that
continue to climb up
with,
you end up
leading to the pope.
So what he says
is, no,
the church governance
ultimately lies
in the local pastors,
in the local eldership.
And so it's not
a hierarchical system
of the Roman Catholic Church
where authority
flows top down
from a single
supreme head
of the pope,
but it's instead
shared by
a plurality of elders.
That's Calvin's
big thing
or Bootser's
big thing.
And in terms
of the four offices,
we would essentially
agree with them,
but we just don't
bifurcate the
elder's role
like that
into teaching
and preaching
and ruling.
I think a pastor
should essentially
be able to do
all of those things.
And so many churches
like ours,
we do distinguish
the role of senior
pastor and associate
pastor, right?
But we don't
necessarily see that
as an explicitly
different class
of elders.
We also talked
about the
regulative principle
of worship
last week.
Does anybody
remember that?
Anyone remember
the regulative
principle of worship?
Anyone?
Yeah?
Okay.
Yes,
exactly.
Exactly,
exactly.
And that's
opposed to the
normative principle
of worship.
The normative
says that anything
that scripture
doesn't explicitly
prohibit,
you are allowed
to do.
So I use the
example,
right,
maybe you could
have a magic
show.
Scripture doesn't
talk about that.
Maybe you could
have a magic
show or maybe
you could have
a stand-up
comedy set.
This doesn't
say anything
about that,
so that could
be allowed.
So he becomes
very convinced
of the
regulative
principle of
worship,
which is the
hallmark of
really the
reformed
tradition.
So influenced
by Bootser,
later on in
Calvin's ministry,
he particularly
adopts,
and we talked
about this too
with Zwingli,
he adopts
the instrument
list,
the acapella
singing of
the psalms
only.
So no
guitars,
no amps,
no nothing,
just voices,
and just
the psalms.
And if I'm
honest,
I do confess
to you that
when I think
about that
kind of worship,
some words
that come to
mind are
boring,
sleepy,
I don't know,
those things,
right?
But nothing
is further
from the
truth about
the worship
that happens
in Calvin's
church.
Some visitors
joined the
service one
time,
and they
note how
shocked they
are,
how energetic,
how lively,
how passionate
these people
are in
singing worship.
Much of the
medieval Catholic
worship,
it was basically
being sung to,
right?
They have the
choirs,
they're the ones
who would sing
the worship,
and you just
sat there,
and you were
sung to.
But in Calvin's
church,
the roof is
practically popping
off because of
how loud,
how deafeningly
loud people are
at singing the
worship of their
God.
I've been to
some churches
where it's
deafeningly loud
because they
turn up the
amps like crazy,
I'm sure maybe
you know that,
and again,
maybe different
styles,
but I don't
know about you,
I'd rather be
in a church
where it's only
deafeningly loud
because the
people of
God are
singing worship
to him,
right?
And that's
what marks
and characterizes
Calvin's church.
Finally,
Bootser teaches
Calvin on the
necessity of
practicing church
discipline,
church discipline
being the
practice of
correcting,
restoring erring
members in
repentance to
protect the
holiness,
the witness of
the church,
and follows
biblical patterns
like Matthew
18,
1 Corinthians
5.
In particular,
Bootser impresses
on Calvin the
need to properly
fence the
Lord's table
to prevent
those who are
living in
egregious,
blatant sin,
unrepentant sin,
from partaking
of the elements.
And we're going
to see just how
that impacts
Luther a little
bit later.
So we talked
about Bootser.
Everything's going
just great for
Calvin until he
gets this letter,
and guess who
it is.
It's his
favorite people
on earth.
It's the city
councilors of
Geneva.
They're back
again.
And they're
desperate for
help because
in 1539,
this cardinal
of the Roman
Catholic Church,
Cardinal
Sattoletto,
he tries to
woo back
Geneva to the
Roman Catholic
Church.
He writes
that they have
abandoned the
one true church,
but we'll cut
you the slack.
You're going to
be completely
forgiven if you
just return.
If you join the
Catholic Church
again.
And he says,
look, particularly
at Pharrell,
look at Calvin.
They're false
teachers.
They're wolves
dressed in
sheep's clothing.
They have
misled you,
and look,
now, they have
abandoned you.
So the city
council and
desire to stay
reformed, they
search for help
to respond to
this letter.
They know that
they're not the
theologians.
They need help
writing a response.
They send help
to multiple
cities, but no
one comes to
their help until
they finally send
it to Strasburg.
Now, Calvin, I
think understandably
so, he's pretty
reluctant to help
these people out.
After all, again,
they drove him out
of the city, and
it's a bit of a
sour spot for
Calvin.
But by the
encouragement of
Bootster, he does
write the response
to Sattoletto.
And this reply
is widely
understood as
the most
succinct,
persuasive
treatise of
the Reformation.
It's a great
piece of work.
He not only
faithfully
exposits God's
word to
highlight key
reformational
ideas like
justification by
faith alone,
or sola
scriptura, or
the priesthood
of all believers,
all these things
that we've talked
about in the
past.
Most particularly
he highlights
our union
with Christ.
But he
expands the
argument to
say that
Rome, you
call us the
theological
innovators, but
it is actually
you who have
strayed away.
We stand in
line with the
apostolic teacher.
We stand on the
shoulders of the
church fathers.
You're not
following the
Bible.
So this
tour de force
of a letter,
it gets Calvin
back on the
radar for the
city councilors,
and they
realize they
made a mistake.
They write to
beg Calvin to
come back.
Again, Calvin
wants no part of
Geneva whatsoever,
but Bootser,
Pharrell,
the classic
people who
keep telling
him to do
things he
doesn't want
to do,
they eventually
convince Calvin
to return,
to serve the
needy people
there.
And Geneva
is where the
rest of his
ministry will
play out.
when he
returns to
Geneva after
three years
in 1541,
he famously,
he steps up
to preach at
St.
Pierre,
and what
does he do?
He simply
picks up right
where he left
off.
No, I
told you so.
No, you
were wrong to
drive me out.
Nothing like
that.
Just the next
passage.
If that's
not a
perfect
metaphor of
faithful,
patient,
enduring
pastoral
ministry,
I'm not
sure what
it is.
Kevin
Dillon, he
talks about
this.
You threaten
my life,
what do you
get?
You're going
to get the
next passage.
You threaten
to disown
me to raid
my house,
what are you
going to
get?
You're going
to get the
next passage.
That's the
kind of man
that he is.
And that's
the kind of
faithful ministry
that pastors
should strive
for.
You attack
me, what are
you going to
get?
You're going
to get the
next message,
my best
message the
very next
Sunday.
Following the
pattern started
from Zwingli,
he preached
Lectio Continua,
which we talked
about is just
preaching expositionly,
preaching through
the books of the
Bible, chapter by
chapter, verse by
verse.
He preached
often.
He preached
twice on Sundays
and every single
day of the week,
every other week.
never with the
manuscripts, Calvin
would steep himself
in the text in his
preparation and then
he'd just get up and
he'd preach.
His practice was
typically to preach on
Sundays in the New
Testament and then
through the rest of
the week, preach in
the Old Testament so
that his congregation
would receive a
balanced diet.
We have over 2,500
sermon manuscripts
that listeners, they
heard the sermon
that they would
transcribe and some
of which are still
being translated to
this day.
His preaching was
earnest, forceful.
One example, he
preaches through the
book of Ephesians and
during one sermon he
literally pops a blood
vessel because of how
forcefully he's trying
to preach.
And the frequency and
the volume of his
preaching is just the
tip of the iceberg of
the sheer output of
this man.
This man is
incredible.
In his short life, he
does the work that
honestly it would
require us probably
two or three
lifetimes to
accomplish.
Frankly, he writes
more than probably
most of us will ever
read in our entire
lives.
About 35 volumes of
correspondences of
letters in which
people wrote to him
asking for pastoral
advice for certain
situations like that.
People asked him for
pastoral advice and he
was never too busy to
answer them.
In our modern day
context, I think his
email inbox was
perfectly pristine.
He read everything,
replied to everything.
He writes catechisms,
tracts, confessions of
faith, ecclesiastical
documents, liturgies,
treatises.
He writes more than
50 commentaries
covering more than 70%
of all the Bible.
He writes about three
fourths, covers about
three fourths of the
Bible.
And he, again, goes
through them verse by
verse.
These commentaries, even
though they're more than
500 years old, they're
honestly still gold for
modern preachers and
pastors.
There are some things
that Calvin can argue
and elucidate more
clearly than any modern
commentator can do.
And that was his goal,
right?
Unlike other contemporaries
who use commentaries for
these lengthy, heady,
doctrinal digressions,
his simple goal was, in
his commentaries, clarity
and lucid, clarity and
brevity.
And it's really those two
aspects that allow these
commentators or comment,
commentaries to penetrate
our minds, the minds of the
readers.
Later, Jacob Arminius,
if you know the term
Arminianism, famously it's
put against Calvinism,
Arminianism, the clash,
right?
The founder, essentially, of
Arminianism, hear what he
has to say about Calvin.
He recommends the
commentaries, saying,
after the reading of
scripture, I recommend that
the commentaries of Calvin
be read.
For I affirm that in the
interpretation of
scripture, Calvin is
incomparable, and that his
commentaries are more to
be valued than anything
that is handed down to us
in the writings of the
fathers.
Very, very high praise from
someone who disagreed with
him, very starkly.
Here's another historian.
Calvin was an exegetical
genius of the first order.
His commentaries are
unsurpassed for their
originality, depth, clarity,
and soundness.
Calvin was king, king of the
commentators.
There, if you read through
them, he actually is
surprisingly unashamed to
admit as well when he
simply just doesn't know the
answer to a tough question.
I think that's so encouraging
for me to see his humility.
And he doesn't let perfection
come in the way of progress.
And he continues to track on
chapter by chapter, verse by
verse.
And finally, you can't speak
about Calvin and his work
without mentioning the
aforementioned 1,800-page
magisterial tome of the
Institutes.
And it's by far Calvin's
greatest achievement.
And he takes the classical
insights of the Reformation and
he gives them a clear
systematic exposition, which
neither Luther nor Zwingli
was able to do.
And so that's why people call
him the architect of the
Reformation.
So Martin Lloyd-Jones,
faithful pastor, he writes
this,
Luther was a volcano,
spewing out ideas in all
directions without form or
systems.
But ideas cannot live and last
without a body.
And the great need for the
Reformation was a theologian,
a systematic thinker.
And he goes as far as to say
that there was a very good
chance that the Reformation
would have died out by the end
of the 16th century if it
weren't for Calvin.
And the reality is that there's
a very good chance that all of
us then, without Calvin, would
be Catholic.
Catholic?
Right?
When Calvin comes on the
scene, he particularly, he
inherits a tradition and a
theology that's marked by two
decades of controversy, of
infighting.
Another historian, Caspar
Schweckfield, he says this,
the Papists damn the
Lutherans, the Lutherans
damn the Zwinglians, the
Zwinglians damn the
Anabaptists, and the
Anabaptists damn all the
others.
During Calvin's lifetime, at
that precise moment, Zwingli
had died, Luther was dormant,
the Roman Catholic Church was
resurgent, and the Anabaptists
were fragmented.
With the Institutes, Calvin
emerges as the new leader of
the Reformation and the
reformulator of a new
theology.
I talked at the beginning of
the class in week one about
how we should strive to
incorporate in our reading
diet old books by dead
people.
And I think the Institutes
is a great, great first
option because it's a very
pastoral work.
It's not just dry, heady
theological material.
Right?
In some particular sections,
especially on ones like
prayer, you really see
Luther's pastoral, or
Luther, Calvin's pastoral
heart come out.
Some have read through the
Institutes even devotionally.
And if you're interested in
reading it, I kind of feel
ashamed talking about it
like this because I've never
actually finished reading it,
but I love if you guys want to
read it with me.
This is pretty much the gold
standard of the Institutes.
It's obviously translated in
English.
This copy by John
Macnell, Sean bought it for me,
or the church bought it for me.
Yeah, it's long.
This is actually just one of two,
so there's another entire book
to it as well.
But there are some reading
plans that people have come up
with where you just have to
read 15 minutes a day.
15 minutes a day for a year,
and that you can get through
the entire thing.
And I think it's a great way to
sink your teeth into some old
books by dead people.
And if you want to read one,
this is probably one of the best.
Talk about it a little bit.
Calvin talks or covers such a wide
breadth of material from faith and
salvation to the local church,
from prayer to the sacraments.
So I couldn't possibly cover all
that Calvin says.
But just some really,
really brief highlights.
It opens with one of the most
famous openings of any theological
work.
He writes this,
Nearly all the wisdom we possess
consists of two parts,
knowledge of God and knowledge of
self.
And he says that those are
intertwined, right?
That's his genius immediately on
display.
You cannot have one without the
other.
You can't truly know yourself,
who you are as a finite creature,
without knowing the true and
living God.
And on the flip side,
you can't really know God unless
you actually see yourself for who
you are.
A creature,
a sinful creature at that,
right?
And living in total dependence on
him,
right?
Most of the theological works at
that time,
it tended to separate theology
proper,
the study of God,
and anthropology,
the study of man.
It tended to separate those two.
But Luther's genius is,
again,
to see that they are totally
intertwined.
And I think that's helpful.
Again,
you read through these old books
and you'll find that these things
apply to us in our day,
our day and age,
right?
Because you hear commonly the
language of self-discovery,
of self-actualization,
that people are saying,
you need to search within yourself.
You need to go travel and go
backpacking,
I don't know,
go meditating.
And if you search within yourself,
then you can find out who you
really are.
Luther would strongly push back on
that kind of talk,
saying that it's not by searching
internally do you find out who you
are,
but it's externally.
It's by seeing who God truly is
and all this splendor,
then you understand who you are,
right?
Next,
he talks about how Scripture is the
Word of God.
He highlights key doctrine of
Scripture,
like it's clarity,
veracity,
sufficiency.
Don't have time to get into that.
But one particular note about
the Scriptures is he asks,
how do we know that the Scriptures
are the Word of God?
And Calvin,
he argues that it really is by
the Holy Spirit alone,
the author of the Scriptures.
He is the one who convinces us
and it authenticates the Scriptures
to us that this truly is
the inerrant,
infallible Word of God,
right?
So we don't know and believe
the Bible is truth.
It's full of truth by subjecting it
to actually outside external
tests and measures.
We ultimately know
it is the Word of God
by the ministry,
the internal ministry
of the Holy Spirit himself.
And of course,
I'd be remiss if we didn't mention
the doctrines of grace,
topics like predestination,
election.
It's what Calvin is often
most known for,
but it's, number one,
hardly original.
At this point of church history,
Augustine,
Thomas Aquinas,
Luther,
Zwingli,
they all believed
and affirmed in election.
And it's also hardly all
that Calvin talks about,
right?
We talked about the different
editions of the Institutes.
In the first edition,
he doesn't even talk
about it at all.
And I mentioned that
he writes catechisms
in one 350-question catechism,
350 questions.
Not a single one
is about predestination.
That being said,
it's still such an important part
of Calvin's theology,
right?
Because I think it ultimately
flows from Calvin's
majestic view of God,
his big view of God,
and his small view of man.
He sees that God
is the first cause
and the last end
of all things.
He holds to a
monergistic soteriology,
big words,
but what it basically means
that monergistic
means essentially
one working,
because he held
that God alone,
he alone is the
effective cause
of our salvation,
of our regeneration.
And that's opposed
to a synergism,
where that belief
is that salvation
is a cooperative act
between God and man.
That man essentially
needs to supply something
from himself
to be able to be saved.
Because of texts
like Ephesians 2,
John 6,
Romans 9,
Calvin also taught
that sinners
are spiritually dead,
right?
They have no motion,
no function,
unable to cooperate
at all
with their salvation.
But only by the mercy
of God,
through the definite
and effectual atonement
at the cross,
Christ pays for the sins
of those he saves.
And by that atonement,
then he effectively
calls somebody.
And when he calls,
when his words
leave his mouth,
they never return empty.
So when he calls,
nobody can resist him.
And by that call,
he breathes life
into new souls,
resurrects us
to new life,
and that promise
of salvation
then leads,
this is the only basis
on which we can have
the total assurance
of pardon,
the total assurance
of salvation,
that God will be faithful
to his promise
because he can never
renege on his promises
and that we can trust
that he will hold us fast.
Do you guys know that song,
He Will Hold Us Fast?
Really,
you can't sing that song
fully
if you don't hold on
to a Calvinistic theology.
The common pushback
against Calvin
and the doctrines of grace
is the problem of hell.
It's a fair question.
It's a tough question.
If God is sovereign,
how is it right,
fair,
that any is sent to hell?
Calvin would follow
the Apostle Paul
in Romans 9
simply just saying,
who are you
as the pottery
to speak back
to the potter?
He has the right
to decide
what he will
with his pottery.
And I think it's,
it could be helpful
to also diagram,
hopefully you guys
can see this,
in particular,
how God treats,
can you guys see that?
He treats the two parties.
He has the elect,
he has the non-elect.
The elects,
he, of course,
saves,
and the non-elect,
he gives up
to their sin.
Why it's helpful
to diagram this,
diagram this,
is in particular,
you can see the asymmetry
in how he deals with them,
right?
So for the elect,
what does God give them?
He gives them
what they don't deserve.
He gives them grace.
Whereas the non-elect,
what does he give them?
He gives them
what they do deserve.
So there's a difference
in how he treats
these two parties.
Maybe another way
to frame that is,
in particular,
the elect,
God has to actively
step into their lives
and turn them to him.
Because they're on their path,
we're all once on the path
away from them,
right?
So he has to step in
and turn them to him.
Whereas for the non-elect,
it's not that God
has to do the same thing.
He has to step in
and turn,
they're running towards him
and that he actually
turns them away.
It's not like that,
right?
They're already
on their way to hell.
They're already
on their path.
And in the language
of Romans 1,
he simply gives them up
to their sins,
the lusts of their heart.
So there's an asymmetry
between the way
that he speaks
about these two groups.
Sometimes you hear
that also the accusation
that Calvinists,
they don't care
about evangelism.
They don't care
about missions
because, you know,
they just chalk it up
to God's sovereignty.
I think that's not only
a misunderstanding
of Calvinistic theology,
but I think it's also
a failure to account
for historical examples
in church history, right?
Not only are the founders
of the modern mission movement
like William Carey,
Adam Judson,
or Hudson Taylor,
all Calvinists,
Calvinists.
But we find examples
in Calvin himself.
So when Calvin returns
to Geneva,
the city became
something like
the missionary capital
of the Reformed world.
So Calvin,
he's so insightful.
He sees that this movement
is only going to continue on
if he trains pastors.
And so he sees it
as part of his ministry
to raise up other elders,
other leaders.
So he sets up Geneva College,
Geneva College,
where thousands
of Protestant refugees
flow to be trained
in the gospel
and then ultimately
to be sent back.
And it has a famous moniker,
a famous moniker
of being called
the School of Death.
Because why?
Because so many
of its graduates
would be then sent out,
fully knowing that
if they were to preach
the Protestant message,
that it could be
their very life
on their lines.
Calvin in particular,
he has a soft spot
for it seems like
the nation of France
because he's French, right?
So he sends
at least 88 pastors
back to France.
And these pastors,
they have an extraordinary
impact for the Reformation,
for the gospel.
Around 1555,
there were only a handful
of organized,
reformed churches
in France.
Just a handful.
By Calvin's death,
nine years later,
in 1564,
there were roughly
2,000 churches
and perhaps
one to two million
congregants
in those churches.
And most notably,
Calvin is also interested,
very heavily interested
in global missions
outside of Europe.
He sends out
the first Protestant missionaries
to the nation of Brazil
in 1556.
That mission ultimately fails
because of persecution,
internal conflict,
but it still demonstrates
nonetheless
that Calvin's vision,
he had a vision
beyond Europe
and he had a missionary's heart.
That was his goal.
Coming up on the end,
some challenges
to the ministry.
So hopefully,
you've seen so far
just how hard
this man works.
And honestly,
he probably works harder
than he should.
It's known that Calvin
regularly burns
the midnight oil,
working day and night,
tirelessly,
reading,
writing,
counseling,
studying,
thinking,
with basically
no breaks in between.
And why I say that
is because it certainly
didn't help
with his continuous
health problems.
Even from a very young age,
Calvin struggled mightily
with stomach issues.
And later on,
he suffers from,
like,
you read the symptoms,
he has like everything,
almost.
He has colic,
spits up blood,
violent fevers,
and the excruciating
sufferings of hemorrhoids.
One time,
I mean,
hopefully this is not
too graphic.
You guys ate your lunch.
He passes a kidney stone
so large
that it lacerates
his urinary canal.
And once it passes,
in his words,
a copious amount
of blood follows.
You compare this
to Luther,
if you remember,
from week one,
who wrestles,
struggles with physical issues
at the end of his life.
And quite often,
church historians
point to that
as the reason
why he ends up
kind of writing
really nasty,
anti-Semitic things.
But despite all
of his physical hardship,
Calvin remains
faithful to the Lord,
faithful to his ministry.
He's a model example
of steadfast perseverance
in that.
Neither do the internal
struggles from the church
stop.
His wrestlings
with the Genevans
still go on.
Some of the greatest enemies
was from within
his own church.
There's a faction
called the Libertines.
They're a faction
because they argue
that the cross
of Jesus Christ,
it makes it so
that it doesn't matter
how we as Christians
live our lives.
We can live righteously,
sure,
but it also doesn't matter
if we live in sin.
We can live in egregious sin
and it doesn't matter
because it's all forgiven.
That's what they're arguing.
It's really a clear
antinomian,
if you know that word,
anti-law,
namas.
It's a heresy.
And basically,
in every European city
back then,
men,
husbands,
they kept
multiple mistresses.
And so these
Libertines,
they essentially
would go into church
boasting of their
sexual promiscuity
in the name
of Christian freedom.
And I think,
as a side note,
it's a reminder
that we often think
that doctrine,
what's in our head,
then flows out
to our lives,
right?
It affects the way
that we live our lives,
which is absolutely true,
right?
But it's not just
a one-way street,
too.
Our living
and our choices,
it actually will,
it tends to impact
and influence
our theology,
too,
right?
If you live
a sinful lifestyle,
we often morph
and adapt
what we think
to then justify
our sin,
right?
I think that's
a classic example
with these Libertines.
It's really impossible
to hold on
to right doctrine
and wrong living
at the same time.
One will have to go.
So in 1530,
or 1553,
a rich,
influential Libertine
called Bert Tellier,
he was banned
by Calvin
as he should have been,
from the Lord's table.
He's blocked off,
fenced off,
because of his
unrepentant,
promiscuous lifestyle.
Bert Tellier then,
he goes to the city council,
probably flaunting
his wealth,
his power,
and the city councilors,
knowing that,
they then bypass,
try to overrule
Calvin's decision.
And so they say,
no, no, no, no,
Calvin's crazy.
You can come
and take the Lord's Supper.
Sunday comes,
and in walks Bert Tellier,
and once the sermon
is preached,
the prayers are prayed,
it's finally time
to partake of the Lord's Supper.
What will Calvin do?
What he does is remarkable.
He flings his arms
around the sacramental vessels,
as if to protect them
from dishonor,
sacrilege.
And he proclaims,
these hands you may crush,
these arms you may lop off,
my life you may take,
my blood is yours,
you may shed it,
but you shall never
force me to take
holy things
to the profaned,
and dishonor
the table of my God.
Do you respect
the Lord's table
in the same way?
It's a challenge for us,
right?
Probably the most common
attack against Calvin
is then the Cervetis affair
in 1553,
the same year.
A little back story,
Michael Cervetis
was a Spanish physician.
Originally part of
the Catholic Church,
Cervetis,
he writes some
anti-Trinitarian books.
It's clearly heresy,
and it makes him
a wanted man
by basically all of Europe,
all the Roman Catholic Church.
Despite that,
when Cervetis,
he actually reaches out
to Calvin
to meet up,
and Calvin agrees,
even though that this man
is a heretic.
He hopes that he can
win him back
to the Lord.
Of course,
Cervetis then stands him up,
but then a couple years later,
he reaches back out again.
Calvin sends him
the latest edition
of the Institutes,
and then Cervetis,
he takes the book,
he redlines all of it,
basically,
covers it in his edits,
saying,
these are all the things
that you got wrong.
Eventually,
Cervetis,
he flees Geneva,
or flees to Geneva,
rather,
and he walks
into church
while Calvin
is actually preaching,
and Calvin does
have him arrested.
While he's in prison,
Calvin visits him
often,
repeatedly,
appealing to persuade him
towards orthodoxy,
and during that time,
the Geneva Council,
they consult other
Protestant cities,
asking,
what should we do
with this man?
He's an infamous man.
They unanimously
recommend execution,
and this is
a smear on Calvin
that he does support
and defend
his execution,
but while he does that,
he requests
the more merciful
execution of beheading,
rather than to be burned
at the stake,
but the council
rejects this,
and he does have,
they do have Cervetis
burned at the stake.
And so Calvin
is certainly a man
of his time
when he supports
the execution,
and he does bear
moral responsibility.
It's a smear
on his legacy,
but really,
it's a more nuanced
picture than some people
really understand
or portray Calvin,
especially the Oxford
Dictionary, right,
calling him the dictator,
the cruel master
of Geneva.
Despite all these challenges,
Calvin fights the good faith.
He finishes the race well.
He dies on May 26th,
27th rather,
on 1564,
at the young age of 54,
in Geneva,
the very city
that tried to kill him,
reject him.
It's the very city
that through his resilience
he made into his home.
After a long period
of declining health,
marked by chronic illnesses
like migraines,
joint pain,
tuberculosis,
he preaches his last sermon
in early 1564,
and then he withdraws
from public ministry.
And while he's still
mentally active,
while he's still there,
he still tries to give
pastoral counsel.
People come visit him frequently.
But as death approaches,
he is visited
by fellow pastors,
and he expresses
a consistent humility
about his life,
emphasizing that
he simply is just
a sinner
saved by grace
rather than a figure
who deserves
great honor.
And so,
in keeping with his wishes,
he was buried
in an unmarked grave
in Geneva
so that no one
could find him,
no one could venerate him.
That's how humble he is.
And it reflects
his decision
not to point
to himself,
but ultimately
to the majestic God
that he longed
to worship
and be faithful to
for his entire life.
That's Calvin.
That concludes
our three classes
in church history.
So,
thanks guys for coming.
Do you guys have any questions?