Did the Protestant
reformers get back to the "faith
once delivered"? Were they led by
God's Holy Spirit? The naked FACTS in this series of articles are a revelation
of long-hidden truth!
By Roderick C. Meredith
THE STARTLING fact that rank paganism came in and
took over the early professing Christian Church is difficult for some to
believe. Yet this has been proven.
We
have seen from numerous historians the admission that pagan ceremonies and traditions were embraced by the early Catholic
Church. We have seen that many pagan beliefs also injected themselves into professing
"Christendom" after the death of Christ and the original Apostles.
Martin
Luther rebelled against the corrupt and apostate organized
"Christianity" of his day. But at the same time he rebelled against all the authoritative commands of God
and His Word. We have seen that Luther presumptuously added a word to the Bible and taught: "The
just shall live by faith alone."
Having
an aversion to the stress James puts upon obedience
to God's law, Luther called this inspired book "an epistle of
straw." Courting the political
favor of the German princes to back his movement, we have seen that during the
Peasant War, he urged the princes to "smite,
strangle, and stab" the
peasants in the name of God.
When
the sexual lust of one of his political backers became too strong, Luther and
his fellow theologians gave written permission to the Landgrave of Hesse to
take a second wife and commit bigamy!
Unlike certain Old Testament heroes with whom Luther's followers like to
compare him, Luther never really REPENTED of these vile acts and
the whole principle, which they represented.
Last
month, we began the story of the Swiss reformation, and saw the part that
Ulrich Zwingli played in it. Again, we were forced to observe that Zwingli's
example, also, was in striking contrast to the teaching and example of Christ
and the early Apostles. For Zwingli's violent death in a war he himself had
urged certainly confirms Jesus' warning: "For all they that take the sword
shall perish with the sword" (Mat.
26:52).
Often,
we have paused to ask: Was the
Protestant movement a reformation of God's true Church gone wrong? Was this movement inspired and guided by
God's Holy Spirit?
Now
we will come to the story of the man who really dominated the Swiss reformation
and much of Protestantism since.
John
Calvin now enters the Reformation drama. Although influenced by both Luther and
Zwingli before him, the powerful impress of his mind and personality shaped the
doctrinal system of the reformed congregations for generations to come (Kurtz,
p. 304-305). Like Luther and Zwingli
before him, Calvin was trained for the Catholic priesthood. Thus, he too, had
deeply ingrained in his mind many concepts imparted by the Roman Church,
although his doctrinal break with the papacy was more complete than Luther's
had been.
It
is significant, nevertheless, that the three most prominent leaders among the
early reformers were all trained as Roman" theologians before entering on
their reformatory activities. Perhaps this fact may excuse, in part, the fact
that they all retained many pagan concepts and traditions, which had crept into
the Roman system during the Dark Ages.
While
Zwingli was busy transforming the religious and political life of Switzerland,
John Calvin was still a youth training for the Catholic priesthood.
Calvin
was a Frenchman, and he was born in the year 1509, at Noyon, in Picardy. His
father was a fiscal agent, and Calvin was educated with children of noble
birth. When but twelve years of age, he was appointed to a chaplaincy with an
income sufficient for his support.
Soon
after, he was sent to Paris to study for the priesthood, but his father later
changed his plans and wished Calvin to become a lawyer. He then went to Orleans
and Bourges, and studied under celebrated doctors of the law. He was such a
brilliant scholar that he was often invited to take over in a professor's
absence.
At
this time, he came under the influence of a relative, Peter Olivetan, who was
the first Protestant to translate the Bible into French. By studying the New
Testament in the original Greek, his interest was further strengthened in the
Protestant doctrines.
Not
long after publishing a learned humanistic treatise on the writings of Seneca,
his "sudden conversion" as he later described it took place. He
now desired to throw himself upon the mercy of God, and began an earnest study
of the Bible (Fisher, The History of the Christian Church, p. 319).
Calvin
returned to Paris and soon became a recognized leader of the Protestants there.
Persecution drove him out of the city, and Calvin eventually settled for a time
in Protestant Basel.
It
was at this time that the French monarch, Francis I, was trying to get the aid
of the German Lutheran princes against the emperor, Charles V. In order to justify his persecutions of
French Protestants, he accused them of all the lawless fanaticism of some of
the extreme Anabaptist sects.
This
called forth from Calvin an elaborate defense of his French fellow believers.
This work was intended to prove the falsity of these charges, and to set forth
the Protestant beliefs in a systematic and logical way that might win sympathy
from the king and others to the reformers' cause (Kurtz, Church History, p. 302).
Calvin's "Institutes"
This
work was entitled, "Institutes of the Christian Religion." It was
regarded as a tremendous contribution to theology,
and to literature as well. No French
Protestant had yet spoken with such logic and power. This work is still
regarded as the most orderly and systematic presentation of doctrine and of the
Christian life that the Reformation produced (Walker, A History of the
Christian Church, p. 392).
To
briefly comprehend Calvin's doctrine as contained in the
"Institutes," we can do no better than quote excerpts from Walker's
summary of Calvin's position in this work: "Without Luther's antecedent
labors, his work could not have been done. It is Luther's conception of justification by faith, and of the
sacraments as seals of God's promises that he presents. Much he derived from
Butzer, notably his emphasis on the glory of God as that for which all things
are created, on election as a
doctrine of Christian confidence, and on the consequences of election as a
strenuous endeavor after a life of conformity to the will of God. But all is
systematized and clarified with a skill that was Calvin's own.
"Man's highest knowledge, Calvin
taught, is that of God and of himself. Enough comes by nature to leave man
without excuse, but adequate knowledge is given only in the Scriptures, which
the witness of the Spirit in the heart of the believing reader attests as the
very voice of God. The Scriptures teach that God is good, and the source of all
goodness everywhere. Obedience to
God's will is man's primal duty. As originally created, man was good and
capable of obeying God's will, but he lost goodness and power alike in Adam's
fall, and is now, of himself, absolutely
incapable of goodness. Hence no work of man's can have any
merit; and all men are in a state of ruin meriting only damnation. From this
helpless and hopeless condition some men are undeservedly rescued through the
work of Christ."
"Since
all good is of God, and man is unable
to initiate or resist his conversion, it
follows that the reason some are saved and others are lost is the divine choice election and reprobation. For a reason for that choice
beyond the will of God it is absurd to inquire, since God's will is an ultimate
fact."
"Three
institutions have been divinely established by which the Christian life is
maintained the church, the sacraments, and civil government. In the last analysis the
church consists of 'all the elect of God'; but it also properly denotes 'the
whole body of mankind. . . who profess to worship one God and Christ.' Yet
there is no true church 'where lying and falsehood have usurped the ascendancy,
(Walker, pp. 392-394).
We
can see that Calvin's doctrine of justification by faith alone came from Luther. Yet Calvin did believe that a
"saved" person is to produce good
works as a necessary fruit of his conversion.
Calvin
emphasized man's responsibility to follow the law of God as a guide to the Christian life
(Walker, p. 393). However, in no sense did he mean this to include the
letter of the Ten Commandments, but only the "spirit" of God's moral
law as it came to be defined by Calvin.
In actual practice, as we shall see, there were many times when this led
men to break both the letter and the
spirit of the literal Ten Commandments. We shall cite examples of this later.
Without
question, the foundational principle
of Calvin's entire theological system is his doctrine of predestination. In it, all other things
were made to conform to the irrevocable will of God. As did Luther, Calvin
derived many of his ideas on this subject from Augustine. (Fisher, History
of The Christian Church, p. 321).
In
the section on predestination in his "Institutes of the Christian
Religion," Calvin dogmatically states: "No one who wishes to be
thought religious dares outright to deny predestination,
by which God chooses some for the hope of life, and condemns others to eternal
death . . . . By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he
has decided in his own mind what he wishes to happen in the case of each
individual. For all men are
not created on an equal
footing, but for some eternal life is preordained, for others
eternal damnation . . ." (Bettenson, Documents, p. 302).
As
the Protestant historians themselves tell us, this is the essence of Calvinism!
Let
us consider the meaning of these
dogmatic assertions. First, Calvin says that all men are not created equal before God. But the Apostles Peter and Paul, were both
inspired to write: "God is no respecter
of persons" (Acts 10:34; Romans
2:11).
Next,
Calvin tells us that regardless of what
they may do some men are
absolutely predetermined for eternal life, others for eternal damnation.
Thus
we find that the terrifying proposition that men are born to be "saved" or "lost" was one of the basic
tenets of Calvin's doctrine. According to this theory, you are predestined from
all eternity to either the joys
of heaven, or the torments of a
burning hell. Of your own will, you are not
able to repent and be converted.
This is only possible for those whom
God has "elected" to grace.
As
we have seen, Calvin also taught that once a person has been forgiven and
justified through Christ, he can never
fall away. Viewing this practically, it means that no matter how wicked a "saved" person might
become, no matter how utterly depraved,
blasphemous, and reprobate he
might be at the end of his days, he is nevertheless foreordained and bound to
inherit the unspeakable delights of heaven through all eternity. Those
predestined to be "lost" are doomed as the "reformed"
preachers would put it to an eternity in the burning, screaming, horrifying, tortures of a
never-ending hell.
Such
was the doctrine of John Calvin. And this became the teaching of the
"reformed" congregations as they later spread throughout parts of
France, into Scotland, to other nations of Europe, and finally through the
"Puritans" to the New England states.
Shortly
after publishing his "lnstitutes, Calvin visited for a brief time in
Italy. On his way back to Basel, he had to pass through Geneva. An event occurred, here, that changed the
course of his life.
In
1532, after the Protestant defeat at the battle of Cappel, a reforming preacher
named William Farel had come to Geneva to revive the Protestant forces in their
city. Like Calvin, he had been driven out of France by Catholic persecution.
Because of his powerful and unrestrained preaching, he had at first been
expelled from Geneva. But he later returned, and led the Protestants to gain
complete control of this city.
Because
all "worldly" pleasures, and entertainment were banned by his
religious party, a great deal of strife had arisen and the city was in turmoil.
Farel, therefore, knowing the great ability of Calvin and his interest in the
Protestant cause, persuaded him to stay and help the reformed party control the
city. Calvin at first had preferred the quiet seclusion of the scholarly life,
but finally yielded when Farel warned that "God's curse" would fall
on him if he refused to help.
Calvin
then set to work immediately. He composed a catechism for the instruction of
the young, and aided in formulating a stringent set of laws which forbade the
people to wear "vain" ornaments, participate in "obnoxious"
sports or other worldly amusements
(Fisher, The History of the Christian Church, p. 324).
But
the Libertines, as the opposing party was called, soon gained the upper hand
and banished Calvin and Farel from
the city.
This
was 1538, and Calvin went to Strassburg, where he spent most of his three
years' absence from Geneva. He took charge of a Protestant church for French
refugees there, and soon took to himself a wife. It was here also that he
formed a personal acquaintance with Melanchthon, who gradually came over to his
view of the Lord's Supper, though he never did on predestination.
He
was now recalled to Geneva to help the triumphant reformed party found a political and ecclesiastical government
upon the principles of their belief. From here on we notice Calvin's increasing
involvement in politics and resulting
religious strife (Walker, p. 397-398).
Calvin
returned victorious to Geneva in 1541, and set up a new political and ecclesiastical
order. It was surprisingly similar to the Catholic church-state relationship of
obedient nations within the Holy Roman Empire.
The
state was dominated by the religious
leaders, and was bound to foster the interests of the church, carry out its
orders, and to punish or execute all those who opposed the
established religion. Calvin had never
rid himself of the Catholic concept of the church
ruling the state and mixing in
worldly politics.
"Not
only profaneness and drunkenness, but innocent amusements and the teaching of
divergent theological doctrines, were severely
punished. Nor was this all. Trifling offenses were visited with severe
penalties. It was impossible that a city of twenty thousand inhabitants should
rest content under such stringent discipline and such stern enactments. The
elements of disaffection disclosed themselves soon after Calvin's return. His
chief opponents, as before, were the Libertines" (Fisher, The History
of the Christian Church, p. 325).
Calvin
tried to enforce this kind of dogmatic
system on the entire city from this
time until his death. Naturally, it could lead to nothing but trouble, and the chronicle of Calvin's
later life is mainly concerned with his problems in trying to suppress the city of Geneva and coerce its inhabitants into yielding to
his views. There is no denying the fact that he was a kind of religious dictator!
Except
for the famous case of Michael Servetus, which will be covered in a later
section, a detailed explanation of the cruelty
and rigor with which Calvin enforced his system of belief on the
hapless Genevans is unnecessary. The only thing that needs to be said is that
the "fruits" of Calvin's teaching at Geneva make a striking contrast to the inspired statement of
Paul: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17).
The
following summary of the effect of Calvin's "Theocracy" on Geneva
should provide ample basis for comparison:
"Let
us give a summary of the most striking cases of discipline. Several women,
among them the wife of Ami Perrin, the captain-general, were imprisoned for dancing (which was
usually connected with excesses). Bonivard, the hero of political liberty, and
a friend of Calvin, was cited before the Consistory because he had played at
dice with Clement Marot, the poet, for a quart of wine. A man was banished from the city for three months
because, on hearing an ass bray, he said jestingly: 'He prays a beautiful psalm.' A young man was punished because he gave his bride a
book on housekeeping with the remark: 'This is the best Psalter.' A lady of
Ferrara was expelled from the city for expressing sympathy with the Libertines,
and abusing Calvin and the Consistory. Three men who had laughed during the
sermon were imprisoned for three
days. Another had to do public penance for neglecting to commune on Whitsunday.
Three children were punished because they remained outside of the church during
the sermon to eat cakes. . . A person named Chapuis was imprisoned for four days because he persisted in calling his child
Claude (a Roman Catholic saint) instead of Abraham, as the minister wished, and
saying that he would sooner keep his son unbaptized for fifteen years. Bolsec,
Gentilis, and Castellio were expelled
from the Republic for heretical opinions.
Men and women were burnt for
witchcraft. Gruet was beheaded for
sedition and atheism. Servetus was burnt
for heresy and blasphemy. The last is the most flagrant case which, more than
all others combined, has exposed the name of Calvin to abuse and execration;
but it should be remembered that he wished to substitute the milder punishment
of the sword for the stake, and in this point at least he was in advance of the
public opinion and usual practice of his age" (Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. VIII, p. 490-492).
Schaff's
plea that Calvin's "mercy" was in advance of his age sounds somewhat
hollow when we realize that he and the other reformers condemned the papacy for the same brutalities and referred to
Christ's example of love by way of contrast.
Perhaps
we need to remind ourselves that Jesus taught Christians in this age:
"Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Mat. 7:1). And again: "If ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Mat.
6:15).
This
teaching certainly is in contrast with Calvin's "theocracy" in
Geneva. We continue Schaff's description of that frightful system:
"The
official acts of the Council from 1541 to 1559 exhibit a dark chapter of
censures, fines, imprisonments, and executions. During the ravages of the
pestilence in 1545 more than twenty men and
women were burnt alive for witchcraft, and a wicked
conspiracy to spread the horrible disease. From 1542 to 1546 fifty-eight
judgments of death and seventy-six decrees of banishments were passed. During
the years 1558 and 1559 the cases of various punishments for all sorts of
offenses amounted to four hundred and fourteen a very large proportion for a
population of 20,000" (Schaff, p. 492).
Thus
we see that Calvin was willing not only to punish,
but to execute those who failed to go
along with his theological system. Two years after the burning of Servetus, the
Libertine party in Geneva made a last determined effort to overthrow the
religious hierarchy that Calvin had set up. They first attempted intrigue and
secret diplomacy, but finally resorted to armed conflict in May of 1555.
But
Calvin's forces were the stronger, and this last rebellion was a deathblow to
their party. Many now had to flee for their lives from the "justice"
of Calvin (Walker, p. 400).
At
this point, we should take note of the fact as evidenced by the foregoing
examples of Calvin's system that he was the primary reformer who stressed the
idea that men are to forsake all pleasure
in this life.
Therefore,
as we have seen, such trifling things as card-playing, dancing, jesting, and
theatre-going were treated as major sins. In many cases, Geneva's religious
courts would punish such an offender with public
whipping or even possibly death!
These
harsh measures were the result of the concept
that God is a stern, unrelenting, Judge who wishes all men to suffer. He frowns upon any of the common
pleasures of man. Most pleasing to Him, taught Calvin, is a life of barrenness, poverty, and severity.
Perhaps
without realizing it, thousands of Protestants to this day have been influenced
by this concept and have a feeling of guilt
even regarding many of the innocent pleasures of life. The strict "blue
laws" of the New England Puritans is an example of this, and the same
tendency among many of the stricter Protestant sects is evident to this day.
It
is well to realize that this teaching did not come from the Bible. For the most
part, it came from John Calvin's rigid mind.
After
the Libertine rebellion had been crushed, Calvin was the undisputed master of
Geneva. In 1559, he founded the "Geneva Academy" later to be known
as the University of Geneva. It soon became the greatest center of theological
instruction in the Reformed communities, as distinguished from the Lutheran.
Those
in all nations who were struggling to advance the cause of Reformed Protestantism, looked to Geneva for instruction
and support. It became the great seminary from which ministers went forth to
France, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Germany, and Italy. Almost as an absolute ruler of Geneva, Calvin, as Hausser comments, "Acquired and
maintained more power than was ever exercised by the most powerful popes"
(The Period of the Reformation,
p. 250).
To
the end, Calvin labored diligently in preaching and writing. He came to look
upon the spread of the Protestant Churches over the world as being
synonymous with the coming of the Kingdom
of God.
"Here
is one of the most significant differences between Calvin and the previous
reformers. He rejected their expectation of the speedy coming of the Lord and
projected the final cataclysm into an indefinite
future. Luther looked wistfully for
the end of the age before his own demise and the Anabaptists often set dates.
But Calvin renewed the role of St. Augustine who terminated the early Christian
expectation of the speedy coming of the Lord, and envisaged successive acts in
the historical drama in which the Church came well-nigh to
be equated with the Kingdom
of God. Even so Calvin substituted for the great and imminent day of
the Lord the dream of the Holy Commonwealth in the terrestrial sphere. Its
erection depended upon human agents, God's chosen instruments, the
elect" (Bainton, The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, p. 114).
This
attitude caused men to become so absorbed in what we today must sadly speak of
as "churchianity," that they failed
to grow into more spiritual truths than Calvin had found and to
correct his peculiar errors. It also caused a notable lack of interest and understanding of the prophetic
portions of the Bible, which has persisted to this day.
We
will not attempt to cover in detail the spread of Calvinism, or the Reformed
theology, to other lands, because the doctrinal
pattern remained substantially the same. The same spirit guided the movement everywhere. Indeed, the Reformed
churches to this day still bear the indelible stamp of Calvin's powerful mind
and personality (Walker, p. 400).
"From
Geneva, Calvinism spread into France, Holland, England, Scotland, and New
England. The pattern of Geneva could not be reproduced in these lands, at least
not at the outset. A single city might be turned into a select community. In
the case of an entire land this was a very difficult matter. Eventually the
ideal was most nearly achieved in Scotland and New England" (Bainton, p.
121).
When
we read of the public whipping post and of burning people at the stake in the "Puritan" New
England settlements, we may realize that this was just a continuation of
Calvin's system. As illustrated in New England, and with John Knox in Scotland,
Calvin's adherents tried whenever possible to rule or at least dominate
the political government and the entire population by force.
Even
to the time of Calvin's death, his mind was alert and sharp, although his body
was wasted with disease. When he felt his time had come, he sent for the
Senate, in whose deliberations he had so often participated and dominated. He
urged its members to guard the State
from enemies who still threatened it.
Shortly
after, he died peacefully. His fellow ministers were full of grief, for his
great personality had inspired them all and his death left a vacuum, which no
one else could fill. His dominant mind and personality was such that "he excited the most profound admiration in some, and an equally
profound aversion in others"
(Fisher, The History of the Christian
Church, p. 329).
This
very dominance of Luther and Calvin
was in many ways a bad thing. For it led men to accept without question their doctrine and practice
never thinking to prove these ideas by the Holy Word of God.
Actually,
as we have seen, many of the tenets
and actions of the leading reformers
are as far removed from the
teaching and practice of Christ and the Apostles as would seem possible in a
civilized religious society!
Perhaps
the Protestant doctrine was an improvement over the corruptions of the Roman
church and its authoritarian popes. But how
much of an improvement was it? Was it
a genuine restoration of the Apostolic faith and practice?
Even
a respected Protestant historian has stated:
"Protestantism
deposed the infallible pope in a large part of Europe and it did well. It was,
unfortunately, too much disposed to make infallible
popes of the Reformers and to place Luther and Calvin, the infallible theologians, in the place of Christ Himself as an authority that could not be
gainsaid. This tendency was, perhaps, its strength at a time of conflict, when
it avails much to have intense beliefs and no doubts, to march and to battle at
the word of command. It was a source of weakness and stagnation when the battle
was over and theology became more a matter of accepted dogmas than a creed to
live by and fight for. Calvinism, like Lutheranism, degenerated into a sort of
scholasticism against which it had been, in part, a protest" (Mackinnon, Calvin and the Reformation, p. 291).
As
Mackinnon has wisely observed, Protestants today instead of open-mindedly
seeking for more truth have "accepted dogmas" which they strive to
defend in the manner of medieval scholastics. God commands us: Grow in grace, and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18).
Protestants
often have tended to make infallible popes out of Luther, Calvin and the
other early reformers.
Next
month, we will continue this factual and gripping series with the shocking account
of the real facts behind the Reformation in England. Be sure to read it.