John Calvin: the Unchanged
David Bennett
© 9 July 2008
Download a PDF copy of this paper
David Bennett
© 9 July 2008
Download a PDF copy of this paper
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Unchanged. I am going to summarize what the pastor said about this group and then try to determine if John Calvin was ever changed as a result
of becoming a Christian as he is someone so many put their doctrinal hopes on.
The Unchanged person is one who says he's saved but people who know them may have some serious concerns about that person's salvation
because this person has never been changed.
The Unchanged call Jesus "Lord" but in the pattern of their life they don't do the will of the one they call Lord.
My pastor said Jesus never saved anyone that wasn't also changed.
If you say you're saved and yet you live like a lost person, not just having a bad day or a bad week but as the pattern of your life, you live like a
lost person then guess what? You're lost. Paul put it this way:
If you have these things as the pattern of your life you have not been justified. The evidence of our salvation is that more and more you're
becoming like Jesus. This is called sanctification. My pastor used the tried and true illustration, “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and
quacks like a duck, what is it? It's a duck!” He said, “If a person walks like a lost person, lives like a lost person, behaves like a lost person...
what is he? 'A back slidden Baptist?' No friend, that's a lie that's been told for far too long. 'So brother did they lose their salvation?' No, they
never had it to begin with.”
Next my pastor spoke about the evidence that we're saved. When we are saved it is called justification. When we get to heaven is glorification.
But on earth a Christian is to become more and more like Jesus which is sanctification. Sanctification is the evidence that you have been justified
(saved). Sanctification shows that you have been changed.
From my own notes elsewhere:
My pastor went on to use the example of a man walking into a room and announcing he'd just been hit and run over by an 18-wheeler but did not
look too bad with no visible injuries or other evidence of being hit by a semi. We'd look at him and say there was no way that person had been run
over by a semi. Why? Because there hadn't been any change; he'd be dead or in a cast, there would be some way to tell. In the same way if a
Christian lives like everyone else, if he lives like nothing ever happened and there is no change then... no change, no Jesus.
Now that I have set that up let's use that yardstick to look at John Calvin and those in the Magisterial Reformation in general to see how they
measure up. What kind of change did John Calvin ever exhibit? John Calvin never demonstrated a change, he never demonstrated a repentant
heart and he never demonstrated sanctification. (See my notes on The Golden Rule and Radical Reformation vs. Magisterial Reformation for
specific examples)
It wasn't from Jesus but from Augustine, who persecuted and sanctioned the killing of the Donatists and others, that John Calvin learned to
irresistibly impose his will on the citizens of Geneva as did other "reformers" like John Knox.
How Christ-like they all were!!
As I have shown elsewhere John Calvin and other reformers had people tortured and killed over doctrinal issues. In Geneva Calvin forced the
residents of Geneva to attend church services and forced them to take the Eucharist/Lord's Supper or suffer severe consequences (isn't it amazing
that the entire population of Geneva had been “regenerated”?). Calvin was following Augustine's example of forcing people to participate in the
Sacraments . However, the Apostle Paul tells us we should only participate in the Lord's Supper when our heart is right with God. It should be
obvious that if you force/compel people to participate in the Church you can't know who is really a believer and who is going through the motions
to save their hide. Apparently that was not obvious to Calvin and so his doctrine was infected.
John Calvin was called "the Protestant Pope" and the "Dictator of Geneva." In his sovereignty Calvin irresistibly imposed and compelled his
brand of "righteousness" on the citizens of Geneva. John Calvin was a harsh man who was the first Protestant in Europe “to impose…a uniform
subordination upon an entire populace… With systematic thoroughness, Calvin set to work for realization of his plan to convert Geneva into the
first Kingdom of God on earth… The whole of his life was devoted to the service of this one idea” –Stephan Zweig, The Right to Heresy:
Castellio against Calvin 1936.
Historian Will Durant wrote:
You may say "well, a lot of that was civil law and didn't involve John Calvin as he was more concerned with theological issues." But the fact is in
Geneva it is impossible to separate John Calvin from either religious or civil law.
After reading the official records of the City Council Stephan Zweig wrote:
sessions." source: Pike, John Calvin page 26
Stephan Zweig also wrote of John Calvin:
Calvinists in the 1500's and early 1600's were more like the Pharisees (and worse) than they were like Jesus, his Disciples and the early
Christians. The scary part is there is a growing body in Reformed Theology today that wants to return Christianity (kicking and screaming if
history is any example) to Calvin's Geneva and his “Kingdom of God on earth.” I believe Jesus will do that, not those in the Reformed Theology
camp!
In conclusion John Calvin never showed any evidence of sanctification, he showed no love and mercy to those he didn't like, he never repented of
having other Christians tortured and killed. Calvin does not remotely emulate Jesus, the Apostles or the first century Christians. Changed or
unchanged? You draw your own conclusion.
And by the way, John Calvin was not alone.
Martin Luther signed a paper in 1536 that agreed that preachers who questioned basic Christian doctrines and continued to do so under penalty of
death, ought to be executed by the state. Regarding the Jews Martin Luther advised that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings were to be
taken from them and safe-conduct on the highways was to be abolished. Jewish rabbis were forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb.
John Knox went to Geneva three times to study with Calvin claiming Calvin's Geneva was “The most perfect school of Christ that ever was on
earth since the days of the Apostles."
In Scotland John Knox was involved in a successful plot to murder Cardinal Beaton in 1546. The assassination was approved and applauded by
Knox, who describes the deed with a gleeful and mocking levity. Lest you think this was a one time lapse twenty years later when Queen Mary's
counselor was brutally stabbed to death in 1566 Knox stated that "...the act was most just and worthy of all praise."
Huldrych Zwingli, the founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches, mercilessly persecuted Anabaptists and other followers of Christ who maintained
a nonresistant stance with imprisonment, torture, banishment and death. Under Zwingli's influence, penalties of drowning, burning or beheading
were decreed by the Council.
The following is from a pro Calvin site:
day” as you suggest. John Calvin, as we all are, is judged by the words of Christ Jesus. Jesus and his Disciples are clear on how we should deal
not only with our enemies but also how to handle doctrinal issues and I have not seen anywhere in the New Testament that the use of torture,
disemboweling, drowning or burning at the stake were even remotely hinted at much less encouraged.
The author claims “The treatment of heretics was an error of the age.” That might be a fair statement if John Calvin had not read the words of
Christ Jesus and accepted them as one would assume. No, John Calvin is regarded by those in the Reformed Theology camp as a great exegete
and as such he cannot use the lame excuse as you suggest.
As you point out “to his dying day he neither changed his views nor regretted his conduct.” I have yet to see any evidence that John Calvin ever
repented of his acts, but I have read where he boasted of them. Again, show me where John Calvin ever “changed” as a result of being a true
follower of Christ. Again, if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck…
Why should I or anyone trust men who clearly don't grasp or implement the clear teaching by Jesus or his Disciples on how we should deal with
others? If supposed great exegetes and revealers of the Gospel of Christ like Martin Luther, John Calvin or John Knox, among others, can't be
trusted to follow the basics of Christianity why should we accept them on simple doctrine that they have complicated? Great leaders lead by
example. In the case of men like John Calvin should we follow their examples and torture, disembowel, drown or burn at the stake those who we
disagree with on doctrinal issues?
Also see The Golden Rule and Radical Reformation vs. Magisterial Reformation.
of becoming a Christian as he is someone so many put their doctrinal hopes on.
The Unchanged person is one who says he's saved but people who know them may have some serious concerns about that person's salvation
because this person has never been changed.
The Unchanged call Jesus "Lord" but in the pattern of their life they don't do the will of the one they call Lord.
- "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is
in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons
and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Matthew 7:21-23
My pastor said Jesus never saved anyone that wasn't also changed.
- If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 1 John 1:6
If you say you're saved and yet you live like a lost person, not just having a bad day or a bad week but as the pattern of your life, you live like a
lost person then guess what? You're lost. Paul put it this way:
- The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord,
jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did
before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21
If you have these things as the pattern of your life you have not been justified. The evidence of our salvation is that more and more you're
becoming like Jesus. This is called sanctification. My pastor used the tried and true illustration, “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and
quacks like a duck, what is it? It's a duck!” He said, “If a person walks like a lost person, lives like a lost person, behaves like a lost person...
what is he? 'A back slidden Baptist?' No friend, that's a lie that's been told for far too long. 'So brother did they lose their salvation?' No, they
never had it to begin with.”
Next my pastor spoke about the evidence that we're saved. When we are saved it is called justification. When we get to heaven is glorification.
But on earth a Christian is to become more and more like Jesus which is sanctification. Sanctification is the evidence that you have been justified
(saved). Sanctification shows that you have been changed.
From my own notes elsewhere:
- Justification- is the judicial act of God, by which He wipes away all the sins of those who believe in Christ. Justification removes the guilt
and penalty of sin as if they never happened. Justification took place the moment you trusted Christ. Justification means that the guilt or the
penalty of sin is removed, not the power of sin in this life.
H.A. Ironside asked, "What is it to be justified? It is to be cleared of all blame, to be freed from every charge… What is the basis of
justification? Jesus' blood! It is because of what He did. It is because of the blood He shed. It is the giving up of His life. It is His life for
ours; His holy, spotless life for our sinful, wicked lives."
Sanctification- is a lifelong process which removes the growth and the power of sin. It is the process of becoming more Christ-like. John
Wesley noted that “sanctification does not lead to spiritual perfection, because we all remain sinners. But at least, the one sanctified
consciously, consistently rejects sin.” His father called it “the internal witness of the Holy Spirit.”
My pastor went on to use the example of a man walking into a room and announcing he'd just been hit and run over by an 18-wheeler but did not
look too bad with no visible injuries or other evidence of being hit by a semi. We'd look at him and say there was no way that person had been run
over by a semi. Why? Because there hadn't been any change; he'd be dead or in a cast, there would be some way to tell. In the same way if a
Christian lives like everyone else, if he lives like nothing ever happened and there is no change then... no change, no Jesus.
Now that I have set that up let's use that yardstick to look at John Calvin and those in the Magisterial Reformation in general to see how they
measure up. What kind of change did John Calvin ever exhibit? John Calvin never demonstrated a change, he never demonstrated a repentant
heart and he never demonstrated sanctification. (See my notes on The Golden Rule and Radical Reformation vs. Magisterial Reformation for
specific examples)
It wasn't from Jesus but from Augustine, who persecuted and sanctioned the killing of the Donatists and others, that John Calvin learned to
irresistibly impose his will on the citizens of Geneva as did other "reformers" like John Knox.
How Christ-like they all were!!
As I have shown elsewhere John Calvin and other reformers had people tortured and killed over doctrinal issues. In Geneva Calvin forced the
residents of Geneva to attend church services and forced them to take the Eucharist/Lord's Supper or suffer severe consequences (isn't it amazing
that the entire population of Geneva had been “regenerated”?). Calvin was following Augustine's example of forcing people to participate in the
Sacraments . However, the Apostle Paul tells us we should only participate in the Lord's Supper when our heart is right with God. It should be
obvious that if you force/compel people to participate in the Church you can't know who is really a believer and who is going through the motions
to save their hide. Apparently that was not obvious to Calvin and so his doctrine was infected.
John Calvin was called "the Protestant Pope" and the "Dictator of Geneva." In his sovereignty Calvin irresistibly imposed and compelled his
brand of "righteousness" on the citizens of Geneva. John Calvin was a harsh man who was the first Protestant in Europe “to impose…a uniform
subordination upon an entire populace… With systematic thoroughness, Calvin set to work for realization of his plan to convert Geneva into the
first Kingdom of God on earth… The whole of his life was devoted to the service of this one idea” –Stephan Zweig, The Right to Heresy:
Castellio against Calvin 1936.
Historian Will Durant wrote:
- "To regulate lay conduct a system of domiciliary visits was established...and questioned the occupants on all phases of their lives... The
allowable color and quantity of clothing, and the number of dishes permissible at a meal, were specified by law. Jewelry and lace were
frowned upon. A woman was jailed for arranging her hair to an immoral height...
- Censorship of the press was taken over from Catholic and secular precedents... To speak disrespectfully of Calvin or the clergy was a
crime... Fornication was to be punished with exile or drowning; adultery, blasphemy, or idolatry, with death... a child was beheaded for
striking his parents...” Durant, Civilization, III:474.
You may say "well, a lot of that was civil law and didn't involve John Calvin as he was more concerned with theological issues." But the fact is in
Geneva it is impossible to separate John Calvin from either religious or civil law.
After reading the official records of the City Council Stephan Zweig wrote:
- "There is hardly a day, in the records of the settings of the Town Council, in which we do not find the remark: 'Better consult Master Calvin
about this.'"
sessions." source: Pike, John Calvin page 26
Stephan Zweig also wrote of John Calvin:
- "...But the sinister power of this zealot extended far beyond the walls of Geneva. The Swiss federated cities regarded him as their chief
political member; throughout the western world the Protestants had appointed this "violentissimus Christianus" their commander-in-chief;
kings and princes vied with one another in wooing the favour of a militant ecclesiastic who had established in Europe a Church organization
second in power only to that ruled by the Roman pontiff. Nothing could happen in the political world without his knowledge; very little could
happen there in defiance of his will. It had become as dangerous to offend the preacher of St.-Pierre as to offend emperor or pope..." The
Right to Heresy: Castellio against Calvin (1926).
Calvinists in the 1500's and early 1600's were more like the Pharisees (and worse) than they were like Jesus, his Disciples and the early
Christians. The scary part is there is a growing body in Reformed Theology today that wants to return Christianity (kicking and screaming if
history is any example) to Calvin's Geneva and his “Kingdom of God on earth.” I believe Jesus will do that, not those in the Reformed Theology
camp!
In conclusion John Calvin never showed any evidence of sanctification, he showed no love and mercy to those he didn't like, he never repented of
having other Christians tortured and killed. Calvin does not remotely emulate Jesus, the Apostles or the first century Christians. Changed or
unchanged? You draw your own conclusion.
And by the way, John Calvin was not alone.
Martin Luther signed a paper in 1536 that agreed that preachers who questioned basic Christian doctrines and continued to do so under penalty of
death, ought to be executed by the state. Regarding the Jews Martin Luther advised that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings were to be
taken from them and safe-conduct on the highways was to be abolished. Jewish rabbis were forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb.
John Knox went to Geneva three times to study with Calvin claiming Calvin's Geneva was “The most perfect school of Christ that ever was on
earth since the days of the Apostles."
In Scotland John Knox was involved in a successful plot to murder Cardinal Beaton in 1546. The assassination was approved and applauded by
Knox, who describes the deed with a gleeful and mocking levity. Lest you think this was a one time lapse twenty years later when Queen Mary's
counselor was brutally stabbed to death in 1566 Knox stated that "...the act was most just and worthy of all praise."
Huldrych Zwingli, the founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches, mercilessly persecuted Anabaptists and other followers of Christ who maintained
a nonresistant stance with imprisonment, torture, banishment and death. Under Zwingli's influence, penalties of drowning, burning or beheading
were decreed by the Council.
The following is from a pro Calvin site:
- JOHN CALVIN: FROM SECOND REFORM IN GENEVA TO DEATH (1541-1564)
Reformation Men and Theology, Lesson 8 of 11 by Dr. Jack L. Arnold
Calvin considered Servetus the greatest enemy of the Reformation and honestly believed it to be the right and duty of the state to punish
those who offended the church. This act was based on the Old Testament principle of death for heretics (Lev. 24:16). Calvin also felt
himself providentially called to purify the church of all corruptions, and to his dying day he neither changed his views nor regretted his
conduct toward Servetus.
We should not be too hard on Calvin in the matter of Servetus, for the spirit of the day among all, except the Anabaptists, whether Catholic
or Protestant, was to put heretics to death. The treatment of heretics was an error of the age, and we dare not judge Calvin by our twentieth
century standards.
day” as you suggest. John Calvin, as we all are, is judged by the words of Christ Jesus. Jesus and his Disciples are clear on how we should deal
not only with our enemies but also how to handle doctrinal issues and I have not seen anywhere in the New Testament that the use of torture,
disemboweling, drowning or burning at the stake were even remotely hinted at much less encouraged.
The author claims “The treatment of heretics was an error of the age.” That might be a fair statement if John Calvin had not read the words of
Christ Jesus and accepted them as one would assume. No, John Calvin is regarded by those in the Reformed Theology camp as a great exegete
and as such he cannot use the lame excuse as you suggest.
As you point out “to his dying day he neither changed his views nor regretted his conduct.” I have yet to see any evidence that John Calvin ever
repented of his acts, but I have read where he boasted of them. Again, show me where John Calvin ever “changed” as a result of being a true
follower of Christ. Again, if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck…
Why should I or anyone trust men who clearly don't grasp or implement the clear teaching by Jesus or his Disciples on how we should deal with
others? If supposed great exegetes and revealers of the Gospel of Christ like Martin Luther, John Calvin or John Knox, among others, can't be
trusted to follow the basics of Christianity why should we accept them on simple doctrine that they have complicated? Great leaders lead by
example. In the case of men like John Calvin should we follow their examples and torture, disembowel, drown or burn at the stake those who we
disagree with on doctrinal issues?
Also see The Golden Rule and Radical Reformation vs. Magisterial Reformation.
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http://www.freewill-predestination.com/