John Calvin in History and Statesmanship

John Calvin's father was a secretary to a bishop, and he devoted John Calvin to the church at a vary early age. (Guizot. 152) Despite the devotion to God that Calvin was placed into from an early age, Calvin's father, in later years, had Calvin study law. (Guizot, 156) In a very short time in the study of law John Calvin arose to the height of professorship as he would often be called to become a professor, but his greatest desire became not the study of law but instead the study of God. (Guizot. 158-159) After the death of Calvin's father, Calvin sold the property that he inherited as he dedicated himself entirely to religious reform and service to God at all costs. (Guizot, 159-160)

The fact that John Calvin was exposed to the writings of Martin Luther, John Hus, and John Wycliffe when he gained his masters degree (Storms, 46) became the guiding factor in his life despite his doctorate in law. John Calvin, with his many studies, had a tremendous value for education that in his greater maturity became very fruitful. When John Calvin thus had control over Geneva, he consolidated several Latin schools and organized a school focusing on religious training that had seven grades with a academy of higher education attached to it. (Cordasco, 51) One scholar commented that with the fifty-six pastors sent to France, ten pastors sent to Piedmont, two to Brazil, one to Turin, one to Antwerp, and one to London, Calvin could not keep up with the high demand for pastors that had been placed upon his school. (Selderhuis, 241)

The fact is that with the tremendous amount of writing that Calvin did during his life, his own education, and his founding of a school, one could easily conclude that John Calvin was very serious about education and that he was willing to do what was needed for the promotion of Christian education. Yet Calvin did not let his passion for his greater desires overcome his obedience to his father, and in this regard Calvin was able to found his own school in his own city of Geneva only after the death of his father. Overall, the point to be made regarding Calvin is that he was willing to do whatever needed to be done at all costs to follow Christ, especially in regard to education, but Calvin was never willing to sacrifice moral obligation or prior commitments to arrive at his goals ahead of time.

The statesmanship of John Calvin

Dr. Valentine Andreae that visited Geneva in 1610, some fifty years after the death of Calvin, said that what he saw in the city was something that he would desire for the rest of his life in terms of its moral excellence and glorious ornamenting of the Christian religion. (Vollmer, 141) Obviously thus one could conclude that the power of the changes that Calvin instituted in the city had long lasting positive influence even half a century after his death. Some have even gone so far as to say that Calvin was as good of a statesman as he was a theologian. (Vollmer, 136)

The city of Calvin has been believed by scholars to well resemble the Ancient Hebrew commonwealth established by Moses and to not neglect material prosperity. (Vollmer, 136) Geneva under Calvin thus had a well conducted hospital, a poor-house, efforts to give useful employment to every man with the ability to work, and established factories that produced incredible wealth for the city. (Vollmer, 137) Geneva under Calvin would have thus resembled the Hebrew commonwealth in both the material blessings of the city and in the tremendous welfare of the people.

What made Calvin unique is that he was a Republican in that he believed in the idea of government being composed of well qualified representatives of the people. (Vollmer, 138) With this belief Calvin transformed Geneva from a state of anarchy to a awesome model for Christian society (Vollmer, 139), and some have even said that Geneva was the most perfect school of Jesus Christ since the time of the apostles. (Vollmer, 140) The point to be made is that the society that John Calvin founded was so divinely endowed that it became like the kingdom of God on earth.

The teachings of John Calvin

When Karl Barth writes regarding the teachings of John Calvin, he recalls Calvin's position that the king is either a robber or a servant of God that restores or protects God's glory and his inviolability. (Barth, 107) What Barth further brings forward is that Calvin is seen promoting Christ as judge with the "rod of his mouth" that becomes like an example for the king, (Barth, 107) and the case is then made that the clergy that find such a teachings to be new have not heard (understood or believed) the gospel as they have a superficial religion based on their own material gains. (Barth, 108) The basic idea that Barth appears to be bringing out in Calvin is that administrators of God's justice really have the ability to ruin God's kingdom on earth by robbing God of his glory unless the king is submissive to the direction of Christ to administer justice.

Scripture itself backs Calvin's view regarding the importance of the king being under God's submission, and this is true because even Paul prayed that king Agrippa and his quart become Christians (Acts 26:28-29) as Paul made a special attempt to evangelize them even while he was in chains. The point to be made is that if the king and his quart became Christians in this context, then the only sensible outcome would be that the government be run in submission to the will of God and the judgments of Jesus Christ. The point is that Calvin, unlike many other Protestants that eventually followed, could clearly recognize the role of the state in relation to the apostle's teachings, and in this regard secularism and the separation of church and state would have been recognized as a abomination and perhaps even an eternally condemned doctrine of man's own creation.

What is important to note is that Calvin, speaking about the salvation of king Agrippa in the Acts 26 context, makes clear that Agrippa was not 'almost' made a Christian under Paul's desires, (Calvin, 301) but instead salvation could only come from the Spirit that teaches and God the Father that draws people to Christ. (Calvin, 302) What is important to note at this point is that Calvin appears to be admonishing the historic rendering of 1 John 7 as found in the Vulgate (Challoner, 281) that teaches the necessity for the testimony of the Father, Word (Son), and Holy Ghost to all be in accord regarding a person's salvation, and what is notable is that contemporary Bible translations do not follow in accord with this teaching. The point is that for Calvin the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost had not all been in accord to make king Agrippa into a Christian, and frankly speaking that is why Agrippa did not become a Christian.

The question regarding the unity of the Trinity in regard to eternal salvation and the functions of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is best described in light of Matthew 22:1-14. John Calvin, in his commentaries, dedicates an entire section on doing an exegesis of Matthew 22:1-14 together with Luke 14:15-24 and what Calvin generally eludes to is how each person of the trinity functions in regard to justice and salvation, the historic message of salvation regarding the Jews, and detailed operations of the Trinity to work salvation. (Calvin, 149-155) The point to be made is that the story of Matthew 22:1-14 to describe a king (the Father), a servant (the Holy Ghost), and the Son (Christ) has its parallelism with justice, and even grace, that is administered by a human king in this world today. For this reason the administration of the state can either uplift the kingdom of God by acting in accordance and in obedience to its heavenly pattern, or the administration of the state can make a mockery out of what happens in the heavenly kingdom.

For John Calvin afflictions are the path that the heavenly kingdom arrives through, but his case is that afflictions do not merit inheritance because inheritance only comes through God's adoption. (Calvin, 155) For Calvin thus the kingdom of God, "...is not an inheritance produced for us by Christ, but a reward that is due to our works." (Calvin, 155) In this regard the teachings of John Calvin would greatly require the openness of the state and the service of Christian leaders in order to produce an environment receptive and conducive of Christian works such that we may build the kingdom of God as the reward that our works produce.

The historical impact of John Calvin

Calvin's city of Geneva became so powerful as to become, "the mother of flourishing colonies in both hemispheres." (Adams, 301) Universal education in the city of Geneva as well as institutions of higher education along with education in the faith stimulated the church to educate its own members to the extent that education emerged in the reformed churches drawing on Calvin's legacy. (McKim, 64-65) The point is that the work of John Calvin produced tremendous educational, spiritual, and physical blessing to the people that lived in the world for generations after Calvin's death.

In regard to economics, the famous thesis of Weber and Tawney is that Calvinists had an important part in bringing about the formation of the modern economic world; moreover, Calvinism combined duty to toil with a religious stimulation to otherwise ordinary economic incentives. (Spiegel, 79) What the world thus inherited from the teachings of John Calvin was a stimulation to work and be productive that generally benefited all people in civilized nations. For this reason some may argue that John Calvin was more about building the kingdom of God on earth that everyone would enjoy than about building a ideological conception of a future kingdom of God that may appear very distant to most people.

A person could argue that without the influence of John Calvin, the Protestant reformation may have instead resulted in a conception of salvation that was so abstract, distant, and unrelated to physical work that Protestants may have found themselves living in the kingdom of God in their minds (and perhaps even their spirits) but not really 'living' in the world in any meaningful way. John Calvin thus built a model of the kingdom of God on earth with his city of Geneva, and this city thus became a pattern that was both reproduced in itself and reproduced in part all throughout the world. Overall, the historical impact of the work of John Calvin has even gone so far as to cause entire nations to be considered 'reformed nations' as they held to the very core national teachings of the reformed views of John Calvin.

How Calvinism relates to the truth of today

Despite the Protestantism of Calvin, today courses on Calvin's thought are even offered in some Catholic universities, and thus both Catholics and Protestants have inhered John Calvin as an influential figure for today's theologian. (Davis, 73) Not only that but also modern science has benefited from Calvin's case that the Bible is about Jesus Christ and is not a textbook of biology, geography, or even astronomy. (McGrath, 256) Thus the contributions of Calvin ultimately brought about a man on the moon, and Calvin's teaching caused Catholics to realize that they have much to learn about this great Christian intellectual.

Although John Calvin had a geocentric belief of the universe, (Glover, 29) the fact is that particularly in the American colonies John Calvin's idea that the subjective awareness of both God and his will could in fact be supplemented by a reflection on the very structure of the external world. (Tolley, 25) Such a view is what gave John Calvin's theology the superior advantage in promoting advancements in understanding the world, and this specifically is what caused some civilized nations to be for more technologically and scientifically advanced than other civilized nations. Overall, what is clear is that a man on the moon would not have even been possible if not for John Calvin incorporating the importance of investigating the external world into his theology.

What John Calvin has contributed to our understanding of the truth today is that he taught that, "...belief in Scripture alone means that Scripture remains what Calvin called the 'spectacles,' or the corrective lens, through which we perceive the living God." (Johnson, 39) The point is that scripture for Calvin became a sacred text about faith, (Johnson, 40) but "When we expect the Bible to be a science text or a historical record or a blueprint for predicting the future, then, at best we cease to respect it for what it is. At worst we misuse it or even abuse its power by forcing it to serve alien purposes." (Johnson, 40) The point is that the teachings of John Calvin eventually restored the scripture it its rightful and respectable place in our contemporary understanding in order that both the Christian faith and the understanding of the world could be promoted with increasing development, and this is the impact of John Calvin's teachings on the people of today.

The great damnation

John Calvin writes about a insult to Christ in that some would say that the elect are saved by Jesus Christ given that they take care of themselves, (Calvin, 16) and we are thus reminded that,
"...He himself affirms that his protection is invincible, promises to give eternal life to all given Him by the Father, and teaches that the elect are in His hands from which nothing can pluck them out. If then the reason for God's election is to be found in man, or anywhere else then wholly and simply in God Himself, injury is done to the efficacy of Christ's work." (Calvin, 16) The point is that adding to the work of Christ in this regard is an abomination from a Calvinist perspective. The danger thus is in intruding upon Christ's work in that such an intrusion would give the appearance of compromising Christ's sovereignty.

The great damnation of Calvinism comes when the multitudes of people cannot be saved because any efforts that they make to be saved (either through prayer, devotion, or proclamations of faith) cause an intended manipulation of God, intended compromise of his sovereignty, and a human effort to intrude upon Christ's work. On a more positive perspective however, John Calvin would be far more inclined to understand how a murder like Saul could suddenly be converted through divine revelation (See Saul's conversion in Acts 22:5-8). That is to say that Saul's conversion had nothing to do with his works to be saved by Christ, but it had everything to do with Christ's work to save him.

If the sum of John Calvin's teaching was summarized in Romans 9:21 that teaches that God makes a pot for common purpose and that in contrast he makes a pot of noble purpose, then if with this illustration all people are grouped into one category of pot or the other the result would be double predestination. Double predestination would be the great damnation of Calvinism that many Christians would want to avoid, and many Christians would want to avoid this doctrine because it would teach that Christ himself makes people for the purpose of damnation. The case to be made is that under John Calvin's views, the elect would in the end make no addition to Christ's work whereas the damned would continually attempt to add to Christ's work since they are in rebellion to God.

Paul writes about God raising Pharaoh for the purpose of God displaying his power, (Romans 9:17) and if a person investigated the contrast between Pharaoh and Moses, then a person would find that Moses is recorded to do whatever God says for him to do whereas Pharaoh adds his own work onto what God wants done (See Exodus 14:5-6 in regard to Pharaoh adding to God's work) or he may even have tried to overpower God's will to work in the world. The case is that Pharaoh and the Egyptians would be trapped in their own rebellion against God without anyway of getting out of it. (Romans 11:32 in this regard describes all men as having been bound to disobedience) Overall, if John Calvin truly believed in double predestination, then the purpose of salvation may be less of a focus on universal love offered to everyone from God and instead more of a focus upon God sending people to hell to make a point or to send a message (Romans 9:22-23 hypothesizes that God's purpose in election is to demonstrate his power and wrath for the sake of showing the wealth of his glory to those in his mercy).

Conclusion

The overall point to be made regarding the contribution of John Calvin to the subject of church history is that his influence had a permanent economic contribution to the welfare of Christians and the Christian state, and in addition he caused this contribution to occur through his work to promote the preservation of God's sovereignty in the world. The bringing about of a earthly kingdom of God in Geneva caused some to view salvation both in a temporal and eternal way, and in this regard Calvin accomplished more than many Protestants would have ever accomplished. The fact that western civilization owes much of its advancements to John Calvin and that entire communities and nations have benefited directly from Calvinism cannot be underestimated. Overall, if not for the perceived consequences of double predestination, then one may conclude that perhaps most if not all of Protestantism would have as its history John Calvin being the second greatest hero of the Protestant faith just under Martin Luther.

The teachings of John Calvin have a tremendous value to the history of the church today because free grace of God without measure has unfortunately ruined the power of the church in light of the state. Today for example many governments operate as secular organizations even if most of the people in the country are Christian or proclaim to be Christian, and this means that either citizens have to believe that Christian thought does not matter when running government or people have to act Christian when it does not have a governing influence on people and then in contrast act secular in work related positions of authority. The point is that today, unlike the thought of Calvin, many people in civilized nations under secular rule are required to have a double mind about matters.

The idea that everyone has a chance to be saved and that Christians should work to evangelize and serve all mankind until they get saved would be a very bad thing in Calvin's understanding, and this is very bad because this free grace to everyone just gets disposed of if the people that are being served will never get saved. Calvin in this cause would have protected the sovereignty of God's government on earth such that secularism would not need to take over operations as a result of the church wasting its efforts on the damned causing it to be ineffective for serving the complete people and nation. John Calvin ultimately showed the world that the faithful servant of God, that has the protection of God's sovereignty in mind, can be in charge of everything under heaven including the direct civil administration of the people, the preaching of salvation, the education of the masses, the welfare of the people, and the evangelism of people of other nations.

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