In which the essay starts getting boring ...
Friday, 16 September, 2005
*Yawn yawn* ... this essay is getting boring ... why do I have to write it? I've settled in my own mind that Calvin was mission-minded. What about you? Well, you probably don't have a clue if you were just reading my blog but I spent much of this morning combing through his Institutes of the Christian Religion (title in Latin is much cooler: Institutio Christiane religionis, in libris quatuor nunc primum digesta, certisque distincta capitibus, ad aptissimam methodum: aucta etiam tam magna accessione ut propemodum opus novum haberi possit).
As Craig said, it's hard to demonstrate that someone has an implicit position. Maybe I was being too ambitious when I said that. But I still think it's true based on Calvin's theology so let me take you through it.
Creation
First of all, Calvin believes that all men are created by God but men suppress the truth about him à l´ Romans 1:
That there exists in the human mind, and indeed by nature instinct, some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his Godhead, the memory of which he constantly renews and occasionally enlarges, that all to a man, being aware that there is a God, and that he is their Maker, may be condemned by their own conscience when they neither worship him nor consecrate their lives to his service. (Institutes, I.iii.1).
Sin
Second of all, Calvin believes that all men are sinful:
We thus see that the impurity of parents is transmitted to their children, so that all, without exception, are originally depraved. (II.i.6)
The need for proclamation
Third of all, the sinfulness of man creates the need for men to know God. God makes himself known through his word:
God therefore bestows a gift of singular value, when, for the instruction of the Church, he employs not dumb teachers merely, but opens his own sacred mouth; when he not only proclaims that some God must be worshipped, but at the same time declares that He is the God to whom worship is due; when he not only teaches his elect to have respect to God, but manifests himself as the God to whom this respect should be paid. (I.vi.1)
God's kingdom
Fourth of all, God's design is that the whole world be brought in submission to him:
God, therefore, sets up his kingdom, by humbling the whole world, though in different ways, taming the wantonness of some, and breaking the ungovernable pride of others. We should desire this to be done every day in order that God may gather churches to himself from all quarters of the world, may extend and increase their numbers, enrich them with his gifts, establish due order among them; on the other hand, beat down all the enemies of pure doctrine and religion, dissipate their counsels, defeat their attempts (III.xx.42)
Evangelism
Fifth of all, because this is God's ultimate design, it is the mission of the church:
This Paul teaches, when he says that the embassy of reconciliation has been committed to the ministers of the Church, that they may ever and anon in the name of Christ exhort the people to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. v. 20). (IV.i.22)
But what about predestination?
Calvin believed in the doctrine of election:
We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction. (III.xxi.7)
Doesn't that nullify the need to evangelise? Calvin responds by quoting Augustine:
“Because we know not who belongs to the number of the predestinated, or does not belong, our desire ought to be that all may be saved; and hence every person we meet, we will desire to be with us a partaker of peace. But our peace will rest upon the sons of peace. Wherefore, on our part, let correction be used as a harsh yet salutary medicine for all, that they may neither perish, nor destroy others. To God it will belong to make it available to those whom he has foreknown and predestinated.” (III.xxiii.14)
So there you go. There's a quick potted definitely-not-very-thorough summary from the Institutes of Calvin's theology. Hopefully you'll see why I reckon Calvin is mission-minded.
Still not convinced? You ought to read some of his commentaries then:
And whereas Potiphar, on this account, conceived so much greater regard for Joseph, as to set him over his house; we hence gather, that heathens may be so affected by religion, as to be constrained to ascribe glory to God. (On Genesis 39:3)
O grant, that we may seek true purity, and labor to render, by a real sincerity of heart, our services approved by thee, and so reverently profess and call upon thy name, that really fulfilled in us may that be which thou best declared by thy Prophet—that thy name shall be magnified and celebrated through the whole world, as it was truly made known to us in the person of thine only begotten Son.—Amen. (Prayer arising from Malachi 1:14)
For no ordinary authority would here have been enough, but sovereign and truly divine government ought to be possessed by him who commands them to promise eternal life in his name, to reduce the whole world under his sway, and to publish a doctrine which subdues all pride, and lays prostrate the whole human race. And by this preface, Christ not only encouraged the Apostles to full confidence in the discharge of their office, but confirmed the faith of his Gospel in all ages. (On Matthew 28:18)
A law shall go forth from Zion, that is, it shall be proclaimed far and wide: the Lord will show, not only in one corner, what true religion is, and how he seeks to be worshipped, but he will send forth his voice to the extreme limits of the earth. (On Micah 4:3)
God will raise his Church that it may rule over its enemies; but let the faithful at the same time take heed, that they rule not tyrannically; for God designs ever to reign alone: therefore the whole excellency, the whole dignity, the whole power of the Church ought to be applied for this end,—that all things may become subject to God, and every thing among the nations may be altogether sacred to him so that the worship of God may flourish among the conquerors, as well as among the conquered. (On Micah 4:13)
Besides, the Prophet declares that the riches of the Gentiles, which he appeared to represent, a little before, as the prey of the Church or the prize of victory, shall be a sacred offering to God; and thus he states more clearly what I have said, that there is nothing which we ought to desire more earnestly than that the whole world should bow to the authority of God. (On Isaiah 60:9)
All right, enough already. Are you as sick of this essay as I am?
Blinks:
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Well, not brain dead yet, quite. I don’t know enough to be bored yet. I got to look into the history around Calvin recently but his theology remains mostly a mystery that has not yet been made known.
Did mission minded thinking translate into explicitly mission minded practice for Calvin?