Geneva for Calvin 500

I have just returned from two weeks holiday: one week was spent in Geneva attending the Calvin 500 event and the other week was spent in the south of England (Calvin went with me there as well because during it I read Selderhuis' recent biography of the Reformer).

The Calvin event has been detailed elsewhere, so I will not say too much about it except to say that I preferred the sermons to the lectures. It may also be bias on my part but among the preachers I preferred those with a Celtic background. This does not mean that the others were not very good -- in fact, I enjoyed all the sermons I heard and most of the lectures.

It did me good to meet persons from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Uganda, Europe and elsewhere gathering together to give thanks to God for using John Calvin to give them an understanding of the Bible that has gripped their thinking since they first understood what he was saying.

It was also very pleasant to be with Christians who did not accept the common caricature of Calvin as having a fatalistic view of predestination in which God is depicted as unfair. Of course, anyone prepared to accept without qualifications the contents of the Bible soon discovers that its writers say that God has an eternal plan, conceived before the universe was created, which includes his choice of an innumerable number of sinners as his people. It is not surprising that Calvin discovered the Bible teaches predestination. What is surprising is that some can say they have read it and not seen any reference to God's sovereign plan.

While an obvious emphasis was placed by various speakers on topics such as Calvin's teaching on the authority of the Bible, on the Lord's Supper, and on sanctification, I was challenged especially by three aspects of his thought that several speakers mentioned.

First, along with other Reformers and pastors, Calvin's preaching of and writing about the doctrine of justification by faith alone through Christ alone brought spiritual liberty to imprisoned souls. It struck me that a sermon which does not mention this wonderful doctrine may leave some hearers in a cell of spiritual imprisonment, no matter how many listeners are helped by other doctrines referred to in a sermon.

Second, Calvin realised that God was involved in every circumstance of life. For him, divine providence was very real and he observed that God was never inactive but always working for the benefit of his people. I should always remember this reality.

Third, Calvin anticipated the wonderful future that belongs to God's people, that whatever the difficult circumstances of life, those who trust in Christ should look ahead to the inheritance their Father has planned for them.

It seemed to me that forgiveness took care of Calvin's past, providence took care of Calvin's present, and glory occupied Calvin's thoughts of the future. Why should anyone be ashamed of being a Calvinist?

More About Calvin Would I Know

Last week I went to the Banner of Truth conference in Leicester. I was glad to meet up with old friends, including some Free Church ministers, and meet several new ones. The lectures were interesting and helpful (one motivation for going was the quality of the speakers -- Lindsay Brown, Sinclair Ferguson, Mark Johnston, Derek Thomas, Garry Williams). It was also an opportunity to purchase some books. Further it was good to sit and talk and learn from one another.

As with many conferences this year the main focus was on the life and ministry of John Calvin. I think all the delegates knew he was a great man of God, and no doubt he has contributed to their Christian understanding through his varied writings.

Most people who read theological literature will know about Calvin’s emphasis on the majesty of the sovereign God. Five other details from Calvin’s ministry challenged me as I listened to the various lectures.

First, there was his commitment to preaching the word of God in a regular, consecutive, expository way. Second, there was his determination to help the church of Christ throughout Europe and elsewhere (I found the lecture on his interest in mission fascinating). Third, there was his awareness to defend the truth of the gospel by courageous involvement in disputes and by careful analysis of the writings of his opponents (I found this lecture very moving). Fourth, there was his conviction that theology had to be accompanied by piety. Fifth, there was his pastoral heart, concerned for the spiritual state of his listeners/readers.

If all I remember eventually from the conference is these five details, I will be satisfied. But in the unlikely event of any of the speakers reading this blog, please be assured that at present I can recall a lot more of what was said.

Of course, attending a conference has its obligatory good intentions. Mine at the moment is to try and read Calvin’s commentaries over the next few months (I have consulted some of them already when preaching through Bible books). They have been looking down at me from my bookshelves for several years now. They are also on my computers. I have a plan on how to proceed (twenty or so pages a day), but as usual time will tell.

Two Priorities for 2009

2009 contains several important anniversaries and I will comment briefly on two of them.

Firstly, 500 years ago saw the birth of John Calvin, one of the most significant characters in the history of the world. His influence has been great in the development of economic practice and political theories, especially in the content of what is meant by democratic freedom. Whether societies in the western world will acknowledge in 2009 his contribution in these areas remains to be seen. Of course, his influence was far greater within the Christian church of which he was a leading Reformer at the time of the Reformation. 

There is no doubt that God raised up Calvin for this important role and equipped him with the particular gifts that enabled him to fulfil his calling. There is not space here to detail his contribution to the church – it includes his famous Institutes of the Christian Religion (a book explaining Protestant doctrine), commentaries on most of the books of the Bible, various other writings on aspects of worship, and the roots of modern-day Presbyterianism. Calvin was a spiritual giant for whom millions have been grateful to God.

Secondly, 150 years ago saw the last worldwide revival. What took place in 1859 in North America and Britain is described in many books which detail the rise, growth and decline of an amazing spiritual movement that saw thousands, if not millions, of sinners brought into the kingdom of God. Yet while we should be thankful for that wonderful movement of the Spirit, it should sober us to realise that there has not been a similar one since then. Of course, there have been many spiritual awakenings in different places, but there has not been a comparable revival, at least in the Western world, for 150 years. (There may have been a similar movement in China during the communist period.)

Is there a combined application of the anniversaries of the birth of Calvin and the 1859 revival? Yes, there is. Each of them highlights what is urgently needed in the Christian church in the West. We need God-given and God-gifted leaders such as Calvin to direct the church through the morass that marks our sinful society and we need God-given revival that will so recover the church and elevate it once again to heights of spiritual experience that will transform our society. It should be our aim in 2009 to pray that God will raise up such leaders and give such a revival.

Knowing God and knowing myself

This morning I was looking at my library shelves in my study with my usual sense of guilt and despair at realising once again that I have read only a fraction of the volumes on them. In particular my eye rested on the large number of books by and about Calvin that rest on the top shelf. Their location does not indicate I regard him as the best (which I do); merely it is the shelf which can take most books. So I have decided to spend 2009 aiming to read as many of these Calvin titles as I can. I have worked out that if I read one book a week, I'll read them all in 2009 (if you think about these two clauses, they do not say how many Calvin titles I have). I'm also going to re-read his Institutes (in the Beveridge edition).

In his various forewords to his Institutes, Calvin states that he provided in his work an easy introduction for pastors to master in order to be better equipped to study the Bible. I'm sure most authors think their works are easy to understand! However, Calvin's point that we understand a Biblical passage through accurate theology is a far better approach than coming to a passage without it and having to rediscover doctrines every time.

I began to read the first chapter of the Institutes and was soon puzzled; in fact, by the first word in Beveridge, 'our'. Whom does Calvin mean by this pronoun? Is it all people or is it professing Christians? I read on and noted that those whom he describes as 'our' are those who have come to a true knowledge of themselves (they are sinners) and possess a true fear of God. So Calvin must be referring to professing Christians. I suppose that if I had recalled that Calvin followed the arrangement of the Apostles Creed while composing his Institutes, then I would not have had to spend time wondering about his use of the little word 'our'.

While it is possible to work up from our poverty and lack of spiritual blessings to God's rich resources, Calvin says that the best preparation for discovering who we are is first of all to consider who God is. Realising his perfection removes from us any thoughts of our own goodness and capabilities that we may have imagined we had.

This realisation leads to Calvin's emphasis which is that such an awareness (of his perfection and our imperfection) by a Christian always results in experiencing a healthy fear (almost terror) of such a God. Calvin is saying that true thoughts of God must lead to a sense of the great differences there are between him and his creatures. Isaiah 6 every day.

I'm sure that I realised these details before when I read the work previously. But it was good to be reminded of them. Despite learning lots of theology, I am still ignorant in contrast to God; despite experiencing many features of his grace, I am still prone to think far too much of myself and not highly enough of God, of who he is and about what he has promised to do. Isaiah's response, exemplified as well by Job and many others in the Bible, is the appropriate one. Knowledge of God and knowledge of myself enables meaningful adoration of God and humble confession of sin and its effects.