Do evangelical Protestants have a sense of being heirs of something rich, deep, and rooted in scripture and history? Do we recognize historical & spiritual forefathers, with whom we identify, and because of whom we give thanks, for God's grace and good providence in raising them up for the good of His Church? Or are we historical and theological orphans, without a sense of identity or heritage? Well, if Rick Warren is the representative voice of modern American evangelicalism, the pope of a-historical evangelical pragmatism, then the larger evangelical world sadly wanders fatherless in this world...
In the coming weeks, or months, or whatever it might turn out to be, I plan to once again read through John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. It is a milestone of biblical, Protestant theology - an attainment in history that still speaks today. Among "Bible-believing" American Christians, however, "Calvinism" has, at best, a questionable reputation. There are some who
identify themselves as "Five Point" Calvinists, i.e., embracing the biblical & reformed doctrines of grace, summarized in the acronym TULIP - Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints. Yet this particular system was not directly created by Calvin, but by his faithful theological heirs in the 17th century Dutch Reformed church. The so-called Five Points, in fact, were codified in direct response to the doctrinal challenges to the Calvinism of that church, raised by the students of Jacob Arminius (hence the resulting theological label, "Arminian").
On the negative side, many fundamentalist / dispensationalist baptists and charismatics despise a caricature of Calvinism, which they have created out of
straw (i.e., Dave Hunt's ignorant piece of biblical, theological, and historical pulp fiction, What Love Is This? Calvinism's Misrepresentation of God). Their anemic theology seems to be driven by
evangelistic methodology, rather than the Bible - as in, "If TULIP is true, how can I tell people that God loves
them soooo very much? And that Jesus died for them personally, with them in mind, so that He could have a personal relationship with them? And that He's standing at the door of their hearts and knocking, but the handle is on the inside, so they have to open the door and let Him in - because He would never, ever, ever violate their free will? That God has this wonderful, eternal plan for their lives, but leaves the choice to them? That God has given the gift of His Son, but it's up to us whether or not we open it?" As if Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, were some impotent, pathetic suitor, frustrated by the sinners He loves so much, who spurn His invitations to a "personal relationship."
Many American "Bible-believing" Christians, it seems, are suspicious (and sadly ignorant) of both history and theology. Thus, "Calvinism" is often grossly misunderstood or
mispresented by those who reject it. John Calvin, first and foremost, is a biblical exegete (i.e., interpreter) par excellence, who wrote commentaries on nearly every book of the Bible. His commentaries, for those not plagued by what CS Lewis called "chronological snobbery," stand out to this day as clear, faithful expositions of the text of God's Word, which still excel much of what passes for scholarship today. A friend of mine with a charismatic background shared a story with me about an experience at his Pentecostal Bible college. His church history professor had this and this only to say of Calvin: "John Calvin: greatest biblical exegete in church history. Period." Well, I tend to agree. But what follows from this admission is that Calvin's theology was no arbitrary system imposed upon the Scriptures (as some charge), but resulted from his in depth, prayerful study of the entirety of God's Word. It also shows that Calvinism cannot be reduced to a mere five points, but is a Genesis-to-Revelation, Christ-centered, redemptive, all-embracing world-and-life view.
Now please don't misunderstand me - I'm not advocating a Christianized kind of "ancestor worship."
I'm not exalting Calvin as some infallible Presbyterian pope. As Charles Spurgeon put it so well: "I believe nothing merely because Calvin taught it, but because I have found his teaching in the Word of God." Yet it is proper to call Calvin, as a leading Protestant Reformer, as the premier theologian and exegete of the Reformation era, a father of the faith. In fact, Calvin himself was not only characterized by a breadth and depth of biblical knowledge, but he was deeply conversant with the ancient "fathers of the faith," the patristic writers. Though surely surprising to many contemporary evangelicals, one aspect of historic reformation theology, properly understood, was the effort to recapture the biblically faithful aspects of the theology and worship of the patristic period (generally understood as the post-apostolic era from 100-450 AD). Calvin labored to show that the theology of the Reformation was not a new thing, but a biblical and a historical thing. He argued and demonstrated that the best of the church fathers were on the side of the Reformation.
Calvin's Institutes went through several ever-expanding editions in his lifetime - retaining it's original structure of four books, based on the order of the Apostles' Creed, pertaining to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and the holy catholic church. The first edition was completed when Calvin was only 26 years old in 1536. The final edition was published in 1559. His purpose in writing the Institutes was two-fold: 1) to defend the Reformation, and French Protestants in particular, from false charges and persecution by the Roman Catholic Church (thus the preface is addressed directly as an appeal to the King of France, Francis I); and 2) to provide a basic handbook of theology, to aid the church in her study of God's holy Word (some "handbook" - four volumes and nearly 1700 pages in Beveridge's English translation!).
I anticipate several contemporary benefits / applications as I once again work through Calvin's theological magnum opus. 1) The Roman Catholic question, i.e., why the Protestant Reformation still matters - and the central issues of biblical authority and justification by faith alone must not be abandoned or obscured if we are to remain biblically faithful Protestants today; 2) a clarification of sola scriptura, that the ultimate & final authority of the Bible is not to be understood as a "me, Jesus, and the Bible" subjective method of biblical interpretation. Rather, as Calvin exemplifies, it is an interaction with the text of Scripture in the context of the whole of God's Word, with the Bible serving as its own interpreter - and yet also in thoughtful interaction with the church of the ages (i.e., church history and historical theology are necessary to a faithful & humble handling of God's Word, since we must acknowledge that He has graced His church through the ages with luminaries like the early church fathers, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, the Puritans, Edwards, et al); 3) the charismatic issue - why the Word of God & the Spirit of God can never be separated, and why as a result, most of charismatic Christianity is more bane than blessing in the church today (Calvin was called by Princeton divine Benjamin Warfield, "the theologian of the Holy Spirit,"); 4) a biblical understanding of the sacraments as a means of God's grace, and therefore as an essential element of true Christian piety; and 5) perhaps most importantly, the pressing need for a genuinely God-glorifying, man-humbling biblical theology, centered on the redemptive revelation of Jesus Christ.
There will be, I expect, many other applications, but these are the first that come to mind. So in the coming months, blogsville will mainly be my reflections (for whatever they're worth!) on Calvin's Institutes and its continuing relevance for the church today...