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In this year of John Calvin’s 500th birthday, I don’t know of a better place to read about his impact on America than Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism given at Princeton Seminary in October 1898. Kuyper was a pastor, a journalist, the founder of the Free University of Amsterdam, and Prime Minister of the Netherlands. John Calvin and Martin Luther were the twin pillars of the Protestant Reformation. Why do fewer people speak of Luther’s culture-shaping impact on America, but for centuries Calvin has been seen in this light? Kuyper argues, Luther’s starting-point was the . . . principle of...

Full title: John Calvin: Antidote to the Sixth Session of the Council of Trenton the Doctrine of Justification (1547) Justification would be easily explained, did not the false opinions by which the minds of men are preoccupied, spread darkness over the clear light. The principal cause of obscurity, however, is, that we are with the greatest difficulty induced to leave the glory of righteousness entire to God alone. For we always desire to be somewhat, and such is our folly, we even think we are. As this pride was innate in man from the first, so it opened a door...

Full Title: "Nothing but a Loathsome Stench": Calvin’s Doctrine of the Spiritual Condition of Fallen ManIntroduction With the reality of the spiritual condition of fallen man, John Calvin begins Book II of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. The heading of Book II is “The Knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ, First Disclosed to the Fathers Under the Law, and Then to Us in the Gospel.” Recalling the opening lines of the Institutes, concerning knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves, Calvin declares that we cannot know God as redeemer, if we do not know ourselves as fallen and...

THIS year John Calvin is 500 years old. He has had an influence on our lives way beyond anything we could imagine. As one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation he carried on the work begun by Martin Luther and developed it further in an effort to teach the Bible and show its relevanADVERTISEMENTce to peoples' lives. He has been much misunderstood and much maligned. Even many modern French people think he was Swiss. That is because he spent much of his life in Geneva and had a great impact on that city but he was French, born in...

Years ago while listening to Hank Hanegraaff’s Bible Answer Man radio program, a caller called in about “Christ suffering in Hell.” Hank rightly explained that “Christ suffering in Hell” is not a biblical doctrine, but noted that the doctrine was held by John Calvin. Hank respectfully disagreed with Calvin.We can argue back and forth over Calvin’s doctrine of baptism or predestination, but Calvin is a manifest heretic regarding Christ’s descent into hell. He breaks with Scripture and all the Fathers in this regard, and his error deserves more attention, because it shows the cracks in his systematic theology. During my...

O Philipp Melanchthon! . . . I appeal to you who live in the presence of God with Christ, and wait for us there until we are united with you in the blessed rest . . . I have wished a thousand times that it had been our lot together! (from online paper, "John Calvin -- True Presbyterian," by Francis Nigel Lee [pdf / html]; his own sources provided: J. Calvin: Clear Explanation of the Holy Supper, in Reid’s Theological Treatises of John Calvin, S.C.M., London, p. 258; see an alternate 1978 printing listed on amazon and this exact...

BOSTON, July 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- More than a thousand gathered in downtown Boston this last week to honor the 500th birthday of John Calvin (July 10, 1509) as part of the Reformation 500 Celebration hosted by Vision Forum Ministries. The event, held July 1-4 at the Park Plaza Hotel, featured more than 40 live reenactors, 30 formal history lectures, and 20 walking tour of historic landmarks in Boston, a Children's Parade in Boston's Public Gardens, and more. The conference emphasized both the theological an practical implications of the Reformation and John Calvin's influence on the institutions of family, church,...

The Well doesn't look much like the churches of Geneva, but it is influenced by John Calvin just the same. Never mind that the French reformer would be 500 years old this week; Calvin's theology has retained much of its potency. He provides theological underpinnings for churches such as The Well, a nondenominational congregation downtown with a commitment to Reformed theology. He also is a source of conflict for Southern Baptists and a steady draw for young Presbyterians. His legacy and life are being celebrated around the world this week after Friday marked the 500th anniversary of his birth. To...

Today marks the quincentenary of John Calvin’s birth. Over at the First Things site, I take the occasion to pay special attention to Calvin’s concern for articulating the antiquity, and therefore the catholicity, of the Reformation. Among the factors that converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism very often cite as major influences on their move is the novelty of the former compared with the antiquity of the latter. This is, undoubtedly, an important point that ought to be addressed by concerned Protestants. But I argue, in continuity with the Reformers, I think, that this concern is best answered in the...

"...Mr. Hall argues, both the man [Calvin] and his doctrines are the bedrock of our democratic society." -- New York Sun, July 19, 2006 From the editorial review at Amazon... Few people today realize the extent to which John Calvin, the great Genevan Reformer, and his work have shaped modern culture. Few know it was Calvin who pioneered the effort to decentralize government by calling for checks and balances againt the rule of the few or the king. Equally unknown are his efforts to establish a productive social safety net for immigrants, create education models that were far ahead of...

On July 10, six days after our own Independence Day, the world will celebrate the birthday of John Calvin, the man most responsible for our American system of liberty based on Republican principles of representative government. It was Founding Father and the second President of the United States, John Adams, who described Calvin as "a vast genius," a man of "singular eloquence, vast erudition, and polished taste, [who] embraced the cause of Reformation," adding: "Let not Geneva be forgotten or despised. Religious liberty owes it much respect." Calvin, a humble scholar and convert to Reformation Christianity from Noyon, France, is...

As Reformed churches worldwide prepare to celebrate the 500th anniversary on 10 July of the birth of Protestant Reformation leader, John Calvin, leaders of a global movement of Reformed churches have issued a statement calling on Christians to commemorate Calvin not as a saint but as a source of inspiration for responding to contemporary social and environmental concerns. In a statement released today by leaders of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) which represents 75 million Reformed church members, WARCs president and general secretary link commentaries by the 16th century lawyer and theologian to the current global economic crisis....

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- Calvin 500, the international Quincentenary celebration of the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth (July 10, 1509), is bestowing three Lifetime Achievement Awards this week in Geneva to honor exceptional scholarship and achievement. The Lifetime Achievement Award for Reformation Scholarship was awarded on July 6th to Robert Kingdon, "Scholar par Excellence in the history of the Reformation, who led the way to a greater appreciation of Calvin's work by his own study of Calvin's life and times," said Dr. David W. Hall, Executive Director of Calvin500. The Calvin500 Executive Committee bestowed this award...

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 9 /Christian Newswire/ -- On the eve of the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth, Calvin 500, the international Quincentenary celebration concluded tonight at St. Pierre Cathedral in the old town of Geneva. Following a week of over 20 academic lectures, 15 expository sermons, with numerous other associated meetings, the commemoration concluded with a closing luncheon at Restaurant La Broche, with the Rev. Geoff Thomas of Wales, addressing the banquet. Later that afternoon, Dr. Henry Krabbendam and Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda spoke on "Reformation and Revival." Nearly 1000 participants enjoyed the festivities and addresses during...

Dear Twins: I’m having a little get-together at my house to celebrate Calvin’s 500th birthday in July. Do you have any recommendations on appropriate party snacks I could serve? — Caroline Burr, Casper, WYMaurice: Good question, Caroline. With all the whoop-de-doo about Calvin’s 500th, you would think just one reformed theologian out there would have the decency to shut up about Calvin’s influence on soteriology long enough to tell us what kind of treats to bring to a party.Emmett: You came to the right place, Caroline. Maurice and I are known as the idiot-savants of Calvinistic party planning.Maurice: Well, you’re...

John Calvin's birthday deserves to be celebrated, not least because he was one of the truly great Christian exegetes and indeed systematic theologians of all time. Never mind that I disagree with a great deal of what he has to say about God, his sovereignty, the nature of his grace, election, predestination, human freedom, and perseverance of the saints. I will reserve comments on those sorts of things for my essay which will appear in the September issue of Christianity Today. Here I want to say some positive things. A personal word is necessary at this juncture. I attended a...

Since the sixteenth century, conversions and counter-conversions between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism have been the stuff of controversy, polemic, and recrimination. The Lutheran-Catholic concord on the formula cuius regio, eius religio virtually guaranteed the escalation of political strife as parties competed for sovereignty. With the emancipation of church from state in the post-Reformation era, churches in North America have inherited a rather different set of implications for the conversion of political figures. When Newt Gingrich announced earlier this year that he had converted to Roman Catholicism, and when news broke in 2002 that Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas had done...

Local Presbyterian churches won't be putting candles on a birthday cake for John Calvin--500 wouldn't fit anyway. But church members recognize the importance of July 10. Sunday school classes and study groups at the Presbyterian Church of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Presbyterian Church have been reading the works of the man whose principles eventually founded the Presbyterian faith. "Calvin would be unimpressed that people were celebrating his birthday," said the Rev. Allen Fisher Jr. of the Presbyterian Church downtown, "but deeply edified that people were still reading his works." John Calvin was born July 10, 1509, in France. During his 55-year...

Dear John Calvin, I pray this letter finds you well even at 500 years of age. Next week our church, named after you, will celebrate your birthday. Granted, your birthday was on July 10th, and even though many things have changed, most churches still worship on the Lord's Day. So we're going to honor your achievements during worship on July 12th. To be honest, if we held a celebration on the actual date of your birth, we probably wouldn't get anybody out to church on a Friday night. Sorry about that. You may be surprised to know (even horrified knowing...

KALAMAZOO -- For the Rev. Margaret "Meg" Jenista, of Third Christian Reformed Church, a self-confessed "theology nerd," this weekend promises to be a happy, fulfilling time. "I'm nerdy enough to be excited about John Calvin's 500th birthday," said Jenista about an event being celebrated worldwide -- the birth on July 10, 1509, of a pillar of Protestant faith and one of the founders of the Reformed church movement. Calvin's influence on Christianity and on society in general endures for a variety of reasons, said Kalamazoo-area pastors who serve denominations that trace their roots back to his teachings. For Jenista, the...