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Portrait of John Calvin, 1854.

The doctrine of Scripture plays a vital role in the writings of John Calvin. John Calvin's view of Scripture can be found mainly in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564) was a French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation and was a central developer of the system of Christian theology called Calvinism or Reformed theology. ... John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564) was a French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation and was a central developer of the system of Christian theology called Calvinism or Reformed theology. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. ... John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564) was a French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation and was a central developer of the system of Christian theology called Calvinism or Reformed theology. ... Institutes of the Christian Religion is John Calvins seminal work on Protestant theology. ...

Necessity

Calvin viewed Scripture as necessary in two ways. John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564) was a French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation and was a central developer of the system of Christian theology called Calvinism or Reformed theology. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. ...

• General revelation cannot in itself give us a saving knowledge of God. Although he can be known in some ways through creation he has "added the light of his Word in order that he might make himself known unto salvation."^[1] Calvin compares Scripture to being like a pair of spectacles, that enable us to properly interpret what we see in creation:

For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any books however fair, is set before them, though they perceive that there is something written are scarcely able to make out two consecutive words, but, when aided by glasses, begin to read distinctly, so Scripture, gathering together the impressions of Deity, which, till then, lay confused in our minds, dissipates the darkness, and shows us the true God clearly.^[2] General revelation is a theological term which refers to a universal aspect of God, his knowledge and of spiritual matters, discovered through natural means, such as observation of nature (the physcial universe), philosophy and reasoning, human conscience or providence or providential history. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Glasses, spectacles, or eyeglasses are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes, sometimes for purely aesthetic reasons but normally for vision correction or eye protection. ...

• Inscripturation is necessary to avoid the errors inherent in oral transmission:

Part of a series on Calvinism (see also Portal)

John Calvin

Background Christianity St. Augustine The Reformation Five Solas Synod of Dort Calvinism is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life that emphasizes Gods sovereignty in all things. ... From [1], in the public domain This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564) was a French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation and was a central developer of the system of Christian theology called Calvinism or Reformed theology. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... “Augustinus” redirects here. ... The Reformation was a movement in the years of the 16th century to reform the Catholic Church in Western Europe. ... The Five Solas are five Latin phrases (or slogans) that emerged during the Protestant Reformation and summarize the Reformers basic beliefs and emphasis in contradistinction to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church of the day. ... xxx cciiiox The Synod of Dort was a National Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618/19, by the Dutch Reformed Church, in order to settle a serious controversy in the Dutch churches initiated by the rise of Arminianism. ...

Distinctives Five Points (TULIP) Covenant Theology Regulative principle The Five points of Calvinism, sometimes called the doctrines of grace and remembered in the English-speaking world with the mnemonic TULIP, are a summary of the judgments (or canons) rendered by the Synod of Dordt reflecting the Calvinist understanding of the nature of divine grace and predestination as it... Covenant Theology is not to be confused with the Covenanters Covenant Theology (also known as Covenantalism or Federal theology or Federalism) is a conceptual overview and interpretive framework for understanding the overall flow of the Bible. ... The regulative principle of worship is a Christian theological doctrine teaching that the public worship of God should include those and only those elements that are instituted, commanded, or appointed by command or example in the Bible; that God institutes in Scripture everything he requires for worship in the Church...

Documents Calvin's Institutes Confessions of faith Geneva Bible Institutes of the Christian Religion is John Calvins seminal work on Protestant theology. ... The Reformed churches express their consensus of faith in various creeds. ... The Geneva Bible was a Protestant translation of the Bible into English. ...

Influences Theodore Beza John Knox Jonathan Edwards Princeton theologians To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... For other persons named John Knox, see John Knox (disambiguation). ... Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758) was a colonial American Congregational preacher, theologian, and missionary to Native Americans. ... The Princeton theology is a tradition of conservative, Christian, Reformed and Presbyterian theology at Princeton Seminary, in Princeton, New Jersey. ...

Churches Reformed Presbyterian Congregationalist Reformed Baptist -1... Presbyterianism is a form of church government which is most prevalent within the Reformed branch of Protestant Western Christianity. ... Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs. ... The name Reformed Baptist does not refer to a distinct Christian denomination, but instead is a description of the churchs theological leaning. ...

Peoples Afrikaner Calvinists Huguenots Pilgrims Puritans Scots Afrikaner Calvinism is, according to theory, a unique cultural development that combined the Calvinist religion with the political aspirations of the white Afrikaans speaking people of South Africa. ... In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name Huguenot was applied to a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, historically known as the French Calvinists. ... Pilgrims is the name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony, MA. Their leadership came from a religious congregation who had fled religious persecution in the East Midlands of England for the relative calm of Holland in the Netherlands. ... A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was any person seeking purity of worship and doctrine, especially the parties that rejected the Laudian reform of the Church of England. ... “Scot” redirects here. ... This box: view • talk • edit

For if we reflect how prone the human mind is to lapse into forgetfulness of God, how readily inclined to every kind of error, how bent every now and then on devising new and fictitious religions, it will be easy to understand how necessary it was to make such a depository of doctrine as would secure it from either perishing by the neglect, vanishing away amid the errors, or being corrupted by the presumptuous audacity of men. It being thus manifest that God, foreseeing the inefficiency of his image imprinted on the fair form of the universe, has given the assistance of his Word to all whom he has ever been pleased to instruct effectually...^[3]

Authority

Calvin viewed Scripture as being equivalent to an utterance of God given from heaven:

Since no daily responses are given from heaven, and the Scriptures are the only records in which God has been pleased to consign his truth to perpetual remembrance, the full authority which they ought to possess with the faithful is not recognised, unless they are believed to have come from heaven, as directly as if God had been heard giving utterance to them.^[4]

Calvin believed Scripture to be the Word of God.^[5] He considered that Christians do not need the testimony of the church to appreciate its authority, since it is self-authenticating,^[6] and that it is only through the Holy Spirit that we know it to be the Word of God: This article is about the religous people known as Christians. ... St. ... In Christian religions that trace their roots to belief in the Nicene Creed, the Holy Spirit (Hebrew: ‎ Ruah haqodesh; Greek: ; Latin: ; also called the Holy Ghost) is the third consubstantial Person of the Holy Trinity or the Godhead. ...

The same Spirit, therefore, who spoke by the mouth of the prophets, must penetrate our hearts, in order to convince us that they faithfully delivered the message with which they were divinely entrusted... Scripture, carrying its own evidence along with it, deigns not to submit to proofs and arguments, but owes the full conviction with which we ought to receive it to the testimony of the Spirit..^[7]

According to Calvin, Word and Spirit must always go together. Scripture gives us a saving knowledge of God, but only when its certainty is "founded on the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit.".^[8] It is "foolish to attempt to prove to infidels that the Scripture is the Word of God," since this can only be known by faith.^[9] Nevertheless, he did see a place for evidences of Scripture's authority, as long it is recognised that they are secondary: An infidel (literally, one without faith) is one who doubts or rejects central tenets of a religion, especially those regarding its deities. ...

The human testimonies which go to confirm it will not be without effect, if they are used in subordination to that chief and highest proof, as secondary helps to our weakness.^[10]

The "chief and highest proof" being, of course, the testimony of the Holy Spirit, though Calvin does not say that the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit is the source of this authority. John Murray has suggested that the distinction between the authority intrinsic to Scripture, and our persuasion that it is authoritative is not "as clearly formulated in Calvin as we might desire."^[11] John Murray (October 14, 1898–May 8, 1975) was a Scottish-born Reformed theologian who taught at Princeton Seminary and then left to help found Westminster Theological Seminary, where he taught for many years. ...

Character

Calvin viewed Scripture as being both majestic and simple. According to Ford Lewis Battles, Calvin had discovered that "sublimity of style and sublimity of thought were not co-terminus."^[12]

Majesty

Calvin believed that Scripture possesses "a divine majesty which will subdue our presumptuous opposition, and force us to do it homage."^[13] It speaks with a unified voice, and its parts make up a perfect harmony:

How admirably the system of divine wisdom contained in it is arranged—how perfectly free the doctrine is from every thing that savours of earth—how beautifully it harmonises in all its parts—and how rich it is in all the other qualities which give an air of majesty to composition.^[14]

Simplicity

Scripture, according to Calvin, also has an "unpolished simplicity". It is not particularly eloquent, for that would detract from its message:

The sublime mysteries of the kingdom of heaven have for the greater part been delivered with a contemptible meanness of words. Had they been adorned with a more splendid eloquence, the wicked might have cavilled, and alleged that this constituted all their force. But now, when an unpolished simplicity, almost bordering on rudeness, makes a deeper impression than the loftiest flights of oratory, what does it indicate if not that the Holy Scriptures are too mighty in the power of truth to need the rhetorician’s art?^[15]

References

1. ^ Institutes I.vi.1.
2. ^ Institutes I.vi.1.
3. ^ Institutes I.vi.3.
4. ^ Institutes I.vii.1.
5. ^ Institutes I.vii.4.
6. ^ Institutes I.vii.2
7. ^ Institutes I.vii.4-5.
8. ^ Institutes I.viii.13.
9. ^ Institutes I.viii.13.
10. ^ Institutes I.viii.13.
11. ^ Murray, John. Calvin on Scripture and Divine Sovereignty (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978), 44.
12. ^ Battles, Ford Lewis. "God Was Accommodating Himself to Human Capacity," in Donald McKim (ed.) Readings in Calvin's Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984), 38.
13. ^ Institutes I.vii.4.
14. ^ Institutes I.viii.1.
15. ^ Institutes I.viii.1.