This sensational headline is a quote taken from the “Prefatory Address to the King of France” in the 1559 edition of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.In this address, he is trying to explain to the King of France (to no avail, as we know from history) that the reformation faith is not a new religion, and is not the evil that its opponents make it out to be. Calvin simply wants the King to hear the truth before making any rash decisions: “While a cause is unheard, it is violence to pass sanguinary sentences against it; it is fraud to charge it, contrary to its deserts, with sedition and mischief” (I don’t have page numbers here, since I am reading this in Logos 4, based on a reading plan to get it done by December 30. This is also the Henry Beveridge translation, not the Battles-McNeill translation I began with earlier this year).
In this address, he outlines the reformed faith in a nutshell, showing to the King what the reformed believers think of themselves (almost in complete contrast to the medieval era Church of Rome):
Calvin shows to the King that the reformed faith is not new, is not uncertain, it need not be ‘proven’ by miracles, and it follows from the teachings of the early church fathers. That is his contention throughout the Institutes, since what he writes throughout is given thorough grounding in scripture and also the church fathers—showing it clearly and unsensationally. He argues that it is unjust to hold the reformed faith to the judgments of tradition because that tradition itself lost its biblical foundation and is therefore no longer a good and just guide. In fact, the church (the True Church) existed during the medieval period in spite of the Church of Rome, Calvin argues, because while the hierarchy had become corrupt and led away from the truth of God in scripture, there were always some who held to the true faith, just as in Elijah’s day, there were 7,000 people who did not bow the knee to Baal. Even the unrest which came about after the reformed faith was beginning to be preached is evidence for it, since Satan rises to the occasion to draw people away from the truth of God and therefore from salvation.
The real argument, for Calvin, will come in the pages of the Institutes, when he outlines the true doctrines revealed on the pages of God’s revelation—the Bible. Not only is this work intended to aid reformed believers in understanding their faith and coming to truly know God, it is also an apology, a defense of the faith. In one action, Calvin serves two purposes. And the fact that this work has stood the test of time (being published in its final edition in 1559, 5 years before Calvin’s death) shows, in some way, its usefulness and its timelessness.
A good apology is always in season, as we are to be prepared at all times to give reason for the hope which we have as believers (1 Pet 3:15).
In this address, he outlines the reformed faith in a nutshell, showing to the King what the reformed believers think of themselves (almost in complete contrast to the medieval era Church of Rome):
Let not a contemptuous idea of our insignificance dissuade you from the investigation of this cause. We, indeed, are perfectly conscious how poor and abject we are: in the presence of God we are miserable sinners, and in the sight of men most despised—we are (if you will) the mere dregs and off-scoutings of the world, or worse, if worse can be named: so that before God there remains nothing of which we can glory save only his mercy, by which, without any merit of our own, we are admitted to the hope of eternal salvation: and before men not even this much remains, since we can glory only in our infirmity, a thing which, in the estimation of men, it is the greatest ignominy even tacitly to confess.
Calvin shows to the King that the reformed faith is not new, is not uncertain, it need not be ‘proven’ by miracles, and it follows from the teachings of the early church fathers. That is his contention throughout the Institutes, since what he writes throughout is given thorough grounding in scripture and also the church fathers—showing it clearly and unsensationally. He argues that it is unjust to hold the reformed faith to the judgments of tradition because that tradition itself lost its biblical foundation and is therefore no longer a good and just guide. In fact, the church (the True Church) existed during the medieval period in spite of the Church of Rome, Calvin argues, because while the hierarchy had become corrupt and led away from the truth of God in scripture, there were always some who held to the true faith, just as in Elijah’s day, there were 7,000 people who did not bow the knee to Baal. Even the unrest which came about after the reformed faith was beginning to be preached is evidence for it, since Satan rises to the occasion to draw people away from the truth of God and therefore from salvation.
The real argument, for Calvin, will come in the pages of the Institutes, when he outlines the true doctrines revealed on the pages of God’s revelation—the Bible. Not only is this work intended to aid reformed believers in understanding their faith and coming to truly know God, it is also an apology, a defense of the faith. In one action, Calvin serves two purposes. And the fact that this work has stood the test of time (being published in its final edition in 1559, 5 years before Calvin’s death) shows, in some way, its usefulness and its timelessness.
A good apology is always in season, as we are to be prepared at all times to give reason for the hope which we have as believers (1 Pet 3:15).
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