John Calvin’s Reign of Terror Is Finished

Lord willing, we’ll be sharing this with all the Reformed denominations that we can contact. I want to let all of you know that Calvin is dead. His malignant spirit that has cursed this earth like a cancerous tumour has been banished from this realm. Perhaps this seems a little too “spiritual” for most Calvinist ears, so let me sum up what this means for Calvinists, particularly those of you who spend your lives promulgating his demonic doctrines.

Today, your power is gone. Your ability to maintain your churches is finished. The cerebral authority that you have held over your congregations is no more. Your women, so thickly slathered in gaudy jewels of Calvinist pretense will become barren and your children will desert you. You have been drunk on Calvin’s spirits and now the cellar of sweet wine is empty. The party is over! No one gives a damn what you have to say anymore. Find a different line of work, because nobody will be willing to pay for your goods. They won’t be willing to pay you to prattle on twice a Sunday. Your congregants will call you out for the spiritual tyrants and showboaters that you are. All of you are defeated this day. You’re done!

You’ll find a lawyer’s defense of a serial killer written by my earthly father, John L. VanPopta, here. You’ll find many such defenses of Calvin if you search the internet. Many make the ridiculous defense that all of the churches were burning their heretics at that time in history as though Calvin should be excused. Evidently, because it was the custom of the day to burn people slowly until their flesh melted off when you had a theological differing with them, Calvin is therefore innocent. How bloody diabolical!

Click here for a link to a list of John Calvin’s horrific crimes.

However, my father is the only one I’ve known to peddle the lie that Calvin was a tender-hearted compassionate man and now I know why. My father IS John Calvin in the flesh. That is why he defends John Calvin as he does. They are one and the same. My father decreased while John Calvin increased. My father has lived in total submission to Calvin even to the point of getting “Parkinson’s”, which I see as a cruel prison imposed by Calvin on my father in spite of promising power and recognition. Calvin is a lying bastard and liars believe him.

Yesterday, the Lord gave me to slay John Calvin in speaking to my father. My father had shared a link to John Piper’s site, desiringgod.org, explaining how John Calvin was really as nice of a medieval tyrant as you could expect at that time, as though morality is relative to the social milieu. I asked the Lord for words and He gave them.

Dad, you’re wrong. Calvin was an arrogant vindictive hateful devil. He was in perfect stride when he had Servetus burned on a pyre of wet wood to slow his entrance into hell. That’s pagan bullshit. Even if Calvin were truly correct and Servetus was actually guilty of blasphemy, there is no whisper in the Scriptures of such barbarism. He also had another man killed and had his wife and children evicted from their house just before burning it to the ground while they watched.

 You need to let these doctrines go. They’re choking the life out of you.

 I have no interest in striving with you, but I won’t let a justification of such clearly documented wickedness be excused in such a weak and deceitful manner.

Calvin is the very man who by his continuing spirit tormented you mercilessly in Coaldale for speaking your mind. He was a man of great contempt and pride as are all of his proselytes.

 I’ll quote Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Adams because I totally agree with.

 “I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was demonism. If ever man worshipped a false God he did. The Being described in his five points is not the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent Governor of the world, but a demon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no God at all than to blaspheme Him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin” [Letter to John Adams, written in Jefferson’s eightieth year].

By God’s Grace I am immovable in my firm stance against Calvin. Calvin and his followers have been burning slowly on a pile of their own books since that fateful day, and I’m so thankful to have been snatched out of that fire.

God damn you, John Calvin! Your time is up! Your reign of terror is over! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I bind all of your power in every realm. May your doctrinal drivel fall on deaf ears and perish from the land of the living. May the people spit on the memory of your pathologically arrogant doctrines. May your “covenant children” turn on you and roast you on a burning pile of your own books as is your justified custom.

Perhaps it seems to some of you that cutting down my father publicly for sharing a Calvinist apology seems strong, but the Lord has sent me to return Calvin’s “generosity” in kind. My father is guilty of blaspheming, which is what Calvin accused Servetus of. By defending Calvin, my father has become worthy of the same sentence unjustly rendered by Calvin himself.

This is an hour of rejoicing!! The great devil John Calvin is finished. He is no more! His power is broken and his empire is cursed.

Praise the Lord. May His Kingdom reign forever!!!

Martin VanPopta

Some responses to our mailing:

 

From: James Visscher

Hi Martin,

I am not sure why this ends up in my inbox, except to vent your anger far and wide.

I am very, very sad to have received this terribly one sided depiction of Calvin. It shows that you know very little and have not read much if anything of and about Calvin.
I am even more distressed what you write about your father. It is despicable! What a cruel son you are!
I have only one word to you “repent” of your anger and be reconciled to your father. I know he loves you deeply and what you write will only increase his sadness and suffering.
James Visscher

From: Martin VanPopta
Date: Sat, Nov 21, 2020 at 9:29 PM
Subject: Re: There’s a new message in your inbox
To: James Visscher

James,

It’s in your inbox because your church father’s spirit has been bound and banished and the Lord moved me to inform you.

If someone dragged your son off to prison and had him tortured and then, after finally beheading him, burned his house down in front of your daughter-in-law,  I think you’d be okay with a one sided story.

Or what if he burned your son alive slowly while he cried out for mercy?

How in the Hell do you manage to justify disregarding his atrocities? They’re on perfect record for all of history to read in full colour. HE WAS A TYRANT AND A MURDERER! And he didn’t repent an inch before he suffocated to death.

Calvin was self-righteous condescending asshole, just like you, and now he’s gone. Praise the Lord!

I recently (several months ago) apologized to my father for being a selfish jackass of a son. We had a good visit a few weeks ago for the first time ever. I was actually able to appreciate and respect him in a way that I had never experienced before. There isn’t a droplet of this message that is caused by spite or unforgiveness. After all, who would benefit more from Calvin’s banishment than my father, his tortured servant.

It is with great sobriety and conviction of my calling that I say these things, not bitterness or vengeance.

You don’t know what you’re talking about, in spite of being perfectly certain that you do.

You say, “It shows that you know very little and have not read much if anything of and about Calvin.”

Isn’t it perfectly possible that you are the one who hasn’t read enough about Calvin? What kind of arrogant know-it-all jerk are you to conclude that I would address such a serious matter without reading “much or anything” about Calvin? Seriously, how do you get to be so cocksure that everyone who disagrees with you is a bumbling idiot? You are just like your father Calvin, the devil. You have nothing but contempt and murder in your heart for anyone who challenges your beliefs. I know full well you’d join Calvin in burning me alive too. It’s a good thing for my sake, you’re both powerless losers now.

Calvin’s doctrines are the Tree of Knowledge in perfect antiChrist form. All who eat of his branches perish. Why do you think all the preachers and professors in the Canadian Reformed Church are getting Alzheimer’s, Dementia, MS, and Parkinson’s? You’ll tell me that’s the work of the Devil and I’ll tell you that your devil’s name is John Calvin. Those who live by Calvin’s sword, die by his sword. The Lord confounds the wisdom of the “wise”. Unless you repent, you’ll likewise perish.

Your spiritual and emotional platitudes are wasted. I am not a cruel son, nor am I venting selfish anger. Don’t you find it a little strange that you condemn me as “despicable and cruel” while you stand in the gap for a sociopathic murderer? Your hypocrisy and inconsistency is breathtaking. Calvin has made you a perfect idiot.

These are the facts, Jack! You’re done! The day will come when people marvel that you were ever able to captivate anyone with your regurgitations of Calvin’s blasphemies.

Martin

 

From the “Reformed Church of the Thousand Isles”
http://www.reformed1000.org/ 

You sound nice let’s grab coffee sometime.

From: Martin VanPopta

Hello!

I don’t think now is the time to be snarky.

Don’t you have a responsibility before God as a professing Christian to examine the message you’ve received and humbly search the matter out before the Lord? Your simple comment betrays you. You enjoy your position as important Christian guy, but you hold the office in contempt along with the people who bring their concerns to you.

You remind me of Eli’s sons and you will likewise perish.

Martin VanPopta

From: Reformed Church of the Thousand Isles
Date: Friday, November 20, 2020 at 11:21 AM
To: Martin VanPopta
Subject: Re: There’s a new message in your inbox

I sincerely apologize for being disrespectful and snarky and you are absolutely right that these are not laughing matters. I also believe we will be accountable for the Gospel we proclaim. Thanks for these reminders.

Sent from my iPhone

 

From: Martin
Sent: November 20, 2020 1:02 PM
To: Reformed Church of the Thousand Isles
Subject: Re: There’s a new message in your inbox

Hello!

Your apology is received. I’ll believe it as true and substantial when you renounce John Calvin with all of his evil doctrines.

You need to understand that while you can apologize for this one-time offense, your response is indicative of a deeply rooted disdain for your fellow man that you’ve inherited from Calvin himself. Calvin seduces people with the power of intellectual authority and then once he has you, he enslaves you to a lifetime mistreating others and reaping the associated reward.

That is why I’ve sent out this email. I’m letting you know that your captor has been executed. If you keep his legacy of murder and hatred alive, it’s only because you desire it.

There is only one option for any true follower of Jesus Christ given the information I’ve shared with you. You need to renounce any association with Calvin’s “reformed” religion.

I say these things for your benefit.

You are correct when you say that we are accountable for the gospel we proclaim. That is why you don’t want to be found preaching the gospel of sociopathic tyrant. Being a Calvinist is like being a Stalinist or a Hitlerist. You’re professing association with a murderous fearful dictator. And worse, Calvin committed his evil in the Name of the Lord.

Will you turn from inevitable destruction or will you perish taking the Lord’s Name on yourself in vain.

Martin VanPopta

From Rick Vollema of Pleasant Valley Church in Holland, Iowa:

From: Rick Vollema <info@pleasantvalleyonline.org>
Date: Wed, Nov 18, 2020 at 9:09 PM
Subject: My New Job …
To: <admin@thepathoftruth.com>

Greetings,

I have taken the time to read your story completely. I ask you show the same courtesy to me.

This is not to open a debate. But, your bitterness toward your father is sad … yet the reality of sin in this world does result in such bitterness.

Calvin makes no difference. No more than any other Reformer (and there were many). Luther’s call was to bring the catholic (universal) church back to adhering to God’s Word, NOT to create another line or division in the church.

The Church (universal) was established by Jesus. No Reformer created the church. No Reformer re-created the true Church. The Church will continue without end by the Grace and Provision of a Living God. Forget Calvin. The Church Jesus established comes together under the common banner as Christ’s Body – Jesus as the Son of God, the Father, and the Spirit – together the Godhead.

The church lives on and will continue to do so. Not because of your father or despite your father. Neither regardless of Jean Calvin’s influence (he was French of course). The Reformers didn’t want to divide the Church. Humans through the ages have managed to do that rather thoroughly all on their own.

Jean Calvin died long ago as did all the original ‘Reformers’ during an era when the Catholic church persecuted, excommunicated, and murdered a great many people. Given your vial language and hateful spirit, you seem to be advocating that same “doctrine” as the Catholic church in the 15th century, as you suppose Calvin did, and as many others who have sought to destroy God’s Church.

So, there will be no “new job” because the Church lives on. To the time Jesus calls His children to Himself, the Church lives on. I am saved by Grace through faith – by the sacrificial Lamb. My work will end when God calls me to Himself. God’s Church lives on despite your hate. The God I love loved me first. I kneel before that same God humbled by who He is. Awed by His Power. Miraculously healed of terminal cancer by His Touch.

I am a member of Christ’s Church because of the shed blood and forgiveness of Christ Jesus. I pray that your forgiveness might be extended to your father someday. There is no human w/o sin. Not I, not you, not Calvin, not your father. You are no doubt forgiven by many. Now it is your turn. Perhaps you can find the True Path to Truth – God’s Truth.

Thank you for reading this note.

A simple person living for a God of Grace, Truth, and Love (yeah, and Perfect Justice, too).

Rick Vollema

From: Martin VanPopta
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2020 11:40 AM
To: info@pleasantvalleyonline.org
Subject: Re: My New Job …

Rick,

You’re wrong.

This matter is far more simple than you’re making it. That’s all you reformers ever do, is prattle, prattle, prattle.

John Calvin was a self-righteous murderous tyrant which is reflected perfectly in his doctrines. Calvin created a horrible murderous tyrant of a god in his own image and murdered those who opposed his diabolical construction. Anyone who is not against him is for him.

You are exactly as the Jews when they chose a murderer, Barabbas, instead of the Truth, Jesus Christ. Jerusalem, corrupted, fell swiftly thereafter, just as Babylon is falling as we speak. Your finished, Babylon. The Lord has come!

I am a representative of Jesus Christ the Most High God. You are taking His Name in vain and you’ve been warned. This very moment will be brought before your mind when your judgment comes.

Martin

From: Rick Vollema <info@pleasantvalleyonline.org>
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2020 at 2:42 PM
To: Harvest Haven <solutions@harvesthaven.com>
Subject: RE: My New Job …

Martin,

As I said, I’m not opening a debate. Slandering me and others in the name of Christ Jesus is pure, undeniable sin and accomplishes nothing. I did not portray hatred in your direction. I did not slander you. I fail to understand how a Believer can be so filled with hatred. Actually, your point bathed in your hatred for “Reformers” shows you as more of a “Reformer” (as you describe Calvin) than I. I thought I said forget Calvin and let’s focus on Christ Jesus. Not certain how you interrupt that as “prattle, prattle, prattle” but so be it. Christ’s Church still stands as Christ’s Church. Are you perhaps denying Christ’s Church? Or are you denying Christ Jesus? If so, then we part. For it is not “prattle” to claim Jesus’ shed blood as our only path to salvation. Perhaps that’s the communication breakdown. You seem to be focused on Jean Calvin for some reason and disregard all the other people within the reformation era. I am not a “Reformer” on which for some reason you seem to, in your hatred, be stuck. But, again, your seeing through evil bent.

Your final comment is intriguing: “I am a representative of Jesus Christ the Most High God. You are taking His Name in vain and you’ve been warned. This very moment will be brought before your mind when your judgment comes.”

Is this “Jesus Christ the Most High God” not the Son of God? Have you created something outside of God’s Word? Again, this could be where are communication breaks down. For I believed you were hating Jean Calvin but believing in the Divine Son of God.

I have no worries or concerns. For on Judgement Day, when God returns with the sound of the trumpet (God’s Word not a “Reformers” word) the dead in Christ will rise first and those who live ‘in Christ’ will follow. The true Believers.

The warning from God’s Word is clear. Those who deny the Son, deny the Father. Those will not be taken or joined with God in heaven. Perhaps the finger you point toward me should, by you, be examined closely. Because four are pointing back toward you.

I am not a “Reformer” and I am not a “Catholic” … I am saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God.

Be warned.

Rick Vollema

From: Harvest Haven <solutions@harvesthaven.com>
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2020 10:13 AM
To: info@pleasantvalleyonline.org
Subject: Re: My New Job …

Rick, you’re a fraud and a liar. My evidence is your statement below, which perfectly sums up both the false humility and the genuine hatred of all Calvin’s offspring.

“A simple person living for a God of Grace, Truth, and Love (yeah, and Perfect Justice, too).”

There’s no sense reiterating that you’re not here to debate. You aren’t in a position of authority or privilege to debate anyway. You are just a whore serving in the temple of Baal. Your “Liberty Light Show” is an abomination to God. It truly is both obscenely tacky and blasphemous.

You’ve been served notice.

Martin

From: Rick Vollema<info@pleasantvalleyonline.org>
Date: Monday, November 23, 2020 at 8:04 AM
To: Harvest Haven <solutions@harvesthaven.com>
Subject: RE: My New Job …

Martin,

You are a weak debater and defender of whatever it is you are pedaling. And I am uncertain as to what you are pedaling because so far you have said nothing about what you are defending. You know nothing about me and yet you find it necessary to spew hate and false claims. You claim I have “false humility” with having never met me. I am a threat to you because I show the Light of Christ Jesus to the dark areas of your life.

22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Mark 4:22-23; NIV)

I sense you refuse to “hear” the truth. You indicate no knowledge of God’s Word, but in the Gospel of John, (in John 1:4-5) it tells us:

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (NIV, 2011)

Your darkness shows and you fear those who point to the True Light.

Your only method of holding your head up is to make sure everyone else is forced down. Weak. You claim I “prattle” yet this is all you have done. A sign of a very weak personality with very low self-esteem.

The only way you seem to attempt your point is through slander and libel towards others. You make no point whatsoever.

Your anger and hate seem to cloud all other ability to judge. So, let me just say you will, too, be judged.

You profess to be a “a representative of Jesus Christ the Most High God,” yet you ‘shine’ nothing but the opposite of what Jesus Christ tells us to.

Going to God’s Word, Jesus is one who is humble and loving and healing and patient. With the exception of His time with the Pharisees, Scribes, and Chief Priest, He was kind.

Matthew 21:23   When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

I see your behavior is like the Pharisees and I definitely find you echoing the same question to God’s Son.

You use the Messiah’s name but you deny Him in your life.

That is your choice. That will be your downfall.

I live in confidence of knowing God’s Word and following it as best as I can as a sinner.

I acknowledge my position. That position is well stated in:

Psalms 124:8    Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

I know who I am and who my God is. You appear to falsely profess the name of Jesus. Watch yourself. You blaspheme me – I have little recourse other than in the courts. However, if you blaspheme the name of Jesus, you will suffer God’s wrath. I guess that’s your choice.

Only God’s Spirit in your life will soften your mind to receive Jesus.

I speak through God’s Word … again I don’t know from where you draw your authority to speak. So, your “prattle” is over for me. I’m done. Jesus tells us to wipe the dust from my feet and leave those who refuse to hear.

May you find the True Peace of Christ in your life someday. But, if you do not, fear death, not me.

Rick Vollema

From: Martin VanPopta
Date: Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: My New Job …
To: <info@pleasantvalleyonline.org>

Rick:

Again, this is not a debate. It’s an announcement! Calvin was pure evil and now he’s banished. Just because you want to argue your case, it doesn’t mean I have to waste my time listening. I’m right and you’re wrong. I’m in charge and you need to listen. These are facts, not opinions. You can bluster all you want, but the verdict is in and the sentence given.

I’m not “pedalling” anything, Rick. You don’t have to shoot the messenger.

You’ve saved me the trouble of sizing you up by describing yourself perfectly. The Truth is a mirror that every man hates.

Below is perfect description of Calvin and all of his followers provided by yours truly. Thanks for this!

I sense you refuse to “hear” the truth.

You indicate no knowledge of God’s Word.

Your darkness shows and you fear those who point to the True Light.

Your only method of holding your head up is to make sure everyone else is forced down.

You have a very weak personality with very low self-esteem.

Your anger and hate seem to cloud all other ability to judge.

You profess to be a “a representative of Jesus Christ the Most High God,” yet you ‘shine’ nothing but the opposite of what Jesus Christ tells us to.

Here’s a poem for you!

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,

Wherever did you get your gall?

I’m not guilty of such things at all!

Mirror, mirror, take a fall!

 

I have a different image in my mind,

Of myself that’s much more kind.

A finer person you’ll never find;

Surely, mirror, you are blind!

 

Mirror, mirror, full of lies,

What you show me, I despise,

What I see, my heart denies,

Things not fit for holy eyes!

 

Who holds this mirror before my face?

I find your judgment cruel and base.

Is your agenda my disgrace?

You need to learn and know your place.

 

I will now even the score;

I will escape what I abhor.

Crash goes the mirror to the floor,

A false impression to give no more.

 

But now I have only shattered dreams.

There’s no more peace, it seems,

Only eyes full of beams,

A state no decent being esteems.

Victor Hafichuk

You say, “With the exception of His time with the Pharisees, Scribes, and Chief Priest, He was kind.”

I feel the same way, Rick. I have the Lord’s kindness in my heart for the lost and suffering but I have zero patience for wicked religious hypocrites like yourself!

Look, Rick, I’m calling your bullshit. You’re a con man. You are not the man you say that you are.

You are, in perfect fact, a self-righteous condescending jerk who very quickly starts fantasizing the infinite horrible torture of any man who disagrees with you. It’s seriously pathetic.

Just admit it, Rick. You’re an asshole. You really have no use for anyone pointing out your hypocrisy. Neither did Calvin. That’s why he killed everyone who challenged him. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I guess. You are trying to do the same to me but the Lord has turned the tables.

Martin

John Calvin’s Bodycount…
The victims are listed, followed by references, (A)…(L), the URLs of which are at the bottom.

A. Execution

1. Jacques Gruet
(A)”Thus the State issued dogmatic decrees, the force of which had been anticipated earlier, as when Jacques Gruet, a known opponent of Calvin, was arrested, tortured for a month and beheaded on July 26, 1547, for placing a letter in Calvin’s pulpit calling him a hypocrite. Gruet’s book was later found and burned along with his house while his wife was thrown out into the street to watch.”
(C)”Calvin cut off the head of Jacques Gruet “for having written impious letters, libertine verses, and for working to overthrow ecclesiastical ordinances.”
(D)Quoting Stephan Zweig’s “The Right to Heresy”: “Jacques Gruet was racked and then executed merely for having called Calvin a hypocrite.”
(E)”This regime was resisted by a party incorrectly described as ‘Libertines’, which Calvin succeeded in overcoming by force. Among the opponents executed after torture were Jacques Gruet (1547), Raoul Monnet (1549), and, best known, Michael *Servetus (1553).”
(F)”Even eminent men were not safe from Calvin’s control. Jacques Gruet was beheaded for blasphemy, treason, and a threat to the ministers.”
(J)

2. Giovanni Valentino Gentile
(A)and(G)”Another victim of Calvin’s fiery zeal was Gentile of an Italian sect in Geneva, which also numbered among its adherents Alciati and Gribaldo. More or less Unitarian in their views, they were required to sign a confession drawn up by Calvin in 1558. Gentile signed it reluctantly, but in the upshot he was condemned and imprisoned as a perjurer. He escaped only to be twice incarcerated at Berne where, in 1566, he was beheaded.”
(H) & (I) Very full accounts of Gentile

3. Michael Servetus Is much needed about him? Is there any debate about his murder?
(A)
(C)”Seven years before the conference which was now to take place in Calvin’s house on the proposals of the queen-mother, Michel Servet, a Frenchman, travelling through Switzerland, was arrested at Geneva, tried, condemned, and burned alive, on Calvin’s accusation, for having “attacked the mystery of the Trinity,” in a book which was neither written nor published in Geneva.”
(E)(J)

4. Raoul Monnet
(E)
(J)page 223 “This regime was resisted by a party incorrectly described as “Libertines, which Calvin succeeded in overcoming by force.Among the opponents executed after torture were Jacques Gruet (1547), Raoul Monnet (1549), and best known, Michael Servetus (1553). By 1555, however, all resistance had ceased and Calvin was the uncontested master of the city.”

5. Others
(A)”Calvin also had twenty women burned at the stake after accusing them of causing a plague that had swept through Geneva in 1545.”
(A)”Calvin did not shrink from his self-appointed task. Within five years fifty-eight sentences of death and seventy-six of exile, besides numerous committals of the most eminent citizens to prison, took place in Geneva.”
(F)”A heretic who also was an anti-Trinitarian was burned at the stake.” NOTE: Probably Servetus

B. Banishment (mere banishment!)

1. Castellio
(A)”Gruet’s death was more highly criticized by far than the banishment of Castellio or the penalties inflicted on Bolsec — moderate men opposed to extreme views in discipline and doctrine, who fell under suspicion as reactionary.”
(B)
(K) Very full account of Castellio

2. Bolsec
(A)(B)(F)”Jerome Bolsec, a physician who attacked Calvin’s doctrine of predestination, was banished.”
(L)

3. Others
(A)”Calvin did not shrink from his self-appointed task. Within five years fifty-eight sentences of death and seventy-six of exile, besides numerous committals of the most eminent citizens to prison, took place in Geneva.”

A. http://www.biblelife.org/calvinism.htm
B. http://www.gospeltruth.net/heres…_chap5.htm
C. http://www.worldwideschool.org/l…hap16.html
D. http://www.dimensional.com/~randl/calvin.htm
E. http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/HER…l047.shtml
F. http://www.churchlink.com.au/chu…alvin.html
G. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03195b.htm
H. http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/hcc…xv.xiv.htm
I. http://online.sksm.edu/ouh/chapter/13_XIII.html
J. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church; F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone; Oxford University Press;
K. http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/hcc….xv.ix.htm (different page from H)
L. http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/hcc…v.viii.htm

John Calvin is a man who is held up by many evangelicals as an example of the most perfect systematic theologian that ever lived. And yet it would appear that he did not even meet the basic requirements of a NT overseer/bishop as to godly character!

1 Tim 3:2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.

The New Testament approach to false teachers is the precise opposite of what Calvin’s modus operandi was:

2 Tim 2:24 The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,
25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
26 and they may come to their senses {and escape} from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

As to the relationship of his doctrine to his practice, as he plainly taught that everything that happens is God’s will (I can provide the quotes if you would like), then it necessarily follows that he considered everything he did as God’s will, even having his detractors beheaded, burned at the stake, or banished. I’m saying that one’s theology inevitably works out in one’s practice, and this was all too apparent in the life of John Calvin.

If I had someone who disagreed with my theology put to death (had I the political power Calvin had), would I be qualified to teach the Word of God?

One’s actions don’t have any bearing on the authenticity of one’s teaching? It seems to me that we should hold ANY theologian to the same moral standard as any other teacher in the body of Christ.

john@revivaltheology.net

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