Oct 31, Reformation Day: the debt we owe John Calvin

Inside St. Pierre's Church in Geneva where Calvin's preaching sparked the Reformation in the 1500s.



St. Pierre's in Geneva

“Calvinism, cousin to the Reformation's other pillar, Lutheranism, is a bit less dour than its critics claim: it offers a rock-steady deity who orchestrates absolutely everything, including illness (or home foreclosure!), by a logic we may not understand but don't have to second-guess. Our satisfaction — and our purpose — is fulfilled simply by ‘glorifying’ him.”

from the October 21, 2009 issue of Time Magazine, where it says the “New Calvinism” is one of the “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.”

I was on my way to Campus Crusade meetings in Zurich, Switzerland last week, so I convinced EB to join me for a few days prior so we could visit Geneva. It was with a sense of awe that EB and I walked the streets of Geneva, Switzerland. I remember thinking, “These are the streets that John Calvin walked.” It was with great anticipation that I entered the lofty sanctuary of St. Pierre’s Cathedral where Calvin preached; it was with great interest that I toured the museum dedicated to the Reformation Movement that Calvin started in the 1500s.

John Calvin in Switzerland and Martin Luther in Germany, contemporaries born only 25 years apart, were twin pillars for what we call today the Reformed Movement from which sprang the Protestant branch of Christianity. Calvin and Luther protested many things against the Catholic Church, including the selling of indulgences (purchased to supposedly spring the recently deceased out of purgatory).

If not for John Calvin, Christianity today would be just another religion focused on man’s attempts to please God through religious good works. Calvin and Luther took the spotlight off of man and put it squarely back on God. While Calvin emphasized the sovereignty of God in all things, Luther emphasized justification by faith alone.

Life was very difficult in the 1500s. And Calvin suffered greatly during his time on earth. He outlived his wife and son; he had death threats from the French king (that is why he fled Paris and came to Geneva) and he had enemies both within and without the institutionalized church. He was sick most of his adult life (as were many in that day) and he worked ceaselessly under conditions that were barbaric by today’s standards.

Many people today associate Calvinistic theology with fatalistic sour-faced religious piety. However, I find joy and rest in the thought that my heavenly loving Father rules sovereignly from His throne over the affairs of men including the circumstances of my own life.

October 31st is Reformation Day on the Christian calendar and 2009 marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth. It would serve humanity well to remember this quote from John Piper, one of the pillars of "New Calvinism," a quote which has had a huge impact on my life: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”