Statues of William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and John Knox at the centre of the International Monument to the Reformation in Geneva, Switzerland. They were among the most influential theologians that helped develop the Reformed tradition.
Calvinism (also called the Reformed tradition, Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, or the Reformed faith) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians.
Calvinists broke from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. Calvinists differ from Lutherans on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, theories of worship, and the use of God's law for believers, among other things. As declared in the Westminster and Second Helvetic confessions, the core doctrines are predestination and election. The term Calvinism
can be misleading, because the religious tradition which it denotes has
always been diverse, with a wide range of influences rather than a
single founder. In the context of the Reformation, Huldrych Zwingli began the Reformed tradition in 1519 in the city of Zürich. His followers were instantly labeled Zwinglians, consistent with the Catholic practice of naming heresy after its founder. Very soon, Zwingli was joined by Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, William Farel, Johannes Oecolampadius
and other early Reformed thinkers. The namesake of the movement, French
reformer John Calvin, converted to the Reformed tradition from Roman
Catholicism only in the late 1520s or early 1530s as it was already
being developed. The movement was first called Calvinism,
referring to John Calvin, by Lutherans who opposed it. Many within the
tradition find it either an indescriptive or an inappropriate term and
would prefer the word Reformed to be used instead. Some Calvinists prefer the term Augustinian-Calvinism since Calvin credited his theology to Augustine of Hippo. The most important Reformed theologians include John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, William Farel, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Theodore Beza, and John Knox. In the twentieth century, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, B. B. Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, Karl Barth, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Cornelius Van Til, Gordon Clark, and R. C. Sproul were influential. Contemporary Reformed theologians include J. I. Packer, John MacArthur, Timothy J. Keller, David Wells, and Michael Horton.
Reformed churches may exercise several forms of ecclesiastical polity; most are presbyterian or congregationalist, though some are episcopalian. Calvinism is largely represented by Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist traditions. The biggest Reformed association is the World Communion of Reformed Churches with more than 100 million members in 211 member denominations around the world. There are more conservative Reformed federations such as the World Reformed Fellowship and the International Conference of Reformed Churches, as well as independent churches.
Etymology
Calvinism is named after John Calvin.
It was first used by a Lutheran theologian in 1552. It was a common
practice of the Roman Catholic Church to name what it viewed as heresy
after its founder. Nevertheless, the term first came out of Lutheran
circles. Calvin denounced the designation himself:
They could attach us no greater insult than this word, Calvinism. It is not hard to guess where such a deadly hatred comes from that they hold against me.
— John Calvin, Leçons ou commentaires et expositions sur les Revelations du prophete Jeremie, 1565
Despite its negative connotation, this designation became
increasingly popular in order to distinguish Calvinists from Lutherans
and from newer Protestant branches that emerged later. The vast majority
of churches that trace their history back to Calvin (including
Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and a row of other Calvinist
churches) do not use it themselves, since the designation "Reformed" is
more generally accepted and preferred, especially in the English-speaking world.
Moreover, these churches claim to be—in accordance with John Calvin's
own words—"renewed accordingly with the true order of gospel".
Since the Arminian controversy, the Reformed tradition—as a branch of Protestantism distinguished from Lutheranism—divided into two separate groups: Arminians and Calvinists.
However, it is now rare to call Arminians a part of the Reformed
tradition. While the Reformed theological tradition addresses all of the
traditional topics of Christian theology, the word Calvinism is sometimes used to refer to particular Calvinist views on soteriology and predestination, which are summarized in part by the Five Points of Calvinism. Some have also argued that Calvinism as a whole stresses the sovereignty or rule of God in all things including salvation.
History
Calvin preached at St. Pierre Cathedral, the main church in Geneva.
Calvin's magnum opus: Institutio Christianae religionis
First-generation Reformed theologians include Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531), Martin Bucer (1491–1551), Wolfgang Capito (1478–1541), John Oecolampadius (1482–1531), and Guillaume Farel
(1489–1565). These reformers came from diverse academic backgrounds,
but later distinctions within Reformed theology can already be detected
in their thought, especially the priority of scripture as a source of authority. Scripture was also viewed as a unified whole, which led to a covenantal theology of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper as visible signs of the covenant of grace. Another Reformed distinctive present in these theologians was their denial of the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's supper. Each of these theologians also understood salvation to be by grace alone, and affirmed a doctrine of particular election (the teaching that some people are chosen by God for salvation). Martin Luther and his successor Philipp Melanchthon
were undoubtedly significant influences on these theologians, and to a
larger extent later Reformed theologians. The doctrine of justification by faith alone was a direct inheritance from Luther.
John Calvin (1509–64), Heinrich Bullinger (1504–75), Wolfgang Musculus (1497–1563), Peter Martyr Vermigli (1500–62), and Andreas Hyperius (1511–64) belong to the second generation of Reformed theologians. Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536–59) was one of the most influential theologies of the era. Toward the middle of the 16th century, the Reformed began to commit their beliefs to confessions of faith, which would shape the future definition of the Reformed faith. The 1549 Consensus Tigurinus brought together those who followed Zwingli and Bullinger's memorialist
theology of the Lord's supper, which taught that the supper simply
serves as a reminder of Christ's death, and Calvin's view that the
supper serves as a means of grace
with Christ actually present, though spiritually rather than bodily.
The document demonstrates the diversity as well as unity in early
Reformed theology. The remainder of the 16th century saw an explosion of
confessional activity. The stability and breadth of Reformed theology
during this period stand in marked contrast to the bitter controversy
experienced by Lutherans prior to the 1579 Formula of Concord.
Due to Calvin's missionary work in France, his programme of
reform eventually reached the French-speaking provinces of the
Netherlands. Calvinism was adopted in the Electorate of the Palatinate under Frederick III, which led to the formulation of the Heidelberg Catechism in 1563, and in Navarre by Jeanne d'Albret. This and the Belgic Confession were adopted as confessional standards in the first synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1571. Leading divines, either Calvinist or those sympathetic to Calvinism, settled in England (Martin Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Jan Łaski) and Scotland (John Knox). During the English Civil War, the Calvinistic Puritans produced the Westminster Confession, which became the confessional standard for Presbyterians
in the English-speaking world. Having established itself in Europe, the
movement continued to spread to other parts of the world, including
North America, South Africa, and Korea.
Calvin did not live to see the foundation of his work grow into
an international movement; but his death allowed his ideas to break out
of their city of origin, to succeed far beyond their borders, and to
establish their own distinct character.
Spread
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Calvinism
has been known at times for its simple, unadorned churches and
lifestyles, as depicted in this painting of the interior of the Oude kerk in Amsterdam by Emanuel de Witte c. 1661.
Although much of Calvin's work was in Geneva, his publications spread his ideas of a correctly Reformed church to many parts of Europe. In Switzerland, some cantons are still Reformed, and some are Catholic. Calvinism became the theological system of the majority in Scotland (see John Knox), the Netherlands (see William Ames, T. J. Frelinghuysen and Wilhelmus à Brakel), some communities in Flanders, and parts of Germany (especially these adjacent to the Netherlands) in the Palatinate, Kassel and Lippe with the likes of Olevianus and his colleague Zacharias Ursinus. In Hungary and the then-independent Transylvania,
Calvinism was a significant religion. In the 16th century, the
Reformation gained many supporters in Eastern Hungary and
Hungarian-populated regions in Transylvania. In these parts, the
Reformed nobles protected the faith. Almost all Transylvanian dukes were
Reformed. Today there are about 3.5 million Hungarian Reformed people
worldwide. It was influential in France, Lithuania and Poland before being mostly erased due to the counter-reformational activities taken up by the monarch in each country. Calvinism gained some popularity in Scandinavia, especially Sweden, but was rejected in favor of Lutheranism after the Synod of Uppsala in 1593.
Most settlers in the American Mid-Atlantic and New England were Calvinists, including the English Puritans, the French Huguenots and Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam (New York), and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the Appalachian back country. Nonconforming Protestants, Puritans, Separatists, Independents, English religious groups coming out of the English Civil War, and other English dissenters not satisfied with the degree to which the Church of England
had been reformed, held overwhelmingly Reformed views. They are often
cited among the primary founders of the United States of America. Dutch
and French Huguenot Calvinist settlers were also the first European colonizers of South Africa, beginning in the 17th century, who became known as Boers or Afrikaners.
Sierra Leone was largely colonized by Calvinist settlers from Nova Scotia, who were largely Black Loyalists, blacks who had fought for the British during the American War of Independence. John Marrant had organized a congregation there under the auspices of the Huntingdon Connection. Some of the largest Calvinist communions were started by 19th- and 20th-century missionaries. Especially large are those in Indonesia, Korea and Nigeria. In South Korea there are 20,000 Presbyterian congregations with about 9–10 million church members, scattered in more than 100 Presbyterian denominations. In South Korea, Presbyterianism is the largest Christian denomination.
A Calvinist church in Semarang, Indonesia. Protestantism in Indonesia is largely a result of Calvinist and Lutheran missionary efforts during the colonial period.
A 2011 report of the Pew Forum
on Religious and Public Life estimated that members of Presbyterian or
Reformed churches make up 7% of the estimated 801 million Protestants
globally, or approximately 56 million people.
Though the broadly defined Reformed faith is much larger, as it
constitutes Congregationalist (0.5%), most of the United and uniting
churches (unions of different denominations) (7.2%) and most likely some
of the other Protestant denominations (38.2%). All three are distinct
categories from Presbyterian or Reformed (7%) in this report.
The Reformed family of churches is one of the largest Christian
denominations. According to adherents.com the
Reformed/Presbyterian/Congregational/United churches represent 75
million believers worldwide.
The World Communion of Reformed Churches, which includes some United Churches, has 80 million believers. WCRC is the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
Many conservative Reformed churches which are strongly Calvinistic formed the World Reformed Fellowship
which has about 70 member denominations. Most are not part of the World
Communion of Reformed Churches because of its ecumenical attire. The
International Conference of Reformed Churches is another conservative
association.
Church of Tuvalu is the only officially established state church in the Calvinist tradition in the world.
Theology
Revelation and scripture
Reformed theologians believe that God communicates knowledge of
himself to people through the Word of God. People are not able to know
anything about God except through this self-revelation. Speculation
about anything which God has not revealed through his Word is not
warranted. The knowledge people have of God is different from that which
they have of anything else because God is infinite,
and finite people are incapable of comprehending an infinite being.
While the knowledge revealed by God to people is never incorrect, it is
also never comprehensive.
The seal of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, an early American Presbyterian church
According to Reformed theologians, God's self-revelation is always through his son Jesus Christ,
because Christ is the only mediator between God and people. Revelation
of God through Christ comes through two basic channels. The first is creation and providence,
which is God's creating and continuing to work in the world. This
action of God gives everyone knowledge about God, but this knowledge is
only sufficient to make people culpable for their sin; it does not
include knowledge of the gospel. The second channel through which God
reveals himself is redemption, which is the gospel of salvation from condemnation which is punishment for sin.
In Reformed theology, the Word of God takes several forms. Jesus
Christ himself is the Word Incarnate. The prophecies about him said to
be found in the Old Testament and the ministry of the apostles who saw him and communicated his message are also the Word of God. Further, the preaching
of ministers about God is the very Word of God because God is
considered to be speaking through them. God also speaks through human
writers in the Bible, which is composed of texts set apart by God for self-revelation.
Reformed theologians emphasize the Bible as a uniquely important means
by which God communicates with people. People gain knowledge of God from
the Bible which cannot be gained in any other way.
Reformed theologians affirm that the Bible is true, but
differences emerge among them over the meaning and extent of its
truthfulness. Conservative followers of the Princeton theologians take the view that the Bible is true and inerrant, or incapable of error or falsehood, in every place. This view is very similar to that of Catholic orthodoxy as well as modern Evangelicalism. Another view, influenced by the teaching of Karl Barth and neo-orthodoxy, is found in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Confession of 1967.
Those who take this view believe the Bible to be the primary source of
our knowledge of God, but also that some parts of the Bible may be
false, not witnesses to Christ, and not normative for today's church.
In this view, Christ is the revelation of God, and the scriptures
witness to this revelation rather than being the revelation itself.
Covenant
Fall of Man by Jacob Jordaens
Reformed theologians use the concept of covenant to describe the way God enters fellowship with people in history.
The concept of covenant is so prominent in Reformed theology that
Reformed theology as a whole is sometimes called "covenant theology". However, sixteenth and seventeenth-century theologians developed a particular theological system called "covenant theology" or "federal theology" which many conservative Reformed churches continue to affirm today. This framework orders God's life with people primarily in two covenants: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The covenant of works is made with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The terms of the covenant are that God provides a blessed life in the
garden on condition that Adam and Eve obey God's law perfectly. Because
Adam and Eve broke the covenant by eating the forbidden fruit,
they became subject to death and were banished from the garden. This
sin was passed down to all mankind because all people are said to be in
Adam as a covenantal or "federal" head. Federal theologians usually
infer that Adam and Eve would have gained immortality had they obeyed
perfectly.
A second covenant, called the covenant of grace, is said to have
been made immediately following Adam and Eve's sin. In it, God
graciously offers salvation from death on condition of faith in God.
This covenant is administered in different ways throughout the Old and
New Testaments, but retains the substance of being free of a requirement
of perfect obedience.
Through the influence of Karl Barth, many contemporary Reformed
theologians have discarded the covenant of works, along with other
concepts of federal theology. Barth saw the covenant of works as
disconnected from Christ and the gospel, and rejected the idea that God
works with people in this way. Instead, Barth argued that God always
interacts with people under the covenant of grace, and that the covenant
of grace is free of all conditions whatsoever. Barth's theology and
that which follows him has been called "monocovenantal" as opposed to
the "bi-covenantal" scheme of classical federal theology. Conservative contemporary Reformed theologians, such as John Murray, have also rejected the idea of covenants based on law rather than grace. Michael Horton, however, has defended the covenant of works as combining principles of law and love.
God
For the most part, the Reformed tradition did not modify the medieval consensus on the doctrine of God. God's character is described primarily using three adjectives: eternal, infinite, and unchangeable. Reformed theologians such as Shirley Guthrie
have proposed that rather than conceiving of God in terms of his
attributes and freedom to do as he pleases, the doctrine of God is to be
based on God's work in history and his freedom to live with and empower
people.
The "Shield of the Trinity" diagrams the classic doctrine of the Trinity
Traditionally, Reformed theologians have also followed the medieval tradition going back to before the early church councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon on the doctrine of the Trinity. God is affirmed to be one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son (Christ) is held to be eternally begotten by the Father and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeding from the Father and Son. However, contemporary theologians have been critical of aspects of Western views here as well. Drawing on the Eastern tradition, these Reformed theologians have proposed a "social trinitarianism" where the persons of the Trinity only exist in their life together as persons-in-relationship. Contemporary Reformed confessions such as the Barmen Confession
and Brief Statement of Faith of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have
avoided language about the attributes of God and have emphasized his
work of reconciliation and empowerment of people. Feminist theologian Letty Russell
used the image of partnership for the persons of the Trinity. According
to Russell, thinking this way encourages Christians to interact in
terms of fellowship rather than reciprocity.
Conservative Reformed theologian Michael Horton, however, has argued
that social trinitarianism is untenable because it abandons the
essential unity of God in favor of a community of separate beings.
Christ and atonement
Reformed theologians affirm the historic Christian belief that Christ is eternally one person with a divine and a human nature. Reformed Christians have especially emphasized that Christ truly became human so that people could be saved. Christ's human nature has been a point of contention between Reformed and Lutheran Christology.
In accord with the belief that finite humans cannot comprehend infinite
divinity, Reformed theologians hold that Christ's human body cannot be
in multiple locations at the same time. Because Lutherans believe that Christ is bodily present in the Eucharist,
they hold that Christ is bodily present in many locations
simultaneously. For Reformed Christians, such a belief denies that
Christ actually became human.
Some contemporary Reformed theologians have moved away from the
traditional language of one person in two natures, viewing it as
unintelligible to contemporary people. Instead, theologians tend to
emphasize Jesus' context and particularity as a first-century Jew.
This
Dutch stained glass allegory shows Christ ascending the cross with
Satan and several dead people on his back. Faith is personified as a
woman to the right of a naked man on the ground asking Christ the way of
salvation.
John Calvin and many Reformed theologians who followed him describe Christ's work of redemption in terms of three offices: prophet, priest, and king. Christ is said to be a prophet in that he teaches perfect doctrine, a priest in that he intercedes to the Father
on believers' behalf and offered himself as a sacrifice for sin, and a
king in that he rules the church and fights on believers' behalf. The
threefold office links the work of Christ to God's work in ancient Israel.
Many, but not all, Reformed theologians continue to make use of the
threefold office as a framework because of its emphasis on the
connection of Christ's work to Israel. They have, however, often
reinterpreted the meaning of each of the offices. For example, Karl Barth interpreted Christ's prophetic office in terms of political engagement on behalf of the poor.
Christians believe Jesus' death and resurrection makes it possible for believers to attain forgiveness for sin and reconciliation with God through the atonement. Reformed Protestants generally subscribe to a particular view of the atonement called penal substitutionary atonement,
which explains Christ's death as a sacrificial payment for sin. Christ
is believed to have died in place of the believer, who is accounted
righteous as a result of this sacrificial payment.
Sin
In Christian theology, people are created good and in the image of God but have become corrupted by sin, which causes them to be imperfect and overly self-interested. Reformed Christians, following the tradition of Augustine of Hippo, believe that this corruption of human nature was brought on by Adam and Eve's first sin, a doctrine called original sin.
Although earlier Christian authors taught the elements of physical
death, moral weakness, and a sin propensity within original sin,
Augustine was the first Christian to add the concept of inherited guilt (reatus) from Adam whereby every infant is born eternally damned and humans lack any residual ability to respond to God.
Reformed theologians emphasize that this sinfulness affects all of a
person's nature, including their will. This view, that sin so dominates
people that they are unable to avoid sin, has been called total depravity.
In colloquial English, the term "total depravity" can be easily
misunderstood to mean that people are absent of any goodness or unable
to do any good. However the Reformed teaching is actually that while
people continue to bear God's image and may do things that appear
outwardly good, their sinful intentions affect all of their nature and
actions so that they are not pleasing to God.
Some contemporary theologians in the Reformed tradition, such as
those associated with the PC(USA)'s Confession of 1967, have emphasized
the social character of human sinfulness. These theologians have sought
to bring attention to issues of environmental, economic, and political
justice as areas of human life that have been affected by sin.
Salvation
The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt, based on the Parable of the Prodigal Son illustrating forgiveness
Reformed theologians, along with other Protestants, believe salvation
from punishment for sin is to be given to all those who have faith in Christ. Faith is not purely intellectual, but involves trust in God's promise to save. Protestants do not hold there to be any other requirement for salvation, but that faith alone is sufficient.
Justification
is the part of salvation where God pardons the sin of those who believe
in Christ. It is historically held by Protestants to be the most
important article of Christian faith, though more recently it is
sometimes given less importance out of ecumenical concerns. People are not on their own able even to fully repent
of their sin or prepare themselves to repent because of their
sinfulness. Therefore, justification is held to arise solely from God's
free and gracious act.
Sanctification
is the part of salvation in which God makes the believer holy, by
enabling them to exercise greater love for God and for other people. The good works
accomplished by believers as they are sanctified are considered to be
the necessary outworking of the believer's salvation, though they do not
cause the believer to be saved. Sanctification, like justification, is by faith, because doing good works is simply living as the son of God one has become.
Predestination
Reformed theologians teach that sin so affects human nature that they
are unable even to exercise faith in Christ by their own will. While
people are said to retain will, in that they willfully sin, they are
unable not to sin because of the corruption of their nature due to
original sin. Reformed Christians believe that God predestined some people to be saved and others were predestined to eternal damnation. This choice by God to save some is held to be unconditional and not based on any characteristic or action on the part of the person chosen. This view is opposed to the Arminian view that God's choice of whom to save is conditional or based on his foreknowledge of who would respond positively to God.
Karl Barth reinterpreted the Reformed doctrine of predestination
to apply only to Christ. Individual people are only said to be elected
through their being in Christ. Reformed theologians who followed Barth, including Jürgen Moltmann, David Migliore, and Shirley Guthrie,
have argued that the traditional Reformed concept of predestination is
speculative and have proposed alternative models. These theologians
claim that a properly trinitarian doctrine emphasizes God's freedom to
love all people, rather than choosing some for salvation and others for
damnation. God's justice towards and condemnation of sinful people is
spoken of by these theologians as out of his love for them and a desire
to reconcile them to himself.
Five points of Calvinism
Most objections to and attacks on Calvinism focus on the "five points
of Calvinism", also called the doctrines of grace, and remembered by
the mnemonic "TULIP". The five points are popularly said to summarize the Canons of Dort;
however, there is no historical relationship between them, and some
scholars argue that their language distorts the meaning of the Canons,
Calvin's theology, and the theology of 17th-century Calvinistic
orthodoxy, particularly in the language of total depravity and limited
atonement. The five points were more recently popularized in the 1963 booklet The Five Points of Calvinism Defined, Defended, Documented
by David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas. The origins of the five points
and the acronym are uncertain, but they appear to be outlined in the Counter Remonstrance of 1611, a less known Reformed reply to the Arminians that occurred prior to the Canons of Dort. The acronym was used by Cleland Boyd McAfee as early as circa 1905. An early printed appearance of the T-U-L-I-P acronym is in Loraine Boettner's 1932 book, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. The acronym was very cautiously if ever used by Calvinist apologists and theologians before the booklet by Steele and Thomas.
More recently, a broad range of theologians have sought to reformulate
the TULIP terminology to reflect more accurately the Canons of Dort; one
recent effort has been PROOF, standing for Planned Grace, Resurrecting
Grace, Outrageous Grace, Overcoming Grace, and Forever Grace.
The central assertion of these points is that God saves every
person upon whom he has mercy, and that his efforts are not frustrated
by the unrighteousness or inability of humans.
- "Total depravity", also called "total inability", asserts that as a consequence of the fall of man into sin, every person is enslaved to sin. People are not by nature inclined to love God, but rather to serve their own interests and to reject the rule of God. Thus, all people by their own faculties are morally unable to choose to trust God for their salvation and be saved (the term "total" in this context refers to sin affecting every part of a person, not that every person is as evil as they could be). This doctrine is derived from Augustine's explanation of Original Sin. While the phrases "totally depraved" and "utterly perverse" were used by Calvin, what was meant was the inability to save oneself from sin rather than being absent of goodness. Phrases like "total depravity" cannot be found in the Canons of Dort, and the Canons as well as later Reformed orthodox theologians arguably offer a more moderate view of the nature of fallen humanity than Calvin.
- "Unconditional election" asserts that God has chosen from eternity those whom he will bring to himself not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people; rather, his choice is unconditionally grounded in his mercy alone. God has chosen from eternity to extend mercy to those he has chosen and to withhold mercy from those not chosen. Those chosen receive salvation through Christ alone. Those not chosen receive the just wrath that is warranted for their sins against God.
- "Limited atonement", also called "particular redemption" or "definite atonement", asserts that Jesus's substitutionary atonement was definite and certain in its purpose and in what it accomplished. This implies that only the sins of the elect were atoned for by Jesus's death. Calvinists do not believe, however, that the atonement is limited in its value or power, but rather that the atonement is limited in the sense that it is intended for some and not all. Some Calvinists have summarized this as "The atonement is sufficient for all and efficient for the elect."
- "Irresistible grace", also called "efficacious grace", asserts that the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom he has determined to save (that is, the elect) and overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to a saving faith. This means that when God sovereignly purposes to save someone, that individual certainly will be saved. The doctrine holds that this purposeful influence of God's Holy Spirit cannot be resisted, but that the Holy Spirit, "graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ." This is not to deny the fact that the Spirit's outward call (through the proclamation of the Gospel) can be, and often is, rejected by sinners; rather, it is that inward call which cannot be rejected.
- "Perseverance of the saints" (also known as "perseverance of God with the saints" and "preservation of the believing") (the word "saints" is used to refer to all who are set apart by God, and not of those who are exceptionally holy, canonized, or in heaven) asserts that since God is sovereign and his will cannot be frustrated by humans or anything else, those whom God has called into communion with himself will continue in faith until the end. Those who apparently fall away either never had true faith to begin with (1 John 2:19), or, if they are saved but not presently walking in the Spirit, they will be divinely chastened (Hebrews 12:5–11) and will repent (1 John 3:6–9).
Church
John Calvin on his deathbed with church members
Reformed Christians see the Christian Church
as the community with which God has made the covenant of grace, a
promise of eternal life and relationship with God. This covenant extends
to those under the "old covenant" whom God chose, beginning with Abraham and Sarah. The church is conceived of as both invisible and visible.
The invisible church is the body of all believers, known only to God.
The visible church is the institutional body which contains both members
of the invisible church as well as those who appear to have faith in
Christ, but are not truly part of God's elect.
In order to identify the visible church, Reformed theologians have spoken of certain marks of the Church.
For some, the only mark is the pure preaching of the gospel of Christ.
Others, including John Calvin, also include the right administration of
the sacraments. Others, such as those following the Scots Confession, include a third mark of rightly administered church discipline,
or exercise of censure against unrepentant sinners. These marks allowed
the Reformed to identify the church based on its conformity to the
Bible rather than the Magisterium or church tradition.
Worship
Regulative principle of worship
The Bay Psalm Book was used by the Pilgrims.
The regulative principle of worship is a teaching shared by some Calvinists and Anabaptists
on how the Bible orders public worship. The substance of the doctrine
regarding worship is that God institutes in the Scriptures everything he
requires for worship in the Church and that everything else is
prohibited. As the regulative principle is reflected in Calvin's own
thought, it is driven by his evident antipathy toward the Roman Catholic
Church and its worship practices, and it associates musical instruments
with icons, which he considered violations of the Ten Commandments' prohibition of graven images.
On this basis, many early Calvinists also eschewed musical instruments and advocated a cappella exclusive psalmody in worship, though Calvin himself allowed other scriptural songs as well as psalms, and this practice typified presbyterian worship
and the worship of other Reformed churches for some time. The original
Lord's Day service designed by John Calvin was a highly liturgical
service with the Creed, Alms, Confession and Absolution, the Lord's
supper, Doxologies, prayers, Psalms being sung, the Lords prayer being
sung, Benedictions.
Since the 19th century, however, some of the Reformed churches
have modified their understanding of the regulative principle and make
use of musical instruments, believing that Calvin and his early
followers went beyond the biblical requirements
and that such things are circumstances of worship requiring biblically
rooted wisdom, rather than an explicit command. Despite the
protestations of those who hold to a strict view of the regulative
principle, today hymns and musical instruments are in common use, as are contemporary worship music styles with elements such as worship bands.
Sacraments
The Westminster Confession of Faith limits the sacraments to baptism and the Lord's Supper. Sacraments are denoted "signs and seals of the covenant of grace."
Westminster speaks of "a sacramental relation, or a sacramental union,
between the sign and the thing signified; whence it comes to pass that
the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other." Baptism is for infant children of believers as well as believers, as it is for all the Reformed except Baptists and some Congregationalists. Baptism admits the baptized into the visible church, and in it all the benefits of Christ are offered to the baptized.
On the Lord's supper, Westminster takes a position between Lutheran
sacramental union and Zwinglian memorialism: "the Lord's supper really
and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive
and feed upon Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death: the body
and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally in, with, or
under the bread and wine; yet, as really, but spiritually, present to
the faith of believers in that ordinance as the elements themselves are
to their outward senses."
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith
does not use the term sacrament, but describes baptism and the Lord's
supper as ordinances, as do most Baptists Calvinist or otherwise.
Baptism is only for those who "actually profess repentance towards God",
and not for the children of believers. Baptists also insist on immersion or dipping, in contradistinction to other Reformed Christians.
The Baptist Confession describes the Lord's supper as "the body and
blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, but spiritually
present to the faith of believers in that ordinance", similarly to the
Westminster Confession. There is significant latitude in Baptist congregations regarding the Lord's supper, and many hold the Zwinglian view.
Logical order of God's decree
There are two schools of thought regarding the logical order of God's decree to ordain the fall of man: supralapsarianism (from the Latin: supra, "above", here meaning "before" + lapsus, "fall") and infralapsarianism (from the Latin: infra, "beneath", here meaning "after" + lapsus,
"fall"). The former view, sometimes called "high Calvinism", argues
that the Fall occurred partly to facilitate God's purpose to choose some
individuals for salvation and some for damnation. Infralapsarianism,
sometimes called "low Calvinism", is the position that, while the Fall
was indeed planned, it was not planned with reference to who would be
saved.
Supralapsarians believe that God chose which individuals to save
logically prior to the decision to allow the race to fall and that the
Fall serves as the means of realization of that prior decision to send
some individuals to hell and others to heaven (that is, it provides the
grounds of condemnation in the reprobate and the need for salvation in
the elect). In contrast, infralapsarians hold that God planned the race
to fall logically prior to the decision to save or damn any individuals
because, it is argued, in order to be "saved", one must first need to be
saved from something and therefore the decree of the Fall must precede
predestination to salvation or damnation.
These two views vied with each other at the Synod of Dort, an
international body representing Calvinist Christian churches from around
Europe, and the judgments that came out of that council sided with
infralapsarianism (Canons of Dort, First Point of Doctrine, Article 7).
The Westminster Confession of Faith also teaches (in Hodge's words
"clearly impl[ies]") the infralapsarian view, but is sensitive to those holding to supralapsarianism.
The Lapsarian controversy has a few vocal proponents on each side
today, but overall it does not receive much attention among modern
Calvinists.
Variants
Amyraldism
Moïse Amyraut formulated Amyraldism, a modified Calvinist theology regarding the nature of Christ's atonement.
Amyraldism (or sometimes Amyraldianism, also known as the School of Saumur, hypothetical universalism, post redemptionism, moderate Calvinism, or four-point Calvinism) is the belief that God, prior to his decree of election, decreed Christ's atonement for all alike if they believe, but seeing that none would believe on their own, he then elected those whom he will bring to faith in Christ, thereby preserving the Calvinist doctrine of unconditional election. The efficacy of the atonement remains limited to those who believe.
Named after its formulator Moses Amyraut,
this doctrine is still viewed as a variety of Calvinism in that it
maintains the particularity of sovereign grace in the application of the
atonement. However, detractors like B. B. Warfield have termed it "an inconsistent and therefore unstable form of Calvinism."
Hyper-Calvinism
Hyper-Calvinism first referred to a view that appeared among the early English Particular Baptists in the 18th century. Their system denied that the call of the gospel to "repent
and believe" is directed to every single person and that it is the duty
of every person to trust in Christ for salvation. The term also
occasionally appears in both theological and secular controversial contexts, where it usually connotes a negative opinion about some variety of theological determinism, predestination, or a version of Evangelical Christianity or Calvinism that is deemed by the critic to be unenlightened, harsh, or extreme.
The Westminster Confession of Faith says that the gospel is to be
freely offered to sinners, and the Larger Catechism makes clear that
the gospel is offered to the non-elect.
Neo-Calvinism
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Dutch prime minister Abraham Kuyper initiated neo-Calvinism
Neo-Calvinism, a form of Dutch Calvinism, is the movement initiated by the theologian and former Dutch prime minister Abraham Kuyper. James Bratt
has identified a number of different types of Dutch Calvinism: The
Seceders—split into the Reformed Church "West" and the Confessionalists;
and the Neo-Calvinists—the Positives and the Antithetical Calvinists.
The Seceders were largely infralapsarian and the Neo-Calvinists usually supralapsarian.
Kuyper wanted to awaken the church from what he viewed as its pietistic slumber. He declared:
No single piece of our mental world is to be sealed off from the rest and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'
This refrain has become something of a rallying call for Neo-Calvinists.
Christian Reconstructionism
Christian Reconstructionism is a fundamentalist Calvinist theonomic movement that has remained rather obscure. Founded by R. J. Rushdoony, the movement has had an important influence on the Christian Right in the United States. The movement declined in the 1990s and was declared dead in a 2008 Church History journal article. However, it lives on in small denominations such as the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States and as a minority position in other denominations. Christian Reconstructionists are usually postmillennialists and followers of the presuppositional apologetics of Cornelius Van Til. They tend to support a decentralized political order resulting in laissez-faire capitalism.
New Calvinism
New Calvinism is a growing perspective within conservative
Evangelicalism that embraces the fundamentals of 16th century Calvinism
while also trying to be relevant in the present day world. In March 2009, Time magazine described the New Calvinism as one of the "10 ideas changing the world". Some of the major figures in this area are John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Al Mohler, Mark Dever,[141] C. J. Mahaney, Joshua Harris, and Tim Keller.
New Calvinists have been criticized for blending Calvinist soteriology
with popular Evangelical positions on the sacraments and continuationism.
Social and economic influences
Calvin
expressed himself on usury in a 1545 letter to a friend, Claude de
Sachin, in which he criticized the use of certain passages of scripture
invoked by people opposed to the charging of interest. He reinterpreted
some of these passages, and suggested that others of them had been
rendered irrelevant by changed conditions. He also dismissed the
argument (based upon the writings of Aristotle)
that it is wrong to charge interest for money because money itself is
barren. He said that the walls and the roof of a house are barren, too,
but it is permissible to charge someone for allowing him to use them. In
the same way, money can be made fruitful.
He qualified his view, however, by saying that money should be
lent to people in dire need without hope of interest, while a modest
interest rate of 5% should be permitted in relation to other borrowers.
Politics and society
Stephen Bocskay, leader of Hungarian Calvinists in anti-Habsburg rebellion and first Calvinist prince of Transylvania
Reformed church in Koudekerk aan den Rijn (Netherlands), 19th century
Calvin's concepts of God and man led to ideas were gradually put into
practice after his death, in particular in the fields of politics and
society. After the fight for independence from Spain (1579), the
Netherlands, under Calvinist leadership, granted asylum to religious
minorities, e.g. French Huguenots, English Independents (Congregationalists), and Jews from Spain and Portugal. The ancestors of philosopher Baruch Spinoza were Portuguese Jews. Aware of the trial against Galileo, René Descartes lived in the Netherlands, out of reach of the Inquisition. Pierre Bayle,
a Reformed Frenchman, also felt safer in the Netherlands than in his
home country. He was the first prominent philosopher who demanded
tolerance for atheists. Hugo Grotius was able to publish a rather liberal interpretation of the Bible and his ideas about natural law. Moreover, the Calvinist Dutch authorities allowed the printing of books that could not be published elsewhere, e.g. Galileo's Discorsi.
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The burning of the Guernsey Martyrs during the Marian persecutions in 1556
Alongside the liberal development of the Netherlands was the rise of modern democracy in England and North America. In the Middle Ages state and church had been closely connected. Martin Luther's doctrine of the two kingdoms separated state and church in principle. His doctrine of the priesthood of all believers raised the laity to the same level as the clergy. Going one step further, Calvin included elected laymen (church elders, presbyters) in his concept of church government. The Huguenots added synods
whose members were also elected by the congregations. The other
Reformed churches took over this system of church self-government which
was essentially a representative democracy. Baptists, Quakers, and Methodists are organized in a similar way. These denominations and the Anglican Church were influenced by Calvin's theology in varying degrees.
Another precondition for the rise of democracy in the
Anglo-American world was the fact that Calvin favored a mixture of
democracy and aristocracy as the best form of government (mixed government). He appreciated the advantages of democracy.
The aim of his political thought was to safeguard the rights and
freedoms of ordinary men and women. In order to minimize the misuse of
political power he suggested dividing it among several institutions in a
system of checks and balances (separation of powers).
Finally, Calvin taught that if worldly rulers rise up against God they
should be put down. In this way, he and his followers stood in the
vanguard of resistance to political absolutism and furthered the cause of democracy. The Congregationalists who founded Plymouth Colony (1620) and Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628) were convinced that the democratic form of government was the will of God. Enjoying self-rule they practiced separation of powers. Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, founded by Roger Williams, Thomas Hooker, and William Penn, respectively, combined democratic government with freedom of religion. These colonies became safe havens for persecuted religious minorities, including Jews.
The Grote Kerk in Haarlem, Dutch Republic, c. 1665
In England, Baptists Thomas Helwys and John Smyth influenced the liberal political thought of Presbyterian poet and politician John Milton and philosopher John Locke, who in turn had both a strong impact on the political development in their home country (English Civil War, Glorious Revolution) as well as in North America. The ideological basis of the American Revolution was largely provided by the radical Whigs, who had been inspired by Milton, Locke, James Harrington, Algernon Sidney,
and other thinkers. The Whigs' "perceptions of politics attracted
widespread support in America because they revived the traditional
concerns of a Protestantism that had always verged on Puritanism." The United States Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution and (American) Bill of Rights initiated a tradition of human and civil rights that was continued in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
and the constitutions of numerous countries around the world, e. g.
Latin America, Japan, India, Germany, and other European countries. It
is also echoed in the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In the nineteenth century, the churches that were based on
Calvin's theology or influenced by it were deeply involved in social
reforms, e.g. the abolition of slavery (William Wilberforce, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, and others), women suffrage, and prison reforms. Members of these churches formed co-operatives to help the impoverished masses. Henry Dunant, a Reformed pietist, founded the Red Cross and initiated the Geneva Conventions.
Some sources would view Calvinist influence as not always being solely positive. The Boers and Afrikaner Calvinists combined ideas from Calvinism and Kuyperian theology to justify apartheid in South Africa.
As late as 1974, the majority of the Dutch Reformed Church in South
Africa was convinced that their theological stances (including the story
of the Tower of Babel) could justify apartheid. In 1990, the Dutch Reformed Church document Church and Society
maintained that although they were changing their stance on apartheid,
they believed that within apartheid and under God's sovereign guidance,
"...everything was not without significance, but was of service to the
Kingdom of God."
These views were not universal and were condemned by many Calvinists
outside South Africa. It was pressure from both outside and inside the
Dutch Reformed Calvinist church which helped reverse apartheid in South
Africa.
