Satan Is An Astute Theologian: Should We Follow The Words Of Man Or The Words Of The Church In These Last Days?

“Satan is an astute theologian” John Calvin

This must truly be one of the ages.  A John Calvin quote beginning a Catholic Apologist’s article about Satan being an astute theologian.  Who would have thought it would come to this?  Maybe, we should not be so surprised, John Calvin was a man in every sense of the world.  The real problem here is that his teachings have been passed down and people believe them today.  This is why I think we should look at several of his teachings and see where in one case people have used his teachings when they supported what they believed and another way they have turned their backs on one of his teachings when it does not agree with what they believe. 

Brother and sisters, right there is the key to learning about this man.  You do not create a church from the Church and then pick and choose what you want to believe or not.  This is not right?  He, like Luther, had a real problem with the authority of the Pope, but what did they do?  They acted just like the Pope and ordered people to behave in a certain way.  My question is if it was wrong for the Pope to do this, why or how could Luther or Calvin do it?  What authority did they have?  If you do not need authority to do this, then Calvin actually took out his whole authoritarian approach to religion.  

To understand more about his faith, one must first study the man, John Calvin, in order to understand the theology that has come to be called Calvinism. Calvin was born July 10, 1509, in Picardy at Noyon, France, to devout Roman Catholic parents as Jean Chauvin and died at Geneva, May 27, 1564, at age 54.  Calvin’s formal education was complete in 1527 when he was eighteen. According to the Catholic Church,  he drifted from his Roman Catholic faith to become a humanist and a reformer. The “sudden conversion” to a spiritual life in 1529 could possibly be interpreted as his becoming saved, but throughout his life he counted on his Roman Catholic infant baptism as the basis of his regeneration.  This is significant because he recognized the importance of the Catholic Sacraments and basically went against teaching of the Church only when he did not believe in something or if he wanted to do something himself.

In theory, the Once Saved Always Saved concept rests on the fact that once you believe in the Lord and accept Jesus Christ, Calvin taught that you were saved.  This created the idea that Salvation was an event not a process.  An event that would last a lifetime.  It was an easy out for people who continued to sin.  They could commit murder and yet they would still go to heaven. 

Calvin forced the citizens of Geneva to attend church services under a heavy threat of punishment. Since Calvinism falsely taught that God forces the elect to believe, it is no wonder that Calvin thought he could also force the citizens of Geneva to all become the elect. Not becoming one of the elect was punishable by death or expulsion from Geneva. Calvin exercised forced regeneration (rebaptism) on the citizens of Geneva, because that is what his theology teaches.

Michael Servetus, a Spaniard, physician, scientist and Bible scholar, was born in Villanova in 1511. He was credited with the discovery of the pulmonary circulation of the blood from the right chamber of the heart through the lungs and back to the left chamber of the heart. He was Calvin’s longtime friend in their earlier resistance against the Roman Catholic Church. Servetus, while living in Vienne (historic city in southeastern France), angered Calvin by returning a copy of Calvin’s writings, Institutes, with critical comments in the margins. Servetus was arrested by the Roman Catholic Authorities on April 4 but escaped on April 7, 1553. He traveled to Geneva where he attended Calvin’s Sunday preaching service on August 13. Calvin promptly had Servetus arrested and charged with heresy for his disagreement with Calvin’s theology. The thirty-eight official charges included rejection of the Trinity and infant baptism. Servetus was correct in challenging Calvin’s false teaching about infant baptism for salvation, but he was heretical in his rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity. Servetus pleaded to be beheaded instead of the more brutal method of burning at the stake, but Calvin and the city council refused the quicker death method. Other Protestant churches throughout Switzerland advised Calvin that Servetus be condemned but not executed. Calvin ignored their pleas and Servetus was burned at the stake on October 27, 1553. 

John Calvin insisted that his men use green wood for the fire because it burned slower. Servetus was screaming as he was literally baked alive from the feet upward and suffered the heat of the flames for 30 minutes before finally succumbing to one of the most painful and brutal death methods possible. Servetus had written a theology book, a copy of which Calvin had strapped to the chest of Servetus. The flames from the burning book rose against Servetus’ face as he screamed in agony.

John Calvin celebrated and bragged of his killing of Servetus. Many theological and state leaders criticized Calvin for the unwarranted killing of Servetus, but it fell on deaf ears as Calvin advised others to do the same. Calvin wrote much in following years in a continual attempt to justify his burning of Servetus. Some people claim Calvin favored beheading, but this does not fit charges of heresy for which the punishment, as written by Calvin earlier, was to be burning at the stake. Calvin had made a vow years earlier that Servetus would never leave Geneva alive if he were ever captured, and Calvin held true to his pledge. 

Was Calvin right?  Actually look at what Paul wrote to the people of Philippi on this subject.

Philippians 2: 12-18

Obedience and Service in the World.

12. So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

13. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.

14. Do everything without grumbling or questioning,

15. that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,* among whom you shine like lights in the world,

16. as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

17. But, even if I am poured out as a libation* upon the sacrificial service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.

18 .In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.

Calvin’s teaching on this goes directly against verse 12 So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.  Note, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling- it is not an event as Calvin taught- it was and is a process that takes your entire life.  There are no shortcuts here. Calvin was wrong and more importantly led many good people from the Church who listened to him and not Paul.  This was wrong, wrong, wrong.  Brothers and sisters who knew more about the teachings of Jesus- a person who lived during the time of Christ or Calvin?

John Calvin’s murder of people who held different doctrinal views, his failure to acknowledge or repent from his sins, his incomplete gospel, his placing of his own writings above the Bible, his distortion of God and the Scriptures, and his dependence upon infant baptism places into question his salvation. In all of his writings is not found a clear declaration of his salvation by faith in the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Calvin was a cruel, murderous tyrant who considered himself to be the pope of Geneva. Fortunately he was no pope, we have a Pope- the person who has his authority from God not a pope like Calvin who gained his authority by twisting verse to justify his desires.  This is wrong, wrong, wrong!

The Bible never advocated harming an individual due to his unbelief or lack of understanding. Jesus taught to “turn the other cheek” instead. None of the Apostles taught action against unbelievers but instead taught the believer to seek them out and present the gospel in love.  The early Apostles did not act like Calvin did they?  

However, there is one John Calvin teaching and quote that should be paid attention to and it deals with the beginning of life.

For the fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.  John Calvin

As strange as it appears some of the very Churches who were greatly influenced by Calvin’s teachings apparently decided to pick and choose on this one and went against what Calvin taught.

 The Presbyterian Church (USA), in every statement and resolution since 1970, has supported free and open access to abortion without legal restriction. Almost simultaneously, the United Methodists (1970), the Lutheran Church in America (1970), the United Church of Christ (1971), the Disciples of Christ (1971), and the Southern Baptist Convention (1971) adopted policies allowing abortion as a decision of the woman or the couple.

Calvin showed why you can't just create a church from the Church and pick and choose what you believe let alone what others believe.  Remember Calvin’s own words on this very message- “ Satan is an astute theologian”