Blogging The Institutes

In these final sections of chapter 13 Calvin considers two arguments against the Trinity. Theologically, the anti-Trinitarians argued that Christ's subordination to the Father was counterevidence to the Trinity (section 26). Historically, they appealed to the Church Fathers against the Trinity (...

Let me conclude this week's blogs on the Institutes with a general plug for the value of thinking about God in a Trinitarian way. We rightly talk about having a personal relationship with God, so we need to realize that God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We relate personally with...

These sections on the Trinity are especially valuable to Christians, who are greatly helped if we can begin to think of God and salvation in explicitly Trinitarian terms. It has been observed that while the liberals worship only God the Father (the loving and accepting Father of all mankind, etc...

In the opening section, Calvin concludes his defense of Christ's deity. This last assertion of deity arises from Christ's miracles. He takes it as self-evident that the miracles display the deity of Christ. Therefore, the bulk of the section is devoted to responding to anticipated quibbles and...

In these sections, Calvin proves the deity of Christ over against those who would deny it. The argument here provides a good instance of Calvin's proof-texting. We generally hear of proof-texts only in negative terms today. But Calvin's approach reminds us that where verses from Scripture can be...

Having defended the use of technical theological language as an aid to our understanding of Scriptural doctrines like the Trinity, Calvin in 1.13.4 argues that accurate theological terminology helps us to "unmask false teachers." Precise terminology nails us down as to what we are really saying,...

After concluding his arguments against idolatry, proving that any use of images in worship is a sacrilege, Calvin turns to a consideration of the Trinity, as taught in Scripture. In addition to providing a basic definition of the doctrine--there is one and only God in three distinct persons--Calvin...

Calvin continues to make his case against the use of images (icons, crucifixes, and the like) in Christian worship, which he believes to be nothing less than an idolatrous violation of the Second Commandment. One of Calvin's arguments is historical: in the first five hundred years of the Christian...

This section of the Institutes includes one of the most helpful comments that Calvin ever made about the Christian life. "Man's nature," he said, "is a perpetual factory of idols." In context, Calvin is referring to idols in their most technical sense as physical objects used as a substitute for...

The Institutes is a positive presentation of Christian faith and doctrine. But it is also something more: a polemical response to the Roman Catholic Church, in which Calvin defends the theology and practice of the Reformation. Here we find the Geneva Reformer arguing against the idolatrous practice...