Category Blogging The Institutes

The ‘total’ in Total Depravity means that ‘the whole man is overwhelmed – as by a deluge – from head to foot, so that no part is immune from sin and all that proceeds from him is to be imputed…

Calvin self-consciously draws on Augustine as he explores the meaning and effects of sin. Estrangement from his Maker, he says, was the death of Adam’s soul (2.1.5). But what Adam lost when he sinned were gifts which had been granted…

Calvin proceeds from “The Knowledge of God the Creator” (Book One) to “The Knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ…” (Book Two). Calvin begins Book Two with a meditation on self-knowledge (2.1.1-3). Why begin an exposition of “the Knowledge of…

Calvin takes up two further objections to the biblical doctrine of providence. First, “if nothing happens apart from God’s will,” does it not follow that “there are in him two contrary wills because by his secret plan he decrees what…

In this section, Calvin responds to an objection to and clears a misconception about the biblical doctrine of providence. Calvin responds to those who say “that the plan of God does not stand firm and sure, but is subject to…

For Calvin, the biblical doctrine of providence is not a matter for idle speculation. On the contrary, “ignorance of providence is the ultimate of all miseries; the highest blessedness lies in the knowledge of it” (1.17.11). In this section, Calvin…

In this section, Calvin mentions individuals who draw unwarranted inferences from the providence of God. One false inference is that means do not matter. One might say, “if God has unchangeably set the time of my death, then what does…

Calvin reminds us in 1.16.9 that though all things are ordained by God’s plan yet the events of our lives and world often look to us as if they are random and fortuitous. As Calvin says “the order, reason, end,…

For Calvin, providence means God governing, not merely watching, his creation (1.16.4). Calvin is emphasizing that providence entails more than “bare foreknowledge.” It involves God’s will, and his acts. Nor is it merely a general control, but a specific direction.…

1.15.8 is a “rock your world” important passage in the Institutes. In it, Calvin explains a fundamental source of confusion in the quest for “free will.””The Philosophers,” says Calvin, by discussing the question of free will apart from understanding the…