Category Blogging The Institutes

Servants of God can have full confidence to declare God’s word, a sure message from the Creator to his world. Our powerful weapons of warfare are not the inventions of our minds but rather the decrees of God. With the…

Calvin insists on two presuppositions for thinking about the power of the Church: (1) it must be aimed toward edification for God’s people, and (2) such edification must be done by maintaining Christ’s authority. In the Bible when someone is…

In the concluding paragraphs of Book 4, Chapter 7, Calvin goes for the jugular in his battle against papal supremacy.  Throughout this chapter, he has steadfastly refuted Rome’s chief arguments, denying that: Christ appointed Peter head of the whole church;…

Well might Calvin have drawn upon Lord Acton’s famous dictum in describing the outcome of the papacy’s successful bid to usurp all ecclesial authority in Christendom: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  During his earlier recitation of the earlier…

In contesting Rome’s claim to universal authority over the entire Christian Church, Calvin pits the sober record of history against the fraudulent records of the papacy.  It had long been the besetting sin of Rome, Calvin asserts, to desire hegemony…

As Calvin continues his refutation of papal claims to supremacy, he shows the great value of detailed learning.  Reading 4.7.5-10, one may soak in the volume of facts marshaled by Calvin, but we should appreciate his vast reading in the…

History is always important to Christians, since ours is a faith based on God’s saving deeds in history and since the true church passes its faith through history, one generation to the next.  For this reason, Calvin and the other…

To demonstrate the unique headship of Jesus Christ over the church–a headship he does not share with the pope or any other earthly figure–Calvin makes an argument from biblical silence. Ephesians 4 celebrates the ascension of Jesus Christ, who is…

 In defending the prerogatives of the pope as the successor of Peter, Roman Catholics commonly appeal to Matthew 16:19, where Jesus says to Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on…

In critiquing the Roman Catholic Church for pursuing earthly riches, Calvin employs an interpretive principle that holds the Old Testament and the New Testament in proper relationship. Calvin was critical of the Catholics for the magnificence of their churches and…