Blogging The Institutes

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 opulence of their living...

"Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ's institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists" (4.1.9). Thus Calvin identifies the two (not three) marks of a true church of Christ. In so doing, omitting the...

In this section, Calvin addresses the first two petition sin the Lord's Prayer. First, he reflects upon the importance of saying that God is our Father. This allows us to approach him with confidence, knowing the our relationship to him is one of love, but also with reverence and fear, as we would...

In these paragraphs, Calvin continues to refute traditional notions of the veneration and intercession of the saints by surveying some of the scripture texts and incidents typically cited in support. Two things are particularly striking in this discussion. The first is his focus on the...

A polemic in favor of infant baptism built on the following platform: 1) An anagogic relationship between circumcision and baptism: both are covenantal signs and seals to faith of forgiveness of sin; the power of the signs consist in the underlying promise of God rather than any ex opere operato...

Calvin has already established his understanding of "a twofold government" to which human beings are subject: an inward government in which God rules over the individual human soul for eternal life and an outward government in which God through human government establishes civil justice and outward...

Marriage has been instituted by God, but it is not a sacrament. Many are the good things which God has instituted, but that does not make them sacraments, which are, by definition, signs and ceremonies to confirm God's promise to us. The fact that marriage illustrates Christ's relationship to the...

Calvin continues his diatribe against false sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, wrapping up his denial of the sacrament of final unction. In paragraphs 19-21, he levels two criticisms: the proof text (James 5:14) does not pertain to the church today but only to the apostolic age with its now-...

Calvin continues his critique of Catholicism by applying a biblical definition of "sacrament" to the Roman rite of penance. He begins with a clear and careful distinction between public repentance, as it was practiced in the early church, and the private absolution offered through the so-called...

Confirmation, a sacrament in Roman Catholic theology, was an offence to Calvin because it sapped the meaning of baptism. In scholastic terms, baptism only washed away original sin and those sins committed before baptism. Confirmation was viewed as a sacrament of continuing grace. Calvin, on the...