Quotes from John Calvin
There were several
men involved in the founding of the reformation they were most
notably Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Menno Simons. There was
a forth man named Zwingli, that had a huge influence on our current
beliefs on Holy Communion. But Luther, Calvin and Simons were
the core. These men were all contemporary – they not only
lived at the same time but they also corresponded with one another
in the early days and collaborated on their doctrines.
First and foremost
oOne should know that all three of these men were Roman Catholic
priests – they had received all their doctrinal training
from the Roman Catholic Church and ultimately where they had no
“light” and I use the term loosely here they reached
into their bag of Roman Catholic doctrines and dusted one off
and made a few minor changes so that they could call it their
own.
John Calvin’s
doctrines of election, predestination, and eternal security were
not personal revelations as has been espoused they came directly
from Martin Luther, Calvin claim to fame is that he focused specifically
on these doctrines instead of a broader scope.
A case involving women set off
the explosion. On Thursday, June 23, 1547, several women appeared
before the consistory for having danced. Among them was Francoise
Favre, second wife of Ami Perrin. She had already had
dealings with the consistory a year before (April 1546), when,
refusing to testify against several friends of hers who were guilty
of having danced, she stood up to Calvin, thus incurring
several days' incarceration. -- This
woman was put in prison twice by John Calvin for the crime of
dancing
In the same document reciting
events in 1547 it reads: It was a time of repression (from
John Calvin). The author of the placard posted in Saint-Peter's
Cathederal against Calvin was also arrested. Gruet
was tortured every day for a month, after the inhuman fashion
until he admitted his crime. He was immediately executed at the
end of July having his head publicly cut off.
One might wonder what this placard said
that caused this man to be put to death --A
placard written in Geneva dialect was even
posted on the pulpit of Saint Peter. (Yes
Calvin beleived in the Roman Catholic practices with Saints including
Saint Mary.) There Abel Poupin (A calvinist priest)
was described bluntly as a "big lard-belly," while the
(other) venerable pastors were called " renegade priests"
who, barely quit of their "monkeries," and intended
to "blow smoke in the eyes" of everyone.
. . . And Calvin had the head
of Gruet publicly cut off, and his writings were publicly burned
in a joyful auto-de-fe in 1550.
Those who refuse to give
up the Catholic Faith
must be put to the
sword. --John Calvin (1509-1564)
In writing against the
Third Article of the Schleitheim Anabaptists that declared that
"the sword is...outside the perfection of Christ.... [so
it its place the Anabaptists have instituted a ] the shunning
as their heaviest penalty -- without corporal death." This
Calvin refuted -- by stressing the Biblical teaching regarding
the holy office of the magistrate -- and of capital punishment.
Citing Genesis 9:5f; Psalm 82:6f; John 10:34f; Romans 13:1-7
giving him a divine right to kill beleivers
and unbeleivers in the name of Christ.
One
of John Calvin’s infamous deeds was in ordering the death of fellow reformer Michael Servetus who preached “Jesus Only” instead
of the Trinity.
"If
he(Servetus) comes(to Geneva), I shall never let him go out alive
if my authority has weight."
"I
hope that the verdict will call for the death penalty."
In Geneva, on October 27, 1553, Michael Servetus
was tied to a stake and was burned slowly to death:
www.encyclopedia.com/articlesnew/11716.html
After
Servetus escaped excecution from the Roman Catholic Church In
Vienne he stopped in Geneva and made the mistake of attending
a sermon by Calvin. He was recognized and arrested after the church
service.
"Calvin
had him [Servetus] arrested as a heretic. Convicted
and changed his mind from having him beheaded to having him publicly
burned to death."
From
the time that Calvin had him arrested on August 14th until his
condemnation, Servetus spent his remaining days in a atrocious
dungeon with no
light or heat, little food, and no sanitary facilities."
During
Servetus' trial, Calvin wrote: "I
hope that the verdict will call for the death penalty."
*** Note
the disciples of John Calvin in obeying his orders put half-green
wood around the feet of Servetus so that the fire would burn cool
and smoky to prolong Michael Servetus suffering. They then placed
a wreath strewn with sulfur on his head. It took over thirty minutes
kill him in smoldering fire, while the people of Geneva stood
around to watch him suffer and slowly die!
This is the official
record of events that day:
"Farel (The executioner
appointed by John Calvin and the Church) walked beside the condemned
man, and kept up a constant barrage of words, (read
that as mocking and insulting him as the Romans did to Christ
on the cross) in complete insensitivity to what Servetus
might be feeling. All he had in mind was to extort from the prisoner
an acknowledgement [sic] of his theological error -- a shocking
example of the soulless cure of souls.
After some minutes of this, Servetus ceased making any reply and
prayed quietly to himself. When they arrived at the place
of execution, Farel announced to the watching crowd: 'Here
you see what power Satan possesses when he has a man in his power.
This man is a scholar of distinction, and he perhaps believed
he was acting rightly. But now Satan possesses him completely,
as he might possess you, should you fall into his traps.'
When the
executioner began his work, Servetus whispered with trembling
voice: 'Oh God, Oh God!' The thwarted Farel snapped at him: 'Have
you nothing else to say?' This time Servetus replied to him: 'What
else might I do, but speak of God!'
Thereupon he was lifted onto the pyre and chained to the stake.
A wreath strewn with sulfur was placed on his head. When the faggots
(logs) were ignited, a piercing
cry of horror broke from Servetus 'Mercy,
mercy!' he cried. For more than half an hour the horrible agony continued, for the pyre
had been made of half-green wood, which burned slowly. 'Jesus, Son of the eternal God, have mercy on me,' the tormented
man cried from the midst of the flames ...."
These
are quotes from John Calvin after the death of Michael Servetus.
"Many
people have accused me of such ferocious cruelty that (they allege)
I would like to kill again the man I have destroyed. Not only
am I indifferent to their comments, but I rejoice in the fact
that they spit in my face."
"Whoever shall now contend that it is unjust to put heretics
and blasphemers to death will knowingly and willingly incur their
very guilt."
Another reformer named Sebastian Castellio wrote
against what Calvin did to Servetus and he made this tremendous
statement: "To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine. It
is to kill a man!" Castellio paid a great price for standing
up to Calvin. He was hounded and persecuted by John Calvin until
his death.
In
five years, 1542-46, Geneva, with 16,000 inhabitants, had fifty-seven
executions and seventy-six banishments. All these sentences
were personally sanctioned by John Calvin.
Recently
on a fundamentalist radio station a national program read excerpts
from John Calvin’s life. Completely absolving him of Servetus
death they claimed that Calvin never ordered this man’s death
nor of anyone else – that it was the radicals of the city council
of Geneva that acted upon their own – they even asserted that
Calvin had pleaded with them that this man would not be executed.
They Spoke of this man being the gentle reformer, who had
great humility and meekness and that he was a saint.
This revisionism flies in the face of Calvin’s decrees
and words contained in his sermons. This vile revisionism is done
to hide the fact that the father or Calvanism was utterly a depraved
man who knew not Christ, who had never heard his voice nor seen
his shape. John Calvin like Luther did not have a visitation from
God. No divine light shown upon him as is asserted in these days
by those who blindly and ignorantly follow after him in fundamentalist
circles. John Calvin was as corrupt as Herod or the Pharisees
and the High Council, and the High Priest at the time of Christ
CALVIN BELIEVED THAT MAN DID
NOT HAVE FREE WILL But John Calvin did not come up
with his doctrine on Predestination, Free Will, or Eternal Security
on his own as his followers ignorantly and blindly believe today.
The fact is that John Calvin received input on all of his notions
on these three doctrines from his senior mentor Martin Luther
and both of them ultimately received their doctrines from a 6th
century Roman Catholic Monk named Saint Augustine.
The
following are quotes from Martin Luther
AND now what do those words of Christ, where He saith, "No
one can come unto Me except My Father which hath sent Me draw
him," (John vi. 44), leave to "Free-will?"
For He says it is necessary, that every one should hear and learn
of the Father Himself, and that all must be "taught of God."
Here, indeed, He not only declares that the works and devoted
efforts of "Free-will" are of no avail, but that even
the word of the Gospel itself, (of which He is here speaking,)
is heard in vain, unless the Father Himself speak within, and
teach and draw. "No one can," "No one can (saith
He) come:" by which, that power, whereby man can endeavour
something towards Christ, that is, towards those things which
pertain unto salvation, is declared to be a nothing at all.
Nor does that at all profit "Free-will,"
which the Diatribe [the Discussion by Erasmus] brings forward
out of Augustine, by way of casting a slur upon this all-clear and all-powerful
Scripture—'that God draws us, in the same way as we draw a sheep,
by holding out to it a green bough.' By this similitude he would
prove, that there is in us a power to follow the drawing of God.
But this similitude avails nothing in the present passage. For
God holds out, not one of His good things only, but many, nay,
even His Son, Christ Himself; and yet no man follows Him, unless
the Father hold Him forth otherwise within, and draw otherwise!—Nay,
the whole world follows the Son whom He holds forth!
But this similitude harmonizes sweetly with the experience
of the godly, who are now made sheep, and know God their Shepherd.
These, living in, and being moved by, the Spirit, follow wherever
God wills, and whatever He holds out to them. But the ungodly
man comes not unto Him, even when he hears the word, unless the
Father draw and teach within: which He does by shedding abroad
His Spirit. And where that is done, there is a different kind
of drawing from that which is without: there, Christ is held forth
in the illumination of the Spirit, whereby the man is drawn unto
Christ with the sweetest of all drawing: under which, he is passive
while God speaks, teaches, and draws, rather than seeks or runs
of himself.
Sect. 163.
I WILL produce yet one more passage from John, where, he saith,
"The Spirit shall reprove the world of sin, because they
believe not in me." (John xvi. 9).
You here see, that it is sin, not to believe in Christ: And
this sin is seated, not in the skin, nor in the hairs of the head,
but in the very reason and will. Moreover, as Christ makes the
whole world guilty from this sin, and as it is known by experience
that the world is ignorant of this sin, as much so as it is ignorant
of Christ, seeing that, it must be revealed by the reproof of
the Spirit; it is manifest, that "Free-will," together
with its will and reason, is accounted a captive of this sin,
and condemned before God. Wherefore, as long as it is ignorant
of Christ and believes not in Him, it can will or attempt nothing
good, but necessarily serves that sin of which it is ignorant.
In a word: Since the Scripture declares Christ everywhere by
positive assertion and by antithesis, (as I said before), in order
that, it might subject every thing that is without the Spirit
of Christ, to Satan, to ungodliness, to error, to darkness, to
sin, to death, and to the wrath of God, all the testimonies concerning
Christ must make directly against "Free-will;" and they
are innumerable, nay, the whole of the Scripture. If therefore
our subject of discussion is to be decided by the judgment of
the Scripture, the victory, in every respect, is mine; for there
is not one jot or tittle of the Scripture remaining, which does
not condemn the doctrine of "Free-will" altogether!
But if the great theologians and defenders of "Free-will"
know not, or pretend not to know, that the Scripture everywhere
declares Christ by positive assertion and by antithesis, yet all
Christians know it, and in common confess it. They know, I say,
that there are two kingdoms in the world mutually militating against
each other.
—That Satan reigns in the one, who, on that account is by Christ
called "the prince of this world," (John xii 31), and
by Paul "the God of this world;" (2 Cor. iv. 4), who,
according to the testimony of the same Paul, holds all captive
according to his will, who are not rescued from him by the Spirit
of Christ: nor does he suffer any to be rescued by any other power
but that of the Spirit of God: as Christ testifies in the parable
of "the strong man armed" keeping his palace in peace.
—In
the other kingdom Christ reigns: which kingdom, continually resists
and wars against that of Satan: into which we are translated,
not by any power of our own, but by the grace of God, whereby
we are delivered from this present evil world, and are snatched
from the power of darkness. The knowledge and confession of these
two kingdoms, which thus ever mutually war against each other
with so much power and force, would alone be sufficient to:"
seeing that, we are compelled to serve in the kingdom of Satan,
until we be liberated by confute the doctrine
of "Free-will a Divine Power. All this, I say, is
known in common among Christians, and fully confessed in their
proverbs, by their prayers, by their pursuits, and by their whole
lives. . . .
I theorize that
Martin Luther and John Calvin were so guilt ridden for their killings
and crimes that they both knew that they were hell bound.
So for personal vanity they chose to believe that they were predestined,--
that they could falsely claim that by faith were absolved of all
sin no matter how heinous it was, and that because of divine election
they were eternally secure -- so that to find fault with their
election their predestined call was no matter how corrupt they
were was not their fault but to find fault with God Himself. THOSE
WHO HAVE BEEN MADE RIGHTEOUS AND WALK UPRIGHTLY BEFORE THE LORD
NEED NO SUCH DOCTRINE TO HIDE BEHIND. Only the most perverse of
sinners, need such assurances and to give such assurances to their
followers so that they would not abandon them as prescribed by
Christ and the Apostles scripture.
These corrupt
doctrines to assure corrupt believers of a salvation they shall
never see has become the underpinnings of all evangelicalism,
all fundamentalism, and all Pentecostalism, for all those who
confess that they hold no such doctrine in word and deed affirm
that they indeed believe they are eternally secure – and that
is why the church is in the state that it is today.
Isaiah
30:1 Woe to the rebellious children,
saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover
with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may
add sin to sin:
Amos
6:1 Woe to them that are at (careless)
ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief
of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
Calvin's Doctrine on Infant Baptism
As Calvin states: "the Anabaptists began to assail us."
Understandably so. For the Calvinists had opposed the revolutionism
of the Anabaptists -- including their revolutionary repudiation
of infant baptism for covenant children. "Clearly, the revolutionary
Anabaptists had broken with the Historic Church in a very major
way." (Whereas Luther and Calvin did not they remained Roman
Catholic lite in their doctrines and beliefs)
Calvin further observed that "Servetus, not the
least among the Anabaptists," also wrongly assumes that "infants...are
unable to believe." To Servetus, for that reason, all infants
still "lie under condemnation."
Servetus [himself] afterwards adds that no man
becomes our brother, unless by the spirit
of adoption -- which is only conferred by the hearing of faith."To
which Calvin answered: "Who will presume from this (That
Servantus has said) to prescribe the law to God -- and
say that He may not ingraft infants into Christ by some other
secret method" than by hearing the Word physically through
one's ears? (Servantus was argueing that
one can only be saved through the hearing of the Gospel being
preached -- Calvin did not believe
that. Instead he belived that in infant baptism was one saved,
and then once saved always saved.)
In a letter to Servetus, Calvin
made an even more pertinent remark.
"We say that Christ extends His hand to the children of holy
parents as soon as they are born or conceived ('simul
ac nascitur') -- in order to liberate
them from the general guilt of sin." (Calvin
is stating here that is even without being baptized that they
are saved.)
Calvin's Wife
Some four years after first publishing the Institutes,
Calvin married a "converted" Anabaptist widow in 1540.
But neither she herself was never rebaptized on becoming a Presbyterian
nor were their three children baptised as infants.
Calvin wrote in his Institutes of the Christian
Religion. That he had done so, precisely to persuade the Romish
King Francis that the Calvinists stood with the Romanists against
those Satanic Anabaptists.
In his Institutes, Calvin therefore attacked
the "madness" of these "certain
giddy men... (Enthusists guided by emotion)
-- who while they make a great display of the superiority of the
Spirit..., deride the simplicity of those who only delight in
what they [the Anabaptists] call 'the dead and deadly letter.'
(This is so ironic that it is the children
of the ana-baptists that deride the pentecostals and the Charismatics
with these same words and charges.) But I wish they would
tell me what 'spirit' it is whose 'inspiration' raises them to
such a 'sublime' height that they dare despise the doctrine of
Scripture!" (Anabaptists were Spirit-filled
Christians who despiesed the doctrines and teachings of men like
the Roman Cathokic Church and their agents like Luther and Calvin.)
Added
Calvin,"some Anabaptists in the present age mistake some
indescribable sort of frenzied excess for
the regeneration of the Spirit, (Being
born of the spirit) holding that the children of God..."
They say the Spirit will not bid you do anything that is wrong
(A quote from the Apostle John) --provided
you sincerely and boldly leave yourself to His agency.
"Who
is not amazed at such monstrous doctrines? And
yet, this philosophy is popular with those who -- blinded by insane
lusts -- have thrown off common sense. (Worldly
and earthly sense or reasoning) But what kind of Christ,
pray, do they fabricate? What kind of Spirit do they belch forth?
(Prophesy
with)
"He
is not a Spirit of giddiness, rushing rashly and precipitately,
without regard to right and wrong
"But
why dwell longer in refuting that brutish frenzy [of the Anabaptists]?
To Christians, the Spirit of the Lord is not a turbulent phantom
which they themselves have produced by dreaming
-- or received ready-made by others.
(by
visions or by prophetic utterances)
But the truely religious seek the knowledge of Him -- from Scripture
(Alone)." (This
is a reference to Luther's Sola Scriptura instead of Sola dictum
Dei -- hearing the word that proceedeth from the mouth of the
Father)
Calvin:
"I have decided to inform the reader more amply, by inserting
here the ramblings of Monsieur Anthony Pocquet.... He begins to
'froth at the mouth' -- On the surface, Monsieur Anthony Pocquet
has become a demi-angel -- hearing him speak in such a lofty manner,
as if he no longer had sensations of anything except heavenly
matters.... (This is probably the origin
of the phrase "So heavenly minded -- No earthly good.")
"He pretends to save
the world from the simple and pure teaching of the Scripture.
(Dead letter of the law, and the doctrines
and traditions of the men that would use that dead letter to promote
themselves and their denominations) As if it were the wisdom
of Christians to search after new revelations! (As
if it were wisdom to hear the word that proceedeth from the mouth
of the Father.) And he now calls it 'a double [portion
of] spirit' -- to pass beyond the contents of (age-old
corrupt denominational interpretations of) Scripture!
"Still, whenever it
suits them, they interpret Scripture in a totally different sense....
What he calls 'the natural law of growing and multiplying'; and
what he adds about our having to return to that, in order to experience
original innocence-
"These serpents twist
the terms.... 'Spirit' to them is not derived from the grace of
regeneration.(Calvin here lumps salvation
and the baptism of the Holy Ghost together as one and the same)
Rather is it the fantasy that God is in
us, (A fantasy that Christ Paul the
Apostle spoke of in detail) and that we must permit Him
to do whatever 'He' wants. We also see what they mean by the life
which we have in Jesus Christ. I.e.,
that everything is lawful -- and there is no evil, provided we
are not conscious of it....
Monsieur Anthony Pocquet...is
a wolf in sheepskin.... We should not allow this wicked man to
bring such shame on a Christian people.... He says...we
are under the law of 'love'.... I ask him, whether Moses
and the judges did not hear the people's disputes and decide them?
What sort of a scatterbrained man is it who plunges across [the]
country on the basis of badly-founded speculations?(being
let by the spirit - Is spoken of also by Christ and the Apostles)...
His daydreams are so silly and absurd, that among sane intelligent
people it is enough to have pointed them out -- so that one can
be on guard....
"He says that medicine
came into the world through the suggestion of the evil spirit.
I say...that it came from God, inasmuch as it is a knowledge of
carefully using the gifts of creation which He gives us.... He
[Pocquet] says we are not obligated to do God's Commandments (read
this as Pauls Ye are not under law but under grace)....
This loathsome teaching...is not only repugnant to God, but so
full of detestable errors as to make one's hair stand on end!"
All of these things today are said of Pentecostals,
and Charismatics by the baptists and Fundamentalists who centuries
ago lost their roots and forgot the merciful Christ that saved
them drew him to himself and filled them with all manner of signs
wonders and gifts of the Spirit. They forget that over 150,000
of their forefathers in the 1500's were slain for theri faith
by Catholics, John Calvin and Martin Luther.
One final though In 1620 a group of people
fled from europe to America called the Pilgrims .As a child I
was taught they fled from religious persecution, to be able to
pray and seek God as they willed to do. For all intents and purposes
the Pilgrims were quakers or spirit-filled Christains. Few know
today what country they flee from? Holland. And fewer still know
the tyranical church that Pilgrms fled from? The Dutch Reformed
Church -- Which were followers of the murdering persecuter of
the bretheren -- John Calvin.
Think
about that when you celebrate Thanksgiving this
year.
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