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Why Rash Vows Ensnare the Conscience | John Calvin · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Brief intro audio for reformed
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thinking. So today we are getting right
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back to the source, pulling our analysis straight from John
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Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.
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We're going to be focusing on a really, well, a really crucial
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issue for him, spiritual discipline.
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Specifically, we're looking at his whole systematic breakdown
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of religious vows and traditions.
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Right. And this was, you know, a major
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fault line in the 16th century. It really was.
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It's all about how we measure our own human attempts at piety
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against the sufficiency of what God has already given us in His
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Word. That's the perfect way to frame
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it, The material we're looking at today, it zeroes in on
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Calvin's argument about how vows, especially the ones that
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were, you know, just woven into the life of the medieval church
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and monasticism, how they went from being acts of faith to,
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well, to self-imposed spiritual burdens and dangerous
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superstition. So what's our mission here?
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What are we trying to unpack? Our mission is to really map out
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Calvin's three criteria. He gives us this indispensable 3
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part test for judging whether any vow made in God's name is
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legitimate. And this isn't just dusty
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history, right? Not at all.
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It's a theological blueprint. It helps you understand what
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acceptable worship actually looks like, and maybe more
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importantly, why human additions to it always seem to fail.
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OK, so our goal here is to give you that shortcut to being
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really well informed on this whole perspective, because
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Calvin forces us to understand the criteria, the rules by which
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all human additions to worship, anything we volunteer or try to
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tack on to God's clear law has to be measured.
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Exactly. We need to dissect not just the
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practices he said no to, but the really sophisticated spiritual
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reasons he gave for rejecting them.
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All right, so let's start where he starts.
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Calvin opens this whole discussion by acknowledging the
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obvious crisis of his time. The church was, you know,
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everyone can see it. He was oppressed by what he
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calls cruel tyranny. He was just overwhelmed by this
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mountain of tradition and ceremony.
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Yeah, that was the visible burden.
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Everyone was groaning under it. But he immediately pivots to
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what he sees as a secondary and frankly, a much more sneaky
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problem, which is what he calls each individual's private
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madness. Private madness.
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That's a strong phrase. It's an extraordinary phrase,
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and it's so telling. Kelvin's point is that even
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while people were complaining about the tyranny of all the
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institutional traditions, they were also eagerly seeking out
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their own burdens. So they were adding to the
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problem themselves. Yes, they were devising new
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vows, adding their own private self-imposed rules on top of the
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chains everyone else was wearing.
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In effect, they were digging deeper spiritual pitfalls for
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themselves. Which seems to reveal something
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about human nature then. It reveals a very dangerous
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innate human tendency to try and earn God's favor through our own
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self devised rigor, through our own efforts.
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And this tendency is what leads him to lay down this core
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theological principle, which for anyone in the reformed world is
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just it's non negotiable. It defines the limits of our
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spiritual creativity. It really does.
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The principle is basically this. Everything you need to live a
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pious and holy life is already contained to the law of God.
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Period. Everything you need is already
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there. Everything.
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And to scare us away from inventing new works, the Lord
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has confined the entire praise of righteousness to one thing
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simple obedience to His revealed will.
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Simple obedience. That one concept just seems to
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wipe out the entire space for human invention or trying to
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earn merit. It does.
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I mean, think about it, if God's word is sufficient and the full
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measure of righteousness is found in obedience, then the
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consequence for any self invented works is crystal clear.
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They're not welcome, they're not just unwelcome, they're wholly
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unacceptable, he says. All feigned acts of worship or
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works we come up with on our own to try and deserve God's favor,
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they just aren't acceptable. What exactly does he mean by
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feigned acts of worship? It refers to any action not
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commanded by God which people invent thinking it will please
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Him or earn them some kind of spiritual credit.
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This is pretty much the definition of superstition.
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And he's clear that God, in passage after passage, openly
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rejects and frankly abhors them, no matter how impressive they
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might look to us. OK, so that rejection of self
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invented worship sets up his entire investigation into vows,
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because vows are kind of the perfect example of people
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devising duties for themselves apart from God's word.
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They are You have this massive theological problem.
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Men are making these solemn promises directly to God, and a
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vow by its very nature demands the greatest earnestness, the
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greatest sincerity. But they're being careless with
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it. Utterly rash, he says.
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They've been vowing whatever came into their mind or even
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their mouth. And this rashness, he argues,
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his produced monstrous absurdities and a great
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wickedness that was infecting the entire church.
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So to fix that spiritual chaos, he gives us an analytical
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framework. This is the core of our deep
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dive today, he says. If we want to figure out which
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vows are lawful and which are not, we have to look at three
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things. And this really is the heart of
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it. We should probably expand on why
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these three specific questions are so necessary.
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They're like guardrails against the human heart's desire for
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self righteousness. OK, what's the first one?
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First, who is it to whom the vow is made?
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This is about the object of our worship, God Himself.
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It forces you to ask, does this vow I'm making actually line up
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with God's revealed will? If it doesn't, it fails the
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first Test, no matter how sincere you are.
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Right #2. Second, who are we who make the
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vow? This looks at the subject goes
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our capacity, our strengths and our station in life, what he
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would call Our Calling. So can I actually do this?
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Exactly. You have to ask, am I capable of
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fulfilling this, and does it conflict with other duties I
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already have? If you violate this one, you
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fall right into the sin of tempting God.
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And the third question. 3rd With what intention do we make the
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vow? This one looks at the purpose,
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the motive. It demands that we ask, is the
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point of this vow to earn merit for myself, or is it just
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supposed to be an aid to my obedience?
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Because God looks at the heart, and even a good action, if it's
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driven by a superstitious intent, becomes abominable to
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Him. It's just so logical how he
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breaks it down. God's nature, then our nature,
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and finally the motive in our own heart.
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So let's dig into that first criterion, the nature of God and
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this requirement of obedience. If God is only pleased by
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obedience to what he's already commanded, where does that leave
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all our self invented promises? Well, it creates an immediate
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spiritual and theological roadblock.
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If all voluntary worship, anything we devise apart from
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God's commandment is inherently hateful to Him, the no vow as an
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act of worship can possibly be acceptable unless it's
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explicitly approved by His revealed word.
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So we can't just make up things we think God will like.
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No, He warns us not to give ourselves the license to vow
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anything unless our conscience is absolutely sure that God
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actually esteems it as a legitimate act of service.
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And this is where he brings in the apostle Paul from Romans 14.
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Whatever is done apart from faith is sin.
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That seems to apply directly here.
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If you undertake A vow without a specific warrant from a
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Scripture, it's a faithless act. It's more than just faithless.
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It's rash. Calvin's logic is, look, if we
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can stumble in small matters like what food to eat, where
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faith doesn't give a clear command, but our conscience can
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still be troubled, how much more serious is it when we're talking
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about the duties of religion? These are the most solemn
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matters for us. So the stakes are higher.
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Way higher. Our first precaution has to be
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never to even proceed to making a vow unless our conscience is
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sure we're not attempting something rash or presumptuous.
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And that assurance, as we hold it, only comes when God Himself
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tells us through His Word what is good or unprofitable to do.
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If there's no word for it, there's no faith in the act, and
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therefore it's sin. OK, that covers the objective
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side of it, what God requires. Let's shift to that second
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criterion, measuring ourselves, the person making the vow.
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This feels like we're the more practical and emotional dangers
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pop up. This is where despair can sit
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in. Precisely here we're commanded
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to measure our actual strength, and we have to keep our
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God-given calling in mind so we don't neglect the freedom that
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God has given us. Calvin is insistent on this.
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We can only duly vow what we have received from God's hand.
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Our offerings are purely his gifts to us in the first place.
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So if we promise too much. If we claim too much for
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ourselves, we're basically casting ourselves headlong into
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a fall. We have to look at the measure
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of grace we've actually been given and then temper our vows
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to match that measure. So the moment of failure isn't
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just breaking a promise, it's actually a theological failure.
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It's a display of arrogance toward God and His gifts.
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Absolutely. Think about the examples he uses
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from Scripture. The assassins who vowed not to
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eat until they killed Paul. Forget the wickedness of the
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plot for a second. The sheer arrogance of
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subjecting their life and death to their own power without any
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regard for God's will. It was unbearable rashness.
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Or Jephthal. Or Jephthah's tragic folly,
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which just underscores the extreme penalty for that kind of
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hasty fervor. A rash vow doesn't honor God.
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It tries to force God's hand or tries to replace his wisdom with
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our own flawed self-confidence. And this brings us right to his
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primary example of what he calls this insane boldness, the
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perpetual vow of celibacy, the one taken by priests, monks and
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nuns. Yeah, Calvin puts the celibacy
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vow with a very pinnacle of rashness.
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He says those who take it just forget their own infirmity.
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They believe they are surely capable of perpetual
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countenance. And this vow, he says, is a
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direct act of tempting God. How so?
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How is it tempting God? Because they are striving
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against the very nature imparted by the Creator.
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They're ignoring the common human condition that God himself
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declared it's not good for man to be alone.
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They're trying to shake off this general calling for all
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humanity, even though the gift of cotton isn't some universal,
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perpetual thing. It's also given only for a
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limited time, as God sees fit. So to swear you'll have it
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forever. It's unbelievably presumptuous
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you're swearing to a perpetual gift that has not been
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perpetually promised to you. But I'm wondering, surely there
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are some people who do have the spiritual gift of countenance,
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right? Like it says in Matthew 19.
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Does Calvin just dismiss that, or is he critiquing the
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institution, the mandatory nature of the vow?
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That is the essential distinction to make.
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His critique is aimed squarely at the institution and the
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mandate. He totally recognizes the
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exceptional nature of the gift, but his point is that the Church
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of his day was compelling people to take the vow without any
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regard for whether they actually possessed that gift.
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They made a rule out of an exception.
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Exactly. By commanding perpetual celibacy
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institutionally, they're making a general rule out of an
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exceptional spiritual gift. And that's why it becomes
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tempting God. You're trying to shake off the
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general condition of humanity, and you're despising the common
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remedy of marriage as if it were beneath you.
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And the insult to God's gifts doesn't just stop at arrogance,
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he says. It goes further into actual
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defamation. They start calling marriage
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pollution. Right, despite the fact that God
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instituted it, the apostles declared it honorable, and
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Christ himself sanctified it with his first miracle at the
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wedding in Cana. And Calvin is pretty direct
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about the consequences of this. He is, he notes.
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This arrogance is often avenged by frightful punishments, he
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says. The Lord commonly avenges this
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kind of overconfidence and contempt for his ordinary
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provision. He points to the widespread
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hidden sins, the fornicators, the adulterers within the
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monastic orders, people they were impudently calling angelic.
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So their lives were proof against the vow.
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Their very lives, he argues, furnished proof that
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institutionalized celibacy is one thing, and true, God-given
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virginity is something else entirely.
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He even says he's omitting the most scandalous vices for
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modesty's sake, but suggests that what everyone already knows
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about the corruption is more than enough proof against the
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whole system. So violating that second
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criterion, measuring ourselves, is really severe.
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It involves tempting God, despising his remedy of
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marriage, and often leads to judgement through secret sin.
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And we have to come back to that idea of Our Calling to.
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That constraint is absolute. You must vow nothing that
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fundamentally gets in the way of your established calling.
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You can't have a head of a household who has a binding
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covenant with his wife and kids vowing to forsake them to go
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take on other religious burdens. Or a public official.
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Right. You can't have a newly elected
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official, someone fitted for public office, vowing to go live
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as a private citizen. Our vows have to respect the
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freedom God established in the Christian life.
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They have to be tempered to the measure of grace we've been
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given, otherwise we just place ourselves in bondage to external
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things that ought to be secondary to our real duties of
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piety and charity. That's a perfect path into the
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third and final criterion, intention.
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The Lord looks upon the heart. This one means that the same
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outward act can be perfectly fine or dangerously
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superstitious, and it all depends on the motive behind it.
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That distinction is pivotal. I mean, think about abstinence
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from wine or meat. The same act is superstitious if
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you believe that some special holiness or piety resides in the
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physical act of abstaining itself.
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If you think the ACT earns you merit.
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But it can be OK. But if that same act of
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abstinence is directed to some other non perverted end, if the
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motivation is pure and not aimed at earning grace, then it's
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perfectly allowable as a matter of expediency.
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For example, abstaining from wine because you think it earns
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you points with God is superstitious.
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Abstaining from wine to punish yourself for gluttony?
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That's allowable self-discipline.
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So, because he wants to guide people's consciences safely,
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Calvin then classifieds 4 lawful and permissible ends for vows.
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He breaks them into two categories, right past and
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future. For pastime vows, we have two
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main purposes, and they're rooted in gratitude and
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repentance. OK, what's the first one?
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1st is Thanksgiving. These are vows that attest to
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your gratitude for benefits you've received.
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They're basically solemn tokens of recognition.
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Calvin brings up Jacob bowing tithes if the Lord brought him
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back safely from exile or the ancient use of peace offerings
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after a victory. So if a pious person is saved
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from some disaster. Exactly.
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If you're snatched from a calamity or a serious illness,
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you might consecrate a vote of offering or make a public
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declaration of thanks just so you don't seem ungrateful.
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The purpose is declarative, not meritorious.
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You're not earning anything, you're acknowledging a gift.
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And the second one, pastime. 2nd is repentance or chastisement.
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These are vows you make to punish yourself for an offense
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you've committed or to serve as a stricter bond of self-control.
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So if someone falls into sin through the vice of gluttony,
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they might renounce Dean T Foods for a set time to chastise their
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intemperance. But the key here is that it has
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to be optional. That's the critical element,
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Kelvin stresses. It has to be left optional.
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It's only to be used as a help to fight your sin, never as a
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required religious act that's designed to appease God.
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OK, and then the two types of future time vows.
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These are more about maintaining caution and spurring yourself on
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to do your duty. This is where you see the
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criteria applied to everyday spiritual discipline.
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Exactly. The first future end is what he
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calls caution or bridal. This is for a person who
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recognizes they have a personal weakness and something that's
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otherwise neutral. They just can't stop themselves
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from falling into a specific vice.
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Like what? For example, if a certain type
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of bodily adornment, certain clothes or jewelry, violently
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entices you to lustful desire, a person would do nothing foolish
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if they cut off the use of that thing with a temporary sober
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vow. You impose on yourself the
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necessity of abstinence, not to be holy, but simply to free
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yourself from the uncertainty of that temptation.
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You know that principle, the cautioner Bridal is highly
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relevant today. We might not be vowing to
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abstain from rich food, but the same spiritual impulse is there
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every time a believer decides to temporarily fast from social
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media or television or some specific luxury to tame a
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specific vice that's creeping in.
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That's a perfect modern application.
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It's using your Christian freedom, guided by charity
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toward yourself, not some legalistic requirement.
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And the second future end. The second is stimulus or
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arousal. This is if you find yourself
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being forgetful or lazy toward the necessary, already commanded
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duties of piety, prayer, reading scripture, charity.
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Making a sober vowel can kind of wake up your memory and shake
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off that idleness. Calvin sees these two future
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types as aids, basically tools used by the weak or untutored as
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helps to weakness. There are tools for
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sanctification, not instruments for justification.
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So to sum up the limits here, these 4 lawful types of vows are
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OK, but only in outward things and only if they pass the first
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two tests. They have to have God's implicit
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approval, they have to agree with Our Calling, and they must
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be strictly limited to the measure of grace we've actually
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been given. That's the complete framework
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for what's permissible. But then Calvin points out that
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the true, single, common and salutary zao that defines every
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believer is the one we all share.
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The one from baptism. The one we all make in baptism,
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which we then confirm and ratify through catechism and by
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receiving the Lord's Supper. The sacraments are presented as
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contracts. The Lord promises US mercy, and
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in turn we promise obedience. And this holy common vow is
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really just the covenantal obligation of being a believer.
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In summary, yeah, it's the renunciation of Satan and the
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world's corruption, yielding yourself to God's service,
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obeying his holy commandments, and not following the wicked
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desires of the flesh, just like Paul commands in Romans 13.
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And what makes that one OK when the others are so dangerous?
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It's holy and salutary precisely because it's attested by the
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entirety of Scripture. It's required of all children of
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God under the covenant of grace. And it's an obligation that's
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joined with a crucial plea, a petition for pardon for all our
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failures, and a continuous petition for help for
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sanctification. It relies completely on Christ's
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merit, not our performance. That context really clarifies
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why any human addition is so dangerous.
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It's like you're trying to improve on a perfect covenant.
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But even for these lawful vows, Calvin issues a pretty strong
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practical warning. He does, He cautions severely
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against excessive zeal. Even if a vow is perfectly
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lawful in its nature, he says, anyone who follows sound counsel
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will only undertake super and temporary vows.
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Why is that? Because if you repeatedly go to
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excess, the whole religious character of the ACT gets
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cheapened, and it will inevitably lapse into
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superstition. And fatally, if you bind
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yourself with a perpetual vow, one for life, you are setting
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yourself up for certain failure. You'll either fulfill it with
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immense trouble in tedium, or you'll eventually just break it
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when you get wearied by its long duration.
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Man's weakness, he says, simply cannot sustain A perpetual,
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self-imposed burden. OK, with those 3 criteria firmly
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in place, we now have the lens to look at what Calvin called
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perverse vows. He says the world was just
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plagued by superstition for centuries, vowing to abstain
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from meat or wine, as if piety was in those substances.
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Specific self-imposed fasts making pilgrimages for merit.
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Yeah, or traveling half naked to gain spiritual credit through
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sheer exhaustion. And when we apply his three
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rules to these practices, they're all deemed empty,
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fleeting, and full of manifest and piety.
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And the reason is that fundamental principle again.
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The most fundamental principle of worship God hates nothing
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more than counterfeit worship. The entire structure of these
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self-made spiritual efforts is based on a lie about how God is
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pleased and what He actually accepts.
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And the practical dangerous result of this false devotion is
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that it produces judge mental hypocrites.
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Yes, the hypocrites who are performing these follies, they
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sincerely believe they've procured some exceptional
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righteousness for themselves. They mistakenly placed the whole
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of piety in these external observed duties, and so they
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inevitably despise all other Christians who are less careful
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about these, well, trifles. This judge mentalism, this focus
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on outward self invented performance is the inevitable
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fruit of inventing your own worship.
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This sets the stage perfectly for his detailed and extensive
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critique of monasticism, which was the most organized,
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systematized form of vowing in the medieval church.
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And since the monks claimed that antiquity was their defense, we
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have to start with the historical contrast.
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That claim of antiquity is just specious.
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Calvin argues that a far, far different and more disciplined
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way of life prevailed in the ancient church.
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Historians like Gregory of Nazi, Ansys and Basil, and especially
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Augustine. They describe a life that was
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characterized by profound austerity, not idleness.
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What did that look like? Sleeping on the bare ground,
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drinking water, eating simple bread, roots and vegetables, and
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a total abstinence from sumptuous fare.
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But what was the motivation? Was it to earn God's favor?
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Absolutely not. The primary purpose was
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preparatory and practical. The monastic colleges in
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Augustine's time were, in his words, seminaries of the
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ecclesiastical order. They weren't for personal merit.
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They were essential for preparing and supplying tested
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discipline clergy for the Church.
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So it was job training in a way. It was pious men submitted to
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this discipline to better train themselves to govern the Church,
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to become fitter for that great office.
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It was a means to an end ministry, not an end in itself.
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And Augustine's description of this ancient life, which Calvin
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uses as his proof text, is so important because it highlights
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this combination of strict discipline with theological
21:15
freedom. Indeed, Augustine describes them
21:18
as gathered into a most chaste common life, devoted to prayers,
21:23
readings, theological discussions.
21:25
And this is an essential point. They earn their food by hand.
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They gave the surplus to the needy brotherly love where
21:33
charity was declared the chief rule.
21:35
And no rigid requirements on the small stuff.
21:37
Crucially, no. There's no rigid requirement
21:40
placed upon those external things that God's Word leaves
21:42
free. They didn't reject certain foods
21:44
as if they were corrupted. They just use diet as a tool to
21:47
tame lust. If someone was sick, they had no
21:50
qualms at all about taking better food.
21:51
They were careful to watch over love, remembering Paul's
21:54
teaching that all things are clean to the clean.
21:56
Their discipline was voluntary, charitable and always subject to
21:59
the greater good of the community and the Church.
22:02
When you place that rigorous, practical, yet free model next
22:05
to the later modern monasticism of Calvin's time, the
22:09
differences are just they're stark.
22:11
It's a complete institutional drift.
22:13
The two models were contrary in almost every essential respect.
22:17
Later monasticism sternly required conformity to trifling
22:20
in cold ceremonies, the specific color and appearance of your
22:23
clothing, the kind of food you ate, specific rituals, and
22:27
deviating from these trivialities was seen as an
22:29
unforgivable crime. And where Augustine insisted
22:33
that the monks work. Modern monasticism found
22:35
idleness to be the chief part of their sanctity.
22:38
They dreamed up this superior, contemplative life as an excuse
22:42
for inaction. That shift from manual labor and
22:46
ministry prep to idleness and contemplation, that seems to be
22:50
the hinge where the whole system pivoted away from Christian
22:53
freedom. It's the spiritual pivot,
22:54
Absolutely. Ancient monasticism was an
22:57
exercise and an aid to the duties of piety that are already
23:00
enjoined upon all Christians. But modern monks, they weren't
23:02
content with that general sufficient piety.
23:05
They dreamed up a new sort of piety in order to become more
23:08
perfect than all other people, and by doing so they
23:11
intentionally separated themselves from the whole body
23:13
of the Church. Church.
23:14
They had moved from helping the church to competing with it.
23:17
And this claim of having a superior status, dignifying
23:21
their specific vowed order with the title of perfection.
23:25
This is the core offense that Calvin attacks next.
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He calls it a great injury to God.
23:30
It is because it diminishes God's ordained callings.
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When monks were pressed on this point, they would often kind of
23:36
retreat a little bit, saying, well, our orders and call
23:38
perfect because it contains perfection, but because it's the
23:41
best, safest or quickest way to attain perfection.
23:45
Which Calvin says is a meaningless distinction.
23:48
It's meaningless in practice. He argues that whether you claim
23:52
to be perfect or just the best path to perfection, you're still
23:55
giving this immense unscriptural honor to an institution that's
23:59
nowhere approved by Scripture. And at the same time, all the
24:03
other callings ordained by God, being a father, a magistrate, a
24:07
worker, they're all disparaged by comparison.
24:09
So this effectively creates A2 tiered system of Christian life,
24:12
a double Christianity, where you have to enter this unscriptural
24:16
state to achieve the highest calling.
24:18
And that leaves the vast majority of believers feeling
24:20
like they're pursuing A lesser ordinary faith.
24:22
That false dualism is the schism in principle, and they bolster
24:27
this claim by arguing that they shoulder a greater burden than
24:30
Christ laid upon his people by promising to keep the so-called
24:34
evangelical councils. What were those?
24:37
These are practices like loving your enemies, not seeking
24:40
vengeance, not swearing an oath, selling your possessions, things
24:44
which the monks claimed were not commonly binding on ordinary
24:47
Christians, but were just suggestions for the spiritual
24:50
elite. The idea that Christ's commands
24:53
are just optional suggestions for those seeking a higher
24:55
spiritual rank. That's what Calvin calls a most
24:58
pestilential error. It's a theological disaster.
25:01
Calvin, and he's echoing the voice of the ancient church
25:03
fathers here, declares that all Christians must of necessity
25:07
obey every single word uttered by Christ.
25:10
They are not optional counsels for the elite.
25:12
They are divine commandments for the the whole body of Christ.
25:15
So the whole system is built on a false foundation.
25:17
The entire modern monastic system, he insists, is built on
25:21
the absolutely false opinion that a better, more perfect rule
25:25
of life can be devised than the common rule.
25:27
God committed to the entire church, and whatever is built
25:30
upon that foundation is abominable because it insults
25:34
God's sufficiency. Now monks regarded Matthew 19.21
25:39
as their strongest piece of evidence.
25:41
If you wish to be perfect, sell all that you have and give to
25:44
the poor. They claimed this established
25:47
voluntary poverty as the direct path to Christian perfection.
25:51
Right. And we have to really carefully
25:52
examine the context, just like Calvin does.
25:54
The young man comes to Christ asking about what works he needs
25:57
to do for eternal life, and Christ refers him back to the
26:00
Law, the 10 Commandments, because the Law itself contains
26:03
perfect righteousness, and his perfect observance is the way of
26:06
eternal life. But the young man says he's
26:08
already done all that. Yeah, he's puffed up with
26:10
self-confidence. He claims he's kept all the
26:12
precepts from his youth, which was obviously, you know, an
26:14
impossible distance from the truth.
26:16
So the command to sell all his possessions wasn't a general
26:19
command for perfection, but a specific localized probe
26:22
designed to expose his real sin. Precisely.
26:26
It was a surgical tool. Yeah.
26:27
Christ wasn't establishing some new standard of perfection for
26:30
everyone. He was compelling, this young
26:32
man who has pleased himself beyond measure, to feel his own
26:36
spiritual wound, his intense covetousness.
26:40
It showed him he was still far removed from the perfect
26:42
obedience demanded by the law. The man who truly loves God.
26:46
The man who truly loves God with all his heart counts whatever
26:49
opposes that love as refuse and flees from it like the plague.
26:53
This young man, when he was challenged to give up his
26:55
wealth, walked away sorrowful. He failed the test.
26:58
And Calvin even uses Paul to crush the idea that the physical
27:02
act of giving things away is perfection.
27:04
Yeah, Paul explicitly teaches in First Corinthians 13 that even
27:08
if he gives all his goods to the poor, he is nothing unless he
27:10
has love. So what kind of perfection is
27:12
that which, if love is lacking, is just reduced to nothing?
27:14
So love is the standard. On the contrary, Paul calls love
27:18
itself, which can exist without renouncing all your goods, the
27:22
bond of perfection. So interpreting Christ's
27:26
specific command to that one covetous man as establishing the
27:29
universal standard of perfection is just a vain and misleading
27:33
generalization. And this doctrinal error, he
27:36
says, has practical consequences.
27:37
It leads to actual schism within the visible church.
27:40
The separation is profound and scandalous.
27:43
Not only did this blasphemous doctrine arise that monasticism
27:46
is a form of second baptism, suggesting a cleanse deeper
27:50
sins, or brought you closer to God than your first baptism, but
27:54
modern monks intentionally separate themselves from the
27:57
lawful Society of believers. How would they do that?
27:59
They adopt A peculiar ministry, and in effect a private
28:02
administration of the sacraments, erecting a private
28:05
altar for themselves. He calls them a conventicle of
28:07
schismatics. By using that term, he's
28:09
basically stripping the monasteries of any legitimate
28:12
status within the church structure he recognizes.
28:14
That is exactly the point. A conventicle is a secret or
28:18
unauthorized assembly for religious worship.
28:21
Calvin is arguing that every monastery disturbs the order of
28:24
the church and cuts itself off from the lawful Society of
28:27
believers. And they made this separation
28:29
visible with their names. To make it visible, they take
28:32
upon themselves various sectarian names, Benedictines,
28:36
Franciscans, Dominicans. They use these titles as their
28:39
profession of religion, haughtily affecting to be
28:41
different from ordinary Christians, and this is an
28:44
injustice to Christ. It mimics the very divisions
28:47
Paul execrated among the Corinthians, who are separating
28:50
into followers of Paul or Apollo's or Cephas.
28:53
We have to address the binding nature of these vows, but first
28:56
just to under score why this whole self-imposed life is so
28:59
untenable. Calvin has to talk about the
29:01
state of the monks morals in his time and the critique is it's
29:05
harsh. He does not mince words.
29:07
He's aiming to prove that the system is rotten to the core.
29:10
So while he's detailed the flaws in the profession itself, the
29:14
idleness, the superstition, the morals were often horrifying.
29:18
He states that no order of men is more polluted by all sorts of
29:21
foul vices. Nowhere do factions, hatreds and
29:24
intrigue burn more fiercely. He notes that while a few
29:28
monasteries might manage a superficial chastity, meaning
29:31
lust is suppressed just enough not to be openly infamous, you
29:34
will scarcely find one in 10 which isn't closer to a brothel
29:37
than a sanctuary of chastity. This systemic corruption is
29:41
presented as evidence of divine judgement on human arrogance.
29:44
And this moral failure is compounded by their material
29:47
excess. Their diet contradicts the
29:49
ancient frugality. They are fattened, he says, just
29:52
like pigs in a stye, completely failing that ancient requirement
29:55
for severity and self-control. He rhetorically asked what
29:58
Augustine, who was already lamenting the moral decline in
30:01
his own era, what he would say today.
30:03
See how almost all monasteries abound, and well, well my burst
30:06
with lamentable vices. So, given this state, that
30:09
perpetual of chastity remains the most problematic and
30:12
damaging case of an impossible vow.
30:14
It is the prime case of an invalid vow.
30:17
The vow is made without the special permanent gift of
30:19
continence, which Christ clearly stated is not given to all.
30:23
If these people are troubled by the flesh, and this includes the
30:27
burning lust of the mind, not just outward wantonness, they
30:30
should take refuge in the remedy of marriage.
30:32
Which Paul commands. Right, First Corinthians 7.
30:35
Instead, the modern system of his day declared it a more
30:38
heinous sin to cure their intemperance by taking a wife
30:41
than to corrupt body and soul by persistent fornication.
30:45
This is just an unbelievable departure from the ancient
30:47
church, where figures like Cyprian allowed that if virgins
30:50
do not wish to continue or cannot, they had better marry
30:53
than fall into fire by their trespasses.
30:56
The ancients understood human weakness.
30:58
The modern church replaced that understanding with legalistic
31:01
rigor. Now, to defend their rigor,
31:03
monks often pointed to the case of the New Testament widows, the
31:06
ones Paul mentions in First Timothy 5, who were said to
31:09
incur condemnation because they violated their first pledge when
31:12
they married. This comparison is flawed on
31:15
multiple grounds, and it illustrates a serious misreading
31:18
of Scripture. First, those widows who served
31:21
as deaconesses engaged in a public ministry of caring for
31:24
the poor. They pledged religious service
31:26
to achieve merit, but because marriage would interfere with
31:29
their public ministry, it was a necessity of their calling, not
31:33
a path to perfection. And there was an age limit.
31:36
Second, Paul was careful to. Set an age limit of 60 years,
31:39
which is commonly beyond the danger of youthful passion, and
31:43
he explicitly commanded the younger women to marry and bear
31:45
children. Modern monasticism allows vows
31:48
at 12:20 or 30 compelling young women by force or threats to
31:53
take this curse at halter before they have any genuine experience
31:56
or self knowledge. Which brings us, finally, to the
31:58
critical. Pastoral question for anyone
32:00
caught in the system. Are these inadmissible unlawful
32:04
vows actually binding on your conscience?
32:06
Calvin provides absolute. Clarity and immense pastoral
32:09
relief to what he calls ignorant and timid consciences.
32:13
The answer is a decisive no. All unlawful or improperly
32:17
conceived vows are of no value before God, and thus they must
32:21
be invalid for us. Since our works are only right
32:24
when they please God, and God abhors these feigned works, it
32:27
is absurd and impossible to think we are bound to fulfill
32:29
what God expressly does not require.
32:31
So if the vow comes from spiritual.
32:33
Error and superstition. If it fails those 3 criteria,
32:37
the command is to abandon it, not to fulfill it precisely.
32:40
God forbids. Us no less to continue in an
32:43
unlawful vow than to begin 1A vow that was rashly made must
32:46
necessarily be rescinded. Continuing in a superstitious
32:49
vow, once you've been illuminated by the Gospel, is
32:52
simply persisting in sin and arrogance.
32:54
This clarity is designed to set pious consciences at rest and
32:58
free them from the misgiving that they have violated some
33:00
sacred pledge. And yet those who left were
33:02
accused. Of perjury, Of breaking an
33:04
indissoluble bond made to God? How does Calvin provide a
33:07
defense for those who departed monasticism for an honorable
33:10
life in the world? He rests the defense on 2.
33:13
Rock solid theological points, and they're both rooted in the
33:16
Gospel. First, no bond exists where God
33:20
abrogates what man confirms. If the cross of Christ has the
33:25
boundless authority to free us from the curse and legal
33:27
requirements of God's own moral law, how much more effectively
33:31
will it deliver us from these outward fetters that are nothing
33:34
more than the deceptiveness of Satan and superstition?
33:37
So the gospel frees you. Illumination by the Gospel
33:39
releases. Them immediately, from all
33:41
halters of superstition, they had taken upon themselves
33:44
through ignorance. And the second point second.
33:47
If someone is unfit for. Celibacy, the vow, is simply
33:50
impossible, and it leads to the certain destruction of the soul,
33:53
which God wills to save its stubbornness, not piety, to
33:57
despise the remedy of marriage which God gave for incontinence.
34:00
In fact, Calvin argues, God justly takes vengeance upon this
34:03
human arrogance, as evidenced by the widespread impurity swarming
34:07
in the monasteries. So when men despise God's.
34:09
Remedy when men unmindful. Of their weakness, covet what
34:13
has been denied them, and despise God's ordained remedy of
34:17
marriage. They are met with God's
34:18
righteous judgement. Their only righteous path
34:21
forward is repentance and seeking the lawful remedy God
34:25
has provided. We started this deep dive with.
34:27
The theological crisis of human innovation and worship and moved
34:30
all the way through Calvin's systematic critique, ending with
34:34
the grace that frees us from that self-imposed bondage.
34:37
The key insight that just runs through this whole critique is
34:40
that the legitimacy of any spiritual obligation flows
34:43
directly and exclusively from God's command, not from our
34:47
zeal, our intentions, or our perceived piety.
34:51
And I think the great take away. Which is relevant for any
34:53
generation is that Christ's rule of life contained in the law and
34:57
the Gospel is the perfect standard for all Christians.
35:00
We saw how that temptation persists for believers to try
35:02
and invent a second baptism or some higher and more rigorous
35:06
path to earn greater merit. Setting up self-made rules about
35:09
the simplicity and sufficiency of obedience to God's already
35:12
revealed will. That temptation for rigor.
35:15
For finding a shortcut to feeling more righteous than our
35:17
neighbor is always present, isn't it?
35:20
Even if it shows up today as self-imposed rules about diet or
35:23
fashion or even political engagement.
35:26
So I'd encourage you to reflect. On where, perhaps without even
35:29
knowing it, you might be tempted to add burdens to God's simple
35:33
command for obedience and love, mistakenly equating your own
35:37
human rigor and severity with divine righteousness, rather
35:40
than just relying on the righteousness that's freely
35:42
provided in Christ. Thank you for joining us for
35:44
this deep. Dive into the criteria for vows
35:47
and the peril of self-made worship.
35:48
We hope you'll join us again soon for.
35:50
Another deep dive into the sources.