Transcript

What Is Calvinism? · Gil I Am

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Speaker 1: John Calvin born the tenth of July fifteen o nine
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Speaker 1: and died the twenty seventh of May fifteen sixty four
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Speaker 1: was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during
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Speaker 1: the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the
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Speaker 1: development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism,
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Speaker 1: including its doctrines of predestination and of God's absolute sovereignty
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Speaker 1: in the salvation of the human soul from death and
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Speaker 1: eternal damnation. Calvinist doctrines were influenced by an elaborated upon
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Speaker 1: Augustinian and other Christian traditions. Various Reformed church movements, including
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Speaker 1: Continental Reform, Congregationalism, Presbyterianism, Waldensians, Baptist Reformed, Calvinist Methodism, and
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Speaker 1: Reformed Anglican churches, which looked to Calvin as the chief
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Speaker 1: expositor of their beliefs, have spread throughout the world. The
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Speaker 1: following is an introduction to Calvinism. Hope you enjoy.
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Speaker 2: All right, So before I start talking about John Calvin,
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Speaker 2: I want to make one thing absolutely clear. You should
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Speaker 2: never sell drugs to children. Hey, there's students. I'm gonna
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Speaker 2: talk to you a little bit about John Calvin and
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Speaker 2: Calvinism for those of you who are studying the Reformation
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Speaker 2: and just trying to wrap your brain around Calvin and
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Speaker 2: his doctrines. Know in case you get some questions about
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Speaker 2: that and that sort of thing. So I'm gonna give
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Speaker 2: you a brief introduction to Calvinism. Well, let's start off
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Speaker 2: with the founder, John Calvin. John Calvin was in Geneva, Switzerland.
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Speaker 2: He was French ethnically, but he settled in Switzerland, and
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Speaker 2: he is the father of Reformed Christianity. Now what I
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Speaker 2: mean by this is not that he started the Reformation.
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Speaker 2: That's more Martin Luther. But there's really this distinguishing characteristic
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Speaker 2: of Calvin that makes a Calvinist truly reformed. Where Martin
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Speaker 2: Luther wanted to just tweak some things about the Catholic Church.
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Speaker 2: You know, there are Catholic doctrines he disagrees with, he
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Speaker 2: gets rid of those, he modifies them whatever. John Calvin
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Speaker 2: wants to start from scratch really a truly reformed theology
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Speaker 2: and a theology and a church that really looks nothing
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Speaker 2: like the Catholic Church of his day. So just keep
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Speaker 2: in mind that he is a radical reformer, taking things
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Speaker 2: in an entirely different direction and not just coming up
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Speaker 2: with things that he disagrees with and modifying them. And
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Speaker 2: John Calvin wrote what is perhaps the first work of
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Speaker 2: systematic theology and the Reformation, his Institutes of the Christian Religion.
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Speaker 2: It's very important that you know this book because this
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Speaker 2: is where he writes about all of his doctrines and
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Speaker 2: comes up with this system. Not just these or some
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Speaker 2: things about my theology, but here is an entire theological system,
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Speaker 2: kind of like building a house or something like that.
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Speaker 2: He's going to start start from the bottom, I guess,
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Speaker 2: kind of the drake of the Reformation or something like that.
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Speaker 2: And it's really founded upon logic. Okay, now, Calvin. There's
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Speaker 2: some things about Calvin's theology that are not very palatable,
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Speaker 2: but you can't really argue with his logic. John Calvin
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Speaker 2: had been a lawyer, so what he really does is
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Speaker 2: he takes scripture and he takes cold hard logic and
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Speaker 2: really puts them together. So you can reject Calvin's framework outright,
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Speaker 2: but it's really hard to find holes in it if
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Speaker 2: you agree with it. From the foundation, and the foundation
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Speaker 2: of Calvinist theology is the sovereignty of God. That God
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Speaker 2: has absolute control over everything. And without this there's no
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Speaker 2: Calvinist theology. And everything that you'll see from Calvinism comes
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Speaker 2: from this, that God, who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, that
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Speaker 2: he is truly sovereign and he has control. And a
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Speaker 2: big part of this doctrine is the doctrine of predestination,
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Speaker 2: because the thing is, if God is sovereign, then how
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Speaker 2: does it make sense if he wants people to go
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Speaker 2: to heaven and they don't. Joining me, here is Stephen Wright,
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Speaker 2: who made a five on like all kinds of ap exams.
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Speaker 2: So I figured I'd bring him in for some some inspiration,
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Speaker 2: you know, rub his head a little bit, for some
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Speaker 2: good luck on your behalf. Now Stephen could be predestined.
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Speaker 2: All right, we're thinking about predestination. What this is that
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Speaker 2: certain people are predestined to go to heaven and others
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Speaker 2: are not, even before they are born, that God has
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Speaker 2: picked out and elect. All right, So let's say that
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Speaker 2: God wants Stephen to go to heaven, and God sends
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Speaker 2: me to come and talk to Stephen, and I say, Stephen,
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Speaker 2: I'd like to tell you a little bit about Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 2: Do you have a minute for me to present the
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Speaker 2: gospel to you. Actually, there's some children over there, and
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Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna go sell some drugs to them.
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Speaker 2: So wow, what a waste of a five on all
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Speaker 2: kinds of ap exams. Right. Uh, you know what kind
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Speaker 2: of person sells drugs to children? A very bad person,
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Speaker 2: all right. And what you don't know is that after
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Speaker 2: Steven rolled off, he goes and he, you know, sells
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Speaker 2: these drugs these children, and he doesn't realize that people
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Speaker 2: were on too him and those people are the police,
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Speaker 2: and the police were there, there was a swat team.
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Speaker 2: But then Steven, who just happened to be armed with
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Speaker 2: all kinds of illegal weapons, grenades, all that kind of stuff,
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Speaker 2: you know, shoots back da da da da da Boom,
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Speaker 2: boom boom, all that kind of stuff, and then uh,
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Speaker 2: you know, kills a few of the police. And then
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Speaker 2: he gets in a car and he's driving off and
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Speaker 2: he's going real fast, and he runs over an old
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Speaker 2: woman and the boy scout who's helping her across the street,
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Speaker 2: and then Stephen runs into a telephone pole and bam,
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Speaker 2: he's dead, all right. And the last thing that he
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Speaker 2: did was run over an old woman and a boy
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Speaker 2: scout after killing police officers, after selling drugs to children.
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Speaker 2: I'm sorry, you are going to hell. Do not pass go,
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Speaker 2: do not collect salvation. Now, the thing is, if God
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Speaker 2: is sovereign, what if God had chosen Stephen to go
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Speaker 2: to heaven and now God is faced with this will Wait,
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Speaker 2: I mean, he didn't even want to hear the gospel message.
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Speaker 2: He wanted some drugs to kids, and now I've got
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Speaker 2: to send you to hell even though i wanted to
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Speaker 2: go to heaven and know I'm so lonely. What kind
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Speaker 2: of God is that? All right? That's really that's not
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Speaker 2: a sovereign God, Okay, a God who is really at
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Speaker 2: the mercy of what some person decides to do. So,
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Speaker 2: this idea of predestination is that God has picked certain
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Speaker 2: people out to join him and those people do not
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Speaker 2: have free will. Because the idea of free will so
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Speaker 2: championed by the Catholic Church and by humanist and the Renaissance.
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Speaker 2: This idea of free will, to calvin it go against
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Speaker 2: the sovereignty of God, that it makes God powerless and
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Speaker 2: not truly omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, which is why Calvinist theology
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Speaker 2: pretty much does away with free will entirely. This is
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Speaker 2: the most radical of the Reformation theologies that you'll see
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Speaker 2: in the farthest away from Catholic teaching on free will,
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Speaker 2: now on Calvinist theology. Calvinist theology can be easily explained
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Speaker 2: to English speakers with the acronym tulip. So just think
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Speaker 2: of a flower and I'm going to go over the
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Speaker 2: five points of Calvinism. And these five points first start
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Speaker 2: off with total depravity of human beings, that you, as
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Speaker 2: a human being, are unable to choose God. You are
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Speaker 2: unable to use free will, you are unable to really
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Speaker 2: even freely accept God's grace. There is nothing that you
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Speaker 2: are capable of doing. It's all God, all right. So
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Speaker 2: total depravity of human beings. Then unconditional election that God
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Speaker 2: did not elect you. You might ask, well, why is
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Speaker 2: it that some people get to go to Heaven and
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Speaker 2: some don't. Why are some part of the elect and
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Speaker 2: some not? Well, the thing is here that the election
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Speaker 2: is unconditional. It had nothing to do with you, anything
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Speaker 2: about you. Really, It's not like people are burning in hell.
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Speaker 2: God's like nothing personal. It's kind of like a teacher
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Speaker 2: who before the first day of class, looks at the
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Speaker 2: role and decides, these are going to be my favorite students. This, this,
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Speaker 2: this and this and I've not even met these people,
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Speaker 2: and these are going to be my favorites no matter
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Speaker 2: what they do. So the election is without condition. You
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Speaker 2: did not do anything to earn it, that only God's
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Speaker 2: mercy resulted in you being elected. Limited atonement. Okay, Because
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Speaker 2: while the Catholic Church teaches that theoretically Jesus died for everyone,
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Speaker 2: that God would like for everyone to accept, you know,
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Speaker 2: his lordship and go to heaven and receive his grace.
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Speaker 2: John Calvin believed that the atonement of Jesus Christ was
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Speaker 2: only for the elect so that they could be saved.
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Speaker 2: The rest of everybody else. Well, sorry, like I said,
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Speaker 2: nothing personal irresistible grace. Resistance is futile, all right. This
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Speaker 2: is something from Star Trek. There were these villains called
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Speaker 2: the Boorg. Yeah, I'm a nerd out for a second,
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Speaker 2: but they would go around and they would assimilate different races.
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Speaker 2: So they show up and they tell you, you know, they
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Speaker 2: go up there and they say, lower your shields. Resistance
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Speaker 2: it's futile, and you know, it's just basically you get assimilated.
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Speaker 2: You will be assimilated. All right, So I just had
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Speaker 2: my nerd moment. But I'm a teacher, so I can
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Speaker 2: do that. That basically, God is kind of like these
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Speaker 2: boorg on star trek that you cannot resist. You will
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Speaker 2: be assimilated. The grace is irresistible that once God taps
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Speaker 2: you on the shoulder, it wouldn't matter if there are
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Speaker 2: a million kids out there that you would like to
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Speaker 2: sell drugs to. You are not going to do that.
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Speaker 2: You are not going to be a drug push or
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Speaker 2: a cop killer or somebody who runs over old ladies
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Speaker 2: and boy scouts because God has elected you and you
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Speaker 2: are going to be better than that. Not because you
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Speaker 2: are better than that, but because God has chosen you
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Speaker 2: as one of his elect and now you are going
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Speaker 2: to act like it because you're a great person. No,
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Speaker 2: because God is a great God, and so you can't
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Speaker 2: resist it. And the other thing is the perseverance of
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Speaker 2: the saints, which because God elected you without condition, there
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Speaker 2: was nothing that you did because the atonement was for
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Speaker 2: the elect And because the grace is irresistible, there's nothing
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Speaker 2: you can do to lose it. That God elected you,
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Speaker 2: and God's not going to decide that, Hey, you know,
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Speaker 2: I'm not so into you anymore, all right. You know,
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Speaker 2: God's not like some boyfriend a girlfriend or something like that.
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Speaker 2: It's like, hey, you know I used to feel but
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Speaker 2: I don't anymore. It's not God. Okay. God keeps his promises,
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Speaker 2: makes his decisions, and you know you didn't do anything
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Speaker 2: for it. You can't do anything to lose it. So
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Speaker 2: that's basically it Just think about the elect and getting
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Speaker 2: rid of free will and letting God take care of
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Speaker 2: the whole thing. I mean, this is a real full
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Speaker 2: service God here, and that's really the premise. There is
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Speaker 2: nothing you can do, okay. So if you're thinking in
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Speaker 2: terms of like, hey, I'd like to go to heaven,
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Speaker 2: what can I do? Sorry, there's nothing you can do.
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Speaker 2: God's either done it or he hasn't. Let's talk about
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Speaker 2: Calvinists a little bit as far as what a Calvinist
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Speaker 2: would have looked like and what their churches would have
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Speaker 2: looked like. One of the things about Calvinism and what
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Speaker 2: makes Calvinists truly radical is their iconoclasm. This describes the
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Speaker 2: removal of statues and paintings and art and all of
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Speaker 2: that kind of stuff from churches. You walk in to
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Speaker 2: a Catholic church, you may see a statue of the
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Speaker 2: Virgin Mary or a very nice stained glass and pictures
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Speaker 2: of the saints and all of that kind of stuff. No,
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Speaker 2: when Calvinists took over churches during the Reformation. You see
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Speaker 2: here that churches in Lion, France are being looted where
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Speaker 2: the icons you see they're being taken. You see a
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Speaker 2: fire going on there in the background where they are
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Speaker 2: whitewashing the walls. You see here the destruction of religious
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Speaker 2: icons and Zurich that they're taking them out and burning them.
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Speaker 2: And a Calvinist church would look more like this, very unadorned.
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Speaker 2: God is not about decoration. If you walk into a
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Speaker 2: church where you see nothing on the walls, you know,
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Speaker 2: whitewashed walls, that sort of thing, and just across at
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Speaker 2: the front, that is in the spirit of Calvinism and
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Speaker 2: the Reformed tradition. And as far as the way Puritan's dress,
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Speaker 2: they rejected ornamental clothing. If you look here at Rembrandt's
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Speaker 2: Anatomy lesson, he's traying these Dutchmen who are Calvinists, and
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Speaker 2: they're wearing very simple colors. They're not wearing a lot
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Speaker 2: of bright colors, reds, greens, all that kind of stuff.
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Speaker 2: You know, you see them in very simple whites, browns,
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Speaker 2: blacks and that sort of thing. God that they did
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Speaker 2: not believe in ornamentation because fashion is a sign of
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Speaker 2: vanity and the Christian should not be vain. Which kind
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Speaker 2: of the irony of Calvinism is that, even though Calvinism's
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Speaker 2: not based on works, they were some of the strictest
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Speaker 2: people during the time of the Reformation when it came
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Speaker 2: to how they were supposed to act, how were they
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Speaker 2: supposed to dress, and all of that kind of stuff.
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Speaker 2: And Calvinism spread outside of Switzerland, and it's very important
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Speaker 2: for you to know where the Calvinists are and what
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Speaker 2: they're called. When you go to Scotland, the Calvinist are
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Speaker 2: known as Presbyterians and the Presbyterian Church was founded by
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Speaker 2: John Knox, who was a disciple of John Calvin in Scotland.
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Speaker 2: In England, Calvinists were known as either Puritans or separatist,
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Speaker 2: depending on whether they wanted to purify the Church of
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Speaker 2: England or separate from it. And then in France they
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Speaker 2: were known as Huguenots. Might want to check out my
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Speaker 2: video on the French wars of religion if you haven't already,
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Speaker 2: which goes into the struggles between the Huguenots and the
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Speaker 2: Catholics in France. So that about wraps us up for Calvinism.
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Speaker 2: Just remember that it is a theology without free will,
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Speaker 2: that God has elected some people, and if you're elected,
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Speaker 2: you're in. If not, well, sorry, nothing personal, and there
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Speaker 2: was nothing you did to earn it, and there is
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Speaker 2: nothing you could do to get rid of it. Play