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Can Human Reason Defend the Bible? | John Calvin · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome to Reformed Thinking.
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  I'm really glad you could join us today.
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  It's good to be here. We are going to spend the next
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  hour or so getting into one of the, well, one of the most
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  significant works in the history of Christian thought.
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  We're opening up John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian
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  Religion. Yeah, it's always good to be
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  back with Calvin. The Institutes can seem pretty
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  intimidating from the outside. It has that reputation.
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  It really does. People think it's just as dense,
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  dry academic theology, but when you actually get into it, you
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  find it's, well, it's surprisingly warm, it's pastoral
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  and just incredibly sharp. I agree completely.
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  And for today's Deep Dive, we're honing in on a very specific
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  section that I think is, you know, maybe more relevant now
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  than it was even in the 16th century.
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  Which part are we looking at? We're looking at book 1, chapter
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  8. This is the chapter where Calvin
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  lays out his arguments for establishing the credibility of
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  Scripture. Yes, a vital section.
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  I mean, we live in a time where the Bible is constantly of the
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  microscope. People are always asking, is it
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  historically accurate? Is it just a collection of
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  ancient myths? Was it written by people with
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  some kind of political agenda? Calvin was dealing with skeptics
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  in his own day, and his response is just fascinating.
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  Before we jump right in, I think we should probably clarify our
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  own standpoint for you. Listening.
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  You and I, we're approaching this as Protestant Christians.
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  We hold to Reform theology and the Westminster Confession of
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  Faith. We believe the Bible is the
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  inspired word of God. That's right.
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  So we're not neutral observers here.
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  We're not trying to be, you know, objective historians with
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  no skin in the game. We're believers.
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  And we're looking at how this giant of the faith articulated A
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  rational defense for the Bible. But, and this is a big but, we
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  have to be really careful with how we frame this.
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  How so? We're looking at what Calvin
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  calls secondary aids. Right.
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  That term, secondary aids is doing a lot of work.
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  There it is. It implies there's a primary aid
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  or a primary witness. That ranks higher than any
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  logical argument we could possibly make.
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  Exactly. Our goal today is to walk
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  through these external proofs, the majesty of the text, the
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  antiquity of Moses, the miracles, the prophecies, the
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  preservation of the documents themselves, all while keeping in
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  mind the theological context Calvin puts them.
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  In, it's a pretty substantial list to get through.
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  It is. We need to look at the unique
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  style of Scripture and how it's different from, you know, human
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  eloquence. Then there's the timeline of
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  Moses and the internal evidence of his character.
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  And we'll have to discuss miracles not as some kind of
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  magic trick, but as public legal evidence.
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  Then fulfilled prophecy, and finally, yeah, the miraculous
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  preservation of the text itself. I mean against tyrants who
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  literally tried to burn it out of existence.
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  It's a compelling list. It is.
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  So let's start at the beginning, the proper place of reason in
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  the Spirit. I think for a lot of us,
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  especially in the modern West, we want a logical silver bullet.
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  We want an argument so watertight that we can prove the
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  Bible is true to any skeptic, no matter what they believe about
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  God. You want to argue people into
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  the Kingdom? Right.
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  We want to use logic to create faith.
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  So does Calvin think that's a viable strategy?
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  No, not at all. In fact, he warns against it
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  pretty strongly. Yeah, Calvin argues that it's
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  vain. It's futile to try and fortify
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  the authority of Scripture with arguments alone if the
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  foundation of faith isn't there first.
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  So if I'm trying to debate someone who has no spiritual
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  interest, no openness, Calvin would say my historical
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  arguments are just going to bounce right off.
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  Essentially, yes. Yes, for Calvin.
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  True certainty, the kind that really anchors your soul.
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  It comes from a source that's higher than human judgement, OK?
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  It comes from the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit.
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  He says that unless that foundation is laid, the
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  authority of the Bible will always, always remain in doubt
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  in the mind of the reader. So you can have the best
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  archaeology in the world. The best manuscripts, the best
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  arguments. And without the Spirit, it won't
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  produce saving faith. That's his position.
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  That is a very Reformed perspective.
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  It relies entirely on the work of God, not on the cleverness of
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  the apologist. But that raises a really
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  practical question. If the Spirit is the only thing
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  that truly matters for certainty, why does Calvin spend
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  so much ink detailing all these rational arguments?
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  Why bother with the history and the logic if it's all up to the
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  Spirit anyway? And that is where the concept of
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  secondary aids become so useful. Calvin explains that once a
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  person has devoutly embraced Scripture, once the Spirit is
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  done that illuminating work in their heart, then these rational
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  arguments become very effective, very useful.
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  I've heard the analogy of a house used to describe this
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  dynamic before. It's a helpful picture, I think.
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  Think of the Spirits testimony as the foundation.
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  You can't build a house without a foundation.
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  It's impossible, of course, but the rational arguments, the
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  history, the consistency, the miracles, those are like the
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  framing, the walls, the roof. They're the supports that
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  strengthen the house once the foundation is laid.
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  So they help confirm what the believer already senses to be
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  true. Precisely, they give structure
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  and stability to the belief that's already there.
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  Calvin has a line somewhere where he says the truth is
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  cleared of doubt when it doesn't need external props.
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  Yes, that's it it. Stands on its own, but because
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  we're feeble, because our minds are so prone to wandering and
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  questioning, these props serve to support us.
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  It's about comfort and confirmation.
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  When we see the the economy of divine wisdom, when we see how
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  perfectly the Bible fits together, it settles us.
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  It helps us appreciate the heavenly character of the
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  doctrine. So we don't use these arguments
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  to prove God to the atheist effectively, right?
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  But we use them to comfort the believer.
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  And I love this phrase from Calvin to stop the barking of
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  ungodly men. Stop the barking.
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  It's a great phrase. It means we can show that their
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  objections are foolish, even if we can't force them to believe.
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  We can shut down bad arguments even if we can't open closed
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  hearts. That's the idea.
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  OK, with that framework in place that the Spirit is primary,
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  let's look at the first of the secondary aids.
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  Calvin points to the unique majesty of Scripture compared
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  to, say, human eloquence. This is an argument that really
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  lands. If you have an appreciation for
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  literature, you have to remember Calvin was a humanist scholar
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  before he was a reformer. He knew the classics inside and
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  out. Better than most.
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  He was fluent in Latin and Greek.
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  He knew them better than most people know their own language
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  today. And he issues a challenge, he
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  says. Go read Demosthenes, read
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  Cicero, read Plato or Aristotle. These are the masters of
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  rhetoric. I mean, these are the guys who
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  wrote the book on how to be persuasive.
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  They are the gold standard, and Calvin admits it.
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  He says read them and they will allure you, they will delight
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  you, they will move you. He acknowledges that human skill
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  in writing can enrapture the mind in a wonderful measure.
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  He's not diminishing their skill.
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  He. Gives them their due credit.
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  He does, but then comes the contrast.
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  He says, turn from them to this sacred reading, the Bible.
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  And he says that in spite of yourself, the Bible will affect
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  you so intensely, you will penetrate your heart and fix
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  itself in your very marrow in a way that the philosopher simply
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  cannot. In your very marrow.
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  That is such a visceral image it is.
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  He's arguing that while Cicero might tickle your intellect or
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  please your ear with a beautifully balanced sentence,
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  the Bible, it cuts you open. It breathes something divine,
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  and Calvin makes a really nuanced point about the style of
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  the Bible here. What's that?
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  He notes that, objectively speaking, some of the biblical
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  authors have a rude or unrefined style.
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  They aren't writing with the polished Greek of the Academy.
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  And for a scholar like Calvin, you might think that would be a
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  stumbling block. You'd think he'd want it to be
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  perfect. You would.
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  Why would God speak in lowly words?
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  Shouldn't the Word of God be the most artistically perfect text
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  ever written? That's the question.
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  But Calvin argues this simplicity is intentional.
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  The sublimity of the Kingdom of heaven was expressed in lowly
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  words so that the power would be attributed to God, not to
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  rhetorical skill. I see.
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  So if the Bible were written with the absolute peak of human
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  eloquence, the impious as he calls.
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  Them young believers, yeah. They would claim that it's power
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  over people just came from the beauty of the language.
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  They'd say it's just good marketing.
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  Exactly. It reminds me of the Apostle
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  Paul First Corinthians. Calvin actually references this.
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  Paul says his preaching was not with persuasive words of human
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  wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit.
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  So that the faith would rest on God's power.
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  Right. The faith had to be based on
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  God's might, not man's cleverness.
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  So in a way, the rough edges of the text are actually a proof of
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  its divine origin, because it conquers hearts without the need
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  for flowery manipulation. But now, are there exceptions to
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  this? Because when I read the songs or
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  Isaiah, that doesn't feel like rude language at all.
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  It feels incredibly poetic and elevated.
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  You're right, and Calvin is right there with you.
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  He acknowledges that. He points out that the Holy
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  Spirit wanted to show that he did not lack eloquence.
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  He wasn't incapable of it. So you have David.
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  Whose songs are sweet and pleasing?
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  You have Isaiah, who writes with incredible brilliance and
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  clarity. He calls him more grand and
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  elegant than the other prophets. But then you have someone like
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  Amos. The herdsman from Toccoa or
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  Jeremiah, whose style can be harsher and, as Calvin puts it,
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  savor of rusticity. It's a bit rough around the
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  edges. It is, but Calla's point is that
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  whether you're reading the polished Isaiah or the rustic
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  Amos, the majesty of the Spirit is evident in both.
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  The content completely transcends the style.
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  OK, but there is a counter argument that he brings up the
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  idea that Satan can mimic this uncultivated style.
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  He does address that he knows that Satan tries to imitate God
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  to deceive simple folk. Satan can use uncultivated or
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  even barbarous language to sound ancient or mysterious.
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  You see this in some gnostic texts maybe, or Pagan oracles.
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  Right, they try to sound cryptic and old to gain authority.
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  But Calvin dismisses this pretty handily, doesn't he?
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  Oh, absolutely. He says that to anyone with
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  moderate sense, this mimicry is just empty affectation.
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  He calls it loathsome. It's like someone putting on a
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  fake accent to sound wise. There's no substance behind it.
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  So Satan might try to sound like a rustic prophet.
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  But the content gives him away. Calvin says Scripture is crammed
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  with thoughts that could not be humanly conceived, and no matter
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  how hard the critics try to gnaw at it, he says, the profits
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  exceed human measure. He has this really biting line,
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  he says. Consequently, those for whom
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  prophetic doctrine is tasteless often be thought of as lacking
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  taste buds. That is classic Calvin.
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  If you can't taste the majesty, the problem is not the food,
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  it's your tongue. It's a harsh diagnosis for sure,
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  but it fits his theology of the the total depravity of the human
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  mind. Without the Spirit, we can't
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  taste and see that the Lord is good.
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  OK, that makes sense. Let's move on to the next major
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  pillar of his argument, antiquity, the age of the text.
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  Why does Calvin place such a huge weight on how old the
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  writings of Moses are? Well, in the ancient world,
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  antiquity was often synonymous with authority.
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  Older is better. In a sense, yeah.
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  If something was older, it was seen as closer to the source,
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  closer to the truth. Innovation was viewed with a lot
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  of suspicion. So Calvin argues that the
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  writings of Moses are far, far older than the writings of the
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  Greeks or even the Egyptians. He mentions the Egyptians
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  specifically. I know there were debates in the
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  ancient world about their chronology.
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  There were, the Egyptians claimed, a history that extended
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  6000 years before creation, which Calvin just dismisses as
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  garrulity or foolish talk. Mt Boasting.
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  Right. He points out that even secular
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  writers at the time mocked those inflated timelines.
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  But his main point is about Moses relative to the Greek
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  intellectual tradition. Plato, Aristotle, all of them,
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  he says. No monument of religion is
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  extant. That is not far later than the
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  age of Moses. So Moses sets the baseline, but
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  then the question is, did Moses just invent this religion?
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  Was he just starting some new cult in the desert?
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  And that is the crucial part of the argument.
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  Calvin says absolutely not. Moses did not devise a new God.
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  He was pointing back to the God of the patriarchs, Abraham,
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  Isaac, and Jacob. He was calling the people back
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  to a covenant that already existed.
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  And logically, that makes sense. If Moses had come down the
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  mountain and said, Hey everyone, I've discovered a brand new
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  deity we've never heard of before, the Israelites probably
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  would not have accepted. It not a chance, Calvin argues,
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  that their liberation from slavery was a matter of common
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  knowledge. The promise to Abraham regarding
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  the 400 year period of affliction was part of their
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  oral tradition. If Moses had brought forward
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  something unheard of, it would not have been approved.
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  So the very fact that the people accepted his writings argues for
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  the continuity of the faith. Exactly.
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  Moses traces the doctrine back to a remote source, outstripping
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  all other human writings. Now this leads us to one of my
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  favorite arguments in this whole section, the internal evidence
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  of Moses's own character. Well.
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  His part is brilliant. It is because there's always the
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  skepticism that religious leaders are just in it for
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  themselves, for power, for ego, for their families advancement.
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  To natural suspicion. If I'm writing the history of my
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  people, I'm probably going to make myself look good, and I'm
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  certainly going to make my family look good.
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  Of course. But Calvin asks us to look
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  closely at what Moses actually wrote.
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  Let's start with his family. Moses was from the tribe of
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  Levi. He was.
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  And yet, when Moses records the prophecy of Jacob back in
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  Genesis 49, what does he record about his own ancestor, Levi?
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  It is not a compliment. Not at all.
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  It's a curse, he records Jacob saying.
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  Simeon and Levi are vessels of iniquity, he says.
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  May my soul not enter into their counsel.
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  He brands his own tribe with eternal infamy because of their
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  violence at Shechem. That is just startling when you
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  think about it. Moses could have easily left
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  that part out. He could have edited the oral
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  tradition to spare his father's reputation and his own.
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  But he didn't? Calvin asks how could Moses be
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  suspected who first preached to the family from which he had
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  sprung that their progenitor was utterly detestable to the Oracle
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  of the Holy Spirit? He wasn't thinking of his own
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  personal interest. Not at all.
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  He was willing to suffer the hatred of his own relations for
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  the sake of the truth. And it isn't just his distant
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  ancestor Levi, it's his actual brother and sister, Aaron and
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  Miriam. Right.
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  Think about Aaron. He's the high priest.
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  He is the number two guy in the whole nation and yet there he
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  is, an exodus crafting a golden idol for the people to worship.
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  Moses writes that down for everyone to see.
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  He records Aaron making the golden calf.
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  He records Aaron and Miriam murmuring against him,
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  questioning his authority. He records the wicked
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  complaining of his own siblings. If you were acting from the
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  feeling of his flesh, as Calvin puts it, he would have covered
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  that up. But he was obedient to the
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  Spirit. And then there's the issue of
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  the priesthood itself. Moses was the leader of Israel.
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  Naturally, you would expect him to set up a dynasty for his own
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  children. That is the standard move for
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  any ancient king or warlord. You pass the power to your sons.
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  It's just what you do. But Moses doesn't do that.
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  He doesn't. He leaves the high priesthood to
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  Aaron's sons, and his own sons are relegated to a lower place,
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  just common Levites. They don't inherit the supreme
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  authority. And Joshua from the tribe of
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  Ephraim takes over the leadership of the nation.
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  Not his son. That's a powerful argument for
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  his integrity. An impostor would have
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  aggrandized his own lineage. Absolutely.
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  Calvin concludes that Moses undoubtedly came forth like an
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  Angel of God, prioritizing the message over his own family's
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  reputation. Moving from the man to the
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  events, we have to talk about miracles now.
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  This is often a huge sticking point for the modern mind.
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  We're skeptical of miracles, but Calvin frames them as public
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  validation. The keyword there is public.
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  Calvin lists the specific events.
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  The cloud on the mountain, the pillar of fire by night, the
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  manna from heaven, the water from the rock.
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  He emphasizes that these were not secret events done in a
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  backroom somewhere. No, the man has a great example.
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  It was not a one time magic trick.
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  It happened every day for 40. Years.
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  It rained from heaven. Every single day for 40 years,
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  it fed an entire nation. Calvin argues against the idea
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  that this could possibly be a fraud.
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  He says imagine Moses standing before the congregation.
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  He's rebuking them for their sins, calling them stubborn and
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  ungrateful. Which he did a lot.
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  He did. Could he, in the same breath,
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  convince them that they had seen miracles they had not seen?
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  That's a great point. You can't gaslight an entire
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  nation while you're yelling at them.
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  You can't say. Remember that mana you ate this
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  morning if there was no mana. Spun on If it were a fraud, the
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  people who were already looking for any reason to rebel would
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  have exposed it immediately. Calvin points out that there
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  were disagreeably conjoined things with these miracles.
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  The miracles often came with judgments or harsh lessons.
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  The people were led to assent solely because they were
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  convinced by their own experience.
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  What about the objection that Moses was just a really good
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  magician? I mean, the Egyptians had
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  sorcerers. Maybe Moses was just better at
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  it than they were. This was an ancient objection.
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  Actually, it's not new. The father of Lies, as Calvin
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  calls him, attributed these works to magic.
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  But Calvin rebuts this with the text itself.
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  First, Moses outlawed magic. He ordered the stoning of anyone
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  who consulted soothsayers or diviners.
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  It'll be very strange for a magician to make his own trade a
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  capital offense. That does seem a little
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  counterintuitive for his business model.
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  A little. And then there's the scale
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  argument. Calvin argues that magic is
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  Ledger to Maine. It's sleight of hand.
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  It's a trick. A trick cannot feed a million
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  people with mana for decades. A trick cannot bring water from
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  a rock in the desert. Sufficient for a whole nation.
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  The stale is just too big. Way too big.
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  And the outcome argument fits in here too.
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  God tested Moses with rebellions.
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  Cora Dathan and Abram rose up against him.
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  If Moses were running a scam, that would have been the moment
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  it all fell. Apart, the angry mob would have
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  exposed him. They would have.
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  Instead, the earth opened up and swallowed the rebels.
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  The outcome bears out that his doctrine was sanctioned by God,
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  not sustained by some kind of trickery.
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  OK, let's shift gears to prophecy.
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  This is another major category of evidence that Calvin
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  provides. He calls it predicting the
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  unlikely. Yeah, prophecy is powerful
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  because it involves specific historical details given
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  centuries in advance. Calvin starts with that prophecy
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  of Jacob we mentioned earlier, specifically the one regarding
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  the tribe of Judah. The scepter shall not depart
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  from Judah. Right now, picture the timeline.
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  Moses records this. But for 400 years after Moses,
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  there is no king in Israel. There are judges, but no king.
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  And when they finally get a king.
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  It's Saul, and Saul is from the tribe of Benjamin, not Judah.
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  So for centuries it looks like this prophecy is a dud.
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  That is the whole point. There was no visible reason to
• 19:00
  expect the kingship to ever transfer to Judah.
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  And then when it does, who is it?
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  It's David. The youngest son of a herdsman.
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  From Bethlehem, it's completely counterintuitive, Calvin asks.
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  Who would have anticipated a king coming from a lowly house?
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  Who would have marked the youngest of seven brothers for
• 19:17
  the throne? No one.
• 19:18
  The fulfillment of this prophecy against all political odds
• 19:21
  confirms that it was a heavenly prediction, not human prudence.
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  The other major example he gives, and this is one that
• 19:27
  critics have attacked for centuries because it is so
• 19:29
  specific, is the prophecy concerning Cyrus.
• 19:32
  This one is from the book of Isaiah, and it's a blockbuster.
• 19:35
  It really. Is Isaiah named Cyrus by name as
• 19:38
  the one who will conquer Babylon and release the Jewish exiles?
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  And the timing is the kicker here.
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  The timing is everything. Isaiah spoke this more than 100
• 19:48
  years before Cyrus was even born.
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  A century. Calvin emphasizes this gap.
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  He says this is not conjecture. It's not a vague horoscope like
• 19:58
  a great leader will rise from the East.
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  It is a bare narrative of future history.
• 20:02
  Predicting the war with Babylon, the defeat of a massive
• 20:06
  monarchy, and the very specific policy decision to release the
• 20:10
  Exiles and let them rebuild their temple.
• 20:12
  It's impossible for a human to know that.
• 20:14
  Calvin concludes that this shows the words of Isaiah to be
• 20:17
  undoubted oracles of God. There's no other explanation.
• 20:20
  He also mentions Jeremiah and Daniel, right?
• 20:22
  He does. Jeremiah predicted the captivity
• 20:25
  in Babylon would last exactly 70 years.
• 20:27
  Not a long time, not that few generations, but 70 years.
• 20:30
  And Daniel, writing his prophecies, describes future
• 20:33
  events up to the 600th year with the clarity of past history.
• 20:36
  It's like he's writing history before it happens.
• 20:38
  That's how Calvin sees it, and he also notes the agreement
• 20:42
  between Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They were geographically
• 20:45
  separated. 1 was in Jerusalem, one was in Babylon.
• 20:48
  Yet they prophesied the same things at the same time.
• 20:51
  It's like they were dictating each other's words, which shows
• 20:54
  the same spirit was guiding both of them.
• 20:56
  OK, so we have the majesty of the text, the antiquity, the
• 20:59
  miracles, the prophecies. But there's a really practical
• 21:02
  question. How do we know the book we have
• 21:05
  today is the same book they wrote back then?
• 21:08
  This brings us to the miraculous preservation of the text.
• 21:11
  And Calvin addresses the rascals as he calls them.
• 21:14
  Chuckles. He does not mince words.
• 21:16
  No he doesn't. The rascals who ball out in
• 21:19
  corners asking How do we know Moses wrote this?
• 21:23
  He starts with a simple comparison.
• 21:25
  He says we don't doubt Plato or Aristotle existed.
• 21:28
  We don't doubt Cicero wrote his works.
• 21:30
  Why apply a different, more skeptical standard to Moses?
• 21:33
  It's a fairpoint, but the history of the Bible's
• 21:35
  preservation is pretty dramatic. It wasn't just sitting in a
• 21:38
  library safely the whole time. Not at all.
• 21:41
  It was under constant threat. Calvin brings up the story of
• 21:44
  King Josiah from Second Kings. The law had been lost.
• 21:48
  It was buried, probably in the temple somewhere due to sheer
• 21:51
  negligence. The priests weren't reading it.
• 21:53
  The people had forgotten it. That's a scary thought that the
• 21:56
  Word of God was just misplaced. It is, but when Josiah's men
• 22:01
  find the scroll, it's recognized immediately.
• 22:05
  It wasn't treated as something new or unknown, but as the
• 22:08
  famous authoritative text that have been neglected for years.
• 22:12
  So it's still in the collective memory.
• 22:14
  Exactly. Calvin argues that even passed
• 22:16
  hand to hand and was still remembered even if the physical
• 22:19
  scroll had been missing. And then there were the active
• 22:21
  attempts to destroy it. The book Hunt of Antiochus
• 22:24
  Epiphanes. This is from the Mccammon period
• 22:27
  between the Old and New Testament.
• 22:29
  Antiochus ordered all copies of the scripture to be burned.
• 22:32
  He wanted to wipe out the Jewish religion entirely.
• 22:35
  And he was a brutal tyrant. This wasn't a mild censorship.
• 22:38
  This was burn the books and kill the people who own them.
• 22:41
  It was a full on extermination attempt and Calvin asks in what
• 22:45
  workshop could these books have been fabricated so quickly after
• 22:48
  the persecution ceased? The fact that the books
• 22:51
  reappeared immediately, safe and intact, acknowledged by all the
• 22:55
  godly, is seen by Calvin as a miracle.
• 22:58
  A providential act. He says God snatched his word
• 23:00
  away from a most cruel and savage tyrant, as if from a
• 23:04
  raging fire. There's also a really
• 23:05
  interesting irony Calvin points out regarding who actually
• 23:08
  preserved these books, because for Christians, the Old
• 23:11
  Testament is a witness to Christ.
• 23:13
  This is a huge point. It's so significant.
• 23:16
  The Jewish people who rejected Christ are the ones who preserve
• 23:20
  the very texts that testify against that rejection.
• 23:23
  It's incredible, Calvin quotes Augustine here, calling the
• 23:25
  Jewish people the bookman or the librarians of the church.
• 23:28
  Librarians of the Church, That's a fascinating image, isn't it?
• 23:31
  They're carrying the books for us.
• 23:33
  They read them, but they don't fully use or understand them in
• 23:36
  the Christian sense. Yet they're sober zeal in
• 23:40
  preserving every letter and title ensured that the Christian
• 23:44
  Church inherited a pure text. That's an amazing point if
• 23:48
  Christians had been the soul keepers.
• 23:50
  Skeptics would argue we changed the prophecies to fit Jesus.
• 23:53
  Of course. But the prophecies were kept by
• 23:55
  the very people who denied Jesus fulfill them.
• 23:59
  That is a powerful, powerful validation.
• 24:02
  OK, let's move to the New Testament.
• 24:04
  We've talked a lot about Moses and the prophets.
• 24:07
  How does Calvin argue for the credibility of the gospel
• 24:10
  writers? He focuses heavily on the
• 24:12
  character of the apostles. Look at Matthew.
• 24:14
  He was a tax collector, a despised profession tied to the
• 24:18
  gain of his table. Look at Peter and John.
• 24:21
  They were fishermen. Calvin calls them rude,
• 24:23
  uneducated men. He does.
• 24:25
  And yet these men suddenly began to speak of heavenly mysteries.
• 24:29
  They discoursed on things that the greatest philosophers had
• 24:32
  struggled with for centuries. Calvin's argument is that they
• 24:35
  did not learn this in human schools.
• 24:37
  The only explanation for their doctrine is the Holy Spirit.
• 24:40
  It wasn't something they could have invented, no.
• 24:42
  Way. And then there's Paul, the
• 24:43
  ultimate outlier. Paul is a unique case.
• 24:46
  Totally unique. He wasn't an uneducated
• 24:48
  fisherman, he was a highly learned Pharisee, but he was a
• 24:51
  fierce and murderous enemy of the church.
• 24:54
  He was the guy arresting Christians, the chief
• 24:56
  persecutor. And suddenly he is converted
• 24:58
  into a new man. This wasn't a gradual change of
• 25:01
  mind after years of study. It was a sudden, unhoped for
• 25:05
  change on the road to Damascus. And that's the proof for Calvin,
• 25:09
  yes. He says this proves Paul was
• 25:12
  compelled by heavenly authority. He had nothing to gain
• 25:16
  personally from this change. In fact, he lost everything.
• 25:19
  He traded status and power for persecution and death.
• 25:23
  That proves his sincerity and the divine origin of his
• 25:26
  message. Beyond the writers themselves,
• 25:28
  there's also the testimony of the church itself, the consent
• 25:32
  of the believers overtime. This is the argument from
• 25:34
  universality. Kalzan points out that the Bible
• 25:37
  has been accepted by diverse peoples all across the earth.
• 25:40
  Different languages, different cultures, people who otherwise
• 25:42
  have nothing in common. They disagree on everything.
• 25:45
  Else, almost everything else. Yet there is a holy conquered in
• 25:49
  accepting scripture. It's not just a localized cult.
• 25:52
  And despite the efforts of Satan and the world to oppress it, it
• 25:56
  rises like the palm as he says. The fact that it has prevailed
• 25:59
  against the whole power of the earth arming itself to destroy
• 26:03
  it proves it relies on God's protection, not human
• 26:06
  protection. Finally, we have to talk about
• 26:08
  the martyrs. This is a heavy one.
• 26:10
  People die for their beliefs all the time.
• 26:13
  How is the Christian martyr different in Calvin's view?
• 26:16
  He draws a really important distinction between fanatic
• 26:19
  access and so Brazil. OK.
• 26:21
  He acknowledges that erring spirits, people in cults or
• 26:24
  false religions sometimes die for what they believe, but he
• 26:28
  argues that the Christian martyrs died with a completely
• 26:30
  different spirit. It wasn't a frenzy.
• 26:33
  No, it was a firm constant. Yet so Brazil, They didn't die
• 26:36
  for a lie they invented. He argues that people do not
• 26:39
  courageously and intrepidly die for a story they know is fake.
• 26:43
  Their death seals the testimony. The ultimate proof of their
• 26:47
  sincerity. Exactly, the sheer volume of
• 26:49
  witnesses and the assurance with which they face death is a noble
• 26:53
  approbation of scriptures truth. So we've built this massive wall
• 26:58
  of evidence. The majesty of the style, the
• 27:00
  antiquity of the text, the honesty of Moses, the public
• 27:03
  nature of the miracles, the fulfilled prophecies like Cyrus,
• 27:07
  the miraculous preservation against tyrants, the character
• 27:11
  of the apostles and the blood of the martyrs.
• 27:13
  It seems overwhelming. It's a formidable defense, it
• 27:16
  really is. But, and here is where we have
• 27:18
  to land the plane, Calvin pulls us right back.
• 27:21
  He brings us right back to where we started at the very beginning
• 27:23
  of this discussion. He does, and this is the most
• 27:26
  important take away from the entire chapter.
• 27:28
  After laying out all these brilliant arguments, Calvin
• 27:31
  reminds us these are secondary aids.
• 27:34
  Only secondary. They're useful.
• 27:37
  They stop the mouths of the critics.
• 27:38
  They comfort the believer, but they do not create saving faith.
• 27:42
  You cannot argue someone into heaven.
• 27:44
  You can't. Only the inward persuasion of
• 27:47
  the Holy Spirit provides the ultimate certainty.
• 27:50
  Calvin quotes Agustin again, warning that godliness and Peace
• 27:53
  of Mind ought to come first if a man is to understand these great
• 27:56
  matters. You need the eyes of faith to
• 27:58
  truly see the evidence for what it is.
• 28:00
  That's the heart of it. The evidence confirms the faith,
• 28:04
  but the faith comes from God. That is such a crucial balance
• 28:07
  to strike. We don't check our brains at the
• 28:09
  door. We have reasons, good reasons,
• 28:11
  for what we believe. Absolutely.
• 28:13
  But in the end, our confidence is a gift from God.
• 28:16
  That's the balance we have to hold.
• 28:18
  The props support the house, but they are not the foundation.
• 28:22
  The Spirit is the foundation. As we wrap up this deep dive
• 28:26
  into Calvin's Institute's, I want to leave you with a thought
• 28:29
  to chew on. We've just walked through how
• 28:32
  strong Calvin believes the external evidence is History,
• 28:36
  prophecy, preservation. If the evidence is that strong,
• 28:40
  why do people still reject it? If the prophecy of Cyrus naming
• 28:43
  him a century before he was born as a matter of historical
• 28:46
  record, why doesn't everyone bow the knee?
• 28:49
  That is, the question isn't. It it seems to point right back
• 28:52
  to Calvin's thesis. The problem isn't a lack of
• 28:54
  evidence. It's a need for that internal
• 28:57
  work of the Spirit to open our eyes to see what's right there
• 28:59
  in front of us. A significant tension to live
• 29:02
  in. Indeed, thank you so much for
• 29:04
  listening to Reformed Thinking. We hope this deep dive has
• 29:07
  strengthened your understanding and your faith.
• 29:09
  Until next time.