John Calvin And The Protestant Reformation

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From when Martin Luther officially began the Protestant Reformation by nailing the Ninety-Five Theses to the Wittenberg Castle church, to the Peace of Westphalia, many great men emerged as spiritual leaders, ready to reform the church. The Protestant Reformation marked a massive shift in European history, where for nearly the first time, men and women began to question what and why they believe. For the first time, men were inspired to truly study the Scripture, and build allow it to shape their theology, instead of the reverse. Their passion for the Scripture forced them to learn Greek, Hebrew, and Latin in order to gain a deeper understand of the Book that meant so much to them. Two of these men were John Calvin of Geneva and Menno Simons …show more content…

On of the main doctrines he focused on was that of the Trinity. He wrote that there is one God, that is made up of three persons or “hypostases (George 206-207).” Another key doctrine that Calvin taught was that of God’s providence. Calvin believed that God is “the ruler and governor of all things.” God who created the universe, maintained control over everything. He didn't believe that God simply foreknew everything, but His hand was involved in every detail of history. Because of this teaching that God is divinely involved in everything, many believe that Calvin insists that God created sin. He, however, refutes this idea, and claims that God’s ways are incomprehensible to man (George 212-216). On salvation, Calvin wrote “Now, both repentance and forgiveness of sins— that is, newness of life and free reconciliation— are conferred on us by Christ, and both are attained by us through faith (George 234). He believed that salvation was grace through faith. He said that as a result of salvation, there should be evidence of a radical change in the new believer (George 233-234). On Ecclesiology, Calvin taught that the church is ordered to partake in the Lord’s Supper and in Baptism. He claimed that baptism was done after coming to faith and was a public display, or confirmation, of that. On communion, Calvin stayed in the middle of both Luther and Zwingli. He claimed that Christ was at the right hand of the father, so the bread and wine were not replaced with Christ’s body and blood. However, he though that the image of communion was to be taken seriously (George

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