.
Is it possible for a man such as John Calvin to have been a “great theologian” and at the same time to act in this reprehensible way and afterwards show no remorse?
Dear reader, do you have a heart that could, like John Calvin, burn another person at the stake [for having doctrinal differences]?
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John Calvin was biblically disqualified to lead:
Paul to Timothy on Elders’ Qualifications
(Paul-to-Timothy’s list is below)
1 Timothy 3:1 This is a faithful saying: if a man seeks the office of an overseer, he desires a good work. 2 THE OVERSEER therefore MUST be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching; 3 not a drinker, not violent [no striker – KJV], not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous…. 7 Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.
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From: Evangelical Outreach, His Ashes Cry Out Against John Calvin by Dan Corner
You are about to read an important part of church history from the Reformation period that has been so concealed in our day that very few people know the facts. Brace yourself for a shock.
On October 27, 1553 John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism, had Michael Servetus, the Spanish physician, burned at the stake just outside of Geneva for his doctrinal heresies!(1) Hence, the originator of the popular doctrine of “once saved, always saved” (known in certain circles as “the perseverance of the saints”) violated the cry of the Reformation — “Sola Scriptura” — by murdering a doctrinal heretic without Scriptural justification. This event was something Calvin had considered long before Servetus was even captured, for Calvin wrote his friend, Farel, on February 13, 1546 (seven years prior to Servetus’ arrest) and went on record as saying:
“If he [Servetus] comes [to Geneva], I shall never let him go out alive if my authority has weight.”(2)
Evidently, in that day Calvin’s authority in Geneva, Switzerland had ultimate “weight.” This is why some referred to Geneva as the “Rome of Protestantism”(3) and to Calvin as the “Protestant ‘Pope’ of Geneva.”(4)
During Servetus’ trial, Calvin wrote:
“I hope that the verdict will call for the death penalty.”(5)
Paul to Titus on Elders’ Qualifications
Titus 1:5 I left you in Crete for this reason, that you would set in order the things that were lacking, and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you; 6 if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior. 7 For THE OVERSEER MUST be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent [no striker – KJV], not greedy for dishonest gain; 8 but given to hospitality, a lover of good, sober minded, fair, holy, self-controlled; 9 holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him.
Related:
The Protestant Reformers Were Frauds: By their Fruits You Will Know Them — Martin Luther was a false teacher, a racist, a persecutor and a murderer! John Calvin was a false teacher, a deranged tyrant, a persecutor and a murderer!
My Ph.D.-genius-friend, John Calvin expert: “In all my reading of Calvin, I don’t recall him ever apologizing for a mistake or admitting an error.” | According to Paul, can John Calvin be in heaven?
John Calvin Didn’t Follow Christ: “If you can burn people at the stake, and drown people in the river, and drive them out of town into a Swiss winter, and say you got that from the Bible, you’re not an exegete. And that’s the kind of man John Calvin was” – Mike Floyd
John Calvin was a Persecutor
Felix Manz (1498-1527) – Drowned by Zwingli for Rebaptizing — Manz wanted to bring together those who were willing to accept Christ, OBEY the Word, and FOLLOW in Jesus’ footsteps, to UNITE with these by baptism
Who-Goes-To-Heaven Scriptures — Narrow is the Way | Who are the Children of God? — “There is therefore now *no condemnation* to those who are IN CHRIST Jesus, who don’t WALK according to the flesh, but ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT.”
Kent
Have you seen the new Calvin resources at http://www.calvin500.com? Logos Bible Software has begun a massive digitization project of almost 100 books by and about Calvin—46 volumes of commentaries, 5 editions of the Institutes, 4 volumes of letters, dozens of tracts and treatises, 10 biographies, and 20 volumes on the history of Calvinism. I thought you might be interested!