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A PUBLIC ADDRESS ON

THE THEOLOGY OF JOHN CALVIN

WILL BE HELD

IN A GLASGOW CHURCH

SEE EVENTS PAGE FOR DETAILS

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THE NATIONAL CHURCH ASSOCIATION

WAS FORMED IN 1932 FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF THE PROTESTANT PEOPLE
AND PRESBYTERIAN FAITH, IT WAS RECOGNISED AS A SOCIETY of THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1934.

WHAT ARE THE AIMS OF THE ASSOCIATION

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The Aims of the Association are to maintain the Presbyterian Polity of
The Church of Scotland
To vindicate and defend the truth of such Reformed Doctrine as are
Related to the Presbyterian Polity
To defend the role played by Presbyterianism in the history of
The Scots People
TO FURTHER THESE AIMS
The Association:
Encourages members to take part on their own behalf in discussion or

Pubic debate of matters arising which would affect the Polity and Public Worship. The membership of the Association comprises of : Ministers,

Elders and Members of the Church of Scotland in Presbyteries

In Scotland, England and Overseas

IN THE TRADITION OF THE REFORMED FAITH

The Association has regular lectures and is pleased to have prominent speakers address the meetings.

It is the Association’s privilege to  hold a Fringe Meeting

During General Assembly week in Edinburgh

In 2004 the Rev. Professor Andrew McGowan spoke on the need

To have a new Revised edition of The Reformed Book of Common Order

The existing updated version of 1977 is now in its furth impression

A new improved editon is now in progress

The association is managed by a small committee,

Who organise Lectures, Seminars and Public Meetings

Items of public interest wil be published periodically

Members are notified of meetings well in advance

New Members will be warmly welcomed.

To join th Association Please Contact:

Mr. Norman Fleming

2 Lindsaybeg Cottages

Lindsaybeg Road

Cryston

Glasgow G69 9HU

See Great Links Page Button at top

To contact NCA see ‘Contact us Page’ at top

COMMITTEE OFFICRS

PRESIDENT  DAVID BRYCE

TREASURER  NORMAN FLEMING

WEB AUTHOR  THOMAS ORR

PAST SPEAKERS
Rev. Professor Andrew McGowan
Rev. Dr. Gordon McCracken
Rev. Dr. Norman Maciver

REV. SINCLAIR HORNE

REV.DR. WAYNE PIERCE


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ARE

PROUD TO PRESENT A TRIBUTE TO
JOHN CALVIN
THE PROMINENT REFORMER
(1509-1564)
ON THE 500th ANNVERSARY
OF HIS BIRTH
The tribute will be in two Parts
Part one History

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HE WAS PRE-EMINENT AS THEOLOGIAN
AND RELIGIOUS STATESMAN
 

While the first confessors of Jesus Christ were put to death in France, God was preparing others who were still more powerful.
When men were arranging themselves for the destruction of the Refortmation


And God had chosen an instrument, apparently feeble, who was one day to assert his rights and to defend his cause, with almost superhuman intrepidity.
This is how Daubigny introduced John Calvin in his masterly coverage of the Reformation. Born at Noyon, in Picardy, France, July10, 1509,

Calvin was studious from the start and his father destined him for theological studies. Having a precocious mind he absorbed instructions without effort and as a devout Roman Catholic he was prepared for the Priesthood. A reflection of the abuses that had crept in to the church at that time was the fact that his father of good family but not well-off was able to procure for his 12-year old son the Chaplaincy of the church in La Gesner. He was duly tonsured and installed in this office and the stipend he received helped to maintain him while he studied
Like all leaders of the Reformation, he was a profound scholar and a master of Latin and Greek. By the time he was twenty, he had obtained two livings and had preached on occasion although he had not been ordained. Calvin in fact never became a priest. The chief reason was that his father realised the

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Family’s straightened circumstances and decided that law would be a more lucrative profession for his son.

TURNING POINT
John came under a deeper and more persuasive influence that led him to give up an ecclesiastical life. A relative, Pierre Robert Olive Tan, the first translator of the Bible into French, led him for the first time to study the sacred volume. The result was that he readily agreed to his father’s suggestion, resigned his living and went to Orleans to study law. His ability and scholarship were remarkable and he kept studying, searchingly and passionately, and around his 21st year by what he called a "sudden conversion" he became a Protestant. He became Professor of law at Bruges University and while there he met Melchior Volmar, a German, a profound scholar of exemplary character. By him Calvin was introduced to the New Testament in its original language and in talks his religious convictions were deepened, and his adherence to the doctrines of the Reformation was confirmed.
Twelve years had elapsed since Luther published his theses against indulgences and while there had been no direct revolt
Against the church in France, multitudes were lending ear to the new exposition of the truth. Calvin became busy passing the Good News in homes and wherever he could find a place for people to gather and hear.
Shortly after his father’s death, he gave up his legal pursuits and devoted all his time to God’s work, preaching with great energy and striving his utmost to win converts
for the truth and strengthening those who had already embraced it. Margaret Queen of Navarre, took the side of the Reformers, while her brother Francis 1 of France was undecided, wishing to gain the favour of all the parties. The Queen turned her palace into a preaching house and ordered her chaplain to preach the Gospel. Paris was unmoved and deaf to the Gospel call.
Calvin had become a great favourite of Queen Margaret. The rector of the seminary for priests at the Sorbonne University, in Paris, Nicholas Cop was a secret reformer and he and Calvin dared to plan a scheme. Calvin wrote an oration and the rector read it before a gathering of all the priests. The reading of the new Reformation doctrines caused tremendous consternation and Calvin had to flee the city and go into hiding, eventually at Angouleme, the birthplace of Queen Margaret. Here Calvin sat In the library of 4,000 books and planned his "Institutes of the Christian Religion" which when later completed and published around 1536, became the most influential theological treatise of the Reformation. How similar his experience was to that of Luther, who when hiding in Elector Frederick’s castle at Wartbur

15 Years earlier, wrote his famous translation of the New Testament into German

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About this time, stopping for a time at Poitiers, many gathered around Calvin in a ravine near the town, desirous of instructions from him, they had prayer, Bible reading and earnest addresses and then for the first time in France he celebrated the Lord’s supper in the Protestant manner using a piece of rock as a table. From this time forward his influence became supreme.

He returned to Paris but had to keep under cover as the fires of persecution were still aflame against the Reformers. At the risk of his life however, Calvin by this time had become the centre of the Reformation and came forth to meet the Spanish physician Servetus, who was even then propagating his heretical notions regarding the Trinity. Calvin waited for Servetus a long time but he failed to show up for the conference.
There had been much controversy over the burning at Geneva in 1553 of Servetus for heresy and the part Calvin played in it. He did aid in bringing the Spaniard to trial in Geneva and presented and prosecuted the suit against him, but he had no part in bringing in the verdict, though he may have approved the sentence. He was opposed to the burning at the stake and advocated a more expeditious way.
It was an age when capital punishment was generally regarded as a proper penalty for heretics and it was noted that even the gentle Philip Melanchthon called Servetus’ execution "justly done," Only a few voices were raised against it at the time and there will be many candid and impartial people ready to accept the judgement of Coleridge that the death of Servetus was not Calvin’s guilt especially, but the common opprobrium of all European Christendom.
                 

 SETTLES IN GENEVA

With Calvin’s settlement in Geneva the most vital part of his life began. It came about this way. In 1534 when he returned to Paris the ‘Reign of Terror’ with the faggots ever burning, was still in full force, so he had to flee France and take refuge in Switzerland. His intention was to settle in Basle and devote himself to study which he felt urgent and needful. Being unable to reach the city by the ordinary route on account of disturbances he had to take the route through Geneva. While there his resolution to pursue the quiet path of studious research in Basle was dispelled by the urgent and forceful entreaties of William Farrell, who along with another French Reformer Vinet had introduced evangelical teaching into the French Cantons of Switzerland.

Farrell convinced him that his mission in Geneva could not be avoided and so he remained and was appointed teacher of theology in his 28th year and elected preacher by the magistrates with the consent of the people. Before long both men were driven from the city
over an issue of their determination in spiritual matters not to submit the least dictation from the civil power. Calvin went to Strasburg and resided there until 1541 occupying the time, preaching, lecturing on theology, attending conferences, at one of which he met Melanchthon and became the lifelong friend

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of Melanchthon, the scholarly aid of Luther He also was busy with his pen revising and completing his "Institutes", and writing his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans and his tract on the Lord’s Supper. It was at Strasburg that he married Idelette Van Buren a widow of one of his converts from Anabaptism. In her, Calvin found, to use his own words, "the excellent companion of my life", who was in very truth a" precious help" to him amid his manifold labours and frequent infirmities. She died in 1549,to the great grief of her husband who never ceased to mourn her loss.
In 1541 the decree of banishment was revoked and Calvin returned to Geneva, making it his home for the rest of is life and the centre of his ever-widening activities. Here he developed his extra-ordinary genius as the greatest of all the theologians and ecclesiastical statesmen of the reformation period and the chief Consolidator of the Protestant movement
By his "Institutes", which he revisited and enlarged and his commentaries, he exercised a shaping influence upon the doctrinal systems and the constitutions of all the Reformed churches and in particular that Presbyterian form of church government which is their characteristic type. Calvin made Geneva during his ministry the chief centre of the Protestant world, to which religious refugees flocked to and from most European countries, and to which they returned, bearing the stamp of influence.
John Knox, the great Prophet, Preacher and militant
Reformer of Scotland was one of his notable disciples
Calvin literally blazed personality and influence which were reinforced by strength of sincerity and integrity rarely found in the sons of men he was undoubtedly a complex character full of inner contradictions and gifted with immense abilities so that to devote attention solely on his rigid dogmatism and his acceptance of the ideas of his time regarding the use of persecution is to misjudge and misconceive him.
His work in Geneva shows the truth of this. He was a great conciliator, labouring to bring together into unity Lutherans, Zwingli and the reformed churches of France, England and the Low Countries. "I would cross ten seas" He wrote Archbishop Cranmer of England "if by this means, Holy Communion might prevail among the members of Christ."
After more years, hard work and increasing toil began to exact their toll on his frail frame and he was called upon to bear the pains and suffering of a combination of diseases. He bore it all with the greatest of fortitude and his last days were spent in continual prayer. Bezel his close friend and fellow Reformer was at his bedside at the end and it was in his arms that one of the greatest souls ever known on earth passed peacefully and trustfully to his just reward. It was on the 27th May, 1564, in the 55th year of his life.
As one who reasoned well John Calvin has seldom been equalled and the soundness and penetration of his judgement were such as to give his conclusions in practical questions almost the appearance of predictions and inspire in all his friends the utmost confidence in the wisdom of his counsels. As a theologian he is estimated by historians to stand on an eminence which only Augustine has surpassed, while in his skill as an expositor of the scriptures, he possessed advantages to which Augustine was a stranger. His private character was in harmony with

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public recognition and position If somewhat severe and irritable, he was at the same time scrupulously just,
truthful and steadfast. He never deserted a friend or took an unfair advantage of an antagonist and on befitting occasions could be cheerful and humorous among his intimates.
Says his friend Bezel,
"I have been a witness of him for sixteen years and I think I am fully entitled to say that in this man there was exhibited to all, an example of the life and death of the Christian, such as it will not be easy to deprecate, or easy to emulate."

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PART TWO
OF THE TRIBUTE
HIS PREACHING
IS PUBLISHED
AT THE END OF PART ONE

SEE (CALVIN PART 2 BUTTON) 

THE NATIONAL CHURCH ASSOCIATION OF
THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
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