Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Crazy Calvin

This semester is about to mercifully come to an end whether I like it or not. I've almost completed Calvin's Institutes. I'm now reading a section that absolutely blows my mind - not in a good way. Calvin's take on the sacraments are just nonsense. He values the sacraments accurately, but his take on infant baptism and the Lord's Supper are just flat ridiculous. I understand his argument for infant baptism - meaning, I understand where he's coming from. I don't agree with him but I understand him. The part I don't understand is HOW IN THE WORLD DOES HE BELIEVE THIS AFTER HE'S SO CLEAR ON THE MEANING OF BAPTISM?!!?! His section on baptism is very, well, Baptistic (which is good). Then out of nowhere he's all like, "baptizing babies is ok because they'll grow into their faith [and like such as]." (I know I just typed out the phrase "he's all like") If you ever decide to read The Institutes - which you should (especially the part on prayer and Christian living) - even if you don't agree with predestination (that's barely any of what these books are about), just go ahead and skip the part on infant baptism. GAAAHHH! or in the words of Charlie Brown - AARRRGGGHHHHH!

2 comments:

Jacob Cloer said...

Read it as a part of my History of Christianity course and came away with the same things as you did. Hey, you can't be right on everything. I mean if he was, people would go around saying that they were his followers or something. Even go so far as adopting his name, calling themselves Calvinists. Oh wait.

Just kidding. I thought the rest was pretty good though. He and Luther both missed the boat on those two points. Hey, changing the subject, we had a guy give a scholarly lecture at the seminary today and he is an expert on the Gospel of Matthew. It is going to be tomorrow too. It was stinking awesome. I am gonna get you copies and mail them to you. Deep, rich, amazing treasures. God bless.

(I don't know your email or I would just send all this there) (Sorry)

Josh Stringer said...

my email address is joshstringer@mac.com

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