John Calvin Was NOT A Hyper-Calvinist

**Calvinist4Him** · June 5th 2005, 11:48 PM

This thread is a sub-topic from two different threads and the result of two of Spokoina’s posts from those two threads:

http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...&postcount=117

and

http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...5&postcount=12

My first response to her second post can be read here: http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...3&postcount=27

Now I will re-post my second response for this thread: It will be beneficial to (start this thread by) defin(ing) what a “Hyper-Calvinist” is.

Phil Johnson of Spurgeon.org

”Hyper-Calvinism, simply stated, is a doctrine that emphasizes divine sovereignty to the exclusion of human responsibility . To call it "hyper-Calvinism" is something of a misnomer. It is actually a rejection of historic Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinism entails a denial of what is taught in both Scripture and the major Calvinistic creeds, substituting instead an imbalanced and unbiblical notion of divine sovereignty. Hyper-Calvinism comes in several flavors, so it admits no simple, pithy definition.” – From the article: http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/articles/hypercal.htm

Phil Johnson of Spurgeon.org

”A hyper-Calvinist is someone who either:

1. Denies that the gospel call applies to all who hear, OR
2. Denies that faith is the duty of every sinner, OR
3. Denies that the gospel makes any "offer" of Christ, salvation, or mercy to the non-elect (or denies that the offer of divine mercy is free and universal), OR
4. Denies that there is such a thing as "common grace," OR
5. Denies that God has any sort of love for the non-elect.”

Dr. C. Matthew McMahon of A Puritan’s Mind

Conclusion: who is a Hyper-Calvinist?

“In summary, a Hyper-Calvinist would be one who holds any of the following points due to their logical extensions. (Those points with asterisks are those who are slowly leading themselves into Hyper-Calvinism.)

1. *That God elect or damns without considering men as fallen creatures.
2. That the mind of man, due to the fall, is utterly destroyed.
3. That fallen men have no duty to believe in the Gospel by faith.
4. That men must have a subjective theological knowledge of regeneration before they can believe the Gospel.
5. That the Gospel should not be universally tendered or offered to all men, everywhere.
6. That the Gospel should not be offered to men except they are regenerate.
7. That God does not have a general love for all men in His indiscriminate providence.
8. That Limited Atonement must be believed in order to hear the Gospel, and be saved and converted.
9. *That God cannot desire things He has not decreed, or decree things He has not desired.” – from the well written article: http://www.apuritansmind.com/Puritan...-Calvinism.htm

Now, the question is, did Calvin believe that God elects or damns without considering men as fallen creatures? Did Calvin believe that due to the fall, the mind of man is utterly destroyed? Did Calvin believe that fallen men have no duty to believe in the Gospel by faith? Did Calvin believe that the Gospel should not be offered to men except they are regenerate? Did Calvin believe that God does not have a general love for all men?

As proof for my premise, I will now provide a few quotes which will clearly show that John Calvin was not a Hyper-Calvinist. *Please note, these are not merely "cut and paste" quotes from a google search. I own the John Calvin Collection by Ages software and confirmed these by searching and finding and copying and pasting them from the John Calvin Collection. I certainly encourage others to confirm the following quotes.*

Calvin’s Commentaries “The Free Offer of the Gospel to all”

Genesis 19:12 “The same question may be put respecting the preaching of the gospel; for God was not ignorant that few would become partakers of that salvation, which nevertheless, he commands to be offered indiscriminately to all.” P.357

Genesis 6:13 “This was, truly, a peculiar privilege of grace, that God warned Noah of the future deluge. Indeed, he frequently commands his threatening to be proposed to the elect, and reprobate, in common; that by inviting both to repentance, he may humble the former, and render the latter inexcusable.”

Jeremiah 15:1 “Though then he extended his solicitude to the whole body of the people, he yet knew that there was a chosen seed. So at this day, when we pray, we ought, according to the rule of charity, to include all, for we cannot fix on those whom God has chosen or whom he has rejected; and thus we ought, as far as we can, to promote the salvation of all; and yet we know, as a general truth, that many are reprobate for whom our prayers will avail nothing; we know this, and yet we cannot point out any one as by the finger. So then the prayer of Jeremiah was not useless; but in its very form, as they say, it was not heard, for he wished the whole people to be saved; but as God had resolved to destroy the ungodly, such as were beyond the reach of hope on account of their untamable obstinacy, Jeremiah obtained only in part what he prayed for, — that God would preserve his Church, which then was in a manner hidden.”

Isaiah 54:13 “Those only “who have been foreordained to life” (Acts 13:48) are sincerely teachable, and are entitled to be ranked among the disciples. The Gospel is preached indiscriminately to the elect and the reprobate; but the elect alone come to Christ, because they have been “taught by God,” and therefore to them the Prophet undoubtedly refers.”

Ezekiel 2:3 “Now, if any one objects that God acts cruelly while he so purposely blinds men, that those who are already sufficiently lost perish twice or thrice over, the answer is at hand — God offers his word indiscriminately to the good and bad, but it works by his Spirit in the elect, as I have already said; and as to the reprobate, the doctrine is useful, as it renders them without excuse. Next, that their obstinacy may be broken down — for since they refuse to yield willingly to God, it is necessary that they should yield when conquered — when, therefore, God sees the reprobate thus broken down, he strikes them with the hammer of his word. At length he takes away all excuse of ignorance, because being convicted of their own conscience, whether they will or not, they become their own judges, and their mouth is stopped.”

Matthew 15:13 “To those who willingly perish the Gospel thus becomes, as Paul assures us, the savor of death unto death, (2 Corinthians 2:16;) for, though it is offered to all for salvation, it does not yield this fruit in any but the elect.”

Luke 2:10 “If the Jews were deprived, for the most part, of the joy that was offered to them, it arose from their unbelief; just as, at the present day, God invites all indiscriminately to salvation through the Gospel , but the ingratitude of the world is the reason why this grace, which is equally offered to all, is enjoyed by few.”

John 3:16 “And he has employed the universal term whosoever, both to invite all indiscriminately to partake of life, and to cut off every excuse from unbelievers. Such is also the import of the term World, which he formerly used; for though nothing will be found in the world that is worthy of the favor of God, yet he shows himself to be reconciled to the whole world, when he invites all men without exception to the faith of Christ, which is nothing else than an entrance into life. Let us remember, on the other hand, that while life is promised universally to all who believe in Christ, still faith is not common to all. For Christ is made known and held out to the view of all, but the elect alone are they whose eyes God opens, that they may seek him by faith.”

John 7:37 “Yet it is highly useful to us, that the Evangelist introduces Christ exclaiming aloud, Let all who thirst come to me. For we infer from it that the invitation was not addressed to one or two persons only, or in a low and gentle whisper, but that this doctrine is proclaimed to all, in such a manner that none may be ignorant of it, but those who, of their own accord shutting their ears, will not receive this loud and distinct cry.”

Romans 1:16 “The gospel is indeed offered to all for their salvation, but the power of it appears not everywhere: and that it is the savor of death to the ungodly, does not proceed from what it is, but from their own wickedness.”

Calvin’s Commentaries “God’s General Love For All Men”

Harmony of the Law Vol. 3 Leviticus 26:40 “For he does not address sinners in general, but those who by their obstinacy and brutal impetuosity have come nearer and nearer to the vengeance of God; and even these he encourages to a good hope, if only they be converted from their hearts. Let us be assured, then, that God’s mercy is offered to the worst of men, who have been plunged by their guilt in the depths of despair, as though it reached even to hell itself.” P. 190

Harmony of the Law Vol. 3 Deuteronomy 28:12 “I answer, that the happy condition of life, which He assigns to His servants, does not prevent Him from diffusing His bounty promiscuously over the whole human race. He is truly called in Psalm 36:6, the preserver of “man and beast.” It is said elsewhere, that His mercy is extended over all His creatures, (Psalm 145:17;) and justly does Christ exalt His unbounded goodness, in that “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good.” (Matthew 5:45.) But equally true is the exclamation of the Prophet; “Oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!” (Psalm 31:19.) For since all without exception enjoy all the supports of life, God’s goodness, which thus contends with the wickedness of men, shines forth universally even towards the ungodly, so that He does not cease to cherish and preserve those whom He has created, although they be unworthy. He therefore does good to the ungodly, because He is their Creator;”

Psalm 109:16 “But let the faithful conduct themselves meekly, that their humility and contrition of spirit may come up before God with acceptance. And as we cannot distinguish between the elect and the reprobate, it is our duty to pray for all who trouble us; to desire the salvation of all men; and even to be careful for the welfare of every
individual.”

John 3:16 “Christ opens up the first cause, and, as it were, the source of our salvation, and he does so, that no doubt may remain; for our minds cannot find calm repose, until we arrive at the unmerited love of God. As the whole matter of our salvation must not be sought any where else than in Christ, so we must see whence Christ came to us, and why he was offered to be our Savior. Both points are distinctly stated to us: namely, that faith in Christ brings life to all, and that Christ brought life, because the Heavenly Father loves the human race, and wishes that they should not perish. And this order ought to be carefully observed; for such is the wicked ambition which belongs to our nature, that when the question relates to the origin of our salvation, we quickly form diabolical imaginations about our own merits. Accordingly, we imagine that God is reconciled to us, because he has reckoned us worthy that he should look upon us. But Scripture everywhere extols his pure and unmingled mercy, which sets aside all merits.”

Calvin’s Commentaries “Common Grace”

Romans 5:18 “He makes this favor common to all, because it is propounded to all, and not because it is in reality extended to all; for though Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world, and is offered through God’s benignity indiscriminately to all, yet all do not receive him.”

Calvin’s Commentaries “Man Is Responsible For Himself”

John 12:47 “After having spoken concerning his grace, and exhorted his disciples to steady faith, he now begins to strike the rebellious, though even here he mitigates the severity due to the wickedness of those who deliberately — as it were — reject God; for he delays to pronounce judgment on them, because, on the contrary, he has come for the salvation of all . In the first place, we ought to understand that he does not speak here of all unbelievers without distinction, but of those who, knowingly and willingly, reject the doctrine of the Gospel which has been exhibited to them. Why then does Christ not choose to condemn them? It is because he lays aside for a time the office of a judge, and offers salvation to all without reserve, and stretches out his arms to embrace all, that all may be the more encouraged to repent. And yet there is a circumstance of no small moment, by which he points out the aggravation of the crime, if they reject an invitation so kind and gracious, for it is as if he had said, “Lo, I am here to invite all, and, forgetting the character of a judge, I have this as my single object, to persuade all, and to rescue from destruction those who are already twice ruined.” No man, therefore, is condemned on account of having despised the Gospel, except he who, disdaining the lovely message of salvation, has chosen of his own accord to draw down destruction on himself.”

I suspect that what we've read here is only the tip of the iceberg of quotes. I am thinking about providing more quotes. Stay tuned...

**spiritmech** · June 5th 2005, 11:57 PM

Quite informative. Thanks.
sm

**Calvinist4Him** · June 6th 2005, 12:05 AM

Originally posted by spiritmech

Quite informative. Thanks.
sm

Your welcome!

I spent most of the day searching for these quotes from Calvin's Commentaries. I enjoyed reading them once I found them.

**GoBahnsen** · June 6th 2005, 12:20 AM

Nice work A4Him...it makes me half sad I quit being a Calvinist, but the other half glad side of me is still very happy to be on my own. I can take advantage of all the saints of the past, including the heretics (why not--they made their contribution) and speak for myself, instead of Calvin. Well, heck, Calvinists can and do all that too.

Anyway...for the sake of the caricatures of Calvinism and having to constantly beat them down, when I wasn't fully conversant with all of Calvin's doctrines, made it the wisest choice for me to leave Calvin, while not leaving the Cross of Christ.

Praise God for you brother and pearls for some hard work.

**PaulT** · June 6th 2005, 12:45 AM

A4H,

Great work, thank you for taking the time to expose those followers of their king who blindly claim he is wearing clothes. Those who would have us believe Calvin or the reformed doctrines of grace were of Satanic origins will no doubt believe you inserted words to deceive the mislead masses who believe they understand the Christian perspective. Frankly, based on the past practice of those who attend these discussions on a regular basis I doubt you will see much traffic on this thread. My experience has been that if the question/statement isn’t framed the way they like it, they decline to respond based on absurdity, all the while denying what Scripture clearly teaches. Nonetheless, great work, you are a fine ambassador/solider of the King.

In Christ,

Paul

**Calvinist4Him** · June 6th 2005, 01:03 AM

Originally posted by GoBahnsen

Nice work A4Him...it makes me half sad I quit being a Calvinist, but the other half glad side of me is still very happy to be on my own. I can take advantage of all the saints of the past, including the heretics (why not--they made their contribution) and speak for myself, instead of Calvin. Well, heck, Calvinists can and do all that too.

Thanks, this thread compliments my "No True Calvinist" and "Concerning Double Predestionation" threads.

Originally posted by GoBahnsen

Anyway...for the sake of the caricatures of Calvinism and having to constantly beat them down, when I wasn't fully conversant with all of Calvin's doctrines, made it the wisest choice for me to leave Calvin, while not leaving the Cross of Christ.

You'll be fine so long as you cling to the "Old Rugged Cross".

Originally posted by GoBahnsen

Praise God for you brother and pearls for some hard work.

Thank you once again! Through this hard work, I am learning the basis for Jonathan Edwards' "Great Awakening". Cloudy in my thinking, at times I've had problems seeing that Calvinism is evangelical, but it is.

**GoBahnsen** · June 6th 2005, 01:07 AM

Sadly, I think you may be right Paul. This thread is a nice resource for those who respect John Calvin, but most likely those who are opposed to him will not say much.

Some opponent might throw in a lol, roflol, but I doubt we'll see much from the opposition. Pity...it is a nice piece.

**infide** · June 6th 2005, 02:09 AM

No its great. thanks A4H for taking the time.

I hope you guys dont think that we non-Calvinists dont think we have anything to learn from or agree with from our Calvinist brothers and sisters. We disagree on these things, no doubt. Calvinists wound their brothers at times with their attitude as evidenced in some other threads. And the reverse also occurs. But if we are all thinking rightly, we are one in Christ.

not forgetting our differences, but in spite of them.

peace.

**BenK** · June 6th 2005, 04:09 AM

Originally posted by Apologist4Him

Now I will re-post my second response for this thread: It will be beneficial to (start this thread by) defin(ing) what a “Hyper-Calvinist” is.

As I recall, the whole 'Calvin is not a hyper-calvinist' thing started with this post :

Originally posted by BenK

One Calvinist put it like this: 'It seems obvious to me that the God of Arminianism is a cosmic pushover, a providential pansy kowtowing to the sovereignty of man.' Now, this guy was well aware, as we all are, that God in the Arminian/Molinist/OVT view only gives men freedom because he chooses to do so. But even God freely abdicating some element of choice to his creation really got to this guy. It doesn't seem like God is being God to him...

As far as I'm concerned, 'single predestination' is either confusion or obfuscation. If God maintains exhaustive control of everything, if everything happens according to his will, then the distinction between God acting and God 'passing over' is meaningless. God 'passes over' only that which he himself has brought to pass. Morover, subtle debate over the meaning of freedom and determinism is irrelevant. If everything that comes to pass comes to pass because God wills it, for his good pleasure, then whatever is coming to pass right now is coming to pass because God wills it, for his good pleasure.

To which you replied:

It seems that you prefer to attack a strawman version of Calvinism, the hyper version.

Two issues here: God's meticulous control of all creation, and double predestination.

You claimed that these doctrines were 'hyper-calvinism', not calvinism. Clearly, Calvin held to both. The list of 'hyper-calvinistic' traits you've posted are neither here nor there; the issue was with the doctrines of meticulous control and double predestination, not the label 'hyper-calvinism'.

**Calvinist4Him** · June 6th 2005, 07:42 PM

Originally posted by PaulT

A4H,

Great work, thank you for taking the time to expose those followers of their king who blindly claim he is wearing clothes. Those who would have us believe Calvin or the reformed doctrines of grace were of Satanic origins will no doubt believe you inserted words to deceive the mislead masses who believe they understand the Christian perspective.

I didn't think we had those kind of people posting here in Theology 201, but obviously I was wrong, check it out: http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...&postcount=142

http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...&postcount=166

And did an Arminian come into the fray to rubuke that idiot? No, and you know what, even when I was an Arminian, I would not hesitate to rubuke non-Calvinist idiots like the one that responded to me in the posts I've linked to above. Arminians like to complain about the nasty Calvinists (whom may actually be Hyper-Calvinist), and while I will try not to defend the pride, arrogance, ungodly anger, and mean-spiritedness us Calvinists may find ourselves succumbed to, there are plenty of prideful, arrogant, nasty non-Calvinists full of unrighteous anger and mean-spiritedness. May God have mercy on His people, I know I need His mercy.

Originally posted by PaulT

Frankly, based on the past practice of those who attend these discussions on a regular basis I doubt you will see much traffic on this thread. My experience has been that if the question/statement isn’t framed the way they like it, they decline to respond based on absurdity, all the while denying what Scripture clearly teaches. Nonetheless, great work, you are a fine ambassador/solider of the King.

Originally posted by PaulT

In Christ,

Paul

Thank you brother Paul, God bless you.

So far, it appears you are right, but I have a plan...

**PaulT** · June 6th 2005, 08:52 PM

Originally posted by Apologist4Him

I didn't think we had those kind of people posting here in Theology 201, but obviously I was wrong, check it out: http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...&postcount=142

http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...&postcount=166

And did an Arminian come into the fray to rubuke that idiot? No, and you know what, even when I was an Arminian, I would not hesitate to rubuke non-Calvinist idiots like the one that responded to me in the posts I've linked to above. Arminians like to complain about the nasty Calvinists (whom may actually be Hyper-Calvinist), and while I will try not to defend the pride, arrogance, ungodly anger, and mean-spiritedness us Calvinists may find ourselves succumbed to, there are plenty of prideful, arrogant, nasty non-Calvinists full of unrighteous anger and mean-spiritedness. May God have mercy on His people, I know I need His mercy.

Thank you brother Paul, God bless you.

So far, it appears you are right, but I have a plan...

A4H,

I might add, what you posted from the misled fool is mild compared to some of his other outrageous comments. Truly, the church of easy believeism is failing miserably at educating the flock.

I look forward to watching you pull off the balance of your plan.

In Christ, Onward Christian Solider,

Paul

**Calvinist4Him** · June 7th 2005, 07:39 PM