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John Calvin Research Paper

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Abhinav Shobhit
John Calvin Theology
Dr. Jordon
May 10th, 2018
John Calvin was a French theologian who spent and did most of his work in Geneva. When we talk about protestant reformation after Martin Luther he is one of the most significant figures. John Calvin completed his higher education at a French university and some of the theological views he was most influenced by were of Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples, Mathurin Cordier, Guillaume Bude and Erasmus. Calvin was considered a second-generation reformer because by the time he came to Geneva the Protestantism was already widespread there. Disciples of Calvin were obsessed with the glory of God as the purpose of all creation and transformation of social order towards holiness. Calvin had some …show more content…

His idea of predestination was that in the eyes of God all men are not blessed with equal Grace. People are elected by the God and salvation is offered to some while others are barred from access to it. If a person is going to get salvation that is pre-decided as God knows past, present and future. Calvin also says that one shall never be clearly persuaded, as we ought to be, that our salvation flows from the from the wellspring of God's free mercy until we come to know his eternal election, which illumines God's grace by contrast: that God does not discriminate, adopt all into the hope of salvation but gives to some what he denies to other (Calvin, “Predestination” Janz p. …show more content…

For example, heaven was made all good and holy, but Satan still convinced Adam to commit sin. As it is described by Calvin that God is all omniscient then he already knew about the sin, but he still allowed that, so God must have a plan in his mind. As he mentioned that humans do not have free will, then how can one disobey God and create evil. Furthermore, Calvin believed that humans were born corrupt and that they cannot do what is good. This is certainly a weakness because it is demotivating and promotes negativity. Another weakness of Calvin's argument is that the fate of everyone's life is pre-decided. It is not the actions of a person that decides what is in store for them in the future. Therefore, it is unknown on what basis as God decided that some people will be saved and go to heaven, while others will not.
On the other hand, Calvinism had various strengths as well. For example, Calvin completely understood the human weaknesses well and knows about their sinful nature. So, he asked the people in his writings to constantly remember their creator and that Christ’s body was sacrificed due to human sin. Therefore, this shows that his faith in his ideology was strong and that people should be grateful for the sacrifices which God has made for

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