In his intro to
T. H. L. Parker's biography of Calvin, John Piper explains how we honor God through appreciating Calvin in particular:
I am eager for people to know Calvin...because he took the Bible so seriously, and because what he saw on every page was the majesty of God and the glory of Christ. Calvin continues to inspire me because of his relentless focus on the greatness of God....
In the end, Calvin’s manifold ways of inspiring us have the effect they do century after century because he saw the gospel so clearly and made Christ so central....
If Jesus Christ, in all his majesty and excellence, is kept in clear view, the church will be kept from many errors. Therefore, Calvin continues to inspire and serve the church five hundred years after his birth....
To that we say Amen, Amen!
John Calvin was never accepted by the Catholic Church in any sense, except as another sinner needing redemption.
ReplyDeleteHis leading people into heresy and away from the Body of Christ has been one of the major heartaches for all good Catholic saints who have worked so hard through the centuries to repair the damage he has done to innumerable souls in cutting them off from Divine Grace through severance from the Church.
One saint in particular, St. Francis de Sales spent his life as a missionary, and subsequently as bishop of Geneva trying to reconvert (with great success) those who had been led astray.
The Jesuits were founded, as a religious order, specifically to help combat the heresy of Protestantism.