David Nilsen on the resurgent interest in John Calvin:
No one in the history of the church has been so equally reviled and adored by so many as John Calvin. Some of the greatest pastors, theologians and missionaries in both Great Britain and America have considered themselves Calvinists. And yet for the majority of modern American Evangelicalism, Calvin was considered to be a ruthless tyrant whose theology was cold and abominable (even as recent as 2007 Jerry Falwell called Calvinism a heresy). In the last several years, however, John Calvin has slowly gained a following among younger evangelicals, especially due to the work of pastors and teachers like Al Mohler, John Piper, and R. C. Sproul.
Everyone is asking, “Why Calvin, and why now?”
September 30th, 2009 | 5:05 pm
I have pondered the same question. Could the Reformed emphasis on God’s sovereign control over all the events of life and history give a sense of comfort to us moderns suffering from the rootlessness of 21st century life?
October 1st, 2009 | 8:03 am
Is Christian life a living, dynamic, arduous struggle to love, understand and obey, a process extending until one’s last day, a process in which the Holy Spirit is involved by willed consent of the soul and acts upon and with the soul, reshaping the will and establishing connaturality with God – or can a moment of inspiration, of “regeneration”, obtain for a person irrevocable certainty of salvation, a process which provides a certain serene (but possibly unwarranted) confidence in one’s status as a member of the “elect”? The faith of Jonathan Edwards in its tragic grandeur and nobility demonstrates the benefits but also the dangers of this point of view. It does seem that in God’s providence, we are at the same time terrifyingly free and yet secure in His merciful love if we accept the gift – and that this is a lifelong process available to every person.
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