neo-Calvinism vs the Bible - worksheet 9

Promotors of neo-Calvinism are Together for the Gospel and The Gospel Coalition.

Matthew 7:16-18 says ¹⁶By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Calvin heavily depends on Augustine. So, we need to know Who was Augustine.

Augustine was limited in languages. He probably didn’t know Hebrew and only a little Koine Greek. For a person who isn’t familiar with Hebrew, it’s hard to understand Old Testament prophecies about the end-times. Therefore it’s easy to fall into theories of amilennialism and non-literal interpretation.

Q1 Which quotes are given in the above slide that point to Calvin’s misunderstanding of the millennium as written in Calvin’s commentary of Isaiah 35:1? Describe why are these quotes troublesome.

Q2 In Calvin’s commentary on Amos, he says that the kingdom and the church age are the same, an amillennial position as a result of non-literal interpretation. Agree?

Q3 On Calvin’s commentary on Zechariah, he refutes the future touch-down of Jesus on the Mount of Olives in His second coming. In the quote above Calcin speaks as if we cannot comprehand beyound the level of children. Is what we get from Calvin on the doctrine of the Millennium literal, when Calvin sees the event of the second coming of Christ as highly figurative language?

Augustine was the ultimate catholic. And Calvin was a hybrid catholic.

Roman Catholic Doctrines

1 Infant baptism
Calvinists believe in infant baptism.

Q4 Is there any biblical evidence for infant baptism? The only biblical expression for baptism is the outworking on an inward reality of being saved. A child cannot give a testimony of faith. Agree? Is the Jewish tradition of circumcision boys 8 days after birth apply to Christian families or is this only for Israel?

R.C. Sproul, major proponent of neo-Calvinism, doesn’t look for biblical evidence for promoting infant baptism. He borrows four arguments from Calvin who borrowed them from Augustine. No sola scriptura, but tradition. He mixes the church and Israel (baptisn and circumcision) showing to have no disctinction between church and Israel. The neo-Calvinists like the reformation who left the Roman Catholic Church because of the traditions. But now they hang on to (apostolic) tradition. Sproul, now deceased, was a hybrid catholic.

2 Mary’s sinlessness

Q5 How can Mary bring forth half-brothers (James and Jude) to Jesus and still be sinless her whole life? If you make a diety of the person Mary, don’t you think that is blasphemy? Do you think that, if Mary was a perpetual sinless person, Mary needed a Savior? What does Mary herself say in Luke 1:46-47 about her Savior?

3 Purgatory

What is purgatory.

Q6 Has Augustine belief in unbiblical purgatory? What did Jesus say to the criminal hanging next to Him (Luke 23:43)?

Q7 In the middle ages for a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church forbade the normal people in the church to have their own Bibles. Thanks to the Reformer Martin Luther the normal people in the church got their hands on a Bible translated in their own language. What were the original languages that Luther used for his translation work, and what was it not, and why? Thank the Lord that today we have the Bible in our mother tongue, and that manipulation by the Catholic Church is over. We can test through Scripture whether preachers tell the truth.

Q8 Explain from the above New Testament passage, that Purgatory is a false doctrine.

The last topic of “Who was Augustine”, the “father” of Calvin, will be discussed in the next session.