John Calvin on God's Divine Providence Essay

What does it mean for God to be “sovereign?” This is the question that has perhaps caused more controversy than any other. For John Calvin, God was completely sovereign. Nothing outside the will of God could take place, because everything that has taken place, is taking place, or will take place has been divinely ordained before time began. God is the source of all good, and evil cannot take place without His permission. According to Calvin, all of humankind are lost in their sins, and so depraved that they are incapable of finding salvation without God performing an inner-miracle within them. This being said, God has elected to Himself a chosen people from the beginning of time, not off of merit, but sola gratia.

The Protestant Reformation of the Catholic Church devastated the religious unity of Christian Europe, resulting in a great deal of antagonism, which in turn led to the persecutions, denial of civil rights, expulsion, and ultimately the torture and death of many men, women and children. The ongoing conflict was not consigned to one distinct European nation, but was experienced in every European nation that the Catholic Church ruled and reigned. There was no worldview in Europe at that time that allowed for the religious differences of men to coexist peaceably.

In the construction of the Large Hardon Collider, physicists seek and hope to unlock the mysteries of the universe by analyzing the attributes of the most miniscule particles known to man. In the same way, theologians have argued back and forth over the course of human history with regards to the divine attributes of God, seeking and hoping to unlock the mysteries of the metaphysical universe. Although these many attributes, for example omnipresence, could be debated and dissected ad nauseum, it is within the scope of this research paper to focus but on one of them. Of these many divine attributes of God, nothing strikes me as more intriguing than that of God’s omnipotence. It is intriguing to me because the exploration of

As Christians we often believe certain things simply because it’s what our parents and the people around us believe. We often go about our Christian walk without ever giving thought or reason to why we believe what we do. The world of Christian Theology is a place where Christians can find answer to the ‘what and why’ of Christianity. If we are able to begin comprehending Christian Theology and the rudimental knowledge of it, then we can take it with us into more in depth books and discussions about theology, know the importance of it and how vital it is for Christians

Calvin answered these objections in two ways. First, he conserved that God’s will was the “highest rule of righteousness,” and therefore anything that God wills—such as predestination—“must be considered righteous,” or just, irrespective of how it appeared to us. For Calvin, God’s will had “its own equity. Here Calvin upheld the justice of God but asserted that it was simply “unknown” to us on some level. Thus, God’s justice was eventually hidden and mysterious. With Paul (Rom. 9.20), Calvin affirmed that it was simply not our place to question God. He rejected that God was lawless, and also rejected that God had must given us an account of his justice, or that we were fit to “pronounce judgment [on God]…according to our own understanding. It was absurd to accuse God because of our own lack of understanding. Since predestination yields the glory of God, it must be just: “whatever deserves praise must be just. Calvin’s second response was that since all people, including the sinner, are “vitiated by sin,” and so

In the study of Christian theology, scripture plays an essential role in the revelation of the Doctrine of God. Scriptures are “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) words, written by the Holy Spirit through divine inspiration of prophets. They are necessary for the proper understanding of the doctrine of God, the self-revelation of God, the proof of God’s existence, and for the discernment of false doctrines.

Catholic doctrine teaches that our choice is one of rational deliberation and voluntary subjugation to a higher force. This is natural law. Milton envisions the same teaching.

At an early age, John Calvin found his calling to God to the chagrin of his father, who wanted him to be a lawyer. This calling to God helped Calvin bring about changes to the church. Even though Calvin traveled to some isolated spots in Europe preaching his sermons, the changes occurred all throughout Europe and then into the Americas. All these changes began humbly in France in the early 1500's.

The theological problem of evil is a problem that many philosophers have tried to solve. The problem is stated as, "if one believes that god is omnipotent and wholly good, why does evil still exist?" In this writing I will discuss the solutions/propositions of John L. Mackie in his work, "Evil and Omnipotence." I will do this in order to illustrate the concept of free will for understanding or resolving the problem, and to reveal how and why Mackie arrives at his conclusions.

Descartes believes that God's existence is clear and distinct. God exists because the thought of God is derived from a "completely clear and distinct" idea from within his being (which he concedes is a thinking being). Having come from distinct thoughts, the idea of God can therefore never be considered a falsity. From this very distinct idea of God comes everything else that one grasps distinctly and clearly.

a) Christians believe many different things about God’s nature; due to the huge spectrum of Christians that there are. However, as a general rule they perceive God as being one of the following four things:

Calvin was trained to be a humanist and had a broad approach to a holistic educational model. Knox used the same approach in his model. Knox also argued that the bible was simple to read, despite the laity not being able to read and having to depend on the clergy because he feared that they would become too powerful. He thought the bible was full of revelations and that only trained people should be able to teach the church. Knox believed in predestination and providence, which could be fulfilled through obedience. Through conversion, the will of God is revealed and freedom allows for obedience so that you will be able to understand the will of God. Knox also believed that everyone should have access to education, even if the church had to fund it.

John Calvin was born on July 10th, 1509 in Noyon, Picardy, France. He studied at the universities of Paris, Bourges, and Orleans. He was a key leader of the Protestant Reformation. He wrote many protestant works like Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin was also a revolutionary theologian and leader, developing the religion of Calvinism and doctrine of predestination. In addition, Calvin reorganized the city of Geneva, Switzerland and made it into an example theocracy. John Calvin died on May 27th, 1564 in Geneva, Switzerland, but his ideas and achievements have lived on. In fact, the average citizen should care about him because of the contributions he has made to the world, however positive or negative they may be. John Calvin’s three main contributions that make him historically significant are his development of the doctrine of predestination, his revolutionary reform of the education system, and his emphasis on the protestant work ethic.

Calvin states that God has already planned the fates and actions of all men, and their deeds foreordained. The opposing view, that man has free will, is therefore the opposite; man decides his own fate, his actions shape the course of his singularly individual existence. Which, then, does Adam represent in "Paradise Lost"?

As stated by William Blackstone, man is considered to be a creature that "must necessarily be subject to the laws of his creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. [A]s man depends absolutely upon his maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his maker 's will (Brauch). In other words, God’s creation should be directed by the will of God our creator. Blackstone suggests that the law of nature relevant to God has full reliance on God. "For as God, when he created matter, and endued it with a principle of mobility, established certain rules for the perpetual direction of that motion; so when he created man and endued him freewill to conduct himself in all parts of life, he laid