The Theology of John Calvin
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2024
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Many people think of John Calvin as a cold, calculating theologian. In reality, his scholarly work was driven by a pastoral desire to help Christians grow in their faith. Today, W. Robert Godfrey introduces us to the real Calvin.
With your donation of any amount, request A Survey of Church History, Part 3 A.D. 1500–1600. You’ll receive W. Robert Godfrey’s teaching series on DVD, plus lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3763/survey-of-church-history
Meet Today’s Teacher:
W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California. He is the featured teacher for many Ligonier teaching series, including the six-part series A Survey of Church History. He is author of many books, including God’s Pattern for Creation, Reformation Sketches, and An Unexpected Journey.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Calvin is passionate to say there are promises, promises that you can trust, and everyone who |
| 0:06.9 | trust those promises will be saved. |
| 0:12.8 | Can Christians have assurance of their salvation? What is saving faith? And how do we know |
| 0:20.3 | that the Bible is the word of God |
| 0:22.3 | and is authoritative? These are just some of the questions that John Calvin and other reformers |
| 0:27.9 | wrestled with and brought clarity against the backdrop of the Roman Catholic Church. You're listening |
| 0:34.4 | to the Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and I'm glad you're with us. |
| 0:40.2 | On Saturdays, you're hearing messages from W. Robert Godfrey's |
| 0:43.9 | monumental church history study series. |
| 0:47.3 | So far, he has taken us back to the early church. |
| 0:50.4 | We've seen the Middle Ages. |
| 0:52.1 | And today, in part three of that series, we're in the time of the |
| 0:55.8 | 16th century Reformation. You can add this 12 message installment on the Reformation to your collection |
| 1:02.6 | when you give a gift of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. When people speak of reform theology, |
| 1:09.6 | they sometimes use the shorthand or nickname Calvinism |
| 1:13.6 | after the reformer John Calvin. |
| 1:16.2 | So what did Calvin believe? |
| 1:18.4 | Here's Dr. Godfrey, the chairman of Ligina Ministries, on the theology of John Calvin. |
| 1:26.9 | Well, we return in this lecture to our friend John Calvin. |
| 1:30.4 | I hope maybe having gotten this far, you see he's a little more human and friendly than some people have made him out to be. |
| 1:38.2 | But I want to return to this subject of certainty or assurance at the heart of Calvin's theology. I think he felt the pressure |
| 1:49.4 | on the Protestant movement that the Roman Catholic Church brought to bear by its insistence |
... |
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