Kazadi, Axel. “The Arrangement of Predestination in Calvin’s Institutes: A Critical Assessment of the Relationship Between Predestination and the Theme of Book Three.” Paper presented at the Annual Wesley Studies Symposium, Tyndale University College & Seminary, Toronto, Ontario, April 25, 2018. (MPEG-3, 29:07 min) 1 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:05.380 Pleased to now have a Tyndale grad, 2 00:00:05.410 --> 00:00:13.700 Axel Kazadi, and also a Kingswood Grad, as you see from his bio, who's gone on to 3 00:00:13.730 --> 00:00:18.740 complete, recently completed his thm degree at Wycliffe College. 4 00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:20.060 And he just told me today he's been 5 00:00:20.080 --> 00:00:23.300 accepted into the PhD program there to start in the fall. 6 00:00:23.330 --> 00:00:27.180 So congratulations, Axel, and it's wonderful. 7 00:00:27.210 --> 00:00:29.620 So he's giving a presentation on Calvin, 8 00:00:29.650 --> 00:00:37.460 but he is a Wesleyan Youth director, so I'll let him get started. 9 00:00:37.490 --> 00:00:38.940 Please welcome Axel. 10 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:40.820 And I have a handout. 11 00:00:40.850 --> 00:00:42.300 He has a handout. 12 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:43.940 We're going to start to circulate, okay? 13 00:00:43.970 --> 00:00:47.720 So if you could pass these back. 14 00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:52.180 I would like to begin to thank Dr. 15 00:00:52.210 --> 00:00:56.540 Pedler for inviting me to speak on this topic. 16 00:00:56.570 --> 00:00:59.300 I'm curious, how many of you have read 17 00:00:59.330 --> 00:01:04.620 Calvin or have been introduced to his writings? 18 00:01:04.650 --> 00:01:09.760 Okay, just to know what I'm dealing with. 19 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:14.180 As you can see on your handouts, there's an abstract. 20 00:01:14.210 --> 00:01:16.930 You can read that on your own after the 21 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:25.600 event, on your own time, but it's structured according to the paper. 22 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:32.210 The arrangement of double predestination in Calvin's 1559 Institutes. 23 00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:33.930 That's what I'll be discussing. 24 00:01:33.960 --> 00:01:40.340 Specifically analyzing critically the relationship between double predestination 25 00:01:40.370 --> 00:01:45.930 and the theme of Book Three, in which Calvin discussed the doctrine. 26 00:01:45.960 --> 00:01:49.100 So John Calvin was zealous in honoring God 27 00:01:49.130 --> 00:01:53.060 and advancing the kingdom of God through his ministerial work. 28 00:01:53.090 --> 00:01:57.260 His concern for the public good of the Church was the driving force of his 29 00:01:57.290 --> 00:02:01.780 ministry as a pastor, biblical exigee, and church reformer. 30 00:02:01.810 --> 00:02:03.900 The Institutes of the Christian Religion 31 00:02:03.930 --> 00:02:09.940 was originally published by Calvin in 1536, and it only had six chapters. 32 00:02:09.970 --> 00:02:12.500 The Institutes is an extension of Calvin's 33 00:02:12.530 --> 00:02:17.100 office of teaching, which not only instructed the Church in his time, but 34 00:02:17.130 --> 00:02:20.420 educated many future generations after him. 35 00:02:20.450 --> 00:02:25.320 It was originally structured according to the Apostles Creed, and it served as a 36 00:02:25.350 --> 00:02:30.820 Caracarical book to instruct Caracumans about true piety. 37 00:02:30.850 --> 00:02:32.420 By 1559. 38 00:02:32.450 --> 00:02:35.380 Calvin expanded the institute significantly. 39 00:02:35.410 --> 00:02:40.820 It became a comprehensive theological guidebook whose purpose was to prepare and 40 00:02:40.850 --> 00:02:46.300 instruct candidates in sacred theology for the reading of the Divine Word in order 41 00:02:46.330 --> 00:02:52.220 that they may be able to have easy access to it and not to be lost in it. 42 00:02:52.250 --> 00:02:57.180 Calvin sensed that it was his duty to instruct and guide simple folk to 43 00:02:57.210 --> 00:03:01.260 understand Scripture and not to be lost in the labyrinth of Scripture. 44 00:03:01.290 --> 00:03:05.980 The motivation to write the Institutes expresses Calvin's passion for the Word 45 00:03:06.010 --> 00:03:09.180 and the educational development of ministers. 46 00:03:09.210 --> 00:03:14.920 It was first written to convince King Francis I of France that Protestants were 47 00:03:14.950 --> 00:03:19.540 not seditious and that the Protestant faith, whose doctrines were supported by 48 00:03:19.570 --> 00:03:23.780 Scripture and the Church Fathers, was not a new teaching. 49 00:03:23.810 --> 00:03:29.540 Some have curicured Calvin's Institutes as a theological work whose central 50 00:03:29.570 --> 00:03:32.980 organizing principle is the doctrine of predestination. 51 00:03:33.010 --> 00:03:35.020 But this is far from the truth. 52 00:03:35.050 --> 00:03:40.420 Predestination is just one among many other doctrines Calvin taught. 53 00:03:40.450 --> 00:03:42.940 Francois Wendo noted that predestination 54 00:03:42.970 --> 00:03:48.540 was not treated separately as an independent doctrine in the 1536 edition, 55 00:03:48.570 --> 00:03:52.780 since Calvin never discussed predestination separately in its own 56 00:03:52.810 --> 00:03:58.340 chapter, it is doubtful whether it is a major theme in the 1536 edition. 57 00:03:58.370 --> 00:04:03.500 Calvin, however, dedicated four chapters to his doctrine of double predestination. 58 00:04:03.530 --> 00:04:10.340 In the final 1559 edition of his Institutes, he discussed predestination in 59 00:04:10.370 --> 00:04:14.260 Book Three, whose central theme is union with Christ. 60 00:04:14.290 --> 00:04:18.980 Though predestination is an important item in that final edition, it is still 61 00:04:19.010 --> 00:04:23.940 subordinate to his vision of our union with Christ. 62 00:04:23.970 --> 00:04:28.500 Our union with Christ is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit. 63 00:04:28.530 --> 00:04:30.960 Calvin famously began Book Three with the 64 00:04:30.980 --> 00:04:35.780 statement that if Christ is standing at a distance from us, all he has suffered and 65 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:42.460 done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. 66 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:48.260 The salvation which Christ possesses can only become ours in our union with Him. 67 00:04:48.280 --> 00:04:54.060 Through faith, every aspect of our whole salvation has been accomplished in Christ. 68 00:04:54.090 --> 00:04:59.060 Therefore, the benefits of Christ, which are justification, sanctification, 69 00:04:59.090 --> 00:05:03.940 freedom, election and glorification, become ours in Him. 70 00:05:03.970 --> 00:05:06.900 In Book Three, one can perceive how 71 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:11.820 predestination ultimately answers the question of how one is included in Christ. 72 00:05:11.840 --> 00:05:14.380 However, though election seems to be in 73 00:05:14.410 --> 00:05:18.240 agreement with union with Christ, the logic of the whole doctrine of 74 00:05:18.270 --> 00:05:23.100 predestination is not entirely in harmony with the logic of Book Three. 75 00:05:23.130 --> 00:05:25.360 The reason for this is that election and 76 00:05:25.390 --> 00:05:30.700 reprobation emerge as two decrees from God's sacred council in which the former 77 00:05:30.730 --> 00:05:35.780 envisions Christ as the one who supplies election to the elect and the latter 78 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:39.340 becomes an expression of the Father's will only. 79 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:45.300 It seems logical that it is by God's two wills that God ordered who will be the 80 00:05:45.330 --> 00:05:49.740 elect and who will be the reprobate before the creation of the world. 81 00:05:49.770 --> 00:05:52.180 If Calvin perceived a relationship between 82 00:05:52.200 --> 00:05:55.980 predestination and union with Christ, calvin should have grounded the doctrine 83 00:05:56.010 --> 00:06:01.180 of election and reprobation in Christ rather than in the sacred council of God. 84 00:06:01.210 --> 00:06:06.160 It is surprising to discover that the Christocentric emphasis of Book Three in 85 00:06:06.190 --> 00:06:11.740 the Institutes does not entirely extend to the whole doctrine of predestination. 86 00:06:11.770 --> 00:06:17.140 The decree to reprobate, which is grounded in the sacred council of God, eclipses the 87 00:06:17.170 --> 00:06:21.460 decree of election, which Calvin tries to associate with Christ. 88 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:26.260 Since two eternal decrees are the manifestation of God's desire to order, 89 00:06:26.290 --> 00:06:31.380 creation and humanity, the ordering logic of predestination renders the doctrine 90 00:06:31.410 --> 00:06:34.780 itself as a special application of Providence. 91 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:40.460 The doctrine of predestination has been associated traditionally with Providence 92 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:43.780 in the theologies of Augustine and Aquinas. 93 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:49.380 Despite of their differences, Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin share the providential 94 00:06:49.410 --> 00:06:52.420 framework of the doctrine of predestination. 95 00:06:52.450 --> 00:06:55.500 Unless Calvin implicated Christ in the 96 00:06:55.530 --> 00:07:00.780 Father's decree of reprobation, the paper argues that the doctrine should be 97 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:05.180 discussed rather in Book One as a subset of Providence. 98 00:07:05.210 --> 00:07:10.140 This paper will be divided in two sections, as your handout indicates. 99 00:07:10.170 --> 00:07:12.580 In section one, I will explore Calvin's 100 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:16.300 distinctive treatment and arrangement of the doctrine of predestination. 101 00:07:16.330 --> 00:07:21.220 In Book Three, I will critically analyze the relationship of the supralapsarian 102 00:07:21.250 --> 00:07:24.340 logic of predestination with union with Christ. 103 00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:29.980 I will show that the logic of the doctrine is irreconcilable with soteriological 104 00:07:30.010 --> 00:07:33.900 concerns and benefits which are discussed in book three. 105 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:36.260 In section two, I will present an 106 00:07:36.290 --> 00:07:40.460 alternative treatment of the doctrine, which Karl Bart espoused in an attempt to 107 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:44.700 correct the seeming inconsistencies in Calvin's understanding of double 108 00:07:44.730 --> 00:07:48.700 predestination and its arrangement in the Dogmatic program. 109 00:07:48.730 --> 00:07:51.380 Though I will argue that Calvin's 110 00:07:51.410 --> 00:07:56.900 understanding of predestination is best characterized as a subset of Providence, I 111 00:07:56.920 --> 00:08:01.720 do not necessarily agree with this arrangement because, as Bart argued in the 112 00:08:01.750 --> 00:08:07.460 Church Dogmatics, predestination should be discussed in the doctrine of God. 113 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:10.240 Predestination in Calvin's in Calvin and 114 00:08:10.270 --> 00:08:15.860 Its irreconcilability with Book Three, the following section will be addressed will 115 00:08:15.890 --> 00:08:18.580 address Calvin's treatment of predestination. 116 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:22.260 The section will be structured in the following first, I will address the 117 00:08:22.290 --> 00:08:25.540 historical development of the doctrine in the Institutes. 118 00:08:25.570 --> 00:08:31.440 Then I will explain Calvin's doctrine of predestination briefly, and finally, I'll 119 00:08:31.470 --> 00:08:37.020 share two reasons for its unsustainable relationship with union with Christ. 120 00:08:37.050 --> 00:08:42.080 The Historical Development of the Doctrine in the Institutes calvin never afforded a 121 00:08:42.110 --> 00:08:46.620 single chapter to the doctrine of predestination in the first edition, 122 00:08:46.650 --> 00:08:51.220 despite Amel Dumurk arguing that it appeared accidentally. 123 00:08:51.250 --> 00:08:53.660 It was never a dominant theme. 124 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:58.940 However, the treatment of the doctrine expanded over several editions until it 125 00:08:58.970 --> 00:09:02.820 finally acquired four chapters in the final edition. 126 00:09:02.850 --> 00:09:07.020 It is the aim of this section to understand the development of the doctrine 127 00:09:07.050 --> 00:09:14.260 in the Institutes from the 1536 edition to that of 1559. 128 00:09:14.290 --> 00:09:19.340 Despite 19th century theologians Alexandra Schreizer and Ferdinand Christian's 129 00:09:19.370 --> 00:09:24.020 insistence that predestination was the central doctrine in Calvin's theology, 130 00:09:24.050 --> 00:09:28.780 wendell argued that predestination was never Calvin's central doctrine, nor did 131 00:09:28.810 --> 00:09:33.500 he intentionally have it as the main foundation of his theology. 132 00:09:33.530 --> 00:09:38.660 Instead of characterizing Calvin's theological body as that whose central 133 00:09:38.690 --> 00:09:44.140 theme is predestination, Wilhelm Niezzle suggested that it should be rather 134 00:09:44.170 --> 00:09:49.260 interpreted as a system of thoughts about God and man, proceeding from the one 135 00:09:49.290 --> 00:09:54.340 thought of the utter dependence of man on God. 136 00:09:54.370 --> 00:09:58.920 For Wendell, predestination gained importance in Calvin's theology under the 137 00:09:58.940 --> 00:10:02.700 sway of ecclesiological and pastoral preoccupations. 138 00:10:02.730 --> 00:10:05.780 Rather than to make it a main foundation 139 00:10:05.810 --> 00:10:10.820 of his theology, wendell elaborated that in the first edition, Calvin mentioned 140 00:10:10.850 --> 00:10:16.160 predestination only in two places in the explanation of the second article of the 141 00:10:16.190 --> 00:10:19.340 Creed and in regard to the definition of the Church. 142 00:10:19.370 --> 00:10:21.580 In the second article of the Creed, Calvin 143 00:10:21.610 --> 00:10:25.740 explained that within the context of Christ's descent into Hell, christ 144 00:10:25.770 --> 00:10:29.860 confirmed the salvation of the ancient faithful men and women. 145 00:10:29.890 --> 00:10:32.360 Nevertheless, it was unfortunate for the 146 00:10:32.390 --> 00:10:35.020 reprobate because it was too late for them. 147 00:10:35.050 --> 00:10:37.740 Later in that first edition, he discussed 148 00:10:37.770 --> 00:10:43.300 election in ecclesiology to emphasize that the Church is the community of the elect 149 00:10:43.320 --> 00:10:48.180 whose fellowship with Christ is the result of the election of grace. 150 00:10:48.200 --> 00:10:50.440 Furthermore, Wendell averred that the 151 00:10:50.470 --> 00:10:55.060 doctrine of election in the first edition resembled the common doctrine of 152 00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:59.780 predestination held by other reformers, and the doctrine of reprobation, as 153 00:10:59.810 --> 00:11:04.860 expressed in the final edition, did not yet develop. 154 00:11:04.890 --> 00:11:08.560 In 1539, calvin explored the doctrine of 155 00:11:08.580 --> 00:11:12.140 predestination in the French Geneva Catechism. 156 00:11:12.170 --> 00:11:16.020 In that account, he associates predestination with ecclesiology. 157 00:11:16.050 --> 00:11:18.900 He noted that the word of God is 158 00:11:18.930 --> 00:11:24.380 efficacious in the elect, but it brings only death to the reprobate. 159 00:11:24.410 --> 00:11:26.460 Thus the Catechism and the Institutes, 160 00:11:26.490 --> 00:11:31.060 argued Wendell, share the same starting point for the doctrine of predestination, 161 00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:36.260 which is a recognition that the Gospel is not indiscriminately preached to all. 162 00:11:36.290 --> 00:11:38.260 The narrative changed, however, when 163 00:11:38.290 --> 00:11:43.820 predestination was treated conjointly with Providence in the 1539 edition. 164 00:11:43.850 --> 00:11:49.300 In a single chapter, Wendell noted that Augustine and many other theologians after 165 00:11:49.330 --> 00:11:54.580 him discussed predestination as a special application of divine Providence. 166 00:11:54.610 --> 00:11:59.980 Predestination was traditionally perceived as that which conditioned Providence. 167 00:12:00.010 --> 00:12:02.320 When Calvin addressed predestination and 168 00:12:02.350 --> 00:12:07.540 Providence together in 1559, he followed that traditional approach. 169 00:12:07.570 --> 00:12:12.940 Predestination and Providence were discussed together as a whole from 1539 170 00:12:12.970 --> 00:12:18.420 until Calvin changed this arrangement in the final 1559 edition. 171 00:12:18.450 --> 00:12:22.900 In that final edition, predestination and Providence were separated from each other. 172 00:12:22.930 --> 00:12:25.220 Calvin placed Providence at the end of 173 00:12:25.250 --> 00:12:30.460 Book One in the doctrine of God and predestination in Book Three. 174 00:12:30.490 --> 00:12:33.420 Wendell insisted that the reason 175 00:12:33.450 --> 00:12:38.580 predestination is discussed in relation to Christ and his redemptive work is to 176 00:12:38.610 --> 00:12:43.860 suggest that our election depends on Christ and Christ seals our election. 177 00:12:43.890 --> 00:12:48.820 One does not need to speculate in the sacred will of God, but they can rest 178 00:12:48.850 --> 00:12:53.700 assured that their eternal predestination is guaranteed in Christ. 179 00:12:53.730 --> 00:12:59.060 However, the placement of predestination after soteriological themes is problematic 180 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:04.260 because it does not account for the second ford of the doctrine which is reprobation. 181 00:13:04.290 --> 00:13:07.980 What is the relationship between Christ and reprobation? 182 00:13:08.010 --> 00:13:11.860 Calvin never addressed this in his final edition. 183 00:13:11.890 --> 00:13:15.140 Concerning the doctrine itself, 1 may ask 184 00:13:15.170 --> 00:13:18.060 what is Calvin's understanding of double predestination? 185 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:22.580 To this I turn the overview of the doctrine of predestination. 186 00:13:22.610 --> 00:13:26.940 Though Calvin insisted that the doctrine of predestination should only be sought in 187 00:13:26.970 --> 00:13:34.060 Scripture, his starting point for this treatment did not begin with Scripture. 188 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:39.120 He began primarily with an empirical problem of how some come to faith through 189 00:13:39.150 --> 00:13:41.900 the preaching of the Gospel and others don't. 190 00:13:41.930 --> 00:13:46.980 This empirical observation became the context in which Calvin addresses the 191 00:13:47.010 --> 00:13:51.220 doctrine of predestination as the answer to the empirical problem. 192 00:13:51.250 --> 00:13:55.580 For Calvin, the Gospel is not preached indiscriminately to all. 193 00:13:55.610 --> 00:13:58.500 His doctrine is not entirely new. 194 00:13:58.530 --> 00:14:03.720 According to Georgia Harkness, Augustine and the Magisterial Reformers had an 195 00:14:03.750 --> 00:14:08.440 understanding of predestination, but she argues that they did not equally draw the 196 00:14:08.470 --> 00:14:13.100 stern conclusion that God predestined others to be damned. 197 00:14:13.130 --> 00:14:15.580 Augustine did not balance his doctrine of 198 00:14:15.610 --> 00:14:21.700 election with reprobation as Calvin did, although he believed that salvation comes 199 00:14:21.730 --> 00:14:26.900 only through the free mercy of God and that God elects some to be saved. 200 00:14:26.930 --> 00:14:31.280 According to Harkness, Augustine avoided the question of the damnation of the 201 00:14:31.310 --> 00:14:38.300 reprobate by stating that God leaves some to their own devices and merely permits 202 00:14:38.330 --> 00:14:42.300 some to be lost without decreeing that they must be. 203 00:14:42.330 --> 00:14:44.780 In pointing out the inconsistencies of 204 00:14:44.810 --> 00:14:49.580 proponents of single predestination, Wesley argued that God's election 205 00:14:49.610 --> 00:14:53.180 inevitably reprobates those who are not elected. 206 00:14:53.210 --> 00:14:55.560 Although Augustine did not espouse a 207 00:14:55.580 --> 00:15:00.900 symmetrical approach to the predestination, reprobation is implicit in 208 00:15:00.930 --> 00:15:07.660 Augustine, and Calvin rendered it explicitly in his 1559 Institutes. 209 00:15:07.690 --> 00:15:09.580 The doctrine of predestination in the 210 00:15:09.610 --> 00:15:14.640 final edition highlights that God, out of his sheer mercy, elected some for 211 00:15:14.670 --> 00:15:18.180 salvation and damned others for destruction. 212 00:15:18.210 --> 00:15:19.900 Providing his definition of 213 00:15:19.930 --> 00:15:24.860 predestination, Calvin wrote we call predestination God's eternal decree, by 214 00:15:24.890 --> 00:15:29.660 which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. 215 00:15:29.690 --> 00:15:32.900 For all are not created in equal condition. 216 00:15:32.930 --> 00:15:37.740 Rather, eternal life is fordained for some, eternal damnation for others. 217 00:15:37.770 --> 00:15:43.380 Therefore, as any man has been created to one or to the other of these ends, we 218 00:15:43.410 --> 00:15:46.820 speak of him as predestined to life or death. 219 00:15:46.850 --> 00:15:50.420 End quote. The emphasis of the decreedo orientation 220 00:15:50.450 --> 00:15:55.980 of predestination overshadows the Christological determination of election, 221 00:15:56.010 --> 00:16:01.020 which caused me to suspect that the providential framework of predestination 222 00:16:01.050 --> 00:16:06.060 in Calvin is still the same as Augustines and Aquinas's. 223 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:08.380 Calvin still views predestination 224 00:16:08.410 --> 00:16:12.500 operating as a special application of God's providence. 225 00:16:12.530 --> 00:16:15.220 Providence and predestination are related 226 00:16:15.250 --> 00:16:20.260 to, and they result from the sacred council of God. 227 00:16:20.290 --> 00:16:23.020 The doctrine is not Christologically determined. 228 00:16:23.050 --> 00:16:27.260 Hence the reason I'm averring that Calvin's predestination should rather be 229 00:16:27.290 --> 00:16:33.080 discussed as a subset of and together with Providence in book One because Calvin has 230 00:16:33.110 --> 00:16:38.660 not yet abandoned the AUGUSTINIAN providential framework entirely. 231 00:16:38.690 --> 00:16:41.380 Nevertheless, Calvin maintained that the 232 00:16:41.410 --> 00:16:46.660 election of the elect is gratuitous and yet argued that the reprobate were not 233 00:16:46.690 --> 00:16:50.300 elected because they were unworthy to be predestined. 234 00:16:50.330 --> 00:16:55.300 Surprisingly, according to Calvin, god is still just and righteous in this regard 235 00:16:55.330 --> 00:16:59.420 because he distributes divine justice to the wicked. 236 00:16:59.450 --> 00:17:05.660 Moreover, Calvin viewed God as merciful because he gratuitously elected some from 237 00:17:05.690 --> 00:17:09.330 among the sinners without any regard to their work. 238 00:17:09.360 --> 00:17:14.940 Our elevation for Calvin elevates our election for Calvin elevates. 239 00:17:14.970 --> 00:17:19.420 God's glory and reprobation reviews God's justice. 240 00:17:19.450 --> 00:17:23.220 However, in his sermon Free Grace, wesley 241 00:17:23.250 --> 00:17:29.050 criticized rightly Calvin for rendering God as worse than the devil because God is 242 00:17:29.080 --> 00:17:34.330 depicted as unjust, unrighteous, and as the author of sin. 243 00:17:34.360 --> 00:17:36.220 Commenting on Calvin's doctrine of 244 00:17:36.250 --> 00:17:41.290 predestination, Wesley wrote poignantly it destroys all attributes at once. 245 00:17:41.320 --> 00:17:45.460 It overturns both his justice, mercy and truth. 246 00:17:45.490 --> 00:17:49.010 Ye, it represents the most holy God as 247 00:17:49.040 --> 00:17:54.700 worse than the devil as both more false, more cruel and more unjust. 248 00:17:54.730 --> 00:17:57.460 More false because the devil, liar as he 249 00:17:57.490 --> 00:18:03.810 is, has never willed, he has never said he wills all men to be saved more unjust 250 00:18:03.840 --> 00:18:08.810 because the devil cannot, if he would be guilty of such injustice as you. 251 00:18:08.840 --> 00:18:11.050 Ascribe to God when you say that God 252 00:18:11.080 --> 00:18:17.290 condemned millions of souls to eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels 253 00:18:17.320 --> 00:18:22.250 for continuing in sin which for want of that grace he will not give them, they 254 00:18:22.280 --> 00:18:29.860 cannot avoid more cruel because that unhappy spirit seeks rest and finds none. 255 00:18:29.890 --> 00:18:35.770 So that his own restless misery is a kind of temptation to him to tempt others. 256 00:18:35.800 --> 00:18:42.420 But God rests in his high and holy place so that to suppose him of his own mere 257 00:18:42.450 --> 00:18:47.860 motion, of his pure will and pleasure, happy as he is to doom his creatures, 258 00:18:47.890 --> 00:18:53.770 whether they will or not, to endless misery, is to impute such cruelty to Him 259 00:18:53.800 --> 00:18:58.810 as we cannot even impute to the great enemy of God and men. 260 00:18:58.840 --> 00:19:01.860 It is to represent the Most High God as 261 00:19:01.890 --> 00:19:05.700 more cruel, false and unjust than the devil. 262 00:19:05.730 --> 00:19:10.770 End Quote if Calvin thought that election was in agreement with the union with 263 00:19:10.800 --> 00:19:15.460 Christ, how is the placement of predestination problematic? 264 00:19:15.490 --> 00:19:18.180 The reasons for the irreconcilable 265 00:19:18.210 --> 00:19:22.420 relationship between the doctrine and union with Christ? 266 00:19:22.450 --> 00:19:24.530 Wendell claimed that Calvin related 267 00:19:24.560 --> 00:19:27.810 predestination with Christ's redemptive work in Book Three. 268 00:19:27.840 --> 00:19:33.420 Because election depended on Christ and Christ is the seal of our election, calvin 269 00:19:33.450 --> 00:19:38.140 began Book Three by exploring the theme of union with Christ 270 00:19:38.170 --> 00:19:43.530 we can only be united with Christ through faith, which is given to us as a gift. 271 00:19:43.560 --> 00:19:47.860 Not only does Christ come to us in the power of the Holy Spirit, but the benefits 272 00:19:47.890 --> 00:19:52.810 of Christ's work become ours by faith through the Holy Spirit. 273 00:19:52.840 --> 00:19:55.140 The Holy Spirit is the only bond with 274 00:19:55.170 --> 00:19:58.380 which Christ effectually unites us to Himself. 275 00:19:58.410 --> 00:20:02.570 Faith as the principal work of the Holy Spirit of the Spirit is given to us 276 00:20:02.600 --> 00:20:08.250 gratuitously so that we can embrace Christ and obtain all that he possesses in this 277 00:20:08.280 --> 00:20:13.290 context of our life in Christ, Calvin addressed his doctrine of predestination. 278 00:20:13.320 --> 00:20:15.740 Even though election relates with the 279 00:20:15.770 --> 00:20:20.620 theme of our union with Christ, I'll give two reasons as to why the whole doctrine 280 00:20:20.650 --> 00:20:24.900 of predestination does not entirely align with union with Christ. 281 00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:26.860 The first reason is that there is a strong 282 00:20:26.890 --> 00:20:31.740 emphasis on the two eternal decrees which God willed before creation. 283 00:20:31.770 --> 00:20:34.940 Though Calvin comprehended Christ as the 284 00:20:34.970 --> 00:20:40.700 definite word of God and as the one in whom God's will to mercy is manifested, 285 00:20:40.730 --> 00:20:45.700 the emphasis on the sheer decrees of God compromises the relationship Calvin 286 00:20:45.730 --> 00:20:49.770 envisioned between union with Christ and election. 287 00:20:49.800 --> 00:20:53.180 The doctrine of the two decrees are heavily stressed. 288 00:20:53.210 --> 00:20:58.380 To the extent that the Christological determination of election is subordinated, 289 00:20:58.410 --> 00:21:01.420 one could also argue whether it's even there. 290 00:21:01.450 --> 00:21:04.290 It is as though the relation drawn between 291 00:21:04.320 --> 00:21:10.180 election and Christ by Calvin by Calvin is an afterthought. 292 00:21:10.210 --> 00:21:14.660 Once God decrees, who will be the elect and who will be the reprobate? 293 00:21:14.690 --> 00:21:17.320 Furthermore, Bart criticized Calvin's 294 00:21:17.350 --> 00:21:21.900 arrangement of predestination in the Institutes because creation and sin are 295 00:21:21.930 --> 00:21:27.700 promulgated prior to election without any presupposition of reconciliation. 296 00:21:27.730 --> 00:21:30.980 For Bart, Calvin's arrangement implies 297 00:21:31.010 --> 00:21:37.240 that sin was unforeseen and reconciliation was an afterthought, despite the 298 00:21:37.270 --> 00:21:40.090 arrangement of predestination in union with Christ. 299 00:21:40.120 --> 00:21:46.900 Calvin paradoxically emphasized that God's decree that God decrees who will be the 300 00:21:46.930 --> 00:21:50.530 elect and who will be the reprobate before creation. 301 00:21:50.560 --> 00:21:55.090 If this is so, then why did Calvin proceeded to discuss predestination in 302 00:21:55.120 --> 00:22:01.180 Book Three after he has treated Providence, creation, sin and Christology? 303 00:22:01.210 --> 00:22:06.420 And soteriology, since election and reprobation are the two eternal decrees 304 00:22:06.450 --> 00:22:11.050 which proceed from creation and other subsequent Christian doctrines, 305 00:22:11.080 --> 00:22:14.140 predestination does not belong in Book Three. 306 00:22:14.170 --> 00:22:16.180 The second reason which complicates the 307 00:22:16.210 --> 00:22:21.220 arrangement of predestination in Book Three is the decree of reprobation. 308 00:22:21.250 --> 00:22:26.810 Reprobation is problematic in Book Three because it does not involve Christ. 309 00:22:26.840 --> 00:22:31.940 In his book The Nature and the Function of Faith Victor Shepherd noted that Calvin 310 00:22:31.970 --> 00:22:35.620 uses different Latin expressions to speak about the will of God. 311 00:22:35.650 --> 00:22:38.180 In regards to the two decrees, 312 00:22:38.210 --> 00:22:44.140 Calvin used volunteers from which we get voluntary to articulate how God's will to 313 00:22:44.170 --> 00:22:51.660 elect involves the Father and the Son but abitrio arbitrary from which the decree of 314 00:22:51.690 --> 00:22:55.420 republican emerges, involves only the Father. 315 00:22:55.450 --> 00:23:01.500 In regards to the use of Valentus god's nature, which is conditioned by his will 316 00:23:01.530 --> 00:23:04.810 to save is involved in the election of the elect. 317 00:23:04.840 --> 00:23:07.860 However, the use of a bitrio suggests that 318 00:23:07.890 --> 00:23:13.700 God in his sovereign and unconditioned power arbitrarily damns others. 319 00:23:13.730 --> 00:23:19.660 The relationship between God's nature and his will to damn others is not explored. 320 00:23:19.690 --> 00:23:23.940 Furthermore, the decree of reprobation does not involve Christ. 321 00:23:23.970 --> 00:23:26.380 The implication of this is significant for 322 00:23:26.410 --> 00:23:31.380 the placement of predestination in Book Three because reprobation undermines the 323 00:23:31.410 --> 00:23:36.940 relationship Calvin perceived between election and union with Christ. 324 00:23:36.970 --> 00:23:41.740 Since the two decrees are made before the creation of the world the whole logic of 325 00:23:41.770 --> 00:23:46.220 predestination compels us to move the doctrine of predestination out of Book 326 00:23:46.250 --> 00:23:49.540 Three to Book One as a subset of Providence. 327 00:23:49.570 --> 00:23:52.260 The reason for this, in view of Calvin's 328 00:23:52.290 --> 00:23:58.540 dogmatic scheme is that God has eternally decided how he will providentially care 329 00:23:58.570 --> 00:24:05.380 for those who are his and punish the wicked which they rightly deserve. 330 00:24:05.410 --> 00:24:07.500 I thus perceive the connection between 331 00:24:07.530 --> 00:24:11.780 predestination and Providence as Augustine and Aquinas did. 332 00:24:11.810 --> 00:24:14.420 However, this connection deteriorates when 333 00:24:14.450 --> 00:24:19.780 one abandons the language of two decrees from which election and reprobation emerge 334 00:24:19.810 --> 00:24:24.700 and substitutes Christ those two decrees for Christ. 335 00:24:24.730 --> 00:24:27.780 This is the alternative approach which 336 00:24:27.810 --> 00:24:34.620 Bart adopted and the paper will sketch his model briefly in the following. 337 00:24:34.650 --> 00:24:36.660 Bart developed the doctrine of 338 00:24:36.690 --> 00:24:41.420 predestination by addressing it in the book in the Doctrine of God. 339 00:24:41.450 --> 00:24:45.660 For Bart, humans are not primarily the objects of predestination. 340 00:24:45.690 --> 00:24:48.220 Predestination is not an arbitrary 341 00:24:48.250 --> 00:24:52.500 election of one person and rejection of the other. 342 00:24:52.530 --> 00:24:57.330 Rather, predestination is primarily the work of God's own self determination. 343 00:24:57.360 --> 00:25:03.900 In other words, the triune God is none other than the one who in His Son or Word 344 00:25:03.930 --> 00:25:09.570 elects Himself primarily and in and with Himself elects his people. 345 00:25:09.600 --> 00:25:14.620 God is primarily the electing God and then the elected God. 346 00:25:14.650 --> 00:25:21.660 After God self determines Himself, God proceeds to elect us in and with Himself. 347 00:25:21.690 --> 00:25:28.780 God predestined Himself to be our God before he elects us as his people. 348 00:25:28.810 --> 00:25:35.620 Furthermore, God damns Himself for us so that no other person can be damned thereby 349 00:25:35.650 --> 00:25:39.810 rescuing us from eternal damnation in Jesus Christ. 350 00:25:39.840 --> 00:25:45.050 For Bart, God is no other than the one who is revealed in Jesus Christ. 351 00:25:45.080 --> 00:25:49.940 Christ is both the electing and elected God man and the election of the man. 352 00:25:49.970 --> 00:25:55.810 Jesus results in his rejection as the reprobate one. 353 00:25:55.840 --> 00:26:03.420 Christ absorbs the rejection and the wrath of humanity on the cross for us. 354 00:26:03.450 --> 00:26:06.050 No one else is rejected or damned. 355 00:26:06.080 --> 00:26:08.320 Christ becomes the reprobate one on the 356 00:26:08.350 --> 00:26:12.540 cross for us, so that we can all be elected in him. 357 00:26:12.570 --> 00:26:18.980 Echoing Bart, Joergen Motmans stated that Christ in his sovereign freedom, chooses 358 00:26:19.010 --> 00:26:23.090 to lose in order that humanity may gain in him. 359 00:26:23.120 --> 00:26:25.180 In this sense, Bart's doctrine of 360 00:26:25.210 --> 00:26:29.780 predestination has the theology of the Cross as its center. 361 00:26:29.810 --> 00:26:35.180 For Bart, this is the proper course upon which one can set the doctrine. 362 00:26:35.210 --> 00:26:40.620 Bart corrected the traditional understanding of the doctrine by replacing 363 00:26:40.650 --> 00:26:47.140 the two absolute decrees with Jesus Christ god does not elect according to his good 364 00:26:47.170 --> 00:26:50.620 pleasure, pleasure which is unknown to humanity. 365 00:26:50.650 --> 00:26:54.860 Instead, he elects his people in and with himself. 366 00:26:54.890 --> 00:26:57.500 In this sense, Bart, within the Reformed 367 00:26:57.530 --> 00:27:03.260 tradition, corrected Calvin and captured the biblical sense of the universal grace 368 00:27:03.290 --> 00:27:06.860 of election which is found in Jesus Christ. 369 00:27:06.890 --> 00:27:09.540 To sum up, though Calvin addressed the 370 00:27:09.570 --> 00:27:14.090 doctrine of predestination in four chapters in the 1559 Institutes, the 371 00:27:14.120 --> 00:27:19.380 doctrine of predestination was never the central doctrine of his theology. 372 00:27:19.410 --> 00:27:24.810 In the 1536 edition, it is not even addressed in a single chapter. 373 00:27:24.840 --> 00:27:30.260 However, as the Institutes grew through a series of additions, calvin continued to 374 00:27:30.290 --> 00:27:33.290 expand the doctrine until it had four chapters. 375 00:27:33.320 --> 00:27:38.380 In the final edition, Calvin discussed predestination and Providence conjointly 376 00:27:38.410 --> 00:27:46.760 from the 1539 edition to that of the 1550 letter letter in the 1559 Institutes, the 377 00:27:46.790 --> 00:27:51.660 final one, which Calvin separated predestination from the doctrine of 378 00:27:51.690 --> 00:27:55.900 Providence and addressed predestination in Book Three because of the connection he 379 00:27:55.930 --> 00:27:58.980 saw between election and union with Christ. 380 00:27:59.010 --> 00:28:03.700 Despite the relationship Calvin may have perceived between the doctrine and union 381 00:28:03.730 --> 00:28:08.180 with Christ, I have shown that the doctrine of predestination is not entirely 382 00:28:08.210 --> 00:28:13.940 in harmony with Book Three because of its strong emphasis on the two absolute 383 00:28:13.970 --> 00:28:17.940 decrees and its second Ford doctrine of reprobation. 384 00:28:17.970 --> 00:28:20.160 Bart's alternative approach to the 385 00:28:20.190 --> 00:28:24.900 doctrine of predestination, which properly grounds election and reprobation in 386 00:28:24.930 --> 00:28:29.740 Christ, corrects Calvin's problematic features of predestination. 387 00:28:29.770 --> 00:28:36.980 Jesus Christ is the object of election and reprobation, and in him we're elected. 388 00:28:37.010 --> 00:28:43.860 In the words of Luther's mentor, Johann vonstopitz he said if you wish to think 389 00:28:43.890 --> 00:28:49.260 about predestination, begin with the wounds of Christ. 390 00:28:49.290 --> 00:28:54.080 If you have any questions thank you. 391 00:28:58.000 --> 00:28:58.620 Thank you. 392 00:28:58.650 --> 00:29:03.810 Axel, is there a question or comment to follow up? 393 00:29:03.840 --> 00:29:04.900 Excellent. 394 00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:05.960 Yeah, go ahead, Gary.