Dr. Michael Haykin: Calvin and Missions for the 21st Century

Dr. Haykin is Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lousiville, Ky.

It is very interesting going through the most recent Calvin handbook, I couldn’t find any express article that dealt with missions and Calvin. This reflects the common view that the Reformers were not interested in missions. This leads to the mistaken idea that these men rediscovered the apostolic gospel but they had no vision to spread that Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Robert Bellarmine, a Catholic theologian, propogated this mistaken notion that the reformers had no missiology. This characterization is very far from the truth.

The Reformation was about re-Christianizing Europe. They did not see in their mind large centers of Christianity. What they saw was a sea of paganism, realizing that their first goal was to plant gospel churches. They considered that what past for Christianity in late medieval Europe was sub-Christian at best, pagan at worst.

The charge that the reformers didn’t have a missionary passion is wrong. Before they could think of takingt he gospel to othe rlands, the gospel first had to be re-planted in Europe. Additionally, there was no access to the sea from the Reformed areas, so how could they initially think about taking the gospel to other lands. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic church had sea access. What the the Roman church thought of as missions really had nothing to do with the Reformers understanding of the gospel.

An answer to the charge that the Reformers had no passion for the rest of the world.

I. Calvin’s Thought that the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ will victorously advance.

II. What did Calvin view as the means of evangelism and missions

III. What is to motivate us in engaging in missions and sharing the gospel personally

IV. Geneva as a missionary center

* * * * * *

I. The Victorious Advance of the Kingdom of Christ

Calvin’s view is rooted in the sovereignty of God. Haykin cites the Introduction to the Institutes: “God has appointed that Christ will rule from sea to sea.” The HOly Spirit came down in Acts 2 says Calvin “to reach all the ends and extremities of the world.”

Calvin would not have understood the vastness of the world as we understand it today. But there is in Calvin this great sense that the gospel is not just for Europeans. It is to go to the ends of the earth. “God has commanded that his gospel be preached to all his creatures.” There is this sense of the global significance of the gospel.

At the heart of the reformation is men who have imbided deeply Calvin’s view of the sovereignty of God and that the gospel is for the world.

II. The Means of Missions

a. It is God’s work, not our work. “It is not by human means but by heavenly power that the Lord will gather his church.” Calvin had a rich sense of the providential outworking of the gospel – God opening ddors. It is God’s love for the lost that sent his son, his spirit and his people. This does not mean that we can sit back and think that God is going to save the lost without our effort. “It is our duty to proclaim the goodness of God to every nation. Nothing can be more absurd than a lazy slothful man exciting others to believe God.”

b. Prayer. The largest section of the Institutes is on prayer. We fail to follow Calvin as being a people of prayer as he and many in his church were. “God bids us to pray for the salvation of all believers.” You hear Calvin’s longing that the grace he’s been talkin about would reach all the world. “May it please God that this saving grace which has come to us might go to all the people and the nations of the earth.”

This is not only a spur to evangelism, but an encouragement not to be discouraged because of this rich sense of the sovereignty of God. We take such a short view of time. If it’s not done in our day, it must have failed! Fulfillment takes place in God’s time and in his way.

c. We must use our strength to bring the gospel to others.

Specifically, by our words. The word of God is the means by which the gospel is going to win the lost. Martin Luther on how the Reformation worked: “I preached the word. Then I slept. I also drank Wittenburg beer!” His point? It is the Word that does the work of regeneration.

Geneva became the print capital of the Protestant world. 34 printing houses established while Calvin ministered there. These houses are printing the Scriptures in a variety of languages. Also other Christian literature. The word of God is absolutely central.

By our deeds. Calvin would have no truck with those who shared his name but would promote an antinomian position. One of the means for evangelism is the martyrdom of God’s people.

Calvin had a rich sense of discipleship. He knew that once a person embraced the gospel he was at odds with the world, and that it ofen resulted in martyrdom.

To be a Christian is to be despised by the world. Too many evangelicals in the 21st Century want to be recognized by the world, especially in academia. I fear that sometimes we have drawn back  and we want the acclaim of the world.

Here we learn from Calvin that the cross and suffering for Christ and the shame that this world casts upon us is the path of discipleship.

Evangelism of Christian rulers and magistrates. Calvin cultivated relationships with influential people. God in his providence does put men and women in significant political positions where they can use their influence for the spread of the gospel.

III. The Motivations for Missions

a. The glory of God. Calvin’s theology rests on the sovereignty of God and the glory of God. “When we know God as Father, should we not desire that he be known as such to all? If we have not this passion, is it not because his glory means little to us.”

b. Bearing witness to the faith is pleasing to God.

c. Jesus has commanded us to share the gospel. One of our great challenges is that the word ‘duty’ is not normally a word that has positive associations not only in the culture but in the church, as well.

d. We should have compassion for the lost. “If we have any humanity in us,” Calvin declared in a sermon on Deuteronomy 33, “seeing men go into perdition…ought we not be moved by pity, to rescue poor souls from hell, and teach them the way of salvation?” In fact, a Christian who is not involved in witness is a contradiction in terms.

IV. Geneva as a Missionary Center

Dr. David Murray: Calvin on Preaching Christ from the Old Testament

Dr. Murray is Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI. He was a pastor for twelve years, first at Lochcaron Free Church of Scotland and then at Stornoway Free Church of Scotland (Continuing).

THIS IS A LIVE BLOG. PLEASE FORGIVE TYPOGRAPHICAL AND GRAMMATICAL ERRORS UNTIL FINAL EDIT.

SESSION BEGINS AT 1:50 PM EASTERN

Luke 24:25-27

Everyone would acknowldege that there is a fairly widespread crisis of preaching from the OT. Only 10 -15 % of sermons preached in Reformed churches are from the OT. Often the text chosen is a pretext for a topic from the OT.

The reason for the widespread lack of health in the church today is due to this crisis of depriving our people of 60% of the Bible. Why has the OT preaching declined:

Dispensationalism
A desire for credibility
Pastoral laziness
A lack of good pastoral models for younger men to copy.

John Calvin comes in usefully with a number of principles that form the basis for rebuilding and renewing preaching from the OT, especially preaching Christ, that led to people living more happily and healthy thanks to great clinics, you can meet our staff to learn more.

Two Pillars for Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: Theological Pillars and Practical Pillars

The Theological Pillars

1. By preaching the Old Testament we are preaching Christ’s words

2. Christ is the only teacher of His Church. The patriarchs and the apostles were all nourished by His words. “God has maniftesed himself to men in any other way than through the Son.”

T.H. L. Parker argues emphatically that just because completelness and perfection has come in the NT, does not mean that the teacher of the OT church is not the same teacher as that of the NT

3. By preaching God we preach Christ. Calvin didn’t see the need in every OT sermon to actually mention the name of Christ or the need to have a very specific or explicit reference to the Son of God. Therefore when you read his OT sermons you can go many paragraphs or pages without a reference to the Son of God. “Whenever the name of God is mentioned without particilarization, there are designated no less the Son and the Spirit than the Father.

We are to hear the OT with Trinitarian ears. For Calvin, when he;s preaching God, he’s implicitly preaching Christ.

4. The Old and the New Testaments are united by the same covenant of grace. Luther saw a much greater contrast between the OT. Calvin saw differences, but none that would fundamentally alter the message between the Old and New Testament. Calvin says, “God could never could have a made a new, that is a contrary, or different covenant.”

For Calvin, both testaments are under the same covenant of grace. Same, but differing in form and in the way the covenant is adminstered or manner. Different in terms of husk, but not kernal.

5. Whatever was said to Israel was said also to us. If the testaments are united by the same covenant of grace, why not view what was said to Israel as also said to us? So much union and unity that Calvin sees between the OT people of God and the NT people of God, he saus, “The differeences between the revelation under the old and new comparison pale when compared with that which remains the same.”

6. Every Old Testament believer was saved through faith in Christ. Calvin was crystal clear and absolutely emphatic about. Many of his opponents were Ana baptists who argued that the relationship of old testament believers was based on their works. He is at pains that OT believers were saved through faith in Christ, niot just God in vague and abstract terms. He says, “Indeed the ancient fathers were saved by no other means than by that whiuch we have they had theur salvation grounded in Christ Jesus.”

This changes our whole view of the old testament and old testament beleivers. They become brothers. We will not be sitting at the same table with some who got there by works and others who got there by grace. Not much room for unity in that scenario. “The hope of all the godly has ever reposed in Christ alone.”

7. The OT believers had the Holy Spirit. This was strongly denied by the Anabaptists.

Promise/Fulfillment, Shadow/Light, Sketch/Painting is how Calvin understand the difference between the old and new testament believer. The OT saint had the “promise;” we have the “fulfilment’, etc.

Calvin believed the Holy Spirit reigned in the shadow.

8. The hope of OT believers was spiritual and heavenly. The Anabaptists argued that the OT believer was merely materialistic, focused on this earth. Calvin argued that the promises were presented to the OT believer was a materialist form but with the goal of pointing them to the spiritual.

9. The law was a schoolmaster that led Old Testament believers to Christ. We sometimes think of this verse in terms of redemptive history, but this verse also applies on an individual redemptive basis. They were as it were trained up in the rigour of the law, but these excercises were designed by God to be  a hand to bring them to the liberty and freedom of the gospel in old testament times. The law was not the end – it was like elementary school.

10. Calvin recognized that there were differeces between the Old and New Testament.

a. The OT promises were given in an earthly form whereas in the NT the earthly form falls away.

b. As a result, the OT was actually more obscure than the new. Partly because of the form that was used. If there is a shadow it is difficult to see around the corner to the reality. The OT believers were not in the total dark. It’s like HD video compared to DVD. OT was like “DVD” but when compared with the “HD” of the NT then it looks obscure, more shadowy, weaker.

c. The OT believers knew that this was not the end, They saw that God had designed these means in order to help them along. Any thing more advanced would have been too complicated for them at that stage.

d. The OT had more letter, less Spirit. The NT had more Spirit, less letter. Both testaments had each

The OT believers experienced more fear and bondage than the NT believers. They knew joy, but with periods of darkness, shadow, and obscurity.

e. Since the gospel has come in the NT, the gospel has now gone out to all the nations.

The Practical Pillars

1. The aim of all OT study is to find and preach Christ. A pastor needed academic training, but any academic training that missed this basic point missed it all. Calvin was concerned to combat the Jewish exegetes of his own day with their “Christless” interpretations of the OT.

2. The NT is our exegetical guide to the OT. Calvin is very concerned with contextual exegesis. He also believed in canonical interpretation, interpreting every book in light of the whole canon. The New interprets the Old.

3. If you cannot be Christ-centered in exegesis, be so in application. The OT writers didn’t have NT understanding. He didn’t impute to them fuller understanding than what they had. As a result in his exegeis sometimes he can have pages and pages of Christless exegesis it would appear. If he couldn’t exegete Christ from the passage, he would always be Christ-centered in his application.

4. Preach the original message to the original OT. Prior to the Reformation OT preaching was often extended allegory. Calvin turned his back on this mere moralising. He wanted to do full justice to what the text meant when it was written. Failure to do so was extremely detrimental to Christians. Compare and

5. Highlight partial fulfillments before complete fulfillments.

6. Preach Christ from all genres of OT literature. Preach Christ from his pictures (typology) and his presence (Christoponies). See Christ in the typology of David and in the angelic appearances in the Old Testament.

7. The Old Testament should be frequently, far more frequently than it is. In 15 years of pulpit ministry in Geneva, Calvin preached over 2,000 OT sermons. In addition to his sermons he produced 66 lectures on Daniel, 65 on Ezekial, 193 on Jeremiah.

8. Build Christ-centered Old Testament preaching slowly and safely. This kind of preaching opens up the church to ridicule and mockery. The very worst thing we could do is to start preaching from the OT’s most obscure and difficult passages. Preach on the obvious and the clear rather than the most mysterious and obscure.

Follow Calvin insofar as he is a follower of Christ. Don’t follow Calvin in everything! He makes the odd-mistep, three in particular:

1. He desired not to alienate the Jewish exegete and conceded too much to them.

2. His language and his criticizng the NT writers use of the OLT sometimes borders on the undermining of the inspiration of Scripture

3. Sometimes Calvin, in his desire to focus on the historical grammatical interpretation, loses sight of Christ.

A personal word: I have found a special help and unction when preaching Christ from the OT. God especially honors preaching from parts of his word that are being neglected, abused and/or attacked. If we reurn to a preaching of Christ from the OT that God will pour out his Spirit upon it and save and sanctify many precious souls.

The following dialogue takes place in Book 1, Chapter 2 of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot between Prince Myshkin (the titular character) and a servant of the Epanchin family. Keep in mind that Dostoevsky himself was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted only moments before his execution. The excerpt is lengthy, but worth it. Prince Myshkin starts:

“Yes. I saw it [an execution] in France, at Lyons. Dr. Schneider took me with him.”

“Do they hang them?”

“No, in France they always cut off their heads.”

“Do they scream?”

“How could they? It’s done in an instant. They make the man lie down and then a great knife is brought down by a heavy, powerful machine, called the guillotine. . . . The head falls off before one has time to wink. The preparations are horrible. When they read the sentence, get the man ready, bind him, lead him to the scaffold – that’s what’s awful! Crowds assemble, even women, though they don’t like women to look on. . . .”

“It’s not a thing for them!”

“Of course not, of course not! Such a horrible thing! . . . The criminal was an intelligent, middle-aged man, strong and courageous, called Legros. But I assure you, though you may not believe me, when he mounted the scaffold he was weeping and was as white as paper. Isn’t it incredible? Isn’t it awful? Who cries for fear? I’d no idea that a grown man, not a child, a man who never cried, a man of forty-five, could cry for fear! What must be passing in the soul at such a moment; to what anguish it must be brought! It’s an outrage on the soul, that’s what it is! It is written ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ so because he has killed, are we to kill him? No, that’s impossible. It’s a month since I saw that, but I seem to see it before my eyes still. I’ve dreamt of it half a dozen times.”

Myshkin was quite moved as he spoke, a faint color came into his pale face, though his voice was still gentle. The footman followed him with sympathetic interest, so that he seemed sorry for him to stop. He, too, was perhaps a man of imagination and strainings after thought.

“It’s a good thing at least that there is not much pain,” he observed, “when the head falls off.”

“Do you know,” Myshkin answered warmly, “you’ve just made that observation and every one says the same, and the guillotine was invented with that object. But the idea occured to me at the time that perhaps it made it worse. That will seem to you an absurd and wild idea, but if one has some imagination, one may suppose even that. Think! if there were torture, for instance, there would be suffering and wounds, bodily agony, and so all that would distract the mind from spiritual suffering, so that one would only be tortured by wounds till one died. But the chief and worst pain may not be in the bodily suffering but in one’s knowing for certain that in an hour, and then in ten minutes, and then in half a minute, and then now, at the very moment, the soul will leave the body and that one will cease to be a man and that that’s bound to happen; the worst part of it is that it’s CERTAIN. When you lay your head down under the knife and hear the knife slide over your head, that quarter of a second is the most terrible of all. You know this is not only my fancy, many people have said the same. I believe that so thoroughly that I’ll tell you what I think. To kill for murder is a punishment incomparably worse than the crime itself. Murder by legal sentence is immeasurably more terrible than murder by brigands. Anyone murdered by brigands, whose throat is cut at night in a wood, or something of that sort, must surely hope to escape till the very last minute. There have been instances when a man has still hoped for escape, running or begging for mercy after his throat was cut. But in the other case all that last hope, which makes dying ten times as easy, is taken away FOR CERTAIN. There is the sentence, and the whole awful torture lies in the fact that there is certainly no escape, and there is no torture in the world more terrible. You may lead a soldier out and set him facing the cannon in battle and fire at him and he’ll still hope; but read a sentence of certain death over the same soldier, and he will go out of his mind or burst into tears. Who can tell whether human nature is able to bear this without madness? Why this hideous, useless, unnecessary outrage? Perhaps there is some man who has been sentenced to death, been exposed to this torture and has been told ‘you can go, you are pardoned.’ Perhaps such a man could tell us. It was of this torture and of this agony that Christ spoke, too. No, you can’t treat a man like that!”

Discuss.

How practical were the Puritans! Here is an excerpt from Richard Baxter’s (1615 – 1691) Directions for Grief at the Death of Friends:

To overcome your inordinate grief for the death of your relations, consider these things following.

1. That excess of sorrow is your sin: and sinning is an ill use to be made of your affliction.

2. That it tends to a great deal more: it unfits you for many duties which you are bound to, as to rejoice in God, and to be thankful for mercies, and cheerful in his love, and praise, and service: and is it a small sin to unfit yourselves for the greatest duties?

3. If you are so troubled at God’s disposal of his own, what does your will but rise up against the will of God; as if you grudged at the exercise of his dominion and government, that is, that he is God! Who is wisest, and best, and fittest to dispose of all men’s lives? Is it God or you? Would you not have God to be the Lord of all, and to dispose of heaven and earth, and of the lives and crowns of the greatest princes? If you would not, you would not have him to be God. If you would, is it not unreasonable that you or your friends only should be excepted from his disposal?

4. If your friends are in heaven, how unsuitable is it, for you to be overmuch mourning for them, when they are rapt into the highest joys with Christ; and love should teach you to rejoice with them that rejoice, and not to mourn as those that have no hope.

5. You know not what mercy God showed to your friends, in taking them away from the evil to come, you know not what suffering the land or church is falling into; or at least might have fallen upon themselves; nor what sins they might have been tempted to. But you are sure that heaven is better than earth, and that it is far better for them to be with Christ.

6. You always knew that your friends must die; to grieve that they were mortal, is but to grieve that they were but men.

7. If their mortality or death be grievous to you, you should rejoice that they are arrived at the state of immortality, where they must live indeed and die no more.

8. Remember how quickly you must be with them again. The expectation of living on yourselves, is the cause of your excessive grief for the death of friends. If you looked yourselves to die to-morrow, or within a few weeks, you would less grieve that your friends are gone before you.

9. Remember that the world is not for one generation only; others must have our places when we are gone; God will be served by successive generations, and not only by one.

10. If you are christians indeed, it is the highest of all your desires and hopes to be in heaven; and will you so grieve that your friends are gone thither, where you most desire and hope to be?

Baxter concludes by answering how we are to be comforted if we believe our loved one died without Christ. Go read it!

Jeremiah Burroughs, English Puritan pastor (1599-1646), from his sermon Christ is All, and In All:

Christ is all in all in the lack of things, whatever it is that we lack. Do we lack grace, do we lack gifts, do we lack outward comforts in the world? There is enough in Christ. It is Christ that is instead of all, that is better than all, and that will supply all in His due time. Those who know Christ and have acquaintance with Him, though they have this and that comfort taken from them, they still know how to make supply out of Christ. They have that skill and art and mystery of godliness that they can make Christ to be all in all in the lack of all, and it is a great skill and mystery of godliness to know how to make up all in Christ in the lack of all.

Again, to the saints, Christ is all in all in the enjoyment of all. When they enjoy never so much of the creature comforts, Christ is all in all to them. The satisfaction that their souls have is not that they have larger estates, more friends, or greater comforts than others, but that they know how to enjoy Christ in all, and can look upon it as a fruit of the covenant that God made with them in Christ and as coming down from the fountain of God’s eternal love and mercy in His Son.