"St. Christopher carrying the Christ Child", c 1480-1490, by Hieronymus Bosch.
This post is part of my year long study of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. To facilitate this course of study, I am following along with Princeton Theological Seminary's "A Year with the Institutes", which also includes an audio reading of the text.
Calvin's Institutes: 1.12.1-3
Prayer
for Motorists
Grant me O Lord a
steady hand and watchful eye.
That no one shall be hurt as I pass by.
Thou gavest life, I pray no act of mine may take away
or mar that gift of Thine.
Shelter those, dear Lord, who bear me company,
From the evils of fire and all calamity.
Teach me to use my car for others' need;
Nor miss through love of undue speed
the beauty of the world; that thus I may
with joy and courtesy go on my way.
St. Christopher, holy patron of travellers,
protect me and lead me safely to my destiny.
I am feeling a bit of tension as I begin to write this post, as I have many dear friends and family who are devout Roman Catholics. However, in my humble opinion, it is important for us not to be Roman Catholic, or Protestant, but most importantly of all, regenerated children of God.
If this is our chief aim, and we are not willing to surrender ourselves to tradition, then we can have a helpful discourse.
John Calvin's point, in this section, is that it is profane to offer the slightest amount of reverence to, or prayers to any "angels or dead people".
"It is enough to recognize that, whenever any observances of piety are transferred to someone other than the sole God, sacrilege occurs. And first, indeed, superstition contrived divine honors either for the sun and the stars or for idols. Then followed ambition, which, by adorning mortals with the spoils of God, dared profane everything sacred. And although there remained the principle of worshiping a supreme Being, it was a common custom to offer sacrifices indiscriminately to tutelary divinities, lesser gods, or dead heroes. So inclined are we to lapse into this error that what God rigorously reserves for himself alone we distribute among a great throng."
Acts 10:25-26 - When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.”
It seems clear to me, that if we observe the whole of the Scriptures, it is clear that holy God forbids us from holding up in reverence, and/or praying to anyone but Himself.
Why would we desire to pray to a man, or angel for that matter, when we have the ability to go directly to God, and have Christ as our mediator?
I must stand with Calvin on this. If we forgo our traditions, and simply consider holy God, and search his holy word, the case seems clear. We should not bow to, pray to, or consider anyone capable of helping us, in a divine sort of way, except for the Holy Trinity.
What say you?
