"Satan Before the Lord" (detail), c 1750, by Corrado Giaquinto.
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 of Religion: 1.18.1-4
We have been learning, from Calvin's Institutes, about God's Providence. God's Providence is the doctrine where it is held "The
world, created by God, is still cherished and protected by him. Each,
and all of its parts, are still governed by his providence."
Each, and all! Now, let's blow the roof off of our minds a bit. This involvement even includes God sovereignty over Satan.
Look at these verses:
Luke 21:31 - “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you,that he might sift you like wheat,..." (Jesus Christ speaking!)
Job 1:6-12 - "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord
said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against
him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence
of the Lord." (From the Hebrew Canon)
Here, clearly, the Holy Trinity is in "common operation" with Satan! Does that not send your mind into unimaginable contortions!
Let's see how Calvin handles these dumbfounding abstractions...
Here is Calvin's thesis for this chapter:
God employs the instrumentality of the wicked, while he (God) continues free from every stain.
Calvin has proclaimed that all things are governed by God. Each, and all things. Under that mammoth "each and all", falls Satan, Hitler, and every evil monster that ever walked, or will walk, the face of this earth.
To add insult to injury, he further proclaims that holy God bears no stain, or evil, or taint from such actions. "How can this be", screams the carnal mind?
From Calvin:
"From other passages, in which
God is said to draw or bend Satan himself, and all the reprobate, to
his will, a more difficult question arises. For the carnal mind can
scarcely comprehend how, when acting by their means, he contracts no
taint from their impurity, nay, how, in a common operation, he is
exempt from all guilt, and can justly condemn his own ministers. Hence
a distinction has been invented between doing and permitting
because to many it
seemed altogether inexplicable how Satan and all the wicked are so
under the hand and authority of God, that he directs their malice to
whatever end he pleases, and employs their iniquities to execute his
Judgments."
Calvin is not here arguing that God employs Satan, and other evil monsters. That is already a long, foregone conclusion. Here, he argues that carnal thinking (even in those who call themselves Christian), should not shrink from thinking that the will of God might include evil.
Therefore, those who cannot comprehend God bringing evil, particularly upon his elect, have invented the word "permitting", to comfort their minds.
Wow! My mind needs comforting right now. Here's Calvin:
"The modesty of those who are thus alarmed at the appearance of
absurdity might perhaps be excused, did they not endeavor to vindicate
the justice of God from every semblance of stigma by defending an
untruth. It seems absurd that man should be blinded
by the will and command of
God, and yet be forthwith punished for his blindness. Hence, recourse
is had to the evasion that this is done only by the permission, and not
also by the will of God. He himself, however, openly declaring that he does
this, repudiates the evasion. That men do nothing save at the secret
instigation of God, and do not discuss and deliberate on any thing but
what he has previously decreed with himself and brings to pass by his
secret direction, is proved by numberless clear passages of
Scripture."
Because we don't understand the mind of God, we attempt to vindicate God with our own mental inventions.
Here is Calvin's defense from Scripture. This is long, but worthy of a slow, prayerful read:
"What we formerly quoted from the Psalms, to the effect that he does
whatever pleases him, certainly extends to all the actions of men. If
God is the arbiter of peace and war, as is there said, and that without
any exception, who will venture to say that men are borne along at
random with a blind impulse, while He is unconscious or quiescent? But
the matter will be made clearer by special examples. From the first
chapter of Job we learn that Satan appears in the presence of God to
receive his orders, just as do the angels who obey spontaneously. The
manner and the end are different, but still the fact is, that he cannot
attempt anything without the will of God. But though afterwords his
power to afflict the saint seems to be only a bare permission, yet as
the sentiment is true, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as
it pleased the Lord, so it has been done,” we infer that God was the
author of that trial of which Satan and wicked robbers were merely the
instruments. Satan’s aim is to drive the saint to madness by despair.
The Sabeans cruelly and wickedly make a sudden incursion to rob another
of his goods. Job acknowledges that he was deprived of all his
property, and brought to poverty, because such was the pleasure of God.
Therefore, whatever men or Satan himself devise, God holds the helm,
and makes all their efforts contribute to the execution of his
Judgments. God wills that the perfidious Ahab should be deceived; the
devil offers his
agency for that purpose, and is sent with a definite command to be a
lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets (2 Kings 22:20).
If the blinding and infatuation of Ahab is a Judgment from God, the
fiction of bare permission is at an end; for it would be ridiculous for
a judge only to permit, and not also to decree, what he wishes to be
done at the very time that he commits the execution of it to his
ministers. The Jews purposed to destroy Christ. Pilate and the soldiers
indulged them in
their fury; yet the disciples confess in solemn prayer that all the
wicked did nothing but what the hand and counsel of God had decreed (Acts 4:28),
just as Peter had previously said in his discourse, that Christ was
delivered to death by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23);
in other words, that God, to whom all things are known from the
beginning, had determined what the Jews had executed. He repeats the
same thing elsewhere, “Those things, which God before had showed
by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he has so
fulfilled,” (Acts 4:18). Absalom incestuously defiling his father’s bed, perpetrates a
detestable crime. God, however, declares that it was his work; for the
words are, “Thou midst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all
Israel, and before the sun.”
The cruelties of the Chaldeans in Judea are declared by Jeremiah to be
the work of God. For which reason, Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant
of God. God frequently exclaims, that by his hiss, by the clang of his
trumpet, by his authority and command, the wicked are excited to war.
He calls the Assyrian the rod of his anger, and the axe which he wields
in his hand. The overthrow of the city and downfall of the temple, he
calls his own work. David, not murmuring against God, but
acknowledging him to be a just judge, confesses that the curses of
Shimei are uttered by his orders. “The Lord,” says he, “has bidden him
curse.” Often in sacred history whatever happens is said to proceed
from the Lord, as the revolt of the ten tribes, the death of Eli’s
sons, and very many others of a similar description. Those who have a
tolerable acquaintance with the Scriptures see that, with a view to
brevity, I am only producing a few out of many passages, from which it
is perfectly
clear that it is the merest trifling to substitute a bare permission
for the providence of God, as if he sat in a watch-tower waiting for
fortuitous events, his Judgments meanwhile depending on the will of man." Calvin goes on to describe the many places, in Scripture, where God has turned the will of men. This includes turning to both good, and evil.
To conclude this chapter, and Book #1, Calvin hands us this warning:
"Those to whom this seems harsh had
better consider how far their captiousness is entitled to any
toleration, while, on the ground of its exceeding their capacity, they
reject a matter which is clearly taught by Scripture, and complain of
the enunciation of truths, which, if they were not useful to be known,
God never would have ordered his prophets and apostles to teach. Our
true wisdom is to embrace with meek docility, and without reservation,
whatever the Holy Scriptures, have delivered. Those who indulge their
petulance, a
petulance manifestly directed against God, are undeserving of a longer
refutation."
I must confess, this last instruction was a mind bender. I too, often use words like "God has ordained", which in my mind was more God gave permission, rather than God did!
I will pray and meditate on this.
Well, here we are, the end of Calvin's first book. Everything, thus far, has been about finding a proper understanding of God. Up next? The proper understanding of Jesus, the Christ.
I am looking forward to it.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.
Here is an interesting question:
Did God cause the Holocaust, permit it, or having nothing to do with the evil presented there?
