John Calvin and Martin Luther did not agree on all points. Today, the teachings of the churches that emerged from both have little connection with their origins. Nevertheless, the Church of Rome has a problem with Calvin’s teaching that humankind, by its very nature, has fallen into the abyss. This, it argues, completely contradicts the understanding of the Roman Catholic Church. This discrepancy, however, is due more to the extravagance of the Roman Church than to the fantasies of the former reformer.
Not much of Calvin today
John Calvin (1509–1564), a second-generation reformer, born in Geneva, Switzerland, and author of “Institutio Christianae Religionis,” the so-called “Protestant Summa.” Calvin was just 8 years old in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Later, Calvin and Luther took different positions on the understanding of the gospel in some areas. This particularly concerned the definition of the sacraments, including the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper.
Just as the Lutheran Protestant churches have since completely distanced themselves from Luther’s teachings, but still (brazenly) refer to the great reformer, so too has the branch founded by Calvin. Calvinists, or Presbyterians, today particularly advocate the doctrine of the predetermined “inevitable salvation” or the “inevitable perishing” of humankind. According to this, God had long ago predetermined who would be saved and who would be lost, regardless of what the person had done in his or her life.
It even goes so far that the lost are burned in hell primarily to honor God and to exalt the saved with their own miserable condition. One wonders what must have gone wrong to reveal such cynicism and for it to be believed.
As always, like Luther, so too did Calvin. What they once taught is now only found in historical books and can hardly be observed in the respective churches.
Contrary to humanism
Calvin also held the view, and he was right, that human beings are fundamentally corrupted by nature and incapable of doing anything good. This sounds “natural” and unrealistic in a society completely permeated by humanism, which is understandable, but it can nevertheless be biblically rooted and justified. Likewise, the fact that people who are “corrupted” by nature can behave quite “Christianly” even as non-Christians.
Roman Catholic Church “protests”
Such a Protestant teaching is naturally displeasing to the Roman Catholic Church, which seeks to correct this position from its own perspective. The Church’s media mouthpiece, “catholic.com,” describes Calvin as someone who did not believe that humans could do anything good before being reborn in Christ. Once reborn, humans cannot perform good deeds by their own strength, but only through the power of God.
Calvin’s version is unfair
The Catholic author concludes that Calvin was thus claiming that human beings are fundamentally incapable of doing anything good unless God decides to rediscover them. Man without God can therefore only sin and is incapable of turning away from evil. But this raises the question, the author says, of how man can influence his damnation if he has no influence over his salvation.
If this were the case, as Calvin describes, how could God justly punish us for something we were forced to do? It would be like a judge sentencing someone to the maximum penalty for a crime they were forced to commit, without any possibility of changing their mind. This is quite unjust, the author argues.
According to the Church of Rome, man is not completely fallen
The Catholic Church teaches that humanity is not completely corrupt, according to the Catholic Catechism. Humanity is wounded in its natural powers, subject to suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin. Therefore, even without rebirth in Christ, humanity is perfectly capable of doing good throughout its life. Therefore, humanity is neither inclined to evil nor completely corrupt, according to the Catholic author.
Therefore, Calvin’s teachings contradict everyday human experience.
…and Calvin was right!
With the Fall, human nature fell, and with it the rest of creation. Romans 8:20-22:
“For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.“
Since then, mankind and nature have been subjected to a continuous degeneration, in stark contrast to the replacement religion, the theory of evolution. The Gospel is clear about the condition of the human heart..
Jeremiah 13:23:
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.“
Jeremiah 17:9:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?“
Psalm 53:2-3:
“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.“
Paul was no better
Paul didn’t make himself out to be better than he actually was. He, too, was a man in fallen nature and emphasized this, Romans 7:23:
“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.“
In short: man and his heart are an “unfathomable darkroom” (Info).
Law written in the heart
It is undeniable that there are clearly people who “do good” despite not being born again in Jesus Christ. However, at this point, two systematic, or rather fundamental, problems within the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church come into play. The history of the “Church Fathers” and their teachings, which are still applied today, testify that the statements of the Gospel are, at best, of interest in order to seize on them, twist them into their opposite, and then package them as Christianity, which is tied around people’s necks under duress.
Denial and concealment
This leads to the second fundamental problem: the Roman Church denies the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, makes human salvation dependent on one’s own works (righteousness by works), sets aside God’s laws and establishes its own set of rules, and also conceals the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul describes the situation regarding non-Christians and their behavior in Romans 2:13-14:
“(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:”
How can this be? Jesus Christ himself explained how this can work, already to Moses for the people of Israel and also announced to the prophet Jeremiah for the future people, Deuteronomy 30:6:
“And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.“
Jeremiah 31:33-34:
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
And this is also repeated in Hebrews 8:10 and Hebrews 10:16.
Things have been going haywire for a long time
God’s law, the moral laws, are written on the hearts of people. Not to be forgotten is the work of the Holy Spirit, long present even in the Old Testament, who alerts people to mistakes and sins (conscience!). Were this not the case, humanity might have long since reached the same level of decay as it did before the Flood, or even afterward in regions like Sodom and Gomorrah, as was also demonstrated by numerous pagans and their practice of human sacrifice.
In summary: Man, in his fallen nature, is completely incapable of doing anything good if he were left to his own devices. That is, without moral laws written on his heart by God and also without the work of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who has never heard of Jesus Christ is, as Paul made clear, his own law. And God judges according to man’s knowledge, but also according to what he could have known but refused to get to the bottom of the truth.
“Divinity” of man
In this sense, Calvin was right. This, of course, runs completely counter to the Roman Catholic understanding, since according to their understanding, man can ultimately attain salvation through good deeds, his submission to the Church and its sacraments. If necessary, the surplus of “evil deeds” would be burned in purgatory. The “surplus works” of the “saints” are available for the sale of indulgences, provided the priest has already forgiven the sinner. This further underlines that the Church of Rome denies the blood sacrifice of Jesus.
In addition, the Church of Rome seriously teaches that Jesus came into this world to deify humanity! That is, to revive the “divine spark” within humanity. A divinity in this sense, of course, cannot be a completely fallen nature. Incidentally, this teaching is identical to one of the three lies of the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Info).
What is “good and evil”?
Another principle is important at this point. It is the answer to the question of what constitutes “good” and “evil” from the perspective of the Roman Catholic Church. When the Catholic author speaks of mankind as being incapable of doing good or evil, or of doing so, it is essential to know the standard used to distinguish between good and evil. Who defined this standard, established it, and where can it be read?
On this point, the gospel is again clear and straightforward, and also easy to understand. Whoever does God’s will is “good,” whoever doesn’t is “not good,” or simply “evil.” Justice requires clear guidelines or laws. These also exist, namely the genuine(!) Ten Commandments (Info). These are found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
The violation of any of these commandments is sin and therefore, by definition, evil. 1 John 3:4:
“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
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1 John 3:8:
“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.“
See also 1 John 2:4:
“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.“
Jesus said clearly: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15).
The Church of Rome has its own rules
Since the Church of Rome, even at its founding, took God’s law into its own hands, simply altered it, and imposed its own traditions upon it, a clear distortion of God’s standard is evident from this perspective alone. This is further illustrated by the Roman Catholic “7 Deadly Sins,” since God’s law contains 10 Commandments, and the violation of even one of these 10(!) Commandments leads to death (James 2:10-11).
No matter how one might balance the commandments of God and the tradition of the Church of Rome, 10 minus 7, even without a close examination of the details, results in a deficit of three commandments, which according to the Catholic Church are clearly not so serious, i.e., “venial sins.” Fatal!
Among the most important changes to God’s law are the Fourth Commandment (Sabbath, 7th day of the week – info) and the merging of the Second Commandment with the First Commandment, whereby the prohibition against venerating images is largely ignored. Although the Second Commandment is found in the Catechism as part of the First Commandment, it is never taught when listing the individual Ten Commandments.
In principle, (almost) everything is to be rejected
This Catholic doctrine has at most overlaps with Hellenistic natural law, in the form of humanism, but no points of contact with the Gospel. This applies to its doctrine of salvation, its sacraments, its laws, its justification by works, its cult of Mary, its veneration (worship) of the saints, etc. The Church of Rome reverses virtually all salvation-relevant teachings of the Gospel into their opposite.
The Catholic author’s further remarks also lack any reference to the fact that God wrote His laws in the hearts of people and that the Holy Spirit is diligently at work. According to Catholic understanding, this spirit even stands in the way. For Jesus Christ Himself announced the outpouring and the work of the Holy Spirit as His representative (John 16:7-11). But Christ’s representative on earth is ultimately the Pontiff in Rome. So, “away with the Holy Spirit.”
If such background information is lacking, then one can, of course, impose one’s own doctrine on people, no matter how false it may be. But such deceptions are “genetically determined” in the papacy (Info).
…and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Revelation 13:2
Bible verses from King James Version (1611)
