The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

I. Calvin—Foremost Protestant Foe of “Soul Sleep” Postulate

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564), illustrious father of French Protestantism, top-ranking theologian and theocrat, exerted an enormous influence. In many ways he overshadowed Luther, his contemporary. Precocious as a student and brilliant and independent as a thinker, he first studied for the priesthood in Paris, then for the law at Orleans. He thus had a thorough professional training. In Paris his cousin, Robert Olivetan, induced him to search the Scriptures, pointing out a basic conflict between traditional Roman theology and the express teachings of the Word of God. CFF2 112.2

At Bourges and Orleans, having abandoned theology for the study of law, Calvin nevertheless studied Biblical Greek, which further confirmed him in believing the doctrines of the Protestant faith to be true. So he embraced them, at first privately, but in 1532 he openly professed the Protestant faith and advocated reform of the church. This brought him under the censure of the Sorbonne. At this point it is to be particularly noted that while still at Orleans, in 1534, Calvin published his first theological work, entitled Psychopannychia, a militant treatise against the sleep of the soul between death and the resurrection, and destined to exert a profound influence. CFF2 112.3

Picture 1: Calvin, Renato
Left: John Calvin (d. 1564), Father of French Protestantism—Foremost Reformation Foe of “Soul Sleep” Postulate.
Right: Camillo Renato (d. 1572), Italian Spiritual Franciscan—Soul Sleeps Until Resurrection.
Page 113

Already under suspicion, Calvin soon had to flee to Switzerland to escape persecution, living at first as a fugitive. It was during this period that he wrote his epochal Institutes of the Christian Religion, which was published in 1536 when Calvin was only twenty-six. It is but fair to state that his theological tenets attained greater international acceptance than those of any other Reformer, his name becoming synonymous with the doctrine of predestination. CFF2 113.1

Calvin, it should here be added, was never ordained by either Protestants or Catholics, believing himself called of God and needing no ordination. And he was so accepted. His capacity to work was phenomenal. Treatises fairly flowed from his pen, and his legal training enabled him to employ all the turns of polemic argument to support his views, and made effective opposition difficult. CFF2 113.2

SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD AND THEOCRACY FOR MAN

The cornerstone of Calvin’s theology was the absolute sovereignty of God, coupled with the duty of man to submit implicitly to its sway. He held that God has from all eternity elected, or predetermined, an unchangeable eternal salvation or loss for each individual. And the ultimate reason and justification in any particular case is that God wills it so. The elect of God, known only to Him, constitute the church, outside of which elect there is no salvation. Calvin’s emphasis was intensely theocentric in contrast with that of Luther, which was Christocentric. That really epitomizes the basic difference between them. CFF2 114.1

Arriving in Geneva in 1536, Calvin was urged to stay, and was elected preacher and professor of theology. He accordingly prepared a Confession of Faith, a catechism, and an integrated outline of church government, all three of which were approved in 1537. But the severe doctrines and strict discipline set forth were unpalatable to many, and Calvin was banished from the city in 1538. He withdrew to Strasburg, where he likewise served as pastor and professor of theology. CFF2 114.2

However, in 1540 the Genevese senate sent a pressing invitation to Calvin to return. So in 1541 he again entered Geneva. There he spent the remainder of his life—for thirty years preaching in St. Peter’s Cathedral and seeking to establish a model theocracy. He also founded the Academy of Geneva, which later became the famous university that attracted students from all parts of Europe. All the ability, intensity, and authority of Calvin were here brought to bear against the concept of the mortality of the soul and the sleep of the dead. And the doctrine of Innate Immortality, as he taught it, came gradually to be considered the orthodox doctrine of the majority of the Protestant churches. His influence was phenomenal. CFF2 114.3

Calvin’s passion was to set up a disciplined community with the church’s commission asserting itself in state affairs and all committed to God in solemn covenant. A despotic regime was instituted, with punishment for offenders made obligatory and the details of personal life under rigid scrutiny. Catholics were forbidden to hold office, and dissenters were directed to leave the city. CFF2 115.1

Under the Genevan theocracy the principle of tolerance was totally absent. As Schaff says, unfortunately, to the worst feature of Catholic oppression—recourse to the civil arm, even to capital punishment for spiritual offenses—Calvin coupled the Mosaic code and the theocratic theory. Rome’s burning of the innocent was no reason, he held, why Protestants should spare the guilty. ¹ As a consequence, fifty-eight executions occurred in four years (1542-1546), and seventy-six dissenters were banished from Geneva. CFF2 115.2