Mike Wittmer

Category: John Calvin

  • hope

    I’ve been working on Sunday’s sermon on hope, and last night Calvin’s Institutes sparked an idea. He discusses the connection between faith, hope, and love (3.2.41-43). After sleeping on it, I wrote this for my sermon. There’s still time to change what needs fixing, if you spot something. There’s a reason why 1 Cor. 13:13…

  • profane ministry

    This afternoon my Calvin class discussed Calvin’s application of the third command. In the Institutes II.8.22, Calvin says that not taking the Lord’s name in vain means, among other things, “we should not rashly or perversely abuse his Holy Word and worshipful mysteries either for the sake of our own ambition, or greed, or amusement….”…

  • Barthisms

    I’m going to share some of my favorite lines from Barth as my class works through volumes II/1 and IV/1 of his Church Dogmatics. Barth once said that John Calvin’s writings were “a waterfall, a primitive forest, a demonic power, something straight down from the Himalayas, absolutely Chinese, strange, mythological; I just don’t have the organs, the suction…

  • Calvin on Brangelina

    I was reading Calvin’s treatise Against the Libertines and came across this powerful section on the necessity of the marriage covenant.  The Libertines were a small and strange sect in Calvin’s day, but their worldview is now widespread in our time.  Most people would not agree with their belief that there is no such thing…

  • calvin on prayer

    I am preparing for class tomorrow, and I came across this encouraging/convicting section from Calvin’s 1541 Institutes on prayer (p. 458). “We are taught by faith to know that all the good we need and which we lack in ourselves is in God and in His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom the Father…

  • the gospel and multi-culturalism

    The new issue of the Calvin Seminary Forum has an intriguing dialogue among Calvin faculty about the Christian Reformed Church’s impending vote (2012) on whether to adopt the Belhar Confession as a fourth confession of faith (alongside the Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort). The United Reforming Church in Southern Africa, a…

  • Calvin and Reformed theology conference

    I significantly revised my class on the theology of John Calvin this fall.  It’s a lot more work but also a lot more fun, as I’m using some of the helpful books that were published last year to celebrate the 500 year anniversary of Calvin’s birth.  Our class is enjoying: 1. The 1541 Institutes.  I…

  • lost in translation

    I have been off the web for about a week–it started late last week when the Amish hotel where I was staying knocked me off its free Internet service and messed up something deep inside my computer.  Beware of Amish people bearing technological gifts!  For those who may be interested, here is my ode to…

  • Calvin at Baker

    In celebration of Calvin’s birthday week, Baker Book House on East Paris is hosting an important panel tomorrow night (Tuesday) from 7:00-8:30.  The lineup is Karin Maag, director of the Meeter Center at Calvin College, who will “dispel the myths” around Calvin, including his part in the death of Servetus; Richard Muller, a world class…

  • the education of John Calvin

    Despite what some blogs will tell you, we haven’t yet reached the anniversary of Calvin’s birth.  But we’re getting close.  I’d say next week, but I’ve been wrong before (I’m the Jack Van Impe of guessing birthdays).  To mark the impending occasion, my friend Chris Brauns wonders what it would take to bring Calvin up…