Hanseng Posted July 25, 2023 Share Posted July 25, 2023 Calvin could not and would not have any other God than Him who gives us life, who has ransomed us, and who sanctifies us — the Father, God above us; the Son, God for us; the Holy Ghost, God in us. This threefold relation with God, which Scripture revealed to him and which entirely satisfied his inward longings, forced him to recognize a difference in God; but on the other hand, unity being essential to the Deity, he was bound to maintain it at any cost, and he thus felt himself constrained to embrace the idea of a divine Trinity. Against this doctrine Servetus leveled his bitterest sarcasms. The Spaniard rejected what he denominated an ‘imaginary Trinity;’ he called those who believed in it ‘tritheists,’ or even atheists, and abused them in coarse language. ‘Jesus is man,’ he said; ‘the Godhead was communicated to Him by grace, but He is not God by nature. The Father alone is God in that sense.’ He invited Calvin to a conference; puffed up and charmed with his own system, he fancied himself certain to convince the reformer, and flattered himself with the hope of making him his fellow-laborer. History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, vol. 3 p. 94; Book 4 chapter 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanseng Posted July 27, 2023 Author Share Posted July 27, 2023 Servetus on Trial The scene revealed the man to his judges. The blasphemies which he avowed, and not less the haughtiness with which he defended himself, shocked and revolted them. The Trinity he styled "a three-headed Cerberus," a hell-hound." Some of the suppositions he made to discredit the Incarnation were simply indecent, and we pass them by. "If the angels," he said, "were to take the body of asses, you must allow they would be asses and would die in their asses' skins. So too you must allow that, on your supposition being right, God himself might become an ass, and the Holy Spirit a mule. Can we be surprised if the Turks think us more ridiculous than mules and asses?" Calvin truly divined the deeper error beneath these—the denial of a personal God—that is, of God. "His frenzy was such," says the Reformer, writing to Farel, "that he did not hesitate to say that the Divinity dwells even in devils. The Godhead is essentially communicated to them as it is to wood and to stones." "What, unhappy man," replied Calvin, "if any one treading upon this floor should say to you that he was treading your God under his feet, would you not be scandalized at such an assertion?" He answered, "I, on the contrary, do not doubt but that this footstool, or anything else which you may point out, is the substance of God." When it was again objected to him, "Then will the devil actually be God," he answered with a peal of laughter, "And can you doubt it?" Wylie, History of Protestantism, book 14, chapter 19. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanseng Posted August 26, 2023 Author Share Posted August 26, 2023 Details of the condemnation and execution of Servetus for "Arianism." Wylie, J.A., History of Protestantism, book 14, chapter 22 Condemnation and Death of Servetus | EGW Writings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DickOdenthal Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 What are your thoughts on Calvin having his friend executed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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