The Sinner on Trial Isaiah 1:18-20

Introduction

How can we get rid of our guilt?  Who needs forgiveness, anyway?

Read Isaiah 1:1-4,10-23

ILL.) Cain killed his brother Abel, David killed Bathsheba’s husband, Hamlet was a play about murder and revenge, His uncle had killed his father and married his mother. The Lion King follows this same plot. 

Jezebel had Naboth killed so King Ahab could steal his vineyard. From the Oklahoma bombing to the streets of large cities with gangs, blood still flows. We, like lady Macbeth, can see the spot of blood staining our hands, the bloody glove does fit our hands, what can we do with our bloody hands?  

The people of Judah struggled with this in Isaiah’s day.

2.  Background to Isaiah chapter one:

a) chapter one can be outlined as follows:

  I.  The pitiful condition of Israel (1-9)

 II.  The sins of the nation (10-17)

III.  The choice between repentance & judgment (18-31

       A.  The possibility of forgiveness (18-20)

       B.   The Prophet’s lament over Jerusalem. (21-23)

       C.   The Lord’s pending judgement of Jerusalem (24 -31)

b) Isaiah is focusing on prophecies against Judah, the Southern Kingdom.

Chapter one is prophecies of condemnation.

He details the condition of Judah, the sins of Judah, the choice of Judah, repent or be judged, then he grieves over Judah’s choice, and then spells out the coming judgment on Judah, the covenant people of God.

c) Isaiah began his ministry around 740 B.C.  

The first section of this whole book deals with the Assyrian Crisis (37).  Isaiah was a resident of Jerusalem & primarily a prophet to Judah.  

In 722 B.C. the Assyrian’s had destroyed Northern Israel and carried the people away.  

They attacked Judah and Jerusalem in 701 B.C.  

Judah was decimated, Jerusalem still stood because God protected the city In 740 B.C., when Isaiah started out as a prophet, the split nation had a period of prosperity.  The people became covenant breakers and forsook God.  Idolatry was like the common cold, epidemic. Sexual immorality and greed abounded.  The people were thieves and murderers.  The people rebelled against the laws of the Covenant and abandoned the true God of the Bible.  False worship. Heartless worship, pagan worship, murder, and sexual sins were so common God called them Sodom & Gomorrah. 

God’s spanking paddle is the Assyrians.  

But the people will not wake up.  

They will not learn from their mistakes.  

They love their sins, and they are sticking with them to the end.

God gets really personal and offer them a conditional invitation to life, that has a very short term on it.  They refuse God’s final appeal as Judas ignored Jesus last appeal in the upper room.

Our Focus today will be on God’s appeal to the lost people in the Covenant community.  These were the make believer, the lost church members and seekers of Isaiah’s day.

3. (Direction) We will study this under three headings:

  I.  Every person should consider God’s call to court. vs 18

 II.  Every person should consider the consequences of confession of sin and willing obedience. vs 19  

III.  Every person should consider the curses that come with rebelling against the Covenantal God of             Scripture.  vs 20

  I.  EVERY PERSON SHOULD CONSIDER GOD’S CALL TO COURT.  vs 18 (Read v. 18)

      A.  The command to come.

1. God has issued a subpoena to his people.  

               All who hear and read the word of God, to them He commands, come to Court.                   

2. All who are in a covenant contract with God,  you have violated your terms, now you must                     appear before the judge.

3.  God is the plaintiff, the one wronged, and the  judge.

      B.  The call to court.

    1.  What is the meaning of “Let us reason together”?

    2.  Several translate this as “come and let us debate our case in court.”  The words used are a                     special ones that show us God has a lawsuit in mind.

         If your friends ask what you did Sunday, you can tell them you were sued by God.

    3.  Long ago God made a covenant with a man named Adam, and with all his children.                    Adam would represent all by obeying the covenant or breaking the covenant. God made another covenant with Noah, and if your a stranger to the church family, you still are related to God by these two Covenants.

         But if you're a church member then you are part of the New Covenant Community. And if                     you are a real Christian, you are in Covenant with Abraham and with Jesus Christ. So, no                     matter who you are, you are a covenant breaker, and today is your day in court.  

                   I hope you brought a lot of money, because God could sue your socks off.

    4. (ILL). Construction - signed contract - date - over-time, contract broken, court is an option.

    5.  We must be ready to Face the Covenantal God in court. 

         What is the central promise of every covenant God makes?  I will be your God,                         and you will be my people.

         There are conditions and obligations for both God and us to meet, and if we fail, we have our day in court.  Are you encouraged yet?

      C.  The grace in the word “now”.

1.  This term can mean, “please” and this softens the command to come to trial.

2.  The Holy God who is perfect and hates all sin, kindly says, 'please' to spiritually dead 

      and sinful men. To people who have desperately wicked hearts. Fallen people who have depravity that spreads to every fiber of their being.

      Yet, also, people with dignity, because they bear the image of God. They can love, and think,                     and feel, and choose all in accordance with their moral natures.

      Come , please, and let us go to court together

      D.  The call is from God.  How do we know this?

1.  The phrase “says the Lord” vs 18

         2.  The phrase “the mouth of the Lord has spoken” vs 20

3.  These are not 1st Isaiah, or second Isaiah or an Isaiah schools carefully pasted phrases no matter who, w/ their PH. D. Tells you that nonsense. These are the words of God recorded by one man, Isaiah the son of Amoz.  

                God has called you to court.  

                Are you ready for your defense? 

                He says you have broken your contract.

      How do you plead? He asks for a guilty plea

      E.  The call to confess.

Will you agree with God’s charges?  Will you say the same thing about your sin that God does?

If you will agree with the plaintiff about your guilt and repent of that sin The judge says:

  He will clean you up!  Read v. 18

1.  Permanently dyed red robes are changed to white wool robes by God.  

                Bright white without a spot of dirt or blood left.

2.  Why did God use the color red in this illustration?  It is the color of blood.  

                Murders and thieves cause blood to be spilt, people to die.  Babies sacrificed, their       blood cries out to God. 

      (Isa 1:15 NKJV) When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; 

                Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

      (Isa 1:21 NKJV) How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice;                                    Righteousness lodged in it, But now murderers.

      Well, that may be Jews back then, but certainly not Christians. Really?

      (James 4:2 NKJV) You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain.                You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

      Jesus in Matthew 5 taught us we break 

                - command against murder by hating and unjustified anger.

      We too have spotted hands.

      3.  What are the images of white wool and clean fresh snow supposed to bring into our minds?

      The contrast of pairs.

      Colors:  Scarlet sins vs white clean snow

        Clothes Scarlet robes vs white wool garments

      Doubled died permanent scarlet robes are made white again.  

                (ILL.) If you wash in the Jordan river, the red stays in ...

      (ILL).  Tide commercials, see how bright the whites are ..

        God does a better job than Tide Laundry detergent.  

                No one can out sin God’s cleansing power.

      The picture here is like watching the Duke's of Hazard TV in reverse.  On almost every show                 Boss Hogg’s nice white suit is covered with mud or manure, something filthy, rewind that                     tape, filthy Boss Hogg becomes shiny white again.

4.  The Hebrew poetry is beautiful in this majestic book. This book contains some of the finest                 literature in either English or Hebrew.  But this book is not just inspiring literature for pagans to admire.  

                This is a word from God almighty that we are to obey.            

      But in Hebrew poetry there are often parallel words that help us see the picture clearer.                         The same thought is expressed in different words so we will be sure to understand it.  

                Or it is contrasted to make - picture clear. Blood-stained hands become clean

      Double died garments go back to white.

5.  Consider this verse from Psalm 51:7 that teaches the same thing.

      (Psa. 51:7 NKJV) Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be                 whiter than snow.

6.  Notice this surprising offer by God to sinful men.

      This text is designed to be shocking, to Judah, to - Rabbi’s, to the Liberals, the Fundamentalists, and Evangelicals. Everyone is shocked.  God is not as predictable as man wants.  Everybody wants God to not say something or to say something different here.

7.  Let's look at the defendants' choices at the trial before God.

      They could repent and trust in God out of love and be spared.   Or ...

      They could rebel and disobey in hate and selfishness.

      Every hearer of this message was directly responsible for the judgment that came upon          their city.  God has taken away your excuse.  You remain married to your sins because you want too, so you are 100% responsible for your own condemnation.

      F.  Application

1.  How clean are your hands?  Your souls?

      Are they dirty?  Don’t despair.  

                Go to the one who can clean you up from the inside out.   

      I John 1:9 (NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins                       and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

      (1 John 1:7 NKJV) But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship 

                with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

      [Through the shed blood of Jesus, there is forgiveness and redemption from sin. 

                The word "cleanse" is in the present tense and denotes continuous action. 

                The blood of Jesus "keeps on cleansing" from "sin in its every form."]

2.  Have you tried to wash up by yourself?  

                It's like trying to wipe a floor with a dirty rag. The more you wipe the worse it gets.  

                God commanded Judah to clean -up so they could discover that they could not do it.

3.  Can you see the stains?  Are you guilty?

4.  Only God can change the unchangeable.

       (Jer 13:23 NKJV) Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may                       you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

5.  Christian friend, have you written off a person in sin or a type of sinner?  Oh, that person                          does _____   You need to revisit God’s laundry mat and see the filth rags He makes clean                         every hour. That person's spots are nothing compared to the spots He has already removed.  

                Stop focusing on the spots and focus on the spot remover.  He can pull it off.

6.  Have you told yourself, “I have sinned to badly for God to forgive me?  I am beyond                        cleaning up.”  That’s a lie from the pit of hell and it Still has the smoke smell on it.                        There is no spot God cannot take out.  

                Blood red robes instantly become like the pure white snow.

      He can save from the uttermost to the gutter most.

      Stop looking at your sins and lift your eye’s to the Savior on the throne, if that is how you are               thinking. if you are telling yourself, my hands are clean enough, I can get by on my own                        strength, my own goodness, then you need to look deeply at your wicked heart and sin                            stained hands, first, and then look to the spot remover.

      (Rev 7:13-14 NKJV) Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "Who are these                           arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?" {14} And I said to him, "Sir,                          you know." So, he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation,                        and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

      G.  Illustration, CLR rust remover and Pilgrim w/ his burden.

  We have a remarkable cleaner in our home called CLR. Calcium Rust and Lime are no match for its power.  It has cleaned up everything I have used it on.  It is man made.

  If man can do that, what can God do?  

            Pilgrim found out. When he approached the cross with that anvil of sin on his back, it fell off at             the foot of the cross and rolled into the empty tomb to be never seen again.

 II.  EVERY PERSON SHOULD CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES OF CONFESSION OF SIN AND WILLING OBEDIENCE. VS 19 

      A.  The consequences of confession.

1.  We must face our awful sin in the light of truth.

2.  We must turn our backs on our friend, Denial.

3.  We receive forgiveness & are made free.

      B.  The conditions of forgiveness.

1.  If you are willing . . .   God will make you willing.  No one comes kicking and screaming                   while being dragged into the kingdom. No one stands knocking at the door, begging                                to come in, and gets turned away. The Bible says:

      Psa. 110:3 Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power;

2.  If you are obeying. . . Just saying I am sorry is not enough.  Repentance is turning your back                   on the sin and facing God.  

                True repentance has a change of direction and visible fruit.

       C.  The consequences of willing obedience to the call of God.

  1.  Eat the best of the land - live in it, stay in it.

  2.  Prosperity - both physical and spiritual.

  3.  Avoid the chastisement of God

      D.  Application

1.  Are you submitting & consenting 

                to the call of God?

      a.  The call to repentance and dependent trust

      b.  The call to discipleship & self-denial

      c.  The call to service and ministry.

      d.  The call to forsake our idols.

2.  Are you obeying God’s word?

      a.  Hearing His voice by reading, studying, meditating on, and memorizing the Word.

      b.  Heading His word ‘be doer of the - word’

      c.  Obeying the truth.

           3.  Do you want to prosper spiritually?

      E.  Illustration: Job’s patient suffering paid off.  

           The willing obedient of the suffering servant 

  (Isa. 53) leads to exaltation (Phil. 2) 

            Jesus went to the cross and God highly 

            exalted him.  Obedience pays off.  

            When God hauls you into court you will not 

            be before Judge Wopner - Peoples Court.Jezebel thought she would get away with                   killing Naboth, but she found out that Payday is someday, and her own servants threw                          her out the window, lying there with broken bones, she was eaten by wild dogs as soon as she               died, the angels carried her soul to hell.  Court day is coming. 

            Are you ready?

    There is only one way to be saved, delivered by one name

  What can take away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus, what can make me whole again, 

            nothing but the blood of Jesus. How precious is the flow that makes me 

            white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

III.  EVERY PERSON SHOULD CONSIDER THE CURSES THAT COME WITH REBELLING                      AGAINST THE COVENANTAL GOD OF SCRIPTURE.  vs 20

      A.  It is dangerous to be resisting the word of God - preached and written.

  1.  A double edged sword

  2.  The standard on the day of judgment.

      B.  It is a hazardous practice to be rebelling against the rule and rules of God.

  1.  Every knee should bow now, don’t wait.   

          2.  The rebellious are going into the lake of fire.

      C.  It is risky and foolish to refuse God’s call to confess our sin and to turn from them in        repentance.

  1.  Each time we resist our heart get 

                 a little harder.

  2.  God’s patience has a limit, today is the day of salvation, tomorrow God may give you up          to follow your depraved heart deeper into the quicksand of sin.

      D.  What were the consequences of rebelling for Judah?

  1.  Eaten by the sword - to lose the war, many killed by a sword.

  2.  They lost the land of promise.

  3.  Judah lost its freedom and self-rule. Become slaves.

  4.  They left the land of the living - this earth, they died.

  5.  They lost all of their possessions.

  6.  They forfeited their opportunity to enter everlasting life in the new Jerusalem; some went to                    hell.

      E.  They would receive the opposite blessing for each of these curses if they willing obeyed from                the heart.

  1.  They would not be eaten by the sword - they would win the war; few would be killed by a                       sword.

  2.  They would keep the land of promise.

  3.  Judah would keep its freedom and self-rule.

  4.  The people would stay in the land of the living - this earth, for a while longer.

  5.  They would keep their possessions and get more from their enemy's defeat.

  6.  They would keep open their opportunity to enter everlasting life in the new Jerusalem,                           some would go to heaven.

      F.  God’s people chose to rebel.  What were the results?

1.  God said no problem, I have limited my sovereignty to your will, you can do whatever you                     want, right?  WRONG.

2.  The Babylonians deported them out of the land.

3.  They took their silver and gold, possessions, even out of the temple.

4.  They burned the temple and broke down the city’s wall of defense.  (The Temple, the only          place in all the earth where a man could meet with the true God and have his sins atoned for until the Messiah would come take them away.)

5.  Many in Judah starved to death. They ate unspeakable things.

6.  Many were killed during the fight during the siege.

7.  They ceased being the light to the pagan nations.

      G. The Bible had already warned these people of the consequences of rebelling against the                       covenant.

1.  Moses was very clear in his warning in Deut. 28.

     (This was a message preached and Scripture itself)

2.  Deut.  28:1-) If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his                         commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. {2} All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: {3} You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.                                

3.  Deut.  28:45-8) All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and               overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and               observe the commands and decrees, he gave you. {46} They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. {47} Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, {48} therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has         destroyed you.

4.  Deut. 30:19-20 (NIV) This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have                  set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live {20} and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

      H.  Application

1.  Paul put it this way, II Cor. 5:20-1(NIV) We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as                              though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be                           reconciled to God. {21} God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we                     might become the righteousness of God.

2.  The God of the Bible is making you an offer.

3.  God is offering to make your soul clean.

       Would you like to have all your guilt gone?

       Every time you broke God’s law and every time you failed to measure up to God’s                              Perfection, you sinned and that sin stained you. Look at your hands. They are bright                         red from the people you have destroyed with your tongue, they are stained with every lie,                      every lustful thought, every desire to have something that belonged to someone else.

4.   They tell me that vinegar and cold water will get blood stains out of clothes.  

                But the only thing that will clean your crimson hands is more blood, 

                the blood of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth.

      He will make your hands and soul as clean as fresh bright white snow.

5.   God is offering an individual covenantal relationship with Himself.  This is an                                  awesome offer.  You have a empty space inside your inner being that only the God of the covenant can truly fill.  Our idols just give temporary relief and greater thirst. We are lonely and afraid                      and we want our lives to matter.  We want to be loved.  Only God’s love and friendship can fill up that void.

6.   You are at the fork in the road.  

                You are on trial before God.

      a.  How will you respond to the invitation to life?

      b.  Will you continue on the road to death and destruction?

      c.   Will you join Judah in her folly, or will you learn from her mistakes?

7.   If you continue in your love affair with sin and chose the curses of the covenant you must                       blame yourself for your coming destruction. Don’t get mad at God for giving you what you                   asked for.

8.   If you have already been cleansed by God, are you willingly and obediently following Him

      Do you understand Grace, or are you motivated by merit or legalism?

9.   Even now your works can’t clean your hands.  You serve Him in love and gratitude if you are                   His.  And your joy is full because His cross-work did it all.  Jesus paid it all.  All to Him I                      owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.  You are not here because                      you are good, you are here because you are His, the only one who is good

     I.   Ill. Bruce Wilkerson had a friend who was about to leave his wife and children for a younger                       woman.  Bruce walked him through the next years of pain and anguish he would                                 experience.  He was face to face w/ the price tag of his sin.  In tears he repented and chose not to follow that path because the cost was too great.  Learn from Judah’s mistake.

They let their time limit pass to repent and had to endure the pain of their sin.     

Conclusion:

We have said:

  I.  Every person should consider God’s call to court. 

 II.  Every person should consider the consequences of confession of sin and willing obedience. 

III.  Every person should consider the curses that come with rebelling against the Covenantal God of  

      Scripture. 

In Pilgrims Progress after Christian gets saved, the angel come and bring him a clean white robe and helmet of salvation and the key of promise and the word of God.  His filthy rags are removed and clean, clothes are put on him.

This is in part an illusion to Zechariah 3, Yeshua the priest, is in filthy rags and Satan is accusing him, but King Jesus, the Angel of the Lord, give the priest clean garments and a clean turban.  Only Jesus can clean you up.  Your best deeds are as filthy rags ... That’s your best shot, w/ 85% right motive, it is filthy.  But Jesus can clean your spots from the inside out.  Don’t delay coming to Him on His terms of trust, repentance, and surrender.  Jesus has the clean hands, and He can make your hands clean too.  Won’t you come to Him today?

Modified Evangelism Explosion Outline

 

I.  The Introduction (F.I.R.E.)

Family (Questions) Have any hobbies?  

Interests: [Tr.] Do you ever think about spiritual things?

Religious Background: When you attend church, where do you go?

Exploratory questions:

1.  Have you come to a place in your life that you know for certain that you have everlasting life and that you will  

     go to heaven when you die?

2.  Suppose that you were to stand before God right now and He asked you, “Why should I let you into my             

     heaven?”  What would you say?

II.  The gospel

      A.  GRACE        1.  Heaven is a free gift.

                     2.  It is not earned or deserved.

      B.  MAN           1.  Is a sinner, a lawbreaker (deserves death).

                      2.  Cannot save himself.

      C.  GOD            1.  Is merciful - therefore doesn’t want to punish us.

                      2.  Is just (holy) - therefore He must punish sin.

      D.  CHRIST      1.  Who He is - Jesus is God and He became Man at the first Christmas.

                2.  What He did - He paid for His people’s sin and purchased a place in heaven                    for us which He offers as a free gift.

                                3.  He did this by dying on the cross and shedding His blood for us.  Three days                                           later God the Father raised Him from the dead.

                4.  Christ returned to heaven and God made Him Lord of the universe.  He is now                   reigning as King over His universe.  He is everyone’s Lord.

      E.  REPENTANCE  1.  The Bible says that God has commanded every person to repent.                                                        Acts 17:30

                                 2.  What it is not - just feeling sorry.

                 3.  What it is - a change of all that I am from sin and selfishness to God.  It is a                                              U-turn, a change of direction (confession plus action). It is a turning to God                                              through Jesus and away from sin.

      F.  FAITH         1.  What it is not - only agreeing mentally to a few facts nor is it temporary faith.

                2.  What it is - actually trusting Jesus alone for deliverance from sin.

                        3.  It is an act of the mind, will and feelings.     

     G.  SURRENDER  1.  You have put God’s gift of faith to use when you have bowed before the                                                    throne of Jesus in submission and trust, asking Him to save you.

                                2.  Surrendering to Jesus as Lord means giving Jesus control of our lives. We                                               acknowledge Him as our Boss from now on.  We let him drive the car of our                                           ives.

     H.  RESULT             (of hearing this message)

           COSTS          1.  Those who truly believe and obey this message will be saved from sin’s                                                   punishment and control in their lives.

                 2.  Those who will not believe and obey will be responsible for rejecting the                                                   only escape path God has offered in the gospel.

III.  The commitment

        A.   Qualifying Question: Does this make sense to you?

        B.   Is there any reason you would not be willing to receive God’s gift of everlasting life?

        C.   Are you willing to turn from your sin and place your faith in Jesus right now?

        D.   Cost of commitment (explain the costs and losses of being a Christian)

        E.   Question of next step:

               1.  Would you be interested in coming to a Bible study to go over these truths in detail from                         the Bible?

     OR    2.  Would you be interested in coming to my Sunday School class or an Inquirer’s class?

     OR    3.  Jesus promises that He will not turn away from those who come to Him on gospel terms,                        faith and repentance.  (Read Matthew 11:28-30) This is Christ’s invitation to you, for you                      to come to Him. God has commanded you to repent and trust in the Lord Christ.  I urge                          you to become at peace with God through His Son, the LORD Jesus Christ.  You need to                        ask the Lord Jesus to save you.

        F.  Do you have any questions?  (Explain the prayer of submission for those who ask)

Dear God, I know that the Lord Jesus is Your Son.  He is God and He became man.  I know that He shed his blood by dying on the cross for sinners and was raised from the dead.  I know that I have broken Your rules, and I have sinned and need forgiveness.  I am now willing to turn from my sins and receive Jesus as my Deliverer and my Boss, my Savior and my Lord.  I now trust Him, I now repent of my sins, I surrender to Jesus.  Lord Jesus, please save me.  Thank you.  I pray in Jesus Name.  Amen. 

IV. Immediate follow-up

        A.  Bible - Live in the Word (Start reading the gospel of John)

        B.  Prayer - pray in faith   (each day)

        C.  Worship - spend time with the Master (devotions & come to church w/ me)                    

        D.  Fellowship with Believers (small group, S.S. class, church service, etc.)

        E.  Witness to the world (use present unsaved contacts, have a Matthew party)

        F.  Discipleship - one-on-one edification (first be discipled, then disciple others)

        G.  Service (ministering to other Christians, discover gifts)

Two Baptist Older Works on the Doctrine of Election

 Abstract of Principles, 1858 Southern Seminary

 

V.  Election

Election is God’s eternal choice of some persons unto everlasting life — not because of foreseen merit in them, but of His mere mercy in Christ — in consequence of which choice they are called, justified and glorified.

 

The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, adopted in 1744 as the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, latter adopted as the Charleston Confession of Faith.

 

1. God hath decreed in Himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever come to pass; ¹ yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin nor hath fellowship with any therein;² nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established; ³ in which appears His wisdom in disposing all things, and power and faithfulness in accomplishing His decree.⁴

 

1. Isa. 46:10; Eph. 1:11; Heb. 6:17; Rom. 9:15, 18.

2. Jas. 1:13; 1 Jhn. 1:5.

3. Acts 4:27-28; Jhn. 19:11.

4. Num. 23:19; Eph. 1:3-5.

 

2. Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass, upon all supposed conditions,⁵ yet hath He not decreed anything, because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.⁶

 

5. Acts 15:18.

6. Rom. 9:11, 13, 16, 18.

 

3. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestined, or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ,⁷ to the praise of His glorious grace;⁸ others being left to act in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of His glorious justice.⁹

 

7. 1 Tim. 5:21; Mt 25:34.

8. Eph 1:5-6.

9. Rom. 9:22-23; Jude 4.

 

4. These angels and men thus predestined and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished.¹⁰

 

10. 2 Tim. 2:19; Jhn. 13:18.

 

5. Those of mankind that are predestined to life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love,¹¹ without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving Him thereunto. ¹²

 

11. Eph 1:4, 9, 11; Rom. 8:30; 2 Tim 1:9; 1 Thes. 5:9.

12. Rom. 9:13, 16; Eph 2:5, 12.

 

6. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so He hath, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto; ¹³ wherefore they who are elect, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ,¹⁴ are effectually called unto faith in Christ, by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified,¹⁵ and kept by His power through faith unto salvation;¹⁶ neither are any other redeemed by Christ, or effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.¹⁷

 

13. 1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Thes. 2:13.

14. 1 Thes. 5:9-10.

15. Rom. 8:30; 2 Thes. 2:13.

16. 1 Pet. 1:5.

17. Jhn. 10:26; 17:9; 6:64.

 

7. The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will of God revealed in His Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election;¹⁸ so shall this doctrine afford matter of praise,¹⁹ reverence, and admiration of God, and of humility,²⁰ diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the gospel.²¹

 

18. 1 Thes. 1:4-5; 2 Pet. 1:10.

19. Eph 1:6; Rom. 11:33.

20. Rom. 11:5-6, 20.

21. Lk 10:20.

Basics about the Christian Science Sect

 

Christian Science

 

Origin:               Mary Ann Morse Baker was born in 1821 in Bow, New Hampshire. When she turned 17 years old, she joined the Congregational church of her parents (1838), but it was noted that she did not agree with the church’s position on the sovereignty of God in the salvation of humans, but they accepted her as a member anyway. She married George Glover in 1843, but he died of Yellow Fever only seven months into their marriage. In 1853 she married Daniel Patterson who was a dentist. She remained sick (emotionally and physically) most of the time since childhood. Then she went to a healer in Portland, Maine in 1862 named Phineas Parkhurst Quimby who radically changed her thinking. She became a healer herself using his methods. In 1866 Patterson left Mary and she divorced him for dissertation in 1893. Also, in 1866 Mary healed herself from injuries sustained in a fall on icy pavement and Quimby died. In 1875 after nine years as a Christian Science teacher and healer in which she taught from Quimby’s manuscripts, she wrote her first edition of Science and Health. Much of this material is similar to Quimby’s work, Science of Man. It includes ideas found in the Greek philosopher Plato, as well as ancient Gnosticism, Docetism, and Hinduism. In 1877 she married Asa G. Eddy, one of her followers, who died in 1882. In 1879 she founded the “Church of Christ, Scientist” in Boston, the mother church. In 1883 the sixth edition of her book was published, now called Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She died in 1910 and was not resurrected as many of her followers expected.

Scriptures:        The Bible, but it is to be used with Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy; other authorities include the testimony of the Science of Mind (demonstrations of Divine Science).

Divisions:          The New Thought philosophy came prior to and along with Christian Science, but the following groups have sprung from the philosophical foundations of Christian Science: Unity School of Christianity, Mind Science, Religious Science, Divine Science, and Scientology.

Beliefs:              Christian Science is the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine principle and rule of universal harmony.  There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore, man is not material; he is spiritual.

1.      Jesus was a human man born of a natural birth that only partially represented the spirit of Christ; he was not the Christ, which is an eternal spirit.

2.      Life, Truth, and Love represent the spirit of God on earth. This is the only trinity.

3.      Sorrow, sin, sickness, pain, evil, and death are illusions and are not real. The Mind or the spirit is real, matter is not real, only an illusion.

4.      Nothing is real, eternal, or spirit accept God and His idea.

5.      God is not personal; God is all that is real. All that is real is divine, and God is good, so all is good (pantheism).

6.      Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy is the Revelator for this age. The human Jesus was merely a Way Shower. Jesus' death was not a sacrificial payment for sin. It was a demonstration of the principle of love and of man’s unity with God.

7.      The central fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power.

8.      God’s forgiveness of sin is based on his destruction of sin and giving the spiritual understanding that recognizes evil as unreal.

9.      Christ is really the Christ-idea, the Son of God, the greatest manifestation of the eternal Mind. The Holy Spirit is not a person; it is Divine Science, the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love.

10.   The creation story in Genesis one is correct, man is made in God’s image, the story in chapter two is a false alternative story involving matter.

11.   The sick are healed by “knowing” there is no such thing as sickness. Healing comes by the one Mind or God. The human mortal mind causes the belief in disease.

Practices:

1.      Healing comes from Christian Science beliefs and practitioners, not medical professionals.

2.      The Church of Christ, Scientist mother church in Boston is the model for all other Christian Science churches. It has two pastors only, the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Members have daily readings as well as prescribed weekly readings at the public assemblies.

3.      Only approved reading materials are allowed to be read. These can be found at the Christian Science Reading Room. Censorship is practiced.

4.      Prayer is offered to Father-Mother God.

5.      Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are interpreted spiritually, so these ordinances are never participated in by their members in a literal or physical way.

6.      The first public reader in the weekly service is a woman and the second one is a man.

7.      Publishing of the Christian Science Monitor daily news and weekly magazine.

8.      To adamantly deny that Mary Baker Eddy used morphine from twenty-three years old until her death at eighty-nine years old, as many of her relatives have testified.

9.      To deny Mary B. Eddy’s plagiarism of Quimby’s Science of Man (1868), Lindley Murray’s, The English Reader (4^th ed., 1823), and Francis Lieber “The Metaphysical Religion of Hegel” (1866). Likewise, they deny that the retired Unitarian minister J. H. Wiggin rewrote most of Mary’s book for her including deliberately editing the quoted material to make it appear slightly different than the original sources.

10.   Redefining Christian terms: atonement = at–one–ment; Hell= mortal belief, error, lust, remorse, hatred, sin , sickness; Mortal Mind= nothing claiming to be something

Size:                  Christian Science peaked in the 1950s to around 400,000, but has been in decline and now has between 250,000 to 300,000 members—by best estimates. They are forbidden to report their numbers according to their church manual.

 

A COMPARISON OF THE ECONOMIC SYSTEMS OF JOHN CALVIN AND THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

 

        The Reformation’s effect on society was in more areas than merely theological issues. It had a major influence on the political, economic, and theological areas of life. John Calvin, one of the major reformers, is noted for addressing these matters and many other topics of interest in his day. Moreover, John Cavlin’s economic views were very different that those of the sixteen century Roman Catholic Church. He was attempting to reflect faithfully the teaching of the whole Bible (the 66 books of the Protestant Cannon) on how to operate justly in a fallen world with depraved humans in control.

             Some historians believe that John Calvin was born July 10, 1509, in Noyon, France.[1] Others affirm a different date, but not one of a significant difference. In his early twenties, he had to flee from France to Switzerland because he unintentionally became an outspoken Protestant in a country aligned with the Roman Catholic Church. During this time in Europe, the church and the state roles were co-mingled. It was in Switzerland that he wrote and completed his expanding work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. The persecution in France after his departure was a dark providence that had directed him to become a self-supporting missionary to Switzerland.

             Geneva was the city where he lived most of the remaining years of his life after departing from France. He was convinced of God’s call for him to this city, but because of the difficult conditions there, he would have preferred to move on at providence’s first bidding for at least the first twenty-five years of residency there. He resisted, mocked, and threatened. Yet, Calvin’s influence can be seen in both Geneva and in the Calvinistic traditions that followed, even though neither totally represented his views. Nevertheless, his position on economics was used to bring about drastic change in the world of his day.

             During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church’s position on economics had dominated both the State and the Church’s teaching and the national laws of Europe. One of Rome’s long held teachings was that lending money for interest was wrong and should be illegal.[2] However, in the 16^th Century the Roman Church was not very consistent on this matter! “As a matter of fact, usury, though prohibited in the whole Roman Empire . . . was actually practiced through a series of evasions.”[3] However, the lower classes were not involved in these evasions, which were only used by the well-to-do close friends of the Roman Church. “The Church could not dispense with commercial wickedness in high places. It was too convenient.”[4]

[Usury laws were] rarely applied to large-scale transactions of kings, feudal magnates, bishops and abbots . . . . Popes regularly employed the international banking houses of the day, with a singular indifference . . . . to the morality of their business methods . . . . and sometimes enforced the payments of debts by the threat of excommunication.[5]

 

Thus, this chief economic dogma of the Roman Catholic Church seemed to Calvin to not only lack scriptural support based on a careful exegesis of the applicable texts, but it was also troubling to him that the Roman Church excluded herself from keeping her own laws based on their doctrinal understanding and yet set different mandate for others.

Similarly, one of the chief teachings of the 16^th Century Roman Church was concerned with the sin of avarice (greed). Several historians assert that one procedure they used in helping to remove the temptation of greed from their constituents was for the church to acquire their money by various religious activities. Accordingly, some Roman Catholics leaders spoke out against the evil of mammon (money) of this world, while through the example of their top leaders, they encouraged luxury and showmanship.[6] They boldly called middlemen in business ‘parasites’ and they called the for-interest money lenders ‘thieves;’ while enjoying the abundance of wealth themselves during the same time that they chastised others for acquiring wealth.[7] Granted, some monks who took vows of poverty kept these vows even in this century. However, even though Roman Catholic economic principles denounced greed and wealth verbally; yet some bishops and cardinals taught by example the advantages and benefits of having significant wealth and living a lifestyle reserved for the royalty. They missed the red flag that widespread hypocrisy is often a result when a teaching is out of balance and is legalistic by adding man-made rules to the Word of God. It is difficult to justify biblically a view that would leave no room in the kingdom of God for wealthy people like Job, Abraham, Joseph of Arimathea, Lydia, and some members of the church at Corinth without ignoring certain texts and solely concentrating on others. This denies by practice the hermeneutical principle of interpreting Scripture by the Scriptures and relating each part to the whole.

In the sixteenth century, the Roman Church outwardly condemned the banking trade and sought to enforce its position in both the Roman Church and the governments it influenced, which led to the creation of usury laws. From their perspective, every godly person was one who repudiated all wealth, and often begged for a living, and certainly one who remained poor in this world. They believed money was barren. Yet, monopolies could exist, in their view, if their profits were minimal. Moreover, the Roman church itself was a major financial center during this century. These funds were controlled by men who had access to this wealth on the Roman Church’s ledgers, even though it was not in their individual names.

             On the other hand, the Reformers evaluated economics differently. They were concerned with the purification of the church and society.[8] Both Calvin and Luther rejected the monastic lifestyle and emphasized the importance of work rather than begging. Calvin especially emphasized the need to be diligent in the vocation to which God had called each one to serve.[9] Laziness was a sin that was not tolerated by the Reformers. All believers were to provide for their families, working heartily to the honor and glory of God. Thus, the Calvinistic work ethic and its view of man’s chief end to glorify God (Soli Deo Gloria) radically departed from the 16^th Century Roman Catholic dogma.[10]

             Calvin further departed from the Roman system in his views on wealth and interest. Wealth, he taught, was not necessarily evil. A person’s motives in acquiring and using this wealth were what was subject to scrutiny. If God blessed one as he labored hard at his vocation, he should use that blessing to provide for his own family, support the local ministry, assist the poor, and improve the community, However, greed, selfishness, abuses of wealth, along with loving money or making it an idol, were always condemned. A Reformed Christian was to be economical and modest, but not necessarily poor. Calvin taught that the 16^th Century Roman Catholic view that money was evil in and of itself was simply not the teaching of Scripture; and it was his understanding of the meaning of the Scriptures that restricted and guided John Calvin.[11]

             The most radical departure from the Roman system, however, was Calvin’s views on charging interest for loans. According to Calvin, the key to charging interest correctly was for the loan to bring proportional profit to both the borrower and the lender. Accordingly, the interest rates must always be equal to or under that which is set by the government and the conscience of the lender as fair and reasonable rates.[12] Thus, the banking trade was just as respectable occupation and industry as that of a land leaseholder.[13] However, he also believed that there were several exceptions for an individual on which it was improper to charge interest when making loans. Calvin argued:

1.        One must take no interest when lending to the poor.

2.      One must not neglect charity in order to have money to lend.

3.      Nothing should occur which is not in accord with the Golden Rule.

4.      The borrower should make at least as much on the money as the lender.

5.      We must not measure our practices by what is licit par l’iniquité du monde, but by the Word of God.

6.      What is good for the public takes precedence over our private benefit.

7.      What is legal may be unchristian and prohibited to the Christian.[14]

 

This radical departure from the 16^th Century Roman Church’s position on the charging of interest on loans was a positive boost to Western society. Yet, more significantly, a return to accurately interpreting the Bible gave Christian business owners the right to join in many different honorable callings. Interest is both the just compensation for the time value of money and the risk that the lender assumes when investing in another person’s business. Therefore, it is historically significant that Calvin recognized “the necessity of capital, credit, and banking,” and “large-scale commerce and finance.”[15]

Furthermore, Calvin had specific expectations of governmental responsibilities in economics. He was opposed to any welfare-type systems established for the benefit of individuals who were unwilling to work. As the New Testament taught, those who refuse to work should not be able to eat either,[16] which is a major motivation to work. Likewise, the Consistory, which was a church council make up of teaching elders (pastors) and ruling elders in Geneva, pushed for more governmental regulation to punish greed and selfishness in business dealings. They also put church censures on “harsh creditors,” and they punished “usurers,[17] engrossers, and monopolists” as well as all others who took more than their lawful share from others.[18] Thus, Calvin taught that the government had been given the responsibility to protect the poor and maintain necessary economic laws for the public’s benefit.

      Calvin was an influential reformer who understood that God governed humans through two forms of governments. The first sphere is the spiritual government or the church, and the second form is the civil government.[19]

According to Calvin, each of these “rooms” (spheres) in our “earthly house” (society) has its own identity, right or existence, reason for existence, its own God-given sovereignty, which is inviolable, but limited—limited in one way by the overall supreme sovereignty of God, which must always be upheld, and in another way by the co-existing and pro-existing coordinate sovereignties of other spheres of life-activity. Therefore, neither church nor state may trespass the limits of its proper authority. If one or the other oversteps its bound, people suffer either spiritual harassment or political tyranny.[20]

 

The civil government worked through the civil law and enforced it with the sword. On the other hand, the church worked through its discipline of the unruly, resulting in the excommunication of the unrepentant.

Moreover, the application of this principle [of church discipline] carried Cavin very far, and, indeed, in its outworking gave the world through him the principle of a free Church in a free State. It is ultimately to him, therefore, that the Church owes its emancipation from the State, and to him goes back that great battle-cry which has since fired the hearts of many saints in many crises in many lands: “The Crown Rights of King Jesus in His Church.”[21]

 

Thus, with Calvin’s radical teachings on the separation of state and church, both could assume their individual responsibilities in the area of economics. The state exercised its jurisdiction by laws and punishments, while the church maintained her prophetic voice against immoral or unjust practices in society in each individual culture and disciplined professing Christians who violated these principles.

             Calvin’s perspective was that a church was not to play the role of the state in dealing with offenders. As a pioneer in encouraging the separation of church and state, he stressed that the church’s role and sphere was primarily spiritual. However, in Calvin’s writings, the interdependence between the church and the state was much greater than that which exists today. Moreover, he never conceived of a secular state that would divorce itself from all wisdom available from God’s special revelation in the Bible. Consequently, Calvin taught that the state

[had the responsibilities] to cherish and protect the outward worship of God, to defend sound doctrine of piety and the position of the Church, to adjust our life to the society of men, to form our social behavior to civil righteousness, to reconcile us with one another, and to promote general peace and tranquility.[22]

 

At the same time, Calvin believed that the election of ministers and the excommunication of the delinquent should never be under the jurisdiction of the state. These were solely spiritual ministries to be rendered by the church of Christ under His Lordship alone. Much of his struggle in Geneva was because of his firm convictions concerning the church’s independent sphere of sovereignty under the Lord Christ in these areas. Thus, during the Reformation, different state governments and cultures shifted their stance on economics away from the Roman Church’s stated position. Instead, they embraced the position of the Reformed Church, which allowed the church to keep its prophetic voice and required all its officers to practice the church’s official economic position consistently.

             Calvin’s understanding of the Bible’s teachings that encouraged capitalism brought landmark results to the modern world. Other pastors and theologians in the Calvinistic tradition have seen the validity of capitalism and wealth based on the divine calling for some people to be prosperous as those positive examples in Bible were like Job, Abraham, Joseph of Arimathea, Lydia, and some members of the church at Corinth. The key factors for these good examples were their motivation and method of acquiring wealth and their godly compassionate use of those divine blessings as well. The Reformers carefully interpreted the Apostle Paul’s instructions to Timothy when he wrote, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim 6:10 NKJV). They believed that money itself is amoral, but loving it leads to numerous violations of God’s law. Adoring or worshiping money and especially loving money more than God or one’s neighbor is a violation of the moral law. Likewise, Calvinistic capitalism rewarded those who diligently worked in their occupations established by their divine calling. However, those who were idle or lazy had to bear the consequences of their sins. Those able body persons who refused to work were not to be supplied with food, since their hunger would motivate them to work (2 Thes 3:10). Nevertheless, the Reformers also strongly emphasized that the church and individual Christian should provide care and nurture for the poor and those who could not work (1 Tim 5:9). Calvin believed this was clearly the church’s responsibility. In addition, he taught that the Reformed Christian gave part of his/her testimony by the way in which he/she worked. The Bible called these believers to work heartily to the honor and glory of God (Col 3:23-24). In return, God’s blessing on the diligent laborer was also a testimony to the world. Thus, the capitalism spawned by Calvin brought many benefits to Christianity and to society. Calvinistic capitalism had biblical safeguards that was not present in the capitalism generated by the Renaissance which was centered on humanism.[23]

             There was a stark contrast in economics in Calvin’s day with the Reformers on one side, and the Roman Church on the other. The Reformers noted that some of the Roman Catholic polices encouraged hypocrisy and asceticism, which they believed from careful study of the Bible, that neither of these were condoned by the Scriptures. Nevertheless, those who study history often rightly recognize that the poor were often protected under the Roman Church’s official policies. However, at the same time, the middle class was held in abeyance and stagnancy by policies that went beyond the teachings of the Bible. Therefore, many believed that for the improvement of society, the adjusting of 16^th Century Roman Catholic economic policies were in order. The new phenomenon in this century of the Bible being translated into the heart languages of the middle class, who were not trained in Latin, may have supported the Reformer’s challenges of policies that went beyond the teachings of Scripture. Since these polices appeared to have human origins, even though they may have had good intentions, they could be easily updated to polices that were a closer match to divine special revelation found in the Bible.

             During all the changes in the 16^th century from numerous sources, Calvin’s economic system had a greater influence on Western culture than the Roman Church’s system. People recognized the differences were in the understanding and interpreting of the Bible and that those differences had a radical practical application for the Protestant work ethic and the prosperity of the middle class. Likewise, over the years, Calvinistic thinkers have moved the line of the separation of church and state from where Calvin’s beginning reforms had placed it. For instance, the revised separation has argued against allowing the state to use capital punishment to deter heretics and to protect the faithful from soul-destroying error. This new understanding has prevented the use of capital punishment for heretics, yet the American understanding of the separate roles of the church, the family, and the state also has it weaknesses. Separation has now developed into a concept where the state is free from the prophetic voice of the church in apply the Bible to the present-day culture. This is not how God intended it. Each of the divinely created and sanctioned institutions: the state, the family, and the church, have roles, duties, boundaries, and work best for society when they work together under God.[24] Unfortunately, the state is more than willing to punish the church when the changing ideas of culture clash with the Bible’s teachings on morality and economics. Sanctioning doctrine for a church, even on morality, or the order of worship is not a role given to the state since Christ alone is Lord of the church and not Caesar.

             It is sad to see that Calvin’s principles of the compassionate use of wealth and the necessity of loans to be equally beneficial to both parties (lender and borrower) are no longer practiced by most in today’s Western society. There still should be places and people from where those who are poor can acquire loans without interest. May God grant us a new Reformation that aligns us more with the Scriptures in all areas of life, including economics.

            

 ===================================================================

APPENDIX I: JOHN CALVIN’S LETTER TO SACHINUS IN 1545

 

             The following letter by John Calvin was originally published in Calvini Opera Selecta which was edited by Barth and Niesel in 1952. The English translation as follows is taken from W. F. Graham’s The Constructive Revolutionary.

   While I have had no experience myself, I have learned from the example of others how dangerous it is to give an answer to the question on which you ask my advice. For if we wholly condemn usury [les usures], we impose tighter fetters on the conscience than God himself. Yet if we permit it in the least, many under this pretext will take an unbridled liberty which can then be held in bounds by no restriction. . . .

 

   In the first place, by no testimony of the Scriptures is usury wholly condemned. For the meaning of the saying of Christ, commonly thought to be very clear, e.g., “Lend, hoping for nothing again” (Luke 6:35), has been perverted [faulsement destournee enc e sens]. As elsewhere in speaking of the sumptuous feasts and ambitious social rivalry of the rich, he commands rather that they invite in the blind, the lame, and the poor from the streets who cannot make a like return, so here, wishing to curb abuses in lending, he directs us to loan chiefly to those from whom there is no hope of receiving anything. . . . The words of Christ mean that he commends serving the poor rather than the rich. Thus, we do not find all [receiving interest] usury forbidden.

 

   The law of Moses (Deut 23:19) was political and should not influence us beyond what justice and philanthropy will bear. It could be wished that all usury, and even the name, were banished from the earth. But since this is impossible, it is necessary to concede to the common good. . . .

 

   Now it is said that today, too, usury should be forbidden on the same grounds as among the Jews, since there is a bond of brotherhood among us. To this I reply, that in the civil state there is some difference; for the situation in which the Lord had placed the Jews, and many other circumstances, made it easy for them to engage in business among themselves without usury. Our relationship is not at all the same. Therefore, I do not consider that usury is wholly forbidden among us, except when it is repugnant to justice and love.

 

   The reasoning of Saint Ambrose and of Chrysostom, that money does not give birth to money, is, in my judgement, too superficial. What does the sea give birth to? What does the land give birth to? I receive income from the rental of a house. Is it because the money grows there? The earth produces things from which money is made, and the use of a house can be bought with money. And is not money more fruitful in trade than in any other form of possession one can mention? Is it lawful to lease a farm, requiring payment in return, and unlawful to receive any profit [fruict] from the use of money? . . .

 

   How do merchants derive their profits? [Lit., “increase their goods.”] By their industry, you will say. Certainly, if money is shut up in a strong-box, it will be barren—a child can see that. But whoever requests a loan from me does not intend to keep this money idle and gain nothing. The profit is not in the money itself, but in the return that comes from its use. It is necessary then to draw the conclusion that while such subtle distinctions appear on the surface to have some weight, they vanish on closer scrutiny, because they have no substance. I, therefore, conclude that [receiving interest] usury must be judged, not by any particular passage of Scripture, but simply by the rules of equity.[25]

 

 

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APPENDIX II: AN EXAMPLE OF EQUITY BETWEEN A LENDER AND MERCHANT

 

 

A baker receives an order for one-hundred loaves of bread for a wedding feast the following week. It is a signed contract that is contingent on the baker acquiring financing for the ingredients of the bread. The price of each loaf is 5 cents, so the contract is for $50. The baker just completed an order that used all his ingredients for bread, for which he will not receive payment until next week. Government contracts are always slow to repay. The baker gets an estimate of the costs of ingredients (flour, yeast, etc.) and the coal needed to produce the bread. He takes the contract for the bread to the moneylender, which includes the payment date along with his current supply inventory and a written estimate of $30 for everything needed. He and his family will provide all the sweat equity and work several 14-hour days to fill the order. The money lender cannot use the money lent for any other productive purpose during the lending period and he assumes the risks that the baker will not pay him back or pay him back on time. Interest represents the time value of money, so late payments involve a loss of income. The profit from this transaction will be $20. Thus, if the baker makes $10-$12 from the transaction and the money lender makes $8-$10, then there is an equitable relationship in this partnership. Because the greater labor is on the baker’s part, the interest for a short-term note for a few days could be $6 and still be equitable for both. However, if the money lender demands $17 in interest, and the baker’s earnings for all the hours of labor are only $3, this is not an equitable situation. It is even less equitable if he put up his mule as collateral so that the loan was secured, and the risk to the moneylender was low.

 

This equity principle would not apply to a loan for a vacation or to purchase a Clydesdale horse when a mule can pull the baker’s cart just fine. Loans to aid someone to live beyond their means are high-risk loans and the funds do not reproduce themselves. The principle of equity would not apply in these situations, as these are not loans for joint business ventures.

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APPENDIX III: CALVIN’S TESTIMONY AND COMMENTS ON SAVING FAITH

 

Calvin shares part of his testimony in his Author’s Preface (July 22, 1557) to the Psalms to show how he both related to and benefited from David’s example and struggles included in these songs.

My condition, no doubt, is much inferior to David’s, and it is unnecessary for me to take the time to show this. But as he was taken from the sheepfold and elevated to the rank of supreme authority; so, God, having taken me from my originally obscure and humble condition, has reckoned me worthy of being invested with the honorable office of a preacher and minister of the gospel. When I was as yet a very little boy, my father had destined me for the study of theology. But afterwards, when he considered the legal profession commonly raised those who followed it to wealth, this prospect induced him suddenly to change his purpose. Thus, it came to pass that I was withdrawn from the study of philosophy and was put to the study of law. To this pursuit I endeavored faithfully to apply myself, in obedience to the will of my father, but God, by the secret guidance of his providence, at length gave a different direction to my course. And first, I was too obstinately devoted to the superstitions of the Roman Church to be easily extricated from such a deep abyss of mire. But God, by a sudden conversion, subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame, which was more hardened to such matters than might have been expected from one at my age at this early period of life. Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness, I was immediately inflamed with so intense a desire to make progress in understanding the truth, that although I did not stop all other studies, I pursued them with less intensity. I was quite surprised to find that before a year had passed by, all who had any desire for purer doctrine were continually coming to me to learn, although I was still only a novice and a beginner. Being of a disposition that was unpolished and shy, which led me always to love the shade and solitude, I then sought some isolated place where I could be out of the public view; but so far from being able to accomplish this object of my desire, all my retreats became like public schools. In short, while my one great goal was to live in seclusion without being known, God so led me about through different directions and changes, that He never permitted me to rest in any place, until despite my natural disposition, he brought me forth to public notice. Leaving my native country, France, I moved to Germany [now Switzerland], for the very purpose of being able there to enjoy some obscure location and the private life I had always desired, and which had been so long denied me since my conversion. But it was not to be so. While I was hiding in Basle and only know by a very few people there, many faithful and holy persons were burnt alive in France for their faith. The report of these martyrs reached other nations. These reports brought about a very strong negative emotional reaction by the German people. They became very indignant against the people who committed such tyranny. In order to mislead other nations about the murder of these true believers, pamphlets were distributed, accusing them of sedition against both the church and the state. The court had designed these to not only cover the innocent blood already shed, but to prevent foreign sympathy for continuing the murdering of these poor French saints. It appeared to me, that unless I opposed these pamphlets to the utmost of my ability, my silence would be clearly cowardice and betrayal. This is what motivated me to write and publish my book, Institute of the Christian Religion . . .

Every place I have traveled since, I was careful to conceal that I was the author of this book. I had resolved to continue in the same privacy and obscurity until I met William Farel in Geneva. He convinced me to stay in Geneva, not by advice or a gentle admonition, but by a dreadful warning, which I believed to be as if God had from heaven laid His mighty hand on me to hold me at this place . . . Farel had declared that God would curse my seclusion and my studies if I left Geneva and refused to give the new church there assistance when their need to be taught the truth was so urgent.[26]

 

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17 NASB). John Calvin writes about this text:

But instead of the expression he used before, ‘to everyone who believes,’ he says now, from faith; for righteousness is offered by the gospel and is received by faith. And he adds to faith. For as faith makes progress, and as it advances in knowledge, so the righteousness of God increases in us at the same time, and the possession of it in a manner confirmed. When we first taste the gospel, we indeed see God’s smiling countenance turned towards us, but at a distance. The more knowledge of true religion grows in us, by coming as it were nearer, we behold God’s grace more clearly and with more familiarity . . . Faith alone is that which secures everlasting life, it leads us to God and makes our lives dependent on Him . . . We are justified by faith through the mercy of God alone . . . The righteousness that is grounded on faith, depends entirely on the mercy of God.[27]

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Bouwsma, William J. John Calvin: A Sixteen Century Portrait. New York: Oxford University, 1988.

 

Cadier, Jean. The Man God Mastered. London: InterVarsity Fellowship. 1964.

 

Calvin, John. Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, vol. 16. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981.

 

________. Letters of John Calvin. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1980.

 

________. Commentary on The Book of Joshua and the Book of Psalms 1-35, vol. 4. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981.

 

________. Commentary on The Acts of Apostles 14-28 and The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans 1-16, vol. 19. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981.

 

Farley, Benjamin W., ed. John Calvin’s Sermons on the Ten Commandments. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980.

 

Graham, W. Fred. The Constructive Revolutionary: John Calvin and His Socio-Economic Impact. Richmond: John Knox, 1971.

 

Green, Robert W. Protestantism and Capitalism. Boston: D. C. Heath, 1959.

 

Hughes, Phillip E., ed. The Register of the Company of Pastors of Geneva in the Time of Calvin. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966.

 

Holwerda, David E., ed. Exploring the Heritage of John Calvin. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1976.

 

Johnson, E. M. The Man of Geneva. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1977.

 

McNeil, John T., ed. Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion. 2 Vols. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960.

 

Parker, T. H. L. John Calvin: A Biography. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975.

 

Schreiner, Susan B.  The Theater of His Glory: Nature and the Natural Order in the Thought of John Calvin. Durham, NC: Labyrinth, 1991.

 

Tawney, R. H. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. New York: The New American Library, 1960.

 

Warfield, Benjamin B. Calvin and Augustine. Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1956.

 

Wileman, William. John Calvin: His Life, His Teaching, and His Influence. Choteau, MT: Gospel Mission, 1981.

 

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[1] William Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Portrait (New York: Oxford University), 9.

[2] The Roman Church at this time defined ‘usury’ as lending money for interest. An alternative definition this paper will explore is that ‘usury’ is only the lending of funds with excessive, unjust, and unequitable interest rates.

[3] W. Fred Graham, The Constructive Revolutionary: John Calvin and His Socio-Economic Impact (Richmond, VA: John Knox, 1971), 88-89.

[4] R.H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (New York: The New American Library, 1950), 45.

[5] Ibid., 45-46.

[6] Ibid., 98.

[7] Ibid., 93.

[8] Tawney, 77.

[9] Bouwsma, 199.

[10] Robert W. Green, Protestantism and Capitalism (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1959), 21-22.

[11] Tawney, 98.

[12] See APPENDIX I: JOHN CALVIN’S LETTER TO SACHINUS IN 1545.

[13] Tawney, 94.

[14] Graham, 92. The French phrase in #5 is “lawful by the iniquity of the world” (the wicked ways of the world system), which means something that is acceptable to the pagan world view and system that is opposed to God and His Word.

[15] Tawney, 93.

[16] Ibid, 101 and 2 Thess 3:10.

[17] Defined here as one who charges interest at an exorbitant rate.

[18] Tawney, 105.

[19] John Calvin, Commentary on the Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke (Grand Raids: Baker,1981), 44.

[20] David E. Holwerda, ed., Exploring the Heritage of John Calvin (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1976), 198.

[21] Benjamin B. Warfiled, Calvin and Augustine (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1956), 16.

[22] John T. McNeill, ed., Calvin: Institute of the Christian Religion, 2. Vols. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), vol. 2, 1487.

[23] Bouwsma, 197-199.

[24] Susan B. Schreiner, The Theater of His Glory: Nature and the Natural Order in the Thought of John Calvin (Durham, NC: Labyrinth, 1991), 84-85.

[25] Graham, 91-92.

[26] John Calvin, Commentary on The Book of Joshua and The Book of Psalms 1-35 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), vol. 4, xl-xliii.

[27] John Calvin, Commentary on The Acts of The Apostles 14-28 and The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans 1-16 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), vol. 19, 65-66.