John Calvin

Protestant reformer

Early Modern influential 175 sayings

Sayings by John Calvin

For we do not say that man is dragged unwillingly into sinning, but that because his will is corrupt he is held captive under the yoke of sin and therefore of necessity wills in an evil way.

1559 — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Chapter 3, Section 5
Controversial Unverifiable

Therefore, the bondage of the will to sin remains and yet such slavery is a voluntary and willful captivity.

1559 — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Chapter 3, Section 5
Controversial Unverifiable

All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.

1559 — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Chapter 21, Section 5
Controversial Confirmed

God himself has explicitly instructed us to kill heretics, to smite with the sword any city that abandons the worship of the true faith revealed by Him.

c. 1550s — Comments on Exodus 22:20, Leviticus 24:16, Deuteronomy 13:5-15, 17:2-5
Controversial Unverifiable

Many people have accused me of such ferocious cruelty that I would like to kill again the man I have destroyed. Not only am I indifferent to their comments, but I rejoice in the fact that they spit in my face.

c. 1550s-1560s — Cited in a discussion about his response to critics after Servetus's execution
Controversial Unverifiable

God's justice or righteousness is manifest as the reprobate receive the eternal punishment they deserve.

c. 1550s — Writings on predestination and reprobation
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The seed of the Word of God takes root and grows fruitful only in those whom the Lord, by his eternal election, has predestined to be his children and heirs of the heavenly kingdom. To all others who, by the same counsel of God before the constitution of the world, are reprobate, the clear and evident preaching of the truth can be nothing else but an odour of death in death.

c. 1550s — Writings on predestination
Controversial Unverifiable

The natural gifts were corrupted in man through sin, but his supernatural gifts were stripped from him.

1559 — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Chapter 2, Section 12
Controversial Unverifiable

Let that ethical philosophy therefore of free-will be far from a Christian mind.

c. 1530s-1550s — Writings on free will
Controversial Unverifiable

This is plainly to ascribe divinity to 'free will.'

c. 1530s-1550s — Writings on free will, criticizing opposing views
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For I stay not to consider the extravagance of those who say that grace is offered equally and promiscuously to all.

1559 — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Chapter 2, Section 6
Controversial Unverifiable

God's ultimate discrimination rests solely on the freedom and sovereign will of God.

c. 1550s — Writings on predestination and election
Controversial Unverifiable

It is not on the basis of human works, whether performed or foreseen, that God decrees to elect some based on unmerited grace and pass by (preterition) others based on proximate sinful works.

c. 1550s — Writings on predestination and election
Controversial Unverifiable

We shall never be clearly persuaded, as we ought to be, that our salvation flows from the wellspring of God's free mercy until we come to know his eternal election, which illumines God's grace by this contrast: that he does not indiscriminately adopt all into the hope of salvation but gives to some what he denies to others.

1559 — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Chapter 21, Section 1
Controversial Unverifiable

The human race is condemned to everlasting hell for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In choosing to save some and choosing not to save others, it would appear to be no different to reprobation (double predestination), where some were not just left alone to suffer hell, but actually decreed to go there; and nothing can stop it from happening. That eternal destiny cannot be changed!

c. 1539-1559 — Commentary on Romans 9
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The reprobate are those whom God has determined to leave in their sins, and consequently to deliver to eternal perdition.

1559 — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Chapter 21, Section 7
Controversial Unverifiable

For the mind of man is so entirely alienated from the righteousness of God that it can neither conceive, desire, nor design anything but what is vicious, perverted, impure, and iniquitous.

1559 — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Chapter 2, Section 24
Controversial Confirmed

God's singular decree is the cause of Adam's fall, and through this fall, the damnation of his posterity.

c. 1550s — Writings on predestination and the fall of man
Controversial Unverifiable

The elect alone receive through regeneration [grace]. For I stay not to consider the extravagance of those who say that grace is offered equally and promiscuously to all.

1559 — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Chapter 2, Section 6
Controversial Unverifiable

The fact that infants who die before baptism are damned is a dreadful decree, but no one can deny that God foreknew what end man was to have before he created him.

1559 — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Chapter 23, Section 7 (paraphrased from the context …
Controversial Unverifiable