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All Blog Posts With Tag: John Calvin
John Calvin’s Spectacles of Scripture (January 5, 2017)
John Calvin's Biblical Eyeglasses
The Reformed theologian, John Calvin, said the Bible is like eyeglasses that allow us to see God and without the spectacles of Scripture, we are like an old person with blurry vision and unable to see God or or see God in Creation. In the event of reading the Scriptures […]
The Extinction of Humanity: Karl Barth’s Eschatology (November 30, 2016)
Introduction
We are not guaranteed that we will die. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:52), the life of every human being in the world will be supernaturally concluded by the final coming of Jesus Christ. According to Karl Barth, this will be the final event in the […]
Related: Augustine, Augustine of Hippo, CD III/3, CD IV/3.2, CD IV/4, Christian Life, Church Dogmatics, Church Dogmatics III/3, Church Dogmatics IV/3.2, Church Dogmatics IV/4, Coming of Jesus, end times, eschatology, Extinction, Extinction of Humanity, FInal Judgment, John Calvin, Judgment, Karl Barth, Last Day, parousia, Rapture, Resurrection, Universalism
Schleiermacher’s Distressing Letter To His Father (September 1, 2016)
The young Friedrich Schleiermacher wrote a "distressing letter" to his father to confess that he no longer affirmed Christian doctrines that his father believed were necessary to obtain salvation: namely, vicarious atonement and the deity of Jesus Christ. The distressing letter, as Schleiermacher titled it, is an icon of de-conversion, especially […]
Dear Karl Barth, What does Election mean to Individuals? (August 28, 2016)
In Karl Barth's Doctrine of Election, Jesus Christ is the only elected individual, and no other individual is elected like Jesus (Act 4:12), but in him (c.f. Eph 1:4) all people are included in his election (1 Cor 15:22). Since Barth was not a Universalist, this syllogism indicates that there may be individuals […]
How may we demonstrate that the Bible truly is a witness to the Word of God? By the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit alone! Karl Barth affirms this famous phrase from John Calvin because the only authority that may demonstrate that the Bible is of divine authority is God […]
Is it possible to have faith in Jesus, yet be predestined to hell? John Calvin shockingly says yes! Calvin is the father of Double Predestination, so I expected him to divide the world into the believing Elect and the unbelieving Reprobate (i.e. the non-Elect). Little did I know, Calvin was not so binary […]
Related: Corn, Double Predestination, Elect, John Calvin, Reprobates, Seed, transitory faith, true faith
Karl Barth was a PostCalvinist and not an Evangelical Calvinist (February 12, 2016)
In 1922, Karl Barth loved John Calvin so much that he wrote a letter to his friend Eduard Thurneysen to confess that he could spent the rest of his life with Calvin alone! (♥) This short letter, which I've quoted below, has become so famous that anytime Calvin and […]
Jesus Christ is the Savior of the Whole World (1 John 2:2), but what is the Maximum Inclusion of this statement? Does this include all people, as well as animals, plants and rocks? I provided John Calvin's answer in Part One, and Karl Barth's in Part Two, and now, Jürgen […]
"And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only
but also for the sins of the whole world." (NRSV 1 John 2:2)
Jesus is the Savior of the Whole World, but what is the maximum inclusion set of this statement? Is the "whole world" at most a […]
Karl Barth: We Believe in Eternal Life, not in Eternal Hell (May 22, 2015)
The Apostles' Creed is among the oldest universally accepted symbols of the Christian faith. In Karl Barth's commentary on the Apsotles' Creed, he observes that there is no mention of Satan, Hell or Eternal Death in the Apostles' Creed, there is only mention of Eternal Life. And although this creed mentions […]
