Dr Paul Allen

John Calvin (1509-1564) is the most influential pastor in church history. He wrote commentaries on nearly the entire Bible , which are still in print today. His systematic theology, The Institutes of the Christian Religion , is arguably the most significant Christian book ever published. Calvin was the architect of Protestant theology , and his teachings gave rise to republican government, public education, and even capitalism. Calvin was first and foremost a preacher, generally giving six sermons a week. He moved the baptismal to the back of the church, and placed the pulpit in the middle, marking a change in the purpose of corporate worship— Christians would no longer gather for sacraments, but instead for the preaching of the Word. Born north of Paris , he was converted to Christ in his 20’s and then forced to flee France—Protestants were not welcome there. He eventually settled in Geneva , where he spent the rest of his life pastoring. Under Calvin’s preaching, Geneva was ...

The Reformed Church of France, Paris, France (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) John Calvin (1509–1564) is easily the most important Protestant theologian of all time and remains one of the truly great men who have lived. A world-class theologian, a renowned teacher, an ecclesiastical statesman, and a valiant Reformer, Calvin is seen by many as the greatest influence on the church since the first century.  Apart from the biblical authors themselves, Calvin stands as the most influential minister of the Word the world has ever seen. Philip Melanchthon revered him as the most able interpreter of Scripture in the church, and therefore labeled him simply "the theologian" ( J. H. Merle d'Aubigné , History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, Vol. 7[1880; repr., Harrisonburg, Va.: Sprinkle, 2000], 82). And Charles Spurgeon said that Calvin "propounded truth more clearly than any other man that ever breathed, knew more of Scripture, and explained it more c...

A 1581 edition of the Geneva Bible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In 1553, Queen Mary ascended the British throne, which began a period of intense persecution of Protestants in England . More than 700 people fled England to escape persecution and settled in and around Geneva, Switzerland , in 1555. The refugees included Miles Coverdale , John Knox, and William Whittingham. Geneva in the 1550s was the center of Reformed Protestantism . And because of the presence of Theodore Beza , it was also a growing center of biblical scholarship. While there, the exiles began to see the need for a new translation of the Bible in their own language. The New Testament was finished in 1557, and the complete Bible—along with a revised New Testament—was finished in 1560. The Geneva Bible became the Bible of the common people The exiles began returning to England in 1558 when Elizabeth I ascended the throne, and they brought their Bible with them. The Geneva Bible soon became the prominent Bibl...

Oil painting of a young John Calvin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland was the work of Arducius de Faucigny, the prince-bishop of the Diocese of Geneva.  The building's earliest construction dates from the 12th century, but wars, fires, renovations and additions have often changed its look and shape.  Though today it is the home of a congregation of the Swiss Reformed Church, it will always be known as John Calvin's church, for it was here that the great Reformer preached day-after-day and year-after-year. And there within St. Pierre's, is John Calvin's chair, the next of the twenty-five objects through which we can trace the history of Christianity. In 1517, Martin Luther had sparked Reformation with his Ninety-Five Theses. In the years that followed, his seditious new teachings quickly spread throughout Europe so that Christianity was now split into two broad streams: Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.  ...

Post Tenebras Lux  — “After darkness, light” This  Latin phrase  found on the  Reformation Wall  in  Geneva, Switzerland , encompasses the purpose of both the original 1560  Geneva Bible  and our goal at Hope College namely, to bring the light of Scripture to a darkened world. Hope College offers a range of ministry courses from Certificate IV to Advanced Diploma and Graduate Certificate and Diploma Courses.  The college is located on the Gold Coast of Australia . Courses are offered in English and Korean language . Course fees are very reasonable. Hope College has 85 available spaces (filling fast) for international students to join the entry classess in the new year 2015. Enrol today.   www.hopecollege.com

Post Tenebras Lux — “After darkness, light” This Latin phrase found on the Reformation Wall in Geneva, Switzerland , encompasses the purpose of both the original 1560 Geneva Bible and our goal at Hope College namely, to bring the light of Scripture to a darkened world. Hope College offers a range of ministry courses from Certificate IV to Advanced Diploma and Graduate Certificate and Diploma Courses.  The college is located on the Gold Coast of Australia. Courses are offered in English and Korean language. Course fees are very reasonable. Hope College has 65 available spaces for international students to join the entry classess in 2013. Enrol today.   www.hopecollege.com

Image via Wikipedia Of course, like every other man besides Jesus Christ , John Calvin was imperfect. His renown is not owing to infallibility but to his relentless allegiance to the Scriptures as the Word of God in a day when the Bible had been almost swallowed up by church tradition. He was born in July 1509, in Noyon, France , and was educated at the best universities in law, theology, and classics. At the age of twenty-one, he was dramatically converted from tradition-centered medieval Catholicism to radical, biblical, evangelical faith in Christ and His Word. He said: God, by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame, which was more hardened in such matters than might have been expected from one at my 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 that although I did not altogether leave off other studies, I yet pursued them with less ...

Image via Wikipedia Each day, two of Geneva 's ministers came to check on Theodore Beza . The old reformer was dearly loved and they were concerned for his failing health. On this day, Sunday, October 13, 1605, the sick man felt well enough to dress. Theodore asked his visitors, "Is the city in full safety and quiet?" He was assured that all was well. Moments later, he lost all strength and collapsed to the floor. Friends gathered and prayed at his bedside as he passed peacefully away within a few minutes. The last of the great reformers was dead. His had been a life of much sorrow, hard work and grueling adventure. Theodore Beza was born in Burgundy in 1519, the son of a county bailiff. His father had marked out one course for him, but it seemed God had another. At nine years of age he was sent to study with a famous Greek scholar Melchior Wolmar . Wolmar's sympathy with the Lutherans rubbed off on his pupil. What fruit this would bear was not yet apparent. Bez...

Image via Wikipedia Should pastors separate the Christian wedding ceremony from the civil rite? U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker did not surprise observers when he  decided on August 4 to overturn   Proposition 8 , California’s ban on same-sex marriage . But as  Albert Mohler and others have noted, Walker handed advocates of homosexuality a clear victory with strongly worded language that dismissed defenders of traditional marriage as irrational. He dispatched with centuries of custom and wisdom, taking it upon himself to redefine marriage and assert, “Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage.” He also drove a wedge between religious and civil marriage: Marriage in the United States has always been a civil matter. Civil authorities may permit religious leaders to solemnize marriages but not to determine who may enter or leave a civil marriage. Religious leaders may determine independently whether to recognize a civil marriage or divorce but that recognit...