Who was John Calvin?
Of all the famous theologians of church history, the titans of knowledge upon whose shoulders we stand, none has been more maligned or vilified than John Calvin. The public caricature of Calvin portrays him as nothing less than a monster, a mean-spirited ogre who ruled Geneva with an iron hand, sent poor Michael Servetus to his death, and introduced a diabolical view of predestination to the church. If Christ’s beatific promise applies, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven,” then John Calvin needs a tractor-trailer to cart around his heavenly reward. When I consider the great theologians of the church, I think immediately of my list of the top five: St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards. These are the giants with which God has gifted His church. They comprise the all-time all-star team in ...