The Highway Forums General Discussion Devotional Quotes John Calvin

God will use foreign nations, peoples to bring judgment and chastening to His people.
Calvin on Habakkuk 1:6 "6. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs."

This verse is added by the Prophet as an explanation; for it was not enough to speak generally of God’s work, without reminding them that their destruction by the Chaldeans was nigh at hand. He does not indeed in this verse explain what would be the character of that judgement which he had mentioned in the last verse Habakkuk 1:5; but he will do this in what follows. Now the Prophets differ from Moses in this respect, for they show, as it were by the finger, what he threatened generally, and they declare the special judgements of God; as it is indeed evident from the demonstrative adverb, “Behold.”

How necessary this was, we may gather from the perverseness of that people; for how distinctly soever the Prophets showed to them God’s judgements, so that they saw them with their eyes, yet so great was their insensibility, that they despised denunciations so apparent. What, then, would have been done, if the Prophets had only said in general, ‘God will not spare you!’ This, then, is the reason why the Prophet, having spoken of God’s terrible vengeance, now declares in express terms, that the Chaldeans were already armed by Him to execute His judgement.

And rightly it can be said of the western nations and America specifically, by way of application that God will bring judgment upon the United States for its idolatry and denunciation of God.

Important Distinctions to Understand:
The Choices of Man - Voluntary or Coerced by John Calvin

"There are four expressions regarding the will which differ from one another “namely that the will is 1) free, 2) bound, 3) self-determined, or 4) coerced. People generally understand a free will to be one which has in its power to choose good or evil …[But] There can be no such thing as a coerced will, since the two ideas are contradictory. But our responsibility as teachers is to say what it means, so that it may be understood what coercion is. Therefore we describe [as coerced] the will which does not incline this way or that of its own accord or by an internal movement of decision, but is forcibly driven by an external impulse. We say that it is self-determined when of itself it directs itself in the direction in which it is led, when it is not taken by force or dragged unwillingly. A bound will, finally, is one which because of its corruptness is held captive under the authority of its evil desires, so that it can choose nothing but evil, even if it does so of its own accord and gladly, without being driven by any external impulse."

"According to these definitions we allow that man has choice and that it is self-determined, so that if he does anything evil, it should be imputed to him and to his own voluntary choosing. We do away with coercion and force, because this contradicts the nature of the will and cannot coexist with it. We deny that choice is free, because through man’s innate wickedness it is of necessity driven to what is evil and cannot seek anything but evil. And from this it is possible to deduce what a great difference there is between necessity and coercion. 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 will in an evil way. For where there is bondage, there is necessity. But it makes a great difference whether the bondage is voluntary or coerced. We locate the necessity to sin precisely in corruption of the will, from which follows that it is self-determined." (John Calvin, "BONDAGE AND LIBERATION OF THE WILL" pp 69, 70)

We are all sinners by nature ,therefore we are held under the yoke of sin . But if the whole man is subject to the dominion of sin , surely the will , which is it's principal seat , must be bound with the closest of chains. And indeed if divine grace were preceded by any will of ours, Paul could not have said that ," it is God that worketh in us to will and to do ' (Phil. 2:13)
- John Calvin

What we must know about man

At the beginning, man was formed in the image and resemblance of God, so that he might admire his Maker in the dignity with which God has so nobly invested him, and might honor him with appropriate thankfulness.

But man, trusting in the enormous excellence of his nature, and forgetting where it had come from and by whom it continued to exist, endeavored to exalt himself apart from the Lord. He therefore had to be stripped of all God's gifts, on which he foolishly prided himself, so that, divested and deprived of all glory, he might know this God who had so enriched him by his generous gifts, and whom he had dared to despise.

This is why all of us—who owe our origin to Adam's descendants, and in whom this resemblance to God is erased—are flesh born from flesh. For although we are made up of a soul and a body, we never feel anything but the flesh. The result is that whatever aspect of man we look at, it is impossible for us to see anything other than what is impure, irreverent, and abominable to God. For man's wisdom, blinded and steeped in numberless errors, sets itself against God's wisdom; the will, wicked and full of corrupt affections hates God's justice more than anything; and human strength, incapable of any good deed whatever, is furiously inclined towards iniquity. —Truth for All Time

Free will

Scripture often asserts that man is the slave of sin. What it means is that his mind is so far removed from God's righteousness that he thinks of, deeply desires and undertakes nothing that is not evil, perverse, iniquitous and sullied; for the heart, having drunk its fill of sin's venom, can emit nothing but sin's fruits.

However, we must not think that there is some violent necessity driving man to sin. He sins with the full agreement of his own will, and he does it eagerly and in line with his own inclinations.

The corruption of his heart means that man has a very strong and continuing hatred of the whole of God's righteousness. In addition, he is devoted to every kind of evil. Because of this he is said not to have the free power of choosing between good and evil—which is called free will. Truth For All Time

It was once said (author unknown)... "In the beginning God created man in His own image. And, since that day, man has been trying to return the favor."

"Grace was freely conferred on few; when it might have been, with justice, denied equally to all."