John Calvin

John Calvin

John Cauvin, other wise known as John Calvin, was born in 1509 and died in 1564. John Calvin was one of the earliest reformers of the Protestant Reformation and played an important role in the development of one of the main braches of Protestantism, Known as the Reformed Tradition. In 1533, Calvin experienced a powerful religious conversion. One part of the conversion convinced him that God held the absolute power and glory. The other part convinced him of the absolute sinfulness and depravity of human beings. Depravity of humans refers to the moral corruption and the decline to a lower condition. This conversion led him to give a speech in which he called for reforms on the Church, on November 1, 1533.

John Calvin's speech created a group of anti-Protestant sentiment that forced Calvin to leave Paris and travel to different countries including Basel and Switzerland. Calvin eventually passed through Geneva and met a man named Farel. Farel convinced Calvin to stay there and work on the Protestant reformation there. Geneva eventually became a place for persecuted Protestants from all over Europe.

In John Calvin's works, he along with his followers created a theological system called Calvinism. Calvinism emphasizes the omnipotence of God and salvation by grace alone. This means that they believed God held unlimited power and authority and that salvation was granted by God alone. Calvinism also maintains that within the Bible are the following teachings: that God can predestine people into salvation and that Jesus died only for those predestined.

Basically Calvinism is represented in 5 points: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. Total Depravity states that man is dead, blind and deaf to God and God's works. It states that the will of man is not free, it is bonded to evil. Salvation is God's gift to the sinner, not the sinner's gift to God. Unconditional election states that God predetermines the salvation of man. He does not base the salvation of man on anything he sees in the individual, he chooses by the kind intention of his will. This means that God's choice of the sinner, not the sinner's choice of Christ is the ultimate cause of salvation. Limited Atonement states that Jesus died for those only with a predetermine salvation. Jesus' death is