Derek W.H. ThomasJohn Calvin: For a New Reformation

Over two thousand years of church history have produced a wide assortment of Christian leaders. One man who exerted an enormous amount of influence in his day was John Calvin. In recent years, theologians and pastored have revived an interest in Calvin including, A Godward Gaze: The Holy Pursuit of John Calvin, by yours truly.The most recent and comprehensive offering is an edited volume by Derek W.H. Thomas and John W. Tweeddale. This massive volume that spans over 600 pages includes contributions from well-known scholars which include the likes of Stephen Nichols, Steven Lawson, Burk Parsons, Paul Helm and others. The afterward by R.C. Sproul is a fitting conclusion from the man who should be credited for restoring an interest in Reformed theology in the twentieth-century church. Sproul’s words are especially moving and significant, since this is is last published writing before his death in 2017.John Calvin: For a New Reformation is arranged in two parts. Part 1 explores the life and work of John Calvin. The contributors share a wealth of biographical information on Calvin including his early years, conversion, and friendships. Especially significant is the piece by Steven Lawson that summarizes the expository preaching of Calvin.Part 2 explores the teaching of John Calvin. The contributors weigh in on several doctrinal subjects including the providence of God, the person and work of Christ, predestination, the sacraments, perseverance of the saints, and Calvin’s approach to eschatology. Edward Donnelly’s chapter, The Christian Life stands out the most. Donnelly helps readers see the pastoral heart of Calvin, which is undergirded by four central features of the Christian life: self-denial,cross—bearing, meditation on the future life, and the present life. Donnelly shows how Calvin lived an authentic and transparent Christian life, which inspired thousands in the sixteenth century and continues to inspire people in our day.Additionally, Donnelly shows readers how Calvin lived in constant fellowship with the Lord and submitted daily to his lordship. “We are God’s,” writes Calvin. This acknowledgment was the very essence of Calvin’s Christian life. Also, Calvin was committed to mortifying idolatry and serving other people.Over the years, I have read dozens of books about the French Reformer, John Calvin. This book is among the best. Thomas and Tweeddale should be commended for assembling such a worthy team of writers who celebrate a man who continues to wield a great deal of influence on individual lives and the church of Jesus Christ.

Church history is fascinating to me. I adore the Lord and His Bride, and am always brought to my knees in further adoration, love, and amazement when I am able to look back through history and see the plethora of ways in which God has established, built, and blessed His Bride, the Church. Far from being drab and dull, Church history is chock full of amazing stories of God's providence, loving goodness, and gracious mercy.However, Church history is often replete with polarizing figures. Some men are universally praised and loved (for the most part), others are universally rejected and hated, and others divide the Body of Christ.Perhaps no man of the last 500 years has been more polarizing in Christendom than John Calvin. Most that love him are unfamiliar with his life, apart from perhaps having read a few quotes here and there and being somewhat familiar with the doctrines of grace (which, by the way, Calvin did not invent), and others that hate him fall into very much the same category, knowing next to nothing of his life (except for, perhaps, his involvement in the death of Servetus), and being familiar with a few quotes and misunderstanding the doctrines of grace.Today, the biggest dividing line in protestant circles can be argued, but one large line remains to be between those who call themselves "Calvinists" and those who call themselves "Arminians." Perhaps the dividing line can best be summarized by the question, "Just how sovereign is the Lord?" With Calvinists standing on the side of an almighty, sovereign Lord who predestined all things and now controls all things, and Arminians standing on the side of a God who is still basically sovereign, but usually in a misguided attempt to protect the goodness of God or to argue for man's independent free-will, argue for His unwillingness, or even inability, to interfere with the hearts or actions of men.Now, as previously mentioned, Calvin did not invent the doctrines of grace, or TULIP for short, but he was a defender of those great truths taught in the Word of God. He did write about man's radical corruption and inability to do good or turn to Christ on his own apart from the Holy Spirit; he did write about God's irresistible grace upon those for whom Christ particularly and definitely purchased for salvation and atoned for their sins with His death on the Cross; he did write about the irresistability of that grace upon those whom God effectually calls to salvation; and he did write about the eternal perserverance of the Saints, but then so did Luther (to some extent), Bucer, Zwingli, Tyndale, Hus, Augustine, Paul, Peter, and John. He also wrote about, and preached, the free offer of the Gospel to whosoever would believe. Calvin merely stands in a long line of Godly men who taught, proclaimed, and defended biblical truth.Calvinism, as it is known today by the acronym TULIP, bears its name because the men who wrote the canons of Dort and defended these doctrines of grace, put these doctrines into a sort of systematic confession of faith. Yet, it must be firmly defended still: Calvin did not invent these doctrines, nor did his understudies, but these doctrines are firmly rooted in the teaching of Scripture and are there to be mined for those willing to dig for priceless jewels and treasures in the pages of God's Word.Nonetheless, many still despise him and his teachings, without knowing much about him or what he actually taught, and others love him without knowing who he was or what he actually taught. This is why I heartily commend the work "John Calvin For a New Reformation," to you for your reading pleasure.In this book, edited by Derek Thomas and John W. Tweeddale, you will find a collection of essays from some incredible scholars, ranging from Michael Haykin to Steve Lawson to Joel Beeke, and even some words from the late R.C. Sproul in an afterword, with many more in between. The value of a collection such as this is in the ability of the various authors to focus, for a few pages each, on a particular aspect of Calvin and his life. This need not be read in order, or even from beginning to end. An essay can be picked by author or topic and be edifying to the Saints in and of itself. Even those who completely disagree with the man will, at least in theory, find a brother in Christ who did his best to contend for the faith as he understood it.There are valuable insights in these pages, not just for pastors, learned theologians and scholars, or Church historians, but for all Christians. There is, I believe, great value in reading about a man who so greatly impacted and influenced the Reformation and men such as Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, R.C. Sproul, and many more.Still reforming... Soli Deo Gloria.(I received a review copy from Crossway in exchange for an honest review.)