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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A living sacrifice, January 15, 2000
This Was John Calvin, by Thea B. Van Helsema At the beginning of a Bible-school class last fall on the history and shaping of Western thought, Russ Pulliam, asked each of the students who they thought of as one whom God had used in shaping the modern world as we know it today. I knew that we might be asked to do a little research and writing on the name we chose, so I chose carefully. Since studying Reformation Church history, I have developed a growing appreciation and interest in the life and ministry of John Calvin. I have heard the name mentioned many times but confess that I knew little of the events of his life and of his significant contribution to understanding the whole of what the Bible teaches. I have heard of only a few names mentioned with such admiration and sometimes animosity as this Genevan pastor. Before I passed judgment on the man or his teachings, I resolved to learn what I could on my own and was surprised that I could find only a couple of biographies claiming to present factual information on the events of his life. The first biography I read was written by Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor as Pastor of the Church of Geneva at St. Pierre's Cathedral. Written back in the 1500's, one can imagine the added difficulty in understanding what Beza related to his generation about Calvin. The strength of the book comes in the fact that the author, Beza, wrote from his own personal knowledge of Calvin from the time Beza was a twelve-year-old boy neighbor until the day Calvin died. No other biography on Calvin that I know of can make that claim. But, reading This Was John Calvin, I found it much easier to get to know the man and the times in which he lived. The author has provided an excellent volume that condenses the life of Calvin and relates the principal events of the Reformation of the Church in one easily read volume. Much research has been put into this little book. The quotations from Calvin's letters have been carefully and appropriately quoted. This gives the reader a close enough view of Calvin's thoughts and responses so as to conclude that he was both a man with the same frailties as any other man, but also a choice servant of the Lord, "a vessel unto honor, meet for the Master's use." (II Timothy 2:21) The book contains the story of a man arrested by God to be used not only in the reforming of an entire city during a time of intense persecution where 50,000 of his French countrymen were burned alive for their faith, but also in the summarizing and systematizing of that reformed faith for which his countrymen gave their lives to the benefit of generations to come. Some have said Calvin's magnum opus, Institutes of the Christian Religion, is the best statement of reformed faith ever written. Having read of the turmoil and trials during which this book was written, I have an even greater appreciation for the book I am to study in an upcoming theology class. Written and revised, added to again and again and revised, Calvin worked on this volume for a period of over 25 years, in sometimes unsettled state, suffering from poor health, voluntary poverty, the death of his son weeks after his birth, the death of his daughter when delivered prematurely, the death of his wife, the exposure of adultery in his wife's daughter, of his brother's wife, being rejected from his pulpit and the city of Geneva only to be begged later to return; these are but a few of the great trials through which God seasoned Calvin's studies of the Word of God with supernatural blessing and his articulation of them for all generations with the same seasoned grace. To the life that has been torn and turned upside-down by the providence of God, friend, you will find much consolation and comfort reading about this man who handled the providences of God with many tears, yet with an unwavering faith in the Master of those providences. Calvin could have well said with the Psalmist, "All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten you." (Psalm 44:17) The trials through which Calvin was brought only bore the peaceable fruit of righteousness and an example that goes on to this very day encouraging the hearts of the faithful to endure hardness as good soldiers and to uphold the truth of Scripture to the end no matter what the cost. In his own words Calvin speaks of how he viewed his life when faced with the decision to return to the pulpit in Geneva from which he was forced to leave only three years before. This statement could summarize his whole life, a living sacrifice upon the altar of service to God. "When I consider that I am not in my own power, I offer my heart a slain victim for a sacrifice to the Lord . . . I yield my soul chained and bound unto obedience to God." Before you make up your mind for yourself what exactly to think of this man, read for yourself, and my promise to you is that you will not be disappointed, provided you are truly among the faithful.
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