Did Calvin invent this Interpretation?
Did Calvin invent this interpretation?
In this post I will be correcting the false assertion that the idea that Christ came to save his elect people who are considered to be those who God loves and calls the "world" (John 3;16) as an invention by John Calvin. Also is my interpretation some heresie that I am making up or is it an established understanding.
John Calvin did believe this, but he was standing on many other earlier Church Fathers writings who held this same understanding.
For example I will quote out of John Gill book "The Cause of God and truth" and John Owens book "The death of death in the death of Christ".
The Martyrdom of Polycarp, is usually dated between 150 and 180 A.D. In it the church at Smyrna speaks of our Lord as one who ‘suffered for the salvation of the whole world of those being saved’ Here Christ is spoken of as having a world of his own that he is bringing to himself.
Ignatius, This is the way leading to the Father, this is the rock, the fold, the key; he is the shephard, the sacrifice; the door of knowledge, by which entered Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the whole company of prophets, and the pillars of the world, the apostles, and the spouse of Christ; for whom, instead of a dowry, he poured out his own blood, that he might redeem her. Surely Jesus Christ gives not a dowry for any but his own spouse.
Origen, who died about 254 A.D, having cited 2 Corinthians 5; 19, wrote ‘Of the world of the church this is written’ just after that he cites John 1;29 where Christ is said to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as illustrating the same truth.
Cyprian, 250 A.D, ‘This Grace has Christ communicated, subduing death in the trophy of his cross, redeeming believers with the price of his blood.
Cyril of Jerusalem, 386 A.D, speaks of ‘the world of men who believe in him that was crucified’.
Ambrose, 370 A.D, ‘The people of God has its own fullness. In the elect and foreknown, distinguished from the generality of all, there is accounted a certain special universality; so that the whole world seems to be delivered from the whole world, and all men to be taken out of all men.
Augustine, 420 A.D, He that brought us with such a price will have none perish whom he has brought…he often called the church itself by the name of the world; as in that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; and that ‘The son of man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. The whole world, therefore, is the church, and the world hateth the church. The world then has the world; that which is at enmity, the reconciled, the condemned, the saved, the polluted, the cleansed world. And that world which God in Christ reconciled to himself, and which is saved by Christ, is chosen out of the opposite, condemned, defiled world.
Prosper, 440 A.D, "He is not crucified with Christ who is not a member of the body of Christ. When therefore our Saviour is said to be crucified for the redemption of the whole world, because of his true assumption of the human nature, yet may be said to be crucified only for them unto whom his death was profitable.
As we can clearly see, John Calvin did not invent this interpretation.
In this post I will be correcting the false assertion that the idea that Christ came to save his elect people who are considered to be those who God loves and calls the "world" (John 3;16) as an invention by John Calvin. Also is my interpretation some heresie that I am making up or is it an established understanding.
John Calvin did believe this, but he was standing on many other earlier Church Fathers writings who held this same understanding.
For example I will quote out of John Gill book "The Cause of God and truth" and John Owens book "The death of death in the death of Christ".
The Martyrdom of Polycarp, is usually dated between 150 and 180 A.D. In it the church at Smyrna speaks of our Lord as one who ‘suffered for the salvation of the whole world of those being saved’ Here Christ is spoken of as having a world of his own that he is bringing to himself.
Ignatius, This is the way leading to the Father, this is the rock, the fold, the key; he is the shephard, the sacrifice; the door of knowledge, by which entered Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the whole company of prophets, and the pillars of the world, the apostles, and the spouse of Christ; for whom, instead of a dowry, he poured out his own blood, that he might redeem her. Surely Jesus Christ gives not a dowry for any but his own spouse.
Origen, who died about 254 A.D, having cited 2 Corinthians 5; 19, wrote ‘Of the world of the church this is written’ just after that he cites John 1;29 where Christ is said to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as illustrating the same truth.
Cyprian, 250 A.D, ‘This Grace has Christ communicated, subduing death in the trophy of his cross, redeeming believers with the price of his blood.
Cyril of Jerusalem, 386 A.D, speaks of ‘the world of men who believe in him that was crucified’.
Ambrose, 370 A.D, ‘The people of God has its own fullness. In the elect and foreknown, distinguished from the generality of all, there is accounted a certain special universality; so that the whole world seems to be delivered from the whole world, and all men to be taken out of all men.
Augustine, 420 A.D, He that brought us with such a price will have none perish whom he has brought…he often called the church itself by the name of the world; as in that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; and that ‘The son of man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. The whole world, therefore, is the church, and the world hateth the church. The world then has the world; that which is at enmity, the reconciled, the condemned, the saved, the polluted, the cleansed world. And that world which God in Christ reconciled to himself, and which is saved by Christ, is chosen out of the opposite, condemned, defiled world.
Prosper, 440 A.D, "He is not crucified with Christ who is not a member of the body of Christ. When therefore our Saviour is said to be crucified for the redemption of the whole world, because of his true assumption of the human nature, yet may be said to be crucified only for them unto whom his death was profitable.
As we can clearly see, John Calvin did not invent this interpretation.
posted by Rich7 at 1:20 AM
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