Do All Dogs Go to Heaven? What Calvin Thinks

It is then indeed meet for us to consider what a dreadful curse we have deserved, since all created things in themselves blameless, both on earth and in the visible heaven, undergo punishment for our sins; for it has not happened through their own fault, that they are liable to corruption. Thus the condemnation of mankind is imprinted on the heavens, and on the earth, and on all creatures. It hence also appears to what excelling glory the sons of God shall be exalted; for all creatures shall be renewed in order to amplify it, and to render it illustrious.

But he means not that all creatures shall be partakers of the same glory with the sons of God; but that they, according to their nature, shall be participators of a better condition; for God will restore to a perfect state the world, now fallen, together with mankind. But what that perfection will be, as to beasts as well as plants and metals, it is not meet nor right in us to inquire more curiously; for the chief effect of corruption is decay. Some subtle men, but hardly sober-minded, inquire whether all kinds of animals will be immortal; but if reins be given to speculations where will they at length lead us? Let us then be content with this simple doctrine, — that such will be the constitution and the complete order of things, that nothing will be deformed or fading. - John Calvin, commenting on Romans 8:21

Quotation for Today

Matt Greaves got me started on Richard Rohr (thanks, Matt), and I found this in a book of daily readings:
If you're still breathing, there's more conversion and more life that the Lord wants to offer you. That's what John the Evangelist means when he writes, You will know that the Spirit is within you “because I live and because you will live” (John 14:19)
Why do we feel the call to this kind of charity, this kind of love? It's not a tactic or a strategy in order to get into heaven. It's simply because that's who God is: God pours forth life in our hearts and calls us to be who God is.
It's the only thing that makes sense: When you know that your parent is love, then the only thing you want to be is love. The only thing that comes logically, naturally, to you is love. Nothing else makes sense after awhile.
There is a given-ness to God. God is not withheld; God is the one who is handed over. That's what we mean when we say that God is love. But it's not like our love. When we love, we wait and see something good out there. It it's attractive enough, if it's good enough, we give ourselves to it. God simply gives. We find that kind of love very hard to understand because we're not able to love that way. - Richard Rohr, The Price of Peoplehood, reprinted in Radical Grace: Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr, p.252

Calvin's Pastoral Concern

Found this today in Calvin's Commentary on Romans. Whether you agree with his interpretation of the text or not, it shows his pastoral concern even as he's writing a commentary:

7. For he who has died, etc. This is an argument derived from what belongs to death or from its effect. For if death destroys all the actions of life, we who have died to sin ought to cease from those actions which it exercised during its life. Take justified for freed or reclaimed from bondage; for as he is freed from the bond of a charge, who is absolved by the sentence of a judge; so death, by freeing us from this life, sets us free from all its functions.
But though among men there is found no such example, there is yet no reason why you should think, that what is said here is a vain speculation, or despond in your minds, because you find not yourselves to be of the number of those who have wholly crucified the flesh; for this work of God is not completed in the day in which it is begun in us; but it gradually goes on, and by daily advances is brought by degrees to its end. So then take this as the sum of the whole, — “If thou art a Christian, there must appear in thee an evidence of a fellowship as to the death of Christ; the fruit of which is, that thy flesh is crucified together with all its lusts; but this fellowship is not to be considered as not existing, because thou findest that the relics of the flesh still live in thee; but its increase ought to be diligently labored for, until thou arrivest at the goal.” It is indeed well with us, if our flesh is continually mortified; nor is it a small attainment, when the reigning power, being taken away from it, is wielded by the Holy Spirit. - John Calvin, commenting on Romans 6:7

Calvin's Preaching

I noted here before that I try to read at least one book on preaching a year. This year I've not only viewed the Craddock preaching tapes I wrote about earlier, I've also read Calvin's Preaching by T.H.L. Parker. Although several thousand of Calvin's sermons exist in manuscript (transcribed from shorthand notes made by various listeners) not that many have been published and even fewer translated into English. Parker had the advantage of access to the manuscripts and gives us the benefit into his research into Calvin's theology of preaching, his style, and his approach to the sermon.

One thing that struck me was Parker's insistence that Calvin's preaching was primarily positive in tone. He nearly always preaches to encourage his listeners. The subjects of his sermons, Parker says,

..are things that have been said in every century; the quiet, persistent call to frame our lives according to the teaching of Holy Scripture...There is no threshing himself into a fever of impatience or frustration, no holier-than-thou rebuking of the people, no beggin them in terms of hyperbole to give some physical sign that the message has been accepted. It is simply one man, concious of his sins, aware how little progress he makes and how hard it is to be a doer of the Word, sympathetically passing on to his people (whom he knows to have the same sort of problems as himself) what God has said to them and to him. We even notice that in the examples given...there is not one direct imperative in the second person. He is content to pass on the message, to declare how unwilling "we" are to accept it and how weak "we" are in general, how slack and rebellious, and then to use the firm but gentle first person plural imperative, "let us..." (pp.118-119)

We can't preach in the 21st century the way a 16th-century preacher would preach. But we can learn from him.

Why Change is So Hard

Here's a reminder of why we have so much trouble changing in the church. I'm not sure I completely agree, but it's a good place to start the conversation: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09829.htm

Daily Dose of Calvin III

The expression, being not weak in faith, take in this sense — that he vacillated not, nor fluctuated, as we usually do under difficult circumstances. There is indeed a twofold weakness of faith — one is that which, by succumbing to trying adversities, occasions a falling away from the supporting power of God — the other arises from imperfection, but does not extinguish faith itself: for the mind is never so illuminated, but that many relics of ignorance remain; the heart is never so strengthened, but that much doubting cleaves to it. Hence with these vices of the flesh, ignorance and doubt, the faithful have a continual conflict, and in this conflict their faith is often dreadfully shaken and distressed, but at length it comes forth victorious; so that they may be said to be strong even in weakness. - John Calvin, commenting on Romans 4:19

Daily Dose of Calvin II

18. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. If we thus read, the sense is, that when there was no probable reason, yea, when all things were against him, he yet continued to believe. And, doubtless, there is nothing more injurious to faith than to fasten our minds to our eyes, that we may from what we see, seek a reason for our hope. We may also read, “above hope,” and perhaps more suitably; as though he had said that by his faith he far surpassed all that he could conceive; for except faith flies upward on celestial wings so as to look down on all the perceptions of the flesh as on things far below, it will stick fast in the mud of the world. But Paul uses the word hope twice in this verse: in the first instance, he means a probable evidence for hoping, such as can be derived from nature and carnal reason; in the second he refers to faith given by God; for when he had no ground for hoping he yet in hope relied on the promise of God; and he thought it a sufficient reason for hoping, that the Lord had promised, however incredible the thing was in itself. - John Calvin, commenting on Romans 4:18