Calvin Synod Herald, 2010 (111. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2010-01-01 / 1-2. szám
6 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD Continued from page 5 they knew that those who joined in these sacred rites with a pure conscience were not at all polluted by the society of the wicked.” He added that “a pious conscience is not injured by the unworthiness of another, whether he be a pastor or a private individual; and sacred rites are not less pure and salutary to a man who is holy and upright, from being at the same time handled by the impure.” He also uses the illustration of the wheat and tares growing together, and being separated at the time of judgment; or fish gathered in a net, and separated after they reach the shore. Then he concludes, “If the Lord declares that the Church will labor under the defect of being burdened with a multitude of the wicked, until the day of judgment, it is vain to look to a church altogether free from blemish (Matt. 13). My, how the Devil prowls looking for the souls of those separated from the Shepherd. II. We need to look at another of Calvin’s perspectives, the one about the Christian ministry. He said, “We see that God, who might perfect his people in a moment, chooses not to bring them to manhood in any other way than by the education of the Church. We see the mode of doing it ex-pressed; the preaching of celestial doctrine is committed to pastors. ... For as he did not commit his ancient people to angels, but raised up teachers on the earth to perform a truly angelical office, so he is pleased to instruct us in the present day by human means ... that he may thus allure us to himself, instead of driving us away by his thunder.” Calvin recognized that as a mother is not the sole teacher of her child as one matures, she then calls upon others for the ingredients of education she herself cannot provide. No doubt Mary was aided by Joseph in teaching his trade to Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth. But there must have been others, probably in the synagogue, where the youthful son of Mary learned to read and to gain his basic understandings of the Law and the Prophets. So too, counsels Calvin, the Church has provided for the basic and higher education of its members, calling some to be pastors - and as the others named - for the maturing of the members knowledge and faith. However, with an awareness of history, and a deformed view of the ministry with some claiming positions of superiority, Calvin asserts what has become the Reformed view, that all ministers are equal to each other, different words describing the same office. He said, “In giving the name of bishop, presbyters and pastors, indiscriminately to those who pastor churches, I have done it on the authority of Scripture, which uses the words as synonymous.” So too the term elder. Professor Henry Harbaugh, at the Reformed seminary in Lancaster, Pa., read about the election of his friend in the Episcopal Church there to the office of bishop. When they met, he needled him noting that “now you have become one of us.” All of our Reformed ministers confirm our members. They also ordain new ministers as an essential part of our polity, which includes some form of ecclesiastical council of ministers and laity to confirm their Call and certify to the preparation, faith and character of ministers. III. While recognizing that in the past fourteen centuries the election of ministers to pastorates was done quite differently in many times and places, Calvin points out that the churches’ members should have the ultimate say in the selection - but never the civil government. The churches found early that just a popular vote could be destructive, and there was a need for the judgment of pastors in the process, either in prior examination of the candidate or by confirming a popular election. This influence of this Calvinist concept can be seen in our Electoral College, in the processes of treaty ratification, and also in the confirmation of cabinet members, judges and others. He also indicated that non-teaching elders shared the responsibility with the pastor for the governance of the church, seeing that it had the means to sustain its life, fulfill its mission and care for the poor. They also share the responsibility for the unity of the church and, if necessary, its corrective discipline. This too is an extension of the Church’s teaching role, to help the members to see the whole life of the whole Church as their concern and their service to Christ, building up the Church in holiness and one another in faith. IV. In the Apostles’ Creed, Calvin pointed out that, despite its divisions, there is only one Church. He wrote, “By the unity of the Church we must understand a unity into which we feel persuaded that we are truly engrafted. For unless we are united with all the other members under Christ our head, no hope of the future inheritance awaits us. Hence the Church is called Catholic or Universal (Augustine Ep. 48). For two or three cannot be invented without dividing Christ; and that is impossible. All the elect of God are so joined together in Christ, that as they depend on one head, so they are as it were compacted into one body, being knit together like its different members; made truly one by living together under the same Spirit of God in one faith, hope, and charity, called not only to the same inheritance of eternal life, but to participation in one God and Christ. ... Moreover, this article of the Creed relates in some measure to the external Church, that every one of us must maintain brotherly concord with all the children of God, and give due authority to the Church, and, in short, conduct ourselves as sheep of the flock.” From this he concludes there is indeed a true “communion of the saints” and that “we may feel firmly assured in our minds, that all those who, by the mercy of God the Father, through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, have become partakers with Christ, are set apart as the proper and peculiar possession of God, and that as we are of the number, we are also partakers of this great grace.” The wisdom of John Calvin summarized in his writings are a reflection of the holy Church’s education by God and its experiences in the college of hard knocks. Let the Church today also give its hearts to Christ promptly and sincerely. To God be all praise and glory. Rev. Albert W. Kovács Editor ’s note: article above was presented at the Fall Meeting of the Central Classis of Calvin Synod on September 26, 2009.
