Sárospataki Füzetek 16. (2012)
2012 / 3-4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Eberhard Busch: Az egyház értelmezése a Heidelbergi Káté tanítása szerint
MARTI! . : B IN KM AN God’s glory and to foster sincere humility. It makes clear that our salvation comes about solely from God’s mere generosity.’ (III.21.1.)3 Oberman points out how a number of biblical verses out of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, Calvin’s favorite letter, became key phrases for his doctrine of election like II Timothy 2.T9: “The Lord knows them that are his.”4 That means: he will not forsake the work of his hands.5 Outside of this historical context, however, so Oberman proceeds, “Calvin’s doctrine of election is not only abhorrent but also ungodly”. But within this horizon of experience it is for him “a precious experiential asset which churches subject to persecution can only dispense with to their great detriment and which we, for as long as we may live under the protective canopy of our democratic rights, must keep alive and pass on to prepare ourselves and our children for the things which are coming.”6 So, it is not the intention of the doctrine of predestination to divide humanity into two parts, chosen and damned people. The focus of predestination is salvation. Therefore, predestination has always an asymmetrical character. God is not in the same way involved into our damnation as He is into our salvation. He is not the cause of our damnation like He is of our salvation. More than in the case of salvation we can speak about synergism (cooperation) in damnation. Damnation can be considered as the divine confirmation of the results of our evil acts and of our refusal to show repentance, while salvation goes far beyond our righteous acts and faithful intentions. Oberman showed that in Calvinism, divine predestination precedes human faith, the sola fide, and is meant as consolation in times of oppression and apostasy, when everything, even our own faith, has become uncertain. Damnation is the potential flip side of the coin. It is more or less the logical opposite of salvation, but can never be conceived of as the necessary, other half of a symmetrical world order. Then indeed, God would be the cause of evil. In sum, our ideas of righteousness and evil have only in a very limited sense something to do with God’s predestination. And there is a remarkable asymmetry between our ideas of righteousness and evil and God’s as well. Our ideas of evil approach God’s ideas of evil more than our ideas of righteousness. Covenant Even though the deepest intention of the Reformed doctrine of election is to endorse God’s loyalty to us (Psalm 138:8 and 146:6) and not our loyalty to Him, yet this divine loyalty demands a reaction of humans. This is why in the Reformed tradition election and covenant are closely connected. As to the relation election-covenant we are used to discern between two different approaches within the Reformed tradition. In the first approach the covenant constitutes the road along which election is realized in the history of salvation. Christ is just the confirmation of divine election. In the second approach faith in Christ within the context of the new covenant in him is 3 Klooster, Fred: Calvins Doctrine of Predestination. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977. 2nd ed.(1961). 13-20. 4 Parker, T.H.L.: Calvins New Testament Commentaries. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1964. Latin: Corpus Reformatorum 80, 370. 316-317. ^ Oberman: Two Reformations. 162-165. 6 Oberman: Two Reformations. 164-165. 86 Sard I
