Sárospataki Füzetek 14. (2010)
2010 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Sell, Alan P. F.: Milyen megoldásra váró feladatok elé állítja Kálvin a 21. századi egyházat?
some ministers to have maintained silence on this matter for fear of disturbing the faithful. I am sure, however, that this, though well meant, is a counter-productive approach which raises the question of pastoral integrity. It is my conviction that, insofar as we succeed, we discover the Word of God and discern the mind of Christ by the Spirit through the Word within the fellowship — understanding by ‘fellowship’ here not simply the Christians with whom we gather, or the wider family of the Church around us, but the witness of the saints through the ages.45 Calvin’s challenges to the twenty-first-century church TV In the fourth place, Calvin held together the Word and the sacraments. Indeed, according to the Geneva Confession, Word and sacraments comprise the marks whereby we recognize the Church: ‘we believe that the proper mark by which properly to discern the Church of Jesus Christ is that his holy gospel be purely and faithfully preached, proclaimed, heard, and kept, that his sacraments be properly administered ...’46 The reason is that ‘the sacraments have the same office as the Word of God: to offer and set forth Christ to us, and in him the treasures of heavenly grace.’47 Furthermore, the sacraments require the accompaniment of ‘a full explanation of the ordinance and clear statement of the promises.’48 Thus ‘the right administration of the Sacrament cannot stand apart from the Word. For whatever benefit may come to us from the Supper requires the Word: whether we are to be confirmed in faith, or exercised in confession, or aroused to duty, there is need of preaching.’49 Three hundred years later the first President of Lancashire Independent College, Robert Vaughan, put it concisely: ‘Separate from preaching the meaning of external observances, even when of Divine origin, is soon obscured and lost.’50 One of Calvin’s most stem charges against the Church of Rome was that the Lord’s Supper had been ‘turned into a silent action ... under the pope’s tyranny.’51 saints, and in terms of spiritual insight in relation to biblical texts, many a church member can leave the minister standing. The ideal of every local church as a nursery of theologians is one to be striven after. See further Alan P. F. Sell, Testimony and Tradition, 10- 12; Nonconformist Theolog in the Twentieth Century, 165, 189. 45 See further, Alan P. F. Sell, “By the Spirit, through the Word, within the fellowship,’ Touchstone, VII no. 3, September 1989, 32-41; and R. Ward Holder’s study, ‘Ecclesia, legenda atque intelligenda Scriptura-, the Church as a discerning community in Calvin’s hermeneutic,’ Calvin Theological Journal, XXXVI no. 2, November 2001, 270-289. 46 The Geneva Confession, 1537, para. 18. 47 Institutes, IV.xiv.17. 48 Short Treatise on the Holy Supper of Our Hord in which is shown its True Institution, Benefit, and Utility, 1540, para. 48. 49 Institutes, TV.xvii.39. 50 R. Vaughan, in an address to the subscribers to the College delivered on 27 December 1843, during the first year of the College’s life. See Joseph Thompson, Eancashire Independent College, 1843-1893. Jubilee Memorial Volume, Manchester: J. E. Cornish, 1893, 78. With this note I gratefully salute my alma mater. 51 Ibid. SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK 89
