News of the Society

Annual Meeting 2009

This year’s Annual Meeting of the James Begg Society was held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday 9th October in the premises of Partick Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), and was preceded as usual by the Annual Members’ Business Meeting at 6:45 p.m. The public lecture was given by president of the James Begg Society, Rev. James Gracie on the subject of “The Historical Calvin.” This subject was chosen in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, the famous Reformer of Geneva.

After mentioning the confusion that exists in the church and in the world about the character and doctrines of John Calvin, Rev. Gracie referred to four positions what people take with respect to the Reformer of Geneva:

First, there are those who detest John Calvin. Rev. Gracie enlarged upon this point more than the other three, in order to describe Calvin’s person, his historical context, and his influence on the churches of the Reformation.

Some regard Calvin as though he were the greatest heretic, now burning in hell for his promotion of what has become known as the “five points of Calvinism,” and especially for the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. They claim that Calvinism prevents evangelism and missions. They further attack the character of Calvin by claiming that he was cold and uncaring, arrogant and dogmatic, and full of hatred for fellow human beings for his preaching a Christ that did not die for all mankind. And some people with even less knowledge of the man or of his theology, also detest Calvin for believing things which in fact he did not believe.

In response to this, Rev. Gracie mentioned the corrupt and immoral condition in which Calvin found Geneva when he first went there, and how it was that through Calvin’s preaching of the Word of God that God transformed that city and its church, cutting crime and increasing godliness. The church and college at Geneva under Calvin’s ministry, far from being anti-evangelistic, trained and sent out pastors and missionaries throughout Europe. And evidence shows (e.g. Calvin’s own letters) that he had a true pastor’s heart; and that he engaged in much pastoral visitation alongside his daily preaching schedule; and that he cared for prisoners and their families; and that he offered himself to minister among those infected with the plague at Geneva; and that money had not the slightest charm upon him. It is claimed that Calvin was instrumental in the murder of the anti-Trinitarian heretic Servetus, but there were many Romanist and Protestant cities where Servetus’ blasphemy and deliberate strife-aggravating behaviour were regarded as crimes deserving of capital punishment. Calvin in fact wrote to Servetus warning him not to come to Geneva for precisely this reason, but Servetus went there with the purpose of slandering Calvin’s person and his teaching.

Secondly, there are those who misrepresent Calvin. For example, Moise Amyraut claimed, as do those who follow him, that Calvin believed in a hypothetically unlimited atonement and that Beza later limited Calvin’s universalist doctrine.

Thirdly, there are those who misrepresent themselves as being Calvinists. Though it is true that they believe in an eternal decree of election and in a limited atonement (and so are Calvinists in this respect), yet they are not Calvinists in their being ecclesiastically Independents, Bapists, or singers of man-made hymns.

Fourthly, there are those who love Calvin and his doctrines. Here Rev. Gracie issued a gentle warning against adopting the position that Calvin was never wrong on anything. Rather we should take note that Calvin loved the Holy Scriptures - and so should we.

The lecture will be uploaded onto this web site shortly.

New Web Site

The Presbyterian Standard, the quarterly magazine of the Society, now has its own web site. This includes many articles from past issues of the magazine. 

Visit the Presbyterian Standard website here:

                                   

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