Institutes of the Christian Religion, book 1, chapter 6

Institutes of the Christian Religion
by John Calvin

Book 1
Chapter 6,

To know God as Creator, we need Bible teaching and guidance. This is the summary of chapter 6, in this chapter, Calvin wrote that we may found a lot of evidences in the New Testament, even not to forget the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, when we are referring to the New testament, they all have the same witness, that the purpose of the Bible for us is to prove God is our Creator, so that we may not need to try to find Him like finding a God hiding in puzzle.

Calvin was very clear about the message of the Old and New Testament, the Bible is a tool for us to find God, and Calvin never doubt about the Bible is the very Word of God, without this faith, there is no 16th Reformation!

And Calvin continue to stress that if we had strayed from the standard, strayed from the truth, no matter how fast we go, still we cannot reach the destination, Calvin stressed that God’s face is glorious, and as Paul said, “dwelling in an unapproachable light.” (1 Tim 6:16)

And as a theologian, he taught us the truth, in the Bible, and he advised us not to stray from the truth in the Bible. So we can notice that he took the truth seriously and look highly to the Bible he read.

Along this chapter, Calvin continues to write that man is unwise, without the help of the Bible, he cannot know God. He continues to stress that all mankind must depend on the help of the Bible to find God, if we depend on Bible, then, we may not fall into lies and falsehood.

He was saying there is a way falling into lies and falsehood, beware of this! He advised us to read the Bible, and understand the truth in the Bible. Depend to the help of the Bible.

Who is John Calvin?
John Calvin was born in 10 July 1509 and died on 27 May 1564, he was a great theologian, when he wrote Institutes of the Christian Religion, he was nearly 26 years old, Institutes of the Christian Religion was published in Latin in 1536 and in his native French in 1541. If you ask me, the reformation is started from what? It is from a perfect Bible, no, they have no perfect Bible, but from a simple faith in Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit.
John Calvin was reading what version of Bibles? What kind of Bible he referred to when he wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion?

Latin Vulgate, Septuagint LXX, Greek OT and the Greek NT? It is?

Furthermore, do no forget, that there are 5000 mss in Greek, and 8000 mss in Latin!

Did John Calvin write anything about the perfect Bible? Or write any thing about The Perfect Greek TR? Did he claim he has the perfect Bible, no!

Even, long before Calvin was born, about 50 year earlier, the printing machine was already invented, in the year 1450 AD, the German printed the Latin Bible, first Bible printed in the world. It never claimed to be perfect! John Calvin never intent to print his perfect Bible, as a theologian, he expounded the truth. From all the resources he had at his time, all kinds of Bible and mss was being referred.

John Calvin did not argue about the words in Latin Vulgate, he did not argue about words in Septuagint, nor did he argue any words in Greek Bible. He never wasted any time on that crucial moment in the Church History, the 16th Century Reformation to pursue a “perfect underlying text.”

I think I am out of this world in writing these! Who will read this?

But he continues to spend his time to expound the truth about God, and he continued to write the 500 pages plus, Institutes of the Christian Religion, without arguing for the perfect Bible. By faith, Calvin believes like most of us, by faith we believing the Bible is the very Word of God! I hope all those who are reading Calvin’s books, will continue to uphold the Bible by faith like John Calvin did!