7.3 Course Project-Calvin Analysis Paper

Title page

Calvin analysis paper

The central argument of John Calvin about providence claims that God is in control of everything. Calvin’s institute spent great deal of time for determining the role of doctrine and reality behind God’s existence. The deeper analysis of Calvin’s ideology depicts the significance of exploring reality of this world and its relevance with God. The argument of providence help humans to understand the purpose of world’s existence and the role that people need to play in the society. Without finding this reality one is unable to derive the meaning and the purpose of this world. Calvin focused uncovering the purpose of life and encouraged people to learn about the things having relevance to the universe and God’s creation. The study of the mechanisms that explains evils and goods allows people to adopt procedures and produce same evils or goods. Milgore mentions, “God the creator does not abandon the creation, leaving it to run on its own, as deism teaches”. The selection between evil and good depends on the choices that individuals make.

God is taking care of the human beings and the world. Providence means “the almighty and ever-present power of God whereby he still upholds, as it were by his own hand, heaven and earth together with all creatures, and rules in such a way that leaves and grass”. This confirms that God is existing and controlling the nature. Without God the existence of world was not possible. The concept of natural laws and prevalence of systematic order also confirm Calvin’s argument. God has preserved human liberty for permitting them to choose between obeying and disobeying. This is a matter of belief and disbelief. Non-believers are more inclined to disobey while believers obey due to the influence of natural laws.

Another argument made by Calvin is that a wicked act is motivated by will not compulsion. The free will depends on the capacity of an individual to choose the possible course of his action. In many circumstances an individual face social, moral and economic constraints that influence his free will. The answer is not simple as the free will is linked to the freedom of actions. However, Calving has emphasized on differentiating between the concepts of compulsion and will. He claimed that human beings are in control of actions and their evil actions are motivated by free will. This is due to the fact that committing sin or doing wrong is not a compulsion. This allowed Calvin to draw a line between two kinds of humans; the ones who have weaker will power and the others with strong will.

People choose not to do evil because of their faith in God, and they believe that God watches them. The reasons for not choosing evil depends on their belief in God and their reputation as they desire to be known as good people. Calvin argues that if people are told directly about the consequences' of evil, they will be more convinced to choose right. However, if people know evil exists as a possibility they can learn to perform evil. He develops the relation between moral evil and good actions. An important question raised by the non-believers is God’s inability of helping humans in their misery. Natural evils such as earthquakes are to test the faith of human beings. People that face no miseries and have easy life gets rare opportunities to perform good actions. They lack opportunity to manifest greater goodness.

The central argument of Calvin states that although God created man but he left adequate room for free will. The answer to the question is complex though Calvin has attempted to prove free will by considering different situations encountered by human beings in real life. People in certain situations have free will such as when they have to choose between right aand wrong. Calvin’s ideology by stating “whether we have encountered or experienced an accident, sickness, natural disaster or war with its accompanying horrors, the question wells up within us Why?”. He fosters that the occurrence of moral evils is related to people’s choice to perform good actions. The argument thus proves that the sufferings in the form of calamities are considered as moral evil. The purpose is to examine how such miseries affects or influence human body and souls. However human beings possess freedom when they have to choose between wrong and right.

Calvin presents an adequate reasoning to justify his argument. The arguments do not deny the existence of God, but it emphasizes on the rationality of God’s existence. The arguments emphasize on the reasons for the prevalence of natural evil that influence people to choose between right and wrong. The philosophy of Calvin claims that “since all men are of same nature, able both to hold fast and to do what is good; and on the other hand, having also the power to cast it from them and not to do it”. All human beings are created by God with the same nature so it is possible for all to avoid bad when few are can retrain from evil. This reflects the role of power and control. Human beings who possess greater control over selves exhibit strong faith in God that prevent them from committing evil. The implications of the human actions and their thoughts about their deeds encourage promoting good actions only when they have belief in God. The belief that God is watching them and that every situation they encounter is under his control develops a natural power in them to perform good actions.

The natural and moral evil causes people to suffer and brings them in pain like state. Calvin defends the theist belief with the justification that only under pain and sufferings’ people get a chance to do deeds that make them good in the eye of God and also as good people of society. Though the possibilities to perform evil exists but human belief in God prevents them from adopting actions that are wrong. This relflects that they consider the knowledge that God passed to them about good and bad. Hall explains philosophy of Calvin by mentioning, “God has placed the power of choice in both human beings and as well as angels so that those who had yielded obedience might justly possess what is good, given indeed by good but preserved by themselves”. He uses different examples and demonstrates the actual meaning of belief. He builds a relationship between the choices’ of actions and natural evil. It is not that God’s existence depends on no evil, but he limits the evil to provide people opportunities to choose between right and wrong. This belief states that God put human beings in conflicting situations where they need to make choices. People who choose good are acting to show their obedience towards God.

The arguments’ of Calvin rejects the relation between natural evil and will. The reason for existence of evils is to provide people opportunities to distinguish between right and wrong. People having strong will power can choose the appropriate course of action that forms good deeds. God controls evil, and he allows it only to the extent to give people a choice between moral and immoral. Under same conditions, one man chooses to endure pain because he has belief in God and prefers right over wrong and the other man chooses to bemoan because his faith is weaker and chooses wrong. Calvin differentiates between the natural and moral evils. He claimed that, “evil is neither illusion nor mere appearance nor a gradually disappearing force in the world”. He illustrates the connection between natural evil and free choices of people. Humans have free choices under natural evil. The concept of natural evil reflects people can themselves learn evil things as the laws of producing evil provides information about how things work.

Two significant arguments raised by Calvin are existence of God and free will. Without finding the reality of God’s existence one is unable to derive the meaning and the purpose of this world. The argument claims God’s existence in creation of humans and the world. Although God is controlling the world but it does not eliminate free will. Human beings have freedom to choose between evil and good depending on their faith in God. People having faith are more convinced to choose right over wrong.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hall, C. A. (2002). Learning Theology with the Church Fathers. InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

Koller, C. W. (2007). How to Preach Without Notes. Baker Books.

Lasort, W. S., Habard, D. A., & Bush, F. W. (1996). Old Testament Survey: The Message, Form, and Background of the Old Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

Migliore, D. L. (2014). Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology, third edition. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co Kindle Edition.

Tenney, M. C. (1961). New Testaament Survey. WM. B. Eerdman's Publishing Company.