The Myth of Calvinism

In a previous series, “Why I am Not (Always) A Calvinist” I quoted from Calvin’s Institutes concerning his view about the Old Testament. He spoke disparagingly of the Old Testament, putting it on a lower level than the New Testament. This view immediately creates a problem with the unity of God’s Word.

Later in his Institutes, Calvin made these comments about the Old Testament law and its place in the life of any nation in the New Testament period. “For there are some who deny that any commonwealth is rightly framed which neglects the law of Moses, and is ruled by the common law of nations. How perilous and seditious these views are, let others see: for me it is enough to demonstrate that they are stupid and false”(John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, 20:14).

Calvin wrote at a time when it was common to speak clearly, unlike today where misleading and obfuscation are the order of the day. The idea that any commonwealth is to be ruled by the law of Moses is a “stupid and false” idea. Now Calvin is not completely denying the law of Moses, or is he?

“But if it is true that each nation has been left at liberty to enact the laws which it judges to be beneficial, still these are always to be tested by the rule of charity, so that while they vary in form, they must proceed on the same principle. Those barbarous and savage laws, for instance, which conferred honor on thieves, allowed the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, and other things even fouler and more absurd, I do not think entitled to be considered as laws, since they are not only altogether abhorrent to justice, but to humanity and civilized life” (Ibid., IV;20:15).

In the very next section Calvin attempts to get morality back into the laws of nations. He does this with these words: “I do not think [they are] entitled to be considered as laws” because they are “abhorrent to justice” and “humanity and civilized life.” Having turned his back on the law of Moses, the Torah, Calvin offers in its place the standards of justice, humanity and civilized life.

But this only begs the question: How are we to know what the standards of justice, humanity and civilized life are unless they are defined by the law of God as given to Moses?

The answer to this question contains the myth of Calvinism. Now a myth is “a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, esp. one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.”

Here’s the myth: the “well-known division which distributes the whole law of God, as promulgated by Moses, into the moral, the ceremonial, and the judicial law”.

Now Calvin provides no arguments as to how this division is arrived at, other than this one. “the ancients who adopted this division”.

In other words, somewhere in the past, presumably one or more of the church fathers, the tri-fold division of the law was created. Who precisely created this idea we are not told. Nor are we told why they created the division.

And there has yet to be a biblical argument which clearly indicates how the laws are to be divided. The Ten Commandments are the moral laws, applicable to all, while all the other laws, civil and ceremonial are no longer to be applied, other than some kind of “general equity.”

But that argument — a myth — handed down through Calvin and then the Westminster Confession of Faith, has done nothing more than effectively undercut the possibility of Christian culture. There is no determinable basis or fact to support the division of the law, then the putting aside of most of it. It is a myth. Christian culture, which imperfectly based itself on the Torah, came into existence, because some people did not believe the myth. Alfred the Great, for example.

There is no Christian or biblical culture without the Torah. And those who perpetuate the tri-fold division perpetuate a myth and undercut the possibility of restoring Christian — or if you prefer, Biblical — culture.

If you’re not convinced, start reading the Psalms and the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:17ff. If those words in Scripture don’t convince you, nothing will.

Have a blessed week, serving God in your calling.