Calvin and Missions - World Evangelical Alliance

108 Calvin and World Mission
Calvin’s Concept of the Glory of God
In reference to Calvin’s contributions to the Protestant missionary enterprise,
mention must be made of his emphasis on the glory of God. This has
been so often discussed that only a brief reference is necessary here. To
bring glory to God, in Calvin’s thought, was the sole aim and goal of life.
Everything the Christian did was to contribute to God’s glory.
Quotations could be multiplied both from Calvin and his theological descendants.
The fact that the glory of God was the prime motive in early
Protestant missions and that it has played such a vital part in later missionary
thought and activity can be traced directly to Calvin’s theology.
Christian Compassion
Cotton Mather pointed out long ago that it was “a pity for the dark
souls” of the Indians that moved John Eliot to begin his mission to them. 165
Christian compassion was second only to the glory of God as a motive in
the early American missionary motivation. 166
The theology of John Calvin is especially rich soil from which Christian
compassion can grow. Calvin held that, in spite of the terrible consequences
of the sin of Adam, there still remained a remnant of the knowledge
of God in man, This remnant knowledge had two sources. First, it
was to be found in “the seeds of religion,” which God had planted in man’s
heart. 167 These “seeds” were: the innate sense that there is a deity and the
persuasion that this deity ought to be worshipped. 168
The second source of the remnant of the knowledge of God left to man
was the glory of God’s manifestation of himself in his creation. 169
However, without the direct revelation of God’s word to man, neither of
these was sufficient to bring men to a true and correct knowledge of who
God is or of how he should be worshipped. For the knowledge of God to
be found in creation, because of man’s sin, was able only to establish guilt.
It was not sufficient alone to bring man to the true worship of God. 170
165
Cotton Mather, Magndia Christi Americana (Hartford: Andrus Roberts and Burr,
1820), I, 502.
166
Beaver, “American Missionary Motivation,” op. cit., p. 2.
167
The Institutes, I, iv, 1.
168
Commentary on Romans 1:20, Works, v. 3S. p. 27.
169 The Institutes, I, v. 1.
170 Ibid., I, vi, 1.