VII. JOHN CALVIN ON THE SALVATION OF - The Works of F. N. Lee

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And if they are liable to eternal death - much more to temporal punishments.... God never punishes those who do not deserve it, and He is by nature inclined to compassion." Thus Calvin on Isaiah 14:21. Calvin: the children at Isaiah 14:21 not babies but adolescents or adults Calvin' scomment continues: "All who are destitute of the grace of God, are involved in the sentence of eternal death. Hence it follows that the children of the reprobate whom the curse of God pursues, are liable to the same sentence." Note, however, that Calvin does not here say that God curses infants. Still less does he say that God curses infants as infants to suffer while yet infants. Calvin here indeed says that God curses "the children of the reprobate" unto an "eternal death." Yet Calvin does not here specify the age of those children. Isaiah himself indeed seems to have been considering those "children" as themselves already having attained adolescence or adulthood. Hence, Calvin does not claim that God here curses infants. Still less does John Calvin here claim that God sentenced them to die as infants; and, as such, to go to hell. To the contrary, as John Calvin explains: "Isaiah, therefore, does not speak of innocent children [alias babies and toddlers], but of flagitious and unprincipled children who perhaps even exceeded their parents in wickedness. In consequent of which they were justly associated with their parents, and subjected to the same punishment, seeing that they [themselves] have followed the same manner of life. "It will be said that in that case, they suffer the punishment of their own sin and not of their parents. This, I acknowledge, is partly true.... It was with their parents that the rejection began, on account of which they also have been forsaken and rejected by God. Their own guilt is not set aside as if they had been innocent." Thus, although these children undoubtedly suffered to some extent on account of the indiscretions of their parents and the penalty which the latter properly incurred - in large part, the children were not punished for the crimes of their parents. Indeed, at least in part, those children of their parents suffered for "their own sin." Those children suffered for their sin which they committed when adults - their sin in which they "even exceeded their parents in wickedness." Calvin on the children of the wicked in the Book of Jeremiah In Jeremiah 19:3-4, that prophet predicted that the Lord would bring destruction upon Judah. The reason for this was because her people had committed idolatry in ' the valley of the son of Hinnom' - and ' filled the place with the blood of innocents.' - 95 -
According to Calvin, ' the blood of innocents' which Jeremiah here says was shed by apostate covenanters - means that of their own children. It is true that the passage is not discussing the everlasting destiny of those children. However, inasmuch as it clearly calls them "innocent" - it certainly suggests that their postmortal destiny would be appropriate to that innocence. In a copious and rather extended discussion of this passage, Rev. Professor Dr. John Calvin makes it clear that these ' innocents' were the infants of those who were themselves apostates. He comments 305 of the apostate adult Israelites that "they were accustomed to sacrifice and offer their children - by casting them into the fire. "Many indeed performed this in a different way, by purifying their children and carrying them round the fire - so that they only felt the flame, and escaped unhurt. But there were those who...killed their children and then burnt them.... "Many killed their children.... Some only purified them. How[so]ever this may have been, God justly abominated the sacrifice.... How detestable that service was to God appears clear from this, that the prophets give the name of ' hell' to the valley of Hinnomgeey -- > Hinnoom [or Géena alias Gehenna].... We know that at the time of Christ, it was the common name for hell.... "That place was ' filled with the blood of innocents.' For there they killed their children.... By this circumstance, Jeremiah again amplified the wickedness of the people. For they had not only despised God and His Law, but also cruelly destroyed their innocent infants.... He proved them guilty not only of impiety and profaneness in vitiating the worship of God, but also of brutal and barbarous savageness in not sparing innocent blood!" In here referring to the "innocent" blood shed by apostate covenant parents, at least implicitly Calvin has raised the question as to the everlasting destination of the (apparently equally-innocent) infants even of Pagans less depraved than the apostate covenant-breaking adult Israelites. By ' less depraved' we here mean Pagan parents who do not sacrifice or slaughter their own infants to their idols in the way in which the above-mentioned apostate Israelites did to whatsoever Deity or imagined idol they then had in mind when perpetrating such outrageous acts. Here, we should also compare Luke 12:47f - teaching a greater punishment for moreknowledgeable apostates than for less-knowledgeable persons. The fact is, all such are - although in different degrees - covenant-breakers. For in the last analysis, even Pagans are but the great-grandchildren and the further descendants of apostate covenanters. See: Genesis 3:15 to 4:16f; 9:24 to 10:5f; Exodus 20:5f; Hosea 6:7-10f. God' s promise, however, is that even after severe acts of ungodliness on the part of those who claim to be His people, His covenant shall not depart from their seed nor from their seed' s seed - for ever. Isaiah 59:20f cf. Romans 11:26. - 96 -
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Page 3 and 4: "It grew worse and worse, as time a
Page 5 and 6: asked from this passage, 'What had
Page 7 and 8: wonder if Christ declares that they
Page 9 and 10: "Inhumanity is here mitigated, sinc
Page 11: Here, the whole context not only se
Page 15 and 16: "God' spromise comprehends not only
Page 17 and 18: grace of adoption but also newness
Page 19 and 20: Calvin comments 319 that John is he
Page 21 and 22: Calvin on Christ healing the daught
Page 23 and 24: is done to the covenant of God, as
Page 25 and 26: "Christ surpasses Adam.... Since Ch
Page 27 and 28: Here Calvin then concludes: "But if
Page 29 and 30: Calvin on the children of disobedie
Page 31 and 32: Never theless, the Apostle' s conte
Page 33 and 34: Calvin next remarks also Papists "g
Page 35 and 36: "Are we not, independently of bapti
Page 37 and 38: "I again ask how it is that the fal
Page 39 and 40: Calvin condemns the Anabaptist Serv
Page 41 and 42: Castellio would therefore also be q
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Page 45 and 46: The Early Calvinist Confessions on
Page 47 and 48: fault is in the will, voluntarily a
Page 49 and 50: The above is also our own perceptio
Page 51 and 52: "I confess some among the orthodox
Page 53 and 54: Wigglesworth: early-dying infants o
Page 55 and 56: A fast was proclaimed by God to the
Page 57 and 58: Take heed [therefore] that you do n
Page 59 and 60: Explained Toplady: 407 "Christ died
Page 61 and 62: The maverick hypercalvinist Michael
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Thus, Rev. Professor Dr. Ashbel Gre
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Rev. Drs. Bethune and Bockok on the
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Rev. Professor Dr. R.S. Candlish: a
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whereby one could remain connected
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"If the ground be taken that justic
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"Who broke for ever, out of Christe
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After seeing the great usefulness o
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Standard [namely the Westminster Co
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Also the noted Presbyterian Theolog
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the martyrdom of prophets and other
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"It was instrumentally the result o
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Rev. Professor Dr. Philip Schaff: t
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the salvation of all infants dying
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"Before pronouncing this judgment,"
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"' ChristJesus came into the World
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They also give very little hope tha
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XI. OUR OWN VIEW ON THE SALVATION O
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Church regards those whom it admits
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For example. The Declaratory Statem
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Article I of the Australian Declara
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In the book of Ecclesiastes (4:2f &
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critics) that Calvinists teach chil
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Zechariah 13:7; and Malachi 2:10-14
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VII. JOHN CALVIN ON THE SALVATION OF - The Works of F. N. Lee

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