VII. JOHN CALVIN ON THE SALVATION OF - The Works of F. N. Lee
VII. JOHN CALVIN ON THE SALVATION OF - The Works of F. N. Lee
VII. JOHN CALVIN ON THE SALVATION OF - The Works of F. N. Lee
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Thus the Pre-Mosaic book <strong>of</strong> Job - and John Calvin' s comment thereon. <strong>The</strong> same is true<br />
also <strong>of</strong> the Mosaic book <strong>of</strong> Exodus - and Calvin' s comment thereon too.<br />
Indeed, in Exodus 11:4f Moses says that God would kill the firstborn in the land <strong>of</strong> Egypt but<br />
spare the children <strong>of</strong> Israel - ' so that you may knowthat the Lord puts a difference between the<br />
Egyptians and Israel.' Yet nothing is here said about the Lordkilling babies - and still less<br />
about sending babies to hell. To the contrary, the passage is discussing the physical<br />
slaughter <strong>of</strong> ' the first born' in Egypt - nearly all <strong>of</strong> which ' first born' (unlike the ' last born' )<br />
would no longer have been babies.<br />
Calvin comments to the same effect: 299 "It appears how courageously Moses sustained the<br />
menaces <strong>of</strong> the tyrant [Pharaoh].... He willingly encounters him, and boasts that He [God]<br />
shall be his conqueror...[viz.] by the death <strong>of</strong> [not his last-born but] his first-born son....<br />
"God again puts a difference between the Egyptians - and His Own people.... <strong>The</strong> latter<br />
shall be quiet and tranquil.... [So] God divides them very widely one from the other!" Yet<br />
hell is never mentioned here.<br />
Even more interestingly, in Deuteronomy 20:13f, the inspired Moses himself told the people<br />
<strong>of</strong> Israel: ' When you come near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.... But if<br />
it wants to make no peace with you, but wishes to make war against you -- then you shall<br />
besiege it....<br />
' Whenthe Lord your God has delivered it into your hands, you shall smite every [mature]<br />
male there<strong>of</strong> with the edge <strong>of</strong> the sword. But the women and the little ones and the cattle and<br />
all that is in the city...you shall take for yourself....<br />
"That is what you shall do to all the cities very far <strong>of</strong>f from you.... But <strong>of</strong> the cities <strong>of</strong> these<br />
[nearby] people which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall save alive<br />
nothing that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them: [namely] the Hittites and the<br />
Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites!'<br />
Only nearby pagan peoples, who could have polluted the Israelites, were to be exterminated.<br />
Yet God in the same breath ordered His ancient people to do everything possible to spare the<br />
totality <strong>of</strong> the inhabitants <strong>of</strong> all vanquished pagan cities that were far-<strong>of</strong>f (and thus <strong>of</strong> little<br />
moral threat to the Israelites). Even if such cities would not surrender - only the mature<br />
males but never their womenfolk and children were to be smitten.<br />
In all <strong>of</strong> this, God' s people were required to image the merciful God Himself. <strong>The</strong>refore, it<br />
would seem that God had a much harsher attitude toward mature male pagans - than toward<br />
their womenfolk and especially toward their ignorant children. Accordingly, Calvin himself<br />
300<br />
here comments anent those ' far-<strong>of</strong>f' pagan cities:<br />
"It was not lawful to kill any [<strong>of</strong> the enemies <strong>of</strong> the Hebrews], except those who were taken in<br />
arms and sword in hand.... This permission, therefore, to slaughter - which is extended to<br />
[slaughter] ' all the males' - is far distant from...its execution [regardless <strong>of</strong> sex and age]....<br />
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