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would have been, and possibly were, sustained by the themes of
trust and obedience articulated by Calvin. They would have read
Taffin with profit as well. Christians living as a minority group in
contexts where militant, fundamentalistic Islam flourishes
understand what it means to be intimidated for the sake of the
gospel. Calvin and Taffin speak to them as well. Calvin fled for
his life from the ire of Francis I against the Paris reformers of the
1530s and lived his entire life as an refugee from his homeland.
He witnessed first-hand how intense suffering for the faith could be
as reports of violence against Protestants in France reached
Geneva. He listened to the accounts of those who escaped and
found refuge in Geneva—from France, from the Low Countries,
from England under Henry and then under Mary. Taffin fled from
a cruel Counter-reformation three different times during his
lifetime.
Calvin and Taffin knew whereof they spoke when they
articulated trust and obedience in terms of suffering. Both
understood the temptations to capitulate, to compromise, to
acquiesce. But both also understood the glory and the peace that
comes with enduring to the end and bringing glory and honor to
their Lord through steadfastness. Both were realistic about the
weakness and vulnerability of faith, even true faith. But both
experience and recognized the sustaining and protecting power of
the Spirit as well. Both were pastors who offered encouragement
in the pursuit of obedience. Both were preachers who fortified and
inspired faith and trust through their preaching of the gospel of
grace. Both were brothers in the faith whose treatment of trust and
obedience minister to us today, as they did to their contemporaries
more than four centuries ago.