thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
similar nature, that Christ was given for a light of the Gentiles, that he might be the salvation of God to the end of the earth.(Calvin 1949a:384)We also need to consider what Calvin wrote on verse 14 (which gives this commission time until the last coming of Christ) so that there could be no misunderstanding as to the fact that the commission would not be completed within the lifespan of the original apostles: And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world . As to the objection brought by some, that to this day not even the slightest report concerning Christ has reached the Antipodes and other very distant nations, this difficulty may be speedily resolved; for Christ does not absolutely refer to every portion of the world, and does not fix a particular time, but only affirms the gospel would be spread to the farthest bounds of the world before the day of his last coming.(Calvin 1949a:128, 129) In his Commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles (Volume I) Calvin refers to the kingdom of Christ, which was to be erected everywhere (Acts 1:8) and which, in the mind of Calvin, could never have been envisaged as the task of one generation: Christ testifieth that they must gather thereunto all Samaria; which, although they were nigh in situation, yet were they far distant in mind and heart. He showeth that all other regions far distant, and also profane, must be united unto the holy people, that they may be all partakers of one and the same grace. It is evident (John iv.9) how greatly the Jews did detest the Samaritans. Christ commanded that (the wall of separation being broken down) they be both made one body (Eph. ii.14) that his kingdom may be erected everywhere.(Calvin 1949b:48) In his Commentary on the Gospel according to John (Volume I) Calvin refers to the love of God for the whole of the human race and to God wishing no human being to perish (without exception) which could only be understood in terms of an ongoing mission of the church across the whole world: As the whole matter of our salvation must not be sought anywhere else than in Christ, so we must see whence Christ came to us, and why he was offered to be our Saviour. Both points are distinctly stated to us: namely, that faith in Christ brings life to all, and that Christ brought life, because the Heavenly Father loves the human race, and wishes that they should not perish. Hence it follows that, until Christ bestow his aid in rescuing the lost, all are destined to eternal destruction. It is a remarkable commendation of faith, that it frees us from everlasting destruction And he has employed the universal term whosoever, both to invite all indiscriminately to partake of life, and to cut off every excuse from unbelievers. Such is also the import of the term World he shows himself to be reconciled to the whole world, when he invites all men without exception to the faith
of Christ (Calvin 1949c:123, 124, 125) In his Commentary on Romans (Chapter 10:919), Calvin makes an important connection between three realities: (i) God's mission; (ii) the preaching of the church (as 'instrument of his power' God's power); and (iii) the salvation of 'the whole world' 'any nation' (Calvin 1947:396404). This is of course important for the vision of the ongoing mission of the church in this world, and for the motivation that missionary work has to be aimed at the whole world. Calvin says: Where then there is a calling on God, there is faith; and where faith is, the seed of the word has preceded; where there is preaching there is the calling of God It will hence at last appear that the Gentiles are not to be excluded from the kingdom of God, for God has admitted them into a participation of his salvation.(Calvin 1947:397) Since the minds of men are imbued, by preaching, with the knowledge of God, which leads them to call on God, it remained a question whether the truth of God had been proclaimed to the Gentiles; for that Paul had suddenly betaken himself to the Gentiles, there was by that novelty no small offence given. He then asks, whether God had ever before directed his voice to the Gentiles, and performed the office of a teacher towards the whole world. But in order that he might show that the school, into which God collects scholars to himself from any part, is open in common to all, he brings forward a Prophet's testimony from Ps. xix.4 God has already from the beginning manifested his divinity to the Gentiles, though not by the preaching of men, yet the whole workmanship of heaven and earth did speak and make known its author by its preaching. for by the word going forth the Prophet reminds us, that the doctrine, of which the heavens are the preachers, is not included within the narrow limits of one land, but is proclaimed to the utmost regions of the world. Paul had argued, that the Gentiles were not to be excluded from the knowledge of God, since he had from the beginning manifested himself to them.(Calvin 1947:402404) In his Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians Calvin writes (with reference to 2 Corinthians 2:12, 13) about the necessary concern for the welfare of the whole church of Christ, as 'our duty', and about opportunities to preach the Gospel that should always be made use of. These matters are indeed closely linked to the missionary calling of the church. Calvin explains: - just as at this day it is our duty, indeed, to promote the welfare of the whole Church, and to be concerned for the entire body of it.(Calvin 1948a:156) so where an opportunity presents itself of edifying, let us consider that by the hand of God a door is opened to us for introducing Christ there, and let us not withhold compliance with so kind of indication from God.(Calvin 1948a:155) In his Commentary on 1 Timothy, in explaining
Chapter 2:4, which, without a doubt, points to mission as an ongoing challenge of the church, Calvin says that the Gospel should be proclaimed to all people without exception: for the Apostle simply means, that there is no people and no rank in the world that is excluded from salvation; because God wishes that the gospel should be proclaimed to all without exception.(Calvin 1948b:54, 55)His missionary vision is already evident in Old Testament commentaries, for instance in his Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (Chapter 45:23), where Calvin explains that the worship of God shall be spread among all nations. Calvin says of the prophet: he means that all the Gentiles shall be suppliants to God Yet hence also it follows, that his worship shall be spread among all nations; for we cannot truly 'bend the knee' before God till he hath been made known to us. To an unknown God, indeed, men may render some kind of worship; but it is false and unprofitable. But here he speaks of a true profession, which proceeds from a knowledge of God deeply seated in our hearts; for, where there is no faith, there can be no worship of God, and faith is not directed to a thing unknown or uncertain.(Calvin 1948d:427) In his Commentary on Ezekiel (Chapter 18:23), Calvin teaches that God does not wish the death of one sinner, but wishes all people to be converted. The missionary challenge is, indeed, the conversion of all people. Note also the words, all ages. Referring to the Prophet, Calvin says: He confirms the same sentiment in other words, that God desires nothing more earnestly than that those who were perishing and rushing to destruction should return into the way of safety. And for this reason not only is the Gospel spread abroad in the world, but God wishes to bear witness through all ages how inclined he is to pity. God is said not to wish the death of a sinner. How so? Since he wishes all to be converted. Now we must see how God wishes all to be converted; for repentance is surely his peculiar gift: as it is his office to create men, so it is his province to renew them, and to restore his image within them.(Calvin 1948e:246, 248)Nevertheless, the very important point still remains that Calvin, and the Reformers, made us the beneficiaries of their profound theology, and in this way they guide and teach us to discern the contours of a Reformed or Protestant theological understanding of church mission. The consequence of this heritage was clearly visible during the 'age of mission', the 19th century, when large numbers of missionaries of Calvinistic origin were sent across the world to far-off foreign countries. Keith Coleman concludes: 'By the end of the 19th century one quarter of all Protestant missionaries in the world were Presbyterian' (Coleman 2009:5). B.B. Warfield adds the following: 'Calvinistic churches are today behind none in their zeal for a success in missionary work' (Coleman 2009:5). THE REGISTER OF THE COMPANY OF PASTORS IN GENEVAIn
the Registers of Geneva, the numbers of ministers trained in Geneva and sent out from there are far from complete and are restricted, in the main, to a few years between 1555 and 1562. Because of the unbridled hostilities against the Reformation, the utmost secrecy had to be observed in many cases when sending out evangelical preachers. In practice this meant that many names and destinations were actually deleted from the Registers, and some names were changed in order to make identification impossible. The names in the Registers probably represent only a fraction of the real numbers of trained ministers who left Geneva to preach the Gospel in other countries. The Register of the Company of Pastors in Geneva lists the names of 88 ministers who were sent out to various places, for the period 1555 to 1562. Robert M. Kingdon proves the incompleteness of the Register by taking 1561 as an example. Indications are that 1561 was a peak year for this kind of missionary activity. However, the Register records that only twelve men were sent out, whereas evidence from other sources totals no fewer than 142 names (Hughes 1973:46).Despite dreadful persecutions, the growth of the Protestant church in France between 1555 and 1562 was spectacular. The many preachers who were sent from Calvin's Geneva to France contributed much to this impressive growth. In this regard Hulse (2009:3) reports as follows: All Calvin's students had to be fully proficient in Latin, Hebrew and Greek, in order to be thoroughly proficient in line by line exegesis of the Scriptures. They were required to be trained in Church History and Systematic TheologyOnly when Calvin judged a man to possess the necessary fibre and stamina would he be sent into France to preach and plant churches. Each church began by a group gathering in a home, and then out of that a fully disciplined church would be constituted. Such was termed 'a dressed church'. In 1555 there was only one 'dressed church'. Seven years later, in 1562, there were 2150 such churches! This represents growth of extraordinary proportions. Eventually there were over two million Protestant church members out of a French population of twenty million. The multiplication came in spite of fierce persecution. For instance in 1572, 70,000 Protestants lost their livesThere were 29 national synods from about 1562 to 1685 when persecution forced most of the believers to leave France.(Hulse 2009:3) THE MISSION TO BRAZILThere are people with the conviction that only missions to indigenous people in far-off countries where there are no Western influences, could count as real missionary work. A venture that would probably capture their imagination took place when two ministers were dispatched from Calvin's Geneva across the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil. The Register for 1556 merely states that on Tuesday, 25 August 1556, August Pierre Richier and Guillaume Charretier were sent off to minister in the islands recently conquered by France, off the coast of Brazil. It also states that they 'were subsequently commended to the care of the Lord and sent off with a letter', i.e. from the
church in Geneva (Hughes 1973:47). The broader picture of what happened is to be collected from other sources. Of particular importance in this regard is the detailed account and extensive observations gathered in Jean de Lery's journal (under the title Histoire d'un voyage fait en la terre de Bresil) published in Geneva in 1578. After his return from Brazil, Lery was ordained and became a noted minister in the Reformed Church (cf. Beaver 1973:5573).Villegagnon, Vice-Admiral of Brittany, was the man at first inspired and determined to undertake a colonial expedition to Brazil. He was then also appointed governor of the expedition to Brazil, to colonise an area, the first in a region that would be known as France Antartique. Well-known Huguenots joined the expedition. However, Villegagnon received authorisation for the expedition only after he had won the support of the Grand Admiral of France, Gaspard de Coligny. He gave the admiral the impression of a positive approach towards the Protestants. By then, Coligny was already known for his interest in and protection of the Huguenots, and at a later stage he announced that he was a member of the Reformed Church. Coligny found favour with the royal court and through his intervention Henry II authorised the expedition. The small fleet of three ships reached Guanabara (Rio de Janeiro) on 10 November 1555. Villegagnon chose a small island that was apparently easy to defend.Following unrest amongst his own people, Villegagnon turned to the Huguenots for help. When his ships sailed for France in February 1556, they carried his requests to Coligny and the church of Geneva. When the question of mission was put before the church of Geneva, they responded favourably. Lery wrote: Upon receiving these letters and hearing the news, the church of Geneva at once gave thanks to God for the extension of the reign of Jesus Christ in a country so distant and likewise so foreign and among a nation entirely without knowledge of the true God.(Beaver 1973:61)It subsequently followed that Pierre Richier (aged 50) and Guillaume Charretier (aged 30) were sent to Brazil. Calvin had knowledge of the mission to Brazil, as is evident from correspondence on the matter (Beaver 1973:62). The instructions were to establish a colony in South America, free from persecution, where they could develop their own culture and at the same time instruct the heathen Indians in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.Though the ministers were in the beginning not too sure of success in their mission to the Indians (the Tupinambas), and they perceived the language barrier as an enormous obstacle, they were later more motivated and hopeful. They decided to advance their work by stages and began to master the language of the Indians. Richier wrote to Calvin: 'Since where the Most High has given us the task, we expect this Edom to become a future possession for Christ' (Beaver 1973:64).Ultimately, and regrettably, the expedition failed and was aborted. Villegagnon was not a successful governor. He betrayed Coligny's trust in him, and later turned against the Huguenots and persecuted them. Lery wrote: It is
my opinion that if Villegagnon had not turned against the Reformed religion, and if we had been able to remain in that country for a longer time, we would have drawn and won over some of them to Christ.(Beaver 1973:65)The expedition, nonetheless, presents us with a brilliant example of the missionary vision and far-reaching insight of John Calvin and his colleagues in Geneva.It is furthermore interesting and noteworthy that three years prior to the Brazilian expedition, a letter was sent from the Company of Pastors of Geneva to 'the believers of certain islands in France', giving them advice and sending them a minister (who carried this letter with him). No names of persons or places were mentioned. The letter was signed: 'Charles d'Espeville in the name both of himself and of his brethren'. Charles d'Espeville was an assumed name and we know now that Calvin sometimes used that assumed name (Hughes 1973:48). FINAL REMARKS: AN ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY THEOLOGYThere are present-day historians who still argue that Calvin and his fellow Reformers did not have a missionary concern. There can be no doubt that their arguments lack the required substantiation.In his Commentary on Micah (Mic. 2:14) Calvin describes the missionary work of the church as an ongoing process: 'The Kingdom of Christ was only begun in the world, when God commanded the gospel to be everywhere proclaimed, and at this day its course is not yet complete' (Hughes 1973:5657).Surely some form of mission is required for the proclamation of the Gospel everywhere and, by implication, to all people without exception, as stated by Calvin. The theology of Calvin is, without a doubt, an essentially missionary theology.When a theology is not conducive to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord, it means that it is not an essentially missionary theology. For Calvin that would mean that there is something dreadfully wrong with the faith of such a theology. According to Calvin, the faith that follows from the justification in Jesus Christ is always a faith that has to be shared with others, and is a caring faith, concerned with the well-being of all people and the salvation of all people. This is in fact the message of Calvin and the Reformation, if the Reformation's doctrine of justification is to be understood correctly. This surely is something to remember for all times: There must be something dreadfully wrong with a person's faith and something extremely misguided in his or her theology when in the practice of Christian life the missionary spirit is not there. Faith is there to be lived, for the individual's own sake and for the sake of others.The miraculous and rapid spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a result of the faith of the Reformation is embedded in the history of that period, for all to discover and to learn from.Calvin's missionary concerns are particularly evident in these words, and worthy to be remembered (Book III, chapter XX, 42): 'We should desirethat God may gather churches to himself from all quarters of the world, may extend and increase their numbers,
the Church in South Africa, Journal of the Africa Institute for Missiology 1(1), 2009, 18&41.All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License Reformed Theological CollegeFaculty of TheologyUniversity of PretoriaPretoria, 0002South Africa+27 (0)12 420 2669+27 (0)12 420 4016editor@hts.org.za
the 1930s. Such an approach can be applied, together with Barth's famous (or notorious) 'Nein! , to any form of natural theology. In the past several decades, the debate in Protestant theology about Barth's standpoint, in terms of the above-mentioned dispute, has been conducted in terms of at least five different approaches: the ignoring of Barth's standpoint, with the result that his debate with Brunner is dealt with perfunctorily, as practised by F.H. Cleobury the maintaining of Barth's standpoint, but with greater emphasis on the analogous aspect of his theology, as advocated, among others, by C. Link a reinterpretation of Barth's standpoint, as practised, for example, by T.F. Torrance a rehabilitation of Barth's standpoint, involving the adoption of a new approach to the theory of Creation, which discounts the insights provided by other sciences, such as those described by A.E. McGrath a complete break with Barth's standpoint and the rise of Process Theology, as developed by such theologians as J. Cobb.I choose to take the rehabilitative approach in this essay. My point of departure is that both the Enlightenment and Liberalism had such a profound influence on theology that, during the 19th and 20th century, at least two main categories of epistemology developed, which are no longer tenable today. The one category makes too much of reason, whereas the other category makes too much of faith. We can no longer sharply distinguish between revelation and nature. Due to human beings being both the object and the subject of choices, they possess a 'naturality', as well as an 'ex-naturality'. Contemporary neuroscience regards both the body and the psyche as mere functions of the brain, in terms of which thinking a human being is merely an embodied mind. However, I do not wish to imply that a human being can be reduced to matter without residue. Although genes hold culture on a leash (Edward O. Wilson), we still cannot claim that our neurons are responsible for our actions (Murphy & Brown 2007).I wish to illustrate, with regard to apartheid theology, the sharp, though artificial, distinction that Barth draws between revelation and nature. I wish to do so, not so much because such a theology is still very much alive in certain reformed churches in some countries, but because, in my opinion, Hitler's National Socialism was one of the most important motivations for Barth to fight tooth and nail against any form of natural theology. Such churches in South Africa ostensibly wished to invoke Barth, with his appeal for revelation and his consequent aversion to the concept of natural theology. Despite such invocations, one could just as easily resort to calling upon the natural laws and the ordinations of Creation in apartheid literature. I shall attempt to show that using such literature as a point of departure is a mixture of both revelatory and natural theology. Resorting to such a point of departure is only possible due to an extra-biblical maxim, to which Barth also resorted in his theology. By means of using this particular argument, I hope to indicate that one of the main