Caryl Productions with Cult & Occult Expert Caryl Matrisciana - Calvinism: Spiritual Fusion

Calvinism: Spiritual Fusion - Article 9 of 11

As the Protestant world continues to celebrate the quincentennial birth of John Calvin, one of the 16th century reformers of Catholicism, we continue with #9 of our 11-part weekly series titled, The Subtle Dangers of Spiritual Fusion. The series takes a close look at the life, theology, and legacy of Calvin who has greatly impacted the complexion of Christianity these last 500 years. Brenda a former follower for 14 years of Calvin's teachings offers her insights and research. Following last week's discussion of Augustine's influence on John Calvin we return to the progression of Calvin's early life, education, conversion, to examine his reformation involvement and the Eucharist controversy.

In addition to the information in the weekly eblasts click here for additional diagrams, timelines and charts.

Calvin's Reformation Involvement Begins

In 1533, a speech purportedly written by John Calvin was delivered to the faculty of the College Royal in Paris, France by Nicolas Cop, Calvin's friend and rector of the College. This speech called for the abandoning of the Catholic Mass which greatly escalated tensions between the humanist reformers and conservative Roman Catholic faculty. The humanists in Calvin's day were those who embraced the spirit of free inquiry and scholarship. No doubt this new freedom in scholarship had been influenced by the European Renaissance movement which revived passions in art, literature and learning. After the speech, placards were posted throughout Paris accusing the Mass of being blasphemous, inciting civil unrest which forced John Calvin into hiding under an alias name for a year. The Roman Catholic Mass, where Jesus is re-sacrificed in an unbloody manner on the Catholic altar by Catholic priests, is observed for the purpose of propitiating sins (appeasing God) and adoring Christ. This ritual is the heart of Romanism. It culminates with the partaking of the Eucharist (discussed below), which is believed by Roman Catholics to be the ingesting of the actual blood and body of Christ. This pinnacle of worship is required for the Catholic's hope of salvation, for without participating in the Sacrifice of the Mass, the Catholic is doomed to eternal torment. Backlash against the reforming humanists by conservative Catholics and the King of France brought many imprisonments and executions, and caused several Catholic reformers, including John Calvin and Nicolas Cop, to flee the country. The elevated French hostilities toward the Catholic Reformation strained relationships with other "reforming" nations. To lessen these national tensions, the King of France declared the Edict of Coucy in 1535 offering amnesty to prisoners who were willing to return and recommit to Catholicism.  

Before leaving the country to join other reformers in Basel, Switzerland, Calvin relinquished the benefice he had been receiving from the cathedral in Noyon, France since childhood. In Basel, at the age of twenty six and as a new convert, he began writing his famous "The Institutes of the Christian Religion." This seminal work propounded the theology of the Catholic Reformation and was intended to be an introduction to the reformed view of Christianity. It has suffered no lack of popularity through the centuries. Often referred to as simply "The Institutes," this work reflects Calvin's intellectual skills in systematizing the philosophical thinking of Augustinian Romanism (See Subtle Dangers Article #8). "The Institutes," which Calvin continued to improve throughout his lifetime, eventually became a law code for the citizens of Geneva.

In 1536, Calvin left Basel, Switzerland and set out for Strasbourg, France (a city of refuge for reformers at the time) but was forced to take a detour south leading him to Geneva. Planning only to spend the night, he was persuaded by fellow reformer William Farel to stay longer to reform the city. Calvin quietly agreed and soon after was designated a 'reader' giving lectures, and assigned pastoral duties. He and Farel engaged in drafting a confession of faith and various articles for structuring and implementing church law codes and discipline in Geneva. These were presented to the Geneva City council who promptly adopted them, not realizing the length to which their adherence would be required. Their writings outlined guidelines for the frequency and mode for taking the Eucharist, details concerning excommunication, and mandates for adopting their confession of faith and more. Eventually, quarrels developed between the city council, and Calvin and Farel over enforcing these guidelines which forbid "immoral habits, foolish songs, gambling, desecration of the Lord's Day, [and] baptism by midwives"1 on the Genevese citizens. Although Calvin and Farel were initially able to secure the council's agreement to these standards of pious behavior, these codes of conduct created great tension in the city.

Who held final authority came into sharp focus when a controversy erupted between the city council of Geneva, and Calvin and Farel in 1538 over the observance of the Eucharist (Teaching Tool Pg. 188). The Eucharist is considered by Romanism and its Reformation to be the ceremonial receiving of "grace" through the ingesting of the "elements" of bread and wine (discussed below). The Catholic reformers disagreed widely about what the Eucharist meant as well as how to observe it. Having dispensed with the Sacrifice of the Mass (the immolating of Christ), the ritual of the Eucharist (ingesting the bread and wine) was retained and still believed to be a valid sacrament (foundation for salvational grace) for the reformational churches. Confusion abounded not only over Christ's words to the murmuring Pharisees when He said they must eat His flesh and drink His blood for salvation (John 6:53-54), but also over Christ's explanation of the bread and wine as being representative of His body and blood of the New Covenant (Matthew 26:26-28), and Paul's teaching that the Lord's Supper is a remembrance of Christ death and declaration of His future return (1 Cor 11:23-26). There was also wide disagreement over the significance of using unleavened bread in the Eucharist service. Did the leaven in the bread really matter? Should the practice of unleavened bread be abandoned because it was a Jewish practice? Did the comingling of leaven with wheat really signify both the humanity and deity of Jesus?

Questions like these were swirling throughout the Reformation's localities. The city of Bern, Switzerland wanted to unify worship practices throughout the Swiss churches. Since they had an alliance with the city of Geneva, the two cities agreed to serve unleavened bread for their Eucharist services. However, Calvin and Farel had other ideas. They rejected the Swiss agreement and petitioned for convening a Synod to investigate the matter more fully. Apparently John Calvin held an interesting view of the Eucharist as stated in his "Institutes." He writes, “In regard to the external form of the ordinance . . . whether the bread is to be leavened or unleavened, and the wine to be red or white, is of no consequence. These things are indifferent, and left free to the Church . . .”2 Even when Geneva's city council mandated that Calvin and Farel serve unleavened bread for the Easter Eucharist service, these men not only refused, but went so far as to withhold the Eucharist altogether sparking a riot in the city and their expulsion from Geneva the next day. Since the Eucharist was still viewed as a means of receiving God's grace, withholding it would have been tantamount to withholding God from the people on the highest holy day of the year, Easter.

If Calvin considered these matters to be 'indifferent and left free to the church,' and if unleavened or leavened bread 'is of no consequence,' then why did he and Farel object when the Swiss churches decided to serve unleavened bread? Could it be that they, as sole leaders to the church in Geneva, wanted to decide these matters independently? Would this event set the precedent for usurping the city council's authority in other matters? "[T]heir determination in spiritual matters and ecclesiastical ceremonies not to submit to the least dictation from the civil power, led to violent dissensions."3 This rebellion, coupled with the pressure to conform to Calvin's codes and guidelines which were foisted on the populace, caused the city council to essentially say, 'enough!' It seemed as though Calvin's and Farel's attempt to blend the authority of church and state in Geneva under Calvin's creed, catechism and confession of faith had failed. Pleading their case in Bern after their expulsion brought no change in the minds of the Genevese. They vehemently refused the re-admittance of these two men, even when they finally agreed to minister unleavened bread for the Eucharist thereafter. Although not clearly stated in history, it appears this Eucharistic controversy was a battle over who maintained control and authority over the citizens; church or state. In 1538, less than two years after arriving in Geneva, Calvin found himself banished and back in Basel.

The Eucharist

In this dispute over the Eucharist, we clearly see the reforming of, rather than separation from, Roman Catholicism. The heart of Roman Catholicism is the Sacrifice of the Mass, which is a ceremony that culminates with the partaking of the Eucharist. In the Sacrifice of the Mass, the procession of the Eucharist, "elements" of mere bread and wine, are brought forward to the priest. The priest takes these "elements" and raises them up to heaven for the purpose of pulling Christ out of heaven to inhabit them to lay them on the altar. Thus the priest, by virtue of his ordination, is said to be endowed with special power to transubstantiate (to change the substance of) the "elements" into the actual body and blood of Christ. The ingesting of the Eucharist is intended to convey merits (worthy of rewards) of grace to the recipient. Those who partake of these "elements" receive grace because the bread and wine have become "Christ" and He is now said to be physically indwelling them. Often Catholics will take the Eucharist daily to maintain "Christ" abiding in them. This ritual sacrificing of "Christ" on Catholic altars and ingesting Him is the pinnacle of Roman worship and one of many requirements in the Catholic system for receiving merits of grace. To ignore the Sacrifice of the Mass is to commit a mortal sin, which excludes one from salvation. To avoid this mortal sin, Christ is repeatedly immolated and ingested to acquire more and more grace for the purpose of cutting short potential time in purgatory (the place where remaining sins of penitent Catholics are purged through suffering). Since the transubstantiated bread and wine are said to be the actual physical body and blood of Christ, the wafer crumbs need special handling and disposal in a holy manner. Usually the priest consumes the remaining pieces. The Eucharistic bread and wine are called "elements" because they represent a greater spiritual reality; that of Christ actually being present in them.

The partaking of Christ through bread and wine is actually a modified pagan ritual thought to place the gods within the person ingesting the "elements." It can be traced as far back as ancient Egyptian practices.

On the first day of the Festival of Ploughing, where the goddess Isis appears in her shrine…...All of these sacred rituals were climaxed by the eating of sacramental god, the eucharist by which the celebrants were transformed, in their persuasion, into replicas of their god-man. 4

This pagan practice of ingesting the gods, brought forward in time and seen today in the Eucharist of the Catholic Mass, is a misapplication of scripture which distorts the means by which Christ indwells humanity. When Jesus said men must drink His blood and eat His flesh (John 6:53-54), He was clearly referring to fully embracing by faith the payment His shed blood and death on the cross purchased for sins (Rom. 3:25). Eating His flesh pointed to the continual feeding on Him as the true bread from heaven through the truth of the Word (Matt 4:4, John 6:41). Sinful man cannot "will" himself to be saved (John 1:13) by participating in a ritual that is believed to bring either potential salvation (as in Catholicism) or indicate a sign of salvation (Reformed Catholicism). The Bible is replete with verses that say a man is saved by belief in the gospel (Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 1:21; 1 Cor. 15:2; Eph. 2:8). Placing faith in a ritual is trusting in works for salvation (Eph. 2:8-9).

Even in the Last Supper (Matt. 26:26-28) where Christ breaks the bread calling it His body, and sharing the cup calling it His blood, He is clearly pointing to His death on the cross which marks the passing away of the Old Covenant and inauguration of the New Covenant. Paul clears up the confusion over the Lord's Supper by relating what the Lord revealed to him; this ceremony is a remembrance that declares Christ's death and future return (1 Cor. 11:23-26). This memorial meal is a declaration and reaffirmation of what has already been believed by those who have entered into the new covenant by faith in the gospel; that Christ's one time death on the cross paid for the sins of the whole world through the shedding of His blood as the ransom for mankind's sins (1 Tim. 2:6). The Lord's Supper also declares that Jesus will return to earth to rule during the Kingdom age for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4).

John Calvin and other reformers reinterpreted Catholic transubstantiation (changed substance) in terms of consubstantiation (with substance), meaning Christ is spiritually present if the "elements" are partaken with faith. If the partaker has faith, then the "sacrament" of the Eucharist conveys grace. Both Catholicism and Reformed Catholicism call the ingesting of the bread and wine a sacrament since both claim the presence of Christ is with the Eucharistic "elements." The idea of changing the physical "elements" of bread and wine into Christ's literal body and blood, either transubstantially or consubstantially, involves the practice of alchemy (magic philosophy). While alchemy was the precursor to true chemistry, its roots were in the occult practice of changing the physical into the spiritual, the base to the pure, and lead into gold. Even the Greek plays were used to alchemically change the minds of the gods and thereby change fate. This alchemic practice of the Eucharist is an alternate way of placing Christ in the partaker by the "elements" rather than by faith in the gospel (John 10:1).

The Reformed Catholic and Roman Catholic ceremonies of the Eucharist are not the same as the Lord's Supper, which is simply a remembrance as Paul instructed (1 Cor. 11:24). As a remembrance, we recall the sinless sacrifice of Christ represented through unleavened bread (His body without sin, spot or defect) and red wine (His blood shed for the forgiveness of sins). To claim that leavened bread is acceptable is to assign sin to Christ and to use white wine denies the necessity of Christ's shed blood.

Calvin's views of the Eucharist put him in conflict with both Luther (father of the Lutherans) who insisted on the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine and Zwingli (father of the Dutch Reformation) who believed Christ could not be present in two places at once and therefore explained the bread and wine as a symbolic presence. The Bible teaches the observance of the Lord's Supper; "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Cor. 11:26). Using the word "Eucharist" signifies these men were modifying Catholic doctrine rather than separating from it, as does claiming some type of grace through the presence of Christ in the "elements." Satan devises a plethora of schemes to masquerade the false as true in order to deceive and destroy.

Next Week The Subtle Dangers of Spiritual Fusion tell of John Calvin's Despotic Rule in Geneva

To learn more about Calvinism view What Love Is This DVD.

References
[1] Source; http://www.apuritansmind.com/Reformation/McMahonSwissReformation.htm#_ftn10 ; The Swiss Reformation, by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, October 2003; Citing; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 8, The Swiss Reformation, (Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdman's Publishing Company, 1994) 7.
[2] John Calvin, "Institutes of the Christian Religion," Chapter 17, "Of the Lord's Supper and the Benefits Confered by It," Section 43. Source Cited; http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/calin/inst/inst097.htm.
[3] John Calvin, NNDB, http://www.nndb.com/people/507/000094225/
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiris