Calvin’s Ecclesiology

“The conception of the church as the restoration of order in the world, means that the church cannot be thought of apart from the world, or as a secure corner of redemption in it. That is so because the order which is being restored in the church is nothing else than the restoration of the image of God in man and the three spheres of order are interrelated. The restoration of man will thus entail the restoration of order in the world. Calvin’s political activism then, may be traced directly to his conception of the church, as that movement which stands at the frontier of history, beckoning the world towards its appointed destiny.”

Benjamin Charles Milner Jr
Calvin’s Doctrine of the Church

Calvin did not restrict the righteousness that God demands to the abstracted atomized individual nor to the church realm. Calvin saw that the church as organism was to be God’s means by which order in the world would be restored. This understanding flies in the face of the Church’s century long hibernation in pietism and in the face of the militant amillennialism we call R2K. For both pietism, and R2K, the church is a monastic retreat center that does not engage with the world so as to re-order it in Christ honoring direction.

This quote also touches on why the modern Reformed world so thoroughly hates theonomy in any expression. Theonomists, agreeing with Calvin (see his series of sermons on Deuteronomy titled “The Covenant Enforced”), understand that the church, as God’s mouthpiece, works to restore the world by proclaiming what God’s righteousness concretely looks like as revealed in God’s moral law and the general equity of His civil law.

There is definitely a flavor of postmillennialism in the quote above. There is the expectation that the realm of “the world” will shrink as it is re-ordered consistent with God’s revelation.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane