• Shouldn't we update the group name to 2016?

    1. That's a good question, I don't know what plans the group creators might have for 2016. As I posted below, this group was created to share the Logos reading plan for last year, but most of the activity went on in the Facebook discussion group. You could try posting your suggestions for 2016 readings there and see what happens.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/472266442907164/
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  • I think this notion of getting cast down is a bit old hat. I am well aware of sin and it's effects ts ect but surely gratitude and praise is the only way forward. In no way can I ignore the old nature but we have a new inner man. We need to soldier on not through ash and dust on our heads saying whoe is me.

    1. Hi Shane. Not sure I know what you are referring to. Can you identify the text you're talking about?

  • So what do I post?

    1. You can post any comments you wish. This group was created to share the Logos Bible Software reading plan for Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion." Some of us have posted comments here, but most of the activity has been going on at the Facebook group for the reading. For the link, go up to the top of this page and click on the "About" tab.

  • Trinity
    This is a classic argument for the Deity of Christ and holds firm with anyone who honestly interprets the text.
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    Institutes of the Christian Religion
    For if the Word were simply God, and yet possessed no other characteristic mark, John would wrongly have said that the Word was always with God [John 1:1]. When immediately after he adds that the Word was also God himself, he recalls us to the essence as a unity. But because he could not be with God without residing in the Father, hence emerges the idea of a subsistence, which, even though it has been joined with the essence by a common bond and cannot be separated from it, yet has a special mark
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    1. "These commandments—“Do not take vengeance; love your enemies,” which were once delivered to all Jews and then to all Christians in common—have been turned by the Schoolmen into “counsels,” which we are free either to obey or not to obey. What pestilential ignorance or malice is this!" I had to take a side trip to figure out who the "Schoolmen" were. One of those things everyone of Calvin's day would know, I guess.
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      Institutes of the Christian Religion II, viii, 56Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volumes 1 & 2
      aThese commandments—“Do not take vengeance; love your enemies,” which were once delivered to all Jews and then to all Christians in common—have been turned by the Schoolmen into “counsels,” which we are free either to obey or not to obey. What pestilential ignorance or malice is this! Moreover, they have saddled the requirement to obey these “counsels” upon the monks, even more righteous in this one respect than simple Christians because they voluntarily bound themselves
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      1. I think Calvin is certainly on target here: "Nevertheless, what I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter I am compelled here to repeat once more: that whoever is utterly cast down and overwhelmed by the awareness of his calamity, poverty, nakedness, and disgrace has thus advanced farthest in knowledge of himself." For myself though, I find it is easy to forget this and to begin to find some reason for pride in the very things that are simply gifts from God.
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        Institutes of the Christian Religion II, ii, 10–11Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volumes 1 & 2
        bNevertheless, what I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter I am compelled here to repeat once more: that whoever is utterly cast down and overwhelmed by the awareness of his calamity, poverty, nakedness, and disgrace has thus advanced farthest in knowledge of himself.48 For there is no danger of man’s depriving himself of too much so long as he learns that in God must
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        1. "Now away with those persons who dare write God’s name upon their faults!"
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          Institutes of the Christian Religion II, i, 10Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volumes 1 & 2
          bNow away with those persons who dare write God’s name upon their faults, because we declare that men are vicious by nature!19 They perversely search out God’s handiwork in their own pollution, when they ought rather to have sought it in that unimpaired and uncorrupted nature of Adam. Our destruction, therefore, comes from the guilt of our flesh, not from God, inasmuch as we have perished solely because we have degenerated from our original condition.
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          1. God’s providence as solace of believers
            What a beautiful section this is! Calvin sums it up by reassuring us that, "because God has chosen the church to be his dwelling place, there is no doubt that he shows by singular proofs his fatherly care in ruling it." Calvin, J. (2011). Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2. (F. L. Battles, Trans., J. T. McNeill, Ed.) (Vol. 1, p. 219). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
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            Institutes of the Christian Religion I, xvii, 6Institutes of the Christian Religion
            e(b)But these calumnies, or rather ravings of distracted men, will be easily dispersed by pious and holy meditation on providence, which the rule of piety dictates to us, so that from this we may receive the best and sweetest fruit. bTherefore the Christian heart, since it has been thoroughly persuaded that all things happen by God’s plan, and that nothing takes place by chance, will ever look to him as the principal cause of things, yet will give attention
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            1. All We See Are Works of God
              Not the chief evidence perhaps, but still a very important one, as Paul says in Rom 1:20. "For, as I have elsewhere said, although it is not the chief evidence for faith, yet it is the first evidence in the order of nature, to be mindful that wherever we cast our eyes, all things they meet are works of God, and at the same time to ponder with pious meditation to what end God created them." Calvin, J. (2011). Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2. (F. L. Battles, Trans., J. T. McNeill, Ed.) (Vol. 1, p. 179). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
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              Institutes of the Christian Religion I, xiv, 20Institutes of the Christian Religion
              e(c)Meanwhile let us not be ashamed to take pious delight in the works of God open and manifest in this most beautiful theater.27 cFor, as I have elsewhere said,28 although it is not the chief evidence for faith, yet it is the first evidence in the order of nature, to be mindful that wherever we cast our eyes, all things they meet are works of God, and at the same time to ponder with pious meditation to what end God created them. Therefore, that we may apprehend
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              1. God's Great Care in Preparing Earth
                I was struck by how on-target Calvin is here regarding the great care demonstrated by God in his loving preparation of the earth, prior to creating man. Since Calvin wrote, we have learned even more the mind-boggling extent of this work of our great God. 2. The work of the six days shows God’s goodness toward men Calvin, J. (2011). Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2. (F. L. Battles, Trans., J. T. McNeill, Ed.) (Vol. 1, p. 161). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
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                Institutes of the Christian Religion I, xiv, 2Institutes of the Christian Religion
                eWith the same intent Moses relates that God’s work was completed not in a moment but in six days [Gen. 2:2]. For by this circumstance we are drawn away from all fictions to the one God who distributed his work into six days that we might not find it irksome to occupy our whole life in contemplating it. For even though our eyes, in whatever direction they may turn, are compelled to gaze upon God’s works, yet we see how changeable is our
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