Religion

Calvin's thoughts

alvin was the catalyst for the metamorphosis of religion, society, politics and philosophy. The central principles of Calvinism are derived from the Zwinglian assertion on the word for word, actual understanding of Biblical scriptures. Zwinglianism teaches the concept that if a theory is not absolutely and distinctly accommodated in Christian scripture, then the theory must be rejected. Yet, if a notion is unwaveringly accommodated in scripture, it was to be emulated. Calvin's thought developed this concept beyond Zwingli's intentions, to the point where not only religious beliefs, but also church and government organization and society are ordered according to this literal understanding of scripture.

According to The Acts of The Apostles (the chronicle of the earliest church) in the New Testament in the Bible, Calvin divided church leadership into 4 levels:

Pastors - These 5 men had authority over all religious issues and matters.

Teachers - This larger group was to teach the people church doctrine.

Elders - 12 men (similarly like the 12 Apostles) were chosen by the municipal council, and oversaw all that was going on in the city.

Deacons - These were modeled after the 7 people (according to Acts 6 - 8), and were appointed to care for the ill, the aged, the widowed and the poor.

On of the most important beliefs held by Calvin was his concept of predestination. Whereas early churches had decided that a man chooses his own destiny and salvation, Calvin taught that because God was all-powerful and knew the future, he had already pre-decided on those to be salvaged from the beginning of time. He stood by his belief that certain individuals were elected for salvation by God, and this was the basis of his "doctrine of the elect" or "doctrine of living saints".

The Catholic theology states that a saint is a dead human being that the church is sure will be given salvation.

According to Calvinist theology, however, a "saint" or a "living saint" is a living human being guaranteed - no matter what he does on earth - his salvation. It was also believed that not all good people were living saints. This gave rise to Voluntary Associations, which was later to develop into the foundation of civilization and later the political society of Europe. Voluntary Association is an organizational concept based on the idea that an association chooses its members and those members independently choose to be a member of that community.

This prolific Religious leader created the patterns and beliefs that now are common in Western society, such as Voluntary Associations. At the age of 55 years he died in 1564.