Status Updates From A Theological Guide to Calv...

Most knowledgeable historians spot a definite evolution in political theology from Calvin's early disciples to his later disciples. Two major linchpins, however, changed after the 1970s. A.) Submission was limited & B.) Representation was absolute. These dynamics began to be publicized from pulpits & academics.

Christ, our righteousness, is the sun; justification, its light; sanctification; its heat. The sun is at once the sole source of both such that its light and heat are inseparable. At the same time, only light illumines and only heat warms, not the reverse.

The Father was not angry with the Son in himself, but nevertheless poured out his wrath on him as our substitute, who bore our sins. The Father never stopped loving his beloved Son, but for a time abandoned him who stood in our place as a criminal & condemned man. Calvin rejects the idea of some that Christ's desertion by God was only apparent... abandonment was real & Christ was tormented with the fear of hell.

166: Apart from Christ, there can be only a "fleeting knowledge of God" that quickly turns to the vinegar of idiolatry & superstition, however much "one proclaims at the top of their lungs that the Creator of heaven & earth is God."

How Calvin viewed the doctrines of election & predestination pastorally is evident in his sermon on Ephesians... Though he did not refuse to preach the doctrine of reprobation, he presented the election to salvation aa good news for sinners & a source of enocuragement to believers... Christians may have confidence they have been awakened to faith, & shall be kept in the same grace which elected them from eternity.