Intent on passing through Geneva after a one-night stay, John Calvin is asked to join the reform movement there. His efforts and leadership in effect resulted in a third branch of Protestantism: Reformed Christianity. In the late 1550s, a militant version of this movement spreads beyond Geneva and draws a large number of converts. The denomination reached its height in Scotland and migrated to America after engulfing Europe.

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Shalom, and welcome to our history podcast. This is a production of Kingdom Preppers.org. I’m your host, Kingdom Prepper, and you’re listening to: Churchianity: Two Thousand Years of Leaven. We continue with our history.

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Part 27: The Spread of Calvinism

A reformer of what can be considered the second generation, John Calvin, a methodical thinker and systematizer of the sixteenth century, unified various Protestant theologies into a cohesive set of doctrines. While Luther was consumed by the Protestant theology of justification by faith, Calvin centered his focus on the sovereignty of the Most High and sanctification. At a time when Spain was at war with France, the young scholar was forced to end his studies in France and leave the country. He traveled through Geneva where he planned to lodge for a single night. The town’s reputation was not the kind that afforded solitude. It was a pleasure-loving city that was in the middle of an identity crisis, having rejected both secular and religious authorities, that being the Duke of Savoy and the Roman pope. Catholic masses were no longer held and citizens were hostile to the city’s bishop. A gaping vacuum was ready to be filled by an influential reformer who could infuse the city’s religious institutions with the spirit of the Reformation, as had been done elsewhere.

A local reformer named William Farel had preached his brand of reform in the city for four years prior to Calvin’s visit, but not to great effect. Farel was familiar with one of Calvin’s publications, and when he learned that Calvin was in town, he rushed to his inn and urged the young man to remain in the city and aid in establishing a powerful reform movement there. When Calvin insisted that he must leave to continue his studies, Farel warned that he was only following his own wishes and, if he didn’t help the reform effort, the Most High would punish him for seeking his own interests. Calvin, stricken with terror, yielded, and immediately threw in his efforts for the reform movement in Geneva. He would eventually rise to a leadership position in what he called “the game,” and his brand of reformation, which was the third iteration after Lutheranism and the radical reform of the Anabaptists. Calvin spearheaded what came to be known simply as Reformed Christianity, also termed Calvinism. John Calvin, then, is the root of all Presbyterian churches, a good deal of Baptist congregations—which moved away from their Anabaptist origins—as well as many Congregationalists, and the Dutch and German Reformed Churches.

The torch had been passed from Luther to Calvin one could say. But these were very different men with different approaches to the Reformation.

“Luther dreamed of good princes, disliked law on principle, and had little interest in institutions. As a result, Lutheran churches ended up with a mishmash of governing structures.”

Writes Alec Ryrie, in his book Protestants.

“Calvin, by contrast, had trained as a lawyer, knew that structures matter, and favored more participatory government. He insisted that pastors should never have control over money…. More momentously, he distinguished pastors, the ordained ministers who preach and celebrate the sacraments, from elders, senior laymen who would take charge of discipline, and who become the sharp edge of a cultural revolution. Calvin saw the church as a covenanted community, a new Israel in which all were bound to be their brothers and sisters’ keepers.”

Calvin, like many other Christian leaders, shaped his church and its doctrine on personal views, based on what was inferred from a reading of the Messianic Writings. While he took up Luther’s torch, Calvin’s reform efforts rather followed Zwingli’s in structure, and he was able to build on Zwingli’s work. Zwingli’s influence reached other reform leaders who sympathized with his view of the Reformation over that of Luther’s, thus Zwingli’s brand of reform was able to spread throughout and beyond Switzerland, reaching Strasbourg in Germany, where another reformer, Martin Bucer—third in importance in that country only to Luther and his successor Melanchthon—took up the cause of Zwingli. After Zwingli was killed in battle, however, his cause lost the impact it enjoyed under his direct leadership, thus the center of the Protestant Reformation moved to Geneva, the French-speaking Swiss city that benefited greatly from Calvin’s disciplined leadership.

Calvin—who was bound for Strasbourg, where he was prepared to study and write—was offered the position of Professor of Sacred Scriptures by Geneva’s city council, and in this office he dug his heels into the work of reform. A confession of faith was drawn up, which those residing in Geneva would have to accept. He also drew up plans for education reform, and insisted on excommunicating all who refused to adopt a certain spiritual standard.

“[B]ut the Genevans seemed to resist at every turn.”

Writes Carlos M. N. Eire in his book Reformations.

“The worst conflict was a power struggle between the clergy and the city council over the right of excommunication, which the ministers wanted to control, against the wishes of the magistrates. Having just rid themselves of what they viewed as an oppressive church, the elites of Geneva were not eager to see another one take its place. Unwilling to compromise, insisting on the clergy’s right to excommunicate, Calvin and Farel were expelled from Geneva in May 1538.”

Calvin took that as a sign from t...