Quotes by John Calvin
John Calvin (1509–1564) — Reformator · Reformiert · Schweiz
Johannes Calvin (1509–1564) war ein französischer Theologe und Jurist, der vor allem in Genf wirkte und zu den einflussreichsten Reformatoren zählt. Er begründete mit seiner „Institutio Christianae Religionis“ die reformierte Tradition und stellte die absolute Souveränität Gottes sowie eine strukturierte Gemeindeordnung ins Zentrum. Für Bibelleser sind seine präzisen Textkommentare bis heute von Bedeutung, während seine strenge Kirchenzucht und seine Rolle bei der Hinrichtung Michael Servets umstritten bleiben.
Era: Reformation & Baroque
Recurring topics: Grace & Redemption, Faith & Trust, God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit, Discipleship, Wisdom & Understanding, Church & Congregation, Freedom & Truth, Guilt & Forgiveness
Quotes by John Calvin
There is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated, as is the gibbet on which Christ hath subdued death and the devil.
John Calvin
Nothing comforts more powerfully than the certainty of being embraced by God's love in the midst of misery.
John Calvin
We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that remains alone.
John Calvin
I gave up everything for Christ, and what have I found? I have found everything in Christ.
John Calvin
Christ is much more powerful to save, than Adam was to destroy.
John Calvin
Faith brings a man empty to God, that he may be filled with the blessings of God.
John Calvin
Men cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see Him [and] wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of His glory.
John Calvin
In the maxims of the law, God is seen as the rewarder of perfect righteousness and the avenger of sin. But in Christ, His face shines out, full of grace and gentleness to poor, unworthy sinners.
John Calvin
The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves.
John Calvin
Thou. Lord, bruisest me. But I am abundantly satisfied since it is from Thy hand.
John Calvin
No one is excluded from asking God; the door of salvation is open to all people.
John Calvin
In the church of Christ, no one is so poor that they cannot share something of value with us.
John Calvin
Prayer does not always need words, but it always needs insight and a moved heart.
John Calvin
He walks rightly in the Word of God who never ceases to be amazed by it.
John Calvin
Let’s get rid of the inhuman philosophy which only allows necessities. Not only does it wrongly deprive us of legitimate enjoyment of God’s generosity, but it cannot be effected without depriving man of all his senses, reducing him to a block.
John Calvin
The church the gathering of God’s children, where they can be helped and fed like babies and then, guided by her motherly care, grow up to manhood in maturity of faith.
John Calvin
We are nowhere forbidden to laugh.
John Calvin
Hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith.
John Calvin
Scripture should be read with the aim of finding Christ in it.
John Calvin
A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.
John Calvin
To know God as the Master and Bestower of all good things, who invites us to request them of Him, and still not go to Him and ask of Him – this would be of as little profit as for a man to neglect a treasure, buried and hidden in the earth, after it had been pointed out to him.
John Calvin
If the Lord himself teaches that the Church will struggle with the burden of countless sinners until the Day of Judgment, it is obviously futile to look for a Church totally free from faults.
John Calvin
For where love is wanting, the beauty of all virtue is mere tinsel, is empty sound, is not worth a straw, nay more, is offensive and disgusting.
John Calvin
It is a sign of a perverse and treacherous disposition to wound the good name of another, when he has no opportunity of defending himself.
John Calvin
The blindness of unbelievers in no way detracts from the clearness of the gospel, for the sun is no less resplendent because the blind do no perceive it.
John Calvin
There cannot be a surer rule, nor a stronger exhortation to the observance of it, than when we are taught that all the endowments which we possess are divine deposits entrusted to us for the very purpose of being distributed for the good of our neighbour.
John Calvin
While all men seek after happiness, scarcely one in a hundred looks for it from God.
John Calvin
As in the midst of life we are encompassed by death, so you must now also be firmly convinced that in the midst of death we are encompassed by life.
John Calvin
Hell reigns wherever there is no peace with God.
John Calvin
Every one of us is, even from his mother’s womb, a master craftsman of idols.
John Calvin
The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart.
John Calvin
All the power of the earth has armed itself to destroy Scripture, and all its attempts have turned to vapor.
John Calvin
Faith…is a steady and certain knowledge of the Divine benevolence towards us, which being founded on the truth of the gratuitous promise in Christ, is both revealed to our minds, and confirmed to our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.
John Calvin
Let us therefore, leaving off all other things, aim exclusively at this – that we may be approved by God and may be satisfied to have His approbation alone, as it justly ought to be regarded by us as of more value than all the applauses of the whole world.
John Calvin
The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.
John Calvin
We must make the invisible kingdom visible in our midst.
John Calvin
For men have no taste for [God’s power] till they are convinced of their need of it and they immediately forget its value unless they are conditionally reminded by awareness of their own weakness.
John Calvin
All our wisdom, insofar as it truly deserves the name wisdom and is true and reliable, consists essentially of two things: the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves.
John Calvin
If we recognize the Spirit of God as the unique fountain of truth, we shall never despise the truth wherever it may appear, unless we wish to do dishonor to the Spirit of God.
John Calvin
The human mind is a perpetual factory of idols and superstitions.
John Calvin
124 quotes in total — browse the collection.
Sources: wikipedia.org, welt.de, reformiert.de, deutschlandfunk.de
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