Calvin was a great Theologian, maybe one of the greatest,yet unfortunately as Philip Yancey points out that the church in Geneva were he was the minister made very many rules,towards the extremism that Jesus warned against.Here is a list of don't do's,'attending theatrical plays, extravagant entertainment,naming children after anyone but figures in the Old Testament,reading , A father who christened his son Claude ,a name not found in the OT ,spent four days in jail.A child was beheaded for striking his parents,they drowned any single woman found pregnant'. These are just some of the rules ,very little grace or mercy shown,now of course one could say Calvin was a man of his time, but so was our Saviour, and he stood against the hardness of religious people's hearts,with their harsh judgements. That does not mean to say that we shouldn't have standards,we are called to be holy,and not to compromise against evil, wherever it rears its ugly head..The epistle make it clear that sin will be judged ,and those who live in a sinful fashion will be excluded from heaven, CP 1 Corinthians 6 v 9 - 10. Let us always take a serious view of sin,in the church and out of the church, but let us not become members the Pharisee club.
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