Martin Luther And John Calvin Comparison
The Protestant Reformation was a political, cultural, intellectual, and religious movement that disrupted Catholic Europe. Martin Luther started the religious movement in the 16th century. This religious movement caused a break in the Catholic Church. During this time, “the invention of printing with movable type helped spread the Protestant message” (Text, 458). The movement created different types of Christians. Luther’s model of Christian life based on faith alone introduced John Calvin’s model of predestination. Both Protestant reformers believed that the word of God was the key to the life of a Christian, but St. Ignatius believed otherwise. He believed in the idea that faith and religious actions together were the key to living the life
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Similar to Luther, Calvin started his career studying law, but ended up “experiencing his crisis of faith” (Text, 464). He began to examine Martin Luther’s works and gained his ideas off Luther. Calvin agreed with Luther “if God is almighty and humans cannot earn their salvation by good works, then no Christian can be certain of salvation;” however, he disagreed on the idea that sinners could gain salvation (Text, 464). In “Article Concerning Predestination,” Calvin explained his doctrine of predestination that meant that God chose those to salvation and damnation before the creation of the world. Calvin argued that people were chosen as the elect, “vessel of his compassion,” or the reprobate, “vessel of the just wrath of God” (Source, 289). In “The Necessity of Reforming the Church,” Calvin introduced his belief in the corruption of worship by the Catholic Church, or what he called them, “our adversaries” (Source, 290). Calvin mentioned that both reformers and the adversaries believed that the “sight of God idolatry is an execrable crime,” but reformers realized the adversaries “lend support to the crime which they had with us verbally condemned” (Source 290). He argued that worshipping images was violating the Word of God and one needed to listen to the word of God in order to maintain their salvation. Similar to how Luther proved the need of the church reform through the reading of the Bible, Calvin proved that the Church was in need of reform because there was no need for the worship of images. God’s decision for salvation and damnation were eternal and
Similar to Luther, Calvin started his career studying law, but ended up “experiencing his crisis of faith” (Text, 464). He began to examine Martin Luther’s works and gained his ideas off Luther. Calvin agreed with Luther “if God is almighty and humans cannot earn their salvation by good works, then no Christian can be certain of salvation;” however, he disagreed on the idea that sinners could gain salvation (Text, 464). In “Article Concerning Predestination,” Calvin explained his doctrine of predestination that meant that God chose those to salvation and damnation before the creation of the world. Calvin argued that people were chosen as the elect, “vessel of his compassion,” or the reprobate, “vessel of the just wrath of God” (Source, 289). In “The Necessity of Reforming the Church,” Calvin introduced his belief in the corruption of worship by the Catholic Church, or what he called them, “our adversaries” (Source, 290). Calvin mentioned that both reformers and the adversaries believed that the “sight of God idolatry is an execrable crime,” but reformers realized the adversaries “lend support to the crime which they had with us verbally condemned” (Source 290). He argued that worshipping images was violating the Word of God and one needed to listen to the word of God in order to maintain their salvation. Similar to how Luther proved the need of the church reform through the reading of the Bible, Calvin proved that the Church was in need of reform because there was no need for the worship of images. God’s decision for salvation and damnation were eternal and