Essential elements of Calvinist doctrine include the sovereignty of God as demonstrated in His creative power and His providential care, the authority of the Bible as the source and norm for all of life, and both the sinfulness and responsibility of man.

The Term
Calvinism is a term that John Calvin did not like and one that often makes a wrong impression. It emerged as a term of insult from Lutherans trying to separate themselves emphatically from the Reformed doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. Although Calvin distanced himself from the term—just as Martin Luther protested the term Lutheran—it has nevertheless endured.
Calvinism involves much more than merely the theology of Calvin. First, there is much of Luther’s theology and Huldrych Zwingli’s theology in Calvin’s teaching, and there were quite a few other theologians who contributed to what is called Calvinism, including Philip Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, and Theodore Beza. It would be more accurate, then, to speak of Reformed Protestantism. Since, however, the term Calvinism is recognizable and widely used, it is still useful.
The Theology
Essential elements of Calvinist doctrine include the sovereignty of God as demonstrated in His creative power and His providential care, the authority of the Bible as the source and norm for all of life, and both the sinfulness and responsibility of man. Calvinism is distinguished by the abiding function of the law for the Christian life. In Calvin’s mind, the law of God as summarized in the Ten Commandments has continuing meaning and is regarded as the rule for the Christian life. Combined with a focus on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, Calvinism distinguishes justification and sanctification while stressing that both are vital, and stresses the importance of a godly lifestyle, a commitment to mercy, and a continuing reflection on law and justice as evidences of the true, saving faith by which alone we are justified.
Culturally, Calvinism (inside the church) led to resistance to the cult of images as a threat to the proclamation of the Word and (outside the church) to an impulse for art and culture as a means of worshiping God. The focus on the Word on the importance of knowing God resulted in a Calvinist “culture of reading” in schools, homes, and churches, which in turn made Calvinism a home for many intellectuals over the centuries. Calvinism’s openness to science comes from Calvin’s view that God is also revealed in creation. Scientific research contributes to the recognition of God, and this view gave great impetus to academics.
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The best way to destroy groupthink is by learning to think for ourselves and in the words of Paul “being transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Rom.12:2). What a difference it would make if all Christians stood up against the lies that our society is being built upon! We would turn the world upside down!

Two Minutes Hate
In the novel Orwell describes the Two Minutes Hate—a daily public period in which the citizens of Oceania watch a film showing Emmanuel Goldstein, the main enemy of the State, and his Brotherhood. They are encouraged to show their hate for him and their love for Big Brother. Orwell’s picture is a masterful description of group psychology—what he calls groupthink. It shows how people can transfer their own anxieties and anger on to an external enemy (who doesn’t really exist), and thus diverts them from questioning The Party—the governing authorities. In this way The Party can deal with thoughtcrime and thoughtcriminals.
The Right Side of History
Whilst not quite as explicit as in Orwell’s dystopian novel, modern liberal ‘soft’ authoritarianism has developed a similar if somewhat more sophisticated technique. We are constantly being invited to join the groupthink and be ‘on the right side of history’. I think of the medical worker who went to work only to have their regular LGBTQI+ day—where a lecture was given on the necessity of correct pronouns. Everyone sat round and nodded. No one dared question. Even more so, no one dared not to be seen to be affirming. Everyone had to wear the symbol. After all you don’t want to be excluded for not being inclusive! But what is even more chilling is that increasingly ‘the enemy’ is being named. Those bigots. Those phobes! Usually religious, but not of course Islam—the religion of peace, which can never be portrayed in any other way than positive! This discrimination will soon lead to anger and hatred—when the promised Brave New World is not delivered by all our diversity and equality training. Someone must be to blame.
This scenario is repeated in countless government departments, school, universities and corporations—especially those who have appointed ‘equality and diversity’ officers under the watchful eye of Stonewall. In Australia there are 25,000 trans people in the whole country—that is 0.01% of the population. But for that 0.1% we have to have special days at work and school, we have to destroy women’s sport and we have to cancel anyone who dares to question the ideology.
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Written by Justin E. Estrada |
Monday, January 16, 2023
Representatives from “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:9), will open the door so that Jesus might come in to them and eat with them, and they with Him (Revelation 3:20), anticipating that final meal of covenantal peace at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6–8), when Jesus will usher in the new heavens and the new earth, void of brokenness, curse, and want, full of shalom, forevermore.

It was a blustery English day, and—a little late, a lot wet—I hurried into my professor’s office for my Hebrew tutorial. Embarrassed, I offered a cordial but rushed Hebrew greeting, “Shalom.” He watched quietly as I took out materials for our lesson, and then responded: “Justin, shalom is more than a simple hello; it declares the health of our relationship. Draw out the vowels, give the word weight, because we have peace, and that’s no small thing.” It was a kind method of restoration and instruction: we could proceed in peace—he even offered tea and biscuits.
In a world racked with strife, it may seem obvious to declare peace “no small thing”; but the biblical understanding of peace—the word shalom in Hebrew, translated into Greek as eirn—involves much more than the absence of conflict. Shalom expresses wholeness, blessing, and completeness, exemplified by the perfection of God’s creation and the unimpaired, harmonious relationships of God with His creatures and His creatures among themselves. God speaks shalom into existence (Isa. 45:7), and the entirety of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, chronicles His intention to restore it to fallen humanity, that the word issued from His mouth—shalom—might not return to Him empty but accomplish His purpose of peace, blessing, and wholeness.
In the beginning, the God of shalom, perfect in wholeness, blessing, and completeness among His three persons, creates all things in six days, all very good. Creation resembles its Creator, and He invites it to share in His peace—particularly man, whom He makes in His image. He gives Adam a helpmate to complete him, a garden with every good thing to eat, and a purpose to multiply and take dominion of creation so that he might be whole. It is a state of shalom, and you can almost hear the jubilant greetings of “peace be with you” as the Lord descends from His cosmic throne to walk in peace with Adam and Eve through the garden.
Unexpectedly, a frightening scene transpires one day: God’s arrival in the garden for fellowship goes ungreeted. Shalom has been broken through man’s transgression. Adam now fears nakedness as incompleteness; he accuses his wife of harming him rather than making him whole; and he finds the fruit a curse rather than a blessing. Adam and Eve flee and hide, trembling at the expectation of judgment rather than peace (Gen. 3:8–11).
In the face of this misery, God speaks remarkable words of shalom to them. Little wonder that Paul describes the peace of God as passing all understanding (Phil. 4:7); in the midst of judgment against rebellion, God comforts His children with the promise of peace through One who would crush the head of the lying, murderous serpent (Gen. 3:14–15). Man’s sin has turned them away, their fallen condition corrupting harmony into hostility—vividly represented in the exile—but God is determined to bless them through this Seed of the woman and to restore to Himself a remnant—vividly represented by the sacrifice that produces garments to cover nakedness.
God’s pronouncements at the sudden shattering of shalom portend a slow, costly restoration—but nothing will overturn His irenic purposes. Fallen humanity undermines creation’s harmony, but God intervenes (against all reasonable expectation), and His judgments carry forward His program of peace. The flood cleanses a world ailing under a decaying moral order (Gen. 6–9), and the scattering from the Tower of Babel reignites the creation mandate (Gen. 11:1–9). In an aimless world, God plucks up a displaced wanderer, Abraham—bereft of family and home—and gifts him with wholeness: divine fellowship and a son to his barren wife. This restoration of shalom in Abraham is not an end in itself, but an illustration and a means by which God will restore shalom to all the nations through his offspring—the Seed of the woman who will descend from the great nation of Abraham’s descendants (see Gen. 12:1–3; Gal. 3:15–18).
This great nation, Israel, emerges only after a long travail in virtual death in Egypt, for like father Abraham, they will serve as an example and means toward shalom. Their slavery results from the unwholesome curse, their deliverance from God’s power: through Israel all nations will know this. On eagles’ wings He brings them to Mount Sinai, formalizing with them a covenantal relationship of and unto peace, expressed by an invitation for the representatives of Israel to “see” Him and feast with Him without fear (Ex. 24:9–11). He sets a blessed precedent rehearsed regularly in Israel through the peace offering—a sacrifice and feast of covenantal solidarity (Lev. 3:1–17)—as well as through the Aaronic congregational benediction of shalom (Num. 6:24–26).
On the whole, God’s covenantal people fail to live under and testify to His program of shalom. He instructs them with His peacemaking characteristics through the Mosaic law, and the sacrificial system illuminates His plan to overcome death, but the Old Testament church time and again shatters shalom by preferring fellowship with false gods and peace with the enemies of God (see Num. 25:1–2). Even David, inheritor of God’s covenantal promises, flees from God into the arms of sin (2 Sam. 11), and his son Solomon—whose name means “peace”—leads all Israel in apostasy and establishes a pattern of sin that ultimately provokes God’s judgment against His people. As the crescendo of sin rises to mute God’s warnings against this Edenesque cycle of destruction, the false prophets preach “ ‘peace,’ when there is no peace” (Ezek. 13:10), and God again sends His people—first Israel, then Judah—into exilic judgment.
By this point, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that even at the exilic breaking of shalom, God speaks words of comfort. Israel has broken shalom and misled the nations, raising the question, When will the Messiah, the Seed of the woman, come and finally establish true shalom? When will the Prince of shalom usher in a new covenant era (Isa. 9), instituting a permanent realm of peace (Isa. 11)? When will God’s people “seek peace and pursue it” (Ps. 34:14) and all the nations come together in this glorious place of rest (Isa. 11:10)?
All spheres of creation give answer to this question at the birth of the incarnated Son of God, Jesus. Zechariah declares that He will “guide our feet into the way of peace”; the angels extol His arrival as “peace among those with whom [God] is pleased!” (Luke 1:79; 2:14). Expectations of the Seed of the woman are not disappointed: what a kingdom of shalom! Jesus addresses physical and spiritual malady alike, proclaiming “liberty to the captives . . . blind . . . [and] oppressed” (Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18). Perhaps nothing identifies Jesus as Prince of Peace more than when He establishes His new covenant of peace with representatives of the New Testament church—the Apostles. He offers food and drink in everlasting fellowship, the bread and wine representing His very body and blood, the means by which His words will take effect: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). At the crucifixion, God speaks shalom in its final utterance, for Jesus “was pierced for our transgressions; . . . upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). This pouring out of God’s wrath against sin becomes another flood of cleansing: a river of shalom pouring out from Jesus’ side, the atoning blood of the cross reconciling those for whom He died to their Father in heaven, restoring to them wholeness, completeness, and blessing (see Isa. 66:12; Col. 1:20).
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