J. Calvin - Chapter 4 (Pt 2) FAITH, WITH AN EXPLANATION OF THE APOSTLES' CREED [Institutes ... ]
Daily Devotional Reading (Audiobook)
*Edited Subtitles & Transcript
Chapter 4 FAITH, WITH AN EXPLANATION OF THE APOSTLES’ CREED (Part 2)
0:00 [33a] THE FIRST PART, I believe in God the Father Almighty
*See below, Chapter 8, ‘The Predestination and Providence of God'.
3:24 [33b] THE FIRST PART, Creator of heaven and earth
6:27 [34] God's providence a source of enduring comfort
9:28 [35] THE SECOND PART, And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord
14:52 [36] Christ's kingly and priestly offices
17:38 [37] Christ the Son of God
*Again, the reference is to unnamed anti-Trinitarians. Later editions of the ‘Institutes’ refer specifically to Servetus.
21:30 [38a] Christ as Lord
22:48 [38b] 'Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary'
25:46 [39] Christ's twofold work as Mediator
29:24 [40] Proofs of Christ's humanity
*Marcion (second century A.D.) and his followers taught a fundamentally Docetic doctrine of Christ, denying among other things his essential corporeality. See further, Chapter 12, pp. 637-638.
34:00 [41] Christ's two natures, human and divine
39:03 [42] The unity of Christ's person
*Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, was condemned for affirming the existence of two separate persons, one human, one divine, in the incarnate Christ. He was deposed by decree of the Council of Ephesus in 431.
43:19 [43a] Christ's conception a prelude to redemption
47:54 [43b] 'Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified'
53:59 [43c] 'Dead and buried’
56:40 [43d] ‘He descended into hell'
*Cf. Aquinas, ‘Summa theologiae’, III,52.5; III,69.4-7.
1:01:48 [44a] How the clause may be better understood
*Cf. Cyril, ‘De recta fide’, Oratio II.18.
**Hilary, ‘On the Trinity’, IV.42. The next two citations are from the same work, II.24 and III.15.
1:05:46 [44b] 'The third day he rose again from the dead'
1:09:18 [44c] 'He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty'
*Cf. Augustine, ‘Faith and the Creed’, VII.14. Erasmus, in his ‘Explanation of the Apostles' Creed’ (1533), depicts the seated Christ as Ruler and Judge, in opposition to the Christ who, as Advocate, stands.
1:14:45 [44d] 'From there he will come to judge the living and the dead'
*Augustine, ‘Faith and the Creed’, VIII.I5.
1:19:11 [45] An interim summary: the all-sufficient Christ
1:21:54 [46] THE THIRD PART, 'I believe in the Holy Spirit'
1:26:38 [47] THE FOURTH PART 'I believe the holy catholic church, the communion of saints'
*See below, Chapter 15, ‘The Power of the Church'.
**Calvin's reference is mistaken. The expression 'believe in the church' appears in the ‘Acts of the Council of Chalcedon’ (A.D. 451).
***Pseudo-Cyprian, ‘On the Exposition of the Apostles' Creed’, 36; Augustine, ‘Faith and the Creed’, X.21.
****Cf. Cyprian, ‘Letters’ 4,4; 73,21.
1:31:51 [48] In what sense the church is called 'holy'
*See below, pp. 267-270.
1:36:02 [49] The communion of saints
1:40:42 [50] Marks of the visible church
1:42:48 [51] The church universal and the church local
1:46:06 [52] True church and false
1:48:03 [53] Doctrinal disagreement not always a cause for schism
1:51:27 [54] Moral perfection is not in the church's power
*By 'Cathars' Calvin appears to mean the third-century Novatianists, who insisted on the most rigorous moral standards and who refused absolution to the penitent.
-
The Donatists (fourth and fifth centuries), while receiving the penitent back into fellowship, nevertheless required utter holiness of the church and its ministers, and held aloof from any Christian community which enforced a lesser discipline.
1:54:24 [55] An apostolic precedent: Paul and the Corinthian church
1:58:29 [56] Excommunication: a necessary discipline in the church
*Chrysostom, ‘Commentary on 1 Cor. 5:5,’ Hom. XV.2.
2:03:22 [57] Censorious judgments to be avoided
2:07:59 [58] A brief review
Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
Robert White Translation (2014) (1541 edition)