In the summer of 2009, a multitude of Christians, mostly families, including a lot of homeschoolers, came together in Boston for a unique celebration. Doug Phillips, founder and director of VISION FORUM, the group that organized this celebration, called Reformation 500. We interviewed him for Coral Ridge Ministries-TV. He noted: “This year marks the 500th anniversary of one of the great men of Christendom, Mr. John Calvin. It’s from John Calvin that we have become the beneficiaries of a legacy of freedom, including republican representative government….This weekend for the anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, we have more than 1,000 people gathered here from more than 25 states around the United States of America, hundreds of home educators, children involved in different forms of education, but all here because of one common denominator—they love the Lord Jesus Christ and they want to honor their fathers, in this case, the fathers of the Reformation.”
John Calvin was born in France in 1509. As a young man, he studied law, but conversion to Christ changed his life’s direction. Because of Protestant activity, he had to flee France. He ended up in Geneva, Switzerland, and for virtually the rest of his life, he preached here, at St. Pierre’s Cathedral. His pulpit and writing ministries ended up having a huge impact on theology, on economics, on education, on civil government, and on law. Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation, but John Calvin following a couple of decades later systematized it, theologically. He is regarded as one of the greatest theologians in the history of the Church. In the two centuries following his death, many of Calvin’s most ardent followers fled persecution in Europe and came to America. They played key roles in the settling and founding of America. So much so that one scholar noted that 2-3rds of the colonists at the time of America’s independence had been “trained in the school of John Calvin.”
Pastor and speaker Dr. Joseph Morecraft III from the Atlanta area was one of the speakers at the Reformation 500 celebration. “There wouldn’t be an America without John Calvin. Most of the people that were in the colonies in the 1700s were people of Calvinistic background from Scotland, Scots-Irish, England, Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, and these people brought with them the faith that they were persecuted for in the Protestant Reformation.”
Author John Eidsmoe is a retired law school professor and a walking encyclopedia on America’s Christian roots. He was one of the experts delivering lectures and providing field tours for the Reformation 500 event. Eidsmoe noted this: “George Bancroft, who is considered to be the leading American historian from the early part of the 1800s, simply calls [Calvin] the Father of America.”
Eidsmoe points out that Calvin’s theology, based on the witness of the Bible, postulated a low view of human nature--- believing in the sinfulness of man. Experts find this to be a view generally held by the founding fathers. Therefore, they worked toward creating a limited government---trying to prevent any individual or small group of people from seizing absolute power. He notes: “Calvinism came to emphasize limits on government power, and those limits are very well expressed, not only in the colonial governments, in those 13 American colonies, but also in the United States Constitution, which puts together a form of government based on that view of human nature about as well as is ever been done in the history of the world.”
Dr. Paul Jehle, the president of Plymouth Rock Foundation, also spoke at Reformation 500. He stated: “As Americans reflect on what to give thanks for, there is a whole load, or we might say, a boatload of blessings that came over on every immigration beginning with the Pilgrims.”
For example, the Pilgrims who settled Plymouth in 1620 were devout Christians following in the tradition of Calvin---who stressed covenant theology. Before they disembarked, the Pilgrims wrote up an agreement for self-government, the Mayflower Compact. This was the first step toward the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, agreements for self-government nearly 150 years later. The Mayflower Compact was based on the Biblical concept of covenant. Jehle points out, “That concept of covenant came over to the colonies and that’s why we have so many written charters, written constitutions every time you… you turn around in studying American History, somebody else is writing a covenant for a town, for a colony, for a state, because this idea of covenant keeping is an idea throughout the Bible, of course, but it was uh... articulated and became very influential through the writings of John Calvin.”
Contributions from Calvinism to the American experience includes a heavy emphasis on education…where the Bible was the chief textbook for centuries. This includes education at all levels. Harvard, Yale, Princeton were all Calvinistic in their founding. Also, the push for American independence was heavily influenced by Calvinism and Calvin’s disciple, John Knox, the father of the Presbyterian Church.
Morecraft observed, “Why did we declare our independence from King George III? The Declaration of Independence in good Knoxian and Calvinistic fashion said, he broke his covenant with us, and we’re no longer obligated to keep our covenant with him, and so we declare ourselves a free and independent nation….So, we wouldn’t have the Declaration of Independence without John Calvin.”
Also, many scholars believe that the free enterprise system and capitalism itself arose from Calvin’s teachings of the Scriptures. Perhaps, Calvin’s greatest contribution to America and to the world was the concept that the Bible had something to say about all aspects of life.
Yet another speaker was Marshall Foster, speaker on the recent DVD series, From Terror to Triumph. Dr. Fosters notes: “The century of Calvin has been the greatest century for the Church of Jesus Christ since the 1st century AD. It was the century of the most massive transformation of the world… that the world had ever known, except for the coming of Christ, for now the Word of God was unleashed into the hands of the individual. Now, for the first time, the doctrines of the faith made their way into the home and into the family, and into every institution.”
In modern America, where Columbus is no longer a hero, where the founding fathers are viewed by too many as “just a bunch of dead white guys,” it’s time that we begin to reclaim our rich heritage and give credit where credit is due.
Doug Phillips has the final word: “In the same way that we remember George Washington, the great founder of America and we thank God for the way he was used, we do the same thing for John Calvin. So, this is a time to celebrate, it’s a time to say thank you, it’s a time to honor our fathers. And here’s what the Bible says: “If we honor our fathers, it will be well with us and we will live long in the land which God has given to us.”