John Calvin’s Disputation with the Roman Church Against Purgatory

Introduction

This article aims to summarize John Calvin’s major disputations against the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine of Purgatory. In order to do that, I will first briefly present the official Roman Catholic dogma on Purgatory as decreed by the Council of Trent in 1563, which was also affirmed by Vatican II Council. Second, I will present Calvin’s main argument against Trent’s decree on purgatory. Third, I will explore on Calvin’s answer to the four canonical Scripture proofs offered by the Roman Catholic Church on Purgatory, including appeal to the early Church’s teaching, especially Augustine’s, on the subject. Finally, I will conclude with the brief summary of the effect of this doctrine to the Christian faith as well as the comfort that Calvin finds in believing and trusting on the ‘once for all’ sacrifice of Christ that gives the believers true assurance of salvation.

The truth that Christ paid everything for our justification and that he availed for us everything that we need for sanctification and ultimate glorification must motivate us to praise the Lord and serve Him faithfully by the power of the Spirit. 

Roman Catholic Teaching on Purgatory

On the 25^th Session of the Council of Trent which began on the third until the fourth of December 1563 a decree on Purgatory was adopted:

Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has, from the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, taught, in sacred councils, and very recently in this ecumenical Synod, that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls there detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar.[1]

What has been firmly confessed in the Roman Catholic Church since the Reformation, as stated in this Tridentine decree is that there is such a temporary place or state of purging known as Purgatory in the intermediate period prior to the return of Christ. Roman Catholic believers ‘who die at peace with the church, but who are not perfect’[2] will not go straight to heaven.

They will, however, be in this intermediate realm or state, where their soul would undergo a process of penal and purifying suffering. This kind of suffering is intended for sins committed after baptism that were not atoned for in this life at the time of death. Living relatives and friends may help in reducing the degree and length of their love ones’ suffering in Purgatory. Through good works done by relatives and friends on behalf of the deceased, purgatorial suffering will be lessened or shortened. Such good works may come in the form of penance, almsgiving, paying the priest to say the mass or prayers, indulgences and other meritorious activities specified by the Catholic Church.

Papal absolution may also give outright passage for the departed soul. This process of penal suffering aims at the perfection or the purification, not probation, of the soul ‘until they are fully ready to be engaged in the beatific vision of God’[3] or until the final resurrection at the second coming of Christ.

The importance of this dogma is even emphasized by Trent’s mandate: “[T]he holy Synod enjoins on bishops that they diligently endeavour that the sound doctrine concerning Purgatory, transmitted by the holy Fathers and sacred councils, be believed, maintained, taught, and every where proclaimed by the faithful of Christ.”[4] It can be said that to be a faithful Roman Catholic believer one has to embrace and find assurance for salvation in this dogma, which the Second Ecumenical Council of Vatican also affirms:

The doctrine of purgatory clearly demonstrates that even when the guilt of sin has been taken away, punishment for it or the consequences of it may remain to be expiated or cleansed. They often are. In fact, in purgatory the souls of those who died in the charity of God and truly repentant, but who had not made satisfaction with adequate penance for their sins and omissions are cleansed after death with punishments designed to purge away their debt.

Clearly the Roman Catholic Church has not changed her basic tenet on Purgatory over time. Even in the recent change of emphasis from the penal to the preparatorial or purificatorial aspect of Purgatory, the Roman Church still maintains that it is necessary for a believer who died in the state of grace to temporarily pass through this realm before he can finally enter heaven. 

Calvin’s Refutation of Trent’s Dogma of Purgatory

On the sixth session of Trent, Canon XXX was adopted by the Council which further stresses the doctrine of Purgatory. The weight of this dogma in the Catholic Church is found in its pronouncement of anathema or curse upon anyone who teaches contrary to this dogma: “If anyone says that once the grace of justification has been received, the fault of any repentant sinner is forgiven and the debt of eternal punishment is wiped out, in such a way that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged, either in this world or later in purgatory, before entry to the kingdom of heaven can lie open: let him be anathema.”[5] The way this canon was formulated, it is obvious that the Catholic Church separates the guilt of sin that is forgiven and the ‘liability to punishment’ which according to this decree remains even if one has already been justified.

Scripture, however, denies this for it is clear, according to Calvin, that as the result of forgiveness of sin, “God withdraws his chastisements, and, forgetting his wrath and revenge, blesses us.”[6] That’s why when King David says, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,” (Psalm 32:1-2a, ESV)[7] it is evident that he not only talks about forgiveness of sin but also the withdrawal of punishment upon a penitent person (cf. Psalm 32:5).[8] Thus David can call such a repentant sinner “blessed.” Calvin does acknowledge that there are times that God has to discipline His forgiven children “but it is in the way of admonition and correction – not vengeance.”[9] Just as a loving father disciplines his own children when they err so God uses the rod of discipline to His own people when they go astray that they may be trained to ‘act more wisely in the future.’

The idea of Purgatory however is a ‘profane fiction’ for Calvin, a devise that is ‘a kind of vaticination vented by ventriloquism.’[10] Calvin dismisses the doctrine of Purgatory as human ingenuity based on erratic assumptions and misinterpretation of the Holy Scripture. For Calvin, “Purgatory cannot stand without destroying the whole truth of Scripture.”[11] 

Calvin’s Answer to Alleged Canonical Scripture Proofs and Early Church Teaching of Purgatory

Calvin mentions several canonical passages used by the Roman Church to support Purgatory. Matthew 12:32 (cf. Mark 3:28-29; Luke 12:10) is one of them. On this Calvin says, “When the Lord, they [the Roman Catholic teachers] say, makes known that the ‘sin against the Holy Spirit is not to be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come’, he hints at the same time that there is forgiveness of certain sins in the world to come?”[12] The Roman Catholic Church deduced from this text that there are sins that can be forgiven in the age to come. The point of the passage, however, has something to do with the guilt of sinning against the Holy Spirit. So Calvin wonders where Purgatory is to be found in the text.

Now granted that there is Purgatory, which for the Romanists a place where punishment of sins is served, Calvin asks, “Why do they not deny that their guilt is remitted in the present life?”[13] In other words, if sins are really punished and atoned for in Purgatory, why is it that Roman Catholics are unwilling to say that full forgiveness of sins is impossible in this life? For Calvin the point of the text is to emphasize that such grievous sin as the sin against the Holy Spirit has no hope of pardon whether in this age or “in the Last Day, on which the lambs will be separated from the goats by the angels of God and the Kingdom of Heaven will be cleansed of all offenses” [cf. Matt. 25:32-33].[14]

Besides, the ‘age to come’ in Catholic understanding does not coincide with the intermediate period of Purgatory but refers to the age after the second coming of Christ. By then ‘purgatory will have ceased to exist, according to Catholic teaching.’[15] Apparently the Catholic Church cannot use this text as proof for Purgatory without contradicting her other doctrines.

Another Gospel passage assumed by Catholics to support Purgatory is Matthew 5:25-26:

“Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”

It was common for Roman Catholics in Calvin’s time to interpret this passage metaphorically. Thus it was believed that the judge is God, the accuser the devil, the guard the angel, and the prison is assumed as Purgatory. This is absurd for if the devil is the accuser then the Lord must be saying that you have to come to terms with the devil, which is not the case in this Gospel account. Calvin thus retorts, “So for the Papists to find their Purgatory, they must have devils as friends and brothers.”[16]

Calvin accuses Rome of Scripture twisting for the passage teaches that “Christ, in order to urge his followers more cogently to equity and concord, meant to show the many dangers and evils to which men expose themselves who obstinately prefer to demand the letter of the law rather than to act out of equity and goodness.”[17] Calvin thus concludes, “Nothing is more evident [in this passage] than that the subject of Christ’s discourse is the cultivation of friendship among men.”[18] Where then will purgatory be found in this text?

From the Gospels, Calvin explores other New Testament books which the Romanists employ to support their doctrine. He mentions Philippians 2:10, wherein it says, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” Catholics in Calvin’s time take the phrase “under the earth” (or nether regions) to mean purgatory where souls agonize. Calvin counters them by saying,

They would not be reasoning badly if by the bowing of the knee the apostle designated true and godly worship. But since he is simply teaching that dominion has been given to Christ with which to subject all creatures, what hinders us from understanding by the expression “nether regions” the devils, who will obviously be brought before God’s judgment seat and who will recognize their judge with fear and trembling [cf. James 2:19; 2 Corinthians 7:15]?”[19]

Calvin believes that the disputed phrase simply refers to the demons who are destined to hell, which interpretation is far more plausible than purgatory. These hell-bound creatures of course will bow down to the Lordship of Christ not “of their own accord and by cheerful submission,”[20] but they shall certainly submit to Christ. So Calvin replies, “The fire of purgatory, according to them, is temporary, and will be done away at the day of judgment: hence this passage cannot be understood as to purgatory, because Paul elsewhere declares that this prophecy will not be fulfilled until Christ shall manifest himself for judgment.” Calvin then dismisses their appeal from Paul by saying, “Papists trifle childishly when they draw purgatory from his words.”[21]

The classic passage which Catholics depend on as Scriptural proof for Purgatory is Paul’s discussion in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, particularly verses 13-15, which read: “each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” This passage of course talks about “a fire of judgment that will reveal and test the works of the righteous.”[22] But Catholics would boldly claim that this is a literal fire which the souls of believers will have to pass through in order to be purified. This fire, for them, is no other than that of Purgatory.

Calvin begs to differ in interpreting this passage. Aware of the Papists use of this passage to support Purgatory, he argues, first, that the apostle uses fire here in a metaphorical, not literal, sense as means of examining one’s work, which in context refers to one’s teaching. “Here, then,” Calvin goes on, “the fire is the Spirit of the Lord, who by His examination tests which teaching is like gold, and which is like stubble. The nearer the teaching that God gives is brought to this fire, the clearer it will be. On the other hand what is produced in men’s minds will vanish immediately, as stubble is consumed by fire.”[23]

Second, this testing of one’s work, that is, one’s teaching, by fire “will receive praise and reward only after it has withstood the day of the Lord,”[24] which day of course refers to the last day when the Lord returns to judge everyone and everything. Those whose work are made of gold will survive and receive the reward. Again, because Roman Catholics believe that on the day of the Lord Purgatory will cease to exist this passage must not be talking about the fire of Purgatory.

Third, Calvin understands that what the apostle is saying here is that though the works of those other men will not survive through fire, they will nevertheless be saved. Noting the surrounding context, Calvin is right to say that “Paul is quite definitely speaking about ministers only”[25] when he talks about those men who will suffer the loss of their works yet will be saved.

To sum it all up, there is no way one can ground the doctrine of Purgatory in this Pauline passage either, except when that doctrine is assumed to be present, which Calvin has proven to be nowhere in the text.

Calvin also mentions of Augustine whom the Roman Catholic Church looks up to as an important figure in Church history who embraces the doctrine of Purgatory. Calvin notes that in his Confessions, Augustine relates of his mother’s ardent request at her deathbed that ‘she be remembered in the celebration of rites at the altar,’ which is the Catholic mass. However Calvin is quick to counter this by saying that Augustine desired for other’s approval on this request for clearly he was carried off by his ‘natural affection’ and not by the norm of Scripture.[26]

In another book, The Care to Be Taken for the Dead, Augustine also wrote about praying for the dead. However, Calvin cautions those who practice this kind of prayer to be circumspect lest they pray what is beyond, even against, God’s Word.

Lastly, Calvin finds inconsistency in some early church writers, even Augustine, on the issue of praying for the dead and purgatory. Augustine, according to Calvin, teaches in his commentary on John’s Gospel that “the resurrection of the flesh and everlasting glory are awaited by all, but that every man when he dies receives the rest that follows death if he is worthy of it.”[27] Calvin concludes, “Therefore, he [Augustine] bears witness that all godly men, no less than prophets, apostles, and martyrs, immediately after death enjoy blessed repose. If such is their condition, what, I beg of you, will our prayers confer upon them?”[28]

Augustine therefore, in this account, even believes that prayer for believers who have died is unnecessary. If they died believing in Christ they will go to heaven and hope for the resurrection of their body. If they died in their unbelief, they have no hope of entering heaven, even if millions of prayers are offered on their behalf.

Conclusion

John Calvin summarized his polemics against Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory in his Institutes of the Christian Religion:

…[W]hen expiation of sins is sought elsewhere than in the blood of Christ, when satisfaction is transferred elsewhere, silence is very dangerous. Therefore, we must cry out with the shouting not only of our voices but of our throats and lungs that purgatory is a deadly fiction of Satan, which nullifies the cross of Christ, inflicts unbearable contempt upon God’s mercy, and overturns and destroys our faith. For what means this purgatory of theirs but that satisfaction for sins is paid by the souls of the dead after their death? Hence, when the notion of satisfaction is destroyed, purgatory itself is straightway torn up by the very roots. But if it is perfectly clear… that the blood of Christ is the sole satisfaction for the sins of believers, the sole expiation, the sole purgation, what remains but to say that purgatory is simply a dreadful blasphemy against Christ? (3:5:6)

The holding and purging place of the dead called Purgatory is for Calvin a “deadly fiction of Satan.” It nullifies the cross of Christ, shows contempt on the mercy of God, and overturns and destroys our faith. The Scripture proofs that the Roman Catholic Church uses to purport their doctrine of Purgatory are proven to be wanting. Besides their interpretation of these passages assumes too much they ended up twisting the Scripture and exegeting the texts rather poorly.

Even if they claim that the custom of the Church for 1300 years is on their side, this is no argument. The question is “By what revelation or authority is such the tradition of the church?” If the appeal to the early church means appealing to the error and distortion of the Biblical texts, then the appeal holds no ground. Besides, Calvin has shown that there are inconsistencies even in the writings of the early church on the doctrine of Purgatory and praying for the dead.

So we are left with the choice to believe rather on the finish work of Christ at the cross for our only justification. God in His mercy finished the work of salvation in Christ’s death and resurrection. To those who put their trust in Christ they are assured of salvation, including the inward sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

 

Endnotes

[1] J. Walterworth, trans. The Canons and Decrees of the Sacred and Ecumenical Council of Trent, (Chicago: The Christian Symbolic Publication Soc., 1848), 232-233.

[2] Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1962), 218.

[3] Michael J. Walsh, ed. Commentary on the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Collegevillle, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1994), 218.

[4] J. Walterworth, trans. The Canons and Decrees of the Sacred and Ecumenical Council of Trent, 233.

[5] Session 6, Creeds and Dogmatic Decrees of the Council of Trent, 1545-63, in Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition. Vol. II: Part Four: Creeds and Confessions of the Reformation Era, eds. Jaroslav Pelikan and Valerie Hotchkiss (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 839.

[6] John Calvin, Acts of the Council of Trent: With the Antidote, in Selected Works of John Calvin: Tracts and Letters. Vol. 3: Tracts 3, ed. & trans. Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983), 160.

[7] All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[8] Acts of the Council of Trent, 160.

[9] Ibid., 161.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.5.7.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Cornelis P. Venema, The Promise of the Future (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2000), 70.

[16] Calvin’s Commentary on Matthew 5:25, in A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke: Vol. I, trans. A.W. Morrison (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), 187.

[17] Institutes 3.5.7.

[18] Commentary on Matthew 5:25-26.

[19] Institutes 3.5.8.

[20] Calvin Commentary on Philippians 2:10, in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, trans. T. H. L. Parker  (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, reprint 1980), 252.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Venema, The Promise of the Future, 70.

[23] Calvin’s Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, in  1 Corinthians, trans. John W. Fraser (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, reprint 1980), 76.

[24] Ibid., 77.

[25] Ibid., 78.

[26] Institutes, 3.5.10.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Ibid. See also Augustine’s Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John, 49.10.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boettner, Loraine. Roman Catholicism, Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing,1962.

Calvin, John. Acts of the Council of Trent: With the Antidote, in Selected Works of John Calvin: Tracts and Letters, Vol. 3: Tracts 3, ed. & trans. Henry Beveridge, eds. Henry Beveridge and Jules Bonnet, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983.

__________. A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke: Vol. I, CNTC, trans. A.W. Morrison, eds. D. W. Torrance & T. F. Torrance, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972.

__________. Articles by the Theological Faculty of Paris with the Antidote, in Selected Works of John Calvin: Tracts and Letters, Vol. 1: Tracts 1, ed. & trans. Henry Beveridge, eds.  Henry Beveridge and Jules Bonnet, Grand Rapids: Baker, reprint 1983.

__________. Commentary on the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, trans. John W. Fraser, eds. D. W. Torrance & T. F. Torrance, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, reprint 1980.

__________. Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, ed. John T. McNeill, Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960.

__________. The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, CNTC, trans. T. H. L. Parker, eds. D. W. Torrance & T. F. Torrance, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980.

Flannery, Austin P. ed., Documents of Vatican II, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975.

Pelikan, Jaroslav & Valerie Hotchkiss. eds., Creeds and Dogmatic Decrees of the Council of Trent, 1545-63, in Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition. Vol. II: Part Four: Creeds and Confessions of the Reformation Era, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.

Venema, Cornelis P. The Promise of the Future, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2000.

Walsh, Michael J. ed., Commentary on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Collegevillle, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1994.

Waterworth, J. trans. The Canons and Decrees of the Sacred and Ecumenical Council of Trent, Chicago: The Christian Symbolic Publication Soc., 1848.

Leaving a Godly Legacy

For more than a year now I have been enjoying the privilege of teaching the Bible on air at Mango Radio Philippines, then at 97.1 FM in Davao City, now at http://mangoradio.asia/. I am thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to proclaim and teach the Holy Scripture over the radio. I also enjoy answering many practical, doctrinal and ethical issues asked by our listeners through text and Facebook messages.

As a Reformed Christian, and a minister at that, it is my joy to teach the Scripture and relate it in the daily life and personal relationships of ordinary believers. My way of interpreting the truths of the Scripture is not unique. The interpretation I express is not new but I always seek to be consistent with how faithful Christian interpreters in the past have explained the Bible and applied it in the lives of the believers.

I always remind myself that I (or anyone in this generation) am not the first who studied the Scripture and discovered the truths it bears and applied them to life’s daily struggles. Our forefathers in the faith had the same struggles that we have and they turned to the written Word of God to find answers to the issues they were facing.

Wisdom calls for us to learn from faithful and godly authors from the previous generations. They can teach us a lot of things from the Scripture about problems we face today. We can build our own new discoveries and conclusions on the solid foundations that they have laid. Of course we can also learn from their mistakes.

But I’m afraid we are losing the rich Christian legacy that our forefathers in the faith had discovered and written about and passed on to us. We will impoverish ourselves if we ignore the truths they have learned to love and preserved for us and the succeeding generations.

In trying to understand the teachings of the Scripture many of them devoted their time to extended study of it. I, for example, am greatly helped by the printed and online commentaries, treatises and sermons of faithful men of previous generations like Athanasius, Ambrose, Augustine, John Chrysostom,  Anselm, Bernard of Clairvaux, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, J. C. Ryle, and many more.

Many of their precious insights and teachings are now available and accessible not only in libraries of old institutions of learning but also in the worldwide web or internet. We can easily read them there and try to understand them for our own benefit. We can especially pass on their teachings to our children and young men and women in our churches.

I am writing this essay because I want to share my thoughts on why it is important to leave a godly legacy. I wish to share my insights with you, dear readers, in order to somehow help stir within you the need to take seriously our responsibility to study the Christian faith in order to live it out and leave behind a godly legacy to the next generation.

I do believe that a good legacy one could pass on to his descendants, as I remember one radio listener has shared, is love for God and everything that pertains to Him. What I wanted to share with you here is similar to that idea. The one that I desire for my children and the next generation of believers to learn from me is the faith that I received also from faithful believers of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ultimately comes from God.

Does it sound like the one the Apostle Paul is talking about in 2 Timothy? Actually that’s the kind of heritage I desire to leave my children. Remember how Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:5 about the faith which he received from his mother Eunice and first lived in his Grandmother Lois? Although that faith that Paul is talking about pertains to the gift that God promises to give his people which the Holy Spirit creates through the hearing of the gospel of Christ that faith does not come without the knowledge of the gospel of Christ and the assurance and conviction from the written Word of God.

The faith I’m talking about is the body of Biblical doctrines handed down by the Old Testament prophets, preached by the New Testament apostles and their companions, faithfully proclaimed, guarded and defended by the Church Fathers, preserved through the Middle Ages by a few faithful monks and preachers, and fearlessly preached by the 16th century European Protestant Reformers. This body of doctrines were taught and lived by many English and Scottish Puritans as well as by a good number of French, German and Dutch Reformed Christians and their posterity.

That faith has been carried and preached by the 18th and 19th century missionaries (like William Carey, John Paton, Adoniram Judson and many others) to many parts of the world until it reached us here in the Philippines by the providence of God. This body of doctrines summarized in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creed and in many 16th and 17th century Confessions (like the Belgic Confession, Westminster Confession, Second Helvetic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechism, The Thirty-Nine Articles, etc.) is now unknown to many Christians. But this is one legacy worth leaving the next generations of Christians.

Love for God rooted in the living faith of the Apostles results in true godliness. So sound biblical teaching and diligent exposition of the apostolic faith is imperative in producing wise and God-fearing Christians. There is no fear of God without the proper knowledge of God. Godly legacy is being passed on from one generation to another as a result of faithful and godly teaching being lived out by preachers and teachers in the church and by parents at home.

Faith that glorifies God does not come in a vacuum. The Holy Spirit brings it into our hearts by using preachers and teachers as well as godly parents who are soaked in and renewed by the Word of God. As the Holy Spirit uses their words and deeds and as He enables us to understand the holiness of God, the severity of His wrath against sin, the graciousness of His love and goodness and the super-abundance of His mercy in Jesus Christ to undeserving sinners, like us, we are empowered to believe.

These kinds of teaching and practices are becoming extinct in many churches and homes today. Teaching the Christian faith by pastors and parents used to be practiced in previous generations. If we read historical accounts we will discover that basic doctrines of the faith were being taught first by parents to their children at home. Conscientious Christian parents used to pass on their faith to their children in an ordinary house setting as well as in their more formal daily family devotions or family worship.[1]

Of course the church has a responsibility to nurture the believers and their children to mature in the faith. But this does not excuse parents from their responsibility to train and teach their children in the ways of the Lord. Believing parents are the main discipler of their children. They ought to teach their children the teachings of the Holy Scripture.

This is not the case in many Christian homes anymore. If we are going to ask a typical young people in our churches why he is a Christian, or why he or she goes to church, or what does it mean to be saved, you will usually get blank stares. Ask him about the basic doctrines of the Christian faith (such as the person and work of Christ, or the gospel, or faith and repentance, or justification and sanctification) and challenge him to defend these doctrines from the Holy Scripture and you might get frustrated.

But ask him to sing the latest composition of Hillsong or Integrity Music or Contemporary Christian Music and he will do it with gusto. Not that all contemporary praise songs are really bad (some of them are theologically sound and their melodies are quite singable, even a few of them might be sung in our church fellowships) but most of these songs are theologically erroneous.

One Vineyard song that I used to like is the song “Beloved.” Its chorus goes,

I’m Your beloved, Your creation, and You love me as I am;
You have called me ‘chosen’ for your kingdom,
Unshamed to call me, ‘Your own,’ I’m Your beloved.

To a typical evangelical Christian that song may not present any theological problem. But the thing is, when it comes to the love of God, God does not love me “as I am,” but He loves me “in Christ” and “through Christ.” He does not consider me His child apart from His Son, who is the Beloved. If God is going to deal with me “as I am” I will perish. “As I am,” in my natural state, I am a child, an object, of God’s wrath (Eph. 2:1-2) deserving judgment. But “in Christ,” I am God’s beloved.

That’s the problem of this contemporary song. God does not love me “as I am” but He does love me “in Christ” and “for Christ’s sake” by grace through faith in His Beloved.

I could cite another example but I think you get what I mean. Some contemporary songs that many Christians sing in church may sound nice and orthodox at first hearing but to a theologically-trained mind they are erroneous or unscriptural.

How sad it is to see many shallow and immature young people in our churches uninformed of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith! But there are elementary teachings of Scripture that we can’t live without as Christians (see, for example, Hebrews 6:1-2). Unless we grow in these basic doctrines we can’t go on to maturity in the faith.

How come many professing believers don’t know much about these fundamental doctrines anymore? I could safely say that many in our Evangelical churches today are Biblically and theologically illiterate. I was such an illiterate Christian once! If not for the gracious providence of God I could have remained immature in the faith oblivious of the precious and glorious doctrines of God’s amazing grace in Christ Jesus.

In His own time, God sent me faithful believers who diligently taught me the Biblical faith. He also gave me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of these Christian truths from faithful ministers of Christ in a Reformed church and at Mid-America Reformed Seminary.

By the grace of God, I’m still learning a lot from the Holy Scripture about the Christian faith. My learning of and training in the holy faith does not end when I took a three-year formal seminary education. As a pastor I continue to study and learn the faith ‘once delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3).

If church pastors and teachers won’t go back to the basic Biblical teachings taught by the Apostles and by our forefathers in the faith sooner or later the church would lose its power and the world around us won’t see our holiness (which literally means “set apartness” or “separateness”) and godliness as the people of God called to be salt of the earth and light of the world for our Lord Jesus Christ. How I wish that pastors and teachers, together with parents, would diligently teach their youth the whole counsel of God and the most holy faith, not man-centered and ear-tickling teachings!

By the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I desire to leave these Biblical doctrines that I’ve learned and am still learning from others to my children, and Lord willing, to the young men and women and the next generation in the church.

There seems to be a prevailing myth among many pastors today that teaching solid Biblical doctrines bears no relevance in our lives since the 21st century has brought a lot of technological advances that renders the Christian faith irrelevant, if not obsolete. It’s kind of boring to them and besides, they would reason out, no one seems to like that kind of stuff nowadays. They are ‘nose-bleed’ for them. People in the pew, they would argue, have felt needs to be met that doctrinal or solid Biblical preaching would not be able to address.

That claim might be true if the teaching of these Biblical doctrines is devoid of practical applications. I’ve seen it done that way. But I have also seen faithful preachers and Bible teachers proclaim and teach these doctrines with relevant, day-to-day and down-to-earth applications. This kind of teaching does not only fatten the mind and gladden the heart but it also strengthens the feet and hands ready to go and do the will of God in the daily grind of life and every relationship.

So I agree that there’s a way to teach theology that can give knowledge but could not transform the thinking and lifestyle. But I disagree that theology is hard and irrelevant, unable to address the needs of ordinary people. People in the pew may have many felt needs. However even if these felt needs are somehow met or addressed by ‘practical preaching’ devoid of the gospel of Christ, yet if their basic human need is not met, that is, to be reconciled with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through the preaching of the holy gospel, these people will remain discontented and lost.

So many preachers today don’t preach anymore the doctrines of God’s sovereignty in creation and redemption, the fall of man, redemption in Christ in His substitutionary death at the cross, justification and union with Christ by faith alone, suffering for the sake of the kingdom of God, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and other basic Christian tenets.

Our forefathers in the faith were so moved by these doctrines that they can’t help praising God, serving Him with all their heart, soul and strength, living a life of gratitude, and pleasing Him in everything they say and do. Just the glorious thought and true knowledge of God moved them to endure fire, sword, persecution and many other forms of trials and sufferings to keep the faith and to stand for it. The book Foxe’s Book of Martyrs testifies to this.

Today we often hear many preachers talk about “Five Steps to Financial Recovery,” or “Ten Steps to Financial Success,” or “Five Steps to a Happy Marriage,” and other similar teachings without laying the Biblical foundations of these teachings or disconnecting them from the gospel – the redeeming and transforming work of God in Christ.

Worse yet, they tend to emphasize success and prosperity in life as if by his own wisdom and power man could achieve it by doing certain things that would oblige God to bow down to his selfish desires and demands.

Of course we need practical teaching but not at the expense of Biblical and doctrinal truths. If church members are being taught that financial success or career advancement is up to them – it’s their choice – apart from the sovereign will of God and from the finished work of Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary, the church of Jesus Christ will produce many selfish, greedy, immature, and worldly people, ready to leave the church at the first sign of failure or disappointment.

Professing Christians who are unaware of the essential truths of Christianity on which practical issues, such as marriage, parenting, giving, prayer, stewardship, etc., stand will not grow deeper and stronger nor will persevere in the faith when the going gets rough and tough. Faithful and persevering Christians are enamored by the glory of God in Christ in the gospel. And this kind of believers would be willing to ‘give what they cannot keep to gain what they cannot not lose’ as missionary martyr Jim Elliot once said.

As long as the Lord gives me the strength and the voice to speak for Him it is my aim to proclaim the whole counsel of God and the Good News of salvation which is in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. I pray that the Lord would preserve me in this faith and will not let me go astray from it for the sake of His name.

I also wish that our faithful Christian listeners at Mango Radio Philippines would be vigilant in guarding the faith which we proclaim over the radio. I pray that they would be discerning, scrutinizing the kind of teaching that we promote and teach and let us know when we say things that are not consistent with the Word of God.

Paul said in 2 Timothy 3 and 4 that there will come a time, in the last days, when people become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power… they will not put up with sound doctrine but, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. The only way for us to endure and counter such a terrible time is to do what Paul charged Timothy to do, that is, to “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Tim. 4:2).

It is my desire that the Biblical faith is being handed down by this generation of believers to the next. That I believe is one legacy worth leaving behind. While the church through its pulpit is the primary place to preach the Word of God, yet the homes, and even radio stations, like Mango Radio Philippines play a vital role in the propagation and the preservation of the true faith once for all entrusted to the saints.

I pray and work hard for this godly legacy to be passed on to the next generation for God’s greater glory and praise!

[1] Dr. Francis Nigel Lee’s 1987 Doctoral Dissertation, Daily Family Worship: Household Devotions Each Morning and Evening as a Chief Means of Church Revival, available at http://www.ebooklibrary.org/details.aspx?bookid=690203

Only by the Grace of God: A short account of my conversion and call to the ministry

I was born and raised in a Roman Catholic family in central Philippines, in the province of Capiz to be specific. I was baptized as an infant, catechized as a child and received confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church. I had known and believed in the doctrine of the Trinity and the virgin birth of Jesus Christ since I was a child.

I also learned the Ten Commandments and I was active in church youth activities in high school. Out of these experiences I have desired to serve God in full-time ministry as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church.

But in spite of this, I grew up a disobedient child alien to the concept of the fear of the Lord. I may have looked nice and okay outwardly but deep within I was miserable. My conscience would always bother me and give me a strong feeling of condemnation and uncertainty of the future.

It wasn’t very obvious to others, but I was so afraid to die. Although I was told that Christ saves, still I did not have the faith to trust Him fully. So I tried hard doing penance and other good things that would make me feel good. I was taught that in doing good works and sacrifices for the Church, I can sort of earn my way to heaven. But it did not help me at all and I was quite frustrated. There was something that I was looking for that I haven’t found and tasted during those years.

It was French physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) who spoke of people’s need for Jesus Christ when he said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man, which only God can fill through his Son Jesus Christ.” Then about 1200 years before Pascal it was Augustine (354-430) who said, “You [Oh God] have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

Those quotes from Pascal and Augustine are true in my life. There was a vacuum in my life that needs to be filled, and there was some kind of restlessness that I didn’t know how to put to rest. Thank God that in Christ God fills my emptiness and enables me to rest and to live in peace.

In God’s appointed time, around February 1986, I came to meet this Baptist minister who shared with me what I called ‘a strange teaching about God.’ He was trying to explain to me the holiness of God, the sinfulness and hopelessness of man and the person and works of Jesus Christ in a way that I did not see in my Catholic upbringing.

Gradually I was beginning to understand old concepts differently, like grace, faith and being born again. In my Roman Catholic upbringing, grace is an obscure concept, and somehow one has to earn or work for it. Faith likewise was understood as something that man can and should do all by himself. To be born again you must be baptized (as a child, especially) and faithfully receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist during mass. My basic belief was being challenged by this Baptist minister whom I met only once in my life.

At first I was so skeptical at what he was telling me but later, I was enabled to believe that Christ indeed saves and through Him, by faith, I can truly be assured of my personal salvation.

Seeing this gracious act of God in Christ toward sinners like me, I was led to confess my sin and repent from all my known wickedness – you know, lying, stealing, disrespect to parents, envy, covetousness, lust, idolatry, and many more.

Oh after confessing my sins and renouncing all those horrible, shameful acts, I felt that sense of joy and peace and gratitude deep within. The things that Augustine and Pascal were talking about are now real to me. That peace within that wasn’t there before starts to overwhelm me.

My contact with this Baptist minister was short. But when I entered college in 1987, one of my older brothers, who was a new convert to a fast-growing Pentecostal church, was instrumental in my decision to leave the Catholic Church and join the Jesus is Lord (JIL) Church.

One good thing I’ve experienced there, though, was learning to submit to the Lordship of Christ by submitting to the authority of His Word in every area of my life – from my daily, ordinary choices to future, long term, major decisions – everything.

God has used the experiences I had in this group to develop in me the love for His Word in spite of the group’s tendency to elevate ‘spiritual experiences’ over the Bible itself in relating with God. About a year and a half later, I became discontented and uncomfortable with the group, specifically with their practice of ‘speaking or praying in tongues.’

So in 1989 I moved to a conservative Evangelical church, Caloocan Bible Church, where Rev. Elvin Mijares was pastoring. (Another brother of mine and his family are actually members there). During this time I also became actively involved with Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF). I was drawn to join IVCF in the campus partly because of the sound teachings about the Bible and God, and the priority of Christian discipleship and missions that I was getting.

But aside from that, I was really impressed by the kind of relationship that the members and leaders have had toward one another and toward others. There’s something unique and attractive in them that I also wanted to experience. So I first became a small group member then a leader. I attended many leadership and discipleship camps and conferences and the most memorable and revolutionary camp, of course, was the month-long intensive leadership Kawayan Camp (KC) in Cebu province in 1990.

Then in 1992, a year after college, I was surprised to receive an invitation to join the Inter Varsity staff team. So I considered it and after several months of prayers and seeking godly counsel I was gradually led to decide to join the staff team. And in the providence of God my five-year ministry with Inter Varsity was one of the most faith-building experiences in life.

While with Inter Varsity I was greatly influenced by the writings of many authors. One of those authors is Bill Hybels. His books Who You Are When No One’s Looking and Too Busy Not to Pray were my favorites. But my top two favorites are John Stott and J.I. Packer.

Oh I am greatly indebted to these two evangelical giants in my understanding of the Christian faith. Stott’s Basic Christianity increased my knowledge of my sinfulness and misery through his clear exposition of the Ten Commandments. I was convicted of my sin. At the same time, because Stott also emphasized in that book the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ at the Cross and how that sacrifice provided for me the assurance that all my sins are forgiven in Him, I was also comforted and delighted to know that I don’t need to add anything to Christ’s atoning sacrifice to save myself.

Wow, that’s a very profound truth! I wasn’t taught that way before. Simply said, Christ did everything to secure my salvation. All I need to do is to receive it by faith believing that Christ died for me and lives again for my justification.

Packer’s Knowing God also deepened my knowledge of and devotion to God. His scholarly yet pastoral exposition of God’s sovereign grace in the salvation of mankind through Jesus Christ has left me dumbfounded. Through Packer’s various expositions I was able to understand the gospel better and became more grateful to God. I make it a habit to read this classic every year.

Since then, the peace and assurance that I have been longing for has come as a result of the knowledge of God’s grace in Christ. My reading of the Scripture, like that of the prophet Isaiah, especially his words in chapter 53 verse 5, became very meaningful to me. There it says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.”

There’s a lot of comfort that comes from the knowledge that God will not take my sins against me anymore, all because Someone has taken my stead and paid for the penalty of all my sins. That’s really amazing! That’s grace! It gripped me from the inside out.

Shortly after I moved out of Inter Varsity in 1997 I was introduced to the writings of R.C. Sproul and James Montgomery Boice. These authors contributed in shaping and strengthening my theological and Biblical perspective. Sproul has helped me grasp clearer many ‘difficult’ Biblical doctrines. Boice has increased my appetite in reading and studying the Word of God through his theological treatises and Biblical commentaries.

Providentially, God led me and my wife to regularly attend a Reformed Bible study in 1999. This was led by Mr. Nollie Malabuyo, a former Wycliffe Bible Translator missionary who is now a Reformed minister with the United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA). This Bible study later became a small congregation in January 2000. It has become what is now the United Covenant Reformed Church (formerly Davao Covenant Reformed Church), a member congregation of the United Covenant Reformed Church in the Philippines (UCRCP).

My desire to serve God in full-time ministry did not wane after my move from Catholicism, Evangelicalism and to the Reformed tradition. To some extent, it has actually strengthened my desire to be formally trained and equipped to do the ministry.

Through various providence, the Lord has given me the opportunity to study at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana, USA in 2001. However, my seminary study was interrupted in 2002 when my family and I had to return to the Philippines in June of 2002.

The American missionary who was then ministering to a small Reformed congregation in Davao City was recalled due to some security reasons occasioned by the 9/11 bombing. So he and his family were asked by their sending church to leave the Philippines immediately.

By the grace of God, the congregation has continued to exist after the missionary and his family left in November 2001. So in June 2002, having been examined and was given the license to preach by Trinity United Reformed Church of Walnut Creek, California, which was the supervising church of the Davao congregation at that time, we arrived in the Philippines and continued the ministry in Davao City. My one year seminary training has helped me a lot although I kept on hoping that one day I could return to the seminary to finish my training.

I praise the Lord for granting that desire in 2006. I am thankful to the Lord for using several individuals (particularly Mr. David Linden), churches and organizations who have become instrumental in my return to the seminary to finish my formal, rigid, but very edifying theological and Biblical training.

In 2008, by the grace of God, I was able to finish my Master of Divinity degree. Two months after graduation at Mid-America Reformed Seminary, my family and I returned to the Philippines to minister to our congregation.

In God’s gracious providence, I was examined by the pastors and elders of the United Covenant Reformed Church in the Philippines (UCRCP) during its special classis meeting in September 2010 and I was able to pass the examination and declared eligible for call. On October 19, 2010, I was ordained to the Ministry of the Gospel and installed as the pastor of United Covenant Reformed congregation in Davao City.

I thank God for the great privilege He has given me to bring the good news of salvation in Christ to our own people. I have been serving the same congregation until now. Please keep on praying for me and my family that in my desire to serve the Lord among our countrymen He would graciously grant me to see the fruit of my labor, that is, a growing and healthy congregation vibrantly living for God and serving one another for the glory of God. Soli Deo Gloria!