CharlieJ
Puritan Board Junior
I've come across a section in Calvin's Malachi commentary that I'm having trouble understanding. It seems that Calvin switches from an infralapsarian to a supralapsarian logic midstream.
Here is the original blog-post that drew my attention: Der Evangelische Theologe: Reading Scripture with John Calvin: Malachi 1.2-6
Here is a link to the whole lecture by Calvin: .
Here is the confusing paragraph:
As to reprobation, the cause of it is sufficiently
manifest in the fall of Adam, for, as we have said, we
all fell with him. It must still be observed, that the
election of God is anterior to Adam's fall; and that
hence all we who are rescued from the common ruin have
been chosen in Christ before the creation of the world,
but that others justly perish though they had not been
lost in Adam; because God appointed Christ the head of
his Church, in order that we might be saved in him, not
all, but those who have been chosen.
How do we reconcile that the "cause" of reprobation is "sufficiently manifest in the fall of Adam" and that "others justly perish though they had not been lost in Adam"? I'm completely befuddled by that last statement. After all, "chosen before the creation of the world" is not necessarily supralapsarian, but with the addition of the later text it certainly sounds like it.
Here is the original blog-post that drew my attention: Der Evangelische Theologe: Reading Scripture with John Calvin: Malachi 1.2-6
Here is a link to the whole lecture by Calvin: .
Here is the confusing paragraph:
As to reprobation, the cause of it is sufficiently
manifest in the fall of Adam, for, as we have said, we
all fell with him. It must still be observed, that the
election of God is anterior to Adam's fall; and that
hence all we who are rescued from the common ruin have
been chosen in Christ before the creation of the world,
but that others justly perish though they had not been
lost in Adam; because God appointed Christ the head of
his Church, in order that we might be saved in him, not
all, but those who have been chosen.
How do we reconcile that the "cause" of reprobation is "sufficiently manifest in the fall of Adam" and that "others justly perish though they had not been lost in Adam"? I'm completely befuddled by that last statement. After all, "chosen before the creation of the world" is not necessarily supralapsarian, but with the addition of the later text it certainly sounds like it.