Mr. Bultitude
Puritan Board Freshman
Reading John Calvin's commentary on Genesis 2 and 3, he says:
It seems that Calvin believes that if Adam had not sinned, his life would have been temporal, and at the end of his temporal life he would have passed, body and soul, into heaven, without death, destruction, violence, or corruption.
I find that interesting. I thought I had only heard that he would have had an eternal earthly life and heaven and earth would at some point become united. But he seems, while denying the possibility of "death," to believe that a kind of "passing" from earthly life to heavenly life would be the norm for humanity. Is this a common reformed view?
Remember from what kind of life man fell. He was, in every respect, happy; his life, therefore, had alike respect to his body and his soul, since in his soul a right judgment and a proper government of the affections prevailed, there also life reigned; in his body there was no defect, wherefore he was wholly free from death. His earthly life truly would have been temporal; yet he would have passed into heaven without death, and without injury. ...
Truly the first man would have passed to a better life, had he remained upright; but there would have been no separation of the soul from the body, no corruption, no kind of destruction, and, in short, no violent change.
It seems that Calvin believes that if Adam had not sinned, his life would have been temporal, and at the end of his temporal life he would have passed, body and soul, into heaven, without death, destruction, violence, or corruption.
I find that interesting. I thought I had only heard that he would have had an eternal earthly life and heaven and earth would at some point become united. But he seems, while denying the possibility of "death," to believe that a kind of "passing" from earthly life to heavenly life would be the norm for humanity. Is this a common reformed view?