Sunday, July 31, 2011

God's works before creation… — John Calvin

“Here also the impiety of those is refuted who cavil against Moses…For they inquire why it had come so suddenly into the mind of God to create the world; why He had so long remained inactive in heaven: & thus by sporting with sacred things they exercise their ingenuity to their own destruction. In the Tripartite History an answer given by a pious man is recorded, with which I have always been pleased. For when a certain impure dog was in this manner pouring ridicule upon God, he retorted, that God had been at that time by no means inactive because He had been preparing hell for the captious…. As for ourselves, it ought not to seem so very absurd that God, satisfied in Himself, did not create a world which He needed not, sooner than He thought good. Moreover, since His will is the rule of all wisdom, we ought to be contented with that alone. For Augustine rightly affirms that injustice is done to God by the Manichaeans, because they demand a cause superior to His will…”

John Calvin, Commentaries on the first book of Moses called Genesis

No comments:

Post a Comment