The Upper Register

Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?

The question has been raised and answered in the affirmative in Allah: A Christian Response by Miroslav Volf. In addition to this helpful review, I thought it would be nice to get Calvin's perspective on this issue. The context is Calvin's distinction between the knowledge of God the Creator and the knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ. At first this distinction might seem to support the notion that adherents of the great monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam - all worship the same Creator God. But in light of Calvin's teaching concerning man's depravity, which has plunged him into spiritual blindness that leads to the creation of false notions of God, i.e., idols, it becomes clear that for Calvin, God cannot be truly known and worshipped even as Creator apart from Christ. He writes:

Christ tells his disciples to believe in him, in order that they might have a distinct and complete belief in God, “Ye believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1). For although, properly speaking, faith rises from Christ to the Father, he intimates, that even when it leans on God, it gradually vanishes away, unless he himself interpose to give it solid strength. The majesty of God is too high to be scaled up to by mortals, who creep like worms on the earth. Therefore, the common saying that God is the object of faith (Lactantius, lib. 4 c. 16), requires to be received with some modification. When Christ is called the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15), the expression is not used without cause, but is designed to remind us that we can have no knowledge of our salvation, until we behold God in Christ ... What I wish to impress upon my readers in this way is, that the first step in piety is, to acknowledge that God is a Father, to defend, govern, and cherish us, until he brings us to the eternal inheritance of his kingdom; that hence it is plain, as we lately observed, there is no saving knowledge of God without Christ, and that, consequently, from the beginning of the world Christ was held forth to all the elect as the object of their faith and confidence. In this sense, Irenaeus says, that the Father, who is boundless in himself, is bounded in the Son, because he has accommodated himself to our capacity, lest our minds should be swallowed up by the immensity of his glory (Irenaeus, lib. 4 cap. 8) ... God is comprehended in Christ alone. The saying of John was always true, “whosoever denieth the Son, the same has not the Father” (1 John 2:23). For though in old time there were many who boasted that they worshipped the Supreme Deity, the Maker of heaven and earth, yet as they had no Mediator, it was impossible for them truly to enjoy the mercy of God, so as to feel persuaded that he was their Father. Not holding the head, that is, Christ, their knowledge of God was evanescent; and hence they at length fell away to gross and foul superstitions betraying their ignorance, just as the Turks in the present day, who, though proclaiming, with full throat, that the Creator of heaven and earth is their God, yet by their rejection of Christ, substitute an idol in his place. (Institutes II.vi.4).

The Testimony of the Holy Spirit

Calvin teaches that the authority of Scripture does not rest on the church's decision but on the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. The elect, whose minds have been enlightened by the Spirit, know that the Scripture is God's word.

"Scripture bears upon the face of it as clear evidence of its truth, as white and black do of their color, sweet and bitter of their taste" (Institutes I.vii.2).

To those who demand that the inspiration of the prophets be proved by reason, Calvin replies that ...

"the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason. For as God alone can properly bear witness to his own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit" (I.vii.4).

Therefore, the same Spirit who inspired the prophets and the apostles to communicate God's word to us must also penetrate our hearts to seal and confirm our faith and enlighten our minds to receive the Scriptures as God's word.

"Let it therefore be held as fixed, that those who are inwardly taught by the Holy Spirit acquiesce implicitly in Scripture; that Scripture carrying its own evidence along with it, deigns not to submit to proofs and arguments, but owes the full conviction with which we ought to receive it to the testimony of the Spirit. Enlightened by him, we no longer believe, either on our own judgment or that of others, that the Scriptures are from God; but, in a way superior to human judgment, feel perfectly assured — as much so as if we beheld the divine image visibly impressed on it — that it came to us, by the instrumentality of men, from the very mouth of God. We ask not for proofs or probabilities on which to rest our judgment, but we subject our intellect and judgment to it as too transcendent for us to estimate" (I.vii.5).

Evidences, arguments, and rational proofs can only take us so far and in fact do not provide full assurance. But by the Spirit's inner testimony we arrive at a spiritual certainty that is "superior to human judgment."

"We feel a divine energy living and breathing in [the Scripture] — an energy by which we are drawn and animated to obey it, willingly indeed, and knowingly, but more vividly and effectually than could be done by human will or knowledge" (I.vii.5).

Therefore, the best way to feel this "divine energy" in Scripture and to be convinced of its divine authority is to read the profane authors and then to turn to the word of God.

"Read Demosthenes or Cicero, read Plato, Aristotle, or any other of that class: you will, I admit, feel wonderfully allured, pleased, moved, enchanted; but turn from them to the reading of the Sacred Volume, and whether you will or not, it will so affect you, so pierce your heart, so work its way into your very marrow, that, in comparison of the impression so produced, that of orators and philosophers will almost disappear; making it manifest that in the Sacred Volume there is a truth divine, a something which makes it immeasurably superior to all the gifts and graces attainable by man ... Those who feel [the works of the prophets] insipid must be absolutely devoid of taste" (I.viii.1-2).

Does this mean that evidences and arguments are worthless? Far from it, but they must be used in a subordinate role.

"These [evidences and arguments], however, cannot of themselves produce a firm faith in Scripture until our heavenly Father manifest his presence in it, and thereby secure implicit reverence for it. Then only, therefore, does Scripture suffice to give a saving knowledge of God when its certainty is founded on the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit. Still the human testimonies which go to confirm it will not be without effect, if they are used in subordination to that chief and highest proof, as secondary helps to our weakness. But it is foolish to attempt to prove to infidels that the Scripture is the Word of God. This it cannot be known to be, except by faith" (I.viii.13).

[All quotes from the Beveridge translation.]

"What is plainly and unambiguously taught in Scripture"

I've read many extended parts of Calvin's Institutes over the years, especially his chapters on justification and on the sacraments. But I've never read the whole thing from start to finish. So I've decided to read it this year using the 1-volume Beveridge translation in the nice edition published recently by Hendrickson for the quincentennial of his birth.

There are so many great passages - perhaps I'll quote some here on this blog as they strike me. Here is one that I enjoyed. In his discussion of the doctrine that God uses the reprobate as instruments in his hand to perform his will (yet in such a way that God is not the author of sin), Calvin writes:

"As I have hitherto stated only what is plainly and unambiguously taught in Scripture, those who hesitate not to stigmatize what is thus taught by the sacred oracles, had better beware what kind of censure they employ. If, under a pretense of ignorance, they seek the praise of modesty, what greater arrogance can be imagined than to utter one word in opposition to the authority of God -- to say, for instance, 'I think otherwise' -- 'I would not have this subject touched'? But if they openly blaspheme, what will they gain by assaulting heaven? Such petulance, indeed, is not new. In all ages there have been wicked and profane men, who rabidly assailed this branch of doctrine. But what the Spirit declared of old by the mouth of David (Ps 51:6), they will feel by experience to be true -- God will overcome when he is judged. David indirectly rebukes the infatuation of those whose license is so unbridled, that from their groveling spot of earth they not only plead against God, but arrogate to themselves the right of censuring him. At the same time, he briefly intimates that the blasphemies which they belch forth against heaven, instead of reaching God, only illustrate his justice, when the mists of their calumnies are dispersed. Even our faith, because founded on the sacred word of God, is superior to the whole world, and is able from its height to look down upon such mists" (Institutes I.xviii.3). 

I love Calvin's confidence in the "clear and unambiguous" teaching of the Word of God. Those who assail his doctrine, assail the Word of God. They do so from "their groveling spot of earth," while he stands upon the heights "to look down upon such mists." Our faith is founded upon the sacred Word of God.