All Men are Like Grass: The Life of John Calvin
The first morning session was presented by Kevin DeYoung, the host pastor at University Reformed Church. The title was taken from Isaiah 40: 6-8
A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isa 40:6-8)
The central point he made was that Calvin doesn't have a love-hate relationship, he has a love or hate relationship. People either love and revere Calvin and what he taught, or they hate what he taught and everything about him. It is true that Calvin, like all of us, had faults and some of those faults (i.e. impatience) have passed down to his "kin".
The session was mostly a historical overview of Calvin's life, which is something that is not documented that well and not studied by many Calvinists, but I think that it gives you a view of the man, who he was, where he came from and what sorts of ideas helped form his study of the Bible. Overall, Calvin was a man who can be described (as Kevin DeYoung did) "His life was consumed by the Word of God" and a man who saw his universe through the lens of God is infinitely big and we are small.
The one thing I kept thinking was that John Calvin was the last good thing to come out of France...
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