The Facts about Calvin and Servetus:
1. Michael Servetus taught many unorthodox heresies: astrology, pantheism, Neo-Platonism, Semi-Pelagianism, rejected the Trinity, rejected the Deity of Christ.
2. Servetus was convicted by the Inquisition in France for his heresies, but he escaped before sentencing.
3. Calvin warned him not to come to Geneva because he was would not be welcomed by the Church or the government.
4. Servetus ignored the warnings of Geneva and arrived basically as an attempted revolution of the State.
5. The Geneva City Council believed that blatant heresy was punishable by death.
6. Servetus was arrested and given a fair trial that lasted two months. Servetus claimed that Calvin was a heretic and should be banished from Geneva and his property given to Servetus.
7. Many on the City Council were Libertines who did not like Calvin, but he was called as a witness.
8. The City Council, including the Libertines, found Servetus guilty and sentenced him to be burned at the stake.
9. Calvin strongly encouraged the City Council to use a more painless execution by decapitation, but they refused Calvin’s pleas.
10. On October 27, 1553, Servetus was burnt at Champel with the approval of all Reformers and Catholics.
11. John Calvin did not convict Servetus or execute him.
12. Servetus would have been convicted even if Calvin had not been called as a witness.
13. Servetus was the only heretic executed for blasphemy in Geneva under Reformed auspices.
14. Compared to the Roman Catholic Inquisition, the City Council of Geneva practiced enormous restraint and fairness.
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Go here and discover why it is important for us to never stop teaching people the truth about church history and Calvinism.
In Geneva, Switzerland, John Calvin was a pastor, teacher, and statesman. He organized a school system for children, a hospital for the indigent, a charity system for the poor, built the University of Geneva, and designed a public sewage system when the City Council was unable. He taught the reformers of the English and Scottish Reformation. As a pastor his goal was to see the citizens of his city live godly lives. He viewed the Church and State equal but seperate (seperate in some areas and related in others). Calvin’s Geneva gave rise to Capitalism, Free Enterprise, a democratic republic governmental system, and a Protestant work ethic.
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
This is a great resource, guys. You ought to make a special category for these posts in your sidebar.
James:
Really helpful; concise and accurate. Thank you for investing the time and care into this historic thumbnail.
Grace and peace,
Steve
2 Cor. 4:5-7
Sorry brother… muti-tasking tonight got the better of me: I meant Jason…
Steve
It’s great stuff to know, unfortunately the people who keep bringing up the lies and misinformation will ignore, dismiss, or doubt it. Or they’ll argue it still makes Calvin a monster.
I’ve had all 4 responses when relating this info.
But at least they can’t say they didn’t know.
Very helpful, thanks! Now I can talk a little more intelligently to that elder at my church that made a snide remark about John Calvin being a “murderer”…oh wait, never mind. I left that church!