Decoding Jesus : A Comparison between John Calvin and Ellen G. White’s Views
Description:... Decoding Jesus will forever change
your view about Jesus!
John Calvin (1509-1564) and Ellen G. White (1827-1915), though
divergent in many ways, shared a pivotal common denominator: the
Judeo-Christian Bible from Genesis to Revelation as a major template from which
they reflected on the close connectedness, and radical difference of God, human
beings, and the created environment.
Calvin encountered a theological conundrum. He was unaware that
one cannot hold on to the 16th-century Reformation of employing the biblical
historical time-line from Genesis to Revelation (as a reflexive scheme on God’s
four grand acts: creation, reconciliation [the cross/redemption],
renewal [Pentecost/Holy Spirit] and fulfillment/end of time), whilst
simultaneously embracing the classical first millennium Trinitarian view.
Karl Barth, the great Swiss Reformed theologian of the early 20th
century, was aware of Calvin’s conundrum. Barth resolved that the dogma of the
Trinity is not found in the Bible, but should be used as a good dogma operating
as the main starting pattern of one’s theology. How further can one go than
Barth in giving the notion of the Trinity a biblical vote of no confidence?
White treaded softly around the Trinity notion. Her vast ocean of
voluminous writings is devoid of the word Trinity. She visited Switzerland, and
having read Calvin’s doctrines, she most likely saw Calvin and the Reformation’s
contradiction concerning the dogma of the Trinity, and wanted to avoid the same
trap.
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