Are you really a Calvinist? part 5

“Today the poor get nothing more of alms than if they were  cast into the sea.
Therefore, the church is mocked with a false diaconate . . . there is nothing
of the care of the poor, nothing of that whole function which the deacons
once performed.”  
John Calvin
(Because I couldn’t really stop at four, could I now?)

Are you really a Calvinist? part 4

“…it has come to pass, that most men give their alms contemptously.  Such depravity ought not to have been tolerable even among the pagans; of Christians something even more is required than to show a cheerful countenance and to render their duties pleasing with friendly words.  First, they must put themselves in the place of [...]

Are you really a Calvinist? part three

“Christ has shown us in the parable of the Samaritan that the term ‘neighbor’ includes even the most remote person (Luke 10.36), [and therefore] we are not expected to limit the precept of love to those in close relationships.”

Are You Really a Calvinist? part 2

“Each man will so consider with himself that in all his greatness he is a debtor to his neighbors, and that he ought in exercising kindness towards them to set no other limit than the end of his resources; these as widely as they are extended ought to have their limits set according to the [...]

Are you really a Calvinist?

“Yet the great part of people are most unworthy to be helped if they be judged by their own merit.  But here Scripture helps in the best way when it teaches that we are not to consider that men merit of themselves but to look upon the image of God in all men, to which [...]