Day 1, Calvin began in Paris

Today is the first day of our trip. We are in Paris and this is where it began for Calvin. John Calvin was not the firebrand that Martin Luther was. Luther saw the abuses of the Roman system and got mad. He wrote against the abuses of the church - primarily in relation to the practices of indulgences, which involved the selling of forgiveness and escape from purgatory for family members when purchased from the church. It wasn't the beginning of the Reformation, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

John Calvin was a scholarly reformer. He came to the place of belief not through a radical encounter, but rather through a decision based on his reasoned faith. I think of C.S. Lewis' description of his own coming to faith and think it a lot alike Calvin's.
Calvin was a student in Paris when he came to believe. His descriptions are quite limited so it leaves one to guess all that occurred in his encounter - but it was enough to cause him to embrace the reform and begin to preach for that reform in Paris.

France was and still is thoroughly Catholic in its faith. Calvin did not last long in Paris before he became an object of attention and then attempts to arrest him. Had he been arrested the great reformer would not have lived. But he was not, and that is why the story of the reformation became great in almost all of Europe - and eventually came to America with colonists who by and large were Protestants.

I just finished reading a great biography of John Calvin, and have to admire this man's ardent faith in Christ.

David in Psalm 43 says, "You are God my stronghold."
That would be an apt description of the way Calvin lived out his faith. We are so use to the idea of the Reformation that we do not realize the boldness, courage and perseverance that it took for these men to proclaim their faith in Christ alone. They truly put their lives in God's hands.
And why?

David says in that Psalm, "Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.
Only here can any of us do anything for God. It must be for that single purpose that we find in God great Joy and great Delight. He is the purpose for living, and in Christ alone we find ALL that is necessary for life.

From Paris, Day 1, Peace to all