John Calvin And The Protestant Reformation

John Calvin is considered one of the most important people in regards to the Protestant Reformation during the early-mid 1500’s. He was a pastor that took his job seriously and wanted to influence people to go beyond conformity and to try to grasp who God truly is, not just who others preached that He is. He encouraged thinking, not conformity. This new ideology, of course, brought about conflict between the widely prevalent Roman Catholicism of that day and Calvin’s personal conviction. The doctrinal differences mentioned in the prayers were part of that conflict. When examining three of these differences in doctrine, and how Calvin’s prayers from the Commentary on Hosea touch on the subject, one can clearly see how the prayers illustrate the conflict between Roman Catholicism and the Protestant Reformation that was beginning. The first one of these conflicts was the issue of sanctification. In his first prayer, John Calvin is heard pleading with God that grace will remain extended to him and other believers. He admits that there is sin and wrongdoings in each and every person’s lives and prays that the Lord will restore his heart to a holy and righteous state. This process of being continually renewed to a state of righteousness and pure heart is often referred to as sanctification. This was controversial at this time because of the new interpretation that Calvin had of scripture. Thus, sanctification was one of the things that Calvin and Roman Catholicism disagreed