"Graveyards are full of indispensable men." – Charles DeGaulle

Wilson: May God have mercy on us and give us only what he can give. He did this for Calvin, and 500 years later we are still talking about it.

He was a real man made out of real clay. But he had a real heart and held a real Bible in his hand.

He had what we should call a real ministry.

Wilson: We come to declare that all men need to repent and believe. The kingdom of God is here.

We declare what has been accomplished, not what we would like to be accomplished.

We are ordained to feed the sheep and drive away the wolves.

And if needs be, we have been ordained to preach the word as if we were thunder and lightning. How can we not? The Scriptures are thunder and lightning.

Wilson: We are not sent to make a few mild suggestions. We are not sent to have a relational dialogue.

We are sent to preach and to declare.

We are commissioned—ordained—to compel every manifestation of worldly power, glory, wisdom, and exaltation to yield to and obey God's word.

Wilson: Why does the world not believe? When was the last time we commanded it to?

When was the last time we spoke with authority and not like the scribes?

Wilson: Why did Calvin make such a big dent in the world? He had God's Word in his hand and he believed God.

Wilson: What have we learned? Calvin understood what the Scriptures were like and what they are to do.

Scripture is the script of the created theater of God's world. We are not to be extemporaneous actors who try to learn our own lines.

God has given us our lines in his word, and we ought to heed to them.

Doug Wilson

Calvin is not embracing a blind-leap fideism. He says that to refute the cavils from the Enlightenment is possible.

But he's not after proving Scripture to reason. He's interested in dethroning reason from making itself the standard.

Signing Wilson's message

"Scripture is self-authenticating. Hence it is not right to subject it to proof and reasoning." - Calvin

Wilson: We have fallen for the trap of thinking that the Bible should have to stand up against the standards of Enlightenment ideals, when it's the Bible is the one who should be setting the standards.

The Scriptures are God's scales in which he weighs the whole world.

We aren't writing on the walls of the banquet halls of heaven. He is the one speaking to us.

Wilson: A minister is not up there to develop a relationship with everybody individually. He is not the Holy Spirit.

He is there to declare something that is outside of his control. He's not there to preach himself but Christ.

Pulpit ministry has to be grounded in the Scriptures, exposition.The minister should not deviate from what is assigned him. One of the things my father taught me about preaching was, "When you run out of things to say, go on to the next verse."

Calvin's view of preaching is extraordinarily high. He says that it is the place in which we meet with God. He did not hold that sermons were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The university is a Christian concept and depends upon Christian categories to function. Where does the "uni-" come from? It comes from Colossians 1 where Christ is said to tie all things together in himself. You can't have unity without the Son.

Calvin was an integrated thinker, yet we don't like to function in integration. We have multiversities. We like to shatter the world. We've created "traverversities."

We don't start with an a priori God. We start with a God who stoops to reveal himself. A God who lisps, Calvin said, to reveal himself to us.

Calvin understood and articulatd the greatness and sovereignty of God, but he did it in biblical categories. He wasn't a raw determinist.

Doug Wilson: We should begin with a sentiment that I know the other speakers and you share as well: our business here is to glorify God not Calvin. To glorify Calvin instead of God would be the biggest way to insult Calvin.

Doug Wilson and Scott Anderson