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Olasky: Calvin advocated a different understanding of government, politics, business, and economics.

Today, surrounded by a media cacophony we often repeat what we hear. But this country would be better if we paused to think about what is written: what is written in the Bible, what is written in our founding documents, and what is written by men who loved the Bible like Calvin.

Marvin Olasky

Olasky: Calvin had weaknesses that grew out of his strengths.

For example, Calvin could not stomach grand parties and rich clothes amidst poverty. He wanted people to spend more money on opening businesses rather than buying fancy clothes.

I think, however, that Calvin went too far on this point. He regulated compassion, which has the effect of causing resentment. We must aim at changing the consciences of the people more than at making laws.

Olasky: Calvin instructed all his followers to pay attention to the events around them.

The theater was not the monastery or the church building. The theater was all around.

Jesus told his disciples, "Look at the birds of the air."

Olasky: All honest labor, not just church work, is good. Self-flagellation is bad. We don't need to make life harder than it is.

Hard work is good. Interest-bearing loans that help people start businesses are good.

We should help the poor learn a trade. We should not aid people who are physically able but unwilling to work.

Olasky: Christians throughout Medieval times had heard that disciplines such as penance and self-flagellation were the way to get closer to God.

Calvin wrote that God didn't require this. He asked, "Why substitute unproductive and unnecessary hard practice for productive hard practice?" Why force men to perform unnecessary disciplines when God had called them to do hard things in their everyday lives?

In a commentary on Deuteronomy 24, Calvin wrote, "Any removal of work throws human life into ruin." Many people today retire while they are still healthy and realize the truthfulness of Calvin's quote.

Olasky: Calvin emphasized that all honest labor glorifies God. People who are engaged in ordinary life are not ordinary. Work itself is not part of the curse. No work done to God is secular.

Olasky: Work in politics and law can sometimes glorify God. Monarchies can, and probably will be, ungodly. With republics there is plenty of sin to go around as well, but they are probably going to be better.

Many Christians throughout Medieval times had learned that they shouldn't go to court at any time. The weak seldom had any redress against the powerful. Calvin wrote against this, as well as against authorities who used their positions to gain wealth or do as they pleased.

Many Christians in that time thought they shouldn't vote for their leaders. Calvin wrote otherwise after studying Deuteronomy and seeing that "Moses awaited the consent of the people and that nothing was attempted that was not pleasing to them all."

Many Christians thought it was unbiblical to rebel against those who presumably ruled by divine right. But Calvin wrote that magistrates "must not wink at kings who violently fall upon and assault a lowly folk."

Olasky: Many Christians throughout Medieval times had learned that working in a monestary was the best kind of work in the world.

But Calvin wrote, "No one ought to doubt that civil authority is a calling, not only holy and lawful before God, but also the most sacred, and by far the most honorable of all callings in the whole life of mortal men."

It's thinking like that that led many of the founders of the American Republic to enter politics.

Marvin Olasky: I grew up in a kind of dutyism that emphasized focusing on customs. I became an atheist and participated in anti-war demonstrations at the time. I cared about the poor in an abstract way.

I joined the Communist Party and learned Russian to communicate with my Russian big brothers. I eventually ran across a Russian New Testament.

What struck me as a writer was how Jesus resisted Satan's temptations in Matthew 4 by turning to what was written.

You can now listen to Doug Wilson's message or read the notes from the session.