Gordon Clark: Calvinistic Ethics (Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics)

1973. In Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics. Carl F.H. Henry, ed. Washington D.C.: Canon Press. [Reprinted in 1988 by Baker Book House.] Calvinistic Ethics

CALVINISTIC ETHICS. Calvinistic ethics depends on revelation. The distinction between right and wrong is not identified by empirical discovery of natural law, as with Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, nor by the logical formalism of Kant, and certainly not by Utilitarianism's impossible calculation of the greatest good for the greatest number, but by God's revelation of the Ten Commandments. This revelation came: first in God's act of creating man in his own image so that certain basic moral principles were implanted in his heart, later to be vitiated by sin; second there were some special instructions given to Adam and Noah, which no doubt overlapped and expanded the innate endowment; third, the more comprehensive revelation to Moses; plus, fourth, the various subsidiary precepts in the remainder of the Bible.

Although the medieval church knew the Ten Commandments - in his defense of free will Pelagius even taught that it was possible to obey them perfectly, and the main body of the church came to hold that their observance earned merit toward salvation - Calvin initiated an almost completely new development in systematically using the Ten Commandment as the basis for ethics. In his Institutes II 8, he gives an Exposition of the Moral Law, approximately fifty pages.

His defense of such a long exposition is that

"the commands and prohibitions always imply more than the words express... In all the commandments... a part is expressed instead of the whole... The best rule, then, I conceive will be that the exposition be directed to the design of the precept... as the end of the fifth commandment is, that honor may be given to them to whom God assigns it..." (II.viii.8)

In the main body of the exposition Calvin writes as follows on the sixth commandment.

The end of this precept is that since God has connected mankind together in a kind of unity, every man ought to consider himself as charged with the safety of all. In short, then, all violence and injustice, and every kind of mischief, which may injure the body of our neighbor, are forbidden to us...the Divine Legislator... intends this rule to govern the soul... Mental homicide is likewise prohibited... 'Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer'" (II. viii. 39)

Following this lead of Calvin the Westminster divines devoted questions 91-151 of the Larger Catechism to the moral law. Take question 139 as an example:

Q. 139. What are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment? 

A. The sins forbidden in the seventh commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are: adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts; all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections; all corrupt or filthy communications, or listening thereunto; wanton looks, impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel, prohibiting of lawful, and dispensing with unlawful marriages; allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews, and resorting to them; entangling vows of single life, undue delay of marriage; having more wives or husbands than one at the same time; unjust divorce or desertion; idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company; lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage-plays; and all other provocations to, or acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others.

This highlights the difference in moral standards between Calvinism and Fundamentalism. In the USA Arminian churches have often required their members to avoid the movies on the ground that Hollywood was lascivious. At present (1973) the movies are sometimes worse than that: outright pornographic. But then, some books and magazines are pornographic. Should a church then forbid all books and magazines? Calvinism stays with the Bible and outlaws neither the movies nor books in general; but prohibits "lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, and stage-plays."

Further reading of the Larder Confession will show, to the surprise of some, how very simple and detailed the law of God actually is. Therefore Calvinistic ministers and writers have with some regularity expounded the Ten Commandments. An Anglican Example is Ezekiel Hopkins, Bishop of Derry (1633-1689), who exposition occupies 300 pages.

These expositions of the detailed application of the moral law are uniformly prefaced by some remarks on sin, grace, and legalism. The Romish merit system made this necessary. Today two other views necessitate the same theological background. First there is a pietistic view that depends for guidance on the direct instructions of the Spirit. The Scriptural directives are regarded as insufficient, or even as inapplicable in the age of grace. Therefore a person must receive an answer to prayer in order to know whether a particular action is right or wrong. Calvinism stays with the Bible and disallows later claims to special revelation.

The second factor that necessitates the theological background is liberalism's novel definition of legalism (q.v.). Legalism used to be the theory that man could completely or partially merit salvation by obeying the law; faith was then not the sole means of justification. But contemporary liberalism defines legalism as any attempt to distinguish right from wrong by rules, precepts, or commandments. The argument is that no rule fits every case - there are exceptions; or even that every situation is utterly unique so that rules are always impossible. Therefore each situation must be uniquely (not judged, but) perceived, and (usually) love decides what to do. Love then, of course, sanctions abortion, homosexuality, and anything one does lovingly. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians about this sort of thing.

Calvinism defines sin as any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God. Saved by grace, that is, saved from sin and its effects, the Christian is sanctified by an every more complete obedience to the Ten Commandments.

Gordon H. Clark, A Christian View of Men and Things, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1952; _______, Religion, Reason, and Revelation, Nutley, New Jersey, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1961.

Gordon H. Clark