Warfield On An Overlooked Aspect of Calvin's Doctrine of God

In his essay “Calvin’s Doctrine of God” written for the Princeton Theological Review (vii, 1909) on pages 174-175, B. B. Warfield considers John Calvin’s stress upon the Fatherhood of God. Warfield’s important, but often overlooked, point about Calvin’s emphasis on divine Fatherhood, is taken from The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, Calvin and Calvinism (Baker, Reprint ed., 1981),Vol. 5 133-185. The essay can be found in its entirety here: Calvin’s Doctrine of God.

Warfield summarizes Calvin’s comments from the opening section of The Institutes, in which Calvin speaks of the knowledge of God and that God is the source of all good.

And then [Calvin] proceeds (Institutes I. ii. 2) to expound at length how the knowledge of God should first inspire us with fear and reverence and then lead us to look to Him for good. The first thought of Him awakes us to our dependence on Him as our Lord: any clear view of Him begets in us a sense of Him as the fountain and origin of all that is good—such as in anyone not depraved by sin must inevitably arouse a desire to adhere to Him and put his trust (fiducia) in Him—because he must recognize in Him a guardian and protector worthy of complete confidence (fides).

Warfield then quotes Calvin at length from the opening section of the Institutes (I. ii. 2),

“Because he perceives Him to be the author of all good, in trial or in need,” he proceeds, still expounding the state of mind of the truly pious man, “he at once commits himself to His protection, expectant of His help; because he is convinced that He is good and merciful, he rests on Him in assured trust (fiducia), never doubting that a remedy is prepared in His clemency for all his ills; because he recognizes Him as Lord and Father, he is sure that he ought to regard His government in all things, revere His majesty, seek His glory, and obey His behests; because he perceives Him to be a just judge, armed with severity for punishing iniquities, he keeps His tribunal always in view, and in fear restrains and checks himself from provoking His wrath. And yet, he is not so terrified by the sense of His justice, that he wishes to escape from it, even if flight were possible: rather he embraces Him not less as the avenger of the wicked than as the benefactor of the pious, since he perceives it to belong to His glory not less that there should be meted out by Him punishment to the impious and iniquitous, than the reward of eternal life to the righteous. Moreover, he restrains himself from sinning not merely from fear of punishment, but because he loves and reverences God as a father and honors and worships Him as Lord, and even though there were no hell he would quake to offend Him.” ( 174-175).

Warfield explains why this so is important in understanding Calvin’s doctrine of God.

We have quoted this eloquent passage at length because it throws into prominence, as few others do, Calvin’s deep sense not merely of reverence but of love towards God. To him true religion always involves the recognition of God not only as Lord but also as Father. And this double conception of God is present whether this religion be conceived as natural or as revealed. “The knowledge of God,” says he (Institutes I. x. 2), “which is proposed to us in the Scriptures is directed to no other end than that which is manifested to us in the creation: to wit, it invites us first to the fear of God, then to trust in Him; so that we may learn both to serve Him in perfect innocence of life and sincere obedience, and as well to rest wholly in His goodness.” (175)

Warfield’s conclusion is well-worth noting, especially in a context such as ours in which Calvin’s doctrine of God supposedly defaults to divine sovereignty.

That is, in a word, the sense of the divine Fatherhood is as fundamental to Calvin’s conception of God as the sense of His sovereignty.

This, says Warfield, is why Calvin regards idolatry as so pernicious and dangerous to the soul—it displaces the sense of God’s fatherly love in the human heart.

It was precisely because Calvin conceived of God not only as Lord, but also as Father, and gave Him not merely his obedience but his love, that he burned with such jealousy for His honor. Everything that tended to rob God of the honor due Him was accordingly peculiarly abhorrent to him. We cannot feel surprised, therefore, that he devotes so large a portion of his discussion of the doctrine of God to repelling that invasion of the divine rights which was wrought by giving the worship due to Him alone to others, and particularly to idols, the work of man’s own hand. His soul filled with the vision of the majesty of a God who will not give His glory to another, and his heart aflame with a sense of the Fatherly love he was receiving from this great God, the Lord of heaven and earth, he turned with passionate hatred from the idolatrous rites into which the worship of the old Church had so largely degenerated, and felt nothing so pressingly his duty as to trace out the fallacies in the subtle pleas by which men sought to justify them to themselves, and so far as lay within him to rescue those who looked to him for guidance from such dreadful profanation of the divine majesty. (176)

We are not treating Calvin fairly or accurately, says Warfield, if we speak of the Reformer’s stress upon God’s sovereignty without, at the same time, acknowledging God’s Fatherhood and goodness.