Mass in John Calvin’s Church
We are sorry to hear that the blasphemous Roman mass is due to be celebrated for the first time since the Reformation in the same church in Geneva where
John Calvin was minister. Providentially, this God-dishonouring event was cancelled because of the Coronavirus outbreak, after being originally scheduled to take place at the end of February. It has been postponed until 30 May 2020 but we hope it will be cancelled permanently. Out of keeping with Rome’s usual position on communion with members of other faiths, the local (Protestant) congregational authorities have assured Protestants that they will be welcome to participate in the “sacrament”.
Responding to protests against the mass, Dr Daniel Pilly, President of the Parish Council of St Pierre in Geneva, said that Geneva had rejected “the verbal excesses of Calvin and other Reformers about Roman Catholicism”. There is no doubt that Calvin and the other Reformers consistently denounced the soul-destroying doctrines and practices of the Roman Church in exceptionally vehement and vigorous terms. The real reasons why they used such language do not seem to be appreciated by many professed Protestants in Europe today who, thankfully, are not faced with the full onslaught of the persecuting power of Papal Rome as the original Protestants were. We agree with Calvin over against the compromising spirit of modern Protestantism regarding the true nature of Romanism and wholeheartedly agree with his remarks on 2 Thessalonians 2:11:
“For as God enlightens us inwardly by His Spirit, that His doctrine may be efficacious in us, and opens our eyes and hearts, that it may make its way thither, so by a righteous judgement He delivers over to a reprobate mind (Rom 1:28) those whom He has appointed to destruction, that with closed eyes and a senseless mind, they may, as if bewitched, deliver themselves over to Satan and his ministers to be deceived. And assuredly we have a notable specimen of this in the Papacy. No words can express how monstrous a sink of errors there is there, how gross and shameful an absurdity of superstitions there is, and what delusions at variance with common sense. None that have even a moderate taste of sound doctrine, can think of such monstrous things without the greatest horror.”
AWM