Are you a superstitious Calvinist?

Calvin uses an astonishing term to describe our neglect of the doctrine of God’s providence in the course of our daily lives: he calls it superstition.

Superstitious people mistakenly attribute supernatural powers to things that don’t really have them: black cat, broken mirror, down stairs, throwing salt on their shoulders, flipped slipper.

But what does superstition have to do with Providence?The classical reformed vision of Providence teaches that God has final control over everything in the universe.
Including the free choices and actions (good or bad) of all.
If this understanding is correct.
It is superstitious to think.
Feel.
And act as if other human beings have the ultimate causality in what they do.
We attribute god’s role to them.

But isn’t that how we think, feel and act many times, even we Calvinists?We live as if the people who hurt and hurt us are writing their own scripts to hurt us, rather than fulfilling God’s sovereign plan.

Seeing the evil fruit of superstition

In his Institutes of Christian religion, Calvin presents the evil fruit of our superstition:

I say that we feel a superstitious fear if, every time the creatures threaten us or instill another terror in us, we are afraid, as if they had the strength and power to harm themselves, or by chance they could hurt us and hurt us. , or if in God that help was not enough to defend us [1].

Our superstition makes us shy and fearful. At the beginning of my pastoral ministry, an influential woman in the congregation regularly criticized my preaching and leadership; even his informal statements were malicious attacks; he once praised one of my sermons and said it was much better than any mediocre sermon I had recently preached. .

Over time, I developed an irritable sensibility towards her, I realized that she was superstitious, I gave her a power that she doesn’t really have, I forgot God’s sovereignty over all the words she uttered and her purpose of doing something good in my life through I don’t need to be afraid of what she said, as Calvin says, “whether power, action or movement, are not erratic in creatures, but are governed by God’s secret purpose, with knowledge and will, decreed?[2] The fruit of my inability to live in the light of this knowledge was fear.

Symptoms of a superstitious Calvinist

Calvin’s use of the superstition category is not perfect. This can be misunderstood in the sense that men do not have a real capacity for action. But I think it’s a useful way to express a common problem. Many of us are superstitious Calvinists. We believe in God’s exhaustive and meticulous providence, but in our true daily experience we do not live by such conviction. Our superstition makes us:

1. People who avoid

Superstitious people avoid black cats, broken mirrors, stairs and Friday the 13th; Superstitious Calvinists avoid people who intimidate us with their words and actions.

2. People managers

Superstitious people take off their overturned slippers so that their mothers do not die; superstitious Calvinists try to manipulate people. We do what we think is necessary to make them happy with us, massage their egos or avoid saying difficult things. For what? Because we give them too much power.

3. People worshippers

The superstitious honor the stars, their lucky rabbit legs, the four-leaf clovers or the horseshoe on the door. The superstitious Calvinists give too much gratitude and credit to others (sometimes themselves) when things are going well, and they don’t give enough credit to God. .

The problem is that we are called to serve those same people for which we have superstitions, it is as if a superstitious man about broken mirrors is sent to work in a mirror factory, would it work?

Taste the good fruit of God’s Providence

Overcoming superstition through meditation on the truth of divine providence bears wonderful fruits. The Heidelberg Catechism asks the question (question 28): “What is the purpose of knowing God’s creation and providence?”And the answer is:

That we may be patient in all adversity and show gratitude in all prosperity and that, as for the future, we may have firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature can separate us from his love, for all creatures are in God. hands, so that without His will, they cannot act or move.

Believing in God’s providence makes us utterly grateful that everything that happens becomes a reason to give thanks. A few years ago, our family went swimming in the lake. We were all in a bad mood and low morale. When we stopped on a road- When it came to having a coffee, we discovered that a friend was standing in front of us in the queue. We surprised him by paying for his order and changed the mood of the family for the rest of the day.

Did God fix this situation? If I believed in anything other than the classical vision of divine providence, I would not be sure, she was there of her own free will. But by believing, like me, in God’s meticulous providence, I recognize that his presence there before us was a pure divine grace for people in a bad mood, so I thank them for that.

An example of Calvin defeating superstition

Believing in God’s providence also gives us strength and confidence in life and ministry. John Calvin not only wrote about the benefits of divine providence; he’s experienced it.

Calvin and his former friend Sebastián Castellio were embroiled in a serious theological dispute in the 16th century. In 1558, Calvin published his book The Secret Providence of God (his third reply to Castellio). In his open letter of reply to Calvin, Castellio, as usual, mocked him. He said Calvin’s books were “weak and ineffective?”because his reasoning was “dark and rude. “

He finished his letter with this pin: “I hope you don’t mind the considerations in this letter. If it’s fair and sincere, it won’t look unpleasant. First, it is an advantage for you that can be warned; second, if you understand (as you say) that everything happens out of necessity, do you also have to believe that I couldn’t have avoided writing this letter?

At the end of his response to Castellio, Calvin says

As for the tour you last did, which does not irritate your insults, since I think they were necessary, for me it is really a serious and effective exhortation to patience.

Calvin continues to recall the example of King David, who believed that God’s secret providence ruled the curses and insults of his enemy Simei and therefore did not personally take revenge on him. Calvin writes, “No one will ever endure the insults of the devil and the wicked in silent moderation, unless he draws his thoughts away from them and directs them only to God. “

Down with the superstition! As we develop a deeper appreciation of divine providence, I pray that we will experience the comforting, powerful, and liberating action of God’s paternal hand in every event of our lives.

[1] Institutes of Christian Religion. 1. XVI. 3. Editora UNESP, 2008. Volume 1. p. 187-88.

[2] Indem.

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