father, however, can refuse her suitor while yet keeping the dowry.
Not only do these details instruct a society on how to deter carefree seductions and abandonments, but they also mobilize a concerned father to bring about the best results for his daughter from a potentially ruinous situation.
We could ask more about other matters that confront us everyday: What should be the criteria of electing civil rulers? Are candidates’ religious convictions relevant? What should be our attitude toward policies that debase our money? Those who have retired, who have saved money for this stage in their life, find their money worth less through no fault of their own. Are they justified for resenting such economic policies? And what of civil rulers, whose duty it is to protect the innocent and deter crime? The general dictum, “Rulers should be just,” offers little help to them. How do they deter dog attacks, car theft, rape, or false accusations? What should they do, if anything, with criminals who seek asylum in churches? What should be done to those who carelessly start a fire that destroys another’s property? Is any penalty permissible to captured terrorists? Those charged with protecting citizens want more direction than “the punishment must fit the crime.” Will not he deserve punishment who limits counsel to such vagueness!
Generalities give the parent, the voter, the retired, and the magistrate little direction for the issues of life, and therefore little propulsion for action. Bahnsen said it well: “Even today, when God’s people get embroiled in moral dilemmas, they desire more inspired law (guidance), not less. It is surely no blessing to be left only with broad generalities: e.g., see how many people are blessed and happy by trying to play a basketball game under the single rule of ‘Play fair’!”137 God indeed gave through Moses many detailed instructions “for our good” (Deut 6:24; cf. 10:13).138
On the other hand, the unauthoritative specifics of Natural Law conduces uncertainty. Just any philosophy supplying specifics will not do. For even when its conclusions are true (e.g., that abortions are immoral), our consciences have little peace until we know God approves. Calvin put it this way, “men’s consciences shall by no other means be quiet, that they safely do that which they do, than when being taught by the Word of God, they determine that they do nothing without his commandment and conduct.”139 To God we admit: “Great peace have those who love Your law” (Ps 119:165).
In conclusion, this book benefits the reader by supplying ethical specifics, mobilizing us from idleness caused by ignorance; and by supplying the Lord’s specifics, driving away uncertainty and giving peace to our troubled souls. A third benefit, as said previously, is it provides an expedited ethics education. For since God’s Law covers the whole of righteous ethics, and since the Mosaic Law is the most detailed and concentrated formulation of God’s Law, and since Calvin (one of the best theologians God has ever given his church) has beneficially organized the Mosaic Law, this summary of Calvin gives moral instructions on the whole of our duty. Indeed, “it is an inestimable benefit when God shows us His will,”140 but as God’s will is meaty, this book, in a way, “cuts up the meat” for Christ’s little ones.
The Reformed faith is renowned for its moral concerns: “From [Calvin’s] time to the present Calvinism has meant a peculiar seriousness about Christianity and its ethical implications.”141 As loyal subjects of the King, we wish to see his rule duly recognized over all the earth. But let us not entertain the foolish thought that this can come without knowledge of God’s Law. As the King informs us, his kingdom will not come apart from his will being done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10). “So then do not be foolish,” dear reader, but read on to “understand what the will of the Lord is” (Eph 5:17, NASB). A confused and broken world awaits divine direction.
GOD’S WILL BE DONE
1. Gary North, Publisher’s Preface to Covenant Enforced, xi.
2. Calvin, Institutes, 2.8.5.
3. Calvin, Institutes, 2.8.4.
4. Fisher, History, 329.
5. In addition to Fisher’s book, see: Douglas F. Kelly, The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World: The Influence of Calvin on Five Governments from the 16th Through 18th Centuries (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 1992); Nathaniel S. McFetridge, Calvinism in History: A Political, Moral and Evangelizing Force (Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1882; reprint, Birmingham, AL: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2004); A. Mervyn Davies, Foundation of American Freedom (New York: Abingdon, 1955); Rev. W.P. Breed, D.D., Presbyterians and the Revolution (Trustees of the Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1876; new ed., Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 2008).
6. Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. “Calvin and Calvinism,” 15:450.
7. Ryrie, Dispensationalism, 57.
8. Meacham, “End of Christian America.”
9. God reveals his will through his Word, even that portion written by Moses. David and Paul clearly equate the Law with God’s will (Ps 40:8; Rom 2:18). Though God has a secret will whereby he providentially causes all things (Eph 1:11), he also has a revealed will that he expects us to follow: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut 29:29). Here Moses equates God’s Law to his revealed will—the revelation of his moral will for our lives. Calvin did the same: “it is the perfection of a good and holy life, when we live in obedience to his will. . . . that will which is made known in the Law” (Commentaries, Heb 13:21). Elsewhere God’s will is equated with Paul’s commandments (1 Thess 4:2–3) and with good works (Col 1:9–10; Heb 13:21), and contrasted with fleshly and lustful living (1 Pet 4:2; 1 John 2:17).
10. Calvin, Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses.
11. Though Calvin does not include General Principle headers in his commentaries, they have been added to assist the reader.
12. Calvin, Institutes, 2.8.10.
13. Calvin, Commentaries, Exod 20:13; Deut 5:17.
14. Calvin, Institutes, 2.8.9.
15. Calvin, Institutes, 4.8.6.
16. Calvin, Commentaries, 2 Tim 3:17.
17. Calvin, “Preface of John Calvin to the Four Last Books of Moses,” xvii.
18. God’s Law includes all of God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation. “The Law” sometimes refers to the five books of Moses (Matt 5:17; Luke 16:16; 24:44; Rom 3:21b), sometimes to
