798. On the subject of Calvin, I heard the following. (1) When he first arrived in the spiritual world, he did not believe he was anywhere but still in the world in which he was born. Although the angels, who were at the beginning associated with him, told him that he was now in their world, and not in his previous one, he said: 'I have the same body, the same hands and similar senses.' The angels taught him that he now had a substantial body, and formerly he not only had the same one, but also a material body surrounding the substantial one. The material body had been cast aside, but the substantial one remained, and this is what makes a person a person. At first he understood this, but a day later he returned to his former belief, that he was still in the world where he was born. The reason was that he was a sensual man, one who believes nothing but what he derives from the things presented to the bodily senses. It was this that caused all the dogmas of his faith to be conclusions drawn from his own intelligence, and not from the Word. His use of quotations from the Word was merely to win the applause of the common people.
[2] (2) After this first period he left the angels and wandered about, enquiring where those were who from ancient times believed in predestination. He was told that they were a long way from where he was, hemmed in and covered over, with no means of access except through an underground passage at the back. The disciples of Gottschalk, however, still went about freely, meeting at times in a place called in the spiritual language Pyris. Since he was anxious for their company, he was taken to a group where some of them were standing. On coming among them he felt hearty pleasure and formed an inward friendship with them.
[3] (3) But after the followers of Gottschalk were taken away to join their brethren in the cave, he became bored. So he sought asylum in various places, being at length received in a certain community composed entirely of simple folk, including some in religious orders. When he observed that they neither knew anything nor were able to grasp anything about predestination, he took himself off to a corner of the community, and there for a long time he dropped out of sight and did not utter a word on any matter to do with the church. This was arranged so that he could retreat from his error about predestination, and so that the groups of those who had clung to that detestable heresy after the Synod of Dort should be completed. All of these were one after another banished to join their companions in the cave.
[4] (4) Finally the believers in predestination of the present time sought to find Calvin, and after a search he was discovered on the fringe of a community entirely composed of simple folk. So he was summoned from there and brought to a certain magistrate, who was obsessed by similar rubbish. Accordingly he received him into his house and looked after him, and continued to do so until the new heaven began to be founded by the Lord. Then, since the magistrate who was looking after him together with his hangers-on was thrown out, Calvin took himself off to a brothel, and stayed there for some time.
[5] (5) At that time he enjoyed the freedom to wander about, and also of coming close to the place where I was staying. So I was allowed to talk with him, and I began by speaking of the new heaven which is at the present time being established from those who acknowledge the Lord alone as the God of heaven and earth, as He Himself says in Matthew 28:18. I told him that these people believe that He and the Father are one (John 10:30), and that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, and that anyone who sees and gets to know Him sees and gets to know the Father (John 14:6-11). There is thus one God in the church as there is in heaven.
[6] (6) When I said this he at first kept quiet as usual; but after half an hour he broke his silence and said, 'Was not Christ a man, the son of Mary, Joseph's wife? How can a man be worshipped as God?' 'Is not Jesus Christ,' I said, 'our Redeemer and Saviour, God and man?'
To this he answered: 'He is God and man, yet the divinity is not his but the Father's.'
'Where is Christ then?' I asked. 'He is at the lowest level of heaven,' he said, and offered as proof His humiliation before the Father, and His allowing Himself to be crucified. He added some sharp criticisms of Christ's worship, which at that time crept into his memory from the world. These were in brief that His worship was nothing but idolatry, and he wanted to add some unspeakable remarks about that worship; but the angels with me sealed his lips.
[7] However, I was anxious to convert him, and said that the Lord our Saviour is not only God and man, but also in Him God is man and man is God. I supported this with Paul's remark that in Him all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9) and John's that He is the true God and everlasting life (John 5:20). I also quoted the words of the Lord Himself, that it is the Father's will that everyone who believes in the Son should have everlasting life, and that anyone who does not believe will not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him (John 3:36; 6:40). Moreover, I said that the Creed called Athanasian lays down that in Christ God and man are not two, but one, and that they are in one person, like soul and body in man.
[8] On hearing this he replied: 'What are all these passages you have quoted from the Word but empty sayings? Is not the Word the book for all heresies? It is like a weathervane on roofs or on ships, which rotates in different directions depending how the wind blows. Predestination is the only true conclusion to be drawn from all religion. It is the dwelling and meeting-tent for everything to do with religion. Faith, the means to justification and salvation, serves there as shrine and sanctuary. Surely no one has free will in spiritual matters; is not everything to do with salvation a free gift? Arguments against these views and so against predestination are to my ears and perception like belches and belly rumbling. This being so, I have thought to myself that a church building where teaching is given on any matter, including from the Word, and the congregation gathered there, is like a zoo, containing sheep together with wolves. But the wolves have muzzles on them in the form of the code of civil law to stop them from falling upon the sheep (by whom I mean those who are predestined). The eloquent preaching heard there is no more than sobs heaved from the breast. But I will give you my confession of faith; it is this. There is a God, and He is omnipotent. None are saved but those who are chosen and predestined by God the Father. Everyone else has his lot, that is, his fate, assigned to him.'
[9] I was so angry on hearing this that I replied: 'What you say is wicked; evil spirit, away with you. Being in the spiritual world, do you not know that there is a heaven and a hell, and that predestination implies that some people are assigned to heaven and some to hell? In this way you cannot form any other idea of God than of a tyrant, who admits his supporters into the city and sends the rest to be slaughtered. You should be ashamed of yourself.'
[10] Afterwards I read out in his presence what is said in the Evangelicals' manual called the Formula of Concord about the erroneous doctrine of the Calvinists, on the subject of the worship of the Lord and predestination. On the worship of the Lord it says:
It is damnable idolatry if trust and heart-felt faith are placed in Christ not only in accordance with His Divine nature, but also in accordance with His human nature, and the honour of worship is directed to both natures.
On predestination it says:
Christ died not for all mankind, but only for the chosen. God created the majority of people for everlasting damnation, and does not wish the majority to be converted and live. The chosen and regenerate cannot lose faith and the Holy Spirit, even if they commit great sins and crimes of every kind. Those, however, who are not chosen are inevitably damned, and cannot attain to salvation, even if they were baptised a thousand times and attended the Eucharist daily, and in addition led the holiest and most blameless life that could ever be. (pp. 837-838 of the Leipzig edition of 1756).
After reading this I asked him whether what is written in that book was derived from his teaching or not. He replied that it was, but he could not remember whether the actual wording was from his pen, though it certainly came from his mouth.
[11] On hearing this all the servants of the Lord left him, and he hurried off along a road leading to a cave, where those convinced of the vile dogma of predestination live. Later I talked with some of those imprisoned in that cave and asked about their fate. They said that they were compelled to work for a living; they were all on bad terms with one another, and each looked for a pretext to do another harm, and they actually did so if they were given the slightest pretext. This is the pleasure of their life. (See further on predestination and its supporters what I have written above, 485-488).
