John Calvin: Model Christian City

534 Words3 Pages

As Calvin continued to preach on salvation by grace through faith he also was working on implementing this into the government system and reforming the church even further. Calvin was invited to Geneva to work with the government and reform the city. He strived to create a city that was a reflection of Christian principles hoping it to be a “model Christian city”. He didn’t want just the government to be built upon these principles he wanted to get into the everyday lives of the people and make sure social aspects were built upon God’s authority. This was implemented by having elders of the church also be magistrates in the city. Calvin wanted the city and church to be separate but interlocking, influencing each other to create a city under the authority of God. Again, …show more content…

God demands a clean heart when worshipping and to worship him in awe of who He is. This can’t be done if God isn’t worshiped day by day. The priests and Catholic church authorities may have spent all their time in the church and working in its offices, but their hearts were not in the right place. They were full of deceit and selfishness. This was also hindering their worship for, “it is hard for a proud, unconcerned church to function as a spiritual, mature and worshipful church.” Since the spiritual leaders of the church didn’t even have their hearts in the right place it was impossible for the congregation to be led in real authentic worship. Almost every aspect of the roman church was flawed in accordance to the word of God and Calvin took notice of this. He radically took apart the Catholic churches’ services and regular practices. Anything that did not line up with the word of God was removed from the church. Only songs that were based on scripture were allowed for