Today is the 500th birthday of John Calvin, for the reminder of which I owe a hat-tip to Wheeler MacPherson.There is a website and blog devoted to the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth.
I have a few German ancestors, some of whom came as colonists to Virginia in the 1700s after having sojourned in Calvin's Geneva.
Through researching their lives I found out more about Calvin and the Geneva of his day, and its importance as a place of refuge for Protestants from France and elsehwere. This gave me a greater appreciation for the influence of John Calvin. However as you can see here, there is a modern liberal attempt to make Calvin the father of today's 'social justice, open borders' brand of Christianity.
Here's what some thinkers have said about Calvin and his influence:
“In Calvinism lies the origin and guarantee of our constitutional liberties.” -Groen van Prinsterer
“The fanatic for Calvinism was a fanatic for liberty, for in the moral warfare for freedom, his creed was a part of his
army, and his most faithful ally in the battle.” - George Bancroft
“Calvinism has been the chief source of republican government.” - Lorraine Boettner
“[Calvinists] are the true heroes of England. They founded England, in spite of the corruption of the Stuarts, by the exercise of duty, by the practice of justice, by obstinate toil, by vindication of right, by resistance to oppression, by the conquest of liberty, by the repression of vice. They founded Scotland; they founded the United States; at this day they are, by their descendants, founding Australia and colonizing the world.” - Hippolyte Taine
“John Calvin was the virtual founder of America.” - Leopold von Ranke
“He who will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty.” - George Bancroft, historian
“The Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster.” - George Bancroft
“The fanatic for Calvinism was a fanatic for liberty, for in the moral warfare for freedom, his creed was a part of his
army, and his most faithful ally in the battle.” - George Bancroft
“Calvinism has been the chief source of republican government.” - Lorraine Boettner
“[Calvinists] are the true heroes of England. They founded England, in spite of the corruption of the Stuarts, by the exercise of duty, by the practice of justice, by obstinate toil, by vindication of right, by resistance to oppression, by the conquest of liberty, by the repression of vice. They founded Scotland; they founded the United States; at this day they are, by their descendants, founding Australia and colonizing the world.” - Hippolyte Taine
“John Calvin was the virtual founder of America.” - Leopold von Ranke
“He who will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty.” - George Bancroft, historian
“The Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster.” - George Bancroft
