1.Kutoka Kitabu cha Mwongozo hadi Toleo la Mwisho: 1536 na 15591.From Handbook to Final Edition: 1536 and 1559

Mnamo Machi 1536, mkimbizi Mfaransa wa miaka ishirini na sita alichapisha huko Basel kitabu kidogo cha Kilatini chenye sura sita: juu ya sheria, imani ya mitume, Sala ya Bwana, sakramenti, sakramenti za uongo, na uhuru wa Mkristo. Calvin alikuwa ameondoka Ufaransa kadiri mateso dhidi ya waumini wa kiinjili yalipozidi kuwa makali, naye aliandika dibaji yake kwa Mfalme Francis wa Kwanza, akiwatetea watu ambao maafisa wa mfalme waliwaita waasi. Majira hayo ya joto, alipokuwa akipita Geneva, Calvin alisimamishwa na mhubiri William Farel, aliyemwonya kwamba Mungu angeyalaani masomo yake ya utulivu kama angekataa kusaidia kulifanyia mji huo matengenezo. Calvin alibaki, akafukuzwa mwaka 1538, akachunga wakimbizi Wafaransa huko Strasbourg pamoja na Martin Bucer, na akarudi Geneva mwaka 1541 kwa maisha yake yaliyobaki. Muda wote huo Taasisi ilikua. Toleo la mwisho la Kilatini la 1559 lilikuwa na vitabu vinne na sura themanini, zilizopangwa kwa kufuata mtindo wa Imani ya Mitume: Mungu Muumba, Mungu Mkombozi katika Kristo, njia tunayopokea neema ya Kristo, na kanisa. Calvin alisema hakuridhika hadi kazi hiyo ilipofikia mpangilio huu. Hata hivyo mada ya mwanzo ya 1536 ilibaki katika marekebisho yote, na somo letu linaanzia hapo.In March 1536 a twenty-six-year-old French exile published at Basel a small Latin book in six chapters: on the law, the creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the sacraments, the false sacraments, and Christian liberty. Calvin had left France as persecution of evangelical believers grew fierce, and he addressed his preface to King Francis I, defending people the king’s officials branded as rebels. That summer, passing through Geneva, Calvin was stopped by the preacher William Farel, who warned that God would curse his quiet studies if he refused to help reform the city. Calvin stayed, was expelled in 1538, pastored French refugees in Strasbourg beside Martin Bucer, and returned to Geneva in 1541 for the rest of his life. All the while the Institutes grew. The final Latin edition of 1559 had four books and eighty chapters, arranged roughly on the pattern of the Apostles’ Creed: God the Creator, God the Redeemer in Christ, the way we receive Christ’s grace, and the church. Calvin said he was never satisfied until the work stood in this order. Yet the opening theme of 1536 survived every revision, and our reading begins there.

2.Aina Mbili za Kujua (Sura ya I)2.Two Kinds of Knowing (Chapter I)

Sentensi ya kwanza ya Calvin ni mojawapo ya zinazonukuliwa zaidi katika theolojia ya Kikristo: “Hekima ya kweli na thabiti hasa ina sehemu mbili, kumjua Mungu, na kujijua sisi wenyewe.” Mambo hayo mawili yameshikamana kiasi kwamba ni vigumu kusema lipi huja kwanza. Hakuna awezaye kujitazama kwa unyofu bila kusukumwa kwa Mungu, kwa kuwa vipawa vyetu si vyetu wenyewe, na “kuwapo kwetu kwenyewe si chochote ila kutegemea Mungu peke yake.” Hata hivyo hakuna anayejijua kweli mpaka amemtazama Mungu. Tukijilinganisha na wenye dhambi wengine, tunajiona wema kiasi, kama jicho lililozoea weusi linavyochukua kitu cha kahawia kuwa cheupe. Mfano wa Calvin hautasahaulika. Adhuhuri macho yetu huonekana makali tukiwa tunatazama ardhini, lakini tunapotazama jua moja kwa moja, kuona kwetu “ni giza lenyewe.” Ndivyo ilivyo tunapoinua mawazo yetu kwa utakatifu wa Mungu. Ndiyo maana Abrahamu alijiita “mavumbi na majivu,” na Eliya alifunika uso wake. Calvin haanzi kwa uthibitisho wa kidhahania. Anaanza na moyo wa mwanadamu mbele ya Mungu, ulionyenyekea na unaotafuta.Calvin’s first sentence is among the most quoted in Christian theology: “True and substantial wisdom principally consists of two parts, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of ourselves.” The two are so tightly bound that it is hard to say which comes first. No one can look honestly at himself without being driven to God, for our gifts are not our own, and our “very existence is nothing but a subsistence in God alone.” Yet no one truly knows himself until he has looked at God. Comparing ourselves with other sinners, we think ourselves fairly good, as an eye used to black takes a brownish thing for white. Calvin’s illustration is unforgettable. At noon our eyes seem sharp while we look at the ground, but when we look straight at the sun, our sight “is dimness itself.” So it is when we lift our thoughts to God’s holiness. That is why Abraham called himself “dust and ashes,” and Elijah covered his face. Calvin does not begin with abstract proofs. He begins with a human heart before God, humbled and seeking.

3.Utauwa Hutangulia Uvumi (Sura ya II)3.Piety Comes Before Speculation (Chapter II)

Kwa kumjua Mungu, Calvin hamaanishi kujua tu kwamba Mungu yuko. Hakuna maarifa ya kweli ya Mungu, anasisitiza, “mahali ambapo hakuna dini wala utauwa.” Kisha inakuja ufafanuzi ambao ukawa kauli mbiu ya mapokeo ya Kireformed: “Kwa utauwa, namaanisha heshima na upendo kwa Mungu, vinavyotokana na kujua fadhili zake.” Lazima tumjue Mungu kuwa “chemchemi ya kila jema,” na tusitafute kitu chochote pasipo yeye. Calvin pia analeta tofauti inayounda Taasisi nzima: Mungu anajulikana kwanza kama Muumba, kisha kama Mkombozi katika Kristo Mpatanishi. Kitabu cha I kinashughulikia la kwanza; Kitabu cha II la pili. Hana subira na uvumi “baridi na wa kipuuzi,” kama mungu wa Epikuro anayekaa bure mbinguni. Kuna faida gani ya Mungu “ambaye hatuhusiani naye”? Mtu mcha Mungu humtumaini Mungu kama Mlinzi, humwogopa kama Hakimu na kumpenda kama Baba. Mtu kama huyo, “hata kama hapangekuwa na jehanamu, angetetemeka kwa wazo la kumkosea.” Dini ya kweli ni imani iliyoungana na hofu ya heshima, inayozaa ibada inayofuata sheria ya Mungu, si taratibu zisizo na moyo.By the knowledge of God, Calvin does not mean merely knowing that God exists. There is no true knowledge of God, he insists, “where there is no religion or piety.” Then comes a definition that became a watchword of the Reformed tradition: “By piety, I mean a reverence and love of God, arising from a knowledge of his benefits.” We must know God as “the fountain of all good” and seek nothing apart from Him. Calvin also introduces a distinction that shapes the whole Institutes: God is known first as Creator, and then as Redeemer in Christ the Mediator. Book I treats the first; Book II the second. He has no patience with “cold and frivolous” speculation, like the god of Epicurus who sits idle in heaven. What use is a God “with whom we have no concern”? The pious person trusts God as Guardian, fears Him as Judge and loves Him as Father. Such a person, “even though there were no hell, would shudder at the thought of offending him.” True religion is faith joined with reverent fear, producing worship that follows God’s law, not ceremony without a heart.

4.Hisia ya Mungu Katika Kila Moyo (Sura ya III)4.A Sense of God in Every Heart (Chapter III)

Calvin anaweka kisha msingi “usiopingika”: akili ya mwanadamu ina, “kwa silika ya asili,” hisia fulani ya Mungu. Msemo wake wa Kilatini, divinitatis sensus, hisia ya Uungu, bado unajadiliwa na wanafalsafa wa dini. Anamnukuu msemaji Mrumi Cicero: hakuna taifa lililo la kishenzi kiasi cha kutokuwa na imani ya mungu. Hata ibada ya sanamu inathibitisha jambo hilo, kwa sababu watu wangependelea kuinama kwa mti na jiwe kuliko kukosa mungu kabisa. Calvin anakataa dai kwamba dini ilibuniwa na watawala wajanja kuwaweka watu wengi watiifu; watawala wangeweza kuitumia dini kwa sababu mbegu ilikuwapo tayari. Hata wanaodhihaki hukiri kwa vitendo. Mfalme Caligula alidharau miungu lakini alitetemeka kwa ishara za ghadhabu ya Mungu, na wadhihaki wajasiri zaidi “wanashtuka, hata kwa sauti ya jani linaloanguka.” Wazo la Mungu “halipotei kamwe katika akili ya mwanadamu.” Halijifunzwi kwanza shuleni; “kila mtu tangu kuzaliwa kwake amejifundisha mwenyewe.” Na kwa kuwa tuliumbwa kumjua Mungu, wote wasioishi kwa kusudi hilo wameanguka kutoka katika “sheria ya uumbaji wao.”Calvin next lays down a principle “not to be controverted”: the human mind has, “by natural instinct,” some sense of God. His Latin phrase, divinitatis sensus, a sense of divinity, is still discussed by philosophers of religion. He cites the Roman orator Cicero: no nation is so barbarous that it has no belief in a god. Even idolatry proves the point, because people would rather bow to wood and stone than have no god at all. Calvin rejects the claim that religion was invented by clever rulers to keep the masses obedient; rulers could exploit religion only because the seed was already there. Even scoffers betray it. The emperor Caligula despised the gods yet trembled at signs of divine anger, and the boldest mockers are “alarmed, even at the noise of a falling leaf.” The idea of God “is never lost in the human mind.” It is not first learned in school; “every man from his birth is self-taught.” And since we were made to know God, all who do not live to that end have fallen from “the law of their creation.”

5.Mbegu Zisizoiva (Sura ya IV)5.Seeds That Do Not Ripen (Chapter IV)

Ikiwa mbegu ya dini iko kila mahali, kwa nini dini ya kweli ni nadra hivyo? Calvin anajibu waziwazi: “hatumpati mmoja kati ya mia” anayethamini kile Mungu alichopanda. Wengine huanguka katika ushirikina kwa ujinga, wengine hugeuka kwa makusudi, lakini ujinga si kisingizio, kwa sababu daima unaambatana na kiburi. Badala ya kumpokea Mungu kama anavyojifunua, watu humuumba kwa mawazo yao wenyewe na kuabudu “kubuni kwa akili zao wenyewe.” Calvin anataja makosa manne. Wengine humkana Mungu kwa vitendo, wakimtendea kama “mvivu mbinguni” asiyehukumu kamwe. Wengine hukubali ibada yoyote inayoonekana ya unyofu, ingawa Mungu si “mzimu wala kivuli” cha kubadilishwa na mawazo ya kila mtu. Wengine humkaribia Mungu kwa “hofu ya kitumwa na ya kulazimishwa” tu, wakimchukia Hakimu wanayemwogopa. Na wanafiki hujaribu kumtuliza “kwa sadaka chache duni” huku wakiishi wapendavyo. Hata hivyo mbegu inabaki: wakati wa hofu, wadhihaki ghafla huomba. Hapa ndipo mzizi wa msimamo wa kudumu wa Kireformed: Mungu lazima aabudiwe kama alivyoamuru, si kama tunavyobuni.If the seed of religion is everywhere, why is true religion so rare? Calvin answers bluntly: “we scarcely find one man in a hundred” who cherishes what God has sown. Some fall into superstition through ignorance, others turn away on purpose, but ignorance is no excuse, because it is always joined with pride. Instead of receiving God as He reveals Himself, people shape Him by their own imaginations and worship “a figment of their own brains.” Calvin names four faults. Some deny God in practice, treating Him “as an idler in heaven” who never judges. Some excuse any worship that seems sincere, though God is “no spectre or phantasm” to be reshaped by each person’s fancy. Some approach God only with a “servile and constrained fear,” hating the Judge they dread. And hypocrites try to appease Him “with a few paltry sacrifices” while living as they please. Yet the seed remains: in moments of terror, scoffers suddenly pray. Here lies the root of a lasting Reformed conviction: God must be worshipped as He has commanded, not as we invent.

6.Jukwaa la Utukufu wa Mungu (Sura ya V)6.The Theatre of God’s Glory (Chapter V)

Calvin sasa anaelekea kutoka moyoni hadi ulimwenguni. Mungu amejionyesha wazi hivyo katika kazi zake hata watu “hawawezi kufumbua macho yao bila kulazimika kumtazama.” Nafsi yake iko juu ya uwezo wetu, lakini “hakuna chembe ya ulimwengu ambamo huwezi kutazama angalau cheche zinazong’aa za utukufu wake.” Mwanadamu ni “ulimwengu mdogo,” dunia katika umbo dogo. Calvin anasifu elimu ya nyota na tiba, lakini anasisitiza kwamba mtu rahisi kabisa, kwa macho yake tu, huona vya kutosha kustaajabia “Mbunifu wa Kimungu.” Mungu anaonekana katika historia pia, anapowanyenyekeza wenye kiburi na kuwaokoa wanyonge. Kisha inakuja taswira maarufu: ulimwengu ni “jukwaa lililojengwa ili kuonyesha utukufu wa Mungu.” Lakini hapa hoja inageuka. Ingawa nuru inaangaza pande zote, kila akili ni “kama labirinti,” nasi tunageuza ushahidi kuwa sanamu. Hata Plato “hupotea.” Ushuhuda wa uumbaji ni halisi, lakini mwishowe unatuacha “bila udhuru wowote.” Tunahitaji nuru iliyo wazi zaidi, na somo linalofuata linaanzia hapo.Calvin now turns from the heart to the world. God has displayed Himself so plainly in His works that people “cannot open their eyes without being constrained to behold him.” His essence is beyond us, yet “there is not an atom of the world in which you cannot behold some brilliant sparks at least of his glory.” The human person is a “microcosm,” a world in miniature. Calvin praises astronomy and medicine, but insists that the simplest person, with only his eyes, sees enough to admire “the Divine Architect.” God appears in history too, when He humbles the proud and rescues the helpless. Then comes the famous image: the world is “a theatre erected for displaying the glory of God.” But here the argument turns. Though the light shines on every side, each mind is “like a labyrinth,” and we turn the evidence into idols. Even Plato “loses himself.” The witness of creation is real, but in the end it leaves us “without any excuse.” We need a clearer light, and the next reading begins there.

7.Kutoka Geneva hadi Mataifa7.From Geneva to the Nations

Sura hizi zikawa urithi wa pamoja wa makanisa ya Kireformed kila mahali. Mwaka 1559 Geneva ilifungua Chuo chake chini ya Theodore Beza, na wanafunzi kutoka Ulaya yote walirudi makwao kuhubiri. John Knox, aliyechunga wakimbizi Waingereza huko Geneva, aliuita “shule kamilifu zaidi ya Kristo iliyopata kuwapo duniani tangu siku za Mitume,” na akapeleka mafundisho yake Scotland. Kanuni ya Imani ya Wabelgiji ya 1561, iliyoandikwa na Guido de Brès kwa makanisa yaliyoteswa ya Uholanzi, inaitikia somo hili: tunamjua Mungu kwanza kwa uumbaji, ulio mbele ya macho yetu “kama kitabu maridadi kuliko vyote.” Baraza la Westminster la wanateolojia Wapuritani liliandika mwaka 1646 kwamba uumbaji na majaliwa huwaacha watu bila udhuru, lakini “havitoshi kutoa maarifa ya Mungu… yanayohitajika kwa wokovu.” Katekisimu yake Fupi inaanza mahali alipoanzia Calvin: kusudi letu kuu ni “kumtukuza Mungu, na kumfurahia milele.” Mwaka 1557 Geneva ilituma hata wachungaji wawili kwenye koloni la Kifaransa kwenye Ghuba ya Guanabara huko Brazil, ambako ibada za kwanza za Kiprotestanti katika Amerika zilifanyika. Leo makanisa ya Kipresbiteri na ya Kireformed kutoka Mexico, Cuba na Brazil hadi Ghana, Cameroon na Malawi bado huwafundisha watoto kwamba Mungu aliwaumba wamjue.These chapters became the common inheritance of Reformed churches everywhere. In 1559 Geneva opened its Academy under Theodore Beza, and students from across Europe went home to preach. John Knox, who pastored English refugees in Geneva, called it “the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the Apostles,” and carried its teaching to Scotland. The Belgic Confession of 1561, written by Guido de Brès for the persecuted churches of the Netherlands, echoes this reading: we know God first by creation, which is before our eyes “as a most elegant book.” The Westminster Assembly of Puritan divines wrote in 1646 that creation and providence leave people inexcusable, yet are “not sufficient to give that knowledge of God… which is necessary unto salvation.” Its Shorter Catechism begins where Calvin began: our chief end is “to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.” In 1557 Geneva even sent two pastors to a French colony on Guanabara Bay in Brazil, where the first Protestant services in the Americas were held. Today Presbyterian and Reformed churches from Mexico, Cuba and Brazil to Ghana, Cameroon and Malawi still teach children that God made them to know Him.

8.Mchungaji wa Kireformed Anachukua Nini Leo8.What a Reformed Pastor Takes from It Today

Kwanza, theolojia huanzia katika ibada na unyenyekevu; mahubiri yanayowaacha watu na ukweli juu ya Mungu bila heshima yamekosa hoja ya Calvin. Pili, kila msikilizaji tayari ana hisia fulani ya Mungu, hata kama imezikwa. Mwinjilisti katika soko la Guadalajara au kijiji huko Malawi anazungumza na dhamiri ambazo Mungu amekwisha kuzigusa. Tatu, ibada ya sanamu si ya kale tu. Bado tunatengeneza miungu ya kutufaa, na mchungaji hana budi kuitaja kwa upole na wazi. Nne, uumbaji ni zawadi ya kufurahia, na sayansi makini inaweza kuwa sifa. Wengine wanatofautiana mahali fulani. Walutheri kwa kiasi kikubwa wanashiriki mtazamo wa Calvin. Mafundisho ya Kikatoliki cha Roma, kufuatia Thomas Aquinas na Mtaguso wa Kwanza wa Vatikani (1870), yana uhakika zaidi juu ya yale ambayo akili peke yake inaweza kujua kuhusu Mungu. Wakristo wa Kiwesley na Kiarminiani wanakubali kwamba wenye dhambi hawana udhuru, lakini wanazungumza juu ya “neema itangulizayo,” neema ya Mungu inayofanya kazi tayari katika kila dhamiri. Wabaptisti na Wapentekoste kwa jumla wanakubali mistari mikuu ya Calvin hapa. Hata ndani ya familia ya Kireformed, Karl Barth na Emil Brunner walibishana vikali mwaka 1934 juu ya kama theolojia yoyote ya asili inawezekana.First, theology begins in worship and humility; a sermon that leaves people with facts about God but no reverence has missed Calvin’s point. Second, every listener already has some sense of God, however buried. The evangelist in a market in Guadalajara or a village in Malawi speaks to consciences God has already touched. Third, idolatry is not only ancient. We still make gods to suit ourselves, and the pastor must name them gently and clearly. Fourth, creation is a gift to enjoy, and careful science can become praise. Others differ in places. Lutherans largely share Calvin’s view. Roman Catholic teaching, following Thomas Aquinas and the First Vatican Council (1870), is more confident about what reason alone can know of God. Wesleyan and Arminian Christians agree that sinners are without excuse, but speak of “prevenient grace,” God’s grace already at work in every conscience. Baptists and Pentecostals generally accept Calvin’s main lines here. Even within the Reformed family, Karl Barth and Emil Brunner argued sharply in 1934 over whether any natural theology is possible.

9.Kuliweka Moyoni9.Taking It to Heart

1.Mji Uliojengwa Kuzunguka Neno1.A City Built Around the Word

Katika Geneva ya Calvin Biblia haikutetewa tu; ilihubiriwa, iliimbwa na kusomwa kila juma. Calvin alihubiri vitabu vizima vya Maandiko aya kwa aya, mara nyingi siku za kazi pamoja na Jumapili, na siku za Ijumaa wachungaji walikutana katika “Kusanyiko” kusoma kifungu pamoja. Geneva ikawa karakana ya Biblia. Wachungaji wa Geneva waliendelea kurekebisha Biblia ya Kifaransa ya binamu yake Calvin, Olivétan (1535), na wahamiaji Waingereza walitoa Biblia ya Geneva ya 1560, Biblia ya Wapuritani. Wahamiaji Waprotestanti wa Kihispania waliopita Geneva, Casiodoro de Reina na Cipriano de Valera, waliupa ulimwengu unaozungumza Kihispania Biblia ya 1569, iliyorekebishwa mwaka 1602, babu wa Reina-Valera ambayo makanisa mengi ya Amerika ya Kilatini bado huisoma. Sura hizi zinaeleza kwa nini.In Calvin’s Geneva the Bible was not only defended; it was preached, sung and studied every week. Calvin preached through whole books of Scripture verse by verse, often on weekdays as well as Sundays, and on Fridays the pastors met in the “Congregation” to study a passage together. Geneva became a workshop of Bibles. Genevan pastors kept revising the French Bible of Calvin’s cousin Olivétan (1535), and English exiles produced the Geneva Bible of 1560, the Bible of the Puritans. Spanish Protestant exiles who passed through Geneva, Casiodoro de Reina and Cipriano de Valera, gave the Spanish-speaking world the Bible of 1569, revised in 1602, the ancestor of the Reina-Valera that many Latin American churches still read. These chapters explain why.

2.Miwani kwa Macho Hafifu (Sura ya VI)2.Spectacles for Dim Eyes (Chapter VI)

Uumbaji “unatosha kabisa” kutuacha bila udhuru, asema Calvin, lakini tunahitaji “msaada mwingine, ulio bora zaidi” kutufikisha kwa Mungu. Kwa hiyo Mungu aliongeza nuru ya Neno lake. Mfano wa Calvin ni wa kawaida na wa kukumbukwa. Mzee mwenye macho hafifu hawezi kusoma hata maneno mawili ya kitabu kizuri, lakini “kwa msaada wa miwani, ataanza kusoma kwa wazi.” Vivyo hivyo, Maandiko hukusanya mawazo yetu yaliyochanganyikana juu ya Mungu, hutawanya giza na hutuonyesha Mungu wa kweli kwa uwazi. Katika Maandiko Mungu “hufungua kinywa chake kitakatifu mwenyewe.” Mungu aliifanya Torati na Manabii kuandikwa ili kweli isipotee wala kuharibiwa. Hitimisho lake ni kanuni ya Matengenezo ya Kanisa yote: hakuna awezaye kuwa na maarifa hata kidogo ya mafundisho yenye afya “bila kuwa mwanafunzi wa Maandiko.” Bila Neno, nuru ya Mungu ni “kama labirinti isiyoweza kufafanuliwa,” na ni afadhali kuchechemea katika njia sahihi kuliko kukimbia kwa kasi nje yake.Creation is “more than sufficient” to leave us without excuse, Calvin says, but we need “another and better assistance” to bring us to God. So God added the light of His Word. Calvin’s image is homely and memorable. An old man with weak eyes can hardly read two words of a beautiful book, but “by the assistance of spectacles, will begin to read distinctly.” In the same way, Scripture gathers our confused ideas of God, scatters the darkness and shows us the true God clearly. In Scripture God “opens his own sacred mouth.” God had the Law and the Prophets put in writing so that the truth would not be lost or corrupted. His conclusion is a principle of the whole Reformation: no one can have even the least knowledge of sound doctrine “without having been a disciple of the Scripture.” Without the Word, the light of God is “like an inexplicable labyrinth,” and it is better to limp along the right road than to run fast off it.

3.Kutotegemea Kura ya Kanisa (Sura ya VII, 1–3)3.Not Resting on the Church’s Vote (Chapter VII, 1–3)

Calvin sasa anakabili mabishano makubwa ya siku zake. Wengine walifundisha kwamba Maandiko yana uzito kiasi tu kinachopewa na kanisa, hata kanisa ndilo huamua vitabu gani vinaingia katika kanuni na heshima gani vinastahili. Calvin anaita hili “kosa baya kabisa.” Kama lingekuwa kweli, dhamiri zenye shida zingewezaje kupata “uhakika thabiti wa uzima wa milele”? Jibu lake linatoka Waefeso 2:20: kanisa limejengwa “juu ya msingi wa mitume na manabii.” Msingi hutangulia jengo. Kanisa linapoyapokea Maandiko, haliifanyi kweli ya mashaka kuwa ya uhakika; linaitambua kweli ya Mungu wake na kuinama mbele yake. Tunajuaje, basi, kwamba Maandiko yanatoka kwa Mungu? Ni kama kuuliza tunavyotofautisha nuru na giza au tamu na chungu. Calvin pia anajibu usemi maarufu wa Augustino, kwamba asingeiamini Injili bila mamlaka ya kanisa. Augustino alimaanisha, Calvin anahoji, kwamba ushuhuda wa kanisa unaweza kumwongoza asiyeamini kuelekea Injili, “utangulizi,” si msingi wa imani.Calvin now faces the great controversy of his day. Some taught that Scripture has only as much weight as the church grants it, so that the church decides which books belong in the canon and what reverence they deserve. Calvin calls this “a most pernicious error.” If it were true, how could troubled consciences find “a solid assurance of eternal life”? His answer comes from Ephesians 2:20: the church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” A foundation comes before the building. When the church receives Scripture, it does not make an uncertain thing certain; it recognizes the truth of its God and bows to it. How, then, do we know Scripture is from God? It is like asking how we tell light from darkness or sweet from bitter. Calvin also answers the famous line of Augustine, that he would not have believed the Gospel without the church’s authority. Augustine meant, Calvin argues, that the church’s witness can lead an unbeliever toward the Gospel, an “introduction,” not the ground of faith.

4.Ushuhuda wa Ndani wa Roho (Sura ya VII, 4–5)4.The Inner Witness of the Spirit (Chapter VII, 4–5)

Kiini cha somo hili kiko hapa. Uthibitisho mkuu wa Maandiko, asema Calvin, ni “tabia ya Msemaji wa Kimungu.” Manabii na mitume hawakutegemea kipaji chao wenyewe bali jina la Mungu. Hoja zinaweza kunyamazisha wakosoaji, lakini haziwezi kutoa uhakika ambao utauwa unauhitaji. Uhakika huo unatoka “kwa ushuhuda wa siri wa Roho.” Kama vile Mungu peke yake ni shahidi anayefaa wa nafsi yake, ndivyo “ushuhuda wa Roho ni mkuu kuliko akili yote.” Roho yule yule aliyesema kwa manabii lazima aingie mioyoni mwetu kutushawishi kwamba walisema kwa uaminifu. Wale waliofundishwa ndani na Roho hutulia katika Maandiko kama yanayojithibitisha yenyewe, “yakibeba ushahidi wake yenyewe.” Hii si kuamini kipofu. Waumini wanayanyenyekea Maandiko kwa sababu wanahisi “nguvu zisizo na shaka za uwezo wa Mungu” zikiwavuta kwenye utii wa hiari. Ni ushawishi “usiohitaji sababu,” lakini unaopatana na akili ya juu kabisa. Calvin anadai kueleza tu “kile ambacho kila mwamini hukipata moyoni mwake.” Imani ya kweli, mwishowe, ni ile ambayo “Roho wa Mungu huitia muhuri mioyoni mwetu.”The heart of the reading is here. Scripture’s chief proof, Calvin says, is “the character of the Divine Speaker.” The prophets and apostles rested not on their own genius but on God’s name. Arguments can silence critics, but cannot give the certainty piety needs. That certainty comes “from the secret testimony of the Spirit.” As God alone is a fit witness to Himself, so “the testimony of the Spirit is superior to all reason.” The same Spirit who spoke through the prophets must enter our hearts to persuade us that they spoke faithfully. Those taught inwardly by the Spirit rest in Scripture as “self-authenticated, carrying with it its own evidence.” This is not blind credulity. Believers submit to Scripture because they feel “the undoubted energies of the Divine power” drawing them to willing obedience. It is a conviction that “requires no reasons,” yet agrees with the highest reason. Calvin claims to describe only “what every believer experiences in his heart.” True faith, in the end, is what “the Spirit of God seals in our hearts.”

5.Misaada kwa Imani Dhaifu (Sura ya VIII)5.Helps for Weak Faith (Chapter VIII)

Msingi ukishawekwa, Calvin anatoa ushahidi wa kuunga mkono, anaouita “misaada ya pili kwa udhaifu wetu.” Maandiko hutugusa kwa hadhi ya mada zake kuliko kwa uzuri wa lugha. Ukisoma Cicero au Plato utafurahishwa, lakini ukigeukia Maandiko yatakuwa “yanapenya moyo wako” kama kitabu cha kibinadamu hakiwezi. Anaonyesha ukale wa Musa, aliyeandika kwa unyofu aibu ya kabila lake mwenyewe; miujiza iliyofanywa mbele ya watu wote; unabii uliotimizwa, kama Isaya akimtaja Koreshi; na kuhifadhiwa kwa vitabu hivyo katika mateso. Katika Agano Jipya, wavuvi walisema juu ya siri za mbinguni walizojifunza katika shule isiyo ya kibinadamu. Maandiko daima, “kama mtende, yameinuka juu ya upinzani wote,” na wafia dini wameyatia muhuri kwa damu yao. Wasomi wa kisasa wanabishana juu ya baadhi ya hoja hizi, lakini Calvin hakuwahi kutegemeza imani juu yake; ni upumbavu, anaonya, kuthibitisha Maandiko kwa wasioamini kwa hoja peke yake.Once the foundation is laid, Calvin offers supporting evidence, which he calls “secondary aids to our imbecility,” that is, to our weakness. Scripture moves us by the dignity of its subjects more than by beauty of language. Read Cicero or Plato and you will be delighted, but turn to Scripture and it will “penetrate your heart” as no human book can. He points to the antiquity of Moses, who honestly recorded the shame of his own tribe; to miracles done before the whole people; to fulfilled prophecy, such as Isaiah naming Cyrus; and to the preservation of the books through persecution. In the New Testament, fishermen spoke of heavenly mysteries learned in no human school. Scripture has always, “like a palm-tree, risen superior to all opposition,” and martyrs sealed it with their blood. Modern scholars debate some of these arguments, but Calvin never rested faith on them; it is folly, he warns, to prove Scripture to unbelievers by argument alone.

6.Roho na Neno Pamoja (Sura ya IX)6.Spirit and Word Together (Chapter IX)

Calvin sasa anageukia hatari iliyo kinyume. Baadhi ya “watu wasio thabiti,” wakidai kufundishwa moja kwa moja na Roho, walidharau kusoma Maandiko kama “herufi iliyokufa na iuayo.” Calvin anajibu kwamba mitume walikuwa na Roho yule yule, naye aliwafanya kulistahi Neno zaidi, si kidogo. Isaya 59:21 inaunganisha “Roho yangu” na “maneno yangu” katika ahadi moja. Paulo, hata baada ya mbingu ya tatu, alimwambia Timotheo ajishughulishe na kusoma. Kazi ya Roho aliyeahidiwa, asema Calvin, “si kubuni ufunuo mpya ambao haujasikika,” bali “kutia muhuri akilini mwetu mafundisho yale yale ambayo Injili inatoa.” Kwa kuwa Shetani anaweza kujitokeza kama malaika wa nuru, tunamtambua Roho wa kweli kwa sura yake katika Maandiko aliyoyavuvia. Calvin anaita hili “aina ya uhusiano wa pande zote kati ya uhakika wa neno lake na wa Roho wake.” Tunalistahi Neno Roho anaporuhusu tuone uso wa Mungu ndani yake, nasi tunamkaribisha Roho tunapomtambua ndani ya Neno. Hivyo Kristo aliyefufuka aliwafungua wanafunzi wake akili, si kuchukua nafasi ya Maandiko, bali ili wayaelewe.Calvin now turns to the opposite danger. Some “unsteady men,” claiming to be taught directly by the Spirit, despised the reading of Scripture as “the dead and killing letter.” Calvin answers that the apostles had the same Spirit, and it made them revere the Word more, not less. Isaiah 59:21 joins “my Spirit” and “my words” in one promise. Paul, even after the third heaven, told Timothy to attend to reading. The office of the promised Spirit, Calvin says, “is not to feign new and unheard of revelations,” but “to seal to our minds the same doctrine which the Gospel delivers.” Since Satan can appear as an angel of light, we recognize the true Spirit by His image in the Scriptures He inspired. Calvin calls this “a kind of mutual connection between the certainty of his word and of his Spirit.” We revere the Word when the Spirit lets us see God’s face in it, and we welcome the Spirit when we recognize Him in the Word. So the risen Christ opened His disciples’ minds, not to replace the Scriptures, but to understand them.

7.Mungu Anayeonyeshwa na Biblia (Sura ya X)7.The God the Bible Shows (Chapter X)

Mwishowe Calvin anauliza kama Mungu wa Maandiko analingana na Mungu anayeonekana katika uumbaji. Analingana. Maelezo makuu ya Musa katika Kutoka 34:6–7, “mwenye huruma, mwenye neema, mwenye uvumilivu, mwingi wa fadhili na kweli,” yanafupisha karibu yote tunayoweza kujua juu yake. Calvin anaona kwamba yanamweleza Mungu “si kama alivyo ndani yake mwenyewe, bali kama alivyo kwetu,” ili ujuzi wetu uwe “ufahamu hai” badala ya uvumi wa hewani. Yeremia 9:24 inataja mambo matatu tunayohitaji kuyajua zaidi: huruma, “ambayo ndani yake peke yake unakaa wokovu wetu wote”; hukumu juu ya waovu; na haki, ambayo kwayo waaminifu hulindwa. Kumjua Mungu katika Maandiko kuna lengo lile lile na kumjua kwa uumbaji: kutufundisha kwanza kumwogopa Mungu kisha kumtumaini. Na Maandiko, ili kutuongoza kwa Mungu wa kweli, yanakataa miungu yote ya mataifa.Finally Calvin asks whether the God of Scripture matches the God seen in creation. He does. Moses’ great description in Exodus 34:6–7, “merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,” sums up nearly all we can know of Him. Calvin notes that it describes God “not of what he is in himself, but of what he is to us,” so that our knowledge may be “a lively perception” rather than airy speculation. Jeremiah 9:24 names three things we most need to know: mercy, “in which alone consists all our salvation”; judgment on the wicked; and righteousness, by which the faithful are kept. The knowledge of God in Scripture has the same aim as the knowledge from creation: to teach us first to fear God and then to trust Him. And Scripture, to lead us to the true God, rejects all the gods of the nations.

8.Neno Katika Ulimwengu wa Kireformed8.The Word Across the Reformed World

Sura hizi ziliunda kanuni zote za imani za Kireformed. Kanuni ya Imani ya Scotland ya 1560 inatangaza kwamba mamlaka ya Maandiko yanatoka kwa Mungu na hayategemei wanadamu. Kanuni ya Imani ya Wabelgiji ya 1561 inaongeza kwamba tunavyoamini vitabu vyake hasa kwa sababu Roho Mtakatifu anashuhudia mioyoni mwetu kwamba vinatoka kwa Mungu. Kanuni ya Imani ya Westminster ya 1646 inazungumza juu ya “kazi ya ndani ya Roho Mtakatifu, akishuhudia kwa neno na pamoja na neno mioyoni mwetu.” Misheni za Kireformed zilibeba imani hiyo hiyo: Biblia kwanza. Wamisionari wa Basel huko Ghana waliwapa watu wa Twi Biblia katika lugha yao mwaka 1871. Katika Amerika ya Kilatini, wauzaji wa Biblia mara nyingi walitangulia wachungaji wa kwanza wa Kipresbiteri, na Reina-Valera ikawa kitabu cha kila nyumba.These chapters shaped every Reformed confession. The Scots Confession of 1560 declares that Scripture’s authority is from God and does not depend on men. The Belgic Confession of 1561 adds that we believe its books chiefly because the Holy Spirit witnesses in our hearts that they are from God. The Westminster Confession of 1646 speaks of “the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts.” Reformed missions carried the same conviction: Bibles first. Basel missionaries in Ghana gave the Twi people a Bible in their own tongue in 1871. In Latin America, Bible sellers often came before the first Presbyterian pastors, and the Reina-Valera became a household book.

9.Mchungaji wa Kireformed Anachukua Nini Leo9.What a Reformed Pastor Takes from It Today

Ujasiri wa mchungaji mimbarani haumo katika utetezi wa werevu wala idhini ya kanisa, bali katika Mungu anayesema katika Neno lake na kulitia muhuri kwa Roho wake. Hilo hutuweka huru kuhubiri waziwazi, kuomba Roho kabla ya kufungua matini, na kuwapeleka watu wasome Maandiko wenyewe. Wengine wanatofautiana mahali fulani. Walutheri wanashiriki imani kwamba Maandiko ni kipimo kikuu. Wakatoliki wa Roma wanashikilia Maandiko na mapokeo pamoja chini ya mamlaka ya kufundisha ya kanisa. Waweslesi wengi husema Maandiko ni ya kwanza, yakisomwa pamoja na mapokeo, akili na uzoefu. Wabaptisti wanashikilia Maandiko kuwa mamlaka pekee ya mwisho. Wapentekoste wanaamini Roho bado hutoa karama za unabii na uponyaji, ambapo walimu wengi wa Kireformed wamekuwa waangalifu; hata hivyo Wapentekoste wa kawaida pia hujaribu kila neno kwa Maandiko. Kanuni ya Calvin ya Roho na Neno pamoja ni msingi wa pamoja.A pastor’s confidence in the pulpit rests not on clever apologetics or church approval, but on God who speaks in His Word and seals it by His Spirit. That frees us to preach plainly, to pray for the Spirit before we open the text, and to send people to read Scripture for themselves. Others differ in places. Lutherans share the conviction that Scripture is the supreme norm. Roman Catholics hold Scripture and tradition together under the church’s teaching office. Many Wesleyans speak of Scripture as primary, read with tradition, reason and experience. Baptists hold Scripture as the sole final authority. Pentecostals believe the Spirit still gives gifts of prophecy and healing, where many Reformed teachers have been cautious; yet classical Pentecostals also test every word by Scripture. Calvin’s rule of Spirit and Word together is common ground.

10.Kuliweka Moyoni10.Taking It to Heart

1.Fundisho Lililojaribiwa Geneva1.A Doctrine Tested in Geneva

Utatu haukuwa mada ya utulivu katika maisha ya Calvin. Mwaka 1537 mhubiri mpinzani, Pierre Caroli, alimshtaki Calvin na Farel kwa uzushi wa kale wa Arius kwa sababu walikataa kutia saini Imani ya Athanasio kwa amri; mtaguso wa Lausanne uliwaondolea lawama. Calvin alijifunza kwamba imani sahihi na kupenda kanuni za imani si mara zote jambo moja. Katika miaka ya 1550 changamoto mpya ilitoka kwa wapinga-Utatu, miongoni mwao daktari Mhispania Michael Servetus na baadaye kikundi cha wakimbizi Waitaliano huko Geneva. Jibu la Calvin linajaza sehemu kubwa ya sura ya XIII, ambayo ilikua katika kila toleo. Historia hii inaeleza sifa mbili za sura hii: uthabiti wa Calvin juu ya kiini cha fundisho, na subira yake ya kushangaza juu ya maneno.The Trinity was not a quiet topic in Calvin’s life. In 1537 a rival preacher, Pierre Caroli, accused Calvin and Farel of the ancient Arian heresy because they would not sign the Athanasian Creed on demand; a synod at Lausanne cleared them. Calvin learned that orthodox faith and a love of creeds are not always the same thing. In the 1550s a new challenge came from anti-Trinitarians, among them the Spanish physician Michael Servetus and later a group of Italian refugees in Geneva. Calvin’s answer fills much of chapter XIII, which grew in each edition. This history explains two features of the chapter: Calvin’s firmness about the substance of the doctrine, and his surprising patience about words.

2.Mungu Aliye Hai katika Nafsi Tatu (Sura ya XIII)2.The Living God in Three Persons (Chapter XIII)

Calvin anaanza kwa unyenyekevu. Maandiko yanaposema juu ya kinywa cha Mungu, macho na mikono, “Mungu hunena nasi kama kwa kigugumizi, kama vile yaya wanavyozoea kusema na watoto wachanga.” Wanateolojia huita hili kujishusha: Mungu hushusha usemi wake hadi uwezo wetu mdogo. Hata hivyo Mungu pia anafunua kwamba yeye ni Mmoja katika Nafsi Tatu, na bila hili tunakuwa na “jina tupu la Mungu linaloelea akilini mwetu.” Nafsi, asema Calvin, ni “ukaaji katika kiini cha Uungu, unaohusiana na wengine, na bado unatofautishwa nao kwa sifa isiyoshirikishwa.” Angependa kuzika maneno kama Utatu na nafsi, kama wote wangekiri Mungu mmoja ambaye Baba, Mwana na Roho ni tofauti ndani yake. “Mimi si mkali kiasi cha kupenda kubishana kuhusu maneno matupu.” Lakini maneno kama hayo huvua kinyago cha kosa. Arius alimwita Kristo Mungu lakini aliyeumbwa; “sema kwamba ni wa dutu moja, unamvua mnafiki kinyago.” Calvin anathibitisha uungu wa Mwana na wa Roho kutoka Agano zote mbili. Anaeleza mpangilio wao: kwa Baba huhusika “chanzo cha kitendo,” kwa Mwana “hekima, shauri,” kwa Roho “uwezo na ufanisi.” Mpangilio si cheo. Akizingatiwa yeye mwenyewe, Mwana “anajitegemea mwenyewe,” Mungu kamili, si kiumbe duni.Calvin begins with humility. When Scripture speaks of God’s mouth, eyes and hands, “God lisps, as it were, with us, just as nurses are accustomed to speak to infants.” Theologians call this accommodation: God lowers His speech to our small capacity. Yet God also reveals that He is One in Three Persons, and without this we have “a bare and empty name of God floating in our brains.” A Person, Calvin says, is “a subsistence in the Divine essence, which is related to the others, and yet distinguished from them by an incommunicable property.” He would gladly bury terms like Trinity and person, if only all confessed one God in whom Father, Son and Spirit are distinct. “I am not so rigidly precise as to be fond of contending for mere words.” But such words unmask error. Arius called Christ God yet created; “say that he is consubstantial, you tear off the mask from the hypocrite.” Calvin proves the deity of the Son and the Spirit from both Testaments. He describes their order: to the Father belongs “the principle of action,” to the Son “wisdom, counsel,” to the Spirit “the power and efficacy.” Order is not rank. Considered in Himself, the Son is “self-existent,” fully God, not a lesser being.

3.Jukwaa Zuri na Watumishi Wake Wasioonekana (Sura ya XIV)3.The Beautiful Theatre and Its Unseen Servants (Chapter XIV)

Uumbaji, asema Calvin, unamtenga Mungu wa kweli na sanamu zote. Aliumba ulimwengu kwa siku sita, si kwa sababu alihitaji wakati, bali kutufundisha kutafakari utunzaji wake wa kibaba, akiandaa makao kabla ya kumuumba mkaaji wake. Calvin anahimiza “furaha ya kimungu” katika “jukwaa hili zuri sana la ulimwengu,” ambalo Mungu alilipamba “kama jumba kubwa la fahari.” Sehemu kubwa ya sura inahusu malaika na mashetani, kwa kukataa kwa uthabiti uvumi. Malaika ni “roho watumishi” ambao Mungu huwatumia kwa ulinzi wetu, si kwa sababu anawahitaji, bali kufariji udhaifu wetu, kama pale mtumishi wa Elisha alipoona milima imejaa magari ya moto. Je, kila mwamini ana malaika mlinzi? “Siwezi kuthubutu kuthibitisha kwa hakika.” Mashetani ni maadui halisi, na Maandiko yanaonya juu yao ili tuwe macho. Hata hivyo uovu wao “hautokani na uumbaji, bali na uharibifu,” na Shetani “hawezi kufanya chochote bila mapenzi na ruhusa ya Mungu.” Anapigana na waaminifu lakini hawezi kamwe kuwashinda.Creation, Calvin says, sets the true God apart from all idols. He made the world in six days, not because He needed time, but to teach us to dwell on His fatherly care, preparing a home before He made its tenant. Calvin urges “a pious delight” in “this very beautiful theatre of the world,” which God furnished “like a large and splendid mansion.” Much of the chapter treats angels and devils, with a firm refusal to speculate. Angels are “ministering spirits” whom God uses for our protection, not because He needs them, but to comfort our weakness, as when Elisha’s servant saw the hills full of chariots of fire. Does each believer have a guardian angel? “I cannot venture certainly to affirm.” Devils are real enemies, and Scripture warns of them to make us watchful. Yet their wickedness “is not from creation, but from corruption,” and Satan “can do nothing without God’s will and consent.” He fights the faithful but can never overwhelm them.

4.Tulioumbwa kwa Sura ya Mungu (Sura ya XV)4.Made in the Image of God (Chapter XV)

Kabla ya kueleza anguko, Calvin anaeleza wanadamu kama Mungu alivyowaumba. Sisi ni roho na mwili, na nafsi ni kiini kisichokufa lakini kilichoumbwa, si kipande cha Mungu. Ingawa utukufu wa Mungu humeremeta hata katika mwili wa mwanadamu, “kiti halisi cha sura yake kiko katika nafsi.” Tunajifunza sura ilikuwa nini kutokana na kile Kristo anachokirejesha: maarifa, haki na utakatifu. Kwa hiyo mwanzoni sura hiyo iling’aa “katika nuru ya akili, katika unyofu wa moyo, na katika afya ya sehemu zote za asili yetu.” Adamu alikuwa na uhuru wa kweli wa utashi: “Adamu, kwa hiyo, angeweza kusimama kama angetaka, kwa kuwa alianguka kwa utashi wake mwenyewe tu.” Kwa nini Mungu hakumpa kipawa cha kudumu bado kimefichwa katika shauri la Mungu. Calvin anaona kwamba wanafalsafa wapagani, wasiojua anguko, “walitafuta jengo kamili katikati ya magofu.” Wakristo hawapaswi kurudia kosa lao.Before describing the fall, Calvin describes humanity as God made it. We are soul and body, and the soul is an immortal yet created essence, not a piece of God. Although God’s glory shines even in the human body, “the proper seat of his image is in the soul.” We learn what the image was from what Christ restores: knowledge, righteousness and holiness. So in the beginning the image shone “in the light of the mind, in the rectitude of the heart, and in the soundness of all the parts of our nature.” Adam had true freedom of will: “Adam, therefore, could have stood if he would, since he fell merely by his own will.” Why God did not give him the gift of perseverance remains hidden in God’s counsel. Calvin notes that the pagan philosophers, ignorant of the fall, “sought for a complete edifice among ruins.” Christians must not repeat their mistake.

5.Mungu Kwenye Usukani (Sura ya XVI)5.God at the Helm (Chapter XVI)

Kumfikiria Mungu kama Muumba “kwa muda mfupi tu,” kisha kutokuwapo, “ni kufikiri kwa baridi na kwa ukavu.” Imani huenda mbali zaidi: Mungu anahifadhi na kutawala yote aliyoyaumba. Majaliwa hayamweleze Mungu “kama anayetazama bila kazi kutoka mbinguni,” bali “kama anayeshika usukani wa ulimwengu, na kudhibiti matukio yote.” Ni kazi “ya mikono yake si pungufu ya macho yake”; si kujua kabla tu. Calvin anakataa majaliwa ya jumla yanayoweka mashine ikiendelea tu. Hakuna shomoro anayeanguka bila Baba. Pia anakataa shutuma kwamba huu ni hatima ya kipagani. Wastoiki walibuni mnyororo wa visababishi vya asili; Wakristo wanakiri Baba mwenye hekima aliyeamua atakalofanya na sasa analitekeleza. Pamoja na Basil, anaita bahati na ajali “maneno ya wapagani.” Hata hivyo kwetu, matukio mara nyingi yanaonekana ya ajali, kwa sababu sababu za Mungu zimefichwa. Mfanyabiashara aliyeuawa na wanyang’anyi msituni alikufa kwa ajali kwa kadiri tunavyoona, lakini si nje ya uteuzi wa Mungu.To think of God as Creator “only for a moment” and then absent “were frigid and jejune.” Faith goes further: God preserves and governs all He made. Providence does not describe God “as idly beholding from heaven,” but “as holding the helm of the universe, and regulating all events.” It belongs “no less to his hands than to his eyes”; it is not mere foreknowledge. Calvin rejects a general providence that only keeps the machine running. Not a sparrow falls without the Father. He also rejects the charge that this is pagan fate. The Stoics imagined a chain of natural causes; Christians confess a wise Father who decreed what He would do and now carries it out. With Basil, he calls fortune and chance “words of the heathen.” Yet to us, events often seem fortuitous, because God’s reasons are hidden. A merchant killed by robbers in a forest died by chance as far as we can see, yet not outside God’s appointment.

6.Faraja ya Majaliwa (Sura ya XVII)6.The Comfort of Providence (Chapter XVII)

Sura hii ni utunzaji wa kichungaji tupu. Majaliwa si kwa udadisi wa bure bali kwa kumtumaini kwa unyenyekevu. Calvin anachora picha hai ya maisha bila hayo: katika meli kuna “hatua moja tu kati yako na mauti,” na katika mji unakabili “hatari nyingi kama vigae vilivyo juu ya paa.” Lakini nuru ya majaliwa inapomwangazia mwamini, anaokolewa “kutoka kila wasiwasi,” akijua kwamba Baba yake wa mbinguni anatawala vitu vyote na ameweka mipaka kwa kila adui. Yusufu aliweza kuwasamehe ndugu zake kwa sababu aliona mkono wa Mungu: “Mungu aliyakusudia kuwa mema.” Ayubu alimbariki Bwana atoaye na atwaaye. Hata hivyo majaliwa hayatufanyi wazembe kamwe. Mungu aliyeweka mipaka ya maisha yetu alitukabidhi pia utunzaji wake, kwa hiyo lazima tutumie dawa, tuepuke hatari na tupange kwa busara. “Mtu mcha Mungu hatapuuza visababishi vya chini,” naye anawashukuru watu ambao kupitia kwao Mungu humsaidia. Hukumu ya Calvin: “kutojua majaliwa ndiyo taabu kuu kuliko zote.”This chapter is pure pastoral care. Providence is not for idle curiosity but for humble trust. Calvin draws a vivid picture of life without it: in a ship there is “but a single step between you and death,” and in a city you face “as many dangers as there are tiles on the roofs.” But when the light of providence shines on a believer, he is freed “from all care,” knowing his heavenly Father rules all things and has set limits to every enemy. Joseph could forgive his brothers because he saw God’s hand: “God meant it unto good.” Job blessed the Lord who gives and takes away. Yet providence never makes us careless. God who fixed the limits of our life also entrusted us with its care, so we must use remedies, avoid danger and plan wisely. “A pious man will not overlook inferior causes,” and he thanks the people through whom God helps him. Calvin’s verdict: “ignorance of providence is the greatest of miseries.”

7.Waovu Wanapotumikia Kusudi la Mungu (Sura ya XVIII)7.When the Wicked Serve God’s Purpose (Chapter XVIII)

Swali gumu zaidi linakuja mwishoni. Maandiko yanasema Mungu hutumia hata Shetani na waovu kutimiza hukumu zake. Wengi wameulainisha hili kwa wazo la kuruhusu tu; kwa hiyo, asema Calvin, “ilibuniwa tofauti kati ya kutenda na kuruhusu.” Kwake, Mungu hatazami tu uovu ukitokea; hakuna kinachotokea pasipo kusudi lake. Hata hivyo Mungu hachafuliwi kamwe na dhambi ya mwanadamu. Mapenzi yake ya siri hayapaswi “kuchanganywa na agizo lake”: waovu huvunja amri zake, ingawa yeye hutumia matendo yao kwa malengo yake matakatifu. Mfano mkuu wa Calvin ni msalaba. Mungu alimtoa Kristo, Kristo alijitoa mwenyewe, na Yuda alimsaliti. Akimnukuu Augustino, anaeleza kwamba katika tendo moja “hawakutenda kwa sababu ile ile.” Mungu alilenga ukombozi; Yuda alilenga tamaa ya mali. Calvin anamalizia kwa wito wa unyenyekevu: hekima yetu ni kupokea “kwa unyenyekevu wa upole” yote ambayo Maandiko yanafundisha, hata yale yanayopita uwezo wetu.The hardest question comes last. Scripture says God uses even Satan and the wicked to carry out His judgments. Many have softened this with the idea of bare permission; hence, Calvin says, “was invented the distinction between doing and permitting.” For him, God does not merely watch evil happen; nothing happens apart from His purpose. Yet God is never stained by human sin. His secret will must not be “confounded with his precept”: the wicked break His commands, though He uses their acts for His holy ends. Calvin’s great example is the cross. God delivered up Christ, Christ gave Himself, and Judas betrayed Him. Quoting Augustine, he explains that in one act “they acted not from the same cause.” God aimed at redemption; Judas at greed. Calvin ends with a call to humility: our wisdom is to receive “with gentle docility” all that Scripture teaches, even what exceeds our grasp.

8.Majaliwa Katika Maisha ya Makanisa ya Kireformed8.Providence in the Life of the Reformed Churches

Sura hizi zikawa faraja ya makanisa yanayoteseka. Katekisimu ya Heidelberg ya 1563 inaanza kwa kuuliza “faraja yetu pekee katika uzima na katika kifo,” na inafafanua majaliwa kama “uweza wa Mungu wenye nguvu zote na uliopo kila mahali.” Kanuni ya Imani ya Wabelgiji inasema fundisho hili huwapa waumini “faraja isiyoelezeka.” Wahuguenoti wa Kifaransa, waliopigwa marufuku baada ya 1685, waliendelea kuabudu katika mahali pa siri walipopaita “Jangwa,” wakiutumainia mkono wa Mungu. Mpuritani John Flavel aliandika Siri ya Majaliwa (1678) kufundisha waumini kufuatilia utunzaji wa Mungu katika maisha yao wenyewe. Waumini wa Kireformed katika Afrika na Amerika ya Kilatini mara nyingi wameishi katikati ya vita, maafa na mateso, na wengi wamepata nguvu katika ungamo hilo hilo.These chapters became the comfort of suffering churches. The Heidelberg Catechism of 1563 opens by asking for our “only comfort in life and in death,” and defines providence as “the almighty and everywhere present power of God.” The Belgic Confession says this doctrine gives believers “unspeakable consolation.” French Huguenots, outlawed after 1685, kept worshipping in hidden places they called “the Desert,” trusting God’s hand. The Puritan John Flavel wrote The Mystery of Providence (1678) to teach believers to trace God’s care in their own lives. Reformed believers in Africa and Latin America have often lived through war, disaster and persecution, and many have found strength in the same confession.

9.Mchungaji wa Kireformed Anachukua Nini Leo9.What a Reformed Pastor Takes from It Today

Mchungaji kando ya kitanda cha hospitali au mazikoni anaweza kusema pamoja na Calvin kwamba hakuna tukio linalotoka nje ya mkono wa Baba yetu, bila kujifanya kujua sababu zake. Fundisho la Utatu si fumbo bali moyo wa ibada na ubatizo. Malaika na pepo wanapaswa kuchukuliwa kwa uzito, lakini kamwe wasifanywe kitovu cha mahubiri. Na kumtumaini Mungu katika majaliwa kunapaswa kutufanya tuwe na bidii zaidi, si kidogo, katika maombi, tiba na kupanga. Wengine wanatofautiana mahali fulani. Walutheri, Waweslesi, Wabaptisti na Wapentekoste wengi wanashiriki imani ya Nikea, ingawa Wapentekoste wa “Umoja” (Oneness) wanakataa fundisho la Nafsi tatu. Walutheri wanathibitisha majaliwa lakini wana kusita zaidi kuzungumza juu ya mapenzi ya Mungu katika matendo maovu. Wakristo wa Kiweslesi na Kiarminiani wanasisitiza mapenzi ya Mungu ya kuruhusu na uhuru wa mwanadamu. Wapentekoste wana matarajio makubwa ya miujiza; Calvin pia anasema Mungu hufanya kazi wakati mwingine “bila njia.”A pastor at a hospital bed or a funeral can say with Calvin that no event escapes our Father’s hand, without pretending to know His reasons. The doctrine of the Trinity is not a puzzle but the heart of worship and baptism. Angels and demons should be taken seriously, but never made the center of preaching. And trust in providence should make us more diligent, not less, in prayer, medicine and planning. Others differ in places. Lutherans, Wesleyans, Baptists and most Pentecostals share the Nicene faith, though Oneness Pentecostals reject the doctrine of three Persons. Lutherans affirm providence but are more reluctant to speak of God’s will in evil acts. Wesleyan and Arminian Christians stress God’s permissive will and human freedom. Pentecostals hold strong expectation of miracles; Calvin also says God works sometimes “without means.”

10.Kuliweka Moyoni10.Taking It to Heart

1.Mjadala wa Kale Waibuka Upya1.An Old Debate Renewed

Swali la utashi lilikuwa mojawapo ya yaliyo makali zaidi ya Matengenezo ya Kanisa. Mwaka 1524 mwanahumanisti mkuu Erasmus alitetea utashi huru, na mwaka 1525 Martin Luther alijibu kwa Utumwa wa Utashi. Calvin alisimama pamoja na Luther na, nyuma yake, pamoja na Augustino wa Hippo, ambaye vita vyake vya karne ya tano dhidi ya mtawa Pelagio anavinukuu daima. Mwaka 1543 Calvin aliandika tasnifu nzima juu ya utumwa na ukombozi wa utashi dhidi ya mwanateolojia Mkatoliki Mholanzi Albert Pighius. Huko Paris, wanateolojia wa Sorbonne walifuata walimu wa zama za kati kama Petro Lombardo, aliyeshikilia kwamba watu walioanguka wanabaki na uwezo halisi, ingawa umedhoofika, wa kuchagua jema. Katika sura hizi Calvin anasisitiza kwamba hafundishi jambo jipya, bali yale tu aliyofundisha Augustino.The question of the will was one of the sharpest of the Reformation. In 1524 the great humanist Erasmus defended free will, and in 1525 Martin Luther answered with The Bondage of the Will. Calvin stood with Luther and, behind him, with Augustine of Hippo, whose fifth-century battle against the monk Pelagius he constantly cites. In 1543 Calvin wrote a whole treatise on the bondage and liberation of the will against the Dutch Catholic theologian Albert Pighius. In Paris, the Sorbonne’s theologians followed medieval teachers such as Peter Lombard, who held that fallen people keep a real, if weakened, power to choose good. In these chapters Calvin insists that he teaches nothing new, only what Augustine taught.

2.Kujijua Ipasavyo (Sura ya I, 1–4)2.Knowing Ourselves Rightly (Chapter I, 1–4)

Calvin anarudi kwenye mada ya Kitabu cha I: lazima tujijue wenyewe. Lakini wanafalsafa walihimiza kujijua ili tu watu wajivunie heshima yao. Kujijua kwa kweli kuna pande mbili. Lazima tuone Mungu alitupa nini wakati wa uumbaji, kisha “hali yetu ya kusikitisha tangu anguko la Adamu,” ambayo inapaswa “kuharibu majivuno yote na kujiamini” na kutujaza “unyenyekevu wa kweli.” Dhambi ya Adamu ilikuwa nini? Wazo la kawaida la ulafi tu juu ya tunda ni “la kitoto kabisa.” Mti uliokatazwa ulikuwa jaribio la utii, na anguko lilianza Hawa na Adamu walipolitilia shaka neno la Mungu na kumwamini nyoka. “Kutokuamini, kwa hiyo, ndiko kulikokuwa mzizi wa uasi huo.” Kutoka kutokuamini yalizuka tamaa ya cheo, kiburi na kutoshukuru. Ilikuwa ya kutisha kwamba “mwana wa udongo” hakuridhika kuumbwa kama Mungu, “isipokuwa pia aweze kuwa sawa naye.” Pamoja na Bernardo, anaona kwamba mauti iliingia kwa sikio lililomsikiliza Shetani, na wokovu huingia kwa sikio linalosikia Injili.Calvin returns to the theme of Book I: we must know ourselves. But the philosophers urged self-knowledge only to make people proud of their dignity. True self-knowledge has two sides. We must see what God gave us at creation, and then our “miserable condition since the fall of Adam,” which should “destroy all boasting and confidence” and fill us “with real humility.” What was Adam’s sin? The popular idea of mere gluttony over a piece of fruit is “quite puerile.” The forbidden tree was a test of obedience, and the fall began when Eve and Adam doubted God’s word and believed the serpent. “Infidelity, therefore, was the root of that defection.” From unbelief sprang ambition, pride and ingratitude. It was monstrous that “a son of the earth” was not content to be made like God, “unless he could also be equal to him.” With Bernard, he notes that death entered by the ear that listened to Satan, and salvation enters by the ear that hears the Gospel.

3.Dhambi ya Asili Imefafanuliwa (Sura ya I, 5–11)3.Original Sin Defined (Chapter I, 5–11)

Uzima wa Adamu ulikuwa katika kuungana na Mungu, kwa hiyo kutengwa na Mungu kulikuwa mauti ya roho yake, naye “aliwahusisha wazao wake wote pamoja naye.” Pelagio alidai kwamba Adamu alijidhuru yeye mwenyewe tu na kwamba wengine hutenda dhambi kwa kumwiga tu. Calvin, akimfuata Augustino, anajibu kutoka Maandiko kwamba tunarithi asili iliyoharibika tangu kuzaliwa. Anatoa ufafanuzi makini: dhambi ya asili ni “upotovu na uharibifu wa kurithi wa asili yetu, ulioenea katika sehemu zote za roho.” Inatufanya wenye hatia mbele za Mungu, na inaendelea kuzaa matendo ya mwili, “kama utoaji wa mwali na cheche kutoka tanuru iliyopashwa moto.” Si ukosefu wa jema tu bali ni mwelekeo hai wa uovu. Inafikia akili na utashi, si tamaa za chini tu. Hata hivyo Calvin analinda wema wa Mungu. Upotovu huu ni “wa asili” kwa sababu wote huzaliwa nao, lakini “haukuanzia katika asili,” kama Mungu alivyoiumba. Dhambi ni uharibifu ulioingia, si sehemu ya uumbaji wa Mungu, dhidi ya Wamani waliofanya uovu kuwa dutu.Adam’s life consisted in union with God, so alienation from God was the death of his soul, and he “involved all his posterity with him.” Pelagius claimed that Adam harmed only himself and that others sin only by imitating him. Calvin, following Augustine, answers from Scripture that we inherit a corrupted nature from birth. He gives a careful definition: original sin is “an hereditary pravity and corruption of our nature, diffused through all the parts of the soul.” It makes us guilty before God, and it keeps producing the works of the flesh, “like the emission of flame and sparks from a heated furnace.” It is not only the absence of good but an active bent to evil. It reaches the mind and the will, not only the lower appetites. Yet Calvin guards God’s goodness. This depravity is “natural” because all are born with it, but it “did not originate from nature,” as God made it. Sin is a corruption that came in, not part of God’s creation, against the Manichees who made evil a substance.

4.Kati ya Miamba Miwili (Sura ya II, 1–11)4.Between Two Rocks (Chapter II, 1–11)

Kabla ya kuuliza uhuru kiasi gani umebaki, Calvin anaweka mwelekeo kati ya hatari mbili. Watu wakisikia hawana nguvu kwa jema, wanaweza kuwa wavivu. Wakidai nguvu yoyote yao wenyewe, Mungu anapokonywa heshima yake nao wanaanguka katika kiburi. “Ili kuepuka kugonga mojawapo ya miamba hii,” asema, lazima tuwafundishe watu kwamba hawana kitu chema cha kwao wenyewe, na wakati huo huo tuwahimize kutafuta wema wanaoukosa. Kutegemea nguvu zetu ni “kuinuliwa hewani juu ya unyasi.” Hapendi msemo “utashi huru.” Ikiwa humaanisha tu kwamba tunatenda dhambi kwa hiari, bila kulazimishwa, basi “uhuru wa ajabu kweli,” asema kwa kejeli, kwa kuwa utashi bado unashikwa “na minyororo ya dhambi.” Anapenda jibu la Augustino: kanuni ya kwanza, ya pili na ya tatu ya dini ya Kikristo ni unyenyekevu.Before asking how much freedom remains, Calvin sets a course between two dangers. If people hear that they have no power for good, they may become lazy. If they claim any power of their own, God is robbed of His honor and they fall into pride. “To avoid striking on either of these rocks,” he says, we must teach people that they have nothing good of their own, and at the same time urge them to seek the good they lack. To lean on our own strength is to be “lifted into the air on a reed.” He dislikes the phrase “free will.” If it only means that we sin willingly, not under force, then “egregious liberty indeed,” he says with irony, for the will is still held “by the fetters of sin.” He loves Augustine’s answer: the first, second and third rule of the Christian religion is humility.

5.Vipawa Vinavyobaki (Sura ya II, 12–27)5.The Gifts That Remain (Chapter II, 12–27)

Hapa Calvin ni mkarimu zaidi kuliko wengi wanavyotarajia. Anakubali msemo wa kale wa Augustino: vipawa vyetu vya asili viliharibiwa na dhambi, lakini vipawa vyetu vya juu ya asili, kama imani, upendo kwa Mungu na utakatifu, vilichukuliwa. Akili, kipawa cha asili, iliharibiwa lakini haikufutwa. Kwa hiyo “nuru” bado “yang’aa gizani.” Katika mambo ya duniani, kama sheria, serikali, falsafa, mantiki, tiba na hisabati, wasioamini wameonyesha ustadi mkubwa. “Roho wa Mungu ndiye chemchemi pekee ya kweli,” kwa hiyo hatupaswi kuidharau kweli popote inapoonekana, la sivyo tunamtukana Roho aliyeitoa. Roho yule yule alimjaza Bezaleli ustadi wa kujenga hema ya kukutania. Lakini katika mambo ya mbinguni, katika kumjua Mungu, fadhili zake za kibaba na kanuni sahihi ya maisha, hata “wenye busara zaidi miongoni mwa wanadamu ni vipofu kuliko fuko.” Dhamiri hujua sheria ya Mungu vya kutosha kutuacha bila udhuru, lakini si vya kutosha kuokoa.Here Calvin is more generous than many expect. He accepts an old saying from Augustine: our natural gifts were corrupted by sin, but our supernatural gifts, such as faith, love for God and holiness, were taken away. Reason, a natural gift, was damaged but not destroyed. So “the light” still “shineth in darkness.” In earthly matters, such as law, government, philosophy, logic, medicine and mathematics, unbelievers have shown great skill. “The Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth,” so we must not despise truth wherever it appears, or we insult the Spirit who gave it. The same Spirit filled Bezaleel with skill to build the tabernacle. But in heavenly matters, in knowing God, His fatherly favor and the right rule of life, even “the most sagacious of mankind are blinder than moles.” The conscience knows enough of God’s law to leave us without excuse, but not enough to save.

6.Wenye Kutaka, Lakini Wamefungwa (Sura ya III, 1–5)6.Willing, Yet Bound (Chapter III, 1–5)

Maandiko yanamhukumu mtu mzima: moyo “ni mdanganyifu kuliko vitu vyote, una ugonjwa wa kufisha.” Je, vipi kuhusu wapagani wema, kama shujaa Mrumi Camillus? Calvin anajibu kwamba Mungu huzuia uharibifu wa watu wengi, “si kuutakasa, bali kuzuia ndani utendaji wake,” kwa faida ya jamii. Fadhila kama hizo ni vipawa vya Mungu, lakini mahali pasipo lengo la utukufu wa Mungu, hazipati stahili mbele zake. Kisha inakuja tofauti kuu ya Calvin, kati ya ulazima na kulazimishwa. Mungu ni mwema kwa ulazima, lakini mwema kwa uhuru; ibilisi hutenda uovu kwa ulazima, lakini kwa hiari. Kwa hiyo mtu aliyeanguka hutenda dhambi “kwa hiari, si kwa kusita wala kulazimishwa,” lakini hawezi kutaka kilicho chema kweli. Anamnukuu Bernardo: “kutaka tu ni la mwanadamu; kutaka uovu, ni la asili iliyoharibika; kutaka jema, ni la neema.” Utashi unabaki; kilichopotea ni afya yake.Scripture condemns the whole person: the heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” What then of virtuous pagans, such as the Roman hero Camillus? Calvin answers that God restrains the corruption of many people, “not to purify it, but internally to restrain its operations,” for the good of society. Such virtues are gifts of God, but where there is no aim at God’s glory, they win no merit before Him. Then comes Calvin’s key distinction, between necessity and compulsion. God is necessarily good, yet freely good; the devil necessarily does evil, yet does it willingly. So fallen man sins “voluntarily, not with reluctance or constraint,” yet cannot will what is truly good. He quotes Bernard: “simply to will belongs to man; to will what is evil, to corrupt nature; to will what is good, to grace.” The will remains; what was lost is its soundness.

7.Neema Inayoufanya Moyo Kuwa Mpya (Sura ya III, 6–14, na IV)7.Grace That Makes the Heart New (Chapters III, 6–14, and IV)

Ikiwa ugonjwa ni wa kina hivyo, dawa lazima iwe ya Mungu peke yake. Paulo anasema Mungu “alianza kazi njema” kwa waumini, na mwanzo huo ni kugeuzwa kwa utashi. Mungu anaahidi katika Ezekieli kuondoa moyo wa jiwe na kutupa moyo wa nyama. Mungu hasaidii tu utashi dhaifu. Anafanya kazi kwa “kuinamisha, kuumba, na kuelekeza mioyo yetu kwenye haki,” naye anamaliza kazi kwa kutupa uvumilivu. Neema haiharibu utashi; pamoja na Augustino, Calvin anasema unabadilishwa “kutoka mbaya kuwa mwema.” Kwa hiyo waumini hutii kutoka moyoni, si kwa nguvu ya nje. Sura ya IV inatumia mfano wa Augustino wa utashi kama farasi mwenye mpanda: Mungu anapompanda, humwongoza kwa ustadi; ibilisi anapompanda, humkimbiza kwenye miamba. Mungu anapomtumia Shetani na watu waovu, kama katika mateso ya Ayubu, tendo hilo hilo lina makusudi tofauti, na hatia ni ya utashi wa mwanadamu.If the disease is so deep, the remedy must be God’s alone. Paul says God “hath begun a good work” in believers, and that beginning is the conversion of the will. God promises in Ezekiel to take away the stony heart and give a heart of flesh. God does not merely help a weak will. He works by “bending, forming, and directing our hearts towards righteousness,” and He completes the work by giving perseverance. Grace does not destroy the will; with Augustine, Calvin says it is changed “from a bad one into a good one.” So believers obey from the heart, not under outside force. Chapter IV uses Augustine’s image of the will as a horse with a rider: when God rides, He guides it skillfully; when the devil rides, he drives it over cliffs. When God uses Satan and wicked people, as in Job’s sufferings, the same act has different purposes, and the guilt belongs to the human will.

8.Kwa Nini Amri na Mawaidha? (Sura ya V)8.Why Commands and Exhortations? (Chapter V)

Wapinzani wa Calvin waliuliza: ikiwa hatuwezi kutii kwa nguvu zetu wenyewe, kwa nini Mungu anaamuru, anaahidi na kukemea? Calvin anajibu kwa subira. Kwa wakaidi, amri za Mungu ni ushahidi unaowaacha bila udhuru. Kwa waumini, ndizo njia zenyewe ambazo Roho hufanya kazi kupitia kwazo, kwa kuwa Mungu “hapuuzi njia ya neno lake.” Ikiwa Mungu anachagua kutuandaa kwa mawaidha ili tupokee neema inayotufanya tutii, “una nini cha kulaumu katika utaratibu huu?” Amri za Mungu zinaonyesha tunachopaswa kufanya, si tunachoweza kufanya wenyewe. Ahadi zake zinatualika kutafuta kwake kile tunachokikosa. Maneno maarufu ya Warumi 9:16, “basi hiyo si ya mtu ayatakaye, wala ya mtu aendaye mbio,” yanaonyesha kwamba kila kitu hatimaye kinategemea rehema ya Mungu.Calvin’s opponents asked: if we cannot obey by our own power, why does God command, promise and rebuke? Calvin answers patiently. To the stubborn, God’s commands are a witness that leaves them without excuse. To believers, they are the very means through which the Spirit works, for God “neglects not the instrumentality of his word.” If God chooses to prepare us by exhortation to receive the grace that makes us obey, “what have you to censure in this economy?” God’s commands show what we ought to do, not what we can do by ourselves. His promises invite us to seek from Him what we lack. The famous words of Romans 9:16, “not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,” show that everything finally depends on God’s mercy.

9.Kutoka Dort hadi Uwanja wa Misheni9.From Dort to the Mission Field

Sura hizi ziliunda baraza kubwa la Kireformed. Baada ya profesa Mholanzi Jacobus Arminius (alikufa 1609) na wafuasi wake, Waremonstranti, kufundisha kwamba neema inaweza kupingwa, Sinodi ya Dort (1618–1619) ilikusanya wajumbe kutoka Ulaya yote ya Kireformed. Kanuni zake zilikiri uharibifu mkubwa wa watu walioanguka na nguvu ya neema ifanyayo upya, huku zikisisitiza kwamba neema haiwatendei watu kama “magogo na mawe yasiyo na hisia.” Katika New England mrithi wa Wapuritani Jonathan Edwards aliandika Uhuru wa Utashi (1754), akirudia hoja ya Calvin kwamba siku zote tunachagua kile tunachokitamani zaidi. Baadaye, mwanateolojia Mholanzi Abraham Kuyper alijenga juu ya heshima ya Calvin kwa vipawa vya wasioamini kwa mafundisho yake ya “neema ya jumla,” na misheni za Kireformed zilianzisha shule kutoka Lovedale huko Afrika Kusini (1841) hadi Mackenzie huko São Paulo, Brazil (1870).These chapters shaped a great Reformed council. After the Dutch professor Jacobus Arminius (died 1609) and his followers, the Remonstrants, taught that grace can be resisted, the Synod of Dort (1618–1619) gathered delegates from across Reformed Europe. Its Canons confessed the deep corruption of fallen people and the power of renewing grace, while insisting that grace does not treat people as “senseless stocks and blocks.” In New England the Puritan heir Jonathan Edwards wrote Freedom of the Will (1754), restating Calvin’s point that we always choose what we most desire. Later, the Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper built on Calvin’s honor for unbelievers’ gifts with his teaching on “common grace,” and Reformed missions founded schools from Lovedale in South Africa (1841) to Mackenzie in São Paulo, Brazil (1870).

10.Mchungaji wa Kireformed Anachukua Nini Leo10.What a Reformed Pastor Takes from It Today

Mchungaji anayeamini sura hizi hatawabembeleza watu, lakini pia hatamkatia tamaa mtu yeyote, kwa kuwa dawa ni neema ya Mungu, si nguvu za wanadamu. Atahubiri amri za Mungu kwa ujasiri, kwa sababu Roho huzitumia. Ataheshimu ustadi wa madaktari na walimu wa imani yoyote kama vipawa vya Roho. Wengine wanatofautiana mahali fulani. Walutheri wanasimama pamoja na Calvin juu ya utumwa wa utashi. Wakatoliki wa Roma, wakifuata Trento, wanashikilia kwamba utashi ulijeruhiwa lakini haukuharibiwa na unashirikiana na neema. Wakristo wa Kiweslesi na Kiarminiani wanakubali kwamba watu walioanguka wameharibika sana, lakini wanaamini “neema itangulizayo” ya Mungu humrudishia kila mtu uwezo wa kuikubali au kuikataa Injili; Wapentekoste wengi wanashikilia mtazamo huu. Wabaptisti wamegawanyika: Wabaptisti Maalum (Particular) wanasimama pamoja na Calvin, huku Wabaptisti wa Jumla (General) na Wabaptisti wa Utashi Huru (Free Will) wakimfuata Arminius.A pastor who believes these chapters will not flatter people, but neither will he despair of anyone, since the cure is God’s grace, not human strength. He will preach God’s commands boldly, because the Spirit uses them. He will honor the skill of doctors and teachers of any faith as gifts of the Spirit. Others differ in places. Lutherans stand with Calvin on the bondage of the will. Roman Catholics, following Trent, hold that the will was wounded but not destroyed and cooperates with grace. Wesleyan and Arminian Christians agree that fallen people are deeply corrupt, but believe God’s “prevenient grace” restores to every person the ability to accept or refuse the Gospel; most Pentecostals hold this view. Baptists are divided: Particular Baptists stand with Calvin, while General and Free Will Baptists follow Arminius.

11.Kuliweka Moyoni11.Taking It to Heart

1.Fundisho Ambalo Matengenezo ya Kanisa Yalizunguka Juu Yake1.The Doctrine on Which the Reformation Turned

Ugunduzi wa Martin Luther kwamba “mwenye haki ataishi kwa imani” uliwasha Matengenezo ya Kanisa huko Ujerumani, na kila kanisa la Kiprotestanti lilirithi huo. Kufikia miaka ya 1540 swali lilikuwa la dharura. Mwaka 1541 Calvin, wakati huo mchungaji huko Strasbourg, alihudhuria Mkutano wa Regensburg, ambapo wanateolojia wa Kiprotestanti na Kikatoliki walijaribu na kushindwa kukubaliana juu ya tamko la pamoja. Mwaka 1547 Mtaguso wa Trento ulitoa azimio lake juu ya kuhesabiwa haki, ukifundisha kwamba kuhesabiwa haki kunajumuisha kufanywa upya kwa ndani kwa mtu. Calvin alijibu mwaka huo huo kwa “dawa ya kukinga” dhidi ya mtaguso. Katika miaka ya 1550 ugomvi mpya ulizuka miongoni mwa Walutheri juu ya mafundisho ya Andreas Osiander. Yote haya yako nyuma ya sura hizi. Angalia mahali Calvin anapoziweka: baada ya mjadala mrefu wa toba na maisha ya Kikristo. Hakutaka mtu yeyote adhani kwamba kuhesabiwa haki kwa bure kunafanya utakatifu usiwe wa lazima.Martin Luther’s discovery that “the righteous shall live by faith” lit the Reformation in Germany, and every Protestant church inherited it. By the 1540s the question was urgent. In 1541 Calvin, then a pastor in Strasbourg, attended the Colloquy of Regensburg, where Protestant and Catholic theologians tried and failed to agree on a common statement. In 1547 the Council of Trent issued its decree on justification, teaching that justification includes the inward renewal of the person. Calvin answered the same year with an “antidote” to the council. In the 1550s a new quarrel broke out among Lutherans over the teaching of Andreas Osiander. All of this lies behind these chapters. Notice where Calvin places them: after a long treatment of repentance and the Christian life. He wanted no one to think that free justification makes holiness unnecessary.

2.Bawaba Kuu (Sura ya XI, 1)2.The Principal Hinge (Chapter XI, 1)

Calvin anaanza kwa kukumbuka alichokwisha kufundisha. Kristo anapewa sisi kwa wema wa Mungu na kupokelewa kwa imani, na katika kuungana naye tunapokea “hasa faida mbili.” Kwanza, tukipatanishwa kwa kutokuwa na hatia kwake, tunakuwa na “baba mwenye fadhili mbinguni badala ya hakimu.” Pili, tukitakaswa na Roho wake, tunajitoa kwa maisha matakatifu. Zawadi hizi mbili, ambazo mara nyingi huitwa “neema maradufu,” daima huja pamoja, lakini hazipaswi kuchanganywa. Calvin ameshughulikia kuzaliwa upya kwanza; sasa anageukia kuhesabiwa haki, anakoliita “bawaba kuu ambayo kwayo dini inategemezwa.” Isipokuwa tujue tunasimama wapi mbele za Mungu na hukumu yake juu yetu ni nini, hatuna msingi wa uhakika wa wokovu wala wa utauwa wa kweli kwa Mungu.Calvin begins by recalling what he has already taught. Christ is given to us by God’s goodness and received by faith, and in union with Him we receive “especially two benefits.” First, reconciled by His innocence, we have “in heaven a propitious father instead of a judge.” Second, sanctified by His Spirit, we devote ourselves to a holy life. These two gifts, often called the “double grace,” always come together, but they must not be confused. Calvin has treated regeneration first; now he turns to justification, which he calls “the principal hinge by which religion is supported.” Unless we know where we stand before God and what His judgment is concerning us, we have no foundation for assurance of salvation or for true piety toward God.

3.Maana ya Kuhesabiwa Haki (Sura ya XI, 2–4)3.What It Means to Be Justified (Chapter XI, 2–4)

Calvin anafafanua maneno kwa uangalifu wa mwanasheria. Mtu anahesabiwa haki mbele za Mungu anapohesabiwa, katika hukumu ya Mungu, kuwa mwenye haki na kukubaliwa. Mtu asiye na hatia aliyeachiliwa na hakimu mwenye haki ni “amehesabiwa haki.” Kuhesabiwa haki kwa matendo kungehitaji maisha safi ya kutosha kuridhisha kiti cha hukumu cha Mungu; hakuna mwenye dhambi mwenye maisha kama hayo. Kuhesabiwa haki kwa imani ni kutengwa na haki ya matendo na kuishika kwa imani haki ya Kristo, “akiwa amevikwa hiyo,” mwamini anaonekana mbele za Mungu kuwa mwenye haki. Muhtasari wa Calvin ni mojawapo ya fasili za kawaida za Matengenezo ya Kanisa: kuhesabiwa haki ni “kukubaliwa, ambako kwako Mungu hutupokea katika kibali chake, na kutuhesabu kuwa watu wenye haki,” nako “kunajumuisha msamaha wa dhambi na kuhesabiwa kwa haki ya Kristo.” Anaonyesha kutoka Maandiko kwamba “kuhesabu haki” humaanisha kutangaza kuwa mwenye haki: watu “walimhesabia Mungu haki” walipoikiri haki yake, ambayo hawakuweza kuiongeza.Calvin defines terms with a lawyer’s care. A person is justified before God when, in God’s judgment, he is counted righteous and accepted. An innocent man acquitted by a just judge is “justified.” To be justified by works would require a life pure enough to satisfy God’s tribunal; no sinner has such a life. To be justified by faith is to be excluded from the righteousness of works and to lay hold by faith on the righteousness of Christ, “invested in which,” the believer appears before God as righteous. Calvin’s summary is one of the classic definitions of the Reformation: justification is “an acceptance, by which God receives us into his favour, and esteems us as righteous persons,” and it “consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ.” He shows from Scripture that “justify” means to declare righteous: the people “justified God” when they acknowledged His righteousness, which they could not add to.

4.Kuungana na Kristo, Si Mchanganyiko wa Dutu (Sura ya XI, 5–12)4.Union with Christ, Not a Mixture of Substances (Chapter XI, 5–12)

Osiander alifundisha kwamba sisi ni wenye haki kwa sababu kiini cha kimungu cha Kristo kinamiminwa ndani yetu. Calvin anaita hili “wazo la kutisha” linalotia giza neema. Hakika sisi tu mmoja na Kristo, anakubali, lakini tumeunganishwa kwa “nguvu ya siri ya Roho wake,” si kwa kuchanganywa kwa kiini cha Kristo na chetu. Hapa Calvin anasema jambo la thamani. Anahusisha “umuhimu mkubwa kuliko yote” na “muungano wa siri” ambao kwao Kristo anakuwa wetu. “Basi hatumtazami kwa mbali nje yetu,” kana kwamba haki yake inahesabiwa kwa wageni. Kwa sababu tumemvaa na kupandikizwa katika mwili wake, tunashiriki haki yake. Imani ni nini, basi? “Tunailinganisha imani na chombo.” Lazima tuje “tukiwa watupu na kinywa cha roho zetu wazi” kumpokea Kristo. Chombo hakina thamani yake; hazina ni Kristo. Imani ni “chombo” ambacho kwacho haki hupokelewa.Osiander taught that we are righteous because Christ’s divine essence is poured into us. Calvin calls this a “monstrous notion” that darkens grace. We are indeed one with Christ, he agrees, but united by “the secret energy of his Spirit,” not by a blending of Christ’s essence with ours. Here Calvin says something precious. He attributes “the highest importance” to the “mystical union” by which Christ becomes ours. “We do not, then, contemplate him at a distance out of ourselves,” as if His righteousness were credited to strangers. Because we have put Him on and are grafted into His body, we share His righteousness. What then is faith? “Faith we compare to a vessel.” We must come “empty with the mouth of our soul open” to receive Christ. The vessel has no value of its own; the treasure is Christ. Faith is “the instrument” by which righteousness is received.

5.Imani Peke Yake, Si Imani Pamoja na Matendo (Sura ya XI, 13–20)5.Faith Alone, Not Faith Plus Works (Chapter XI, 13–20)

Wengi hufikiri haki imetengenezwa kwa imani na matendo pamoja. Calvin anajibu kwamba hivyo viwili ni vinyume: moja ikisimama, nyingine huanguka. Paulo alihesabu haki yake mwenyewe kuwa hasara ili aonekane ndani ya Kristo akiwa na “haki itokayo kwa Mungu kwa imani.” Kama Abrahamu angehesabiwa haki kwa matendo, angekuwa na cha kujisifia, lakini kujisifu kumeondolewa. “Kwaheri, basi, wazo la kubuni la wale wanaofikiri haki iliyochanganywa ya imani na matendo.” Wapinzani wa Calvin walipinga kwamba Maandiko hayasemi kamwe “imani peke yake.” Anajibu: “Je, yule anayekana kila kitu kwa matendo hahusishi kila kitu kwa imani peke yake kabisa?” Wengine, wakimfuata Origeni, walisema Paulo alitenga matendo ya kiibada ya sheria tu. Calvin anaonyesha kwamba Paulo anasema juu ya sheria nzima na kila tendo. Imani haihesabu haki kwa sababu ni tendo jema, bali kwa sababu inampokea Kristo.Many imagine righteousness made of faith and works together. Calvin answers that the two are opposites: if one stands, the other falls. Paul counted his own righteousness loss to be found in Christ with “the righteousness which is of God by faith.” If Abraham were justified by works, he would have something to boast of, but boasting is excluded. “Adieu, therefore, to the fanciful notion of those who imagine a righteousness compounded of faith and works.” Calvin’s opponents objected that Scripture never says “faith alone.” He replies: “does not he most completely attribute every thing to faith alone, who denies every thing to works?” Some, following Origen, said Paul excluded only the ceremonial works of the law. Calvin shows that Paul speaks of the whole law and of every work. Faith does not justify because it is a good work, but because it receives Christ.

6.Yakobo Katika Vazi la Ndugu Yake (Sura ya XI, 21–23)6.Jacob in His Brother’s Garment (Chapter XI, 21–23)

Kuhesabiwa haki, asema Calvin, ni upatanisho na Mungu, nako kunajumuisha msamaha wa dhambi. Dhambi hututenga na Mungu; Mungu hampokei mtu yeyote katika ushirika bila kumfanya mwenye dhambi kuwa mwenye haki, naye hufanya hivyo kwa kutotuhesabia dhambi. Paulo anasema Mungu “alimfanya kuwa dhambi kwa ajili yetu yeye asiyejua dhambi; ili sisi tuwe haki ya Mungu ndani yake.” Kwa hiyo mtu ni mwenye haki “si ndani yake mwenyewe, bali kwa sababu haki ya Kristo inashirikishwa kwake kwa kuhesabiwa.” Calvin anakopa taswira nzuri kutoka kwa Ambrosi. Yakobo, ambaye hakuwa na haki ya baraka, alivaa mavazi ya ndugu yake mkubwa na akapokea baraka ya baba yake. Vivyo hivyo “tunajificha chini ya usafi wa thamani wa Kristo ndugu yetu mkubwa.” Ili kuonekana mbele ya Mungu, lazima “tutiwe manukato ya harufu yake,” upotovu wetu ukifunikwa na ukamilifu wake.Justification, Calvin says, is reconciliation with God, and it consists in the forgiveness of sins. Sin separates us from God; God receives no one into fellowship without making the sinner righteous, and He does this by not counting sins against us. Paul says God “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” So a person is righteous “not in himself, but because the righteousness of Christ is communicated to him by imputation.” Calvin borrows a lovely picture from Ambrose. Jacob, who had no right to the blessing, wore the garments of his elder brother and received his father’s blessing. So “we shelter ourselves under the precious purity of Christ our elder brother.” To appear before God, we must be “perfumed with his fragrance,” our deformities covered by His perfection.

7.Mbele ya Kiti cha Hukumu cha Mbinguni (Sura ya XII)7.Before the Heavenly Tribunal (Chapter XII)

Kwa nini watu hufikiri kwa wepesi hivyo juu ya haki yao wenyewe? Kwa sababu wanasahau wanasimama katika mahakama ya nani. Hatushughulikii “mahakama ya kibinadamu, bali” “kiti cha hukumu cha mbinguni.” Ni rahisi, asema Calvin, kwa wasomi “katika makao ya shule” kuwaza juu ya stahili ya matendo; mbele za Mungu michezo hiyo huisha. Mchore Hakimu kama Maandiko yanavyomchora: mng’ao wake hufifisha nyota na usafi wake hufanya vitu vyote vionekane najisi. “Ee Bwana, ukihesabu maovu, Ee Bwana, ni nani atakayesimama?” Calvin anamnukuu Augustino na Bernardo, waliojifunza kutegemea rehema ya Mungu peke yake. Unyenyekevu wa kweli si unyonge wa adabu unaobaki na stahili kidogo, bali ni “kunyenyekea kwa dhati” kwa moyo unaojua umaskini wake. Yesu aliuchora katika mfano wa Mfarisayo na mtoza ushuru. Mfarisayo alimshukuru Mungu kwa fadhila zake na akaenda nyumbani bila kukubaliwa; mtoza ushuru alipiga kelele, “Ee Mungu, unirehemu mimi mwenye dhambi,” na akaenda nyumbani amehesabiwa haki.Why do people think so lightly of their own righteousness? Because they forget whose court they stand in. We are not dealing with “a human court, but” with “the heavenly tribunal.” It is easy, Calvin says, for scholars “in the cloisters of the schools” to speculate about the merit of works; before God such games end. Picture the Judge as Scripture does: His brightness darkens the stars and His purity makes all things look unclean. “If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” Calvin cites Augustine and Bernard, who learned to rest only on God’s mercy. True humility is not a polite modesty that still keeps a little merit, but “the unfeigned submission” of a heart aware of its poverty. Jesus painted it in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee thanked God for his virtues and went home unaccepted; the tax collector cried, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and went home justified.

8.Utukufu wa Mungu na Amani ya Dhamiri (Sura ya XIII)8.God’s Glory and the Conscience’s Peace (Chapter XIII)

Calvin anamalizia kwa makusudi mawili ambayo hatuna budi kuyatunza daima: “kuhifadhi utukufu wa Bwana bila kuharibika wala kupunguzwa,” na kuipa dhamiri yetu amani mbele ya hukumu ya Mungu. Yote mawili hupotea ikiwa kuhesabiwa haki kunatutegemea sisi. Hatuwezi kujisifu kwa Mungu kweli “mpaka tuwe tumeacha kabisa utukufu wetu wote.” Na dhamiri inaweza kupata raha katika zawadi tu. Mtu yeyote mwema akijichunguza kwa unyofu, hupata sababu ya kuhukumiwa; ikiwa wokovu ungetegemea matendo yake, ahadi ingeshindwa. Lakini imani hutulia juu ya ahadi ya bure ya Mungu na hulia “Aba, Baba.” Calvin anaongeza mstari wa kushangaza: katika kuhesabiwa haki, “imani ni jambo la kupokea tu, si la kutenda,” halileti chochote chake na hupokea kila kitu kutoka kwa Kristo. Mpaka tufike bandari hiyo, tunatetemeka kwa kila upepo. Mungu anapojionyesha kuwa Mchungaji wetu, hatuogopi mabaya hata katika bonde la uvuli wa mauti.Calvin ends with two aims we must always keep: “to maintain the glory of the Lord unimpaired and undiminished,” and to give our consciences peace before God’s judgment. Both are lost if justification depends on us. We cannot truly glory in God “till we have entirely renounced all glory of our own.” And the conscience can find rest only in a gift. If any good man examines himself honestly, he finds cause for condemnation; if salvation hung on his works, the promise would fail. But faith rests on God’s free promise and cries “Abba, Father.” Calvin adds a striking line: in justification, “faith is a thing merely passive,” bringing nothing of its own and receiving everything from Christ. Till we reach that harbor we tremble at every breeze. When God shows Himself our Shepherd, we fear no evil even in the valley of death.

9.Kuhesabiwa Haki Katika Kanuni za Imani za Kireformed9.Justification in the Reformed Confessions

Kila kanuni ya imani ya Kireformed inajengwa juu ya sura hizi. Katekisimu ya Heidelberg (1563) inauliza tunakuwaje sawa na Mungu na kujibu: kwa imani ya kweli katika Yesu Kristo peke yake. Kanuni ya Imani ya Westminster (1646) inafundisha kwamba Mungu anahesabu haki, “si kwa kuwamiminia haki, bali kwa kusamehe dhambi zao,” na kuwakubali kuwa wenye haki kwa ajili ya Kristo. Mpuritani John Owen alitetea fundisho hilo kwa urefu mwaka 1677. Katika Amerika ya Kilatini yote na Afrika, wahubiri wa Kipresbiteri na wa Kireformed wametangaza neema ile ile ya bure kwa watu waliolemewa na wajibu wa kidini, hofu ya pepo au juhudi isiyoisha ya kujipatia kibali cha Mungu.Every Reformed confession builds on these chapters. The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) asks how we are right with God and answers: only by true faith in Jesus Christ. The Westminster Confession (1646) teaches that God justifies, “not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins,” and by accepting them as righteous for Christ’s sake. The Puritan John Owen defended the doctrine at length in 1677. Across Latin America and Africa, Presbyterian and Reformed preachers have proclaimed the same free grace to people burdened by religious duties, fear of spirits or the endless effort to earn God’s favor.

10.Mchungaji wa Kireformed Anachukua Nini Leo10.What a Reformed Pastor Takes from It Today

Mhubiri Kristo kama haki yote ya mwamini, na usimwache mtu yeyote aondoke kanisani akidhani lazima ajipatie kibali cha Mungu. Wafariji wenye wasiwasi kwa “baba mwenye fadhili badala ya hakimu,” na wito wenye raha wasimame mbele ya kiti cha hukumu cha mbinguni. Weka kuhesabiwa haki na utakatifu pamoja, kama Calvin alivyofanya. Wengine wanatofautiana mahali fulani. Walutheri wako karibu zaidi na Calvin juu ya imani peke yake. Wakatoliki wa Roma, wakifuata Trento, wanafundisha kwamba kuhesabiwa haki kunajumuisha kufanywa upya kwa ndani kwa neema. Waweslesi wanatangaza kuhesabiwa haki kwa imani lakini wanasisitiza uhakika na utakatifu, na wengi wanashikilia kwamba mwamini anaweza kuanguka. Wabaptisti kwa jumla wanashiriki mtazamo wa Calvin juu ya kuhesabiwa haki. Wapentekoste wanathibitisha kuhesabiwa haki kwa imani na kuongeza msisitizo juu ya kujazwa na Roho baadaye.Preach Christ as the believer’s whole righteousness, and do not let anyone leave church thinking they must earn God’s favor. Comfort the anxious with the “propitious father instead of a judge,” and call the comfortable to stand before the heavenly tribunal. Keep justification and holiness together, as Calvin did. Others differ in places. Lutherans stand closest to Calvin on faith alone. Roman Catholics, following Trent, teach that justification includes inner renewal by grace. Wesleyans proclaim justification by faith but stress assurance and holiness, and many hold that a believer can fall away. Baptists generally share Calvin’s view of justification. Pentecostals affirm justification by faith and add an emphasis on a later filling with the Spirit.

11.Kuliweka Moyoni11.Taking It to Heart