Against the persecution of a tyrant the godly have no remedy but prayer.
When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the presence of bad leaders is a sign of divine judgment upon a nation.
John Calvin's quote reflects a belief that when a society is ruled by corrupt or immoral leaders, it is indicative of a deeper spiritual or moral failure within that nation. The implication is that such rulers are not merely the result of political circumstances but are a consequence of a nation's collective actions and attitudes, perhaps as a form of divine retribution or judgment. In this way, the quote invites reflection on the moral character of leadership and its impact on the wellbeing of the society as a whole.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about political leadership during a seminar on ethics.
More from John Calvin
All quotes →The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.
Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.
Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.
For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any book, however fair, is set before them, though they perceive that there is something written, are scarcely able to make out two consecutive words, but, when aided by glasses, begin to read distinctly, so Scripture, gathering together the impressions of Deity, which, till then, lay confused in our minds, dissipates the darkness, and shows us the true God clearly.
Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, there a church of God exists, even if it swarms with many faults.
Similar quotes
To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.
Day to day and doing the work and getting to that honest point - that, for me, is always about - and always will be as long as I do this - refining and refining and refining and refining the truth... constantly being as truthful and honest and raw and real as you can be.
The principle of contradiction establishes merely the agreement of concepts, but does not itself produce concepts.
You carry your snare everywhere and spread your nets in all places. You allege that you never invited others to sin. You did not indeed, by your words, but you have done so by your dress and your deportment.
The partisan strife in which the people of the country are permitted to periodically engage does not tend to the development of ugly traits of character, but merely discloses those that preexist.
Despair is the result of each earnest attempt to go through life with virtue, justice and understanding, and to fulfill their requirements. Children live on one side of despair, the awakened on the other side.