Skip to content

Bible Quotes by John Calvin

26 Bible quotes by John Calvin

All Bible quotes John Calvin’s page

Calvin’s legacy rests on a rigorous engagement with Scripture, and these twenty‑six excerpts capture that intensity. Readers will encounter his hallmark blend of doctrinal precision and pastoral concern, offering a solid sense of how he interpreted the biblical narrative.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

When the Bible speaks, God speaks.

Image

Our true wisdom is to embrace with meek docility, and without reservation, whatever the holy scriptures have delivered.

Image

The Bible is the sceptre by which the Heavenly King rules His Church.

Image

“for when any one understands this Epistle, he has a passage opened to him to the understanding of the whole Scripture.”

Image

Scripture is like a pair of spectacles which dispels the darkness and gives us a clear view of God.

Image

“They who strive to build up a firm faith in Scripture through disputation are doing things backwards.”

Image

Hence that dread and amazement with which as Scripture uniformly relates holy men were struck and overwhelmed whenever they beheld the presence…

Image

The Scriptures should be read with the aim of finding Christ in them. Whoever turns aside from this object, even though he…

Image

The Scriptures obtain full authority among believers only when men regard them as having sprung from heaven, as if there the living…

Image

First of all, Scripture draws our attention to this, that if we want ease and tranquility in our lives, we should resign…

Image

Scripture points out this difference between believers and unbelievers; the latter, as old slaves of their incurable perversity, cannot endure the rod;…

Image

The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and…

Image

If true religion is to beam upon us, our principle must be, that it is necessary to begin with heavenly teaching, and…

Image

“[They] pervert the course of nature [by saying] the sun does not move and that it is the earth that revolves and…

Image

For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any book, however fair, is set before them, though they perceive…

Image

Since no daily responses are given from heaven, and the Scriptures are the only record in which God has been pleased to…

Image

The Lord commands us to do good unto all men without exception, though the majority are very undeserving when judged according to…

Image

The Fanaticism which discards the Scripture, under the pretense of resorting to immediate revelations is subversive of every principle of Christianity. For…

Image

The Lord commands us to do good unto all men without exception, though the majority are very undeserving when judged according to…

Image

“He is always careful to take account of the unity and harmony of Scripture teaching. His expositions are not therefore afflicted with…

Image

We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those…

Image

“But as it was the Apostle's design to teach us what is the legitimate way of worshipping God under the New Testament,…

Image

“For if we see that the sun, in sending forth its rays upon the earth, to generate, cherish, and invigorate its offspring,…

Image

“Hence that dread and amazement with which as Scripture uniformly relates, holy men were struck and overwhelmed whenever they beheld the presence…

Image

Scripture urges and warns us that whatever favors we may have obtained from the Lord, we have received them as a trust…

Image

The most accomplished in the Scripture are fools, unless they acknowledge that they have need of God for their schoolmaster all the…

Image

Other authors on Bible

More by John Calvin

I have never seen either a drop of piety or a grain of truth or ingenuousness - nay, I have never found common sense…

Image

But a most pernicious error widely prevails that Scripture has only so much weight as is conceded to it by the consent of the…

Image

For earthly princes lay aside their power when they rise up against God, and are unworthy to be reckoned among the number of mankind.…

Image

It is no small honour that God for our sake has so magnificently adorned the world, in order that we may not only be…

Image

The word "hope" I take for faith; and indeed hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith.

Image

No man can come to God but by an extraordinary revelation of the Spirit.

Image

There is nothing in afflictions which ought to disturb our joy.

Image

There cannot be a surer rule, nor a stronger exhortation to the observance of it, than when we are taught that all the endowments…

Image

The surest source of destruction to men is to obey themselves.

Image

The whole gospel is contained in Christ.

Image

For Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing is omitted that is both necessary and useful to know, so…

Image

“For earthly princes lay aside their power when they rise up against God, and are unworthy to be reckoned among the number of mankind.…

Image

If a preacher is not first preaching to himself, better that he falls on the steps of the pulpit and breaks his neck than…

Image

Again I ask whence it happened that the fall of Adam involved, without remedy, in eternal death so many nations, together with their infant…

Image

Unless God's Word illumine the way, the whole life of men is wrapped in darkness and mist, so that they cannot but miserably stray.

Image