SEEKING THE BETTER LIFE:
A STUDY IN JOHN CALVIN’S DOCTRINE OF PRE-REDEMPTIVE ESCHATOLOGY
by James E. Dolezal
“It is not biblical to hold that eschatology is a sort of appendix to soteriology, a consummation of the saving work of God.” So writes the Princetonian scholar Geerhardus Vos in his discussion of pre-redemptive eschatology. He goes on, “The universe, as created, was only a beginning, the meaning of which was not perpetuation, but attainment.”[1] Vos holds that Adam, before the fall, was looking for an “absolute end” that he did not yet possess.
John Calvin also detected an eschatological principle operating apart from the consideration of sin and redemption. He did not view the original creation, and especially Adam, as static or absolutely complete. It is the aim of this article to establish and explain Calvin’s pre-redemptive eschatology. Calvin is not as systematic in his treatment of this issue as Vos and other twentieth-century Reformed theologians. But, even if somewhat underdeveloped, he certainly holds to an eschatological aim that precedes and, in some sense, regulates soteriology.
While redemption is highly important to Calvin, it is not necessarily the centre of his theology.[2] Yet, his emphasis on redemption makes any examination of his pre-redemptive eschatology somewhat complicated. He was purposefully conscious that the readers of his commentaries and Institutes, and the hearers of his sermons, were fallen men in need of salvation. So naturally there is a stress on redemption even in his treatment of the pre-lapsarian era. This creates a difficulty for our understanding of his view of the world considered apart from the curse.
While weacknowledge the prominent place that redemption occupies in Calvin’s thinking it is nevertheless clear that in Calvin’s assessment of the history of revelation an eschatological outlook precedes the fall and need of redemption. That Calvin regards Adam as possessing a definite eschatological vision prior to any notion of redemption is apparent in the ‘Argument’ of his Genesis commentary where after treating the eschatological direction of the still-righteous Adam he observes that Moses “soon adds the history of his restoration.”[3] Soteriology appears conspicuously after man’s original eschatological outlook has been established and expounded by Calvin. Thus, redemption fits within eschatology and soteriology serves the ultimate design of that eschatological vision.
This essay will consider four features of Calvin’s pre-redemptive eschatology. First, different aspects of Calvin’s pre-fall theology will be drawn out which evidence Adam’s anticipation of a better life than that in Eden. Second, Calvin’s view of the covenant of works will establish Adam’s incompleteness and his movement toward something better. Third, Calvin’s explanation of Adam’s physical body will show that pre-fall man looked for something more than his original condition. Lastly, Calvin’s “back to Eden” view of salvation will be reconciled with his view of Adam’s pre-redemptive eschatology.
A BETTER LIFE
Something Better than Eden
Was Adam meant to be forever satisfied with the Garden of Eden? Was it conceivable to have a superior spiritual or physical experience to what he experienced there? Writing of Adam’s original condition, Calvin relates, “that he was endued with understanding and reason, that being distinguished from brute animals he might meditate on a better life, and might even tend directly towards God, whose image he bore engraven on his own person.”[4] To what could the “better life” be superior? Evidently it is a life better than even man’s sinless existence in Eden. Specifically this meditation on a “better life” is Adam’s “hope of celestial life.”[5] Clearly, according to Calvin, the Garden was never the eschaton. There was another age and condition in view for Adam from the very start.
But are there problems with viewing Adam as created to seek a better life than he had in Eden? Calvin seems to make some contradictory statements in this connection. On Adam’s sin he writes, “For if ambition had not raised man higher than was meet and right, he could have remained in his original state.”[6] First, it appears that ambition for something higher is sinful. Maybe it shows that Adam was discontent with what God had given him in that Edenic paradise. Second, it sounds as if Calvin is suggesting that Adam would have simply continued sinless in Eden had he not transgressed. How can there be room here for the eschatological ambition of a “better life”? It might seem that Calvin believed Adam to already have been in the most desirable state. But Calvin gives no intimation that, had Adam remained in his original state rather than falling into sin, this original state would have been eternal or permanent. To remain in the original state, to Calvin, can mean nothing more that remaining in the bliss of the Garden until transitioning into the longed-for better life. While Calvin faults Adam for the ambition of wanting to be as God, he cannot be faulting all ambition for a better life; such ambition is part of God’s original design for man.
Meditation on the heavenly or future life (meditatio futurae vitae) is another emphasis in Calvin’s writings that portrays Adam looking for something better than Eden. This meditation is clearly placed prior to sin’s entrance. “In the beginning God fashioned us after his image [Gen. 1:27] that he might arouse our minds both to zeal for virtue and for mediation upon eternal life.”[7] Whatever Adam possessed in the Garden, according to Calvin, it could not have been eternal life. Eternal life is placed in front of him as something to which he is to aspire. Calvin proceeds to set out God’s ultimate goal for man: “…it behooves us to recognize that we have been endowed with reason and understanding so that, by leading a holy and upright life, we might press on to the appointed goal of blessed immortality.”[8] Again, immortality could not be something Adam already enjoyed in Eden’s perfection. “He was meant rather to use this life with its opportunities and its glory for meditation on the better and heavenly life which was to be his final destiny… Thus the meditatio futurae vitae, and the life of faith in dependence on the grace of God, are, for Calvin, part of the original order of nature or creation which man was made to observe.”[9] Adam’s pressing on toward his final destiny is not an exact parallel to the apostle Paul’s striving against sin because Adam is moving toward the eschatological goal prior to sin’s entrance. So, Calvin insists upon a distinctly pre-redemptive pressing on to the appointed goal of immortality.
Adam as Viator
Calvin’s description of sinless Adam as ‘pressing on’ is yet another demonstration of his pre-fall eschatology.[10] The idea is that of Adam moving through this world to the next. In the Garden Adam had atheologia viatorum, a pilgrim theology. Richard Muller defines this as “the incomplete or imperfect theology of believers in the world, in contrast to the theology of those who have reached their end in God.”[11] Though Calvin does not employ the precise scholastic language, the idea of pre-lapsarian Adam as a pilgrim is certainly present. Commenting on Genesis 2:8 he writes, “For we are now conversant with that history that teaches us that Adam was, by Divine appointment, an inhabitant of the earth, in order that he might, in passing through this earthly life mediate on heavenly glory.”[12] Calvin clearly detects atheologia viatorum as operativebefore the fall. The first Adam was moving somewhere even prior to the crisis of sin. And where was he going? According to Calvin he was on the way to heavenly glory, but had not yet arrived.
Adam is again represented as in movement when Calvin writes that, “…the image of God was only shadowed forth in man till he should arrive at his perfection.”[13] Clearly the first man is made to move somewhere beyond his original state. Sinless Adam is seeking heaven and the immediate presence of God no less than the redeemed are after the fall. “It is the will of God that so long as we are striving to reach our true fatherland we must be pilgrims on this earth; during the time of our pilgrimage, however, we imperatively need…help.”[14] For Calvin this is equally true of Adam in his integrity.
Mirrors and Ladders
Calvin sees numerous helps given to Adam in his Edenic pilgrimage. These helps furnish yet another piece of evidence that man was never ultimately intended to remain in the Garden. The original created order is one of the helps by which man comes to know God. In the ‘Argument’ portion of his Genesis commentary Calvin writes, “Now, in describing the world as a mirror in which we ought to behold God, I would not be understood to assert, either that our eyes are sufficiently clear-sighted to discern what the fabric of heaven and earth represents, or that the knowledge to hence attained is sufficient for salvation.”[15] True, Calvin is emphasizing the inability of fallen man to truly appreciate what is to be understood in the natural order (here he pulls the redemptive focus back into his discussion of the pre-fall world). But also significant is his description of the natural order as a ‘mirror’. In addressing the theology of the viator, Heiko Oberman writes, “Not even in paradise was it possible for man to have immediate knowledge of God; man in the state of innocence knew God only as in a mirror.”[16] A mirror is reflective of the real thing, but is not itself the thing reflected. Calvin is not saying that the world is of ‘mirror’ status after the fall, but teaches that is such in its original state. Eden as a ‘mirror’ strongly suggests that there was something even better to behold. The mirror was reflective of God himself. Knowing God without the terrestrial mirror is the better life for Calvin. But the mirror of Eden gives him a glimpse of that life.
Calvin is also fond of speaking of various ‘ladders’ by which Adam could ascend from Eden, as it were, into the heavenly presence of God. These ladders were helps by which Adam could climb up off of this earthly paradise to taste the heavenly and future paradise. Adam experienced real, though not complete, communion with God through these ladders.[17] One such ladder was the tree of life, which Calvin categorizes as a sacrament. In his commentary he limits his description of the tree of life to a memorial of the life Adam had received from God.[18] Certainly there is nothing eschatological in that. But one remark does give the idea of something more than memorialistic about the tree of life: “He [God] does not indeed transfer his power into outward signs; but by them he stretches out his hand to us, because, without assistance, we cannot ascend to him.”[19] Where is Adam ascending if he has the fullness of communion with God in the Garden? In his Institutes Calvin ascribes a distinctly eschatological dimension to Adam’s use of the tree of life: “One [natural sacrament] is when he gave Adam and Eve the tree of life as a guarantee of immortality, that they might assure themselves of it as long as they should eat of its fruit.”[20] If they had already possessed unshakable immortality there would be no need for a sign to assure them of it. Elsewhere Calvin is very clear that eating from the tree of life involved a “promise by which he [Adam] was bidden to hope for eternal life.”[21] ‘Promise’ and ‘hope’ conspicuously convey eschatological concepts. When God, after the fall, revokes the use of the tree of life Calvin sees it as the removal of God’s “symbol of…promise” lest Adam should entertain a vain “hope of immortality.”[22] Ronald Wallace summarizes Calvin’s view: “The glory of this earth was meant to enable him, helped by God’s Word and God’s sacramental gift in the tree of life, to raise his mind to the greater glory of his heavenly inheritance.”[23] Sacraments did not begin to be eschatological tokens only after the fall; they have always had that unique function. Wallace again: “But the purpose of God in extending to us these aids is that we may raise our thoughts far above such aids, ‘that our minds may not grovel upon the earth’, and the purpose of God in ‘coming down’ through the sacraments into the midst of our world is that we may be ‘raised up’ spiritually to heaven for a communion that transcends our earthly existence.”[24]
Impermanence of the Original Creation
A fourth indication of Calvin’s doctrine of a better eschatological life is drawn from his description of the impermanence of the original creation. Some might object that Calvin is quite clear about the world’s original ‘perfection’. Indeed, Calvin writes, “that there is in the symmetry of God’s works the highest perfection, to which nothing can be added.”[25] So, ‘perfection’ is not too strong of a term for Calvin to use in describing the original creation: “…understand that the last touch of God has been put in, in order that nothing might be wanting to the perfection of the world.”[26] But by ‘perfection’ Calvin is not implying permanence or durability; he means ‘completeness’ in regard to God’s intent for this world. But is it God’s intent that the earth, or Eden, should continue forever in its original state? Was that the place of a fully realized eschatology? Consider the temporal boundaries that Calvin sees when he writes, “…since the eternal inheritance of man is in heaven, it is truly right that we should tend thither; yet must we fix our foot on earth long enough to enable us to consider the abode which God requires man to use for a time.”[27] The fact that this observation is made in his comments on Genesis 2:8 shows that Calvin clearly sees Eden within temporal, non-ultimate, boundaries. So whatever the perfection is of which he speaks it cannot be understood as ultimate in every way, or as precluding a future eschatology for the first man. The completeness was not in regard to eschatology or the heavenly life, but to the temporal design of this world and this life. There is no contradiction between Calvin’s discussion of the earth’s original perfection and its impermanence unless it can be proved that he saw it as God’s original intent that Eden remain forever as the eschatological realization. But he plainly indicates that the heavenly life is ultimate.
THE COVENANT OF WORKS
Though Calvin never employs the terminology “covenant of works” in the way it came to be used by his successors, his concept of its operation in the Garden is important for grasping Adam’s eschatological trajectory. If Adam had an eschatological goal in Eden then it would stand to reason that his existence there was not static. But where does one find Adam’s movement toward what Vos calls ‘attainment’? Besides being found in promise form in the various sacraments, mirrors, and ladders, it is seen in Adam’s active obedience to God’s law (or covenant of works). Obedience has a goal, an end to attain. Although Calvin rejected the medieval scholastics’ idea of Adam in a ‘pure’ state of nature prior to the fall (in puris naturalibus), he concurred with them about Adam’s pre-fall covenant context. Mark Karlberg writes, “The eschatological goal of creation, namely, communion and life with God in consummated glory, was to be attained in the way of covenant promise and reward. Whereas the state of nature was static, the covenant order was established by God as the means of realizing humanity’s final state of glorification and beatitude.”[28] The covenant gives occasion to forward movement and attainment. For Calvin, this covenant period did not follow the natural, or ‘pure’, period, but rather embraced the whole period before the fall. Adam was never static but was always moving toward the better life in the pre-redemptive era. One reason that Calvin rejects the concept of a ‘pure’ state of nature (i.e., without any pre-redemptive favour or obligation) is that it leaves Adam inert and without an eschatological goal toward which he was headed. An Adam not tending toward an eschatological objective is unacceptable. The covenant of works provides the immediate context for movement toward this goal.
The first Adam had a deep ‘obligation’ to “devote and dedicate himself entirely to obedience towards God.”[29] There seems to be conditionality to the original creation that rested on man’s shoulders. Mutability accompanies this ‘obligation’. Calvin is even more pointed in his discussion on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “Adam was denied the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to test his obedience and prove that he was willingly under God’s command.” Calvin adds that, “the terrible threat of death once he tasted of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, served to prove and exercise his faith.”[30] This was a probationary period that must be passed by Adam in order for him to attain to eternal life. Peter Lillback explains: “Calvin’s treatment of Adam’s pre-fall state in his Genesis commentary…indicates that he considered Adam to be under a covenant that required obedience to law to become perfect before God. Calvin creates the problem for which a covenant of works is a perfect solution, namely, he describes Adam as in a temporary period of earthly innocence that was less than spiritual perfection.”[31] Again, the covenant of works indicates a future condition and life for Adam that he did not yet enjoy in Eden. His existence under the covenant of works was unconfirmed and provisional.[32] Yet all of this predates sin and redemption. Adam was looking for the confirmed and eternal state regardless of the crisis of sin. “…Adam’s task may be understood as the obligation, by means of successful probation, to raise the pre-eschatological, psychical order to the eschatological order, which it anticipates.”[33]