Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Ambition is the Mother of all Heresy

In his comments on Acts 20 Calvin wrote the following provocative sentence:

"Ambition is the mother of all heresy."

Isn't that intriguing? Calvin goes on:

"And as this place teacheth that almost all corruptions of doctrine flow from the pride of men, so we learn again out of the same that it cannot otherwise be, but that ambitious men will turn away from right purity, and corrupt the word of God. For seeing that the pure and sincere handling of the Scripture tendeth to this end, that Christ alone may have the preeminence, and that men can challenge nothing to themselves, but they shall take so much from the glory of Christ, it followeth that those are corrupters of sound doctrine who are addicted to themselves, and study to advance their own glory, which doth only darken Christ."

No comments: