Philip McDuffie

  • Calvin’s Angelology: Christ is the Chief Angel

    Calvin considers the angel of the Lord that frequently appears in the Old Testament as the pre-incarnate Christ. Calvin knows this is not an original thought because he mentions in his Institutes that “the orthodox doctors of the church have rightly and prudently interpreted that chief angel to be God’s Word, who already at that time, as…

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  • Calvin’s Angelology: Angels Appearing as Men in Scripture

    The author of Hebrews writes, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2). Calvin’s argues that the author of Hebrews commands his recipients to practice hospitality and then motivates them to obey by adding “that angels had sometimes been entertained by those who thought that they…

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  • Calvin’s Angelology: The Function of Angels

    Calvin has a high view of the function and work of angels. Warfield, as he writes on how extensive the function of angels is in Calvin’s angelology, says, “There is at least a prima-facie appearance that Calvin thought of them as the instruments through which the entirety of God’s providential work is administered.”[1] Calvin says this much himself…

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  • Calvin’s Angelology: The Creation, Essence, Order, and Number of Angels

    Calvin believes that God created the world in six days. Man, as the climax of God’s creation, ought to look at the world and “contemplate God’s fatherly love toward mankind, in that he did not create Adam until he had lavished upon the universe all manner of good things.”[1] For Calvin, the creation account of Genesis…

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  • Calvin’s Angelology: His Approach

    Calvin approaches angels with one rule: modesty and sobriety.[1] Calvin’s one rule of modesty and sobriety is due to his fear of idolatry.[2] Throughout history, fallen man has perpetually attributed divinity to angelic creatures. As a pastor and theologian, Calvin is mindful of this when he writes and speaks about angels. He does not want to say…

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  • Calvin’s Angelology: An Introduction

    Calvin’s angelology has not garnered the same amount of attention as other aspects of his theology. In her 1983 Ph.D. dissertation, Susan Schreiner said that Calvin’s angelology has “not been the most popular aspect of Calvin’s theology.”[1] Almost forty years later, Herman Selderhuis, writing in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Journal, agreed with Schreiner when he…

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