Satan Is a Liar, at the Command of God

ARTICLE X.

(THAT IS, CALUMNY X.)

SATAN IS A LIAR, AT THE COMMAND OF GOD.

Against this TENTH ARTICLE, Calvin, which is a part of your doctrine, your adversaries argue thus: If Satan is a liar at the command of God, to be a liar is just, and therefore Satan is just. For if it is just to command a lie (and, if Calvin speak the truth, it is), then to obey a lie is also to be considered just from the justice of the precept. And again, as to obey an unjust precept is unjust, so to obey a just precept is just. If Calvin hereupon reply that Satan is not a liar obediently?that is, out of mere obedience to God?we reply, according to Calvin's own sentiments, that Satan's being a liar, but not out of obedience to God, is also at the command of God.

REPLY OF JOHN CALVIN TO ARTICLE X.

AND TO CALUMNIATOR'S OBSERVATIONS, ETC., THEREON.

Now only reflect at what kind of a man it is that you are hurling your shafts! For that assertion at which you aim your weapon is not mine; it proceeds from the Spirit of God Himself. The very words of the Scripture are these, "Whom shall I send? and who will go for Us?" Immediately upon which God calls Satan; and commands him to go and to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets, in order that he might deceive Ahab (1 Kings xxii. 2-22). Now, then, bark, dog as you are, as loud as you will. You will no more obscure the glory of God by your revilings, than you can obscure the brightness of the sun by spitting in his blazing face. But here again let me use the words of Augustine rather than my own, "When God testifies that false prophets are sent by Him, and that His hand is upon them, to cause them to deceive men or kings, this is not an act of His mere patience or permission, but an exercise of His effectual power." As to your prating that Satan is not a liar by the command of God, out of obedience to that command, it is no marvel that you entangle yourself in knots and nets without number whilst you refuse to acknowledge that God uses the workings of Satan in an inexplicable manner, according to His sovereign will, that He may thereby manifest the justice and equity of His supreme dominion. Yet He never liberates the wicked instruments which He uses from the sin and the guilt, which are theirs, which instruments His power compels to execute His decrees, and in some sense, even against their own wills. Though, therefore, your bitter malice may howl an hundred times over, what I utter is not the voice of Calvin, but the voice of God, who saith, "I have given commandment unto My saints." Wherefore, if you imagine that God assumes to Himself more than He ought, He will sooner or later find a way to clear and vindicate Himself from all such accusations as thine, and to take vengeance on all such accusers as thee.