Today’s Readings Podcast Description

What weight should the decrees of councils carry, and how are we to judge between them when they contradict one another? In these sections Calvin affirms that lawful councils are to be treated with genuine respect, yet never placed above Scripture. Their decisions are to be examined by the occasion on which they met, the intention that guided them, and above all by the standard of the written word. The ancient councils that defended the pure faith—Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon—are received with reverence precisely because they offered a faithful interpretation of Scripture. Later councils, however, often show the gradual decline of the Church, and even the best of them shared in human frailty. When councils disagree, Scripture alone remains the sure balance by which all mu ...