What Did John Calvin Think of the Avengers Crucifixion Musical?
Yes, that’s right. You read the title of this article correctly.
During an Easter service in 2018, the Church of the Rock in Winnipeg, Canada performed a musical centered around the crucifixion of Iron Man by Loki.
The musical tells the story of “the Man of Iron”—events that parallel the arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection of the Son of Man. Seeking to prevent these events, Thor breaks off a horn from Loki's crown with his hammer. Iron Man admonishes him: “Those who live by the hammer will also die by the hammer.”
In the climactic scene of the Easter musical, the Avengers are unable to do anything as Iron Man is crucified on an I-beam, while Loki sings R.E.M.'s "It's The End Of The World As We Know It." It appears that the imagery is intended to reflect how the Devil may have rejoiced during the crucifixion of the Son of God, which the Devil would have seen as a triumph. This would have felt like “the end of the world as we know it.”
The dramatic twist is when Iron Man begins singing “Tubthumping (I Get Knocked Down)” by British rock band Chumbawamba. Based on the imagery presented, it seems to suggest that despite the crucifixion of the Son of God (represented by "I get knocked down"), there is an expectation of resurrection (as symbolized by "but I get up again").
While upon the I-beam cross, Loki uses his pointed staff to stab Iron Man in the side, drawing a parallel to how Jesus' side was also pierced. After a song of lament (“Reach Out I'll Be There” by Four Tops), Iron Man miraculously rises from the dead to the tune of "Footloose," the iconic song from the 1984 movie of the same name. The lyrics are altered to fit the moment: “My friends are reeling, I’ve risen up from the ground.”
Watch the Avengers Crucifixion Musical
Dramatic stuff. What are we to make of this? If we think to ourselves that this is wrong and a church shouldn’t do things like this in a worship service, let alone at an Easter service, then it is required of us to state clearly what is right and the rationale of why it would be right.
The philosophy of ministry that many have adopted to protect the church from the creative but foolish whims of pastors who want to put on Avenger Crucifixion Musicals is called the regulative principle.
What is the regulative principle?
Whatever is commanded, is required.
Whatever is not commanded, is forbidden.
What is Right and Why is it Right?
The regulative principle was a direct response to the corruption of worship during the Reformation. The reformers deemed practices such as bowing down to icons, praying to deceased saints, visiting shrines, and seeking merit from Mary and dead saints as inappropriate. However, they also grappled with the question of what worship was right and why it was right if these practices were wrong. Thus, the regulative principle was developed to outline what was deemed appropriate in the worship of God.
In 1543, John Calvin wrote to Emperor Charles the 5th about the importance of reforming the Church. Read the full letter here. The reason for this necessity was to ensure that worship be free from idolatry.
“If it be inquired, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity…”
John Calvin wrote that the whole substance of Christianity can be boiled down to two things. These two things are like the title pages under which all the other parts of Christianity can be organized. What are those two things?
“A knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped; and, secondly of the source from which salvation is to be obtained.”
According to Calvin, Christianity is summarized by
Its pure worship
Its pure gospel
“When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain.”
What is Pure Worship?
“Let us now see what is meant by the due worship of God. Its chief foundation is to acknowledge Him to be, as He is, the only source of all virtue, justice, holiness, wisdom, truth, power, goodness, mercy, life, and salvation; in accordance with this, to ascribe and render to Him the glory of all that is good, to seek all things in Him alone, and in every want [need] have recourse to Him alone. Hence arises prayer, hence praise and thanksgiving”
Worship is rooted in the character of God. Consider all the different passages in the Old Testament that declare the character of God: Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished…His love endures forever…Holy, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory. From passages like these, we learn to pray and praise and thank Him for who He is. Worship begins with adoration and a high view of God.
“Next after these comes self-abasement, when, renouncing the world and the flesh, we are transformed in the renewing of our mind, and living no longer to ourselves, submit to be ruled and actuated by Him. By this self-abasement we are trained to obedience and devotedness to his will, so that his fear reigns in our hearts, and regulates all the actions of our lives.”
From the adoration of God, we move to the confession of our sins. The true knowledge of God leads to a true knowledge of ourselves. He is holy, and we are not. He is right, and we have been rebellious. Therefore we must submit to Him. We must acknowledge that His rules are best. We confess that the way in which we have lived our lives was wrong. We want now to live for Him.
Notice that the content of pure worship that is described here is none other than the pure gospel.
God is holy
We are sinful
Yet God is merciful in Christ
We must respond rightly to Him.
We seek all things in God alone, and in every need have recourse to Him alone. We realize that we need forgiveness for our sins. Where do we turn? We turn to God alone and thank Him for His gracious provision of salvation. This is pure worship, based in the pure gospel. Rehearsing this gospel pattern is what a church should do when they gather.
“Nor from the beginning was there any other method of worshipping God, the only difference being, that this spiritual truth, which with us is naked and simple, was under the former dispensation [the Old Testament] wrapt up in figures. And this is the meaning of our Savior’s words, “‘The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,’ (John 4:23.)”
That is, worship of God is by the spirit, from the heart. It is not mere outward action and performance. And it is in truth, according to His rule.
“Moreover, the rule which distinguishes between pure and vitiated [spoiled] worship is of universal application, in order that we may not adopt any device which seems fit to ourselves, but look to the injunction of Him who alone is entitled to prescribe. Therefore, if we would have Him to approve our worship, this rule, which He everywhere enforces with the utmost strictness, must be carefully observed.”
What rule is that? It is that God alone tells us how to worship Him. He accepts only the worship which He prescribes. In other words, if God commanded it, then we should do it. If God did not command it, then it is forbidden.
What should the church do when it gathers on the Lord’s Day? They should rehearse and celebrate the gospel. The pure gospel is the content of pure worship. And the way in which the church is to celebrate this gospel is according to the elements that God has prescribed (preaching, prayer, reading the Word, singing, and seeing the Word in baptism and the Lord’s Supper). To do anything else would be to lead a church into a violation of their liberty of conscience—forcing them to do something God has not prescribed.
And Calvin wasn't the only one who said these things...
Belgic Confession, 1561. Article 32: The Order and Discipline of the Church
“We also believe that although it is useful and good for those who govern the churches to establish and set up a certain order among themselves for maintaining the body of the church, they ought always to guard against deviating from what Christ, our only Master, has ordained for us.
Therefore we reject all human innovations and all laws imposed on us, in our worship of God, which bind and force our consciences in any way.
So we accept only what is proper to maintain harmony and unity and to keep all in obedience to God.”
Heidelberg Catechism, 1563, Q&A 96:
Q. What is God’s will for us in the second commandment?
A. That we in no way make any image of God nor worship him in any other way than has been commanded in God’s Word.
Westminster Confession of Faith, 1647, Article 22.1
God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship. So that to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience; and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also.
The 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689. Chapter 22, Section 1
The light of nature shews that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; is just, good and doth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart and all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God, is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.