Daily Inspiration Quote by John Calvin

Calvin’s line lands like a cold splash of water on a culture tempted by spectacle. “We must remember” is pastoral on the surface, but it’s also disciplinary: a community being trained to distrust its own eyes. The sting is in the phrase “Satan has his miracles, too.” Miracles were the era’s most persuasive propaganda; they authenticated relics, saints, pilgrimages, and the institutional authority of Rome. Calvin doesn’t deny the appetite for wonder, he weaponizes it against his opponents by widening the category: if the devil can produce signs, then a sign proves nothing.

The intent is counter-charismatic. Calvin is building an epistemology for the Reformation: truth is not verified by drama, ecstasy, or a well-timed marvel, but by doctrine and Scripture. That’s why the sentence is so compact and memorable. It’s a rhetorical vaccine against credulity. It inoculates believers before the show begins, telling them that even the impressive, even the “worked,” may be counterfeit.

The subtext is political as much as spiritual. By framing rival miracles as potentially satanic, Calvin collapses the credibility of competing religious authorities without having to litigate each claim. It’s an early modern version of warning that misinformation can come with production value. The line also betrays anxiety: if miracles are that persuasive, then the battle is not just for souls but for the standards of proof a society will accept. Calvin’s brilliance is to make skepticism feel like obedience.