Calvin on Young Earth Creation as a “Chief Doctrine of the Faith”

[Speaking of predestination], Calvin says, “But if their shamelessness deters us, we shall have to keep secret the chief doctrines of the faith, almost none of which they or their like leave untouched by blasphemy. An obstinate person would be no less insolently puffed up on hearing that within the essence of God there three Persons than if he were told that God foresaw what would happen to man when he created him. And they will not refrain from guffaws when they are informed that but little more than five thousand years have passed since the creation of the universe, for they ask why God’s power was idle and asleep for so long . . . Must we pass over in silence the creation of the universe” (Institutes 3.21.4).