THE CANONS OF DORDT
CHAPTER 1
Divine Election and Predestination
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 1. As all men have sinned in Adam, lie under
the curse, and are deserving of eternal death, God would have done
no injustice by leaving them all to perish and delivering them over
to condemnation on account of sin, according to the words of the
apostle: "that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world
held accountable to God." (Rom 3:19). And: "for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Rom 3:23). And: "For
the wages of sin is death." (Rom 6:23).
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 2. But in this the love of God was manifested,
that He "sent his one and only Son into the world, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (1
John 4:9, John 3:16).
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 3. And that men may be brought to believe, God
mercifully sends messengers of this most joyful tiding to whom He
will and at what time He pleases, by whose ministry men are called
to repentance and faith in Christ crucified. For "How, then,
can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they
believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they
hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless
they are sent?" (Rom 10:14-15)
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 4. The wrath of God abides upon those who believe
not this gospel. But such as receive it and embrace Jesus the Savior
with a true and living faith are by Him delivered from the wrath
of God and from destruction, and have the gift of eternal life conferred
upon them.
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 5. The cause or guilt of this unbelief as well
as of all other sins is no wise in God, but in man himself; whereas
faith in Jesus Christ and salvation through Him is the free gift
of God, as it is written: "For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God" (Eph 2:8). Likewise: "For it has been granted to
you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer
for him" (Phil 1:29).
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 6. That some receive the gift of faith from God,
and others do not receive it, proceeds from God's eternal decree. "For
known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts
15:18). "who works out everything in conformity with the purpose
of his will" (Eph 1:11). According to which decree He graciously
softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines
them to believe; while He leaves the non-elect in His just judgment
to their own wickedness and obstinacy. And herein is especially displayed
the profound, the merciful, and at the same time the righteous discrimination
between men equally involved in ruin; or that decree of election
and reprobation, revealed in the Word of God, which, though men of
perverse, impure, and unstable minds wrest to their own destruction,
yet to holy and pious souls affords unspeakable consolation.
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 7. Election is the unchangeable purpose of God,
whereby, before the foundation of the world, He has out of mere grace,
according to the sovereign good pleasure of His own will, chosen
from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own fault
from the primitive state of rectitude into sin and destruction, a
certain number of persons to redemption in Christ, whom He from eternity
appointed the Mediator and Head of the elect and the foundation of
salvation. This elect number, though by nature neither better nor
more deserving than others, but with them involved in one common
misery, God has decreed to give to Christ to be saved by Him, and
effectually to call and draw them to His communion by His Word and
Spirit; to bestow upon them true faith, justification, and sanctification;
and having powerfully preserved them in the fellowship of His son,
finally to glorify them for the demonstration of His mercy, and for
the praise of the riches of His glorious grace; as it is written "For
he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as
his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and
will- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given
us in the One he loves." (Eph 1:4-6). And elsewhere: "And
those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified;
those he justified, he also glorified." (Rom 8:30).
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 8. There are not various decrees of election,
but one and the same decree respecting all those who shall be saved,
both under the Old and New Testament; since the Scripture declares
the good pleasure, purpose, and counsel of the divine will to be
one, according to which He has chosen us from eternity, both to grace
and to glory, to salvation and to the way of salvation, which He
has ordained that we should walk therein (Eph 1:4, 5; 2:10).
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 9. This election was not founded upon foreseen
faith, the obedience of faith, holiness, or any other good quality
or disposition in man, as the prerequisite cause or condition of
which it depended; but men are chosen unto faith and unto the obedience
of faith, holiness, etc. Therefore election is the fountain of every
saving good, from which proceed faith, holiness, and the other gifts
of salvation, and finally eternal life itself, as its fruits and
effects, according to the testimony of the apostle: "For he
chose us (not because we were, but) to be holy and blameless in his
sight." (Eph 1:4).
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 10. The good pleasure of God is the sole cause
of this gracious election; which does not consist herein that out
of all possible qualities and actions of men God has chosen some
as a condition of salvation, but that He was pleased out of the common
mass of sinners to adopt some certain persons as a peculiar people
to Himself, as it is written: "Yet, before the twins were born
or had done anything good or bad-in order that God's purpose in election
might stand: not by works but by him who calls-she (Rebekah) was
told, 'The older will serve the younger.' Just as it is written:
'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'" (Rom 9:11- 13). "When
the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the
Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed." (Acts
13:48).
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 11. And as God Himself is most wise, unchangeable,
omniscient, and omnipotent, so the election made by Him can neither
be interrupted nor changed, recalled, or annulled; neither can the
elect be cast away, nor their number diminished.
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 12. The elect in due time, though in various
degrees and in different measures, attain the assurance of this their
eternal and unchangeable election, not by inquisitively prying into
the secret and deep things of God, but by observing in themselves
with a spiritual joy and holy pleasure the infallible fruits of election
pointed out in the Word of God - such as, a true faith in Christ,
filial fear of God, a godly sorrow for sin, a hungering and thirsting
after righteousness, etc.
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 13. The sense and certainty of this election
afford the children of God with additional matter for daily humiliation
before Him, for adoring the depth of His mercies, for cleansing themselves,
and rendering grateful returns of ardent love to Him who first manifested
so great a love towards them. The consideration of this doctrine
of election is so far from encouraging laxity in the observance of
the divine commands or from sinking men in carnal security, that
these, in the just judgment of God, are the usual effects of rash
presumption or of idle and willful trifling with the grace of election,
in those who refuse to walk in the ways of the elect.
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 14. As the doctrine of election by the most wise
counsel of God was declared by the prophets, by Christ Himself, and
by the apostles, and is clearly revealed in the Scriptures both of
the Old and the New Testament, so it is still to be published in
due time and place in the Church of God, for which it was peculiarly
designed, provided it be done with reverence, in the spirit of discretion
and piety, for the glory of God's most holy Name, and for enlivening
and comforting His people, without vainly attempting to investigate
the secret ways of the Most High (Acts 20:27; Rom 11:33f; 12:3; Heb
6:17f).
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 15. What peculiarly tends to illustrate and recommend
to us the eternal and unmerited grace of election is the express
testimony of sacred Scripture that not all, but some only, are elected,
while others are passed by in the eternal decree; whom God, out of
His sovereign, most just, irreprehensible, and unchangeable good
pleasure, has decreed to leave in the common misery into which they
have willfully plunged themselves, and not to bestow upon them saving
faith and the grace of conversion; but, permitting them in His just
judgment to follow their own ways, at last, for the declaration of
His justice, to condemn and punish them forever, not only on account
of their unbelief, but also for all their other sins. And this is
the decree of reprobation, which by no means makes God the Author
of sin (the very thought of which is blasphemy), but declares Him
to be an awful, irreprehensible, and righteous Judge and Avenger
thereof.
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 16. Those in whom a living faith in Christ, and
assured confidence of soul, peace of conscience, an earnest endeavor
after filial obedience, a glorying in God through Christ, is not
as yet strongly felt, and who nevertheless make use of the means
which God has appointed for working these graces in us, ought not
to be alarmed at the mention of reprobation, nor to rank themselves
among the reprobate, but diligently to persevere in the use of means,
and with ardent desires devoutly and humbly to wait for a season
of richer grace. Much less cause to be terrified by the doctrine
of reprobation have they who, though they seriously desire to be
turned to God, to please Him only, and to be delivered from the body
of death, cannot yet reach that measure of holiness and faith to
which they aspire; since a merciful God has promised that He will
not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed. But this
doctrine is justly terrible to those who, regardless of God and of
the Savior Jesus Christ, have wholly given themselves up to the cares
of the world and the pleasures of the flesh, so long as they are
not seriously converted to God.
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 17. Since we are to judge of the will of God
from His Word, which testifies that the children of believers are
holy, not by nature, but in virtue of the covenant of grace, in which
they together with the parents are comprehended, godly parents ought
not to doubt the election and salvation of their children whom it
pleases God to call out of this life in their infancy (Gen 17:7;
Acts 2:39; 1 Cor 7:14).
CHAPTER 1: ARTICLE 18. To those who murmur at the free grace of
election and the just severity of reprobation we answer with the
apostle "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?" (Rom
9:20), and quote the language of our Savior: "Don't I have the
right to do what I want with my own?" (Matt 20:15). And therefore,
with holy adoration of these mysteries, we exclaim in the words of
the apostle: "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond
tracing out! 'Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been
his counselor?' 'Who has ever given to God, that God should repay
him?' For from him and through him and to him are all things. To
him be the glory forever! Amen." (Rom 11:33-36).
Rejection of Errors
The true doctrine concerning election and reprobation having been
explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those:
CHAPTER 1: PARAGRAPH 1. Who teach: That the will of God to save
those who would believe and would persevere in faith and in the obedience
of faith is the whole and entire decree of election, and that nothing
else concerning this decree has been revealed in God's Word.
For these deceive the simple and plainly contradict the Scriptures,
which declare that God will not only save those who will believe,
but that He has also from eternity chosen certain particular persons
to whom, above others, He will grant in time, both faith in Christ
and perseverance; as it is written "I have revealed you to those
whom you gave me out of the world. (John 17:6). "and all who
were appointed for eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48)". And "For
he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight. (Eph 1:4)."
CHAPTER 1: PARAGRAPH 2. Who teach: That there are various kinds
of election of God unto eternal life: the one general and indefinite,
the other particular and definite; and that the latter in turn is
either incomplete, revocable, non-decisive, and conditional, or complete,
irrevocable, decisive, and absolute. Likewise: That there is one
election unto faith and another unto salvation, so that election
can be unto justifying faith, without being a decisive election unto
salvation.
For this is a fancy of men's minds, invented regardless of the Scriptures,
whereby the doctrine of election is corrupted, and this golden chain
of our salvation is broken: "And those he predestined, he also
called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he
also glorified. (Rom 8:30)."
CHAPTER 1: PARAGRAPH 3. Who teach: That the good pleasure and purpose
of God, of which Scripture makes mention in the doctrine of election,
does not consist in this, that God chose certain persons rather than
others, but in this, that He chose out of all possible conditions
(among which are also the works of the law), or out of the whole
order of things, that act of faith which from its very nature is
undeserving, as well as it incomplete obedience, as a condition of
salvation, and that He would graciously consider this in itself as
a complete obedience and count it worthy of the reward of eternal
life. For by this injurious error the pleasure of God and the merits
of Christ are made of none effect, and men are drawn away by useless
questions from the truth of gracious justification and from the simplicity
of Scripture, and this declaration of the apostle is charged as untrue: "who
has saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything
we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace
was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time (2 Tim
1:9)."
CHAPTER 1: PARAGRAPH 4. Who teach: That in the election unto faith
this condition is beforehand demanded that man should use the light
of nature aright, be pious, humble, meek, and fit for eternal life,
as if on these things election were in any way dependent.
For this savors of the teaching of Pelagius, and is opposed to the
doctrine of the apostle when he writes: "All of us also lived
among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature
and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by
nature children of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God,
who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were
dead in sins (it is by grace you have been saved). And God raised
us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in
Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the
incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us
in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, so that no one can boast (Eph 2:3-9)."
CHAPTER 1: PARAGRAPH 5. Who teach: That the incomplete and non-decisive
election of particular persons to salvation occurred because of a
foreseen faith, conversion, holiness, godliness, which either began
or continued for some time; but that the complete and decisive election
occurred because of foreseen perseverance unto the end in faith,
conversion, holiness, and godliness; and that this is the gracious
and evangelical worthiness, for the sake of which he who is chosen
is more worthy than he who is not chosen; and that therefore faith,
the obedience of faith, holiness, godliness, and perseverance are
not fruits of the unchangeable election unto glory, but are conditions
which, being required beforehand, were foreseen as being met by those
who will be fully elected, and are causes without which the unchangeable
election to glory does not occur.
This is repugnant to the entire Scripture, which constantly inculcates
this and similar declarations: Election is "not by works but
by him who calls (Rom 9:12)." "And all who were appointed
for eternal life believed (Acts 13:48)." "For he chose
us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless
in his sight (Eph 1:4)." "You did not choose me, but I
chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last.
Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name (John 15:16)." "And
if by grace, then it is no longer by works (Rom 11:6)." "This
is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his
Son (1 John 4:10)."
CHAPTER 1: PARAGRAPH 6. Who teach: That not every election unto
salvation is unchangeable, but that some of the elect, any decree
of God notwithstanding, can yet perish and do indeed perish.
By this gross error they make God be changeable, and destroy the
comfort which the godly obtain out of the firmness of their election,
and contradict the Holy Scripture, which teaches that the elect can
not be led astray (Matt 24:24), that Christ does not lose those whom
the Father gave him (John 6:39), and that God also glorified those
whom he foreordained, called, and justified (Rom 8:30).
CHAPTER 1: PARAGRAPH 7. Who teach: That there is in this life no
fruit and no consciousness of the unchangeable elect to glory, nor
any certainty, except that which depends on a changeable and uncertain
condition.
For not only is it absurd to speak of an uncertain certainty, but
also contrary to the experience of the saints, who by virtue of the
consciousness of their election rejoice with the apostle and praise
this favor of God; who according to Christ's admonition rejoice with
his disciples that their names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20);
who also place the consciousness of their election over against the
fiery darts of the devil, asking: "Who will bring any charge
against God's elect? (Rom 8:33)."
CHAPTER 1: PARAGRAPH 8. Who teach: That God, simply by virtue of
His righteous will, did not decide either to leave anyone in the
fall of Adam and in the common state sin and condemnation, or to
pass anyone by in the communication of grace which is necessary for
faith and conversion. For this is firmly decreed: "God has mercy
on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden
(Rom 9:18)." And also this: "The knowledge of the secrets
of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them (Mat
13:11)." Likewise: "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and
learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes , Father, for
this was your good pleasure (Mat 11:25-26)."
CHAPTER 1: PARAGRAPH 9. Who teach: That the reason why God sends
the gospel to one people rather than to another is not merely and
solely the good pleasure of God, but rather the fact that one people
is better and worthier than another to which the gospel is not communicated.
For this Moses denies , addressing the people of Israel as follows: "To
the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the
earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your
forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants,
above all the nations, as it is today (Deu 10:14- 15)." And
Christ said: "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If
the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre
and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes
(Mat 11:21)."
CHAPTER 2
The Death of Christ, and the Redemption of Men thereby
CHAPTER 2: ARTICLE 1 . God is not only supremely merciful, but also
supremely just. And His justice requires (as He has revealed Himself
in His Word) that our sins committed against His infinite majesty
should be punished, not only with temporal but with eternal punishments,
both in body and soul; which we cannot escape, unless satisfaction
be made to the justice of God.
CHAPTER 2: ARTICLE 2. Since, therefore, we are unable to make that
satisfaction in our own persons, or to deliver ourselves from the
wrath of God, He has been pleased of His infinite mercy to give His
only begotten Son for our Surety, who was made sin, and became a
curse for us and in our stead, that He might make satisfaction to
divine justice on our behalf.
CHAPTER 2: ARTICLE 3. The death of the Son of God is the only and
most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin, and is of infinite
worth and value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the
whole world.
CHAPTER 2: ARTICLE 4. This death is of such infinite value and dignity
because the person who submitted to it was not only truly and perfectly
a holy man, but also, the only begotten Son of God, of the same eternal
and infinite essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit, which qualifications
were necessary to constitute Him a Savior for us; and, moreover,
because it was attended with a sense of the wrath and curse of God
due to us for sin.
CHAPTER 2: ARTICLE 5. Moreover, the promise of the gospel is that
whosoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have
eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and
believe, ought to be declared and published to all nations, and to
all persons promiscuously and without distinction, to whom God out
of His good pleasure sends the gospel. CHAPTER 2: ARTICLE 6. And,
whereas many who are called by the gospel do not repent nor believe
in Christ, but perish in unbelief, this is not owing to any defect
or insufficiency in the sacrifice offered by Christ upon the cross,
but is wholly to be imputed to themselves.
CHAPTER 2: ARTICLE 7. But as many as truly believe, and are delivered
and saved from sin and destruction through the death of Christ, are
indebted for this benefit solely to the grace of God given them in
Christ from everlasting, and not to any merit of their own.
CHAPTER 2: ARTICLE 8. For this was the sovereign counsel and most
gracious will and purpose of God the Father that the quickening and
saving efficacy of the most precious death of His Son should extend
to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying
faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation; that is, it
was the will of God that Christ by the blood of the cross, whereby
He confirmed the new covenant, should effectually redeem out of every
people, tribe, nation, and language, all those, and those only, who
were from eternity chosen to salvation and given to Him by the Father;
that He should confer upon them faith, which, together with all the
other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, He purchased for them by His
death; should purge them from all sin, both original and actual,
whether committed before or after believing; and having faithfully
preserved them even to the end, should at last bring them, free from
every spot and blemish, to the enjoyment of glory in His own presence
forever.
CHAPTER 2: ARTICLE 9. This purpose, proceeding from everlasting
love towards the elect, has from the beginning of the world to this
day been powerfully accomplished, and will henceforeward still continue
to be accomplished, notwithstanding all the ineffectual opposition
of the gates of hell; so that the elect in due time may be gathered
together into one, and that there may always be a church composed
of believers, the foundation of which is laid in the blood of Christ;
which may steadfastly love and faithfully serve Him as its Savior
(who, as a bridegroom for his bride, laid down His life for them
upon the cross); and which may celebrate His praises here and through
all eternity.
Rejection of Errors
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors
of those:
CHAPTER 2: PARAGRAPH 1. Who teach: That God the Father has ordained
His Son to the death of the cross without a certain and definite
decree to save any, so that the necessity, profitableness, and worth
of what Christ merited by His death might have existed, and might
remain in all its parts complete, perfect, and intact, even if the
merited redemption had never in fact been applied to any person.
For this doctrine tends to the despising of the wisdom of the Father
and of the merits of Jesus Christ, and is contrary to Scripture.
For thus says our Savior: "I lay down my life for the sheep
... and I know them. (John 10:15, 27)." And the prophet Isaiah
says concerning the Savior: "Yet it was the Lord's will to crush
him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a
guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and
the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand (Isa 53:10)." Finally,
this contradicts the article of faith according to which we believe
the that there is a church of God.
CHAPTER 2: PARAGRAPH 2. Who teach: That it was not the purpose of
the death of Christ that He should confirm the new covenant of grace
through His blood, but only that He should acquire for the Father
the mere right to establish with man such a covenant as He might
please, whether of grace or of works. For this is repugnant to Scripture
which teaches that "Jesus has become the guarantee of a better
covenant that is a new covenant ..." and that "it never
takes effect while the one who made it is living. (Heb 7:22; 9:15,
17)."
CHAPTER 2: PARAGRAPH 3. Who teach: That Christ by His satisfaction
merited neither salvation itself for any one, nor faith, whereby
this satisfaction of Christ unto salvation is effectually appropriated;
but that He merited for the Father only the authority or the perfect
will to deal again with man, and to prescribe new conditions as He
might desire, obedience to which, however, depended on the free will
of man, so that it therefore might have come to pass that either
none or all should fulfill these conditions. For these adjudge too
contemptuously the death of Christ, in no way acknowledge that most
important fruit or benefit thereby gained, and bring again out of
hell the Pelagian error.
CHAPTER 2: PARAGRAPH 4. Who teach: That the new covenant of grace,
which God the Father, through the mediation of the death of Christ,
made with man, does not herein consist that we by faith, in as much
as it accepts the merits of Christ, are justified before God and
saved, but in the fact that God, having revoked the demand of perfect
obedience of faith, regards faith itself and the obedience of faith,
although imperfect, as the perfect obedience of the law, and does
esteem it worthy of the reward of eternal life through grace.
For these contradict the Scriptures, being: "justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God
presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood
(Rom 3:24-25)." And these proclaim, as did the wicked Socinus,
a new and strange justification of man before God, against the consensus
of the whole church.
CHAPTER 2: PARAGRAPH 5. Who teach: That all men have been accepted
unto the state of reconciliation and unto the grace of the covenant,
so that no one is worthy of condemnation on account of original sin,
and that no one shall be condemned because of it, but that all are
free from the guilt of original sin. For this opinion opposes Scripture
which teaches that we are by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:3).
CHAPTER 2: PARAGRAPH 6. Who use the difference between meriting
and appropriating, to the end that they may instill into the minds
of the imprudent and inexperienced this teaching that God, as far
as He is concerned, has willed to apply to all equally the benefits
gained by the death of Christ; and that, while some obtain the pardon
of sin and eternal life, and others do not, this difference depends
on their own free will, which joins itself to the grace that is offered
without exception, and that it is not dependent on the special gift
of mercy, which powerfully works in them, that they rather than others
should appropriate unto themselves this grace. For these, while they
pretend that they present this distinction in a sound sense, seek
to instill into the people the destructive poison of Pelagianism.
CHAPTER 2: PARAGRAPH 7. Who teach: That Christ neither could die,
nor needed to die, and also did not die, for those whom God loved
in the highest degree and elected to eternal life, since these do
not need the death of Christ.
For they contradict the apostle, who declares, Christ "loved
me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20)." Likewise: "Who
will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God
who justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died
(Rom 8:33-34)", namely, for them; and the Savior who says: "I
lay down my life for the sheep (John 10:15)." And: "My
command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love
has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John
15:12-13)."
CHAPTER 3-4
The Corruption of Man, and the Manner of His Conversion to God
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 1. Man was originally formed after the image
of God. His understanding was adorned with a true and saving knowledge
of his Creator, and of spiritual things; his heart and will were
upright, all his affections pure, and the whole man was holy. But,
revolting from God by the instigation of the devil and by his own
free will, he forfeited these excellent gifts; and in the place thereof
became involved in blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity,
and perverseness of judgment; became wicked, rebellious, and obstinate
in heart and will, and impure in his affections.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 2. Man after the fall begat children in his
own likeness. A corrupt stock produced a corrupt offspring. Hence
all the posterity of Adam, Christ only excepted, have derived corruption
from their original parent, not by imitation, as the Pelagians of
old asserted, but by the propagation of a vicious nature, in consequence
of the just judgment of God.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 3. Therefore all men are conceived in sin,
and are by nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone
to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto; and without the regenerating
grace of the Holy Spirit, they are neither able nor willing to return
to God, to reform the depravity of their nature, or to dispose themselves
to reformation.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 4. There remain, however, in man since the
fall, the glimmerings of natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge
of God, and natural things, and of the difference between good and
evil, and shows some regard for virtue and for good outward behavior.
But so far is this light of nature from being sufficient to bring
him to a saving knowledge of God and to true conversion that he is
incapable of using it aright even in things natural and civil. Nay
further, this light, such as it is , man in various ways renders
wholly polluted and hinders in unrighteousness, which by doing he
becomes inexcusable before God.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 5. In the same light are we to consider the
law of the decalogue, delivered by God to His peculiar people, the
Jews, by the hands of Moses. For though it reveals the greatness
of sin, and more and more convinces man thereof, yet, as it neither
points out a remedy nor imparts strength to extricate him from his
misery, but, being weak through the flesh, leaves the transgressor
under the curse, and man cannot by this law obtain saving grace.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 6. What, therefore, neither the light of nature
nor the law could do, that God performs by the operation of the Holy
Spirit through the word or ministry of reconciliation; which is the
gospel concerning the Messiah, by means whereof it has pleased God
to save such as believe, as well under the Old as under the New Testament.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 7. This mystery of His will God reveals to
but a small number under the Old Testament; under the New Testament
(the distinction between various peoples having been removed) He
reveals it to many. The cause of this dispensation is not to be ascribed
to the superior worth of one nation above another, nor to their better
use of the light of nature, but results wholly from the sovereign
good pleasure and unmerited love of God. Hence they to whom so great
and so gracious a blessing is communicated, above their desert, or
rather notwithstanding their demerits, are bound to acknowledge it
with humble and grateful hearts, and with the apostle to adore, but
in no wise curiously to pry into, the severity and justice of God's
judgments displayed in others to whom this grace is not given.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 8. As many as are called by the gospel are
sincerely called. For God has most earnestly and truly declared in
His Word what is acceptable to Him, namely, that those who are called
should come unto Him. He also seriously promises rest of soul and
eternal life to all who come to Him and believe. CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE
9. It is not the fault of the gospel, nor of Christ offered therein,
nor of God, who calls men by the gospel and confers upon them various
gifts, that many who are called by the ministry of the Word refuse
to come and be converted. The fault lies in themselves; some of whom
when called, regardless of their danger, reject the Word of life;
others, though they receive it, do not allow it to make a lasting
impression on their heart; therefore, their joy, arising only from
a temporary faith, soon vanishes, and they fall away; while others
choke the seed of the Word by perplexing cares and the pleasures
of this world, and produce no fruit. This our Savior teaches in the
parable of the sower (Matt 13).
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 10. But that others who are called by the gospel
obey the call and are converted is not to be ascribed to the proper
exercise of free will, whereby one distinguishes himself above others
equally furnished with grace sufficient for faith and conversion
(as the proud heresy of Pelagius maintains); but it must be wholly
ascribed to God, who, as He has chosen His own from eternity in Christ,
so He calls them effectually in time, confers upon them faith and
repentance, rescues them from the power of darkness, and translates
them into the kingdom of His own Son; that they may show forth the
praises of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvelous
light, and may glory not in themselves but in the Lord, according
to the testimony of the apostles in various places.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 11. But when God accomplishes His good pleasure
in his elect, or works in them true conversion, He not only causes
the gospel to be externally preached to them, and powerfully illuminates
their minds by His Holy Spirit, that they may rightly understand
and discern the things of the Spirit of God; but by the efficacy
of the same regenerating Spirit He pervades the inmost recesses of
man; He opens the closed and softens the hardened heart, and circumcises
that which was uncircumcised; infuses new qualities into the will,
which, though heretofore dead, He quickens; from being evil, disobedient,
and refractory, He renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates
and strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring forth the
fruits of good actions.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 12. And this is that regeneration so highly
extolled in Scripture, that renewal, new creation, resurrection from
the dead, making alive, which God works in us without our aid. But
this is in no wise effected merely by the external preaching of the
gospel, by moral suasion, or such a mode of operation that, after
God has performed His part, it still remains in the power of man
to be regenerated or not, to be converted or to continue unconverted;
but it is evidently a supernatural work, most powerful, and at the
same time most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable;
not inferior in efficacy to creation or the resurrection from the
dead, as the Scripture inspired by the Author of this work declares;
so that all in whose heart God works in this marvelous manner are
certainly, infallibly, and effectually regenerated, and do actually
believe. Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only actuated and
influenced by God, but in consequence of this influence becomes itself
active. Wherefore also man himself is rightly said to believe and
repent by virtue of that grace received.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 13. Believers in this life cannot fully comprehend
the manner of this operation. Nevertheless, they are satisfied to
know and experience that by this grace of God they are enabled to
believe with the heart and to love their Savior.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 14. Faith is therefore to be considered as
the gift of God, not on account of its being offered by God to man,
to be accepted or rejected at his pleasure, but because it is in
reality conferred upon him, breathed and infused into him; nor even
because God bestows the power or ability to believe, and then expects
that man should by the exercise of his own free will consent to the
terms of salvation and actually believe in Christ, but because He
who works in man both to will and to do, works in man both to will
and to believe, and indeed He works all in all.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 15. God is under no obligation to confer this
grace upon any; for how can He be indebted to one who had no previous
gifts to bestow as a foundation for such recompense? Nay, how can
He be indebted to one who has nothing of his own but sin and falsehood?
He, therefore, who becomes the subject of this grace owes eternal
gratitude to God, and gives Him thanks forever. Whoever is not made
partaker thereof is either altogether regardless of these spiritual
gifts and satisfied with his own condition, or is in no apprehension
of danger, and vainly boasts the possession of that which he has
not. Further, with respect to those who outwardly profess their faith
and amend their lives, we are bound, after the example of the apostle,
to judge and speak of them in the most favorable manner; for the
secret recesses of the heart are unknown to us. And as to others
who have not yet been called, it is our duty to pray for them to
God, who calls the things that are not as if they were. But we are
in no way to conduct ourselves towards them with haughtiness, as
if we had made ourselves to differ.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 16. But as man by the fall did not cease to
be a creature endowed with understanding and will, nor did sin which
pervaded the whole race of mankind deprive him of the human nature,
but brought upon him depravity and spiritual death; so also this
grace of regeneration does not treat men as senseless stocks and
blocks, nor take away their will and its properties, or do violence
thereto; but it spiritually quickens, heals, corrects, and at the
same time sweetly and powerfully bends it, that where carnal rebellion
and resistance formerly prevailed, a ready and sincere spiritual
obedience begins to reign; in which the true and spiritual restoration
and freedom of our will consist. Wherefore, unless the admirable
Author of every good work so deal with us, man can have no hope of
being able to rise from his fall by his own free will, by which,
in a state of innocence, he plunged himself into ruin.
CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 17. As the almighty operation of God whereby
He brings forth and supports this our natural life does not exclude
but requires the use of means by which God in His infinite mercy
and goodness has chosen to exert His influence, so also the aforementioned
supernatural operation of God by which we are regenerated in no way
excludes or subverts the use of the gospel, which the most wise God
has ordained to be the seed of regeneration and food of the soul.
Wherefore, as the apostles and the teachers who succeeded them piously
instructed the people concerning this grace of God, to His glory
and to the abasement of all pride, and in the meantime, however,
neglected not to keep them, by the holy admonitions of the gospel,
under the influence of the Word, the sacraments, and discipline;
so even now it should be far from those who give or receive instruction
in the Church to presume to tempt God by separating what He of His
good pleasure has most intimately joined together. For grace is conferred
by means of admonitions; and the more readily we perform our duty,
the more clearly this favor of God, working in us, usually manifest
itself, and the more directly His work is advanced; to whom alone
all the glory, both for the means and for their saving fruit and
efficacy, is forever due. Amen.
Rejection of Errors
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors
of those:
CHAPTER 3-4: PARAGRAPH 1. Who teach: That it cannot properly be
said that original sin in itself suffices to condemn the whole human
race or to deserve temporal and eternal punishment. For these contradict
the apostle, who declares: "Therefore, just as sin entered the
world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death
came to all men, because all sinned (Rom 5:12)." And: "The
judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation (Rom 5:16)." And "the
wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23)."
CHAPTER 3-4: PARAGRAPH 2. Who teach: That the spiritual gifts or
the good qualities and virtues, such as goodness, holiness, righteousness,
could not belong to the will of man when he was first created, and
that these, therefore, cannot have been separated therefrom in the
fall.
For such is contrary to the description of the image of God which
the apostle gives in Eph. 4:24, where he declares that it consists
in righteousness and holiness, which undoubtedly belong to the will.
CHAPTER 3-4: PARAGRAPH 3. Who teach: That in spiritual death the
spiritual gifts are not separate from the will of man, since the
will in itself has never been corrupted, but only hindered through
the darkness of the understanding and the irregularity of the affection;
and that, these hindrances having been removed, the will can then
bring into operation its natural powers, that is, that the will of
itself is able to will and to choose, or not to will and not to choose,
all manner of good which may be presented to it. This is an innovation
and an error, and tends to elevate the powers of the free will, contrary
to the declaration of the prophet: "The heart is deceitful above
all things and beyond cure (Jer 17:9)"; and of the apostle: "All
of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings
of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts (Eph
2:3)."
CHAPTER 3-4: PARAGRAPH 4. Who teach: That the unregenerate man is
not really nor utterly dead in sin, nor destitute of all powers unto
spiritual good, but that he can yet hunger and thirst after righteousness
and life, and offer the sacrifice of a contrite and broken spirit,
which is pleasing to God.
For these things are contrary to the express testimony of Scripture: "you
were dead in your transgressions and sins (Eph 2:1, 5)." And: "every
inclination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil all the time.
(Gen 6:5, 8:21)." Moreover, to hunger and thirst for deliverance
from misery and for life, and to offer unto God the sacrifice of
a broken spirit, is peculiar to the regenerate and those that are
called blessed (Ps 51:17; Matt 5:6).
CHAPTER 3-4: PARAGRAPH 5. Who teach: That the corrupt and natural
man can so well use the common grace (by which they understand the
light of nature), or the gifts still left him after the fall, that
he can gradually gain by their good use a greater, that is, the evangelical
or saving grace, and salvation itself; and that in this way God on
His part shows Himself ready to reveal Christ unto all men, since
He applies to all sufficiently and efficiently the means necessary
to conversion.
For both the experience of all ages and the Scriptures testify that
this is untrue. "He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws
and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they
do not know his laws (Psa 147:19-20)." "In the past, he
let all nations go their own way (Acts 14:16)." And: "Paul
and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and
Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word
in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they
tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow
them to (Acts 16:6-7)."
CHAPTER 3-4: PARAGRAPH 6. Who teach: That in the true conversion
of man no new qualities, powers, or gifts can be infused by God into
the will, and that therefore faith, through which we are first converted
and because of which we are called believers, is not a quality or
gift infused by God but only an act of man, and that it cannot be
said to be a gift, except in respect of the power to attain to this
faith.
For thereby they contradict the Holy Scriptures, which declare that
God infuses new qualities of faith, of obedience, and of the consciousness
of His love into our hearts: ""This is the covenant I will
make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the
Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their
hearts (Jer 31:33)." And: "For I will pour water on the
thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit
on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants (Isa 44:3)." And: "God
has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom
he has given us (Rom 5:5)." This is also repugnant to the constant
practice of the Church, which prays by the mouth of the prophet thus: "Restore
me, and I will return (Jer 31:18)."
CHAPTER 3-4: PARAGRAPH 7. Who teach: That the grace whereby we are
converted to God is only a gentle persuasion, or (as others explain
it) that this is the noblest manner of working in the conversion
of man, and that this manner of working, which consists in advising,
is most in harmony with man's nature; and that there is no reason
why this advising grace alone should not be sufficient to make the
natural man spiritual; indeed, that God does not produce the consent
of the will except through this manner of advising; and that the
power of the divine working, whereby it surpasses the working of
Satan, consists in this that God promises eternal benefits, while
Satan promises only temporal good. But this is altogether Pelagian
and contrary to the whole Scripture, which, besides this, teaches
yet another and far more powerful and divine manner of the Holy Spirit's
working in the conversion of man, as in Ezekiel: "I will give
you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you
your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (Ezek 36:26)."
CHAPTER 3-4: PARAGRAPH 8. Who teach: That God in the regeneration
of man does not use His omnipotence to potently and infallibly bend
man's will to faith and conversion; but that all the works of grace
having been employed which God uses to convert man, man may yet so
resist God and the Holy Spirit, when God intends man's regeneration
and wills to regenerate him, and indeed that man often does so resist
that he prevents entirely his regeneration, and that it therefore
remains in man's power to be regenerated or not.
For this is nothing less than the denial of all that efficiency
of God's grace in our conversion, and the subjecting of the working
of Almighty God to the will of man, which is contrary to the apostles,
who teach that we believe according to the working of the strength
of his might (Eph 1:19); and that God fulfills every desire of goodness
and every work of faith with power (2 Th 1:11); and that "His
divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness
(2 Pet 1:3)."
CHAPTER 3-4: PARAGRAPH 9. Who teach: That grace and free will are
partial causes which together work the beginning of conversion, and
that grace, in order of working, does not precede the working of
the will; that is, that God does not efficiently help the will of
man unto conversion until the will of man moves and determines to
do this.
For the ancient Church has long ago condemned this doctrine of the
Pelagians according to the words of the apostle: "It does not,
therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy (Rom
9:16)." Likewise: "For who makes you different from anyone
else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive
it (1 Cor 4:7)?" And: "for it is God who works in you to
will and to act according to his good purpose (Phil 2:13)."
CHAPTER 5
The Perse nverance of the Saints
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 1. Those whom God, according to His purpose,
calls to the communion of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and regenerates
by the Holy Spirit, He also delivers from the dominion and slavery
of sin, though in this life He does not deliver them altogether from
the body of sin and from the infirmities of the flesh.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 2. Hence spring forth the daily sins of infirmity,
and blemishes cleave even to the best works of the saints. These
are to them a perpetual reason to humiliate themselves before God
and to flee for refuge to Christ crucified; to mortify the flesh
more and more by the spirit of prayer and by holy exercises of piety;
and to press forward to the goal of perfection, until at length,
delivered from this body of death, they shall reign with the Lamb
of God in heaven.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 3. By reason of these remains of indwelling sin,
and also because the temptations of the world and of Satan, those
who are converted could not persevere in that grace if left to their
own strength. But God is faithful, who, having conferred grace, mercifully
confirms and powerfully preserves them therein, even to the end.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 4. Although the weakness of the flesh cannot
prevail against the power of God, who confirms and preserves true
believers in a state of grace, yet converts are not always so influenced
and moved by God that they cannot depart in some particular instances
from the guidance of divine grace, and be seduced by the lusts of
the flesh and obey them. Wherefore they must continually watch and
pray, lest they should be led into temptation. Which when they do
not, they may be not only be carried away by the flesh, the world,
and Satan into great and heinous sins; but they are sometimes drawn
into these evils by the righteous permission of God. This, the lamentable
fall of David, Peter, and other saints described in Holy Scripture,
demonstrates.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 5. By such enormous sins, however, they very
highly offend God, incur a deadly guilt, grieve the Holy Spirit,
interrupt the exercise of faith, very grievously wound their consciences,
and sometimes for a while lose the sense of God's favor, until, when
they change their course by serious repentance, the light of God's
fatherly countenance again shines upon them.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 6. But God, who is rich in mercy, according to
His unchangeable purpose of election, does not wholly withdraw the
Holy Spirit from His own people even in their grievous falls; nor
does He allow them to proceed so far as to lose the grace of adoption
and forfeit the state of justification, or to commit the sin unto
death or against the Holy Spirit; nor does He permit them to be totally
deserted and plunge themselves into everlasting destruction.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 7. For in the first place, in these falls He
preserves in them the incorruptible seed of regeneration from perishing
or being totally lost; and again, by His Word and Spirit He certainly
and effectually renews them to repentance, to a sincere and godly
sorrow for their sins, that they may seek and obtain remission in
the blood of the Mediator, may again experience the favor of a reconciled
God, through faith adore His mercies, and henceforward more diligently
work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 8. Thus it is not in consequence of their own
merits or strength, but of God's free mercy, that they neither totally
fall from faith and grace nor continue and perish finally in their
backslidings; which, with respect to themselves is not only possible,
but would undoubtedly happen; but with respect to God, it is utterly
impossible, since His counsel cannot be changed nor His promise fail;
neither can the call according to His purpose be revoked, nor the
merit, intercession, and preservation of Christ be rendered ineffectual,
nor the sealing of the Holy Spirit be frustrated or obliterated.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 9. Of this preservation of the elect to salvation
and of their perseverance in the faith, true believers themselves
may and do obtain assurance according to the measure of their faith,
whereby they surely believe that they are and ever will continue
true and living members of the Church, and that they have the forgiveness
of sins and life eternal.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 10. This assurance, however, is not produced
by any peculiar revelation contrary to or independent of the Word
of God, but springs from faith in God's promises, which He has most
abundantly revealed in His Word for our comfort; from the testimony
of the Holy Spirit, witnessing with our spirit that we are children
and heirs of God (Rom 8:16); and lastly, from a serious and holy
desire to preserve a good conscience and to perform good works. And
if the elect of God were deprived of this solid comfort that they
shall finally obtain the victory, and of this infallible pledge of
eternal glory, they would be of all men the most miserable.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 11. The Scripture moreover testifies that believers
in this life have to struggle with various carnal doubts, and that
under grievous temptations they do not always feel this full assurance
of faith and certainty of persevering. But God, who is the Father
of all consolation, does not suffer them to be tempted above that
they are able, but will with the temptation make also the way of
escape, that they may be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13), and by
the Holy Spirit again inspires them with the comfortable assurance
of persevering.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 12. This certainty of perseverance, however,
is so far from exciting in believers a spirit of pride, or of rendering
them carnally secure, that on the contrary it is the real source
of humility, filial reverence, true piety, patience in every tribulation,
fervent prayers, constancy in suffering and in confessing the truth,
and of solid rejoicing in God; so that the consideration of this
benefit should serve as an incentive to the serious and constant
practice of gratitude and good works, as appears from the testimonies
of Scripture and the examples of the saints.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 13. Neither does renewed confidence of persevering
produce licentiousness or a disregard of piety in those who are recovered
from backsliding; but it renders them much more careful and solicitous
to continue in the ways of the Lord, which He has ordained that they
who walk therein may keep the assurance of persevering; lest, on
account of their abuse of His fatherly kindness, God should turn
away His gracious countenance from them (which is to the godly dearer
than life, and the withdrawal of which is more bitter than death)
and they in consequence thereof should fall into more grievous torments
of conscience.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 14. And as it has pleased God, by the preaching
of the gospel, to begin this work of grace in us, so He preserves,
continues, and perfects it by the hearing and reading of His Word,
by meditation thereon, and by the exhortations, threatenings, and
promises thereof, and by the use of the sacraments.
CHAPTER 5: ARTICLE 15. The carnal mind is unable to comprehend this
doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and the certainty thereof,
which God has most abundantly revealed in His Word, for the glory
of His Name and the consolation of pious souls, and which He impresses
upon the hearts of the believers. Satan abhors it, the world ridicules
it, the ignorant and hypocritical abuse it, and the heretics oppose
it. But the bride of Christ has always most tenderly loved and constantly
defended it as an inestimable treasure; and God, against whom neither
counsel nor strength can prevail, will dispose her so to continue
to the end. Now to this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be
honor and glory forever. Amen.
Rejection of Errors
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors
of those:
CHAPTER 5: PARAGRAPH 1. Who teach: That the perseverance of the
true believers is not a fruit of election, or a gift of God gained
by the death of Christ, but a condition of the new covenant which
(as they declare) man before his decisive election and justification
must fulfill through his free will. For the Holy Scripture testifies
that this follows out of election, and is given the elect in virtue
of the death, the resurrection, and the intercession of Christ: "What
Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did.
The others were hardened (Rom 11:7)." Likewise: "He who
did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he
not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will
bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who
justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than
that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also
interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ
(Rom 8:32-35)?"
CHAPTER 5: PARAGRAPH 2. Who teach: That God does indeed provide
the believer with sufficient powers to persevere, and is ever ready
to preserve these in him if he will do his duty; but that, though
all things which are necessary to persevere in faith and which God
will use to preserve faith are furnished to us, even then it ever
depends on the pleasure of the will whether it will persevere or
not.
For this idea contains outspoken Pelagianism, and while it would
make men free, it make them robbers of God's honor, contrary to the
prevailing agreement of the evangelical doctrine, which takes from
man all cause of boasting, and ascribes all the praise for this favor
to the grace of God alone; and contrary to the apostle, who declares
that it is God who "will keep you strong to the end, so that
you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor
1:8)."
CHAPTER 5: PARAGRAPH 3. Who teach: That the true believers and regenerate
not only can fall from justifying faith and likewise from grace and
salvation wholly and to the end, but indeed often do fall from this
and are lost forever. For this conception makes powerless the grace
of justification and regeneration, and the continued preservation
by Christ, contrary to the expressed words of the apostle Paul: "While
we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been
justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's
wrath through him (Rom 5:8-9)." And contrary to the apostle
John: "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because
God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has
been born of God (1 John 3:9)." And also contrary to the words
of Jesus Christ: "I give them eternal life, and they shall never
perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has
given them to me, is greater than all ; no one can snatch them out
of my Father's hand (John 10:28-29)."
CHAPTER 5: PARAGRAPH 4. Who teach: That true believers and regenerate
can sin the sin unto death or against the Holy Spirit. Since the
same apostle John, after having spoken in the fifth chapter of his
first epistle, vs. 16 and 17, of those who sin unto death and having
forbidden to pray for them, immediately adds to this in vs. 18: "We
know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin (meaning a
sin of that character); the one who was born of God keeps him safe,
and the evil one cannot harm him (1 John 5:18)."
CHAPTER 5: PARAGRAPH 5. Who teach: That without a special revelation
we can have no certainty of future perseverance in this life.
For by this doctrine the sure comfort of the true believers is taken
away in this life, and the doubts of the papist are again introduced
into the Church, while the Holy Scriptures constantly deduce this
assurance, not from a special and extraordinary revelation, but from
the marks proper to the children of God and from the very constant
promises of God. So especially the apostle Paul: "neither height
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:39)." And
John declares: "Those who obey his commands live in him, and
he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know
it by the Spirit he gave us (1 John 3:24)."
CHAPTER 5: PARAGRAPH 6. Who teach: That the doctrine of perseverance
and the assurance of salvation from its own character and nature
is a cause of indolence and is injurious to godliness, good morals,
prayers, and other holy exercises, but that on the contrary it is
praiseworthy to doubt.
For these show that they do not know the power of divine grace and
the working of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And they contradict the
apostle John, who teaches the opposite with express words in his
first epistle: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and
what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when
he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is
pure (1 John 3:2-3)." Furthermore, these are contradicted by
the example of the saints, both of the Old and the New Testament,
who though they were assured of their perseverance and salvation,
were nevertheless constant in prayers and other exercises of godliness.
CHAPTER 5: PARAGRAPH 7. Who teach: That the faith of those who believe
for a time does not differ from justifying and saving faith except
only in duration.
For Christ Himself, in Matt 13:20, Luke 8:13, and in other places,
evidently notes, beside this duration, a threefold difference between
those who believe only for a time and true believers, when He declares
that the former receive the seed on stony ground, but the latter
in the good ground or heart; that the former are without root, but
the latter have a firm root; that the former are without fruit, but
that the latter bring forth their fruit in various measure, with
constancy and steadfastness.
CHAPTER 5: PARAGRAPH 8. Who teach: That it is not absurd that one
having lost his first regeneration is again and even often born anew.
For these deny by this doctrine the incorruptibleness of the seed
of God, whereby we are born again; contrary to the testimony of the
apostle Peter: "For you have been born again, not of perishable
seed, but of imperishable (1 Pet 1:23)."
CHAPTER 5: PARAGRAPH 9. Who teach: That Christ has in no place prayed
that believers should infallibly continue in faith. For the contradict
Christ Himself, who says: "I have prayed for you, Simon, that
your faith may not fail (Luke 22:32)", and the evangelist John,
who declares that Christ has not prayed for the apostles only, but
also for those who through their word would believe: "Holy Father,
protect them by the power of your name," and "My prayer
is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them
from the evil one (John 17:11, 15, 20)."
CONCLUSION
This is the clear, simple, and sincere declaration of the orthodox
doctrine concerning the five articles which have been disputed in
the Belgic Churches, and a rejection of the errors by which they
have for some time been troubled. The Synod judges this doctrine
to be drawn from the Word of God, and to be agreeable to the confession
of the Reformed Churches. Whence it clearly appears that some, whom
it by no means became, have violated all truth, equity, and charity,
in wishing to persuade the public of the following perversion:
Namely, "That the doctrine of the Reformed Churches concerning
predestination, with its associated points, by its own genius and
necessary tendency, leads the minds of men away from all piety and
religion; that it is an opiate administered by the flesh and the
devil; the stronghold of Satan, where he lies in wait for all, and
from which he wounds multitudes, and mortally pierces many with darts
both of despair and security; that this same doctrine makes God the
author of sin, unjust, tyrannical, hypocritical; that it is nothing
more than interpolated Stoicism, Manicheism, Libertinism, Turcism;
that it renders men carnally secure, since they are persuaded by
it that nothing can hinder the salvation of the elect, let them live
as they please; and, therefore, that they may safely perpetrate every
species of the most atrocious crimes. And conversely that, in this
Reformed doctrine of predestination, if the reprobate should even
perform truly all the works of the saints, their obedience would
not in the least contribute to their salvation; that this same doctrine
teaches that God, by a mere arbitrary act of his will, without the
least respect or view to any sin, has predestined the greatest part
of the world to eternal damnation, and has created them for this
very purpose; that in the same manner in which the election is the
fountain and cause of faith and good works, reprobation is the cause
of unbelief and impiety; that many children of the faithful are torn,
guiltless, from their mothers' breasts, and tyrannically plunged
into hell: so that neither baptism nor the prayers of the Church
at their baptism can at all profit them." And they go on to
suggest many other things of the same kind which the Reformed Churches
not only do not acknowledge but detest with their whole soul.
Wherefore, this Synod of Dort, in the name of the Lord, entreats
as many as reverently call upon the name of our Savior Jesus Christ
to judge the faith of the Reformed Churches, not from the slander
which on every side is heaped upon it, nor from the private expressions
of a few among ancient and modern teachers, often dishonestly quoted,
or corrupted and taken to a meaning quite foreign to their intention;
but from the public confessions of the Churches themselves, and from
this declaration of the orthodox doctrine, confirmed by the unanimous
consent of all and each of the members of the whole Synod. Moreover,
the Synod warns slanderers themselves to consider the terrible judgment
of God which awaits them for bearing false witness against the confessions
of so many Churches, for distressing the consciences of the weak,
and for laboring to render suspect the society of the truly faithful.
Finally, this Synod exhorts all their brethren in the gospel of
Christ to conduct themselves piously and religiously in handling
this doctrine, both in the universities and churches; to direct it,
as well in discourse as in writing, to the glory of the Divine name,
to holiness of life, and to the consolation of afflicted souls; to
regulate, by the Scripture, according to the analogy of faith, not
only their sentiments, but also their language, and to abstain from
all those phrases which exceed the limits necessary to be observed
in ascertaining the genuine sense of the Holy Scriptures, and may
furnish insolent sophists with a just pretext for violently assailing,
or even vilifying, the doctrine of the Reformed Churches. May Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, who, seated at the Father's right hand, gives
gifts to men, sanctify us in the truth; bring to the truth those
who err; shut the mouths of the slanderers of sound doctrine, and
endow the faithful ministers of his Word with the spirit of wisdom
and discretion, that all their discourses may tend to the glory of
God, and the edification of those who hear them. Amen.
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