The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in
Dispute in the Netherlands is popularly known as the Canons of Dort. It
consists of statements of doctrine adopted by the great Synod of Dort which met
in the city of Dordrecht in 1618-19. Although this was a national synod of the
Reformed churches of the Netherlands, it had an international character, since
it was composed not only of Dutch delegates but also of twenty-six delegates
from eight foreign countries.
The Synod of Dort was held in order to settle a serious controversy in the
Dutch churches initiated by the rise of Arminianism. Jacob Arminius, a
theological professor at Leiden University, questioned the teaching of Calvin
and his followers on a number of important points. After Arminius's death, his
own followers presented their views on five of these points in the Remonstrance
of 1610. In this document or in later more explicit writings, the Arminians
taught election based on foreseen faith, universal atonement, partial
depravity, resistible grace, and the possibility of a lapse from grace. In the
Canons the Synod of Dort rejected these views and set forth the Reformed
doctrine on these points, namely, unconditional election, limited atonement,
total depravity, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of saints.
The Canons have a special character because of their original purpose as a
judicial decision on the doctrinal points in dispute during the Arminian
controversy. The original preface called them a "judgment, in which both the
true view, agreeing with God's Word, concerning the aforesaid five points of
doctrine is explained, and the false view, disagreeing with God's Word, is
rejected." The Canons also have a limited character in that they do not cover
the whole range of doctrine, but focus on the five points of doctrine in
dispute.
Each of the main points consists of a positive and a negative part, the
former being an exposition of the Reformed doctrine on the subject, the latter
a repudiation of the corresponding errors. Although in form there are only four points, we speak properly
of five points, because the Canons were structured to correspond to the five
articles of the 1610 Remonstrance. Main Points 3 and 4 were combined into one,
always designated as Main Point III/IV.
This translation of the Canons, based on the only extant Latin manuscript
among those signed at the Synod of Dort, was adopted by the 1986 Synod of the
Christian Reformed Church. The biblical quotations are translations from the
original Latin and so do not always correspond to current versions. Though not
in the original text, subheadings have been added to the positive articles and
to the conclusion in order to facilitate study of the Canons.
The Judgment Concerning Divine Predestination
Which the Synod Declares to Be in Agreement with the Word of God
and Accepted Till Now in the Reformed Churches,
Set Forth in Several Articles
Article 1: God's Right to Condemn All People
Since all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the
sentence of the curse and eternal death, God would have done no one an
injustice if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin and
under the curse, and to condemn them on account of their sin. As the apostle
says: The whole world is liable to the condemnation of God (Rom. 3:19), All
have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), and The wages of
sin is death (Rom. 6:23).
Article 2: The Manifestation of God's Love
But this is how God showed his love: he sent his only
begotten Son into the world, so that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life.
Article 3: The Preaching of the Gospel
In order that people may be brought to faith, God mercifully
sends proclaimers of this very joyful message to the people he wishes and at
the time he wishes. By this ministry people are called to repentance and faith
in Christ crucified. For how shall they believe in him of whom they have not
heard? And how shall they hear without someone preaching? And how shall they
preach unless they have been sent? (Rom. 10:14-15).
Article 4: A Twofold Response to the Gospel
God's anger remains on those who do not believe this gospel.
But those who do accept it and embrace Jesus the Savior with a true and living
faith are delivered through him from God's anger and from destruction, and
receive the gift of eternal life.
Article 5: The Sources of Unbelief and of Faith
The cause or blame for this unbelief, as well as for all
other sins, is not at all in God, but in man. Faith in Jesus Christ, however,
and salvation through him is a free gift of God. As Scripture says, It is by
grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is a
gift of God (Eph. 2:8). Likewise: It has been freely given to you to believe in
Christ (Phil. 1:29).
Article 6: God's Eternal Decision
The fact that some receive from God the gift of faith within
time, and that others do not, stems from his eternal decision. For all his
works are known to God from eternity (Acts 15:18; Eph. 1:11). In accordance
with this decision he graciously softens the hearts, however hard, of his
chosen ones and inclines them to believe, but by his just judgment he leaves in
their wickedness and hardness of heart those who have not been chosen. And in
this especially is disclosed to us his act—unfathomable, and as merciful as it
is just—of distinguishing between people equally lost. This is the well-known
decision of election and reprobation revealed in God's Word. This decision the
wicked, impure, and unstable distort to their own ruin, but it provides holy
and godly souls with comfort beyond words.
Article 7: Election
Election [or choosing] is God's unchangeable purpose by which
he did the following:
Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace,
according to the free good pleasure of his will, he chose in Christ to
salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human
race, which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin
and ruin. Those chosen were neither better nor more deserving than the
others, but lay with them in the common misery. He did this in Christ, whom
he also appointed from eternity to be the mediator, the head of all those
chosen, and the foundation of their salvation.
And so he decided to give the chosen ones to Christ to be
saved, and to call and draw them effectively into Christ's fellowship through
his Word and Spirit. In other words, he decided to grant them true faith in
Christ, to justify them, to sanctify them, and finally, after powerfully
preserving them in the fellowship of his Son, to glorify them.
God did all this in order to demonstrate his mercy, to the
praise of the riches of his glorious grace.
As Scripture says, God chose us in Christ, before the
foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and blameless before him
with love; he predestined us whom he adopted as his children through Jesus
Christ, in himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise
of his glorious grace, by which he freely made us pleasing to himself in his
beloved (Eph. 1:4-6). And elsewhere, Those whom he predestined, he also called;
and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he
also glorified (Rom. 8:30).
Article 8: A Single Decision of Election
This election is not of many kinds; it is one and the same
election for all who were to be saved in the Old and the New Testament. For
Scripture declares that there is a single good pleasure, purpose, and plan of
God's will, by which he chose us from eternity both to grace and to glory, both
to salvation and to the way of salvation, which he prepared in advance for us
to walk in.
Article 9: Election Not Based on Foreseen Faith
This same election took place, not on the basis of foreseen
faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, or of any other good quality and
disposition, as though it were based on a prerequisite cause or condition in
the person to be chosen, but rather for the purpose of faith, of the obedience
of faith, of holiness, and so on. Accordingly, election is the source of each
of the benefits of salvation. Faith, holiness, and the other saving gifts, and
at last eternal life itself, flow forth from election as its fruits and
effects. As the apostle says, He chose us (not because we were, but) so that we
should be holy and blameless before him in love (Eph. 1:4).
Article 10: Election Based on God's Good Pleasure
But the cause of this undeserved election is exclusively the
good pleasure of God. This does not involve his choosing certain human
qualities or actions from among all those possible as a condition of salvation,
but rather involves his adopting certain particular persons from among the
common mass of sinners as his own possession. As Scripture says, When the
children were not yet born, and had done nothing either good or bad..., she
(Rebecca) was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written,
"Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Rom. 9:11-13). Also, All who were appointed
for eternal life believed (Acts 13:48).
Article 11: Election Unchangeable
Just as God himself is most wise, unchangeable, all-knowing,
and almighty, so the election made by him can neither be suspended nor altered,
revoked, or annulled; neither can his chosen ones be cast off, nor their number
reduced.
Article 12: The Assurance of Election
Assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election to
salvation is given to the chosen in due time, though by various stages and in
differing measure. Such assurance comes not by inquisitive searching into the
hidden and deep things of God, but by noticing within themselves, with
spiritual joy and holy delight, the unmistakable fruits of election pointed out
in God's Word— such as a true faith in Christ, a childlike fear of God, a godly
sorrow for their sins, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on.
Article 13: The Fruit of This Assurance
In their awareness and assurance of this election God's
children daily find greater cause to humble themselves before God, to adore the
fathomless depth of his mercies, to cleanse themselves, and to give fervent
love in return to him who first so greatly loved them. This is far from saying
that this teaching concerning election, and reflection upon it, make God's
children lax in observing his commandments or carnally self-assured. By God's
just judgment this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted
the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it but are
unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen.
Article 14: Teaching Election Properly
Just as, by God's wise plan, this teaching concerning divine
election has been proclaimed through the prophets, Christ himself, and the
apostles, in Old and New Testament times, and has subsequently been committed
to writing in the Holy Scriptures, so also today in God's church, for which it
was specifically intended, this teaching must be set forth—with a spirit of
discretion, in a godly and holy manner, at the appropriate time and place,
without inquisitive searching into the ways of the Most High. This must be done
for the glory of God's most holy name, and for the lively comfort of his
people.
Article 15: Reprobation
Moreover, Holy Scripture most especially highlights this
eternal and undeserved grace of our election and brings it out more clearly for
us, in that it further bears witness that not all people have been chosen but
that some have not been chosen or have been passed by in God's eternal
election— those, that is, concerning whom God, on the basis of his entirely
free, most just, irreproachable, and unchangeable good pleasure, made the
following decision:
to leave them in the common misery into which, by their own
fault, they have plunged themselves;
not to grant them saving faith and the grace of conversion;
but finally to condemn and eternally punish them (having been left in their
own ways and under his just judgment), not only for their unbelief but also
for all their other sins, in order to display his justice.
And this is the decision of reprobation, which does not at
all make God the author of sin (a blasphemous thought!) but rather its fearful,
irreproachable, just judge and avenger.
Article 16: Responses to the Teaching of Reprobation
Those who do not yet actively experience within themselves a
living faith in Christ or an assured confidence of heart, peace of conscience,
a zeal for childlike obedience, and a glorying in God through Christ, but who
nevertheless use the means by which God has promised to work these things in
us—such people ought not to be alarmed at the mention of reprobation, nor to
count themselves among the reprobate; rather they ought to continue diligently
in the use of the means, to desire fervently a time of more abundant grace, and
to wait for it in reverence and humility. On the other hand, those who
seriously desire to turn to God, to be pleasing to him alone, and to be
delivered from the body of death, but are not yet able to make such progress
along the way of godliness and faith as they would like—such people ought much
less to stand in fear of the teaching concerning reprobation, since our
merciful God has promised that he will not snuff out a smoldering wick and that
he will not break a bruised reed. However, those who have forgotten God and
their Savior Jesus Christ and have abandoned themselves wholly to the cares of
the world and the pleasures of the flesh—such people have every reason to stand
in fear of this teaching, as long as they do not seriously turn to God.
Article 17: The Salvation of the Infants of Believers
Since we must make judgments about God's will from his Word,
which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature but by
virtue of the gracious covenant in which they together with their parents are
included, godly parents ought not to doubt the election and salvation of their
children whom God calls out of this life in infancy.
Article 18: The Proper Attitude Toward Election and Reprobation
To those who complain about this grace of an undeserved
election and about the severity of a just reprobation, we reply with the words
of the apostle, Who are you, O man, to talk back to God? (Rom. 9:20), and with
the words of our Savior, Have I no right to do what I want with my own? (Matt.
20:15). We, however, with reverent adoration of these secret things, cry out
with the apostle: Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways beyond
tracing out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his
counselor? Or who has first 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).
Having set forth the orthodox teaching concerning election
and reprobation, the Synod rejects the errors of those
I
Who teach that the will of God to save those who would
believe and persevere in faith and in the obedience of faith is the whole and
entire decision of election to salvation, and that nothing else concerning this
decision has been revealed in God's Word.
For they deceive the simple and plainly contradict Holy
Scripture in its testimony that God does not only wish to save those who would
believe, but that he has also from eternity chosen certain particular people to
whom, rather than to others, he would within time grant faith in Christ and
perseverance. As Scripture says, I have revealed your name to those whom you
gave me (John 17:6). Likewise, All who were appointed for eternal life believed
(Acts 13:48), and He chose us before the foundation of the world so that we
should be holy... (Eph. 1:4).
II
Who teach that God's election to eternal life is of many
kinds: one general and indefinite, the other particular and definite; and the
latter in turn either incomplete, revocable, nonperemptory (or conditional), or
else complete, irrevocable, and peremptory (or absolute). Likewise, who teach
that there is one election to faith and another to salvation, so that there can
be an election to justifying faith apart from a peremptory election to
salvation.
For this is an invention of the human brain, devised apart
from the Scriptures, which distorts the teaching concerning election and breaks
up this golden chain of salvation: Those whom he predestined, he also called;
and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he
also glorified (Rom. 8:30).
III
Who teach that God's good pleasure and purpose, which
Scripture mentions in its teaching of election, does not involve God's choosing
certain particular people rather than others, but involves God's choosing, out
of all possible conditions (including the works of the law) or out of the whole
order of things, the intrinsically unworthy act of faith, as well as the
imperfect obedience of faith, to be a condition of salvation; and it involves
his graciously wishing to count this as perfect obedience and to look upon it
as worthy of the reward of eternal life.
For by this pernicious error the good pleasure of God and the
merit of Christ are robbed of their effectiveness and people are drawn away, by
unprofitable inquiries, from the truth of undeserved justification and from the
simplicity of the Scriptures. It also gives the lie to these words of the
apostle: God called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of works, but in
virtue of his own purpose and the grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus
before the beginning of time (2 Tim. 1:9).
IV
Who teach that in election to faith a prerequisite condition
is that man should rightly use the light of nature, be upright, unassuming,
humble, and disposed to eternal life, as though election depended to some
extent on these factors.
For this smacks of Pelagius, and it clearly calls into
question the words of the apostle: We lived at one time in the passions of our
flesh, following the will of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature
children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of
the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in
transgressions, made us alive with Christ, by whose grace you have been saved.
And God raised us up with him and seated us with him in heaven in Christ Jesus,
in order that in the coming ages we might show the surpassing riches of his
grace, according to his kindness toward 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 by works, so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:3-9).
V
Who teach that the incomplete and nonperemptory election of
particular persons to salvation occurred on the basis of a foreseen faith,
repentance, holiness, and godliness, which has just begun or continued for some
time; but that complete and peremptory election occurred on the basis of a
foreseen perseverance to the end in faith, repentance, holiness, and godliness.
And that this is the gracious and evangelical worthiness, on account of which
the one who is chosen is more worthy than the one who is not chosen. And
therefore that faith, the obedience of faith, holiness, godliness, and
perseverance are not fruits or effects of an unchangeable election to glory,
but indispensable conditions and causes, which are prerequisite in those who
are to be chosen in the complete election, and which are foreseen as achieved
in them.
This runs counter to the entire Scripture, which throughout
impresses upon our ears and hearts these sayings among others: Election is not
by works, but by him who calls (Rom. 9:11-12); All who were appointed for
eternal life believed (Acts 13:48); He chose us in himself so that we should be
holy (Eph. 1:4); You did not choose me, but I chose you (John 15:16); If by
grace, not by works (Rom. 11:6); In this is love, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us and sent his Son (1 John 4:10).
VI
Who teach that not every election to salvation is
unchangeable, but that some of the chosen can perish and do in fact perish
eternally, with no decision of God to prevent it.
By this gross error they make God changeable, destroy the
comfort of the godly concerning the steadfastness of their election, and
contradict the Holy Scriptures, which teach that the elect cannot be led astray
(Matt. 24:24), that Christ does not lose those given to him by the Father (John
6:39), and that those whom God predestined, called, and justified, he also
glorifies (Rom. 8:30).
VII
Who teach that in this life there is no fruit, no awareness,
and no assurance of one's unchangeable election to glory, except as conditional
upon something changeable and contingent.
For not only is it absurd to speak of an uncertain assurance,
but these things also militate against the experience of the saints, who with
the apostle rejoice from an awareness of their election and sing the praises of
this gift of God; who, as Christ urged, rejoice with his disciples that their
names have been written in heaven (Luke 10:20); and finally who hold up against
the flaming arrows of the devil's temptations the awareness of their election,
with the question Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
(Rom. 8:33).
VIII
Who teach that it was not on the basis of his just will alone
that God decided to leave anyone in the fall of Adam and in the common state of
sin and condemnation or to pass anyone by in the imparting of grace necessary
for faith and conversion.
For these words stand fast: He has mercy on whom he wishes,
and he hardens whom he wishes (Rom. 9:18). And also: To you it has been given
to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given
(Matt. 13:11). Likewise: I give glory to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and have
revealed them to little children; yes, Father, because that was your pleasure
(Matt. 11:25-26).
IX
Who teach that the cause for God's sending the gospel to one
people rather than to another is not merely and solely God's good pleasure, but
rather that one people is better and worthier than the other to whom the gospel
is not communicated.
For Moses contradicts this when he addresses the people of
Israel as follows: Behold, to Jehovah your God belong the heavens and the
highest heavens, the earth and whatever is in it. But Jehovah was inclined in
his affection to love your ancestors alone, and chose out their descendants
after them, you above all peoples, as at this day (Deut. 10:14-15). And also
Christ: Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! for if those mighty works
done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago
in sackcloth and ashes (Matt. 11:21).
Article 1: The Punishment Which God's Justice Requires
God is not only supremely merciful, but also supremely just.
His justice requires (as he has revealed himself in the Word) that the sins we
have committed against his infinite majesty be punished with both temporal and
eternal punishments, of soul as well as body. We cannot escape these
punishments unless satisfaction is given to God's justice.
Article 2: The Satisfaction Made by Christ
Since, however, we ourselves cannot give this satisfaction or
deliver ourselves from God's anger, God in his boundless mercy has given us as
a guarantee his only begotten Son, who was made to be sin and a curse for us,
in our place, on the cross, in order that he might give satisfaction for us.
Article 3: The Infinite Value of Christ's Death
This death of God's Son is the only and entirely complete
sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more
than sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world.
Article 4: Reasons for This Infinite Value
This death is of such great value and worth for the reason
that the person who suffered it is—as was necessary to be our Savior—not only a
true and perfectly holy man, but also the only begotten Son of God, of the same
eternal and infinite essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Another
reason is that this death was accompanied by the experience of God's anger and
curse, which we by our sins had fully deserved.
Article 5: The Mandate to Proclaim the Gospel to All
Moreover, it is the promise of the gospel that whoever
believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This
promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced
and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and
people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel.
Article 6: Unbelief Man's Responsibility
However, that many who have been called through the gospel do
not repent or believe in Christ but perish in unbelief is not because the
sacrifice of Christ offered on the cross is deficient or insufficient, but
because they themselves are at fault.
Article 7: Faith God's Gift
But all who genuinely believe and are delivered and saved by
Christ's death from their sins and from destruction receive this favor solely
from God's grace—which he owes to no one—given to them in Christ from eternity.
Article 8: The Saving Effectiveness of Christ's Death
For it was the entirely free plan and very gracious will and
intention of God the Father that the enlivening and saving effectiveness of his
Son's costly death should work itself out in all his chosen ones, in order that
he might grant justifying faith to them only and thereby lead them without fail
to salvation. In other words, it was God's will that Christ through the blood
of the cross (by which he confirmed the new covenant) should effectively redeem
from every people, tribe, nation, and language all those and only those who
were chosen from eternity to salvation and given to him by the Father; that he
should grant them faith (which, like the Holy Spirit's other saving gifts, he
acquired for them by his death); that he should cleanse them by his blood from
all their sins, both original and actual, whether committed before or after
their coming to faith; that he should faithfully preserve them to the very end;
and that he should finally present them to himself, a glorious people, without
spot or wrinkle.
Article 9: The Fulfillment of God's Plan
This plan, arising out of God's eternal love for his chosen
ones, from the beginning of the world to the present time has been powerfully
carried out and will also be carried out in the future, the gates of hell
seeking vainly to prevail against it. As a result the chosen are gathered into
one, all in their own time, and there is always a church of believers founded
on Christ's blood, a church which steadfastly loves, persistently worships,
and—here and in all eternity—praises him as her Savior who laid down his life
for her on the cross, as a bridegroom for his bride.
Having set forth the orthodox teaching, the Synod rejects
the errors of those
I
Who teach that God the Father appointed his Son to death on
the cross without a fixed and definite plan to save anyone by name, so that the
necessity, usefulness, and worth of what Christ's death obtained could have
stood intact and altogether perfect, complete and whole, even if the redemption
that was obtained had never in actual fact been applied to any individual.
For this assertion is an insult to the wisdom of God the
Father and to the merit of Jesus Christ, and it is contrary to Scripture. For
the Savior speaks as follows: I lay down my life for the sheep, and I know them
(John 10:15, 27). And Isaiah the prophet says concerning the Savior: When he
shall make himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall
prolong his days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand (Isa.
53:10). Finally, this undermines the article of the creed in which we confess
what we believe concerning the Church.
II
Who teach that the purpose of Christ's death was not to
establish in actual fact a new covenant of grace by his blood, but only to
acquire for the Father the mere right to enter once more into a covenant with
men, whether of grace or of works.
For this conflicts with Scripture, which teaches that Christ
has become the guarantee and mediator of a better—that is, a new-covenant (Heb.
7:22; 9:15), and that a will is in force only when someone has died (Heb.
9:17).
III
Who teach that Christ, by the satisfaction which he gave, did
not certainly merit for anyone salvation itself and the faith by which this
satisfaction of Christ is effectively applied to salvation, but only acquired
for the Father the authority or plenary will to relate in a new way with men
and to impose such new conditions as he chose, and that the satisfying of these
conditions depends on the free choice of man; consequently, that it was
possible that either all or none would fulfill them.
For they have too low an opinion of the death of Christ, do
not at all acknowledge the foremost fruit or benefit which it brings forth, and
summon back from hell the Pelagian error.
IV
Who teach that what is involved in the new covenant of grace
which God the Father made with men through the intervening of Christ's death is
not that we are justified before God and saved through faith, insofar as it
accepts Christ's merit, but rather that God, having withdrawn his demand for
perfect obedience to the law, counts faith itself, and the imperfect obedience
of faith, as perfect obedience to the law, and graciously looks upon this as
worthy of the reward of eternal life.
For they contradict Scripture: They are justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ, whom God presented
as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:24-25). And
along with the ungodly Socinus, they introduce a new and foreign justification
of man before God, against the consensus of the whole church.
V
Who teach that all people have been received into the state
of reconciliation and into the grace of the covenant, so that no one on account
of original sin is liable to condemnation, or is to be condemned, but that all
are free from the guilt of this sin.
For this opinion conflicts with Scripture which asserts that
we are by nature children of wrath.
VI
Who make use of the distinction between obtaining and
applying in order to instill in the unwary and inexperienced the opinion that
God, as far as he is concerned, wished to bestow equally upon all people the
benefits which are gained by Christ's death; but that the distinction by which
some rather than others come to share in the forgiveness of sins and eternal
life depends on their own free choice (which applies itself to the grace
offered indiscriminately) but does not depend on the unique gift of mercy which
effectively works in them, so that they, rather than others, apply that grace
to themselves.
For, while pretending to set forth this distinction in an
acceptable sense, they attempt to give the people the deadly poison of
Pelagianism.
VII
Who teach that Christ neither could die, nor had to die, nor
did die for those whom God so dearly loved and chose to eternal life, since
such people do not need the death of Christ.
For they contradict the apostle, who says: Christ loved me
and gave himself up for me (Gal. 2:20), and 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 who died, that is, for them (Rom. 8:33-34). They also
contradict the Savior, who asserts: I lay down my life for the sheep (John
10:15), and My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you. Greater
love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends (John
15:12-13).
Man was originally created in the image of God and was
furnished in his mind with a true and salutary knowledge of his Creator and
things spiritual, in his will and heart with righteousness, and in all his
emotions with purity; indeed, the whole man was holy. However, rebelling
against God at the devil's instigation and by his own free will, he deprived
himself of these outstanding gifts. Rather, in their place he brought upon
himself blindness, terrible darkness, futility, and distortion of judgment in
his mind; perversity, defiance, and hardness in his heart and will; and finally
impurity in all his emotions.
Article 2: The Spread of Corruption
Man brought forth children of the same nature as himself
after the fall. That is to say, being corrupt he brought forth corrupt
children. The corruption spread, by God's just judgment, from Adam to all his
descendants— except for Christ alone—not by way of imitation (as in former
times the Pelagians would have it) but by way of the propagation of his
perverted nature.
Article 3: Total Inability
Therefore, all people are conceived in sin and are born
children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their
sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they
are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted
nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.
Article 4: The Inadequacy of the Light of Nature
There is, to be sure, a certain light of nature remaining in
man after the fall, by virtue of which he retains some notions about God,
natural things, and the difference between what is moral and immoral, and
demonstrates a certain eagerness for virtue and for good outward behavior. But
this light of nature is far from enabling man to come to a saving knowledge of
God and conversion to him—so far, in fact, that man does not use it rightly
even in matters of nature and society. Instead, in various ways he completely
distorts this light, whatever its precise character, and suppresses it in
unrighteousness. In doing so he renders himself without excuse before God.
Article 5: The Inadequacy of the Law
In this respect, what is true of the light of nature is true
also of the Ten Commandments given by God through Moses specifically to the
Jews. For man cannot obtain saving grace through the Decalogue, because,
although it does expose the magnitude of his sin and increasingly convict him
of his guilt, yet it does not offer a remedy or enable him to escape from his
misery, and, indeed, weakened as it is by the flesh, leaves the offender under
the curse.
Article 6: The Saving Power of the Gospel
What, therefore, neither the light of nature nor the law can
do, God accomplishes by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the Word or the
ministry of reconciliation. This is the gospel about the Messiah, through which
it has pleased God to save believers, in both the Old and the New Testament.
Article 7: God's Freedom in Revealing the Gospel
In the Old Testament, God revealed this secret of his will to
a small number; in the New Testament (now without any distinction between
peoples) he discloses it to a large number. The reason for this difference must
not be ascribed to the greater worth of one nation over another, or to a better
use of the light of nature, but to the free good pleasure and undeserved love
of God. Therefore, those who receive so much grace, beyond and in spite of all
they deserve, ought to acknowledge it with humble and thankful hearts; on the
other hand, with the apostle they ought to adore (but certainly not
inquisitively search into) the severity and justice of God's judgments on the
others, who do not receive this grace.
Article 8: The Serious Call of the Gospel
Nevertheless, all who are called through the gospel are
called seriously. For seriously and most genuinely God makes known in his Word
what is pleasing to him: that those who are called should come to him.
Seriously he also promises rest for their souls and eternal life to all who
come to him and believe.
Article 9: Human Responsibility for Rejecting the Gospel
The fact that many who are called through the ministry of the
gospel do not come and are not brought to conversion must not be blamed on the
gospel, nor on Christ, who is offered through the gospel, nor on God, who calls
them through the gospel and even bestows various gifts on them, but on the
people themselves who are called. Some in self-assurance do not even entertain
the Word of life; others do entertain it but do not take it to heart, and for
that reason, after the fleeting joy of a temporary faith, they relapse; others
choke the seed of the Word with the thorns of life's cares and with the
pleasures of the world and bring forth no fruits. This our Savior teaches in
the parable of the sower (Matt. 13).
Article 10: Conversion as the Work of God
The fact that others who are called through the ministry of
the gospel do come and are brought to conversion must not be credited to man,
as though one distinguishes himself by free choice from others who are
furnished with equal or sufficient grace for faith and conversion (as the proud
heresy of Pelagius maintains). No, it must be credited to God: just as from
eternity he chose his own in Christ, so within time he effectively calls them,
grants them faith and repentance, and, having rescued them from the dominion of
darkness, brings them into the kingdom of his Son, in order that they may
declare the wonderful deeds of him who called them out of darkness into this
marvelous light, and may boast not in themselves, but in the Lord, as apostolic
words frequently testify in Scripture.
Article 11: The Holy Spirit's Work in Conversion
Moreover, when God carries out this good pleasure in his
chosen ones, or works true conversion in them, he not only sees to it that the
gospel is proclaimed to them outwardly, and enlightens their minds powerfully
by the Holy Spirit so that they may rightly understand and discern the things
of the Spirit of God, but, by the effective operation of the same regenerating
Spirit, he also penetrates into the inmost being of man, opens the closed
heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised.
He infuses new qualities into the will, making the dead will alive, the evil
one good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant; he
activates and strengthens the will so that, like a good tree, it may be enabled
to produce the fruits of good deeds.
Article 12: Regeneration a Supernatural Work
And this is the regeneration, the new creation, the raising
from the dead, and the making alive so clearly proclaimed in the Scriptures,
which God works in us without our help. But this certainly does not happen only
by outward teaching, by moral persuasion, or by such a way of working that,
after God has done his work, it remains in man's power whether or not to be
reborn or converted. Rather, it is an entirely supernatural work, one that is
at the same time most powerful and most pleasing, a marvelous, hidden, and
inexpressible work, which is not lesser than or inferior in power to that of
creation or of raising the dead, as Scripture (inspired by the author of this
work) teaches. As a result, all those in whose hearts God works in this
marvelous way are certainly, unfailingly, and effectively reborn and do
actually believe. And then the will, now renewed, is not only activated and
motivated by God but in being activated by God is also itself active. For this
reason, man himself, by that grace which he has received, is also rightly said
to believe and to repent.
Article 13: The Incomprehensible Way of Regeneration
In this life believers cannot fully understand the way this
work occurs; meanwhile, they rest content with knowing and experiencing that by
this grace of God they do believe with the heart and love their Savior.
Article 14: The Way God Gives Faith
In this way, therefore, faith is a gift of God, not in the
sense that it is offered by God for man to choose, but that it is in actual
fact bestowed on man, breathed and infused into him. Nor is it a gift in the
sense that God bestows only the potential to believe, but then awaits
assent—the act of believing—from man's choice; rather, it is a gift in the
sense that he who works both willing and acting and, indeed, works all things
in all people produces in man both the will to believe and the belief itself.
Article 15: Responses to God's Grace
God does not owe this grace to anyone. For what could God owe
to one who has nothing to give that can be paid back? Indeed, what could God
owe to one who has nothing of his own to give but sin and falsehood? Therefore
the person who receives this grace owes and gives eternal thanks to God alone;
the person who does not receive it either does not care at all about these
spiritual things and is satisfied with himself in his condition, or else in
self-assurance foolishly boasts about having something which he lacks.
Furthermore, following the example of the apostles, we are to think and to
speak in the most favorable way about those who outwardly profess their faith
and better their lives, for the inner chambers of the heart are unknown to us.
But for others who have not yet been called, we are to pray to the God who
calls things that do not exist as though they did. In no way, however, are we
to pride ourselves as better than they, as though we had distinguished
ourselves from them.
Article 16: Regeneration's Effect
However, just as by the fall man did not cease to be man,
endowed with intellect and will, and just as sin, which has spread through the
whole human race, did not abolish the nature of the human race but distorted
and spiritually killed it, so also this divine grace of regeneration does not
act in people as if they were blocks and stones; nor does it abolish the will
and its properties or coerce a reluctant will by force, but spiritually
revives, heals, reforms, and—in a manner at once pleasing and powerful—bends it
back. As a result, a ready and sincere obedience of the Spirit now begins to
prevail where before the rebellion and resistance of the flesh were completely
dominant. It is in this that the true and spiritual restoration and freedom of
our will consists. Thus, if the marvelous Maker of every good thing were not
dealing with us, man would have no hope of getting up from his fall by his free
choice, by which he plunged himself into ruin when still standing upright.
Article 17: God's Use of Means in Regeneration
Just as the almighty work of God by which he brings forth and
sustains our natural life does not rule out but requires the use of means, by
which God, according to his infinite wisdom and goodness, has wished to
exercise his power, so also the aforementioned supernatural work of God by
which he regenerates us in no way rules out or cancels the use of the gospel,
which God in his great wisdom has appointed to be the seed of regeneration and
the food of the soul. For this reason, the apostles and the teachers who
followed them taught the people in a godly manner about this grace of God, to
give him the glory and to humble all pride, and yet did not neglect meanwhile
to keep the people, by means of the holy admonitions of the gospel, under the
administration of the Word, the sacraments, and discipline. So even today it is
out of the question that the teachers or those taught in the church should
presume to test God by separating what he in his good pleasure has wished to be
closely joined together. For grace is bestowed through admonitions, and the
more readily we perform our duty, the more lustrous the benefit of God working
in us usually is and the better his work advances. To him alone, both for the
means and for their saving fruit and effectiveness, all glory is owed forever.
Amen.
Having set forth the orthodox teaching, the Synod rejects the
errors of those
I
Who teach that, properly speaking, it cannot be said that
original sin in itself is enough to condemn the whole human race or to warrant
temporal and eternal punishments.
For they contradict the apostle when he says: Sin entered the
world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death passed on
to all men because all sinned (Rom. 5:12); also: The guilt followed one sin and
brought condemnation (Rom. 5:16); likewise: The wages of sin is death (Rom.
6:23).
II
Who teach that the spiritual gifts or the good dispositions
and virtues such as goodness, holiness, and righteousness could not have
resided in man's will when he was first created, and therefore could not have
been separated from the will at the fall.
For this conflicts with the apostle's description of the
image of God in Ephesians 4:24, where he portrays the image in terms of
righteousness and holiness, which definitely reside in the will.
III
Who teach that in spiritual death the spiritual gifts have
not been separated from man's will, since the will in itself has never been
corrupted but only hindered by the darkness of the mind and the unruliness of
the emotions, and since the will is able to exercise its innate free capacity
once these hindrances are removed, which is to say, it is able of itself to
will or choose whatever good is set before it—or else not to will or choose it.
This is a novel idea and an error and has the effect of
elevating the power of free choice, contrary to the words of Jeremiah the
prophet: The heart itself is deceitful above all things and wicked (Jer. 17:9);
and of the words of the apostle: All of us also lived among them (the sons of
disobedience) at one time in the passions of our flesh, following the will of
our flesh and thoughts (Eph. 2:3).
IV
Who teach that unregenerate man is not strictly or totally
dead in his sins or deprived of all capacity for spiritual good but is able to
hunger and thirst for righteousness or life and to offer the sacrifice of a
broken and contrite spirit which is pleasing to God.
For these views are opposed to the plain testimonies of
Scripture: You were dead in your transgressions and sins (Eph. 2:1, 5); The
imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil all the time (Gen. 6:5;
8:21). Besides, to hunger and thirst for deliverance from misery and for life,
and to offer God the sacrifice of a broken spirit is characteristic only of the
regenerate and of those called blessed (Ps. 51:17; Matt. 5:6).
V
Who teach that corrupt and natural man can make such good use
of common grace(by which they mean the light of nature)or of the gifts
remaining after the fall that he is able thereby gradually to obtain a greater
grace— evangelical or saving grace—as well as salvation itself; and that in
this way God, for his part, shows himself ready to reveal Christ to all people,
since he provides to all, to a sufficient extent and in an effective manner,
the means necessary for the revealing of Christ, for faith, and for repentance.
For Scripture, not to mention the experience of all ages,
testifies that this is false: He makes known his words to Jacob, his statutes
and his laws to Israel; he has done this for no other nation, and they do not
know his laws (Ps. 147:19-20); In the past God let all nations go their own way
(Acts 14:16); They (Paul and his companions) were kept by the Holy Spirit from
speaking God's word in Asia; and When they had come to Mysia, they tried to go
to Bithynia, but the Spirit would not allow them to (Acts 16:6-7).
VI
Who teach that in the true conversion of man new qualities,
dispositions, or gifts cannot be infused or poured into his will by God, and
indeed that the faith [or believing] by which we first come to conversion and
from which we receive the name "believers" is not a quality or gift infused by
God, but only an act of man, and that it cannot be called a gift except in
respect to the power of attaining faith.
For these views contradict the Holy Scriptures, which testify
that God does infuse or pour into our hearts the new qualities of faith,
obedience, and the experiencing of his love: I will put my law in their minds,
and write it on their hearts (Jer. 31:33); I will pour water on the thirsty
land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your
offspring (Isa. 44:3); The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5). They also conflict with the
continuous practice of the Church, which prays with the prophet: Convert me,
Lord, and I shall be converted (Jer. 31:18).
VII
Who teach that the grace by which we are converted to God is
nothing but a gentle persuasion, or(as others explain it) that the way of God's
acting in man's conversion that is most noble and suited to human nature is
that which happens by persuasion, and that nothing prevents this grace of moral
suasion even by itself from making natural men spiritual; indeed, that God does
not produce the assent of the will except in this manner of moral suasion, and
that the effectiveness of God's work by which it surpasses the work of Satan
consists in the fact that God promises eternal benefits while Satan promises
temporal ones.
For this teaching is entirely Pelagian and contrary to the
whole of Scripture, which recognizes besides this persuasion also another, far
more effective and divine way in which the Holy Spirit acts in man's
conversion. As Ezekiel 36:26 puts it: I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit in you; and I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of
flesh....
VIII
Who teach that God in regenerating man does not bring to bear
that power of his omnipotence whereby he may powerfully and unfailingly bend
man's will to faith and conversion, but that even when God has accomplished all
the works of grace which he uses for man's conversion, man nevertheless can,
and in actual fact often does, so resist God and the Spirit in their intent and
will to regenerate him, that man completely thwarts his own rebirth; and,
indeed, that it remains in his own power whether or not to be reborn.
For this does away with all effective functioning of God's
grace in our conversion and subjects the activity of Almighty God to the will
of man; it is contrary to the apostles, who teach that we believe by virtue of
the effective working of God's mighty strength (Eph. 1:19), and that God
fulfills the undeserved good will of his kindness and the work of faith in us
with power (2 Thess. 1:11), and likewise that his divine power has given us
everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3).
IX
Who teach that grace and free choice are concurrent partial
causes which cooperate to initiate conversion, and that grace does not
precede—in the order of causality—the effective influence of the will;that is
to say,that God does not effectively help man's will to come to conversion
before man's will itself motivates and determines itself.
For the early church already condemned this doctrine long ago
in the Pelagians, on the basis of the words of the apostle: It does not depend
on man's willing or running but on God's mercy (Rom. 9:16); also: Who makes you
different from anyone else? and What do you have that you did not receive? (1
Cor. 4:7); likewise: It is God who works in you to will and act according to
his good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).
Article 1: The Regenerate Not Entirely Free from Sin
Those people whom God according to his purpose calls into
fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and regenerates by the Holy
Spirit, he also sets free from the reign and slavery of sin, though in this
life not entirely from the flesh and from the body of sin.
Article 2: The Believer's Reaction to Sins of Weakness
Hence daily sins of weakness arise, and blemishes cling to
even the best works of God's people, giving them continual cause to humble
themselves before God, to flee for refuge to Christ crucified, to put the flesh
to death more and more by the Spirit of supplication and by holy exercises of
godliness, and to strain toward the goal of perfection, until they are freed
from this body of death and reign with the Lamb of God in heaven.
Article 3: God's Preservation of the Converted
Because of these remnants of sin dwelling in them and also
because of the temptations of the world and Satan, those who have been
converted could not remain standing in this grace if left to their own
resources. But God is faithful, mercifully strengthening them in the grace once
conferred on them and powerfully preserving them in it to the end.
Article 4: The Danger of True Believers' Falling into Serious Sins
Although that power of God strengthening and preserving true
believers in grace is more than a match for the flesh, yet those converted are
not always so activated and motivated by God that in certain specific actions
they cannot by their own fault depart from the leading of grace, be led astray
by the desires of the flesh, and give in to them. For this reason they must
constantly watch and pray that they may not be led into temptations. When they
fail to do this, not only can they be carried away by the flesh, the world, and
Satan into sins, even serious and outrageous ones, but also by God's just
permission they sometimes are so carried away—witness the sad cases, described
in Scripture, of David, Peter, and other saints falling into sins.
Article 5: The Effects of Such Serious Sins
By such monstrous sins, however, they greatly offend God,
deserve the sentence of death, grieve the Holy Spirit, suspend the exercise of
faith, severely wound the conscience, and sometimes lose the awareness of grace
for a time—until, after they have returned to the way by genuine repentance,
God's fatherly face again shines upon them.
Article 6: God's Saving Intervention
For God, who is rich in mercy, according to his unchangeable
purpose of election does not take his Holy Spirit from his own completely, even
when they fall grievously. Neither does he let them fall down so far that they
forfeit the grace of adoption and the state of justification, or commit the sin
which leads to death (the sin against the Holy Spirit), and plunge themselves,
entirely forsaken by him, into eternal ruin.
Article 7: Renewal to Repentance
For, in the first place, God preserves in those saints when
they fall his imperishable seed from which they have been born again, lest it
perish or be dislodged. Secondly, by his Word and Spirit he certainly and
effectively renews them to repentance so that they have a heartfelt and godly
sorrow for the sins they have committed; seek and obtain, through faith and
with a contrite heart, forgiveness in the blood of the Mediator; experience
again the grace of a reconciled God; through faith adore his mercies; and from
then on more eagerly work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.
Article 8: The Certainty of This Preservation
So it is not by their own merits or strength but by God's
undeserved mercy that they neither forfeit faith and grace totally nor remain
in their downfalls to the end and are lost. With respect to themselves this not
only easily could happen, but also undoubtedly would happen; but with respect
to God it cannot possibly happen, since his plan cannot be changed, his promise
cannot fail, the calling according to his purpose cannot be revoked, the merit
of Christ as well as his interceding and preserving cannot be nullified, and
the sealing of the Holy Spirit can neither be invalidated nor wiped out.
Article 9: The Assurance of This Preservation
Concerning this preservation of those chosen to salvation and
concerning the perseverance of true believers in faith, believers themselves
can and do become assured in accordance with the measure of their faith, by
which they firmly believe that they are and always will remain true and living
members of the church, and that they have the forgiveness of sins and eternal
life.
Article 10: The Ground of This Assurance
Accordingly, this assurance does not derive from some private
revelation beyond or outside the Word, but from faith in the promises of God
which he has very plentifully revealed in his Word for our comfort, from the
testimony of the Holy Spirit testifying with our spirit that we are God's
children and heirs (Rom. 8:16-17), and finally from a serious and holy pursuit
of a clear conscience and of good works. And if God's chosen ones in this world
did not have this well-founded comfort that the victory will be theirs and this
reliable guarantee of eternal glory, they would be of all people most
miserable.
Article 11: Doubts Concerning This Assurance
Meanwhile, Scripture testifies that believers have to contend
in this life with various doubts of the flesh and that under severe temptation
they do not always experience this full assurance of faith and certainty of
perseverance. But God, the Father of all comfort, does not let them be tempted
beyond what they can bear, but with the temptation he also provides a way out
(1 Cor. 10:13), and by the Holy Spirit revives in them the assurance of their
perseverance.
Article 12: This Assurance as an Incentive to Godliness
This assurance of perseverance, however, so far from making
true believers proud and carnally self-assured, is rather the true root of
humility, of childlike respect, of genuine godliness, of endurance in every
conflict, of fervent prayers, of steadfastness in crossbearing and in
confessing the truth, and of well-founded joy in God. Reflecting on this
benefit provides an incentive to a serious and continual practice of
thanksgiving and good works, as is evident from the testimonies of Scripture
and the examples of the saints.
Article 13: Assurance No Inducement to Carelessness
Neither does the renewed confidence of perseverance produce
immorality or lack of concern for godliness in those put back on their feet
after a fall, but it produces a much greater concern to observe carefully the
ways of the Lord which he prepared in advance. They observe these ways in order
that by walking in them they may maintain the assurance of their perseverance,
lest, by their abuse of his fatherly goodness, the face of the gracious God
(for the godly, looking upon his face is sweeter than life, but its withdrawal
is more bitter than death) turn away from them again, with the result that they
fall into greater anguish of spirit.
Article 14: God's Use of Means in Perseverance
And, just as it has pleased God to begin this work of grace
in us by the proclamation of the gospel, so he preserves, continues, and
completes his work by the hearing and reading of the gospel, by meditation on
it, by its exhortations, threats, and promises, and also by the use of the
sacraments.
Article 15: Contrasting Reactions to the Teaching of Perseverance
This teaching about the perseverance of true believers and
saints, and about their assurance of it—a teaching which God has very richly
revealed in his Word for the glory of his name and for the comfort of the godly
and which he impresses on the hearts of believers—is something which the flesh
does not understand, Satan hates, the world ridicules, the ignorant and the
hypocrites abuse, and the spirits of error attack. The bride of Christ, on the
other hand, has always loved this teaching very tenderly and defended it
steadfastly as a priceless treasure; and God, against whom no plan can avail
and no strength can prevail, will ensure that she will continue to do this. To
this God alone, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever. Amen.
Concerning the Teaching of the Perseverance of the Saints
Having set forth the orthodox teaching, the Synod rejects the
errors of those
I
Who teach that the perseverance of true believers is not an
effect of election or a gift of God produced by Christ's death, but a condition
of the new covenant which man, beforewhat they callhis "peremptory" election
and justification, must fulfill by his free will.
For Holy Scripture testifies that perseverance follows from
election and is granted to the chosen by virtue of Christ's death,
resurrection, and intercession: The chosen obtained it; 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, along with him, grant us all things? 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—more than that, who was
raised—who also sits 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).
II
Who teach that God does provide the believer with sufficient
strength to persevere and is ready to preserve this strength in him if he
performs his duty, but that even with all those things in place which are
necessary to persevere in faith and which God is pleased to use to preserve
faith, it still always depends on the choice of man's will whether or not he
perseveres.
For this view is obviously Pelagian; and though it intends to
make men free it makes them sacrilegious. It is against the enduring consensus
of evangelical teaching which takes from man all cause for boasting and
ascribes the praise for this benefit only to God's grace. It is also against
the testimony of the apostle: It is God who keeps us strong to the end, so that
we will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:8).
III
Who teach that those who truly believe and have been born
again not only can forfeit justifying faith as well as grace and salvation
totally and to the end, but also in actual fact do often forfeit them and are
lost forever.
For this opinion nullifies the very grace of justification
and regeneration as well as the continual preservation by Christ, contrary to
the plain words of the apostle Paul: If Christ died for us while we were still
sinners, we will therefore much more be saved from God's wrath through him,
since we have now been justified by his blood (Rom. 5:8-9); and contrary to the
apostle John: No one who is born of God is intent on sin, because God's seed
remains in him, nor can he sin, because he has been born of God (1 John 3:9);
also contrary to the words of Jesus Christ: I give eternal life to my sheep,
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).
IV
Who teach that those who truly believe and have been born
again can commit the sin that leads to death (the sin against the Holy Spirit).
For the same apostle John, after making mention of those who
commit the sin that leads to death and forbidding prayer for them (1 John 5:
16-17), immediately adds: We know that anyone born of God does not commit sin
(that is, that kind of sin), but the one who was born of God keeps himself
safe, and the evil one does not touch him (v. 18).
V
Who teach that apart from a special revelation no one can
have the assurance of future perseverance in this life.
For by this teaching the well-founded consolation of true
believers in this life is taken away and the doubting of the Romanists is
reintroduced into the church. Holy Scripture, however, in many places derives
the assurance not from a special and extraordinary revelation but from the
marks peculiar to God's children and from God's completely reliable promises.
So especially the apostle Paul: Nothing in all creation can separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:39); and John: They
who obey his commands remain in him and he in them. And this is how we know
that he remains in us: by the Spirit he gave us (1 John 3:24).
VI
Who teach that the teaching of the assurance of perseverance
and of salvation is by its very nature and character an opiate of the flesh and
is harmful to godliness, good morals, prayer, and other holy exercises, but
that, on the contrary, to have doubt about this is praiseworthy.
For these people show that they do not know the effective
operation of God's grace and the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and they
contradict the apostle John, who asserts the opposite in plain words: Dear
friends, now we are children of God, but what we will be has not yet been made
known. But we know that when he is made known, 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). Moreover, they are refuted by the examples
of the saints in both the Old and the New Testament, who though assured of
their perseverance and salvation yet were constant in prayer and other
exercises of godliness.
VII
Who teach that the faith of those who believe only
temporarily does not differ from justifying and saving faith except in duration
alone.
For Christ himself in Matthew 13:20ff. and Luke 8:13ff.
clearly defines these further differences between temporary and true believers:
he says that the former receive the seed on rocky ground, and the latter
receive it in good ground, or a good heart; the former have no root, and the
latter are firmly rooted; the former have no fruit, and the latter produce
fruit in varying measure, with steadfastness, or perseverance.
VIII
Who teach that it is not absurd that a person, after losing
his former regeneration, should once again, indeed quite often, be reborn.
For by this teaching they deny the imperishable nature of
God's seed by which we are born again, contrary to the testimony of the apostle
Peter: Born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable (1 Pet. 1:23).
IX
Who teach that Christ nowhere prayed for an unfailing
perseverance of believers in faith.
For they contradict Christ himself when he says: I have
prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail (Luke 22:32); and John the
gospel writer when he testifies in John 17 that it was not only for the
apostles, but also for all those who were to believe by their message that
Christ prayed: Holy Father, preserve them in your name (v. 11); and My prayer
is not that you take them out of the world, but that you preserve them from the
evil one (v. 15).
And so this is the clear, simple, and straightforward
explanation of the orthodox teaching on the five articles in dispute in the
Netherlands, as well as the rejection of the errors by which the Dutch churches
have for some time been disturbed. This explanation and rejection the Synod
declares to be derived from God's Word and in agreement with the confessions of
the Reformed churches. Hence it clearly appears that those of whom one could
hardly expect it have shown no truth, equity, and charity at all in wishing to
make the public believe:
that the teaching of the Reformed churches on predestination
and on the points associated with it by its very nature and tendency draws the
minds of people away from all godliness and religion, is an opiate of the
flesh and the devil, and is a stronghold of Satan where he lies in wait for
all people, wounds most of them, and fatally pierces many of them with the
arrows of both despair and self-assurance;
that this teaching makes God the author of sin, unjust, a
tyrant, and a hypocrite; and is nothing but a refurbished Stoicism,
Manicheism, Libertinism, and Mohammedanism;
that this teaching makes people carnally self-assured, since
it persuades them that nothing endangers the salvation of the chosen, no
matter how they live, so that they may commit the most outrageous crimes with
self-assurance; and that on the other hand nothing is of use to the reprobate
for salvation even if they have truly performed all the works of the saints;
that this teaching means that God predestined and created,
by the bare and unqualified choice of his will, without the least regard or
consideration of any sin, the greatest part of the world to eternal
condemnation; that in the same manner in which election is the source and
cause of faith and good works, reprobation is the cause of unbelief and
ungodliness; that many infant children of believers are snatched in their
innocence from their mothers' breasts and cruelly cast into hell so that
neither the blood of Christ nor their baptism nor the prayers of the church at
their baptism can be of any use to them; and very many other slanderous
accusations of this kind which the Reformed churches not only disavow but even
denounce with their whole heart.
Therefore this Synod of Dort in the name of the Lord pleads
with all who devoutly call on the name of our Savior Jesus Christ to form their
judgment about the faith of the Reformed churches, not on the basis of false
accusations gathered from here or there, or even on the basis of the personal
statements of a number of ancient and modern authorities—statements which are
also often either quoted out of context or misquoted and twisted to convey a
different meaning—but on the basis of the churches' own official confessions
and of the present explanation of the orthodox teaching which has been endorsed
by the unanimous consent of the members of the whole Synod, one and all.
Moreover, the Synod earnestly warns the false accusers
themselves to consider how heavy a judgment of God awaits those who give false
testimony against so many churches and their confessions, trouble the
consciences of the weak, and seek to prejudice the minds of many against the
fellowship of true believers.
Finally, this Synod urges all fellow ministers in the gospel
of Christ to deal with this teaching in a godly and reverent manner, in the
academic institutions as well as in the churches; to do so, both in their
speaking and writing, with a view to the glory of God's name, holiness of life,
and the comfort of anxious souls; to think and also speak with Scripture
according to the analogy of faith; and, finally, to refrain from all those ways
of speaking which go beyond the bounds set for us by the genuine sense of the
Holy Scriptures and which could give impertinent sophists a just occasion to
scoff at the teaching of the Reformed churches or even to bring false
accusations against it.
May God's Son Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of God
and gives gifts to men, sanctify us in the truth, lead to the truth those who
err, silence the mouths of those who lay false accusations against sound
teaching, and equip faithful ministers of his Word with a spirit of wisdom and
discretion, that all they say may be to the glory of God and the building up of
their hearers. Amen.
