  |
   |
|
THE CANONS OF DORT
The third of our doctrinal standards is the Canons of
Dort, also called the Five Articles against the
Remonstrants. These are statements of doctrine adopted by
the great Reformed Synod of Dort in 1618-1619. This Synod
had an international dimension, since it was not only
composed of the delegates of the Reformed churches of the
Netherlands but also attended by twenty-seven
representatives of foreign churches.
The Synod of Dort was held in view of the serious
disturbance in the Reformed churches caused by the rise
and spread of Arminianism. Arminius, a theological
professor at the University of Leyden, and his followers
departed from the Reformed faith in their teaching
concerning five important points. They taught conditional
election on the ground of foreseen faith, universal
atonement, partial depravity, resistible grace, and the
possibility of a lapse from grace. These views were
rejected by the Synod, and the opposite views were
embodied in what are now called the Canons of Dort or the
Five Articles against the Remonstrants. In these Canons
the Synod set forth the Reformed doctrine on these
points, namely, unconditional election, particular
atonement, total depravity, invincible grace, and the
perseverance of the saints.
Each of the Canons consists of a positive and a
negative part, the former being an exposition of the
Reformed doctrine on the subject, and the latter a
repudiation of the corresponding Arminian error. Although
in form there are only four chapters, occasioned by the
combination of the third and fourth sections into one, we
properly speak of five Canons, and the third chapter is
always designated as Chapter III/IV. All office-bearers
of our churches are required to subscribe to these Canons
as well as to the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg
Catechism.
|
 |
 |
 |
FIRST HEAD OF DOCTRINE
DIVINE ELECTION AND REPROBATION
|
|
ARTICLE 1
|
ALL MANKIND CONDEMNABLE BEFORE GOD
|
Rom 5:12
Rom 3:19,23
Rom 6:23
|
Since all men have sinned in
Adam, lie under the curse, and deserve eternal death, God
would have done no one an injustice if it had been His will
to leave the whole human race in sin and under the curse,
and to condemn it on account of its sin, according to these
words of the apostle: that . . . the whole world may be
held accountable to God. All have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God; and, the wages of sin is
death. |
 |
|
ARTICLE 2
|
THE SENDING OF THE SON OF GOD
|
|
1 Jn 4:9
Jn 3:16
|
But in this the love of God
was made manifest, that 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
|
|
Is 52:7
1 Cor 1:23,24
Rom 10:14,15
|
So that men may be brought to
faith, God mercifully sends heralds of this most joyful
message to whom He will and when He wills. By their
ministry men are called to repentance and to faith in
Christ crucified. For how are they to believe in Him of
whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear
without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are
sent? |
|
|
ARTICLE 4
|
A TWOFOLD OUTCOME
|
|
Jn 3:36
Mk 16:16
Rom 10:9
|
The wrath of God remains upon
those who do not believe this gospel. But those who receive
it and embrace Jesus the Saviour with a true and living
faith are delivered by Him from the wrath of God and from
destruction, and are given eternal life. |
|
|
ARTICLE 5
|
THE CAUSE OF UNBELIEF, THE SOURCE OF FAITH
|
|
Heb 4:6
Eph 2:8
Phil 1:29
|
The cause or guilt for this
unbelief, as well as for all other sins, is by no means in
God, but rather in man. Faith in Jesus Christ and salvation
through Him, however, is the free gift of God, as it is
written: By grace you have been saved through faith; and
this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.
Similarly, It has been granted to you that for the sake
of Christ you should . . . believe in Him. |
|
|
ARTICLE 6
|
GOD'S ETERNAL DECREE
|
|
Acts 13:48
1 Pet 2:8
Eph 1:11
|
That God in time confers the
gift of faith on some, and not on others, proceeds from His
eternal decree. For He knows all His works from eternity,
and He accomplishes all things according to the counsel
of His will. According to this decree He graciously
softens the hearts of the elect, no matter how hard they
may be, and inclines them to believe; those not elected,
however, He leaves in their own wickedness and hardness by
a just judgment. And here especially is disclosed to us the
profound, merciful, and at the same time just distinction
between men equally worthy of condemnation, or that decree
of election and reprobation which has been revealed in
God's Word. Although perverse, impure, and unstable men
twist this decree to their own destruction, it provides
unspeakable comfort for holy and God-fearing souls. |
|
|
ARTICLE 7
|
ELECTION DEFINED
|
|
Eph 1:4,11
Jn 17:2,12,24
Jn 6:37,44
1 Cor 1:9
Eph 1:4 to 6
Rom 8:30
|
Election is the unchangeable
purpose of God whereby, before the foundation of the world,
out of the whole human race, which had fallen by its own
fault out of its original integrity into sin and perdition,
He has, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His
will, out of mere grace, chosen in Christ to salvation a
definite number of specific persons, neither better nor
more worthy than others, but involved together with them in
a common misery. He has also from eternity appointed Christ
to be the Mediator and Head of all the elect and the
foundation of salvation and thus He decreed to give to
Christ those who were to be saved, and effectually to call
and draw them into His communion through His Word and
Spirit. He decreed to give them true faith in Him, to
justify them, to sanctify them, and, after having
powerfully kept them in the fellowship of His Son, finally
to glorify them, for the demonstration of His mercy and the
praise of the riches of His glorious grace. As it is
written: God chose us in Christ, before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before
Him. He destined us in love to be His sons through Jesus
Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise
of His glorious grace which He freely bestowed on us in the
Beloved. 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. |
|
|
ARTICLE 8
|
ONE DECREE OF ELECTION
|
|
Deut 7:7
Deut 9:6
Eph 1:4,5
Eph 2:10
|
There are not various decrees
of this election, but there is one and the same decree
concerning all those that are to be saved under both the
Old and the New Testament. For Scripture declares that the
good pleasure, purpose, and counsel of the will of God is
one. According to this purpose He has chosen us from
eternity both to grace and to glory, both to salvation and
to the way of salvation, which He prepared for us that we
should walk in it. |
|
|
ARTICLE 9
|
ELECTION NOT BASED ON FORESEEN FAITH
|
|
Rom 8:30
Eph 1:4
|
This election is not based on
foreseen faith, the obedience of faith, holiness, or any
other good quality or disposition, as a cause or condition
in man required for being chosen, but men are chosen to
faith, the obedience of faith, holiness, and so on.
Election, therefore, is the fountain of every saving good,
from which flow faith, holiness, and other saving gifts,
and finally eternal life itself, as its fruits and effects.
This the apostle teaches when he says, He chose us
(not because we were, but) that we should be holy and
blameless before Him. |
|
|
ARTICLE 10
|
ELECTION BASED ON GOD'S GOOD PLEASURE
|
|
Rom 9:11 to 13
Gen 25:23
Mal 1:2,3
Acts 13:48
|
The cause of this gracious
election is solely the good pleasure of God. This good
pleasure does not consist in this, that out of all possible
conditions God chose certain qualities or actions of men as
a condition for salvation, but in this, that out of the
common mass of sinners He adopted certain persons to be His
own possession. For it is written, Though they (the
children) were not yet born and had done nothing either
good or bad, and so on, she (namely, Rebecca),
was told, "The elder will serve the younger." As it is
written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." And, as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed. |
|
|
ARTICLE 11
|
ELECTION UNCHANGEABLE
|
|
Jn 6:37
Jn 10:28
|
As God Himself is most wise,
unchangeable, allknowing and almighty, so His election can
neither be undone and redone, nor changed, revoked, or
annulled; neither can the elect be cast away, nor their
number be diminished. |
|
|
ARTICLE 12
|
THE ASSURANCE OF ELECTION
|
|
Deut 29:29
1 Cor 2:10,11
2 Cor 13:5
2 Cor 7:10
Mt 5:6
|
The elect in due time, though
in various stages and in different measure, are made
certain of this their eternal and unchangeable election to
salvation. They attain this assurance, however, not by
inquisitively prying into the hidden and deep things of
God, but by observing in themselves, with spiritual joy and
holy delight, the unfailing fruits of election pointed out
in the Word of God - such as a true faith in Christ, a
childlike fear of God, a godly sorrow for their sins, and a
hunger and thirst for righteousness. |
|
|
ARTICLE 13
|
THE VALUE OF THIS ASSURANCE
|
|
1 Jn 3:3
1 Jn 4:19
|
The awareness and assurance
of this election provide the children of God with greater
reason for daily humbling themselves before God, for
adoring the depth of His mercies, for cleansing themselves,
and for fervently loving Him in turn who first so greatly
loved them. It is therefore not at all true that this
doctrine of election and the reflection on it makes them
lax in observing the commands of God or falsely secure. In
the just judgment of God, this usually happens to those who
rashly presume to have the grace of election, or idly and
boldly chatter about it, but refuse to walk in the ways of
the elect. |
|
|
ARTICLE 14
|
HOW ELECTION IS TO BE TAUGHT
|
|
Acts 20:27
Job 36:23 to 26
Rom 11:33
Rom 12:3
1 Cor 4:6
|
This doctrine of divine
election, according to the most wise counsel of God, was
preached by the prophets, by Christ Himself, and by the
apostles, under the Old as well as the New Testament, and
was then committed to writing in the Holy Scriptures.
Therefore, also today this doctrine should be taught in the
church of God, for which it was particularly intended, in
its proper time and place, provided it be done with a
spirit of discretion, in a reverent and holy manner,
without inquisitively prying into the ways of the most
High, to the glory of God's most holy Name, and for the
living comfort of His people. |
|
|
ARTICLE 15
|
REPROBATION DESCRIBED
|
|
Rom 9:22
1 Pet 2:8
Acts 14:16
|
Holy Scripture illustrates
and recommends to us this eternal and undeserved grace of
our election, especially when it further declares that not
all men are elect but that some have not been elected, or
have been passed by in the eternal election of God. Out of
His most free, most just, blameless, and unchangeable good
pleasure, God has decreed to leave them in the common
misery into which they have by their own fault plunged
themselves, and not to give them saving faith and the grace
of conversion. These, having been left in their own ways
and under His just judgment, God has decreed finally to
condemn and punish eternally, not only on account of their
unbelief but also on account of all their other sins, in
order to display His justice. This is the decree of
reprobation, which by no means makes God the author of sin
(the very thought is blasphemous!), but rather declares Him
to be its awesome, blameless, and just judge and
avenger. |
|
|
ARTICLE 16
|
RESPONSES TO THE DOCTRINE OF REPROBATION
|
|
James 2:26
2 Cor 1:12
Rom 5:11
Phil 3:3
Rom 7:24
Is 42:3
Mt 12:20
Mt 13:22
Heb 12:29
|
Some do not yet clearly
discern in themselves a living faith in Christ, an assured
confidence of heart, peace of conscience, a zeal for
childlike obedience, and a glorying in God through Christ;
nevertheless, they use the means through which God has
promised to work these things in us. They ought not to be
alarmed when reprobation is mentioned, nor to count
themselves among the reprobate. Rather, they must
diligently continue in the use of these means, fervently
desire a time of more abundant grace, and expect it with
reverence and humility. Others seriously desire to be
converted to God, to please Him only, and to be delivered
from the body of death. Yet they cannot reach that point on
the way of godliness and faith which they would like. They
should be even less terrified by the doctrine of
reprobation, since a merciful God has promised not to
quench the smoking flax nor to break the bruised reed.
Still others disregard God and the Saviour Jesus Christ and
have completely given themselves over to the cares of the
world and the lusts of the flesh. For them this doctrine of
reprobation is rightly fearsome as long as they do not
seriously turn to God. |
|
|
ARTICLE 17
|
CHILDREN OF BELIEVERS WHO DIE IN INFANCY
|
|
Gen 17:7
Is 59:21
Acts 2:39
1 Cor 7:14
|
We must judge concerning the
will of God from His Word, which declares that the children
of believers are holy, not by nature but in virtue of the
covenant of grace, in which they are included with their
parents. Therefore, God-fearing parents ought not to doubt
the election and salvation of their children whom God calls
out of this life in their infancy. |
|
|
ARTICLE 18
|
NOT PROTEST BUT ADORATION
|
|
Job 34:34 to 37
Rom 9:20
Mt 20:15
Rom 11:33 to 36
|
To those who complain about this grace of undeserved
election and the severity of righteous reprobation, we
reply with this word of the apostle: But who are you,
a man, to answer back to God? And with this word of
our Saviour, Am I not allowed to do what I choose with
what belongs to Me?
We, however, with reverent adoration of these
mysteries, exclaim with the apostle: O the depth of
the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His
ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has
been His counsel? Or who has given a gift to Him that He
might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him
are all things. To Him be glory for ever. Amen.
|
|
|
REJECTION OF ERRORS
Having explained the true doctrine of election and
reprobation, Synod rejects the following errors:
|
|
1. Error:
|
The will of God to save those
who would believe and persevere in faith and obedience is
the whole and entire decree of election to salvation.
Nothing else concerning this decree has been revealed in
God's Word.
|
Refutation:
|
This error is deceptive and
clearly contradicts Scripture, which declares not only that
God will save those who believe but also that He has chosen
specific persons from eternity. Within time He grants to
these elect, above others, both faith in Christ and
perseverance. I have manifested Thy Name to the men whom
Thou gavest Me out of the world, Jn 17:6. And as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed, Acts
13:48. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before
Him, Eph 1:4. |
|
|
2. Error:
|
There are various kinds of
divine election to eternal life. One is general and
indefinite, another is particular and definite. The latter
in turn is either incomplete, revocable, non-decisive, and
conditional, or it is complete, irrevocable, decisive, and
absolute. In the same fashion there is an election to faith
and another to salvation. Therefore election can be to
justifying faith, without being decisive to salvation.
|
|
Refutation:
|
All this is an invention of
the human mind without any basis in the Scriptures. The
doctrine of election is thus corrupted and the golden chain
of our salvation broken: And 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. |
|
|
3. Error:
|
The good pleasure and purpose
of God of which Scripture speaks in the doctrine of
election is not that He chose certain specific persons and
not others, but that out of all possible conditions (such
as the works of the law) He chose or selected the act of
faith, which in itself is without merit, as well as the
imperfect obedience of faith, to be a condition of
salvation. In His grace He wished to count such faith as
complete obedience and worthy of the reward of eternal
life.
|
|
Refutation:
|
This offensive error deprives
God's good pleasure and Christ's merits of all efficacy,
and draws people away from the truth of gracious
justification and from the simplicity of Scripture. It
contradicts the word of the apostle, Who saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works
but in virtue of His own purpose and the grace which He
granted us in Christ Jesus ages ago, 2 Tim 1:9. |
|
|
4. Error:
|
Election to faith depends on
the condition that man should use the light of nature
properly, and that he be pious, humble, meek, and fit for
eternal life.
|
|
Refutation:
|
If this were true, election
would depend on man. This smacks of the teaching of
Pelagius and is in open conflict with the teaching of the
apostle in Ephesians 2:3-9, Among these we all once
lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires
of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of
wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, who is rich in
mercy, out of His great love with which He loved us, even
when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ (by faith you have been saved), and
raised us up with Him, and made us sit with Him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages He
might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved
through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the
gift of God - not because of works, lest any man should
boast. |
|
|
5. Error:
|
Incomplete and non-decisive
election of specific persons to salvation took place on the
ground of foreseen faith, conversion, holiness, and
godliness, which either began or continued for some time.
Complete and decisive election, however, occurred because
of foreseen perseverance in faith, conversion, holiness,
and godliness till the end. This is the gracious and
evangelical worthiness because of which the person who is
chosen is more worthy than the one who is not chosen.
Therefore faith, obedience of faith, holiness, godliness,
and perseverance are not fruits of unchangeable election to
glory. Instead, they are necessary conditions and causes
required and foreseen as accomplished in those who are to
be fully elected.
|
|
Refutation:
|
This error militates against
all of Scripture, which constantly impresses the following
upon us: Election is not because of works but because of
His call, Rom 9:11; and as many as were ordained to
eternal life believed, Acts 13:48; He chose us in
Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and blameless before Him, Eph 1:4; you did not
choose Me, but I chose you, Jn 15:16; but if it is
by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise
grace would no longer be grace, Rom 11:6; in this is
love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent
His Son, 1 Jn 4:10. |
|
|
6. Error:
|
Not every election to
salvation is unchangeable. Some of the elect can and do
indeed perish everlastingly, notwithstanding any decree of
God.
|
|
Refutation:
|
This gross error makes God
changeable, destroys the comfort which the believers obtain
from the firmness of their election, and contradicts Holy
Scripture: The elect can not be led astray, Mt 24:24;
this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose
nothing of all that He has given Me, Jn 6:39; 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. |
|
|
7. Error:
|
In this life there is no
fruit, consciousness, or certainty of the unchangeable
election to glory, except such as is based upon a
changeable and uncertain condition.
|
|
Refutation:
|
To speak about an uncertain
certainty is not only absurd but also contrary to the
experience of the believers. As a result of the awareness
of their election, they glory with the apostle in this
favour of God, Eph 1. With the disciples of Christ they
rejoice that their names are written in heaven, Lk 10:20.
They put the consciousness of their election over against
the flaming darts of the devil, when they exclaim: Who
shall bring any charge against God's elect? Rom
8:33. |
|
|
8. Error:
|
God did not simply by an act
of His righteous will decide to leave any person in the
common state of sin and condemnation since his fall in
Adam, nor did He decide to pass by any one in granting such
grace as is necessary for faith and conversion.
|
|
Refutation:
|
Scripture, however, states,
He has mercy upon whomever He wills, and He hardens the
heart of whomever He wills, Rom 9:18. It also declares,
To you has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom
of heaven, but to them it has not been given, Mt 13:11.
Likewise, I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and
understanding, and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for
such was Thy gracious will, Mt 11:25, 26.
|
|
|
9. Error:
|
God sends the gospel to one
people rather than to another not merely and solely because
of the good pleasure of His will, but because one people is
better and worthier than another to which the gospel is not
preached.
|
|
Refutation:
|
Moses denies this when he
addresses the people of Israel as follows, Behold, to
the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens,
the earth with all that is in it; yet the Lord set His
heart in love upon your fathers and chose their descendants
after them, you above all peoples, as at this day, Deut
10:14, 15. And Christ says, Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to
you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had
been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long
ago in sackcloth and ashes, Mt 11:21. |
 |
©1998-2005 Committee for the Canadian Reformed
Website. All rights reserved.
©1985 Standing Committee for the
Publication of the Book of Praise |
