"The
Decision of the Synod of
in Dispute in the
consists of statements of
doctrine adopted by the great Synod of Dort which
met in the city of
the Reformed churches of the
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
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. Each of the errors being rejected
is shaded in gray. 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 Canons of
Formally Titled
The Decision
of the Synod of
in Dispute in the
The First Main Point of Doctrine
Divine Election and Reprobation
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.
deprived of the glory of
God" (Rom.
(Rom.
__________
*All
quotations from Scripture are translations of the original Latin
manuscript.
—;—;—;—;—;
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?" (
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
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.
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.
life believed" (Acts
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.
words of our Savior, "Have
I no right to do what I want with my own?" (Matt.
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.
Rejection of
the Errors by Which the Dutch Churches Have for Some Time
Been Disturbed
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
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.
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.
eternal life believed"
(Acts
be holy" (Eph. 1:4);
"You did not choose me, but I chose you" (John
"If by grace, not by works" (
God, but that he loved us and sent his
Son" (1 John
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
that "those whom God
predestined, called, and justified, he also glorifies"
(Rom.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Christ: "Woe to you, Korazin!
Woe to you,
done in you had been done in
in sackcloth and ashes"
(Matt.
The Second Main Point of Doctrine
Christ's Death and Human
Redemption Through It
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.
Rejection of the
Errors
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.
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.
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.
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.
contradict the Savior, who
asserts: "I lay down my life for the sheep" (John
love has no one than this, that
one lay down his life for his friends" (John
The Third
and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine
Human Corruption, Conversion to God,
and
the Way It Occurs
Article 1: The Effect of the Fall
on Human Nature
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.
Rejection of the
Errors
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.
brought condemnation" (Rom.
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
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;
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
laws" (Ps. 147:19-20);
"In the past God let all nations go their own way"
(Acts
from speaking God's word in
tried to go to
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.
fulfills the undeserved good
will of his kindness and the work of faith in us
with power" (2 Thess.
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.
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.
The Fifth Main Point of
Doctrine
The Perseverance of the Saints
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 onlycan 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 sometimesare 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.
consc