2006.07.03. 11:04
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. 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).
The Fifth Main Point of Doctrin
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. 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.
Rejection of the Errors
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).
Conclusion
Rejection of False Accusations
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.