The 1st Main Point of Doctrine
Article 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Rejection
of Errors
Formally Titled
The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine
in Dispute in the Netherlands
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. 3:19), "All have
sinned and are deprived of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), and "The wages
of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).*
Article 2
The Manifestation of God's Love
But this is how God showed his love: he sent his only begotten Son into the
world, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life.
Article 3
The Preaching of the Gospel
In order that people may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends proclaimers
of this very joyful message to the people he wishes and at the time he wishes.
By this ministry people are called to repentance and faith in Christ crucified.
For "how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how
shall they hear without someone preaching? And how shall they preach unless
they have been sent?" (Rom. 10:14-15).
Article 4
A Twofold Response to the Gospel
God's anger remains on those who do not believe this gospel. But those who
do accept it and embrace Jesus the Savior with a true and living faith are
delivered through him from God's anger and from destruction, and receive
the gift of eternal life.
Article 5
The Sources of Unbelief and of Faith
The cause or blame for this unbelief, as well as for all other sins, is not
at all in God, but in man. Faith in Jesus Christ, however, and salvation
through him is a free gift of God. As Scripture says, "It is by grace you
have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is a gift
of God" (Eph. 2:8). Likewise: "It has been freely given to you to believe
in Christ" (Phil. 1:29).
Article 6
God's Eternal Decision
The fact that some receive from God the gift of faith within time, and that
others do not, stems from his eternal decision. For "all his works are known
to God from eternity" (Acts 15:18; Eph. 1:11). In accordance with this decision
he graciously softens the hearts, however hard, of his chosen ones and inclines
them to believe, but by his just judgment he leaves in their wickedness
and hardness of heart those who have not been chosen. And in this especially
is disclosed to us his act—unfathomable, and as merciful as it is
just—of distinguishing between people equally lost. This is the well-known
decision of election and reprobation revealed in God's Word. This decision
the wicked, impure, and unstable distort to their own ruin, but it provides
holy and godly souls with comfort beyond words.
Article 7
Election
Election [or choosing] is God's unchangeable purpose by which he did the
following:
Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free
good pleasure of his will, he chose in Christ to salvation a definite number
of particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its
own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen were
neither better nor more deserving than the others, but lay with them in the
common misery. He did this in Christ, whom he also appointed from eternity
to be the mediator, the head of all those chosen, and the foundation of their
salvation. And so he decided to give the chosen ones to Christ to be saved,
and to call and draw them effectively into Christ's fellowship through his
Word and Spirit. In other words, he decided to grant them true faith in Christ,
to justify them, to sanctify them, and finally, after powerfully preserving
them in the fellowship of his Son, to glorify them.
God did all this in order to demonstrate his mercy, to the praise of the
riches of his glorious grace.
As Scripture says, "God chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the
world, so that we should be holy and blameless before him with love; he predestined
us whom he adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, in himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, by
which he freely made us pleasing to himself in his beloved" (Eph. 1:4-6).
And elsewhere, "Those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom
he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified" (Rom.
8:30).
Article 8
A Single Decision of Election
This election is not of many kinds; it is one and the same election for all
who were to be saved in the Old and the New Testament. For Scripture declares
that there is a single good pleasure, purpose, and plan of God's will, by
which he chose us from eternity both to grace and to glory, both to salvation
and to the way of salvation, which he prepared in advance for us to walk
in.
Article 9
Election Not Based on Foreseen Faith
This same election took place, not on the basis of foreseen faith, of the
obedience of faith, of holiness, or of any other good quality and disposition,
as though it were based on a prerequisite cause or condition in the person
to be chosen, but rather for the purpose of faith, of the obedience of faith,
of holiness, and so on. Accordingly, election is the source of each of the
benefits of salvation. Faith, holiness, and the other saving gifts, and
at last eternal life itself, flow forth from election as its fruits and
effects. As the apostle says, "He chose us" (not because we were, but) "so
that we should be holy and blameless before him in love" (Eph. 1:4).
Article 10
Election Based on God's Good Pleasure
But the cause of this undeserved election is exclusively the good pleasure
of God. This does not involve his choosing certain human qualities or actions
from among all those possible as a condition of salvation, but rather involves
his adopting certain particular persons from among the common mass of sinners
as his own possession. As Scripture says, "When the children were not yet
born, and had done nothing either good or bad..., she" (Rebecca)" was told, "The
older will serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau
I hated"" (Rom. 9:11-13). Also, "All who were appointed for eternal life
believed" (Acts 13:48).
Article 11
Election Unchangeable
Just as God himself is most wise, unchangeable, all-knowing, and almighty,
so the election made by him can neither be suspended nor altered, revoked,
or annulled; neither can his chosen ones be cast off, nor their number reduced.
Article 12
The Assurance of Election
Assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election to salvation is
given to the chosen in due time, though by various stages and in differing
measure. Such assurance comes not by inquisitive searching into the hidden
and deep things of God, but by noticing within themselves, with spiritual
joy and holy delight, the unmistakable fruits of election pointed out in
God's Word— such as a true faith in Christ, a childlike fear of God,
a godly sorrow for their sins, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and
so on.
Article 13
The Fruit of This Assurance
In their awareness and assurance of this election God's children daily find
greater cause to humble themselves before God, to adore the fathomless depth
of his mercies, to cleanse themselves, and to give fervent love in return
to him who first so greatly loved them. This is far from saying that this
teaching concerning election, and reflection upon it, make God's children
lax in observing his commandments or carnally self-assured. By God's just
judgment this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted
the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it but are
unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen.
Article 14
Teaching Election Properly
Just as, by God's wise plan, this teaching concerning divine election has
been proclaimed through the prophets, Christ himself, and the apostles,
in Old and New Testament times, and has subsequently been committed to writing
in the Holy Scriptures, so also today in God's church, for which it was
specifically intended, this teaching must be set forth—with a spirit
of discretion, in a godly and holy manner, at the appropriate time and place,
without inquisitive searching into the ways of the Most High. This must
be done for the glory of God's most holy name, and for the lively comfort
of his people.
Article 15
Reprobation
Moreover, Holy Scripture most especially highlights this eternal and undeserved
grace of our election and brings it out more clearly for us, in that it
further bears witness that not all people have been chosen but that some
have not been chosen or have been passed by in God's eternal election— those,
that is, concerning whom God, on the basis of his entirely free, most just,
irreproachable, and unchangeable good pleasure, made the following decision:
to leave them in the common misery into which, by their own fault, they
have plunged themselves; not to grant them saving faith and the grace of
conversion; but finally to condemn and eternally punish them (having been
left in their own ways and under his just judgment), not only for their unbelief
but also for all their other sins, in order to display his justice.
And this is the decision of reprobation, which does not at all make God
the author of sin (a blasphemous thought!) but rather its fearful, irreproachable,
just judge and avenger.
Article 16
Responses to the Teaching of Reprobation
Those who do not yet actively experience within themselves a living faith
in Christ or an assured confidence of heart, peace of conscience, a zeal
for childlike obedience, and a glorying in God through Christ, but who nevertheless
use the means by which God has promised to work these things in us—such
people ought not to be alarmed at the mention of reprobation, nor to count
themselves among the reprobate; rather they ought to continue diligently
in the use of the means, to desire fervently a time of more abundant grace,
and to wait for it in reverence and humility. On the other hand, those who
seriously desire to turn to God, to be pleasing to him alone, and to be
delivered from the body of death, but are not yet able to make such progress
along the way of godliness and faith as they would like—such people
ought much less to stand in fear of the teaching concerning reprobation,
since our merciful God has promised that he will not snuff out a smoldering
wick and that he will not break a bruised reed. However, those who have
forgotten God and their Savior Jesus Christ and have abandoned themselves
wholly to the cares of the world and the pleasures of the flesh—such
people have every reason to stand in fear of this teaching, as long as they
do not seriously turn to God.
Article 17
The Salvation of the Infants of Believers
Since we must make judgments about God's will from his Word, which testifies
that the children of believers are holy, not by nature but by virtue of
the gracious covenant in which they together with their parents are included,
godly parents ought not to doubt the election and salvation of their children
whom God calls out of this life in infancy.
Article 18
The Proper Attitude Toward Election and Reprobation
To those who complain about this grace of an undeserved election and about
the severity of a just reprobation, we reply with the words of the apostle, "Who
are you, O man, to talk back to God?" (Rom. 9:20), and with the words of
our Savior, "Have I no right to do what I want with my own?" (Matt. 20:15).
We, however, with reverent adoration of these secret things, cry out with
the apostle: "Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways beyond tracing
out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?
Or who has first given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and
through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen" (Rom.
11:33-36).
Rejection of Errors
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 13:48), and He chose us before the foundation of the world
so that we should be holy... (Eph. 1:4).
II
Who teach that God's election to eternal life is of many kinds: one general
and indefinite, the other particular and definite; and the latter in turn
either incomplete, revocable, nonperemptory (or conditional), or else complete,
irrevocable, and peremptory (or absolute). Likewise, who teach that there
is one election to faith and another to salvation, so that there can be an
election to justifying faith apart from a peremptory election to salvation.
For this is an invention of the human brain, devised
apart from the Scriptures, which distorts the teaching concerning election and
breaks up this golden chain of salvation: Those whom he predestined, he also
called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified,
he also glorified (Rom. 8:30).
III
Who teach that God's good pleasure and purpose, which Scripture mentions
in its teaching of election, does not involve God's choosing certain particular
people rather than others, but involves God's choosing, out of all possible
conditions (including the works of the law) or out of the whole order of
things, the intrinsically unworthy act of faith, as well as the imperfect
obedience of faith, to be a condition of salvation; and it involves his graciously
wishing to count this as perfect obedience and to look upon it as worthy
of the reward of eternal life.
For by this pernicious error the good pleasure
of God and the merit of Christ are robbed of their effectiveness and people are
drawn away, by unprofitable inquiries, from the truth of undeserved justification
and from the simplicity of the Scriptures. It also gives the lie to these words
of the apostle: God called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of works,
but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which was given to us in Christ
Jesus before the beginning of time (2 Tim. 1:9).
IV
Who teach that in election to faith a prerequisite condition is that man
should rightly use the light of nature, be upright, unassuming, humble, and
disposed to eternal life, as though election depended to some extent on these
factors.
For this smacks of Pelagius, and it clearly calls
into question the words of the apostle: We lived at one time in the passions
of our flesh, following the will of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature
children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of
the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in transgressions,
made us alive with Christ, by whose grace you have been saved. And God raised
us up with him and seated us with him in heaven in Christ Jesus, in order that
in the coming ages we might show the surpassing riches of his grace, according
to his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith (and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God) not by works,
so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:3-9).
V
Who teach that the incomplete and nonperemptory election of particular
persons to salvation occurred on the basis of a foreseen faith, repentance,
holiness, and godliness, which has just begun or continued for some time;
but that complete and peremptory election occurred on the basis of a foreseen
perseverance to the end in faith, repentance, holiness, and godliness. And
that this is the gracious and evangelical worthiness, on account of which
the one who is chosen is more worthy than the one who is not chosen. And
therefore that faith, the obedience of faith, holiness, godliness, and perseverance
are not fruits or effects of an unchangeable election to glory, but indispensable
conditions and causes, which are prerequisite in those who are to be chosen
in the complete election, and which are foreseen as achieved in them.
This runs counter to the entire Scripture, which
throughout impresses upon our ears and hearts these sayings among others: Election
is not by works, but by him who calls (Rom. 9:11-12); All who were appointed
for eternal life believed (Acts 13:48); He chose us in himself so that
we should be holy (Eph. 1:4); You did not choose me, but I chose you (John
15:16); If by grace, not by works (Rom. 11:6); In this is love, not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son (1 John 4:10).
VI
Who teach that not every election to salvation is unchangeable, but that
some of the chosen can perish and do in fact perish eternally, with no decision
of God to prevent it.
By this gross error they make God changeable,
destroy the comfort of the godly concerning the steadfastness of their election,
and contradict the Holy Scriptures, which teach that the elect cannot be led
astray (Matt. 24:24), that Christ does not lose those given to him by
the Father (John 6:39), and that those whom God predestined, called, and
justified, he also glorifies (Rom. 8:30).
VII
Who teach that in this life there is no fruit, no awareness, and no assurance
of one's unchangeable election to glory, except as conditional upon something
changeable and contingent.
For not only is it absurd to speak of an uncertain
assurance, but these things also militate against the experience of the saints,
who with the apostle rejoice from an awareness of their election and sing the
praises of this gift of God; who, as Christ urged, rejoice with his disciples that
their names have been written in heaven (Luke 10:20); and finally who hold
up against the flaming arrows of the devil's temptations the awareness of their
election, with the question Who will bring any charge against those whom God
has chosen? (Rom. 8:33).
VIII
Who teach that it was not on the basis of his just will alone that God
decided to leave anyone in the fall of Adam and in the common state of sin
and condemnation or to pass anyone by in the imparting of grace necessary
for faith and conversion.
For these words stand fast: He has mercy on
whom he wishes, and he hardens whom he wishes (Rom. 9:18). And also: To
you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them
it has not been given (Matt. 13:11). Likewise: I give glory to you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and
understanding, and have revealed them to little children; yes, Father, because
that was your pleasure (Matt. 11:25-26).
IX
Who teach that the cause for God's sending the gospel to one people rather
than to another is not merely and solely God's good pleasure, but rather
that one people is better and worthier than the other to whom the gospel
is not communicated.
For Moses contradicts this when he addresses the
people of Israel as follows: Behold, to Jehovah your God belong the heavens
and the highest heavens, the earth and whatever is in it. But Jehovah was inclined
in his affection to love your ancestors alone, and chose out their descendants
after them, you above all peoples, as at this day (Deut. 10:14-15). And also
Christ: Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! for if those mighty works
done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago
in sackcloth and ashes (Matt. 11:21).
* All quotations from Scripture are translations of the original Latin
manuscript.
