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as the Canons of Dordt. It consists of statements of doctrine adopted by the great Synod of Dordt which met in the city of
Dordrecht in 1618-19. Although this was a national synod of the Reformed churches of the Netherlands, it had an
international character, since it was composed not only of Dutch delegates but also of twenty-six delegates from eight
foreign countries.
The Synod of Dordt was held in order to settle a serious controversy in the Dutch churches initiated by the rise of
Arminianism. Jacob Arminius, a theological professor at Leiden University, questioned the teaching of Calvin and his
followers on a number of important points. After Arminius's death, his own followers presented their views on five of
these points in the Remonstrance of 1610. In this document or in later more explicit writings, the Arminians taught
election based on foreseen faith, universal atonement, partial depravity, resistible grace, and the possibility of a lapse
from grace. In the Canons the Synod of Dordt 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 shown in
bold maroon type. 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 Dordt, 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.
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The Canons of Dordt
Formally Titled
The Decision of the Synod of Dordt on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands
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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).*
--*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? (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).
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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).
II
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).
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The Second Main Point of Doctrine
Christ's Death and Human Redemption Through Its
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.
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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. 7:22; 9:15), and that a will is in force only when someone has died (Heb. 9:17).
III
Who teach that Christ, by the satisfaction which he gave, did not certainly merit for anyone salvation itself and the faith
by which this satisfaction of Christ is effectively applied to salvation, but only acquired for the Father the authority or
plenary will to relate in a new way with men and to impose such new conditions as he chose, and that the satisfying of
these conditions depends on the free choice of man; consequently, that it was possible that either all or none would fulfill
them.
For they have too low an opinion of the death of Christ, do not at all acknowledge the foremost fruit or benefit which it
brings forth, and summon back from hell the Pelagian error.
IV
Who teach that what is involved in the new covenant of grace which God the Father made with men through the
intervening of Christ's death is not that we are justified before God and saved through faith, insofar as it accepts Christ's
merit, but rather that God, having withdrawn his demand for perfect obedience to the law, counts faith itself, and the
imperfect obedience of faith, as perfect obedience to the law, and graciously looks upon this as worthy of the reward of
eternal life.
For they contradict Scripture: They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ,
whom God presented as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:24-25). And along with the ungodly
Socinus, they introduce a new and foreign justification of man before God, against the consensus of the whole church.
V
Who teach that all people have been received into the state of reconciliation and into the grace of the covenant, so that
no one on account of original sin is liable to condemnation, or is to be condemned, but that all are free from the guilt of
this sin.
For this opinion conflicts with Scripture which asserts that we are by nature children of wrath.
VI
Who make use of the distinction between obtaining and applying in order to instill in the unwary and inexperienced the
opinion that God, as far as he is concerned, wished to bestow equally upon all people the benefits which are gained by
Christ's death; but that the distinction by which some rather than others come to share in the forgiveness of sins and
eternal life depends on their own free choice (which applies itself to the grace offered indiscriminately) but does not
depend on the unique gift of mercy which effectively works in them, so that they, rather than others, apply that grace to
themselves.
For, while pretending to set forth this distinction in an acceptable sense, they attempt to give the people the deadly
poison of Pelagianism.
VII
Who teach that Christ neither could die, nor had to die, nor did die for those whom God so dearly loved and chose to
eternal life, since such people do not need the death of Christ.
For they contradict the apostle, who says: Christ loved me and gave himself up for me (Gal. 2:20), and likewise: Who will
bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ who
died, that is, for them (Rom. 8:33-34). They also contradict the Savior, who asserts: I lay down my life for the sheep
(John 10:15), and My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one
lay down his life for his friends (John 15:12-13).
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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.
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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).
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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. 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.
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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).
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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 Dordt 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.
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