Our first session of the second day was led by Robert Strivens and was on Baptists
and the Synod of Dort.
It was a clear and very helpful session.
Factors
leading up to the Synod of Dort
1. Theological:
Arminius
Human
will, origin of sin
2. Political:
Johan van Oldenbarneevelt, Advocate of Holland
More
state control, Looser interpretation and application of the Belgic
Confession, foreign policy issues
After
the death of Aminius (1609)
Johannes
Uyttenbogaert provided theological leadership
Remonstrance
of 1610 (five points) Counter-remonstrance 1611
Prinz
Mauritius gains upper hand and backs counter Remonstrants, 1617
Oldenbarnevelt
arrested and executed (May 13, 1619)
The
Synod
Convened
November 13, 1618 in Dordrecht
10
colleges of Dutch reps, plus delegations from Germany, Switzerland,
Britain - 31 Dutch, 28 others
The
Remonstrants at the Synod
Arrived,
December 6, 1618
Presented
their sententiae an expansion of the five points
Expelled
January 14, 1619
Formal
conclusion May 29, 1619 (180 sessions)
The
canons of Dort
Latin
English translation see
https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/confessions/canons-dort
Five
heads
Canons
of Dort overview
Election
unconditional not based on God's foresight and individual
Atonement
sufficient for all but efficient only for the elect
Humanity
totally lost in sin and unable to do anything towards salvation
All
and only the elect are called irresistibly to saving faith in Christ
The
elect unfailingly persevere in saving faith to eternal life
Closer
analysis
Election
unconditional not based on God's foresight and individual
1.
God would be just in leaving all to perish in their sin - no
obligation to save any
2.
Out of love for the world God sent his Son to save those who believe
3.
God sends preachers to carry this good news to all the world
4.
Those who reject the good news perish while those who believe are
saved
5.
Responsibility for unbelief lies with the unbeliever; believer owes
all to grace
6.
Reason some believe and others do not rooted in God's eternal decree
7.
Full, formal statement on election
Election
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, God 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. God 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 God decreed to give to Christ those chosen for salvation, and to
call and draw them effectively into Christ’s fellowship through the
Word and Spirit. In other words, God decreed to grant them true faith
in Christ, to justify them, to sanctify them, and finally, after
powerfully preserving them in the fellowship of the Son, to glorify
them.
God
did all this in order to demonstrate his mercy, to the praise of the
riches of God’s glorious grace.
8-11.
Classifications
12,
13. Assurance
14.
How to teach the doctrine
15.
Reprobation
16.
Comfort for the sincere seeker
17.
Salvation of infants
18.
Concluding doxology
Second
head (atonement)
Remonstrance:
Christ died for every individual, obtaining reconciliation and
forgiveness, but conditionally.
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 the elect, in
order that God might grant justifying faith to them only and thereby
lead them without fail to salvation.
It
was also God’s will that Christ 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.
Third
and fourth heads (sin and calling)
..
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.
There
is, to be sure, a certain light of nature remaining in all people
after the fall, by virtue of which they retain some notions about
God, natural things, and the difference between what is moral and
immoral, and demonstrate a certain eagerness for virtue and for good
outward behaviour. But this light of nature is far from enabling
humans to come to a saving knowledge of God and conversion to him—so
far, in fact, that they do not use it rightly even in matters of
nature and society. Instead, in various ways they completely distort
this light, whatever its precise character, and suppress it in
unrighteousness. In doing so all people render themselves without
excuse before God.
Fifth
head (perseverance)
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. Etc.
Four
reasons Baptists should bother with the Canons of Dort
The
canons
1.
Provide a clear exposition of the doctrines of grace which we are in
danger of forgetting
2.
Address the hyper-Calvinist issue, a perennial one in any recovery of
the doctrines of grace
3.
Are pastorally useful and avoid our being theologically arid and
unfruitful
4. Form part of our Particualr Baptist theological adn confessional heritage
In conclusion he spoke of the importance of taking seriously our Reformed and Puritan heritage. This involves a careful and sustained study of the writings of this heritage and careful attempts to pass it on to the rising generation. This needs to be something we are all involved in. The heritage belongs as much to Baptists as to others. lets be committed to exploring it.
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