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Canons of Dordt
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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