                                                            The
                                      Standard
A Reformed                                    Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine

      Special
 Reformation
        Issue                                                        "I promise before God, in whom I believe,
                                                                     and whom I worship, as being present in
             The Synod of
                                                                     this place, and as being the Searcher of all
    Dordt, 1618-1619                                                 hearts, that during the course of the proceed-
                                                                     ings of this Synod, which will examine and
                                                                     decide, not only the five points, and all the
How Beautiful are the Feet                                           differences resulting from them, but also any
    Johannes Polyander ...................................... 26
The Significance of Dordt for Today                                  other doctrine, I will use no human writing,
    Prof. David J. Engelsma ................................ 29      but only the word of God, which is an
The Events Leading up to the Great Synod
    Prof. Russell J. Dykstra................................. 31     infallible rule of faith.  And during all these
The Men At Dordt
    Prof. Herman C. Hanko ................................. 34       discussions, I will only aim at the glory of
The Poisonous Petals of the Arminian LILAC                           God, the peace of the church, and especially
    Rev. Charles J. Terpstra ............................... 37
Dordt--Set for the Defense of the Gospel                              the preservation of the purity of doctrine.
    Rev. Kenneth Koole ....................................... 40    So help me, my Saviour, Jesus Christ!  I
Our Debt to Dordt
    Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga ........................... 42           beseech him to assist me by His Holy
Worthwhile Books and Materials on the                                Spirit!"
    Synod of Dordt and Its Canons
    Prof. David J. Engelsma ................................ 44                             --Solemn Oath Sworn
Report of Classis West--Rev. Steven R. Key .... 46                          by Each Member of the Synod of Dordt
Report of Classis East--Mr. Jon J. Huisken ....... 47
News From Our Churches --
     Mr. Benjamin Wigger .................................... 47



Vol. 74, No. 2
October 15, 1997


     Meditation                                                                                                                         Johannes Polyander


                    How Beautiful are the Feet

                                                   How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth
                                           good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good,
                                           that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
                                                                                                                               Isaiah 52:7
                                                                   excellent gifts, will approve of this                     excellent because of its dignity.  If
                                                                  my purpose and public testimony                            we look at experience, it is proved
                                                                  of my obedience.  Trusting this be-                        by various examples from all times
As it has pleased the honor-
              able  President  to  impose
              upon  me  recently  that  I,                        fore I begin my sermon, I will re-                         that  the  administration  of  the  di-
continuing in the footsteps of the                                quest the help of the Lord, who has                        vine Word, by which, with a man's
honorable men, Doctor Hallus and                                  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth,                       tongue,  the  whole  multitude  of
Doctor Scultetus, should preach a                                 with this my prayer, earnestly im-                         people are gently attended to and
sermon  in  this  place  and  should                              ploring that with the mouth lead-                          preserved in the common bond of
produce my meditation from a few                                  ing in prayer  you will be able  to                        holy religion and in the mutual love
texts  of  the  Holy  Scriptures;  so  I                          follow me with outstretched hearts.                        of  the  truth  and  peace,  is  no  less
will  in  the  beginning  employ  no                                     Pay attention with me to God's                      hard and laborious than it is praise-
other  excuse  than  that  I  have  es-                           Word, with proper reverence and                            worthy and honorable.  Upon per-
teemed it to be my bounden duty                                   humbleness  of  hearts,  as  pro-                          ceiving  this,  the  prophet  Isaiah
to obey the President.  I assure my-                              claimed and described aforetime by                         rightly exclaims, "How beautiful,"
self  that  you,  according  to  your                             the prophet Isaiah in the 52nd chap-                       etc.,  with  which  exclamation  that
special  favor  and  friendliness  to                             ter, verse 7, of his prophecy.                             outstanding prophet gives to under-
me, wherewith the good, almighty                                         That which is generally said of                     stand that no man is serving a more
God has adorned you with so many                                  renowned  sciences  and  excellent                         admirable  office  amongst  God's
                                                                  offices,  that  is,  that  things  which                   people, that no one deserves more
[      On  December  31,  1618,                                   are beautiful are also heavy, may                          thanks for his holy labor with the
Johannes Polyander preached a ser-                                be especially applied to the service                       people of God  than  the  preachers
mon on Isaiah 52:7 before the del-                                of the churches.  Experience itself,                       of  the  divine  Word,  who,  in  the
egates  at  the  Synod  of  Dordt.                                as  well  as  the  Holy  Scriptures,                       name  of  God,  the  most  supreme
Polyander was professor of theol-                                 abundantly expresses this.                                 King,  preach  peace  to  the  disqui-
ogy at Leiden.  The sermon, origi-                                       If  we  look  at  the  Holy  Scrip-                 eted, good to the miserable, salva-
nally preached in Latin, appears in                               tures, the apostle Paul teaches, "If                       tion to the lost, and liberty to the
Dutch in the "Acts" of the Synod.                                 a man desire the office of a bishop,                       captives.
The sermon as published here is se-                               he  desireth  a  good  work  (I  Tim.                               The occasion of this outcry ev-
verely abridged.  The translator is                               3:1).  Preaching is a work because                         eryone will notice with me shortly
Marjorie Kamps.  --Ed.]                                            of the difficulty of the service; it is                    in  the  preceding  verses.    There,

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26/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


Isaiah  has  wished  to  portray  the      tion to those who are polluted with        their original leprosy, nor the guilt
promise  of  God  of  redemption           sin;  redemption  to  those  who  lie      of eternal death, two distinct evil
through  the  coming  Messiah  and         captive under the flesh, the world,        diseases  in  contrast  with  this  su-
the  mission  of  His  forerunners,        and the prince of this world; eter-        preme good, nor have been able to
with the picture of the deliverance        nal life to the dying; and the bread       find the right remedy for both dis-
of  the  church  of  old  out  of          of life to those who are hungry.           eases outside of themselves in the
Babylonian servitude.                          The  fruits  of  this  lovely  doc-    atoning offering of Christ for our
    Isaiah is praising preachers for       trine are four, as stated here by the      sins.
three things, namely, their dignity,       prophet.  They are peace, goodness,            Let  us  turn  again  to  our
their diligence, and the loveliness        salvation, and the kingdom of God.         prophet, Isaiah, who places the su-
of  their  doctrine.    He  points  out    These  fruits  are  bound  to  each        preme good in these three.  In the
their dignity by a figurative man-         other  with  an  unbreakable  bond.        first place, he places it in the peace
ner of speaking, taken from the sin-       For where through the single bless-        whereof we have now spoken.  Sec-
cerity and beauty of the lovely feet.      ing of God the seed of the gospel          ondly, he places it in the salvation
By their feet, he signifies both their     is  sown,  there  peace  blooms.           of our souls.  Thirdly, he places it
distinguished  mission  and  their         Where peace blooms, it is there that       in the renewing of the kingdom of
honorable  association  among  the         goodness,  the  salvation  of  souls,      God in us.
people, so that they are able to be        and the kingdom of God grow and                Salvation is attributed here to
distinguished from the false proph-        blossom.                                   the  reigning  God  as  the  only  au-
ets, not so much by the appearance             Under the name of this peace           thor, so that we conclude that sal-
and the confession of their mouths,        the prophet understands blessings          vation is only from God, but cor-
as by their lawful calling and the         of all sorts, as much bodily as spiri-     ruption is from man, and that these
beauty of their manners.                   tual,  which  all  men  receiving  the     all remain there in that corruption,
    He  describes  their  diligence,       gospel with the obedience of faith         until they, through the preaching
not only from the old manners of           are  promised  in  the  Holy  Scrip-       of the gospel, which is a power of
the  prophets  sent  of  God  to  the      tures.  These blessings of God in-         God unto salvation to all those who
Jews, who in former times used to          dicated by the name of peace are           believe,  are  translated  out  of  the
climb up the mountains of Pales-           of  utmost  importance,  as  well  in      kingdom of darkness into the king-
tine and preach to the people from         the mutual association of God with         dom  of  light,  and  are  brought  of
there so that they would be louder         us  in  Christ  and  of  us  with  our     God  under  the  beneficial yoke  of
and more clearly heard by all, but         neighbor for Christ's sake, as in the      obedience.
also through a resemblance to ei-          quietness of the conscience arising            This salvation, joined to peace
ther the shepherds, as some think,         in our hearts out of both of those         and  good,  becomes  allied  to  the
or of the watchmen on the moun-            unions,  and  increasing  more  and        kingdom  of  God.    We  know  that
tains, as others prefer to think.  The     more.    With  this  peace,  kings,        these three heavenly gifts are flow-
former were diligent in leading the        princes,  and  magistrates  become         ing, as diverse out-workings from
sheep  to  graze  on  the  mountains       attached, as with a tight chain, to        one and the same origin, a perfect,
where  they  walked.    The  latter,       their subjects; the shepherds with         supreme  King  and  Head  of  the
keeping  watch  from  the  only  el-       their  churches;  the  fathers  of  the    church universal, Jesus Christ, into
evated place, warned their neigh-          family with the whole family; God          each and every one of its members.
bors  in  advance  either  of  the  en-    in heaven with the angels, on earth        In truth, there really is no lasting
emies or of the robbers.  We are of        with  men;  and  man  with  God            peace, no concise and perfect good,
the opinion that  both of  the like-       through the Holy Spirit.  Christ has       no true salvation of souls to be un-
nesses are able to be applied to the       promised, proclaimed, given, left,         derstood outside of the kingdom of
preachers of the gospel.                   and most highly recommended this           God.
    We  continue  with  the  loveli-       peace to His church.                           Also, it ought not be forgotten
ness of their doctrine.  Their doc-            The  good  that  springs  forth        that the gospel of the kingdom of
trine is called here a gospel, which       from this peace means blessedness.         God is promised of the prophet ex-
is to say, a good, glad, and blessed       Philosophers have tried in  differ-        clusively  to  Zion,  that  is,  to  the
message from God the Father, rec-          ent ways to find this good, though         gathering of those with whom God
onciled  with  us  in  Christ,  the        they have never been able to, be-          has  made  His  gracious  covenant,
Immanuel, born and given to us of          cause  they,  being  devoid  of  the       as  He  says  that  the  ministers  of
the Father, so that He is to us our        light of the gospel and the eyes of        God shall proclaim to Zion, "Thy
all  in  all:    wisdom  to  those  who    faith, have neither been able to rec-      God  reigneth."    He  distinguishes
are ignorant; a path to the wander-        ognize in themselves the supreme           between the status of the allies and
ing;  truth  to  the  doubting;  righ-     good of the eternal inheritance ob-        the status of the aliens.  It is true,
teousness to the guilty; sanctifica-       tained through Christ's blood, nor         God  the  Lord  reigns  powerfully

                                                                                               October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/27


through the common ruling of His           with me, does not burst out in this          possible way to that end, that you,
providence over both of them, that         lament:  Where, O Isaiah, is your            with me, satisfy the great expecta-
is, the elect and the reprobate, but       promise  of  the  very  glad  coming         tions, commands, and desires of all
amongst the children of Zion, ac-          of the shepherds who preach peace,           pious hearts who confess the same
cording to the particular decree of        good, salvation, and the kingdom             religion with us.  We must rescue
His grace, He establishes the realm        of  God?    Where  are  their  lovely,       the healthy doctrine of our old Re-
of  salvation  and  of  everlasting        sincere, and beautiful feet, radiat-         formed churches.  Let us take away
blessedness.  For that reason it is        ing  before  God  and  His  people           the rising differences amongst us,
said  in  truth  by  David  in  Psalm      through  the  rays  of  the  truth,          not  according  to  our  own  intelli-
105:6, 7, "Oh, ye seed of Abraham,         through  clear  manifestation  of  a         gence, but according to the mind
his servant, Ye children of Zion, his      lawful  calling,  and  through  the          of the Holy Spirit, revealed to us
chosen.  He is the Lord our God;           clarity of a guiltless association.          in His Holy Word.
his judgments are in all the earth."           Is it not so on the other hand               The  synod  must  chase  away
    Who  is  there  amongst  you,          that very many black, crooked, de-           these three armorbearers sent from
honorable brethren, who would not          formed feet are seen, those which            hell  by  the  prince  of  darkness,
lament with me because of the sad          are not sent of God, but have en-            namely, false human tradition, dis-
state  of  our  churches  today,  or       tered into the sheepfold of Christ           cord,  and  the  freedom  of  all  to
rather about this frightening trans-       from  somewhere  other  than                 teach and to present God's Word
formation  itself,  about  which  the      through  the  true  door,  and,  con-        as everyone sees fit, by which they
entire  Calvinistic  Christendom  is       taminated with evil morals, much             have  disturbed  and  almost  over-
dismayed; about which heaven and           rather  introduce  their  good               thrown the churches up until now.
earth are startled; about which the        thoughts  than  Christ's  gospel,            When you will return home from
angels  descending  daily  unto  us        much prefer their corrupt disputes           this synod, the whole multitude of
from heaven are extremely sorrow-          than the beneficial peace of Christ?         these  consistories  and  of  the  citi-
ful; about which finally the pulpits           I exhort you that you no longer          zens of Dordrecht and your fellow
and the pews of the churches and           permit,  through  more  delay,  the          citizens and brothers in Christ will
academics  shudder  and  become            weeds  of  errors,  strifes,  and  dis-      call you together and congratulate
very  devastated?    Who  is  there        agreements to be spread along with           you,  to  have  finished  so  weighty
amongst  you  to  be  sent  to  the        the serving of the good seed of the          and great a matter.  All will say,
people of Zion as ministers of this        gospel in our Netherlands, through           "How lovely are the feet of those
prophecy  of  Isaiah  of  peace  and       the  secret  and  crafty  practices  of      who  have  now  restored  again  to
salvation, which Paul says must be         the devil, but, earnestly paying at-         the  Dutch  churches  peace,  salva-
understood to be the preachers of          tention to a capable remedy for the          tion, and the wholesome rest of the
the  New  Testament  (Rom.  10)?           healing  of  the  wounds  of  our            kingdom of Jesus Christ."
Who,  considering  this  prophecy          churches, that you labor in every                Amen.    u

  Editorially Speaking

The Christian Encyclopedia for the People of the Neth-               When we celebrate the Synod of Dordt, we are not
    erlands  begins  its  article  on  the  Synod  of  Dordt    building the tombs of the prophets and garnishing the
(1618, 1619), "The Great Synod of Dordt is undoubt-             sepulchres of the righteous.  We are willingly bound
edly the most important fact from the history of the            by the Canons of Dordt.  We believe the doctrine of
Reformed churches in the Netherlands."  Its tremen-             the  Canons  from  the  heart,  preach  and  teach  them
dous importance extends to Reformed churches in all             with enthusiasm, and defend them with vigor--as be-
lands.                                                          comes evident in this issue.
    We are delighted to devote our annual special is-                Publishing this special issue on Dordt, we are well
sue in commemoration of the Reformation of the 16th             aware that the great synod falls into disfavor and that
century to this great Synod of Dordt, which continued           the  Canons  are  increasingly  opposed  in  Reformed
and  solidified  the  Reformation.    Articles  tell  some-     churches worldwide.
thing of the history; review the controversy; highlight                                                                  --DJE
some  of  the  leading  figures;  examine  the  doctrines;                            333    333    333
take note of the wide range of its work; point out its
significance for the Reformed churches today; and rec-          Correction:  The first line of the editorial in the previ-
ommend books on the synod.  There is even a sermon              ous (Oct. 1) issue should have read, "...a recent ecu-
preached at the synod by a famed professor of theol-            menical conference of Roman Catholics, Eastern Or-
ogy.                                                            thodox, and evangelicals," etc.

28/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


  Editorial



               The Significance of Dordt
                                               for Today

                                              about this believing.  Grace, taught       cious  salvation  against  the  subtle
                                              the  Arminians,  is  resistible.           error of the Arminians, the Synod
The story is told of the del-
         egate to the Synod of Dordt
         who, ever afterwards, when           "Grace,  grace,"  they  cried,  to  the    of Dordt not only maintained the
the synod was mentioned, doffed               deceiving of the undiscerning.  But        Reformation's  teachings  but  also
his hat and exclaimed, "Oh, most              their grace was universal and inef-        developed  them.    The  Canons'
holy synod!"                                  fectual.  It did not save.  It merely      treatment  of  predestination,  de-
    This is not the attitude toward           enabled  the  sinner  to  save  him-       pravity, conversion, and preserva-
the  synod  that  prevails  in  Re-           self--by his own will.  For all their       tion is full and systematic, as was
formed churches today.                        talk of grace, salvation in the end        no prior treatment.  The unambigu-
    But it should be.                         was still "of him that willeth," to        ous  declaration  that  Jesus  Christ
    It is ours.                               use  the  words  in  which  Romans         died for the elect church alone was
    For the Synod of Dordt (1618,             9:16 repudiates this corruption of         a real advance.  Before Dordt, lim-
1619) defended the  gospel of  sal-           the gospel.                                ited atonement was often more im-
vation by (sovereign) grace alone                 Basic to the subtle lie exposed        plied than expressed by the theo-
in  an  hour  when  the  gospel  was          and condemned at Dordt were the            logians.  Even the earlier Reformed
under attack by the subtlest form             twin notions of universal grace and        creeds did not spell out the truth
of the lie that had ever assailed it.         resistible grace.                          of the  extent of  the atonement  in
That lie was the teaching that the                Dordt's defense of the gospel--         words that stopped the mouths of
salvation  of  the  sinner  depends           the  one,  true  gospel--necessarily        the heretics in the churches.
upon  the  sinner's  own  will.    But        took  the  form  of  confessing  that              The Synod of Dordt confessed
that  false  gospel  was  forced  to          grace is particular and effectual, or      the gospel of salvation by particu-
adopt  a  deceptive  form.    For  the        irresistible.    Like  Jesus  Himself,     lar,  sovereign  grace  alone,  and  it
Reformation that had begun some               whose saving favor and power                       confessed  this  gospel  fully,
100  years  earlier  had  clearly  ex-        it is, grace  saves His people                       clearly,  and  systematically.
posed the doctrine of free will as            from their sins (Matt. 1:21).                          At the same time, it explic-
                                                                                    Upon
the diseased heart of Roman Catho-            It does not merely enable                              itly  condemned  the  sub-
                                                                                   the rock
lic heresy.  In addition, the Belgic          all to save themselves, if                              tlest form of the false gos-
                                                                                    of the
Confession in the 14th article explic-        they will.  The source and                              pel  of  salvation  by  man
                                                                                decreeing God,
itly  rejects  "all  that  is  taught  re-    foundation, for Dordt, of                               himself.
                                                                                  and only
pugnant  to  this  (doctrine  of  total       particular,      effectual                                      The  document  in
                                                                                 on this rock,
depravity) concerning the free will           grace, that is,  real grace,                            which  this  is  done  is  a
                                                                                  the subtle,
of man."  And the false gospelers             God's  grace,  are  eternal                             creed  of  the  Reformed
                                                                                  deadly lie
were bound by the Belgic Confes-              predestination,  election                               churches.  It has standing.
                                                                                 of Arminian
sion.                                         of some and reprobation                                 It  has  authority.    It  is
                                                                                self-salvation
    They  cast  their  heresy,  there-        of the others.  Upon the                                binding  upon  Reformed
                                                                                 was dashed
fore,  in  the  form  of  the  teaching       rock of the decreeing God,                             churches and people.  It de-
                                                                                  to pieces.
that only the grace of God can en-            and only on this rock, the                            cides  what  is  truly  Re-
able  the  will  of  the  sinner  to  be-     subtle,  deadly  lie  of                            formed.  Because of the pres-
lieve.  This grace, however, is uni-          Arminian  self-salvation  was                    ence and participation of the for-
versal, at least, to all who hear the         dashed to pieces.  Not man's will          eign delegates, Dordt had an ecu-
gospel preached.  Also, although it           is decisive for salvation, but God's       menical character.  The  Christelijke
imparts  the  ability  to  believe  in        will.                                      Encyclopaedia voor het Nederlandsche
Christ, it does not infallibly bring              In setting forth the truth of gra-     Volk is right when it says, "In a cer-

                                                                                                  October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/29


tain sense, one had in Dordt a Re-            Both are the death of the gospel of               worth,  works,  and  will.    The
formed ecumenical council" (vol. 1,           grace.                                            churches  can  ward  off  the  pres-
pp.  634-636).    This  means  that                   The Synod of Dordt identified             sures  and  seductions  from  Rome
Dordt has authority regarding the             the doctrines that were assailed by               and  from  the  Arminian,  "free-
Reformed faith worldwide.                     the Arminians as the gospel.  It ex-              willist,"  so-called  evangelical
    Herein lies the significance of           posed  the  lie  of  salvation  by  the           churches.  The Reformed churches
the Synod of Dordt for today.                 will of man as the false gospel con-              can detect and banish  the  deadly
    Dordt preserved the Reforma-              demned  by  Paul  in  Romans  9:16                errors  threatening  grace  that  ap-
tion.  It was wonderfully used by             and in the book of Galatians.  "Cal-              pear within the Reformed churches
God the Holy Spirit to pass on to             vinism" is not a mere refinement                  themselves in the present day.
the coming generations, including             of the  gospel that Rome, Armini-                         These are especially three.  One
us, the gospel of grace.  It gave us          ans, and Reformed have basically                  is universalism:  God loves, elects,
the testimony to the gospel of grace          in  common.    Arminian  "free                    redeems, and, somehow in the end,
in  fully  developed  form,  making           willism"  is  not  a  minor,  or  even            saves every human.   A second is
plain exactly what the good news              major, defect in a message that is                the  doctrine  that  God  is  gracious
of  grace  in  the  Bible  consists  of:      otherwise  the  gospel.    The  doc-              to every person who hears the gos-
double  predestination;  particular,          trines of the Canons are the gospel               pel.  This is the popular theory of
limited atonement; depravity that             by  which  the  Holy  Spirit  of  the             the  "well-meant  offer  of  the  gos-
is  total,  not  partial;  grace  that  is    risen  Christ  saves  elect  sinners.             pel."  The third is the teaching that
particular--to  and  in  the  elect            They  are  the  power  of  God  unto              God's grace in Christ is directed in
alone; and the preservation of the            salvation  to  every  believer.    The            baptism  to  all  children  of  believ-
elect,  regenerated  saints.    Merely        system  of  doctrine  controlled  by              ing  parents,  so  that  God  desires
to  have  said,  "Salvation  is  by           free will is another gospel, which                their  salvation  and  even  makes
grace,"  would  not  have  helped.            is no gospel.  The preachers of this              their salvation possible, if they will
The  Arminian  party  gladly  said            gospel are cursed by the apostle in               only fulfill the condition of believ-
this, as they worked at leading the           Galatians 1:6-9.  Those who believe               ing.
Reformed churches in the Nether-              and practice this false gospel per-                       All  these  doctrines  deny  the
lands back to Rome.                           ish.                                              truth that God elects some in love
    Dordt  dared  to  establish  the                  If the fathers at Dordt did not           and  reprobates  others  in  hatred.
message of the gospel by confess-             have  this  conviction,  they  never              All  three  doctrines  deny--obvi-
ing  reprobation--God's  appoint-              would  have  contended  for  the                  ously,  explicitly,  and  undeniably
ment  of  some  specific  humans  to          faith.  The result would have                              deny--that the grace of God
everlasting  damnation  as  one  de-          been  the  apostasy  of  the                                   in Jesus Christ, the grace
cree with eternal election.  It con-          Dutch  churches.    If  we                                      of the gospel, is particu-
                                                                                    By its full,
fessed reprobation in the face of the         do  not  have  this  con-                                        lar and irresistible.  All
                                                                                 clear exposition
deliberate, crafty policy of the her-         viction,  we  will  not                                          three doctrines oppose
                                                                                  of the gospel,
etics to destroy the gospel of grace          contend  for  the  faith                                          Dordt, and Dordt con-
                                                                                 accompanied by
by  concentrating  their  assault  on         today,  as  we  Re-                                               demns  all  three  doc-
                                                                                full exposure and
the doctrine of reprobation.  They            formed officebearers                                               trines.
                                                                               ringing denunciation
knew, and appealed to, men's natu-            are  sworn  to  do,                                                   It is important that
                                                                                      of the
ral aversion to reprobation.                  positively and nega-                                               Dordt  presented  the
                                                                                 opposite errors,
    Dordt never wavered.  Denial              tively,  by  our  sub-                                             truth of the gospel as
                                                                                    Dordt put
of  or  silence  about  reprobation           scription to the Can-                                               logical.  All must rec-
                                                                               Reformed churches
means the end of biblical election.           ons.  Then God will                                                 ognize this who read
                                                                                   in position
And  biblical  election  is  the  foun-       take  the  faith  away                                              the Canons, although
                                                                                  to withstand
dation and source of the message              from  us  in  His  just                                            many  criticize  Dordt
                                                                                   the attacks,
of grace.  Dordt boldly confessed             judgment.                                                          for  this.    This  is  the
                                                                               open and insidious,
reprobation and demanded that it                      By  its  full,  clear                                      meaning  of  the  criti-
                                                                                by the false gospel
be preached, if always in connec-             exposition of the gos-                                            cism  of  Dordt  as
                                                                                   of salvation
tion with election, and wisely.               pel,  accompanied  by                                             "scholastic."    Dordt
                                                                                by human worth,
    The impossibility of maintain-            full exposure and ring-                                          showed  its  conviction
                                                                                   works, and
ing election apart from reprobation           ing denunciation of the                                         that biblical truth is logi-
                                                                                       will.
is evident today.  Those in the Re-           opposite  errors,  Dordt                                       cal  in  its  confession  of
formed  churches  who  clamor  for            put  Reformed  churches  in                                  reprobation.    At  a  confer-
election without reprobation either           position to withstand the attacks,                ence  with  the  Arminians  at  the
proclaim an election that is univer-          open  and  insidious,  by  the  false             Hague  in  1611,  the  orthodox  Re-
sal or an election that is temporal.          gospel  of  salvation  by  human                  formed party declared publicly that

30/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


  indeed when they state the eter-          logical, paradoxical (that is, contra-     menical  and  Reformation  creeds
  nal decree concerning the election        dictory), and irrational. In this case,    said--and say!--no.  God's yes is
  of individual persons, they at the        Reformed people may believe that           yes, not yes and no.  His no is no,
  same time state the eternal decree        God loves only some and loves all;         not no and yes.  So are also the yes
  concerning the reprobation or re-         that Christ died only for the elect        and the no of the true church.
  jection  of  certain  individual  per-
  sons; because it could not be, that       and for all; that grace is irresistible        Thus, through Dordt the Holy
  there should be election, but more-       and resistible; and that salvation is      Spirit of Jesus Christ guides us to
  over  there  must  be,  at  the  same     100% by grace and 100% by man's            know, preach, and believe the truth
  time, a certain reprobation or der-       will.  A simpleton can see that the        that  alone  comforts  sinners  and
  eliction  (cited  in  Thomas  Scott,      result is the teaching that salvation      glorifies the triune God.
  Synod of Dort, Philadelphia, 1856,        is by man's will, indeed 100% by               I sometimes regret that we no
  p. 117).                                  man's will.  Further, the effect of        longer  wear  hats.    We  can  no
                                            such a view of truth is that we can        longer  doff  them  when  Dordt  is
    One powerful engine to destroy          know nothing.  Christianity is ab-         mentioned and say, from the heart,
the fortress of Dordt in our day is         surdity.  There can be neither cer-        "Oh, most holy synod!"   u
the insistence that the gospel is il-       tainty  nor  comfort.    To  this  non-                                    --DJE
                                            sense, Dordt said no, as all the ecu-




                The Events Leading up to
                                   the Great Synod
                                                                                              Prof. Russell Dykstra


                                            church. It was especially disastrous       Leiden, and the merchant guild of
                                            when priests became ministers in           Amsterdam  financed  his  further
                                            the  Reformed  churches,  but  still       studies  in  Geneva  under  Beza.
The history of the events lead-
      ing up to the Synod of Dordt
      in 1618-19 is a record of de-         clung to their Romish beliefs. (Sig-       Arminius returned to the Nether-
ceit,  intrigue,  and  endurance.  By       nificantly,  Rome's  doctrine  was,        lands and became a minister in the
this we refer to the incredible de-         and is, Semi-Pelagian, at best, and        church in Amsterdam in 1588.
ceit of the Arminians, the political        Pelagian  at  worst.)    At  various           Arminius       was  a       gifted
intrigue played out largely by the          times in the fifty years before the        preacher,  though  there  were  sus-
supporters of the heretics, and the         Synod of Dordt, synods had disci-          picions about his soundness in the
endurance  of  those  committed  to         plined  ministers  who  manifested         Reformed faith early on in his min-
the Reformed faith, in the face of          their  antipathy  to  the  Reformed        istry. His consistory asked him to
arduous struggle and hardship.              faith  in  their  preaching  and/or        refute the works of a certain Dirk
    The  seeds  of  deception  were         godless walk. It was undoubtedly           Volkertszoon  Coornhert  (1552-
sown  already  in  the  Reformation         this element that fiercely contested       1609),  a  Roman  Catholic  writer.
in  the  Netherlands  in  the  mid-         the practice of ministers subscrib-        Coornhert published powerful at-
1500s. When the Protestant Refor-           ing  to  the  creeds  (the  Heidelberg     tacks on the doctrines of the Refor-
mation swept through the Nether-            Catechism and the [Belgic] Confes-         mation, particularly predestination.
lands,  many  who  were  not  truly         sion of Faith.)                            However, Arminius never did re-
converted  to  the  Reformed  faith             Jacob Arminius himself was a           ply to Coornhert. He kept putting
joined the Reformed churches. This          master of deception. He was born           off a response with one excuse or
had  a  weakening  effect  on  the          in 1560 into the bosom of the Re-          another. The real reason was that
                                            formed churches.  Any early reser-         Arminius  found  that  he  agreed
                                            vations  Arminius  had  about  the         with  Coornhert!  It  is  generally
Prof. Dykstra is professor of Church        Reformed faith he kept to himself.         thought  that  Arminius'  views  on
History  and  New  Testament  in  the       Two Reformed ministers sponsored           the  doctrine  of  salvation  crystal-
Protestant Reformed Seminary.               his  training  at  the  Academy  at        lized  through  his  reading  of

                                                                                            October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/31


Coornhert.    These  views  became         professor to the seminary, but he        used  every  trick  imaginable  to
apparent in his series of sermons          had lied to get the appointment. He      avoid being condemned. They re-
on  Romans.  From  election  to  the       soon used his position to teach the      sisted all attempts to have a hear-
final  perseverance,  Arminius             opposite of what he had promised.        ing before a synod. They managed
placed the real power of salvation         Calling the Reformed doctrines of        to get the condition added, that if
in the hand of man.                        grace  into  question,  "he  recom-      a national synod were called, part
    Up to this point, Arminius was         mended  the  writings  of  Castalio,     of the agenda  would be the revi-
under the supervision of a sound,          Coornhert, Suarez, and such like to      sion  of  the  creeds.  If  they  were
Reformed consistory, and could do          his pupils, and spoke deprecatingly      called to account by a consistory,
little to promote his views. Under         of  the  writings  of  Calvin,  Beza,    they  claimed  that  they  were  an-
the providential hand of God, this         Martyr,  Zanchius,  Ursinus,  and        swerable  to  the  States,  not  the
was about to change.                       other  outstanding  leaders  of  the     churches.
    In 1602 the professor of Sacred        Reformed faith."2                            Later, in 1608, when the High
Theology at Leiden, Dr. Franciscus             The  result  was  predictable.       Council of the States-General called
Junius, died. Uytenbogaert, a per-         "His  students,  when  they  came        Arminius  to  a  conference  with
sonal  friend  of  Arminius  with          home  from  the  Academy  or  de-        Gomarus, Arminius refused to set
much  influence  in  the  political        parted  to  other  Academies,  bra-      forth his views. When the synod of
sphere, highly recommended Jacob           zenly took position against the Re-      the  South  Holland  churches  de-
Arminius  for  the  position.  How-        formed Churches, disputing, con-         manded  that  he  express  any  dis-
ever,  deputies  of  the  church  ob-      tradicting, and criticizing the doc-     agreements  he  had  with  the  con-
jected  to  his  appointment  out  of      trine."3                                 fessions,  he  promised  to  submit
concern for his orthodoxy, and the             Reformed men in the churches         them  in  writing.  He  never  did.
consistory  in  Amsterdam  refused         were alarmed. The deputies of the        Arminius died in 1609, having, by
to give Arminius a testimonial of          synods  of  both  North  and  South      means of deception and delay, es-
dismissal to take the position. Un-        Holland soon approached Armin-           caped official condemnation.
der  continued  pressure,  the             ius with questions about his views.          Arminius' death did not bring
consistory finally granted the tes-        He refused to discuss anything un-       an end to the struggle. His follow-
timonial  upon  two  conditions.           less they agreed not to report it to     ers were not only active, they were
First,  Arminius  was  required  to        their synods, a condition they re-       far more bold in advocating his po-
have a conference with the staunch         jected.                                  sitions.  They  continued  the  same
Dr. Franciscus Gomarus, a profes-              In 1604 the consistory of Leiden     pattern of protraction, refusing to
sor  at  Leiden  who  opposed              (where  Arminius  was  a  member)        submit their views to any church
Arminius.  Secondly,  he  was  obli-       admonished  him  to  come  to  a         body with the power to condemn
gated to express his views before a        friendly conference of theologians       them.
conference of theologians. This lat-       in the  presence  of the consistory.         By 1610, however, the follow-
ter conference was held in 1603 by         He balked, making excuses for not        ers of Arminius, called the Remon-
the Curator of the university and          coming.                                  strants, were confident enough of
the deputies of the synod. At that             Arminius  and  his  followers        their power that they gathered to-
time Arminius                                                                       gether  at  Gouda  and  drew  up  a
                                                                                    document summarizing their doc-
  testified that he expressly rejected                                              trines in five main points.
  the chief points of the doctrine of                                                   The second notable feature of
  the Pelagians: Concerning natural                                                 this history is the political maneu-
  grace,  concerning  the  powers  of                                               vering for the cause of the Remon-
  the free will, concerning original
  sin,  concerning  the  perfection  of                                             strants. That political forces could
  man in  this  life, concerning pre-                                               play  so  prominent  a  role  in  this
  destination, and others. He testi-                                                struggle was due to the unusual re-
  fied also that he agreed with all                                                 lation of the church to the state at
  that  which  Augustine  and  other                                                this time. The church, being virtu-
  Fathers  had  written  against  the                                               ally  the  state  church,  was  domi-
  Pelagians.... Moreover, he prom-                                                    nated  by  the  state.  At  the  1586
  ised  at  the  same  time  that  he                                               synod at the Hague the Reformed
  would  teach  nothing  which  con-                                                churches had adopted a church or-
  flicted with the adopted doctrine
  of the church.1                                                                   der which gave the church most of
                                                                                    the  power  to  govern  herself.  The
    Arminius  was  appointed  as                                                    States-General  (the  legislature  of
                                              Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609)          the Netherlands) had rejected this

32/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


change and steadfastly refused to             Meanwhile,  the  supposed  tol-           Oldenbarnevelt  and  company
allow  another  national  synod  for      erance  of  differences  evaporated       were alarmed. Within a month they
some thirty-two years!                    wherever the Remonstrants gained          rushed through the States of Hol-
    This power of the state over the      the  upper  hand.  In  such  places,      land a resolution that allowed mu-
affairs of the church was pressed         ministers  who  courageously  de-         nicipalities  to  muster  their  own
into  the  service  of  the  Remon-       fended  the  Reformed  faith  were        standing  armies.  The  goal  of
strants. This is due primarily to the     suspended, some deposed. As a re-         Oldenbarnevelt was to enable these
great influence of  the elder states-     sult the faithful took to the fields      municipalities  to  defend  the  Re-
man,  Johan  van  Oldenbarnevelt.         to hear Reformed preaching, even          monstrants, in the event that a na-
Oldenbarnevelt, an advisor first to       though  they  suffered  persecution       tional  synod  were  called  which
Prince William and later to his son       for attending these outlawed meet-        condemned them!
Maurice,  figured  large  in  the  po-    ings.                                         Again, God moved the heart of
litical arena in the five decades that        In the face of such opposition,       Prince  Maurice.  At  an  opportune
preceded  the  Synod  of  Dordt.          the faithful battled for the truth of     moment  he  discharged  the  regi-
Though officially he held office in       sovereign  grace.    Professor  Go-       ments of soldiers commissioned by
just one of the eleven provinces of       marus  is  a  prime  example.    Un-      the  municipalities,  and  removed
the  Netherlands,  Oldenbarnevelt         shakable he was in his commitment         Oldenbarnevelt and others from of-
exercised tremendous influence in         to  the  truth  of  sovereign  grace.     fice.
all branches of the national govern-      Tirelessly he defended the truth at           The way was now open for the
ment.                                     every opportunity. No matter that         provincial  synods  to  purge  the
    The significance of this is that      Arminius  and  his  followers  lied,      ranks  of  the  ministers  guilty  of
Oldenbarnevelt sided with the Re-         covered up their true beliefs, and        godless living and/or heresy. This
monstrants.  He  desired  political       refused  all  demands  for  account-      was  done,  although  those  who
stability  and  unity  and  therefore     ability.  Gomarus  and  others  con-      were  accused  only  of  supporting
wanted the Reformed churches to           tinued to defend the faith.               the  Remonstrants'  doctrines  were
tolerate a broad spectrum--essen-                                                    not tried. This was left for the na-
tially all who rejected the Roman                                                   tional synod. For, yes, finally, the
Catholic Church. Therefore he did                                                   States-General  agreed  that  a  na-
all in his power to protect the Re-                                                 tional synod was necessary to re-
monstrants  and  hinder  any  effort                                                solve the  issues  tearing  apart  the
at church discipline of any minis-                                                  churches and the nation. The synod
ter with errant views.                                                              was set to meet in 1618, in the city
    The  result  was  schism  and                                                   of Dordrecht.   u
chaos in the churches. Godless min-
isters  could  not  be  disciplined.
When a minister was condemned,
be it even for more radical heresies                                                1  Historical Foreword to the Acts of
than  the  Remonstrants,  govern-                                                   the Synod of Dordt, p. 48. At least
ment officials prevented any disci-                                                 two  translations  of  this  Historical
pline from being executed, often re-                                                Foreword Addressed to the Reformed
instating the suspended ministers.                                                  Churches of Christ are readily avail-
In other places the authorities de-                                                 able.  It  is  found  in  Homer  C.
posed faithful ministers. Congrega-                                                 Hoeksema's excellent and thorough
tions split.                                Franciscus Gomarus (1563-1641)          exposition of the Canons of Dordt,
    The  anti-confessional  views                                                   The  Voice  of  Our  Fathers,  (Grand
were dividing the churches. Faith-            However,  the  Remonstrants           Rapids: Reformed Free Publishing
ful consistories were desperate for       were  gaining  in  numbers  and  in-      Association, 1980), pp. 45-102, from
a national synod to settle the dif-       fluence. By 1617, the Reformed be-        which all references in this article
ferences and to deal with the doc-        lievers  must  have  well  nigh  de-      have been taken. It is also included
trinal  issues.  But  Oldenbarnevelt,     spaired  of  ever  rooting  out  these    in Thomas Scott's translation,  The
pressing for tolerance, was deter-        errors.                                   Articles  of  the  Synod  of  Dordt ,
mined  that  the  Arminians  not  be          Then  something  remarkable           (Harrison:  Sprinkle  Publications,
condemned, and his influence car-         happened.  For  whatever  motive,         1993), pp. 94-240.
ried the day. No amount of plead-         Prince  Maurice  publicly  aligned
ing from the churches could gain          himself with the Reformed by at-          2 Historical Foreword, p. 49.
the  permission  of  the  States-Gen-     tending  a  worship  service  of  the
eral to hold a national synod.            separated faithful in the Hague.          3 Historical Foreword, p. 49.

                                                                                             October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/33


                               The Men At Dordt
                                                                                                   Prof. Herman Hanko




                                           Jacob Arminius                               his  own  disagreement  with  this
                                                  Although  Arminius lived and          crucial doctrine.
Introduction                               died  before  the  Synod  of  Dordt                  His duplicity also appeared in
                                           met,  he  was  the  most  important          his preaching.  While preaching on
                                           character in the drama.  The con-            the book of Romans, and particu-
The Synod of Dordrecht was
       the greatest assembly of Re-
       formed  churches  that  ever        troversy  and  heresy  which  occa-          larly on Romans 7, he denied that
met.  Though some may argue that           sioned  Dordt  are  known  by  his           Paul's  description  of  himself  in
Dordt  was  exceeded  in  greatness        name,  and  the  synod  would  not           verses 14-25 was a description of
by  the  Westminster  Assembly,            have  been  called  if  he  had  not         the  apostle  after  his  regeneration.
which met less than 30 years later,        spread  his  poison  through  the            Paul was, so Arminius claimed, de-
Westminster  was  not,  as  Dordt          churches.                                    scribing himself as unregenerated
was, a gathering of the Reformed                  Born in 1560, he was left an or-      --an interpretation that opens the
churches  from  all  Europe.    Nor        phan when his parents were killed            door to a denial of total depravity
were  the  theologians  at  Dordt  in      by  the  Spaniards.    A  guild  in          ("The good that I would ...").  And
any  respect  inferior  in  learning,      Amsterdam took on the responsi-              when  he  came  to  Romans  9,  he
skill in debate, and genuine ortho-        bility to support him in his stud-           flatly  denied  sovereign  reproba-
doxy than the best of Westminster.         ies, and this enabled him to acquire         tion.
    But  the  synod  was  necessary,       a good and solidly Reformed edu-                     I say this was duplicity.  The
after all, because of heretics present     cation  in  Leiden,  Geneva,  and            creeds (the Heidelberg Catechism
in  the  church,  who  were  bent  on      Basel.                                       and the Confession of Faith) bind-
destroying the Reformed faith be-                 It  is  impossible  to  tell  when    ing the Reformed churches clearly
cause they  hated  the doctrines of        Arminius  began  to  entertain               taught  these  doctrines,  and
sovereign  grace.    The  wonder  is       thoughts  of  heresy.    It  may  have       Arminius knew it.  But he always
that  these  and  the  faithful  were      been  during  his  studies  un-                       claimed to agree with and be
used by God to give us our trea-           der       Theodore       Beza,                          faithful to the creeds.
sured Canons of Dordt.  The truth          Calvin's  successor  in                                    Surprisingly,  Arminius
                                                                                 The synod
of  God  is  never  developed  in  an      Geneva, who was a no-                                      was appointed professor
                                                                               was necessary
ivory tower, far from the battlefield      nonsense  teacher  of  all                                  of theology at the Uni-
                                                                                 because of
on which the great issues of God's         the truths of sovereign                                     versity  of  Leiden  and
                                                                              heretics present
truth are decided.  The weapons of         grace.  But whenever it                                     was there a colleague of
                                                                               in the church,
our spiritual warfare are forged in        was,  his  sentiments                                       Gomarus, the man who
                                                                               who were bent
doctrinal controversy.  So it has al-      were not revealed un-                                       became  his  implacable
                                                                               on destroying
ways been.  So it was at Dordt.  I         til he became minister                                      foe.    Here  too,  when
                                                                             the Reformed faith
have  often  pondered  what  we            in      the     Reformed                                    called  to  give  an  ac-
                                                                                  because
would do today if it had not been          Church in Amsterdam.                                        count  of  his  teachings,
                                                                                they hated
for  the  Synod  of  Dordt  and  the              A  characteristic  of                                Arminius was less than
                                                                               the doctrines
Canons  it  gave  us.    I  shudder  to    heretics  is  dishonesty.                                  frank, devious in the ex-
                                                                                of sovereign
think of it.                               Arminius was never hon-                                    treme, and guilty of hid-
                                                                                   grace.
    Here then are a few of the men,        est  with  the  church.                                   ing his true sentiments as
some bad, many good.                       When he was asked to re-                                much  as  possible,  all  the
                                           fute Dirk Coornhert, a theolo-                        while continuing to teach his
                                           gian  who  denied  the  doctrine  of         students his erroneous views.
Prof.  Hanko  is  professor  of  Church    sovereign predestination, Arminius                   By the time Arminius died in
History  and  New  Testament  in  the      never  prepared  the  answer  and            1609 (one year before the five Ar-
Protestant Reformed Seminary.              never revealed that the reason was           ticles  of  the  Remonstrants  were

34/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


drawn up) the poison of his teach-       strants, which outline the doctrinal                  He too was banished, but re-
ings  had  spread  throughout  the       position  of  the  Arminians  and           turned in 1626 when the antipathy
churches,  especially  through  the      against  which  the  five  articles  of     towards Arminianism had waned.
preaching of those who had stud-         the Canons were written.                             He  established  an  Arminian
ied  under  him  and  had  been  led         When Oldenbarnevelt,                                congregation        and      an
astray by his heresies.                  just prior to the Synod of           Although             Arminian  seminary  in
    Arminius was an extremely in-        Dordt, was arrested and              Arminius              which he taught, and he
telligent man, very learned, a bril-     tried        for     treason,       used all his           wrote  an  Arminian
liant thinker, and gifted preacher.      Uytenbogaert  thought            extraordinary gifts        Dogmatics.
He  was  friendly  and  a  person        it best to flee the coun-             to bring                   What is of particu-
whom people found it easy to like.       try.    The  Synod  de-          damnable heresies           lar interest is the fact
Although Arminius used all his ex-       posed him in absentia,            into the church,           that  he  was  living
traordinary gifts to bring damnable      banished him, and or-               God turned                proof that Arminian-
heresies  into  the  church,  God        dered his goods con-               almost certain             ism is incipient Mod-
turned  almost  certain  defeat  into    fiscated.                              defeat                ernism,        for     his
victory  and  used  the  heresy  of          It was only after a             into victory             Arminianism led him
Arminianism to give us our Can-          change of government                  and used               in  the  direction  of
ons.                                     that  he  secretly  re-             the heresy of            Socinianism, which de-
                                         turned from exile and              Arminianism              nies the Trinity and the
Jan Uytenbogaert                         became  a  pastor  of  a           to give us our          divinity  of  Christ.
    Other  than  Arminius  himself,      church where he contin-               Canons.             Would  that  present-day
no one had more influence in the         ued till his death, promot-                             Arminians  would  learn
Arminian cause than Uytenbogaert.        ing the cause of Arminianism                          this lesson from history.
Born  in  1557,  three  years  before    in the Netherlands.
Arminius, he was converted from                                                      Pieter Plancius
Roman  Catholicism  when  Roman          Simon Episcopius                                    Pieter Plancius knew persecu-
Catholic authorities forbade him to          Episcopius  was  born  in  1583         tion.  He was born in what is now
attend the services of a Protestant-     and  studied  theology  under  both         Belgium, but fled when the Roman
inclined pastor.                         Gomarus and Arminius at the Uni-            Catholic Church persecuted the Re-
    Uytenbogaert had intended to         versity  of  Leiden.    The  teachings      formed.
pursue a career in law, but, upon        of Arminius appealed to him rather                  He had received his education
joining the Reformed churches, he        than those of Gomarus, and he be-           in  strongly  Calvinistic  schools  in
decided to enter the ministry.  Un-      came a follower of his mentor and           Germany and England, and became
der  the  strange  ways  of  God's       an eloquent defender of his views.          a  defender  of  the  Reformed  faith
providence, he studied in Geneva             In  1610,  the  year  the  Articles     until  the  day  of  his  death.    His
under  Beza  at  the  same  time  as     of  the  Remonstrants  were  drawn          early  ministry  was  spent  in
Arminius.  Arminius, not Beza, was       up, he began his work as a pastor,          Brabant, Flanders, and Brussels, all
the  one  who  influenced  Uyten-        but soon took the place of Gomarus          of  which  came  under  Spaniard
bogaert,  and  he  returned  to  the     as  professor  in  Leiden  when             domination.
Netherlands a firm believer in the       Gomarus  resigned.    He  was  so                   Plancius  occupies  a  notable
heresies of his fellow student.          widely known as Arminian in his             place  among  the  great  men  of
    Nevertheless,  he  became  a         thinking  that  he  was  cited  along       Dordt because, in addition to be-
preacher in the Reformed churches,       with twelve other pastors to appear         ing elected a delegate to the synod,
and, perhaps because of his repu-        at the Synod of Dordt to give ac-           he was one of the first to warn the
tation  for  piety,  was  invited  by    count  before  the  synod  of  his          churches against the horrors of the
Prince Maurice to become minister        views.                                      Arminian heresy.
in the Hague.  Many government               Episcopius  was  really  the                    This  came  about  because  he
dignitaries attended his church and      spokesman of the Arminians at the           was  called  to  be  minister  of  the
he  became  a  close  friend  of         synod  and  the  strategist  of  their      church  of  Amsterdam,  where
Oldenbarnevelt, the effective ruler      campaign to delay the synod and             Arminius also became a minister.
of the Netherlands.                      prevent it from discussing the real         It was in the pulpit of the church
    Always  a  close  friend  of         problems.  When in fury Bogerman            in Amsterdam that Arminius first
Arminius,  Uytenbogaert  assumed         dismissed the Arminians from the            began to militate in his preaching
the  leadership  of  the  Arminian       synod,  Episcopius  left  piously           against        Reformed         doctrine.
party when Arminius died and was         shouting: "With Christ I shall keep         Plancius  was  alarmed  and,  when
chiefly responsible for composing        silence  about  all  this.    God  shall    Arminius'  answers  proved  unsat-
the  Five  Articles  of  the  Remon-     judge between me and this synod."           isfactory,  he  alerted  the  churches

                                                                                              October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/35


to  the  dangerous  doctrines  being       Gomarus resigned in utter disgust          as much understanding as he could
proclaimed  by  Arminius.    But,          and     took     a     pastorate     in    muster, he led the synod during the
sadly, the authorities would not lis-      Middleburg,  although  at  the  de-
ten, and Arminius and those he in-         mand of various schools he contin-
fluenced  were  permitted  to  pro-        ued his career in teaching.
pound their views for many years               He was a professorial delegate
before the Synod of Dordt finally          to  the  Synod  of  Dordt  and  made
condemned  them.    Plancius'  role        his own deep love for the Reformed
was  a  major  one,  for  many  were       faith and his implacable opposition
not aware of the grievous dangers          to Arminianism a factor in all the
hidden behind the subtle and de-           discussions.
vious  teachings  of  those  who               Gomarus was a supralapsarian,
would  deny  the  great  truth  of         a profound theologian, and a gifted
God's sovereignty.                         and influential preacher.  His name
    Plancius also worked in revis-         has  almost  become  synonymous
ing the Dutch translation of the Old       with consistent Calvinism, and he
Testament part of the Staten-Bijbel,       emerged from the conflict at Dordt
which is to the Dutch what the AV          with  the  justifiable  reputation  of
is to us.  But equally as interesting,     one  who  loved  the  Lord  and  the
the church in Amsterdam was the            Lord's truth more than anything or
calling church in sending mission-         anyone else.  The Arminians often           Johannes Bogerman (1576-1637)
aries along with the Dutch traders         wished him dead.  The Lord used
to all parts of the world. He was          him,  with  all  his  bluntness  and       many  days  during  which  the
responsible for the development of         gruffness, to preserve the glorious        Arminians used every delaying tac-
nautical and  geographical knowl-          truths of sovereign grace.                 tic they could think of to keep the
edge and skills which were given                                                      synod  from  its  work;  when  they
to Dutch sea captains as they made         Johannes Bogerman                          vented  their  hatred  and  spite
the  Netherlands  for  a  short  time          Though Johannes Bogerman is            against the doctrines of the confes-
"Queen of the Oceans."                     one  of  the  lesser  known  men  at       sions;  and  when  they  attempted
                                           Dordt,  his  name  will  be  remem-        with subtlety and guile to win in-
Francis Gomarus                            bered,  by  all  who  love  the  Re-       fluence  and  approval  among  the
    As  suave  and  friendly  as           formed faith, as the fiery president       foreign delegates and the represen-
Arminius was, so gruff and blunt           of the synod who finally, totally ex-      tatives of the state.
was  his  chief  opponent,  Francis        asperated,  dismissed  the  Armin-             But finally he had had enough.
Gomarus.                                   ians  with  such  fierce  words  that      He  rose  in righteous  indignation,
    Born  in  Germany  in  1563,  he       they were literally driven out.            and,  after  a  short  speech,  ended
was a refugee from the Palatinate.             Bogerman  was  born  in  East          with the words: "You have begun
His  education  was  extensive  and        Friesland  in  1576  and  served  as       with  lies,  and  you  end  with  lies.
the  best  available,  for  he  studied    pastor  in  the  Dutch  Reformed           Dimittimini,  ite,  ite!  (You  are  dis-
in  Strasburg,  Oxford,  Cambridge,        churches.    He  was  an  ardent  de-      missed!  Get out! Get out!)."
and Heidelberg, enjoying instruc-          fender of the biblical truths of sov-          So powerful was his voice and
tion from Ursinus (one of the au-          ereign grace, and he fought from           so fiery were his flashing eyes that
thors of the Heidelberg Catechism)         his  pulpit  the  deadly  heresies  of     the  Arminians  almost  stumbled
and Jerome Zanchius (who wrote             Arminius  which  were  strangling          over each other in exiting the hall.
a still popular book on predestina-        the churches.                              It was the end of their presence at
tion).                                         Delegated  to  the  Synod  of          the  synod,  and  without  them  the
    Gomarus  was  first  pastor  at        Dordt, he was chosen as the presi-         synod  could  now  get  on  with  its
Frankfurt,  but  his  abilities  and       dent because of his commitment to          work.
learning soon brought him a pro-           the  Reformed  faith  and  his  great          The greatest part of that work
fessorship, first at Frankfurt, then       ability.  He was a short man, and          is  the  Canons,  an  incomparable
at Leiden.  In Leiden Gomarus was          he  possessed  a  beard  which             creed  in  the  defense  of  the  doc-
the colleague of Arminius, and he          reached his waist.  He was an im-          trines of sovereign and particular
fought  him as  Plancius had  done         posing  figure,  due  chiefly  to  the     grace.   u
in  Amsterdam.    When  Arminius           fire that flashed from his eyes when
died  and  Konrad  Vorstius,  a            he was angry.
greater heretic than Arminius, was             And angry he did become--at
appointed to take Arminius' place,         the Arminians.  Patiently and with

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        "The Poisonous Petals of the
                                   Arminian LILAC"
                                                                                             Rev. Charles J. Terpstra



                                              cannot launch into a detailed cri-
I                                                                                           Christ his Son, before the founda-
   n God's creation the lilac, like           tique of the Arminian heresy in this          tion of the world, has determined,
   the tulip, has a beautiful place.          one article. For that we refer you            out  of  the  fallen,  sinful  race  of
   It is not a poisonous plant, but           to the Canons of Dordt themselves,            men, to save in Christ, for Christ's
a splendid flower of sweet perfume            particularly the second part of each          sake,  and  through  Christ,  those
and purple hue. Its color symbol-             head  of  doctrine,  where  the               who,  through  the  grace  of  the
izes  royalty  and  dominion.  As             Arminian errors are explicitly men-           Holy Ghost, shall believe on this
                                                                                            his Son Jesus, and shall persevere
such, the lilac would be a fit em-            tioned  and  refuted.  We  can  only          in this faith and obedience of faith,
blem of the Reformed faith and its            point out the main errors. Never-             through  this  grace,  even  to  the
key  doctrine--the absolute sover-             theless, with the sweet smell of TU-          end;  and  on  the  other  hand,  to
eignty of God. But the lilac may be           LIP in our souls we will come to              leave  the  incorrigible  and  unbe-
viewed  as  the  emblem  of  the              know the stench  of the Arminian              lieving  in  sin  and  under  wrath,
Arminian heresy, and then it takes            LILAC.                                        and to condemn them as alienate
on quite a different character. It be-            It  was  the  Arminian  party  in         from Christ, according to the word
comes an ugly, stinking flower. Its           the Dutch Reformed churches who               of the gospel in John 3:36: "He that
color is the pale gray of disease and         first  summarized  their  teachings           believeth on the Son hath everlast-
                                                                                            ing life: and he that believeth not
death. Its petals are poisonous.              into  five  points  of  doctrine.  This       the Son shall not see life; but the
     It  was,  I  believe,  the  late  Dr.    they  did  following  the  death  of          wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him,"
John Gerstner who invented the ac-            James Arminius, the man who ini-              and  according  to  other  passages
ronym  LILAC  to  summarize  the              tially advanced the erroneous doc-            of Scripture also.
five  points  of  the  Arminians.  He         trines  and  after  whom  the
did  this  because  the  tulip  flower        Arminian  party  was  named.                    At first glance it may seem as
has  been  the  symbol  of  the  five         Arminius had been teaching the er-          if  the  Arminians  were  stating  an
points  of  Calvinism.  The  two              rors associated with his name for           orthodox  doctrine  of  predestina-
"flowers" look like this:                     many  years following his ordina-           tion. The language appears sound
                                              tion into the ministry in 1588. Es-         and  straight.  But  in  reality  their
     T - Total Depravity                      pecially  in  his  preaching  on  the       view of divine election and repro-
     U - Unconditional Election               book of Romans he parted with the           bation  is  that  they  are  conditional
     L - Limited Atonement                    historic  Reformed  teaching  con-          decrees. Notice that the article says
     I - Irresistible Grace                   cerning the state of the natural man        that  God  chooses  those  who  will
     P - Perseverance of Saints               and concerning the way in which             believe and passes over those who
            L - Limited Depravity             the sinner is saved. But it was af-         will  not  believe.  That  is,  God's
            I - I Choose Christ               ter Arminius' death in 1609 that his        choice of some persons to be saved
            L - Limitless Atonement           followers put his views together in         is based on (conditioned by) their
            A - Arrestible Grace              summary  form.  In  1610  they  set         faith  and  their  perseverance  in
            C - Carnal Security               forth  in  five  articles  their  Remon-    faith;  and  His  rejection  of  others
                                              strance  (petition)  as  a  defense  of     for damnation is based on (condi-
     In  this  article  we  want  to  ex-     their  position  (which  is  why  the       tioned by) their unbelief and dis-
amine briefly these poisonous pet-            Canons  of  Dordt  consist  of  five        obedience.  For  the  Arminians,
als  of  the  Arminian  LILAC.  The           heads  of  doctrine  and  why  we           God's  decree  of  predestination  is
reader  will  understand  that  we            speak of the five points of Calvin-         not sovereign and unconditional; it
                                              ism). The first of these points ex-         is not freely made without any re-
                                              pressed the Arminian view of pre-           gard to man's acts in time. Rather
                                              destination:                                is it conditioned by what man does.
Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protes-                                                    In  eternity  God  looks  ahead  and
tant  Reformed  Church  of  Holland,              That  God,  by  an  eternal,  un-       sees who will believe and who will
Michigan                                        changeable  purpose  in  Jesus

                                                                                                October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/37


not  believe  and  predestinates  ac-           Yet  at  the  same  time  the               rightly  understand,  think,  will,
cordingly. It was right here in their       Arminians had to reckon with the                and effect what is truly good, ac-
opening  statement  that  the               fact that all men do not enjoy this             cording  to  the  Word  of  Christ,
Arminians  revealed  the  heart  of         salvation  in  the  death  of  Christ.          John 15:5: "Without me ye can do
their heresy: God is not sovereign          Some men perish in their unbelief               nothing."
in salvation; man is! God's will does       and  never  receive  the  benefits                It appears from this statement
not rule in the redemption of man-          Christ  obtained  for  them.  Which           that  the  Arminians  were  uphold-
kind; man's does! God's grace does          means that Christ has died in vain            ing the Reformed doctrine of total
not  account  for  salvation;  man's        for some; His death is not sufficient         depravity, that man is thoroughly
faith does!  The poisonous, putrid          to secure some people's salvation.            corrupt in himself and incapable of
petal of the Arminian LILAC is: "I          What is this but a denial of the ef-          doing  any  good  apart  from  the
choose God (Christ), and therefore          ficacy and all-sufficiency of Christ's        grace of God. It appears that they
He chooses me!"                             atonement?! The poisonous petal of            were defending sovereign grace in
    How  pervasive that  poison  is         the Arminian LILAC this time was              the  salvation  of  the  sinner,  such
in the churches today! O, that the          that  Christ's  limitless  atonement          that only God by His regenerating
smell of the beautiful, biblical TU-        fails!                                        Spirit causes man to repent and be-
LIP would prevail as it did in the              This is not the sweet fragrance           lieve. It even seems that they con-
time of Dordt: "God chose me to             of the gospel, as they claimed; this          demn free will.
believe, sovereignly, uncondition-          is the stench of the lie! Besides, in             But this was a grievous decep-
ally, entirely of grace!"                   this  article  the  Arminians  again          tion.  In  reality,  the  Arminians
    This, however, was just the be-         grounded salvation in the faith of            taught just the opposite. When you
ginning of the Arminian poison. In          the sinner, not the sovereign work            read the "Rejection of Errors" sec-
their  second  point  the  Arminians        of  God  in  Christ  at  the  cross.  At      tion in the Canons of Dordt, III &
continued their vile errors:                best Christ's death only makes sal-           IV Heads, you discover their true
                                            vation  possible  for the sinner. The         position on the nature of man's de-
    That, agreeably thereunto, Jesus        determining factor in salvation is
  Christ,  the  Savior  of  the  world,                                                   pravity and on the nature of God's
                                            not what Christ did in dying but
  died  for  all  men  and  for  every                                                    saving  grace.  From  this  we  learn
                                            what the sinner does in believing.
  man, so that he has obtained for                                                        that the Arminians taught that man
                                            Christ has died in vain unless the
  them all, by his death on the cross,                                                    is only partially depraved and that
                                            sinner  believes!  Also  this  poison-
  redemption and the forgiveness of                                                       he has retained his power of free
  sins; yet that no one actually en-        ous petal stands prominent in the             will  after  the  Fall.  Therefore  the
  joys this forgiveness of sins except      churches  of  our  day.  O,  that  the        unregenerate  sinner  is not  totally
  the believer, according to the word       sweet  savor  of  the  biblical,  Re-         dependent on the grace and Spirit
  of the gospel of John 3:16, "God          formed TULIP might prevail today              of God for salvation. He is able to
  so loved the world that he  gave          as it did at Dordt: "Christ died only
  his only-begotten Son, that who-                                                        prepare himself for salvation and
                                            for  those  elect  given  Him  by  the
  soever believeth in him should not                                                      cooperate  with  God  in  salvation.
                                            Father,  sufficiently,  efficaciously,
  perish, but have everlasting life."                                                     According to the Arminians, fallen
                                            with  everlasting  security  of  their
  And  in  the  First  Epistle  of  John                                                  man  can  hunger  and  thirst  after
                                            salvation!"
  2:2: "And he is the propitiation for                                                    righteousness and life by himself;
  our  sins;  and  not  for  ours  only,        In  their  third  point  the              he can offer the sacrifice of a con-
  but also for the sins of the whole        Arminians returned to their devil-            trite and broken spirit apart from
  world."                                   ish  deceptions  and  subtle  subter-         the Spirit. He can use his natural
                                            fuges. They hid the truth of their            powers to meet God "halfway" on
    In this statement the Arminians         position behind solid language:               the road of salvation. God gives the
boldly set forth universal atonement:                                                     sinner a "common grace" to show
Christ has died for all men, head               That  man has  not  saving  faith         him Christ and encourage him to
for  head.  His  death  on  the  cross        of  himself,  nor  of  the  energy  of      conversion, but it is up to him to
covered the sins of all people that           his free will, in as much as he, in
                                                                                          exercise  his  free  will  and  decide
ever live. His sacrifice obtained for-        the state of apostasy and sin, can
                                              of  and  by  himself  neither  think,       whether or not he will be saved. In
giveness and freedom for each and             will, nor do anything that is truly         the Arminian scheme, faith is not
every person in all of time and his-          good  (such  as  saving  faith  emi-        God's  sovereign  gift  worked  in
tory. Christ's death, then, is not just       nently  is);  but  that  it  is  needful    man's  heart  by  the  power  of  the
for the elect of God; it is not lim-          that he be born again of God in             regenerating  Spirit  but  man's  act
ited  to  that  select  people  deter-        Christ,  through  his  Holy  Ghost,         which  actually  precedes  regenera-
mined  by  God.  It  is  for  all  men        and  renewed  in  understanding,            tion.
without exception.                            inclination,  or  will,  and  all  his
                                              powers,  in  order  that  he  may               So again, the Arminians denied

38/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


the  sovereignty  of  God's  saving            irresistible grace. The grace of God           must be more particularly deter-
grace, this time by promoting the              as it comes to the sinner is able to           mined out of the Holy Scripture,
poisonous petal of "limited deprav-            be resisted by the sinner. God tries           before  we  ourselves  can  teach  it
ity."  The fathers of Dordt saw this           to save the sinner when He comes               with  the  full  persuasion  of  our
for what it was, nothing but a res-            to him in the gospel. The Spirit ap-           minds.
urrection of the old Pelagian her-             proaches man with the grace of sal-              It should be evident that once
esy which denied man's total de-               vation, but man can turn Him away            more the Arminians revealed their
pravity and advanced man's power               with his sovereign will! The Spirit          true colors, this time by rejecting
of free will. O, that once more this           comes with regenerating grace but            the absolute perseverance of believ-
poisonous        perfume        of  the        cannot  give  it  until  man  first  be-     ers.  They  are  willing  to  say  that
Arminian LILAC might be snuffed                lieves  by  an  act  of  his  free  will!    God makes it possible for the saved
out  in  the  churches  and  the  pre-         And if a man does not want to be-            to persevere. He gives them suffi-
cious scent of the Reformed TULIP              lieve, the Spirit is stopped in His          cient grace; He assists them in the
be  powerfully  smelled  and  sa-              tracks! Such is the stinking flower          battle of faith so that they can pos-
vored!                                         of the Arminians: arrestible grace!          sibly overcome and reach the goal
    The  fourth  article  of  the                  How  powerful  is  this  poison-         of eternal salvation. But notice two
Arminians must also be viewed in               ous petal in the churches! O, that           things  concerning  the  Arminian
the light of what we have just seen:           the  precious  odor  of  the  biblical       position as set forth in this article.
                                               TULIP  might  waft  through  the             First, they make this perseverance
    That this grace of God is the be-          churches as it did at Dordt: "God's
  ginning, continuance, and accom-                                                          dependent on the activity of the be-
                                               sovereign grace is irresistible and
  plishment of all good, even to this                                                       liever. Christ extends His hand to
                                               conquers the wicked heart and will
  extent,  that  the  regenerate  man                                                       help  the  believer  and  will  keep
                                               of the elect sinner, so that he is in-
  himself, without prevenient or as-                                                        him, but only if he wants the help,
                                               fallibly brought  to  faith  and  con-
  sisting, awakening, following and                                                         makes himself ready for the battle,
  cooperative  grace,  can  neither            version by the Spirit alone!"                and works hard on his own. Once
  think, will nor do good, nor with-               In  their  last  article  the            more, the position of human sov-
  stand any temptations to evil; so            Arminians  expressed  their  belief          ereignty in salvation is proclaimed!
  that all good deeds or movements,            concerning the perseverance of the           God cannot make the believer per-
  that can be conceived, must be as-           saints:
  cribed  to  the  grace  of  God  in                                                       severe unless the believer wills and
  Christ. But as respects the mode                                                          works  first!  And  second,  the
                                                   That those who are incorporated
  of the operation of this grace, it is          into  Christ  by  a  true  faith,  and     Arminians state in so many words
  not irresistible, in as much as it is          have thereby become partakers of           that they do not believe the total
  written  concerning  many,  that               his life-giving Spirit, have thereby       preservation of believers and there-
  they have resisted the Holy Ghost.             full power to strive against Satan,        fore  the  absolute  security  of  the
  Acts  7,  and  elsewhere  in  many             sin,  the  world,  and  their  own         saved. In  other words, they posit
  places.                                        flesh,  and  to  win  the  victory;  it    that a believer can lose his salva-
                                                 being  well  understood  that  it  is      tion.  He  can  be  saved  today  and
    Again,  it  seems  as  if  the               ever  through  the  assisting  grace       perish tomorrow. He can be saved
Arminians are defending sovereign                of the Holy Ghost; and that Jesus          all his life but in the very end go
grace,  at  least  in  the  first  part  of      Christ  assists  them  through  his        lost  and  join  the  wicked  in  hell.
the  article.  God's  grace,  they  ap-          Spirit in all temptations, extends         This last petal in the Arminian LI-
pear  to  say,  accounts  for  all  the          to them his hand, and if only they
                                                                                            LAC is another poisonous one: car-
good that man does.                              are ready for the conflict, and de-
                                                 sire his help, and are not inactive,       nal  security.  It  leaves  the  believer
    But  notice the  words  that  are            keeps  them  from  falling  so  that       with  no  real  assurance  of  being
used to describe God's grace as it               they, by no craft or power of Sa-          saved  to  the  end.  It  leaves  him
comes  to  the  sinner.  The  article            tan, can be misled nor plucked out         trusting in his own self for final de-
calls it "assisting" grace and "co-              of Christ's hands, according to the        liverance. That's carnal security.
operative"  grace,  implying  that               Word of Christ, John 10:28: "Nei-              Of course, this follows from all
God  simply  needs  to  help  man                ther shall any man pluck them out          that the Arminians teach. If at ev-
along  in  the  attainment  of  salva-           of my hand." But whether they are          ery point salvation is dependent on
tion  and  that  man  works  along               capable,  through  negligence,  of
                                                                                            the will of man, then salvation is
with God to achieve this. This ex-               forsaking  again  the  first  begin-
                                                 nings  of  their  life  in  Christ,  of    ever on shaky ground; it can never
poses  the  Arminians  in  their  real           again returning to this present evil       be  safe  and  secure.  Salvation  can
position--that  of  Pelagianism!  In              world, of turning away from the            only  be  so  if  it  is  dependent  on
addition,  the  Arminians  plainly               holy doctrine which was delivered          God's  will  and  God's  work  from
stated their rejection of sovereign,             them, of losing a good conscience,         start to finish and at every point in
                                                 of becoming devoid of grace, that

                                                                                                  October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/39


between.  Such  is  the  pure  flower      are  lost.  He  gives  them  grace  to       the Arminian LILAC emit a deadly
of  biblical  Calvinism:  God  keeps       persevere so that they all arrive in         poison. Which flower are you sa-
His own unto the end so that none          glory. This is the sweet perfume of          voring?   u
                                           the Reformed TULIP. The petals of



              Dordt--Set for the Defense
                                       of the Gospel
                   (an overview of the Canons)
                                                                                                  Rev. Kenneth Koole


                                           against Arminianism, where it be-            Reformed  churches  may  show
                                           gan, and what it emphasized.                 them off a few Sunday mornings a
When the Enemy launched
             a  full  frontal  assault
             against  the  doctrinal           Significant,  first,  is  the  heavy     year (you have to hit it right).  And
walls of the church, the church re-        reliance of the Canons on the Scrip-         the pulpiteering tour-guides them-
sponded with  a `Canons' blast of          tures,  quoting  the  Word  of  God          selves  are  Arminians.    Is  it  any
confessional truth to ward off the         again  and  again  in  its  counter          wonder that there is not anyone re-
assault, to show that there is plenty      blasts.    This  is  especially  true  of    ally  living  in  those churches  any-
of life in the old city yet, and that      the First Head.  The four sections           more?  It makes you weep.  Reject
those  "set  for  the  defence  of  the    that follow make regular reference           the Scriptures as the very Word of
gospel" (Phil. 1:17) do not intend         to Scripture, but the First Head is          God, and you have spiked the Can-
to  yield  one  precious  inch  of  the    especially  loaded  with  biblical           ons.    They  roar  no  longer.    "Oh,
heritage of truth once delivered to        quotes and proof-texts.  In the first        Jerusalem, Jerusalem...."
the saints.  This had been the re-         two articles there are five passages             Dordt was a better day.
sponse of the church in the 4th and        referred  to  (one  of  which  is  John          We associate the Canons with
5th centuries when the person and          3:16,  of  all  things--reminding  us         five points (of Calvinism), as well
natures of Christ suffered direct as-      that  there  are  no  `Arminian  pas-        we should.  There are five (main)
sault.    She  responded  with  the        sages').  And Article 3 basically is         heads  of  doctrine.    Significantly,
`Christological'  creeds.    This  was     a  quotation  of  Romans  10:14,  15.        they  are  called  the  "doctrines  of
the response of the church in the          Biblical  passages  multiply  from           grace."  Precisely correct.  The gen-
16 th  and  17 th  centuries  as  well.    there.  Clearly, the Canons are not          eral  synod  saw  clearly  what  was
What  came  from  Dordt  was  just         interested in abstract doctrinal de-         at stake, where the main thrust of
such  a  `Canons'  blast  in  confes-      bate, in matching wits, or in an ex-         Arminianism and the Enemy was,
sional  form.    Arminianism  was  a       ercise of logic as has been charged,         namely,  at  grace!--the purity and
full frontal assault against the ap-       but  in  expounding  the  Word  of           the power of grace.
ostolic gospel, aiming at the heart        God.  They demonstrate that that                 Salvation all of  grace!  This is
of the gospel, namely, grace! --the         is  all  Calvinism  (the  Reformed           Calvinism.    This  is the  Reformed
grace  so  recently  restored  by  the     faith)  really  is,  an  explanation  of     faith, heart and soul.  Grace--God's
Reformers  to  the  preaching  (Gal.       the  Bible  according  to  its  own          favor  and  saving  power  contrary
1:6).                                      words.                                       to all deserving.  And anything that
    A study of the Canons gives in-            A  confession  loaded  with              diminishes or tarnishes or is incon-
struction  about  the  strategy  the       God's Word is devastating to the             sistent with that truth, salvation all
general  synod  used  in  its  battle      foe of heresy.  Of course, you had           of God's free grace, is to be refuted
                                           better believe the Bible is the infal-       and rejected.  This was Paul's blast
                                           lible Word of God, or you have no            against the Judaizers and their law-
                                           ammunition for your `guns.'  You             works in his day (Rom. 11:6), and
Rev. Koole is pastor of Faith Protes-      have no weapons at all.  Today the           so it has ever been for Christ's true
tant  Reformed  Church  in  Jenison,       `Canons' (with the other creeds) are         and faithful church.  This is what
Michigan.                                  museum pieces in most churches.              the  synod  was  set  on  defending

40/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


and also setting forth in clear, un-        From  the  outset  the  Canons  are        "treat men as senseless stocks and
mistakable language.  So, early on          pastoral  in  their  approach.    That     blocks..." (III, IV/16).  Many a Re-
(I/5), the Canons quote Ephesians           pastoral  approach  is  woven              formed man today has backed off
2:8:    "For  by  grace  are  ye  saved,    throughout  the  Canons,  bringing         from  full-fledged  Calvinism,  evi-
through faith, and that not of your-        comfort  even  to  grieving  parents       dently  persuaded  by  this  allega-
selves...."                                   who have just lost another little one      tion.
    Significantly, in the Canons, the       to the grave (I/17).                           Nothing is more contrary to the
synod began with the doctrine "Of               A fourth element worth noting          truth.  As the Canons make clear,
Divine Predestination."  We learn           is the Canons' extensive treatment         the work of efficacious grace does
the five points by beginning with           of the wonder of regeneration (III,        not  ignore  the  will  of  man,  but
`T' for TULIP and "Total Deprav-            IV/11-16).    These  articles  stand       powerfully affects it and then uses
ity."  The Canons, however, as do           among the most beautiful sections          it.    As  Article  12  states,  "Where-
the  articles  of  the  Remonstrance,       of any of the great Christian creeds       upon the will thus renewed is not
begin  with  God's  sovereign  elec-        you care to name.  The phrase that         only  actuated  and  influenced  by
tion.    Why?    In  the  interests  of     the grace of regeneration "...spiri-         God, but in consequence of this in-
"grace."  There is no doctrine that         tually quickens, heals, corrects, and      fluence becomes itself active.  Where-
demonstrates so clearly and pow-            at the same time sweetly and pow-          fore also, man is himself rightly said
erfully that salvation is all of God,       erfully bends [the will]" is one of        to believe and repent, by virtue of that
not of man's ability or worth, than         the  most  exquisite  phrases  found       grace  received"  (emphasis  mine--
does eternal election.  "...in love:          anywhere in any creed (Art. 16).           KK).  And any zealot who in the
having  predestinated  us  unto  the            Crucial to being a Calvinist in        name of his own Calvinism would
adoption of children ... to the praise        distinction  from  an  Arminian  is        minimize  the  call  to  a  godly  life
of the glory of his grace" (Eph. 1:4, 5,    one's position on the relationship         and good works, excusing himself
6--quoted in I/7).  Why is one man           of  regeneration  to  faith,  and  that    on the basis of his own weakness
saved,  and  not  another?    Why  is       of  regeneration  to  conversion.          and corruption, must contend with
one  able  to  believe  and  love  the      Which comes first?  The Arminian           the Canons that declare that God,
Lord,  but  another,  perhaps  one's        puts  one's  faith  and  conversion        when He "...infuses new qualities
twin  brother,  can  and  will  not?        first.  One shows spiritual activity       into  the  will  ...  actuates  and
Shall I (you) boast superior in wis-        (of a major sort) before one is even       strengthens it, that like a good tree
dom or worth?  Of course not.  It           born  again.    The  Canons  sweetly       it may bring forth the fruits of good
is election, the distinguishing grace       and powerfully refute such error.          actions" (III, IV/11).  Godliness is
of a merciful God.  (Cf. I/6, 7.)           First  one  is  born  again  (whereby      found,  or  one's  will  has  not  yet
    In  the  third  place,  note  that      the Spirit of God "pervades the in-        been  set  free,  nor  one's  heart  re-
though the Canons begin with the            most  recesses  of  the  man  ...  and       newed.
doctrine of predestination, yet they        infuses new qualities into the will"           Does  Calvinism  minimize  the
begin their treatment of predestina-        [III, IV/11]), and then follows faith      preaching of the gospel and its ur-
tion by referring to the sin of Adam        and conversion.  And by this spiri-        gent call to faith and repentance?
and  its  universal  consequences,          tual life bestowed, God renders the        Quite the contrary.  "And as it hath
bringing  all  under  the  wrath  of        will "good, obedient, and pliable"         pleased God, by the preaching of
God.                                        (Art. 11).  "And this is the regen-        the  gospel,  to  begin  this  work  of
    Why?  Because the synod was             eration  so  highly  celebrated  in        grace in us, so He preserves, con-
not interested simply in out-argu-          Scripture..." (Art. 12).  This is truly      tinues, and perfects it by the hear-
ing and outflanking the Arminians,          Reformed.    God  must  graciously         ing and reading of His Word, by
and hence showing all the logical           bestow  spiritual  life  before  dead      meditation thereon, and by the ex-
errors  and  fallacies  in  Arminian        man can be spiritually active.             hortations, threatenings, and prom-
thinking.  The synod had preemi-                Also  in  connection  with  its        ises thereof, as well as by the use
nently a pastoral concern.  The gos-        treatment  of  regeneration  the           of the sacraments" (V/14).
pel, with its comfort, was at stake.        synod answered the Arminians' re-              And,  finally,  note  that  each
We  hold  to  divine  predestination        curring accusation that the upshot         Head  has  a  rejection  of  errors  in
not  simply  because  it  is  the  only     of promoting a sovereign, electing         addition  to  its  positive  develop-
theology  logically  consistent,  but       efficacious  grace  is  practical          ment of truth.  The synod shut the
because predestinating grace is so          antinomianism, a Christianity with         gates  of  the  city  to  a    variety  of
absolutely necessary.   Without it,         little  emphasis  on  godliness  and       errors  and  to  those  who  teach  such
what sinner, dead in trespasses and         spiritual activity in life.  After all,    things  as  well.     Teachings  that
sins, could possibly be saved?  Our         it is God who has taken care of ev-        threaten  the  gospel  and  are  con-
lost condition is what makes God's          erything anyway.  The recurring al-        trary  to  it  are  identified  each  in
electing  will  and  grace  essential.      legation  was  that  high  Calvinists      turn.    The  fathers  of  Dordt  were

                                                                                                October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/41


not interested in ecumenical fellow-       what?  If one does this with Rome         must  we  stand  for  the  right,  but
ship  with  churchmen  who  pro-           or the Arminians, step-children of        we must speak against error.  We
moted errors contrary to the sov-          the fearful error of Pelagianism, he      are all for unity, but unity in love
ereign,  free  grace  of  the  gospel.     will find the  guns turned against        for  the  gospel  of  sovereign,  free
They were willing to discuss these         his own walls and foundations in          grace.  Those who would embrace
things  with  others  to  show  them       short order.  Either that or the pow-     those  whom  the  synod  rejected,
the errors involved, but not in in-        der becomes so watered down that          must hear again the `Canons' roar.
viting them into the city to join in       it will discharge nothing.                It is the roar of Jerusalem's King.
some common defense.  Defense of               Dordt  reminds  us,  not  only                                               u



                              Our Debt to Dordt
                                                                                        Rev. Ronald Cammenga


                                           those fruits enjoyed by churches to-      though  translated  from  the  origi-
W                                          day whose ecclesiastical roots de-        nal  languages,  they  were  stilted
            hen  one  thinks  of  the      rive from Dordt, including our own        and in need of improvement.
           Synod  of  Dordrecht,           Protestant Reformed Churches.                 Earlier  synods  had  faced  the
           1618-19,  what  comes  to           It is the purpose of this article     question of a new Bible translation.
mind first of all are the doctrinal        to point out our debt to Dordt in         The  Synods  of  Embden,  1571,
pronouncements  made  by  the              four distinct respects:  Bible trans-     Dordrecht, 1574, and again in 1578
synod against the Arminians.  Un-          lation,  church  order,  liturgy,  and    had  all  been  impressed  with  the
doubtedly the Canons of Dordt are          Sabbath observance.                       need for a new translation but had
the great work for which this his-                                                   postponed action on such  a huge
toric  Dutch  Reformed  synod  is          Bible Translation                         undertaking.   Bogerman however
known.    The  Canons  repudiated              Discussion  of  the  need  for  a     was able to convince the Synod of
the  Arminian  heresy  that  threat-       new translation of the Bible in the       Dordt to take up this worthwhile
ened the Dutch Reformed churches           Dutch language took place early in        project.
and defended the faith of the Ref-         Dordt's deliberations.1   The matter          The synod adopted the follow-
ormation, in particular the sover-         was raised by the president of the        ing guidelines for the new transla-
eignty of God's grace in the salva-        synod himself, Johannes Bogerman.         tion:
tion of sinners.                           Bogerman  was  convinced  of  the         1) The original Hebrew and Greek
    But our debt to Dordt goes be-         need  for  a  new  and  improved          would  be  the  basis  for  the  new
yond its five canons.  The work of         Dutch Bible translation and pressed       translation.
the  synod  was  far  broader  than        the  synod  to  undertake  such  a        2) The new translation would be
dealing  only  with  the  Arminian         worthwhile project.                       a literal translation.
controversy.  Many other matters               Other  Dutch  Bible  versions         3) The translators would consult
were  treated  by  the  synod.    The      were in  use among the people at          the  existing  versions,  both  in  the
lasting significance of the Synod of       this time.  There was the Liesveldt       Dutch  language  and  other  lan-
Dordrecht concerns decisions taken         Bible, published in 1526 and named        guages.
and work done in other areas vital         after its publisher, Jacob VanLies-       4) Any  additional  words  or
to  the  life  of  the  Reformed           veldt  of  Antwerp.    The  Liesveldt     phrases  deemed  necessary  for
churches.    As  the  fruits  of  these    Bible  was  a  Dutch  translation  of     smooth  translation  would  be  in-
other labors of Dordt were enjoyed         Luther's German Bible.  This was          cluded in brackets.
by  the  Dutch  Reformed  churches         the  popular  version  of  the  day.      5) The  Apocrypha  would  be  in-
of the early 17th century, so also are     There was also the translation pre-       cluded,  but  in  different  type  and
                                           pared  by  Jan  Utenhove  and  pub-       pagination, and with a preface ex-
                                           lished in 1556, as well as the Deux       plaining that the Apocryphal writ-
                                           Aes Bible, published in 1562.             ings  were  not  to  be  considered  a
Rev.  Cammenga  is  pastor  of  South-         All of these versions had their       part of the canon of Holy Scripture.
west Protestant  Reformed  Church in       shortcomings.    Either  they  were           For various reasons, the trans-
Grandville, Michigan.                      translations of translations, or, al-     lation project was delayed.  It was

42/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


not until September of 1637 that the        of The Hague, 1586.  The Synod of           Synod of Dordt relied extensively
new  translation  first  appeared  in       Dordt,  1618-19,  compiled  and  re-        on the work that had been done by
print.    Since  the  translation  re-      fined the church orders of the past,        past synods.  Liturgical forms had
ceived the formal approval of the           producing a new church order that           been produced and were in use in
States General of the Netherlands,          for centuries to come would serve           many of the churches.  Dordt com-
the new version became known as             the  Dutch  Reformed  churches,  as         piled and revised these forms and
the Staten-Bijbel.                          well  as  their  daughters  in  other       made the use of them mandatory.
    The Staten-Bijbel remains to this       lands, in good stead.                       Whereas  in  the  past  not  all  the
day a monument of Reformed bib-                 The  church  order  of  Dordt           churches used the liturgical forms
lical scholarship.  Although more           enunciated clearly the biblical prin-       and not all who did used the same
recent versions have to a great ex-         ciples of sound church government.          ones,  Dordt  ensured  the  unity  of
tent  supplanted  the  Staten-Bijbel,       The  church  order  insisted  on  the       the churches by prescribing the use
still  today  there  are  many  Dutch       right of the church to govern her           of the adopted forms.
Reformed Christians who continue            own affairs, especially in the call-
to  use  and  cherish  it.    The  prin-    ing of officebearers and in the ex-           The Netherlands Liturgy in which
ciple upon which the  Staten-Bijbel         ercise of Christian discipline.  It de-       are  included  the  public  prayers,
was based--a Bible in the language           fended jealously the autonomy of              and  the  forms  for  administering
of the people based on the original         the local congregation, while at the          the  sacraments,  the  exercise  of
biblical  languages--is  a  principle        same time firmly establishing the             ecclesiastical discipline, the ordi-
                                                                                          nation  of  ministers,  elders,  and
esteemed  by  faithful  Reformed            rightful authority of the broader as-         deacons, and the solemnization of
churches down to the present.  On           semblies, whose decisions were to             marriage shall be reviewed by the
the basis of that same principle, the       be considered settled and binding             revisers of the condensed minutes
Protestant Reformed Churches con-           in the churches.                              or by the clerk of this synod, and
tinue  to  make  use  of  the  King             The  Protestant  Reformed                 having  been  reviewed  shall  be
James Version of the Bible.                 Churches are still governed by the            added to the public editions.2
                                            church order of Dordt.  Nearly 400
Church Order                                years after Dordt, Dordt's  church              This body of liturgy forms an
    One of the most significant con-        order, with but few revisions, regu-        important part of the "minor con-
tributions  of  the  Synod  of  Dordt       lates  the  life  and  labor  of  our       fessions"  of  our churches.   These
was  the  church  order  drafted  by        churches.  What a testimony to the          forms contain important instruction
the synod for the regulation of the         enduring  debt  that  we  owe  to           regarding church office, the sacra-
affairs  of  the  Dutch  Reformed           Dordt!                                      ments, and discipline.  The neglect
Churches.                                                                               and replacement of these forms in
    More often than not, in church          Liturgy                                     the Reformed churches today is one
controversies, the church is forced             There  is  yet  another  area  in       indication of the drift from Dordt
to deal not only with doctrinal is-         which  we  are  indebted  to  Dordt.        of these churches.
sues but also with church political         That  is  the  area  of  liturgy.    The
issues.  Such was the case also in          whole body of liturgical forms in
the Arminian controversy.                   use in our churches derives from            1 The interested reader is referred
    The  Arminians  opposed  the            the Synod of Dordt.                         to Marten H. Woudstra's excellent
principles of Reformed church gov-              Over and over again the church          chapter  entitled  "The  Synod  and
ernment.  They favored the regu-            order requires the congregations to         Bible Translation," in  Crisis in the
lation of the affairs of the church         make use of the adopted liturgical          Reformed Churches:  Essays in com-
by the civil magistrate.  And they          forms:    Art.  4,  "Form  of  Ordina-      memoration  of  the  great  Synod  of
were  disinclined  to  give  to  the        tion  of  the  Ministers  of  God's         Dort,  1618-1619,  Peter  Y.  DeJong,
broader  assemblies  of  the  church        Word"; Arts. 22 and 24, "Form of            ed. (Grand Rapids, MI:  Reformed
real authority in decision-making.          Ordination of Elders and Deacons";          Fellowship Inc., 1968).
    The church order produced by            Art. 58, "Form for the Administra-
the Synod of Dordt was not an al-           tion of Baptism"; Art. 62, "Form for        2 Ecclesiastical Manual Including the
together new venture.  The synod            the  Administration  of  the  Lord's        Decision  of  the  Netherlands  Synods
relied heavily on the work that had         Supper";  Art.  70,  "Form  for  the        and Other Significant Matters Relat-
been  done  in this area  by former         Confirmation  of  Marriage  Before          ing  to  the  Government  of  the
synods.  Church orders had been             the Church"; Art. 76, "Form of Ex-          Churches,  by  P.  Biesterveld  and
produced by the Synod of Embden,            communication";  and  Art.  78,             H.H.  Kuyper,  translated  by  Rich-
1571,  the  Synods  of  Dordrecht,          "Form  of  Readmitting  Excommu-            ard  R.  DeRidder  (Grand  Rapids,
1574  and  1578,  the  Synod  of            nicated Persons."                           MI:  Calvin Theological Seminary,
Middelburg, 1591, and the Synod                 Also in the area of liturgy the         1982), p. 291.

                                                                                              October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/43


Sabbath Observance                            mandment of the divine law.             ment.    Sunday  is  the  New  Testa-
                                                               II
    One last contribution of Dordt                                                    ment Sabbath and is to be sancti-
                                              The  ceremonial  [element]  is  the
worth noting is its pronouncements                                                    fied by the New Testament Chris-
                                              rest of the seventh day after cre-
with respect to the Sabbath.                                                          tian.  Dordt's view of the Sabbath
                                              ation, and the strict observance of
    These  pronouncements  were                                                       is the view embraced  by the Prot-
                                              the  same  day  was  especially  en-
occasioned not only by the increas-                                                   estant Reformed Churches.  Many
                                              joined upon the Jewish people.
ing incidence of Sabbath desecra-                                                     Reformed churches in our day dis-
                                                              III
tion,  but  also  by  the  growing  in-       The moral [element] is that a cer-      dain  this  view  of  the  Sabbath.
fluence of those who took the po-             tain and definite day be set aside      There is a sad neglect of the Sab-
sition that observance of the Sab-            for worship, and for the purpose        bath and a disturbing abuse of the
                                              that as much rest as is necessary
bath was unnecessary in the New                                                       Sabbath.  In recalling its Reformed
                                              for worship and for pious reflec-
Testament.  The "Post-acta" of the                                                    heritage, the Reformed churches of
                                              tion upon it [be provided].
synod take note of this.  In Session                                                  our day need to return to Dordt's
                                                              IV
163 notice is taken of this position.                                                 pronouncements  concerning  the
                                              The  Jewish  Sabbath  having  been      Sabbath.
                                              abolished,  Christians  must  sol-
  When the formulation concerning             emnly keep Sunday holy.
  the removal of the dishonoring of                            V                      Conclusion
  the  Sabbath  [was  discussed],  a          This  day  has  always  been  ob-           From all this it is plain how far-
  question  is  aired  concerning  the        served  from  the  time  of  the        reaching was the work of the great
  necessity of observing the Sabbath,         apostles  in  the  ancient  Catholic    Synod of Dordt.  How enduring are
  which  was  beginning  to  be  agi-         Church.                                 its contributions to the subsequent
  tated  in  the  churches  of                                VI                      history of the Reformed churches.
  Zeeland....3                                  This day must be so set aside for       Clearly,  the  debt  that  we  owe  to
                                              worship that on it people may rest      Dordt is far greater than its doctri-
    The result was the adoption by            from all ordinary labors (exclud-       nal pronouncements relative to the
the  Synod  of  Dordt  of  six  pro-          ing those which love and present
nouncements  regarding  the  Sab-             necessity  demand)  together  with      Arminian controversy.
                                              all  such  recreations  that  hinder        Thank God for Dordt!   u
bath.
                                              worship.4
                    I                                                                 3 Ecclesiastical Manual, p. 267.
  There  is  both  a  ceremonial  and           Dordt  defended  the  enduring
  moral element in the fourth com-          principle of the Fourth Command-          4 Ecclesiastical Manual, p. 268.



 Worthwhile Books and Materials
                         on the Synod of Dordt
                                       and Its Canons
                                                                                            Prof. David Engelsma



Worthwhile books in En- able.  All that will be mentioned C. Hoeksema's The Voice of Our Fa-
           glish  on  the  Synod  of        here are written for the people, and      thers, the only thorough commen-
           Dordt  and  its  doctrinal       not only for the theologian.  Such        tary on the Canons in English.  The
decisions, though rare,  are avail-         is the importance of that synod and       work  includes  corrections  of  the
                                            its  doctrinal  deliverances  (known      English translation of the Canons
                                            as  "canons")  that  Reformed  men        used  by  the  Protestant  Reformed
Prof.  Engelsma  is  professor  of  Dog-    and  women  should  know  them            Churches  and  other  Reformed
matics and Old Testament in the Prot-       well.                                     churches, from the original Latin.
estant Reformed Seminary.                       Pride of place goes to Homer          Examples are the wording of Can-

44/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


ons, III, IV/8 and the omission of          lowship, Inc., Grand Rapids, MI, in        Samuel Miller.  The title was sim-
an  important  line  at  the  end  of       1968.  The title is  Crisis in the Re-     ply  Synod  of  Dort .    Long  out-of-
Canons, III, IV/2.  The book is also        formed  Churches:    Essays  in  Com-      print, this book has recently been
valuable for its historical introduc-       memoration  of  the  Great  Synod  of      reprinted by Sprinkle Publications,
tion.  The author gives an account          Dort, 1618-1619.  It is out-of-print,      P. O. Box 1094, Harrisonburg, VA
of  the  historical  occasion  of  the      but  available  (with  some  effort)       22801.
synod in the Arminian controversy,          used,  or  in  seminary  libraries.            The Deeper Faith:  An Exposition
a  brief  description  of  the  "great      There are two chapters on the his-         of the Canons of the Synod of Dort is
synod" itself, and a reminder con-          tory leading to the synod; a chap-         Gordon  H.  Girod's  exposition  of
cerning the confessional status of          ter on the leading figures at Dordt;       the content of the Canons in six es-
the Canons as one of the creeds of          a chapter on the doctrines of Dordt;       says.  The first five are on the "Five
Reformed  churches.    Two  impor-          a chapter on the synod's involve-          Points" in the order in which they
tant appendixes give the semi-offi-         ment in translating the Bible; and         appear  in  the  Canons.    The  sixth
cial  history  of  the  events  leading     several chapters on the significance       answers the question (and charge),
up to the synod, and the opinions           of Dordt for preaching, for pasto-         "Is It a Terrible Faith?"  At the end,
of the Arminian party on the five           ral work, and, generally, for today.       the book gives the text of the Can-
doctrines  that  we  know  as  the          John  Murray  compares  Calvin,            ons as the Canons are held in the
"Five Points of Calvinism," or the          Dordt, and Westminster.  The book          Reformed  Church  in  America
"doctrines of grace."  The semi-of-         is valuable for the materials in sev-      (RCA),  in  which  denomination
ficial history was published on the         eral appendixes.  These include a          Girod  was  a  pastor.    This  text
authority of the States General, the        chronological  table;  biographical        makes plain that there is a serious,
Prince  of  Orange,  and  the  Synod        descriptions  of  all  the  main  men      indeed fatal, weakness in the form
of Dordt.  It demonstrates the un-          connected with Dordt; the doctri-          of the Canons as maintained in the
scrupulous, deceptive behavior of           nal  position  of  the  Arminians  as      RCA.  The deficiency comes peril-
Arminius and his party from start           stated by themselves both in 1610          ously close to vitiating the Canons.
to finish.  Reading this history, no        and in 1618; a list of the delegates       The deficiency is that the sections
one  will have  any  difficulty  with       to the synod; and more.  The griev-        of the Canons consisting of "rejec-
President  Bogerman's  righteously          ous  flaw  is  the  chapter  by  Klaas     tion of errors" are elided.  In the
angry  dismissal  finally  of  the          Runia  on  recent  criticisms  of  the     end, if a church will not reject the
Arminian  party,  "You  are  dis-           Canons.    Runia  concedes  the  criti-    errors, it cannot uphold the truths.
missed.  You began and ended with           cisms by G. C. Berkouwer and oth-          Girod's treatment of the Canons is
lies.  Get out!"  The only surpris-         ers of the decretal theology of the        solid.  It is the virtue of his book
ing thing  is that he had as much           Canons, that is, the doctrine of eter-     that it makes explicit that the Can-
patience  as  he  did.    This  book  is    nal predestination, especially rep-        ons are biblical.  Published in 1958
published  by  the  Reformed  Free          robation.   To concede these criti-        by Reformed Publications in Grand
Publishing  Association,  4949              cisms, specifically  these criticisms,     Rapids, MI, this book too must be
Ivanrest  Ave.,  Grandville,  MI            is to overthrow the Synod of Dordt         picked up used, or borrowed from
49418.                                      and give the victory, in the end, to       the libraries.
    A helpful syllabus on the teach-        the Arminians.  Why did the Re-                Even  though  few  of  our  sub-
ings  of  Dordt  by  Prof.  Homer  C.       formed  Fellowship  publish  the           scribers  read  Dutch,  I  cannot  re-
Hoeksema  is  available  from  the          book with this antagonistic chap-          frain from calling attention to, and
Protestant  Reformed  Seminary,             ter?  If someone will be found to          highly recommending, the splendid
4949 Ivanrest Ave., SW, Grandville,         defend  the  Canons  against  the  re-     volume, De Synode van Dordrecht in
MI  49418.  This 182-page, neatly-          cent criticisms, the book should be        1618 en 1619.  Five Reformed min-
bound work is entitled, "Questions          reprinted.                                 isters and professors in the Neth-
and  Answers  on  the  Canons  of               In 1856, Thomas Scott's trans-         erlands  are  co-authors.    W.  van't
Dordrecht."  As the title indicates,        lation into English of the  Canons         Spijker  has  two  chapters,  one  on
the  syllabus  treats  the  content  of     of  Dordt,  with  some  notes,  was        the  history  preceding  the  synod
the Canons in question-and-answer           published in Philadelphia by Pres-         and the other on the synod itself.
form.    This  is  useful  for  study       byterian  Board  of  Publications.         H. Florijn describes the delegates,
classes.                                    This work included the synodically         as well as the Arminians who were
    A fine book (were it not for one        approved  "History  of  Preceding          required  to  appear  before  the
grievous  flaw)  on  the  synod,  the       Events"  (also  included  in  H.  C.       synod.  C. C. de Bruin has a chap-
Canons,  and  the  significance  of         Hoeksema's  commentary  on  the            ter on the synod's work with trans-
Dordt  for  the  Reformed  churches         Canons,  as  noted  above),  as  well      lating  the  Bible.    And  A.  Moer-
today  is  the  commemorative  vol-         as a long, incisive introductory es-       kerken  writes  a  chapter  on  the
ume  published  by  Reformed  Fel-          say  by  the  Princeton  theologian,       synod's  debate  and  decisions  re-

                                                                                             October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/45


garding preaching the Heidelberg             It is worth learning Dutch for.  The         Meijer of Southwest Protestant Re-
Catechism  and  regarding  censor-           introduction is correct:  "Nimmer is         formed Church (whose wood carv-
ship  of  books.    This  book  of  206      een  boek  over  deze  synode  op  een       ings of the synod are masterpieces)
pages  is  a veritable  gold  mine  of       dergelijke  wijze  verschenen."    I  ex-    for bringing this book to my atten-
information  about  the  Synod  of           press  my  appreciation  to  Albert          tion.   u
Dordt, as well as an art gallery of
pictures  and  illustrations  of  the
synod, its trappings, and its people.
Photographs  of  many  of  the  del-
egates and of the Arminians accom-
pany  the  biographical  sketches,
some in vivid color.  The magnifi-
cently bearded Bogerman is a ma-
jestic  Frisian.   Sibelius  is  the  one
convivial delegate, smiling, waving
cheerily to posterity, and sporting
a suspiciously bulbous nose.  The
Arminians are a shifty lot.  The car-
toon  of  the  Synod  of  Dordt,  evi-
dently by some bitter Arminian at
the time, is hilarious.  The synod is
being held in a barn.  Bogerman is
a  huge  rooster  vehemently  crow-
ing,  "Vervolging  (Persecution)."
Van't Spijker's contributions on the
history and  on the doctrinal con-
troversy are superb.  The book is
published  by  Den  Hertog  of
Houten.  It was reprinted in 1994.                                    Synod of Dordrecht (1618-1619)



  Report of Classis West                                                                               Rev. Steven Key


                                                                                                       September 3 & 4, 1997
                                                                                               at Peace PRC, Lansing, Illinois
                                             forward to another conference be-            and 30); Rev. S. Key (December 7);
The September meeting of ing planned for Houston, Texas, to Rev. S. Houck (December 14); Rev.
       Classis  West  was  held  in          be  held  just  prior  to  the  March        G.  VanBaren  (January  11  &  18);
       Lansing,  Illinois  at  Peace         classis meeting in 1998.                     Rev. M. DeVries (February 8 & 15);
Protestant  Reformed  Church,                    Pastor Jai Mahtani chaired the           Rev.  S.  Houck  (March  1);  Rev.  S.
Wednesday,  September  3  and                meeting of classis. For the first time       Key (March 8).
Thursday, September 4.  The meet-            in  several  years  the  agenda  of              Evident throughout the classis
ing of classis was preceded by an            classis  was  very  lengthy  and  re-        meeting  was  the  importance  of  a
officebearers' conference on Tues-           quired  two  full  days  of  delibera-       church  federation,  with  mutual
day,  September  2.    The  theme  of        tion.                                        oversight  being  exercised  accord-
the conference was  Reformed Wor-                Almost  all  the  business  of           ing to the Reformed Church Order
ship.   The conference was well-at-          classis was conducted in closed ses-         of  Dordt.    God  must  be  thanked
tended,  not  only  by  delegates  to        sion,  as  Classis  dealt  with  disci-      for  the  unity  expressed  in  these
Classis West, but by professors and          pline  matters,  as  well  as  appeals       meetings, with the prayer that He
students  of  the  Protestant  Re-           brought by two parties.                      will  also  continue  to  work  His
formed  Seminary,  ministers  of                 Among other business, classis            grace in our churches by means of
Classis  East,  and  several  visitors.      also granted classical appointments          His Word and Spirit.
The speeches, discussion, and fel-           to South Holland PRC as follows:                                Rev. Steven Key,
lowship at the conference were ap-           Rev. W. Bekkering (October 5 and                                 Stated Clerk   u
preciated by all.  Classis West looks        12); Rev. R. Miersma (November 23

46/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


  Report of Classis East                                                                           Mr. Jon Huisken

                                                                                                       September 10, 1997
                                                                              Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church

                                          tion.    With  thanksgiving  to  God,     in  closed  session  to  deal  with  a
                                          the classis approved these exami-         matter of  discipline.  Classis also
Classis East met in regular
        session on Wednesday, Sep-
                                          nations and authorized the congre-        granted Covenant PRC some addi-
        tember  10,  1997.    The
                                          gation  of  Hope  PRC  to  proceed        tional time to consider the selling
churches  were  all  represented  by
                                          with the ordination and installation      of their church property.
two  delegates.    Rev.  R.  Van
                                          of James Laning, and the congre-              The  expenses  of  classis
Overloop chaired this session.
                                          gation of Covenant PRC to proceed         amounted to $1,791.70.  Classis will
    The  primary  business  of  this
                                          with the ordination and installation      meet next on Wednesday, January
classis was the examination of Pas-
                                          of Martin VanderWal.  By the time         14, 1998 at the Southwest PRC.
tors-elect  James  Laning  and  Mar-
                                          this is published, both will be into                     Respectfully submitted,
tin  VanderWal.    After  preaching
                                          the full work of a pastor.                                       Jon J. Huisken,
full-length sermons, the examinees
                                              In  other  business,  classis  was                          Stated Clerk   u
were subjected to an oral examina-


  News From Our Churches                                                                 Mr. Benjamin Wigger

                                          best  ingredients  of  various  reli-     new  information  from  Ghana
Evangelism Activities                     gions into one religion, which as a       means  that  the  FMC  will  most
This  fall, Christianity on Cam- result is supposed to be digestible likely advise our Hull, IA PRC not
    pus, a group which has for its        and delectable to all.  Rev. Dick did     to  call  another  missionary  until
advisors, members of the Evange-          go on to point out, however, that         they can sort this all out.
lism Committee of the Grace PRC           Christianity is basically one meal:           Our  missionary  to  Northern
in Standale, MI, is again sponsor-        Jesus Christ.                             Ireland, Rev. R. Hanko, reports that
ing a series of ten lecture/discus-           The next meeting, on Septem-          they continue to plan for and ad-
sions  which  have  to  do  with  the     ber 24, Rev. Dick was scheduled to        vertise their three trips to Wales in
fundamentals  of  Christian  faith,       speak on the topic, "I Went to the        September.  The first trip was from
and this in light of contemporary         Circus the Other Day, and a Wor-          August 29 to September 8, the sec-
issues.  These meetings are sched-        ship  Service  Broke  Out!"    Some       ond was from the 12th to the 15th of
uled  for  Wednesday  evenings  at        questions to be considered in that        September, and  the third will be,
7:30 in the Cook DeWitt Chapel on         meeting were, What ought to char-         the Lord willing, from the 19th to
the campus of Grand Valley State          acterize  true  worship?    Is  there     the 30th.  Candidate Kleyn and his
University.  The meetings were also       room for different kinds of services      wife  will  also  accompany  Rev.
intended to provide application to        to  accommodate  all  kinds  of           Hanko on that last trip, from which
living  and  enjoying  the  Christian     people?  And, may I wear jeans?           they  were  scheduled  to  return  to
life as a young Christian in these                                                  the States.
latter days.                              Mission Activities
    At  the  first  meeting,  on  Sep-                                              School Activities
                                          As  many  of  our  PR  readers
tember 17, Rev. M. Dick, pastor at             know,  the  Foreign  Mission
                                          Committee  of  our  churches  has         On  Saturday,  September  20,
Grace,  spoke  on  the  topic  "Reli-                                                    there was a time of fellowship
gious Stew."  You might be inter-         learned that the Ghanaian govern-         and celebration at Adams Christian
ested  to  know  that,  by  using  the    ment requires that a missionary go-       School in Wyoming, MI, marking
term  "Religious  Stew,"  Rev.  Dick      ing  to  Ghana  must  be  sponsored       the completion of their Phase II ad-
meant to call attention to today's        by  a  church  within  Ghana.    The      dition.    The  evening  concluded
practice  of  the  combining  of  the     FMC had before checked with the           with a brief cornerstone ceremony
                                          Ghanaian Embassy in Washington            in their new all-purpose room.
                                          to determine how to begin the pro-            We take this opportunity to in-
                                          cess of immigrating a missionary.         clude  also  a  note  concerning  the
                                          Their answer was that we must go          Free Christian School of Edgerton,
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protes-     to  Ghana,  become  a  permanent          MN.  It is a small school of four-
tant Reformed  Church  of  Hudson-        resident, and then apply for recog-       teen students that is in its 46th sea-
ville, Michigan.                          nition  as  a  church  mission.    The    son.  Not only are there few stu-

                                                                                         October 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/47


       The
Standard
 Bearer                                                                                                                                 PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                        Postage Paid at
     P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                       Grandville,
     Grandville, MI  49468-0603                                                                                                         Michigan


dents, but most of them come from                      Hudsonville, MI PRC to hear Rev.                        and  R.  Decker,  and  Revs.  R.
families that are struggling finan-                    J. Slopsema, pastor at the First PRC                    VanOverloop and B. Gritters.
cially.    So  it  is  increasingly  diffi-            in  Grand  Rapids,  speak  on  the
cult for them to make ends meet.                       topic, "Christian Living in a Mate-                     Minister Activities
They  have  requested  the  prayers                    rialistic World."
and continued financial support of                           On  Tuesday  before  the                          Rev.  J.  Slopsema has  received
                                                                                                                        the  call  from  the  South  Hol-
our churches.                                          Wednesday, September 3 meeting                          land, IL PRC.
                                                       of  Classis  West  there  was  an  Of-
Denominational Activities                              fice  Bearers'  Conference  on  the                     Food for Thought
On September 16 the members theme, "Reformed Worship."  Rev.                                                        "Calvinism is that sight of the
       of the Mr. & Mrs. Adult and                     S. Key  gave the keynote  address,                      majesty  of  God  that  pervades  all
Junior  Societies  in  and  around                     entitled "Fellowship with the Holy                      of life and all of experience."
Grand  Rapids,    MI  met  at  the                     One."    Other  speakers  were  Pro-                                            --B.B. Warfield   u
                                                       fessors  H.  Hanko,  D.  Engelsma,

                          ANNOUNCEMENTS                                                                                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                                                                                    On October 26 our parents and grand-
                                                                                                               parents,
         WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                                        MARK and LYNDA SCHOLTEN,
      On September 4, 1997, our parents                                                                        will celebrate their 25th wedding anniver-
and grandparents,                                                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                           sary.
     MR. and MRS. BERT VAN MAANEN,                           With  thankfulness  to  God,  we  cel-                 We, their children and grandchildren,
celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.             ebrated  the  25th  wedding  anniversary  of            thank our heavenly Father for the years
      We are thankful to our covenant Lord             our parents,                                            He has given them, and we pray that God,
for His sovereign care over them and for                    JOHN and CAROLYN CLEVELAND,                        in His grace, may continue to bless their
the  years  He  has  given  them.    We  are           on September 29, 1997.  We are grateful                 marriage in the future.
deeply grateful for their godly example and            to God for parents who have brought us                       "But  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  is  from
for the covenant home they provided.  We               up in the nurture and admonition of the                 everlasting to everlasting upon them that
pray that God may continue to bless them               Lord and have made their home a spiri-                  fear  him,  and  his  righteousness  unto
and keep them in His care.                             tual haven from the world.                              children's children" (Psalm 103:17).
      "Enter into his gates with thanksgiv-                  "Many, O Lord my God, are thy won-                y    Jeff and Kim Scholten
ing  and  into  his  courts  with  praise:    be       derful works which thou hast  done, and                           Amber
thankful  unto  him,  and  bless  his  name.           thy thoughts which are to us-ward:  they                y    Dave and Kari Doezema
                                                                                                               y    Jason Scholten and
For the Lord is good; his mercy is ever-               cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee:                                  special friend Tammi Mingerink
lasting; and his truth endureth to all gen-            if I would declare and speak of them, they              y    Kelly Scholten and
eration" (Psalm 100:4, 5).                             are more than can be numbered" (Psalm                                   special friend Brendon Looyenga
y     Gary and Florence Horstman                       40:5).                                                                                       Jenison, Michigan
y     Rog and Marjean Buys                             y     Aaron
y     Alvin and Brenda Bylsma                          y     Jason and Tami                                             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
y     Marlyn and Alvina Hofman                         y     Leah                                                   The Council and congregation of the
y     Marv and Carol Anema                             y     John, Jr.                                         Loveland PRC extend their sympathy to
y     Evert D. and Kathy VanMaanen                     y     Michael                                           Elder Frank VanBaren and his family in
y     Wayne and Jan VanderMaten                        y     Maria                                             the death of
        36 grandchildren                                                             Grand Rapids, Michigan               MRS. ALICE ZANDSTRA.
        1 great granddaughter                                                                                       May they be assured of God's prom-
                                         Hull, Iowa                                                            ise that "precious in the sight of the Lord
                                                                                                               is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15).
                                                                                                                                  Rev. G. VanBaren, President
                                                                                                                                         Robert Brands, Clerk

48/Standard Bearer/October 15, 1997


