DIVINE PREDESTINATION
The Canons of Dordt, 1st
Head of Doctrine: Articles 1-3
The
Arminian conception of Salvation has no place for a Sovereign God who
determines the destiny of all men from eternity. Various caricatures (straw men) are created of the truth of
Sovereign Predestination, (Election and Reprobation). Among these are: Fatalism, God the Horrible Tyrant, and Man
reduced as a stock and a block. Against these false caricatures of
predestination the Fathers of Dordt begin the Canons with a Biblical confession
concerning the truth of Dual Predestination.
By beginning with this doctrine, the Canons are teaching us that the
foundation of the temple of God’s Truth is, and can only be, Sovereign
Predestination.
The starting point from which we must
view the truth of Predestination is the righteousness of God. The following train of thought is presented
in this article: 1. All men sinned in Adam. (I Cor. 15: 21-22). 2. All
men are worthy of the curse and eternal death. (Eph. 2:1-3.) 3. God
would have done no injustice if he had condemned all. (Rom. 9: 15-23).
Therefore God is not obliged to bestow his grace and eternal life on any. We have forfeited everything. Man is
nothing. (Isaiah 2:22.) Man has no
claim upon God, and if he is to receive anything at all it has to be completely
of God’s grace. (1 Cor. 6: 7)
Questions:
1. Is God unjust if He wills to save
some and not others?
2. What does Luke 17:7-10 teach us
concerning the fundamental relationship between God and man?
3. Respond to the charge leveled
against Sovereign predestination that it makes God out to be a horrible tyrant
who enjoys condemning men to hell.
ARTICLE 2: THE WILL TO SAVE SOME.
It is not God’s will to damn all men,
as He might justly have done. He willed
to save me and bestow on them everlasting life. Which men he willed to save is not stated in this article, only
the fact that He willed to save some.
Three things are taught here:
a.
The will of God to save some is the revelation of His love. God not only has revealed His wrath (Rom.
1:18) but also His love. (John 3:16, Rom. 5: 6-8)
b. The ground of Salvation is the work of
Jesus Christ. (I Peter 1: 18-19)
c. The way in which men are to be saved is
faith. (John 3: 36)
Questions:
1. Is there a conflict between God’s
love and God’s justice? Does His love
set His justice aside? See Heidelberg
Cat. L.D. Ps 85: 10.
2. Where is the love of God revealed?
Can the love of God be seen in the creation as is the wrath of God seen in the
creation?
3. Find Scriptures that teaches the
freedom or graciousness of the will of God, that is; passages which show that
the will of God to save some proceeds entirely from within Himself.
ARTICLE 3: THE WAY MEN ARE BROUGHT TO
FAITH.
This article speaks of the way that
some men are brought to faith in Christ. This is by the Preaching of the
gospel. (I. Cor. 1:18-23, Rom. 10:17) There is no other way of salvation than
the way of hearing the voice of Christ in the preaching of the Word. (John
10:27.)
About the preaching of the gospel this
article states:
a. The messengers are sent by God.
(Titus 1:3, Jonah 1:1, Rom. 10:14)
b. God sends them in His mercy
towards those he wills to save. (II Cor. 2:13f)
c. The preaching of the gospel
follows the course of God’s will and good pleasure. God sends the messengers when and to whom he will. (Acts
1:9-10)
d.
Through
the gospel men are called to faith and repentance. (Mark 1:13-15)
Questions:
1. Explain how the great mercy of God
is shown in His sending forth messengers of the gospel. (Ps. 89:15)
2. Is the preaching of the gospel grace
to all who hear it? Does the Word of God ever fail to produce an effect upon
those who hear it? (Isaiah 55:11)
3. Show from the book of Acts that the
Word goes to whom God is pleased to send it and at the time God is pleased to
send it.
4. Can anyone be a preacher?
5. Can one be saved without the hearing
of the Word of God?
6. The common idea is
that the world perishes because God is not able to get the word out. The Church
must be busy or people will perish due to our failure to send out the
word. Critique and show the proper
motivation for the Church in performing mission work.
The Canons of Dordt, 1st
Head of Doctrine: Articles 4-6
We
should remember that the articles of the Canons are given in a certain order
and that any single one does not present the entire truth of Divine
Predestination. Taken together, they
lead us step by step to a Scriptural understanding of this truth. So far in
articles 1-3 the foundation has been laid upon which we are to approach the
truths of Sovereign Predestination, namely: the righteousness of God over
guilty man. This is always where the gospel begins, in the sin of man and his
lack of any say before a righteous God, Romans 3:20, Romans 9: 21) Upon that
foundation was placed the truth of the entirely gracious will of God to save
some fallen men. And then the Canons
brought forth the truth that it pleases God to save men through the preaching
of the Holy Gospel. Now we proceed in these next three articles to confess that
some men are saved through the gracious will of God to give them faith in His
Son.
ARTICLE 4: NOT ALL MEN ARE SAVED.
There is a twofold reaction to the
gospel, faith and unbelief. Those who
believe are saved and those who are unbelieving are damned. The article does
not teach where faith comes from, nor does it teach that the basis of salvation
is faith, rather its point is simply that the only way of salvation is faith
and those who do not believe are condemned. (John 3:16)
This article, then, makes the
indisputable point that not all men are saved. (John 10: 25) There are men on
whom the wrath of God abides. (II
Thess. 1:8-9) And there are men who are saved from the wrath of God and have
the gift of eternal life conferred upon them. (John 3:16)
Questions:
1. What are some of the views which deny the truth that unbelieving men are punished eternally in hell?
2. Show from the Bible that the
preaching of the Word always brings a twofold response- faith and
unbelief. Why can it never produce a
neutral response?
ARTICLE 5. THE SOURCE OF FAITH AND
UNBELIEF.
This article has two main
propositions:
1. The cause or guilt of unbelief is
not in God but in man.
2. The cause of faith is the free gift
of God.
The question we face is one of
authorship. Who is the author of
unbelief? Man’s evil heart. Who is the author of faith? GOD!
Unbelief is therefore from the natural
man. Scripture does not exclude sin from God’s Sovereign determination. (Prov. 16:4, 21:1, Acts 2:23, John 12:27-40)
However, God is not the author of this unbelief, for He cannot sin. But sinful man is unbelieving.
Faith is the gift of God, for it
cannot proceed from the natural man who is dead in trespasses and sins. God then determines who will believe and who
will not believe. (II Peter 1:1, Eph. 6:24)
Questions:
1. Find passages that teach that God is
not the author of sin.
2. What is the explanation which
Free-will gives for the origin of faith and how is it wrong and contrary to
reality and to Scripture?
ARTICLE 6: GOD’S ETERNAL DECREE AS THE
SOURCE OF FAITH.
The deepest cause of the gift of faith
and the absence of faith is God’s eternal decree. The Decree of Predestination
is distinguished as:
The Decree of Election: The decree of God to glorify some
through the means of faith. God chooses
on whom He will bestow the gift of faith.
He decrees to soften their hearts, which are by nature as hard and
disobedient as the reprobates, and incline them to believe. (II Thess. 2:13)
The Decree of Reprobation:
The decree to damn others in the way of their sin and unbelief. (I Peter 2:5-8,
Mt. 15:13-15) On them He does not bestow the gift of faith. He leaves them to their own wickedness and
unbelief even though they hear the word preached. The preaching of the word actually hardens them. (Is. 6:9-13)
Concerning
the decree of Predestination, the Canons state that it is:
1. A profound, merciful, and at the
same time righteous discrimination between men who are equally involved in
ruin.
2. Men of perverse and unstable minds
wrest against this truth to their own destruction. (II Peter 3:15)
3. To the holy and pious souls it
affords unspeakable comfort. (Eph. 1:5, John 15:1-17)
Questions:
1. What is the difference between
Infralapsarianism and Supralapsarianism?
2. Is the preaching of the gospel
intended by God to be grace to all who hear it? What is this idea called? Why is it wrong? What are God’s
intentions in the preaching of the word? (I Cor. 1:18ff, Gal 3:1-3)
3. What is the idea of “foreseen
faith”? Why is it in error?
The Canons of Dordt, 1st
Head of Doctrine: Articles 7 & 8
Having
proceeded carefully in a step by step manner, the Canons are now ready to give
a Biblical definition of the truth of Predestination, specifically of eternal
Election. It ahs been shown in articles
1-6 that the only way of salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ, and
further that faith is a gracious gift of God given only to those He is pleased
to give it. From Article 7 to the end of this First Head, On Divine
Predestination, the Canons will flesh out the truth of Election and
Reprobation, and will do so in a way that emphasizes the great comfort in
believing this truth as well as the glory of God that is at the heart of it.
Election is the unchangeable purpose
of God to choose out of mere grace a certain number of persons to redemption in
Christ. Election is part of God’s “purpose”, that is, His Divine Counsel (see
Romans 9:11, Ephesians 1:9-11, Romans 8: 28). The Scriptures use other terms to
refer to God’s eternal and unchangeable purpose such as: “Decree”, Psalm 2:
7,8; “Determine”, Luke 22:22; “Counsel”, Isaiah 46:10; “Good Pleasure, Matthew
11: 25, 25.
Concerning the decree of Election the
article teaches:
1.
Election
is an unchangeable purpose of God. John
10: 27-30
2.
The
objects of election are a certain number of men and women who were fallen
through their own fault into sin and destruction. II Timothy 2: 19
3.
The
source of election is the free or sovereign good pleasure of God. I Peter 5:10,
Romans 15:16, I John 4:19, Deuteronomy &: 6,7
4.
Election
is in Christ. Christ is the eternally
appointed Head and Mediator of the elect appointed before the foundation of the
world. Ephesians 1:4, Colossians 1: 15
ff.
5.
Election
is unconditional. It finds no ground
(reason) in the one elected to serve as the basis of God’s choice. The elect are not better or more deserving
than others. The elect have not
influenced God’s choice by anything they have done or are. Deuteronomy 6: 6,7,
Ezekiel 36: 22 ff.
6.
Election
includes not only appointment to obtain eternal glory, but also the appointment
of the means to that end (faith, calling, justification, sanctification,
preservation.) I Thessalonians 5:9-11, II Thessalonians 2; 13, 14, Romans 8:
29,30.
7.
Election
is Theo centric, that is: it is intended to magnify God by displaying His grace
and mercy. Ephesians 1: 5 ff.
No new thought is introduced in this
article. Rather, the intention is to develop more fully and clearly the truths
introduced in article 7. Article 8 is
apologetic in character, that is; it defends the confession made concerning
election in article 7 against attacks against that confession (see Jude 3).
The “various decrees of election”
which the article refers to are those views promoted by Arminianism. (You
should read article 2 in the rejection of errors appended to this First head of
the Canons for a fuller explanation of what was meant by various decrees of
election.) Arminianism maintains that God had all kinds of contingent plans
(back up plans) for salvation in case one plan failed to work out. This heresy also maintains that there was
one plan of God employed in the Old Testament and another in the New. This is
closely related to the Roman Catholic teaching of “Scientia media”, or “
knowledge of all ways”. God, according
to this view, has knowledge of all kinds of ways to save, and employs them at different
times for different reasons. This is
the false teaching of Dispensationalism which teaches that the Bible reveals a
number of different methods used by God to save men and women, employed during
different epochs in history.
In opposition to such a teaching our
Reformed Fathers taught that the Scripture reveals one decree of election. God’s counsel is one, and it stands firm and
unchanged throughout time, not being subject to adjustments, unforeseen
difficulties, or failure (Psalm 33:9, Isaiah 46: 9-11). God’s decree in Christ
is the same in both Old and New Testaments.
Throughout the Old Testament God revealed His one purpose in Christ
through the use of type and shadow.
These are now fulfilled in the Son, Christ Jesus (see for instance
Hebrews 9). Regardless of the differences in manifesting His purposes, God ahs
one salvation in Christ for His one people decreed from eternity. God’s one decree of election was to save the
elect through Christ and the cross to the glory of His name (Colossians 1: 15
ff., I Peter 1:18, 19). As God is one,
so His counsel is one.
Questions:
1.
Make a
list from Article 7 of the various elements of God’s eternal election. Find support form Scripture. How do these
magnify God and comfort us?
2.
What is
Dispensationalism? Is the teaching of a
conditional election (God chooses those who chose Him) connected to it? How does Dispensationalism contradict the
teaching that God’s Counsel is one?
3.
When
Arminianism speaks of election, what does it mean?
4.
Explain
how the notion of various views of election is an assault and an insult upon
the wisdom of God. See Romans 11: 33-36
5.
What
comfort do you receive from the truth that all things in God’s Counsel are
arranged to lead to one end or purpose in Christ? Apply this to you daily life.