CHURCH HISTORY II Lesson 17. “God’s Free Mercy” The Church in the Netherlands “What the descendants of the old Dutch Calvinists as well as of the Pilgrim.

CHURCH HISTORY IICHURCH HISTORY IILesson 17Lesson 17

“What the descendants of the old Dutch Calvinists as well as of the Pilgrim Fathers have to do, is not tocopy the past, as if Calvinism were a petrification, but to go back to the living root of [the] Calvinist plant, toclean and to water it, and so to cause it to bud and bloom once more, now fully in accordance with ouractual life in these modern times, and with the demands of the times to come.” Abraham Kuyper

END OF 16TH CENTURY: Political and Theological Setting

BEGAN: Unified

ENDED: Very divided

THE SYNOD OF DORT (1618-1619)

Jacob Arminius (1560-1609) Francisus

Gomarus(1563-1641)

1610-Remonstance

a. Election based on foreknowledge of events

b. Christ died the same death for everyonec. Faith/grace is a gift

d. Faith/grace is resistible

e. Perseverance is unclear

GOD DOES NOT CHOOSE

The Synod Ecumenical

Unanimous

FIVE HEADS OF DOCTRINE

A. God’s electing purpose not conditioned by anything in the sinner (“not founded upon foreseen faith”

b. Christ’s death sufficient to save the world, but efficient only for the elect (“to bring them infallibly to salvation”)

c. Mankind is corrupt (“incapable of any saving good”)

d. The Holy Spirit irresistibly gives the gift of faith to the elect (who are “unfeigned called”)

e. Those justified will be preserved to the end (“But God is faithful, who having conferred grace, mercifully confirms and powerfully preserves them therin, even to the end”)

Canons 1, 13: “The sense and certainty of this election afford to the children ofGod additional matter for daily humiliation before Him, for adoring the depthsof His mercies, for cleansing themselves, and rendering grateful returns ofardent love to Him who first manifested so great love towards them.”The foreign delegates at the Synod expressed the hope that the Dutch churcheswould persevere in and transmit to succeeding generations their “orthodox,godly, and simple confession of faith…until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

PRO-ACTA WORK

POST-ACTA WORK

SECOND REFORMATION

William Ames (1576-1633) Gisbertus Voetius (1589-

1676)

Rembrandt (1606-1669)