Three Forms of Unity
and the
l Apostles’
Creed
l Nicene
Creed
l Athanasian
Creed
l Creed of
Reprinted: 1996, 1999, 2002
by the Protestant Reformed Churches
in
INTRODUCTION TO THE
The
The Catechism
OR
METHOD OF INSTRUCTION IN THE
CHRISTIAN RELIGION
AS THE SAME IS TAUGHT IN THE REFORMED
CHURCHES AND
SCHOOLS IN
ccc
LORD’S DAY 1
Question 1. What is thy only comfort in
life and death?
Answer. That I with body and soul,1 both in life
and death, am not my own,2 but belong
unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ;3 who, with His precious blood,4 hath fully satisfied for all my sins,5 and delivered me from all the power of the devil;6 and so preserves me7 that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a
hair can fall from my head;8 yea, that
all things must be subservient to my salvation,9 and therefore,
by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life,10 and makes me
sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto Him.11
Q. 2. How many things are necessary for thee to
know, that thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live
and die happily?
A. Three:12
the first, how great my sins and miseries are;13 the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries;14 the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God
for such deliverance.15
THE FIRST PART —
OF THE MISERY OF MAN
LORD’S DAY 2
Q.
3. Whence knowest thou thy misery?
A. Out of the law of God.1
Q. 4. What doth the law of
God require of us?
A. Christ teaches us that briefly, Matt. 22:37-40, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy
strength. This is the first and the great commandment; and the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets.2
Q. 5. Canst thou keep all
these things perfectly?
A. In no wise;3 for I am prone by nature to
hate God and my neighbor.4
LORD’S DAY 3
Q. 6. Did God then create man
so wicked and perverse?
A. By no means; but God created man good,1 and after His own image,2 in true righteousness and holiness, that he might
rightly know God his Creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal
happiness to glorify and praise Him.3
Q. 7. Whence then proceeds this depravity of human nature?
A. From the fall and disobedience of our first
parents, Adam and Eve,
in Paradise;4 hence our
nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin.5
Q. 8. Are we then so
corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all
wickedness?
A. Indeed we are,
6 except we are regenerated by
the Spirit of God.7
LORD’S DAY 4
Q. 9. Doth not God
then do injustice to man, by requiring from him in His law that which he cannot
perform?
A. Not at all; 1 for God made man capable of performing it;2 but man, by the
instigation of the devil,3 and his own
wilful disobedience,
deprived himself and all his posterity of those divine gifts.4
Q. 10. Will God suffer
such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
A. By no means; but is terribly displeased5 with our original as well as actual sins; and will
punish them6 in His just
judgment temporally and eternally, as He hath declared, Cursed is every one
that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them.7
Q. 11. Is not God then
also merciful?
A. God is indeed merciful,8 but
also just;9 therefore His justice requires
that sin which is
committed against the most high majesty of God be also punished10 with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment11 of body and soul.
THE SECOND PART —
OF MAN’S DELIVERANCE
LORD’S DAY 5
Q. 12. Since
then, by the righteous judgment of God, we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, is there no way by which we may escape that
punishment and be again received into favor?
A. God will have His
justice satisfied;1 and therefore we must make this full
satisfaction, either by ourselves or by another.2
Q. 13. Can we ourselves
then make this satisfaction?
A. By no means; 3 but on the contrary we daily increase our debt.4
Q.
14. Can there be found anywhere one who is a mere creature, able to
satisfy for us?
A. None; for, first, God
will not punish any other creature for the sin which man hath committed;5 and further,
no mere creature can sustain the burden of God’s eternal wrath against sin, so
as to deliver others from it.6
Q. 15. What sort of a
mediator and deliverer then must we seek for?
A. For one who is very
man, 7 and perfectly righteous; and yet more powerful than
all creatures; that is, one who is also very God.8
LORD’S DAY 6
Q. 16. Why
must He be very man, and also perfectly righteous?
A. Because the justice of
God requires that the same human nature which hath sinned should likewise make satisfaction for sin;1 and one who is himself a
sinner cannot satisfy for others.2
Q. 17. Why must He in one
person be also very God?
A. That He might, by the power of His Godhead,
sustain in His human nature the burden of God’s wrath;3 and might obtain for, and restore to us, righteousness and life.4
Q. 18. Who then is that
Mediator, who is in one person both very God and a real righteous man?
A. Our Lord Jesus Christ,5 who of God is made unto us
wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.6
Q. 19. Whence knowest thou this?
A. From the holy gospel, which God Himself first
revealed in
LORD’S DAY 7
Q. 20. Are all men then, as they
perished in Adam, saved by Christ?
A. No,1 only those who are ingrafted into Him, and receive all His benefits, by a true
faith.2
Q. 21. What is true faith?
A. True faith is not only a certain knowledge, 3 whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to
us in His Word, but also an assured confidence,4 which the Holy Ghost5 works by the
gospel in my heart;6
that not only to others, but to me also,
remission of sin,7 everlasting righteousness, and salvation8 are freely
given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits.9
Q. 22. What is then necessary
for a Christian to believe?
A. All things promised
us in the gospel,10
which the articles of our catholic undoubted Christian faith briefly teach us.
Q. 23. What are these
articles?
A. I. I believe in God the Father, Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth;
II. And in Jesus
Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord;
III. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of
the Virgin Mary;
IV. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was
crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into hell;
V. The third day He rose again from the dead;
VI. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
VII. From thence He shall come to judge the quick
and the dead.
VIII. I believe in the Holy Ghost.
IX. I believe an holy catholic church; the communion of
saints;
X. The forgiveness of sins;
XI. The resurrection of the body;
XII. And the life everlasting. Amen.
LORD’S DAY 8
Q. 24. How are these articles
divided?
A. Into three parts:
the first is of God the Father and our creation; 1 the second, of God the Son and our redemption; 2 the third, of God the Holy Ghost and our
sanctification.3
Q. 25. Since there is but one only divine essence,4 why speakest thou of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?
A. Because God hath so revealed Himself in His Word,5
that these three distinct persons are the one only true and eternal God.
OF GOD THE FATHER
LORD’S DAY 9
Q. 26. What believest
thou when thou sayest, “I believe in God the Father,
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth”?
A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
(who of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is in them;1 who likewise
upholds and governs the same by His eternal counsel and providence2 ) is, for the sake of Christ His Son, my God and my Father;
on whom I rely so entirely, that I have no doubt but He will provide me with
all things necessary for soul and body;3 and
further, that He will make whatever evils He sends upon me, in this valley of
tears, turn out to my advantage;4 for He is able to do it, being Almighty God,5 and
willing, being a faithful Father.6
LORD’S DAY 10
Q. 27. What dost thou mean by
the providence of God?
A. The almighty and everywhere present power of God,1 whereby,
as it were by His hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all
creatures;2 so that herbs and grass, rain and drought,3 fruitful and barren years, meat and drink,4 health and sickness,5
riches and poverty,6 yea, and all
things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.7
Q. 28. What advantage is it to us to know that God
has created, and by His providence doth still uphold all things?
A. That we may be patient in adversity;8
thankful in prosperity;9 and that in all things which may hereafter befall us,
we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father,10 that nothing
shall separate us from His love;11 since all
creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as
move.12
OF GOD THE SON
LORD’S DAY 11
Q. 29. Why is the Son of God
called Jesus, that is, a Savior?
A. Because He saveth us,
and delivereth us from our sins;1 and likewise, because we
ought not to seek, neither can find salvation in
any other.2
Q. 30. Do such then believe in Jesus the only
Savior, who seek their salvation and welfare of saints, of themselves, or
anywhere else?
A. They do not; for though they boast of Him in
words, yet in deeds they deny Jesus the only deliverer and Savior;3 for one of
these two things must be true, either that Jesus is not a complete Savior, or
that they who by a true faith receive this Savior must find all things in Him
necessary to their salvation.4
LORD’S DAY 12
Q. 31. Why is He called Christ, that is, anointed?
A. Because He is ordained of God the Father, and anointed with the Holy Ghost,1 to be our chief Prophet and Teacher,2 who has fully revealed
to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption; and to be
our only High Priest,3 who by the one sacrifice of His body has redeemed us,
and makes continual intercession with the Father for us;4 and also to be
our eternal King,5 who governs us by His Word and Spirit, and who
defends and preserves us6
in (the enjoyment of) that salvation He has
purchased for us.
Q. 32. But why art thou
called a Christian?
A. Because I am a member of Christ by faith,7
and thus am partaker of His anointing;8 that
so I may confess His name,9 and present myself a living sacrifice of thankfulness to Him;10 and also that
with a free and good conscience I may fight against sin and Satan in this life,11 and afterwards reign with Him eternally over all
creatures.12
LORD’S DAY 13
Q. 33. Why is Christ called
the only begotten Son of God, since we are also the children of God?
A. Because Christ alone is the eternal and natural
Son of God;1
but we are children
adopted of God, by grace, for
His sake.2
Q. 34. Wherefore callest thou Him our Lord?
A. Because He hath redeemed us, both soul and body,
from all our sins, not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood,3
and hath delivered us from all the power of the devil; and thus hath made us
His own property.
LORD’S DAY 14
Q. 35. What is the meaning of these words — “He
was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary”?
A. That God’s eternal Son, who is and continueth true and eternal God,1 took upon Him the very nature of man, of the flesh
and blood of the Virgin Mary,2 by the
operation of the Holy Ghost;3 that He
might also be the true seed of David,4 like
unto His brethren in all things, sin excepted.5
Q. 36. What profit dost thou
receive by Christ’s holy conception and nativity?
A. That He is our Mediator,6 and, with His innocence and
perfect holiness, covers in the sight of God my
sins,7 wherein I was conceived and brought forth.
LORD’S DAY 15
Q. 37. What dost thou
understand by the words, “He suffered”?
A. That He, all the time that He lived on earth, but
especially at the end of His life, sustained in
body and soul the wrath of God against the sins of all mankind;1 that
so by His passion, as the only propitiatory sacrifice,2 He might redeem our body and soul from everlasting
damnation, and obtain for us the favor of God, righteousness and eternal life.
Q. 38. Why did He suffer
under Pontius Pilate as judge?
A. That He, being innocent, and yet condemned by a
temporal judge,3 might thereby free us from the severe
judgment of God to which we were exposed.4
Q. 39. Is there anything more
in His being crucified than if He had died some other death?
A. Yes [there is]; for thereby I am assured that He
took on Him the curse which lay upon me; for the death of the cross was
accursed of God.5
LORD’S DAY 16
Q.
40. Why was it necessary for Christ to humble Himself even unto
death?
A. Because, with respect to the justice and truth of
God,1 satisfaction
for our sins could be made no otherwise than by the death of the Son of God.2
Q. 41. Why was
He also “buried”?
A. Thereby to prove that He was
really dead.3
Q. 42. Since then Christ died
for us, why must we also die?
A. Our death is not a satisfaction for our sins, but
only an abolishing of sin, and a passage into eternal life.4
Q. 43. What further benefit
do we receive from the sacrifice and death of Christ on the cross?
A. That by virtue thereof our old man is crucified,
dead, and buried with Him;5 that so the
corrupt inclinations of the flesh may no more reign in us;6 but that we may offer ourselves unto Him a sacrifice
of thanksgiving.7
Q. 44. Why is there added,
“He descended into hell”?
A. That in my greatest temptations, I may be assured,
and wholly comfort myself in this, that my Lord Jesus Christ, by His
inexpressible anguish, pains, terrors, and hellish agonies, in which He was
plunged during all His sufferings, but especially on the cross, hath delivered
me from the anguish and torments of hell.8
LORD’S DAY 17
Q. 45. What doth the
resurrection of Christ profit us?
A. First, by His resurrection He has overcome death,
that He might make us partakers of that
righteousness which He had purchased for us by His death;1 secondly, we are also by His power raised up to a new life;2 and lastly,
the resurrection of Christ is a sure pledge of our blessed resurrection.3
LORD’S DAY 18
Q. 46. How dost thou
understand these words, “He ascended into heaven”?
A. That Christ, in sight of His disciples, was taken
up from earth into heaven;1 and that He continues there for our interest,2 until He comes again to judge the quick and the dead.
Q. 47. Is not Christ then
with us even to the end of the world, as He hath promised?
A. Christ is very man and very God; with respect to
His human nature, He is no more on earth;3 but
with respect to His Godhead, majesty, grace, and spirit, He is at no time
absent from us.
Q. 48. But if His human nature is not present
wherever His Godhead is, are not then these two natures in Christ separated
from one another?
A. Not at all, for since the Godhead is illimitable
and omnipresent,4 it must necessarily follow that the same is
beyond the limits of the human nature He assumed,5 and yet is nevertheless in this human nature and
remains personally united to it.
Q. 49. Of what advantage to
us is Christ’s ascension into heaven?
A. First, that He is our advocate in the presence of
His Father in heaven;6
secondly, that we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that He, as the
Head, will also take up to Himself, us, His members;7 thirdly, that He sends us His Spirit as an earnest,8 by whose power we seek the things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, and
not things on earth.9
LORD’S DAY 19
Q. 50. Why is it added, “and sitteth at the right hand of God”?
A. Because Christ is ascended into heaven for this
end, that He might appear as Head of His church,1 by whom the Father governs all things.2
Q. 51. What profit is this
glory of Christ, our Head, unto us?
A. First, that by His Holy Spirit He pours out
heavenly graces upon us His members;3 and then that
by His power He defends and preserves us against all enemies.4
Q. 52. What comfort is it to
thee that “Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead”?
A. That in all my sorrows and persecutions, with
uplifted head I look for the very same person who before offered Himself for my
sake to the tribunal of God, and has removed all curse from me, to come as
judge from heaven;5
who shall cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation,6 but shall
translate me with all His chosen ones to Himself, into heavenly joys and glory.7
OF GOD THE HOLY GHOST
LORD’S DAY 20
Q.
53. What dost thou believe concerning the Holy Ghost?
A. First, that He is true and co-eternal God with the
Father and the Son;1 secondly, that He is also given me,2 to make me, by a true faith, partaker of Christ and
all His benefits,3 that He may comfort me4 and abide with me for ever.5
LORD’S DAY 21
Q.
54. What believest thou concerning the
“holy catholic church” of Christ?
A. That the Son of God, from the beginning to the end of the world,1 gathers,2 defends, and preserves
to Himself3 by His Spirit
and Word,4 out of the whole human
race,5 a church
chosen to everlasting life,6 agreeing in
true faith; and that I am, and for ever shall remain, a living member thereof.7
Q. 55. What do you understand
by “the communion of saints”?
A. First, that all and every one who believes, being
members of Christ, are, in common, partakers of Him and of all His riches and
gifts;8 secondly, that every one must know it to be his duty,
readily and cheerfully to employ his
gifts, for the advantage and salvation of other members.9
Q. 56. What believest thou concerning “the forgiveness of sins”?
A. That God, for the sake of Christ’s satisfaction,10 will no more remember my sins,11 neither my corrupt nature, against which I have to
struggle all my life long; but will graciously impute to me the righteousness
of Christ, that I may never be condemned before the tribunal of God.12
LORD’S DAY 22
Q.
57. What comfort doth the “resurrection of the body” afford thee?
A. That not only my soul after this life shall be
immediately taken
up to Christ its Head;1 but also, that this my body, being raised by the
power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul, and made like unto the
glorious body of Christ.2
Q. 58. What comfort takest thou from the article of “life everlasting”?
A. That since I now feel in my heart the beginning of
eternal joy,3 after this
life I shall inherit perfect salvation,4 which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither
hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive,5 and that, to
praise God therein for ever.
LORD’S DAY 23
Q.
59. But what doth it profit thee now that thou believest
all this?
A. That I am righteous in
Christ, before God, and an heir of eternal life.1
Q. 60. How art thou righteous
before God?
A. Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ;2 so that, though my conscience accuse me that I have
grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them,3 and am still inclined to all evil;4 notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine,5 but only of mere grace,6 grants7 and imputes
to me8 the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness
of Christ;9 even so, as if I never had had nor committed any
sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished
all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me;10 inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing
heart.11
Q. 61. Why sayest thou that thou art righteous by faith only?
A. Not that I am acceptable to God on account of the worthiness
of my faith,12 but because only the satisfaction, righteousness, and
holiness of Christ is my righteousness before God;13 and that I cannot receive and apply the same to myself any other way than by
faith only.14
LORD’S DAY 24
Q.
62. But why cannot our good works be the whole or part of our
righteousness before God?
A. Because that the righteousness which can be
approved of before the tribunal of God must be absolutely perfect, and in all
respects conformable to the divine law;1 and also, that our best works in this life are all
imperfect and defiled with sin.2
Q. 63. What!
Do not our good works merit, which yet God will reward in this and in a
future life?
A. This reward is not of merit, but of grace.3
Q. 64. But doth not this
doctrine make men careless and profane?
A. By no means; for it is impossible that those who
are implanted into Christ by a true faith should not bring forth fruits of
thankfulness.4
OF THE SACRAMENTS
LORD’S DAY 25
Q. 65. Since then we are made partakers of Christ
and all His benefits by faith only, whence doth this faith proceed?
A. From the Holy Ghost, who works faith in our hearts1 by the preaching of the gospel, and confirms it by the use of the sacraments.2
Q. 66. What are the
sacraments?
A. The sacraments are holy, visible signs and seals,
appointed of God for this end, that by the use thereof He may the more fully
declare and seal to us the promise of the gospel, namely, that He grants us
freely the remission of sin and life eternal, for the sake of that one
sacrifice of Christ accomplished on the cross.3
Q. 67. Are both Word and sacraments, then, ordained
and appointed for this end, that they may direct our faith to the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation?
A. Yes, indeed; for the Holy Ghost teaches us in the
gospel, and assures us by the sacraments, that
the whole of our salvation depends upon that one sacrifice of Christ which He
offered for us on the cross.4
Q. 68. How many sacraments
has Christ instituted in the new covenant, or testament?
A. Two, namely, holy baptism and the holy supper.5
OF HOLY BAPTISM
LORD’S DAY 26
Q. 69. How art thou
admonished and assured by holy baptism that the one sacrifice of Christ upon
the cross is of real advantage to thee?
A. Thus: That
Christ appointed this external washing with water,1 adding thereto
this promise,2 that I am as certainly washed by His blood and Spirit
from all the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins,3 as I am washed
externally with water, by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed
away.
Q. 70. What is it to be
washed with the blood and Spirit of Christ?
A. It is to receive of God the remission of sins
freely, for the sake of Christ’s blood, which He shed for us by His sacrifice upon the cross;4 and also to be renewed by the Holy Ghost, and
sanctified to be members of Christ, that so we may more and more die unto sin
and lead holy and unblamable
lives.5
Q. 71. Where has Christ promised us that He will
as certainly wash us by His blood and Spirit as we are washed with the water of
baptism?
A. In the institution of baptism, which is thus
expressed: Go ye, therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost.6 He
that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not,
shall be damned.7 This promise
is also repeated where the scripture calls baptism the washing of regeneration8 and the washing away of sins.9
LORD’S DAY 27
Q. 72. Is then the external
baptism with water the washing away of sin itself?
A. Not at all; for the blood of Jesus Christ only,
and the Holy Ghost, cleanse us from all sin.1
Q. 73. Why then doth the Holy Ghost call baptism
“the washing of regeneration,” and “the washing away of sins”?
A. God speaks thus not without great cause, to wit,
not only thereby to teach us that, as the filth of the body is purged away by
water, so our sins are
removed by the blood and Spirit
of Jesus Christ;2
but especially that by this divine pledge and sign He may assure us that we are
spiritually cleansed from our sins as really as we are externally washed with
water.3
Q. 74. Are infants also to be
baptized?
A. Yes; for since they, as well as the adult, are
included in the covenant4 and church of God;5 and since redemption from sin by the blood of Christ,
and the Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to them6 no less than to the adult; they must therefore by
baptism, as a sign of the covenant, be also admitted into the Christian church,
and be distinguished from the children of unbelievers7 as was done in the old covenant or testament by circumcision,8
instead of which baptism is instituted in the new covenant.9
OF THE HOLY SUPPER
OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
LORD’S DAY 28
Q. 75. How art thou
admonished and assured in the Lord’s Supper that thou art a partaker of that one
sacrifice of Christ, accomplished on the cross, and of all His benefits?
A. Thus: That
Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat of this broken bread and to
drink of this cup in remembrance of Him,
adding these promises: first,
that His body was offered and broken on the cross for me, and His blood shed
for me, as certainly as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me
and the cup communicated to me; and further, that He feeds and nourishes my
soul to everlasting life, with His crucified body and shed blood, as assuredly
as I receive from the hands of the minister, and taste with my mouth the bread
and cup of the Lord, as certain signs of the body and blood of Christ.1
Q. 76. What is it then to eat
the crucified body and drink the shed blood of Christ?
A. It is not only to embrace with a believing heart
all the sufferings and death of Christ, and thereby to obtain the pardon of sin and life eternal;2 but also, besides that, to become more and more united to His sacred body by the Holy Ghost, who
dwells both in Christ and in us;3 so that we,
though Christ is in heaven and we on earth,4 are notwithstanding flesh of his flesh, and bone
of his bone;5 and that we live and are governed forever by one Spirit, as members of
the same body are by one soul.6
Q. 77. Where has Christ promised that He will as
certainly feed and nourish believers with His body and blood, as they eat of
this broken bread and drink of this cup?
A. In the institution of the supper, which is thus
expressed:7 The Lord
Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had
given thanks, he brake it, and said:
Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you; this do in
remembrance of me. After the same manner
also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying: this cup is the new testament in my blood;8 this
do ye, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For, as often as ye eat this bread, and drink
this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.9
This promise is repeated by the holy apostle Paul, where he
says: The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the
communion of the body of Christ?
For we, being many, are one bread and one body;
because we are all partakers of that one bread.10
LORD’S DAY 29
Q.
78. Do then the bread and wine become the very body and blood of
Christ?
A. Not at all; but as the water in baptism is not
changed into the blood of Christ, neither is the washing away of sin itself,
being only the sign and confirmation thereof appointed of God;1 so the bread in the Lord’s
Supper is not changed into the very body of Christ,2 though agreeably to the
nature and properties of
sacraments,3 it is called the body of Christ Jesus.
Q. 79. Why then doth Christ call the bread His
body, and the cup His blood, or the new covenant in His blood; and Paul, the
“communion of the body and blood of Christ”?
A. Christ speaks thus not without great reason,
namely, not only thereby to teach us that as bread and wine support this
temporal life, so His crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink
whereby our souls are
fed to eternal life;4 but more especially by these visible signs and pledges
to assure us that we are as really partakers of His true body and blood (by the
operation of the Holy Ghost) as we receive by the mouths of our bodies these
holy signs in remembrance of Him;5 and that
all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly ours as if we had in
our own persons suffered and made satisfaction for our sins to God.6
LORD’S DAY 30
Q.
80. What difference is there between the Lord’s Supper and the
popish mass?
A. The Lord’s Supper testifies to us that we have a
full pardon of all sin by the only sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which He Himself
has once accomplished on the cross;1 and that we
by the Holy Ghost are ingrafted into Christ,2 who according to His human nature is now not on
earth, but in heaven at the right hand of God His Father,3 and will there be worshiped by us4—but the mass teaches that the living and dead have
not the pardon of sins through the sufferings of Christ, unless Christ is also
daily offered for them by the priests; and further, that Christ is bodily under
the form of bread and wine, and therefore is to be worshiped in them; so that
the mass, at bottom, is nothing else than a denial of the one sacrifice and
sufferings of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry.5
Q. 81. For whom
is the Lord’s Supper instituted?
A. For those who are truly sorrowful for their sins,6
and yet trust that these are forgiven them for the sake of Christ, and that
their remaining infirmities are covered
by His passion and death;7 and who
also earnestly desire to have their faith more and more strengthened, and their
lives more holy;8 but hypocrites, and such as turn not to God with
sincere hearts, eat and
drink judgment to themselves.9
Q. 82. Are they also to be admitted to this supper,
who, by confession and life, declare themselves unbelieving and ungodly?
A. No; for by this the covenant of God would be profaned,
and His wrath kindled against the whole congregation;10 therefore it is the duty of the Christian church,
according to the appointment of Christ and His apostles, to exclude such
persons,11 by the keys of
the kingdom of heaven, till they show amendment of life.
LORD’S DAY 31
Q.
83. What
are
the keys of the kingdom
of heaven?1
A. The preaching of the holy gospel, and
Christian discipline,2 or excommunication out of the Christian church;3 by these two, the kingdom of heaven is opened to
believers, and shut against unbelievers.
Q. 84. How is the kingdom of heaven
opened and shut by the preaching of the holy gospel?
A. Thus: when
according to the command of Christ4 it is declared and publicly testified to all and
every believer, that, whenever they
receive the promise of the gospel by a true faith, all their sins are
really forgiven them of God, for the sake of Christ’s merits;5 and on the contrary, when it is declared and
testified to all unbelievers, and such as do not sincerely repent, that they
stand exposed to the wrath of God and eternal condemnation, so long as they are
unconverted;6 according to which testimony of the gospel God will
judge them, both in this and in the life to come.
Q. 85. How is the kingdom of
heaven shut and opened by Christian discipline?
A. Thus: when
according to the command of Christ,7 those who
under the name of Christians maintain doctrines, or practices inconsistent therewith,8 and will not, after having been often brotherly
admonished, renounce their errors and wicked course of life, are complained of
to the church,9 or to those who are thereunto appointed by the church;10 and if they
despise their admonition, are by them forbidden the use of the sacraments;11 whereby they are excluded from the Christian church,
and by God Himself from the kingdom of Christ; and when they promise and show
real amendment, are again received as members of Christ and His church.12
THE THIRD PART —
OF THANKFULNESS
LORD’S DAY 32
Q. 86. Since then we are
delivered from our misery merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of
ours, why must we still do good works?
A. Because Christ, having redeemed and delivered us
by His blood, also renews us by His Holy Spirit after His own image; that so we
may testify by the whole of our conduct our gratitude to God for His blessings,1
and that He may be
praised by us;2 also, that every one may be assured in himself of his
faith by the fruits thereof;3 and that by
our godly conversation others may be gained to
Christ.4
Q. 87. Cannot they then be saved, who, continuing
in their wicked and ungrateful lives, are not converted to God?
A. By no means; for the Holy Scripture declares that no unchaste person, idolator,
adulterer, thief, covetous man, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or any such like,
shall inherit the
LORD’S DAY 33
Q.
88. Of how many parts doth the true conversion of man consist?
A. Of two parts:
of the mortification of the old, and the quickening of the new man.1
Q. 89. What is the
mortification of the old man?
A. It is a sincere sorrow of heart that we have
provoked God by our sins, and more and more to hate and flee from them.2
Q. 90. What is the quickening
of the new man?
A. It is a sincere joy of heart in God, through
Christ,3 and with love and delight to live according to the
will of God in all good works.4
Q. 91. But what are good
works?
A. Only those which proceed from a true faith,5
are performed according to the law of God,6 and to His glory;7 and not such as are
founded on our imaginations or the institutions of men.8
LORD’S DAY 34
Q.
92. What is the law of God?
A. God spake all these
words, Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, saying: I am the Lord
thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage.
I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
II. Thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth: thou shalt
not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:
for I the Lord thy God am
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto
thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
III. Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
IV. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou
labor, and do all thy work: but the
seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt
not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy
maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,
and rested the seventh day: wherefore
the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
V. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which
the Lord thy God giveth thee.
VI. Thou shalt not
kill.
VII. Thou shalt not
commit adultery.
VIII. Thou shalt not
steal.
IX. Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neighbor.
X. Thou shalt not
covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s
wife, nor his manservant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor
any thing that is thy neighbor’s.
Q. 93. How are these
commandments divided?
A. Into two tables: 1 the first of which teaches us how we must behave
towards God; the second, what duties we owe to our neighbor. 2
Q. 94. What doth God enjoin
in the first commandment?
A. That I, as sincerely as I desire the salvation of
my own soul, avoid and flee from all idolatry,3 sorcery, soothsaying, superstition,4 invocation of
saints, or any other creatures;5 and learn
rightly to know the only true God;6 trust in
Him alone,7 with humility and patience8 submit to Him;9 expect all good things from Him only;10 love,11 fear,12 and glorify13 Him with my whole heart; so that I renounce
and forsake all creatures,14 rather than commit even the least thing contrary to His will.15
Q. 95. What is idolatry?
A. Idolatry is, instead of, or besides that one true
God who has manifested Himself in His Word, to contrive or have any other
object in which men place their trust.16
LORD’S DAY 35
Q.
96. What doth God require in the second commandment?
A. That we in no wise represent God by images,1 nor
worship Him in any other way than He has commanded in His Word.2
Q. 97. Are images then not at
all to be made?
A. God neither can nor may be represented by any means.3 But as to creatures, though they may
be represented, yet God forbids to make or have any resemblance of them either
in order to worship them
or to serve God by them.4
Q. 98. But may not images be
tolerated in the churches as books to the laity?
A. No; for we must not pretend to be wiser than God,
who will have His people taught, not by dumb images,5 but by the
lively preaching of His Word.6
LORD’S DAY 36
Q.
99. What is required in the third commandment?
A. That we, not only by cursing1 or perjury, but also by rash swearing,2 must
not profane or abuse the name of God; nor by silence or connivance be partakers
of these horrible sins in others; and, briefly, that we use the holy name of God no otherwise than with fear and reverence;3 so that He may
be rightly confessed and worshiped by us,4 and
be glorified in all our words and works.5
Q. 100. Is then the profaning of God’s name by
swearing and cursing so heinous a sin that His wrath is kindled against those
who do not endeavor, as much as in them lies, to prevent and forbid such
cursing and swearing?
A. It undoubtedly is, for there is no sin greater or more provoking to God
than the profaning of His name; 6 and
therefore He has commanded this sin to be punished with death.7
LORD’S DAY 37
Q.
101. May we then swear religiously by the name of God?
A. Yes; either when the magistrates demand it of the
subjects, or when necessity requires us thereby to confirm fidelity and truth
to the glory of God and the safety of our neighbor;1 for such an oath is founded on God’s Word,2 and therefore was justly used by the saints both in
the Old and New Testament.3
Q. 102. May we also swear by
saints or any other creatures?
A. No; for a lawful oath is calling upon God, as the
only one who knows the heart, that He will bear witness to the truth, and
punish me if I swear falsely;4 which honor
is due to no creature.5
LORD’S DAY 38
Q.
103. What doth God require in the fourth commandment?
A. First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools
be maintained;1 and that I, especially on the
sabbath, that is, on
the day of rest,2 diligently frequent the church of God,3 to hear His word, to use the sacraments, publicly to call upon the Lord,4 and contribute to the relief of the poor,5 as becomes a Christian. Secondly, that all the days of my life I
cease from my evil works, and yield myself to the Lord, to work by His Holy
Spirit in me; and thus begin in this life the eternal sabbath.6
LORD’S DAY 39
Q.
104. What doth God require in the fifth commandment?
A. That I show all honor, love, and fidelity to my
father and mother and all in authority over me, and submit myself to their good instruction and correction
with due obedience;1 and also patiently bear with their weaknesses and
infirmities,2 since it pleases God to govern us by their hand.3
LORD’S DAY 40
Q.
105. What doth God require in the sixth commandment?
A. That neither in thoughts, nor words, nor gestures,
much less in deeds, I dishonor, hate, wound, or kill my neighbor, by myself or by another;1
but that I lay aside all desire of revenge;2 also, that I hurt
not myself, nor willfully expose myself to any danger.3 Wherefore also
the magistrate is armed with the sword to prevent murder.4
Q. 106. But this commandment
seems only to speak of murder?
A. In forbidding murder, God teaches us that He
abhors the causes thereof, such as envy, hatred, anger, and desire of revenge;5
and that He accounts all these as murder.6
Q. 107. But is it enough that
we do not kill any man in the manner mentioned above?
A. No; for when God forbids envy, hatred, and anger,
He commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves;7 to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness towards him,8 and prevent his hurt as much as in us lies;9 and that we do good, even to our enemies. 10
LORD’S DAY 41
Q.
108. What doth the seventh commandment teach us?
A. That all uncleanness is accursed of God;1
and that therefore we must with all our hearts detest the same,2 and live chastely and temperately,3 whether in holy wedlock or in single life.4
Q. 109. Doth God forbid in
this commandment only adultery and such like gross sins?
A. Since both our body and soul are temples of the Holy
Ghost, He commands us to preserve them pure and holy; therefore He forbids all
unchaste actions,5 gestures, words, thoughts, desires,6 and
whatever can entice men thereto.7
LORD’S DAY 42
Q.
110. What doth God forbid in the eighth commandment?
A. God forbids not only those thefts1 and robberies2 which
are punishable by the magistrate; but He comprehends under the name of theft
all wicked tricks and devices whereby we design to appropriate to ourselves the
goods which belong to our neighbor,3 whether it
be by force, or under the appearance of right, as by unjust weights,4 ells, measures,5
fraudulent merchandise, false coins, usury,6 or by any other way forbidden by God; as also all covetousness,7 all
abuse and waste of His gifts.
Q. 111. But what doth God
require in this commandment?
A. That I promote the advantage of my neighbor in
every instance I can or may, and deal with him as I desire to be dealt with by
others;8
further also that I faithfully labor, so that I may be able to relieve the needy.9
LORD’S DAY 43
Q. 112. What is required in
the ninth commandment?
A. That I bear false witness against no man,1 nor falsify any man’s words;2 that I be no backbiter, nor slanderer;3 that I do not judge, nor join in condemning
any man rashly or unheard;4 but that I avoid all sorts of lies and deceit5 as the proper works of the devil, unless I would
bring down upon me the heavy wrath of God;6 likewise, that in judgment and all other dealings I
love the truth, speak it uprightly, and confess
it;7 also that I defend and promote, as much as I am able,
the honor and good character of my neighbor.8
LORD’S DAY 44
Q. 113. What doth the tenth
commandment require of us?
A. That even the smallest inclination or thought
contrary to any of God’s commandments never rise in our hearts; but that at all
times we hate all sin with our whole heart, and delight in all righteousness.1
Q. 114. But can those who are
converted to God perfectly keep these commandments?
A. No; but even the holiest men, while in this life,
have only a small beginning of this obedience;2 yet so, that with a sincere resolution they begin to live not only
according to some, but all the commandments of God.3
Q. 115. Why will God then have the ten commandments so strictly preached, since no man in this
life can keep them?
A. First, that all our lifetime we may learn more and
more to know our sinful nature,4 and thus become the more
earnest in seeking the remission of sin and righteousness in Christ;5 likewise, that we constantly endeavor, and pray to
God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more
conformable to the image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed to
us in a life to come.6
OF PRAYER
LORD’S DAY 45
Q.
116. Why is prayer necessary for Christians?
A. Because it is the chief part of thankfulness which God requires of us;1 and also, because God will give His grace and Holy
Spirit to those only who with sincere desires continually ask them of Him, and are thankful for them.2
Q. 117. What are the requisites of that prayer
which is acceptable to God and which He will hear?
A. First, that we from the heart pray to the one true
God only, who hath manifested Himself in His Word,3 for all things He hath commanded us to ask of Him; 4 secondly, that we rightly and thoroughly know our
need and misery, that so we may deeply humble ourselves in the presence of His
divine majesty;5 thirdly, that we be fully persuaded that He,
notwithstanding that we are unworthy of it,6 will, for the sake of Christ our Lord, certainly hear our prayer,7 as He
has promised us in His Word.8
Q. 118. What hath God
commanded us to ask of Him?
A. All things
necessary for soul and body,9 which Christ our Lord has comprised in that
prayer He Himself has taught us.10
Q. 119. What are the words of
that prayer?
A. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy
name. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread. And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors. And lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
LORD’S DAY 46
Q.
120. Why hath Christ commanded us to address God thus: “Our Father”?
A. That immediately, in the very beginning of our
prayer, He might excite in us a childlike reverence for and confidence in God,
which are the foundation of our prayer, namely, that God is become our Father
in Christ, 1 and will much less deny us what we ask of Him in true
faith than our parents will refuse us earthly things.2
Q. 121. Why is it here added,
“Which art in heaven”?
A. Lest we should form any earthly conceptions of
God’s heavenly majesty,3
and that we may expect from His almighty power all things necessary for soul
and body.4
LORD’S DAY 47
Q.
122. Which is the first petition?
A. Hallowed
be Thy name;1 that is, grant us, first, rightly to know Thee,2 and to sanctify,
glorify, and praise Thee in all Thy works, in which Thy power, wisdom,
goodness, justice, mercy, and truth are clearly displayed;3 and further also, that we may so order and direct our
whole lives, our thoughts, words, and actions, that Thy name may never be
blasphemed, but rather
honored and praised on our
account.4
LORD’S DAY 48
Q.
123. Which is the second petition?
A. Thy
kingdom come;1 that is, rule us so by Thy Word and Spirit, that we
may submit ourselves more and more to Thee;2 preserve and increase Thy church;3 destroy the works of the devil4 and all violence which would exalt itself against
Thee; and also, all wicked counsels devised against Thy holy Word; till the
full perfection of Thy kingdom take place,5 wherein Thou shalt be all in
all.6
LORD’S DAY 49
Q.
124. Which is the third petition?
A. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven;1 that is, grant that we and all men may
renounce our own will,2 and without
murmuring obey Thy will,3 which is only good; that so every one may attend to
and perform the duties of his station and calling4 as willingly and faithfully as the angels do in heaven.5
LORD’S DAY 50
Q.
125. Which is the fourth petition?
A. Give
us this day our daily bread;1 that is, be
pleased to provide us with all things necessary for the body,2 that we may thereby acknowledge Thee to be the only
fountain of all good,3 and that neither our care nor industry, nor even Thy
gifts, can profit us without Thy blessing;4 and therefore
that we may withdraw our trust from all creatures and place it alone in Thee.5
LORD’S DAY 51
Q.
126. Which is the fifth petition?
A. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;1 that is, be pleased for the sake of Christ’s blood,
not to impute to us poor sinners our transgressions, nor that depravity which
always cleaves to us;2 even as we feel this evidence of Thy grace in us,
that it is our firm resolution from the heart to forgive our neighbor.3
LORD’S DAY 52
Q.
127. Which is the sixth petition?
A. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil;1 that is, since
we are so weak in ourselves that we cannot stand a moment;2 and besides
this, since our mortal enemies, the devil,3 the world,4 and our own
flesh5 cease not to assault us, do Thou therefore preserve
and strengthen us by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may not be overcome
in this spiritual warfare, but constantly and strenuously may resist our foes,6 till at last we obtain a complete victory.7
Q. 128. How dost thou
conclude thy prayer?
A. For Thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, for ever;8 that is, all these we ask of Thee, because Thou,
being our King and almighty, art willing and able to give us all good;9 and all this we pray for, that thereby not we, but
Thy holy name, may be glorified for ever.10
Q. 129. What doth the word Amen
signify?
A. Amen signifies, it shall truly and certainly be;
for my prayer is more assuredly heard of God than I feel in my heart that I
desire these things of Him.11
INTRODUCTION TO THE CONFESSION OF FAITH
This is historically the
first of our three forms of unity, having been composed in 1561. It is often called the Belgic
Confession because it was written in the southern Lowlands, now known as
Under Philip II of
The Confession and the petition had no effect
on the Spanish authorities. However, it
served well as a means of instruction of Reformed believers and thus became an
expression of the faith of a people enduring suffering for Christ’s sake. This is also reflected in its language. For while this confession follows the
objective doctrinal order in its articles, its profoundly personal element is
evident from the fact that every article begins with such words as, “We
believe...,” “We believe and confess...,” or, “We all believe with the heart
and confess with the mouth....”
The Confession was adopted by several
national synods in the sixteenth century, and, after careful revision of the
text, was approved and adopted by the Synod of Dordrecht,
1618-1619, and ever since that time included among our three forms of
unity.
The Confession of Faith
REVISED IN THE NATIONAL SYNOD,
HELD AT
IN THE YEARS 1618 and 1619.
ccc
Article 1 — There Is
One Only God.
We all believe with the heart, and confess
with the mouth, that there is one only simple and spiritual Being, which we
call God; and that He is eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable,
infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just, good, and the overflowing fountain of
all good.
Article 2 — By What Means God Is Made Known unto Us.
We know Him by two means: first, by the creation, preservation, and
government of the universe; which is before our eyes as a most elegant book,
wherein all creatures, great and small, are as so many characters leading us to
contemplate the invisible things of God, namely, His power and divinity, as the
apostle Paul saith (Rom. 1:20). All which things are sufficient to convince
men, and leave them without excuse.
Secondly, He makes Himself more clearly and fully known to us by
His holy and divine Word, that is to say, as far as is necessary for us to know
in this life, to His glory and our salvation.
Article 3 — The Written
Word of God.
We confess that this Word of God was not
sent, nor delivered by the will of man, but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, as the apostle
Peter saith.
And that afterwards God, from a special care which He has for us and our
salvation, commanded His servants, the prophets and apostles, to commit His
revealed Word to writing; and He Himself wrote with His own finger the two
tables of the law. Therefore we call
such writings holy and divine Scriptures.
Article 4 — Canonical Books
of the Holy Scripture.
We believe that the Holy Scriptures are
contained in two books, namely, the Old and New Testaments, which are
canonical, against which nothing can be alleged. These are thus named in the
The books of the Old Testament are: the five books of Moses, namely, Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the
two books of Samuel, the two of the Kings, two books of the Chronicles,
commonly called Paralipomenon, the first of Ezra,
Nehemiah, Esther; Job, the Psalms of David, the three books of Solomon, namely,
the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs; the four great
prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and
Daniel; and the twelve lesser prophets, namely, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah,
Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
Those of the New Testament are the four evangelists,
namely: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John;
the Acts of the Apostles; the fourteen epistles of the apostle Paul, namely:
one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the
Ephesians, one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, two to the
Thessalonians, two to Timothy, one to Titus, one to Philemon, and one to the
Hebrews; the seven epistles of the other apostles, namely, one of James, two of
Peter, three of John, one of Jude; and the Revelation of the apostle John.
Article 5 — From Whence the Holy Scriptures Derive Their Dignity and Authority.
We receive all these books, and these only,
as holy and canonical, for the regulation, foundation, and confirmation of our
faith; believing without any doubt all things contained in them, not so much
because the church receives and approves them as such, but more especially
because the Holy Ghost witnesseth in our hearts that
they are from God, whereof they carry the evidence in themselves. For the very blind are able to perceive that
the things foretold in them are fulfilling.
Article 6 — The Difference
Between the Canonical and Apocryphal Books.
We distinguish those sacred books from the
apocryphal, namely: the third book of Esdras, the books of Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Jesus Syrach, Baruch, the appendix to the book of Esther, the
Song of the three Children in the Furnace, the history of Susannah, of
Article 7 — The Sufficiency
of the Holy Scriptures to be
the Only Rule of Faith.
We believe that those Holy Scriptures fully
contain the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to believe unto
salvation is sufficiently taught therein.
For, since the whole manner of worship which God requires of us is
written in them at large, it is unlawful for anyone, though an apostle, to
teach otherwise than we are now taught in the Holy Scriptures; nay, though it
were an angel from heaven, as the apostle Paul saith. For, since it is forbidden to add unto or
take away anything from the Word of God, it doth thereby evidently appear that
the doctrine thereof is most perfect and complete in all respects.
Neither do we consider of equal value any writing of men,
however holy these men may have been, with those divine Scriptures, nor ought
we to consider custom, or the great multitude, or antiquity, or succession of
times and persons, or councils, decrees, or statutes, as of equal value with
the truth of God, for the truth is above all; for all men are of themselves
liars and more vain than vanity itself.
Therefore we reject with all our hearts whatsoever doth not agree with
this infallible rule which the apostles have taught us, saying, Try the spirits
whether they are of God. Likewise, if
there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your
house.
Article 8 — God Is One in
Essence, Yet Distinguished
in Three Persons.
According to this truth and this Word of
God, we believe in one only God, who is the one single essence, in which are
three persons, really, truly, and eternally distinct, according to their
incommunicable properties; namely, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. The Father is the cause, origin,
and beginning of all things visible and invisible; the Son is the word, wisdom,
and image of the Father; the Holy Ghost is the eternal power and might,
proceeding from the Father and the Son.
Nevertheless God is not by this distinction divided into three, since
the Holy Scriptures teach us that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost
have each His personality, distinguished by their properties; but in such wise
that these three persons are but one only God.
Hence then, it is evident that the Father is not the Son, nor
the Son the Father, and likewise the Holy Ghost is neither the Father nor the
Son. Nevertheless these persons thus
distinguished are not divided nor intermixed; for the Father hath not assumed
the flesh, nor hath the Holy Ghost, but the Son only. The Father hath never been without His Son,
or without His Holy Ghost. For they are all three co-eternal and co-essential. There is neither first nor last; for they are
all three one, in truth, in power, in goodness, and in mercy.
Article 9 — The Proof of the Foregoing Article of the
Trinity of Persons in One God.
All this we know, as well from the
testimonies of Holy Writ, as from their operations, and chiefly by those we feel
in ourselves. The testimonies of the
Holy Scriptures that teach us to believe this Holy Trinity are written in many
places of the Old Testament, which are
not so necessary to enumerate as to choose them out with discretion and
judgment.
In Genesis 1:26, 27, God saith: Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness, etc. So God
created man in His own image, male and female created He them. And Genesis 3:22: Behold, the man is become as one of us. From this saying, “Let us make man in our image,”
it appears that there are more persons than one in the Godhead; and when He saith, “God created,” He signifies the unity. It is true He doth not say how many persons
there are, but that which appears to us somewhat obscure in the Old Testament
is very plain in the New. For when our
Lord was baptized in
In all these places we are fully taught that there are three
persons in one only divine essence. And
although this doctrine far surpasses all human understanding, nevertheless we
now believe it by means of the Word of God, but expect hereafter to enjoy the
perfect knowledge and benefit thereof in heaven.
Moreover, we must observe the particular offices and operations
of these three persons towards us. The
Father is called our Creator, by His power; the Son is our Savior and Redeemer,
by His blood; the Holy Ghost is our Sanctifier, by His dwelling in our
hearts.
This doctrine of the Holy Trinity hath always been defended and
maintained by the true church, since the time of the apostles to this very day,
against the Jews, Mohammedans, and some false Christians and heretics, as Marcion, Manes, Praxeas, Sabellius, Samosatenus, Arius, and such like, who have been justly condemned by the
orthodox fathers.
Therefore, in this point we do willingly receive the three
creeds, namely, that of the Apostles, of Nicea, and
of Athanasius; likewise that which, conformable
thereunto, is agreed upon by the ancient fathers.
Article 10 — Jesus Christ
Is True and Eternal God.
We believe that Jesus Christ, according to
His divine nature, is the only begotten Son of God, begotten from eternity, not
made nor created (for then He should be a creature), but co-essential and
co-eternal with the Father, the express image of His person, and the brightness
of His glory, equal unto Him in all things.
He is the Son of God, not only from the time that He assumed our nature,
but from all eternity, as these testimonies, when compared together, teach
us. Moses saith
that God created the world; and John saith that all
things were made by that Word, which he calleth
God. And the apostle saith
that God made the worlds by His Son; likewise, that God created all things by
Jesus Christ. Therefore it must needs follow that He who is called God, the Word, the
Son, and Jesus Christ did exist at that time when all things were created by
Him. Therefore the prophet Micah saith: His goings
forth have been from of old, from everlasting. And the apostle: He hath neither beginning of days nor end of
life. He therefore is that true,
eternal, and almighty God, whom we invoke, worship, and serve.
Article 11 — The Holy Ghost Is True and Eternal God.
We believe and confess also that the Holy
Ghost, from eternity, proceeds from the Father and Son, and therefore neither
is made, created, nor begotten, but only proceedeth
from both; who in order is the third person of the Holy Trinity, of one and the
same essence, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son; and therefore is
the true and eternal God, as the Holy Scriptures teach us.
Article 12 — The Creation.
We believe that the Father, by the Word,
that is, by His Son, hath created of nothing the heaven, the earth, and all
creatures as it seemed good unto Him, giving unto every creature its being,
shape, form, and several offices to serve its Creator; that He doth also still
uphold and govern them by His eternal providence and infinite power, for the
service of mankind, to the end that man may serve his God.
He also created the angels good, to be His messengers and to
serve His elect; some of whom are fallen from that excellency in which God
created them, into everlasting perdition; and the others have, by the grace of
God, remained steadfast and continued in their primitive state. The devils and evil spirits are so depraved
that they are enemies of God and every good thing, to the utmost of their
power, as murderers, watching to ruin the church and every member thereof, and
by their wicked stratagems to destroy all; and are therefore, by their own
wickedness, adjudged to eternal damnation, daily expecting their horrible
torments.
Therefore we reject and abhor the error of the Sadducees, who
deny the existence of spirits and angels, and also that of the Mani-chees, who assert that the devils have their origin of
themselves, and that they are wicked of their own nature, without having been
corrupted.
Article 13 — Divine
We believe that the same God, after He had
created all things, did not forsake them, or give them up to fortune or chance,
but that He rules and governs them according to His holy will, so that nothing
happens in this world without His appointment; nevertheless, God neither is the
author of, nor can be charged with, the sins which are committed. For His power and goodness are so great and
incomprehensible, that He orders and executes His work in the most excellent
and just manner, even then when devils and wicked men act unjustly. And, as to what He does surpassing human
understanding, we will not curiously inquire into farther than our capacity
will admit of, but with the greatest humility and reverence adore the righteous
judgments of God which are hid from us, contenting ourselves that we are
disciples of Christ, to learn only those things which He has revealed to us in
His Word, without transgressing these limits.
This doctrine affords us unspeakable consolation, since we are
taught thereby that nothing can befall us by chance, but by the direction of
our most gracious and heavenly Father, who watches over us with a paternal
care, keeping all creatures so under His power that not a hair of our head (for
they are all numbered), nor a sparrow, can fall to the ground without the will
of our Father, in whom we do entirely trust; being persuaded that He so
restrains the devil and all our enemies that, without His will and permission,
they cannot hurt us.
And therefore we reject that damnable error of the Epicureans,
who say that God regards nothing, but leaves all things to chance.
Article 14 — The Creation and Fall of Man, and His Incapacity
to Perform What Is Truly Good.
We believe that God created man out of the
dust of the earth, and made and formed him after His own image and likeness,
good, righteous, and holy, capable in all things to will agreeably to the will
of God. But being in honor he understood
it not, neither knew his excellency, but willfully
subjected himself to sin, and consequently to death and the curse, giving ear
to the words of the devil. For the
commandment of life which he had received he transgressed; and by sin separated
himself from God, who was his true life; having corrupted his whole nature;
whereby he made himself liable to corporal and spiritual death. And being thus become wicked, perverse, and
corrupt in all his ways, he hath lost all his excellent gifts which he had
received from God, and retained only a few remains thereof, which, however, are
sufficient to leave man without excuse; for all the light which is in us is changed
into darkness, as the Scriptures teach us, saying: The light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it
not: where St. John calleth
men darkness.
Therefore we reject all that is taught repugnant to this
concerning the free will of man, since man is but a slave to sin, and has
nothing of himself, unless it is given from heaven. For who may presume to boast that he of
himself can do any good, since Christ saith, No man
can come to Me except the Father, which hath sent Me,
draw him? Who will glory in his own
will, who understands that to be carnally minded is enmity against God? Who can speak of his knowledge, since the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God? In short, who dare suggest any
thought, since he knows that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think
anything as of ourselves, but that our sufficiency is of God? And therefore what the apostle saith ought justly to be held sure and firm, that God worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. For there is no will nor understanding
conformable to the divine will and understanding but what Christ hath wrought
in man, which He teaches us when He saith, Without Me
ye can do nothing.
Article 15 — Original Sin.
We believe that, through the disobedience
of Adam, original sin is extended to all mankind; which is a corruption of the
whole nature and an hereditary disease, wherewith infants themselves are
infected even in their mother’s womb, and which produceth
in man all sorts of sin, being in him as a root thereof, and therefore is so
vile and abominable in the sight of God that it is sufficient to condemn all
mankind. Nor is it by any means
abolished or done away by baptism, since sin always issues forth from this
woeful source, as water from a fountain; notwithstanding, it is not imputed to
the children of God unto condemnation, but by His grace and mercy is forgiven
them. Not that they should rest securely
in sin, but that a sense of this corruption should make believers often to
sigh, desiring to be delivered from this body of death.
Wherefore we reject the error of the Pelagians,
who assert that sin proceeds only from imitation.
Article 16 — Eternal Election.
We believe that, all the posterity of Adam
being thus fallen into perdition and ruin by the sin of our first parents, God
then did manifest Himself such as He is; that is to say, merciful and
just: merciful, since He delivers
and preserves from this perdition all whom He in His eternal and unchangeable
counsel, of mere goodness, hath elected in Christ Jesus our Lord, without any
respect to their works; just, in leaving others in the fall and
perdition wherein they have involved themselves.
Article 17 — The Recovery
of Fallen
We believe that our most gracious God, in His admirable wisdom
and goodness, seeing that man had thus thrown himself into temporal and eternal
death, and made himself wholly miserable, was pleased to seek and comfort him
when he trembling fled from His presence, promising him that He would give His
Son, who would be made of a woman, to bruise the head of the serpent, and would
make him happy.
Article 18 — The Incarnation
of Jesus Christ.
We confess, therefore, that God did fulfill
the promise which He made to the fathers, by the mouth of His holy prophets,
when He sent into the world, at the time appointed by Him, His own,
only-begotten and eternal Son, who took upon Him the form of a servant, and
became like unto man, really assuming the true human nature, with all its
infirmities, sin excepted, being conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin
Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost, without the means of man; and did not only
assume human nature as to the body, but also a true human soul, that He might
be a real man. For since the soul was
lost as well as the body, it was necessary that He should take both upon Him,
to save both.
Therefore we confess (in opposition to the heresy of the
Anabaptists, who deny that Christ assumed human flesh of His mother) that
Christ is become a partaker of the flesh and blood of the children; that He is
a fruit of the loins of David after the flesh; made of the seed of David
according to the flesh; a fruit of the womb of the Virgin Mary; made of a
woman; a branch of David; a shoot of the root of Jesse; sprung from the tribe
of Judah; descended from the Jews according to the flesh; of the seed of
Abraham, since He took on Him the seed of Abraham, and became like unto His
brethren in all things, sin excepted; so that in truth He is our Immanuel, that
is to say, God with us.
Article 19 — The
We believe that by this conception the
person of the Son is inseparably united and connected with the human nature, so
that there are not two Sons of God, nor two persons, but two natures united in
one single person; yet that each nature retains its own distinct
properties. As then the divine nature
hath always remained uncreated, without beginning of days or end of life,
filling heaven and earth, so also hath the human nature not lost its
properties, but remained a creature, having beginning of days, being a finite
nature, and retaining all the properties of a real body. And though He hath by His resurrection given
immortality to the same, nevertheless He hath not changed the reality of His
human nature, forasmuch as our salvation and resurrection also depend on the
reality of His body.
But these two natures are so closely united in one person that
they were not separated even by His death.
Therefore that which He, when dying, commended into
the hands of His Father was a real human spirit, departing from His body. But in the meantime the divine nature always
remained united with the human, even when He lay in the grave. And the Godhead did not cease to be in Him,
any more than it did when He was an infant, though it did not so clearly
manifest itself for a while. Wherefore
we confess that He is very God, and very man:
very God by His power to conquer death; and very man that He might die
for us according to the infirmity of His flesh.
Article 20 — God Hath
Manifested His Justice
and Mercy in Christ.
We believe that God, who is perfectly merciful
and just, sent His Son to assume that nature in which the disobedience was
committed, to make satisfaction in the same, and to bear the punishment of sin
by His most bitter passion and death.
God therefore manifested His justice against His Son when He laid our
iniquities upon Him, and poured forth His mercy and goodness on us, who were
guilty and worthy of damnation, out of mere and perfect love, giving His Son
unto death for us, and raising Him for our justification, that through Him we
might obtain immortality and life eternal.
Article 21 — The Satisfaction
of Christ, Our Only High Priest, for Us.
We believe that Jesus Christ is ordained
with an oath to be an everlasting High Priest, after the order of Melchisedec; and that He hath presented Himself in our
behalf before the Father to appease His wrath by His full satisfaction, by
offering Himself on the tree of the cross and pouring out His precious blood to
purge away our sins, as the prophets had foretold. For it is written: He was wounded for our transgressions, He was
bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are
healed. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and numbered with the transgressors, and condemned by Pontius Pilate
as a malefactor, though he had first declared Him innocent. Therefore, He restored that which He took not
away, and suffered, the just for the unjust, as well in His body as in His
soul, feeling the terrible punishment which our sins had merited; insomuch that
His sweat became like unto drops of blood falling on the ground. He called out, My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me? and hath
suffered all this for the remission of our sins.
Wherefore we justly say with the apostle Paul, that we know
nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified; we count all things but loss and
dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus our Lord, in whose wounds we find all manner of consolation. Neither is it necessary to seek or invent any
other means of being reconciled to God than this only sacrifice, once offered,
by which believers are made perfect forever.
This is also the reason why He was called by the angel of God, Jesus,
that is to say, Savior, because He would save His people from their sins.
Article 22 — Faith
in Jesus Christ.
We believe that, to attain the true
knowledge of this great mystery, the Holy Ghost kindleth
in our hearts an upright faith, which embraces Jesus Christ with all His
merits, appropriates Him, and seeks nothing more besides Him. For it must needs follow, either that all
things which are requisite to our salvation are not in Jesus Christ, or, if all
things are in Him, that then those who possess Jesus Christ through faith have
complete salvation in Him. Therefore,
for any to assert that Christ is not sufficient, but that something more is
required besides Him, would be too gross a blasphemy; for hence it would follow
that Christ was but half a Savior.
Therefore we justly say with Paul, that we are justified by
faith alone, or by faith without works.
However, to speak more clearly, we do not mean that faith itself
justifies us, for it is only an instrument with which we embrace Christ our
righteousness. But Jesus Christ,
imputing to us all His merits and so many holy works which He has done for us
and in our stead, is our righteousness.
And faith is an instrument that keeps us in communion with Him in all
His benefits, which, when become ours, are more than sufficient to acquit us of
our sins.
Article 23 — Justification.
We believe that our salvation consists in
the remission of our sins for Jesus Christ’s sake, and that therein our
righteousness before God is implied; as David and Paul teach us, declaring this
to be the happiness of man, that God imputes righteousness to him without
works. And the same apostle saith that we are justified freely by His grace, through
the redemption which is in Jesus Christ.
And therefore we always hold fast this foundation, ascribing all
the glory to God, humbling ourselves before Him, and acknowledging ourselves to
be such as we really are, without presuming to trust in any thing in ourselves,
or in any merit of ours, relying and resting upon the obedience of Christ
crucified alone, which becomes ours when we believe in Him. This is sufficient to cover all our
iniquities and to give us confidence in approaching to God; freeing the
conscience of fear, terror, and dread, without following the example of our
first father, Adam, who, trembling, attempted to cover himself with fig
leaves. And, verily, if we should appear
before God relying on ourselves or on any other creature, though ever so
little, we should, alas! be consumed. And therefore every one must pray with
David: O Lord, enter not into judgment
with Thy servant: for in Thy sight shall
no man living be justified.
Article 24 — Man’s Sanctification and Good Works.
We believe that this true faith, being
wrought in man by the hearing of the Word of God and the operation of the Holy
Ghost, doth regenerate and make him a new man, causing him to live a new life,
and freeing him from the bondage of sin.
Therefore it is so far from being true that this justifying faith makes
men remiss in a pious and holy life, that, on the contrary, without it they
would never do anything out of love to God, but only out of self-love or fear
of damnation. Therefore it is impossible
that this holy faith can be unfruitful in man; for we do not speak of a vain
faith, but of such a faith which is called in Scripture a faith that worketh by love, which excites man to the practice of those
works which God has commanded in His Word.
These works, as they proceed from the good root of faith, are
good and acceptable in the sight of God, forasmuch as they are all sanctified
by His grace; howbeit they are of no account towards our justification. For it is by faith in Christ that we are
justified, even before we do good works; otherwise they could not be good
works, any more than the fruit of a tree can be good before the tree itself is
good.
Therefore we do good works, but not to merit by them (for what
can we merit?), nay, we are beholden to God for the good works we do, and not
He to us, since it is He that worketh in us both to
will and to do of His good pleasure. Let
us therefore attend to what is written:
When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say,
we are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do. In the meantime, we do not deny that God
rewards our good works, but it is through His grace that He crowns His
gifts.
Moreover, though we do good works, we do not found our salvation
upon them; for we do no work but what is polluted by our flesh, and also
punishable; and although we could perform such works, still the remembrance of
one sin is sufficient to make God reject them.
Thus, then, we would always be in doubt, tossed to and fro without any
certainty, and our poor consciences continually vexed, if they relied not on
the merits of the suffering and death of our Savior.
Article 25 — The Abolishing of the Ceremonial Law.
We believe that the ceremonies and figures
of the law ceased at the coming of Christ, and that all the shadows are
accomplished, so that the use of them must be abolished amongst Christians; yet
the truth and substance of them remain with us in Jesus Christ, in whom they
have their completion. In the meantime,
we still use the testimonies taken out of the law and the prophets to confirm
us in the doctrine of the gospel, and to regulate our life in all honesty to
the glory of God, according to His will.
Article 26 — Christ’s Intercession.
We believe that we have no access unto God but
alone through the only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, who
therefore became man, having united in one person the divine and human natures,
that we men might have access to the divine Majesty, which access would
otherwise be barred against us. But this Mediator, whom the Father has
appointed between Him and us, ought in no wise to affright us by His majesty,
or cause us to seek another according to our fancy. For there is no creature either in heaven or
on earth who loveth us more than Jesus Christ; who,
though He was in the form of God, yet made Himself of no reputation, and took
upon Him the form of a man and of a servant for us, and was made like unto His
brethren in all things. If, then, we should
seek for another mediator who would be well affected towards us, whom could we
find who loved us more than He who laid down His life for us, even when we were
His enemies? And if we seek for one who
hath power and majesty, who is there that has so much
of both as He who sits at the right hand of His Father, and who hath all power
in heaven and on earth? And who will
sooner be heard than the own well-beloved Son of God?
Therefore it was only through distrust that this practice of
dishonoring, instead of honoring, the saints was introduced, doing that which
they never have done nor required, but have on the contrary steadfastly
rejected, according to their bounden duty, as appears by their writings. Neither must we plead here our unworthiness;
for the meaning is not that we should offer our prayers to God on the ground of
our own worthiness, but only on the ground of the excellency and worthiness of
the Lord Jesus Christ, whose righteousness is become ours by faith.
Therefore the apostle, to remove this foolish fear, or rather
mistrust, from us, justly saith that Jesus Christ was
made like unto His brethren in all things, that He might be a merciful and
faithful High Priest, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath
suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted. And further to encourage us, he adds: Seeing then that we have a great High Priest
that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our
profession. For we have not a high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne
of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to
help in time of need. The same apostle saith: Having
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with
a true heart in full assurance of faith, etc.
Likewise, Christ hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore He is able
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them.
What more can be required, since Christ Himself saith, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man
cometh unto the Father but by me? To
what purpose should we then seek another advocate, since it has pleased God to
give us His own Son as an advocate? Let
us not forsake Him to take another, or rather to seek after another without
ever being able to find him; for God well knew, when He gave Him to us, that we
were sinners.
Therefore, according to the command of Christ, we call upon the
heavenly Father through Jesus Christ our only Mediator, as we are taught in the
Lord’s Prayer; being assured that whatever we ask of the Father in His name
will be granted us.
Article 27 — The Catholic
Christian Church.
We believe and profess one catholic or
universal church, which is a holy congregation of true Christian believers, all
expecting their salvation in Jesus Christ, being washed by His blood,
sanctified and sealed by the Holy Ghost.
This church hath been from the beginning of the world, and will
be to the end thereof; which is evident from this, that Christ is an eternal
King, which without subjects He cannot be.
And this holy church is preserved or supported by God against the rage
of the whole world; though she sometimes (for a while) appears very small, and
in the eyes of men to be reduced to nothing, as during the perilous reign of
Ahab the Lord reserved unto Him seven thousand men who had not bowed their
knees to Baal.
Furthermore, this holy church is not confined, bound, or limited
to a certain place or to certain persons, but is spread and dispersed over the
whole world; and yet is joined and united with heart and will, by the power of
faith, in one and the same Spirit.
Article 28 — Every One Is
Bound to Join Himself to the
We believe, since this holy congregation is
an assembly of those who are saved, and that out of it there is no salvation,
that no person, of whatsoever state or condition he may be, ought to withdraw
himself to live in a separate state from it; but that all men are in duty bound
to join and unite themselves with it, maintaining the unity of the church;
submitting themselves to the doctrine and discipline thereof; bowing their
necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ; and as mutual members of the same body,
serving to the edification of the brethren, according to the talents God has
given them.
And that this may be the more effectually observed, it is the
duty of all believers, according to the Word of God, to separate themselves
from all those who do not belong to the church, and to join themselves to this
congregation wheresoever God hath established it,
even though the magistrates and edicts of princes were against it, yea, though
they should suffer death or any other corporal punishment. Therefore all those who separate themselves
from the same, or do not join themselves to it, act contrary to the ordinance
of God.
Article 29 — The Marks of
the
We believe that we ought diligently and
circumspectly to discern from the Word of God which is the true church, since
all sects which are in the world assume to themselves
the name of the church. But we speak not
here of hypocrites, who are mixed in the church with the good, yet are not of
the church, though externally in it; but we say that the body and communion of
the true church must be distinguished from all sects who call themselves the
church. The marks by which the true
church is known are these: if the pure
doctrine of the gospel is preached therein; if she maintains the pure
administration of the sacraments as instituted by Christ; if church discipline
is exercised in punishing of sin; in short, if all things are managed according
to the pure Word of God, all things contrary thereto rejected, and Jesus Christ
acknowledged as the only Head of the church.
Hereby the true church may certainly be known, from which no man has a
right to separate himself.
With respect to those who are members of the church, they may be
known by the marks of Christians, namely, by faith; and when they have received
Jesus Christ the only Savior, they avoid sin, follow after righteousness, love
the true God and their neighbor, neither turn aside to the right or left, and
crucify the flesh with the works thereof.
But this is not to be understood as if there did not remain in them
great infirmities; but they fight against them through the Spirit all the days
of their life, continually taking their refuge in the blood, death, passion,
and obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom they have remission of sins,
through faith in Him.
As for the false church, she ascribes more power and authority
to herself and her ordinances than to the Word of God, and will not submit
herself to the yoke of Christ. Neither
does she administer the sacraments as appointed by Christ in His Word, but adds
to and takes from them as she thinks proper; she relieth
more upon men than upon Christ; and persecutes those who live holily according
to the Word of God, and rebuke her for her errors, covetousness, and
idolatry.
These two churches are easily known and distinguished from each
other.
Article 30 — Government of
and Offices in the Church.
We believe that this true church must be
governed by that spiritual policy which our Lord hath taught us in His Word,
namely, that there must be ministers or pastors to preach the Word of God and
to administer the sacraments; also elders and deacons, who, together with the
pastors, form the council of the church; that by these means the true religion
may be preserved and the true doctrine everywhere propagated, likewise
transgressors punished and restrained by spiritual means; also that the poor
and distressed may be relieved and comforted, according to their
necessities. By these means everything
will be carried on in the church with good order and decency, when faithful men
are chosen according to the rule prescribed by
Article 31 — The Ministers, Elders, and Deacons.
We believe that the ministers of God’s
Word, and the elders and deacons, ought to be chosen to their respective
offices by a lawful election by the church, with calling upon the name of the
Lord, and in that order which the Word of God teacheth. Therefore every one must take heed not to
intrude himself by indecent means, but is bound to
wait till it shall please God to call him, that he may have testimony of his
calling and be certain and assured that it is of the Lord.
As for the ministers of God’s Word, they have equally the same
power and authority wheresoever they are, as they are
all ministers of Christ, the only universal Bishop and the only Head of the
church. Moreover, that this holy
ordinance of God may not be violated or slighted, we say that every one ought
to esteem the ministers of God’s Word and the elders of the church very highly
for their work’s sake, and be at peace with them without murmuring, strife, or
contention, as much as possible.
Article 32 — The Order and Discipline of the Church.
In the meantime we believe, though it is
useful and beneficial that those who are rulers of the church institute and
establish certain ordinances among themselves for maintaining the body of the
church, yet they ought studiously to take care that they do not depart from
those things which Christ, our only Master, hath instituted. And therefore we reject all human inventions,
and all laws which man would introduce into the worship of God, thereby to bind
and compel the conscience in any manner whatever. Therefore we admit only of that which tends
to nourish and preserve concord and unity, and to keep all men in obedience to
God. For this purpose, excommunication
or church discipline is requisite, with the several circumstances belonging to
it, according to the Word of God.
Article 33 — The Sacraments.
We believe that our gracious God, on
account of our weakness and infirmities, hath ordained the sacraments for us,
thereby to seal unto us His promises, and to be pledges of the good will and
grace of God toward us, and also to nourish and strengthen our faith, which He
hath joined to the Word of the gospel, the better to present to our senses both
that which He signifies to us by His Word and that which He works inwardly in
our hearts, thereby assuring and confirming in us the salvation which He imparts
to us. For they are
visible signs and seals of an inward and invisible thing, by means whereof God worketh in us by the power of the Holy Ghost. Therefore the signs are not in vain or
insignificant, so as to deceive us. For
Jesus Christ is the true object presented by them, without whom they would be
of no moment.
Moreover, we are satisfied with the number of sacraments which
Christ our Lord hath instituted, which are two only, namely, the sacrament of
baptism and the holy supper of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Article 34 — Holy Baptism.
We believe and confess that Jesus Christ, who is the end of the
law, hath made an end, by the shedding of His blood, of all other sheddings of blood which men could or would make as a propitiation
or satisfaction for sin; and that He, having abolished circumcision, which was
done with blood, hath instituted the sacrament of baptism instead thereof, by
which we are received into the church of God and separated from all other
people and strange religions, that we may wholly belong to Him whose ensign and
banner we bear, and which serves as a testimony to us that He will forever be
our gracious God and Father.
Therefore He has commanded all those who are His to be baptized
with pure water, “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost,” thereby signifying to us that, as water washeth
away the filth of the body when poured upon it, and is seen on the body of the
baptized when sprinkled upon him, so doth the blood of Christ, by the power of
the Holy Ghost, internally sprinkle the soul, cleanse it from its sins, and
regenerate us from children of wrath unto children of God. Not that this is effected by the external
water, but by the sprinkling of the precious blood of the Son of God, who is
our Red Sea, through which we must pass to escape the tyranny of Pharaoh, that
is, the devil, and to enter into the spiritual land of Canaan. Therefore the ministers, on their part,
administer the sacrament and that which is visible, but our Lord giveth that which is signified by the sacrament, namely,
the gifts and invisible grace; washing, cleansing, and purging our souls of all
filth and unrighteousness; renewing our hearts and filling them with all
comfort; giving unto us a true assurance of His fatherly goodness; putting on
us the new man, and putting off the old man with all his deeds.
Therefore we believe that every man who is earnestly studious of
obtaining life eternal ought to be but once baptized with this only baptism,
without ever repeating the same, since we cannot be born twice. Neither doth this baptism avail us only at
the time when the water is poured upon us and received by us, but also through
the whole course of our life.
Therefore we detest the error of the Anabaptists, who are not
content with the one only baptism they have once received, and moreover condemn
the baptism of the infants of believers, who we believe ought to be baptized
and sealed with the sign of the covenant, as the children in Israel formerly were
circumcised upon the same promises which are made unto our children. And indeed Christ shed His blood no less for
the washing of the children of the faithful than for adult persons; and
therefore they ought to receive the sign and sacrament of that which Christ
hath done for them; as the Lord commanded in the law that they should be made
partakers of the sacrament of Christ’s suffering and death shortly after they
were born, by offering for them a lamb, which was a sacrament of Jesus Christ. Moreover, what circumcision was to the Jews,
that baptism is to our children. And for this reason Paul calls baptism the
“circumcision of Christ.”
Article 35 — The Holy Supper of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe and confess that our Savior
Jesus Christ did ordain and institute the sacrament of the holy supper to
nourish and support those whom He hath already regenerated and incorporated
into His family, which is His church.
Now those who are regenerated have in them a twofold life: the one corporal and temporal, which they
have from the first birth and is common to all men; the other spiritual and
heavenly, which is given them in their second birth, which is effected by the
Word of the gospel in the communion of the body of Christ; and this life is not
common, but is peculiar to God’s elect.
In like manner God hath given us, for the support of the bodily and
earthly life, earthly and common bread, which is subservient thereto and is
common to all men, even as life itself.
But for the support of the spiritual and heavenly life which believers
have, He hath sent a living bread, which descended
from heaven, namely, Jesus Christ, who nourishes and strengthens the spiritual
life of believers when they eat Him, that is to say, when they apply and
receive Him by faith in the spirit.
Christ, that He might represent unto us this spiritual and
heavenly bread, hath instituted an earthly and visible bread as a sacrament of
His body, and wine as a sacrament of His blood, to testify by them unto us
that, as certainly as we receive and hold this sacrament in our hands and eat
and drink the same with our mouths, by which our life is afterwards nourished,
we also do as certainly receive by faith (which is the hand and mouth of our
soul) the true body and blood of Christ our only Savior in our souls, for the
support of our spiritual life.
Now, as it is certain and beyond all doubt that Jesus Christ
hath not enjoined to us the use of His sacraments in vain, so He works in us
all that He represents to us by these holy signs, though the manner surpasses
our understanding and cannot be comprehended by us, as the operations of the
Holy Ghost are hidden and incomprehensible.
In the meantime we err not when we say that what is
eaten and drunk by us is the proper and natural body and the proper blood of
Christ. But the manner of our partaking
of the same is not by the mouth, but by the spirit through faith. Thus, then, though Christ always sits at the
right hand of His Father in the heavens, yet doth He not therefore cease to
make us partakers of Himself by faith.
This feast is a spiritual table, at which Christ communicates Himself
with all His benefits to us, and gives us there to enjoy both Himself and the
merits of His sufferings and death, nourishing, strengthening, and comforting
our poor comfortless souls by the eating of His flesh, quickening and
refreshing them by the drinking of His blood.
Further, though the sacraments are connected with the thing
signified, nevertheless both are not received by all men. The ungodly indeed receives the sacrament to
his condemnation, but he doth not receive the truth of the sacrament—as Judas
and Simon the sorcerer both indeed received the sacrament but not Christ who
was signified by it, of whom believers only are made partakers.
Lastly, we receive this holy sacrament in the assembly of the
people of God with humility and reverence, keeping up amongst us a holy
remembrance of the death of Christ our Savior with thanksgiving, making there
confession of our faith and of the Christian religion. Therefore no one ought to come to this table
without having previously rightly examined himself, lest by eating of this
bread and drinking of this cup he eat and drink judgment to himself. In a word, we are excited by the use of this
holy sacrament to a fervent love towards God and our neighbor.
Therefore we reject all mixtures and damnable inventions which
men have added unto and blended with the sacraments, as profanations of them,
and affirm that we ought to rest satisfied with the ordinance which Christ and
His apostles have taught us, and that we must speak of them in the same manner
as they have spoken.
Article 36 — The Magistrates.
We believe that our gracious God, because
of the depravity of mankind, hath appointed kings, princes, and magistrates,
willing that the world should be governed by certain laws and policies, to the
end that the dissoluteness of men might be restrained, and all things carried
on among them with good order and decency.
For this purpose He hath invested the magistracy with the sword, for the
punishment of evil-doers and for the protection of them that do well.
Their office is not only to have regard unto and watch for the
welfare of the civil state, but also that they protect the sacred ministry, and
thus may remove and prevent all idolatry and false worship;* that the kingdom
of antichrist may be thus destroyed and the kingdom of Christ promoted. They must therefore countenance the preaching
of the Word of the gospel everywhere, that God may be honored and worshiped by
every one, as He commands in His Word.
Moreover, it is the bounden duty of every one, of what state,
quality, or condition soever he may be, to subject
himself to the magistrates; to pay tribute, to show due honor and respect to
them, and to obey them in all things which are not repugnant to the Word of
God; to supplicate for them in their prayers, that God may rule and guide them
in all their ways, and that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and honesty.
Wherefore we detest the Anabaptists and other seditious people,
and in general all those who reject the higher powers and magistrates and would
subvert justice, introduce community of goods, and confound that decency and
good order which God hath established among men.
Article 37 — The Last Judgment.
Finally, we believe, according to the Word
of God, when the time appointed by the Lord (which is unknown to all creatures)
is come, and the number of the elect complete, that our Lord Jesus Christ will
come from heaven, corporally and visibly, as He ascended, with great glory and
majesty to declare Himself Judge of the quick and the dead, burning this old
world with fire and flame to cleanse it.
Then all men will personally appear before this great Judge,
both men and women and children, that have been from
the beginning of the world to the end thereof, being summoned by the voice of
the archangel and by the sound of the trumpet of God. For all the dead shall be
raised out of the earth, and their souls joined and united with their proper
bodies in which they formerly lived.
As for those who shall then be living, they shall not die as the others,
but be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and from corruptible become
incorruptible. Then the books (that is
to say, the consciences) shall be opened, and the dead judged according to
what they shall have done in this world, whether it be
good or evil. Nay, all men shall give an
account of every idle word they have spoken, which the world only counts
amusement and jest; and then the secrets and hypocrisy of men shall be
disclosed and laid open before all.
And therefore the consideration of this judgment is justly
terrible and dreadful to the wicked and ungodly, but most desirable and
comfortable to the righteous and elect; because then their full deliverance
shall be perfected, and there they shall receive the fruits of their labor and
trouble which they have borne. Their
innocence shall be known to all, and they shall see the terrible vengeance
which God shall execute on the wicked, who most cruelly persecuted, oppressed,
and tormented them in this world; and who shall be convicted by the testimony
of their own consciences, and, being immortal, shall be tormented in that
everlasting fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.
But on the contrary, the faithful and elect shall be crowned
with glory and honor; and the Son of God will confess their names before God
His Father and His elect angels; all tears shall be wiped from their eyes; and
their cause, which is now condemned by many judges and magistrates as heretical
and impious, will then be known to be the cause of the Son of God. And for a gracious reward, the Lord will
cause them to possess such a glory as never entered into the heart of man to
conceive.
Therefore we expect that great day with a most ardent desire, to
the end that we may fully enjoy the promises of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord. AMEN.
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).
*This phrase, touching the office of the magistracy in its
relation to the church, proceeds on the principle of the established church,
which was first applied by Constantine and afterwards also in many Protestant
countries. History, however, does not
support the principle of state domination over the church, but rather the
separation of church and state.
Moreover, it is contrary to the new dispensation that authority be vested
in the state arbitrarily to reform the church, and to deny the church the right
of independently conducting its own affairs as a distinct territory alongside
the state. The New Testament does not
subject the Christian church to the authority of the state,
that it should be governed and extended by political measures, but to
our Lord and King only, as an independent territory alongside and altogether
independent of the state, that it may be governed and edified by its officebearers, and with spiritual weapons only. Practically all Reformed churches have
repudiated the idea of the established church, and are advocating the autonomy
of the churches and personal liberty of conscience in matters pertaining to the
service of God.
“The Christian Reformed Church in
America, being in full accord with this view, feels constrained to declare that
it does not conceive of the office of the magistracy in this sense, that it be
in duty bound to also exercise political authority in the sphere of religion,
by establishing and maintaining a State Church, advancing and supporting the
same as the only true Church, and to oppose, to persecute and to destroy by
means of the sword all the other churches as being false religions; and to also
declare that it does positively hold that, within its own secular sphere, the
magistracy has a divine duty towards the first table of the Law as well as
towards the second; and furthermore that both State and Church as institutions
of God and Christ have mutual rights and duties appointed them from on high,
and therefore have a very sacred reciprocal obligation to meet through the Holy
Spirit, who proceeds from Father and Son.
They may not, however, encroach upon each other’s territory. The Church has rights of sovereignty in its
own sphere as well as the State” (Acta Synod 1910).
INTRODUCTION TO THE CANONS OF
The
Canons of Dordrecht, the third of our forms of unity,
are unique among our confessions in more than one respect. They are the only one of our confessions
which was actually composed by an ecclesiastical assembly, the great synod of
1618-’19. Born out of internal
controversy in the Reformed churches of the
Canons
RATIFIED IN THE NATIONAL SYNOD OF THE
REFORMED CHURCH
Held at Dordrecht, in the years 1618 and 1619
ccc
FIRST HEAD OF DOCTRINE
ccc
OF DIVINE PREDESTINATION
Article 1. As all men have sinned in Adam, lie under the curse,
and are deserving of eternal death, God would have done no injustice by leaving
them all to perish, and delivering them over to condemnation on account of sin,
according to the words of the apostle, Rom. 3:19, that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. And verse 23:
for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. And Rom. 6:23: for the wages of sin is death.
Article 2. But
in this the love of God was manifested, that He sent his only begotten Son
into the world, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have everlasting life (1 John 4:9; John 3:16).
Article 3. And
that men may be brought to believe, God mercifully
sends the messengers of these most joyful tidings to whom He will and at what
time He pleaseth; by whose ministry men are called to
repentance and faith in Christ crucified.
Rom. 10:14, 15: How then shall
they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom
they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall
they preach except they be sent?
Article 4. The wrath
of God abideth upon those who believe not this
gospel. But such as receive it, and
embrace Jesus the Savior by a true and living faith, are by Him delivered from
the wrath of God and from destruction, and have the gift of eternal life
conferred upon them.
Article 5. The cause
or guilt of this unbelief, as well as of all other sins, is no wise in God, but
in man himself; whereas faith in Jesus Christ and salvation through Him is the
free gift of God, as it is written: By
grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God (Eph. 2:8). And unto you it
is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, etc. (Phil.
1:29).
Article 6. That some receive the gift of faith from God and
others do not receive it proceeds from God’s eternal decree, For known unto
God are all his works from the beginning of the world (Acts 15:18). Who worketh all
things after the counsel of his will (Eph. 1:11). According to which decree He graciously
softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines them to
believe, while He leaves the non-elect in His just judgment to their own
wickedness and obduracy. And herein is
especially displayed the profound, the merciful, and at the same time the
righteous discrimination between men equally involved in ruin; or that decree
of election and reprobation, revealed in the Word of God, which, though men of
perverse, impure, and unstable minds wrest to their own destruction, yet to holy
and pious souls affords unspeakable consolation.
Article 7. Election
is the unchangeable purpose of God whereby, before the foundation of the world,
He hath out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His own
will, chosen, from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own
fault from their primitive state of rectitude into sin and destruction, a
certain number of persons to redemption in Christ, whom He from eternity
appointed the Mediator and Head of the elect, and the foundation of salvation.
This elect number, though by nature neither better nor more
deserving than others, but with them involved in one common misery, God hath
decreed to give to Christ, to be saved by Him, and effectually to call and draw
them to His communion by His Word and Spirit, to bestow upon them true faith,
justification, and sanctification; and having powerfully preserved them in the
fellowship of His Son, finally to glorify them for the demonstration of His
mercy and for the praise of His glorious grace; as it is written: According as he hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved (Eph. 1:4-6). And
elsewhere: Whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he
justified, them he also glorified (Rom. 8:30).
Article 8. There are
not various decrees of election, but one and the same decree respecting all
those who shall be saved, both under the Old and New Testament; since the
Scripture declares the good pleasure, purpose, and counsel of the divine will
to be one, according to which He hath chosen us from eternity, both to grace
and glory, to salvation and the way of salvation, which He hath ordained that
we should walk therein.
Article 9. This
election was not founded upon foreseen faith, and the obedience of faith,
holiness, or any other good quality or disposition in man, as the prerequisite,
cause, or condition on which it depended; but men are chosen to faith and to
the obedience of faith, holiness, etc. Therefore election is the fountain of every
saving good, from which proceed faith, holiness, and the other gifts of
salvation, and finally eternal life itself, as its fruits and effects,
according to that of the apostle: He
hath chosen us (not because we were, but) that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love (Eph. 1:4).
Article 10. The
good pleasure of God is the sole cause of this gracious election, which doth
not consist herein, that out of all possible qualities and actions of men God
has chosen some as a condition of salvation; but that He was pleased out of the
common mass of sinners to adopt some certain persons as a peculiar people to
Himself, as it is written, For the children being not yet born, neither
having done any good or evil, etc., it was said (namely to Rebecca): the elder shall serve the younger; as it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated (Rom. 9:11-13). And as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed (Acts 13:48).
Article 11. And
as God Himself is most wise, unchangeable, omniscient, and omnipotent, so the
election made by Him can neither be interrupted nor changed, recalled or
annulled; neither can the elect be cast away, nor their number diminished.
Article 12. The elect
in due time, though in various degrees and in different measures, attain the
assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election, not by inquisitively
prying into the secret and deep things of God, but by observing in themselves,
with a spiritual joy and holy pleasure, the infallible fruits of election
pointed out in the Word of God—such as a true faith in Christ, filial fear, a
godly sorrow for sin, a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, etc.
Article 13. The sense
and certainty of this election afford to the children of God additional matter
for daily humiliation before Him, for adoring the depth of His mercies, for
cleansing themselves, and rendering grateful returns of ardent love to Him, who
first manifested so great love towards them.
The consideration of this doctrine of election is so far from
encouraging remissness in the observance of the divine commands, or from
sinking men in carnal security, that these, in the just judgment of God, are
the usual effects of rash presumption, or of idle and wanton trifling with the
grace of election, in those who refuse to walk in the ways of the elect.
Article 14. As the
doctrine of divine election by the most wise counsel of God was declared by the
prophets, by Christ Himself, and by the apostles, and is clearly revealed in
the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, so it is still to be
published in due time and place in the church of God, for which it was
peculiarly designed, provided it be done with reverence, in the spirit of
discretion and piety, for the glory of God’s most holy name, and for enlivening
and comforting His people, without vainly attempting to investigate the secret
ways of the Most High (Acts 20:27; Rom. 11:33, 34; 12:3; Heb. 6:17, 18).
Article 15. What
peculiarly tends to illustrate and recommend to us the eternal and unmerited
grace of election is the express testimony of sacred Scripture that not all,
but some only, are elected, while others are passed by in the eternal election
of God; whom God, out of His sovereign, most just, irreprehensible, and
unchangeable good pleasure, hath decreed to leave in the common misery into
which they have wilfully plunged themselves, and not
to bestow upon them saving faith and the grace of conversion; but leaving them
in His just judgment to follow their own ways, at last for the declaration of
His justice, to condemn and punish them forever, not only on account of their
unbelief, but also for all their other sins.
And this is the decree of reprobation which by no means makes God the author
of sin (the very thought of which is blasphemy), but declares Him to be an
awful, irreprehensible, and righteous judge and avenger thereof.
Article 16. Those who
do not yet experience a lively faith in Christ, an assured confidence of soul,
peace of conscience, an earnest endeavor after filial obedience, and glorying
in God through Christ, efficaciously wrought in them, and do nevertheless
persist in the use of the means which God hath appointed for working these
graces in us, ought not to be alarmed at the mention of reprobation, nor to
rank themselves among the reprobate, but diligently to persevere in the use of
means, and with ardent desires devoutly and humbly to wait for a season of
richer grace. Much less cause have they
to be terrified by the doctrine of reprobation who, though they seriously
desire to be turned to God, to please Him only, and to be delivered from the
body of death, cannot yet reach that measure of holiness and faith to which
they aspire; since a merciful God has promised that He will not quench the
smoking flax nor break the bruised reed.
But this doctrine is justly terrible to those who, regardless of God and
of the Savior Jesus Christ, have wholly given themselves up to the cares of the
world and the pleasures of the flesh, so long as they are not seriously
converted to God.
Article 17. Since we are to judge of the will of God
from His Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by
nature, but in virtue of the covenant of grace in which they, together with the
parents, are comprehended, godly parents have no reason to doubt of the
election and salvation of their children whom it pleaseth
God to call out of this life in their infancy.
Article 18. To those
who murmur at the free grace of election and just severity of reprobation, we
answer with the apostle: Nay, but, O
man, who art thou that repliest against God?
(Rom. 9:20), and quote the language of our Savior: Is it not lawful for me to do what I will
with mine own? (Matt. 20:15). And
therefore, with holy adoration of these mysteries, we exclaim in the words of
the apostle: O the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
how unsearchable are his judgments, and his
ways past finding out! For who hath
known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been
his counsellor?
or who hath first given to him, and it shall be
recompensed unto him again? For of him,
and through him, and to him, are all things:
to whom be glory for ever. Amen (Rom. 11:33-36).
The true doctrine concerning Election and Rejection
having been explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those:
Error 1: Who teach
that the will of God to save those who would believe and would persevere in
faith and in the obedience of faith is the whole and entire decree of election
unto salvation, and that nothing else concerning this decree has been revealed
in God’s Word.
Rejection: For
these deceive the simple and plainly contradict the Scriptures, which declare
that God will not only save those who will believe, but that He has also from
eternity chosen certain particular persons to whom above others He in time will
grant both faith in Christ and perseverance, as it is written: I manifested thy name unto the men whom
thou gavest me out of the world (John 17:6). And as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed (Acts 13:48).
And: Even as he chose us in
him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blemish before him in love (Eph. 1:4).
Error 2: Who teach
that there are various kinds of election of God unto eternal life: the one general and indefinite, the other
particular and definite; and that the latter in turn is either
incomplete, revocable, non-decisive, and conditional, or complete,
irrevocable, decisive, and absolute.
Likewise: that there is one
election unto faith and another unto salvation, so that election can be unto
justifying faith without being a decisive election unto salvation.
Rejection: For
this is a fancy of men’s minds, invented regardless of the Scriptures, whereby
the doctrine of election is corrupted, and this golden chain of our salvation
is broken: And whom he foreordained,
them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he
justified, them he also glorified (Rom. 8:30).
Error 3: Who teach
that the good pleasure and purpose of God, of which Scripture makes mention in
the doctrine of election, does not consist in this, that God chose certain
persons rather than others, but in this, that He chose out of all possible
conditions (among which are also the works of the law), or out of the whole
order of things, the act of faith, which from its very nature is undeserving,
as well as its incomplete obedience, as a condition of salvation, and that He
would graciously consider this in itself as a complete obedience and count it
worthy of the reward of eternal life.
Rejection: For by
this injurious error the pleasure of God and the merits of Christ are made of
none effect, and men are drawn away by useless questions from the truth of
gracious justification and from the simplicity of Scripture, and this
declaration of the apostle is charged as untrue: Who saved us, and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal (2 Tim.
1:9).
Error 4: Who teach
that in the election unto faith this condition is beforehand demanded, namely,
that man should use the light of nature aright, be pious, humble, meek, and fit
for eternal life, as if on these things election were in any way
dependent.
Rejection: For
this savors of the teaching of Pelagius, and is opposed to the doctrine of the
apostle, when he writes: Among whom
we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh
and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest; but
God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by
grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with
him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come he might show
the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus; for
by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory (Eph. 2:3-9).
Error 5: Who teach
that the incomplete and non-decisive election of particular persons to
salvation occurred because of a foreseen faith, conversion, holiness,
godliness, which either began or continued for some time; but that the complete
and decisive election occurred because of foreseen perseverance unto the end in
faith, conversion, holiness and godliness; and that this is the gracious and
evangelical worthiness for the sake of which he who is chosen is more worthy
than he who is not chosen; and that therefore faith, the obedience of faith,
holiness, godliness, and perseverance are not fruits of the unchangeable
election unto glory, but are conditions which, being required beforehand, were
foreseen as being met by those who will be fully elected, and are causes
without which the unchangeable election to glory does not occur.
Rejection: This is
repugnant to the entire Scripture, which constantly inculcates this and similar
declarations: Election is not out of
works, but of him that calleth (Rom. 9:11). And as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed (Acts 13:48). He
chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
(Eph. 1:4). Ye did not choose me, but
I chose you (John 15:16). But if
it be of grace, it is no more of work, (
Error 6: Who teach
that not every election unto salvation is unchangeable, but that some of the
elect, any decree of God notwithstanding, can yet perish and do indeed perish.
Rejection: By
which gross error they make God to be changeable, and destroy the comfort which
the godly obtain out of the firmness of their election, and contradict the Holy
Scripture, which teaches that the elect cannot be led astray (Matt. 24:24);
that Christ does not lose those whom the Father gave Him (John 6:39); and that
God hath also glorified those whom He foreordained, called, and justified (Rom.
8:30).
Error 7: Who teach
that there is in this life no fruit and no consciousness of the unchangeable
election to glory, nor any certainty, except that which depends on a changeable
and uncertain condition.
Rejection: For not
only is it absurd to speak of an uncertain certainty, but also contrary to the
experience of the saints, who by virtue of the consciousness of their election
rejoice with the apostle and praise this favor of God (Eph. 1); who according
to Christ’s admonition rejoice with His disciples that their names are written
in heaven (Luke 10:20); who also place the consciousness of their election over
against the fiery darts of the devil, asking:
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? (Rom.
8:33).
Error 8: Who teach that God, simply by virtue of His
righteous will, did not decide either to leave anyone in the fall of Adam and
in the common state of sin and condemnation, or to pass anyone by in the
communication of grace which is necessary for faith and conversion.
Rejection: For
this is firmly decreed: He hath mercy
on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth (Rom. 9:18).
And also this: Unto you it is given
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given
(Matt. 13:11). Likewise: I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and
didst reveal them unto babes; yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in thy
sight (Matt. 11:25, 26).
Error 9: Who teach
that the reason why God sends the gospel to one people rather than to another
is not merely and solely the good pleasure of God, but rather the fact that one
people is better and worthier than another to whom the gospel is not
communicated.
Rejection: For
this Moses denies, addressing the people of
SECOND HEAD OF DOCTRINE
ccc
OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST,
AND THE REDEMPTION OF MEN THEREBY
Article 1. God is not
only supremely merciful, but also supremely just. And His justice requires (as He hath revealed
Himself in His Word) that our sins committed against His infinite majesty
should be punished, not only with temporal, but with eternal punishment, both
in body and soul; which we cannot escape unless satisfaction be made to the
justice of God.
Article 2. Since, therefore, we are unable to make
that satisfaction in our own persons, or to deliver ourselves from the wrath of
God, He hath been pleased in His infinite mercy to give His only begotten Son
for our surety, who was made sin, and became a curse for us and in our stead,
that He might make satisfaction to divine justice on our behalf.
Article 3. The death of the Son of God is the only
and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin, and is of infinite worth
and value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world.
Article 4. This death derives its infinite value and
dignity from these considerations, because the person who submitted to it was
not only really man and perfectly holy, but also the only begotten Son of God,
of the same eternal and infinite essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
which qualifications were necessary to constitute Him a Savior for us; and
because it was attended with a sense of the wrath and curse of God due to us
for sin.
Article 5. Moreover, the promise of the gospel is
that whosoever believeth in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have
everlasting life. This promise, together
with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and published to
all nations, and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction, to whom
God out of His good pleasure sends the gospel.
Article 6. And whereas many who are called by the
gospel do not repent, nor believe in Christ, but perish in unbelief, this is
not owing to any defect or insufficiency in the sacrifice offered by Christ
upon the cross, but is wholly to be imputed to themselves.
Article 7. But as many as truly believe, and are
delivered and saved from sin and destruction through the death of Christ, are
indebted for this benefit solely to the grace of God, given them in Christ from
everlasting, and not to any merit of their own.
Article 8. For this was the sovereign counsel and
most gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening and
saving efficacy of the most precious death of His Son should extend to all the
elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to
bring them infallibly to salvation; that is, it was the will of God that Christ
by the blood of the cross, whereby He confirmed the new covenant, should
effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and language all those,
and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation and given to Him by
the Father; that He should confer upon them faith, which, together with all the
other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, He purchased for them by His death;
should purge them from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed
before or after believing; and, having faithfully preserved them even to the
end, should at last bring them free from every spot and blemish to the
enjoyment of glory in His own presence forever.
Article 9. This purpose, proceeding from everlasting
love towards the elect, has from the beginning of the world to this day been
powerfully accomplished, and will henceforward still continue to be
accomplished, notwithstanding all the ineffectual opposition of the gates of
hell, so that the elect in due time may be gathered together into one, and that
there never may be wanting a church composed of believers, the foundation of
which is laid in the blood of Christ, which may steadfastly love and faithfully
serve Him as their Savior, who as a bridegroom for his bride, laid down His
life for them upon the cross, and which may celebrate His praises here and
through all eternity.
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects
the errors of those:
Error 1: Who teach
that God the Father has ordained His Son to the death of the cross without a
certain and definite decree to save any, so that the necessity, profitableness,
and worth of what Christ merited by His death might have existed, and might
remain in all its parts complete, perfect, and intact, even if the merited
redemption had never in fact been applied to any person.
Rejection: For
this doctrine tends to the despising of the wisdom of the Father and of the
merits of Jesus Christ, and is contrary to Scripture. For thus saith our
Savior: I lay down my life for the
sheep, and I know them (John 10:15, 27).
And the prophet Isaiah saith concerning the
Savior: When thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his
days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand (Is.
53:10). Finally, this contradicts the
article of faith according to which we believe the catholic Christian church.
Error 2: Who
teach: That it was not the purpose of
the death of Christ that He should confirm the new covenant of grace through
His blood, but only that He should acquire for the Father the mere right to
establish with man such a covenant as He might please, whether of grace or of
works.
Rejection: For
this is repugnant to Scripture, which teaches that Christ has become the Surety
and Mediator of a better, that is, the new covenant, and that a testament is of
force where death has occurred (Heb. 7:22; 9:15, 17).
Error 3: Who teach
that Christ, by His satisfaction, merited neither salvation itself for anyone,
nor faith, whereby this satisfaction of Christ unto salvation is effectually
appropriated; but that He merited for the Father only the authority or the
perfect will to deal again with man, and to prescribe new conditions as He
might desire, obedience to which, however, depended on the free will of man, so
that it therefore might have come to pass that either none or all should
fulfill these conditions.
Rejection: For
these adjudge too contemptuously of the death of Christ, do in no wise
acknowledge the most important fruit or benefit thereby gained, and bring again
out of hell the Pelagian error.
Error 4: Who teach
that the new covenant of grace, which God the Father, through the mediation of
the death of Christ, made with man, does not herein consist that we by faith,
inasmuch as it accepts the merits of Christ, are justified before God and
saved, but in the fact that God, having revoked the demand of perfect obedience
of the law, regards faith itself and the obedience of faith, although
imperfect, as the perfect obedience of the law, and does esteem it worthy of
the reward of eternal life through grace.
Rejection: For
these contradict the Scriptures: Being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:24, 25). And these proclaim, as did the wicked Socinus, a new and strange justification of man before God,
against the consensus of the whole church.
Error 5: Who teach
that all men have been accepted unto the state of reconciliation and unto the
grace of the covenant, so that no one is worthy of condemnation on account of
original sin, and that no one shall be condemned because of it, but that all
are free from the guilt of original sin.
Rejection: For
this opinion is repugnant to Scripture which teaches that we are by nature
children of wrath (Eph. 2:3).
Error 6: Who use
the difference between meriting and appropriating, to the end that they may
instill into the minds of the imprudent and inexperienced this teaching, that
God, as far as He is concerned, has been minded of applying to all equally the
benefits gained by the death of Christ; but that, while some obtain the pardon
of sin and eternal life and others do not, this difference depends on their own
free will, which joins itself to the grace that is offered without exception,
and that it is not dependent on the special gift of mercy, which powerfully
works in them, that they rather than others should appropriate unto themselves
this grace.
Rejection: For
these, while they feign that they present this distinction in a sound sense, seek to instill into the people the destructive
poison of the Pelagian errors.
Error 7: Who teach
that Christ neither could die, needed to die, nor did die for those whom God
loved in the highest degree and elected to eternal life, and did not die for
these, since these do not need the death of Christ.
Rejection: For
they contradict the apostle, who declares:
Christ loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20). Likewise:
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth;
who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died (Rom. 8:33,
34), namely, for them; and the Savior who says:
I lay down my life for the sheep (John 10:15). And: This
is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:12, 13).
THIRD AND FOURTH HEADS OF DOCTRINE
ccc
OF THE CORRUPTION OF MAN, HIS CONVERSION TO GOD,
AND THE MANNER THEREOF
Article 1. Man was
originally formed after the image of God.
His understanding was adorned with a true and saving knowledge of his
Creator and of spiritual things; his heart and will were upright; all his
affections pure; and the whole man was holy.
But, revolting from God by the instigation of the devil and abusing the
freedom of his own will, he forfeited these excellent gifts, and on the contrary
entailed on himself blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity, and
perverseness of judgment, became wicked, rebellious, and obdurate in heart and
will, and impure in his affections.
Article 2. Man after the fall begat children in his
own likeness. A corrupt stock produced a
corrupt offspring. Hence all the
posterity of Adam, Christ only excepted, have derived
corruption from their original parent, not by imitation, as the Pelagians of old asserted, but by the propagation of a
vicious nature.
Article 3. Therefore all men are conceived in sin,
and by nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone to evil, dead
in sin, and in bondage thereto, and without the regenerating grace of the Holy
Spirit they are neither able nor willing to return to God, to reform the
depravity of their nature, nor to dispose themselves
to reformation.
Article 4. There remain, however, in man since the
fall the glimmerings of natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge of
God, of natural things, and of the differences between good and evil, and
discovers some regard for virtue, good order in society, and for maintaining an
orderly external deportment. But so far
is this light of nature from being sufficient to bring him to a saving
knowledge of God and to true conversion, that he is incapable of using it
aright even in things natural and civil.
Nay further, this light, such as it is, man in various ways renders
wholly polluted, and holds it in unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes
inexcusable before God.
Article 5. In the same light are we to consider the
law of the decalogue,
delivered by God to His peculiar people, the Jews, by the hands of Moses. For though it discovers the greatness of sin,
and more and more convinces man thereof, yet as it neither points out a remedy
nor imparts strength to extricate him from misery, and thus, being weak through
the flesh, leaves the transgressor under the curse, man cannot by this law
obtain saving grace.
Article 6. What therefore neither the light of nature
nor the law could do, that God performs by the operation of the Holy Spirit
through the Word or ministry of reconciliation, which is the glad tidings
concerning the Messiah, by means whereof it hath pleased God to save such as
believe, as well under the Old as under the New Testament.
Article 7. This mystery of His will God discovered to
but a small number under the Old Testament; under the New (the distinction
between various peoples having been removed) He reveals Himself to many, without any distinction of people. The cause of this dispensation is not to be
ascribed to the superior worth of one nation above another, nor
to their making a better use of the light of nature, but results wholly from
the sovereign good pleasure and unmerited love of God. Hence they to whom so great and so gracious a
blessing is communicated, above their desert, or rather notwithstanding their
demerits, are bound to acknowledge it with humble and grateful hearts, and with
the apostle to adore, not curiously to pry into the severity and justice of
God’s judgments displayed to others, to whom this grace is not given.
Article 8. As many as are called by
the gospel are unfeignedly called. For God hath most earnestly and truly shown in
His Word what is pleasing to Him, namely, that those who are called should come
to Him. He,
moreover, seriously promises eternal life and rest to as many as shall come to
Him and believe on Him.
Article 9. It is not the fault of the gospel, nor of
Christ offered therein, nor of God, who calls men by the gospel and confers
upon them various gifts, that those who are called by the ministry of the Word
refuse to come and be converted. The
fault lies in themselves, some of whom when called, regardless of their danger,
reject the Word of life; others, though they receive it, suffer it not to make
a lasting impression on their heart; therefore their joy, arising only from a
temporary faith, soon vanishes and they fall away; while others choke the seed
of the Word by perplexing cares and the pleasures of this world, and produce no
fruit. This our Savior teaches in the
parable of the sower (Matt. 13).
Article 10. But that others who are called by the
gospel obey the call and are converted is not to be ascribed to the proper
exercise of free will, whereby one distinguishes himself above others equally
furnished with grace sufficient for faith and conversion, as the proud heresy
of Pelagius maintains; but it must be wholly ascribed to God, who as He has chosen
His own from eternity in Christ, so He confers upon them faith and repentance,
rescues them from the power of darkness, and translates them into the kingdom
of His own Son, that they may show forth the praises of Him who hath called
them out of darkness into His marvelous light, and may glory, not in
themselves, but in the Lord, according to the testimony of the apostles in
various places.
Article 11. But when God accomplishes His good
pleasure in the elect, or works in them true conversion, He not only causes the
gospel to be externally preached to them, and powerfully illuminates their
minds by His Holy Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern the
things of the Spirit of God; but by the efficacy of the same regenerating
Spirit pervades the inmost recesses of the man; He opens the closed and softens
the hardened heart, and circumcises that which was uncircumcised, infuses new
qualities into the will, which, though heretofore dead, He quickens; from being
evil, disobedient, and refractory, He renders it good, obedient, and pliable;
actuates and strengthens it, that like a good tree it may bring forth the
fruits of good actions.
Article 12. And this is the regeneration so highly
celebrated in Scripture and denominated a new creation: a resurrection from the dead, a making alive,
which God works in us without our aid.
But this is in no wise effected merely by the external preaching of the
gospel, by moral suasion, or such a mode of operation that after God has
performed His part it still remains in the power of man to be regenerated or
not, to be converted or to continue unconverted; but it is evidently a
supernatural work, most powerful, and at the same time most delightful,
astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable; not inferior in efficacy to creation or
the resurrection from the dead, as the Scripture inspired by the Author of this
work declares; so that all in whose heart God works in this marvelous manner
are certainly, infallibly, and effectually regenerated and do actually believe. Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only
actuated and influenced by God, but in consequence of this influence becomes
itself active. Wherefore also, man is
himself rightly said to believe and repent by virtue of that grace received.
Article 13. The manner of this operation cannot be
fully comprehended by believers in this life.
Notwithstanding which, they rest satisfied with knowing and experiencing
that by this grace of God they are enabled to believe with the heart, and love
their Savior.
Article 14. Faith is therefore to be considered as the
gift of God, not on account of its being offered by God to man, to be accepted
or rejected at his pleasure, but because it is in reality conferred, breathed,
and infused into him; or even because God bestows the power or ability to
believe, and then expects that man should by the exercise of his own free will
consent to the terms of salvation and actually believe in Christ, but because
He who works in man both to will and to do, and indeed all things in all, produces
both the will to believe and the act of believing also.
Article 15. God is under no obligation to confer this
grace upon any; for how can He be indebted to man, who had no previous gifts to
bestow, as a foundation for such recompense?
Nay, who has nothing of his own but sin and falsehood? He therefore who becomes the subject of this
grace owes eternal gratitude to God, and gives Him thanks forever. Whoever is not made partaker thereof is
either altogether regardless of these spiritual gifts and satisfied with his
own condition, or is in no apprehension of danger and vainly boasts the
possession of that which he has not.
With respect to those who make an external profession of faith and live
regular lives, we are bound, after the example of the apostle, to judge and
speak of them in the most favorable manner.
For the secret recesses of the heart are unknown to us. And as to others, who have not yet been
called, it is our duty to pray for them to God, who calls the things that are
not as if they were. But we are in no
wise to conduct ourselves towards them with haughtiness, as if we had made
ourselves to differ.
Article 16. But as man by the fall did not cease to be
a creature endowed with understanding and will, nor did sin which pervaded the
whole race of mankind deprive him of the human nature, but brought upon him
depravity and spiritual death; so also this grace of regeneration does not
treat men as senseless stocks and blocks, nor takes away their will and its
properties, neither does violence thereto; but spiritually quickens, heals,
corrects, and at the same time sweetly and powerfully bends it; that where
carnal rebellion and resistance formerly prevailed, a ready and sincere
spiritual obedience begins to reign, in which the true and spiritual
restoration and freedom of our will consist.
Wherefore, unless the admirable Author of every good work wrought in us,
man could have no hope of recovering from his fall by his own free will, by the
abuse of which, in a state of innocence, he plunged himself into ruin.
Article 17. As the almighty operation of God whereby
He prolongs and supports this our natural life does not exclude, but requires,
the use of means, by which God of His infinite mercy and goodness hath chosen
to exert His influence, so also the before mentioned supernatural operation of
God by which we are regenerated in no wise excludes or subverts the use of the
gospel, which the most wise God has ordained to be the seed of regeneration and
food of the soul. Wherefore, as the apostles
and teachers who succeeded them piously instructed the people concerning this
grace of God, to His glory, and the abasement of all pride, and in the
meantime, however, neglected not to keep them by the sacred precepts of the
gospel in the exercise of the Word, sacraments, and discipline; so, even to
this day, be it far from either instructors or instructed to presume to tempt
God in the church by separating what He of His good pleasure hath most
intimately joined together. For grace is
conferred by means of admonitions; and the more readily we perform our duty,
the more eminent usually is this blessing of God working in us, and the more
directly is His work advanced; to whom alone all the glory, both of means and
of their saving fruit and efficacy, is forever due. Amen.
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects
the errors of those:
Error 1: Who teach
that it cannot properly be said that original sin in itself suffices to condemn
the whole human race, or to deserve temporal and eternal punishment.
Rejection: For
these contradict the apostle, who declares:
Therefore as through one man sin entered into the world, and death
through sin, and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned (Rom.
5:12). And: The judgment came of one unto condemnation
(Rom. 5:16). And: The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).
Error 2: Who teach
that the spiritual gifts, or the good qualities and virtues, such as goodness,
holiness, righteousness, could not belong to the will of man when he was first
created, and that these, therefore, could not have been separated therefrom in the fall.
Rejection: For
such is contrary to the description of the image of God which the apostle gives
in Eph. 4:24, where he declares that it consists in righteousness and holiness,
which undoubtedly belong to the will.
Error 3: Who teach
that in spiritual death the spiritual gifts are not separate from the will of
man, since the will in itself has never been corrupted, but only hindered
through the darkness of the understanding and the irregularity of the
affections; and that, these hindrances having been removed, the will can then
bring into operation its native powers, that is, that the will of itself is
able to will and to choose, or not to will and not to choose, all manner of
good which may be presented to it.
Rejection: This is
an innovation and an error, and tends to elevate the powers of the free will,
contrary to the declaration of the prophet: The heart is deceitful above all things, and
it is exceedingly corrupt (Jer. 17:9); and of the
apostle: Among whom (sons of
disobedience) we also all once lived in the lusts of the flesh, doing the
desires of the flesh and of the mind (Eph. 2:3).
Error 4: Who teach
that the unregenerate man is not really nor utterly dead in sin, nor destitute
of all powers unto spiritual good, but that he can yet hunger and thirst after
righteousness and life, and offer the sacrifice of a contrite and broken
spirit, which is pleasing to God.
Rejection: For
these are contrary to the express testimony of Scripture. Ye were dead through trespasses and sins
(Eph. 2:1, 5); and: Every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Gen. 6:5; 8:21).
Moreover, to hunger and thirst after deliverance from misery and
after life, and to offer unto God the sacrifice of a broken spirit, is peculiar
to the regenerate and those that are called blessed (Ps. 51:10, 19; Matt. 5:6).
Error 5: Who teach
that the corrupt and natural man can so well use the common grace (by which
they understand the light of nature), or the gifts still left him after the
fall, that he can gradually gain by their good use a greater, namely, the
evangelical or saving grace and salvation itself. And that in this way God on His part shows Himself ready to reveal Christ unto all men, since He
applies to all sufficiently and efficiently the means necessary to
conversion.
Rejection: For the
experience of all ages and the Scriptures do both testify that this is
untrue. He showeth
his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances unto
Error 6: Who teach
that in the true conversion of man no new qualities, powers, or gifts can be
infused by God into the will, and that therefore faith, through which we are
first converted and because of which we are called believers, is not a quality
or gift infused by God, but only an act of man, and that it cannot be said to
be a gift, except in respect of the power to attain to this faith.
Rejection: For
thereby they contradict the Holy Scriptures, which declare that God infuses new
qualities of faith, of obedience, and of the consciousness of His love into our
hearts: I will put my law in their
inward parts, and in their hearts will I write it (Jer.
31:33). And: I will pour water upon him that is thirsty,
and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed (Is.
44:3). And: The love of God hath been shed abroad in
our hearts through the Holy Spirit which hath been given us (
Error 7: Who teach
that the grace whereby we are converted to God is only a gentle advising, or
(as others explain it) that this is the noblest manner of working in the
conversion of man, and that this manner of working, which consists in advising,
is most in harmony with man’s nature; and that there is no reason why this
advising grace alone should not be sufficient to make the natural man spiritual,
indeed, that God does not produce the consent of the will except through this
manner of advising; and that the power of the divine working, whereby it
surpasses the working of Satan, consists in this, that God promises eternal,
while Satan promises only temporal goods.
Rejection: But
this is altogether Pelagian and contrary to the whole
Scripture which, besides this, teaches yet another and far more powerful and
divine manner of the Holy Spirit’s working in the conversion of man, as in
Ezekiel: A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh (Ezek.
36:26).
Error 8: Who teach
that God in the regeneration of man does not use such powers of His omnipotence
as potently and infallibly bend man’s will to faith and conversion; but that
all the works of grace having been accomplished, which God employs to convert
man, man may yet so resist God and the Holy Spirit when God intends man’s
regeneration and wills to regenerate him, and indeed that man often does so
resist, that he prevents entirely his regeneration, and that it therefore
remains in man’s power to be regenerated or not.
Rejection: For
this is nothing less than the denial of all the efficiency of God’s grace in
our conversion, and the subjecting of the working of Almighty God to the will
of man, which is contrary to the apostles, who teach: That we believe according to the working
of the strength of his power (Eph. 1:19).
And: That God fulfills every
desire of goodness and every work of faith with power (2 Thess. 1:11).
And: That his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness (2 Pet.
1:3).
Error 9: Who teach
that grace and free will are partial causes, which together work the beginning
of conversion, and that grace, in order of working, does not precede the
working of the will; that is, that God does not efficiently help the will of
man unto conversion until the will of man moves and determines to do this.
Rejection: For the
ancient church has long ago condemned this doctrine of the Pelagians,
according to the words of the apostle: So
then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy (Rom. 9:16). Likewise:
For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou
that thou didst not receive? (1 Cor. 4:7). And: For
it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work
for his good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).
FIFTH HEAD OF DOCTINE
ccc
OF THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS
Article 1. Whom God
calls, according to His purpose, to the communion of His Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, and regenerates by the Holy Spirit He delivers also from the dominion
and slavery of sin in this life; though not altogether from the body of sin,
and from the infirmities of the flesh, so long as they continue in this world.
Article 2. Hence
spring daily sins of infirmity, and hence spots adhere to the best works of the
saints, which furnish them with constant matter for humiliation before God and
flying for refuge to Christ crucified; for mortifying the flesh more and more
by the spirit of prayer and by holy exercises of piety; and for pressing
forward to the goal of perfection, till being at length delivered from this
body of death they are brought to reign with the Lamb of God in heaven.
Article 3. By reason of these remains of indwelling
sin, and the temptations of sin and of the world, those who are converted could
not persevere in a state of grace if left to their own strength. But God is faithful, who, having conferred
grace, mercifully confirms and powerfully preserves them therein, even to the
end.
Article 4. Although the weakness of the flesh cannot
prevail against the power of God, who confirms and preserves true believers in
a state of grace, yet converts are not always so influenced and actuated by the
Spirit of God, as not in some particular instances sinfully to deviate from the
guidance of divine grace, so as to be seduced by and comply with the lusts of
the flesh; they must, therefore, be constant in watching and prayer, that they
be not led into temptation. When these
are neglected, they are not only liable to be drawn into great and heinous sins
by Satan, the world, and the flesh, but sometimes by the righteous permission
of God actually fall into these evils.
This the lamentable fall of David, Peter, and other saints described in
Holy Scripture demonstrates.
Article 5. By such
enormous sins, however, they very highly offend God, incur a deadly guilt,
grieve the Holy Spirit, interrupt the exercise of faith, very grievously wound
their consciences, and sometimes lose the sense of God’s favor for a time,
until, on their returning into the right way of serious repentance, the light
of God’s fatherly countenance again shines upon them.
Article 6. But God,
who is rich in mercy, according to His unchangeable purpose of election, does
not wholly withdraw the Holy Spirit from His own people, even in their
melancholy falls; nor suffers them to proceed so far as to lose the grace of
adoption and forfeit the state of justification, or to commit the sin unto
death; nor does He permit them to be totally deserted, and to plunge themselves
into everlasting destruction.
Article 7. For, in
the first place, in these falls He preserves in them the incorruptible seed of
regeneration from perishing, or being totally lost; and again, by His Word and Spirit,
certainly and effectually renews them to repentance, to a sincere and godly
sorrow for their sins, that they may seek and obtain remission in the blood of
the Mediator, may again experience the favor of a reconciled God, through faith
adore His mercies, and henceforward more diligently work out their own
salvation with fear and trembling.
Article 8. Thus, it
is not in consequence of their own merits or strength, but of God’s free mercy,
that they do not totally fall from faith and grace, nor continue and perish
finally in their backslidings; which with respect to themselves is not only
possible, but would undoubtedly happen; but with respect to God, it is utterly
impossible, since His counsel cannot be changed, nor His promise fail, neither
can the call according to His purpose be revoked, nor the merit, intercession,
and preservation of Christ be rendered ineffectual, nor the sealing of the Holy
Spirit be frustrated or obliterated.
Article 9. Of this
preservation of the elect to salvation, and of their perseverance in the faith,
true believers for themselves may and do obtain assurance according to the
measure of their faith, whereby they arrive at the certain persuasion that they
ever will continue true and living members of the church, and that they
experience forgiveness of sins, and will at last inherit eternal life.
Article 10. This
assurance, however, is not produced by any peculiar revelation contrary to, or
independent of the Word of God, but springs from faith in God’s promises, which
He has most abundantly revealed in His Word for our comfort; from the testimony
of the Holy Spirit, witnessing with our spirit, that we are children and heirs
of God (Rom. 8:16); and lastly, from a serious and holy desire to preserve a
good conscience and to perform good works.
And if the elect of God were deprived of this solid comfort, that they
shall finally obtain the victory, and of this infallible pledge or earnest of
eternal glory, they would be of all men the most miserable.
Article 11. The
Scripture moreover testifies that believers in this life have to struggle with
various carnal doubts, and that under grievous temptations they are not always
sensible of this full assurance of faith and certainty of persevering. But God, who is the Father of all
consolation, does not suffer them to be tempted above that they are able, but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that they may be able to
bear it (1 Cor. 10:13), and by the Holy Spirit again
inspires them with the comfortable assurance of persevering.
Article 12. This
certainty of perseverance, however, is so far from exciting in believers a
spirit of pride, or of rendering them carnally secure, that, on the contrary, it
is the real source of humility, filial reverence, true piety, patience in every
tribulation, fervent prayers, constancy in suffering and in confessing the
truth, and of solid rejoicing in God; so that the consideration of this benefit
should serve as an incentive to the serious and constant practice of gratitude
and good works, as appears from the testimonies of Scripture and the examples
of the saints.
Article 13. Neither
does renewed confidence of persevering produce licentiousness or a disregard to
piety in those who are recovering from backsliding; but it renders them much
more careful and solicitous to continue in the ways of the Lord, which He hath
ordained, that they who walk therein may maintain an assurance of persevering;
lest, by abusing His fatherly kindness, God should turn away His gracious
countenance from them, to behold which is to the godly dearer than life, the
withdrawing whereof is more bitter than death, and they in consequence hereof
should fall into more grievous torments of conscience.
Article 14. And
as it hath pleased God, by the preaching of the gospel, to begin this work of
grace in us, so He preserves, continues, and perfects it by the hearing and
reading of His Word, by meditation thereon, and by the exhortations, threatenings, and promises thereof, as well as by the use
of the sacraments.
Article 15. The
carnal mind is unable to comprehend this doctrine of the perseverance of the
saints and the certainty thereof, which God hath most abundantly revealed in
His Word, for the glory of His name and the consolation of pious souls, and
which He impresses upon the hearts of the faithful. Satan abhors it; the world ridicules it; the
ignorant and hypocrite abuse, and heretics oppose it;
but the spouse of Christ hath always most tenderly loved and constantly
defended it, as an inestimable treasure; and God, against whom neither counsel
nor strength can prevail, will dispose her to continue this conduct to the
end. Now, to this one God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit be honor and glory forever. AMEN.
The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects
the errors of those:
Error 1: Who teach
that the perseverance of the true believers is not a fruit of election, or a
gift of God gained by the death of Christ, but a condition of the new covenant,
which (as they declare) man before his decisive election and justification must
fulfill through his free will.
Rejection: For the
Holy Scripture testifies that this follows out of election, and is given the
elect in virtue of the death, the resurrection, and intercession of
Christ: But the elect obtained it and
the rest were hardened (Rom. 11:7).
Likewise: He that spared not
his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him
freely give us all things? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God’s elect?
It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is
Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at
the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? (
Error 2: Who teach
that God does indeed provide the believer with sufficient powers to persevere,
and is ever ready to preserve these in him, if he will do his duty; but that
though all things which are necessary to persevere in faith and which God will
use to preserve faith are made use of, it even then ever depends on the
pleasure of the will whether it will persevere or not.
Rejection: For
this idea contains an outspoken Pelagianism, and,
while it would make men free, it makes them robbers of God’s honor, contrary to
the prevailing agreement of the evangelical doctrine, which takes from man all
cause of boasting, and ascribes all the praise for this favor to the grace of
God alone; and contrary to the apostle, who declares: That it is God, who shall also confirm you
unto the end, that ye be unreprovable in the day of
our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:8).
Error 3: Who teach
that the true believers and regenerate not only can fall from justifying faith
and likewise from grace and salvation wholly and to the end, but indeed often
do fall from this and are lost forever.
Rejection: For
this conception makes powerless the grace, justification, regeneration, and
continued keeping by Christ, contrary to the express words of the apostle
Paul: That, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Much more
then, being justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God
through him (
Error 4: Who teach
that true believers and regenerate can sin the sin unto death or against the
Holy Spirit.
Rejection: Since
the same apostle John, after having spoken in the fifth chapter of his first
epistle, verses 16 and 17, of those who sin unto death, and having forbidden to
pray for them, immediately adds to this in verse 18: We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not (meaning a sin of that character), but
he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and the
evil one toucheth him not (1 John 5:18).
Error 5: Who teach
that without a special revelation we can have no certainty of future
perseverance in this life.
Rejection: For by
this doctrine the sure comfort of the true believers is taken away in this
life, and the doubts of the papist are again introduced into the church, while the
Holy Scriptures constantly deduce this assurance, not from a special and
extraordinary revelation, but from the marks proper to the children of God and
from the constant promises of God. So
especially the apostle Paul: No
creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:39). And John
declares: And he that keepeth his commandments abideth
in him, and he in him. And hereby we
know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he
gave us (1 John 3:24).
Error 6: Who teach
that the doctrine of the certainty of perseverance and of salvation, from its
own character and nature, is a cause of indolence and is injurious to
godliness, good morals, prayers, and other holy exercises, but that on the
contrary it is praiseworthy to doubt.
Rejection: For
these show that they do not know the power of divine grace and the working of
the indwelling Holy Spirit. And they
contradict the apostle John, who teaches the opposite with express words in his
first epistle: Beloved, now are we
the children of God, and it is not yet made manifest
what we shall be. We know that, if he
shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he
is. And every one that hath this hope
set on him purifieth himself,
even as he is pure (1 John 3:2, 3).
Furthermore, these are contradicted by the example of the saints, both
of the Old and the New Testament, who though they were assured of their
perseverance and salvation were nevertheless constant in prayers and other
exercises of godliness.
Error 7: Who teach
that the faith of those who believe for a time does not differ from justifying
and saving faith except only in duration.
Rejection: For
Christ Himself, in Matt. 13:20, Luke 8:13, and in other places, evidently
notes, besides this duration, a threefold difference between those who believe
only for a time and true believers, when He declares that the former receive
the seed in stony ground, but the latter in the good ground or heart; that the
former are without root, but the latter have a firm root; that the former are
without fruit, but that the latter bring forth their fruit in various measure
with constancy and steadfastness.
Error 8: Who teach
that it is not absurd that one having lost his first regeneration is again and
even often born anew.
Rejection: For
these deny by this doctrine the incorruptibleness of the seed of God, whereby
we are born again, contrary to the testimony of the apostle Peter: Having been begotten again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible (1 Pet. 1:23).
Error 9: Who teach
that Christ has in no place prayed that believers should infallibly continue in
faith.
Rejection: For
they contradict Christ Himself, who says:
I have prayed for thee (Simon), that thy faith fail not
(Luke 22:32); and the evangelist John, who declares that Christ has not prayed
for the apostles only, but also for those who through their word would
believe: Holy Father, keep them in
thy name, and: I pray not that
thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that
thou shouldest keep them from the evil one (John
17:11, 15, 20).
ccc
CONCLUSION
And this is the perspicuous, simple, and ingenuous declaration
of the orthodox doctrine respecting the five articles which have been controverted in the Belgic
churches, and the rejection of the errors, with which they have for some time
been troubled. This doctrine the synod
judges to be drawn from the Word of God, and to be agreeable to the confessions
of the Reformed churches. Whence it
clearly appears that some whom such conduct by no means became have violated
all truth, equity, and charity, in wishing to persuade the public:
That the doctrine of the Reformed churches concerning
predestination, and the points annexed to it, by its own genius and necessary
tendency, leads off the minds of men from all piety and religion; that it is an
opiate administered by the flesh and the devil, and the stronghold of Satan,
where he lies in wait for all, and from which he wounds multitudes and mortally
strikes through many with the darts both of despair and security; that it makes
God the author of sin, unjust, tyrannical, hypocritical; that it is nothing
more than interpolated Stoicism, Manicheism,
Libertinism, Turcism; that it renders men carnally
secure, since they are persuaded by it that nothing can hinder the salvation of
the elect, let them live as they please; and, therefore, that they may safely
perpetrate every species of the most atrocious crimes; and that, if the
reprobate should even perform truly all the works of the saints, their
obedience would not in the least contribute to their salvation; that the same
doctrine teaches that God, by a mere arbitrary act of His will, without the
least respect or view to any sin, has predestinated the greatest part of the
world to eternal damnation, and has created them for this very purpose; that in
the same manner in which the election is the fountain and the cause of faith
and good works, reprobation is the cause of unbelief and impiety; that many
children of the faithful are torn, guiltless, from their mothers’ breasts and
tyrannically plunged into hell, so that neither baptism, nor the prayers of the
church at their baptism, can at all profit them; and many other things of the same kind, which the
Reformed churches not only do not acknowledge, but even detest with their whole
soul.
Wherefore, this synod of Dordt, in the
name of the Lord, conjures as many as piously call upon the name of our Savior
Jesus Christ to judge of the faith of the Reformed churches, not from the
calumnies which on every side are heaped upon it; nor from the private
expressions of a few among ancient and modern teachers, often dishonestly
quoted or corrupted and wrested to a meaning quite foreign to their intention;
but from the public confessions of the churches themselves, and from the
declaration of the orthodox doctrine, confirmed by the unanimous consent of all
and each of the members of the whole synod.
Moreover, the synod warns calumniators themselves to consider the
terrible judgment of God which awaits them for bearing false witness against
the confessions of so many churches, for distressing the consciences of the
weak, and for laboring to render suspected the society of the truly faithful.
Finally, this synod exhorts all their brethren in the gospel of
Christ to conduct themselves piously and religiously in handling this doctrine,
both in the universities and churches; to direct it, as well in discourse as in
writing, to the glory of the divine name, to holiness of life, and to the
consolation of afflicted souls; to regulate, by the Scripture, according to the
analogy of faith, not only their sentiments but also their language; and to
abstain from all those phrases which exceed the limits necessary to be observed
in ascertaining the genuine sense of the Holy Scriptures, and may furnish
insolent sophists with a just pretext for violently assailing, or even
vilifying, the doctrine of the Reformed churches.
May Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who, seated at the Father’s
right hand, gives gifts to men, sanctify us in the truth, bring to the truth
those who err, shut the mouths of the calumniators of sound doctrine, and endue
the faithful minister of His Word with the spirit of wisdom and discretion,
that all their discourses may tend to the glory of God and the edification of
those who hear them. AMEN.
That this is our faith and decision we certify by subscribing
our names.
Here follow the names, not
only of president, assistant president, and secretaries of the synod, and of
the professors of theology in the Dutch churches, but of all the members who
were deputed to the synod, as the representatives of their respective churches,
that is, of the delegates from Great Britain, the Electoral Palatinate, Hessia, Switzerland, Wetteraw,
the Republic and Church of Geneva, the Republic and Church of Bremen, the
Republic and Church of Emden, the Duchy of Gelderland and of Zutphen, South
Holland, North Holland, Zeeland, the Province of Utrecht, Friesland,
Transylvania, the State of Groningen and Omland, Drent, the French churches.
INTRODUCTION TO THE APOSTLES’ CREED
The name of this creed does not point to apostlic
authorship, but rather to the fact that it summarizes briefly the fundamental
truths of Scripture as given to us through the apostles. In its simplest form the creed probably
originated in the early part of the second century and arose in connection with
the instruction of catechumens in preparation for baptism. In its present form this creed is probably of
no earlier date than the latter part of the fifth century. It is the best known of the ecumenical
creeds; and it gives simple, brief, and yet full expression to our “catholic,
undoubted Christian faith.”
APOSTLES’ CREED
I. I believe in God the Father, Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth;
II. And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten
Son, our Lord;
III. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born
of the Virgin Mary;
IV. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was
crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell;
V. The third day He rose again from the
dead;
VI. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
VII. From thence He shall come to judge the
quick and the dead.
VIII. I believe in the Holy Ghost.
IX. I believe an
holy catholic church; the communion of saints;
X. The forgiveness of sins;
XI. The resurrection of the body;
XII. And the life everlasting. AMEN.
INTRODUCTION TO THE NICENE CREED
This creed is acknowledged by name in Article IX of our
Confession of Faith. It expresses the
truth of Scripture concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, and it was
occasioned by various errors with respect to that truth. In its earliest form the creed was adopted by
the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) over against the
heresy of Arianism.
It was revised by the Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381), which
enlarged the confession concerning the Holy Ghost. The Latin, or Western, Church added to the
article on the procession of the Holy Ghost the words “and the Son” (Latin: Filioque), a
change which has been maintained since the Council of Toledo (A.D. 589).
NICENE CREED
I believe in one GOD,
THE FATHER Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and
invisible.
And in one LORD JESUS CHRIST,
the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of
God; Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, being of one
essence with the Father; by whom all things were made; who, for us men and for
our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of
the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the
Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on
the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge
both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the
HOLY GHOST, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceedeth
from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is
worshiped and glorified; who spake by the
prophets.
And I believe one holy
catholic and apostolic church. I
acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the
resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
INTRODUCTION TO THE ATHANASIAN CREED
This ecumenical creed is acknowledged by name in Article IX of
our Confession of Faith. While it bears
the name of Athanasius, the great church father of
the fourth century who defended the truth of the Trinity and of the deity of
Christ against the attacks of heretics, he was not its author. It was probably written as much as three
centuries later by an unknown author. Another
name for this creed, though rather unfamiliar, is Symbolum
Quicunque, after the opening word in the Latin
original. Written in rhythmic cadences,
this creed may have been composed to be chanted in the public worship of the
churches. It is a fuller statement of
the truths of the Trinity and the person and natures of Christ than either the
Nicene Creed or the Creed of Chalcedon, but it lacks
their simplicity and precision of expression.
Verses 3-28 set forth the doctrine of the Trinity, and verses 29-43 the
doctrine of the incarnation and the union of the two natures of Christ in the
person of the Son of God.
THE ATHANASIAN CREED
1. Whosoever
will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic
faith;
2. Which faith
except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without
doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
3. And the
catholic faith is this: That we worship
one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
4. Neither confounding
the persons nor dividing the essence.
5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son,
and another of the Holy Ghost.
6. But the
Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one, the glory
equal, the majesty coeternal.
7. Such as the
Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.
8. The Father
uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Ghost uncreated.
9. The Father
infinite, the Son infinite, and the Holy Ghost infinite.
10. The Father
eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal.
11. And yet they
are not three eternals, but one eternal.
12. As also
there are not three uncreated nor three infinites, but one uncreated and one
infinite.
13. So likewise
the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Ghost almighty.
14. And yet they
are not three almighties, but one almighty.
15. So the
Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.
16. And yet they
are not three Gods, but one God.
17. So likewise
the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord.
18. And yet not
three Lords, but one Lord.
19. For like as
we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge every person by Himself
to be God and Lord:
20. So are we
forbidden by the catholic religion to say, There are
three Gods or three Lords.
21. The Father
is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
22. The Son is
of the Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten.
23. The Holy
Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten,
but proceeding.
24. So there is
one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not
three Holy Ghosts.
25. And in this
Trinity none is before or after; none is greater or less.
26. But the
whole three persons are coeternal and coequal.
27. So that in
all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to
be worshiped.
28. He therefore
that will be saved, let him thus think of the Trinity.
29. Furthermore,
it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe
faithfully the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
30. For the
right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, is God and
31. God, of the essence
of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man, of the substance of His
mother, born in the world.
32. Perfect God
and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh
subsisting.
33. Equal to the
Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His
manhood.
34. Who although
He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.
35. One, not by
conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God.
36. One
altogether, not by confusion of essence, but by unity of person.
37. For as the
reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;
38. Who suffered
for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead;
39. He ascended
into heaven, He sitteth on
the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
40. From whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
41. At whose
coming all men shall rise again with their bodies;
42. And shall
give account for their own works.
43. And they
that have done good shall go into life everlasting,
and they that have done evil, into everlasting fire.
44. This is the
catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully and firmly he cannot be
saved.
INTRODUCTION TO THE
CREED OF
The Creed of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, is
not mentioned by name in any of our three forms of unity, but the doctrine set
forth in it is clearly embodied in Article XIX of our Confession of Faith. It constitutes an important part of our
ecumenical heritage. The Ecumenical
Council of Chalcedon settled the controversies
concerning the person and natures of our Lord Jesus Christ and established confessionally the truths of the unity of the divine person
and the union and distinction of the divine and human natures of Christ. It condemned especially the error of Nestorianism, which denied the unity of the divine person
in Christ; the error of Apollinarianism, which denied
the completeness of Christ’s human nature; and the error known as Eutychianism, which denied the duality and distinction of
the divine and human natures of our Lord Jesus Christ. What was confessionally
established at
THE CREED OF
We, then, following the
holy fathers, all with one consent teach men to confess one and the same Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood;
truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body; coessential with the
Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the
manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of
the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for
our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the
manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged
in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without
separation; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the
union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring
in one person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but
one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ;
as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning Him, and the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the creed of the holy fathers has
handed down to us.