Did I grow up in a cultural context that I thought was more of a joke, but not quite?That ‘if you’re not Dutch, you’re not much. ‘
We had wooden shoes in the fireplace, blue ceramic plates in the kitchen, and Dutch plates hanging on the wall. My mother liked to ask two questions every time I was interested in a girl: “Is she a pensioner? And is she Dutch?” (I got the truth from the important question) Looking back, I don’t think I ever had a serious idea that it was better to be Dutch than to be German, Irish, Mexican or Korean, but I had a strong sense of pride in who we were, where we come from and the Reformed Tradition that surrounded us.
- The first of my family to emigrate to the United States was Teunis P.
- DeJong.
- Born in Holland in 1839 and died in Edgerton.
- Minnesota.
- In 1925.
- The oldest ancestor of my family tree was Pieter DeJong.
- Born in Dordrecht in 1695 and I married Neeltje Liesveld from the nearby town of Zwijndrecht on August 23.
- 1716.
- I searched in vain for any trace of a DeJon who helped shape the cans in 1618-19.
- But I like to think he had a great-great-great-great-something that participated in the actions when Dort’s Synod debate and defended the exact nature of God’s free grace.
Because of my ethnic heritage and reformed origin, I have always had a strong feeling for the Canons of Dort, even when many Christians, if they have heard of Dort, have seen it as a disgrace of exaggerated sovereignty and doctrinal subtleties. However, Dort’s cans are not just for the Dutch, and certainly cannot be reduced to old-world theological problems. The doctrine defined and defended in Dort addresses the most important elements of who we are, how God works, and what Christ has done. Consummate.
The Dort Synod is the greatest watermark of Calvinism, but it would never have happened without Arminianism.
He began his career as a totally Calvinist teacher. After studying for a time in Geneva (1582–1587), Arminio moved to Amsterdam to pastor a prominent church in the city. As a pastor, he was asked to defend Calvinist teaching against a man with one of his incredible Dutch names, Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert. In preparing his defense of traditional Calvinist doctrine against Coornehert, Arminius became convinced of his opponent’s teachings.
In 1603 he was appointed professor of theology at the University of Leiden, where he received strong opposition from his colleague Francis Gomarus. Both Arminius and Gomarus believed in predestination, but differed in the meaning of the word. whether predestination was based solely on God’s will (Calvinism) or on prophetic knowledge of faith (which would be called after Arminianism). Both men were reformed, Calvinists, but did not say the same thing.
After Arminius’ death in 1609, the movement continued under the leadership of Janus Uytenbogaert, a court preacher in The Hague. In 1610, the Arminian Group published a document called Remonstrance, establishing the “Five Articles of Arminianism”. Gomarus and others formed a group of counter-representations (gomarists) to oppose the Arminians.
The protest of 1610 was addressed to Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, Attorney General of the Netherlands and Friesland. Oldenbarneveldt, who was working to ensure a better relationship with Spain, wanted tolerance for the Arminians. The counter-representation of the gomarists was launched to the Dutch. States in 1611, Oldenbarneveldt and the Dutch states opted for tolerance, but the Gomarists wanted an official theological statement to solve the problem once and for all.
In the years that followed, the conflict went from bad to worse, with prominent political and theological leaders aligning with the Arminians. The gomaristas (who would consider them Calvinists today) feared that reformed doctrine would soon be lost in the Netherlands. Prince Mauritius, son and heir to William of Orange, finally sided with the gomaristas and imprisoned Oldenbarneveldt. With the nation on the brink of civil war, the General States finally convened an assembly to end the conflict.
An international synod was convened in Dordrecht from 1618 to 1619. Of the approximately 100 members present, twenty-seven were from Great Britain, Switzerland and Germany, the rest were Dutch. , lay people and members of the General States.
In the end, the uprisings were solidly defeated in Dort, leading to one of the greatest theological formulations of the Reformation era. On 22 April 1619, exactly four hundred years ago, the Synod adopted the Canons and established, for the Netherlands and much of the Protestant world, what the true reformed faith would be in the years to come.
Dort’s charges, rejecting the five points of Arminianism, sketched their own points of the belt: the first in relation to divine choice and disapproval, the second in Christ’s death and human redemption for her, the third and fourth in human corruption and as in us we converted to God, and finally to the perseverance of the saints.
Centuries later, these five doctrinal phrases became the five points of Calvinism, known as TULIP (total depravity, unconditional choice, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the Saints). Although TULIP is an anachronistic summary of the Canons, it can be a useful mnemonic medium for important soteriological issues. The charges are not intended to explain everything about the reformed theology (or the Bible for that matter), but on the contrary, have they committed themselves to declaring what was consistent with the Word of God and accepted today by the reformed churches?”divine predestination”.
Before the Dort Synod carried out its activities, each member took a solemn oath to “only the glory of God, the peace of the Church, and above all the preservation of doctrinal purity”. They ended with a prayer: “So help me My Savior, Jesus Christ!May I help you with your Holy Ghost?Dort participants were very serious in promoting and preserving the truth.
Do we care about the same way we define and defend grace?
Paul argues that “is there a remnant left, according to the choice of grace?”(Rom 11. 5). He then defends and defines grace, arguing that if it is by grace, it is no longer by works; If not, is grace no longer funny?(Rom 11. 6). The words were Paul. I never simply casually spoke the same vocabulary as his opponents if they knew they were using different dictionaries. He understood that people can fight for grace, praise grace, and celebrate grace, while losing what is grace.
Essentially, the Cannones of Dort refer to the nature of grace, which is supernatural, one-sided, sovereign, effective, redemptive, resuscitator, with all its angle, all its offense to human pride and all its comfort to the tired soul. Establish. That’s what they wanted to protect. Some words deserve the most thoughtful definition, just as some truths are too valuable not to be defended.
[1] From English: total depravity, unconditional choice, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the Saints.