Synod of Dort

Background

Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609), a professor at the University of Leiden, advanced views on predestination (the teaching that God determines in advance who will be saved) that differed from the prevailing position in the Dutch Reformed Church of his day. In 1610, the year after his death, ministers who followed him published the Remonstrance (a formal protest), a document summarizing their position in five articles. For this reason they came to be called the Remonstrants. The Remonstrance contained the following claims:

• Conditional election: God foreknew who would believe and elected them on that basis.
• Universal atonement: Christ's death was for all people.
• Resistible grace: human beings can reject God's grace.

The question of whether true believers can fall from grace was left open. The Remonstrants wanted to revise doctrinal standards such as the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism, and they hoped the government would protect their views.

The Counter-Remonstrants, including Franciscus Gomarus, regarded the Remonstrant position as a departure from the Reformed faith. The Remonstrants sought toleration of differing views under the oversight of the state, whereas the Counter-Remonstrants saw this as a threat to the independence of the church. Because of this conflict, the theological controversy became entangled with political strife.

Proceedings

• 1617: The States General of the Netherlands voted 4 to 3 to convene a national synod.
• November 13, 1618: The synod opened in Dordrecht (Dort). Delegates from eight foreign Reformed churches, including the Church of England, attended with voting rights, and the synod is regarded as the only international synod in Reformed history. The early sessions dealt with matters such as a new Dutch translation of the Bible.
• The Remonstrant theologians, led by Simon Episcopius, were summoned before the synod. They proposed to begin by criticizing the doctrine of reprobation, the teaching that God has excluded some people from salvation. The synod countered that the accused party must first prove its own views from Scripture. In the end the Remonstrants refused to accept the procedure set by the synod and were dismissed from the synod, which was presided over by Johannes Bogerman.
• May 9, 1619: The synod ended after about seven months with its 154th session.

Outcome and Influence

The synod adopted the Canons of Dort. The Canons were arranged to correspond to the five articles of the Remonstrance, and each section sets forth Reformed teaching before rejecting the Remonstrant position. Their content was later summarized as five doctrines: unconditional election, limited atonement, total depravity, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints (the teaching that true believers remain in salvation to the end). These are known as the "five points of Calvinism" or, from their English initials, TULIP.

After the synod, some two hundred Remonstrant ministers are reported to have been deposed, and many went into exile. Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, a political opponent of Stadtholder Maurice, was charged with treason and executed on May 13, 1619. Hugo Grotius was sentenced to life imprisonment. After Maurice died in 1625 and the political situation changed, the banishment measures were lifted and the Remonstrants were able to resume their activities. The Canons of Dort became a doctrinal standard of the Dutch Reformed Church. In Korea as well, they are frequently taught in the doctrinal instruction of Presbyterian and Reformed circles.

Assessment

The Reformed tradition regards the synod as an event in which churches from many nations jointly affirmed the confession that salvation comes entirely from the grace of God. Those on the Arminian side and some historians point to other considerations: the Remonstrants were placed in the position of defendants rather than treated as equal partners in debate, and the political power of the stadtholder strongly influenced both the synod's outcome and the punishments that followed.

Korean Presbyterian churches generally follow the Calvinist position of the Canons of Dort. The Wesleyan tradition, including the Methodist and Holiness churches, emphasizes prevenient grace (grace given to a person before he or she believes) and the human response to grace, and is therefore regarded as holding an understanding closer to that of the Remonstrants. This difference continues today in the debate over predestination and free will.