The Protestant Witness # 2 | What Arminians Really Believe

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April 24, 2018

What the true Arminian Remonstrance taught might shock you. In this episode of "The Protestant Witness" we cover the first head of doctrine concerning Divine Predestination

00:01: Paul warns that evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving one another and being deceived.
00:08: The reason Paul told Timothy that was because he needed to be ready to spend the balance of his life in uninterrupted warfare for the truth.
00:28: The most dangerous people alive today are always, always, always ordained ministers.
00:35: They're the most dangerous people in the world, especially the ones that people think are Christians, who will sell you theological poison to the damnation of your soul.
00:45: Folks, I just want to warn you about something. Every heretic in the entire history of the church, without exception, has taught their heresy in the name of being faithful to Scripture.
01:08: Jesus was nailed to the cross. That was the day of wrath. That was the day of judgment.
01:14: That is the day of final salvation, brought back in time and applied to us once for all, at the moment of our effectual calling, when we repent and believe in our unity to Christ.
01:33: Welcome to the Protestant Witness. I'm your host, Pastor Patrick Hines of Redwell Heights Presbyterian Church in lovely
01:40: Kingsport, Tennessee, and in this episode, we're going to cover more about historical
01:46: Arminianism. Many people, even elders in Reformed churches, have never read the canons of the
01:52: Synod of Dort, and often, when they do, are surprised to find out exactly what it was that they were condemning.
02:00: The word Arminian comes from the last name of James Arminius, or I've heard of Jacob Arminius, too, and his followers, the
02:10: Remonstrants, the protesters that were dealt with by the Reformed churches in the
02:15: Netherlands back in 1618 and 1619, and they spelled out their five biblical responses to the five protestations of the
02:24: Arminian Remonstrants. So, the five points of Calvinism really were just a polemical response to errors that arose in the
02:33: Reformed churches, and really, people saying things that really are nothing new.
02:40: John Cassian and so -called semi -Pelagianism is very, very old, but what's very interesting is that when you walk through the canons of the
02:49: Synod of Dort, and you see what it was that they were responding to, it is a lot more serious in its doctrinal errors than people often recognize, and what they do in the format of the canons of Dort is they spell out the biblical teaching on each of the five points, each of the five things that the
03:10: Arminian Remonstrants wanted to be cleared and wanted to be changed, and they spell out the biblical truth, go to the key texts, and then they have a series of rejection of errors.
03:25: And so, it's very important that we look at these things and understand exactly what's going on here.
03:32: And so, what I'd like to do today is start with the very end of the documents of the canons of Dort, and the way that the
03:45: Council Fathers responded to Arminianism and its historic purity. Most of what's called
03:52: Arminianism today is really not Arminianism. That's what the first video I did was about.
03:57: Historic Arminian theology does not believe in the substitutionary atonement, and that is an essential truth to the gospel.
04:04: If you don't have a substitutionary penal atonement that takes away the punishment for man's sins, you don't have the gospel at all.
04:12: So, historic Arminianism was rejected as heresy, and I want to just point out just a couple of quotations here.
04:22: Here in the canons of Dort, under rejection of errors concerning the teaching of the perseverance of the saints, they said this in point number two, they reject the errors of those who teach that God does provide the believer with sufficient strength to persevere and is ready to preserve the strength in him if he performs his duty, but that even with all those things in place which are necessary to persevere in faith and which
04:45: God is pleased to use to preserve faith, it still always depends on the choice of man's will whether or not he perseveres.
04:55: For this view is obviously Pelagian, and though it intends to make men free, it makes them sacrilegious.
05:03: It is against the enduring consensus of evangelical teaching which takes for man all cause for boasting and ascribes the praise for this benefit only to God's grace.
05:13: It is also against the testimony of the Apostle who says in 1st Corinthians 1 8, it is
05:19: God who keeps us strong to the end so that we will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
05:24: And what you're gonna see as we go through the canons of Dort is that Arminians, and this is true even to this very day, and I would include
05:33: Roman Catholics because they really argue for their understanding of salvation in the same way the Arminians do. You couldn't do it without God's grace and grace is necessary to the whole process and even the the acts of perseverance, you couldn't do them unless in those very actions
05:53: God had given you grace. But, and that's the key word here, but the decisive factor, the thing that determines whether the whole plan of salvation is gonna work or not is in the final analysis, man and his free will.
06:10: And so it's critically, critically important that we recognize what these folks are really saying.
06:18: And the council fathers at Dort used the word Pelagian a lot. Now Pelagianism was from the
06:25: British monk Pelagius who battled with Augustine way back in the 4th and 5th centuries and Pelagianism was condemned by the church.
06:35: It was condemned as heresy and so was semi Pelagianism, the Council of Orange in 529, condemned it as heresy.
06:43: It's pretty amazing that what the early forefathers of our faith saw as heretical is now seen as, oh, it's just fine.
06:50: It's just an error that, you know, there's some people that hold to that and that's not that big of a deal. Now before I move on,
06:56: I do want to make one comment though. I was a Christian before I was a Calvinist. I just didn't understand why
07:03: I was a Christian. I didn't understand why I believed in Jesus Christ. And of course,
07:08: I had heard the mischaracterizations of biblical truth saying, well, these Calvinists believe that God forces people against their will to believe in Christ.
07:16: And I remember thinking, no, I definitely willingly believed in Jesus. But then over time came to see the biblical truth that the reason
07:24: I believed is because God had mercy on me. God opened my eyes. God is the one who irresistibly, effectually called me and by his grace alone made me alive in Jesus Christ.
07:36: And so it's very, very important that we recognize there are a lot of people who don't understand why they're
07:43: Christians, but they are. They do trust in Christ alone. But the issue that we have here, the issue that I would have is, what about people who are the opponents of the doctrines of grace?
07:56: People who look at what Scripture says and they just reject it out of hand. One thing that's very clear is that, how can people really be sincerely interpreting
08:07: Scripture and listening to it and end up on completely opposite sides of this issue?
08:12: How is that even possible? Well, the problem has nothing to do with the clarity of Scripture. It has to do with people who are in rebellion against God.
08:21: And that's where I would have a real, I really struggle to identify people who are the the dead set opponents of God's sovereignty and grace and who really do believe in and are very clear and explicit, even after having walked through all the key passages, still believe that salvation is entirely synergistic.
08:41: I have a problem with that. I really wonder, at the end of the day, what are those people really trusting in?
08:47: But as far as people that sit in pews, people that are not theologians by profession or anything like that, or who have a more simple understanding of the faith,
08:55: I think there's a lot of people who are not Reformed who really are Christians, who, when their head is the pillow at night, they're trusting only in Jesus Christ.
09:01: They don't understand why they do that, but they do trust in Him and those people are definitely brothers and sisters.
09:06: I was a Christian before I was Reformed. But once I had been taken by the hand and walked through the key passages, it became undeniably clear that God is absolutely sovereign, that His decree encompasses all that comes to pass, and that He is the one who is in charge of salvation.
09:24: It's not left in any part to man's autonomy or his free will or anything like that.
09:30: Now, as I said, Pelagianism is the idea that men save themselves. Semi -Pelagianism, which
09:37: I really think is just, it's really just still Pelagianism. Semi -Pelagianism is that God, is that men save themselves with help from God.
09:46: And then over against that you have the biblical notion of God saves sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not to make their salvation possible, or to open a door, or to make it a hypothetical possibility, but to save them.
09:59: And that's exactly what God does for His people. So with that, I'd like to go back to the beginning here.
10:06: I was looking at just a couple of things in the Canons of Dort, how often they use the word Pelagianism.
10:12: But the first point at issue, the first issue that was addressed by the Synod of Dort with the
10:17: Arminian Remonstrance, was the issue of divine predestination, which the Synod declares to be in agreement with the
10:23: Word of God and accepted until now in the Reformed churches. Set forth in several articles.
10:29: So they first, they set forth, here is what the Bible teaches about this issue of predestination,
10:36: God's electing grace. Now, everyone will say, I mean, Arminians will look right at you and say, yeah, we believe in predestination.
10:43: We believe in predestination. So it's not really enough to say you believe in that. You need to define what you mean by it. What they mean is, basically,
10:50: God looks down the corridors of time and then takes in knowledge about who would do what, given their libertarian free will, with the offer of the gospel.
10:59: And then if they believe, then he'll predestine them to eternal life, which really is to say that there is no doctrine of predestination.
11:06: If, in the final analysis, men elect themselves by their own free will, then you really, there really is no point in even talking about predestination, because the term, the verb, praorizo, means to determine or destine beforehand.
11:20: But if we are the ones ultimately who do that, why is there any need for God to predestine us?
11:26: It really is a negation. To say that it defends decisively on our free will is really to negate the very meaning of the word predestination, as it's used in Romans 8 29 and in Ephesians chapter 1.
11:39: Let's go ahead and look at, here's the Canons of Dort, article number one, God's right to condemn all people. I still remember the very first time
11:46: I ever read this, many years ago, and this first article really shook me up.
11:52: It says, Since all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the sentence of the curse and eternal death, God would have done no one an injustice if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the curse and to condemn them on account of their sin.
12:08: Right out of the gate, that really challenged my presuppositions, because I thought it's only fair that everyone gets a shot at it.
12:16: And I believed things like, well, if people respond to common grace and to general revelation, if they make some kind of generic free will move towards God, even if they've never heard of Christ, maybe they can be saved that way.
12:28: You see how many errors were in my thinking? And people really think things like that, as if Romans 1 is actually teaching us that the gospel is revealed from heaven and revealed in nature.
12:39: It's not. What does Romans 1 18 say? The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven and against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
12:47: What is in natural general revelation is not salvific. It doesn't get man an opportunity to believe in anything.
12:56: The fact is, men are under God's just condemnation by their union with their federal head,
13:01: Adam, and are in that condition and are glad to be left in that condition. They have no interest in God, no interest in coming to him, no interest in repenting of their sins.
13:12: And so, God would have done no one an injustice if it had simply been his will to leave the entire race of man in sin and to condemn them on account of their sin.
13:22: Now, that's a hard pill to swallow for some people, but there are fewer things that are clearer in Scripture. We tend to have such an unbiblical view of the fall and what it did to us.
13:35: Men hate God. Jesus said men refuse to come to the light lest their deeds be exposed.
13:42: They love darkness rather than light. Jesus said in John 3 19 and 20, if that really is
13:49: Jesus, it might not be, but that's a whole another issue. But that's biblical revelation. Men refuse to come to the light because their deeds as evil will be exposed and they love those evil deeds.
14:01: They love the darkness. Men love their sin. It is their master. They serve it with their whole heart.
14:07: They have no interest in turning or repenting or anything of the kind. So we need to be rid of this idea that man is, you know, he's been wounded by the fall and he's this innocent guy, you know, out there really trying to do his best and doing the best with what he's got.
14:21: No, men hate God. They rage against him. They have no interest in him. They love their sin. They know they're under God's just condemnation and they don't care.
14:29: When I was examined for ordination by our presbytery, and I was I was prepared for this, I thought someone might ask this, what happens to the innocent native who lives in in Congo land or lives in the
14:41: New Hebrides Islands or what down the South Pacific, who's never heard of God, never heard of the Christian faith, never heard of Jesus Christ.
14:47: What happens to those innocent people when they die? And I said they all go to heaven. Did you catch the the slight of hand in the question?
14:56: What happens to those innocent people? Well, if there are innocent people, they would go to heaven because they wouldn't need a
15:02: Savior. And I pointed out to the guy that asked that, the problem is there are no innocent people that live on islands in the
15:09: South Pacific. There are no innocent people that live in Central Africa somewhere or in the in the sticks somewhere.
15:15: There are no innocent people. But if there were innocent people who were not guilty of sin, yeah, they would go to heaven when they died.
15:23: And so this article goes on to say as the Apostle says the whole world is liable to the condemnation of God, Romans 3 19, all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God, Romans 3 23, and the wages of sin is death,
15:35: Romans 6 23. So men are conceived and born in Adam, they are willfully in Adam, and they love their rebellion, they love their sin, and they have no interest in turning from it.
15:45: And so God would have done no one an injustice if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin. You see,
15:51: I used to think that it would be unfair for God to choose to save these people and to bypass the rest.
15:57: But you see, that's actually grace. It's gracious that God chooses to save some and it is fairness that he leaves the rest on their sins to get what they justly, not only what they justly deserve, but what they want, which is to have nothing to do with him.
16:13: Article 2, the manifestation of God's love. But this is how God showed his love. He sent his only begotten Son into the world so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16:23: Okay, article 2. That is how God's love is manifested. Anyone that believes in Christ will not perish, but have eternal life.
16:30: Article 3, the preaching of the gospel. Okay, so God, in his mercy, sends preachers of the gospel.
16:58: It's not fairness. He doesn't do that so as to be fair, to give everyone a shot at it. This is pure grace.
17:04: God sends ministers to preach the gospel. He sends individuals who will proclaim Christ crucified and people will hear that truth and be turned by God to believe that truth.
17:15: Article 4, a twofold response to the gospel. God's anger remains on those who do not believe this gospel, but those who do accept it and embrace
17:24: Jesus the Savior with a true and living faith are delivered through him from God's anger and from destruction and receive the gift of eternal life.
17:33: Article number 5, the sources of unbelief and of faith. Listen carefully to this. This is very important.
17:38: The cause or blame for this unbelief, as well as for all other sins, is not at all in God, but in man.
17:46: Faith in Jesus Christ, however, and salvation through him, is a free gift of God. As scripture says, it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves.
17:56: It is a gift of God, Ephesians 2a. Likewise, Philippians 129, it has been freely given to you to believe in Christ.
18:04: So where does faith in Christ come from? It is the sovereign gifts of God to his elect people. It is granted to us on behalf of Christ to believe in him.
18:13: Article 6, God's eternal decision. The fact that some receive from God the gift of faith within time and that others do not stems from his eternal decision.
18:23: Now you got to realize how contrary that is to the Arminian perspective. Okay, those who believe in Jesus Christ, it stems not from their free will, but from God's eternal decision.
18:35: Now listen carefully to the scripture passages. For all his works are known to God from eternity, Acts 15 18 and Ephesians 1 11.
18:43: In accordance with this decision, he graciously softens the hearts, however hard, of his chosen ones and inclines them to believe.
18:50: But by his just judgment, he leaves in their wickedness and hardness of heart those who have not been chosen.
18:57: And in this especially is disclosed to us his act, unfathomable and as merciful as it is just, of distinguishing between people equally lost.
19:07: Do you hear that? God is making a distinction here between all who are equally lost, equally deserving of God's wrath, equally under his just condemnation.
19:17: God's not looking out over an innocent group of people to decide, you know, what he's going to do with them. He's looking at a mass of individuals who are dead in their sins, who hate him, who are resolutely opposed to everything that God loves, and who in their hearts hate
19:32: God and want nothing to do with him. Okay, now listen, listen to that sentence again. And in this especially, in God's act of choosing to save some, is disclosed to us his act, unfathomable and as merciful as it is just, of distinguishing between people who are equally lost.
19:49: This is the well -known decision of election and reprobation revealed in God's Word. This decision, the wicked, impure, and unstable, distort to their own ruin, but it provides holy and godly souls with comfort beyond words.
20:02: And I'll tell you, when I finally came to see, by the grace of God, that the reason I believed in Jesus Christ, and that I had repented, was not because of my free will, was not because of anything good in me, but was because of the sovereign mercy of God, who could have justly left me in my sins.
20:21: That was a humiliating moment. I still remember that. I was about 22 years old when that happened. Sitting there reading
20:28: Romans 9 for the thousandth time, looking for a way around it. Maybe we can turn it into nations. Maybe you can chop the passage up into 35 unrelated pieces and and make it totally destroy the child.
20:38: None of that works. And I remember finally recognizing God has mercy on whom he wills. And here
20:43: I sit. I understand the depth of my own sin. I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I hate my sin.
20:49: I am endeavoring to turn from it all to the Lord. I trust only in Jesus Christ for my justification, for my salvation, for my entrance into heaven.
20:57: Why? Because God had mercy upon me. It wasn't because I was better than other people.
21:03: It wasn't because I was smarter or I was more spiritually attuned. It wasn't because of anything in me.
21:10: And I remember it just bearing down on me and it just brought tears to my eyes. God could have justly left me in my sins and I would have been happy to stay there.
21:19: I would have wanted nothing to do with him and would gladly have lived my life in rebellion against him and then died in my sins and gone to hell and not cared.
21:26: But God would not allow it to be that way. Don't you see? Election is not opposed to people coming to Christ.
21:33: It's the only reason people do come to Christ. Election is not a hindrance to assurance.
21:39: Election is the very foundation of assurance. That God who started this work in me, he will carry it on to completion.
21:45: That Jesus Christ's faithfulness to his father's mission is the reason I will one day step into eternal glory.
21:51: As he said in John 6, 37 -39, a passage that I used to cringe from is now a passage
21:57: I think and meditate on all the time. All that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me
22:02: I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
22:09: And this is the will of him who sent me that of all he has given me I will lose none, but raise them up at the last day.
22:15: That is the very lifeblood of my assurance. Jesus Christ is a faithful and perfect Savior. He has justified me entirely and completely accepted me in his sight by faith alone apart from my works.
22:25: And he has promised to carry that work on all the way into heaven itself. Such an encouraging thing.
22:31: It's so tragic that so many professing Christians are robbed from having that kind of assurance because their quote -unquote pastors and teachers will not teach them what
22:41: Scripture says about this blessed truth about the grace of God. Grace equals unconditional election.
22:48: If you lose the doctrine of unconditional election, you cannot argue that salvation is by grace alone.
22:55: You just can't. The two things don't go together. Unconditional election is what grace means.
23:01: You could say grace is necessary and that it's sufficient to make it possible for us to be saved but that we're not really actually saved by it.
23:09: Article number seven, election. Election or choosing is God's unchangeable purpose by which he did the following.
23:16: Before the foundation of the world by sheer grace according to the free good pleasure of his will he chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race.
23:27: Did you hear that? A definite number of particular people. This is not a class election. It's not well
23:32: Christ is the elect one and then by our free will we get into Christ. People who are chosen for salvation are elected by God individually by name from all eternity.
23:42: Individuals. It's not a faceless mass. It is not that God elected to save if people would do this that other thing.
23:49: People themselves we are the direct object of God's choosing. It is individual people that are chosen by name individually by God from all eternity.
23:59: Which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen, listen, were neither better nor more deserving than the others but lay with them in the common misery.
24:10: This is why a true Calvinist who really understands the grace of God who really does get what grace means.
24:19: That the reason they're a Christian is solely and only because of God's grace and his unconditional election of myself.
24:27: That that's the only reason I'm a Christian. We should never be impatient with others. We should never be nasty to people.
24:34: We should never look down our noses at others because they don't understand these things. We should be among the most patient people on earth because to be really ugly or nasty about this about these truths is really to deny what we ourselves believe.
24:48: It takes a divine work for anyone to believe these things. So we ourselves should be gracious and winsome in the way we present these truths because without the grace of God we wouldn't believe them either.
25:01: The the article goes on here. He did this in Christ whom he also appointed from eternity to be the mediator the head of all those chosen and the foundation of their salvation and so he decided to give the chosen ones to Christ to be saved and to call and draw them effectively into Christ's fellowship through his word and spirit.
25:19: In other words, he decided to grant them true faith in Christ to justify them, to sanctify them, and finally after powerfully preserving them in the fellowship of his son to glorify them.
25:30: God did all this in order to demonstrate his mercy. Did you hear that? Not to demonstrate fairness, but to demonstrate his mercy to the praise of the riches of his glorious grace.
25:41: As scripture says, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world so that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.
25:48: He predestined us whom he adopted as his children through Jesus Christ in himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of his glorious grace by which he made us pleasing to himself in his beloved.
26:00: And of course the beloved there in Ephesians 1 6 is Christ himself. We are accepted in Jesus Christ. In Romans 8 30, and elsewhere, those whom he predestined he also called and those whom he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified.
26:16: Okay, article 8, a single decision of election. This election is not of many kinds. It is one and the same election for all who were to be saved in the
26:24: Old and the New Testament. For scripture declares that there is a single good pleasure purpose and plan of God's will by which he chose us from eternity both to grace and to glory both to salvation and to the way of salvation which he prepared in advance for us to walk in.
26:40: Article 9, election not based on foreseen faith. Listen closely. This same election took place not on the basis of foreseen faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, or of any other good quality and disposition as though it were based on a prerequisite cause or condition in the person to be chosen but rather for the purpose of faith of the obedience of faith of holiness and so on.
27:02: Accordingly, election is the source of each of the benefits of salvation, faith, holiness, and the other saving graces and at last eternal life itself flow forth from election as its fruits and effects.
27:13: As the Apostle says, he chose us not because we were but so that we would be holy and blameless before him in love.
27:23: So that whole idea of God electing based on foreseeing what we would do, foreseeing our works or our faith, if you really do believe that, you believe we're saved by merit.
27:33: I mean, if you're saying that God chose us because he foresaw what we would do in certain situations, then in effect we are our own saviors.
27:41: We are the decisive factor in the matter. And of course, that's just not the case. Let's say that God did do that.
27:48: I think that that wreaks havoc on your doctrine of God. You have the idea of God looking down the corridor of time and learning things, seeing how people would react and then reacting to it.
28:00: That totally destroys God's omniscience anyway. But let's just say for the sake of argument, God looked down the corridor of time to see what we would be and what we would do in given certain situations.
28:09: The fact of the matter is, the fact of the matter is, what would God have foreseen? Sin. If you look down the corridor of time to see what would
28:17: I do in this situation or that situation or what I've responded to this or that, what he would have seen is sin, closeness, resistance, and the positive existence of total rebellion against him.
28:30: So this idea of God looking down the corridors of time and seeing how people would react, well, if he did do that, which he didn't, but let's just say he did, all he would have seen is sin.
28:39: All he would have seen is rebellion. No one is able to come to Christ.
28:44: No one is able to understand the things of the Spirit. No one is able to submit themselves to the law of God.
28:50: U'dais dunatai. U'dunatai. Not able. Not able. No one is able. No one is able. So what would he have foreseen?
28:57: Total disability. He would have seen us in our sin, loving it, and wanting nothing to do with him.
29:03: Okay, Article 10. Election based on God's good pleasure. So it's not based on foreseen faith. It's unconditional. Election is based on God's good pleasure.
29:11: So this is a good answer here. When people say, so you're saying it's basically totally arbitrary or capricious on God's part.
29:16: No, election is never said to be arbitrary or capricious. It's based on God's purpose, his boule, his plan.
29:24: Listen. But the cause of this undeserved election is exclusively the good pleasure of God.
29:30: It's his good pleasure. This does not involve his choosing certain human qualities or actions from among all those possible as a condition of salvation, but rather involves his adopting certain particular persons from among the common mass of sinners as his own possession.
29:45: As Scripture says, when the children were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, she,
29:52: Rebecca, was told, the older will serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
29:59: And Acts 13, 48. All who were appointed for eternal life believed. That was a passage that really troubled me years ago.
30:07: Acts 13, 48. As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. So why did they believe?
30:13: Because they had been appointed to eternal life. What are you gonna do with that one?
30:18: Well, eventually, you have to just believe it. Article 11. Election is unchangeable.
30:25: Just as God himself is most wise, unchangeable, all -knowing, and almighty, so the election made by him can neither be suspended nor altered, revoked or annulled.
30:33: Neither can his chosen ones be cast off nor their number reduced. Article 12.
30:38: The assurance of election. Listen carefully to this. This is another important one. Assurance of this, their eternal and unchangeable election to salvation, is given to the chosen in due time.
30:48: Though by various stages and in differing measure, such assurance comes not by inquisitive searching into the hidden and deep things of God, but by noticing within themselves with spiritual joy and holy delight the unmistakable fruits of election pointed out in God's Word, such as a true faith in Christ, a childlike fear of God, a godly sorrow for their sins, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on.
31:13: I would add to that list a humble submission to and delight in what the scripture says about this very topic.
31:23: It may not be that way right out of the gate, but over time, God will teach us and show us it was not us who sought him, but him who sought us.
31:33: It was not that I got my act together and finally repented and believed because I could see things finally in my own libertarian autonomy or anything like that, but rather God closed in on me.
31:46: God was the one who drew me to himself. Irresistibly, I believed in Jesus Christ not because I'm better or smarter, but because God changed me.
31:54: God had mercy upon me when he could have justly left me in my sins. And I'll tell you, that's the most humbling thing there is.
32:02: That ought to cause us to just weave tears of gratitude to God for his graciousness to us.
32:09: He teaches us, like little children, he teaches us how to believe in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation.
32:15: No matter how many John Pipers or whoever else is trying to encroach on that by in some way locating the final salvation that we get in our works, the elect are never gonna believe that stuff.
32:27: They're never gonna believe those things because they are taught by God how to trust in Christ. And one of the best books
32:32: I ever read was John Owen's book on justification by faith alone. I mean, it's a beast of a book.
32:38: But right out of the gate in that book, he really lays to rest the idea that well, there weren't many people that were real clear on justification and exactly how a person gets to heaven early on in church history.
32:47: Although I think Buchanan and others have given a very broad testimony to justification by faith apart from works in every century after the
32:55: Apostles. Also, Stephen Lawson's books, A Long Line of Godly Men, goes through a lot of those men in the early church that did see it like in every century after the time of the
33:05: Apostles. Goshock and Augustine and many others. Although, you know, there's confusing statements here and there.
33:10: But Owen made the point in his book, the elect have always known how to put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation because it is
33:19: God who teaches them to do so. You know, I've heard a lot of false teaching in my time. I've heard a lot of false
33:24: Gospels in my time. And it's such a delight to me that I've never given heed to any of them. As soon as John Piper made the statements that he did, that we're saved through those works and everything, immediately
33:35: I knew that was wrong. Immediately, I knew that was wrong because it's not taught in Scripture. It's not what the Bible says about any of these kinds of things.
33:42: And it's so important. It's so important that we maintain purity in our understanding of the
33:48: Gospel. And it's God who teaches us to do that. I know. I am so thankful to Christ.
33:53: I will never trust in my works that I do. I will never trust in, you know, trying to be a good husband and father and pastor and doing good works and the things that I've done throughout my life.
34:04: I would never trust in those things as the basis of my final acceptance with God. Will God remember and reward our works?
34:10: Yeah. Hebrews 6 .10. He is not unjust to forget your work. Does that have anything to do with the grounds of my salvation?
34:16: Of course not. Of course not. Those things could never save me. They could never withstand the scrutiny of God's holiness in terms of the accepting and accounting of my person as righteous in God's sight.
34:28: And so a childlike fear of God, godly sorrow for sin, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, a longing for worship, a love for the
34:36: Word of God. Those are the marks of election. And those are the fruits that God shows us in our lives to show us that He has begun this good work in us.
34:43: And He is so gracious to show us those things. Article 13. The fruit of this assurance. In their awareness and assurance of this election,
34:51: God's children daily find greater cause to humble themselves before God, to adore the fathomless depths of His mercies, to cleanse themselves, and to give fervent love in return to Him who first so greatly loved them.
35:02: Isn't that wonderful? You got to love these old, you know, reformed documents. They're so warmly pastoral.
35:09: I mean, they're just wonderful. It goes on. This is far from saying that this teaching concerning election and reflection upon it makes
35:16: God's children lax in observing His commandments or carnally self -assured. By God's just judgment, this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it, but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen.
35:32: That's just, that is so well said. Listen to that again. This is far from saying that this teaching concerning election and reflection upon it makes
35:40: God's children lax in observing His commandments or carnally self -assured. The doctrine of unconditional electing grace ignited prayer and a burden for the loss
35:49: I've never experienced in my life. It ignited a sense of gratitude to God I'd never had, because for a while there in my
35:57: Christian life, I really thought people that didn't believe were just dumb, and I was smart enough to see what's so obvious.
36:02: There's a God that exists. Who made all this amazing stuff and the way it all works together and our eyes and ears and the magnificent glory of the created cosmos.
36:11: I mean, obviously, clearly, there's a God here, and we all fall short. Everyone knows they're not perfect.
36:16: We know that we're sinful. What's wrong with you people? And then finally realizing the same thing that was wrong with me.
36:22: I was blind, dead, deaf, and dumb in my sin and had no interest in God. And if He had not irresistibly and effectually called me,
36:28: I would never have had any interest in God and would have happily continued in sin all the way to hell. But the fruit of understanding election is that it drives you to holiness.
36:41: It drives you to be in gratitude to God, to live your life as a sacrifice of praise.
36:47: To His holy name, because He has saved you by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone.
36:53: Article 14, teaching election properly. Another real important one here. Just as by God's wise plan, this teaching concerning divine election has been proclaimed to the prophets,
37:03: Christ Himself, and the Apostles in Old and New Testament times, and has subsequently been committed to writing in the
37:09: Holy Scriptures, so also today in God's Church, for which it was specifically intended, this teaching must be set forth with a spirit of discretion, without inquisitive, excuse me, in a godly and holy manner, at the appropriate time and place, without inquisitive searching into the ways of the
37:26: Most High. This must be done for the glory of God's most holy name and for the lively comfort of His people.
37:33: We have to be wise and gracious and godly in the way that we set forth this doctrine.
37:39: It can be very jarring to new believers to try to see these things, and instead of recognizing it's a great source of comfort and encouragement, it can be a source of real consternation for people early on.
37:50: It was for me. It took a while of studying God's Word and of searching the Scriptures and seeing what
37:58: Article 1 said here. God has the right to condemn the entire human race. This is not a matter that has anything to do with justice or fairness.
38:07: This is about the mercy of God towards people who are all equally deserving of hellfire, and God mercifully chooses to save some.
38:18: So election is not opposed to anyone coming to Christ. It's not that there's all these people that would come, but election won't let them.
38:24: No, nobody would ever want to come to Christ without election. Okay, Article 15,
38:30: Reprobation. Moreover, the Holy Scripture most especially highlights this eternal and undeserved grace of our election and brings it out more clearly for us, and that it further bears witness that not all people have been chosen, but that some have not been chosen or have been passed by in God's eternal election.
38:46: Those, that is, concerning whom God, on the basis of his entirely free, most just, irreproachable, and unchangeable good pleasure, made the following decision to leave them in the common misery.
38:59: Okay, not to put them there, because they're already there, to leave them in their common misery, into which by their own fault they have plunged themselves, not to grant them saving faith and the grace of conversion, but finally to condemn and eternally punish them, having been left in their own ways and under his just judgment, not only for their unbelief, but also for all their other sins, in order to display his justice.
39:22: And this decision of reprobation, which does not at all make God the author of sin a blasphemous thought, but rather it's fearful, irreproachable, just, judge, and avenger.
39:34: Okay, so God is the just judge and avenger of sin, and mankind is in sin and loves sin and wants nothing to do with God.
39:43: Article 16, Responses to the Teaching of Reprobation. Those who do not yet actively experience within themselves a living faith in Christ, or an assured confidence of heart, peace of conscience, a zeal for childlike obedience, and a glorying in God through Christ, but who nevertheless use the means by which
40:00: God has promised to work these things in us, such people ought not to be alarmed at the mention of reprobation, nor to count themselves among the reprobate.
40:08: Rather, they ought to continue diligently in the use of the means, to desire fervently a time of more abundant grace, and to wait for it in reverence and humility.
40:18: See what they're saying here? They're addressing the pastoral concern here. People can become convinced that they're reprobate, and that they're never really going to know and understand
40:25: Christ. What is our counsel to such people? Keep using the means of grace. Do a detailed study of the work of Christ.
40:32: Make sure you never miss church. Always go to the preaching of the Word. Engage in the spiritual disciplines and exercises.
40:39: Listen, on the other hand, those who seriously desire to turn to God, to be pleasing to him alone, and to be delivered from the body of death, but are not yet able to make such progress along the way of godliness and faith as they would like, and that's most of us most of the time, such people ought much less to stand in fear of the teaching concerning reprobation, since our merciful
40:58: God has promised that he will not snuff out a smoldering wick, and that he will not break a bruised reed. Isn't that wonderful?
41:05: So very true. God is not the patron of a lost cause. Okay, and we need not be scared of reprobation.
41:14: God has promised us he will not snuff out a smoldering wick, and he will not break a bruised reed. Listen, however, those who have forgotten
41:20: God and their Savior Jesus Christ and have abandoned themselves wholly to the cares of the world and the pleasures of the flesh, such people have every reason to stand in fear of this teaching, as long as they do not seriously turn to God.
41:32: One of the greatest sermons series I ever did was on the Beatitudes. In Matthew 5,
41:38: I read Thomas Watson's book on the Beatitudes. Great book. And going through Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn.
41:47: Those first two Beatitudes are just wonderful, because poorness of spirit, poverty of spirit, is really the place where we live most of our
41:56: Christian lives. I have never been satisfied with my sanctification, or my prayer life, or the depth of my repentance.
42:03: And the fact is, I don't expect ever to be satisfied with it. We're always gonna have a sense of our own spiritual brokenness and poverty.
42:10: That is itself a gift of God. You know why that's a gift? To feel broken before God, and to feel like I am
42:17: NOT the Christian man that I should be. You know why that's a gift? Because it keeps us clinging to the cross alone for our salvation.
42:25: Part of the issue, part of what just baffles my mind, listening to someone like John Piper, is
42:31: I would love to ask him, How's it going with being saved through your works? I mean, have you done enough?
42:38: You think you've done enough of... Have you put sin to death sufficiently? Have you pursued holiness enough that you can see the
42:46: Lord, based on your misinterpretation of Hebrews 12 14? How's it going? How's it going trying to save yourself with those things?
42:53: That's ridiculous. It's absolutely absurd. Poverty of spirit and mourning over sin is the normal condition of the
43:01: Christian life. And so, I've always encouraged people. People have told me, pastorally, have asked me the question, you know,
43:09: I'm not satisfied with my holiness. I'm not satisfied with my prayers. I'm not satisfied with my zeal for God.
43:16: And my answer to them, pastorally, is do you expect ever to be? The person who comes to me and says, yeah, yeah,
43:22: I'm totally satisfied with my repentance and my prayer life and the depth of my faith and my love for God and neighbor. That's the person
43:28: I worry about. The person who is confident that they're doing those things sufficiently. That's the person that gives me pause.
43:33: That makes me think, hey, they probably need to hear the gospel. But living and understanding the brokenness with which we live in our own poverty of spirit, that's the normal Christian life.
43:42: That's the place where we live our lives. Firewall alert.
43:47: What does that mean? Okay. Article 17, the salvation of the infants of believers.
43:53: Since we must make judgments about God's will from his word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature, but by virtue of the gracious covenant in which they, together with their parents, are included, godly parents ought not to doubt the election and salvation of their children whom
44:08: God calls out of this life in infancy. It's a very encouraging thing. David said of his child that he had with Bathsheba that God struck dead because David had given opportunities to the enemies of God to blaspheme him by his sin that he committed.
44:22: David said, he will not return to me, but I will go to him. John the Baptist was filled with the spirit from the time he was in his mother's womb.
44:29: God is able to save infants. We, my family, you know, my wife and I have nine children. Together, we lost three.
44:35: We had three miscarriages along the way, and I'm confident. I'm confident in God that he has shown them mercy.
44:41: But God is free and sovereign in that matter, and I would never, Rob, try to take that away from him.
44:47: Okay, the last article here, article 18, the proper attitude toward election and reprobation. To those who complain about this grace of an undeserved election and about the severity of a just reprobation, we reply with the words of the
45:00: Apostle, who are you, O man, to talk back to God? And that's the same answer we have to say to all the people that reject unconditional electing grace today.
45:09: Who are you to talk back to God? And with the words of our Savior, have I no right to do what I want with my own things?
45:15: Matthew 20, verse 15. We, however, with reverent adoration of these secret things, cry out with the
45:21: Apostle, O the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways beyond tracing out.
45:29: For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has first given to God that God should repay him?
45:34: For from him, and through him, and to whom are all things, to him be the glory forever. Amen. Romans 11, 33 through 36.
45:42: So there you have the 18 articles of positive biblical teaching on divine predestination.
45:48: Now we move into the section under the first heading here, the first point of Calvinism here. The rejection of errors.
45:54: By which the Dutch churches have been for some time disturbed. Having set forth the orthodox teaching concerning election and reprobation, the
46:02: Synod rejects the errors of those who teach, number one, who teach that the will of God to save those who would believe and persevere in faith, and in the obedience of faith, is the whole and entire decision of election to salvation, and that nothing else concerning this decision has been revealed in God's Word.
46:20: So there you have the condemnation of everyone who says, well God, what is predestination and election?
46:27: God elected to save those who would, of their free will, believe. They're rejecting that. The second thing here in this first paragraph.
46:35: For they deceive the simple and plainly contradict Holy Scripture in its testimony that God does not only wish to save those who would believe, but that he has also from eternity chosen certain particular people to whom, rather than to others, he would within time grant faith in Christ and perseverance.
46:52: As Scripture says in John 17 6, I have revealed your name to those whom you gave me. Likewise in Acts 13 48, all who were appointed for eternal life believed, in Ephesians 1 4, and he chose us before the foundation of the world so that we should be holy.
47:10: What's the direct object of God's choosing there? It is individual people. It's not
47:15: Christ, and it's not a plan. It is individual people elected by name individually.
47:24: They also reject the errors of those who teach, number two, that God's election to eternal life is of many kinds, one general and indefinite, the other particular indefinite, and the latter in turn either incomplete, revocable, non -preemptory, or conditional, or else complete, irrevocable, and preemptory, or absolute.
47:43: Likewise, who teach that there is one election to faith and another to salvation so that there can be an election to justifying faith apart from a preemptory election to salvation.
47:52: This is a position that's held by a lot of Roman Catholics. In fact, there was a debate that happened a long, long time ago on the radio between James White and a
48:00: Roman Catholic apologist named Jimmy Akin, and Akin held this view that there's predestination to grace and then predestination to glory.
48:07: There's predestination to initial salvation and then predestination to final salvation, as if there's a bunch of different kinds of predestination in Scripture.
48:14: There's not. The synod continues, For this is an invention of the human brain devised apart from the
48:21: Scriptures which distorts the teaching concerning election and breaks up this golden chain of salvation. Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called these he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
48:34: Okay, there's not different types of election. Election is always unto full and final entrance into glorification in heaven.
48:41: Okay, third thing they reject on this issue of predestination. They reject those who teach that God's good pleasure and purpose, which
48:48: Scripture mentions in his teaching of election, does not involve God's choosing certain particular people rather than others, but involves
48:55: God's choosing out of all possible conditions, including the works of the law, or out of the whole order of things, the intrinsically unworthy act of faith, as well as the imperfect obedience of faith to be a condition of salvation.
49:08: You hear what they're saying there? God does not predestine to accept our autonomous faith as the basis of our salvation.
49:16: Look, to be a condition of salvation. And it involves his graciously wishing to count this as perfect obedience and to look upon it as worthy of the reward of eternal life.
49:26: So God's predestination is not that he predestined to accept faith as perfect righteousness in his sight, or as perfect obedience in his sight.
49:35: Listen to the way they condemn this. For by this pernicious error the good pleasure of God and the merit of Christ are robbed of their effectiveness and people are drawn away by unprofitable inquiries from the truth of undeserved justification and from the simplicity of the
49:48: Scriptures. It also gives the lie to these words of the Apostle. God called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of works, but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.
50:03: Okay, they reject it. Fourthly, those who teach that in election to faith a prerequisite condition is that man should rightly use the light of nature, be upright, unassuming, humble, and disposed to eternal life, as though election depended to some extent on these factors.
50:19: This is what a lot of men really seem to be teaching today. That, yeah, election is that God would would allow the created general revelation that he gives to all men everywhere.
50:31: He predestines that if we use those things properly, he'll save us. And that's just not the case at all.
50:37: Listen to how they condemn it. For this smacks of pelagious, and it clearly calls into question the words of the
50:44: Apostle. We lived at one time in the passions of our flesh, following the will of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children of wrath like everyone else.
50:53: But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in transgressions, made us alive with Christ, by whose grace you have been saved.
51:03: And God raised us up with him and seated us with him in heaven in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages we might show the surpassing riches of his grace, according to his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
51:13: For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, not by works so that no one can boast. Now, you'll hear a lot in the
51:21: Southern Baptist Convention and among those who hold to a form of Arminianism, teaching that common grace or general revelation is actually sufficient to bring people to a knowledge of Christ.
51:33: And I pointed that out at the beginning of this podcast, that that's just not biblical at all. What is revealed from heaven is simply that God exists and that he's our judge and that we are all condemned before him.
51:43: That's what Romans 1 and 2 is teaching. I'll never forget the first time someone said, well, Romans chapter 1 and 2, when
51:50: Gentiles do the things of the law, they show that the law is written on their hearts. Well, that means that we can, that common grace and natural revelation is sufficient for us to believe in something.
52:00: And we're thinking that's not what that says at all. All that's teaching is that men know God exists and they know that they fall short of the standard and they're completely without excuse.
52:08: Those who sin in the law will be judged by the law. Those who sin without law will be judged. By the law, the same law that condemns them because they have the law of God written on their hearts.
52:18: Okay, fifthly, they condemn the errors of those who teach that the incomplete and non -peremptory election of particular persons to salvation occurred on the basis of a foreseen faith, repentance, holiness, and godliness, which has just begun or continued for some time, but that complete and peremptory election occurred on the basis of a foreseen perseverance to the end in faith, repentance, holiness, and godliness, and that this is the gracious and evangelical worthiness on account of which the one who is chosen is more worthy than the one who is not chosen, and therefore that faith, the obedience of faith, holiness, godliness, and perseverance are not fruits or effects of an unchangeable election to glory, but indispensable conditions and causes which are prerequisite in those who are to be chosen in the complete election and which are foreseen as achieved in them.
53:05: And here's how they condemn this. This runs counter to the entire scripture, which throughout impresses upon our ears and hearts these sayings, among others, election is not by works, but of him who calls.
53:18: Remember that passage in Romans 9, 10 and following? For the twins not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, but of him who calls, it was said, the older shall serve the younger.
53:32: Jacob, I have loved ye, so I have hated. I've wondered how much clearer could it be? Before they were born, before they had done anything good or evil, clearly election and predestination are not on the basis of anything foreseen about us.
53:47: It's not on the basis of anything that we do. They had not done anything good or evil, but that the purpose of God according to election would stand not of works, but of him who calls.
53:57: There's no other way to make it clearer than that. Acts 13, 48. All who were appointed for eternal life believe.
54:03: Ephesians 1, 4. He chose us, not Christ, not our faith. He chose us as individuals in him that you should be holy.
54:11: John 15, 16. You did not choose me, but I chose you. Romans 11, 6. If by grace, not by works.
54:17: 1 John 4, 10. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
54:26: Okay. Sixthly, they reject the errors of those who teach that not every election to salvation is unchangeable, but that some of the chosen can perish and do in fact perish eternally with no decision of God to prevent it.
54:39: By this gross error, they make God changeable, destroy the comfort of the godly concerning the steadfastness of their election, and contradict the holy scriptures, which teach that the elect cannot be led astray.
54:50: Matthew 24, 24. John 6, 39. That Christ does not lose those given to him by the father.
54:57: And Romans 8, 30. And that those whom God predestined, called, and justified, he also glorified. You see, there are
55:03: Arminians, and the consistent ones still teach this, that a person can actually be justified and united to Jesus Christ, but end up in hell.
55:13: And the scriptures do not allow for that. The only way someone can be a true Christian is if they are one of God's elect.
55:18: They are one of the predestined. So it is not possible for someone who is truly effectually called and justified by faith alone to lose their salvation, because the only reason they were effectually called and justified is because God predestined them to that.
55:32: So you will never have a true, real, regenerate, born -again, justified believer that loses their salvation, that contradicts the scriptures.
55:41: Seventhly, they reject the errors of those who teach that in this life there is no fruit, no awareness, and no assurance of one's unchangeable election to glory, except as conditional upon something changeable and contingent.
55:53: For not only is it absurd to speak of an uncertain assurance, but these things also militate against the experience of the saints, who with the apostle rejoice from an awareness of their election, and sing the praises of this gift of God, who as Christ urged, urged, rejoiced with his disciples that their names have been written in heaven.
56:12: So we can know that we are among God's elect. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. When you see a true faith in Jesus Christ, when you trust only in Jesus Christ, for the whole of your salvation, not just for the initial part, but for the whole of your salvation and entering into heavenly glory, when you see in yourself a childlike fear of God, when you see in yourself a hunger and thirst for righteousness, a battle, an ongoing war with sin, a dissatisfaction with your own present level of holiness, and your confidence is in Christ alone, we can rejoice that our names are written in heaven.
56:44: We have that fruit. We have that assurance. It goes on, and finally, who uphold against the flaming arrows of the devil's temptations, the awareness of their election, with the question, who will bring any charge against those whom
56:57: God has chosen? Isn't that wonderful? To think of so many people who are robbed of these treasures, because their ministers or pastors or professors or teachers refuse to allow
57:08: God to be God in this matter of salvation is so tragic and sad. Eighthly, they reject the errors of those who teach that it was not on the basis of his just will alone that God decided to leave anyone in the fall of Adam and in the common state of sin and condemnation or to pass by or to pass anyone by in the imparting of grace necessary for faith and conversion.
57:28: For these words stand fast. Romans 9 18. He has mercy on whom he wishes and he hardens whom he wishes.
57:35: And also in Matthew 13 11, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
57:44: Isn't that so clear? Matthew 11 25, likewise, I give glory to you,
57:50: Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and have revealed them to little children.
57:56: Yes, Father, because that was your pleasure. Isn't that amazing? It's so clear.
58:02: God has mercy on whom he wills and he hardens whom he wills. And it has been given to some to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven and it has not been given to others.
58:11: God is sovereign in this matter and it is just and righteous that he withholds this from certain people.
58:17: They don't deserve it and they don't want it either. Okay, tenthly and finally, or excuse me, ninthly, finally, they reject the errors of those who teach that the cause for God sending the gospel to one people rather than to another is not merely and solely
58:30: God's good pleasure, but rather that one people is better and worthier than the other to whom the gospel is not communicated.
58:38: For Moses contradicts this when he addresses the people of Israel as follows. Behold, to Jehovah your
58:43: God belong the heavens and the highest heavens, the earth and whatever is in it. But Jehovah was inclined in his affection to love your ancestors alone and choose out of their descendants after them you above all peoples as at this day.
58:56: Deuteronomy 10, 14 and 15. And Matthew 11, 21. And also Christ, woe to you
59:02: Chorazin, woe to you Bethsaida, for if those mighty works done in you have been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
59:11: So that's the end of the first major heading of the Synod of Dort on predestination. It is based completely and solely and only on God's good pleasure and it is not based upon conditions or anything that he foresaw in us or about us or that we would ever do, but solely and only of his good pleasure.
59:29: God chooses to save some among all who are equally deserving of damnation and wrath.
59:36: And so election is not opposed to fairness. It is entirely gracious that God does this to glorify his grace alone.
59:44: When you want to think about what does the Bible teach about grace, grace necessitates unconditional election.
59:51: Without unconditional election, you cannot argue that we're saved by grace. And that's why they said this error that the
59:57: Arminians are bringing forward that election is based on what God would foresee in us really is a work salvation.
01:00:04: It is we are the decisive factors in our own salvation and that's contrary to scripture. And so they rejected those errors and condemned them as heretical.
01:00:14: And they got rid of all the ministers that did not understand and teach what scripture teaches about this. They saw this was a giant step back towards Roman Catholicism.
01:00:24: And that's how they saw it. And that's still the problem to this very day with those who reject unconditional electing grace in favor of man being the decisive factor in his own salvation.
01:00:35: So I hope this has been helpful to you. We will go into the the next point of doctrine that the
01:00:41: Synod of Dort dealt with and that second point of doctrine is Christ's death and human redemption through it. And so we're going to look at the particular redemption of Jesus Christ that he came into the world to save his people from their sins.
01:00:53: Not to make the salvation of all possible. Not to make all men savable. But to save his people from their sins and I'm looking forward to that on our next podcast.
01:01:02: This has been Pastor Patrick Hines signing off. Thank you for tuning in to The Protestant Witness and looking forward to being with you next time.