Three Forms of Unity
The Canons of Dort (1618–1619)
Five heads of doctrine from the Synod of Dordrecht — answering the Arminian Remonstrance and confessing God’s sovereign grace in salvation.
In 1610, followers of Jacobus Arminius presented five articles (the Remonstrance) that challenged the Reformed churches on election, atonement, grace, and perseverance. The Synod of Dort (Dordrecht, Netherlands), meeting in 1618–1619 with international Reformed delegates, answered point by point in the Canons of Dort.
The Canons are not a full systematic confession like the Belgic or Westminster; they are a focused doctrinal judgment. Later summaries sometimes use the acronym TULIP, though that label came long after Dort. The Canons themselves emphasize both God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, and they reject fatalism and antinomianism.
At MPC the Canons are a supplemental Reformed document. Our only secondary doctrinal standard remains the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647).
Full text: CRCNA.
First Head
Divine Election and Reprobation
All people have sinned and deserve judgment. God in love sent His Son, and in grace elects some to salvation in Christ — not based on foreseen faith or works, but of sheer mercy. Others are left in their just condemnation. Election is the fountain of every saving good and should lead to humility, worship, and comfort — not curiosity or despair.
“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.”
Canons of Dort, I.7
“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; neither can his chosen ones be cast off, nor their number reduced.”
Canons of Dort, I.11
Scripture: Romans 3:23; John 3:16; Ephesians 1:4–11; Romans 9:10–23; Romans 8:28–30; Acts 13:48; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 2:7–8.
Second Head
Christ’s Death and Human Redemption Through It
Christ’s death is of infinite value — more than sufficient for the sins of the whole world — and the gospel is to be proclaimed promiscuously to all peoples. Yet His redemptive intent effectively secures salvation for the elect: He died to confirm the new covenant and actually save His people, not merely to make salvation possible.
“This death of God’s Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world.”
Canons of Dort, II.3
“For it was the entirely free plan and very gracious will and intention of God the Father that the enlivening and saving effectiveness of his Son’s death should work itself out in all the elect, in order that God might grant justifying faith to them only and thereby lead them without fail to salvation.”
Canons of Dort, II.8
Scripture: Hebrews 9:26–28; John 10:11, 15; John 17:9; Matthew 1:21; Ephesians 5:25; 1 Timothy 2:5–6; Isaiah 53:4–12; Mark 16:15.
Third and Fourth Heads
Human Corruption, Conversion to God, and the Way It Occurs
By the Fall we are unable, of ourselves, to any saving good. The gospel call goes out sincerely to all who hear. Those who are converted are regenerated by the Holy Spirit — not by moral suasion alone, but by a supernatural renewal that makes the dead alive, so that they believe willingly. Grace does not destroy the will; it heals and frees it.
“Therefore all people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin. Without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.”
Canons of Dort, III/IV.3
“When God carries out this good pleasure in the elect, or works true conversion in them, God not only sees to it that the gospel is proclaimed to them outwardly, and enlightens their minds powerfully by the Holy Spirit so that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God, but, by the effective operation of the same regenerating Spirit, God also penetrates into the inmost being, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised.”
Canons of Dort, III/IV.11
Scripture: Ephesians 2:1–5; Romans 8:7–8; John 6:44, 65; Ezekiel 36:26–27; Acts 16:14; Philippians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Titus 3:4–7.
Fifth Head
The Perseverance of the Saints
Those whom God regenerates He also preserves. Believers may fall into serious sin and lose the sense of God’s favor for a time, yet God does not permit them finally to lose true faith. Perseverance rests on God’s faithfulness, Christ’s intercession, and the Spirit’s sealing — and it calls us to watchfulness, not presumption.
“Because of these remnants of sin dwelling in them and also because of the temptations of the world and Satan, those who have been converted could not remain standing in this grace if left to their own resources. But God is faithful, mercifully strengthening them in the grace once conferred on them and powerfully preserving them in it to the end.”
Canons of Dort, V.3
“So it is not by their own merits or strength but by God’s undeserved mercy that they neither forfeit faith and grace totally nor remain in their downfalls to the end and are lost.”
Canons of Dort, V.8
Scripture: Philippians 1:6; John 10:28–29; Romans 8:31–39; 1 Peter 1:5; Hebrews 7:25; Ephesians 1:13–14; 1 John 2:19; Luke 22:31–32.
How Dort Relates to “TULIP”
Later English-speaking summaries often map Dort’s five heads to Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited (definite) atonement, Irresistible (effectual) grace, and Perseverance of the saints. The Canons themselves are richer than a slogan: they urge the free offer of the gospel, warn against pride, and insist that grace produces holiness.