For those interested in the actions of URCNA Synod Schereville regarding the so-called Federal Vision, the Exposition of the Nine Points of pastoral advice adopted by Synod this Summer is now revised lightly and re-formatted here.

Here are the rest of the posts in this series

We reject the errors of those who teach:

9. who teach that there is a separate and final justification grounded partly upon righteousness or sanctity inherent in the Christian (HC 52; BC 37).

As the medieval church accepted the premise that God can only declare one righteous if that one is actually, intrinsically, inherently, righteous (God says what he says because you are what you are) they also developed a corollary: a distinction between initial and final justification.

In the medieval and modern Roman system, one is said to be initially justified in baptism. If one survived infancy (infant mortality rates in the middle ages and through the 16th century were very high) then one was said to have an "unformed faith" until after the grace of confirmation. Following that one is now obligated to final justification based upon inherent, intrinsic, personal sanctity. This holiness was (and is) said to be the fruit of grace, it is Spirit-wrought (condign merit) and cooperation with grace. Faith is now said to be "formed by love" (i.e., grace and cooperation with grace). At the final judgment after one has achieved perfection (following purgatory in most cases; unless one had a plenary indulgence!)

The motive of this system is patently obvious: To get Christians to behave themselves.

The funny thing is that it was a complete failure. It didn't work. The church records and humanist literature from the early 16th century, from the period just before the Reformation, show that moral corruption in the church was extensive. An early 16th-century council complained that the Roman church was corrupt in head and members! When Luther traveled to Rome, his one trip away from "Germany" (there wasn't any such thing really in the 16th century), he found corruption on a scale that he could not imagine. He expected to find the holy city, the city of God, a city shining on a hill (7 of them!) but instead he found indulgences for sale to a degree that dwarfed Tetzel's operation in Germany. The city was rife with prostitution (the scene in the recent Luther film captures this nicely). The principal customers were pilgrims and priests.

Essentially, the medieval and Roman system (grace and cooperation with grace or "grace and works") put the Christian on a legal footing in order to ensure obedience. The theory is that, if we want Christians to behave, we must suspend their final standing before God upon good behavior or else they have no incentive to be good. The theory is that the best incentive to behave is fear of damnation. Who could complain? After all, every Christian had been given his share of divine help and medicine (grace) and now it was up to him to do his part, to do, as some of them put it, "What lies with himself" (facientibus quod in se est, Deus non denegat gratiam). God will give grace to those who do their part, who fulfill their part of the covenant. 

Well, as you see, the system was a total failure. The pre-Reformation popes were mostly corrupt. Some of them were outright murderers and adulterers. It's no surprise that the Protestants described the papacy as "Antichrist." It was!

What is utterly shocking and appalling about the turn by the Federal Vision and others such as John Kinnaird, an OPC elder who found himself, a few years back, on the floor of the OPC GA defending himself over this and who has recently re-iterated on the OPC discussion list that he still believes the things for which he was charged, and a former URC minister who has now united with the CREC, is that they have returned to this theological vomit.

From reading the FV and NPP (and related) literature, one would think that we never had a Reformation, that we never considered these matters, that this is the first time "Protestants" have ever faced a decadent culture and corrupt church and had to decide what to do.

When the 16th- and 17th-century Protestants faced these problems they responded by distinguishing clearly between law and gospel, between justification and sanctification, and between justification and vindication. When the neo-moralists (a small number of whom have already seen the logic of their position and united with the Roman communion) face these issues they resurrect long-discredited medieval and Roman doctrines. 

According to the Reformed understanding of God's Word, there is only one justification. Full stop. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." "Having been justified." These are Paul's words about this subject. The judgment has already been executed upon Christ the Second Adam. Justice has been done. Punishment has been meted out. The law has been fulfilled. Our sins were imputed to Christ so that Paul could say that Christ "became sin" for us. We who are united to Christ by grace alone, through faith alone, have "become the righteousness of God."

We who are resting, receiving, leaning, and trusting only on Christ and his finished work ARE righteous right now. We ARE justified right now. There is no future justification. We are as justified now as we'll ever be. Jesus isn't getting any more righteous. He accomplished all righteousness. That righteousness has been imputed. It's done. I think Jesus said something, somewhere, to that effect.

What happens at the judgment is vindication. It is announcement of the true state of things. It is a recognition of the realities accomplished by Christ, that are true of his people, that have been clouded by sin. This is why we described ourselves, in the 16th century, as the churches under the cross. We had a theology of the cross. We didn't expect the world to recognize us as Christ's people, any more than the world recognized Jesus as the Christ. We knew that, at the judgment, we would be vindicated in Christ.

These are two quite distinct operations: justification and vindication. The first is the divine declaration of righteousness on the basis of Christ's righteousness imputed. The second is the recognition of the first in the face of all doubt and contrary claims.

There is no reason to muck this up. There's no reason to confuse these things. It isn't that complicated, unless one is trying to revise the doctrine of justification or the doctrine of vindication, unless one takes up the Romanist language of initial and final justification, unless one is looking for a way to wedge in works (Spirit-wrought sanctity and cooperation with grace) as part of the ground or instrument of justification.

Initial and final justification: not good news for those trusting and obeying and hoping to be someday recognized by God as fully sanctified. As they say: Good luck with that buddy.

Justification and vindication: Good news for all those resting, leaning, trusting, receiving Christ and his finished work FOR us. 

Yes, but what about sanctity? Well, the Protestants and the Reformed confessions and churches hold that the justification and vindication scheme is Christ's way of sanctity. Yes, it's counter-intuitive. It doesn't seem like a very obvious or sensible way to get folk to behave themselves, but remember this is the God who thought it was a good idea to save his people by becoming incarnate and who as the God-Man suffered, obeyed, died, and was raised for our justification.  In other words, the whole Christian faith is counter-intuitive.  That's why Paul calls the gospel "foolishness." That's why the cross is a stumbling block and  rock of offense.

The gospel mystery of sanctification (to borrow a phrase) is that God the Spirit works sanctity in his people by the gospel of justification sola gratia, sola fide. Are Christ's people morally obligated to behave themselves? Absolutely! Do they get to heaven in any way BY behaving themselves? No, for if they did, then Christ died for nothing. That's what Paul says.

So, let the covenantal moralists, the New Perspectivists, and Federal Visionists (and related folks) have their semi-Pelagian grace and cooperation with grace system. If they want to try to stand, on the basis of grace and cooperation with grace, before the living God who destroyed whole cities by the power of his word, who sent fiery serpents among his people, who demanded such righteousness that the Son of God had to be our substitute, let them try. 

You and I will continue to hide behind our righteous Christ. We will continue to muddle through the Christian life dying to sin and living to Christ, sinning and repenting, crying out for grace and mercy, trusting our Savior to guide us safely through the valley of the shadow of death.  

This post ends the series on the Nine Points of Synod Schereville.  

Here are the rest of the posts in this series

We reject the errors of those: 

8. who define faith, in the act of justification, as being anything more than "leaning and resting on the sole obedience of Christ crucified" or "a certain knowledge" of and "a hearty trust" in Christ and His obedience and death for the elect (BC 23; HC 21);

For a very long time before the Reformation, in an effort to get Christ's people to behave themselves, some of the fathers and virtually all of the medieval theologians (I say virtually because I haven't read every word that every one of them has written on faith) defined justification as sanctification and they defined sanctification as Spirit-wrought, producing condign merit, with which we must cooperate. The defined faith in this process of justification as, in effect, trusting and obeying or trusting and cooperating with grace or as trusting and being "formed by love." These are all different ways of saying the same thing. The medieval church never denied that faith involved trusting Christ but the medieval church (and Trent following that tradition) denied that faith, in justification, is only confidence (the word used by the Council of Trent)  in or trusting in Christ  and his finished work. Faith, in the process of justification, they said, is "formed by love." This expression "formed by love" means "can be said to exist to the degree one is sanctified." To be "formed" in this case means "to be brought to reality." In other words, the medieval doctrine was that one is as justified as one is intrinsically, inherently, personally sanctified. Now you can appreciate why Luther was so terrified of God. He was perfectly sane and he actually believed what the medieval church confessed!

With this background you can also appreciate why the Protestants were so clear about their re-definition of justification. It is no longer to be considered a process but rather a once-for-all declaration by God about sinners, that they really are righteous before God, not on the basis of anything done by them or wrought by the Spirit in them, but only on the basis of the perfect righteousness of Christ (who was himself intrinsically and inherently righteous) imputed to believers. 

Faith, in the declaration of righteousness, necessarily can be nothing more than resting, trusting, receiving, and leaning upon Christ and his finished work. If it is anything other than these things, if it involves the least bit of our cooperation with grace, or our cooperation with Spirit-wrought sanctity, then necessarily the object of faith is no longer Christ and his finished work for us but must also include my cooperation, my Spirit-wrought sanctity. In other words, if faith is anything than what we confess it to be, then it has at least two objects. If so, then we are no longer teaching justification on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Christ alone. Christ is no longer the sole object of faith.

In case you missed it it is the conjunction AND that is the killer. In justification, if it's faith AND anything else, then Christ is only half a Savior. If it's "p And q And r" then he's only 1/3 Savior. Do the math. Did Jesus obey and die and rise to make salvation possible for those who do their part or did he obey, die, and rise to accomplish salvation for his people? 

As I've pointed out in this space before, at the Council of Trent, Rome rejected categorically the Protestant definitions of justification and of faith. Rome confesses:

If any one says, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favor of God; let him be anathema.

She also says: 

If any one says, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ's sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be anathema.

Rome understands what we confess. Synod Calgary affirmed that we are justified on the ground of the active obedience of Christ imputed and received through faith alone. Synod Schereville re-affirmed this conviction when it declared, "“that the Scriptures and confessions … teach the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, based upon the active and passive obedience of Christ alone." Synod re-affirmed our confession “that the Scriptures and confessions teach that faith is the sole instrument of our justification apart from all works.”

When we say "apart from all works"  we're referring to Romans 3:28 and Belgic Confession Art 22. This is how we understand by faith alone (sola fide). We believe in and confess "Spirit-wrought" sanctity. We believe in and confess the logical and moral necessity of good works as the fruit and evidence of justifying faith. It is in this sense that James speaks of faith in James 2. Notice the question that James asks in 2:14  "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?"

Notice please that James says, "if someone says he has faith...."  This is the essential question. There are folk, as becomes plain through the letter, in the Jerusalem congregation, who are claiming to be Christians, who claim to believe but the life of the congregation suggests otherwise. Thus James preaches the law to them, to teach them
their sin and to drive them to Christ.

See how James continues: "Can such a faith save him?" (the way the text uses the definite article suggests that the best translation is "this faith" or "such a faith"). Clearly, for James, the question is the sort of faith that the congregation has or doesn't. They have a "faith" that doesn't produce fruit, it has no works. It is a dead faith. There's no evidence that is true faith that unites one to Christ and consequently produces life and fruit in the believer. If there is no fruit, or if the fruit is evil, then we have a right to doubt the claim to faith.

Then James continues to give examples (vv. 15-16) of their refusal to share basic necessities with fellow Christians. Then in v. 17 he says, "This faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."  This faith is no true faith. It would be helpful if, in the English, the editors put "faith" in quotation marks to indicate James attitude toward their claim to faith.

This case becomes clear in v. 18. They will show their workless "faith" and James will show his faith "by" his works. Again, he reminds them of the Shema (Deut 6:4) that they recited every Sabbath in the Synagogue. It's fine to say the Shema, "Hear O Israel..." but even the demons believe and know that God is one. v. 21: Abraham was vindicated by his works when he offered up Isaac. James asks, "Was not Abraham our father declared to be just by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?" Remember the question that James is asking, about "such a faith."  How do we know that Abraham had true faith? Because he offered up his son. He believed God's promise. He believed in the resurrection. God did not declare Abraham righteous because or through his works or even because or through faith and works but rather James is making the point that, unlike his congregation, Abraham (whom they claimed as their father) had true faith in Christ and demonstrated it with obedience. "Justified" here clearly means "manifested" or "demonstrated."

Notice how James proceeds in v. 22: "You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;"  "Completed" makes sense if he's speaking about vindication, about evidence of the reality of true faith, but if it means that his righteousness was not yet completed, well, then we have a difficulty with Romans 8:1:  "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

James' view of justification before God is clear in 2:23: "and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness....'"  Thus, he has a clear distinction and doctrine of justification or demonstration of faith before men: vv. 24- 26: "You see that a person is justified [vindicated] by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified [i.e., her faith demonstrated] by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?  For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."

The problem with the covenant moralist revision (the Federal Vision, Norman Shepherd et al) of the definition of faith, so that it includes "works" or "Spirit-wrought sanctity" in faith, in the act of justification, is not only that it is anti-confessional and poor theology, it's bad biblical exegesis. The book of James isn't that difficult if we understand correctly what it is James is about. Unlike Rome and unlike the moralists, James knew the difference between law and gospel. He's preaching the law to his congregation to teach them their need of a Savior! He's pointing them to Christ and pointing them to clear examples of true faith. He's calling them to genuine repentance and to true faith in Christ and his finished work. He's not telling them that they are justified by faith and works (as Norman Shepherd said in 1974 and since revised to "faithfulness").

Finally, HC 21 is crystal clear on this (which is why in all the years of this controversy I've yet to see one of the moralists try to reconcile their views and revisions with HC 21):

 What is true faith?

True faith is not only a certain knowledge whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word; but also a hearty trust, which the Holy Spirit  works in me by the Gospel, that not only to others, but to me also, forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness and salvation are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits.

Here are the rest of the posts in this series.

Synod rejects the errors of those who: 

7. who teach that Spirit-wrought sanctity, human works, or cooperation with grace is any part either of the ground of our righteousness before God or any part of faith, that is, the "instrument by which we embrace Christ, our righteousness" (BC 22-24; HC 21, 60, 86);

 One of the great misconceptions about the Western church before the Reformation and therefore about the Reformation reaction is that the medieval church taught "salvation by works" or, more precisely, "justification by works" whereas the Reformation taught "salvation by grace" or, more precisely, "justification by grace." There are a couple of reasons why this way of speaking is misleading or problematic.

First, the claim that the medieval and the Tridentine (and post-Tridentine) Roman Church (even today!) teaches justification by works is a true conclusion and a powerful slogan but a misleading because one will not find many medieval or counter-Reformation or post-Reformation Roman theologians or Councils or Papal decrees saying "justified by works." Because the debate was (and is) rather more nuanced, sometimes Protestants are surprised to find the medieval and Roman theologians speaking so often and so effusively about grace.

Indeed, the Roman system of salvation (and justification) is positively infused (pun intended) with grace. Remember through the course of medieval history the Western church developed an elaborate sacramental system designed to impart grace to the sinner at every turn. So, a medieval or Roman theologian, when accused baldly of teaching justification by works could quite rightly reply, "What do you mean? There's never been such a gracious system of salvation!"

Here's the problem, and it's a very important problem touching the New Perspective(s) on Paul, the Federal Vision, and other sorts of moralists as well as others.

It is too often assumed that the only categories by which these problems, e.g., Paul and Second Temple Judaism, the Reformation reaction to the medieval church, are the categories "Pelagian" or "Anti-Pelagian."  This is a mistake. Though the Reformation often used the adjective "Pelagian" to describe the Roman soteriology, in fact it wasn't actually Pelagian any more than the Second Temple rabbis were Pelagian (i.e., teaching that we're not sinners until we sin and therefore don't need grace). The Rabbis recognized that we are sinful, but, they held, we're not so sinful that we cannot keep the law. They had--at least some of them--a doctrine of sin and grace and so did the medieval theologians and so did Trent and so does Vatican II. 

Failure, however, to recognize that, in each of these cases, the opponents of either Paul or Luther, had a doctrine of depravity and grace, has led too many to think that so long as they acknowledge sin and grace; and especially in Calvinist circles, so long as they say "sovereign grace" that everything else they say is "covered," as it were.

No. It doesn't work that way.

Paul's case and in the Reformation, we said: You aren't just a little sinful, you're dead in sins and trespasses. All medieval theologians taught, in one way or another, the necessity of grace and cooperation with grace toward justification. The Reformation rightly understood Paul to reject this formula and certainly the Reformation rejected this formula utterly.

The Second Temple rabbis and the Roman Church weren't baldly Pelagian. They were "semi-Pelagian." That term didn't come into use until later in the 16th century, but it's the best way of describing the views we rejected. Semi-Pelagians, whether they be 1st century rabbis or 21st century late modern moralists, teach justification by grace and cooperation with grace. It's the "and by cooperation with grace" part that God Paul, Luther, and Calvin so wound up.

To say "and cooperation with grace" is to change the formula completely because it attempts to synthesize two contrary principles: grace and works. When it comes to justification there is no synthesizing grace and works. Either we stand before the perfectly holy God on the basis of the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to us sinners and received by grace alone or we do not. It is not possible to say "by grace and works." If it is by grace, then it is not by works and if it is in the tiniest bit by our works, i.e., our cooperation with grace, then it is not by grace. This is what Paul says in Romans 11:6, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace" or in 2 Tim 1:9, "not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began...."

The medieval church taught (and the Roman church today teaches) that God the Spirit sovereignly works grace within the sinner working sanctity. They called this Spirit-wrought sanctity "condign merit." It is condign (i.e., "worthy of divine acceptance because it is perfect) because it is Spirit-wrought. Nevertheless, the sinner is obligated to cooperate with grace or there can be no merit. 

Remarkably, the moralists of our day are arguing a very similar program. There are two outstanding cases that come to mind. In our own federation, a minister preached a notorious sermon, "The Lion Won't Bite the Innocent" in which it was argued that, at the judgment, we shall stand before God not on the the basis of the imputed righteousness of Christ but on the basis of Spirit-wrought sanctity by virtue of our union with Christ. This sermon caused a complaint to the minister's consistory and the matter eventually came to Synod where our churches responded by affirming our belief in the imputation of the active obedience of Christ as the sole ground of our justification. 

At the same time this was happening, in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a ruling elder was teaching and writing the same doctrine as found in the "Lion" sermon. This elder taught (and continues to teach impenitently) that, at the judgment we will stand before God on the basis of real, intrinsic, inherent righteousness infused within us by the Spirit by virtue of our union with Christ.

The medieval church and and the entire Roman curia are cheering "Amen!" but Paul, Luther, and Calvin are are booing louder than the loudest Yankee fans Kim Riddlebarger has ever heard!

These two, the minister (who has since left the URCs) and the elder (who remains in the OPC) are teaching precisely the same thing that the entire Protestant Reformation rejected and they are teaching under the guise of being "truly Reformed." I'm sorry, but there's nothing "Reformed" about justification on the ground of Spirit-wrought sanctity or grace and cooperation with grace. There's nothing Pauline about it. It is Judaizing, it is medieval, it is Roman, it is moralizing, but it isn't biblical or Reformed in the least.   

There's no doubt that the Reformed confess the necessity of Spirit-wrought sanctity and even grace and cooperation with grace but not for justification. The fundamental distinction that Paul made, and that the Reformation recovered, is the distinction between justification and the divine declaration of righteousness and the sanctification as the progressive out working of that righteousness in our lives as a consequence of justification. This is why our catechism is in three parts: Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude. The last section flows from the second. It is the result, the consequence of it, not the basis or even the instrument by which we stand before God now or ever.

Second, this is why the Reformation theologians and churches were so careful to use the solas, the "alones" (or, in Luther's case, allein).  This is why we say "by grace alone." When we say "by grace alone" we are intentionally rejecting the formula of "grace and cooperation with grace.' There is no "and" when it comes to justification.

This is why we say "through faith alone." Faith is resting in and receiving Christ and his finished work. It is leaning on Christ. It is a certain knowledge and a hearty trust in Christ and his finished work "for us" not his ongoing work "in us," not as touching justification. Faith, in the declaration of justification, receives, it looks to another, it is an open, empty hand. It is not our doing, and it's power is not anything to do with us or anything wrought in us. The power of faith in the act of justification is in its object: Christ and is finished, perfect obedience for us and imputed to us.

This is why we say "in Christ alone." He and his righteousness for us is the object of faith in the declaration of justification. Faith does not look to or at anything or anyone else. It does not look at the believer or anything wrought in the believer by the Spirit. 

In this point Synod did a great service to the URCNAs and to the entire confessional Reformed community. By it we send a message not only to ourselves about how we understand God's Word and our confession but also where we stand in a fundamental issue in the current debate. One hopes that our sister churches will give special attention to this particular point.  

Here are the rest of the posts in this series.

Consider this statement:

That those who are incorporated into Christ by true faith, and have thereby become partakers of his life-giving Spirit, as a result have full power to strive against Satan, sin, the world, and their own flesh, and to win the victory; it being well understood that it is ever through the assisting grace of the Holy Spirit; and that Jesus Christ assists them through his Spirit in all temptations, extends to them his hand, and if only they are ready for the conflict, desire his help, and are not inactive, keeps them from falling, so that they, by no deceit or power of Satan, can be misled nor plucked out of Christ’s hands, according to the Word of Christ, John 10:28: “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” But whether they are capable, through negligence, of forsaking again the first beginning of their life in Christ, of again returning to this present evil world, of turning away from the holy doctrine which was delivered them, of losing a good conscience, of neglecting grace, that must be more particularly determined out of the Holy Scripture, before we ourselves can teach it with the full confidence of our mind.

This statement has all the hallmarks of a FV statement. In fact it quite resembles the recent FV Statement that has been discussed here and on several other blogs (e.g., Green Baggins and Reformed Musings). It says things that are true. It speaks of being incorporated into Christ by "true faith," just as the Reformed did, but it also contains much error. It suggests that believers become partakers of the Spirit by virtue of faith. Of course, unless the Spirit has worked through the Gospel to make one alive, he could never believe. Yet it goes on to say rightly that the Spirit gives believers power to fight against sin, the flesh, and the devil, that God gives his people assisting grace in sanctification with which they must cooperate, but again it seems as if we must take the first step. There are certainly shadows of error across the statement even as there real truths in it. If we cooperate, they wrote, we cannot be plucked out of Christ's hand.  You see how this statement makes our perseverance contingent ultimately on our cooperation with grace. It's possible, the statement says, for those who have "true faith" to fall away, such that they do not simply lose the joy of their salvation or the sense of God's presence, but that they actually return "to this present evil world...." There is ambiguity here, however. The statement recognizes that this doctrine is difficult and it's final formulation has yet to be "more particularly determined out of the Holy Scripture, before we ourselves can teach it with the full confidence of our mind." 

Right down to the closing ambiguity and feigned expression of humility this brief statement has Federal Vision written all over it. Who wrote it? Wilson? (after all it has affirmations of important orthodox poiints even as it undermines them at the same time - classic Wilson) or Wilkins, Leithart, or Barach --the ambiguity at the end seems to come from his keyboard. Is this a part of the recent FV statement that was lost on the cutting room floor?

No. It's none of these things.

This statement was published in 1610 by a group known then as the Remonstrants. You know them as the Arminians. In 1609, their leader, who spent most of twenty years denying that he was teaching these things, died. Not long afterward, the Arminians or Remonstrants published their Five Articles. It was to these five articles that the Synod of Dort replied.

If you know the Canons of Dort (1619), then you know that the Reformed Churches replied to this article in the Fifth Head of Doctrine. Under this head the Reformed Churches of the Europe and Britain uniformly and utterly rejected the notion that there are regenerate, elect people who fall away from Christ. The Reformed know anything about a Christians being historically, temporarily, conditionally elect (and united to Christ etc).

CD 5.4 says that sometimes the elect "are not always so influenced and moved by God that they cannot depart in some particular instances from the guidance of divine grace, and be seduced by the lusts of the flesh and obey them." This doesn't mean that they actually fall away, i.e., that they become reprobate. By this language the Reformed described the subjective experience of the elect not their objective state. One of the great problems of the FV doctrine is that they do not make this distinction.

Thus, believers are urged to "continually watch and pray, lest they should be led into temptation." When they are careless,  "they may be not only be carried away by the flesh, the world, and Satan into great and heinous sins...." If this occurs, as it did with King David, it is by "the righteous permission of God."

This isn't the same thing as saying that one was elect (in any way) and then fell away. 

That the Synod was describing the subjective condition of the believer is clear in CD 5.5 when we confess that

by such sins 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 for a while lose the sense of God’s favor, until, when they change their course by serious repentance, the light of God’s fatherly countenance again shines upon them. 

 
Like the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2, so in the Canons of God 5.6 there is a glorious, "But God..."

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 grievous falls; nor does He allow 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 or against the Holy Spirit; nor does He permit them to be totally deserted and plunge themselves into everlasting destruction.

Notice please how we speak about election. When it comes to salvation, we only know about one kind of election, the eternal, unconditional kind. So we speak of God's "unchangeable purpose of election."  From those whom God has elected, God never withdraws his Spirit. They never lose God's grace. They never lose their adoption of justification.

In 5.7, we confess that God has placed, within his elect, an incorruptible seed of regeneration. Therefore the elect can never fall away, they can never be "totally lost." In 5.8 this is attributed entirely to the mercy and grace of God. This has nothing to do with our cooperation with grace, but with God's initiative and sovereign grace. The ground of our salvation and preservation lies in God's immutability (unchangeablity). Our God cannot be changed. His decree (counsel) cannot be changed.  Neither can the "or the merit, intercession, and preservation of Christ4 be rendered ineffectual, nor the sealing of the Holy Spirit be frustrated or obliterated."

 For this reason, we can trust the promise of God (CD 5.9-10), we can have assurance without "any peculiar revelation contrary to or independent of the Word of God" that we belong to Christ and that his elect will never fall away. The source of our comfort, confidence, and assurance is "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...."

Yes, in this life we will doubt (5.11) and we may not always have the "full measure of assurance" that we ought to have, 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 make also the way of escape, that they may be able to endure it, and by the Holy Spirit again inspires them with the comfortable assurance of persevering."

No, this doesn't lead to immorality. Grace produces gratitude and sanctity; not all at once but gradually (5.12-14). This is a very important point. Notice how the Reformed deal with sanctity. How do we "get there"? We get there via the promise and gospel of Christ. There's no shortcut to sanctity around the foolishness of the gospel. If preachers want their congregations to be sanctified, the secret is not to preach sanctity (at least not all the time). The secret is to preach Christ and his obedience for his people. The secret is to preach the unmerited, eternal favor of God toward his people. The secret -- and it's no secret really, we've been doing it for centuries! -- is to preach Christ's faithfulness in the history of redemption. These are the things that produce piety in Christ's people.

According to CD 5.15, these things are alien to the "carnal mind." Telling Christ's people to "be pious," however intuitive it might be, isn't going to work, neither will it work (contrary to the expectations of Francis Beckwith, who recently converted to Rome, partly because he felt he had not enough incentive to be good) to make our justification before God contingent upon our behavior. Even if it all depended on our cooperation with grace, our sanctity, that would not be enough incentive to overcome our sinfulness. Grace and gratitude is more powerful, if less intuitive, motive than fear of damnation.

Finally, there is a section after each head of doctrine in our Canons of Dort titled, "Rejection of Errors." These rejections have not received as much attention as the positive teaching of the Synod, but we learn from them a great deal about the threat the Reformed faced from Arminianism (in roughly the same way we learn the threat Paul faced from the judaizers by reading Galatians).

In RE 5.1 we reject the error of saying that perseverance is not the fruit of election but rather that it is a condition of the new covenant, "which (as they declare) man before his decisive election and justification must fulfill through his free will." Notice that the Remonstrants distinguishd between a "conditional election" and a decisive election! Now, I'm not saying that the FV are "Arminians," but I am saying that they have been very foolish by wandering so near to the Remonstrant reservation. The FV makes a similar distinction, though theoretically different, practically ends up in very similar place. This is remarkable for ministers who call themselves Reformed and who say they subscribe the Canons of Dort. Have these fellows read the Rejection of Errors?

In RE 5.3 we reject the idea 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." Again, Synod rejected the same sort of conditionality proposed by the FV. Do we believe in "conditions" in the covenant of grace? Sure we do, but not the sort that the Arminians attached -- whereby salvation becomes merely possible for those who do their part or that the FV attach whereby salvation becomes merely possible for those who do their part.

The Synod calls the idea that God preserves those who do their part  "outspoken Pelagianism...." It might make men "free," or it might make it seem that they're free, but it robs God of his honor. 

Thus we reject the idea that the elect can ever actually fall away or commit the sin against the Holy Spirit (RE 5.3-4). We can know that we are elect, not by asking, "Am I elect?" but by asking, "Do I believe the gospel of Christ?" Only the elect believe and if one believes, then one is elect. It's that simple. If anyone tries to make it more complicated -- well, I think we know what to do with such tempters.

 We don't need a special revelation to have assurance of faith (CD RE 5.5). We trust the promises of God. To require special revelation for assurance is to reintroduce the "doubts of the papist" into the Reformed Churches.

In 5.7 we reject a sentence of the Arminians that is perilously close to that of the FV: "That the faith of those who believe for a time does not differ from justifying and saving faith except only in duration." Isn't this exactly what the FV says about the common state of all the baptized? Isn't this what they say about "baptismal union with Christ" and perseverance? I have been told by Federal Visionists more than once that the difference between Esau and Jacob is that the latter persevered and the former did not.

Not according to the Canons of Dort. Full stop.

As RE 5.9 concludes, our Lord prayed that believers should continue in faith. The Arminians, and to the degree the FV agree in substance with them, "contradict Christ Himself, who says: “I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail” (Lk 22:32)." 

This is a grave matter. Either perseverance is by grace alone, through faith alone, grounded in the sole obedience of Christ for his people, and in the preserving grace of the Spirit, behind all of which is the unconditional decree of election, it is not. The FV cannot have it both ways. They cannot tell us that they believe in an unconditional decree of election but then refuse to bring it to bear on our understanding of the way the covenant plays out in history. By doing so they make the decree theoretical and become practical Arminians. They don't like this accusation but it stings because it is true.

We don't have two systems of theology: a covenantal and a systematic. We have one faith that we express in two different ways. This is a basic difference between the orthodox and the FV and the fact that, after all the discussion and writing, they still don't understand this problem (as evidenced by their July 2007 Statement - released after the PCA GA and the URCNA Synod rejected their distinctive views) suggests that this no mere "experiment" (as they have sometimes said). This is a conviction for them which places them at odds with our confession. They are not "of us." They don't want us to think or say that because to recognize their theology as alien to Reformed theology, piety, and practice means excluding the Federal Visionists from our churches. They like living in our midst, benefiting from the orthodox but they don't want to confess our faith.

Just as they can't have two versions of the doctrine of election (covenantal and decretal) so they can't have two relations to our confession (to affirm and deny). 

Now it's up to the orthodox to see if we really are orthodox and if we'll make the decisions of the GAs and Synods stick in the courts and assemblies of the churches or whether we'll allow these quasi-Remonstrants to continue to subvert the faith from within and create the sort of havoc they've been doing.