Cannons of Dort: Divine Election Article I

Canons of Dort

The Canons of Dort come from an international gathering of reformed leaders around the Netherlands in 1618-19. The main purposes of the gathering was to address the Arminianism controversy spreading through the church in that area concerning the way in which believers receive the benefit of Christ. The canons carefully articulate Calvinism and the beliefs in direct rebuttal of Arminianism. This confession is a very finely tuned piece of theological writing, ably delineating a biblically Reformed perspective on matters central to Christian life and experience.

Divine Election and Reprobation

The Judgment Concerning Divine Predestination Which the Synod Declares to Be in Agreement with the Word of God and Accepted Till Now in the Reformed Churches, Set Forth in Several Articles

Article 1: God’s Right to Condemn All People

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. As the apostle says: “The whole world is liable to the condemnation of God” (Rom. 3:19), “All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).