Heidelcast Series: Every Tribe, Tongue, And Nation

When people outside of the Reformed churches think about Reformed theology, they often think of the so-called “Five Points,” or TULIP. As it turns out, there is a lot more to the Canons of Dort (1619) than the five points or horticulture. The Canons were drafted and adopted by a Synod in response to five complaints (Remonstrance) put forward by a group known as the Remonstrants, who were deeply influenced by the teaching of Jacob Arminius (1560–1609). He was a bright, articulate, minister and theologian in the Dutch Reformed Churches who suffered a great loss as a young man and who, in response to that tragedy and under the influence of a Roman Catholic theory of about what God knows about our choices (Monism or Middle Knowledge) revised Reformed theology significantly. In preaching through the book of Romans he proposed a radical radical departure from the traditional Augustinian understanding of Romans chapters 7 and 9 and as a theology professor in the University of Leiden he continued that trajectory. His followers, the Remonstrants (or Arminians) continued his work. The Reformed Churches from across Europe and the British Isles gathered during 1618–19 to respond what they regarded as a heretical movement and a fundamental threat to the Reformation gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.