Dear Editors

I am writing to ask for your help in leading a layperson to better understand exactly what, if anything, are the doctrinal differences officially between the PRC and the RPC. I humbly request that you stick to interacting only with these direct quotes below taken from binding decisions of the PRC Synods that I believe reflect some of the important doctrinal stances established by the PRC. Please do not refer to sermons, SB articles, emails, blogs, etc. or give your opinions on whether the decisions are correctly being implemented or not. If you have no issues with these decisions themselves, simply write, we believe these decisions are biblical and creedal. If you object to any of them, please precisely and concisely explain what you object to in the decisions below and give biblical and creedal support for your objections. Thank you for reading this request and I look forward to your reply.

Acts of Synod Quotes

2018

“Obedience—the obedience God requires and the obedience we gratefully give in a life of good works according to the power of His Spirit working in us—is never a prerequisite or, a condition unto, or the basis for, or an instrument/means unto or the way unto, but always a fruit in the covenant relationship, and as we walk in the way of obedience we experience covenant fellowship with God. Obedience never gains us or obtains anything in the covenant of God. Though we may lose the experience of covenant fellowship by continuing in disobedience, we never gain it by our obedience, but it is restored by faith in Christ and in the way of repentance.”—Pg 73

“If we will speak of God causing us to experience the blessings of salvation, then we must speak of faith, which is the one and only instrument. We must say, God causes us to experience the blessings of salvation through faith. Again, we experience the blessings of salvation through faith (instrument), on the basis of what Christ has done (ground), and in the way of our obedience (way of conduct or manner of living).”—Pg 76

“Our obedience is the fruit of faith and way of conduct in the enjoyment of covenant fellowship. We have fellowship with God only through faith in Christ and His perfect righteousness, and in the enjoyment of that fellowship with our holy God we must and do walk in good works of gratitude which are the fruits of our faith.”—Pgs 81, 82

2020

“Use of the words ‘according to’ to connect the reward of grace to deeds done in faith, however, is biblical (Rom 2:6, II Corinthians 5:10) and does not therefore conflict with the declaration of LD 7 that ‘everlasting righteousness, and salvation are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits.’ Both statements are equally true and not mutually exclusive.”—Pg 36

2021

“Teaching that repentance comes before certain blessings does not deny that repentance is always born of faith. Repentance arises out of a faith that is persuaded that God is plenteous in mercy and that He abundantly pardons for Christ’s sake. Also, faith is indeed the sole instrument whereby the believing sinner receives God’s pardon in Christ. In addition, to say that we enjoy God’s pardon in the way of repentance and that repentance occurs temporally prior to the reception of God’s pardon by faith does not mean that repentance is a basis for or instrument of, or condition to that pardon. We repent as the fruit of God effectually renewing us to repentance by his World and Spirit and that repentance is “the required way to seek and find forgiveness from a merciful God.” (Englesma). This is how God has marvelously ordered our salvation.”

“The Bible distinguishes between repentance and good works. Matthew 3;8 7 Acts 26:20”—Pgs 123, 124

In Christ,

Rick DeVries

REPLY

With the quotations you present from Synod 2018 and Synod 2020, my only disagreement is with the use of Romans 2:6, which Synod 2020 used as a proof for the following decision: “Use of the words ‘according to’ to connect the reward of grace to deeds done in faith, however, is biblical.” With the use of that verse I have here no creedal objection. However, I take exception to using that verse to support the decision of synod for two important reasons. First, the context of the beginning of Romans 2 is the strict application of the law apart from the gospel of Christ and, therefore, apart from faith in Christ (see Rom. 3:19–21). Second, federal visionists use Romans 2 as a ground for their doctrine of justification by works in the covenant. It should be noted that other Reformed theologians, noting this use in federal vision theology, deny that it applies to believers justified in Christ.

The longer quotation you provide from pages 123–24 in the Acts of Synod 2021 is too confusing to express clear agreement or disagreement. The confusion is in the sentence that is partially a quotation: “We repent as the fruit of God effectually renewing us to repentance by his [Word] and Spirit and that repentance is ‘the required way to seek and find forgiveness from a merciful God.’ ([Engelsma]).” If “the required way”—that is, repentance—is the good thing we do in order to seek and find forgiveness, then that statement is not orthodox with scripture and the Reformed creeds according to the decision of Synod 2018, which you quote from page 73 of the Acts of Synod.

Let me be perfectly clear about this because I believe that the above quotation from Synod 2021 touches on the heart of the controversy.

First, while repentance is the way that the Christian experiences salvation, that experience must never become a basis for theology. When Christian experience becomes the basis of theology, especially the doctrine of salvation, Arminianism is the inevitable result.

Second, this awaiting blessing—that is, “forgiveness from a merciful God”—is apparently directed as a motivation to the potential penitent, making his actual reception of forgiveness contingent on his actual repentance. God requires repentance of him, that is from the penitent, as something he must do before God will forgive him. Again, this is contrary to the doctrine that repentance is itself a gift of God’s mercy that he graciously works in the heart of the regenerated sinner. In other words, the Reformed doctrine of the order of salvation insists that every part of salvation is from God and God alone, nothing of man or from man intervening. Positing repentance as “the required way” in a relationship consciously to receive following blessings, I understand to be contrary to the Canons of Dordt. I quote Canons 3–4, rejection 8:

For this is nothing less than the denial of all the efficiency of God’s grace in our conversion, and the subjecting of the working of Almighty God to the will of man, which is contrary to the apostles, who teach: That we believe according to the working of the strength of his power (Eph. 1:19). And: That God fulfills every desire of goodness and every work of faith with power (2 Thess. 1:11). And: That his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3). (Confessions and Church Order, 173)

I also understand making repentance “the required way” in a relationship consciously to receive following blessings to be contrary to the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord’s Day 32, where the necessity of all our good works, with true conversion as the heart’s beginning of a walk of all good works, is the work of Christ, who “renews us by His Holy Spirit after His own image” (Confessions and Church Order, 120).

I would like every reader of Sword and Shield to take a close, careful look at the quotation given from pages 123–24 of the Acts of Synod 2021. I invite further correspondence from any reader who is able to shed any light on the quotation of synod. All of the decisions quoted above have to do with the case of a minister who eventually felt compelled to resign from the gospel ministry ostensibly because he was confusing in his efforts to explain the doctrines of salvation, assurance, and good works to the congregation in his preaching and teaching. Is this last quotation from the Protestant Reformed synod any clearer?

God’s people, purchased with the blood of Christ, have the right to the clear preaching of the word of God; clear writing in their denominational magazine; and clear, understandable decisions from their synodical assemblies, especially those decisions that are meant to express orthodoxy on the subject of grace and good works.

The Reformed reader is compelled to ask himself, “What is hiding in this confusion? What am I not meant to see?”

I would like every member of the Protestant Reformed Churches to bring this quotation from Synod 2021 to his elder or minister and ask him to explain it to that member’s satisfaction. If the officebearer cannot, the decision ought to be found disagreeable and rejected.