The present controversy in the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) has been whether a grace principle or a works principle governs the believer’s conscious experience of salvation. The controversy has unfolded in two distinct phases: the lead-up to Synod 2018 and the aftermath of Synod 2018. The turning point in the controversy was Synod 2018 because that synod decisively addressed and decided the doctrinal issue in the controversy.

The first phase of the controversy was the lead-up to Synod 2018. In the lead-up to Synod 2018, the PRC taught, tolerated, and defended the heresy of the works principle over against the grace principle of salvation. At Synod 2018 Jehovah graciously delivered the PRC from her heresy. By settled and binding decision, Synod 2018 upheld the grace principle over against the works principle of salvation.

The second phase of the controversy is the aftermath of Synod 2018. The controversy in this phase is over the meaning and significance of Synod 2018. In this phase the question is whether the controversy was ever really between the truth and the lie, or whether the controversy was merely a case of misstatements and misunderstandings. This second phase of the controversy is where we find ourselves today, with some maintaining that the controversy was between the lie and the truth and others maintaining that the controversy was only a matter of confusion that had to be clarified.

Here follows a brief sketch of these two phases of the controversy. The point of this sketch is not to follow the chronological events of each phase, as valuable as that would be. Rather, the point is to highlight the main topics and issues in each phase.

Phase One: The Lead-up to Synod 2018

First, the lead-up to Synod 2018 was entirely doctrinal. The issue—the only issue—was doctrine. The issue was not persons and personalities, though there were many persons and personalities involved: a minister, protestants and appellants, a consistory, a neighboring consistory, a special committee of classis, many delegates to several meetings of Classis East, and many delegates to synod. The fact that the issue was not persons and personalities means that the issue may not be decided based on respect of persons. Whether one likes a minister or dislikes him, or has regard for a particular consistory, or likes a protestant or not, makes no difference for the issue. The issue was not persons but doctrine.

Second, the doctrinal issue in the lead-up to Synod 2018 was the truth against the lie. The issue was the truth of the grace principle of salvation against the lie of the works principle of salvation applied to the believer’s experience of covenant fellowship. The issue was not a matter of mere semantics and language, but the issue was the truth against the lie. It is not the case that the controversy was over a few poorly chosen words or over some unclear formulations. It is not the case that the controversy was due to excessive pickiness or some hypercritical assessments of sermons. It is not the case that everyone was really saying the same thing all along, just in different ways. The issue was not semantics but the sharp antithesis between the truth and the lie. As synod declared, there was doctrinal error, and “the doctrinal error is that the believer’s good works are given a place and function that is out of harmony with the Reformed confessions” (Acts of Synod 2018, 61).

Third, in the lead-up to Synod 2018, the lie was widespread and deeply entrenched in the PRC. The error was not limited to a handful of statements in a few isolated sermons by an individual minister. It is true that an individual minister was often in the thick of the controversy because of his repeated preaching of the lie. Because of the minister’s prominence in the controversy, some might assume that he was the only one who erred, and that the rest of the PRC were free from the error. This is not the case. The lie was explicitly taught by many, including the individual minister, the consistory that oversaw the minister, the four ministers of Classis East who wrote a doctrinal statement that taught the same error, and Classis East, which approved the work of the four ministers and thus made the doctrinal statement its own.

In addition to those who explicitly taught the doctrinal error, there were many who defended the doctrinal error or failed to root out the doctrinal error when it appeared. This includes every meeting of Classis East in the lead-up to Synod 2018. There were also those who, as part of their defense of the error, charged a man who stood for the truth with being guilty of error. This includes the consistory that oversaw the man, a neighboring consistory, Classis East, and a professor in the seminary.

You do not have to take my word for it that the error was widespread. Synod 2018’s judgment was that 

Classis failed to deal with doctrinal error contained in sermons [the appellant] protested to [a consistory]. The doctrinal error is that the believer’s good works are given a place and function that is out of harmony with the Reformed confessions. (Acts of Synod 2018, 61)

Classis should have advised [a consistory] to reject the Doctrinal Statement because it contains ambiguous statements and the similar doctrinal error of giving to our good works a place and function out of harmony with the Reformed confessions. (Acts of Synod 2018, 79–80)

Not merely an individual, not even merely an entire consistory, but classis failed to deal with doctrinal error! Not only a sermon or two or twenty, but the doctrinal statement of classis contained doctrinal error! The doctrinal error of the works principle was widespread in the PRC.

The point of this is not to sling mud. Names of individuals and consistories are deliberately omitted in these editorials, even though the names are matters of public record in the minutes of the ecclesiastical assemblies. Rather, the point is to acknowledge how widespread and deeply entrenched the error was in the PRC so that we are aware of how dangerous and how threatening this lie is to us. Among us, there may be a tendency to assume that the PRC are immune to false doctrine. It is a shock and an offense to us if someone says that we harbored the lie and even taught the lie. Especially this lie! The lie of the works principle of salvation! We think that if there is one thing the PRC have straight, it is God’s sovereign grace in salvation. We think that if there is one error that the PRC do not and cannot commit, it is the error of the works principle, which is the error of Arminianism and conditionalism. The lead-up to Synod 2018 explodes that thinking. The lead-up to Synod 2018 exposes the PRC not only as being capable of teaching the works principle, but also as being guilty of it! The importance of acknowledging how widespread the error was is that we as a denomination humble ourselves before God and confess and repent of our sin of giving works a place and function that is out of harmony with the Reformed confessions.

Fourth, the turning point in the controversy was Synod 2018. In a tremendous display of divine patience with his undeserving people, God graciously delivered the PRC from our error. God’s gracious Spirit led the synod to stand for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the perfect work of Christ, the unconditional covenant, and justification by faith alone over against the “doctrinal error” that “compromised” these truths (Acts of Synod 2018, 70).

The importance of the decisions of Synod 2018 cannot be overstated. The doctrinal issue at Synod 2018—the grace principle versus the works principle—was every bit as weighty as the doctrinal issue in 1924—particular grace versus common grace—and as the doctrinal issue in 1953—the unconditional covenant versus the conditional covenant. In fact, the doctrinal issue at Synod 2018 was in essence the same as the doctrinal issues in 1924 and 1953. Common, ineffectual, resistible, powerless grace is a species of the works principle of salvation. So is a conditional covenant dependent on the will of the baptized child. Particular, saving, efficacious grace and the unconditional covenant dependent on the will and work of God are both species of the grace principle of salvation. Such is the importance of the decisions of Synod 2018 that in the history of the Protestant Reformed Churches, these dates stand out as great epochs of Jehovah’s preservation of the churches: 1924, 1953, and now 2018.

Phase Two: The Aftermath of Synod 2018

And yet the controversy in the Protestant Reformed Churches continues to this day. These editorials deliberately speak of our present controversy. In the aftermath of Synod 2018, the controversy has become our evaluation of Synod 2018. The disagreement is now our analysis and understanding of the controversy. When the members of the PRC look back at the controversy that came to Synod 2018, what do they see? Do they see a great battle between the truth and the lie? Or do they see something less than that—perhaps merely some misstatements or some confusion that had to be clarified?

It has been the position of these editorials that the controversy in the PRC has indeed been the truth against the lie. One teaching in the controversy was the works principle applied to the believer’s experience of salvation. This teaching was false doctrine, heresy, and an error out of hell. The other teaching in the controversy was the grace principle applied to the believer’s experience of salvation. This teaching is true, heavenly, and divine.

It is exactly here that the PRC yet disagree. It is controversial among us to say that the controversy was between the truth and the lie, between true doctrine and false doctrine. This ongoing controversy can be demonstrated.

Here is one influential evaluation of the controversy immediately after Synod 2018:

Let this be clear. Anyone who, from this date on, concerning the minister, consistory, committee to assist the consistory, or Classis East, anyone, I say, who alleges that those individuals or ecclesiastical bodies taught heresy, or justification by faith and works, or Federal Vision, or a conditional covenant, is guilty of slander. Such a one must be rebuked. Slander against officebearers, such serious slander, is the devil’s tool to divide the church of Jesus Christ. This is the sin of schism, a sin so serious that officebearers are deposed for it. And members excommunicated for it. (“Obedience and Covenant Fellowship,” Standard Bearer 94, no. 18 [July 2018]: 415)

Very recently, several Protestant Reformed consistories have written letters to their congregations with their warnings and charges against Sword and Shield. In some of these letters, the consistories deny that the controversy has to do with the truth and the lie. From one consistory in June 2020: 

Although the magazine purports the development of the Reformed truth, statements made within the publication, rather than promoting the unity of believers in that truth, promote disunity and schism. This is evident when it describes the current controversy within the PRC as being “between the truth and the lie” (Editorial pg. 7).

From another consistory in July 2020: 

We are also concerned that the magazine is stating that there is a controversy between a “works principle” and a “grace principle” doctrine. They contend that the controversy has “been between an error out of hell, and God’s own truth from heaven” (July 2020 issue). They state that the magazine’s desire is to engage in this doctrinal controversy. Our consistory does not believe there is a controversy that exists between these two principles in our churches. Our consistory believes that only the grace principle is preached in our churches and is part of our doctrine.

It is evident that as Protestant Reformed Churches we do not yet speak with one voice regarding this controversy. In the aftermath of Synod 2018, we disagree over the meaning of Synod 2018. 

Synod 2018 said,

The doctrinal error is that the believer’s good works are given a place and function that is out of harmony with the Reformed confessions. (Acts of Synod 2018, 61)

Synod 2018 said, 

The doctrinal error of the sermons then compromises the gospel of Jesus Christ, for when our good works are given a place and function they do not have, the perfect work of Christ is displaced. Necessarily then, the doctrines of the unconditional covenant (fellowship with God) and justification by faith alone are compromised by this error. (Acts of Synod 2018, 70)

But influential and official voices in our midst are saying that there is no false doctrine, no lie, and no works principle in our controversy.

This second phase of the controversy is very important for the PRC. In the aftermath of Synod 2018, the churches must live up to the decisions of Synod 2018, which includes calling the lie what it is: a compromise of the gospel and a displacement of the perfect work of Christ. That is, the churches must be able to see and say that the works principle of salvation was taught, tolerated, and defended in our midst, and that the works principle that we taught is a damnable heresy. Living up to the decisions of Synod 2018 is not merely for the sake of following a Church Order article, as important as that is; but living up to Synod 2018 is for the sake of the truth, and for the sake of the honor and glory of Christ, whose truth it is.

If the Protestant Reformed Churches cannot or will not recognize that our controversy has been between the truth and the lie, then the PRC will fall into the lie again and embrace it again. Of course we will! If a church cannot or will not identify the lie as the lie, how can that church repudiate it and banish it? If the church cannot or will not identify the truth as the truth in opposition to every lie, how can that church maintain that truth and glory in it? God’s own judgment upon a denomination that does not know the truth, especially as that truth is opposed to the lie, is destruction. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children” (Hos. 4:6). I will also forget thy children! The generations of the Protestant Reformed Churches are at stake in this second phase of the controversy!

Where we go from here as churches is critical. Shall we say, “There was no lie”? Then we shall have more of it, and our generations shall perish. Then the doctrine on which our children will be reared shall be, “If a man would be saved, there is that which he must do.” Our doctrine shall be,

If a man with his household was to be saved and consciously enter into the kingdom, placing himself with his family under the rule of Christ as his Lord and Savior, he was called, he was required, to respond obediently to the call and command of the gospel—“Repent and believe, that thou mightest be saved with thy house.” (“What Must I Do…?” Standard Bearer 95, no. 1 [October 2018]: 7–8)

Our doctrine shall be that when Christ says,

“If any man will hear my voice,” He’s not establishing, of course, a condition, there are none, but he is talking about not the condition to establish a union but he is establishing a condition that deals with communion. Not union, that’s grace, it’s all grace, only grace, but communion, fellowship. (Agenda for Classis East, May 2020, 121).

And no man will be allowed to call it the lie. Indeed, our generations to come shall be required to confess the lie as the truth.

Let us say instead, “There was a lie, and we hate it and repudiate it today with all our might.” Let us say, “The truth of the grace principle is so precious that we shall not tolerate even the slightest departure from it.” And let us say, “God be merciful to us, the sinners.”

This, then, is our present controversy. Can we come to agree on the doctrinal issue in the controversy? Can we come to agree on that doctrinal issue as decided by Synod 2018? If we cannot come to agree, then let us at least be crystal clear on where we disagree. In this way and through this discussion, our present controversy will be profitable for the Protestant Reformed Churches.