Today many of us know the work of the Synod as the Canons of Dort under the acrostic “TULIP.” Total depravity; Unconditional election; Limited atonement; Irresistible grace; and Perseverance of the saints. If you have not read the Canons, they are worth working through. 

The Canons of Dort were approved at the Synod of Dort 405 years ago today (May 29, 1619). The Synod was a multi-national synod of reformed churches that was called to answer objections to the teaching of Prof. Jacob Arminius of Leiden University and his remonstrators. The Remonstrance taught election based on foreseen faith; Christ’s death was universally meritorious; partial human depravity; and resistible and fallible states of grace.

Pastors, elders, professors, and statesmen from the established churches of the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Wales, Switzerland, and modern-day Germany came together to condemn what is today called “Arminianism” as a heresy against the Word of God. In 34 “rejections of errors” the heresy of Arminianism was condemned by the synod.

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