While studying Synod of Dort....a quote

Crisis in the Reformed Churches is sort of a mini-library on the Synod and Canons of Dort.

I especially liked the chapter on preaching by P. Y. De Jong.  He well argued that the Canons of Dort have everything to do with the church’s preaching and piety.  Here are a few helpful quotes.

“If salvation is solely of God, then preaching as the chief calling of the church will have quite another content than if salvation is viewed as a venture in which God and man in some sense cooperate.”

“Interwoven with all the doctrines [of the Canons] here defined are statements concerning the necessity, nature, message, efficacy, and consequences of gospel proclamation.”

“Because the proclamation of God’s love in Christ Jesus is the divine antidote to the deadly poison of sin that dooms men to death.  Apart from the gospel none can or will come to a saving knowledge of God in Christ Jesus.  It is this desperate plight that, according to the Canons, must continually be set before men’s eyes and mind and hearts.  In such preaching sinners are addressed by the God of all grace and justice.”

“Such preaching alone is relevant.  It speaks truly to the need of man.  It humbles the proud.  It warns the impenitent.  It encourages those who sorrow for their sins and seek after God.  It begins and ends with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise, honor, and adoration forever and ever.”

Here’s the full info on the book: Crisis in the Reformed Churches: Essays in Commemoration of the Great Synod of Dort, 1618-1619 ed. Peter Y. De Jong (Grand Rapids: Reformed Fellowship, repr. 2008).