Beliefs

As a Reformed Church, we hold to Reformed doctrine. These teachings flow out of the debates of the Great Reformation of the 16th century and have been summarized with scripture proofs in the confessions written in that era.

The Belgic Confession

During the sixteenth century the churches in the Southern Netherlands, now Belgium, were exposed to terrible persecution by the Roman Catholic government. To protest against this cruel oppression, a preacher of the Reformed churches of the Netherlands named, Guido de Brès, prepared the Belgic Confession in the year 1561 to prove that they were law abiding Christians and not rebels. A copy was sent to King Philip II, together with an address in which the petitioners declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, but that they would "offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags, and their whole bodies to fire," rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession. Although the immediate purpose of securing freedom from persecution was not achieved, and de Brès himself fell in 1567 as one of the many thousands who sealed their faith with their lives, his work has endured and will continue to endure for ages. Its excellence as one the best statements of Reformed doctrine has been broadly recognized.

The Heidelberg Catechism

The Heidelberg Catechism, the second of our doctrinal standards, was written in Heidelberg, Germany at the request of Elector Frederick III. This devout Christian prince commissioned Zacharias Ursinus, twenty-eight years of age and professor of theology at the Heidelberg University, and Caspar Olevianus, twenty-six years old and Frederick’s court preacher, to prepare a catechism, a teaching tool composed of questions and answers, for instructing the youth and for guiding pastors and teachers. Their work, the Heidelberg Catechism, was published in 1563. The Catechism was soon divided into fifty-two sections, so that a section of the Catechism could be explained to the churches each Sunday of the year. In the Netherlands this Heidelberg Catechism became broadly and favourably known almost as soon as it came off the press. The broader church assemblies of the sixteenth century adopted it as one of the doctrinal standards of the Reformed churches, requiring office-bearers to subscribe to it and ministers to explain it to the churches. The Heidelberg Catechism has been translated into many languages and is one of the most influential and most accepted of the several catechisms of the Reformation times.

The Canons of Dort

A large assembly of Reformed churches in the Netherlands (the Reformed Synod of Dort, 1618-1619) met to discuss the rise and spread of new beliefs called Arminianism. Arminius was a theological professor who, with his followers, had departed from the Reformed faith in their teachings concerning five important points. They taught: conditional election on the ground of foreseen faith, universal atonement, partial depravity, resistible grace, and the possibility of a lapse from grace. These departing views were rejected by the Synod and the orthodox views were embodied in the Canons of Dort (a canon is a principle or decision), also known as the Five Articles Against the Remonstrants. The Synod set forth the Reformed beliefs (doctrine) on these points, namely: (1) unconditional election, (2) particular atonement, (3) total depravity, (4) invincible grace, and (5) the perseverance of the saints.