"The Mandate to Proclaim the Gospel to All" -- Article Five, Second Head of Doctrine, Canons of Dort

Article 5: The Mandate to Proclaim the Gospel to All

Moreover, it is the promise of the gospel that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel.

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Having labored in articles 1-4 to establish that the purpose of the death of Christ is to be found in the satisfaction of God’s wrath toward sinners who have sinned against his infinite holiness, the Canons now make the point that the very nature of the saving work of Christ demands that it be proclaimed universally to sinners. The proclamation of the cross of Christ (i.e., the gospel) is the primary means by which God calls his elect to faith.

In article 3 of the first head of doctrine, the Canons teach that God has not only ordained the ends (who will be saved), he has also ordained the means by which he will save them (the preaching of the gospel). Scripture connects the end (the salvation of God’s elect), with the means by which God saves his elect; the death of his only begotten son, whose shed blood is more precious than gold or silver.

The previous articles under the second head of doctrine (1-4) make the case that the death of Christ is the only possible means by which God’s anger towards sinners can be satisfied and turned away from them (as a propitiation). Therefore, it is the gospel–defined by Paul as the proclamation of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-8) proclaimed in such a way that Christ’s death is publicly placarded before sinners (Galatians 3:1)–which must be proclaimed to sinners. This is so that sinners might understand that God’s anger toward them is satisfied only by the death of Christ. Called to faith through the message of Christ crucified, sinners will trust in the satisfaction of Christ to save them from God’s anger toward their sin. Once in Christ through faith, sinners receive the forgiveness of sins, and the free gift of eternal life.

To put it more simply, God’s appointed end—the salvation of his elect—determines the means of saving the elect. It is the death of Christ which assuages God’s holy anger towards sin in a display of his justice and mercy. Since the only way anyone can be saved is through the death of Christ for them and in their place, this gospel must be preached to all nations (people) without exception. Since God has determined to save his elect through the death of his son, this necessitates that the gospel be preached to all so that God’s elect, scattered throughout all the nations, might come to faith in Jesus Christ and thereby be saved from God’s wrath to come.

At this point, a common but ill-informed challenge is raised–if you believe in the Reformed conception of election, you inevitably depreciate the need for evangelism. Of course, there are instances where Reformed Christians have failed to evangelize with sufficient zeal and purpose. But this says nothing about whether the stress in the Reformed confessions (like the Canons of Dort) on preaching and evangelism being the means through which God calls his elect to faith is true. In fact, there are a number of faithful Reformed churches and missionary organizations who are zealous about reaching the world with the gospel.

The question to consider here is, “how does the Reformed view of election effect the Reformed practice of evangelism?” As is clear from the Canons, the Reformed believe that election and the preaching of the gospel are necessarily connected in terms of divinely appointed ends and means. When faithful to our confessions and doctrinal heritage, the Reformed should be quite zealous to see the gospel preached locally to their neighbors as well as to the nations.

The two common errors which arise at this point are the error of neglecting evangelism (of which the Reformed have at times been guilty) and the error of basing the success of the evangelistic enterprise upon the ability of the fallen human will and not in the sovereign power of God which is made manifest in the preaching of Christ crucified. This latter error has moved much of Christ’s church away from a cross-centered gospel to an enticement, testimonial, and entertainment-centered faux Christianity.

The list of problems which arise from not connecting the means (the preached gospel) to the ends (the elect being called to faith in Christ) has produced a host of problems, from the invention of the altar call to the mass evangelistic crusade which takes place apart from the auspices of a local congregation and the means of grace. Whenever this enticement-entertainment approach is adopted, the emphasis inevitably falls upon the enticements themselves (not the gospel) and there is always a subtle but real tendency to manipulate people to respond to the stimuli. The focus is no longer upon a clear and faithful proclamation of the saving work of Christ in which the hope of effective evangelism is grounded upon God’s grace and power. Instead, too often we trust in the natural ability of fallen men and women to come to faith if enticed to do so.

As Reformed Christians let us carefully take note of what our confessions teach about the relationship between election and evangelism, namely that “it is the promise of the gospel that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel.” It is Paul who teaches us that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of whoever believes (Romans 1:18; 1 Corinthians 1:17). Therefore, we must place our confidence in the proclamation of the saving work of Christ if we wish to see men and women come to faith in the Savior. If we believe in total depravity and unconditional election, we must equally believe in the centrality of the preaching of Christ crucified, since these things are necessarily connected.

The bottom line: If we embrace the Reformed confessions, we must preach the gospel to all.