Perspectief 2019-43

Perspectief 116 Bookreview Dordt in context Christ but perish in unbelief is not because the sacrifice of Christ offered on the cross is deficient or insufficient, but because they themselves are at fault.” In its Decree on Justifi- cation Trent states: “even though ‘Christ died for all’ [2 Cor 5:15], still not all do receive the benefit of His death, but those only to whom the merit of His passion is imparted” (VI.2; similarly, St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Titus 1:2:6; Summa theologiae III. 48.2). The Canons hold that the benefits of Christ’s atoning work are efficacious only for the elect, and in this sense the atoning work of God is limited. However, Christ’s atoning work is not automatically applied; faith, which is a divine gift (Rom 3:21-25; Eph 2: 8-9), is a condition for receiving the benefits of the redemption accomplished by Christ. Clearly, not all men are given the gift of faith. Hence, some are saved and others are lost. Why is this the case? This brings us back to the question regarding the divine mystery of election. 4. Double Predestination and God’s “Yes” in Christ to man. Dordt’s Epilogue categorically rejects “double predestination” when that means the equal symmetry (“eodem modo”) of election and reprobation. Regarding the mode of divine causality, we do not have two symmetrical “decrees” of divine predestination, a Yes and No, side by side as predestination ad vitam and ad mortem . Canon 17, Session 6, Justifica- tion, of the Council of Trent also rejected this equal symmetry, calling it predestinarianism . “If any one saith, that the grace of Justification is only attained to by those who are pre- destined unto life; but that all others who are called, are called indeed, but receive not grace, as being, by the divine power, predestined unto evil; let him be anathema.” Both Dordt and Trent affirm what Berkouwer shall later call an “essential asymmetry,” which denies the parallelism or symmetry of operation between election and reprobation. In par- ticular, God does not predestine the unregenerate or reprobate to damnation—this claim is essential to maintaining the “essential asymmetry” of election and reprobation. However, Van den Brink correctly recognizes that there is an unresolved tension in the Canons of Dordt because in the background hovers “een sort omvattende wereldbeschouwing te willen presenteren, bijna een soort filosofie over hoe het allemaal in elkaar zit” regarding the saved and the lost, election and reprobation (102; 172). In other words, as I understand it, the Canons seem to presume a decretum absolutum , rendering God’s election abstracted from Jesus Christ, apart from and outside his love and merciful