Five New Points of Old Heresy
每个人都有自己的信条。即使那些声称他们「唯一的信条是基督」的基督徒也有一条信条，因为就在他们开始解释他们对基督的信仰的那一刻，他们实际上在背诵他们关于基督的信条。事实上，没有信条是不可能的。因此，问题是: 我们的信条是否经过谨慎制定并记录下来，是否合乎圣经和正统教义，并得到教会先辈们的确认? 或者我们的信条是建立在我们自己的权威和聪明的发明之上，总是按照我们读到的最新互联网帖文，或按照我们自己对教义的突发奇想而改变。
如果我们确实是基督徒，我们就会关心我们所相信的，因此，我们会关心信条中所认信的，因为我们所相信的是一种依据，以此判断我们是否合乎圣经正统，是否是异教徒。历史上的改革宗信经和信条总结并系统地阐明上帝话语对我们的教导，其最终的目的是使我们能荣耀上帝，以祂为乐，直到永远。如果我们关心我们所相信的，我们就会关心教会历史上的信经和信条，我们就会关心四百年前荷兰发生的事，以及改革宗教会是如何作出回应的。
雅各布斯•阿米念（Jacobus Arminius）教授于1609年去世后，他的学生们采纳了他的一些观点，并加上许多他们自己的观点，以抗议改革宗教会长期以来确立的教义。这些抗议者或抗辩派（Remonstrants）起草了与改革宗教会在教义上存在分歧的五点意见。他们的五要点其实并不新鲜。它们同样是一些穿着十七世纪装束的老伯拉纠异端。为了回应抗辩派的非正统的教义陈述，多特会议于1618-1619年在德雷赫特 (简称多特) 召开，目的是打击他们的错误教导。会议拟定出多特信经，它与比利时信条(1561年)、海德堡要理问答(1563) 的信仰准则一致。这些文献称为三项联合信条，改革教会在几个世纪以来一直由衷地肯定这些文献，为的是让教会能够继续认识和敬拜那一位按照祂的形象创造我们的独一真神，而非我们在我们的心中制造出来的神。
——Burk Parsons
转载注：作者 Dr. Burk Parsons 是 Tabletalk 杂志的主编，是美国教会 Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Fla 的主任牧师。中文译者不详。
英文原文：
veryone has a creed. Even those Christians who claim that their “only creed is Christ” have a creed, because the very moment they begin to explain what they believe about Christ, they are in fact reciting their creed about Christ. In truth, it’s impossible not to have a creed. So, the question is this: Is our creed carefully formulated and written down, biblically and doctrinally orthodox, and attested to by faithful forefathers of the church? Or is it based on our own authority and clever invention, always changing according to the last internet post we read or according to our own doctrinal whims?
If indeed we are Christians, we will care what we believe and, therefore, what we confess in our creed, for what we believe is the very basis of whether we are biblically orthodox or whether we’re heretics. The historic Reformed creeds and confessions summarize and systematically articulate what the Word of God teaches us, to the end that we might glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If we care about what we believe, we will care about the historic creeds and confessions of the church, and we will care about what happened in the Netherlands four hundred years ago and how the Reformed church responded.
In truth, it’s impossible not to have a creed.
After the death of professor Jacobus Arminius in 1609, his students took some of his thoughts and many of their own and protested the long-established doctrines of the Reformed church. These protesters, or Remonstrants, drafted five points of doctrinal disagreement with the Reformed church. Their five points were nothing new. They were some of the same old Pelagian heresies dressed in seventeenth-century garb. In response to their unorthodox doctrinal formulations, a synod was held in Dordrecht in 1618–19 to combat their false teaching. The synod produced the Canons of Dort, which are consistent with the Belgic Confession (1561) and the Heidelberg Catechism (1563). These documents are known as the Three Forms of Unity, and the Reformed church has heartily affirmed them through the centuries to the end that the church might continue to know and worship the one, true God who made us in His image, and not the god we made in ours.
青草 