13 Nov GS 1989 art 160

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GS 1989 ARTICLE 160

Committee II presents:

Agenda Items VIII B, 2, a – f

A. MATERIAL

  • 1. Report of the Standing Committee for the publication of the Book of Praise. (Canons of Dort)
  • 2. Letter from the Church at Chatham, ON.
  • 3. Letter from the Church at Brampton, ON.
  • 4. Letter from the Church at Ottawa, ON.
  • 5. Letter from the Church at Smithville, ON.
  • 6. Letter from the Church at Burlington West, ON.
  • 7. Letter from the Church at Cloverdale, BC.

B. OBSERVATIONS

  • 1. Synod receives a report from the Standing Committee for the publication of the Book of Praise (Creeds and Confessions) containing a revised translation of the Canons of Dort.
  • 2. Synod receives a great number of comments pertaining to this report from the churches listed above.

C. CONSIDERATIONS

After having taken note of the revised copy of the Canons of Dort and having considered the various comments which have been received from the churches, the Advisory Committee has come to the conclusion that the following emendations and amendments should be considered for incorporation into the final text of the Canons of Dort. The corrections are numbered according to the pertinent chapters and articles of the Canons of Dort.

Chapter I

  • The Churches at Chatham and Cloverdale propose to retain as heading “First Head of Doctrine.”
  • Art. 4. The Church at Chatham proposes to insert a comma before “and” and after “faith.”
  • 7. The Church at Cloverdale proposes to keep “a definite number of persons” instead of Committee’s proposal “of specific persons.”
  • 15. The Church at Smithville proposes to use “to declare His justice” instead of the Committee’s proposal “to display His justice.”
  • 16. The Church at Cloverdale proposes to keep “expect” instead of Committee’s proposal “to await.”
  • 18. The Churches at Brampton and Ottawa observe that the text Job 39:34-37 does not exist. Ottawa proposes to change it to Job 34:34-37, or Job 36:23.

REJECTION OF ERRORS

  • Art. 3. The Church at Chatham proposes “He chose certain specific persons and not others. No, but out of all possible” instead of the Committee’s proposal “and not others, but that out of all possible.”
  • 7. The Church at Chatham proposes to keep “fiery darts” instead of Committee’s proposal “flaming darts.”

Chapter II

  • Art. 5. The Church at Ottawa proposes “and to all men, to whom God in His good pleasure” instead of the Committee’s proposal “and to all men to whom God in His good pleasure.”

REJECTION OF ERRORS

  • Art. 2. The Church at Smithville proposes “this militates against Scripture” instead of the Committee’s proposal “this is in conflict with Scripture.”
  • 6. The Church at Chatham and Smithville propose to keep “without distinction” instead of the Committee’s proposal “indifferently.”

Chapter III/IV

  • Art. 4. The Church at Cloverdale proposes to keep “in natural and civil matters” instead of the Committee’s proposal “in matters of nature and society.”
  • 9. The Church at Brampton proposes to read “Others do indeed receive it, but they do not accept it into their hearts” instead of the Committee’s proposal “others do indeed accept it, but they do not receive it into their hearts.”
  • 11. The Church at Cloverdale proposes “obedient” instead of the Committee’s proposal “compliance.”
  • 12. The Church at Smithville proposes “ preaching” instead of the Committee’s proposal “teaching,” and the Church at Chatham proposes “persuasion” instead of the Committee’s proposal “suasion.”
  • 15. The Church at Cloverdale proposes to keep in the title “Christian attitude” instead of the Committee’s proposal “proper attitude.”
  • 16. The Church at Brampton proposes to read “the wonderful Creator” instead of the Committee’s proposal “the wonderful Maker.”

REJECTION OF ERRORS

  • Art. 1. The Church at Chatham proposes “it is improper to say” instead of the Committee’s proposal “properly speaking it cannot be said,” and to insert in the phrase “this contradicts the apostle” the words “the words of.”
  • 3. The Church at Chatham proposes to delete from the following sentence “the will is of itself able to will and to choose, or else not to will and not to choose” the word “else.”
  • 6. The Church at Chatham proposes to insert the text reference “Isaiah 44:3” behind the word “and streams on the dry ground.”
  • 7. The Church at Chatham proposes to read “This manner of working, which consists in advising, is the most noble manner” instead of the Committee’s proposal “this manner of working which consists in advising is the most noble manner,” also to change “suasion” into “persuasion” in both the error and the refutation, and to change “This is entirely Pelagian and contrary to the whole Scripture” to “This is wholly Pelagian and contrary to the entire Scripture.”

Chapter V

  • Art. 1. The Committee proposes to change its own translation “from the flesh and from the body of sin” to “from the flesh and the body of sin.”
  • 2. The Church at Chatham proposes to read “Therefore, daily sins of weakness” instead of the Committee’s proposal “Therefore daily sins of weakness,” and the Church of Cloverdale proposes not to include the words “and strive.”
  • 3. The Churches at Brampton and Cloverdale propose “persevere” instead of the Committee’s proposal “remain standing.”
  • 5. The Church at Chatham proposes to leave out the word “however” in the sentence “by such gross sins, however, they greatly offend God,” and the Church at Cloverdale proposes to read “guilt worthy of death” instead of the Committee’s proposal “guilt of death.”
  • 6. The Church at Brampton proposes to put the phrase “or the sin against the Holy Spirit” between brackets.
  • 7. The Church at Chatham proposes to delete the word “And” in the sentence “And from now on they more diligently work out . . .”
  • 9. The Church at Chatham proposes to delete the word “And” in the sentence “And they are indeed certain . . .”
  • 10. The Church at Chatham proposes to delete the word “And” in the sentence “And if the elect of God . . .”, and the Church at Ottawa proposes to read the sentence “witnessing with our spirit that we are children and heirs of God and, finally, by the serious” as “witnessing with our spirit that we are children and heirs of God; and, finally, by the serious.”
  • 11. The Church at Chatham proposes to read the sentence “have to struggle with various doubts of the flesh and, placed under severe temptation” as “have to struggle with various doubts of the flesh. Placed under severe temptation, they do not,” also to read the sentence “will also provide the way of escape, and by the Holy Spirit will again revive in them” as “will also provide the way of escape. By the Holy Spirit will again . . .”
  • 12. The Churches at Chatham and Cloverdale propose to change the sentence “This certainty of perseverance, however, so far from making true believers proud and complacent, is the true root of humility.”
  • 13. The Church at Brampton complains that the entire article is revised without giving any ground. The Church at Chatham proposes to keep “This renewed confidence does not produce carelessness” instead of the Committee’s proposal “Neither does this renewed confidence produce carelessness,” and also to change the sentence “because of their abuse of His fatherly goodness, with the result that they would fall” to read “because of their abuse of His fatherly goodness. This would result in their falling into . . .”, and also to insert a comma behind the word “God” in the sentence “Indeed, to those who fear God the contemplation of His face . . .”
  • 14. The Church at Smithville proposes to keep “perfects” instead of the Committee’s proposal “completes.”
  • 15. The Church at Chatham proposes to put a period after “godly” in the sentence “and for the consolation of the godly, and He impresses it . . .”, and also to change the semi-colon into a period in the sentence “and defended it steadfastly as a treasure of inestimable value; and God, against whom . . .”

REJECTION OF ERRORS

  • Art. 2. The Church at Chatham proposes “But even with all those things in place which are necessary to persevere” to read “But even with all those things in place, which are necessary to persevere . . .”
  • 3. The Church at Chatham considers that the RSV reads “No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him.”
  • 5. The Church at Chatham considers that 1 John3:24 reads “by the Spirit which He has given us . . .” instead of “whom He has given us.”

CONCLUSION

The Church at Cloverdale proposes to keep “upright declaration” instead of the Committee’s proposal “straight forward explanation” (first line), and in the last line “edification” instead of “building up.”

D. RECOMMENDATION

Synod decide:

Chapter I

  • Headings to read “Head of Doctrine” instead of “Chapter”. Art. 4. accept Committee’s proposal
  • 7. idem
  • 15. idem
  • 16. accept proposal Cloverdale: change “await” into “expect”
  • 18. accept proposal Ottawa: change “Job 39:34-37” to “Job 34:34-37

REJECTION OF ERRORS

  • Art. 3. accept Committee’s proposal
  • 7. idem

Chapter II

  • Art. 5. accept proposal Ottawa: insert comma

REJECTION OF ERRORS

  • Art. 2. accept proposal Smithville: change to “This militates . . .”
  • 6. accept Committee’s proposal

Chapter III/IV

  • Art. 4. accept proposal Cloverdale: change back to “natural and civil matters”
  • 9. accept proposal Brampton: change to “Others do indeed receive it, but they do not accept it into their hearts”
  • Art. 11. accept proposal Cloverdale: change back to “obedient”
  • 12. accept Committee’s proposal re “teaching”, but Chatham’s proposal re “persuasion”
  • 15. accept Committee’s proposal
  • 16. accept the Committee’s proposal: “the wonderful Maker”.

REJECTION OF ERRORS

  • Art. 1. accept Committee’s proposal re “properly speaking, it cannot be said,” and to accept Chatham’s proposal to insert “the words of”
  • 3. accept Committee’s proposal
  • 6. accept Chatham’s proposal to add “Is. 44:3”
  • 7. accept Committee’s proposal: leave commas out, but accept Chatham’s “persuasion” (also in Refutation)
  • accept Committtee’s proposal re “entirely/whole”.

Chapter V

  • Art. 1. accept Committee’s proposal
  • 2. idem (for both)
  • 3. idem
  • 5. idem (for both)
  • 6. idem
  • 7. idem
  • 9. idem
  • 10. accept Committee’s proposal re “And”; accept Ottawa’s proposal to insert semi-colon after God
  • 11. accept Committee’s proposal (for both)
  • 12. idem
  • 13. accept the entire Committee’s proposal (Brampton’s complaint is unfounded, since the Committee’s proposal is indeed a linguistic improvement.)
  • 14. accept Smithville’s proposal: change back to “perfects”
  • 15. accept Committee’s proposal (for both).

REJECTION OF ERRORS

  • Art. 2. accept Committee’s proposal
    • 3. accept Chatham’s correction of 1 John 3:9
    • 5. accept Chatham’s correction of 1 John 3:24.

CONCLUSION

accept Committee’s proposal (for both).

ADOPTED

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