It’s January 31st, 2025 and I’ve come to Pastor Ganger’s last sermon on the Confession.

The prior 3 sermons as well as those before on the sacraments and the church respectively I highly recommend. Very useful in my mind.

Completing this Article I’ve now finished my studies of the three Westminster Standards, the Confession and the Longer and Shorter Catechisms, as well as the Three Forms of Unity of the Reformed Church.

I spend years reading and teaching the Westminster Confession first on my own then in a small group and finally several sessions in Sunday School. Unlike the Westminster, which was written by a large team of Westminster Divines(Scholars), the Belgic was primarily the work of one man. RPTS has this introduction.

Since this last Article is about the Civil Government it’s appropriate to realize this was the key purpose of writing the Confession.

THE CONFESSION OF FAITH Revised in the National Synod, held at Dordrecht, in the Years 1618 and 1619. The oldest of the doctrinal standards of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands is the Confession of Faith, most commonly known as the Belgic Confession, following the seventeenth-century Latin designation Confessio Belgica. “Belgica” referred to the Lowlands or the whole of the Netherlands, both north and south, which today is divided into the Netherlands and Belgium. Variant names for the Belgic Confession include the Walloon Confession and the Netherlands Confession.

The Confession’s chief author was Guido de Brès (1522–1567), a godly itinerant pastor of Reformed persuasion. During the sixteenth century the Reformed churches in the Netherlands were exposed to severe persecution through Philip II of Spain, an ally of the Roman Catholic Church. As an apology for the persecuted band of Reformed believers in the Lowlands who formed the so-called churches under the cross, de Brès prepared this confession in French in 1561. De Brès was most likely assisted by his fellow pastors who, together with himself, desired to prove to their persecutors that the adherents of the Reformed faith were not rebels as was charged, but law-abiding citizens who professed only biblical doctrines.

The Confession was written as an independent composition, though it was modeled after the Gallic Confession, a 1559 French Reformed confession, which in turn was dependent upon Calvin’s design.

Basically, the Confession follows what has become known as the traditional doctrinal order of the six loci of Reformed systematic theology—the doctrines concerning God (theology proper, articles 1–11), man (anthropology, articles 12–15), Christ (Christology, articles 16–21), salvation (soteriology, articles 22–26), the church (ecclesiology, articles 27–35), and the last things (eschatology, article 37). Article 36 addresses the theocratic nature of civil government.

Despite following an objective doctrinal order, the Confession breathes a warmly experiential and personal spirit, facilitated by its repeated use of the pronoun “we.” The following year, 1562, 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 the fire, well knowing that those who follow Christ must take His cross and deny themselves” rather than deny the truth expressed in this Confession.

Neither the Confession nor the petition, however, bore the desired fruit of toleration for Protestants with the Spanish authorities. Five years later de Brès himself became on martyr among thousands who sealed his faith with blood. Nevertheless his work has and will continue to endure through this precious doctrinal standard which still stands as a priceless symbolical statement of Reformed doctrine.

The Belgic Confession was readily received by Reformed churches in the Netherlands after its early translation into Dutch in 1562. In 1566 it was revised by the Synod of Antwerp. Subsequently it was regularly adopted by national Dutch Synods held during the last three decades of the sixteenth century. After a further revision of the text, the Synod of Dort (1618–1619) adopted it as one of the doctrinal standards to which all office-bearers in the Reformed churches were required to subscribe.

The copy I’ve used can be found at:

The Belgic Confession Circa 1561 A.D.

Creeds and Confessions of the Church

Here is the sermon.

April 30, 2023

Civil Government: God’s Gift

Preacher: Rev Joghinda S. Gangar

Series: Belgic Confession 2023

Passage: Romans 13:1-14

And the text.

Article XXXVI – The Magistracy (Civil Government)

We believe that our gracious God, because of the depravity of mankind, has appointed kings, princes, and magistrates; willing that the world should be governed by certain laws and policies; to the end that the dissoluteness of men might be restrained, and all things carried on among them with good order and decency. For this purpose He has invested the magistracy with the sword for the punishment of evil-doers and for the protection of them that do well.

Their office is not only to have regard unto and watch for the welfare of the civil state, but also to protect the sacred ministry, that the kingdom of Christ may thus be promoted. They must therefore countenance the preaching of the Word of the gospel everywhere, that God may be honored and worshipped by every one, as He commands in His Word.

Moreover, it is the bounden duty of every one, of whatever state, quality, or condition he may be, to subject himself to the magistrates; to pay tribute, to show due honor and respect to them, and to obey them in all things which are not repugnant to the Word of God; to supplicate for them in their prayers that God may rule and guide them in all their ways, and that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity.

Wherefore we detest the Anabaptists and other seditious people, and in general all those who reject the higher powers and magistrates and would subvert justice, introduce community of goods, and confound that decency and good order which God has established among men.

And finally the scripture..

Submission to the Authorities

Rom 13:1  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Rom 13:2  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

Rom 13:3  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

Rom 13:4  For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

Rom 13:5  Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

Rom 13:6  For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

Rom 13:7  Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

Fulfilling the Law Through Love

Rom 13:8  Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

Rom 13:9  For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Rom 13:10  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Rom 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Rom 13:13  Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

Rom 13:14  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.