Before 1566 the Confession did not function as an ecclesiastical document with binding character, but rather as a kind of pastoral letter to the civil government. During the 16th century gradually its authoritative place and function in the Church was gradually acknowledged. It was publicly adopted by the Synods of the Reformed churches in The Netherlands. Let us look at some these Synods of the Reformed churches in The Netherlands.
For this survey we mainly used Gootjes (2007: 46, 93-100). The Synod which convened in Antwerp on 10 and 11 June 1565 enacted that at the beginning of each Synod meeting the
Belgic Confession of Faith will be read to affirm the unity and to detect whether there is anything to change or to amend. At the 1566 Synod of Antwerp the Confession was revised, meaning that it was looked over or reviewed and changed by the some ecclesiastical decisions. This implies that Confession had acquired authority in the church by that time, and it shows that the Synod had the authority to deal with the Confession. The Synod of Wesel (1568) enacted that every minister when being ordained or inducted would be asked to vow and agree to everything of the Confession, which would be a pre-requisite for admission to the public ministry in the Reformed churches.
The Synod of Emden of 1571 made an important regulation regarding the authority of the Confession in the local congregations. It stressed its function a symbol of unity, a doctrinal standard, or a basic statement of faith, and a prerequisite for admission to the ministry. In this regulation ministers were required to subscribe to the confession. Brandt (1979:405) notes that the Synod regulated that ‘no church should lord it over the other, no minister of the Word, no elder nor deacon shall lord it over another, but each one shall guard himself against all suspicion and enticement to lord it over others.’
The Provincial Synod of Dordt of 1574 enacted that all ministers, elders and deacons at their ordination would vow to obey the Confession and especially the articles of discipline.
Also schoolteachers were to subscribe to it. This shows that the Belgic confession had been accepted as the source or standard for teaching in the Reformed Churches (Gootjes 2007:99, 103).
At the Synod meeting of Dordt in 1578 the deacons were not included among those who had to express agreement with the Belgic Confession, but it was added that if any office- bearer would refuse to subscribe, he would be deposed from his office (De Ridder 1983:64).
The rule concerning subscription to the confession was enacted again at the Synod of Middelburg, 1581, now to be applied to all ministers of the Word, all elders, all deacons, professors in theology and schoolteachers. The Confession was again on the agenda of the Synod held in The Hague, in 1586. It did not official adopted again, because it was taken for granted that it had been formally accepted already by all the Reformed Synods. It was emphasized that apart from being the doctrinal standard, the Confession was a means of achieving unity of the faith within and among the congregations.
We can observe that each Synod revised certain sections of the original articles. They realized that being subject to the Scriptures, the Confession had provisional, temporary and relative authority in the Church. Finally the Confession was given its solid authoritative status in the Reformed tradition by the great Synod of Dort (1618-1619).
‘No other issue in connection with the Belgic Confession has been discussed more frequently than its authority. That is understandable for this, more than anything else, determines its place and function in within the Reformed churches from which it originated. … Its authority was already in discussion before the Synod of Dordt convened in 1618. The main reason why this international synod was convened was to determine whether the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism should serve as the adopted doctrinal statements of the Reformed churches’ (Gootjes, 2007:93).
In South Africa, as Elphick and Davenport (1997:17) observed, the Dutch Reformed Church received the Belgic or Netherlands Confession of Faith together with the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dordt from the DRC of The Netherlands. The South(ern) African DRC had a high regard for these three Reformed Confessions (Hofmeyr and Pillay 1994:12). In general only the churches, which were founded through missionaries sent by the DRC (The Netherlands) and the DRC (Southern Africa), adopted the three documents as their confession documents, and especially for the Belgic Confession as source of church polity and church government (Pauw 1980:337). However, the three confessions not always found easy access in the mission churches. P.E. Smith, a General Secretary of the Missions of the DRC (Afrikaans) complained:
‘Although the Reformed Church stands on the formularies on Unity as proposed by the Synod of Dordrecht, the average Xhosa member only gets acquainted with ... the Apostolicum and the Shorter Catechism of Westminster. The Heidelberg Catechism, the Netherlands Confession of Faith and the Rules of the Doctrine of Dordrecht are practically unknown to them’ (quoted by Oosthuizen, 1968:397).
How did the ‘three formularies of unity’, especially the Belgic Confession, land in Malawi?
In article IV of the 1956 Constitution of the Nkhoma Synod and in article 200 of the Zolamulira volume II the Nkhoma Synod recognizes and maintains that the Belgic Confession is one of its doctrinal standards. In church polity matters, the Church develops its order and government from this source. This is what church leaders have to subscribe to:
‘Tivomerezanso za ziphunzitso za Eklesia wa Chikonzedwe zimene zimangidwa pa maziko a Mawu a Mulungu. Ziphunzitsozi ndizo … Chivomerezo cha ku Netherlands,
Ziphunzitso za ku Dordt ndiponsoKatekisma wa Heidelberg … Zivomerezo zonsezi ndizo zonena mwa chidule ziphunzitso za Nkhoma Sinod. … Mutani … Inde ndi Mtima wanga wonse. We accept the doctrinal standards of the Reformed Church, which are founded on the Word of God… These documents are The Netherlands Confession of Faith, the Canons of Dordt, and the Heidelberg Catechism. ... All these documents contain the summary of doctrinal content of Nkhoma Synod. ... Will you subscribe to these? Yes, I will do whole heartedly’ (Nkhoma Synod Malongosoledwe 1968:36, 40, 43).
However, in practice it seems the document is practically unknown to church members. What is the reason of the Confession’s relative obscurity in Malawi? The main reason probably is that the Confession has not been translated into Chichewa, which is the language of the Church. This implies that its content has been withheld from the members. Another reason is that only ministers, not elders and deacons, are asked to vow and subscribe to the Confession and the other two documents. In practice quite a number of ministers who subscribed to the Confession, have never studied or seen it, or have a knowledge of it. Zomba Theological College, where most Nkhoma Synod ministers have received their training, does not pay much attention to specific historical documents of church polity. At Josophat Mwale Theological College, the Nkhoma Synod’s own institution for training ministers, church polity is a sub-topic within church administration and the Belgic Confession is not primarily prescribed as an important source in this context.
It can be concluded that the Confession has little or no binding character in the Nkhoma Synod, despite the Church’s claim that it is one of its doctrinal standards. If the Belgic Confession, despite its official status, in practice does not function as the source of church polity, one may wonder whether the Nkhoma Synod has derived its polity from sources other than the Confessions.