NR #1996-048: Conference of Top Evangelical Leaders Calls Evangelical Movement to Repentance for Liberal Theological Drifts In a historic summit meeting only blocks from the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., 113 conservative Presbyterian, Baptist, Reformed, Lutheran, and Congregational leaders met to issue a joint declaration charging that "evangelical churches today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this age rather than by the Spirit of Christ." Following the model of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy which gathered top evangelical leaders to issue a joint statement on the authority of Scripture, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals issued a five-page document known as the "Cambridge Declaration." According to the Cambridge Declaration, evangelicalism was once united by four "solas" of the Protestant Reformation, namely "Scripture alone," "Christ alone," "grace alone," and "faith alone." In five "theses," intentionally modelled after the four "solas" and adding an item on God-centered worship, the signers of the declaration declared that they will "endeavor to assert anew our commitment to the central truths of the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism." NR #1996-048: For Immediate Release Conference of Top Evangelical Leaders Calls Evangelical Movement to Repentance for Liberal Theological Drifts by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (May 21, 1996) URNS - In a historic summit meeting only blocks from the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., 113 conservative Presbyterian, Baptist, Reformed, Lutheran, and Congregational leaders met to issue a joint declaration charging that "evangelical churches today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this age rather than by the Spirit of Christ." Following the model of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy which gathered top evangelical leaders to issue a joint statement on the authority of Scripture, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals issued a five-page document known as the "Cambridge Declaration." The declaration painted a stark picture of current conditions in the evangelical world. "In the course of history words change. In our day this has happened to the word 'evangelical,'" charged the Cambridge Declaration. "Because of this crisis and because of our love of Christ, His Gospel and His church, we endeavor to assert anew our commitment to the central truths of the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism." "As evangelicals, we call ourselves to repent of this sin and to recover the historic Christian faith," stated the declaration. According to the Cambridge Declaration, evangelicalism was once united by four "solas" of the Protestant Reformation, namely "Scripture alone," "Christ alone," "grace alone," and "faith alone." In five "theses," intentionally modelled after the four "solas" and adding an item on God-centered worship, the signers of the declaration declared that they will "endeavor to assert anew our commitment to the central truths of the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism." Each of the five theses consists of two parts: a "reaffirmation" of a historic Reformation doctrine and a "denial" of one or more modern evangelical views which the signatories believed to violate Reformation teaching. Among the theses declared by the conference are: * A reaffirmation that Scripture is "inerrant," that it is "the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience," and that it "alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior should be measured." * In opposition to Roman Catholicism and the charismatic movement, a denial "that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian's conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation." * A reaffirmation that "salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone" and that "his sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father," along with a denial "that the gospel is preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and His work is not solicited." * A reaffirmation that "in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone" and that "the supernatural work of the Holy Spiritx brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life." * In opposition to the church growth movement and Arminian or Pelagian views of salvation, three denials that "salvation is in any sense a human work," that "human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves [can] accomplish this transformation," or that faith is "produced by our unregenerated human nature." * A reaffirmation that "justification by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone," a declaration that this "is the article by which the church stands or falls," and a reaffirmation that "in justification Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God's perfect justice." * In opposition to Roman Catholicism and to Arminian or Pelagian views of salvation, three denials that "justification rests on any merit to be found in us," that justification rests "upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ's righteousness in us," or "that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate Church." * A reaffirmation that "because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God's glory and that we must glorify Him always" and that "we must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for His glory alone." * In opposition to the church growth movement, "seeker services," and much of modern evangelical worship, three denials that "we can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with entertainment, if we neglect either Law or Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem, or self-fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to the Gospel." The Cambridge Declaration closes with severe criticism of certain views in contemporary evangelicalism and issues a call to repentance. "We also earnestly call back erring professing evangelicals who have deviated from God's Word in the matters discussed in the Declaration," declared the conference. "This includes those who declare that there is hope of eternal life apart from explicit faith in Jesus Christ, who claim that those who reject Christ in this life will be annihilated rather than endure the just judgement of God through eternal suffering, or who claim that evangelicals and Roman Catholics are one in Jesus Christ even where the Biblical doctrine of justification is not believed." "We have weakened the church by our own lack of serious repentance, our blindness to the sins in ourselves which we see so clearly in others, and our inexcusable failure to adequately tell others about God's saving work in Jesus Christ," according to the Cambridge Declaration. "The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals asks all Christians to give consideration to implementing this Declaration in the church's worship, ministry, policies, life and evangelism." Is Evangelicalism Becoming Liberalized? According to ACE vice-chairman Dr. David Wells, a Congregational professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary north of Boston, the main reason for calling the summit meeting is that American evangelicalism is on the verge of becoming liberal. "This is a somber matter; we are repeating on the evangelical side the very attitudes which led to the birth of liberalism," said Wells. "The irony is that the very things which led to the liberalism which has been the great enemy of evangelicalism early on in this century have been taken into the evangelical churches. We are fools if we think that what happened in liberalism will not happen in evangelicalism too unless we repent and recover the gospel." According to Wells, part of the problem with modern evangelicalism is that many of its leaders, while excoriating the current doctrines and practices of liberalism, are unaware of its roots and history. "If you compare [liberalism and evangelicalism] as they exist today they are very different," said Wells. "If you compare evangelicalism today with evangelicalism a century ago where it was just beginning to become liberalized you find many similarities because toward the end of the last century there was a spectrum of views with a cogent doctrinally-shaped evangelicalism on the one side and a cogently conceived liberalism on the other. In between were those evangelicals who were becoming liberalized and liberals who still had an evangelical piety." "It is that middle territory that is being repeated in the evangelical church today," said Wells. Wells said that modern evangelicalism and liberalism at its beginnings are parallel at three main points: a "therapeutic view of the person," "a loss of transcendence and a triumph of divine immanence," and a loss of the concept that Scripture is sufficient to govern the ministry of the church. " "Wherever you have a therapeutic view of the person, where you have an interest in wholeness rather than holiness, recovery rather than repentance, sin disappears," said Wells. "[Union Theological Seminary professor] Reinhold Niebuhr said of liberalism at the early part of this century that 'a God without wrath brought man without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross.' Now at the end of this century we find that the same is becoming true of evangelicalism." Lutheran Support One particularly significant note to the conference was that its base of support extended well beyond the circles of Calvinistic theology, according to ACE council member Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, president of Westminster Theological Seminary in California and a minister in the Christian Reformed denomination. "I think the council emerged out of discussions that began rather informally about what's wrong with contemporary evangelicalism in America, very much stimulated by David Wells' book, 'No Place for Truth," said Godfrey. "Generally speaking Lutherans in this country have been somewhat isolated. That's advantageous to them in avoiding the corruptions of American evangelicalism but some of that means they are less aware of the variety of opinions in Reformed circles." One of the initial ACE council members had been Dr. Robert Preuss, a longtime conservative leader of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and a leader of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. When Preuss died during the initial organization of ACE, he was replaced by two Lutherans: Dr. J.A.O. Preus III, academic dean at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, and Dr. Gene Edward Veith, dean of the school of arts and sciences at Concordia University of Wisconsin. "The reason for our involvement in ACE is interesting," said Veith. "One thing about us is we have kept very aloof from the ecumenical movements in the mainline denominations. Some Lutherans have very strict fellowship requirements; we haven't joined the National Association of Evangelicals and historically we haven't even had contact with the Reformed people with whom we have much in common." Despite the Missouri Synod's heritage of strong conservatism, Veith said that his denomination of 2.6 million members was facing the same issues faced by Reformed denominations. "We are having the same problems everyone else is having with the church growth movement and attempting to alter our worship," said Veith. "There's a big movement in our churches of pastors trying to throw out our traditional liturgies and make them user friendly, trying to preach user-friendly sermons without emphasis on sin." "One of the things that we are seeing is that a number of the Lutherans are looking to the evangelicals for direction," said Veith. "Now if evangelicals together are themselves criticizing the aberrations of the church growth movement, it's enormously helpful. It's not just 'old fogey Lutherans,' but people we associate with the new approaches, who are criticizing some things about those approaches." Veith said a major part of the problem was that Lutherans, due simply to their large numbers, had been able to isolate themselves from American culture. "We have the biggest system of Christian day schools other than the Roman Catholics, but it sometimes keeps us from having an impact with others that we should," said Veith. "A lot of very sincere people have a heart for evangelism, but it's the gospel that is the issue. The gospel is not always being proclaimed in some of these new methods. Instead it is biblical steps for having a successful business and all these therapeutic things." Veith noted that over a dozen top Missouri Synod conservative leaders had attended the summit conference and that many had been surprised to find Calvinists advocating the same things. "One of the problems I see is a misunderstanding of the Reformed position; Lutherans will sometimes lump all Calvinists and Arminians together as decisionists," said Veith. "The fact that we had such a significant representation was very good for our church, but something that has to be managed very carefully. The Wisconsin Synod Lutherans would not be able to fellowship. The Missouri Synod people can, but we don't want to appear ecumenical or as if we are merging these things." Veith gave Dr. Michael Scott Horton, founder of Christians United for Reformation and host of the "White Horse Inn" radio talk show, much of the credit for bringing Lutherans into the discussion. "Michael Horton has been very influential in all this. There is a Lutheran professor, Rod Rosenbladt, who is involved with CURE," said Veith. "Among [Horton's] great theological gifts and what he is bringing to the church is bringing in Reformation theology. He is drawing on the Lutheran tradition as well" "Luther's theology of the cross totally destroys the modern gospel of success. It's in Calvin too, but a lot of people don't realize that," said Veith. According to Veith, the discussion between Lutherans and Calvinists has already resulted in something that would have been unthinkable for until recently: an invitation for Godfrey to speak on the doctrine of worship next January at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. "That's very rare and significant in itself," said Veith. "I can see within our church good teaching opportunities; that message about worship is exactly what our seminarians need to hear." The Lutheran support for the document didn't come without some qualifications, however. The Lutherans added a two-point addendum to the Cambridge Declaration specifying that "the solicitation of faith is not part of the Gospel" and that "we joyfully bind ourselves to the three ecumenical creeds as a correct articulation of our Trinitarian faith." "As Lutherans we do believe in our creeds and we want to make that clear," said Veith. "The language that we say no creed is binding, that could be interpreted in a way that said no creed apart from the creeds that are based on the inerrant Bible. We just can't have people in our circles saying we put our names to a document that didn't affirm the creeds. We felt that was a careless thing that might be misconstrued." The exception on "solicitation of faith," Veith said, was intended to avoid any appearance of soliciting a "decision for Christ." "In Lutheran circles we preach to everyone, the law will convict of sin and the gospel will bring grace," said Veith. "We thought that statement that you have to solicit faith really weakens the good news of the gospel that Christ has done it all." Both Godfrey and Wells regretted that the two items in the Lutheran addendum were necessary. "There remain some Lutheran concerns which from their vantage point are significant but I think could have been accommodated if we had time for some more revisions," said Godfrey. "We respect the consciences of the Lutherans." What's Next? According to Wells, the Cambridge Declaration is intended as a "rallying call" to spur future action. "The document is itself not programmatic, that is the work that lies ahead," said Wells. "The primary reason is to give a focus to our concern about the disintegration of evangelicalism and to begin constructing a way forward." Again following the model of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, Wells said the conference participants would be working to apply the document in their own ecclesiastical settings. "I think the two lines of work that seem to be fairly clear are one, we're going to be holding conferences in different parts of the country, and two, we're going to be developing a writing program of books and pamphlets," said Wells. "There has been some talk about the desirability of writing a new Protestant catechism and it may be that won't come about." Whatever happens, however, Wells said the stakes are high. "What lies ahead of evangelicalism if it does not correct its path is it is going to give birth to a new liberalism," said Wells. "If ACE is effective, on the other hand, it is going to give birth to a new focussed resurgence of reformational Christianity. These two paths will become the alternatives between which people are going to have to choose." Cross-References to Related Articles: #1996-022: Top Evangelical Leaders to Convene Summit Near Boston #1996-040: Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals Announces Speakers #1996-049: Text of the Cambridge Declaration Contact List: Charles Morris, Press Officer, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals 1530 Communication Circle, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80905 * O: (719) 635-7500 * F: (719) 471-4982 Benjamin Sasse, Executive Director, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals 2034 East Lincoln Ave. #209, Anaheim, CA 92806 * O: (714) 956-2873 * H: (714) 956-5111 _______________ Dr. John H. Armstrong, President, Reformation and Revival Ministries PO Box 88216, Carol Stream, IL 60188 * O: (708) 653-4165 * F: (708) 653-4184 Rev. Alistair Begg, Senior Pastor, Parkside Church of Cleveland 7100 Pettibone Rd., Chagrin Falls, OH * O: (216) 543-1212 * F: (216) 543-2164 Dr. James Montgomery Boice, Senior Pastor, Tenth Presbyterian Church 1935 Pine St., Philadelphia, PA, 19103 * O: (215) 735-7688 * FAX: (215) 735-3960 Ervin Duggan, President and CEO, Public Broadcasting Service 1320 Braddock Pl., Alexandria, VA 22314 * O: (703) 739-5000 * FAX: (703) 739-7500 Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, Professor, Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia Box 27009, Philadelphia, PA 19118 * O: (215) 887-5511 * FAX: (215) 887-5404 Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, President, Westminster Theological Seminary 1725 Bear Valley Parkway, Escondido, CA 92027 * O: (619) 480-8474 * H: (619) 741-1635 * FAX: (619) 480-0252 Dr. John D. Hannah, Professor, Dallas Theological Seminary 3909 Swiss Ave., Dallas, TX, 75252 * O: (214) 824-3094 * F: (214) 841-3664 Rev. Michael Scott Horton, President, Christians United for Reformation 2034 East Lincoln, No. 209, Anaheim, CA, 92806 * O: (714) 956-2873 * F: (714) 956-5111 Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 2825 Lake Lexington Rd., Louisville, KY, 40223 * O: (502) 897-4011 * FAX: (502) 899-1770 Dr. Robert N. Norris, Senior Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church 5500 River Rd., Bethesda, MD, 20902 * O: (301) 320-3600 * FAX: (301) 320-6315 Dr. Wallace Schultz, Senior Preacher, The Lutheran Hour 2185 Hampton Ave., St. Louis, MO 63139-2983 * O: (314) 647-4900 * F: (314) 647-6923 Dr. R.C. Sproul, President, Ligonier Ministries PO Box 7500, Orlando, FL, 32854 * O: (407) 333-4244 * FAX: (407) 333-4233 Dr. Gene Edward Veith, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Concordia University in Wisconsin 12800 North Lakeshore Dr., Mequon, WI 53097 * O: (414) 243-5700 * FAX: (414) 243-4351 Dr. David Wells, Professor, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary 9 Whipple Rd., South Hamilton, MA, 01982 * O: (508) 468-7111 * FAX: (508) 468-6691 Dr. Luder Whitlock, President, Reformed Theological Seminary 2210 Heritage Hill Dr., Jackson, MS 39211 * O: (601) 922-4988 * FAX: (601) 922-1153 ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr96-048.txt .