July 9, 1996 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - More than one hundred Evangelical leaders of various denominations met in May, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard University, to consider the state of Evangelicalism today. Known as the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, these men issued a document called the "Cambridge Declaration." The signers recommitted themselves to the "four "solas" [alone] of the Protestant Reformation: "Scripture alone," "Christ alone," "grace alone," and "faith alone." They determined to "endeavor to assert anew our commitment to the central truths of the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism."

They also described the Liberalism and Worldliness which is permeating the Evangelical movement, noting that "evangelical churches today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this age rather than by the Spirit of Christ."

The declaration contained five basic statements, each with two parts: a reaffirmation of traditional Reformation doctrine and a denial of one or more modern evangelical views. These statements dealt with such doctrines as the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture, the sufficiency of Christ's Atonement, the deity and sinlessness of Jesus Christ, salvation by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone.

The Declaration concluded with a call to repentance: "We also earnestly call back erring professing evangelicals who have devated from God's Word in the matters discussed in the Declaration. ... "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."

The vice-chairman of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is David Wells, professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and author of "No Place for Truth: or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology" (Eerdmans, 1993). The United Reformed News Service for May 21, quoted Wells as saying: "This is a somber matter; WE ARE REPEATING ON THE EVANGELICAL SIDE THE VERY ATTITUDES WHICH LED TO THE BIRTH OF LIBERALISM. 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" (United Reformed News Service, May 21, 1996).

David Cloud dcloud@wayoflife.org http://www.wayoflife.org/
1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277

See "Evangelical Unbelievers"