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THE FOUNDATION DOCUMENTS |
THE MANIFESTO FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Declaration and Covenant
July 4, 1986
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An Act of Contrition and Humble Repentance
A Solemn Covenant
A Statement of Essential Truths and a Call to Action
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Dr. Jay Grimstead, D.Min., General Editor Mr. E. Calvin Beisner, M.A., Assistant to the General Editor A Manifesto for the Christian Church, Copyright 1986, The Coalition on Revival, Inc. All rights reserved. The Coalition on Revival, Inc., P.O. Box 1139, Murphys, CA 95247
PREAMBLE
To promote Biblical obedience, peace, unity, love, joy, and compassion among all men, and to secure for ourselves and future generations the blessing of God Almighty, we hereby enter into a Solemn Covenant, grounded in the following declaration:
God, eternal Creator, Author of liberty, has spoken with reason, accuracy, and clarity concerning justice, truth, and reality in Heaven and on Earth.
In bold defiance of God's Word, the Bible, the fallen race of man has perverted justice, truth, and reality, leaving a painful legacy of negligence, confusion, chaos, and exploitation; and, thus, has created a compelling need for correction and redemption by our merciful God. In this twentieth century, evil has so multiplied that all life and liberty are at risk of destruction by the godless or by the judgment of God.
The Church of Jesus Christ, now grown lukewarm and indifferent in pursuing its redemptive priestly ministry and corrective prophetic authority, largely has tolerated or participated in the dominant evils and error of this sin-filled age, further adding to our planetary crisis.
That future generations of God's children and nations yet unborn may learn of righteousness and judgment without suffering the cost of repeated sins, we declare with brokenness the record of our grievous transgression of the Divine Law.
An Act of Contrition and Humble Repentance
We humbly and openly confess that too often, as a people and as individuals:
1. We have failed to care adequately for the souls of men who themselves the atoning blood of Christ, bowing their knees before Him as Lord of their lives and King of the universe;
2. We have disobeyed God's clear commands in Scripture;
3. We have built our own egos rather than advancing the Kingdom of Christ;
4. We have all too often fallen short of the integrity, faithfulness, and total honesty with each other that God requires of us before the watching world;
5. We have failed to confront falsehood and unrighteousness consistently in the Church or in the world because of our fear of man and of losing prestige or security;
6. We have been content to reduce the power of the transcendent gospel to mere creedal form devoid of spiritual content or present reality by our harlotry with the idols of personal peace and affluence;
7. We have neglected our God-ordained duties to be the world's salt, light, teacher, and example, as a result, the world is in desperate trouble and western civilization stands on the brink of self-destruction;
8. We and our fathers have settled for a substandard, false version of Christianity in our local churches and denominations;
9. We have tolerated sin within our ranks when we should have administered church discipline and excommunication;
10. We have allowed heresies to creep into our churches and institutions of higher learning, failing to demand of our teachers that they teach and stand upon the faithful and inerrant written Word of God;
11. We have heaped to ourselves teachers and pastors to tickle our ears with pleasant falsehoods and entertaining fables rather than convicting us of sin and demanding that we live righteous lives of obedience to the Bible;
12. We sold our children's minds and souls to the godless influence of secularized education and the media;
13. We have allowed our churches to become irrelevant, powerless ghettos while those who hate or neglect God and His righteous standards for society have stolen the America of our founding fathers out from under our slumbering eyes;
14. We have allowed misguided policies, flagrant sins, and hideous atrocities to be enacted by our elected and appointed officials - legislative, executive, and judicial - without rising up en masse, and demanding that they be corrected in the name of God and for the sake of justice;
15. We have permitted both Christian and non-Christian men of our society to fail in leadership, becoming emasculated, tamed, dependent, self-centered, and soft; and, in the opposite extreme, we have allowed some men to abuse their authority by their lack of sacrificial love for their families;
16. We have lived beyond our means by misusing credit, so trading our liberty for financial bondage;
17. We have adopted the covetousness and materialism of our surrounding culture, seeking the approval of men and neglecting the fear of the Lord;
18. We have been caught up in a self-centered, false version of Christianity, focusing on our own needs and desires rather than on God's glory and on sacrificing ourselves for the needs of our Christian brothers and fellow humans;
19. We have concerned ourselves more with Heaven, the future, and escaping this world at Christ's Second Coming, than with preparing His Bride to be spotless, beautiful, glorious, and pleasing to Him when He comes;
20. We foolishly have allowed Satan to divide us from other members in His Body through pride, jealousy, and competition, through a lack of humble serving of one another, and by concentrating on divisive minor issues rather than the clear Biblical articles of faith upon which we agree;
21. We have rested, idle and uncaring, while Satanically inspired Marxist Communism and a revival of pagan religions has enslaved two-thirds of our planet, causing massive, needless suffering to the peoples under their sway;
22. We have failed to conduct our lives or manage our affairs in the conscious certainty that God's eternal standards for personal and social righteousness are unchanging and inexorable in their absolute cause-and-effect relationships, thus dishonoring God and playing the fool in our personal lives and social policies;
THEREFORE:
1. In brokenness and humility, we cast ourselves before the throne of Almighty God beseeching Him to forgive these sins of ours and our fathers that we have so grievously and callously committed against Him, against each other and against the dying world. We call upon our Father in Heaven to apply to these our sins the purifying, atoning blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
2. In repentance, shame, and sorrow we ask our fellow Christians - all whom we have offended, ignored, and despised; before whom we have not been honest, open, vulnerable and tender; and whose ministries we have falsely believed we could do well without - to forgive us in the name of Jesus and for the sake of His glory and the unity of His Body. We hereby declare that we forgive all Christian brothers and sisters who have so treated us.
3. In shame and sorrow, we ask forgiveness of those fellow humans who have not bowed their knee to Jesus as King of the universe or yet come under the saving power of His shed Blood.
And now, O God, forgive our willful disobedience, hardness of heart, and selfish indulgence. Hear our prayers, forgive our sin, and heal our land, O Lord; thus fulfilling the merciful promise of your Word.
"O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Thy people are called by Thy name." (Daniel 9:19)
A Solemn Covenant
Now, for the Glory of God, having repented of our sin and counted the cost of true discipleship, willing either to be martyred or to reign with Him, we hereby solemnly covenant with Almighty God and with one another, to live henceforth in full, serious obedience to all the Bible's commands that apply to us today, to the best of our ability and in dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit, from now until the day we die, so help us God.
We hereby voluntarily invite others in the family of God to hold us accountable to live in full obedience to the Bible, and to show us with demonstrated love whatever discrepancies they observe between our lives and what is written in the Bible. We submit in advance to Biblical church discipline as described in Matthew 18:15-20.
We commit ourselves, in the presence of God Almighty and of our Christian brothers and sisters:
Whereas, our souls are burdened with the unbiblical, Laodicean state of the Church in our age; and,
Whereas, the Body of Christ on earth has failed to be the salt, light, and teacher of a dark and dying world; and,
Whereas, we believe that we, the sleeping, uncaring, uncourageous, and unholy members of the Body of Christ bear much of the blame for the fact that our own society and Western civilization are on the brink of self destruction;
WE THEREFORE DECLARE:
That a broad acceptance by the Bible-believing Church of the basic biblical affirmations stated herein should be considered essential, primary, foundational, and non-negotiable by all Christians who wish to work and pray toward the revival of the Church and the reformation of society; and,
That the Body of Christ, in order to fulfill her Lord's Great Commission to make Bible-obeying disciples of all nations, needs to commit itself to the following statements of truth and plans of action:
A. The Church Must Learn What is Reality.
B. The Christian Church Must Live Under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and, Therefore, in Full Obedience to the Bible.
C. The Church Must Live in Love and Unity With Each Other.
D. The Christian Church Must be Salt and Light to the World.
NOW THEREFORE:
In hope of God's mercy and blessing upon His Church and a needy world, we humbly call on all who name Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and every Bible-believing church on earth to join us in these acts or repentance, in ratifying this covenant with God and His Church, and in embracing these fundamental and non-negotiable truths and mandates, to the great end that God might be glorified and His will might be done.
Benediction
May we live to glorify God. May we fellowship with Him eternally. May we offer ourselves a living sacrifice to God and our fellow men. May we be salt and light in the world. May the fruit of our labor, as much as is possible, be the working of God's will on earth as it is in heaven.
May God give us His strength, wisdom, holiness, justice, love and power in full measure. And may God multiply those who enter herein.
National Christian Leaders Who Signed the COR Manifesto in 1986
Dr. Joseph Aldrich, Pres., Multinomah School of the Bible; Rev. Ray Allen, President, ACT Ministries, Inc.; Dr. Gary Amos, Professor, Law and Public Policy-CBN University; Rev. Francis Anfuso, President, Christian Equippers Int.; Dr. Gleason Archer, Ph.D., Professor, Old Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; Dr. Virginia Armstrong, Ph.D., Executive Director, Blackstone Institute of Public Law and Policy; Dr. Theodore Baehr, J.D., President, Good News Communications; Dr. David W. Balsiger, L.H.D., Publisher-Editor, Biblical News Service; Dr. William Barker, Th.D., Editor, Presbyterian Journal; Rev. Ern Baxter, President, Ern Baxter Ministries; Mr. John Beckett, President, Intercessors for America; Dick Bernal, Pastor, Jubilee Christian Center; Mr. E. Calvin Beisner, Author, Editor; Rev. Dick Benjamin, Pastor, Abbotts Loop Christian Center; Rev. Luther Blackwell, Pastor, New Life Fellowship; Dr. Charles Blair, D.D., Pastor, Calvary Temple; Dr. Richard Bliss, Ed.D., Director of Curriculum, Institute for Creation Research; Mr. Ron Boehme, Director, Youth With a Mission, Revive America; Rev. W. Wellington Boone, Pastor & Founder, Manna Christian Fellowship Churches; Dr. Harold O. J. Brown, Ph.D., Professor, Bibl. & Sys. Theo., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; Dr. Emanuele Cannistraci, Pastor, Evangel Christian Fellowship; Rev. Jack Carter, Professor, Biblical Studies - C.F.N.I.; Rev. David Chilton, Pastor, Church of the Redeemer; Mrs. Evelyn Christenson, President, Evelyn Christenson Ministries; Dr. Glenn Cole, D.D., Pastor, Capital Christian Center; Dr. Robert Coleman, Professor, Trinity Evang. Free Div. School; Dr. Lawrence Crabb, Ph.D., Director, Inst. Bibl. Counsel, Grace Theological Seminary; Mr. Art Cunningham, Manager, Hughes Aircraft; Mr. Gary DeMar, President, American Vision; Mr. Ted DeMoss, President, Christian Business Men's Committee; Mrs. Gladys Dickelman, Executive Director, National Day of Prayer; Mr. Colonel Doner, President, Christian Action Network; Rev. Jeff Donnan, President, Christians for Justice, International; Dr. Robert Dugan, Director, NAE-Public Affairs; Mr. Laury Eck, Attorney, Christian Mediation; Dr. Ted Engstrom, President, World Vision International; Mr. Michael Farris, President, Home School Legal Defense Association; Mr. Roger Flemming, Asst. U.S. Director, The Navigators; Mr. Marshall Foster, President, Mayflower Institute; Rev. Gerald Fry, Pastor, Calvary Community Church; Mr. Bill Garaway, President, Business with a Purpose; Dr. Arthur Gay, D.Min., Pastor, South Park Church; Mr. Peter Gemma, Executive Director, National ProLife Political Action Co.; Dr. Duane Gish, Ph.D., Vice President, Institute for Creation Research; Mr. Jose Gonzales, President, Semilla, Inc.; Dr. Charles Green, President, Network of Christian Ministries; Rev. Dan Greenlee, Pastor, Calvary Cathedral; Col. Robert Grete, Principal, Rocky Bayou Christian School; Dr. Jay Grimstead, D.Min., Found. Dir. , Coalition on Revival; Rev. Ronald Haus, President, 1st Century Broadcasting; Dr. Lewis Hicks, Physician; Dr. Dick Hillis, D.D. Pres. Emeritus, Overseas Crusades; Dr. Steven Hotze, Physician; Dr. David Howard, L.H.D., Gen. Director, World Evangelical Fellowship; Rev. Dick Iverson, President, Portland Bible College; Dr. Ron Jenson, D.Min., President, International Leadership; Mrs. Dee Jepsen, Chairman, Board of Regents, CBN University; Col. Glen Jones, National Director, Military Ministry, Campus Crusade; Mr. Roy Jones, Coalitions Director, Republican Senatorial Committee; Rev. Raymond P. Joseph, Pastor, Southfield Presbyterian Church; Dr. D. James Kennedy, Ph.D., Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church; Joseph Kickasola, Professor, Law & Public Policy-CBN University; Dr. Paul Kienel, Ed.D., Pastor, Association of Christian Schools Intl.; Dr. David Kiteley, Pastor, Shiloh Christian Fellowship; Dr. Henry Krabbendam, Ph.D., Professor, Biblical Studies, Covenant College; Dr. Tim Lahaye, D.Min., President, American Coalition for Traditional Values; Dr. Richard Lappert, Ph.D., Consultant, Connecticut State Department of Education; Dr. Harold Lindsell, Ph.D., Editor Emeritus, Christianity Today; Dr. Paul Lindstrom, Director, Christian Liberty Academy; Dr. Allan MacRae, Ph.D., Pres. Emeritus, Biblical Theological Seminary; Rev. Ronald Marr, Editor & Publisher, Christian Enquirer; Dr. Peter Marshall, Author, Lecturer; Mrs. Connaught Marshner, Director, Child & Family Protection Institute; Rev. Bob Martin, Exec. Brd. Member, Maranatha Christian Churches; Mr. Robert Martin, General Manager, Fieldstead & Company; Mr. Ted McAteer, President, Religious Roundtable; Dr. Josh McDowell, D.D., President, Josh McDowell Ministries; Mr. R. E. McMaster, Jr., Editor, The Reaper; Dr. Robertson McQuilkin, D.D., President, Columbia Bible College; Bishop John L. Meares, Pastor, Evangel Temple; Mr. Robert Metcalf, Founder, Christian Studies Center; Rev. Lou Montecalvo, Pastor, Redeemer Temple Southeast Church; Rev. Joseph Morecraft, Pastor, Chalcedon Presbyterian Church; Rev. Bob Mumford, President, Lifechangers; Dr. Gary North, Ph.D., President, Institute for Christian Economics; Dr. Raymond Ortlund, D.D., President, Renewal Ministries; Dr. J. I. Packer, Ph.D., Professor, Systematic Theology, Regent College; Dr. Luis Palau, President, Luis Palau Evangelistic Team; Dr. Ed Payne, M.D., Professor, Medical College of Georgia; Rev. Dennis Peacocke, President, Strategic Christian Services; Dr. John Perkins, D.D., President, Voice of Calvary Ministries; Dr. William Reed, M.D., President, Christian Medical Foundation; Mr. Jerry Regier, President, Family Research Council; Dr. George Rekers, Ph.D., Professor, University of S.C. School of Medicine; Dr. Adrian Rogers, Pastor, Bellevue Baptist Church; Dr. R. J. Rushdoony, Ph.D., President, Chalcedon Foundation; Dr. Michael Rusten, Ph.D., Business Consultant; Rev. Ron Sadlow, Associate Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church; Dr. Robert Saucy, Th.D., Chairman, Dept. of Systematic Theo., Talbot Seminary; Mrs. Edith Schaeffer, Author, Lecturer; Mr. George Scipione, Director, Christian Counseling and Education, Rev. Owen Shackett, Pastor, The Peoples Church of the Northwest; Mr. Herbert Schlossberg, Author, Researcher; Mr. Shelby Sharp, Attorney at Law; Mr. Mark Siljander, Former Member of Congress; Dr. Robert Simonds, Th.D., President, National Assoc. of Christian Educ.; Rev. Charles Simpson, Pastor, Gulf Coast Covenant Church; Mr. John Sparks, J.D., Professor, Law and Economics, Grove City College; Mrs. Carolyn Sundseth, Former Assoc. Director, White House Office of Public Liaison; Mr. Bob Thoburn, Pastor, Founder, Fairfax Christian School; Mr. Lary Tomczak, Editor, The People of Destiny Magazine, Dr. Paul Toms, D.D., Pastor, Park Street Church; Dr. Joseph Tson, D.D., President, Romanian Missionary Society; Brother Andrew van der Bijl, Founder, Open Doors; Dr. Jack Van Impe, Ph.D., President, Jack Van Impe Ministries; Dr. Peter Wagner, Professor, School of World Missions, Fuller Seminary; Dr. Larry Walker, Ph.D., Professor, Old Testament, Mid-America Baptist Seminary, Dr. Robert Walker, President, Christian Life Magazine; Mr. Russ Walton, President, Plymouth Rock Foundation; Mr. Bob Weiner, President, Maranatha Campus Ministries, Dr. Luder Whitlock, President, Reformed Theological Seminary; Rev. Al Whittinghill, Evangelist, Ambassadors for Christ; Rev. Donald Wildmon, President, American Family Association; Rev. Jerry Wiles, Exec. Vice President, Bible Pathway Ministries; Rev. Mike Williams, Pastor, Hillside Church; Dr. Ralph Winter, Ph.D., General Director, U.S. Center for World Missions; Dr. Don Zoller, Chairman, Outreach Ministries, McLean Bible Church
What is the Coalition on Revival?
The Coalition on Revival is a network of evangelical leaders from every major denominational and theological perspective who share a vision for and a commitment to revival, renewal, and reformation in Church and society in America.
People of Anabaptist, Arminian, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Wesleyan denominational backgrounds are all represented among COR's leaders. Pre-, a-, and post-millenialists are cooperating with each other, sharing the exciting task of getting God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven insofar as that is possible between now and whenever Christ comes back to Earth. Charismatics and non-charismatics, covenant and dispensationalist theologians, have joined arm in arm in prayer and hard work to see revival, renewal, and reformation in the Christian Church and the American culture.
COR's vision is to see Christians everywhere doing all they can in the power of the Holy Spirit to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), in every aspect of life. Toward that end, we have developed a series of documents that set forth what we believe are fundamental and essential Biblical principles governing 17 major areas of human life and activity: law, government, economics, business and professions, education, art and media, medicine, science and technology, psychology and counseling, Christian unity, local and world evangelism, discipleship, helping the hurting, educating Christians about social and political moral issues, revitalizing Christian colleges and seminaries, marriage and the family, and pastoral renewal. In addition, we have developed the Manifesto which sets forth what we believe and fundamental points of the total Christian world and life view. Many see the Manifesto as a modern version of Luther's 95 Theses which states where we believe the entire Church must stand and what action it must take to accomplish its task in the remaining years of the twentieth century and on into the next century.
Sixty steering committee members from all walks of life were joined by many hundreds of other interested Christian pastors and laymen in developing those documents during workshops at three national and eight regional conventions. Each document therefore, reflects input from theologians, philosophers, professionals in their respective fields, pastors, and lay Christians. We have sought to avoid denominational and theological bias in the documents; our aim has been to focus on principles so fundamental that we are convinced no Bible-believing Christian who studied the major questions related to each sphere of life would come to a contradictory conclusion.
COR views itself as a "Bible obedience, holiness movement" that crosses denominational and theological lines. The next step on its agenda, now that its basic documents are complete, is to disseminate them widely and to educate hundreds of thousands of Christians on how to make Christ Lord of absolutely every aspect of life. We plan to do that through publications, and through seminars, and training workshops in the major cities of America and Canada. COR will also work in cooperation with other Christian networking groups to help unify the pastors in major population centers around the vision of mobilizing their people to "Get God's will done in their city as it is in heaven" to whatever degree that is possible before the return of Christ. We believe America can be turned around and once again function as a Christian nation as it did in its earlier years. We believe that wherever the pastors of any city in the world join together in unity to make Christ Lord of every sphere of life, and, with Spirit led strategy, mobilize their people into a unified spiritual army; that city can and will become "a city set upon a hill" and be "a place where righteousness dwells." The signing of this manifesto and the repentance called for herein is, we believe, step number one in bringing revival to the Church and reformation to our dying culture. So foundational and critical are the twenty points outlined in this Manifesto and the covenant of obedience to the scripture called for in it, that we believe any "revival" which ignores these important points or this kind of public covenant with each other and with God will be superficial and short lived.
Therefore, in the name of Jesus Christ and for the sake of His Kingdom, we steering committee members of COR and hundreds of other pastors, professors, para-church leaders and Christian laypersons urge every Bible believing Church and individual Christian who reads this Manifesto to sign it and then help each other live in continual obedience to the King of Kings till the day you die or are caught up with Him at His glorious return.
RETURN TO FOUNDATION DOCUMENTS INTRODUCTION
42 ARTICLES ON HISTORIC DOCTRINE
ARTICLES ON THE KINGDOM OF GOD
CHICAGO STATEMENT ON BIBLICAL INERRANCY