The Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
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April 20, 1996
Evangelical churches today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this 
age rather than by the Spirit of Christ. As evangelicals, we call ourselves 
to repent of this sin and to recover the historic Christian faith.
In the course of history words change. In our day this has happened to the 
word "evangelical." In the past it served as a bond of unity between 
Christians from a wide diversity of church traditions. Historic 
evangelicalism was confessional. It embraced the essential truths of 
Christianity as those were defined by the great ecumenical councils of the 
church. In addition, evangelicals also shared a common heritage in the 
"solas" of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation.
Today the light of the Reformation has been significantly dimmed. The 
consequence is that the word "evangelical" has become so inclusive as to 
have lost its meaning. We face the peril of losing the unity it has taken 
centuries to achieve. 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. These truths we affirm not because of their role in our 
traditions, but because we believe that they are central to the Bible.
*Sola Scriptura: The Erosion of Authority*
Scripture alone is the inerrant rule of the church's life, but the 
evangelical church today has separated Scripture from its authoritative 
function. In practice, the church is guided, far too often, by the culture. 
Therapeutic technique, marketing strategies, and the beat of the 
entertainment world often have far more to say about what the church wants, 
how it functions and what it offers, than does the Word of God. Pastors 
have neglected their rightful oversight of worship, including the doctrinal 
content of the music. As biblical authority has been abandoned in practice, 
as its truths have faded from Christian consciousness, and as its doctrines 
have lost their saliency, the church has been increasingly emptied of its 
integrity, moral authority and direction.
Rather than adapting Christian faith to satisfy the felt needs of 
consumers, we must proclaim the law as the only measure of true 
righteousness and the gospel as the only announcement of saving truth. 
Biblical truth is indispensable to the church's understanding, nurture and 
discipline.
Scripture must take us beyond our perceived needs to our real needs and 
liberate us from seeing ourselves through the seductive images, cliches, 
promises and priorities of mass culture. It is only in the light of God's 
truth that we understand ourselves aright and see God's provision for our 
need. The Bible, therefore, must be taught and preached in the church. 
Sermons must be expositions of the Bible and its teachings, not expressions 
of the preacher's opinions or the ideas of the age. We must settle for 
nothing less than what God has given.
The work of the Holy Spirit in personal experience cannot be disengaged 
from Scripture. The Spirit does not speak in ways that are independent of 
Scripture. Apart from Scripture we would never have known of God's grace in 
Christ. The biblical Word, rather than spiritual experience, is the test of 
truth.
THESIS ONE: SOLA SCRIPTURA
We reaffirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine 
revelation,which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all 
that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which 
all Christian behavior must be measured.
We deny 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. 
*Solus Christus: The Erosion of Christ-Centered Faith*
As evangelical faith becomes secularized, its interests have been blurred 
with those of the culture. The result is a loss of absolute values, 
permissive individualism, and a substitution of wholeness for holiness, 
recovery for repentance, intuition for truth, feeling for belief, chance 
for providence, and immediate gratification for enduring hope. Christ and 
his cross have moved from the center of our vision.
THESIS TWO: SOLUS CHRISTUS
We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of 
the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement 
alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the 
Father.
We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not 
declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited. 
*Sola Gratia: The Erosion of The Gospel*
Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human 
nature. This false confidence now fills the evangelical world; from the 
self-esteem gospel, to the health and wealth gospel, from those who have 
transformed the gospel into a product to be sold and sinners into consumers 
who want to buy, to others who treat Christian faith as being true simply 
because it works. This silences the doctrine of justification regardless of 
the official commitments of our churches.
God's grace in Christ is not merely necessary but is the sole efficient 
cause of salvation. We confess that human beings are born spiritually dead 
and are incapable even of cooperating with regenerating grace.
THESIS THREE: SOLA GRATIA
We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace 
alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to 
Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from 
spiritual death to spiritual life.
We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, 
techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this 
transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature. 
*Sola Fide: The Erosion of The Chief Article*
Justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ 
alone. This is the article by which the church stands or falls. Today this 
article is often ignored, distorted or sometimes even denied by leaders, 
scholars and pastors who claim to be evangelical. Although fallen human 
nature has always recoiled from recognizing its need for Christ's imputed 
righteousness, modernity greatly fuels the fires of this discontent with 
the biblical Gospel. We have allowed this discontent to dictate the nature 
of our ministry and what it is we are preaching.
Many in the church growth movement believe that sociological understanding 
of those in the pew is as important to the success of the gospel as is the 
biblical truth which is proclaimed. As a result, theological convictions 
are frequently divorced from the work of the ministry. The marketing 
orientation in many churches takes this even further, erasing the 
distinction between the biblical Word and the world, robbing Christ's cross 
of its offense, and reducing Christian faith to the principles and methods 
which bring success to secular corporations.
While the theology of the cross may be believed, these movements are 
actually emptying it of its meaning. There is no gospel except that of 
Christ's substitution in our place whereby God imputed to him our sin and 
imputed to us his righteousness. Because he bore our judgment, we now walk 
in his grace as those who are forever pardoned, accepted and adopted as 
God's children. There is no basis for our acceptance before God except in 
Christ's saving work, not in our patriotism, churchly devotion or moral 
decency. The gospel declares what God has done for us in Christ. It is not 
about what we can do to reach him.
THESIS FOUR: SOLA FIDE
We reaffirm that justification is by grace alone through faith alone 
because of Christ alone. In justification Christ's righteousness is imputed 
to us as the only possible satisfaction of God's perfect justice.
We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or 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. 
*Soli Deo Gloria: The Erosion of God-Centered Worship*
Wherever in the church biblical authority has been lost, Christ has been 
displaced, the gospel has been distorted, or faith has been perverted, it 
has always been for one reason: our interests have displaced God's and we 
are doing his work in our way. The loss of God's centrality in the life of 
today's church is common and lamentable. It is this loss that allows us to 
transform worship into entertainment, gospel preaching into marketing, 
believing into technique, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and 
faithfulness into being successful. As a result, God, Christ and the Bible 
have come to mean too little to us and rest too inconsequentially upon us.
God does not exist to satisfy human ambitions, cravings, the appetite for 
consumption, or our own private spiritual interests. We must focus on God 
in our worship, rather than the satisfaction of our personal needs. God is 
sovereign in worship; we are not. Our concern must be for God's kingdom, 
not our own empires, popularity or success.
THESIS FIVE: SOLI DEO GLORIA
We reaffirm 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. We must 
live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God 
and for his glory alone.
We deny 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. 
*A Call To Repentance & Reformation*
The faithfulness of the evangelical church in the past contrasts sharply 
with its unfaithfulness in the present. Earlier in this century, 
evangelical churches sustained a remarkable missionary endeavor, and built 
many religious institutions to serve the cause of biblical truth and 
Christ's kingdom. That was a time when Christian behavior and expectations 
were markedly different from those in the culture. Today they often are 
not. The evangelical world today is losing its biblical fidelity, moral 
compass and missionary zeal.
We repent of our worldliness. We have been influenced by the "gospels" of 
our secular culture, which are no gospels. 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.
We also earnestly call back erring professing evangelicals who have 
deviated from God's Word in the matters discussed in this 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 judgment 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 Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals asks all Christians to give 
consideration to implementing this Declaration in the church's worship, 
ministry, policies, life and evangelism.
For Christ's sake. Amen.
ACE Executive Council (1996)
Dr. John Armstrong
Rev. Alistair Begg
Dr. James M. Boice
Dr. W. Robert Godfrey
Dr. John D. Hannah
Dr. Michael S. Horton
Mrs. Rosemary Jensen
Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr.
Dr. Robert M. Norris
Dr. R. C. Sproul
Dr. G. Edward Veith
Dr. David Wells
Dr. Luder Whitlock
Dr. J. A. O. Preus, III
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FOR FURTHER READING, SEE ALSO:
Highlights From The Cambridge Summit Meeting
An Introduction to The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, by James M. 
Boice
The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals exists to call the church, amidst 
our dying culture, to repent of its worldliness, to recover and confess the 
five Solas of the Reformation, and to see them embodied in all other 
doctrines, worship, and life. For more information about Alliance 
resources, conferences, or broadcasts, call 215-546-3696. The web site 
address for this document is: www. remembrancer.com/ace. 
Sincerely in Christ,
Charlie Ray, 
Chaplain
1 Timothy 4:16
Watch you life and doctrine closely.  Persevere in them, because if you do, 
you will save both your
self and your hearers.  (NIV).
chaplain@isgroup.net
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 * WR  # 461 * Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus.
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