What is “The Cambridge Declaration?” In his May 11, 1996 article in World Magazine, “God and Man at Cambridge,” Joe Maxwell writes about the founding of The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. In this opening Declaration, the ACE indicts American evangelicalism’s lack of theological moorings. Here are the first few paragraphs of his article:
Worries that much of American evangelicalism may be headed the same direction as old Cambridge have led in recent months to the formation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals (ACE), a new organization with a distinctly Reformational if not explicitly Reformed theological flavor.
ACE leaders are frank to express their fear that American evangelicalism, like American liberalism before it, is headed toward a fate like that of the congregationalist church in Cambridge: a mere facade with no real guts.
Such concerns led 110 top Reformation-inclined leaders to gather a stone’s throw from Harvard Square three weeks ago to see whether they themselves could agree on a diagnosis of the problems. The result-from a diverse group of Presbyterians, Christian Reformed, Missouri Synod Lutherans, Southern Baptists, independents, and others-was a three-page “Cambridge Declaration” that warns, in part: “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.”
Evangelicalism today focuses more on self than on God, the declaration says, and it urges a return to “the historic Christian faith” expressed in the historic principles spelled out by Martin Luther and John Calvin: Scripture Alone, Christ Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and God’s Glory Alone.
“Today the light of the Reformation has been significantly dimmed,” the declaration states, adding: “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.”
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To download (PDF) or read the whole Cambridge Declaration, click here.