Solas

The "Solas" of the Reformation

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From THE CAMBRIDGE DECLARATION
Cambridge, Massachusetts April 20, 1996 .
Used with permission.

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 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 had 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 : Scripture Alone

Solus Christus : Christ Alone

Sola Gratia : Grace Alone

Sola Fide : Faith Alone

Soli Deo Gloria : To God Alone Be The Glory

A CALL TO REPENTANCE
AND 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 lack of serious repentance, our blindness to the sins in ourselves which we see so clearly i others, and our inexcusable failure adequately to 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.

For Christ's sake. Amen.

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