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The Institute for
Religious Research subscribes to:
Lausanne
Covenant
INTRODUCTION
We, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, from more than 150 nations,
participants in the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, praise God for his great salvation
and rejoice in the fellowship he has given us with himself and with each
other. We are deeply stirred by what God is doing in our day, moved to
penitence by our failures and challenged by the unfinished task of evangelization.
We believe the Gospel is God's good news for the whole world, and we are
determined by his grace to obey Christ's commission to proclaim it to all
mankind and to make disciples of every nation. We desire, therefore, to
affirm our faith and our resolve, and to make public our covenant.
1.
THE PURPOSE OF GOD
We affirm our belief in
the one-eternal God, Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, who governs all things according to the purpose of his will. He has
been calling out from the world a people for himself, and sending his
people back into the world to be his servants and his witnesses, for the
extension of his kingdom, the building up of Christ's body, and the glory
of his name. We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling
and failed in our mission, by becoming conformed to the world or by
withdrawing from it. Yet we rejoice that even when borne by earthen vessels
the gospel is still a precious treasure. To the task of making that
treasure known in the power of the Holy Spirit we desire to dedicate
ourselves anew.
(Isa. 40:28; Matt. 28:19;
Eph. 1:11; Acts 15:14; John 17:6, 18; Eph 4:12; 1 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 12:2; II Cor. 4:7)
2.
THE AUTHORITY AND POWER OF THE BIBLE
We affirm the divine
inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament
Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error
in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
We also affirm the power of God's word to accomplish his purpose of
salvation. The message of the Bible is addressed to all men and women. For
God's revelation in Christ and in Scripture is unchangeable. Through it the
Holy Spirit still speaks today. He illumines the minds of God's people in
every culture to perceive its truth freshly through their own eyes and thus
discloses to the whole Church ever more of the many-colored wisdom of God.
(II Tim. 3:16; II Pet.
1:21; John 10:35; Isa. 55:11; 1 Cor. 1:21; Rom. 1:16, Matt. 5:17,18; Jude 3; Eph. 1:17,18; 3:10,18)
3.
THE UNIQUENESS AND UNIVERSALITY OF CHRIST
We affirm that there is
only one Saviour and only one gospel, although there is a wide diversity of
evangelistic approaches. We recognise that everyone has some knowledge of
God through his general revelation in nature. But we deny that this can
save, for people suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. We also
reject as derogatory to Christ and the gospel every kind of syncretism and
dialogue which implies that Christ speaks equally through all religions and
ideologies. Jesus Christ, being himself the only God-man, who gave himself
as the only ransom for sinners, is the only mediator between God and
people. There is no other name by which we must be saved. All men and women
are perishing because of sin, but God loves everyone, not wishing that any
should perish but that all should repent. Yet those who reject Christ
repudiate the joy of salvation and condemn themselves to eternal separation
from God. To proclaim Jesus as "the Saviour of the world" is not
to affirm that all people are either automatically or ultimately saved,
still less to affirm that all religions offer salvation in Christ. Rather
it is to proclaim God's love for a world of sinners and to invite everyone
to respond to him as Saviour and Lord in the wholehearted personal
commitment of repentance and faith. Jesus Christ has been exalted above
every other name; we long for the day when every knee shall bow to him and
every tongue shall confess him Lord.
(Gal. 1:6-9;Rom. 1:18-32;
I Tim. 2:5,6; Acts 4:12; John 3:16-19; II Pet. 3:9; II Thess. 1:7-9;John
4:42; Matt. 11:28; Eph. 1:20,21; Phil. 2:9-11)
4.
THE NATURE OF EVANGELISM
To evangelize is to
spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised
from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that as the reigning Lord he
now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gifts of the Spirit
to all who repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is
indispensable to evangelism, and so is that kind of dialogue whose purpose is
to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism itself is the
proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as Saviour and Lord, with a
view to persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to
God. In issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the
cost of discipleship. Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny
themselves, take up their cross, and identify themselves with his new
community. The results of evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation
into his Church and responsible service in the world.
(I Cor. 15:3,4; Acts 2:
32-39; John 20:21; I Cor. 1:23; II Cor. 4:5; 5:11,20; Luke 14:25-33; Mark 8:34; Acts
2:40,47; Mark 10:43-45)
5.
CHRISTIAN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
We affirm that God is
both the Creator and the Judge of all men. We therefore should share his
concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the
liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression. Because men and
women are made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race,
religion, colour, culture, class, sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity
because of which he or she should be respected and served, not exploited.
Here too we express penitence both for our neglect and for having sometimes
regarded evangelism and social concern as mutually exclusive. Although
reconciliation with other people is not reconciliation with God, nor is
social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation,
nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are
both part of our Christian duty. For both are necessary expressions of our
doctrines of God and man, our love for our neighbour and our obedience to
Jesus Christ. The message of salvation implies also a message of judgment upon
every form of alienation, oppression and discrimination, and we should not
be afraid to denounce evil and injustice wherever they exist. When people
receive Christ they are born again into his kingdom and must seek not only
to exhibit but also to spread its righteousness in the midst of an
unrighteous world. The salvation we claim should be transforming us in the
totality of our personal and social responsibilities. Faith without works
is dead.
(Acts 17:26,31; Gen. 18:25; Isa. 1:17; Psa.
45:7; Gen. 1:26,27; Jas. 3:9; Lev. 19:18; Luke 6:27,35; Jas. 2:14-26; Joh.
3:3,5; Matt. 5:20;
6:33; II Cor. 3:18; Jas. 2:20)
6.
THE CHURCH AND EVANGELISM
We affirm that Christ
sends his redeemed people into the world as the Father sent him, and that
this calls for a similar deep and costly penetration of the world. We need
to break out of our ecclesiastical ghettos and permeate non-Christian
society. In the Church's mission of sacrificial service evangelism is
primary. World evangelization requires the whole Church to take the whole
gospel to the whole world. The Church is at the very centre of God's cosmic
purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the gospel. But a church
which preaches the cross must itself be marked by the cross. It becomes a
stumbling block to evangelism when it betrays the gospel or lacks a living
faith in God, a genuine love for people, or scrupulous honesty in all
things including promotion and finance. The church is the community of
God's people rather than an institution, and must not be identified with
any particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology.
(John 17:18; 20:21; Matt.
28:19,20; Acts 1:8; 20:27; Eph. 1:9,10; 3:9-11; Gal. 6:14,17; II Cor.
6:3,4; II Tim. 2:19-21; Phil. 1:27)
7.
COOPERATION IN EVANGELISM
We affirm that the
Church's visible unity in truth is God's purpose. Evangelism also summons
us to unity, because our oneness strengthens our witness, just as our
disunity undermines our gospel of reconciliation. We recognize, however,
that organisational unity may take many forms and does not necessarily
forward evangelism. Yet we who share the same biblical faith should be
closely united in fellowship, work and witness. We confess that our
testimony has sometimes been marred by a sinful individualism and needless
duplication. We pledge ourselves to seek a deeper unity in truth, worship,
holiness and mission. We urge the development of regional and functional
cooperation for the furtherance of the Church's mission, for strategic
planning, for mutual encouragement, and for the sharing of resources and
experience.
(John 17:21,23; Eph.
4:3,4; John 13:35; Phil. 1:27; John 17:11-23)
8.
CHURCHES IN EVANGELISTIC PARTNERSHIP
We rejoice that a new
missionary era has dawned. The dominant role of western missions is fast
disappearing. God is raising up from the younger churches a great new
resource for world evangelization, and is thus demonstrating that the
responsibility to evangelise belongs to the whole body of Christ. All
churches should therefore be asking God and themselves what they should be
doing both to reach their own area and to send missionaries to other parts
of the world. A reevaluation of our missionary responsibility and role
should be continuous. Thus a growing partnership of churches will develop
and the universal character of Christ's Church will be more clearly
exhibited. We also thank God for agencies which labor in Bible translation,
theological education, the mass media, Christian litterature, evangelism,
missions, church renewal and other specialist fields. They too should
engage in constant self-examination to evaluate their effectiveness as part
of the Church's mission.
(Rom. 1:8; Phil. 1:5;
4:15; Acts 13:1-3, I Thess. 1:6-8)
9.
THE URGENCY OF THE EVANGELISTIC TASK
More than 2,700 million
people, which is more than two-thirds of all humanity, have yet to be
evangelised. We are ashamed that so many have been neglected; it is a
standing rebuke to us and to the whole Church. There is now, however, in
many parts of the world an unprecedented receptivity to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are convinced that this is the time for churches and para-church
agencies to pray earnestly for the salvation of the unreached and to launch
new efforts to achieve world evangelization. A reduction of foreign
missionaries and money in an evangelised country may sometimes be necessary
to facilitate the national church's growth in self-reliance and to release
resources for unevangelised areas. Missionaries should flow ever more
freely from and to all six continents in a spirit of humble service. The
goal should be, by all available means and at the earliest possible time,
that every person will have the opportunity to hear, understand, and to
receive the good news. We cannot hope to attain this goal without
sacrifice. All of us are shocked by the poverty of millions and disturbed
by the injustices which causes it. Those of us who live in affluent
circumstances accept our duty to develop a simple life-style in order to
contribute more generously to both relief and evangelism.
(John 9:4; Matt. 9:35-38;
Rom. 9:1-3; I Cor. 9:19-23; Mark 16:15;
Isa. 58:6,7; Jas. 1:27; 2:1-9; Matt. 25:31-46; Acts 2:44,45; 4:34,35)
10.
EVANGELISM AND CULTURE
The development of
strategies for world evangelization calls for imaginative pioneering
methods. Under God, the result will be the rise of churches deeply rooted
in Christ and closely related to their culture. Culture must always be
tested and judged by Scripture. Because men and women are God's creatures,
some of their culture is rich in beauty and goodness. Because they are
fallen, all of it is tainted with sin and some of it is demonic. The gospel
does not presuppose the superiority of any culture to another, but
evaluates all cultures according to its own criteria of truth and
righteousness, and insists on moral absolutes in every culture. Missions
have all too frequently exported with the gospel an alien culture and
churches have sometimes been in bondage to culture rather than to
Scripture. Christ's evangelists must humbly seek to empty themselves of all
but their personal authenticity in order to become the servants of others,
and churches must seek to transform and enrich culture, all for the glory
of God.
(Mark 7:8,9,13; Gen.
4:21,22; I Cor. 9:19-23; Phil. 2:5-7; II Cor. 4:5)
11.
EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP
We confess that we have
sometimes pursued church growth at the expense of church depth, and
divorced evangelism from Christian nurture. We also acknowledge that some
of our missions have been too slow to equip and encourage national leaders
to assume their rightful responsibilities. Yet we are committed to
indigenous principles, and long that every church will have national
leaders who manifest a Christian style of leadership in terms not of
domination but of service. We recognise that there is a great need to
improve theological education, especially for church leaders. In every
nation and culture there should be an effective training programme for
pastors and laity in doctrine, discipleship, evangelism, nurture and
service. Such training programmes should not rely on any stereotyped
methodology but should be developed by creative local initiatives according
to biblical standards.
(Col. I:27,28; Acts 14:23; Tit. 1:5,9;
Mark 10:42-45; Eph. 4:11,12)
12.
SPIRITUAL CONFLICT
We believe that we are
engaged in constant spiritual warfare with the principalities and powers of
evil, who are seeking to overthrow the Church and frustrate its task of
world evangelization. We know our need to equip ourselves with God's armour
and to fight this battle with the spiritual weapons of truth and prayer.
For we detect the activity of our enemy, not only in false ideologies
outside the Church, but also inside it in false gospels which twist
Scripture and put people in the place of God. We need both watchfulness and
discernment to safeguard the biblical gospel. We acknowledge that we
ourselves are not immune to worldliness of thoughts and action, that is, to
a surrender to secularism. For example, although careful studies of church
growth, both numerical and spiritual, are right and valuable, we have
sometimes neglected them. At other times, desirous to ensure a response to
the gospel, we have compromised our message, manipulated our hearers
through pressure techniques, and become unduly preoccupied with statistics
or even dishonest in our use of them. All this is worldly. The Church must
be in the world; the world must not be in the Church.
(Eph. 6:12; II Cor.
4:3,4; Eph. 6:11,13-18; II Cor. 10:3-5; I John 2:18-26; 4:1-3; Gal. 1:6-9;
II Cor. 2:17; 4:2; John 17:15)
13.
FREEDOM AND PERSECUTION
It is the God-appointed
duty of every government to secure conditions of peace, justice and liberty
in which the Church may obey God, serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and preach
the gospel without interference. We therefore pray for the leaders of
nations and call upon them to guarantee freedom of thought and conscience,
and freedom to practise and propagate religion in accordance with the will
of God and as set forth in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We
also express our deep concern for all who have been unjustly imprisoned,
and especially for those who are suffering for their testimony to the Lord
Jesus. We promise to pray and work for their freedom. At the same time we
refuse to be intimidated by their fate. God helping us, we too will seek to
stand against injustice and to remain faithful to the gospel, whatever the
cost. We do not forget the warnings of Jesus that persecution is
inevitable.
(I Tim. 1:1-4, Acts 4:19; 5:29; Col. 3:24; Heb. 13:1-3; Luke 4:18;
Gal. 5:11; 6:12; Matt. 5:10-12; John 15:18-21)
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