December 1, 2009

Dear CBC Family and Friends:

Several of you have inquired about my position concerning the recent Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience, a 4,700-word document drafted by Chuck Colson, Founder of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, Timothy George, Professor at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, and Robert. P. George, a Roman Catholic professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. The following is an overview of the declaration found on the Home Page of their website (manhattandeclaration.org).

As of today, December 1, 2009, their website indicates that 221,720 Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians have signed this document showing their support (and the number is growing every minute). I will not be among them for the following reasons.

First, let me make it abundantly clear that according to Scripture abortion and same-sex marriage are abominations in the eyes of God and should be opposed by all Christians. Moreover, matters pertaining to justice and moral conscience that are being trampled in our judicial and legislative systems should also be opposed, as the document well states.

However, the only remedy for genuine and lasting change is the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a foundational premise this declaration fails to acknowledge. In fact, nowhere in the document is the gospel ever even presented. This is no surprise given the contradictory positions this ecumenical consortium holds—positions that are not only antithetical, but also hostile to the biblical gospel. Any theological system such as Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, and some ostensibly Protestant Evangelicals that deny the primacy of God’s grace alone to be His unmerited gift to reconcile sinners unto Himself is apostate and must be thoroughly rejected.

Although I concede that this declaration is not an overt call to any form of doctrinal unity but rather a manifesto on matters of Christian conscience pertaining to the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage, and the rights of conscience and religious liberty, nevertheless, I fear a more sinister agenda. I am convinced that every signatory will be considered to be far more than a co-belligerent in this fight, but rather a co-conspirator of ecumenism.

The ecumenical movement has historically championed political and moral issues to advance their cause. Seeing Chuck Colson’s name as one of the men who drafted this document produced immediate suspicion. In 1994 I read his book, The Body, where he insisted that Christian unity could and should be achieved by essentially reducing Christian doctrine to its lowest common denominators, namely, adherence to the Apostle’s Creed (not written by the apostles) and the Nicene Creed (written in the 4th century in an effort to unify the Christian church under the emperor Constantine and now revered by Roman Catholics). In truth, both of these creeds are uninspired and incomplete statements of biblical doctrine essential to Christianity that have suffered from widely divergent and contradictory interpretations, hardly a test of orthodoxy.

While I mean no personal disrespect to Chuck Colson and others who share his view, in my opinion his position on Christian unity is profoundly unbiblical for it fails to understand the definition of Christian. This combined with the fact that he authored the ecumenical documents Evangelicals and Catholics Together I and II, along with Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (a Lutheran who converted to Catholicism), gives me great concern that the real agenda behind the Manhattan Declaration is far more than what is stated and will ultimately be touted as a great victory for ecumenism.

I am also concerned that signing this declaration would imply that we are all brothers in Christ when in fact we are not. The doctrinal heresies of Roman Catholicism and the Orthodox churches are so severe that they cannot rightly be called Christian. Association with them would therefore demonstrate a blatant disregard for the apostle Paul’s command, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? . . . ‘COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,’ says the Lord” (2 Cor 6:14, 17).

I want no part of anything that might even give the appearance of compromise or tacit approval of those who do. Scripture is clear that any attempt to set aside doctrinal differences pertaining to the gospel for the purpose of creating some perceived spiritual unity is not only counterfeit, it is anathema (Gal 1:8). Once again, I fear my signature would imply this very thing and violate my calling to “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude 3). Charles Spurgeon summarized my heart perfectly when he said, “To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus.”

Furthermore, by its failure to present the gospel, it is obvious that this declaration relegates the gospel to a matter of minor importance. As a result, the only truth that can save men’s souls is marginalized and misrepresented; creating a doctrinal vacuum that attracts damning heresies that seduce men into all manner of deception and moral failure. The legacy of immorality in the Roman Catholic priesthood alone bears testimony to this. Apart from genuine saving faith through belief in the gospel and the ensuing indwelling of the Holy Spirit, man has no capacity to restrain indwelling sin and no ability to live for the glory of God. The only thing worse than the current moral freefall in our country would be for this declaration to produce a movement that moralizes men without Christ. Reformation without reconciliation and transformation inevitably results in damnation.

I must confess that it is heart wrenching to witness the Christ-exalting five solas of the Reformation be so egregiously forsaken and forgotten in our modern era. Yet this has become the grievous legacy of evangelicalism. We are to be “the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15), yet the waters of compromise and the winds of false teaching have done great damage to this spiritual edifice. Apart from our Lord’s promise to build and preserve His church, we would have no hope. Like never before in my life and ministry I share the apostle’s concern when he said, “I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor 11:3).

To be sure, these are great days of apostasy. Indeed, we are now witnessing the early formations of the great Harlot church (Rev 17:5) as the shadows of Bible prophecy are now being cast forward. While we all lament over the moral free fall in our culture, we must rejoice in our unmerited salvation and be about the business of evangelism until the Lord returns to “execute justice and righteousness on the earth” (Jer 33:15). May we never be “ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16).

For the Sake of the Gospel,

David Harrell