John MacArthur has posted his reasons for not signing the Manhattan Declaration. He does address the lack of clear gospel presentation in the document, but is that enough reason not to sign? Maybe so. Here is what MacArthur wrote:
Grace to You :: Unleashing God's Truth One Verse
at a Time
The Manhattan Declaration
John MacArthur
Here are the main reasons I am not signing the Manhattan
Declaration, even though a few men whom I love and respect have already affixed
their names to it:
• Although I obviously agree with the document’s
opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and other key moral problems
threatening our culture, the document falls far short of identifying the one true
and ultimate remedy for all of humanity’s moral ills: the gospel. The gospel is
barely mentioned in the Declaration. At one point the statement rightly
acknowledges, “It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season”—and then adds
an encouraging wish: “May God help us not to fail in that duty.” Yet the gospel
itself is nowhere presented (much less explained) in the document or any of the
accompanying literature.
Indeed, that would be a practical impossibility because
of the contradictory views held by the broad range of signatories regarding
what the gospel teaches and what it means to be a Christian.
• This is precisely where the document fails most
egregiously. It assumes from the start that all signatories are fellow
Christians whose only differences have to do with the fact that they represent distinct
“communities.” Points of disagreement are tacitly acknowledged but are
described as “historic lines of ecclesial differences” rather than fundamental
conflicts of doctrine and conviction with regard to the gospel and the question
of which teachings are essential to authentic Christianity.
• Instead of acknowledging the true depth of our
differences, the implicit assumption (from the start of the document until its
final paragraph) is that Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant Evangelicals
and others all share a common faith in and a common commitment to the gospel’s essential
claims. The document repeatedly employs expressions like “we [and] our fellow
believers”;“As Christians, we . . .”; and “we claim the heritage of . . .
Christians.” That seriously muddles the lines of demarcation between authentic
biblical Christianity and various apostate traditions.
• The Declaration therefore constitutes a formal avowal
of brotherhood between Evangelical signatories and purveyors of different
gospels. That is the stated intention of some of the key signatories, and it’s
hard to see how secular readers could possibly view it in any other light. Thus
for the sake of issuing a manifesto decrying certain moral and political
issues, the Declaration obscures both the importance of the gospel and the very
substance of the gospel message.
• This is neither a novel approach nor a strategic stand
for evangelicals to take. It ought to be clear to all that the agenda behind
the recent flurry of proclamations and moral pronouncements we’ve seen promoting
ecumenical co-belligerence is the viewpoint Charles Colson has been championing
for more than two decades. (It is not without significance that his name is
nearly always at the head of the list of drafters when these statements are
issued.) He explained his agenda in his 1994 book The Body, in which he argued
that the only truly essential doctrines of authentic Christian truth are those
spelled out in the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds. I
responded to that argument at length in Reckless Faith. I stand by what I wrote then. In
short, support for The Manhattan Declaration would not only contradict the
stance I have taken since long before the original “Evangelicals and Catholics
Together” document was issued; it would
also tacitly relegate the very essence of gospel truth to
the level of a secondary issue. That is the wrong way—perhaps the very worst
way—for evangelicals to address the moral and political crises of our time.
Anything that silences, sidelines, or relegates the gospel to secondary status
is antithetical to the principles we affirm when we call ourselves
evangelicals.
Available online at:
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/A390
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