Confessing the Gospel in Our Day (Jerusalem Declaration Clause 1)
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles by Dr. Stephen Noll, titled “The Jerusalem Declaration: A Personal Commentary.” In this series, Dr. Noll draws on decades of experience in the GAFCON movement, especially his role as Secretary of the Statement group that drafted the Jerusalem Declaration and its accompanying Statement.
The Jerusalem Declaration is the confessional basis for a reformed and reordered Communion. It is not only a memento of the first GAFCON in 2008, but it is also the ongoing “contemporary standard for Anglican identity” for individual and corporate membership in the Global Anglican Communion (see “The Future Has Arrived,” #7).
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A Confessional Communion
The Global Anglican Communion is proudly confessional, in the lineage of brief summaries of faith in Scripture and throughout church history. The “Shema” and the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament, and Jesus’ Two Great Commandments in the Gospels, are confessions of faith and practice (Deut. 6:4; Exod. 20:1-17; Mark 12:29-31). St. Paul cites apostolic traditions concerning the Persons of the Trinity and of the saving work of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 8:6; 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:5-11; 1 Cor. 15:1-11). The creeds of the patristic period and the confessions of the Reformation reflect the church working out the biblical doctrines of God and salvation in opposition to particular heresies of the day.
In our day, the Gafcon movement has answered the call to address the claims of Enlightenment secularism and postmodern nihilism, especially the challenge to the supreme authority of God and his Word and to human nature, male and female, created in his image.
The Shape of the Declaration
The Jerusalem Declaration is a mere 640 words. This includes a brief introduction and fourteen clauses (note: the term “clause” for the numbered items seems preferable to “article,” which might be confused with the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion).
While the Jerusalem Declaration is not rigorously organized, it does display a kind of logic that may help follow its course. After a brief preface that locates its historical provenance, the first seven clauses set forth the classic tenets of Anglican faith, worship, and order, and the second seven address contemporary issues.
Preface: The Trinity and the Gospel of the Kingdom
Since the Jerusalem Declaration, unlike the surrounding Statement, serves as an ongoing marker of fellowship in the Global Anglican Communion, it has its own brief introduction that provides the historical and theological substance of the movement.
In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit:
We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, have met in the land of Jesus’ birth. We express our loyalty as disciples to the King of kings, the Lord Jesus. We joyfully embrace his command to proclaim the reality of his kingdom which he first announced in this land. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news of salvation, liberation and transformation for all. In light of the above, we agree to chart a way forward together that promotes and protects the biblical gospel and mission to the world, solemnly declaring the following tenets of orthodoxy which underpin our Anglican identity.
First, the Declaration is unapologetically Trinitarian. While the term “Trinity” occurs only here, the action of the triune God in the economy of salvation is implicit throughout the Declaration: in Gospel proclamation, the canon of Scripture, the Creeds, the Articles, and the Prayer Book, and in the Risen Lord’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).
Secondly, the preface connects the location of the first GAFCON in the Holy Land with the Kingdom of God, foretold by the Old Testament prophets and fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, who came preaching:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Mark 1:15
On the day of Pentecost, Peter announced the fulfillment of that story, saying, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36). Like the multi-cultural gathering who responded to Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, the Gafcon delegates pledge themselves in our day to proclaim this Gospel from Jerusalem to their ends of the earth.
Promoting and Protecting the Gospel
The Conference members acknowledge that we must not only promote the Gospel, but protect it, in accord with St. Paul’s word to Timothy:
“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
2 Timothy 4:2
Finally, the Conference members—and by extension those who follow in the future—seal the covenant and “solemnly declare” its tenets of orthodoxy in the Anglican tradition.
The Jerusalem Declaration has remained the standard for the Gafcon movement for 18 years now, and it will continue to be the standard for years to come. Like any formulary, it reflects a specific moment in time with its immediate concerns. At some point in the future, amendments will be necessary, as was the case with the Nicene Creed and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. In the meantime, it presents a range of topics that allow us to interpret it and faithfully apply its principles to future circumstances.
Clause 1: The Gospel of God
With this, we come to the golden apples of the Declaration:
- We rejoice in the gospel of God through which we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because God first loved us, we love him and as believers bring forth fruits of love, ongoing repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God in all things.
The Gospel of the triune God and his Kingdom opens the Jerusalem Declaration in a spirit of celebration, as introduced in the Eucharistic liturgy: “Blessed be God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and blessed be his Kingdom, now and forever.” Although a false gospel brought the Gafcon movement into being, the announcement of the true and only gospel propels it forward.
The joy of the Gospel was announced beforehand by prophets, psalmists, and angels (Isa. 40:9; Psalm 95:1; Luke 2:10). Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and an apostolic command: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Gal. 5:22; Phil. 4:4). New converts, like C.S. Lewis, continue to be “surprised by joy.”
Joy in Salvation
The first clause moves on to connect the joy of the Gospel with the salvation offered by God, as expressed in the words of St. Paul and St. John, the Apostles of faith and of love.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Eph 2:8-9
We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19
The apostolic testimony to the Gospel of God, which brings the joy of salvation to sinners, continues to echo throughout the Church’s history of mission. One of the earliest examples is that of Philip the Evangelist and the Ethiopian nobleman:
Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” … And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
Acts 8:35-36, 38-39
A current example of God’s grace at work is the Muslim convert, Yassir Eric, who spoke at the recent New Wineskins for Global Mission conference. Eric, who was raised as a strict Muslim in Sudan, tells how two Coptic Christians visited his cousin, who was deathly ill in the hospital: “I felt my conscience stir. They were praying for a Muslim boy, whereas I had always prayed against Christians.” The boy miraculously recovered, and Eric prayed to Jesus for the first time. Today, Yassir Eric is a bishop in the Gafcon-sponsored Ekkios diocese.
Clause 1 concludes by naming fruits of the Spirit that proceed from Christian freedom: “love, ongoing repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God in all things” (cf. Gal. 5:1, 22-25). Perhaps the most striking mention is of “ongoing repentance” reminding one of the publican in Jesus’ parable who “standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13). Christians remain “at the same time saints and sinners,” as Martin Luther put it.
The Gospel of God in Later Gafcon Documents
The theme of the Gospel of God arose at subsequent Conferences. GAFCON II in Nairobi had a special focus on the East African Revival (see this powerful address). The conference statement, read jointly by two prominent figures in the Church of Uganda, the Rev. Dr. Canon John Senyonyi—my colleague and successor at Uganda Christian University—and his wife, states:
There is much we can learn from the East African Revival about having a change of heart. Beginning in the last century, the Revival has touched millions of lives across many countries as the Holy Spirit has moved lay men and women, as well as clergy, to share the gospel with others.
The gospel alone has the power to transform lives. As the gospel is heard, the Holy Spirit challenges and convicts of sin, and points to the love of God expressed in his Son, Jesus Christ. The sheer grace of God in setting us free from sin through the cross of Christ leads us into the enjoyment of our forgiveness and the desire to lead a holy life.
The theme of the Gospel arose again in the “Letter to the Churches” from the third GAFCON assembly, this time back in Jerusalem. While renewing its commitment to personal evangelism, the Conference also notes the new community that comes into being where the Gospel is preached and believed:
The gospel of God creates the church of God. Through the invitation of the gospel, God calls all people into fellowship with his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. As the word of the gospel goes forth in the power of the Holy Spirit, they respond through the work of the Holy Spirit to repent, believe and be baptised, and are thereby joined to Christ’s body which is his church (Acts 2:37-44; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13). As members of Christ’s body, they are sanctified in him, called to live lives of holiness and to be salt and light in the world.
The Global Anglican Communion identifies itself as truly evangelical, not in a party sense, but in a biblical sense, captured in the signature verse of the Apostle to the Gentiles:
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16
The first clause of the Jerusalem Declaration lays the foundation on which the church stands or falls: the Good News of the coming Kingdom heralded by the prophets; the Glad Tidings of the Kingdom come, announced by the Christmas angels to the lowly shepherds; and the eternal gospel of the Kingdom consummated, announced to the martyrs at the end of the age (Rev. 14:6).
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The Jerusalem Declaration: A Personal Commentary
By this time, it is clear that the Jerusalem Declaration has become the doctrinal standard of the global Anglican realignment.
