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The Cambridge Declaration is a statement of faith written in 1996 by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, a group of Reformed and Lutheran Evangelicals who were concerned with the state of the Evangelical movement in America and throughout the world.
Both the conference and the eventual declaration came about as a result of David F. Wells' 1993 book No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? (ISBN 0-8028-0747-X). The book was highly critical of the Evangelical church in America for abandoning its historical and theological roots and instead embracing the philosophies and the pragmatism of the world.
While not a best seller, the book was critically acclaimed by a number of important Evangelical leaders. In 1994, a number of thosse leaders formed the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Since much of Wells' thesis stemmed from the modern church's abandonment of historical confessions of faith (such as The Westminster Confession and the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith), the Alliance was based upon Evangelicals who not only adhered to these Reformed confessions of faith, but were able to direct their ministries accordingly.
The two principal players involved in spearheading the conference from which the Cambridge Declaration emerged were James Montgomery Boice of Evangelical Ministries (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), and Dr. Michael S. Horton of Christians United for Reformation (Anaheim, California). Like Wells, Horton and Boice were both strong critics of the shallow nature of contemporary Evangelicalism, and had published a book to that effect. Later in 1996, those men joined forces by merging their respective organizations into The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
Eventually a conference was held between April 17–20, 1996 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The choice of location was deliberate, since Cambridge was the seat of Harvard University and thus the center of ecclesiastical and intellectual life in 17th century America. Cambridge was also the location of The Cambridge Platform, a declaration of church polity made in 1648 by New England Puritans.
Approximately 100 delegates from around the world gathered for the four-day conference, with the explicit intention of creating an official declaration that would be released once the conference concluded. The conference was also important because it included the presence of evangelical Lutherans, who had traditionally kept themselves apart from mainline Evangelical and Reformed movements.
Throughout the conference, a document was drafted, and suggestions and changes were solicited from the delegates. The two principal authors of the Cambridge Declaration, however, were Dr. David F. Wells, and Dr. Michael S. Horton. The papers delivered at the conference were later edited and published in the book Here We Stand (Baker Books), edited by James Montgomery Boice and Ben Sasse (republished in 2004).
The conference and the eventual declaration that was created were broadly influenced by the following:
The declaration is a call to repentance for the evangelical church in order to reaffirm the historical Christian truths that are articulated by The Five solas and deny modern teachings:
1. Sola Scriptura: The Erosion of Authority
2. Solus Christus: The Erosion of Christ-Centered Faith
3. Sola Gratia: The Erosion of The Gospel
4. Sola Fide: The Erosion Of The Chief Article
5. Soli Deo Gloria: The Erosion of God-Centered Worship
The declaration reflects traditional conservative Protestantism in its rejection of the Roman Catholic Church as a legitimate church. This is mainly due to the differences expressed over the issue of Justification. These rejections of the Roman Catholic Church are found implicitly and explicitly in the text of the Declaration:
The declaration also contains many statements that were intended to criticize the influence and theology of the modern Charismatic movement, along with the continual influence of the historic Pentecostal movement[citation needed]: