The Jerusalem Declaration: a summary of authentic Anglicanism
From Gafcon Great Britain and Europe:
Part 2: What Anglicans believe about the Bible
Psalm 119 is rightly seen as a poem about the wonder of actual communication from almighty God to human beings, which has been written down and can be shared, memorised and above all obeyed. In this long prayer, the writer expresses his love of God’s gift of speaking to humanity, and his pleas for help with continued learning and daily obedience….
…the most fruitful Bible study looks at individual texts for understanding about God’s character and ours, salvation in the Lord Jesus, and how we should live. Underlying this is an attitude of submission to Scripture’s authority as God’s truth, and also a sense of gratitude and security that God has spoken and speaks to us, to me. Then, every command or lesson or precept from the Bible is turned into prayer to the Holy Spirit to help put it into practice, and to orient our hearts in the right direction; a ‘long obedience’ in relationship with Christ based on a biblical worldview: this is discipleship for us as individuals and as a church.
In recent years many Anglicans, particularly theologians and leaders in the West, have cast doubt on this understanding of Scripture, and have seen it instead as an ancient text like any other, to be respected for spiritual insights, but to be judged by the standards and thought-fashions of the contemporary world rather than seen as having ultimate authority. The most obvious expression and symptom of this departure from historic Christian teaching has been the approval of same sex relationships, but prioritising the world’s understandings and concerns over the Bible manifests in many other ways as well, such as denial of the uniqueness of Christ, and the shifting of the church’s mission focus away from evangelism.
As a result the Anglican Communion is divided.
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