Foreword
Foreword
It may seem an impertinence to dare to write a Foreword to a classic book by a world-renowned author like John Stott. And it may seem even more bold to do so posthumously, when the author cannot let us know whether he approves or not! For several reasons, however, I believe John Stott would be delighted to see the re-publication of this book in its new format and that he would agree with what I am about to write.
First of all, Evangelical Truth, though published on its own in 1999, was incorporated as the first in a new series that John Stott himself had initiated through Langham Partnership – the Global Christian Library. That series, now expanded and expanding still within the wider framework of the Langham Global Library, seeks to serve the church worldwide with short and accessible books on major Christian doctrines and themes, written by evangelical scholars from every continent. John Stott would rejoice that his original idea has borne good fruit and that Langham Literature continues to commission, publish and distribute the series, with his own volume as a model.
Secondly, it is very fitting that his original text has now been supplemented in this volume with The Cape Town Commitment, the document produced from the Third Lausanne Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2010. The Global Christian Library has as its defining mission, ‘to provide inter-cultural exposition and application of the Christian faith, within the framework of the Lausanne Covenant, by authors from the international evangelical community’. As is well known, John Stott was the chief architect of the Lausanne Covenant, the fruit of the First Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974 – a document that has come to have a defining status across a broad spectrum of evangelicals worldwide. In this book, he also quotes from the Manila Manifesto, the document of the Second Lausanne Congress in 1989. By the time of Cape Town 2010, John Stott was already into the last year of his life on earth (he died in July 2011). His failing health and strength meant that he was unable to read, but when The Cape Town Commitment was published in early 2011 he insisted on having it read to him slowly by a close friend, in short sections over many days. He gave it his unqualified approval and rejoiced to affirm that it expressed a remarkable degree of evangelical unity – one of the key things he pleads for in this book. So I have no doubt that he would have approved of the idea of including it together with his own text in this combined volume.
Thirdly, the two documents (Evangelical Truth and The Cape Town Commitment) share a similar objective and go about it in a similar way. In his Preface, John Stott says that he wanted to provide a simple statement of evangelical faith, both as a personal testament to his own convictions, and also as what he hoped could be a unifying statement of evangelical essentials around which there could be agreement, even in the midst of the wide range of differences among us on all kinds of other issues. Likewise, in the year or so before Cape Town, it was urged that Lausanne should once again (as in 1974) provide a clarifying statement of core evangelical confession that could command broad acceptance. The question common to both is simply, ‘What does it mean to be evangelical?’
Interestingly, John Stott decided that some of the existing definitions of evangelical identity include too much of what we might call the human factor – what kind of experiences evangelicals claim, what kind of activities they get involved in, etc. In other words, there is a social and cultural dimension to evangelicalism, as there is with any human movement. And we would have to admit (as John Stott hints from time to time) that there are some fairly radical cultural, social, political and economic differences to be found among people around the world who would self-identify as evangelicals. So what he chooses to concentrate on are the great biblical and Trinitarian truths about God – the essential components of evangelical commitment to the revelation of God the Father in scripture, the redeeming work of God the Son through the cross of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer and the church.
When I was invited to facilitate the process that eventually led to the production of The Cape Town Commitment, in response to the call for a ‘clear statement of evangelical identity and faith’, I looked to see how the Lausanne Covenant had used or defined the word ‘evangelical’. I was surprised to find that it does not. The word is not used at all. The Covenant simply begins, not by pointing to ourselves as evangelicals, but simply with the words, ‘We, members of the Church of Jesus Christ from more than 150 nations . . .’ Then its first paragraph is ‘The Purpose of God.’ In the same way, and for the same reason, The Cape Town Commitment simply begins, ‘As members of the worldwide Church of Jesus Christ . . .’ It then goes on to affirm our love for God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – for God’s word, God’s world, the gospel, the church and the mission God has invited us to share, highlighting along the way the many practical demands of such love. The focus, then, is not on who we are (as evangelicals) and what we do, say or think, but simply on the truths and convictions we share about who God is and what God has done. The whole point of the exercise (for John Stott and for the Commitment – especially Part 1), is not to say ‘Here we are, do you like us?’ (to which many ambivalent answers might be given), but rather to say ‘Here is the living God, do you love him?’ (to which only one answer is called for).
Fourthly, the combination of the two texts is appropriate not only for historical reasons. I said above that John Stott’s original book is ‘supplemented’ here with the text of The Cape Town Commitment. But a better way to put it would be to see it not merely as a supplement (something tacked on as an extra), but as richly complementary. The Commitment fills out a number of issues on which John Stott’s book has less to say. This is by no means a criticism: it is impossible to be comprehensive in a short book and John Stott traverses enormous territories with his customary clarity and economy. The fact that he expressed total agreement with the Commitment leads me to have confidence that he would fully agree with the following points.
• John Stott locates his discussion of the authority of the Bible (as a core element in evangelical confession) within the self-revelation of God the Father. That is perfectly apt. However, the Bible has much more to say (as John Stott would be the first to agree) about God as Father, especially as Creator. The Commitment fills out a fuller perspective on God’s purpose in and for creation, the responsibility of creation care as part of Christian mission, and the ultimate destiny of new creation. This is the framework (the biblical pillars of Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22) within which the great redemptive work of God the Trinity properly fits in its fullest accomplishment. Evangelicals affirm the redemption of creation, not our redemption out of creation.
• In his chapter on the redeeming work of God the Son, through the cross, John Stott focuses primarily on its personal significance. With him, we rejoice with eternal gratitude for the grace that finds and saves the lost, that justifies guilty sinners through faith in Christ’s substitutionary death for us, and that reconciles us to God now and for all eternity. The Commitment, fills out other massive realities that the Bible tells us Christ accomplished through his death and resurrection (and stresses the necessity of both). These include: the defeat of all powers of evil, human and satanic (Col. 2:15); the reconciliation of enemies in a new humanity (Eph. 2:14-16); the destruction of death itself (Heb. 2:14); and the ultimate redemption, healing and restoration of all creation (Col. 1:15-20). Evangelicals affirm the gospel, not merely as the means and assurance of personal salvation, but as the good news of the whole Bible story (Old and New Testaments) of all that God has done, not only to deal with the guilt of individual sinners and reverse the calamity of Genesis 3, but also to reverse the calamity of Genesis 11 by filling the new creation, freed from the curse, with people redeemed from every nation, tribe and people and language who enjoy the ‘healing of the nations’, in fulfilment of his promise to Abraham.
• In the area of Christian mission, John Stott was possibly too optimistic in hoping that the relationship between evangelism and social action was ‘an area of conflict . . . no longer’. Sadly disagreements have continued in this area in spite of the abundance of fine theological work done during the 1980s under John Stott’s own leadership. The Cape Town Commitment affirms an understanding of integral mission, in which the gospel and evangelism are central – not ‘central’ in a way that makes everything else peripheral and less important, but rather in the way a hub is central to a wheel. It connects (and integrates) the power of the engine (what God has done in Christ to save the world), to the rim (the contextual engagement of transformed and obedient living in the world). Hub and rim are both essential and integrated parts of the whole. Such a theology of mission in Part 1 prepares the way for the detailed ‘Call to Action’ in Part 2.
Finally, Evangelical Truth and The Cape Town Commitment are wholly agreed in insisting that, in fully biblical terms, ‘truth’ is not just something you say you believe, but something you do. In fact, without the doing, faith claims are empty. The gospel is not only the gracious gift of salvation calling for our faith, it is also the transforming power of God demanding and generating our obedience (Paul spoke of ‘the obedience of faith’, and ‘obeying the gospel’). The Bible not only reveals truth to be received and believed, but also reveals a way of life to be followed. Two quotes will sharpen the point and prepare us, as we read both texts, not only to be fed and enriched in our mind and heart by the great truths of our faith, but also to be challenged and motivated in our will and character to live in the light of them, in integrity and humility.
The hallmark of authentic evangelicalism is not subscription but submission. That is, it is not whether we subscribe to an impeccable formula about the Bible, but whether we live in practical submission to what the Bible teaches.
John Stott
The Bible portrays a quality of life that should mark the believer and the community of believers. From Abraham, through Moses, the Psalmists, prophets and wisdom of Israel, and from Jesus and the apostles, we learn that such a biblical lifestyle includes justice, compassion, humility, integrity, truthfulness, sexual chastity, generosity, kindness, self-denial, hospitality, peacemaking, non-retaliation, doing good, forgiveness, joy, contentment and love – all combined in lives of worship, praise and faithfulness to God.
We confess that we easily claim to love the Bible without loving the life it teaches – the life of costly practical obedience to God through Christ. Yet ‘nothing commends the gospel more eloquently than a transformed life, and nothing brings it into disrepute so much as personal inconsistency. We are charged to behave in a manner that is worthy of the gospel of Christ and even to ‘adorn’ it, enhancing its beauty by holy lives.’[1] For the sake of the gospel of Christ, therefore, we recommit ourselves to prove our love for God’s Word by believing and obeying it. There is no biblical mission without biblical living.
The Cape Town Commitment I.6d
Christopher J.H. Wright
International Ministries Director
Langham Partnership
1.
. The Manila Manifesto Paragraph 7; Titus 2:9-10