February 7 2000

ARTICLE TOOLS

Find similar articles E-mail this page

After we published "The Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Evangelical Celebration," certain questions kept arising. Here we ask Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School and a theological adviser to the CT staff, to address those questions.

As a member of the drafting committee, can you tell us how this statement came about and what it was intended to accomplish?

This statement was born out of a desire to move beyond the bickering and intra-evangelical feuds which distract so much from our witness and mission. At the dawn of a new millennium, we wanted to set forth a unitive statement based on core commitments around which all evangelicals could rally and stand.

What has been the response to the statement and how will it be used in the future?

The response to the statement has been fantastic. More than 200 evangelical leaders have endorsed it, including Dr. Billy Graham. It has been translated into various languages around the world and is beginning to have something of a global impact. The statement will be explicated in two books to be released later this year, one from Zondervan Publishing Company and one from Moody Press. There will also be a special service of worship extolling the gospel during the Christian Booksellers Association meeting this summer in New Orleans. These are all encouraging signs for which we are grateful.

Over the past several decades, evangelicals have produced various theological statements, including the Lausanne Covenant and the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. How does this new statement relate to these earlier affirmations?

This statement builds on but does not merely repeat earlier evangelical declarations. From my perspective, it would be hard to improve on the Lausanne Covenant as a general ...