The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum The Manhattan Declaration

After reading through the document I would decline and do decline to sign it. The statements of those "notables" who have declined found in the links provided above are those which I agree with for the most part. And I think CovenantInBlood has summarized their fundamental positions accurately; lumping Evangelicals, Roman Catholics and Orthodox together as equals.

From the document itself, here are some of the statements I found to be most objectionable along with my comments:

We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season. May God help us not to fail in that duty.
[All signors implied are considered Christians and that their understanding of the "Gospel" is the same. We know that this simply isn't true. Personally, I do not and cannot recognize Roman Catholics nor Orthodox adherents as true Christians.]


The Bible enjoins us to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to speak for those who cannot themselves speak. And so we defend and speak for the unborn, the disabled, and the dependent. What the Bible and the light of reason make clear, we must make clear. We must be willing to defend, even at risk and cost to ourselves and our institutions, the lives of our brothers and sisters at every stage of development and in every condition.
[It is assumed that the 'unborn, disabled and dependent' are "our brothers and sisters...", which is a flat denial of the doctrine of Total Depravity and at the same time the spiritual separation that occurs at regeneration and conversion when a true believer is called out of darkness and death and given life through the light that is found only in the Lord Christ.]


Our rejection of sin, though resolute, must never become the rejection of sinners. For every sinner, regardless of the sin, is loved by God, who seeks not our destruction but rather the conversion of our hearts. Jesus calls all who wander from the path of virtue to “a more excellent way.” As his disciples we will reach out in love to assist all who hear the call and wish to answer it.
[The Bible teaches and thus I must embrace that God does not love every man indiscriminately. Nor does Scripture bifurcate sin from the sinner since sin is the fruit of a sinner and cannot therefore exist in and of itself apart from its origin; the depraved nature of the human heart or from fallen angelic beings.]


Determined to follow Jesus faithfully in life and death, the early Christians appealed to the manner in which the Incarnation had taken place: “Did God send Christ, as some suppose, as a tyrant brandishing fear and terror? Not so, but in gentleness and meekness..., for compulsion is no attribute of God” (Epistle to Diognetus 7.3-4).
[The "Epistle to Diognetus" has no authority since it is not part of the divinely inspired written Word of God. To follow Jesus faithfully includes the promulgation of the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation. These three groups have fundamental differences as to what the Gospel entails. More so, the Gospel as preached, taught and embraced by the Reformers and Puritans is decidedly different than that embraced by the vast majority of 'Evangelicals' today.]


We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral.
[The Bible teaches no such liberty nor obligation whereby a true believer is to disobey any civil law if it is simply "unjust". That we should voice our disapproval and seek to correct such injustices is true. However, what Scripture teaches is that Christians are to disobey any civil law or other type of law which demands commit sin; that which God's moral law forbids. Likewise, Christians are to disobey any such law that forbids them to do what God has commanded them to do.]