Frankfurt Declaration, 1970

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On the Fundamental Crisis in Christian Mission

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“Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!”

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I Corinthians 9:16 RSV

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The Church of Jesus Christ has the sacred privilege and irrevocable obligation to

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participate in the mission of the triune God, a mission which must extend into all
the world. Through the Church’s outreach, his name shall be glorified among all

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people, mankind shall be saved from his future wrath and led to a new life, and the
lordship of his Son Jesus Christ shall be established in the expectation of his second
coming.
This is the way that Christianity has always understood the Great Commission of

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Christ, though, we must confess, not always with the same degree of fidelity and

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clarity. The recognition of the task and the total missionary obligation of the church
led to the endeavor to integrate missions into the German Protestant Churches and
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the World Council of Churches, whose Commission and Division of World Mission
and Evangelism was established in 1961. It is the goal of this division, by the terms
of its constitution, to insure “the proclamation to the whole world of the Gospel of
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Jesus Christ, to the end that all men may believe in him and be saved.” It is our
conviction that this definition reflects the basic apostolic concern of the New
Testament and restores the understanding of mission held by the fathers of the
Protestant missionary movement.
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Today, however, organized Christian world missions is shaken by a fundamental

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crisis. Outer opposition and the weakening spiritual power of our churches and
missionary societies are not solely to blame. More dangerous is the displacement of
their primary tasks by means of an insidious falsification of their motives and goals.
Deeply concerned because of their inner decay, we feel called upon to make the
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following declaration.
We address ourselves to all Christians who know themselves through the belief in
salvation through Jesus Christ to be responsible for the continuation of his saving
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work among non-Christian people. We address ourselves further to the leaders of

churches and congregations, to whom the worldwide perspective of their spiritual
commission has been revealed. We address ourselves finally to all missionary
societies and their coordinating agencies, which are especially called, according to
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their spiritual tradition, to oversee the true goals of missionary activity.

We urgently and sincerely request you to test the following theses on the basis of
their biblical foundations, and to determine the accuracy of this description of the
current situation with respect to the errors and modes of operation which are
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increasingly evident in churches, missions, and the ecumenical movement. In the

event of your concurrence, we request that you declare this by your signature and
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join with us in your own sphere of influence, both repentant and resolved to insist
upon these guiding principles.
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Seven Indispensable Basic Elements of Mission

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I.
“Full authority in heaven and on earth has been committed to me. Go forth
therefore and make all nations my disciples; baptize men everywhere in the name
of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have
 commanded you. And be assured, I am with you always, to the end of time (Matt.

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28:18~20; this Scripture quotation and those that follow are from the New English

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Bible).”

We recognize and declare:

Christian mission discovers its foundation, goals, tasks, and the content of its

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proclamation solely in the commission of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and his

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saving acts as they are reported by the witness of the apostles and early
Christianity in the New Testament. Mission is grounded in the nature of the Gospel.
We therefore oppose the current tendency to determine the nature and task of

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mission by socio-political analyses of our time and from the demands of the non-
Christian world. We deny that what the Gospel has to say to people today at the

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deepest level is not evident before its encounter with them. Rather, according to the
apostolic witness, the Gospel is normative and given once for all. The situation of
encounter contributes only new aspects in the application of the Gospel. The

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surrender of the Bible as our primary frame of reference leads to the shapelessness
of mission and a confusion of the task of mission with a general idea of

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responsibility for the world.

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“Thus will I prove myself great and holy and make myself known to many nations;
they shall know that I am the Lord (Ezek. 38:23).
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Therefore, Lord, I will praise thee among the nations and sing psalms to thy name
(Ps. 18:49 and Rom. 15:9).”
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We recognize and declare:

The first and supreme goal of mission is the glorification of the name of the one
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God throughout the entire world and the proclamation of the lordship of Jesus
Christ, his Son.
We therefore oppose the assertion that mission today is no longer so concerned
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with the disclosure of God as with the manifestation of a new man and the
extension of a new humanity into all social realms. Humanization is not the primary
goal of mission. It is rather a product of our new birth through God’s saving activity
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in Christ within us, or an indirect result of the Christian proclamation in its power
to perform a leavening activity in the course of world history.
A one-sided outreach of missionary interest toward man and his society leads to
atheism.
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III.
“There is no salvation in anyone else at all, for there is no other name under
heaven granted to men, by which we may receive salvation (Acts 4:12).”
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We recognize and declare:

Jesus Christ our Saviour, true God and true man, as the Bible proclaims him in his
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personal mystery and his saving work, is the basis, content, and authority of our
mission. It is the goal of this mission to make known to all people in all walks of life
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the gift of his salvation.

We therefore challenge all non-Christians, who belong to God on the basis of
creation, to believe in him and to be baptized in his name, for in him alone is
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eternal salvation promised to them.

We therefore oppose the false teaching (which is spreading in the ecumenical
movement since the Third General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in
New Delhi) that Christ himself is anonymously so evident in world religions,
historical changes, and revolutions that man can encounter him and find salvation
 in him without the direct news of the Gospel.

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We likewise reject the unbiblical limitation of the person and work of Jesus to his

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humanity and ethical example. In such an idea the uniqueness of Christ and the
Gospel is abandoned in favor of a humanitarian principle which others might also
find in other religions and ideologies.

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IV.

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“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, that everyone who has
faith in him may not die but have eternal life (John 3:16).
In Christ’s name, we implore you, be reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:20).”

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We recognize and declare:

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Mission is the witness and presentation of eternal salvation performed in the name
of Jesus Christ by his church and fully authorized messengers by means of
preaching, the sacraments, and service. This salvation is due to the sacrificial

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crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which occurred once for all and for all mankind.
The appropriation of this salvation to individuals takes place first, however, through

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proclamation, which calls for decision, and through baptism, which places the
believer in the service of love. Just as belief leads through repentance and baptism
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to eternal life, so unbelief leads through its rejection on the offer of salvation to
damnation.
We therefore oppose the universalistic idea that in the crucifixion and
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resurrection of Jesus Christ all men of all times are already born again and already
have peace with him, irrespective of their knowledge of the historical saving activity
of God or belief in it. Through such a misconception the evangelizing commission
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loses both its full, authoritative power and its urgency. Unconverted men are
thereby lulled into a fatal sense of security about their eternal destiny.
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V.
“But you are a chosen race, an royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, and a people
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claimed by God for his own, to proclaim the triumphs of him who has called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light (I Pet. 2:9).
Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world (Rom. 12:2).”
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We recognize and declare:

The primary visible task of mission is to call out the messianic, saved community
from among all people.
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Missionary proclamation should lead everywhere to the establishment of the Church

of Jesus Christ, which exhibits a new, defined reality as salt and light in its social
environment.
Through the Gospel and the sacraments, the Holy Spirit gives the members of the
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congregation a new life and an eternal, spiritual fellowship with each other and with
God, who is real and present with them. It is the task of the congregation through
its witness to move the lost－especially those who live outside its community－to a
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saving membership in the body of Christ. Only by being this new kind of fellowship
does the Church present the Gospel convincingly.
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We therefore oppose the view that the Church, as the fellowship of Jesus, is simply
a part of the world. The contrast between the Church and the world is not merely a
distinction in function and in knowledge of salvation; rather, it is an essential
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difference in nature. We deny that the Church has no advantage over the world
except the knowledge of the alleged future salvation of all men.
We further oppose the one-sided emphasis on salvation which stresses only this
world, according to which the Church and the world together share in a future,
purely social, reconciliation of all mankind. That would lead to the self-dissolution of
 the Church.

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VI.
“Remember then your former condition: ... you were at that time separate from
Christ, strangers to the community of Israel, outside God’s covenants and the
promise that goes with them. Your world was a world without hope and without

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God (Eph. 2:11~12).”

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We recognize and declare:
The offer of salvation in Christ is directed without exception to all men who are not

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yet bound to him in conscious faith. The adherents to the non-Christian religions
and world views can receive this salvation only through participation in faith. they

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must let themselves be freed from their former ties and false hopes in order to be
admitted by belief and baptism into the body of Christ, Israel, too, will find
salvation in turning to Jesus Christ.

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We therefore reject the false teaching that the non-Christian religions and world
views are also ways of salvation similar to belief in Christ.

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We refute the idea that “Christian presence” among the adherents to the world
religions and a give-and-take dialogue with them are substitutes for a proclamation
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of the Gospel which aims at conversion. Such dialogues simply establish good
points of contact for missionary communication.
We also refute the claim that the borrowing of Christian ideas, hopes, and social
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procedures－even if they are separated from their exclusive relationship to the
person of Jesus－can make the world religion and ideologies substitutes for the
Church of Jesus Christ. In reality they give them a syncretistic and therefore anti-
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Christian direction.
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VII.
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the earth as a
testimony to all nations; and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14).”
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We recognize and declare:

The Christian world mission is the decisive, continuous saving activity of God
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among men between the time of the resurrection and second coming of Jesus
Christ. Through the proclamation of the Gospel, new nations and people will
progressively be called to decision for or against Christ.
When all people have heard the witness about him and have given their answer to
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it, the conflict between the Church of Jesus and the world, led by the Anti-Christ,
will reach its climax. Then Christ himself will return and break into time, disarming
the demonic power of Satan and establishing his own visible, boundless messianic
kingdom.
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We refute the unfounded idea that the eschatological expectation of the New
Testament has been falsified by Christ’s delay in returning and is therefore to be
given up.
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We refute at the same time the enthusiastic and utopian ideology that either
under the influence of the Gospel or by the anonymous working of Christ in history,
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all of mankind is already moving toward a position of general peace and justice and
will finally－before the return of Christ－be united under him in a great world
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community.
We refute the identification of messianic salvation with progress, development,
and social change. The fatal consequence of this is that efforts to aid development
and revolutionary involvement in the places of tension in society are seen as the
contemporary forms of Christian mission. But such an identification would be a self-
 deliverance to the utopian movements of our time in the direction of their ultimate

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destination.

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We do, however, affirm the determined advocacy of justice and peace by
all churches, and we affirm that developmental aid is a timely realization of
the divine demand for mercy and justice as well as of the command of

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Jesus “Love thy neighbor.”

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We see therein an important accompaniment and authentication of mission.
We also affirm the humanizing results of conversion as signs of the coming
messianic peace.

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We stress, however, that unlike the eternally valid reconciliation with God
through faith in the Gospel, all of our social achievements and partial

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successes in politics are restricted by the eschatological “not yet” of the
coming kingdom and the not yet annihilated power of sin, death, and the
devil, who still is the “prince of this world.”

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This establishes the priorities of our missionary service and causes us to
extend ourselves in the expectation of Him who promises, “Behold! I make

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all things new” (Rev. 21:5, RSV).

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* Unless otherwise indicated, biblical quotations are taken from the New English Bible.
* This declaration was unanimously accepted by the “Theological Convention”, a regular
meeting of theologians who want to be faithful to the scripture and confession, at their
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session on March 4, 1970, in Frankfurt/Main, German..
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