The session of Holy Trinity Reformed Church has approved and adopted the Warrenton Declaration as an official statement for our congregation and her members.
Here is the Declaration’s preamble:
“With the rise of COVID-19 and all of the attendant ramifications, it has been incumbent upon the church to come to terms with what it believes related to the intersecting areas of biblical ethics, authority, and medical mandates.
Unfortunately, due to a pervasive lack of theological and biblical understanding on these issues coupled with a tendency to over-attribute power and jurisdiction to the state, oftentimes churches have defaulted to almost reflexively acquiescing to whatever government health agency statements are made and the policies they put in place. The legitimacy of the sweeping powers attributed to the state is either simply presumed or reinforced with scant, or faulty biblical support. Powers are assumed to exist unless explicitly denied rather than regarded as absent unless firmly established by Scripture.
As a result, rather than leading on these issues, pastors often become little more than mouthpieces for government health agencies and are then used by these same agencies to help carry out their bidding.
The reasons given for following such policies and mandating them in the local church are not typically justified by a well-rounded and systematic understanding of the whole counsel of Scripture on authority and what it means to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Instead, the rationale given is usually disjointed, unbalanced, and confused.
To that end The Warrenton Declaration on Medical Mandates, Biblical Ethics, & Authority was created in order to provide clarity on these issues moving forward, to equip local churches and their officers in providing clarity on where they stand, and to assist individuals who are being mistreated in their churches with a well-ordered summary of belief in this regard. “
For the full text of the Declaration, or to find out more information, please visit the official website