FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Warrenton, Virginia – June 23, 2021
A group of pastors have collaborated to create the “Warrenton Declaration on Medical Mandates, Biblical Ethics, and Authority.” The declaration was released Wednesday, June 23, 2021, and the “Initial Signers” are made up of mostly pastors across the United States.
According to the statement website, the declaration was created “in order to provide doctrinal clarity and coherence on issues of biblical authority and ethics related to medical mandates.” Further, the declaration’s purpose is to “equip local churches and their officers in providing transparency 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.”
The Preamble of the statement describes the reasoning for the urgent need of the declaration saying, “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.” Furthermore, chief concerns are said to be that churches have “defaulted to almost reflexively acquiescing to whatever government health agency statements are made and the policies they put in place” and that pastors “often become little more than mouth pieces for government health agencies and are then used by these same agencies to help carry out their bidding.”
The statement lays out two broad sections, first a section on authority which describes the Warrenton Declaration’s perspective on Christian responsibility in submitting to government, and in the second section, it makes application to the issue of medical mandates. The statement takes a strong stand against civil governments overstepping what is said to be their bounds of authority with relation to issues like mask wearing and vaccination and asserts the role of the individual and the family as the true authority responsible for decisions in these areas.
An appeal is made to churches and pastors to make clear where they stand on these issues, and for Christians to discuss these issues in their churches rather than staying silent.
The Warrenton Declaration allows those who agree to show their support by signing the statement. The statement can be read by visiting www.WarrentonDeclaration.com.
Pastor Garwood, we live in Northern Ireland and we are Evangelical Christians. We have a blog (sadly not read by many) and we have posted about the Warrenton Declaration on it and given a link to enable any of our readers to sign it if they so wish. We are opposed to masks and forced Covid vaccines and we despise the present global tyranny that has been unleashed under the guise of a virus (assuming it exists.)We have not as yet signed your Declaration because we have some questions we seek answers to. Is your Declaration for Evangelicals to sign or can anyone sign if they agree with it? We are concerned that Roman Catholics and unbelievers may sign and then we would feel that we were in an unholy alliance. We hope that many Roman Catholics and unbelievers DO oppose the Covid tyranny but we would prefer for them to oppose it with a Declaration of their own so there is no “muddying” of the waters. Secondly we are concerned about your views on drugs having listened to a short segment of one of your radio programmes on drugs and drug laws in which you and/or your co-host gave the impression that you are libertarian in your views on drugs. If so, we will have to add a postscript to our blog entry about your Declaration making it clear that we do not necessarily endorse all your views on any given subject. Furthermore we noted that you have links to Joel McDurmon who was a Reconstructionist but in our view is now somewhat liberal on some issues. As you are Reconstructionists, do you still view Joel McDurmon as being a Reconstructionist? We are not Reconstructionists but we do believe that society should be organised along Biblical lines and murderers should be executed and adultery and homosexual activity should be a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment (but not the death penalty.) Here is a link to our blog https://thetruthshallsetyoufreeblog.wordpress.com/
Greetings!Thank you for sharing the declaration. To quickly answer your questions… The declaration is thoroughly Reformed, and while the Roman Catholics have certainly spoken very highly of it–and even some have signed it–this is not because the document is deficient, or insufficient. It simply reflects the fact that their own religious leaders are failing and they want to get behind this sort of movement. I have no qualms with semi-religious or even irreligious people signing because while the statement is orthodox, the hypocrisy (wittingly or unwittingly) is on them, and not me, you, or the declaration. They’re signing on to a confession, and that is something the Lord will deal with.
Regarding my views on drugs, I did preach a sermon and have written about this issue and I believe it to be a thoroughly biblical position. You are welcome to critique it if necessary. Regarding Joel, he’s a friend, he’s a Reconstructionist, and while I don’t agree with him on everything, he’s a brother in Christ, and I’m thankful for him. Fortunately we are free to critique people publicly when they issue public work, and Joel is not exempt.
At any rate, thank you for commenting! Blessings to you in Northern Ireland!
I am a proud mostly Roman Catholic and I agree with this writing whole-heartedly. I lean Libertarian in my politics and have been fully vaccinated.
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