A DECLARATION OF FAITH (1977)
CHAPTER TWO -- THE MAKER AND RULER OF ALL
1 (1) God created and rules in love.
2 God created all the
worlds that are
3
and upholds and rules everything.
4 We affirm that the
universe exists
5
by the power of God's Word and Spirit.
6 God has chosen to
give it reality
7
out of the love we have come to know in Christ.
8 God still works
9
through the processes that shape and change the earth
10 and the
living things upon it.
11 We
acknowledge God's care and control
12 in the
regularity of the universe
13 as well
as in apparently random happenings.
14 There is no event from which
God is absent
15 and his
ultimate purpose in all events is just and loving.
16 That purpose embraces our
choices
17
and will surely be accomplished.
18 The Creator works in all things
19 toward
the new creation that is promised in Christ.
20 (2) God sustains the goodness of creation.
21 God called all he had made
good.
22 We declare that the
universe of matter, energy, and life
23 is
God's good creation in all its parts.
24 Even though evil has emerged
within God's creation,
25 we may
work and play in it
26 and
explore it with wonder and joy.
27 Evil is whatever works against
the loving purpose of God
28 for
human beings and all creation.
29
Natural forces may have evil effects.
30 Sinful human choices produce
evil results.
31 Evil may become
institutionalized in our social structures.
32 The power of evil to hurt and
destroy,
33 to cut
off the possibilities of full human life,
34 calls
into question the power and goodness of God.
35 Whether we understand evil
personally or impersonally,
36 we
cannot explain how it originated in a world made good.
37 But we can affirm that evil is
God's enemy as well as ours.
38 In Christ, God shared our agony
over evil
39 and
broke the back of its power
40 by
bearing the worst it could do.
41
God works continually to overcome evil.
42 In the end it will be utterly
defeated.
43 Therefore we have
courage to endure evil,
44 to
learn from it, and combat it.
45 (3) God made us to care for other created things.
46 God made human beings along
with all the other creatures
47 and
charged them to care for the earth
48 and all
that lives on it.
49 We acknowledge we share in the
interdependence
50 that
binds together all God's creation.
51 Yet God gives us power to rule
and tame,
52 to
order and reshape the world.
53 We
hold the earth in trust
54 for
future generations of living things.
55 The Lord forbids us to plunder,
foul, and destroy the earth.
56
The Lord expects us to produce, to consume, to reproduce
57 in ways
that make earth's goodness available to all people
58 and
reflect God's love for all creatures.
59 The Lord bids us use our
technical skills
60 for
beauty, order, health, and peace.
61 (4) God made us for life in community.
62 God created human beings with a
need for community
63 and
with freedom to enter into it
64 by
responding to their Maker with grateful obedience
65 and to
one another with love and helpfulness.
66 We believe that we have been
created
67
to relate to God and each other
68 in
freedom and responsibility.
69 We
may misuse our freedom and deny our responsibility
70 by
trying to live without God and other people
71 or
against God and other people.
72
Yet we are still bound to them for our life and well-being,
73 and
intended for free and responsible fellowship with them.
74 Since every human being is made
75 for
communion with God and others,
76 we must
treat no one with contempt.
77 We
are to respect and love all other people
78 and
ourselves as well.
79 (5) God made us male and female.
80 God made human beings male and
female
81
for their mutual help and comfort and joy.
82 We recognize that our creation
as sexual beings
83 is part
of God's loving purpose for us.
84
God intends all people--
85 whether
children, youth or adults,
86 single,
divorced, married, or widowed--
87 to
affirm each other as males and females
88 with
joy, freedom, and responsibility.
89 We confess the value of love
and faithfulness
90 and the
disaster of lust and faithlessness
91 in all
our associations as women and men.
92 Our creation as males and
females must not serve as a pretext
93 for
dominating, hurting, betraying, or using each other,
94 for
denying anyone's rights or rewards
95 or
opportunities to develop potential to the full.
96 We believe that marriage
is a good gift of God.
97
The covenant of wife and husband
98
to love and serve one another faithfully
99
is intended to reflect the faithfulness of God.
100 God gives us the gift of
sexual union
101 to be
the sign of that mutual and lasting covenant
102 and a
means whereby we may share in creating new life.
103 If married partners become
parents,
104 their
care for their children
105 is
intended to reflect God's love and discipline.
106 When we fail each other as
parents or partners,
107 we are
called to forgive each other as God forgives us
108 and to
accept the possibilities for renewal
109 that
God offers us in his grace.
110 (6) The human race has rejected its Maker.
111 Though they were made to be
like God,
112 man
and woman broke community with God,
113
refusing to trust and obey him.
114 Their community with each
other was broken
115 by
shame and murder, lust and pride.
116 We confess that in all
generations
117 men
and women have rejected God again and again.
118 At times we seek in pride to
become gods,
119
denying the good limits that define us as creatures.
120 At other times we draw back in
apathy,
121
refusing to fulfill our human responsibilities.
122 The antagonisms between races,
nations, and neighbors,
123
between men and women, children and parents,
124
between human beings and the natural order,
125 are
manifestations of our sin against God.