Belhar ConfessionThe Belhar Confession:   English   l   Xhosa   l    
      Afrikaans   l   French   l   Sotho
      The Belhar Confession

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        training This is a translation of the original Afrikaans text of the 
      Confession as it was adopted by the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Mission 
      Church in SA in 1986. This followed the declaration of a status 
      confessionis in 1982, in connection with the rejection of the defence of 
      apartheid on moral and theological grounds.
        1. We believe in the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who 
        gathers, protects and cares for his Church by his Word and his Spirit, 
        as He has done since the beginning of the world and will do to the end.
        2. We believe in one holy, universal Christian Church, the communion of 
        saints called from the entire human family.
        We believe
        that Christs work of reconciliation is made manifest in the Church as 
        the community of believers who have been reconciled with God and with 
        one another;
        that unity is, therefore, both a gift and an obligation for the Church 
        of Jesus Christ; that through the working of Gods Spirit it is a 
        binding force, yet simultaneously a reality which must be earnestly 
        pursued and sought: one which the people of God must continually be 
        built up to attain;
        that this unity must become visible so that the world may believe that 
        separation, enmity and hatred between people and groups is sin which 
        Christ has already conquered, and accordingly that anything which 
        threatens this unity may have no place in the Church and must be 
        resisted;
        that this unity of the people of God must be manifested and be active in 
        a variety of ways: in that we love one another; that we experience, 
        practice and pursue community with one another; that we are obligated to 
        give ourselves willingly and joyfully to be of benefit and blessing to 
        one another; that we share one faith, have one calling, are of one soul 
        and one mind; have one God and Father, are filled with one Spirit, are 
        baptised with one baptism, eat of one bread and drink of one cup, 
        confess one Name, are obedient to one Lord, work for one cause, and 
        share one hope; together come to know the height and the breadth and the 
        depth of the love of Christ; together are built up to the stature of 
        Christ, to the new humanity; together know and bear one anothers 
        burdens, thereby fulfilling the law of Christ that we need one another 
        and upbuild one another, admonishing and comforting one another; that we 
        suffer with one another for the sake of righteousness; pray together; 
        together serve God in this world; and together fight against all which 
        may threaten or hinder this unity;
        that this unity can be established only in freedom and not under 
        constraint; that the variety of spiritual gifts, opportunities, 
        backgrounds, convictions, as well as the various languages and cultures, 
        are by virtue of the reconciliation in Christ, opportunities for mutual 
        service and enrichment within the one visible people of God;
        that true faith in Jesus Christ is the only condition for membership of 
        this Church;
        Therefore, we reject any doctrine
        which absolutises either natural diversity or the sinful separation of 
        people in such a way that this absolutisation hinders or breaks the 
        visible and active unity of the church, or even leads to the 
        establishment of a separate church formation;
        which professes that this spiritual unity is truly being maintained in 
        the bond of peace whilst believers of the same confession are in effect 
        alienated from one another for the sake of diversity and in despair of 
        reconciliation;
        which denies that a refusal earnestly to pursue this visible unity as a 
        priceless gift is sin;
        which explicitly or implicitly maintains that descent or any other human 
        or social factor should be a consideration in determining membership of 
        the Church.
        3. We believe that God has entrusted to his Church the message of 
        reconciliation in and through Jesus Christ; that the Church is called to 
        be the salt of the earth and the light of the world that the Church is 
        called blessed because it is a peacemaker, that the Church is witness 
        both by word and by deed to the new heaven and the new earth in which 
        righteousness dwells.
        that God by his lifegiving Word and Spirit has conquered the powers of 
        sin and death, and therefore also of irreconciliation and hatred, 
        bitterness and enmity that God, by his lifegiving Word and Spirit will 
        enable His people to live in a new obedience which can open new 
        possibilities of life for society and the world;
        that the credibility of this message is seriously affected and its 
        beneficial work obstructed when it is proclaimed in a land which 
        professes to be Christian, but in which the enforced separation of 
        people on a racial basis promotes and perpetuates alienation, hatred and 
        enmity;
        that any teaching which attempts to legitimate such forced separation by 
        appeal to the gospel, and is not prepared to venture on the road of 
        obedience and reconciliation, but rather, out of prejudice, fear, 
        selfishness and unbelief, denies in advance the reconciling power of the 
        gospel, must be considered ideology and false doctrine.
        Therefore, we reject any doctrine which, in such a situation sanctions 
        in the name of the gospel or of the will of God the forced separation of 
        people on the grounds of race and colour and thereby in advance 
        obstructs and weakens the ministry and experience of reconciliation in 
        Christ.
        4. We believe that God has revealed himself as the One who wishes to 
        bring about justice and true peace among men; that in a world full of 
        injustice and enmity He is in a special way the God of the destitute, 
        the poor and the wronged and that He calls his Church to follow Him in 
        this; that He brings justice to the oppressed and gives bread to the 
        hungry; that He frees the prisoner and restores sight to the blind; that 
        He supports the downtrodden, protects the stranger, helps orphans and 
        widows and blocks the path of the ungodly; that for Him pure and 
        undefiled religion is to visit the orphans and the widows in their 
        suffering; that He wishes to teach His people to do what is good and to 
        seek the right;
        that the Church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering 
        and need, which implies, among other things, that the Church must 
        witness against and strive against any form of injustice, so that 
        justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an 
        ever-flowing stream;
        that the Church as the possession of God must stand where He stands, 
        namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ 
        the Church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who 
        selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.
        Therefore, we reject any ideology which would legitimate forms of 
        injustice and any doctrine which is unwilling to resist such an ideology 
        in the name of the gospel.
        5. We believe that, in obedience to Jesus Christ, its only Head, the 
        Church is called to confess and to do all these things, even though the 
        authorities and human laws might forbid them and punishment and 
        suffering be the consequence.
        Jesus is Lord.
        To the one and only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be the honour and 
        the glory for ever and ever.

