Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth
As it is in heaven.

Background of the COR Documents

The COR documents are concise statements of timeless biblical truths that are desperately needed in this age of cynicism and extreme relativism. These documents are not the result of one small group “talking to itself”; but rather, they  were created based on the consensus wisdom of Christian leaders and scholars from a broad spectrum of denominations and orthodox theological viewpoints. Because they represent consensus truth based on the Bible, we feel that the documents are an essential resource for Christians as they work for the reformation of church and society.

Audio Overview of COR & ICBI History- click here

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42 Articles of the Essentials of a Christian Worldview

In 1984, as 112 Christian leaders and theologians were coming together to form the Coalition on Revival, it became apparent that this broad-based, theologically diverse group of leaders would need a clearly defined statement of basic doctrine on which they could agree and which could also form the theological foundation for the 17 Worldview Sphere Documents  (Las Traducciones Españolas/Spanish Translations) they intended to write together. 

By consensus and input from many theologians, a group of COR theologians created the 42 Articles of the Essential of a Christian Worldview, which is a generic statement of faith that incorporates 2,000 years of the Church's orthodox, historically accepted theology and that touches on all the theological and philosophical points necessary to outline the full, Biblical view of doctrine and reality. These articles are broad enough to include all the major denominations and theological perspectives within the present Body of Christ on earth and yet leave untouched, unstated, and open to Christian freedom certain differences, such as baptism and eschatology that now separate one denomination from another. 

No doctrinal statement of the past 200 years offers the greater Body of Christ on earth a more detailed, comprehensive, generic statement of the Biblical worldview.

A Manifesto for the Christian Church

On July 4, 1986, at a Solemn Assembly before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and during a three-day Coalition on Revival Congress on the Christian Worldview, 60 of COR's national Steering Committee members and another 400 Christian leaders from a broad spectrum of theological viewpoints signed The Manifesto for the Christian Church (Las Traducciones Españolas/Spanish Translations).

The focus of the first portion of the Manifesto is repentance by the Church for not being the "salt and light" it should have been and for allowing the forces of darkness, by default, to replace the Christian roots of our nation with secularized relativism and disintegration. The Manifesto states where the signers believe the Church must stand and what action it must take at this point in history to fulfill the Great Commission. 

The signers of the Manifesto are convinced that no revival or reformation of the Church or society, of any depth or longevity, can happen until the leadership of the Body of Christ commits itself to living and teaching the kind of Biblical Christianity called for by this Manifesto. Their hope is that pastors and Christian leaders in every major metropolitan area will call their people to a local Solemn Assembly for repentance and rededication to the Christian task wherein the Manifesto can be read publicly and the local Body of Christ can begin mobilizing itself into a united team of courageous, world-changing, servants of Christ. 

May the Manifesto be used by God as a trumpet call to help awaken, unify, and mobilize the Body of Christ to accomplish all Christ's demands of us at this critical point in history.

17 Worldview Documents

COR developed the 17 Worldview Documents from 1984 through 1986. These documents set forth what we believe are fundamental and essential Biblical principles governing 17 major areas or spheres of human life and activity: law, government, economics, business and professions, education, art and media, medicine, science and technology, psychology and counseling, Christian unity, local and world evangelism, discipleship, helping the hurting, educating Christians about social and political moral issues, revitalizing Christian colleges and seminaries, marriage and the family, and pastoral renewal. 

The Worldview documents were developed by 17 committees made up of leaders with experience and expertise in the related fields. They were forged over an intensive three-year period of dialogue, critique, editing, and finally, a consensus conviction. Sixty of COR’s Steering Committee members and over 300 other theologians, pastors, lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and Christian workers made up the 17 committees.

The Worldview documents offer Christian leaders concise and comprehensive Biblical principles of how to apply the Truth of the Bible to all spheres of life and ministry. Each document includes short, creed-like statements of affirmation and denial that we believe state non-negotiable Biblical truths for that sphere of reality. 

Articles of Affirmation and Denial on the Kingdom of God

The first draft of the Articles of Affirmation and Denial on the Kingdom of God was completed in 1989 and finalized after two-years of theological debate and input from a wide range of theologians. The writers affirmed that the Kingdom of God, as it impacts society during this present age, is "a central teaching of the New Testament and cannot be neglected without loss to the Church and the Church's influence upon society." 

The 25 articles define the Kingdom as both the universal rule of Christ over all things and His special rule over the redeemed, as well as the penetrating influence of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit in the world in areas such as law, government, economics, and ethics.

For more information about the 25 Articles, read Dr. Grimstead's brief commentary on the 25 Articles.

Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy  (En español) was produced at an international Summit Conference of evangelical leaders sponsored by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy and held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in the fall of 1978. The Chicago Statement was signed by over 300 noted evangelicals, including (in alphabetical order) James Boice, Norman L. Geisler, John Gerstner, Jay Grimstead, Carl F. H. Henry, Kenneth Kantzer, Harold Lindsell, John Warwick Montgomery, Roger Nicole, J. I. Packer, Robert Preus, Earl Radmacher, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul, and John Wenham. The Chicago Statement established inerrancy of the Bible once again as the accepted, orthodox view within evangelical circles.

The Chicago Statement is a modern, historical statement on the view of the Bible held by the Christian Church for 2,000 years, as well as by Jesus and all the Biblical authors. In the 1970s, a need arose for a broad-based group of theologians to clarify what was the Biblical and historical view of the Bible because a liberal and neo-orthodox view of the Bible had greatly infiltrated most denominations, schools and churches within evangelicalism.

In the 20th century, the major philosophical and theological debates have been over the question, "How do we know what it true?" The inerrancy of the written Word of God is the Christian's answer to that basic question. Most of the 19 articles on inerrancy in this statement deal with questions which must be answered before a thorough theological statement on Scripture can be made.

For more information about the ICBI and the Chicago Statement, read Dr. Grimstead's article on how the ICBI came into existence.