The Auburn Affirmation

I.The Auburn Affirmation a.On December 26, 1923, a committee of 149 Presbyterian clergymen, with headquarters in Auburn, New York, issued “An Affirmation” that the General Assembly was wrong to require that all ministerial candidates hold to the five fundamentals of 1910, 1916, and 1923. i.The Affirmation boldly asserted that neither the Bible nor the historic creeds taught inerrancy; that such tenets as Christ’s virgin birth, vicarious atonement, bodily resurrection, and miracles were theories; and ii.that the General Assembly had unconstitutionally declared belief in these doctrines as essential for licensing, ordination, or good standing in the church. iii.The Affirmationists contended that the General Assembly had no right to bind presbyteries to any “essential and necessary” doctrines unless the presbyteries themselves so voted. iv.The Affirmationists were not intending to present themselves as theological revolutionaries or radicals but as the moderate party.

1.    While they relegated all five fundamentals to the realm of theory,

2.     they took great care to stress that inerrancy was the only point they them- selves were explicitly repudiating.

3.Denying that they were theological liberals, 4.the Affirmationists described them- selves as evangelical Christians, the true peacemakers

5.    To the Fundamentalists, the Affirmationists were liberals who denied the trustworthiness of the Bible and hence the absolute certainty of the cardinal doctrines of the faith. ‘