In the June 19 issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY we published the Frankfurt Declaration, a document we thought then and think now has enormous potential for guiding the Church toward its proper mission as described in the New Testament. Our mailbag has brought many letters of response, most of them expressing enthusiastic assent to the basic thrust of the declaration. In Europe, especially Germany and Switzerland, the declaration has produced some polarization between those committed essentially to the goal of transforming this present age and those committed to the calling out of the eschatological community of the redeemed as we await the return of Christ. The demand of the Frankfurt Declaration, not for dialogue and consultations but for decision, runs counter to the present stance of the ecumenical movement, which has never committed itself to calling men to leave their non-Christian religions and find salvation in Christ. Perhaps the declaration is the harbinger of a new age for missions and a worldwide movement that will bring together those who forged the Wheaton Declaration a few years ago and those who now support the Frankfurt Declaration.
As readers receive this issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, I am vacationing in Austria and visiting some of the German professors and friends who were instrumental in producing the Frankfurt Declaration.
