Synod 2010 declared that a directive from 1991 (known as “Declaration F”), which restricted what Christian Reformed Church members could teach regarding the origins of humans, is no longer part of the denomination’s official position on creation and science.
Declaration F said that “the clear teaching of Scripture and our confessions on the uniqueness of human beings as imagebearers of God rules out the espousal of all theorizing that posits the reality of evolutionary forebears of the human race.”
Rev. John Cooper of Calvin Theological Seminary, who served as a faculty adviser at synod and has taught classes dealing with creation and evolution from a Reformed Christian perspective, told synod that Declaration F has impeded proper treatment of the topic.
Synod determined that the church should not bind the conscience of its members beyond the clear teaching of Scripture and the creeds, and that other declarations of synod sufficiently safeguard the church’s confession with respect to the uniqueness of humans as imagebearers of God.
