The National Association of Evangelicals Statement of Faith has become the “gold standard” of evangelical belief in America.

It says a lot in very few words. And, there is much it does not say. There are distinctives among our member denominations that vary in understanding what the Bible says about prophecy, spiritual gifts, church government and more. The NAE Statement of Faith was never intended to speak to every doctrine or teaching but to establish the center that all evangelicals share. Long before the notion of defining organizations by their center rather than their boundaries, the NAE strongly declared the center of our faith in the Bible and in Jesus Christ.

We did not copyright our Statement of Faith to protect it. We share it to propagate it. As a result there are evangelical groups and organizations across America and around the world that have adopted the NAE statement as their own.

Others have tried to define us by our politics, organizational structure or membership but that’s a basic misunderstanding of who we are. At the center of evangelicalism is our uncompromised Christian faith in the truth of God.

Since our beginning in 1942, here is what we believe:

  • We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
  • We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
  • We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
  • We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
  • We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
  • We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

This article originally appeared in the NAE Insight.

Leith Anderson

Leith Anderson is president emeritus of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor emeritus of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He served as NAE president from 2007–2019, after twice serving as interim president. He served as senior pastor of Wooddale Church for 35 years before retiring in 2011. He has been published in many periodicals and has written over 20 books. Anderson has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, and is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, Bradley University and Denver Seminary.