URCNA Statement on
Creation & Evolution

Excerpted from the Minutes of the Fourth Synod of the United Reformed Churches in North America, 2001 (ARTICLE XLIII, pp.22-23). More about the historical circumstances of this statement can be found here.

Synod affirms that Scripture teaches, as summarized by the Creeds and the Three Forms of Unity:

• The authority and perspicuity of Scripture (Belgic Confession V; Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day VII).

• Necessity and sufficiency of Scripture (Belgic Confession VII; Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day VII).

• God the Father almighty created the heavens and the earth and all things visible and invisible (Apostle’s and Nicene Creed).

• The Father created the heavens and the earth out of nothing (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day IX).

• God gave every creature its shape and being (Belgic Confession XII).

• The creation and fall of man. “God made man of the dust of the earth; man gave ear to the devil.” (Belgic Confession XIV).

• The historicity of Adam (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day VII.20; Canons of Dort III, IV.1).

• Man was created good, in a garden, and tempted by the devil, committed reckless disobedience (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day III and IV).

• God’s words to the serpent in Paradise are noted as the first revelation of the Gospel (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day VI).

• Adam plunged himself and his offspring by his first transgression into perdition (Belgic Confession XVI).

• Adam’s fall into sin and our connection to it (Canons of Dort I.1).

• God came seeking man when he, trembling, fled from Him (Belgic Confession XVII).

• God created all things good in six days defined as evenings and mornings (Genesis 1 &2 and Exodus 20:11). This means that we reject any evolutionary teaching, including theistic evolution, concerning the origin of the earth and of all creatures (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day IX).

Synod affirm our commitment as churches to discipline those who teach anything that stands in conflict with the Bible, as summarized in the Creeds and the Three Forms of Unity.