The Niagara Creed: A Foundational Statement of Conservative Evangelical Faith

J. Neil Daniels

Introduction

The Niagara Creed occupies a formative place in the development of American evangelical theology. Drafted in 1878 during the Niagara Bible Conference, this fourteen-point doctrinal statement crystallized the convictions of conservative Protestants at a time of mounting theological and cultural upheaval. More than a catalog of beliefs, the Niagara Creed represented a strategic and principled response to the rising tide of liberal theology, higher biblical criticism, and Darwinian evolution—movements that were radically reshaping the religious landscape of the late nineteenth century. In articulating a cohesive and uncompromising confession of faith, the creed became both a theological landmark and a unifying touchstone for the burgeoning evangelical and fundamentalist movements.

Historical Background and Context

Theological Upheaval in the Nineteenth Century

The closing decades of the nineteenth century saw a series of intellectual and theological developments that deeply unsettled the foundations of historic Christian orthodoxy. German higher criticism, particularly as advanced by scholars such as Julius Wellhausen, applied skeptical methodologies to the biblical text, questioning traditional views of Mosaic authorship, predictive prophecy, and the reliability of the biblical narrative. Simultaneously, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) introduced an evolutionary paradigm that undermined literal readings of Genesis and traditional understandings of divine creation.

These intellectual currents were accompanied by the rise of liberal theology in America and Europe, characterized by an emphasis on the immanence of God, the moral example of Christ, and the perfectibility of man. Figures like Horace Bushnell and Washington Gladden championed this approach, minimizing doctrines such as original sin, substitutionary atonement, and the inerrancy of Scripture in favor of moralism and social reform. For many conservative Protestants, these trends threatened the very core of biblical Christianity.

The Niagara Bible Conference Movement

In response to these theological innovations, conservative pastors and lay leaders began to gather annually for what came to be known as the Niagara Bible Conference. The first of these meetings was held in 1876, and the conference eventually settled in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. It drew together a network of committed evangelicals, including James H. Brookes, A.J. Gordon, William J. Erdman, and others who shared a concern for defending the authority of Scripture and proclaiming the gospel with clarity.

The conferences were characterized by expository preaching, focused theological discussion, and a strong emphasis on biblical prophecy, particularly premillennial eschatology. By 1878, the need for a definitive statement of shared doctrinal commitment prompted the formulation of the Niagara Creed.

The Composition of the Creed

The Niagara Creed was not intended to innovate but to conserve. The framers sought to articulate the essential truths of Christian orthodoxy in a manner that responded to the distinct pressures of their time. The resulting fourteen articles were concise yet comprehensive, affirming core Christian doctrines while rejecting the encroachments of theological liberalism. The creed was never officially adopted as binding by all conference participants, yet it served as a de facto standard for those within the emerging fundamentalist movement and laid the groundwork for later doctrinal statements in evangelical institutions.

Exposition of the Niagara Creed

The Fourteen Articles

The creed’s fourteen articles cover the major loci of Christian doctrine:

Article I: Divine Inspiration of Scripture
This foundational article affirms the plenary inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, declaring it to be the very Word of God. Scripture is upheld as the supreme authority for faith and life, an affirmation that undergirds the entire creed and places the Bible over and against the speculative tendencies of higher criticism.

Article II: The Trinity
The creed confesses the triune nature of God—one essence in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This formulation reflects the Nicene and Chalcedonian legacy of orthodox Christianity and underscores the importance of classical theism for evangelical theology.

Article III: The Fall and Human Depravity
Here the creed affirms the historical fall of Adam and the resulting depravity of all mankind. This robust hamartiology counters the optimistic anthropology of liberal theology and preserves the necessity of divine grace in salvation.

Articles IV–VI: The Person and Work of Christ
These articles present a high Christology: the full deity and humanity of Christ, His virgin birth, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, and ongoing intercession. The language of substitution underscores the penal nature of the atonement, affirming that Christ bore the penalty of sin on behalf of sinners.

Article VII: Justification by Faith
Echoing the Reformation, this article teaches that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It excludes works-righteousness and grounds assurance in the finished work of Christ.

Articles VIII–X: The Church and Its Ordinances
These articles define the church as the universal body of believers and recognize baptism and the Lord’s Supper as the two ordinances instituted by Christ. While avoiding sacramental language, the articles emphasize obedience and remembrance as central to these practices.

Articles XI–XIV: Eschatology
The concluding articles affirm Christ’s personal return, the resurrection of the body, final judgment, and the eternal destinies of the saved and lost. The creed’s eschatology is explicitly premillennial, reflecting the dominant prophetic framework of the Niagara leaders and their dispensational leanings.

Theological Distinctives

The Niagara Creed is marked by several theological priorities that set it apart:

Biblical Authority and Inerrancy:
The first article’s strong affirmation of Scripture’s divine inspiration and infallibility reflects a proto-inerrantist posture that would later be codified in twentieth-century evangelicalism. This high view of Scripture was a bulwark against theological innovation.

Substitutionary Atonement:
The creed’s Christological center rests upon penal substitution—a doctrinal emphasis increasingly contested in modern theology. Its unambiguous language affirms that Christ died “as a substitute” and not merely as an example or martyr.

Premillennialism and Prophetic Expectation:
Distinct from postmillennial and amillennial frameworks, the creed adopts a literal, futurist, and premillennial view of Christ’s return. Though not fully systematized into dispensationalism, the creed’s eschatology anticipates many of that system’s features.

Theological and Historical Significance

Theological Soundness

The Niagara Creed is a model of doctrinal conciseness and clarity. Its theological integrity is evident in its alignment with classical Christian orthodoxy and Protestant distinctives. Each article contributes to a coherent theological vision grounded in the authority of Scripture, the centrality of Christ, and the necessity of grace.

In defending the doctrine of inerrancy, the creed positioned itself as a theological safeguard against the corrosive influence of critical methods that subjected Scripture to human judgment. By contrast, the Niagara affirmation placed the believer under the authority of divine revelation. Its soteriology is equally robust, articulating the necessity of the new birth, justification by faith, and the substitutionary work of Christ in language that is both clear and theologically rich.

Historical Necessity

The creed was forged in response to specific historical pressures. Liberal theology’s drift away from orthodoxy threatened to redefine Christianity along moralistic or humanistic lines. The Niagara Creed served as a doctrinal anchor, rallying those who perceived the danger of theological compromise and sought to preserve the gospel’s integrity.

This historical function gave the creed a dual role: it was both a confession of faith and a line in the sand. By articulating a clear boundary between biblical orthodoxy and modernist innovation, the creed served the church by clarifying what must be preserved for true Christianity to survive.

Enduring Relevance

The theological vision of the Niagara Creed remains pertinent in the contemporary church. In an age marked by doctrinal relativism and theological pluralism, the creed's firm affirmation of objective truth and divine revelation is a needed corrective. Its unapologetic affirmation of the substitutionary atonement guards against the erosion of the gospel in favor of therapeutic or moralistic distortions.

Its ecclesiological vision—of a universal church made up of all true believers—supports unity without institutional uniformity, a value reflected in many evangelical parachurch ministries today. Furthermore, the creed’s emphasis on Christ’s return sustains the believer’s hope and frames the church’s mission in light of divine eschatological purposes.

Addressing Objections

Doctrinal Narrowness

Critics have accused the Niagara Creed of imposing a narrow theological framework, especially with respect to eschatology. The premillennial emphasis, some argue, unnecessarily excludes other legitimate evangelical perspectives. Yet this concern must be weighed against the historical context: the creed was forged as a clarion call in the face of compromise, not as an ecumenical platform. Its specificity was not gratuitous but necessary to distinguish orthodoxy from error.

Fundamentalist Appropriation

The creed has also been criticized for its subsequent appropriation by fundamentalist movements, which at times displayed an anti-intellectual or separatist ethos. However, the original Niagara leaders were not reactionaries but thoughtful, pastorally minded theologians. The creed itself avoids polemic and instead offers a positive exposition of biblical truth. That later movements adopted and at times misapplied it does not invalidate the creed’s theological substance.

Limited Cultural Engagement

Some have noted that the creed lacks any explicit call to social engagement or cultural transformation. This omission, however, reflects its purpose as a doctrinal standard, not a cultural manifesto. While the creed is silent on many social matters, it lays the theological foundation for Christian engagement with the world—grounded in truth, motivated by grace, and directed by eschatological hope.

Legacy and Influence

The influence of the Niagara Creed extended well beyond the conference that birthed it. It played a foundational role in shaping the theology of the early fundamentalist movement and informed the doctrinal statements of key evangelical institutions such as Moody Bible Institute and the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (later Biola University). Its theological DNA is evident in the doctrinal bases of the National Association of Evangelicals and the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.

In academic and ecclesial contexts alike, the creed helped define the contours of evangelical identity. Its insistence on biblical fidelity, doctrinal clarity, and Christ-centered proclamation gave conservative Protestants a framework for resistance to modernism and a basis for renewal.

Conclusion

The Niagara Creed remains a monument to theological courage, clarity, and conviction. Born in an era of doctrinal instability, it offered a clear and faithful articulation of biblical truth. Its theological breadth, historical rootedness, and enduring relevance commend it not only as a document of its time but as a model for ours.

In an age no less challenged by skepticism, relativism, and doctrinal compromise, the Niagara Creed reminds the church that faithfulness requires both conviction and confession. Its enduring influence testifies to the power of carefully articulated doctrine to preserve the gospel and equip the saints. As evangelicalism continues to navigate a shifting cultural and theological landscape, the Niagara Creed endures as a testament to the necessity—and the fruit—of principled theological clarity.

Appendix: The Niagara Creed

The 14 Point Niagara Creed 

1. We believe “that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” by which we understand the whole of the book called the Bible; nor do we take the statement in the sense in which it is sometimes foolishly said that works of human genius are inspired, but in the sense that the Holy Ghost gave the very words of the sacred writings to holy men of old; and that His Divine inspiration is not in different degrees, but extends equally and fully to all parts of these writings, historical, poetical, doctrinal, and prophetical and to the smallest word, and inflection of a word, provided such word is found in the original manuscripts. (2 Tim. 3:16, 17; 2 Pet.1:21; 1 Cor. 2:13; Mark 12:26, 36; 13:11; Acts 1:16; 2:4.)

2. We believe that the Godhead eternally exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes and perfections, and worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience. (Mark 12:29; John 1:1-4; Matt. 28:19,20; Acts 5:3; 4:2; 2 Cor. 13:14; Heb. 1:1-3; Rev. 1:4-6).

3. We believe that man, originally created in the image and after the likeness of God, fell from his high and holy estate by eating the forbidden fruit, and as the consequence of his disobedience the threatened penalty of death was then and there inflicted, so that his moral nature was not only grievously injured by the fall, but he totally lost all spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, and subject to the power of the devil. (Gen. 1:26; 2:17; John 5:40; 6:53; Eph. 2: 1-3; I Tim. 5:6; I John 3:8).

4. We believe that the spiritual death, or total corruption of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire race of man, the man Christ Jesus alone excepted; and hence that every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which possesses no spark of Divine life, but is essentially and unchangeably bad, being enmity against God, and incapable by any education process whatever of subjection to His law (Gen. 6:5; Psa. 14:1-3; 51:5; Jer. 17:9; John 3:6; Rom. 5:12-19; 8:6, 7).

5. We believe that owing to this universal depravity and death in sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation however great, no attainment in morality however high, no culture however attractive, no humanitarian and philanthropic schemes and societies however useful, no baptism or other ordinance however administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven, but a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Ghost through the Word, is absolutely essential to salvation, (Isa. 64:6; John 3:5, 18; Gal. 6:16; Phil. 3:4-9; Tit. 3:5; James. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23).

6. We believe that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin, and made a curse for us, dying in our room and stead; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, or of all the churches that have ever existed since the days of the Apostles, can add in the very least to the value of that precious blood, or to the merit of that finished work, wrought for us by Him who united in His person true and proper divinity with perfect and sinless humanity. (Lev. 17:11; Matt. 26:28; Rom. 5: 6-9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19).

7. We believe that Christ, in the fullness of the blessings He has secured by His obedience unto death, is received by faith alone, and that the moment we trust in Him as Saviour we pass out of death into everlasting life, being justified from all things, accepted before the Father according to the measure of His acceptance, loved as He is loved, and having His place and portion, as linked to Him, and one with Him forever (John 5:24; 17:23; Acts 13:30; Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:4-6, 13; 1 John 4:17; 5:11, 12).

8. We believe that it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born again by the Spirit through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to be assured of their salvation from the very day they take Him to be their Saviour; and that this assurance is not founded upon any fancied discovery of their own worthiness, but wholly upon the testimony of God in His written Word, exciting within His children filial love, gratitude, and obedience: Luke 10:20; 12:32; John 6:47; Rom. 8:33-39; 2 Cor.5:1; 6-8; 2 Tim. 1:12; 1 John 5:13

9. We believe that all the Scriptures from first to last centre about our Lord Jesus Christ, in His person and work, in His first and second coming, and hence that no chapter even of the Old Testament is properly read or understood until it leads to Him; and moreover that all the Scriptures from first to last, including every chapter even of the Old Testament, were designed for our practical instruction; Luke 24:27; 44; John 5:39; Acts 17:2, 3; 18:28; 26:22, 23; 28:23; Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11.

10. We believe that the Church is composed of all who are united by the Holy Spirit to the risen and ascended Son of God, that by the same Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, and thus being members one of another, we are responsible to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, rising above all sectarian prejudices and denominational bigotry, and love one another with a pure heart fervently: Matt. 16:16-18; Acts 2: 32-47; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 1:20-23; 4:3-10; Col. 2:14, 15.

11. We believe that the Holy Spirit, not as an influence, but as a Divine Person, the source and power of all acceptable worship and service, is our abiding Comforter and Helper, that He never takes His departure from the Church, nor from the feeblest of the saints, but is every present to testify of Christ, seeking to occupy us with Him, and not with ourselves nor with our experiences: John 7:38, 39; 14:16, 17; 15:26; 16:13, 24; Acts 1:8; Rom. 8:9, Phil. 3:3.

12. We believe that we are called with a holy calling to walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and so to live in the Spirit that we should not fulfil the lusts of the flesh; but the flesh being still in us to the end of our earthly pilgrimage needs to be kept constantly in subjection to Christ, or it will surely manifest its presence to the dishonour of His name: Rom. 8:12, 13; 13:14; Gal. 5:16-25; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3: 1-10; 1 Pet. 1:14-16; 1 John 3:5-9.

13. We believe that the souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do at death immediately pass into His presence, and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the body at His coming, when soul and body reunited shall be associated with Him forever n the glory; but the souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the final judgement of the great white throne at the close of the millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast in the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power: Luke 16:19-26; 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23; 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Jude 6:7; Rev.20:11-15.

14. We believe that the world will not be converted during the present dispensation, but is fast ripening for judgement, while there will be a fearful apostasy in the professing Christian body, and hence that the Lord Jesus will come in person to introduce the millennial age, when Israel shall be restored to their own land, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord; and that this personal and premillenial advent is the blessed hope set before us in the Gospel for which we should be constantly looking: Luke 12:35-40; 17:26-30; 18:8; Acts 15:14-17; 2 Thess. 2:3-8; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; Titus 1::11-15

For Further Study 

Pettegrew, Larry D. “The Niagara Bible Conference and American Fundamentalism Part 1.” Central Quarterly 19.4 (Winter 1976): 2–20.

———. “The Niagara Bible Conference and American Fundamentalism Part 2.” Central Quarterly 20.1 (Spring 1977): 3–20.

———. “The Niagara Bible Conference and American Fundamentalism Part 3.” Central Quarterly 20.2 (Summer 1977): 2–31.

———. “The Niagara Bible Conference and American Fundamentalism Part 4.” Central Quarterly 20.3 (Fall 1977): 1–43.

———. “The Niagara Bible Conference and American Fundamentalism Part 5.” Central Quarterly 20, no. 4 (Winter 1977): 3–29.

Based on his ThD dissertation at Dallas Theological Seminary, in this five-part series Pettegrew (1943–2024) offers what is likely the most comprehensive study of the Niagara Bible Conference, examining its theology, key figures, and meetings. Writing from within the fundamentalist tradition, he provides a sympathetic yet detailed account of Niagara’s role in shaping the movement.