We the Civil Magistrates, Ministers of the Gospel, and Fathers, in the County of Fauquier, by the providence of GOD, living under the reign of King Jesus and having in mind the advancement of His gracious and beautiful Kingdom and the happiness of ourselves and of future generations, recognizing the legal authority of the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Virginia, yet seeing the failure of those signers to proclaim God’s reign and His law as our ethical standard, we hereby Covenant with each other and with our Lord Jesus Christ. We proclaim God has granted us this authority in that He holds all societies accountable and offers them to choose this day whom they will follow, and that Nehemiah demonstrated the right to covenant as a subordinate civil society under the non-covenanted nation of Persia, and that without permission, with our hand lifted up to the Most High GOD, do swear,
Section 1. The Nature of God and His Relation to Man, from the Magdeburg Confession
Concerning the nature of God, we declare and teach against heretics ancient and modern from the certain Word of God, according to the declaration of the Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, that there is one God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that is, three persons, indivisible, intelligent, and incommunicable, of the same substance, of infinite power and glory, equally from eternity.
Likewise we confess that the Son was made man, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, so that our Lord Jesus Christ should be true God and true man, with His body and rational soul thus united with the eternal Word of the Father in one person, because by this union Christ is God and man, but by His free or voluntary humiliation and kenosis. He really suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried; He descended to the dead according to the will of the Father; on the third day He was made alive again and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Heavenly Father, ruling with equal power with the Father for all eternity; who shall come again with majesty to do universal judgment on the entire human race. And when the resurrection of all the dead has happened, He shall repay each one according to his works; that is, to those who have repented and trusted in Him, He shall give possession of the inheritance of God in eternal life; but the rest, the impenitent and unbelieving, He shall subject together with the Devil to the penalty of damnation and eternal death.
Section 2. The Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy
1. God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God’s witness to Himself.
2. Holy Scripture, being God’s own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it affirms; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises.
3. The Holy Spirit, Scripture’s divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.
4. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.
5. The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible’s own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.
Section 3. Public Confession and Covenant
We hereby covenant with our Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit to stay true to the following convictions in our hearts and to work for them diligently in our families, our churches, and our community. While signing this covenant, we recognize that in God’s sovereignty our current culture’s civil laws are out of accord with our convictions. While we see the necessity to change numerous laws and to do that as soon as reasonably possible, we desire a peaceful transition and resolve to pray and work to that end.
We acknowledge these truths from God’s Word as applicable for all people in all times and places. We ask God to receive our prayer specifically for our land and appropriate to us His gracious forgiveness. We know that in times past God overlooked ignorance but now calls all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30).
1. Jesus Christ is Lord of the nations, and therefore He is Lord of this county. We repent of our failure to recognize Your Son properly and openly (Matt. 28:18; Acts 10:36; 1 Cor. 15:27; Phil. 2:9-11).
2. The civil magistrate operates on delegated authority from God and is responsible to Him (Ps. 2:1-12; 72:8; 110:1-7; Matt. 28:18). We repent that we have regarded our civil officials primarily as servants of men rather than minsters of You, our Lord.
3. The moral laws given in the Ten Commandments are binding for all people of all time. They form the basis for morality and the foundation for law (Deut. 11:1; Ps. 119:44; Isa. 42:4; 2 Pet. 2:6-8). We repent of our previous enacting of unbiblical laws at the national, state, and local levels. We repent of the fact that biblical laws have been removed from our civil law code. We repent of the fact we have not set laws to uphold Your moral law.
4. Only Christian men in good standing in an evangelical church are qualified to hold public office (Ex. 18:21; Deut. 1:13; Judg. 8:22; Isa. 3:4, 12; 1 Tim. 2:11-13). We repent of electing and supporting men who are not qualified according to Your standards. We repent of electing and supporting women to civil offices.
5. The Christian faith is a public faith and makes claims upon all areas of life (Isa. 12:4; 45:22; Acts 5:28-32). We repent of laws and interpretations of laws that contravene Your command for us to proclaim Your name throughout the land. We repent of not calling men to repent and to obey the gospel.
6. Abortion is murder and therefore breaks the Sixth Commandment and is a capital crime (Ex. 20:13; 21:22-24; Lev. 18:21; Job 3:3; Ps. 139:13-16; Luke 1:15). We repent of any abortion in our country, state, and county. We repent of not punishing abortion according to Your law, and we ask that You heal our county and forgive us. We resolve that no abortion will be allowed to take place in our county. Please help us.
7. Homosexuality is listed in multiple areas of the Bible as being a capital crime (Lev. 18:22-25; Rom. 1:26-28; 1 Cor. 6:9). We repent for allowing deliberate, public, unrepentant homosexuality in our nation, state, and county. Please heal the land of our county and forgive us.
8. Adultery is a capital crime, and our failure to punish this crime has defiled the land (Ex. 20:14; Lev. 20:20; Jer. 3:9). We repent of this sin and our lack of punishing it. Please, Lord, heal the land of our county and forgive us.
9. The Fourth Commandment requires businesses to be closed on the Christian Sabbath (the first day of the week) unless necessary for basic needs (Gen. 2:3; Ex. 16:26; 20:8-11; Neh. 13:17-19). Lord, we repent of not keeping the Sabbath holy. Please forgive us.
10. The Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 95 says, “idolatry is having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God, who has revealed himself in the Word.” Lord, we repent of the fact that our county has wrongly put false gods before You (Ex. 20:3; Rom. 1:23) and has worshiped according to the commandments of men instead of according to Your laws (Matt. 15:9; Col. 2:23). We repent of allowing idolatry in our land and pledge to remove it as quickly as possible. Please help us.
— Signed by our own hand and of our own volition...
