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Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
This statement was authored by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy in
1978.
Preface
The authority of Scripture is a key issue for the Christian Church in this and every
age. Those who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are called to show
the reality of their discipleship by humbly and faithfully obeying God's written Word.
To stray from Scripture in faith or conduct is disloyalty to our Master. Recognition
of the total truth and trustworthiness of Holy Scripture is essential to a full grasp
and adequate confession of its authority.
The following Statement affirms this inerrancy of Scripture afresh, making clear our
understanding of it and warning against its denial. We are persuaded that to deny
it is to set aside the witness of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit and to refuse
that submission to the claims of God's own Word which marks true Christian faith.
We see it as our timely duty to make this affirmation in the face of current lapses
from the truth of inerrancy among our fellow Christians and misunderstanding of this
doctrine in the world at large.
This Statement consists of three parts: a Summary Statement, Articles of Affirmation
and Denial, and an accompanying Exposition. It has been prepared in the course of
a three-day consultation in Chicago. Those who have signed the Summary Statement and
the Articles wish to affirm their own conviction as to the inerrancy of Scripture
and to encourage and challenge one another and all Christians to growing appreciation
and understanding of this doctrine. We acknowledge the limitations of a document prepared
in a brief, intensive conference and do not propose that this Statement be given creedal
weight. Yet we rejoice in the deepening of our own convictions through our discussions
together, and we pray that the Statement we have signed may be used to the glory of
our God toward a new reformation of the Church in its faith, life, and mission.
We offer this Statement in a spirit, not of contention, but of humility and love,
which we purpose by God's grace to maintain in any future dialogue arising out of
what we have said. We gladly acknowledge that many who deny the inerrancy of Scripture
do not display the consequences of this denial in the rest of their belief and behavior,
and we are conscious that we who confess this doctrine often deny it in life by failing
to bring our thoughts and deeds, our traditions and habits, into true subjection to
the divine Word.
We invite response to this statement from any who see reason to amend its affirmations
about Scripture by the light of Scripture itself, under whose infallible authority
we stand as we speak. We claim no personal infallibility for the witness we bear,
and for any help which enables us to strengthen this testimony to God's Word we shall
be grateful.
A Short Statement
- God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order
to 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.
- 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.
- The Holy Spirit, Scripture's divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward
witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.
- 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.
- 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 being serious loss to both the individual and
the Church.
Articles of Affirmation and Denial
Article I
We affirm that the Holy Scriptures are to be received as the authoritative Word of
God.
We deny that the Scriptures receive their authority from the Church, tradition, or
any other human source.
Article II
We affirm that the Scriptures are the supreme written norm by which God binds the
conscience, and that the authority of the Church is subordinate to that of Scripture.
We deny that Church creeds, councils, or declarations have authority greater than
or equal to the authority of the Bible.
Article III
We affirm that the written Word in its entirety is revelation given by God.
We deny that the Bible is merely a witness to revelation, or only becomes revelation
in encounter, or depends on the responses of men for its validity.
Article IV
We affirm that God who made mankind in His image has used language as a means of revelation.
We deny that human language is so limited by our creatureliness that it is rendered
inadequate as a vehicle for divine revelation. We further deny that the corruption
of human culture and language through sin has thwarted God's work of inspiration.
Article V
We affirm that God's revelation in the Holy Scriptures was progressive.
We deny that later revelation, which may fulfill earlier revelation, ever corrects
or contradicts it. We further deny that any normative revelation has been given since
the completion of the New Testament writings.
Article VI
We affirm that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of
the original, were given by divine inspiration.
We deny that the inspiration of Scripture can rightly be affirmed of the whole without
the parts, or of some parts but not the whole.
Article VII
We affirm that inspiration was the work in which God by His Spirit, through human
writers, gave us His Word. The origin of Scripture is divine. The mode of divine inspiration
remains largely a mystery to us.
We deny that inspiration can be reduced to human insight, or to heightened states
of consciousness of any kind.
Article VIII
We affirm that God in His Work of inspiration utilized the distinctive personalities
and literary styles of the writers whom He had chosen and prepared.
We deny that God, in causing these writers to use the very words that He chose, overrode
their personalities.
Article IX
We affirm that inspiration, though not conferring omniscience, guaranteed true and
trustworthy utterance on all matters of which the Biblical authors were moved to speak
and write.
We deny that the finitude or fallenness of these writers, by necessity or otherwise,
introduced distortion or falsehood into God's Word.
Article X
We affirm that inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text
of Scripture, which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts
with great accuracy. We further affirm that copies and translations of Scripture are
the Word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original.
We deny that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence
of the autographs. We further deny that this absence renders the assertion of Biblical
inerrancy invalid or irrelevant.
Article XI
We affirm that Scripture, having been given by divine inspiration, is infallible,
so that, far from misleading us, it is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses.
We deny that is is possible for the Bible to be at the same time infallible and errant
in its assertions. Infallibility and inerrancy may be distinguished, but not separated.
Article XII
We affirm that Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood,
fraud, or deceit.
We deny that Biblical infallibility and inerrancy are limited to spiritual, religious,
or redemptive themes, exclusive of assertions in the fields of history and science.
We further deny that scientific hypotheses about earth history may properly by used
to overturn the teaching of Scripture on creation and the flood.
Article XIII
We affirm the propriety of using inerrancy as a theological term with reference to
the complete truthfulness of Scripture.
We deny that it is proper to evaluate Scripture according to standards of truth and
error that are alien to its usage or purpose. We further deny that inerrancy is negated
by Biblical phenomena such as a lack of modern technical precision, irregularities
of grammar or spelling, observational descriptions of nature, the reporting of falsehoods,
the use of hyperbole and round numbers, the topical arrangement of material, variant
selections of material in parallel accounts, or the use of free citations.
Article XIV
We affirm the unity and internal consistency of Scripture.
We deny that alleged errors and discrepancies that have not yet been resolved vitiate
the truth claims of the Bible.
Article XV
We affirm that the doctrine of inerrancy is grounded in the teaching of the Bible
about inspiration.
We deny that Jesus' teaching about Scripture may be dismissed by appeals to accommodation
or to any natural limitation of His humanity.
Article XVI
We affirm that the doctrine of inerrancy has been integral to the Church's faith throughout
its history.
We deny that inerrancy is a doctrine invented by Scholastic Protestantism, or is a
reactionary position postulated in response to negative higher criticism.
Article XVII
We affirm that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Scriptures, assuring believers
of the truthfulness of God's written Word.
We deny that this witness of the Holy Spirit operates in isolation from or against
Scripture.
Article XVIII
We affirm that the text of Scripture is to be interpreted by grammatico-historical
exegesis, taking account of its literary forms and devices, and that Scripture is
to interpret Scripture.
We deny the legitimacy of any treatment of the text or quest for sources lying behind
it that leads to relativizing, dehistoricizing, or discounting its teaching, or rejecting
its claims to authorship.
Article XIX
We affirm that a confession of the full authority, infallibility, and inerrancy of
Scripture is vital to a sound understanding of the whole of the Christian faith. We
further affirm that such confession should lead to increasing conformity to the image
of Christ.
We deny that such confession is necessary for salvation. However, we further deny
that inerrancy can be rejected without grave consequences, both to the individual
and to the Church.
Exposition
Our understanding of the doctrine of inerrancy must be set in the context of the broader
teachings of the Scripture concerning itself. This exposition gives an account of
the outline of doctrine from which our summary statement and articles are drawn.
Creation, Revelation and Inspiration
The Triune God, who formed all things by his creative utterances and governs all things
by His Word of decree, made mankind in His own image for a life of communion with
Himself, on the model of the eternal fellowship of loving communication within the
Godhead. As God's image-bearer, man was to hear God's Word addressed to him and to
respond in the joy of adoring obedience. Over and above God's self-disclosure in the
created order and the sequence of events within it, human beings from Adam on have
received verbal messages from Him, either directly, as stated in Scripture, or indirectly
in the form of part or all of Scripture itself.
When Adam fell, the Creator did not abandon mankind to final judgment but promised
salvation and began to reveal Himself as Redeemer in a sequence of historical events
centering on Abraham's family and culminating in the life, death, resurrection, present
heavenly ministry, and promised return of Jesus Christ. Within this frame God has
from time to time spoken specific words of judgment and mercy, promise and command,
to sinful human beings so drawing them into a covenant relation of mutual commitment
between Him and them in which He blesses them with gifts of grace and they bless Him
in responsive adoration. Moses, whom God used as mediator to carry His words to His
people at the time of the Exodus, stands at the head of a long line of prophets in
whose mouths and writings God put His words for delivery to Israel. God's purpose
in this succession of messages was to maintain His covenant by causing His people
to know His Name — that is, His nature — and His will both of precept and purpose
in the present and for the future. This line of prophetic spokesmen from God came
to completion in Jesus Christ, God's incarnate Word, who was Himself a prophet — more
than a prophet, but not less — and in the apostles and prophets of the first Christian
generation. When God's final and climactic message, His word to the world concerning
Jesus Chris, had been spoken and elucidated by those in the apostolic circle, the
sequence of revealed messages ceased. Henceforth that Church was to live and know
God by what He had already said, and said for all time.
At Sinai God wrote the terms of His covenant on tables of stone, as His enduring witness
and for lasting accessibility, and throughout the period of prophetic and apostolic
revelation He prompted men to write the messages given to and through them, along
with celebratory records of His dealings with His people, plus moral reflections on
covenant life and forms of praise and prayer for covenant mercy. The theological reality
of inspiration in the producing of Biblical documents corresponds to that of spoken
prophecies: although the human writers' personalities were expressed in what they
wrote, the words were divinely constituted. Thus, what Scripture says, God says; its
authority is His authority, for He is its ultimate Author, having given it through
the minds and words of chosen and prepared men who in freedom and faithfulness "spoke
from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (1 Pet. 1:21). Holy Scripture
must be acknowledged as the Word of God by virtue of its divine origin.
Authority: Christ and the Bible
Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is the Word made flesh, our Prophet, Priest, and
King, is the ultimate Mediator of God's communication to man, as He is of all God's
gifts of grace. The revelation He gave was more than verbal; He revealed the Father
by His presence and His deeds as well. Yet His words were crucially important; for
He was God, He spoke from the Father, and His words will judge all men at the last
day.
As the prophesied Messiah, Jesus Christ is the central theme of Scripture. The Old
Testament looked ahead to Him; the New Testament looks back to His first coming and
on to His second. Canonical Scripture is the divinely inspired and therefore normative
witness to Christ. No hermeneutic, therefore, of which the historical Christ is not
the focal point is acceptable. Holy Scripture must be treated as what it essentially
is — the witness of the Father to the incarnate Son.
It appears that the Old Testament canon had been fixed by the time of Jesus. The New
Testament canon is likewise now closed inasmuch as no new apostolic witness to the
historical Christ can now be borne. No new revelation (as distinct from Spirit-given
understanding of existing revelation) will be given until Christ comes again. The
canon was created in principle by divine inspiration. The Church's part was to discern
the canon which God had created, not to devise one of its own.
The word canon, signifying a rule or standard, is a pointer to authority, which means the right
to rule and control. Authority in Christianity belongs to God in His revelation, which
means, on the one hand, Jesus Christ, the living Word, and, on the other hand, Holy
Scripture, the written Word. But the authority of Christ and that of Scripture are
one. As our Prophet, Christ testified that Scripture cannot be broken. As our Priest
and King, He devoted His earthly life to fulfilling the law and the prophets, even
dying in obedience to the words of Messianic prophecy. Thus, as He saw Scripture attesting
Him and His authority, so by His own submission to Scripture He attested it authority.
As He bowed to His Father's instruction given in His Bible (our Old Testament), so
He requires His disciples to do — not, however, in isolation but in conjunction with
the apostolic witness to Himself which He undertook to inspire by His gift of the
Holy Spirit. So Christians show themselves faithful servants of their Lord by bowing
to the divine instruction given in the prophetic and apostolic writings which together
make up our Bible.
By authenticating each other's authority, Christ and Scripture coalesce into a single
fount of authority. The Biblically-interpreted Christ and the Christ-centered, Christ-proclaiming
Bible are from this standpoint one. As from the fact of inspiration we infer that
what Scripture says, God says, so from the revealed relation between Jesus Christ
and Scripture we may equally declare that what Scripture says, Christ says.
Infallibility, Inerrancy, Interpretation
Holy Scripture, as the inspired Word of God witnessing authoritatively to Jesus Christ,
may properly be called infallible and inerrant. These negative terms have a special value, for they explicitly safeguard crucial
positive truths.
Infallible signifies the quality of neither misleading nor being misled and so safeguards
in categorical terms the truth that Holy Scripture is a sure, safe, and reliable rule
and guide in all matters.
Similarly, inerrant signifies the quality of being free from all falsehood or mistake and so safeguards
the truth that Holy Scripture is entirely true and trustworthy in all its assertions.
We affirm that canonical Scripture should always be interpreted on the basis that
it is infallible and inerrant. However, in determining what the God-taught writer
is asserting in each passage, we must pay the most careful attention to its claims
and character as a human production. In inspiration, God utilized the culture and
conventions of his penman's milieu, a milieu that God controls in His sovereign providence;
it is misinterpretation to imagine otherwise.
So history must be treated as history, poetry as poetry, hyperbole and metaphor as
hyperbole and metaphor, generalization and approximation as what they are, and so
forth. Differences between literary conventions in Bible times and in ours must also
be observed: since, for instance, non-chronological narration and imprecise citation
were conventional and acceptable and violated no expectations in those days, we must
not regard these things as faults when we find them in Bible writers. When total precision
of a particular kind was not expected nor aimed at, it is no error not to have achieved
it. Scripture is inerrant, not in the sense of being absolutely precise by modern
standards, but in the sense of making good its claims and achieving that measure of
focused truth at which its authors aimed.
The truthfulness of Scripture is not negated by the appearance in it of irregularities
of grammar or spelling, phenomenal descriptions of nature, reports of false statements
(e.g., the lies of Satan), or seeming discrepancies between one passage and another.
It is not right to set the so-called "phenomena" of Scripture against the teaching
of Scripture about itself. Apparent inconsistencies should not be ignored. Solution
of them, where this can be convincingly achieved, will encourage our faith, and where
for the present no convincing solution is at hand we shall significantly honor God
by trusting His assurance that His Word is true, despite these appearances, and by
maintaining our confidence that one day they will be seen to have been illusions.
Inasmuch as all Scripture is the product of a single divine mind, interpretation must
stay within the bounds of the analogy of Scripture and eschew hypotheses that would
correct one Biblical passage by another, whether in the name of progressive revelation
or of the imperfect enlightenment of the inspired writer's mind.
Although Holy Scripture is nowhere culture-bound in the sense that its teaching lacks
universal validity, it is sometimes culturally conditioned by the customs and conventional
views of a particular period, so that the application of its principles today calls
for a different sort of action.
Skepticism and Criticism
Since the Renaissance, and more particularly since the Enlightenment, world-views
have been developed which involve skepticism about basic Christian tenets. Such are
the agnosticism which denies that God is knowable, the rationalism which denies that
He is incomprehensible, the idealism which denies that He is transcendent, and the
existentialism which denies rationality in His relationships with us. When these un-
and anti-biblical principles seep into men's theologies at presuppositional level,
as today they frequently do, faithful interpretation of Holy Scripture becomes impossible.
Transmission and Translation
Since God has nowhere promised an inerrant transmission of Scripture, it is necessary
to affirm that only the autographic text of the original documents was inspired and
to maintain the need of textual criticism as a means of detecting any slips that may
have crept into the text in the course of its transmission. The verdict of this science,
however, is that the Hebrew and Greek text appear to be amazingly well preserved,
so that we are amply justified in affirming, with the Westminster Confession, a singular
providence of God in this matter and in declaring that the authority of Scripture
is in no way jeopardized by the fact that the copies we possess are not entirely error-free.
Similarly, no translation is or can be perfect, and all translations are an additional
step away from the autographa. Yet the verdict of linguistic science is that English-speaking Christians, at least,
are exceedingly well served in these days with a host of excellent translations and
have no cause for hesitation to conclude that the true Word of God is within their
reach. Indeed, in view of the frequent repetition in Scripture of the main matters
with which it deals and also of the Holy Spirit's constant witness to and through
the Word, no serious translation of Holy Scripture will so destroy its meaning as
to render it unable to make its reader "wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus" (2 Tim. 3:15).
Inerrancy and Authority
In our affirmation of Scripture as involving its total truth, we are consciously standing
with Christ and His apostles, indeed with the whole Bible and with the main stream
of Church history from the first days until very recently. We are concerned at the
casual, inadvertent, and seemingly thoughtless way in which a belief of such far-reaching
importance has been given up by so many in our day.
We are conscious too that great and grave confusion results from ceasing to maintain
the total truth of the Bible whose authority one professes to acknowledge. The result
of taking this step is that the Bible which God gave loses its authority, and what
has authority instead is a Bible reduced in content according to the demands of one's
critical reasonings and in principle reducible still further once one has started.
This means that at bottom independent reason now has authority, as opposed to Scriptural
teaching. If this is not seen and if for the time being basic evangelical doctrines
are still held, persons denying the full truth of Scripture may claim an evangelical
identity while methodologically they have moved away from the evangelical principle
of knowledge to an unstable subjectivism, and will find it hard not to move further.
We affirm that what Scripture says, God says. May He be glorified. Amen and Amen.
Source: Southwest Baptist University
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