the "Chicago Statement"
Ian & Pam Dorion dorioni@ipa.net
Sat, 31 Jan 1998 12:07:28 -0600 (00886291648, 199801311809.MAA08408@thunder.ipa.net)
IAN
Gee thanks Michael. Now I see the errors of my ways. Hail Jesus.
MICHAEL
> http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/history/chicago.stm.txt
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~
>
> THE CHICAGO STATEMENT ON BIBLICAL INERRANCY
>
>
> 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 that 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 propose 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 that enables
> us
> to strengthen this testimony to God's Word we shall be grateful.
>
>
> I. SUMMARY STATEMENT
>
> 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 of 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.
>
>
> II. 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 of 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, through 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 falseness 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 it 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 be 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 metrical, 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 violate 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 or relativizing, dehistoricizing,
> or
> discounting its teaching, or rejecting its claims of 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.
>
>
> III. EXPOSITION
>
> Our understanding of the doctrine of inerrancy must be set in the
> context of the broader teachings of Scripture concerning itself. This
> exposition gives an account of the outline of doctrine from which our
> Summary Statement and Articles are drawn.
>
>
> A. Creation, Revelation and Inspiration
>
> The 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
> judgement, 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 judgement 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
>
> that 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 Christ, had been spoken and
> elucidated by those in the apostolic circle, the sequence of revealed
> messages ceased. Henceforth the 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 tablets 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" (I Pet 1:21). Holy Scripture must be acknowledged as the Word
> of
> God by virtue of its divine origin.
>
>
> B. 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
> that 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 that God had created, not to devise one of its own.
>
> The word 'canon', signifying a rule of 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 its
> 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
> that 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
> that 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.
>
>
> C. 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,
>
> nonchronological 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 (for example, 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.
>
>
> D. Skepticism and Criticism
>
> Since the Renaissance, and more particularly since the
> Enlightenment,
> world views have been developed that involve skepticism about basic
> Christian tenets. Such are the agnosticism that denies that God is
> knowable, the rationalism that denies that He is incomprehensible, the
>
> idealism that denies that He is transcendent, and the existentialism
> that 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.
>
>
> E. 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 appears 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 autograph. 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 hesitating 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)
>
>
> F. Inerrancy and Authority
>
> In our affirmation of the authority 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 that
> 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 that God gave loses its authority, and what has authority
> instead
> is a Bible reduced in content according to the demands of one's
> critical
> reasoning 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.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Hope this helps. (Bunches of other stuff at the site as well)
>
> Ciao.
>
> --
> Michael Fisher, ET1/SS USN ret., law student
>
> >>NEW->http://www.infidels.org/library/humor/lioaca.html
>
> http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/logic.html
>
> http://home.aol.com/Mfish6994
>
> * * *
>
> ". . . a very LONG discussion is one of the most
> effective veils of Fallacy: . . . A Fallacy which
> when stated barely . . . would not deceive a child,
> may deceive half the world if diluted in a quarto
> volume"
> Richard Whately, "Elements of Logic", p. 151
>