Monthly Archives: May 2014

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978)

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Why We Defend Inerrancy from the minister has nothing to preach, our authority in preaching is completely compromised.” – Dr. Ligon Duncan

“In one sense, all we have to offer the world is truth and grace. And if you think you can maximize grace by minimizing truth, you are going to end up with neither. We don’t’ have an authoritative word if we don’t have an inerrant word.” – Kevin DeYoung

“This gets to the bottom line issue: What is the preacher doing? If the preacher is not standing and saying “thus sayeth the Lord,” then to some degree he is simply reflecting his own opinion. And when it comes down to that kind of opinion, quite frankly the distinction between “thus sayeth the Lord” and “here is what I think” is an infinite difference. The bottom line is what the congregation needs is the word of God. And the confidence in the word of God is what the pastor has to have, and then must share with that congregation. If the Bible is something less than inerrant, than it is something less than authoritative, and inevitably it will show up in preaching. The congregation is going to know it, and the preacher is going to know it. Because what isn’t heard is “thus sayeth the Lord.” – Dr. Al Mohler

Here is the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, in its entirety. Originally published in 1978, it includes a preface, a summary statement, articles of affirmation and denial, and an exposition explaining the framers’ intent. It’s an extremely edifying read.

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. Continue reading →

Lift Him Up

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spurg7“The only thing we have to do with Christ Jesus crucified is just to lift him up and preach him. There is many a man who could only speak in a ploughman’s dialect, who will wear a bright and starry crown in heaven, because he lifted Christ up, and sinners saw and lived. And there is many a learned doctor, who spoke with the brogue of the Egyptian and, with the dark and mysterious language, he talked he knew not what, who, after having ended his course, shall enter heaven without a solitary star in his crown, never having lifted up Christ nor won crowns for his Master.

Let each of us who are called to the solemn work of the ministry remember that we are not called to lift up doctrine or church governments or particular denominations. Our business is to lift up Christ Jesus and to preach him fully. There may be times when church government is to be discussed and particular doctrines are to be vindicated. God forbid that we should silence any part of the truth. But the main work of the ministry — its every day work — is just exhibiting Christ and crying out to sinners, ‘Believe, believe, believe on him who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), II:279.

Jonathan Edwards for the 21st Century

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Justin Taylor writes, “If George Marsden only had 45 minutes to talk about Jonathan Edwards, what would he say? He answers that in the following lecture (November 3, 2010) for the Jonathan Edwards Center and the Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Here’s an abstract:

What are the most helpful insights that we can gain from Jonathan Edwards’s theology today? This lecture uses the contrast between Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards in the eighteenth century to reflect on some of the most characteristic traits of later American culture to which Edwards’s ‘theology of active beauty’ provides particularly helpful alternatives.

Professor Marsden is the author of the magisterial biography, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (Yale University Press, 2003) and A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards (Eerdmans, 2008), which is a shorter and fresh retelling, not an abridgment. I highly recommend both books. Most recently Dr. Marsden has written the foreword for Dane Ortlund’s Edwards on the Christian Life: Alive to the Beauty of God (forthcoming from Crossway in August 2014).

The lecture (found at this link) begins around the 4:00 mark and goes until around 50:00, and then Colin Smith (of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church) offers a response. Then for the final 20 minutes there is some Q&A.”