A Unique Meeting
Extraordinary interest and possibly far-reaching influence characterized the unique meeting October 26–28 at Chicago of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. Meeting at the Hyatt Regencv O’Hare were 284 men including some of the most widely known leaders in .the evangelical church world from a dozen countries, some as far away as India and Africa, and coming from a wide variety of denominations. They came to confer on what is emerging as probably the most fundamental problem troubling Christians in our time, the question of how we are to regard and receive the Bible. The question is not whether we are to call the Bible authoritative—almost anyone who would call himself an evangelical Christian would say he believes that. The question is whether we are willing to receive it as in its entirety God’s Word and free from error (“inerrant”). Three days of meetings and discussions produced successive draughts of a document which expressed the consensus of the group and which most signed.
The Bible About the Bible
Possibly as significant as the document affirming the inerrancy of the Bible was the encouragement of hearing and discussing with others including some of the most prominent evangelical Christian leaders in our time this fundamental teaching of the Bible about itself. Interspersed between the sectional meetings concerned with various areas of the subject were general sessions in which various speakers, usually referring to some key text, called attention, more or less in the style of sermons, to the Bible’s teachings about itself. The variety of their manners of speaking called the more attention to the common convictions they expressed and sought to encourage.
Edmund Clowney, President of Westminster Theological Seminary, reminded us of the words of our Lord (Luke 24:13–32), “O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken” as those prophets wrote “in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
Dr. J. I. Packer from England in his delightfully precise yet warmly devotional English style referred as to II Peter 1:19–21 in which we are assured that “more sure” than even personal experience is God’s “word of prophecy” which is not “of private interpretation” nor given “by the will of men.” “Men spake from God” being “carried along” by the Holy Spirit, so that this inspired Word is to us “like a lamp shining in a dark place.” Robert Preus, veteran leader of the Missouri Lutherans in their well–known struggle with this issue, President of their Ft. Wayne Seminary (and rather of ten children, two of whom were present at. the meetings as pastors of Lutheran churches—part of his family, who helped “keep him sane” in the monumental struggle of Missouri) was an especially intriguing speaker. Along the lines that he followed in a Grand Rapids meeting a year ago, he directed us to II Timothy 3:13ff., the Bible‘s own most extensive statement as to how it is to be regarded and received. As God‘s Word, completely given by His inspiration, it is powerful to save through leading us to faith in Christ and to completely equip us for Christian living.
Quite different again in style was W. A. Criswell (who was once asked by a grand-daughter whether he was personally acquainted with Noah), former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and 35-year pastor of the 20,000 member First Baptist Church of Dallas. He spoke more topically on “what happens when I teach the Bible as Literally True” to oneself, to one’s preaching and to people, as God is glorified by and honors and will honor such faithful service to Him.
Robert C. Sproul, Founder–President of the Ligonier Valley Study Center, himself brought from the streets to Christ through the Word of God, directed attention to the way in which our first parents in Paradise and Christ in the wilderness (Gen. 3:1·6; Matt. 4:1–11) were tempted with the question whether God‘s Word would be believed or not. As the devil raises the question, “Has God said?” will we or will we not live “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”?
James M. Boice, pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, and Council Chairman directed the attention of all to the marks of the True Church found in our Lord‘s Prayer in John 17:13–26 in which He prayed “Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth.”
What Shall We Do?
One of the more helpful meetings, I thought, was a group discussion led by Dr. Preus on what could be done in our various denominational circumstances to deal with the prevailing undercutting of the Bible‘s authority by higher criticism and to bring back the submission to the authority of God’s Word. His own suggestions, arising out of the hitler struggles of his denomination stressed (1) following proper legal procedures (we may not engage in combat in the unscrupulous way in which the opposition does). (2) Informing the people regarding what is happening by meetings and a variety of publications, and by patient and loving dealing with people, especially the memberships of the churches, and (3) firmness and endless persistence in standing for God’s truth.
Another speaker observed that we must know the enemy. “If you were Satan, where would you go to achieve the greatest havoc?” The devil’s attack is directed especially at church leaders and the schools in which they are being trained. Our concern must also be directed there. As we seek to be faithful to the Lord and His Word remember, as Dr. Preus said, that “the Lord will help you.”
Christian Reformed participants in the Council meeting included professors Fred Klooster and Marten Woudstra of Calvin Theological Seminary, Professor
W. Robert Godfrey of Westminster Theological Seminary, Dr. Edwin H. Palmer, Executive Secretary of the New International Version, and the writer.
The Council is beginning a ten-year program of seeking to advance what it recognizes as the Bible’s teaching about the Bible by meetings, discussions and publications. Those interested in learning more about it may write the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, P.O. Box 13261, Oakland, CA 94661. In the hope that the Council’s document may help many Christians and churches among us to hold and confess more forthrightly their faith in God’s inerrant Word we print the “short statement” and accompanying “articles of affirmation and denial” which although not the full statement of the council are the heart of it.
A SHORT 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, its 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 act in creation and 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.ARTICLES OF AFFIRMATION AND DENIAL
Article I. We affirm that the Holy Scriptures are to he 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 within 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 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 sneaking, 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 Xl. 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 de 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 over· turn 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 arc 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 affinn 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 grammatic-historical exegesis, taking account of its literary forms and devices, and tbat 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.