Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy 1

What do Christians mean when they say the Bible is inerrant? The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy tells us what leading inerrantist mean by inerrancy. I’ll be posting a section of this statement each week until I’ve posted the whole thing.

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was formulated in 1978 by approximately 300 evangelical scholars at a conference sponsored by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, held in Chicago. The statement was designed to defend the position of Biblical inerrancy against trends toward liberal conceptions of Scripture and higher biblical criticism. The undersigners came from a variety of evangelical denominations, and include James Montgomery Boice, Carl F. H. Henry, Roger Nicole, J. I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, and R. C. Sproul. (Source: Theopedia)

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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 misunderstandings 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.

— The Draft Committee

Sunday's Hymn

Good News

Good news from Heav’n, good news for thee,
There flows a pardon, full and free,
To guilty sinners, through the blood
Of the incarnate Son of God;
He paid the debt that thou didst owe,
He suffered death for thee below,
He bore the wrath divine for thee,
He groaned and bled on Calvary.

Refrain

Good news from Heav’n, good news for thee,
There flows a pardon, full and free,
To guilty sinners, through the blood
Of the incarnate Son of God.

Good news from Heav’n, good news for thee,
The Savior cries, “Come unto Me
All ye who toil, with fears oppressed;
Come, weary one, oh, come and rest.”
He loves thee with o’erflowing love,
He hears thy prayer in Heav’n above,
He all thy pasture shall prepare,
And lead thee with a shepherd’s care.

Good news from Heav’n, good news for thee,
Has echoed from eternity;
And loud shall our hosannas ring,
When with the ransomed throng we sing.
“Worthy the Lamb,” whose precious blood
Has made us kings and priests to God;
Our harps we’ll tune to noblest strains,
And glory give to Him who reigns.

—J. C. Ryle

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• Heavenly Sunlight at The Happy Wonderer
• Lord’s Day 6, 2010 at The Thirsty Theologian
• At All Times Praise the Lord at Whatever Is Good
• I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say at Hiraeth
• Heart Aflame - Psalm 16:1-2 at The Upward Call
• I Belong to Jesus at Field Stone Cottage
• God Is Our Refuge and Our Strength at Whatever Things
• Praise Ye the Lord at Count it all Joy
• Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: Games Liberals Play
• Holy, Holy, Holy, Christ, Thy Disciples at Conjubilant with Song

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

Redemption Accomplished and Applied: Union with Christ

I’m participating in Tim Challies’ Reading the Classics Together program. The book is Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray, and this week’s reading is the ninth chapter of Part 2: The Order of Application. You can read Tim’s summary here.

The subject of this chapter is the believer’s union with Christ. You’ll not find union with Christ in most orders of salvation, but  John Murray includes it—and I’m glad—in his discussion of the application of redemption.

Union with Christ, he says, is unlike the phases in the application of redemption already discussed in this book because “in its broader aspects it underlies every step in the application of redemption.” What’s more, union with Christ extends beyond the application of redemption.

• Eternal election is “in Christ”, so at the very beginning of salvation, we find union with Christ.
• When he died on the cross and rose again, Christ was united with his people. “In the Beloved” we have redemption.
• New creation is “in Christ Jesus.” It is through union with Christ that we are created anew.
• Our new life continues through union with Christ, in the “fellowship of Jesus’ resurrection.”
• Believers die in Christ. Death is real, but “the separated elements of the person are still united to Christ.”
• Believers will be resurrected and glorified in Christ.

There you have it: Union with Christ comes from eternity past and reaches its full purpose in the consummation. It runs from “no beginning” to “no end.” There is, for the believer, no way to think “of the past, present, or future apart from union with Christ.” It is, as you can see, a comprehensive matter.

Yet there is a specific time in our lives when we become, by our effectual calling, actual partakers of our union with Christ. Until that time, scripture says we are “without Christ” and “children of wrath.”

What is the nature of the union with Christ in which we come to partake?

• It is spiritual, not as some sort of airy-fairy thing, but as something worked and maintained by the Holy Spirit. Christ “dwells in us by the Spirit.” Murray writes that “it is a union of an intensely spiritual character consonant with the nature and work of the Holy Spirit so that in a real way surpassing our power of analysis Christ dwells in his people and his people dwell in him.”
• It is mystical. This word, of course, must be understood in a scriptural way. It “is mystical because it is a mystery.” All the varied illustrations in scripture used to picture this relationship should tell us that this union is something not exactly like anything else. It is communion with Christ and like no communion among men. Our faith “must have the passion and warmth of love and communion because communion with God is the crown and apex of true religion.”

Yes, “[u]nion with Christ is the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation.” We are elected in Christ; redeemed in Christ; called, regenerated, justified, adopted, and sanctified in Christ. “There is no truth, therefore, more suited to impart confidence and strength, comfort and joy in the Lord than this one of union with Christ.”

And there is still one more important thing about union with Christ. It brings us not only into communion with Christ, but through him to communion with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Or maybe it is better to say, as Murray does, that union with Christ “draws along with it” union with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Here is mysticism on the highest plane. It is not the mysticism of vague unintelligible feeling or rapture…. It is faith solidly founded on the revelation deposited for us in the Scripture and it is actively receiving that revelation by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. But it is also faith that stirs the deepest springs of emotion in the raptures of holy love and joy.