Thankful for Those Boundary Stones
As a pastor in a confessional church and president of a seminary that subscribes to the Westminster Confession of Faith, I often give thanks for the doctrinal parameters the Lord has set for the church and for me. Sitting through presbytery meetings this past weekend, observing a new generation of pastors taking exams and expressing their commitments to those truths, was heartwarming. As Proverbs 22:28 states, "Do not move the ancient boundary which your fathers have set." Having theological markers from generation to generation, and sharing those with like-minded believers, is a great blessing and comfort.
I have also thought of this truth as I have spent time reading through Stephen Nichols' biography on R.C. Sproul. As Dr. Sproul's teachings have had a profound influence on me throughout my Christian life, I decided to read his life story more deliberately than I might with other biographies. I am reflecting on the lessons that he not only taught with his ever present blackboard, but also on the ones that his life communicated as well. One key lesson was his commitment to Biblical inerrancy.
In a chapter simply titled "Inerrancy," Dr. Nichols recounts Sproul leading the battle in the 1970's and 1980's against the liberal influence of men like Bultmann and Barth on the authority of the Bible. Together with prominent evangelical voices such as J.I. Packer and James Montgomery Boice, Sproul led the effort to produce in 1978 what became known as the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. This document, with its five terse leading statements followed by nineteen affirmations and denials, lays out a clear expression of the doctrine of inerrancy.
Reviewing once again this statement, I was struck with gratitude for its crystalline commitment to the Word of God and how it was used to bolster the church. Reading that "over thirty colleges and over thirty seminaries" had representatives who signed the statement, I looked at the list of signers and was further thankful for what I saw. For the president of our denominational college at that time, John H. "Jack" White (who just recently passed away) was a signer, as was the former president of RPTS, Bruce C. Stewart. Dr. Stewart was my pastoral theology professor when I attended RPTS as a student, and two of my other professors, E. Clark Copeland and Wayne R. Stewart, also signed this statement.
When I became the RPTS president, Jerry O'Neill, my predecessor who himself had taken the reins from Bruce Stewart, gave me a baton as a gift. With it, he reminded me that the truth of God's Word was handed to us as a sacred trust to guard carefully and transmit confidently to the coming generations. I am so grateful for forefathers in the faith who, both long ago and in recent generations, defended the doctrines of our faith and handed them down to us in this generation. My constant prayer is that we who carry them now will likewise be faithful to do so. For as the Chicago Statement says in its 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.
Below is the Chicago Statement's five main points followed by the affirmations and denials.
The Short Statement
- 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.
- 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 bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.
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 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 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.
