Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was formulated in October 1978 by more than 200 evangelical leaders at a conference sponsored by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI), held in Chicago. The statement was designed to defend the position of Biblical inerrancy against a perceived trend toward liberal conceptions of Scripture. The undersigners came from a variety of evangelical Christian denominations, and include Robert Preus, James Montgomery Boice, Kenneth Kantzer, J. I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul and John F. MacArthur.

Leading inerrantists regard the Chicago Statement as a very thorough statement of what they mean by "inerrancy". The statement elaborates on various details in Articles formed as couplets of "We affirm..." and "We deny...". Under the statement inerrancy applies only to the original manuscripts (which no longer exist, but can be inferred on the basis of extant copies), not to the copies or translations themselves. In the statement, inerrancy does not refer to a blind literal interpretation, but allows for figurative, poetic and phenomenological language, so long as it was the author's intent to present a passage as literal or symbolic.

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy has been described as similar to the Second Vatican Council Decree Dei verbum in addressing issues of the historical critical method and affirming inerrancy.^[1]

List of signers

See also

• Biblical hermeneutics
• Biblical literalism

References

External links

• "Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy" (PDF). 
• "Text of the Statement" (PDF). 
• "Typed list of signers" (PDF).