Jim Packer on the Chicago Statement

As part of remembering J. I. Packer, who recently went to be with the Lord, we are sharing his entries from the New Dictionary of Theology: Historical and Systematic, and giving away the ebook of his classic Concise Theology.

CHICAGO STATEMENT

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy came from the first ‘summit’ conference (1978) of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. ICBI was a coalition of conservative scholars who over ten years sponsored conferences and books to vindicate the full truth and trustworthiness of the Bible as a basic and necessary Christian certainty, so countering liberal Protestant opinion and also revisionist advocacy of ‘limited inerrancy’ and ‘non­ inerrantist evangelicalism’ in their own ranks. (The latter factor prompted ICBI’s formation.) Against all forms of the thesis that biblical authority and integrity of faith were com patible with disbelieving at least some assertions and assumptions in both Testaments, ICBI urged that methodological and epistemological coherence in theo logy depends on treating all canonical *Scripture as trustworthy instruction from God, a view learned from the explicit attitude of the NT writers and the his tor ical Jesus himself to their Scriptures, that is, our OT. ICBI thus revitalized the polemic maintained in scholarly form by such as B. B. *Warfield at the turn of the twentieth century, and by *funda mental ism throughout that century, and with growing academic strength by evangelicals (see *Evangelical theo logy) for some decades before ICBI was born.

The Statement is defensive, not adventurous, pursuing no new paths but clarifying a consensus. Its three parts are: a summary of ICBI’s view, nineteen ‘articles of affirm ation and denial’ elaborating it, and an extended expos ition of it. The Bible’s divine origin
and full humanness; its consistent Christcentredness; its total reliability as a guide, both informationally and impera tively; the ministry of the Holy Spirit as its inspirer, authenticator and interpreter; and its final authority for the church and every Christian, are the points emphasized.

ICBI’s second consensus document, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics (1982), complements the first by exploring principles of interpretation in twenty­five further affirm ations and denials. The two together have
become a reference point for many American evangelicals and evangelical insti tu tions.

Select Bibliography

N. L. Geisler (ed.), Inerrancy (Grand Rapids, 1979) – contains the text of the statement; J. Hannah (ed.), Inerrancy and the Church (Chicago, 1984); G. R. Lewis and B. Demarest (eds.), Challenges to Inerrancy: A Theological Response (Chicago, 1984).

J. I. Packer