The Chicago Statement

5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols

Ligonier Ministries

Christianity, History, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2014

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, Dr. Stephen Nichols introduces us to the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and explains the significance of this landmark treatise on the doctrine of Scripture.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This just in, in, well it would be just in if it were 1978, so let's pretend for a second that we'll go back to 1978 and let's hear a good old-fashioned news report.
0:10.0	This just in, on October 26,, 1978 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, ICBI convened its Summit Conference
0:18.2	on Biblical Inerrancy.
0:20.0	There were 268 participants on hand to take part in three days of rigorous meetings.
0:25.5	The participants came from a variety of backgrounds and represented many diverse works and
0:29.6	places. There was representation from 34 seminaries, 33 colleges and other schools, 41 churches, and 38 inter-denominational Christian works.
0:39.5	11 different countries were represented. So why were all these folks gathered at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago in 1978?
0:48.0	They were there for this summit on scripture convened by the International Council on Biblical Inerancy, that council consisted of folks
0:55.8	like Dr. R.C. Sproll, of J.I. Packer, James Montgomery Boyce, Earl Rodmacher, Ed Clowney, and many, many others.
1:05.2	This group not only met as a council, they also invited leaders from across the
1:09.3	evangelical spectrum, from across denominations.
1:12.0	They all gathered there at the Hyatt Regency to
1:14.2	tackle this issue of inerancy. Well the result is what we call the Chicago
1:19.2	statement on biblical inerrancy. The statement consists of a preface and then five points to the statement
1:26.0	and then articles of affirmation and denial and there are 19 of those in total. We need to remember that in the 1960s this was a time of crisis in the
1:36.5	church. The crisis was around the doctrine of the authority of scripture. Whether it was
1:41.8	in the Baptist denomination or among the Lutherans or the Presbyterians, there was
1:46.2	this move away from the position of inerrancy, from the full-blown inerrancy that the
1:52.3	Bible is without error and all that it affirms view.
1:57.6	This would move the church away from her authority.
1:59.7	Just think of the implications of moving away from an inerrant Bible. So these godly men, theologians,
2:06.0	pastors, missionaries gathered together there in Chicago to define inerancy first
	...

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