Episode 7 - Biblical Inerrancy: Inspiration, Revelation, Inerrancy & The Truth of Scripture - a podcast by Kenneth E. Crump

   Inerrancy doesn't seem like something that most Christians would bring up at a dinner party, but it's one of the foundational principles of Christianity. This is not a subject that most Christians dive into let alone are aware of. It’s usually taught in seminary for ministerial training. Denial of inerrancy is a fundamental principle of Progressive or liberal theology. In progressive circles, you will find many concepts that are made up out of thin air to justify their problematic beliefs. They tend to obfuscate rather than confront traditional views because if they challenge these solid, well-documented views of traditional Christianity head-on, their shallow theology falls apart fairly quickly.

   One of the accusations of the traditional view of inerrancy is that it is “bible idolatry.” The inference is that people are more concerned with their doctrine than understanding the true meaning of love and compassion behind what Jesus taught. These are not mutually exclusive principles. Adherence to inerrancy does not negate compassion or love for one's neighbor. What they really want is the ability to cherry-pick the scripture in order to justify a sinful lifestyle that doesn’t line up with scripture. The only way they can do that is to find a way to invalidate what the scripture clearly says. Their primary method of doing this is to challenge the traditional view of inerrancy.

   We are using the Chicago Statements on Biblical Inerrancy. These statements are based on the conclusions drawn by an international gathering of over 300 Evangelical scholars. These statements are merely a reaffirmation of the principle of inerrancy that has guided the church throughout history. They include such theological greats as Norman Geisler and R. C. Sproul. Any Evangelical who studied theology in seminary has read their books. Many of these scholars are Baptists who teach a reformed theology. This is not my faith group as some of them can be overly legalist at times, but their underlying theology is solid.

I will be quoting the statements from the Chicago Statements on Biblical Inerrancy and commenting on each one. There are a total of 19 separate statements divided into 6 separate categories.

The categories consist of:

The Word of God and Authority

The Word of God and Revelation

The Word of God and Inspiration

The Word of God and Inerrancy

The Word of God and Truth

The Word of God and the Individual

Each of these sections has 2-4 points adding up to 19 separate affirmations and denials. These statements represent a framework that people can adopt or reject all or some. I find most of it to be reasonable, but not 100%, so they are presented here for your consideration.

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