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 compared to the Second Vatican Council Decree Dei verbum.

Full list of signers

• Wm. Ackerman
• Jay E. Adams
• John N. Akers
• Robert L. Alden
• Brooks Alexander
• Rev. Russell T. Allen
• Gleason L. Archer
• Hudson T. Armerding
• Robert L. Atwell
• Edward D. Auchard
• Hermann J. Austel
• Greg L. Bahnsen
• James M. Baird
• Kenneth L. Barker
• William S. Barker
• Alexander Barkley
• David A. Barnes
• Thomas G. Barnes
• Daniel L. Barnett
• Cal Beisner
• Richard P. Belcher
• William E. Bell, Jr.
• Warren S. Benson
• Thomas F. Blanchard
• Henri A. G. Blocher
• Edwin A. Blum
• Stuart Boehmig
• Carl W. Bogue
• James M. Boice
• James A. Borror
• David A. Bowen
• James L. Boyer
• William R. Bright
• Arthur C. Broadwick
• Harold O. J. Brown
• Stephen W. Brown
• Walter F. Brunn
• James M. Buchfuehrer
• Jon Buell
• Harold H. Buls
• J. Buraga
• Donald W. Burdick
• David Burnham
• John A. Burns
• Russ Bush
• Donald K. Campbell
• Greg Cantelmo
• J. William Carpenter
• D. A. Carson
• Stephen M. Clinton
• Edmund P. Clowney
• Robert S. Coleman
• Harvie M. Conn
• W. Robert Cook
• E. Clark Copeland
• Allan Coppedge
• Winfried Corduan
• Vic Cowie
• W. A. Criswell
• William C. Crouse
• Linward A. Crowe
• Scott Eugene Daniels
• John J. Davis
• Wilber T. Dayton
• G. Waldemar Degner
• Daniel F. DeHaan
• Peter DeJong
• Bruce A. Demarest
• William Dennison
• Robert K. DeVries
• James B. DeYoung
• C. Fred Dickason
• Raymond B. Dillard
• David V. Dissen
• David R. Douglass
• Duane A. Dunham
• Robert J. Dunzweiler
• Ralph Earle
• Daniel L. Edmundson
• Stanley E. Edwards
• Leroy O. Eger
• Allan C. Emery, Jr.
• Ted W. Engstrom
• Wallace A. Erickson
• Howard A. Eyrich
• Jelle Faber
• Julius E. Farup
• John S. Feinberg
• Paul D. Feinberg
• Harold D. Foos
• John M. Frame
• Eldon R. Fuhrman
• Frank E. Gaebelein
• Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.
• Kenneth O. Gangel
• Alden A. Gannet
• Verne Garrison II
• William N. Garrison
• Arthur E. Gay, Jr.
• Norman L. Geisler
• George Giacumakis, Jr.
• Duane T. Gish
• Omar Gjerness
• W. Robert Godfrey
• John E. Grauley
• William T. Greig, Jr.
• Jay H. Grimstead
• Robert Gromacki
• Wayne Grudem
• Stanley N. Gundry
• David E. Hall
• Francis H. Hall, Jr.
• Pearl Crosby Hamilton
• Mark M. Hanna
• R. Laird Harris
• Wendell C. Hawley
• William G. Hay
• Jack W. Hayford
• Steven A. Hein
• Howard G. Hendricks
• Alverda Hertzler
• Bartlett L. Hess
• Albert A. Hiebert
• D. Edmond Hiebert
• Paul M. Hillman
• David L. Hocking
• Harold W. Hoehner
• Donald E. Hoke
• Henry W. Holloman
• David F. Holsclaw
• Russell R. Horton
• William G. Houser
• Karen C. Hoyt
• John J. Hughes
• Horace Hummel
• Morris A. Inch
• Herbert J. Jantzen
• W. Maxey Jarman
• Gene L. Jeffries
• Irving L. Jensen
• Robert T. Jensen
• Rosemary M. Jensen
• A. Wetherell Johnson
• Alan F. Johnson
• Dennis E. Johnson
• Elliott E. Johnson
• G. L. Johnson
• Arthur P. Johnson
• Martha L. Johnson
• Wendell G. Johnson
• David C. Jones
• Norman L. Jones
• James B. Jordan
• Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
• David E. Kelby
• D. James Kennedy
• Homer A. Kent, Jr.
• Eugene R. Kerr
• William F. Kerr
• Joseph N. Kickasola
• Dennis F. Kinlaw
• Fred H. Klooster
• George W. Knight, III
• Hendrik Krabbendam
• Charles W. Krahe
• Samuel R. Kulling
• Robert G. Lambeth
• Donald H. Launstein
• Nerritt E. Lawson
• Francis Nigel Lee
• James T. Lester
• Samuel Leuenberger
• Gordon R. Lewis
• Walter L. Liefeld
• Hal Lindsey
• Art Lindsley
• Calvin D. Linton
• George H. Livingston
• George W. Long
• Marvin L. Lubenow
• William F. Luck
• Caryl McCarty
• Thomas E. McComiskey
• Josh P. McDowell
• Richard T. McIntosh
• J. Robertson McQuilkin
• John MacArthur, Jr.
• John MacArthur, Sr.
• Allan A. MacRae
• E. William Male
• W. Harold Mare
• Trueman M. Martin, Jr.
• James Earl Massey
• Erich Mauerhofer
• Richard R. Melick, Jr.
• Billy A. Melvin
• David Merk
• Robert Metcalf
• Gerald Metz
• John S. Meyer
• Darrow L. Miller
• Jimmy A. Millikin
• John J. Mitchell
• John L. Mitchell
• Elmer J. Moeller
• James M. Moran
• J. P. Moreland
• Henry M. Morris
• Daniel R. Morse
• W. Donald Munson, Jr.
• Douglas M. Muraki
• John W. Murray
• Lloyd R. Nelson
• Mark Neuenschwander
• John C. Neville, Jr.
• Robert C. Newman
• David R. Nicholas
• Roger R. Nicole
• William E. Nix
• Boyd E. Nixon
• Emilio Antonio Nunez
• John W. Nyquist
• Stanley Obitts
• Harold J. Ockenga
• Heinrich M. Ohmann
• Stephen F. Olford
• Kay Oliver
• Juan Carlos Ortiz
• Raymond C. Ortlund
• James I. Packer
• Luis Palau
• Edwin H. Palmer
• Luis L. Pantoja, Jr.
• Majlis L. Parke
• Donald B. Patterson
• Dorothy Patterson
• Paige Patterson
• Richard D. Patterson
• J. Barton Payne
• Philip Barton Payne
• Sue Perlman
• Douglas W. Petersen
• Vern S. Poythress
• Paul Pressler
• Klemet I. Preus
• Robert D. Preus
• Rolf Preus
• Earl D. Radmacher
• Robert G. Rayburn
• K. Reddy
• Robert L. Reymond
• Arthur K. Robertson
• O. Palmer Robertson
• Bill Rogers
• Cleon Rogers
• Moishe Rosen
• Joseph F. Ryan, Jr.
• Charles C. Ryrie
• Robert L. Saucy
• Franky Schaeffer V
• Robert W. Schaibley
• F. Richard Schatz
• Rick Scheideman
• Dale A. Schlack
• Dale Schlafer
• Eckhard Schnabel
• Theodore W. Schubkegel
• Samuel J. Schultz
• Lubbertus Selles
• Norman Shepherd
• Joseph R. Shultz
• Stephen E. Slocum, Jr.
• C. Don Smedley
• Elmer B. Smick
• A. E. Wilder Smith
• Charles E. Smith
• Charles R. Smith
• Paul B. Smith
• Wayne R. Spear
• R. C. Sproul
• John A. Sproule
• James A. Stahr
• Hardy W. Steinberg
• Bruce C. Stewart
• Donald D. Stewart
• William R. Storer
• Richard L. Strauss
• Robert B. Strimple
• Everald H. Strom
• Samuel H. Sutherland
• G. Aiken Taylor
• Jerry Taylor
• Robert L. Thomas
• Michael B. Thompson
• James A. Thomson
• Donald Tinder
• James R. Tony
• Dick L. Van Halsema
• J. Robert Vannoy
• Paul M. Vigress
• Jerry Vines
• Frederick G. Wacker, Jr.
• Roger Wagner
• Larry L. Walker
• Wilber B. Wallis
• Leon F. Wardell
• Gilbert B. Weaver
• Ed A. Weise
• David Wells
• Carl E. Wenger
• John W. Wenham
• Dean O. Wenthe
• Waldo J. Werning
• Walter W. Wessel
• John C. Whitcomb
• Gene R. White
• John H. White
• Paul S. White
• Luder G. Whitlock, Jr.
• Bruce H. Wilkinson
• David Williams
• James A. Wilson
• George Winston
• John A. Witmer
• George F. Wollenburg
• A. Skevington Wood
• Laurence W. Wood
• John D. Woodbridge
• Lewis H. Worrad, Jr.
• Martin H. Woudstra
• Paul O. Wright
• Edwin M. Yamauchi
• Ronald Youngblood

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).