In his mercy, God raised up some leaders who saw and this trend and determined to sound the alarm. In 1977 the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy was formed. This council held several meetings and issued three statements, the most famous of which is the “Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.” Over the decade of the eighties and into the nineties evangelicals engaged in what came to be called, “The Battle for the Bible.”
Over the last fifty years American evangelicals have been forced to address the question of biblical authority. In the early 1970s North American evangelicalism came dangerously close to theological apostasy. Many leaders had begun to drift away from their historic commitment to the authority of Scripture. Professors in prominent colleges and seminaries were becoming bold in teaching that the Bible contained many historical and scientific errors, but that this did not matter to the Christian faith. It looked like evangelical churches were going to follow the steps of mainline protestant denominations and drift into the sea of liberalism.
In his mercy, God raised up some leaders who saw and this trend and determined to sound the alarm. In 1977 the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy was formed. This council held several meetings and issued three statements, the most famous of which is the “Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.” Over the decade of the eighties and into the nineties evangelicals engaged in what came to be called, “The Battle for the Bible.”
This battle raged hot within the Southern Baptist Convention. From 1979–1995, conservative church leaders who affirmed the inerrancy of Scripture stood against moderate church leaders who denied the inerrancy of the Bible. In God’s goodness and grace, both within the SBC in particular and the broader evangelical world in general, there was a renewed commitment to the absolute authority of God’s Word. Inerrancy won the day. Because of this, many then made the claim—and continue to say today—that the “Battle for the Bible” is over.
BUT, the Battle for the Bible will never be over. Granted, it is now widely recognized that to be an evangelical means to believe in the full, unwavering authority of the Bible. Though the authority of Scripture must always remain a key concern for us, it is no longer the most critical issue that confronts us. Today, the most important issue that confronts evangelicals is the sufficiency of the Scripture.
I first heard the late James Boice raise this concern more than 25 years ago. He later expressed his thoughts in his book, What Makes a Church Evangelical, in 1999.
