Scripture and God in Christianity

Therefore, according to the 1978 International Conference on Biblical Inerrancy, whose roughly
300 attendees drafted "The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy", "Being wholly and verbally
God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teachings, no less in what it states
about God's acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins
under God, than in its witness to God's saving grace in individual lives." 170 G.L. Archer is more
specific when he states that "We must therefore conclude that any event or fact related in Scripture
- whether it pertains to doctrine, science, or history - is to be accepted by the Christian as totally
reliable and trustworthy, no matter what modern scientists or philosophers may think of
it." 171
Such Evangelists are often called, "Fundamentalist" and hold that the Scriptures should be understood
literally. O.B. Greene, for instance, argues: "Jesus dies a literal death. He was buried - not
figuratively or spiritually, but literally, in a literal tomb. And He literally rose again - bodily, as
He had declared He would and it had been prophesied." 172
The literal reading of the Scriptures or in the words of Henry "the literal truth of an inerrant Bible
" is often emphasized but not followed all the time. There is a common tendency to interpret the
text in a way to fit a presupposed scheme, theology or eschatology leading sometimes to a " fullscale
exegetical exploitation." 173
Furthermore, the Scriptures should be accepted in totality, otherwise it would cast doubts to its
authority and absolute truthfulness in the matters fundamental to the Christian faith. If Paul, argues
Francis Schaeffer, " is wrong in this factual statement about Eve's coming from Adam [ 1
Cor. 11:8 ], there is no reason to have certainty in the authority of any New Testament factual
statement, including the factual statement that Christ rose physically from the dead." 174 Therefore
any criticism of its text or belief in limited or "virtual" inerrancy would be appalling in that it
not only negates the Scripture's self-testimony, but because it appears to cast doubts about the
pivotal doctrine of the Christian faith and the perfect knowledge and authority of Jesus. J.I.
Packer observes that "Christ does not judge Scripture; He obeys it and fulfills it. By word and
deed He endorses the authority of the whole of it. Certainly, He is the final authority for Christians;
that is precisely why Christians are bound to acknowledge the authority of Scripture. Christ
teaches them to do so." 175
In short, the fundamentalists prove inerrancy and plenary inspiration by appealing to the character
of its witnesses, "We believe this doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures primarily
because it is the doctrine which Christ and his apostles believed, and which they have taught
us." The church history and tradition is a witness as says Gaussens, "With the single exception of
the Theodore of Mopsuestia...it has been found impossible to produce, in the long course of the
first eight centuries of Christianity, a single doctor who has disowned the plenary inspiration of
the Scriptures, unless it be in the bosom of the most violent heresies that have tormented the
Christian Church." 176 This point is supported by what J.N.D. Kelly observes: "It goes without
saying that the fathers envisaged the whole of the Bible as inspired. It was not a collection of disparate
segments, some of divine origin and others of merely human fabrication. Irenaeus, for example,
is not surprised at its frequent obscurity, `seeing it is spiritual in its entirety'; while Gregory
of Nyssa understands St. Paul to imply that everything contained in Scripture is the deliver-
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