A 1978 consensus statement on the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture signed by nearly 300 evangelical scholars at a summit in Chicago convened by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI). Signers included J. I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul, Carl F. H. Henry, Norman Geisler, Kenneth Kantzer, Roger Nicole, Harold Lindsell, and dozens more. Composed of a short summary, 19 articles of affirmation-and-denial, and a lengthy exposition, the Chicago Statement is the most rigorous and widely-received modern evangelical statement on Scripture.
The Chicago Statement's 19 articles can be boiled down to five claims. (1) Scripture is the Word of God written, holy and authoritative, inerrant and infallible. (2) Inspiration is plenary and verbal — extending to every word of the original manuscripts (autographs), not merely to the ideas or the general thrust. (3) Inerrancy applies to the autographs, not to every copy or translation. Textual criticism is the God-given means by which the original text is recovered with very high confidence. (4) Inerrancy extends to all matters — including history, geography, and science, not only theology and ethics. When Scripture touches on any topic, it speaks truly in the sense it intends. (5) Inerrancy does not require precision in modern scientific sense, or absence of ordinary literary conventions (round numbers, approximations, phenomenological language like "sunset"), or the absence of problems the interpreter has not yet resolved. It does require that Scripture does not affirm falsehood. The Chicago Statement remains the doctrinal standard for most conservative evangelical seminaries, missions agencies, and denominations. Notable signatories who have since drifted or whose institutions have drifted show how fragile orthodoxy can be without ongoing discipline. A subsequent Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics (1982) addressed interpretation; a third on Biblical Application (1986) addressed ethical application.