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51-684: The General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC), established in 1932 is an Independent Baptist Christian denomination in United States , retaining the name " Regular Baptist ". The association's home office is located in Elgin , Illinois . The impact of modernism on the Northern Baptist Convention (now called the American Baptist Churches USA ) led to the eventual withdrawal of

102-529: A case for inerrancy on the basis of inductive evidence, rather than deductive reasoning. Most evangelicals today follow E. J. Young's deductive approach toward bibliology, forgetting the great articulator of inerrancy. But Warfield starts with the evidence that the Bible is a historical document, rather than with the presupposition that it is inspired. In the Nicene Creed , Christians confess their belief that

153-421: A combination of these facts that the argument for inerrancy comes. Stanley Grenz states that: Because God cannot lie and because scripture is inspired by God, the Bible must be wholly true. This syllogism may be valid for establishing inerrancy, but it cannot define the concept. Also, from Geisler: Those who defend inerrancy are deductivists pure and simple. They begin with certain assumptions about God and

204-424: A high sanctuary of authority one false statement   [...] there will not be left a single sentence of those books which, if appearing to any one difficult in practice or hard to believe, may not by the same fatal rule be explained away, as a statement in which, intentionally,   [...] the author declared what was not true For I confess to your Charity that I have learned to yield this respect and honour only to

255-413: A letter to Johannes Eck , Erasmus wrote that "Nor, in my view, would the authority of the whole of Scripture be instantly imperiled, as you suggest, if an evangelist by a slip of memory did put one name for another, Isaiah for instance instead of Jeremiah, for this is not a point on which anything turns." The same point of view held true for John Calvin (1509–1564), who wrote that "It is well known that

306-655: A number of conservative and fundamentalist churches. The Baptist Bible Union (BBU) of 1923 was the forerunner to the GARBC. The final meeting of the BBU in 1932 in Chicago was the first meeting of the GARBC. The Association publishes Regular Baptist Press , a church education curriculum and the association's bimonthly magazine, the Baptist Bulletin . In 2018, the GARBC had over 1,200 member churches. According to

357-412: A part of Holy Scripture. The prophetic and apostolic scriptures are authentic as written by the prophets and apostles. A correct translation of their writings is God's Word because it has the same meaning as the original Hebrew and Greek. A mistranslation is not God's word, and no human authority can invest it with divine authority. However, the 19th-century Anglican biblical scholar S. R. Driver held

408-742: A position equivalent to biblical inerrancy. The doctrine of inerrancy, however, began to develop as a response to these Protestant attitudes. Whereas the Council of Trent only held that the Bible's authority was "in matters of faith and morales", Jesuit cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) argued in his 1586 De verbo Dei , the first volume of his multi-volume Disputationes de controversiis christianae fidei adversus hujus temporis haereticos that "There can be no error in Scripture, whether it deals with faith or whether it deals with morals/mores, or whether it states something general and common to

459-541: Is attached to this, is 2 Timothy 3:16–17, which speaks of scripture as 'God-breathed' ( theopneustos )". According to McGrath, "the reformers did not see the issue of inspiration as linked with the absolute historical reliability or factual inerrancy of the biblical texts". He says, "The development of ideas of 'biblical infallibility' or 'inerrancy' within Protestantism can be traced to the United States in

510-489: Is singular rather than plural. This (as stated) sets a precedent for inerrant interpretation down to the individual letters of the words. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds", as (referring) to many, but (rather) to one, "And to your seed", that is, Christ. Similarly, Jesus said that every minute detail of the Old Testament Law must be fulfilled, indicating (it

561-583: Is stated) that every detail must be correct: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Although in these verses, Jesus and the apostles are only referring to the Old Testament , the argument is considered by some to extend to the New Testament writings, because 2 Peter 3:16 accords the status of scripture to New Testament writings also: "He (Paul) writes

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612-602: The Formula of Concord , "we receive and embrace with our whole heart the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the pure, clear fountain of Israel". Lutherans (and other Protestants) believe apocryphal books are neither inspired nor written by prophets, and that they contain errors and were never included in the "Palestinian Canon" that Jesus and the Apostles are said to have used, and therefore are not

663-482: The Holy Spirit is saying to the churches through the biblical writers, we support its use. Where the focus switches to an undue emphasis on matters like chronological details, precise sequence of events, and numerical allusions, we would consider the term misleading and inappropriate. A more comprehensive position was espoused particularly in the magazine Christianity Today and the book entitled The Battle for

714-724: The King James Version , a position known as King James Onlyism . Soteriologically, Independent Baptists may differ from each other. Some Independent Baptists have views similar to Free Grace theology , including writers such as Jack Hyles , Curtis Hutson , Shelton Smith , and Peter Ruckman . However, others among the Independent Baptist movement espouse Lordship salvation . Baptist churches that adhere to fundamentalism often call themselves "Bible Baptist Church", "Fundamental Baptist Church", or "Independent Baptist Church" to demonstrate their membership in

765-404: The creation in six days , and the creation of women from a man's rib ) began increasingly to be seen as legendary rather than as literally true. This led to further questioning of the veracity of biblical texts. The Fuller Theological Seminary formally adopted inerrancy restricted to theological matters (what some authors now call "infallibility"). It explained: Where inerrancy refers to what

816-894: The 1970s. In November 2023, Investigation Discovery released Let Us Prey: A Ministry of Scandals , a 4 part documentary, highlighting sexual abuse and cover up within the Independent Baptist movement. Biblical inerrancy The belief in Biblical inerrancy is of particular significance within parts of evangelicalism , where it is formulated in the " Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy ". Inerrancy has been much more of an issue in American evangelicalism than in British evangelicalism : according to Stephen R. Holmes, it "plays almost no role in British evangelical life". Some groups equate inerrancy with biblical infallibility or with

867-472: The 2008 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches , the GARBC reported having 1,383 churches and 132,900 members in 2005. Membership is concentrated in the Midwest. The states with the highest membership rates are Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio. The GARBC follows a " fellowship " model rather than a denominational model. Each member church is free to act independently in all matters. The home office of

918-443: The Bible by Harold Lindsell. Lindsell asserted that losing the doctrine of the inerrancy of scripture was the thread that would unravel the church and conservative Christians rallied behind this idea. Norman Geisler and William Nix (1986) say that scriptural inerrancy is established by a number of observations and processes, which include: Daniel B. Wallace , Professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary , divides

969-688: The Bible's place in Christian doctrine. Barclay said that "errors [in the Bible] may be supposed by the injury of the times to have slipped in", but that because of inspiration from the Holy Spirit, all necessities remained. During the 18th and 19th centuries and in the aftermath of the Enlightenment critique of religion, various episodes of the Bible (for example the Noahide worldwide flood ,

1020-549: The Bible, and lambasted a couple of books of the Protestant Bible as worthless; he also stated that his idea of Christ trumps the letter of the Scripture, especially when the Scripture is cited in order to give the lie to his idea. The Christian humanist and one of the leading scholars of the northern Renaissance , Erasmus (1466–1536), was also unconcerned with minor errors not impacting theology, and at one point, thought that Matthew mistook one word for another. In

1071-463: The Bible, and the more necessary, the more expressly. This later influenced Martin Luther. Scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam , who published the first Latin-Greek New Testament in print, believed not only that translations between languages was always imperfect, that transmission errors had occurred by scribes, and that Scripture was sometimes deliberately obscure, but also that "the sayings of Jesus in

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1122-484: The Bible. For example, Jerome believed in the historicity of the book of Jonah. He further argues that while Origen resorted to allegorical interpretation, he held a high view of inerrancy. Biblical inerrancy adherents say that the Early Church Fathers did hold to biblical inerrancy, even if it was not articulated that way. In particular, Shawn Nelson cites Clement of Rome , Papias, Ignatius of Antioch,

1173-565: The Church. The most prominent theologian of the Medieval era was Thomas Aquinas . Aquinas wrote: It is heretical to say that any falsehood whatever is contained either in the Gospels or in any canonical Scripture. Another theologian, Hugh of St. Victor , is known for stressing the importance of the historical and literal senses of the Bible in the face of the strong allegorizing tendency of

1224-533: The Evangelists were not very concerned with observing the time sequences." However, Calvin also said that Scripture is the "certain and unerring rule." Calvin scholars are divided on whether Calvin actually held to inerrancy or not. Some scholars such as Jack B. Rogers and Donald McKim said Calvin "was unconcerned with normal, human inaccuracies in minor matters" in Scripture. Other scholars such as John D. Woodbridge and J.I. Packer said Calvin did adhere to

1275-623: The GARBC holds no controlling power over member churches. The purpose of the association is for fellowship between churches of like faith and practice. Independent Baptist Independent Baptist churches (also called Independent Fundamental Baptist or IFB or Bible Baptist Churches ) are Christian congregations, generally holding to conservative (primarily fundamentalist ) Baptist beliefs . Although some Independent Baptist churches refuse affiliation with Baptist denominations , various Independent Baptist Church denominations have been founded. The modern Independent Baptist tradition began in

1326-404: The Holy Spirit "has spoken through the prophets". This creed has been normative for Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans and all mainline Protestant denominations except for those descended from the non-credal Stone-Campbell movement . As stated by Alister E. McGrath , "An important element in any discussion of the manner in which scripture is inspired, and the significance which

1377-632: The Shepherd of Hermas , the Didache , and the Epistle to Diognetus as examples of those whom held to inerrancy. Clement of Rome said to his readers: You have looked into the holy scriptures, which are true, which were given by the Holy Spirit. You know that nothing unrighteous or falsified is written in them. The medieval church fathers held to the divine origin of scripture and most believed there could not be any error in scripture as interpreted by

1428-787: The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) were slightly different in each. He suggested that the Holy Spirit had not bothered to correct the faulty memories of the evangelists." By the time of the Reformation , there was still no official doctrine of inerrancy. Although the term was not used, some scholars argue the Reformers did believe in the concept of inerrancy. For Martin Luther (1483–1546), for example, "inspiration did not insure inerrancy in all details. Luther recognizes mistakes and inconsistencies in Scripture and treated them with lofty indifference because they did not touch

1479-616: The accounts of the Gospels but dismissed them due to their lack of theological importance, writing "let these four [Gospels] agree with each other concerning certain things revealed to them by the Spirit and let them disagree a little concerning other things" ( Commentary on John 10.4). Later, John Chrysostom was also unconcerned with the notion that the scriptures were in congruence with all matters of history unimportant to matters of faith: But if there be anything touching time or places, which they have related differently, this nothing injures

1530-466: The age. He wrote: The mystical sense is only gathered from what the letter says, in the first place. I wonder how people have the face to boast themselves teachers of allegory, when they do not know the primary meaning of the letter. "We read the Scriptures," they say, "but we don't read the letter. The letter does not interest us. We teach allegory." How do you read Scripture then, if you don't read

1581-429: The books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of our salvation." However, descriptions of natural phenomena are not to be taken as inspired and inerrant scientific assertions, but reflect the language and contemporary understanding of the writers. According to Coleman (1975), "[t]here have been long periods in

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1632-446: The canonical books of Scripture: of these alone do I most firmly believe that the authors were completely free from error. And if in these writings I am perplexed by anything which appears to me opposed to truth, I do not hesitate to suppose that either the manuscript is faulty, or the translator has not caught the meaning of what was said, or I myself have failed to understand it. As to all other writings, in reading them, however great

1683-584: The congregations as Independent Baptist churches. In other cases, the more conservative members of existing churches withdrew from their local congregations and set about establishing new Independent Baptist churches. Although some Independent Baptist churches refuse affiliation with Baptist denominations, various Independent Baptist Church denominations have been founded. There is the World Baptist Fellowship founded in 1933 at Fort Worth, Texas by J. Frank Norris . Doctrinal differences in

1734-600: The heart of the Gospel." When Matthew appears to confuse Jeremiah with Zechariah in Matthew 27:9, Luther wrote that "Such points do not bother me particularly." However, other Luther scholars have pointed out that Luther, in other places, said the Scripture cannot contradict itself. Luther said in regards to whether the Bible had errors or not, "the Scriptures cannot err." Other statements made by Luther seem to contradict that, e.g. he stated that he found numerous errors in

1785-450: The history of the church when biblical inerrancy has not been a critical question. It has in fact been noted that only in the last two centuries can we legitimately speak of a formal doctrine of inerrancy." The first formulations of the doctrine of inerrancy were not established according to the authority of a council, creed, or church, until the post- Reformation period. Origen of Alexandria thought there were minor discrepancies between

1836-480: The late 19th and early 20th centuries among local denominational Baptist congregations whose members were concerned about the advancement of modernism and theological liberalism into national Baptist denominations and conventions in the United States and the United Kingdom. In response to the concerns, some local Baptist churches separated from their former denominations and conventions and reestablished

1887-828: The latter led to the founding of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International in 1950 and the Independent Baptist Fellowship International in 1984. Various independent Baptist Bible colleges were also founded. During the 21st century, the New Independent Fundamental Baptist movement was founded out of the Independent Baptist movement by Steven Anderson , which Independent Baptist writers have criticized. The beliefs are mainly Baptist and fundamentalist . They refuse any form of ecclesial authority other than that of

1938-521: The letter? Subtract the letter and what is left? Philosopher John Wycliff proposed an extreme version of inerrancy, that meant that even parables must have been factually true, in the book Latin : De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae (On the Truthfulness of Holy Scripture, c.1378). Wycliffe's dictum Latin : omnis veritas est ex scriptura, et ut necessarior est expressior says that all truths necessary to faith are found clearly and expressly in

1989-410: The local church. Great emphasis is placed on the literal interpretation of the Bible as the primary method of Bible study as well as the biblical inerrancy and the infallibility of their interpretation . Dispensationalism is common among Independent Baptists. They are opposed to any ecumenical movement with denominations that do not have the same beliefs. Many IFB churches adhere to only using

2040-537: The middle of the nineteenth century". People who believe in inerrancy think that the Bible does not merely contain the Word of God, but every word of it is, because of verbal inspiration, the direct, immediate word of God. The Lutheran Apology of the Augsburg Confession identifies Holy Scripture with the Word of God and calls the Holy Spirit the author of the Bible. Because of this, Lutherans confess in

2091-557: The movement. Members of Independent Baptist churches comprised 2.5% of the United States adult population, according to a 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center . In 2018, an investigation by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram identified 412 abuse allegations in 187 independent fundamental Baptist (IFB) churches and institutions across in United States and Canada, with some cases reaching as far back as

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2142-471: The necessary clarity of scripture ; others do not. The Catholic Church also holds a limited belief in biblical inerrancy for the original writings in the original language including the Deuterocanonicals , particularly in relating to the goal of salvation: that "since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that

2193-540: The same way in all his letters...which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures". Wallace describes the inductive approach by enlisting the Presbyterian theologian Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield : In his Inspiration and Authority of the Bible , Warfield lays out an argument for inerrancy that has been virtually ignored by today's evangelicals. Essentially, he makes

2244-443: The scriptures contained no mistakes in them, and that admitting a single mistake would shed doubt on the entire scripture: It seems to me that the most disastrous consequences must follow upon our believing that anything false is found in the sacred books: that is to say that the men by whom the Scripture has been given to us, and committed to writing, did put down in these books anything false.   [...] If you once admit into such

2295-538: The scriptures, namely, that God cannot lie and the scriptures are the Word of God. From these assumptions, inerrantists deduce that the Bible is without error. A second reason offered is that Jesus and the apostles used the Old Testament in a way that assumes it is inerrant. For instance, in Galatians 3:16, Paul bases his argument on the fact that the word "seed" in the Genesis reference to "Abraham and his seed"

2346-498: The statement of faith of the Evangelical Theological Society says, "The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs". Supportive of this is the idea that God cannot lie. W. J. Mcrea writes: The Bible then makes two basic claims: it asserts unequivocally that God cannot lie and that the Bible is the Word of God. It is primarily from

2397-476: The subject, but scholars who have surveyed the corpus of his work usually affirm that this is case." In his Commentary on Galatians , Jerome also argued that Paul's rebuke of Peter in Galatians 2:11–14 for acting like a Jew around the Jewish faction of the early Church was an insincere "white lie" as Paul himself had done the same thing. In response, Augustine rebuked Jerome's interpretation and affirmed that

2448-418: The superiority of the authors to myself in sanctity and learning, I do not accept their teaching as true on the mere ground of the opinion being held by them; but only because they have succeeded in convincing my judgment of in truth either by means of these canonical writings themselves, or by arguments addressed to my reason However, John D. Hannah argues that Jerome did indeed affirm the historical nature of

2499-402: The truth of what they have said   [...] [but those things] which constitute our life and furnish out our doctrine nowhere is any of them found to have disagreed, no not ever so little John D. Woodbridge disputes this claim about Chrysostom writing, "In fact, Chrysostom apparently believed in biblical infallibility extended to every detail. He does not set forth a comprehensive discussion of

2550-406: The various evidences into two approaches: deductive and inductive approaches. The first deductive justification is that the Bible says it is inspired by God (for instance "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness", 2 Timothy 3:16) and because God is perfect, the Bible must also be perfect and, hence, free from error. For instance,

2601-552: The whole Church, or something particular and pertaining to only one person." Bellarmine's views were extremely important in his condemnation of Galileo and in Catholic–Protestant debate, as the Protestant response was to also affirm his heightened understanding of inerrancy. In the 17th century, Quaker apologist Robert Barclay took a step away from Biblical Inerrancy while continuing to affirm Biblical inspiration and

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