Inerrancy impairs the authority of Scripture and weakens the testimony of the Church

I was struck by Ligon Duncan's comments in one of the video interviews at Ref 21 (2m 30s in) about evangelicals and the doctrine of Scripture. He made the observation that certain aspects of the doctrine of Scripture that it appeared evangelicals had addressed and affirmed now need to be nailed down again.

With regard to those issues it is worth taking a look at the conflict over the nature and authority of Scripture that marked the Presbyterian controversies of the 1920s. In particular the question of whether the Word of God written, as originally given, contained truth and error.

In 1923 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. affirmed that:

"It is an essential doctrine of the Word of God and our Standards, that the Holy Spirit did so inspire, guide and move the writers of Holy Scripture as to keep them from error."

This affirmation was the first of five originally put forward in 1910 and reaffirmed in 1923. All candidates for the ministry were required to affirm these statements in order to be ordained. The "Doctrinal Delieverance of 1910" can be read here.

In response to this the so-called Auburn Affirmation was published in January 1924. Originally signed by 150 pastors and elders, this number grew to 1274 by the time that the document was republished in early May 1924. Darryl Hart notes that this was 13% of the denominations clergy.

The document was designed to "safeguard the liberty and unity of the church" in the face of "persistent attempts" to "divide the church and abridge its freedom." This was a rhetorical ploy, piously phrased, to uncouple the church from confessional requirements. Above all, the Auburn Affirmation endorsed doctrinal indifferentism.

The Affirmation had this to say about the wording of the 1910/1923 doctrinal deliverance on inerrancy:

There is no assertion in the Scriptures that their writers were kept "from error." The Confession of Faith does not make this assertion; and it is significant that this assertion is not to be found in the Apostle's Creed or the Nicene Creed or in any of the great Reformation confessions. The doctrine of inerrancy, intended to enhance the authority of the Scriptures, in fact impairs their supreme authority for faith and life, and weakens the testimony of the church to the power of God unto salvation through Jesus Christ. We hold that the General Assembly of 1923, in asserting that "the Holy Spirit did so inspire, guide and move the writers of Holy Scripture as to keep them from error," spoke without warrant of the Scriptures or of the Confession of Faith. We hold rather to the words of the Confession of Faith, that the Scriptures "are given by inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life." (Conf. I, ii).

The Auburn Affirmation is available in full here.

In an address originally given in 1935 Gordon Clark made the following observations (the last paragraph is significant):

Now kindly note this strange fact. The Auburn Affirmation states that to believe the Bible is true impairs its authority and weakens the testimony of the Church. Or, in other words, in order for the Bible to be authoritative, it must contain error; and, no doubt, the more erroneous it is, the more authoritative it can be.

But what does the Confession say? In Chapter I, Section 4, you may read: 'The authority of the Holy Scriptures, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth--wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God."

Study also Chapter XIV, Section 2. "By this (saving) faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God Himself speaking therein..."

The Auburn Affirmation says it is wrong and harmful to believe true whatsoever is revealed. Thus the signers of the Auburn Affirmation are seen to be antagonistic to the very basis of Christian faith. In denying the truth of the Bible, they repudiate their own Confession, and so have no rightful place in the Presbyterian ministry. Do they perchance reply that they agree with the Confession that the Scriptures are the Word of God, and that they deny only that the Scriptures are inerrant? God forbid that they make that reply. For if they say that they believe the Bible is the Word of God, and at the same time claim that the Bible contains error, it follows, does it not, that they call God a liar, since He has spoken falsely? Either they have openly repudiated the Confession or else they have called God a liar. In either case they have no rightful place in the Presbyterian ministry.