What do Christians mean when they say the Bible is inerrant? The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy tells us what leading inerrantist mean by inerrancy. I’ll be posting a section of this statement each week until I’ve posted the whole thing.

You can read previously posted sections of this statement in by clicking here. After a preface and a short statement, the Chicago Statement contains a section called Articles of Affirmation and Denial.

Article IV.

We affirm that God who made mankind in His image has used language as a means of revelation.  

We deny that human language is so limited by our creatureliness that it is rendered inadequate as a vehicle for divine revelation. We further deny that the corruption of human culture and language through sin has thwarted God’s work of inspiration.

A working edition.

Lost Jobs
Here’s a gallery of endangered or extinct professions, like lector, for instance, and switchboard operator—a job I used to have, but wasn’t much good at. (I’d say stenographers are obsolete, too, and it’s a good thing. Those girls are dangerous—see below.)

Workplace Hazard
Ah, the story the stone tells. Poor young George Millet died “evading 6 young women trying to give him birthday kisses” in the office where he worked. You’ll find even more details of this sad bit of history in a pdf of an article from the New York Times.

Gustave Dore, The Vision of EzekielBreathe on Me, Breath of God

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.

—Edwin Hatch

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• Thy Word Is Like a Garden, Lord at The Happy Wonderer
• Lord’s Day 11, 2010 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Merciful God at Whatever Is Good
• All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name at Hiraeth
• Look, Ye Saints, the Sight is Glorious at Field Stone Cottage
• I Could Not Do Without Thee at Whatever Things
• Heart Aflame - March 14, 2010 at The Upward Call
• Grander Than Ocean’s Story at Conjubilant With Song
• Update: O, The Deep, Deep Love Of Jesus at Alabamenagerie

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

A full of beans edition. 

You know how to cook them; now how to you use them?

• You could make that old standby, Home Made Pork and Bean (Mennonite girls can cook). I do pork and beans something like this, but I can’t give you my recipe because I just throw stuff in and hope for the best. I don’t use onions, because there are a couple of onion-phobes in the fam; and I’ve never added ginger, but I think I’ll try that next time. I don’t have a bean pot, so I use my slow cooker. 


• One of our family favorites is Slow-Cooked Southwest Chicken, which puts black beans to yummy use. Youngest son doesn’t eat his over rice, but puts it in a bowl and scoops it up with tortilla chips. It’s also good sprinkled with cheese and rolled up in a tortilla. 


• Or if you don’t have time for all that slow cooking, you can make White Bean Puree with Poached Eggs (Serious Eats). This simple dish looks boring, but it certainly doesn’t taste boring. And as a big bonus, it used some of those exquisite farm-fresh eggs taking up all the room in my fridge.

 Do you have a favorite recipe that uses cooked dried beans?

• Kim of Hiraeth shares a recipe for Cowboy Beans in a comment.
  

I’m thankful for the fresh flowers beside me.

I’m thankful for hot water and, while I’m at it, clean water and running water. I’m thankful for the good gift of plumbing.

I’m thankful for God’s provision and protection through another year, a year that has at times been a difficult one, but also joyous.

And bear with me while I repeat myself: I’m thankful for good health. Not everyone reaches my age without major health problems. So yes, I’m thankful for another year of good health.

Come to think of it, not everyone reaches my age. I’m thankful for another year of life.

I’m thankful for promised cake yet to come. 

On Thursdays throughout this year, I plan to post a few thoughts of thanksgiving along with Kim at the Upward Call and others.

Another daily devotional from the little book Opened Treasures written by Frances Ridley Havergal.

And they shall know that I am the Lord (Ezekiel 6:10).

It is one of the shining threads that run all through the Bible, a supply indeed for the heart’s desire of those who delight in the Lord. It is never long out of sight, judgments and mercies being alike sent for this great purpose. For this the waters of the Red Sea receded and returned again; for this the Jordan was dried up; for this Goliath was delivered into David’s hand; for this 185,000 of the Assyrians were smitten by God’s angel; and many more instances. Throughout Ezekiel it seems to be the very key-word, recurring seventy-five times as the divine reason of divine doings, that they may “know that I am the Lord.” Is there not a peculiar solace in this?

special revelation
God’s self-disclosure in direct, supernatural revelation, disclosing truths, including the good news of salvation, that could not be known through general revelation.

• From scripture:

  Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…. (Hebrews 1:1-2a ESV)

  Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-3 ESV)
  

• From The Belgic Confession, 1561, Article 2:

  The Means by Which We Know God
  
  We know him by two means:
  
  …Secondly, he makes himself more clearly fully known to us by his holy and divine Word, that is to say, as far as is necessary for us to know in this life, to his glory and our salvation.

• From ESV Study Bible, Biblical Doctrine: An Overview: The Bible and Revelation:

  …[G]eneral revelation does not provide knowledge of the only true solution to man’s guilt before God: the forgiveness of sins that comes through Jesus Christ. This means that general revelation does not provide personal knowledge of God as a loving father who redeems his people and establishes covenants with them. For this, one needs special revelation, which God has provided in his historical supernatural activities, in the Bible, and definitively in Jesus Christ.

  The Bible is God’s God’s written revelation of who he is and what he has done in redemptive History. Humans need this divine, transcendent perspective in order to break out of their subjective, culturally bound, fallen limitations. Through God’s written Word, his people may overcome error, grow in sanctification, minister effectively to others, and live abundant lives as God intends.

• From The Starry Firmament on High by Robert Grant: 

  The starry firmament on high,
  And all the glories of the sky,
  Yet shine not to Thy praise, O Lord,
  So brightly as Thy written Word.

  The hopes that holy Word supplies,
  Its truths divine and precepts wise,
  In each a heavenly beam I see,
  And every beam conducts to Thee.

  Almighty Lord, the sun shall fail,
  The moon forget her nightly tale,
  And deepest silence hush on high,
  The radiant chorus of the sky.

  But, fixed, for everlasting years,
  Unmoved amid the wreck of spheres,
  Thy Word shall shine in cloudless day,
  When Heaven and earth have passed away.

Learn more:

1. Don Stewart: What Is Special Revelation?
2. GotQuestions.org: What is general revelation and special revelation?
3. Christian Research and Apologetics Ministry: What is general and special revelation?
4. Christianity 101 (Gospel Outreach Ministries Online):  Special Revelation
5. J. Hampton Keathley III: The Bible: The Written Word of God

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.