“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called…”
1 Ti. 6:12 ESV
Norman Leo Geisler (July 21, 1932 – July 1, 2019) certainly fought the good fight of faith. Norm gives new meaning to that phrase. He earned a reputation for destroying “strongholds, arguments, and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). And he was arguably the foremost champion of the Bible’s historical reliability, divine inspiration, infallibility, and full biblical inerrancy of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. In 2014, Norm started the DefendingInerrancy.com website to stand against the drift away from the historical reliability and inerrancy of the scriptures. He recruited the Defending Inerrancy team and served as the General Editor until 2018. He continued as the Executive Editor and Executive Board Member of Defending Inerrancy until his passing on July 1st, 2019. We encourage you to read his Defending Inerrancy articles here and watch his lectures here.
In a way, this all started 51 years ago when Norm and William Nix published A General Introduction to the Bible (Moody, 1968).
This robust tome which quickly became the standard textbook for many seminaries and bible schools across North America. Some schools still use the 1986 revision of this classic today. It was such a magnificent treasure trove that in the mid-1970s, when Jay Grimstead and R.C. Sproul were putting together “a global army of scholars who would meet together annually to strategize how to turn evangelicalism back to orthodox theology and the inerrancy of the Bible,” R. C. Sproul was quick to recruit Norm to the team. Grimstead, Sproul, Lindsell, Gerstner, Packer, Geisler, and Bahnsen were the “magnificent seven” (to borrow the title of the 1960s western film) who rose to take their stand against the banditry of neo-orthodox methodology and the doctrinal erosion it was causing in evangelical schools. This group of theologians would form the core of what would grow into the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI).
Norm served as a member of the Drafting Committee of the ICBI between 1977-1989. During that time he also served as the ICBI’s General Editor and Director of Publications. While in this role, Norm wrote the official, ICBI-sanctioned commentary on the Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics, which is available for free here.
The author, co-author, and/or editor of over 100 books, Norm also gave us several other must-reads–From God to Us, The Big Book of Bible Difficulties, Defending Inerrancy, Explaining Biblical Inerrancy, Vital Issues in the Inerrancy Debate, Inerrancy, Biblical Inerrancy: The Historical Evidence, Biblical Errancy: Its Philosophical Roots, and Preserving Orthodoxy: Maintaining Continuity with the Historical Christian Faith on Scripture. He also taught on the college and graduate level for 55 years at some of the top evangelical Christian Schools in the United States–-Wheaton College, Detroit Bible College, Trinity College, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Dallas Theological Seminary. He was the co-founder of two seminaries and two societies–Southern Evangelical Seminary, Veritas International University, the Evangelical Philosophical Society, and the International Society of Christian Apologetics. He also served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society in 1998. He is definitely worthy of a “double honor” (1 Ti. 5:17).
Throughout his career, biblical inerrancy permeated his work as a philosophical theologian. In 2002, Norm published his landmark Systematic Theology, Volume I. In it he did something unprecedented. He took pains in the first twelve chapters to explain the preconditions of theology–including the revelational, hermeneutical, historical, and methodological preconditions the theologian needs to get serious about before attempting to do theology. If we are left wondering at the end of the 21st century how and where evangelical Christian theology strayed from its historical roots and orthodox moorings, the answer will probably be found in one of these twelve chapters. Chapters 13-29 are all about the Bible from a traditional and conservative viewpoint. Similarly, in his 2008 book Conviction Without Compromise, which could be seen as a condensed and popularized book of his systematic theology, Norm listed the sixteen doctrines that are essential to our salvation: (1) God’s unity, (2) God’s tri-unity, (3) Christ’s deity, (4) Christ’s humanity, (5) Human depravity, (6) Christ’s Virgin birth, (7) Christ’s sinlessness, (8) Christ’s atoning death, (9) Christ’s bodily resurrection, (10) the necessity of grace, (11) the necessity of faith, (12) Christ’s bodily ascension, (13) Christ’s priestly intercession, (14) Christ’s bodily second coming, (15) the inspiration (and by corollary inerrancy) of Scripture, (16) and the literal interpretation of the scriptures. He clarified that there are “at least three kinds of essentials [that] should be distinguished: salvation essentials, a revelational essential (the inspiration of the Bible), and an interpretation essential (the historical-grammatical method of interpreting Scripture).”
Biblical inerrancy also punctuated the apologetic schema Norm has become famous for. In an appendix of his 1990 book When Skeptics Ask, Norm outlined a 14-point argument that shows how Christianity is true. Over the years he refined it into the 12-point schema that served as a framework for the best-selling I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (Crossway, 2004) and The Twelve Points that Show Christianity is True (NGIM, 2013). In his twelve-point schema, Norm works his way from the foundational question of whether anything can be known at all and doesn’t rest his case until giving the reader a sense of the need to adopt Jesus’s own view of the Bible as the word of God, as true to the chagrin of any truth claim from any source that might contradict it, authoritative, inspired, imperishable, unbreakable, supreme, infallible, reliable, accurate, and inerrant. In 2018, Norm set the tone of The Harvest Handbook of Christian Apologetics in chapter one (“What is Apologetics and Why do we Need It?”) using these twelve points. Points 10 (“Whatever Jesus affirmed as true, is true”), 11 (“Jesus affirmed that the Bible is the Word of God”), and 12 (“Therefore, it is true that the Bible is the Word of God, and whatever is opposed to any biblical truth is false”) imply biblical inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy. Inerrancy is at the zenith of his twelve-point journey!
Norm will be missed. But he wouldn’t want any of us to grieve too much for him. When discussing the passing of some of the Lord’s other servants, Norm was quick to encourage with Paul’s words:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
1 Th. 4:13-14 ESV
He had a sure hope of a future resurrection for the saints based on the certainty of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as foretold and recorded in a sure revelation from God to mankind.
Please see http://normangeisler.com for the details of his funeral in Charlotte, North Carolina. It will be live-streamed through facebook!
I am Put here for the defense of the gospel
Philippians 1:16
Dear Friends,
It is with deep sadness I share with you that our beloved co-founder, Distinguish Professor of Theology and Apologetics, Chancellor, brother and friend, has entered eternity into the blessed arms of our Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Geisler meant so much to so many, equipping an entire generation of apologists, theologians, pastors, and Christians with his incisive and humble teaching and publishing ministry. I am only one of a multitude of individuals who have been enriched by him in very significant ways. Simply put, his widespread influence and investment in the lives of his students and colleagues have made him the greatest apologist of the last half-century. His profound presence will be greatly missed!
Dr. Geisler’s legacy is far and wide, there is so much that could be said about his immense accomplishments. He has authored or co-authored over 120 books and hundreds of articles. He has taught theology, philosophy, and classical Christian apologetics on the undergraduate and graduate level for nearly 60 years. Dr. Geisler loved to teach and loved his students!
… Though his accomplishments are powerfully influential, he is best known for his uncompromising defense of the Christian worldview, love for his family, gentle humility, sacrificial love for all, and tireless work ethic. All of us here at VIU, and with our brothers and sisters in Christ, are forever grateful for Dr. Geisler’s impact on our lives and for making the church stronger in this modern age to withstand the great challenges to the Faith.
Dr. Geisler is also recognized for his involvement in the historic International Council of Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI) from 1977-1989. During his time with ICBI, he was a founding member, chief editor, and a framer of the Chicago Statement on Biblical inerrancy (CSBI) and Chicago Statement of Biblical Hermeneutics (CSBH). These statements would eventually be signed by some 300 evangelical bible scholars and adopted by the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) as their working definition of biblical inerrancy.
What is more, VIU would not have been born without Dr. Geisler’s dedication, vision, and tireless support over the past eleven years since its founding. We will continue to honor him and his influential legacy by working hard to train trainers, teach teachers, and equip equippers, to share the gospel and defend the historic Christian Faith as he would have wanted us to do. We are forever grateful to Dr. Geisler for investing his unique knowledge and giftings into VIU students and the body of Christ.
… We all take comfort knowing Dr. Geisler is in the loving arms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We will see him again! Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
In His Service,
Joseph M. Holden, PhD
President of VIU
and General Editor of Defending Inerrancy
(More from Dr. Holden here.)
For twentieth century evangelicalism inerrancy was the watershed issue. Dr. Norman Geisler served as a faithful gatekeeper protecting the total truthfulness of God’s Holy Word. We owe Geisler a great debt for his willingness to stand at the front line in the defense of the Bible.
William C. Roach, President, International Society of Christian Apologetics
More from Dr. Roach in tribute to Norm here.
Additional tributes to Norm can be read at http://NormanGeisler.com
