Benjamin B. Warfield.
-(1851-1921)
-Theologian and Apologist
-PCA Presbyterian
Benjamin Breckinridge (B.B.) Warfield was born near Lexington, Kentucky. He graduated from Princeton College and spent two years in foreign travel, then entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1976. He was then, for a short time, the supply of the First Presbyterian Church of Dayton, Ohio. After a year spent studying at the University of Leipzig, he served as assistant to the First Presbyterian Church of Baltimore for about a year. Ebenezer's Presbytery ordained him in 1879. Later, he was appointed instructor and installed as professor of New Testament Exegesis and Literature at Western Theological Seminary. In 1887, Warfield succeeded Charles Hodge as the last of the great conservative theologians who defended Calvinistic orthodoxy from the chair of theology at Princeton Seminary. He defended Christianity against the tides of liberalism and was especially antagonistic toward liberals who perpetuated the religious experience over the revelation of the Word of God. Warfield is best known for his careful efforts to defend the inerrancy of the Bible. In 1881, with A. A. Hodge (Charles Hodge’s son), he wrote a famous essay, “Inspiration,” which laid out the traditional Protestant belief in the full infallibility and truthfulness of Scripture. Warfield sought to clarify the Bible’s inspiration in countless essays and reviews.
B.B. Warfield: Defender of the Faith by RC Sproul (article) - Warfield combined a keen grasp of biblical knowledge and all of the nuances of systematic theology and had been on the faculty of Princeton and had distinguished himself as its most brilliant theologian during his tenure.
Mr. Warfield’s Neighborhood by Stephen Nichols (audio) - Some of the fascinating faculty at Western Seminary include B.B. Warfield and A.A. Hodge. Now, we associate them with Princeton, but both got their start here. Hodge, of course, is the son of Charles Hodge. He’s named after Archibald Alexander, that great Princeton Seminary pioneering professor who was Hodge’s professor, his father’s professor, and mentor. And so, Charles called his son after him, Archibald Alexander Hodge.
The Life, Thought, and Works of Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (website) - Dr. Warfield was a most imposing figure in his young manhood. Tall with finely molded features and singular grace and courtesy of demeanor, he bore the marks of a gentleman to his fingertips. There was something remarkable in his voice. It had the liquid softness of the South rather than the metallic resonance we look for in those who breathe the crisp air of a northern climate. His public utterances took the form of a conversational tone, and his sentences often closed with the suggestion of rising inflation as if inviting a hospitable reception from his hearers. He lacked the clarion tones of impassioned oratory, but oratory of this kind was not natural to him. He kept a calm, deliberate speech, and his words proceeded out of his mouth as if they walked on velvet.
Warfield & Inspiration: The Authority of the Bible by Rachel Miller (article) - during Warfield’s time at Princeton Seminary, a debate was raging over the authority of the Bible. Were the words of Scripture God's words or the words of men with a “divine element” mixed in? The theologians who developed this higher criticism denied the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. According to them, men wrote and edited the Bible, reflecting the same errors and mistakes of any ancient text. It was these standard views of Scripture and of Jesus that B.B. Warfield was confronting when he defended the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. Contrary to the beliefs of higher criticism, Warfield taught that God inspired all of Scripture.
The Southern Presbyterian Review: Author Biography, Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (article) - J. Gresham Machen, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Princeton, received a letter from LeRoy Gresham, Dr. Machen’s cousin, expressing in his sorrow the sentiments of many regarding the loss of B. B. Warfield: You may well believe that I was inexpressibly grieved and shocked at the death of Dr. Warfield. Indeed, a prince and a great man have fallen to Israel today. Where shall we ever find him as a defender of the faith once delivered to the saints? I know what it will mean to you personally, especially when we tend to fill our faculties with men who represent a lower ideal of scholarship. It will be hard indeed to fill his place. (Letter dated March 5, 1921). Little did either LeRoy Gresham or Dr. Machen realize the prophetic sense of this comment, for it would not be long before Dr. Machen would become “a defender of the faith once delivered to the saints” as he faced the modernist controversy.
Warfield Summer Institute (website) - a vast gulf between Sunday School and Seminary exists. Sunday School is enriching, and seminary is vital for the health of the Church. But Sunday School can be scatter-shot, and Seminary is too expensive for an average layperson. Warfield Summer Institute exists to stand in this gap. We want to equip Christians in a structured and lively learning environment for a more profound knowledge of God’s Word, a greater love of Jesus our Savior, and a steadier commitment to serving Christ’s kingdom.
Inspiration and Authority of Scripture (webpage) - The idea that God breathed into the Biblical writers through His spirit is called the Inspiration of Scripture. “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy and Auburn Heresy (webpage) - between 1920 and 1925, the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy plagued Baptist and Presbyterian denominations. It began with liberals changing the understanding of the authority of Scripture. They began to teach that scientific study, discovered by reason, was a superior source of authority that could add to and correct Scripture. The liberals believed that once Christians gave up the idea that the Bible was the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, they would come to see that the Bible was just an error-ridden historical record of religious experience and that Christians today should be led by their feelings and experiences rather than the word of God.
Collection of B.B. Warfield’s Works (free ebooks)
Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was a prolific writer, accomplished scholar, and ranked one of America’s greatest theologians. After studying mathematics and science at Princeton University, he enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1873, where Charles Hodge taught him to train as a Presbyterian minister. He later returned to America and taught at Western Theological Seminary (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary).
This sermon by "The Lion of Princeton" unfolds the theology and the import of Paul's magisterial description of the selfless love of the eternal Son on God in Philippians 2:5-8. Warfield's provocative exposition is challenging on many levels, but in the end, he will leave you longing to be more like Jesus in His self-giving sacrifice.
Dr. Zaspel serves as Pastor of Reformed Baptist Church in Pennsylvania and as an adjunct professor of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is an accomplished author, having published many works, including his 2012 contribution to the Theologians on the Christian Life Series centered on B.B. Warfield.
At a time when Princeton and theology were liberalizing, Warfield stood firm against this move against the faith. This sermon was preached at Princeton after the death of a beloved professor and friend of Warfield's. B.B. Warfield comforts the students with the truth and the future of what happens after death for the believer.
This volume is a collection of his writings on Biblical authority. He approaches the ideas of inspiration, oracles of God, and Canonicity. Some of his most significant writings are found here, valid for all who wish to defend the scriptures in a modern, critical world. Textual and "higher" criticism has decimated the faith of many and made divinity schools message-less. This is an analysis of questions asked by textual and higher criticism to vindicate the viewpoint of an infallible Bible.
In The Emotional Life of Our Lord, theologian B. B. Warfield explains how Christ’s complex emotions and personality proved his humanity. Christ needed to be born in the likeness of mankind to bear their griefs, carry their sorrows, take their infirmities, and ultimately redeem their lives. In this encouraging book, readers learn to see Christ as a compassionate Savior through his sinless expressions of emotions―from righteous anger to abiding love.
In The Person and Work of Christ, Warfield demonstrates that “it is no more possible to have a Christianity without an atoning Christ than it is to have a Christianity without a divine Christ.” Most of the chapters in this volume are nontechnical and should be accessible and profitable to the interested reader. Enhancements include new paragraph breaks and section divisions, explanatory notes and definitions, discussion questions, recommended reading, bibliographies, and more.
Fred G. Zaspel has spent many years studying Warfield’s published and unpublished writing and presents here a concise and coherent systematic theology per B. B. Warfield. For the first time ever, readers can access the content of this great theologian’s academic, sermonic, and devotional works in one volume. Scholars, pastors, and students will profit from the unique combination of comprehensive detail and devotional warmth in this systematic theology.
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