B.B. Warfield’s Inspiration & Authority of the Bible

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The leading doctrines of the Christian faith each have become identified with historical figures who provided definitive statement. The doctrines of the Trinity and the two natures of Christ, for example, are forever linked to the Nicene fathers. The doctrine of sin is likewise linked with Augustine, the doctrine of atonement with Anselm, and so on. In each case these theologians made no claim of originality, but they did provide the church with explications of their respective doctrines that have proven of lasting value. These were watershed moments. In this same way, for more than a century all discussion of the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture has inevitably been linked with Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield. All sides acknowledge that no investigation of the doctrine is complete without due consideration of the works of this giant of old Princeton Seminary. Indeed, for all the countless volumes that have been written since Warfield, little new has been added.

Warfield wrote no single book on the subject. His voluminous works are scattered over scores of essays in theological journals and Christian periodicals of various sorts, the most important of which are collected and published in P&R’s Inspiration and Authority of the Bible (IAB). Here we are treated to Warfield’s landmark exposition and defense of “the church doctrine of inspiration.”

“The Church Doctrine”

That Warfield’s doctrine was, in fact, “the church doctrine” of inspiration was a point he was eager to press. He offered nothing new, simply an unprecedentedly thorough articulation of what the church had always believed. Warfield’s career landed in the heyday of old liberalism’s higher criticism, and it was to this new undermining of Scripture’s trustworthiness that Warfield rose to respond—at great length and with much vigor, I might add. But given this prevailing context of unbelief, some had charged that the high doctrine of inspiration that Warfield (and old Princeton Seminary generally) defended was one he had in fact invented. As you will read in chapter two of IAB, Warfield amassed the evidence to demonstrate that his was “the church doctrine,” the shared conviction of the church in all its branches from the very beginning.

Indeed, Warfield presses the question further. Just how do we explain the fact that this doctrine was held by all Christians from the beginning? The obvious answer is that it was a doctrine they themselves had received from Christ and his apostles. This is what Christ himself and his apostles believed and taught. This, in turn, is “the real problem of inspiration” (chapter 4). Are Christ and his apostles reliable and authoritative teachers for the church or not? If they are, then we are obliged to hold to the doctrine of Scripture that they gave us. If they are not, then in what sense can we claim to be followers of Christ? Can we have the Christ of the Bible while denying the Bible of Christ? For Warfield it is all or nothing.

Compelling as all this is, Warfield was eager to go deeper and uncover the length and depth of the teaching of Christ and the biblical writers. It is here in particular that we are treated to a gold mine of exegetical grist for our theological mill. He scours the claims of the prophets and the teaching of Jesus and his apostles to demonstrate a robust confidence in Scripture as (as Warfield enjoyed stating it) “God’s word written.” He demonstrates at length that the famous cumulative assertions of 2 Timothy 3:16–17 and 2 Peter 1:19–21 (chapter 6) are but condensed summaries of a doctrine we would be forced to embrace even without them. The many specific claims about Scripture, the connotations of the terminology “Scripture” and “the Scriptures” (chapter 5) and “oracles” (chapter 8), the implications of the biblical writers’ citations of Scripture as, “God says” (chapter 7), and the entailments of expressions such as “it is written” and “have you not read?” (chapter 3) all reflect unmistakably the presumption of Scripture as God-given, authoritative, and altogether trustworthy.

The entailments of this conviction are massive, for the presumption of the trustworthiness of God’s word written underlies and informs every tenet of the Christian faith. So the church has universally held, and on this ground the church has always proceeded.

Warfield the Unsurpassed Guide

This vital, fundamental tenet of Christian faith is one that every Christian must know and surely every minister of the Word must know very well. And no guide to this biblical teaching is more reliable or well-informed than Warfield. Both his exposition and his defense of the doctrine as well as his careful and thorough examination of the Scripture’s own teaching of it are unsurpassed. He leaves his reader with a deep and grateful conviction, born in Scripture itself, that Scripture is indeed God’s word written—that, in Warfield’s words, “We cannot do without the Scriptures; having them we need no other guide. We need this light to light our pathway; having it we may well dispense with any other.”

Conclusion

There have been many, many more books on the topic written since Warfield. But I have to say that of the ones that I have read, at least, there is little that is new—Warfield has already said it. For such a massively important doctrine, every minister of the Word owes it to himself and to his ministry to go “to the source,” and in this case, unless you are yourself able to conduct the depth and length of study that Warfield has done, Warfield is that source.

And, I might add, a rich feast awaits you!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author

  • Fred G. Zaspel

    Fred G. Zaspel (Ph.D., Free University of Amsterdam) is one of the pastors of Reformed Baptist Church in Franconia, PA. He is also executive editor of Books At a Glance and an adjunct professor of theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books and articles, including The Theology of B.B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary, and the forthcoming How to Read and Understand the Psalms, co-authored with Bruce Waltke.

Picture of Fred G. Zaspel

Fred G. Zaspel

Fred G. Zaspel (Ph.D., Free University of Amsterdam) is one of the pastors of Reformed Baptist Church in Franconia, PA. He is also executive editor of Books At a Glance and an adjunct professor of theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books and articles, including The Theology of B.B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary, and the forthcoming How to Read and Understand the Psalms, co-authored with Bruce Waltke.