Humble greatness: the life of B B Warfield

150 years ago on November 5 one of the English-speaking world's greatest theologians was born near the town of Lexington, Kentucky, in the USA.

He was Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield. Today his name is indissolubly linked with that of Princeton Seminary at which he taught theology for more than three decades. There is something rather appropriate about the fact that Warfield was born on Guy Fawkes Day, for in the last 30 or more years he has often been attacked and vilified, even by confessing evangelicals, for his insistence that the Bible is the infallible and inerrant word of God.

Even as a youngster Benjamin Warfield displayed the intellectual gifts and quiet, retiring disposition that became prominent characteristics of his life as a theological teacher. From an early age he was taught the saving truths of the Scripture and soon committed to memory both the shorter and longer catechisms of the Westminster Assembly. And by his mid-teens the Spirit of God had used those truths to bring him to a deep faith in Christ.

Princeton

In the autumn of 1868 he entered Princeton College - not to be confused with the theological seminary - with a passion for science and a determination to make it his career. However, having graduated with distinction from the college, and while studying science in Heidelberg, he surprised and delighted his parents in a letter by telling them of his intention to train for the Christian ministry. When asked later by a friend why he had changed his mind regarding his career, Warfield simply said: 'because I think that in the work of the ministry I can do the most to repay the Lord for what he has done for me.' It was that spirit of humble gratitude that fired and controlled Warfield in all the years of his theological leadership at Princeton.

Warfield was a student in Princeton Seminary between 1873 and 1876. In the year he left seminary he married Annie Kinkead, the daughter of a prominent lawyer from his home town. The story of Warfield's life with his Annie is a most moving one and deserves to be better known. The newly weds set off for Germany where an extended honeymoon was combined with a period of study for Benjamin at Leipzig University. One day while they were walking in the Harz Mountains they were overtaken by a tremendous thunderstorm. Annie was terrified by the experience and as a result she had a nervous breakdown from which she never recovered. She needed constant care for the rest of her life, and that Dr. Warfield gave unstintingly. For 39 years he devoted himself to looking after her. In the midst of a tremendously demanding life of lecturing and writing, he guarded, supported and stood by her. One of his students at Princeton, who saw them walking out together, said: 'the gentleness of his manner was striking proof of the loving care with which he surrounded her'. In the last ten years of her life he never left her for more than two hours at a time, and yet never complained or seemed frustrated with his burden.

Seminary teacher

After brief pastoral experience Warfield entered upon his lifelong work as a seminary teacher in 1877. For the first ten years he lectured on the New Testament at Western Theological Seminary, before returning to Princeton to teach theology after the death of A.A. Hodge. His inaugural address at Western was on the subject of verbal inspiration, a theme which was to occupy his mind for much of his life. Indeed, between 1880 and 1915 he published no less than 83 articles on the theme of the inspiration of Scripture.

God's own Word

It was Warfield's conviction that the Bible was, in its entirety, God's own word - breathed out by him - and so was absolutely reliable and without error. He believed this not because his doctrinal system demanded it, but because he was convinced that was the way Scripture viewed itself. This he sought to show both by the exhaustive exegesis of key texts like 2 Timothy 3.16, 2 Peter 1.21 and John 10.35, and by the appropriate quotation of a wonderful variety of other verses to reinforce them.

It was Warfield's confidence in the divine origin of all Scripture that made him such a careful exegete of the Bible, and gives his writings such an authority and insight today. Because he knew the Bible to be God's book, he cautioned his students against misrepresenting its teachings even when their motive was to defend the truth of the word. All that he has written is marked by this integrity and a freshness and devotion that comes from humble dependence upon the Spirit. Few have ever written so perceptively on the Trinity, or the deity and humanity of Christ, as Warfield. In particular, his articles on 'the emotional life of our Lord' and the Pauline expression 'God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ' are astonishingly rich and lucid.

After the death of his Annie in 1915, Warfield continued to give himself to lecturing at Princeton and to writing for theological journals. On Christmas Eve in 1920 he suffered a heart attack from which he appeared to make a full recovery. By February of the next year he was back in full harness once more. But later that month, having lectured with delight on the grace of God from 1 John 3, he experienced a few shocks of pain while alone in his own room. And in an instant he passed into the presence of the Saviour in whose grace he had long found such joy.

Legacy to the church

While most view his legacy to the church in terms of profound and clear writings, his colleagues and students also mourned a man of simple faith and deep piety. They had been moved by the way that Warfield's convictions regarding Scripture led him to prize not only its deep doctrines but its commands. His was no academic fascination with the Bible. He adored the God who reveals himself supremely in its pages. God's love astonished and humbled him. And nothing gave him more pleasure than to seek to model his life on the pattern of his Saviour who gave himself to rescue 'vile sinners'.

Even today we can get a real sense of the lowly piety of this giant of the faith through his book of devotional addresses, Faith and Life (published by the Banner of Truth Trust). Here we find not only a superb model for those who want to learn how to feed all the flock of God with nourishing food, but a profound insight into the humble godliness which is surely the most certain fruit of a true heart belief in an infallible Bible. Here we see that wonderfully attractive blend of careful scholarship and deep piety which was so characteristic of Warfield, and is so vital for the health of the church today. His detractors are apt to label his doctrine of Scripture scholastic. If it is judged by its fruit in Warfield and the other great Princeton leaders, it would be hard to find a more inappropriate description. Warfield and his friends were indeed scholars. They were careful in their handling of Scripture. Yet they were never scholastic. Their aim was to bring God's truth to light, so that men and women might better love and serve him. We desperately need to imbibe their spirit today.

Humble greatness: the life of B B Warfield

Princeton

Seminary teacher

God's own Word

Legacy to the church

Graham Heaps, Dewsbury Evangelical Church

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