Sermons & Devotionals by Benjamin B. Warfield
Benjamin B. Warfield
The Divine Messiah In The Old Testament
The question whether the Old Testament has any testimony to give as to the Deity of our Lord, when strictly taken, resolves itself into the question whether the Old Testament holds out the promise of a Divine Messiah. To gather the intimation of a multiplicity in the Divine unity which may be though... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
Entire Sanctification
"And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it." (1 Thess. 5:23-24) THERE is no feature of Christianity more strongly emphasized by... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
The Dogmatic Spirit
What is called the dogmatic spirit is not popular among men. It is characterized by an authoritative method of presenting truth; by an unwillingness to modify truth to fit it to current conceptions; by an insistence on what seem to many minor points; and above all by (what lies at the root of most o... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
Faith and Life
A recent writer opens his book with the words: "The present generation is impatient of theological distinctions." He lets the cat out of the bag when he begins the next paragraph with the words: "There is a good deal of common sense in this reaction against the theological hairsplitting of former ti... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
The Significance of the Westminster Standards as a Creed
Fathers and Brethren:- It would be difficult for me adequately to express the pleasure which it gives me to respond to your invitation to join with you to-day in celebrating the fifth jubilee of the gift of the Westminster Standards to the world. The task you have laid upon me, of seeking to set for... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
The End of the Incarnation
John 6:38-39: For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will but the will of Him that sent me; and this is the will of Him that sent me, that of all that He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. In the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand our L... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
God's Providence Over All
"We cannot be robbed of God's providence." This was one of the sayings current in the household of Thomas Carlyle, apparently much on the lips of that brilliant woman, Jane Welsh Carlyle. In it, the plummet is let down to the bottom of the Christian's confidence and hope. It is because we cannot be ... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
The Theology of John Calvin
The subject of this address is the theology of John Calvin and I shall ask leave to take this subject rather broadly, that is to say, to attempt not so much to describe the personal peculiarities of John Calvin as a theologian, as to indicate in broad outlines the determining characteristics of the ... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
God-Inspired Scripture
The phrase, "Given by inspiration of God," or "Inspired of God," occurs, as is well-known, but once in the New Testament--in the classical passage, to wit, II Tim. iii. 16, which is rendered in the Authorized Version, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," and by the Revised Version, "Every... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
The Formation of the Canon of the New Testament
In order to obtain a correct understanding of what is called the formation of the Canon of the New Testament, it is necessary to begin by fixing very firmly in our minds one fact which is obvious enough when attention is once called to it. That is, that the Christian church did not require to form f... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
What Fatalism Is
This is a sad state of mind that people fall into sometimes, in which they do not know the difference between God and Fate. One of the most astonishing illustrations of it in all history is, no doubt, that afforded by our Cumberland Presbyterian brethren, who for a hundred years, now, have been vigo... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
What Is Calvinism?
It is very odd how difficult it seems for some persons to understand just what Calvinism is. And yet the matter itself presents no difficulty whatever. It is capable of being put into a single sentence; and that, on level to every religious man's comprehension. For Calvinism is just religion in its ... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
The Fundamental Significance of the Lord's Supper
The most salient fact connected with the institution of the Lord's Supper is, of course, that this took place at, or, to be more specific, in the midst of, the Passover Meal. It was 'while they were eating" the Passover meal, that Jesus, having taken up a loaf and blessed it, broke it and gave it to... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
Heresy and Concession
In Dr. G. P. Fisher's recently issued History of Christian Doctrine there is a very suggestive passage in which he tells us how heresies usually originate, and gives us an insight into their nature. He says: When Christianity is brought into contact with modes of thought and tenets originating elsew... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
The Historical Christ
The rise of Christianity was a phenomenon of too little apparent significance to attract the attention of the great world. It was only when it had refused to be quenched in the blood of its founder, and, breaking out of the narrow bounds of the obscure province in which it had its origin, was making... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
Incarnate Truth
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us full of ... truth" (John 1:14). The obvious resemblance between the prologue to John's Gospel and the proem of Genesis is not a matter of mere phraseology and external form. As the one, in the brief compass of a few verses, paints the whole history of... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
Inspiration
The terms "inspiration" and "inspired" are used in English with great latitude of meaning, and this latitude is reflected to some extent in their usage in the English Bible. They occur, however, only twice in the English Bible, and in both cases in a religious sense (Job xxxii. 8; 2 Tim. iii. 16). I... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
John Calvin the Theologian
The subject of this address is "John Calvin the Theologian," and I take it that what will be expected of me is to convey some idea of what manner of theologian John Calvin was, and of his quality as a theological thinker. I am afraid I shall have to ask you at the outset to disabuse your minds of a ... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
Justification by Faith, Out of Date?
Sometimes we are told that Justification by Faith is "out of date." That would be a pity, if it were true. What it would mean would be that the way of salvation was closed and "no thoroughfare" nailed up over the barriers. There is no justification for sinful men except by faith. The works of a sinf... Read More
Benjamin B. Warfield
The Human Development of Jesus
It is Luke's distinction among the evangelists that he has given us a narrative, founded, as he tells us, on an investigation which "traced the coarse of all things accurately from the first" (Luke i. 3). We note the careful exactness with which he records the performance by our Lord's parents of "a... Read More
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Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was professor of theology at Princeton Seminary from 1887 to 1921. Some conservative Presbyterians consider him to be the last of the great Princeton theologians before the split in 1929 that formed Westminster Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Warfield entered Princeton University in 1868 and graduated in 1871 with high honors. Although Warfield studied mathematics and science in college, while traveling in Europe he decided to study theology, surprising even many of his closest friends. He entered Princeton Seminary in 1873, in order to train for ministry as a Presbyterian minister. He graduated in 1876. For a short time in 1876 he preached in Presbyterian churches in Concord, Kentucky and Dayton, Ohio as a "supply pastor". In late 1876 Warfield and his new wife moved to Germany where he studied under Ernst Luthardt and Franz Delitzsch. Warfield was the assistant pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland for a short time. Then he became an instructor at Western Theological Seminary, which is now called Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He was ordained on April 26, 1879.
During his tenure, his primary thrust (and that of the seminary) was an authoritative view of the Bible. This view was held in contrast to the emotionalism of the revival movements, the rationalism of higher criticism, and the heterodox teachings of various New religious movements that were emerging. The seminary held fast to the Reformed confessional tradition — that is, it faithfully followed the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Warfield's view of evolution may appear unusual for a conservative of his day. He was willing to accept that Darwin's theory might be true, but believed that God guided the process of evolution, and was as such an evolutionary creationist.