Reviews of Warfield’s Selected Shorter Writings, Edited by John E. Meeter and Warfield’s Faith and Life
Here are reviews of the works which led to my rediscovering Warfield. I confess. I have not read much of Warfield even though I have the 10 volume set of his works plus several of his other books. Basically I was prejudiced by reading his Counterfeit Miracles while in seminary (over 40 years ago). It presented his argument for the cessation of miraculous gifts (very much a live debate at the time, thanks to the charismatic movement of the ’60s and ’70s). The argument, as I understood it, was 3 steps; 1). New revelation had ceased; 2). Miraculous gifts authenticated new revelation; 3). Therefore their purpose having ceased, miraculous gifts ceased also. But this argument only works if authenticating new revelation was their only purpose. Which is not the case. This weakness of argument left a bad taste in my mouth.
I later found a much more satisfying (and convincing) argument in Leonard Coppes, Whatever Happened to Biblical Tongues and also in Palmer Robertson, The Final Word. In brief they basically argued: 1). New Revelation had ceased; 2). Tongues and prophecy were new revelation; 3). Therefore tongues and prophecy ceased. Anyway, my appreciation for Warfield diminished. Boy, was I wrong!
A few weeks ago, I wanted to find some good literature on Revelation 20 for a friend. I looked in A Guide to the Puritans by Robert P. Martin which indexes Puritan and other Reformed writings by both topic and Scripture text. It’s one of my favorite books because it essentially is indexes much of my library. Anyway it had a couple of references to volume 2 of Warfield’s Selected Shorter Writings. I started there.
Selected Shorter Writings – volume 2
I enjoyed the shorter article, “The Apocalypse” and so followed that with one on, “The Book of Revelation.” Both contained helpful insights; so I looked further at the table of contents and found much of interest.
Perhaps I should now give a description of the 2 volumes. Volume 1 (1970) contains 494 pages and Volume 2 (1973), a full 750 pages, nicely bound hardbacks by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company. The contents consist largely of “short articles originally published in journals and encyclopedias but particularly those that originally appeared in church weeklies or newspapers.” They picked works included neither in the ten volumes of the Oxford edition of Warfield’s works nor the later five volumes of the Presbyterian and Reformed edition. They contain Bible expositions, systematic theology, historical theology, practical theology, and book reviews and introductions.
“Some Characteristics of the Book of Acts”
I’ll continue with volume 2 since I began my reading there. “Some Characteristics of the Book of Acts” helped me more than several introductions to commentaries I’ve read on Acts. In the article “Heresy and Concession,” we find Warfield, often criticized as inferior to Cornelius Van Til, sounding presuppositional and clearly mocking the compromising method of classical apologetics: “May he not smooth the passage of many to the ark of safety by clothing himself in the garments of their thought? And, after all, why should he distrust either their methods or their conclusions? Would it not be better to take up a position shoulder to shoulder with them, stand on their platform, and concede to their demand everything which can be conceded while yet the central citadel be held?”
“A Calm View of the Freedmen’s Case” and “Drawing the Color Line”
Two articles conclude the second volume which, in the confusion of our day, are worth the price of the set. He writes “A Calm View of the Freedmen’s Case” and “Drawing the Color Line” as a Southerner. But his is a trenchant critique of racism in the South and in the Southern Church a generation after the Civil War. Written before Dabney’s death, they make one wonder what Dabney would have thought of them or whether he would have seen them, But Thornwell effectively counters Dabney’s recognized racism as representative of Southern theological thinking. These articles should lead the Church of North and South to deeper insight on race relations today.
Selected Shorter Writings – volume 1
“Hosea VI.7: Adam or Man?”
In volume 1, we find further articles to sink our teeth into. I have not read all of both volumes (or either one), but my sample was enough to tell me there is solid meat here. His article “Hosea VI.7: Adam or Man” tackles the question whether that text in Hebrew refers to Adam or to man in some generic sense. He presents cogent reasons for interpreting it as a reference to the first man and his failure to keep the covenant made with him in the garden. Particularly persuasive is the parallel he draws between Israel and Adam as covenant-breakers. Translation of the word as “man” simply does not give an adequate reason for the parallelism, whether “man” is viewed in a depreciatory sense or whether it is used in contrast to God.
“The Bible’s Summum Bonum”
In “The Bible’s Summum Bonum,” Warfield, not surprisingly, insists that for the Christian, the highest good is glorifying God. But he doesn’t just treat it as a commonplace, but as a part of the glory of a Christian ethic. He contrasts this with every other highest good from every religious or non-religious system. For all these other systems center their highest good in man while only Christianity looks outside of man for his summum bonum. In application, frequent in these articles, Warfield asks his readers whether they make it their highest good to glorify God in all they do and and do so simply because God says they should.
“Justification by Faith, Out of Date”
Warfield answers the complaint given in the title of a two-page article, “”Justification by Faith, Out of Date.'” He insightfully claims that this doctrine does not primarily contrast with justification by works, but rather points to whose works justify. That justification comes from outside ourselves. Not “salvation by believing things instead or by doing right,” but by “pleading the merits of Christ before the throne of grace instead of our own merits.” The ground of our salvation is neither our good works nor our act of faith. Certainly, he is not guilty of teaching justification by orthodoxy!
“Christian Baptism” and “The Significance of the Lord’s Supper”
Articles on “Christian Baptism” and “The Significance of the Lord’s Supper” conclude our survey of some of the shorter articles. In both cases, Warfield affirms continuity with the Old Testament sacraments, circumcision and the passover. “Christian Baptism” was an eight page booklet published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication in Philadelphia in 1920. It could well serve the same purpose in our day. He says of the Lord’s Supper, “All who partake of this bread and wine, the appointed symbols of his body and blood, therefore, are symbolically partaking of the victim offered on the altar of the cross and are by this act professing themselves offerers of the sacrifice and seeking to become beneficiaries of it. That is the fundamental significance of the Lord’s Supper.”
A perusal of the table of contents reveals other subjects warranting our attention. My appetite is whetted!
Faith and Life
Faith and Life, published by Banner of Truth Trust, reveals a different dimension of Warfield. These were Sunday afternoon addresses to students at Princeton Seminary based on Scripture texts. They are printed in Scripture order.
“This- and Other- Worldliness”
In a sermon on Matthew 6:33, for sermons they may all be called, “This- and Other- Worldliness” Warfield avers that “The appeal of the passage is . . . in the contrast between goods earthly and goods heavenly.” “It places the highest good before us–God and His righteousness–fellowship with God; and pries at our hearts with this great lever of, Who will seek earthly food and drink when they can seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness?” Warfield makes clear that this text is a pleading of God with His children for a right response to His love rather than a method for getting “these other things.”
“Light and Shining”
In “Light and Shining” on Mark 4:21-25, Warfield teaches that Jesus viewed parables as necessary concealment of His teaching in the face of opposition and yet intended to make it plain to believers. “Let us not fail today to hear and ponder and understand and profit by the teaching brought to us by these pungent words.”
“Childlikeness”
In “Childlikeness” from Mark 10:15, we see that Jesus taught that the disciples should have known better than to turn the children away. Jesus insists that childlikeness is the indispensable mark of the Christian. But the question is raised as to what quality of the child is Jesus promoting as so important. Warfield points to suggestions that innocence, humility, simplicity, and trustfulness are each what Christ was getting at, but finds these suggestions all wanting, though trustfulness he thinks closer than the others. He tells us that these little children, infants, are empty-handed, displaying only “helpless dependence”, and that is how we should come to Christ.
“The Glory of the Word”
“The Glory of the Word” an exposition of John 1:1 is beautifully affirms Christ’s deity and His communion with the Father, essentially the doctrine of the Trinity. These four sermons are successive giving an indication of how powerfully Warfield expounded God’s word. One more sermon will have to suffice to induce us to read Warfield.
“The Spirit’s Testimony to Our Sonship”
Warfield addresses the perennial debate whether our assurance should rest on the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit or the observable presence of Christian graces in “The Spirit’s Testimony to Our Sonship” from Romans 8:16. He chooses neither side, but says it is grounded in both. We are not to rest satisfied in a supposed testimony of the Spirit in absence of graces, but not to take confidence in what we see in ourselves apart from that inward cry, “Abba, Father.”
For myself, this compressed reading of Warfield in a couple of weeks was like few other short spans of concentrated reading. I suppose reading much of Edwards during a course on him was similar and maybe also reading Banner’s Works of John Murray which I devoured upon receipt of them. But seldom has my thinking been clarified and my focus confirmed as this reading of Warfield. I’m glad I began this journey of rediscovering Warfield. I expect to read the whole of these three volumes, and I commend them to you as well.