Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 127:508 (Oct 1970)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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BSac 127:508 (Oct 70) p. 350

Book Reviews

Selected Shorter Writings Of Benjamin B. Warfield-I. Edited by John E. Meeter. Nutley, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1970. 494 pp. $7.50.

A great service has been rendered to contemporary biblical and theological studies by the publication of this volume. Without question Benjamin Warfield was one of the truly great defenders and promoters of orthodox theology. His writings—long or short—are much needed in a day when antisupernaturalism is sweeping the theological world.

Long ago the Oxford University Press published a ten-volume set of Warfield’s writings which included some of his more scholarly productions. About two decades ago a five-volume set which embodied the more significant in the long out-of-print ten-volume Oxford set was published by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company. This most helpful set is still available.

This present volume is the first of a proposed two-volume set. With a design to supplement the five-volume set, the articles in this volume are shorter, less weighty, and of a more practical nature. They reveal much about Warfield and deal with matters which concern the daily Christian life.

No pastor or student of theology should be without this most helpful volume. This reviewer recommends it highly.

R. P. Lightner

Our God Breathed Book, The Bible. By John R. Rice. Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Sword Of The Lord Publishers, 1969. 416 pp-$5.95.

The founder and editor of the Sword of the Lord has here produced a worthy volume which contributes to the library of books defending the total inspiration of the Bible. The work evidences the author’s commitment to a totally inerrant Scripture.

Twenty chapters divide the work. Some of the chapter titles are long and a bit cumbersome. Rice deals with the areas usually covered in a book on the inspiration of Scripture. He spends considerable time dealing with the issue of the dictation theory. Some evangelicals will be disturbed by this section of the book, not because they do not agree with the author’s view of dictation. Rice does not subscribe to what he calls “mechanical dictation” but he does believe that God gave all the words of Scripture to the writers. The fact that there are differences in the style and composition of Scripture, for Rice, does not mean that God did not dictate all the words. It only means God used the men as they were and gave His words to them. Rice feels that mechanical dictation would mean

BSac 127:508 (Oct 70) p. 351

the human penmen became passive and thus were mere robots. In essence, it seems to this reviewer t...

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