Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 29:1 (NA 2024)
Article: Inerrancy, Adam & Eve, And B. B. Warfield (1851–1921)
Author: Fred G. Zaspel

DBSJ 29 (2024) p. 53

Inerrancy, Adam & Eve, And B. B. Warfield (1851–1921)

Fred G. Zaspel1

In their joint Isis article published in 2000, David Livingstone and Mark Noll begin with a provocative thesis that subsequently gained near canonical acceptance. Their opening line reads, “One of the best-kept secrets in American intellectual history is that B. B. Warfield, the foremost modern defender of the theologically conservative doctrine of the inerrancy of the Bible, was also an evolutionist.”2

I have argued elsewhere that the Livingstone-Noll thesis is not true, even though it has gone virtually unquestioned.3 And I will seek below to demonstrate that the evidence they presented is too selective. But as I have also remarked, considerable blame for the confusion on the question lies with Warfield himself. Warfield often expressed a qualified openness to the idea of evolutionary development. These qualified expressions of openness fall short of affirmation, however, and they must not be read in isolation from his repeated and sometimes scathing critiques of evolution. Late in his life Warfield remarked expressly that he had abandoned evolutionary theories around the age of thirty, and a full reading of his works reveals a theoretical openness to evolution only, never a clear acceptance, always a critical suspicion, and a consistent affirmation of biblical doctrines that are incompatible with any evolutionary theory.

Late in his life Warfield remarked expressly that he had abandoned evolutionary theories around the age of thirty, and his works leave no

DBSJ 29 (2024) p. 54

reason to doubt him.4 This brief article, then, will challenge the Livingstone-Noll thesis that Warfield the inerrantist was an evolutionist.

Warfield On Inerrancy

Warfield’s voluminous championing of biblical inerrancy is of course well known, constituting a watershed moment in the history of this doctrine. He demonstrated at length that his doctrine was that of the whole church from the beginning, but he gave that doctrine a more thorough exposition and defense than anyone before or since.

We do not have the space to trace out Warfield’s exposition of the doctrines of inspiration and inerrancy here. But it is important to note that his doctrine of inerrancy is grounded in Scripture’s divine origin. Warfield emphasized this repeatedly. Scripture is “God’s Word written” and is therefore altogether reliable in all its affirmations and declarations. God’s Word has indeed ...