Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 29:1 (Spring 2025)
Article: Was B. B. Warfield Orthodox? Nicaea, Warfield, And The Doctrine Of The Trinity
Author: Fred G. Zaspel

Was B. B. Warfield Orthodox? Nicaea, Warfield, And The Doctrine Of The Trinity

Fred G. Zaspel

Fred G. Zaspel is one of the pastors of Reformed Baptist Church in Franconia, Pennsylvania. He earned his PhD from the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is also the executive editor of Books At a Glance and adjunct professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. He is the author of several books, chapters, and articles, including The Theology of B. B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary (Crossway, 2010), The New Covenant and New Covenant Theology (2011), Warfield on the Christian Life (Crossway, 2014), How to Read and Understand the Psalms (with Bruce Waltke, Crossway, 2023).

Few, if any, would deny that the strength of Benjamin Warfield’s theological work is its firm exegetical grounding. His voluminous writings from beginning to end demonstrate that he was first and foremost an exegetical theologian. His works demonstrate that he was deeply informed theologically also, and this in regard to the whole history of Christian theological writing, ancient to modern. The depth and breadth of his learning was legendary in his own day. But it would not be difficult at all to show that it was above all his exegetical prowess that set him uniquely above most other theologians.

His articulation of the doctrine of the Trinity is a case in point. His display of the basic essentials of the doctrine in the biblical writings is characterized by remarkable insight, and for it his lengthy 1915 essay, “The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity”1 an entry in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, continues to receive scholarly attention.

Our generation has witnessed a resurgence of interest in Trinitarian studies, a happy development for sure. This revived interest has brought a new focus

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on the development of the doctrine in the early church, particularly its “official” statements in the fourth century— a further happy development. And it is in this context that Warfield’s famous essay has been rediscovered.

And yet Warfield’s formulation of the doctrine has recently come into question also. Was his exposition of the Trinity entirely orthodox? Specifically, was he a Nicene theologian?

This is the question that I am asked to address in this article. It would certainly be worth our time to survey Warfield’s broader contribution to the doctrine. His “God Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”2 is a uniquely valuable study, a rigorous exegetical and theological analysis o...