17 December 2010

'Doctrine is in order to life'

--B. B. Warfield; quoted in Fred Zaspel, The Theology of B. B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary (Crossway, 2010), 562

Elsewhere Warfield wonderfully elaborates:
If such be the value and use of doctrine, the systematic theologian is preeminently a preacher of the gospel; and the end of his work is obviously not merely the logical arrangement of the truths which come under his hand but the moving of men, through their power, to love God with all their hearts and their neighbors as themselves; to choose their portion with the Saviour of their souls; to find and hold Him precious; and to recognize and yield to the sweet influences of the Holy Spirit whom he has sent.

With such truth as this he will not dare to deal in a cold and merely scientific spirit, but will justly and necessarily permit its preciousness and its practical destination to determine the spirit in which he handles it, and to awaken the reverential love with which alone he should investigate its reciprocal relations. (ibid.)
Richness of doctrine, richness of experience. Mutually reinforcing.

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