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Lewis Sperry Chafer
Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871–1952) was an American preacher, theologian, and educator whose influential ministry shaped 20th-century evangelicalism, particularly through his role as a founder and the first president of Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). Born on February 27, 1871, in Rock Creek, Ohio, he was the second of three children to Thomas Franklin Chafer, a Congregational minister, and Lomira Sperry. His father’s death from tuberculosis when Lewis was 11 left the family in financial strain, supported by his mother’s work as a teacher and boarding house keeper. Chafer attended Oberlin College from 1889 to 1892, where he developed a passion for music and met Ella Loraine Case, whom he married in 1896. Initially a traveling evangelist and gospel singer, he was ordained in 1900 by a council of Congregational ministers in Buffalo, New York. Chafer’s preaching career evolved from music ministry with evangelists like Arthur T. Reed to a focus on Bible teaching, influenced by C.I. Scofield, whom he met in 1901 at Northfield Bible Conference. He served as a Bible lecturer, assisted Scofield in founding the Philadelphia School of the Bible in 1913, and pastored First Congregational Church in Dallas (later Scofield Memorial Church) starting in 1921. In 1924, he co-founded DTS with his brother Rollin, serving as its president and professor of systematic theology until his death, shaping it into a leading dispensationalist institution. Author of over 20 books, including Systematic Theology (1947–1948), an eight-volume work, he preached a premillennial, pretribulational dispensationalism that emphasized grace and biblical authority. Chafer died on August 22, 1952, in Seattle, Washington, leaving a legacy as a preacher whose scholarship and leadership trained generations of evangelical leaders.
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Lewis Sperry Chafer preaches about the prophetic anticipation of material glory and blessings during the kingdom age, highlighting the transformation of the wilderness, the healing of the blind, deaf, lame, and mute, the deliverance of creation from corruption, and the increase of knowledge in the end times. He emphasizes the material transformation foretold in prophecy and the rapid advancements in technology and knowledge in our generation as a prelude to the ultimate glory that will fill the earth.
V. the Material Earth Sign
Of many passages that anticipate the material glory and blessings which will be in the earth during the kingdom age, I will quote three: “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God. . . . Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water” (Isaiah 35:1-7). “Creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21, R. V.). “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Dan. 12:4). Such is prophecy relating to the “end time” and the kingdom which will follow. Material things are to be transformed. Every figure of speech has been employed to give expression to this. Within our own generation we have begun to experience a day of invention and material transformation the end of which we cannot foresee. The world is on wheels and wings. Every latent resource of the material earth is being unlocked. Knowledge, if not wisdom, is increased until the old-time general education has had to be set aside for this fast- moving age of specialists. The present material changes and inventions have their origin in the world-system, and are only a shadow of the prophesied glory that will yet fill the earth. Though the present knowledge and discovery be of the Satanic order, that in it which is true will doubtless abide and contribute to the perfect order that will be. The present inrush of material change cannot be accounted for by human experience of the past. Is it not a signal, though but a shadow, of the coming glory which God will yet accomplish in the earth?
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Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871–1952) was an American preacher, theologian, and educator whose influential ministry shaped 20th-century evangelicalism, particularly through his role as a founder and the first president of Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). Born on February 27, 1871, in Rock Creek, Ohio, he was the second of three children to Thomas Franklin Chafer, a Congregational minister, and Lomira Sperry. His father’s death from tuberculosis when Lewis was 11 left the family in financial strain, supported by his mother’s work as a teacher and boarding house keeper. Chafer attended Oberlin College from 1889 to 1892, where he developed a passion for music and met Ella Loraine Case, whom he married in 1896. Initially a traveling evangelist and gospel singer, he was ordained in 1900 by a council of Congregational ministers in Buffalo, New York. Chafer’s preaching career evolved from music ministry with evangelists like Arthur T. Reed to a focus on Bible teaching, influenced by C.I. Scofield, whom he met in 1901 at Northfield Bible Conference. He served as a Bible lecturer, assisted Scofield in founding the Philadelphia School of the Bible in 1913, and pastored First Congregational Church in Dallas (later Scofield Memorial Church) starting in 1921. In 1924, he co-founded DTS with his brother Rollin, serving as its president and professor of systematic theology until his death, shaping it into a leading dispensationalist institution. Author of over 20 books, including Systematic Theology (1947–1948), an eight-volume work, he preached a premillennial, pretribulational dispensationalism that emphasized grace and biblical authority. Chafer died on August 22, 1952, in Seattle, Washington, leaving a legacy as a preacher whose scholarship and leadership trained generations of evangelical leaders.