Introduction

Biography

Lewis was the son of Tho­mas Frank­lin Cha­fer and Lo­is Lo­mi­ra Sperry, bro­ther of Ma­ri­et­ta Prince, and hus­band of El­la Lo­raine Case (mar­ried 1896).

His fa­ther, a par­son, died from tu­ber­cu­lo­sis when Lew­is was 11 years old, and his mo­ther sup­port­ed the fa­mi­ly by teach­ing school and keep­ing board­ers in the fa­mi­ly home.

Chafer at­tend­ed the Rock Creek Pub­lic School as a young boy, and the New Lyme In­st­it­ution in New Lyme, Ohio (1885–88). Here he dis­co­vered a tal­ent for mu­sic and choir.

He went on to stu­dy at Ober­lin Col­lege (1889–91), where he met his wife El­la. After mar­riage, they formed a tra­vel­ing ev­an­gel­is­tic mu­sic min­is­try, with him sing­ing or preach­ing and her play­ing the or­gan.

Lewis was or­dained in 1900 by a Coun­cil of Con­gre­ga­tion­al Min­is­ters in the First Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church in Buf­fa­lo. In 1903, he was an ev­an­gel­ist in the Pres­by­te­ry of Troy in Mas­sa­chu­setts, and be­came as­so­ci­at­ed with the min­is­try of Cy­rus Sco­field, who be­came his men­tor.

During this pe­ri­od, Cha­fer be­gan writ­ing and de­vel­op­ing his theo­lo­gy. He taught Bi­ble class­es and mu­sic at the Mount Her­mon School for Boys (1906–10).

He joined the Or­ange Pres­by­te­ry in 1912 due to the in­creas­ing in­flu­ence of his min­is­try in the south. He aid­ed Sco­field in es­tab­lish­ing the Penn­syl­van­ia School of the Bi­ble in 1913. From 1923–25, he served as ge­ne­ral sec­re­ta­ry of the Cen­tral Am­eri­can Mis­sion.

When Sco­field died in 1921, Cha­fer moved to Dal­las, Tex­as, to pas­tor the First Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church of Dal­las where Sco­field had min­is­tered. In 1924, Cha­fer and his friend Will­iam Hen­ry Grif­fith Tho­mas real­ized their vi­sion of a sim­ple, Bi­ble teach­ing theo­lo­gic­al se­mi­na­ry and found­ed Dal­las Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry (orig­in­al­ly the Ev­an­ge­li­cal Theo­lo­gic­al Col­lege). Cha­fer served as pre­si­dent of the se­mi­na­ry and pro­fess­or of Sys­te­ma­tic Theo­lo­gy from 1924 un­til his death.

He died with friends while at a con­ference in Se­at­tle, Wash­ing­ton.

Chafer’s works in­clude:

Works

• The King­dom in His­to­ry and Pro­phe­cy, 1915
• Salvation: A Clear Doc­trin­al Ana­ly­sis, 1917
• He That is Spir­it­ual, 1918
• True Ev­an­gel­ism: Win­ning Souls by Pray­er, 1919
• Satan: His Mo­tive and Meth­ods, 1919
• Grace: The Glo­ri­ous Theme, 1922
• Major Bi­ble Themes, 1926
• The Epis­tle to the Ephe­sians, 1935
• Systematic Theo­lo­gy, 1947