Review: Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen
“To Machen, liberalism was not simply a different style of churchmanship, or a rival Christian theology. It was an entirely different, and man-made, religion founded on a sentimental and superficial view of God. …”
– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Andrew Prideaux commends an excellent book, J. Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism.
(Free versions of the book are available for download at Monergism.)
J. Gresham Machen: Christianity and Liberalism
Reformed Audio has made available audio recordings of J. Gresham Machen’s important 1923 book Christianity and Liberalism.
Hear or download it all here. Much that is relevant today.
(Image of J. Gresham Machen: The Theologian. h/t Reformation21.)
Encouragement from Machen for Sunday
”There is just one reason why I may possibly expect you to listen to me. I may expect you to listen to me if I can bring to you a message from God. If I can do that, then the very insignificance of the speaker may in a certain sense be an added inducement to you to listen to him, since it may help you to forget the speaker and attend only to the message.
It is just that I am trying to do. I am asking you to turn away from me and my opinions; I am asking you to turn away from yourself and your opinions and your troubles; and I am asking you to turn instead that you may listen to a word from God.
Where can I find that word?…. Not in myself and not in you, but in an old Book that has been sealed by the seals of prejudice and unbelief but that will, if it is rediscovered again set the world aflame and that will show you, be you wise or unwise, rich or poor, the way by which you can come into communion with the living God.”
– from The Christian Faith in the Modern World, J Gresham Machen – with thanks to Paul Levy at Reformation21.
‘The divide between two different Christianities’
“One of the most influential books in the 20th Century Church was J Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism.
Machen was prophetic in his analysis of the crisis facing the Church in the US in the first half of the century – some would argue that it was because of his (and others’) stance that the US Church did not go down the path of decline that Churches in most other Western countries did.
In his prophetic book he warned:
‘A terrible crisis unquestionably has arisen in the Church. In the ministry of evangelical churches are to be found hosts of those who reject the gospel of Christ. By the equivocal use of traditional phrases, by the representation of differences of opinion as though they were only differences about the interpretation of the Bible, entrance into the Church was secured for those who are hostile to the very foundations of the faith.’
These words came to mind as I listened to the latest debate on conversion therapy on Premier’s Unbelievable, between Jayne Ozanne, the chair of Ban Conversion Therapy, and Peter Lynas of the Evangelical Alliance. …”
– At The Wee Flea, David Robertson reposts an article he wrote for Christian Today.
‘An Aussie Christian icon’
In a recent post at Reformation21, Paul Levy in the UK writes, “Colin Buchanan is, to my son and countless other kids like him, the equivalent of what John Piper is to Christian hedonists, Gresham Machen is to the OPC and John Stott is to English public schoolboys…”.
Now Eternity Newspaper has a profile piece on Colin. Good reminder to pray for him and his ministry.
What we need to hear
Michael McKinley at the 9Marks blog has this quotation from J. Gresham Machen –
“What good does it do me to tell me that the type of religion presented in the Bible is a very fine type of religion and that the thing for me to do is just to start practicing that type of religion now? … I will tell you, my friend. It does not one tiniest little bit of good….
What I need first of all is not exhortation but a gospel, not directions for saving myself but knowledge of how God has saved me. Have you any good news for me? That is the question that I ask of you. I know your exhortations will not help me. But if anything has been done to save me, will you not tell me the facts?”
— J. Gresham Machen, Christian Faith in the Modern World. (Image of J. Gresham Machen: The Theologian.)
Two Rival Religions?
“On November 3, 1921, J. Gresham Machen presented an address entitled, “Liberalism or Christianity?” In that famous address, later expanded into the book, Christianity & Liberalism, Machen argued that evangelical Christianity and its liberal rival were, in effect, two very different religions. ”
See also three talks, ‘Christianity and the Tolerance of Liberalism’ by Lee Gatiss.
(Image of J. Gresham Machen: The Theologian.)
Christianity and the Tolerance of Liberalism
In three talks Lee Gatiss looks at the crisis which hit American Presbyterianism in the 1920s and 30s. The conservative hero of that struggle was J. Gresham Machen, whose Christianity and Liberalism remains a classic.
What does Machen’s battle with liberalism have to teach us today in a church still ravaged by liberalism and those who tolerate it?
– Hear the talks at The Theologian. See also an extract “When a Theological College Goes Wrong”, from Lee’s book on the topic.
(Image of J. Gresham Machen: The Theologian.)
Christianity and the Tolerance of Liberalism
Brand new from The Latimer Trust in the UK:
Christianity and the Tolerance of Liberalism: J.Gresham Machen and the Presbyterian Controversy of 1922–1937 by Lee Gatiss.
At the beginning of the last century a more liberal way of interpreting Christianity began to grow in popularity. Traditional believers in many denominations are currently reaping the fruit of a failure to heed the stark warnings about liberalism given at that time by American theologian J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937). Much of what happened in the Presbyterian Church of which he was a part will sound eerily familiar to Anglicans today.
This book examines key battlegrounds in the conflict between conservative, liberal, and so-called ‘moderate’ Christians in the early 20th Century – training for ministry, the denomination’s attitude towards money, and competing notions of mission.
Machen’s principles eventually led him to leave both his seminary and his denomination to create new institutions. But did Machen get it right about how to combat liberalism? Even while we acknowledge his theological insight, should we also be wary of repeating his mistakes?
Lee Gatiss is Associate Minister of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate in the City of London and Editor of The Theologian: The Internet Journal for Integrated Theology at www.theologian.org.uk.
The book can be ordered from The Latimer Trust.
Christianity vs. Liberalism
What are the main differences between classical vs. liberal approaches to the Christian faith? In the 1920s, J. Gresham Machen argued that these two perspectives were, in reality, two completely different religious systems. Was he right?
Dr. Michael Horton and friends at The White Horse Inn broadcast are continuing their discussion on “Christless Christianity”. Very helpful.
(Preachers: How clear is the gospel you preach at funerals? Are you preaching a liberal ‘gospel’?) Listen to this week’s episode at The White Horse Inn.
On a related topic, Al Mohler asks, “Has the Notion of Sin Disappeared?”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…