Why Machen Is Important for the Church Today: A Reflection on Ch. 7 of Christianity and Liberalism (Part 2)
Classical liberalism at least maintained some connection between Christ and salvation, more contemporary forms of liberalism have severed that connection.
Given the liberal (members, churches) elements’ abandonment of essential matters, conservative (members, churches) must withdraw. In such cases, the operative framework echoes Paul’s words (2 Cor. 6:14–16): Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or... Continue Reading
Machen on the Church: A Reflection on Ch. 7 of Christianity and Liberalism (Part 1)
Machen calls again for liberals to withdraw voluntarily, and for the sake of harmony and cooperation, from evangelical churches.
In the face of the liberal peril, what should evangelicals do? A first step is to “encourage those who are engaging in the intellectual and spiritual struggle” (146–47). The intellectual battle must consist of both articulating and defending Christianity. Against those who focus solely on the propagation aspect, Machen suspects an anti-intellectualism underlying this approach,... Continue Reading
Salvation by God at the Cross of Christ: A Reflection on Chapter 6 of Christianity and Liberalism (Part 2)
We should reject adjusting the atonement, sin, and our view of God to meet the tastes or fads of the day, but rather have a clear-eyed focus on sin and the cross as the core of the gospel.
To modify the core message of the gospel in order to receive what we think of as a proper hearing will lead to unfaithfulness. There are temptations within the evangelical church to compromise at the same places where theological liberalism was found defective: the doctrine of sin, character of God, and the accomplishment of the... Continue Reading
Salvation by God at the Cross of Christ: A Reflection on Chapter 6 of Christianity and Liberalism (Part 1)
The parting of ways on salvation secures Machen’s thesis that, in fact and by honest assessment, Christianity and theological liberalism are different religions.
Theological liberalism presents not merely a sub-Christian view of salvation but a different conception of it entirely, which depends on and elevates humanity rather than God. Machen sharply contrasts the liberal view of salvation, Christ as example, with Christ as vicarious sufferer in the mode of legal penal substitution. Far from being an arcane and “subtle” theory,... Continue Reading
Your Role in the Bigger Story
We will not know this side of heaven just how much influence we will have had in this life – just how much good we may have done for Christ and the kingdom.
We can do so much even in the mundane things of life. As I have said before, simply walking the dogs can be part of our kingdom-building efforts. When I walk my dog twice daily, I pray for all my neighbours as I walk past their houses. It is likely that only in the next life will I... Continue Reading
Reinterpreting Church History: A Response to Mimi Haddad, “History Matters”
We ought not to read back in time our own novel ideas about men and women derived from a century of complicated social and philosophical upheaval.
Haddad provides little in the way of evidence for her claim that complementarians rarely discuss abuse while egalitarians make it one of their main emphases. One might rather say that egalitarians often make the accusation that complementarianism fosters abuse. Unhappily, the questions for which our own age beg for answers engender little curiosity for egalitarians like... Continue Reading
An Excerpt from “Irony and the Presbyterian Church in America,” An Informed History of the First Half Century of the PCA.
The excerpt: “The 1996 (24th) General Assembly: Without A Vision (Or The Concerned) The People Did Just Fine.”
This book is an informed history of the first half century of a denomination formed in 1973. Other works discuss the events and personalities which led up to the founding of the Presbyterian Church in America, but this one traces the development and history of that church from 1973-2023. This volume benefits from the observations... Continue Reading
Learning Apologetics from Augustine
For Augustine, apologetics and soul care go hand in hand.
In Confessions, he tells a better and more rational story about reason, interweaving how our thinking depends on trust, how our deepest desires move us along through life, and how disordered loves misalign our intellectual quests for the truth. And he does this all while layering his account with the Scriptures; most notably the Psalms,... Continue Reading
Machen’s Orthodoxy and Progressive Christianity: Reflections on Chapter 5 of “Christianity and Liberalism” (Part 2)
The liberalism of Machen’s day and the progressive Christianity of our own is uncomfortable with the abundant New Testament testimony that Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified entirely with the one true and living God.
Where feminism questions the place of the maleness of Jesus in the bigger story of the Christian gospel, transgender ideology undermines the very reality of his maleness altogether. Whether or not Jesus was a man, a woman, or some non-binary “other” becomes an open-ended question in the worldview of contemporary gender theorists.[6]. What is one... Continue Reading
Children Need Their Parents, Not Big Government
“I homeschool because I have seen the village and I don’t want it raising my child.”
Depending upon the State to instil these virtues of morality, self-reliance, personal responsibility, and respect for others is a pipe dream. Sure, not every parent will be an ideal role model in these areas, but I would far rather trust them to ‘train up a child in the way he should go’ than rely on government bureaucrats and... Continue Reading
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