Review: Christianity & Liberalism
Every generation of Christians thinks that the problem of liberalism is a recent one. But it is not. Today the hot issues are transgender ministers and "ex-vangelicals." In the 1970s it was the ordination of women and the inerrancy of Scripture. In the 1920s when Machen wrote, it was the authority of Scripture, the deity of Christ, and the atonement. And even then the battle with liberalism had been raging for well over a century. Machen deals with the eternal truths of God and the constant eroding force of liberalism, and his words are as necessary on their 100th anniversary as they were at their conception.
Quotables
the things that are sometimes thought to be hardest to defend are also the things that are most worth defending (8)
In the midst of all the material achievements of modern life, one may well ask the question whether in gaining the whole world we have not lost our own soul. (15)
The trouble with the paganism of ancient Greece, as with the paganism of modern times, was not in the superstructure, which was glorious, but in the foundation, which was rotten. There was always something to be covered up; the enthusiasm of the architect was maintained only by ignoring the disturbing fact of sin. In Christianity, on the other hand, nothing needs to be covered up. The fact of sin is faced squarely once for all, and is dealt with by the grace of God. (67)
The modern liberal does not hold fast even to the authority of Jesus... It is not Jesus, then, who is the real authority, but the modern principle by which the selection within Jesus' recorded teaching has been made. Certain isolated ethical principles of the Sermon on the Mount are accepted, but not at all because they are teaching of Jesus, but because they agree with modern ideas. (79-80)
The real authority, for liberalism, can only be... individual experience; truth can only be that which "helps" the individual man. Such an authority is obviously no authority at all; for individual experience is endlessly diverse, and when once truth is regarded as that which works at any particular time, it ceases to be truth. (80)
It is no wonder, then, that liberalism is totally different from Christianity, for the foundation is different. Christianity is founded upon the Bible. It bases upon the Bible both its thinking and its life. Liberalism on the other hand is founded upon the shifting emotions of sinful men. (81)
The problem [for liberalism] is a moral and psychological problem. How can a human being who lapsed so far from the path of rectitude as to think Himself to be the judge of all the earth—how can such a human being be regarded as the supreme example for mankind? (90)
no man can say with assurance whether the attitude of certain individual "liberals" toward Christ is saving faith or not. But one thing is perfectly plain—whether or no liberals are Christians, it is at any rate perfectly clear that liberalism is not Christianity. (164)
In such times of crisis, God has always saved the Church. But he has always saved it not by theological pacifists, but by sturdy contenders for the truth. (179)
Shall we be satisfied with preachers who merely "do not deny" the Cross of Christ? God grant that such satisfaction may be broken down! The people are perishing under the ministrations of those who "do not deny" the Cross of Christ. Surely something more than that is needed. God send us ministers who, instead of merely avoiding denial of the Cross shall be on fire with the Cross, whose whole life shall be one burning sacrifice of gratitude to the blessed Saviour who loved them and gave Himself for them! (180)Purchase the book →
