“In this brilliant defence of Christian truth Machen argued that liberalism was really a new religion and not Christianity at all.”
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER
Gresham Machen’s book Christianity and Liberalism has been called “one of the most important books of all times”.
Machen contrasts the true Christian Faith with the false claims of ‘liberal Christianity’. He shows how liberals wrap up worldly thinking in Christian language. He demonstrates that Liberalism is not simply one form of Christianity, but another religion altogether.
Gresham Machen (1881-1937) was a Presbyterian minister in the USA and published his classic work in 1923, which remains in print. Sadly the Liberalism he opposed in the professing Church a century ago is still rampant today. Machen warns us that the most dangerous threat to the Gospel comes from within the Church. We need to heed this now more than ever.
References
- 1‘How Scotland Lost Hold of the Bible’, 16 July 2017, Banner of Truth, see https://banneroftruth.org/uk/resources/articles/2015/scotland-lost-hold-bible/ as at 14 August 2017
- 2Machen, G, Christianity and Liberalism, Grand Rapids, 2009, page 47
- 3Ibid, page 49
- 4Ibid, page 54
- 5Ibid, page 55
- 6Ibid, page 36
- 7Ibid, page 37
- 8Ibid, page 59
- 9Ibid, page 66
- 10Ibid, page 60
- 11Ibid, page 62
- 12Ibid, page 67
- 13Ibid, page 82
- 14Ibid, page 74
- 15Ibid, page 88
- 16Ibid, page 97
- 17Ibid, page 98
- 18Ibid, page 99
- 19Ibid, page 122
- 20Ibid, page 111-112
- 21Ibid, pages 133-134
- 22Ibid, page 135
- 23Ibid, page 135
- 24Ibid, page 148
- 25Ibid, page 146
- 26Ibid, page 100
- 27Ibid, pages 116 and 130
- 28Ibid, page 82
- 29Ibid, page 115
- 30Ibid, pages 84-85
- 31Ibid, page 149
- 32Ibid, page 150
- 33Ibid, page 129
- 34Ibid, page 130
- 35Schaeffer, F A, ‘The Great Evangelical Disaster’, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, vol. 4, Crossway, 1985, page 350
- 36Lucas, S M, J. Gresham Machen, EP Books, 2015, pages 87-88 and 109