This year marks the 100^th anniversary of J. Gresham Machen’s famous, and probably one of the most important theological books of the past century, Christianity and Liberalism.^[1] The book’s significance cannot be overstated and its larger impact on the modernist-fundamentalist debates, along with the rise of evangelicalism in the twentieth century is incalculable. Numerous reasons could be given for the book’s importance, but I will mention only three.

Three Reasons to Remember Christianity & Liberalism

First, in Christianity and Liberalism, Machen masterfully and correctly distinguishes true, orthodox Christianity from its counterfeit known as “classic liberal theology.” Due to the cultural, philosophical, and religious impact of the Enlightenment on society and the later embrace of the Darwinian theory of macroevolution, some within the church sought to recast Christianity to “fit” and “conform” to the current thought of the day. Convinced that Christianity could not survive unless it embraced the “spirit of the age,” which meant for these people that Christian theology had to reject its own starting points and authority structure grounded in God and his revelation. Thus, instead of starting with the triune God who is there and who has spoken infallibly and authoritatively in Scripture, theological liberalism continued to use the language of Scripture but divorced from its theological grounding. The result of this attempt to correlate the Bible with contemporary thought (which functioned as the authoritative grid by which we read Scripture) was not the “saving” of Christianity or even making it “relevant” to its cultured despisers, but its ultimate destruction. Instead, of faithfully expounding and applying Scripture to the present day, classic liberalism constructed a different religion of its own making that had no resemblance to historic Christianity. They continued to use biblical language, but they hollowed out its biblical meaning and significance. No doubt, Machen was not the first to sound the alarm that theological liberalism was not Christianity, but his book was certainly one of the most significant works to remind the Church of this crucial point.

Second, in Christianity and Liberalism, Machen reminds us that God’s glory and the truth of Scripture demands a loving confrontation of the church against all error that seeks to undermine the truth of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. There comes a time when people who claim to be Christians have so departed from the truth of God’s Word that separation and division is inevitable. We ought to seek the unity of the church, but not when the truth of Scripture and the gospel is at stake. We no longer have unity when biblical truth is either redefined, undermined, or rejected. Machen knew this well. As a result of his stand against the drift towards theological liberalism within the Presbyterian church, he was instrumental in founding a new seminary (Westminster Theological Seminary) and a new denomination (the Orthodox Presbyterian Church). None of these decisions were easy for him to make, but Machen knew that in order to honor God, his Word, and glory of Christ, truth required confrontation against error, and even separation from those who identified as Christians.

For the evangelical church today, this is a lesson we must learn from Machen. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the battle was over the authority of Scripture and the objective truth of historic Christianity over against classic liberalism. Classic liberalism rejected the supernatural triune God of Scripture, the pervasive nature of human sin and depravity, and the only saving hope for humans in the finished work of the divine Son who assumed our human nature in order to perfectly obey for us in his life, and by his death pay for our sins to secure our justification before God. In contrast to the theological liberalism of his day, Machen knew that Christianity was not simply about doing good for our fellow humans and thus seeing “kingdom” progress in this world. Instead, first and foremost, Christianity is about what the true and living God has done to take the initiative to save sinners in and through Christ alone. It is about what the triune God has done to establish his church, which no doubt impacts the world. But the first things of the gospel must come first so that Christianity is not turned into a liberal social program, and not what it truly is: what God has done to save sinners from their sin.

Of course, this raises the question of our day. The specific form of theological liberalism that Machen stood against may no longer be with us, but the need to stand against error and all that opposes the truth of Scripture is perennial. On every side, the evangelical church is floundering as it accommodates to the current Zeitgeist, whether regarding the present sexual revolution that demands we change our biblical convictions, or in our redefinitions of God, humans, sin, Christ, salvation, and so on. Even the issue related to female pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention is tied to larger issues of Scripture, interpretation, and biblical authority. What Machen teaches us, therefore, is that we must recognize today where the battle rages and to lovingly confront error based on the truth of God’s Word.

Third, in Christianity and Liberalism, Machen not only speaks against the error of his day but also positively expounds and defends the truth of Scripture and Christian theology. Machen’s rejection of theological liberalism meant that he had to put historic Christianity in its place, hence his concern for theological education and the establishment of faithful churches who would join to form a new denomination. Machen knew that it was not enough to reject error; he also knew that he had to ground the church in the truth of the whole counsel of God. This too is a lesson that the evangelical church must learn today. Poll after poll reminds us that those who identify with the evangelical church know less about Scripture and sound theology.

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