D. G. Hart and Parker Williamson to Speak in Omaha April 21-22

Our own Darryl Hart is a plenary speaker at a conference connected with the Presbyterian Layman to be held in Omaha April 21-22. Info is here. More info from the Layman. The confessional Reformed community in the lower midwest is not mighty . . . Continue reading →

Machen’s Warning To MDiv Students

You will have a battle, too, when you go forth as ministers into the church. The church is now in a period of deadly conflict. The redemptive religion known as Christianity is contending, in our own Presbyterian Church and in all the . . . Continue reading →

Machen: Christ Is All Or Nothing

But what was the difference between the teaching of Paul and the teaching of the Judaizers ? What was it that gave rise to the stupendous polemic of the Epistle to the Galatians? To the modern Church the difference would have seemed . . . Continue reading →

The Chaos Of The Present

But more and more there is a tendency to brand as illiberal, medieval and narrow any man who differs from the current of popular religious thought, and declares it to be non-Christian in its tendencies. There is a great discussion in the . . . Continue reading →

Machen: Jesus’ Religion And Ours

In the first place, it will be said, are we not failing to do justice to the true humanity of Jesus, which is affirmed by the creeds of the Church as well as by the modern theologians? When we say that Jesus . . . Continue reading →

Trueman: We Are Intolerant Of The Wrong Things

In an age like ours, of course, where fuzzy boundaries, vagueness, doubt, and caution are supreme virtues, Machen’s thesis is likely to appear both arrogant and overstated. But, as Machen himself says in the opening paragraphs, “In the sphere of religion, as . . . Continue reading →

The Burning Of The Wooden Shoes (Update)

The most disturbing part is that many seem completely oblivious to the shifts. Among a new generation of Reformed pastors and churchgoers, there seems to be little awareness that the project they are pursuing, and the shifts they are pushing, have already . . . Continue reading →

AGR: Christianity And Liberalism

It was a pleasure to join Chris Gordon recently to talk about one of my favorite books, Christianity and Liberalism. Published in 1923, it became Machen’s most well-known work. In it he lays out briefly but clearly the difference between Christianity as . . . Continue reading →

Resources On Machen, Christianity, And Liberalism

In 1923 J. Gresham Machen, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, published one of the more important books in the modern history of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches, Christianity and Liberalism. It was a stirring and cogent defense of the thesis that . . . Continue reading →

The Banality Of Theological Liberalism

A recent tweet from Union Theological Seminary in New York City indicates that the institution, which once boasted luminaries of the intellectual stature of Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich, is now encouraging an innovative penitential practice: confessing sins to plants. To quote . . . Continue reading →

The Question Of The Hour In The PCA

The question of the hour is whether missional contextualization requires celibate gay/same-sex-attracted (SSA) “Side B” pastors. The supporters of (or tolerators of) Side B ministers and the novel doctrine that goes along with them would not say that mission-driven cultural accommodation (per . . . Continue reading →

The Theologically Liberal Empire Strikes Back

In 1923 J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937) published his incisive and devastating critique of theological liberalism, Christianity and Liberalism. At the outset let me emphasize that we are discussing theological liberalism. There are other uses of the word liberalism, e.g., “classical liberalism” refers to . . . Continue reading →

How Error Seeps Into The Church

When error is admitted into the Church, it will be found that the stages of its progress are always three. It begins by asking toleration. Its friends say to the majority: You need not be afraid of us; we are few, and . . . Continue reading →