Christianity and Liberalism

“For us Jesus does not merely place His fingers in the ears and say, ‘Be opened’; for us He does not merely say ‘Arise and walk.’ For us He has done a greater thing-for us He died. Our dreadful guilt, the condemnation of God’s law-it was wiped out by an act of grace. That is the message which brings Jesus near to us, and makes Him not merely the Savior of the men of Galilee long ago, but the Savior of you and me.” from Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism

In the twentieth century, theological liberalism was sweeping over America and taking over formerly orthodox denominations. Against liberalism and its attacks on Scripture, creation, the atonement, and the resurrection stood J. Gresham Machen. A pastor in the PCUSA and a teacher at Princeton Theological Seminary, Machen found himself at the center of controversy, and he eventually was de-frocked and lost his teaching position. From that point he helped found the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Westminster Theological Seminary. In this short but powerful book Machen shows that liberalism fundamentally denies the Gospel and is a completely false religion that has nothing to do with historic Christianity.

“J. Gresham Machen was a stalwart defender of the orthodox Christian faith, one who understood the nature of the corruptions that were facing the church of his time… He was a champion of loving orthodoxy, and of orthodox loving. The way he held them together should be a model for all of us.” From Douglas Wilson’s Introduction