Last Sunday I gave an overview of J. Gresham Machen’s 1923 book, Christianity and Liberalism, in our adult Sunday School (and he means theological, not political, liberalism). Machen says:
“If a condition could be conceived in which all the preaching of the Church should be controlled by the liberalism which in many quarters has already become preponderant, then, we believe, Christianity would at last have perished from the earth and the gospel would have sounded forth for the last time” (p. 7).
“Here is found the most fundamental difference between liberalism and Christianity—liberalism is altogether in the imperative mood, while Christianity begins with a triumphant indicative; liberalism appeals to man’s will, while Christianity announces, first, a gracious act of God” (p. 39).
For liberalism, “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, not at all because they are teachings of Jesus, but because they agree with modern ideas. It is not true at all, then, that modern liberalism is based upon the authority of Jesus” (p. 66).
“Liberalism regards Him [i.e., Jesus] as an Example and Guide; Christianity, as a Savior: liberalism makes Him an example for faith; Christianity, the object of faith... liberalism regards Jesus as the fairest flower of humanity; Christianity regards Him as a supernatural Person” (p. 82).
Jesus “is our Savior, not because He has inspired us to live the same kind of life that He lived, but because He took upon Himself the dreadful guilt of our sins and bore it instead of us on the cross. Such is the Christian conception of the Cross of Christ” (p. 99).
“Religion cannot be made joyful simply by looking on the bright side of God. For a one-sided God is not a real God, and it is the real God alone who can satisfy the longing of our soul” (p. 113).
“If we really love our fellow-men we shall never be content with binding up their wounds or pouring on oil and wine or rendering them any such lesser service. We shall indeed do such things for them. But the main business of our lives will be to bring them to the Savior of their souls” (p. 134).
If you’re ready for the bold, energetic, gospel clarity Machen delivers in this 100-year-old classic, I’d recommend the 2009 edition from Eerdmans (with a foreword by Carl Trueman).
