A Critical Book Review of J.

Gresham Machen’s ​Christianity and Liberalism

Alexander Dwyer
AP12 Christianity, Cults, and Other Competitors
May 10, 2019
 The repercussions of Liberalism lie exposed for all to see in contemporary American

culture. The most heinous ramification of all, subjective morality, has ravaged the very heart and

soul of American life, leaving in its wake broken homes, millions of murdered babies, rampant

sodomy, and promiscuity. But ultimately, blame does not lie with an ideology, but with that

nemesis that is nearly as old as creation itself: sinful human nature. While the modern liberal

sees mankind as fundamentally good, Scripture teaches, in stark contrast, that the hearts of men

are desperately wicked. Nearly a century ago, John Gresham Machen saw the early signs of this

cultural corruption infesting the church itself. He wrote ​Christianity and Liberalism t​ o unmask

the enemy within the church. Machen’s central thesis was that Liberalism, though masquerading

as Christian, was no Christianity at all, but rather a competing religion. In the course of his book,

Machen addressed modern Liberalism on the topics of doctrine, God and man, the Bible, Christ,

salvation, and the church.

He began by dealing with the heart of the discussion: doctrine. Christianity without

doctrine, he argued, was no Christianity at all, for it was the very Person of Christ who lay at the

heart of the Gospel. While the liberal argued that Christ was a great sage, spouting out great

teachings not unlike Confucius or Aristotle, Christ Himself affirmed that He was the great I AM

of the Old Testament. Still others who claimed to trust Christ argued that He was simply a great

teacher. But, contended Machen, trust in Christ necessitates belief in His message, not simply a

vague striving after His example. It is the doctrinal message of Jesus Christ that is at the very

roots of faith (pg. 37). Christ’s own claims were those of a Messiah who knew He was to die for

His people and sit in judgment over the world: “[T]he strange fact is that this supreme revealer of

eternal truth supposed that He was to be the chief actor in a world catastrophe and was to sit in

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judgment upon the whole earth” (pg 29). For the liberal, Christ was a symbol; for the Christian,

He is the Messiah.

Liberals often looked to the Sermon on the Mount as proof that Christ simply desired that

all men unite in the common cause of brotherhood. But there especially Machen noted the

primacy of Christ’s authority as the basis for His entire message. Instead of simply spouting off

moralistic messages, Christ engaged His audience by raising the requirements of the Old

Covenant law and doing so on His own authority. Doctrine, Machen asserted, is at the heart of

the Sermon on the Mount, for “[a] stupendous theology, with Jesus’ own Person at the centre of

it, is the presupposition of the whole teaching” (pg 31). Moreover, the message of the Sermon on

the Mount brings any honest reader to their knees at the foot of the cross as they recognize that

they cannot fulfill everything that Jesus is teaching (pg 32). Not human goodness, but Christ’s

all-sufficient salvation, provides the remedy for human failings. Thus, the doctrines of God and

man lay at the heart of the separation between Liberalism and Christianity.

While Liberalism claims that God was an “All-Father” to the entire human race and that

everything in the world partakes in a type of collective “God-consciousness,” orthodox

Christianity teaches that God is a Father only to those who are true believers and that the

Creator-Creature distinction is maintained for all eternity (pg 53). As for man’s nature, the

Modernist preaches that man is sinless and perfectable, ruined only by the corrupted nurture of

external influences. Machen likened this view to paganism which “...finds the highest goal of

human existence in the healthy and harmonious and joyous development of existing human

faculties” (pg. 56). While Liberalism’s hope is in humanity and the gods of this world, biblical

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hope is found in Christ’s atonement alone as the all-powerful God of heaven and earth become

flesh. Thus, even Scripture itself is under attack in the liberal worldview.

The Word of God, as historical narrative, is picked apart by liberals looking to dismantle

its authority, inspiration, and historicity. Machen decried the fact that liberals rejected history as

irrelevant and disinteresting. In the modernist outlook, the past has little to no bearing on the

present. Scripture, therefore, may be dismissed as flawed, passe, and a relic from times gone by.

True authority, says the liberal, is in Christ. But here too is a total reliance on the heart and

emotions of men to decipher which Scripture to accept and which to reject, for Scripture itself

contains the works of Christ: “...[T]he critic is retaining as genuine words of the historical Jesus

only those words which conform to his own preconceived ideas” (pg. 66). The foundation of

Christianity is the Word of God. The foundation of modern Liberalism is “the shifting emotions

of sinful men” (pg. 67). Thus, Christ’s character is impugned on multiple levels.

In the theology of modern Liberalism, Christ became simply an example of faith rather

than the object of faith. Worse still, His claims to authority, divinity, and Messiahship placed

Him squarely into one of two categories, if the liberal message was to be believed: deceiver or

lunatic (pg 75). Even Christ’s sinlessness was flatly denied. He was instead considered the

“fairest flower” of mankind, but most certainly not the Jesus that the New Testament proclaims

Him to be. Of course, in the liberal naturalistic worldview, the supernatural was foolish

wish-thinking, so Christ’s miracles were deemed impossible, including the greatest and most

essential miracle of all: His resurrection. Thus, Machen rightly stated, “the elimination of the

supernatural logically involves the elimination of much that remains, and the historian constantly

approaches the absurd view which effaces Jesus altogether from the pages of history” (pg. 98).

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Gone is Jesus Christ the God-man of Scripture and gone too is the salvation He freely offers in

the gospel if one believes the liberal’s narrative.

Further, in the liberal “gospel,” salvation is achieved by man, for where else can he look

except to this powerless, All-Father created in man’s own image? It is here that Machen painted

a sobering and vivid picture of modern man’s striving after salvation:

...[M]an is confined in the prison of the world, trying to make the best of his condition,
beautifying the prison with tinsel, yet secretly dissatisfied with his bondage, dissatisfied
with a merely relative goodness which is no goodness at all, dissatisfied with the
companionship of his sinful fellows, unable to forget his heavenly destiny and his
heavenly duty, longing for communion with the Holy One. There seems to be no hope;
God is separate from sinners; there is no room for joy, but only a certain fearful looking
for judgment and fiery indignation (pg. 113).

In the undogmatic cries of Liberalism, there is no room for the God of Scripture or His Christ.

This world is all there is to live for, and the gospel dwindles away into the vague social gospel of

Modernism.

Even the church herself has become infested by this kind of message. Machen’s call,

however, continues to ring clear and true: encourage one another, elect God-fearing ministers, be

devoted brothers, and pursue Christian education and evangelism with a renewed zeal and

courage. Seek refuge in the true church and look to the eternal kingdom of God and His Son to

revive the souls of sinful men.

It is no surprise that liberals against whom Machen was writing, found his opinions to be

scathing. In fact, William Carver, a liberal professor of missions at The Southern Baptist

Theological Seminary in the early twentieth century even wrote that ​Christianity and Liberalism

was on certain points “ineffective,” “too dependent on formal logic,” “basal,” “pessimistic,” and

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even “pathetic.”1 Overall, Carver was hyper-critical of what he saw as Machen’s straw-man of

Liberalism and even wrote in his review that if Machen were asked about his beliefs regarding

the Holy Spirit, Machen might simply reply, “‘I had not so much as heard that there is a Holy

Spirit.’”2 Clearly, Machen’s efforts to defend orthodox Christianity against the internal attacks of

Liberalism had struck a dissonant chord with his opponents.

In reformed circles, however, Machen has often been lauded for his clear insight into the

fundamental contentions with Liberalism. D.G. Hart, in one of several reviews of ​Christianity

and Liberalism​ admired Machen’s stand for doctrinal truth, though he admitted that Machen’s

rationalistic approach to Christian doctrine had distanced some readers. He wrote, “...Machen’s

brand of Calvinism may not escape the charge of rationalism or scholasticism. However his

apology for the intellectual and doctrinal character of the gospel suggests that rationalism and

scholasticism may not he as bad as their critics allege.”3 Hart does, however, have a high regard

for Machen’s defense of the person and work of Christ, noting that “...Machen’s most

compelling reason for opposing modernism was a general uneasiness with Christ.”4 Hart affirms

the centrality of doctrine in the gospel. “For Machen,” he says, “...doctrine could not be

separated from Christianity because the gospel itself...was inherently doctrinal because it

involved what happened historically and supplied the meaning of the event.” Ultimately, Hart

concludes that Machen’s passion to preserve the doctrinal fidelity of the gospel itself helps his

argument to “[emerge] as one of the more profound made in the twentieth century.”5

1
. William Owen Carver, “Christianity and Liberalism,” ​Review & Expositor​ 21:3 (1924), 344-49.
2
. Ibid, 346.
3
. Darryl G. Hart, “J Gresham Machen, Inerrancy, and Creedless Christianity.” ​Themelios​ 25:3 (2000), 22.
4
. Ibid, 26.
5
. Ibid, 34.

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 John Gresham Machen was born in Baltimore, Maryland in the summer of 1881 and died

on New Years Day 1937 at the young age of fifty-five. Machen studied at both John Hopkins

University and Princeton Theological Seminary. He even studied for a time in Germany at the

University of Göttingen and the University of Marburg where Rudolf Bultmann also studied.6 In

1906, he joined the faculty of his alma mater, Princeton Theological Seminary, but over the

coming years would grow increasingly opposed to the liberal Christianity that permeated the

school. He would eventually leave Princeton and go on to found Westminster Theological

Seminary in 1929. He was also instrumental in founding the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in

1936, after being suspended from ministry in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in the

previous year.7 On his simple tombstone are engraved the following words in Greek: “faithful

unto death.” Machen’s faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and ​sola Scriptura​ are evident in

both his life and the books he left behind.

Christianity and Liberalism​ provides a helpful reorientation in a postmodern world

infatuated by subjective and egotistical philosophies. Machen passionately defended the

underlying objectivity of Christianity against the subjective claims of Liberalism. Regarding

doctrine and the person of Christ, he rightly decried the subjectivizing of Christology by liberals

who saw Him as the “fairest flower” of men, instead of the supernatural God-man of the New

Testament (82). Machen perceived that when liberals claim that God is the father of all, men are,

at the same time, exalted to a state of sinlessness, and salvation of the world is accomplished

through human rather than divine means (53, 56-58, 117). At the roots of orthodox Christianity,

6
. Bill Dennison, “Machen and Bultmann at Marburg.” ​Christ the Center​. Podcast audio (Nov 2010),
https://reformedforum.org.
7
“Guide to the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Special Judicial Commission: John Gresham Machen Case
Records” ​Presbyterian Historical Society​. https://www.history.pcusa.org.

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wrote Machen, is found the very Word of the living God. Liberalism, on the other hand, is based

upon the emotions of sinful men (67). It is this juxtaposition of authority that must absolutely be

preached in churches today, where emotions of men are touted as essential to confirmation of the

gospel. Ultimately, the church must seek freedom from “the enemy within” as believers pursue

honesty of conviction (139). Machen rightly placed the burden squarely on the shoulders of

Christians themselves to rid the church of Liberalism. Although his book was written nearly a

century ago, Machen’s words are just as relevant today as when they were first penned.

Some have objected that Machen did not support his claims with enough academic

evidence; but it seems that this would have made his message miss its target audience: lay

people. Still others, contend that Machen’s arguments are too rationalistic. Far from being overly

scholastic or heady, Machen’s proofs are replete with passionate cries for the glory of God and

His Christ (32, 36-37, 39, 53, 110). He truly utilized passionate argument supported by Scriptural

evidence to defend the orthodox teachings of biblical Christianity and prove that Liberalism is, in

fact, another religion.

Christianity and Liberalism​ remains one of the most effective refutations of Liberalism.

Its eminently readable style and honest assessment of the orthodox and liberal positions stand as

a reminder to modern Christians that the contemporary belief in human goodness, subjective

truth, and egocentric lifestyles can be overcome. Only in the truth of Scripture and the true

gospel of Jesus Christ can foolish man-centric ideologies like Liberalism finally be vanquished.

Machen reminds all Christians that hope for the church and the world is found in Christ alone.

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 Bibliography

Carver, William Owen. “Christianity and Liberalism.” ​Review & Expositor​ 21:3 (July 1924),

344–49.

Dennison, Bill. “Machen and Bultmann at Marburg.” ​Christ the Center.​ Podcast audio (Nov

2010), https://reformedforum.org.

Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “John Gresham Machen.” ​Encyclopædia Britannica.​

January 01, 2019. Accessed May 04, 2019. https://www.britannica.com.

Hart, Darryl G. “J Gresham Machen, Inerrancy, and Creedless Christianity.” ​Themelios​ 25:3

(June 2000), 20–34.

Hart, Darryl G. “Machen and the OPC.” ​The Orthodox Presbyterian Church.​ Accessed May 09,

2019.

Hastie, Peter. “The Life and Lessons of J Gresham Machen: Carl Trueman Talks to Peter

Hastie.” ​Matthias Media: The Briefing​. March 15, 2010. Accessed May 09, 2019.

https://matthiasmedia.com.

Machen, John Gresham. ​Christianity and Liberalism​. 1932; reprint, Grand Rapids, MI: William

B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 2009.

Marsden, George M. “J Gresham Machen, History, and Truth.” ​The Westminster Theological

Journal​ 42:1 (Fall 1979), 157-75.