We welcome John Muether and Danny Olinger to discuss the seventh and final chapter of Machen’s classic book, Christianity and Liberalism. The chapter highlights the importance of the church as the most important social institution in Christianity. Machen argues that the church is not only concerned with saving individual souls but also with education and the maintenance of social life in this world. He critiques the liberal view of the church as a mere human institution and emphasizes the importance of the church as the body of Christ.

The chapter concludes by emphasizing the need for Christians to be united in the Church and the incompatibility of liberalism and Christianity on this question. Overall, the chapter provides a detailed and insightful analysis of the theological and biblical foundations of the church.

Chapters

• 00:00:07 Introduction
• 00:02:24 Upcoming Projects on Meredith G. Kline
• 00:06:36 Christianity and Liberalism: The Church
• 00:12:46 Ecclesiology and Unbelief in the Church
• 00:16:52 Is Machen Representative of Other Presbyterians?
• 00:23:20 The PCUSA Losing Its Presbyterian Identity
• 00:29:10 The Source of the “Nones”
• 00:40:08 The True Presbyterian Church of the World
• 00:47:57 Hymns in the Back of the Hymnal
• 01:07:04 Rest from Strife
• 01:09:37 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Danny Olinger, John Muether

Danny Olinger and Camden Bucey discuss the sixth chapter of Machen’s classic book, Christianity and Liberalism. In this chapter, J. Gresham Machen explores the differences between the liberal and Christian views of salvation. He argues that liberalism finds salvation in man, while Christianity finds it in an act of God. Machen critiques the moral influence theory of the atonement, which denies the substitutionary character of Christ’s death and the wrath of God. In contrast, he emphasizes the need for a propitiation for sin and the centrality of the cross of Christ in the Christian view of salvation.

Machen concludes that the doctrine of salvation is essential to the Christian faith and that liberalism and Christianity are fundamentally incompatible on this question. The chapter provides a clear and detailed analysis of the theological and biblical foundations of the Christian view of salvation, and highlights the importance of this doctrine for the Christian life.

Chapters

• 00:00:07 Introduction
• 00:05:40 Review of Christianity and Liberalism
• 00:09:28 The Liberal View of Salvation
• 00:16:14 Liberalism, Roman Catholicism, and the Atonement
• 00:26:24 The Significance of What Christ Did
• 00:31:47 Fundamentalism and Social Progress
• 00:34:30 Theological Categories
• 00:40:08 The Goal and Fruit of Liberalism
• 00:44:45 Machen and Hymns
• 00:54:09 Heavenly-Mindedness
• 01:02:11 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Danny Olinger

On the 100th anniversary of the publication of Christianity and Liberalism, we consider J. Gresham Machen’s critique of the liberal theological perspective on Jesus Christ, contrasting it with the traditional, orthodox Christian view. Machen argues that liberal theology often misrepresents Christ as a mere teacher of righteousness and neglects his divine aspects and teachings. He counters that Christ is not merely an example, but the very object of Christian faith. He also challenges liberal theologians’ struggle to reconcile Jesus’s sinlessness with their evolutionary worldview and argues against a deistic view of God, advocating instead for theism which allows for both God’s works of creation and providence. Machen discusses the issue of miracles in relation to Christian faith, asserting that one cannot selectively believe in parts of Christ’s life, such as dismissing the virgin birth. Ultimately, Machen invites the reader to believe upon Christ as portrayed in Scripture.

Chapters

• 00:07 Introduction
• 04:15 Reflecting on Machen and the Doctrine of Christ
• 10:47 Machen’s Writing Style
• 19:02 The Messianic Self-Consciousness
• 24:07 Modern Christologoy
• 32:16 Jesus Is Not a Mere Example but the Object of Faith
• 38:23 Miracles and the Supernatural Kingdom
• 44:41 Addressing Perennial Errors
• 48:40 Pastoral Considerations
• 56:34 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Danny Olinger, Lane G. Tipton

This is the 100th anniversary of the publication of J. Gresham Machen’s book, Christianity and Liberalism. Danny Olinger and Camden Bucey speak with Alan Strange about the fourth chapter of Machen’s classic, which addresses the Bible.

In this chapter, Machen addresses those who would seek to maintain that what we hold in our hearts about Christ can remain true no matter what the facts of history actually show. These people subjectivize Christianity—making it a function of personal experience. Machen, however, emphasizes the importance of the historical fact of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection and the Bible’s inspired, inerrant, and infallible testimony to this work.

In the course of conversation, the panelists discuss several liberal theologians and the events in American Presbyterianism that led up to 1923, when Christianity and Liberalism was published. These include Friedrich Schleiermacher, Albrecht Ritschl, Wilhelm Herrmann, and the case of Charles Augustus Briggs.

Dr. Alan Strange is Professor of Church History and Theological Librarian at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana and an associate pastor at First Church (OPC) in South Holland, Illinois.

Links

• Alan Strange, The Doctrine of the Spirituality of the Church in the Ecclesiology of Charles Hodge
• Camden Bucey, Karl Rahner (Great Thinkers)
• Danny Olinger, Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theology, Confessional Presbyterian
• Mid-America Reformed Seminary’s Round Table podcast
• The OPC Ruling Elder Podcast
• New Horizons

Chapters

• 00:07 Introduction
• 02:12 Machen on the Bible
• 05:56 Liberalism and the Bible in 19th and 20th Century Presbyterianism
• 14:05 The Supernatural in History
• 17:41 Hodge and Liberalism’s Approach to the Bible
• 31:13 Machen, Hodge, and the Spirituality of the Church
• 33:52 Experience, Tradition, and Scripture
• 38:42 What Jesus Believes about Scripture
• 41:51 Addressing Liberals within the Church
• 50:22 Machen Thought the Liberalism Might Leave
• 52:42 Without the Bible, We are Left with Chaotic Anthropology
• 57:06 Conclusion

Participants: Alan Strange, Camden Bucey, Danny Olinger

This is the 100th anniversary of the publication of J. Gresham Machen’s book, Christianity and Liberalism. Danny Olinger and Camden Bucey speak with Lane Tipton about the third chapter of Machen’s classic, which addresses the relationship between God and man.

In this chapter Machen responds to the theological views of Schleiermacher and Von Harnack, which focus on religious experience rather than God’s supernatural acts in history. Machen argues that the doctrine of God and man revealed in Scripture is the basis for the gospel. It forms the presuppositional substructure of Christianity, to which modern liberalism is diametrically opposed. He affirms a natural knowledge of God in conscience and history. Jesus’ use of the words of prophets and psalmists reveals the character of God and gives significance to the Old Testament heritage of Jesus’ teaching. Machen envisions this revealed theology as the “root of Christianity,” not a natural religion, and one that rests on the teaching of the Old Testament as interpreted by Jesus Christ and his apostles.

Links

• D. G. Hart, Machen and the Presbyterian Controversy (YouTube playlist)
• Audio version of Christianity and Liberalism, chapter 3
• Lane Tipton, “Pantheism in Contemporary Scholarship” (video)

Chapters

• 00:00:07 Introduction
• 00:07:34 Machen and the Shorter Catechism
• 00:12:12 Schleiermacher and Von Harnack
• 00:30:15 Liberalism, Barthianism, and Knowing God
• 00:35:49 The Universal Fatherhood of God and the Universal Brotherhood of Man
• 00:44:54 The Problem with Liberalism’s Doctrine of God
• 00:53:00 Machen Considered Liberalism as Pantheistic
• 01:02:08 Christian Experience with the Living God
• 01:08:07 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Danny Olinger, Lane G. Tipton

This is the 100th anniversary of the publication of J. Gresham Machen’s book, Christianity and Liberalism. Danny Olinger and Camden Bucey welcome D. G. Hart to discuss the second chapter of Machen’s classic, which addresses doctrine. The heart of the matter is that Christianity is a supernatural religion built on the fact that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, accomplished redemption for his people in history. Machen understood that both are essential: the supernatural and the fact that it occurs in history. Machen wrote:

But if any one fact is clear, on the basis of this evidence, it is that the Christian movement at its inception was not just a way of life in the modern sense, but a way of life founded upon a message. It was based, not upon mere feeling, not upon a mere program of work, but upon an account of facts. In other words it was based upon doctrine (Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, 20).

And from the beginning, the meaning of the happening was set forth; and when the meaning of the happening was set forth then there was Christian doctrine. “Christ died”—that is history; “Christ died for our sins”—that is doctrine. Without these two elements, joined in an absolutely indissoluble union, there is no Christianity (Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, 27).

Links

• OPC Ruling Elder podcast
• D. G. Hart, Machen and the Presbyterian Controversy (YouTube playlist)
• D. G. Hart, Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism (Christ the Center, episode 609)
• Audio version of Christianity and Liberalism, chapter 2

Participants: Camden Bucey, Danny Olinger, Darryl G. Hart

Danny Olinger and Camden Bucey discuss the preface and introduction to J. Gresham Machen’s book, Christianity and Liberalism. This is the 100th anniversary of the publication of this important work. In this episode, we discuss the historical circumstances that led Machen to address the Ruling Elders Association of Chester Presbytery. His address was eventually expanded to become this classic work.

Links

• Robert Tarullo’s audio recording of this chapter.
• J. Gresham Machen, “Liberalism or Christianity.” The Princeton Theological Review 20.1 (1922): 93-117.
• D. G. Hart, ed. J. Gresham Machen: Selected Shorter Writings
• D. G. Hart, Machen and the Presbyterian Controversy
• Lefferts Loetscher, The Broadening Church: A Study of Theological Issues in the Presbyterian Church Since 1869
• John Updike, “Pigeon Feathers“

Chapters

• 00:00:07 Introduction
• 00:01:55 The Significance of the Book
• 00:07:17 Historical Background
• 00:27:43 Conservatives and Moderates
• 00:40:19 Modernity
• 00:51:42 Modern Art, Science, and H. G. Wells
• 00:57:31 The Rights of Individuals
• 01:06:23 What Christianity Is
• 01:09:25 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Danny Olinger