He had dedicated his life to the Lord, serving as a New Testament Scholar at Princeton Seminary. But he never would have thought that standing upon the revealed scriptures of God and contending for the faith would have led to his dismissal from the revered school of higher learning and the stripping of his credentials of ordination. Nor could he know that his convictions and actions would irreconcilably split the Presbyterian Church, and that many other denominations would follow suit. In an exciting time in America when nearly everything was progressing in art, culture, science, and medicine, John Gresham Machen would lead the conservative resistance against the onslaught of Progressive and Liberal ideology into the historic Christian faith. Although his short but powerful book, Christianity and Liberalism was published in 1923, it remains freshly relevant today as does his example to us in defending the faith.
John Gresham Machen was born on July 28, 1881. It was prosperous time - the gilded age of America. Skyscrapers were going up as well as wages. The Machen family was affluent. John’s mother Mary came from a wealthy family and was a devote Presbyterian. She was a voracious reader and had even published a work on the Bible and poetry. She was 21 years younger than her husband, Arthur Webster Machen, a successful lawyer and an Episcopalian. But despite the couple’s different Christian affiliations, Mary taught John along with her other two sons, the Westminster Shorter Catechism from an early age. The family attended Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, and in time, John came to make the Presbyterian Church his own. But in a twist of fate as only God could know, much of the Presbyterian church would one day make Machen their own.
As an adolescent, he received a classical education and was taught in Greek and Latin. It would serve as formational to his future career as a New Testament scholar. At seventeen years of age, John enrolled at the newly founded, John Hopkins University where he excelled in his studies. In 1901 he decided to pursue Theology at Princeton University.
After four years there, John found himself doing his post study in Germany - the very home of Protestantism. It was there that John learned under Professor and Lutheran Theologian, Wilhelm Herrmann. For better or worse, Herrmann was one of many Theologians in Europe greatly influenced by Immanuel Kant. In general, Herrmann’s Theology viewed God as an ultimate power and source of goodness, but was less concerned with the accuracy or the inherency of the Christian Scriptures, or even the historicity of the person of Jesus. To make things more confusing for young Machen, Herrmann was a passionate and devoted Christian whose preaching deeply moved John’s heart. Because of this, the young theology student had a hard time reconciling a real Christian faith that was not built upon historical and biblical truths. To Machen, Herrmann’s philosophy of Christian faith was a bit illogical. John knew that a substantial and vibrant faith in Jesus should not be separated from what the Bible clearly revealed. History and Doctrine must be integrated.
He would later write, “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.”(J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism)
While it tested his faith, it would seem that John’s time in Germany only strengthened his convictions that modern or liberal theology was not just a different form of the historic Christian faith, but a growing threat to it. But even by this time in John’s young life, he still seemed to be somewhat aimless concerning his career. In letters written to his parents, John conveyed that he found many fields of study to be intriguing and worth engaging in. He loved sports as well. Thus, the young, wealthy academic was not convinced that the life of a Theologian / Teacher or Pastor was a life he really wanted to pursue. But upon his return to the states in 1906, Machen had decided on a career having joined Princeton Seminary as an instructor in New Testament studies. And so began for John, not only a personal and spiritual struggle against the rising tide of Modernism’s influence of Theology but an academic and vocational one as well.
As the years past, Machen was becoming a notable New Testament scholar and one, even more rare, that could post a solid intellectual, historical, and exegetical defense for the foundations of the Christian Faith against the progressive theology that had spread and was continuing to infiltrate academia and churches all across America. And While Machen’s influence and controversy became more widespread and although the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) was growing more tolerant of Modernism, John was promoted as Princeton’s Assistant Professor of New Testament studies in 1914 - on the eve of WW1.
So just as soon as he advanced in Princeton, Machen left to help the war efforts in France. John didn’t want to serve from the guarded position of a Chaplain, so he chose to work though the YMCA as a secretary. But for all practicality, he was a literal waiter, making and serving hot chocolate to the soldiers all day and night. While John was located near the front lines of the war, and was never in combat, he was close enough to the action to see death and suffering firsthand. Thankfully the war was relatively short lived and John left for home. But upon his return, another war was in full swing - a theological one in John’s mind, that while it didn’t destroy the human body, had every potential to destroy the soul. There were clearly two camps of Protestants now, each preaching two different and oppositional interpretations of the gospel. And in May of 1922, Baptist and modernist preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick made that even more apparent by preaching a now famous sermon against his theological opponents entitled, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?"
And indeed, that was the question - one that John would try and answer. But frustratingly, it seemed that he would do it mostly alone. John was not only philosophically distressed at the open front that Modernist Theology posed to the Historic Christian faith, but personally disheartened, by the fact that he didn’t see many others trying to defend it with him. The Conservative Church was largely apathetic which was leading to its ruin. He would later write, “The mass of the Church here is still conservative — but conservative in an ignorant, non-polemic, sweetness-and-light kind of way which is just meat for the wolves.”
So, in continuing to shepherd the flock of God, Machen wrote the short but powerful book, Christianity and Liberalism in 1923. In the introduction, he clarified, “In my little book, Christianity and Liberalism, I tried to show that the issue in the Church of the present day is not between two varieties of the same religion, but, at bottom, between two essentially different types of thought and life.” A few years later, Machen wrote another similar book entitled, What Is Faith? In it, Machen tried to reveal that real Christian faith should not only capture one’s heart and emotions but must engage one’s mind and knowledge as well. Even though his books were received relatively well, there was more work to be done. So, besides teaching on weekdays, preaching on weekends, and publishing in the time between, Machen also took advantage of the air waves. The Radio was not even a decade old, and John made effective use of it. So much so, that by his numerous teachings on what makes Christianity authentically Christian, he became known as Dr. Fun-da-men-ta-lis or (The Dr. of the Fundamentals).
But in the very midst of all of this, the more liberal Northern Presbyterians were doing their own work to break free from fundamentalism’s long hold on their denomination. And in May of 1924, the Auburn Affirmation was dated and presented to the General Assembly - the authoritative body of the Presbyterian church. The Auburn Affirmation sought to liberate the Presbyterian Church from the requirements of those seeking ordination. Since the church’s beginning, every ordained minister had to believe and confess five fundamentals of the Christian faith. 1. The Inerrancy of the Scriptures, 2. The Virgin birth of Jesus, and His deity, 3. The Substitutionary Atonement, 4. The bodily resurrection of Jesus, and 5. The authenticity of Jesus’ miracles - (belief in the supernatural). Although the affirmation was authored by an eleven-member Conference Committee, it was signed by over twelve hundred ministers of the PCUSA, and supported by many other clergymen. The General Assembly convened to consider the affirmation and set about to probe deeper into the division within their church that had now been brewing for nearly 30 years.
But just after this, in 1925, the American mood towards the Modernist / Fundamentalist theological controversy drastically changed over the Summer of that year. And it happened outside the walls of the Church.
In July, William Jennings Bryan, the three time Democratic Presidential candidate, the Conservative Christian, and long time Presbyterian elder, participated in the highly publicized Scopes Trial - or the Scope’s Monkey Trial. While the Trial technically debated the legality of teaching the theory of evolution in public schools, the case was much bigger than that. It highlighted, and nationalized the ongoing controversy of Liberal VS. Conservative, and Modernist VS. Fundamentalist. The aging Bryan represented the prosecution, arguing against evolution being taught in schools where the famed Clarence Darrow defended John Scope’s right to instruct and teach the theory. But on the seventh day of the trial, Darrow unorthodoxly questioned Byran as a witness to basically defend the Bible, and the miracles described within it. Byran, although relatively well versed in the Bible, was not ready for this line of questioning - and it embarrassingly showed. The news coverage, namely led by Henry Mencken ridiculed and branded Bryan as a Southern, anti-intellectual, Bible believing dope. On the eight and last day of the trial, the jury took only nine minutes to deliberate. Although Mr. Scope’s was found guilty on a technicality and fined one hundred dollars, the American public believed the media coverage that largely portrayed fundamentalist Christians as naive, rigid, and unscientific.
William Bryan died five days after the trial in his sleep from a stroke. He was 65 years old.
In the aftermath of the Scope’s case, what was once a nation that had grown somewhat indifferent to theological fundamentalism had now become openly opposed to it. With the movement presently on the side of the Progressives in every aspect of the culture and now in the Church, (as the General Assembly ended up supporting the Auburn Affirmation), Machen and the many others like him, felt they had no place to go. Their belief in the foundational truths of the Christian Faith were not welcomed in the arts, or humanities. Worse, they were not welcomed in Princeton or even the PCUSA. So, with firmness of purpose, academic influence, and much financial help from his inheritance, Machen took the lead in founding Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia in 1929. He would teach New Testament there until his death, which sadly, wasn’t too far away for the 48 year old professor.
While the emergence of a Seminary that remained faithful to the historic and conservative doctrines of the faith was a success, there was still only one Presbyterian Church, to which all those “fundamentalists” reluctantly belonged. The new Seminary was no doubt an academic solution, but it was not an ecclesiastical one. And within only a few years after the new Seminary had opened, Machen saw more problems on the horizon of a church divided.
That’s because a certain theology sown must reap a certain practice. And sure enough, some missionaries from the PCUSA revealed that their work in foreign countries had less to do with the saving work of Jesus than it did spreading general Christian philosophy and ethics. In the wake of the Auburn Affirmation, many missionaries straightforwardly denied the deity of Christ, and therefore, His redemptive work, like novelist Pearl S. Buck who openly denied the core tenets of the gospel. Because of this, Machen could not, in good faith give the church's tithes to a missionary board that spread such unbiblical theology upon lost souls. Gresham wrote that the "missionary of liberalism” sought to spread "the blessings of Christian civilization (whatever that may be), and is not particularly interested in leading individuals to relinquish their pagan beliefs." (Christianity and Liberalism). Due to the two opposing groups of Christians inside their walls, the PCUSA clearly had two different missions. And so, in 1933 Machen, finally formed The Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions.
While this new Foreign Missions Board was a victory, much like Westminster Seminary was, at least from the Conservative point of view, it was only another band aid applied to a much bigger and festering wound. Not only was the PCUSA, growing tired of being challenged on every level, but was now receiving less income from their tithes being split between two Missionary Agencies. They felt it was time to confront the new mission board head on. The General Assembly demanded that the members of the Independent Missions committee step down. This command was ignored - the conservatives in general believed that the Presbytery would not seriously punish other Presbyterians whose sole purpose was to preach the gospel. But they were wrong. In February and March of 1935, Machen was tried on six charges all related to his support for the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. Although he plead “Not Guilty”, the court not only denied his chance to defend himself against the accusations of disobedience, but ruled that their judicial resolution could not be challenged. Friend and colleague of Machen later wrote how wrong it was, “…that a Presbyterian court should thus have flouted the most elementary principles of justice, [and] That it happened can only be attributed to a shocking disregard of the basic Protestant principles that God alone is Lord of the conscience and that the Scriptures are the only infallible rule of faith and practice by which all controversies are to be judged.” [-Stonehouse, Ned B., J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1954), pages 490-491.]
Machen was officially and finally defeated. Not by the world, but by his own church, the PCUSA. He was tried, convicted, and suspended from his ministerial duties. In essence, his ordination from the church he grew up, taught, and served in was revoked.
This unsurprisingly led to the culmination of the great Presbyterian split.
Having done all to unite and yet warn his body of believers, concerning the dangers of Modern Theology, Machen, and the many with him, were convinced they had no other option than to officially start their own church - the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, or the OPC. It was launched in mid 1936. But while the controversial scholar, and defrocked church planter was busy with all his commitments, Machen was never too occupied to preach to anyone, anywhere. During the Westminster’s Christmas break of the 1936, (just six months after the OPC began), John was asked to preach to some churches in North Dakota. Close friends of his lightly tried to dissuade him from going since he was already clearly tired and stressed from fresh church split. Yet, ever devoted to his work and to the preaching of the gospel, John did not heed their caution. He took the train into the inhospitable weather of the North Dakota winter. But there would be no train ride back.
While the 55 year old, weathered many storms in his life up to this point, the 20 below 0 winds got to him and John soon fell ill with pneumonia. Just after Christmas day away from home, Machen was admitted to a Roman Catholic hospital in Bismarck. On the morning of New Year’s Day 1937, John still gravely ill, was well enough to send a telegram to his close friend and Westminster colleague, John Murray. But later that day, around 7:30 p.m., John Gresham Machen finally succumbed to his chest infection and died.
With little imagination, one could speculate that John’s last days on earth was nothing more than an old, haggard, academic polemist, bitter at how he was handled by the church, saddened by the friends he lost, confused as to his poor health, complaining in all these things resentfully asking “why”? But it seems, anything like that was far from the truth. John, whom, rest and tranquility often eluded, was at peace. His last recorded words, from the telegram Mr. Murray received simply said, “I’m so thankful for [the] active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.”
You see, John’s hope and peace were nothing the world or the church could give or take away. His ultimate rest was solely in the person and redeeming work of Jesus. That is why Machen could write that he was “thankful” on the very day he died, probably alone, in an unfamiliar hospital in the harsh weather of North Dakota. All of John’s work - his preachings, his teachings, his writings, viewed as both defensive and offensive, was not just convincing one about lifeless creeds or beliefs, or philosophical theories, and impersonal theology, but rather the personally deep relationship that can be had in his friend and savior Jesus. And for Machen, that was worth living for, fighting for, and dying for.
Sources:
1. Youtube: The Boswell Sisters 1930's music - USA Best female singers vol.1 (1930-1935) / ill rec
2. Youtube: LGBTQ+ Against God's Design? Progressive VS Conservative Christian (Part 1) / Anchored North (Clip used out of context).
3. Youtube: Inherit the Wind (1960) - Fanaticism and Ignorance Scene (5/12) | Movieclips / Feb 2, 2017
4. Youtube: Scopes Monkey – Rare Footage of the "Trial of the Century" | Flashback | History / Jul 20, 2018
Questions:
What does it look like for you to contend for the faith today in your circle of influence?
What doctrines should the Church be split over?
Extra Material:
Christ, Culture & Coffee, An Apologetics Podcast / Episode 153: The Dangers of Progressive Christianity