Thursday, March 26, 2009

Machen's consistent Christianity

One more quote from J. Gresham Machen's autobiographical essay Christianity in Conflict:

When I was a student at Princeton I admired Warfield [Princeton theologian B.B. Warfield], as we all did; but I was far from understanding fully his greatness both as a scholar and as a thinker. I was still playing with the notion that a minimizing apologetic may serve the needs of the Church, and that we may perhaps fall back upon a Biblical Christianity which relinquishes the real or supposed rigidities of the Reformed system. Subsequent investigation and meditation have shown me, as over against such youthful folly, that Warfield was entirely right; I have come to see with greater and greater clearness that consistent Christianity is the easiest Christianity to defend, and that consistent Christianity -- the only thoroughly Biblical Christianity -- is found in the Reformed Faith.

I couldn't resist sharing this one even though I know some of my readers will disagree with it. That's ok. To use C.S. Lewis's probably overused metaphor of Christianity as a house with many rooms -- this is the room I've chosen to live in, but I love having fellowship in the Main Hall with Christians from the other rooms. Of course, my Roman Catholic friends believe they own the whole house! More typical today, though, are those who would demolish the house thinking what we need is a Christian faith without any definite boundaries. A village green approach. Machen addresses that impulse in this lecture.

The Creeds and Doctrinal Advance

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