07 J. GRESHAM MACHEN PART 2
Lessons We Might Learn from Machen
Machen's life and thought issue a call for all of us to be honest, open, clear, straightforward and guileless in our use of language.
He challenges us, as does the apostle Paul (2Co_2:17; 2Co_4:2; Eph_4:25; 1Th_2:3-4) say what we mean and mean what we say, and repudiate duplicity and trickery and shame and verbal manipulating and sidestepping and evasion.
Machen alerts us to the dangers of the utilitarian uses of moral and religious language. For example, in Christianity Today, Nov. 9, 1992, (36/13) p. 21, Roy Beck quotes Gregory King, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the nation's largest homosexual advocacy group, who told the Washington Times in August, "I personally think that most lesbian and gay Americans support traditional family and American values," which he defined as "tolerance, concern, support, and a sense of community."
This is an example of how words with moral connotations have been co-opted by special interest groups to gain the moral high ground without moral content. They sound like values, but they are empty: "Tolerance" for what? All things? Which things? the standards are not defined. "Concern" for what? Expressed in what way? Redemptive opposition, or sympathetic endorsement? The standard is not defined. "Support" for what? For the behavior that is destructive and wrong? Or for the person who admits the behavior is wrong and is struggling valiantly to overcome it? The object is not defined. "Community" with what standards of unification? Common endorsements of behavior? Common vision of what is right and wrong? Common indifference ot what is right and wrong? Again the standards are not defined.
Yet the opposite of each of these four family values (intolerance, unconcerned, oppressive, self-centered) all carry such negative connotations that it is hard in sound bites to show why the four "values" asserted by the homosexual community are inadequate and even may be wrong as they use them.
All you have is words driven by a utilitarian view of language where honesty and truth are not paramount. Machen shows us that this is not new and that it is destructive to the church and the cause of Christ.
Machen alerts us to the utter doctrinelessness of our day and the fact that we almost take it for granted that utilitarian thinking is the only hope for success, and that preaching or teaching doctrine is a prescription for failure.
This skepticism about the value of doctrine is owning to bad preaching that is not passionate and clear and interesting and suspenseful and authentic about the glories of God and his way of salvation, and how it all connects with real life. The Dogma is the Drama Dorothy Sayers said and the reason we can't show this to people in our preaching and teaching and writing is that we have not seen and felt the greatness of the glory of God and all his teachings. Preaching doctrine should not be confusing or boring, Machen says:
That error, unquestionably, should be avoided. But it should be avoided not by the abandonment of doctrinal preaching, but by our making doctrinal preaching real preaching. The preacher should present to his congregation the doctrine that the Holy Scripture contains; but he should fire the presentation of that doctrine with the devotion of the heart, and he should show how it can be made fruitful for Christian life (see note 46).
Machen's life teaches us the importance of founding and maintaining institutions in the preservation and spreading of the true gospel.
Visions of truth and world-views like Machen's are preserved not just in the minds of a few disciples but in the charters and covenants and enclaves and durable organizations and with long term official commitments. Mark Noll observes that "The genius of Old Princeton had been its embodiment of confessional Calvinism in great institutions: the school itself, the Princeton Review, Hodge's Systematic Theology, and the Old School party among the northern Presbyterians" (see note 47).
Founding and maintaining institutions are, of course, not the only way of spreading the truth of Christ in the world. And in the name of preserving the truth they often come to stand in the way of spreading the truth. Nevertheless they are not necessarily bad and are probably a good tension with the more charismatic, spontaneous focus on individualism in ministry.
I personally give God thanks with all my heart for the institutions of the family that I grew up in, and for Wheaton College, and for Fuller Seminary, and for the church that I now serve. By God's grace these institutions preserved and embodied for me the forces of truth and righteousnes in such a way that I have been deeply shaped by them. I think, if each person gives serious thought to how he came to have the convictions and values and dreams that he has, he will see that virtually all of us owe much of what we are to institutions, without denying or minimizing that it has been individual teachers, friends, authors in and around those institutions that have been the immediate mediators of truths and goodness and beauty.
Machen's experience calls us to have patience with young strugglers who are having doubts about Christianity.
Machen was saved for the kingdom and the church by Faculty and parents who gave him the room to work it through. Machen says that he finally found victory and tranquility of spirit "because of the profound and constant sympathy of others" (see note 48).
This is illustrated especially from his mother and father who responded with love and patience to his fears that he could not enter the ministry because of his doubts. His mother wrote on Jan. 21, 1906 while Machen was in Germany,
But one thing I can assure you of — that nothing you could do could keep me from loving you — nothing. It is easily enough to grieve me. Perhaps I worry too much. But my love for my boy is absolutely indestructible. Rely on that whatever comes. And I have faith in you too and believe that the strength will come to you for your work whatever it may be, and that the way will be opened (see note 49).
His father wrote on Jan. 26, 1906,
None of the years of study you have had can ever be properly considered "wasted" no matter what field of work you may ultimately enter upon … The pecuniary question you need not bother about. I can assure you on that point (see note 50).
Machen credits the power of his parents in his life in a letter to his father dated Feb. 4, 1906:
Without what I got from you and Mother I should long since have given up all thoughts of religion or of a moral life … The only thing that enables me to get any benefit out of my opportunities here is the continual presence with me in spirit of you and Mother and the Christian teaching which you have given me (see note 51).
But not only his parents but also his colleagues at Princeton in the first several years steadied his hand and preserved his orthodox faith. He gives amazing tribute to his closest colleague, William Armstrong, in his installation address as Assistant Professor of New Testament May 3, 1915: "The assistance that he has given me in the establishment of my Christian faith has been simply incalculable (see note 52).
On July 14, 1906 Armstrong wrote to Machen with an offer to teach that was flexible enough to allow him to begin at Princeton on a trial basis even with some of his doubts unsettled.
You do not have to be licensed, or ordained or even come under the care of the presbytery. You can start upon the work just as you are. And in regard to your theological opinions you do not have to make any pledge. You are not expected to have reached final conclusion on all matters in this field. Only in your teaching will you be expected to stand on the broad principles of Reformed Theology and in particular on the authority of the Scriptures in religious matters — not that your teaching should be different from your personal convictions — but simply that in matters not finally settled you would await decision before departing from the position occupied by the Seminary. The whole matter reduces itself in simple good faith. Should you find after trying it that you could not teach in the Seminary because you had reached conclusions in your study which made it impossible for you to uphold its position you would simply say so (see note 53).
Machen would not have been allowed to stay at Princeton if he had come out on the wrong side or stayed indefinitely on the fence. The compromise of an institution's fidelity and the misuse of academic freedom happens when doctrinal and ethical doubts are kept secret, or, worse, when lurking denials are put forward as affirmations. Hones, humble struggles can be sustained for some season. But the duplicity that hides secret denials will destroy an institution and a soul.
Machen alerts us to the danger of indifferentism – the attitude that says "affirming or denying truth is not a matter of great import . . . just leave the doctrines aside and unite on other bases."
This is the atmosphere in which false teaching flourishes best. It was not the open modernists who led Princeton away from evangelicalism, it was men who did not think the issues were worth fighting about.
Machen's interaction with Modernism shows the value of a God-centered vision of all reality – a worldview, a theology that is driven by the supremacy of God in all of life.
This gives balance and stability in dealing with error. It enables us to see how an error relates to the larger issues of life and thought.
Machen was set off from the fundamentalists by this consistently God-centered view of all things. His critique of Modernism went deeper and farther because his vision of God caused him to see the problem in a deeper and broader context. The sovereignty of God and his supremacy over all of life, causes you to see everything in relation to more things because they all relate to God and God relates to all things.
Machen's careful expressions of disagreement show the necessity and fruitfulness of controversy.
In a lecture delivered in London on June 17, 1932 Machen defended engagement in controversy:
Men tell us that our preaching should be positive and not negative, that we can preach the truth without attacking error. But if we follow that advice we shall have to close our Bible and desert its teachings. The New Testament is a polemic book almost from beginning to end.
Some years ago I was in a company of teachers of the Bible in the colleges and other educational institutions of America. One of the most eminent theological professors in the country made an address. In it he admitted that there are unfortunate controversies about doctrine in the Epistles of Paul; but, said he in effect, the real essence of Paul's teaching is found in the hymn to Christian love in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians; and we can avoid controversy today, if we will only devote the chief attention to that inspiring hymn.
In reply, I am bound to say that the example was singularly ill-chosen. That hymn to Christian love is in the midst of a great polemic passage; it would never have been written if Paul had been opposed to controversy with error in the Church. It was because his soul was stirred within him by a wrong use of the spiritual gifts that he was able to write that glorious hymn. So it is always in the Church. Every really great Christian utterance, it may almost be said, is born in controversy. It is when men have felt compelled to take a stand against error that they have risen to the really great heights in the celebration of truth (see note 54).
We learn from Machen the inevitability and pain of criticism, even from our brothers.
His colleague, Charles Erdman publicly accused Machen of "unkindness, suspicion, bitterness and intolerance" (see note 55). When he voted against a church resolution in favor of the national Prohibition and the 18th Amendment, he was criticized as a secret drunkard and promoter of vice (see note 56). Sine he was single he was criticized as being naive and unaware of the responsibilities of the family (see note 57).
There is in all of us the desire to be liked by others. If it is strong enough we may go to unwise lengths to avoid criticism. We may even think we can be kind enough to everyone so as to avoid criticism. This will not work, especially if we have any public role. It is true that the Bible says that we are to let our light shine that men might see our good deeds and give glory to God (Mat_5:16). And it is true that we are to silence the ignorance of foolish men by our good deeds (1Pe_2:15). But there is also the truth that the world called the most loving Master of the house Beelzebub (Matthew: 10:25).
You cannot be kind enough and merciful enough that no one will criticize you. Consider this: feminist Germain Greer recently criticized even Mother Teresa saying she is a "religious imperialist."
At my convent school, the pious nuns who always spoke softly and inclined their heads with a small, patient smile were the ones to fear. They became the mother superiors. Mother Teresa is not content with running a convent; she runs an order of Mother Teresa clones, which operates world-wide. In anyone less holy, this would be seen as an obscene ego trip … Mother Teresa epitomizes for me the blinkered charitableness upon which we pride ourselves and for which we expect reward in this world and the next. There is very little on earth that I hate more than I hate that (see note 58).
Machen teaches us the necessity of differentiating levels of error.
He did not focus his energies mainly on fighting eschatological issues, or sacramental issues, or church polity issues, or Arminianism per se, or even Roman Catholicism. He focused on the naturalistic threat to supernatural orthodox Christianity (see note 59).
His tragic death at the age of 55 reminds us to find the pace to finish the race.
God is sovereign and works all our foolishness together for his good. But our duty and Biblical responsibility is to work in such a way as not to allow less important demands of the present to steal our strength, and our life, which might serve some greater demand in the years to come. It is hard to believe that Machen made a wise decision to go to North Dakota in the Christmas break of 1936-37, when he was "deadly tired" and needed rest so badly. It is also a rebuke that he was about 30 pounds over weight (see note 60).
The lesson we should learn is to be accountable to a group of friends who will have the courage and the authority to tell us, if necessary, to work and eat less. Machen was not accountable in this way. Ned Stonehouse, his fellow teacher at Westminster at the end said, "There was no one of sufficient influence to constrain him to curtail his program to any significant degree" (see note 61). Who knows what a great difference it would have made for the whole cause of Evangelicalism if Machen had lived and worked another 20 years?
Machen's struggle to maintain his faith in the face of passionate Modernism and dull orthodoxy calls us to blend passion and vitality and zeal with intellectual labor and serious thought and rigorous study.
People want to be taught the deep and great things about God, but it must be real and living and life-giving.
12. Finally, Machen's approach to apologetics raises for us the question whether our labors for the sake of the lost should not only involve direct attempts to present the gospel, but also indirect attempts to remove obstacles in the culture that make faith more difficult.
One of the most provocative aspects of Machen's thought is his contention that apologetics involves preparing a culture more congenial to the gospel.
It is true that the decisive thing is the regenerative power of God. That can overcome all lack of preparation, and the absence of that makes even the best preparation useless. But as a matter of fact God usually exerts that power in connection with certain prior conditions of the human mind, and it should be ours to create, so far as we can, with the help of God, those favorable conditions for the reception of the gospel. False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the while collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion. Under such circumstances, what God desires us to do is to destroy the obstacle at its root … What is today matter of academic speculation begins tomorrow to move armies and pull down empires. In that second stage, it has gone too far to be combated; the time to stop is was when it was still a matter of impassionate debate. So as Christians we should try to mold the thought of the world in such a way as to make the acceptance of Christianity something more than a logical absurdity … What more pressing duty than for those who have received the mighty experience of regeneration, who, therefore, do not, like the world, neglect that whole series of vitally relevant facts which is embraced in Christian experience — what more pressing duty than for these men to make themselves masters of the thought of the world in order ot make it an instrument of truth instead of error (see note 62)?
Is there Biblical warrant for this goal in 1Pe_2:15 — we are to silence the ignorance of foolish men by our good deeds, that is, we are to stop the spread of falsehood by a powerful evidence to the contrary ? Or is there evidence for Machen's view in Eph_5:11 where we are to expose the fruitless works of darkness? Or should be consider Mat_5:14-16 where we are light and salt, which may perhaps include spreading the preservative idea that there is truth and beauty and valid knowing? Or, perhaps most plainly we should find support for Machen's view in 2Co_10:3 where we are to take every thought captive to Christ?
In one sense this teaching of changing culture so that the gospel is more readily believed may sound backward. In world missions the gospel comes first before the culture is transformed. Only then, after the gospel is received is there set in motion a culture-shaping power that in a generation or two may result in changing some world-view issues in the culture that make Christianity less foreign even to the non-believer so that there are fewer obstacles to overcome.
But this process is not a straight line to glory on earth (some saved culture altered more saved culture more altered, etc.). The process seems to ebb and flow as generations come and go. Being born and living in that ebb and flow one must ask: is it a crucial ministry to engage in debate at foundational levels in order to slow the process of deterioration of gospel-friendly assumptions, and even perhaps even hasten the reestablishing of assumptions that would make Christianity objectively conceivable and thus more capable of embracing?
The New Testament is a first generation document. It is not written into a situation where the gospel has been known and believed for centuries and where the culture may have been partially transformed, degenerated and now in need of another movement of transformation. But there is an analogy to this kind of cultural situation in the Old Testament with people of God who did indeed experience the ebb and flow of being changed by the Word of God and drifting away from it. So we might see in some of the reforming actions of the Old Testament an analogy to what Machen meant by preparing the culture to make it more receptive to the truth of God. For example, one might think of the removal of the high places by the king, or the putting away of foreign wives by the post-exilic Jews.
We need to think long and hard about the relative priority of such culture shaping effort as preparatory for the gospel in view of the Biblical missionary pattern of the reverse.
Possible Weaknesses of Machen
Personal Prayer and Devotional Life
It is strange that Machen's friend and close associate, Ned Stonehouse, in 500 pages of sympathetic Memoir, said nothing about Machen's prayer life. And in the complete 24-page list of Machen's writing in Pressing Toward the Mark: Essays Commemorating Fifty Years of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, I found no essay or book on the subject of prayer, though there is a section on prayer in The New Testament: An Introduction to its Literature and History, (pp. 319-329).
Nor is there any reference to his devotional life — meditating on the word for his own encouragement and strength. Nor is there any reference to personal worship and rarely to corporate worship as a driving force in his life. It seems as though all was swallowed up in the intellectual defense of faith. One wonders whether some ground may have been lost by fighting instead of praying. Of course, he may have had a vital personal prayer life. But that in all his writings he would not take up that topic, and that Stonehouse would not consider it worthy of highlighting as one of the powerful nerve-centers of his life and thought, is disconcerting in view of Machen's being a Biblically-saturated warrior for the word that commands: "watch and pray" as the heart of the warfare.
Humility and Teachableness
He worked himself to death it seems and was not open to the counsel of his friends when they cautioned his slowing down and resting. This is not a mark of the humility and teachableness that we long to see even in the strongest and most rugged defenders of the faith (See above.).
Personality
He seemed to have a personality that alienated people too easily. The committee that did not recommend him to the chair of apologetics at Princeton referred to his "temperamental idiosyncrasies" (see note 63). He seems to have had "a flaring temper and a propensity to make strong remarks about individuals with whom he disagreed" (see note 64).
Renaissance and Revival
He may have put too much hope in the intellectual power of the church to transform the mindset of a nation and make evangelism easier. In his speaking of renaissance and revival coming together (see note 65), he may have put "renaissance" in too prominent a position. I only say this as a caution which others have seen too (see note 66), not as a final judgment. It may be that in our even more anti-intellectual world of the end of the 20th century we would do well to listen to Machen here rather than criticize him.
Wealth
He may have lived at a level of cultural wealth and comfort (See above.) that made it hard for him to see and feel the painful side of being poor and living without the freedom and luxury to travel to Europe repeatedly and go to hotels in order to have quiet for writing. The privations and pressures of the urban poor were so far from Machen's experience that the issue of how to minister more immediately did not press him as hard as it might others and so left him perhaps to develop his apologetic in a world cut off in good measure from the questions of how it relates to the uneducated.
Again I say this with some hesitancy, because almost all of us are limited by the cultural level at which we live. We see only so many hurts and problems. There are a thousand blind spots for every insight. Machen did give significant thought to the whole issue of education for children, whether or not he faced the complexities of how to tackle the problems of the cities.
The overwhelming lesson to be learned from his weaknesses and strengths is that God reigns over his church and over the world in such a way that he uses the weaknesses and the strengths of all in creating the mosaic of his purposes. His overarching plan is always more hopeful than we think in the darkest hours of history, and it is always more intermixed with human sin and weakness in its brightest hours.
Thus we do well to take our stand with one foot in Jam_4:13-15, to protect ourselves from triumphalism and the other in 1Co_15:58 to protect ourselves from resignation.
Jam_4:13-15
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain"; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that."
1Co_15:58
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
* * *
APPENDIX
A Chronological Outline of Key Events in Machen's Life
July 20, 1827 Father, Arthur Webster Machen, born
June 17, 1849 Mother, Mary Jones Gresham, born
1876 Brother, Arthur, born
July 28, 1881 Machen born in Baltimore
1881 Francis Patton comes to Princeton as professor
1886 Brother, Thomas, born
1888 Francis Patton becomes president of Princeton
Jan. 4, 1896 Machen became confessing member of Franklin St. Presbyterian Church
1897 William Park Armstrong graduates from Princeton
Nov. 3, 1898 – Machen enters Johns Hopkins on three-year program
1889, 1900, 1902 Machen attended the Northfield Conference
1901 Machen editor of The Hullabaloo, the school annual, the Banjo Club and the Chess Club
April 15, 1901 Machen elected Phi Beta Kappa
Fall, 1901 Machen began a year of graduate studies in Classics at Johns Hopkins
Summer, 1902 Machen took a course in banking and international law at U. of Chicago
Fall, 1902 Machen entered Princeton Seminary
1903 His cousin, LeRoy Gresham, left law in Baltimore to study at Union Seminary in Richmond
1903 Mary Machen published The Bible in Browning
1904 Machen won the Middler Prize in NT Exegesis with paper on Joh_1:1-18
Spring, 1904 Patton confers with Machen about preparing for a professorship at the Seminary in NT
Summer, 1904 Machen goes to Germany to learn German better
1905 Machen won the senior essay contest with "A Critical Discussion of the NT Account of the Virgin Birth of Jesus"
Spring, 1905 Machen's graduation from Princeton
Oct., 1905 and Jan. 1906 Publication of senior essay in the Princeton Seminary Review.
1905-1906 Machen studies in Germany (Marburg and Goettingen)
Mark 11, 1906 Armstrong asks him to join faculty of Princeton.
June 13, 1906 Machen is invited by Warfield's brother, the president of Lafayette College to come and teach Greek and German.
August 21, 1906 Machen arrives back in America.
Fall, 1906 Machen accepts a year's appointment to Princeton to assist Armstrong in NT.
Feb., 1909 "Student rebellion" at Princeton
1907-08 Machen announced a course on the birth narratives. His magnum opus, The Virgin Birth of Christ appeared in 1930.
1909 Machen began to supplement Huddlestone's Essentials of New Testament Greek, an effort which became, New Testament Greek for Beginners in 1923.
1909 Warfield's message on Calvinism at the 400th anniversary of John Calvin's birth stirred MACHEN deeply.
1910-1915 Publication of The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth
Sept. 12, 1912 Machen gave address "Christianity and Culture" at opening of 101st session of Princeton.
Jan. 4, 1913 Machen got his first major recognition as a scholar of international attention when Adolf Harnack reviewed in Theologische Literaturzeitung Machen's articles on the first chapters of Luke.
Nov. 1913 Machen came under the care of his Presbytery at age 32.
April, 1914 Machen was licensed.
June 23, 1914 Machen was ordained at Plainsboro, NJ.
May, 1914 Machen was elected to Assistant Professor of NT
1914 J. Ross Stevenson elected President of Princeton.
January, 1915 Machen hears Billy Sunday
1914 Machen wrote the weekly lessons for the Board of Christian Education Senior Course of Sunday School.
April, 1915 Machen turns down invitation to Union in Richmond.
May 3, 1915 Machen installed at professor at Princeton.
December 19, 1915 Machen's father died at the age of 88.
April 6, 1917 America declared war.
Nov. 11, 1918 War ended.
May 6, 1919 Address to alumni and then published the address in the Presbyterian under the title "The Church in the War"
Summer, 1920 Controversy at General Assembly over the Plan of Union
Feb. 16, 1921 Benjamin Warfield died.
Summer, 1921 General Assembly sees the Plan of Union was defeated in the Presbyteries.
Jan. 1921 Machen delivered Sprunt Lectures at Richmond on the Origin of Paul's religion.
Oct. 9, 1921 The Origin of Paul's Religion published
May 22, 1922 Harry Emerson Fosdick preached "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?"
Feb. 1923 Publication of Christianity and Liberalism.
Summer, 1923 General Assembly in Indianapolis elects liberal moderator by 24 votes with delegates about evenly divided (C. F. Wishart over William Jennings Bryant)
Jan. 9, 1924 150 clergymen publish "An Affirmation designed to Safeguard the Unity and Liberty of the Presbyterian Church in the USA" called the Auburn Declaration with 1300 eventual signatures.
March 1, 1925 Machen ceased to be the stated preacher of First Church of Princeton because of accusations of van Dyke
Summer, 1925 1) Charles Erdman, prof. of practical theology elected as Moderator of General Assembly. 2) Machen writes What is Faith with a view to Grove City Bible Conference.
Nov. 1925 What is Faith published by Macmillan
Dec. 2, 1925 MACHEN gives Committee of Fifteen his reasons for believing that Modernism was infecting the Church
Jan. 12, 1926 Lecture "Shall We Have a Federal Department of Education"
Feb. 24, 1926 Machen testifies on Education bills before congressional committee.
April 13, 1926 Machen votes no at Presbytery of New Brunswick meeting against the 18th (prohibition) amendment.
May, 1926 Machen elected by Directors to the chair of Apologetics.
Summer, 1926 1) General Assembly in Baltimore approves the Committee of Fifteen's report that denies Machen's allegations. 2) Also the GA appointed a committee to investigate the seminary and eventually make recommendations about its organization. 3) Machen's approval for chair of Apologetics delayed.
1926-27 Directors of the Seminary said President Stevenson's "usefulness is at an end."
April, 1927 Investigating committee published its report.
Spring, 1927 Machen gave Smyth Lectures at Columbia Seminary on the Virgin Birth.
Summer, 1927 General Assembly postpones action on reorganizing seminary and set up larger committee to prepare for it.
Dec. 1927 Machen published, The Attack upon Princeton Seminary: A Plea for Fair Play
Summer, 1928 Owing to the Princeton Petition signed by 11,000 people and 3,000 ministers postponed action on reorganizing the seminary for another year.
June 28, 1928 Machen removes his name from consideration for Professor of Apologetics.
Fall, 1928 Cornelius Van Til takes up instruction in apologetics
Summer, 1929 At St. Paul the reorganization of the seminary was approved at a 5 – 3 proportion.
July 8, 1929 Westminster Seminary conceived in a luncheon on Philadelphia
July 18, 1929 A meeting of seventy persons (former directors, faculty, and students) took steps to organize Westminster.
Sept. 25, 1929 Westminster Seminary opened with 50 students, and Machen gave address: "Westminster Theological Seminary: Its Purpose and Plan."
1930 Christianity Today incorporated by Machen, Craig and Shrader.
Feb, 1930 The Virgin Birth of Christ is published.
Oct. 31, 1931 Machen's mother dies.
1932 A committee of the Presbyterian Church publishes Rethinking Missions.
1932 Machen addressed the American Academy of Political and Social Science, on "The Responsibility of the Church in our New Age."
June 27, 1933 The Independent Board of Foreign Missions was organized and Machen was elected President.
Summer 1934 The GA declares the Independent Board unconstitutional.
Dec. 20, 1934 Machen's Presbytery appoints a judicial commission to try Machen for "violation of his ordination vows."
1935 Machen gives a weekly radio program: The Christian Faith in the Modern World, and The Christian View of Man
Feb- Mark, 1935 Trial of Machen before the Presbytery.
Mark 29, 1935 Guilty verdict.
June 27, 1935 Preparations made for a possible new church by the organization of the Constitutional Covenant Union.
Oct. 7, 1935 First issue of The Presbyterian Guardian.
June 11, 1936 The Presbyterian Church of America was formed and Machen was chosen Moderator.
Summer, 1936 The Syracuse GA rejected the appeal and let the verdict stand.
Jan. 1, 1937 At 7:30 PM Machen dies.
Notes:
1. Ned. B. Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987, originally published in 1954, 17 years after Machen's death), p. 506.
2. George Marsden, "Understanding J. Gresham Machen," in Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Pub. Colossians, 1991), p. 200.
3. See J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 489 for the list of grievances.
4. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 475.
5. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 474.
6. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 485.
7. To prove the doctrinal drift of the action to reorganize the seminary two signers of the liberal "Auburn Affirmation" were appointed to the new board. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 441
8. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 422.
9. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 427.
10. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 458.
11. The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1993 (New York: World Almanac, 1992), p. 718. For a testimony to the life and witness of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church see Charles Dennison and Richard Gamble, eds., Pressing Toward the Mark: Essays Commemorating Fifty Years of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (Philadelphia: The Committee for the Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1986).
12. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 46.
13. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 50. The professor was B.L. Gildersleeve whose specialty was the history of American classical scholarship.
14. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 393.
15. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, pp. 106-108. This quote is a composite of excerpts from letters that year to his parents and brother.
16. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, pp. 221-222.
17. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 432.
18. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 336.
19. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 337.
20. In 1905 as his seminary days were coming to an end he wrote, "The fellows are in my room now on the last Sunday night, smoking the cigars and eating the oranges which it has been the greatest delight I ever had to provide whenever possible. My idea of delight is a Princeton room full of fellows smoking. When I think what a wonderful aid tobacco is to friendship and Christian patience, I have sometimes regretted that I never began to smoke. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 85.
21. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 337.
22. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 310. George Marsden quotes a letter of Machen from October 5, 1913 in which he said that Warfield was "himself, despite some very good qualities, a very heartless, selfish, domineering sort of man." "Understanding J. Gresham Machen," p. 187. My interpretation of this is that there were things about Warfield that irritated Machen but that Warfield's strengths were such that they made these things pale in comparison.
23. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, pp. 177-178.
24. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 177.
25. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 337.
26. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 428.
27. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 342.
28. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 343.
29. Notice the difference in these two terms. "Modernism" refers to the technical word referring to the theological response to modernity, while "modernity" refers to what Machen calls "modern culture" with its technology, science, communications, transportation, inventions, pace, and dozens of other implications.
30. J. Gresham Machen, "Christianity and Culture," in What is Christianity and Other Addresses, ed. Ned Stonehouse, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Colossians, 1951), p. 166.
31. J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Colossians, 1992, orig. 1923), p. 3.
32. "Christianity and Culture," p. 159.
33. "Modern culture is a mighty force; it is either helpful to the gospel or else it is a deadly enemy of the gospel. For making it helpful neither wholesale denunciation nor wholesale acceptance is in place; careful discrimination is required, and such discrimination requires intellectual effort. Here lies a supreme duty of the modern Church." J. Gresham Machen, The New Testament: An Introduction to its Literature and History (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1976), pp. 377-378.
34. Christianity and Liberalism, p. 6.
35. For example he says that in German universities you find "those forces which underlie all the doctrinal indifferentism in Great Britain and in this country which really presents the serious danger of the life of our Church. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 241.
36. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 347.
37. J. Gresham Machen, What is Faith (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1991, orig. 1925), p. 34.
38. What is Faith, pp. 13-14.
39. Christianity and Liberalism, p. 10.
. Christianity and Liberalism, pp. 11-12.
41. What is Faith, p. 32.
42. Christianity and Liberalism, p. 15.
43. What is Faith, p. 32.
44. Christianity and Liberalism, p. 53.
45. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 386.
46. J. Gresham Machen, "Christian Scholarship and the Building Up of the Church," in: What is Christianity, p. 139
47. Mark Noll, "The Spirit of Old Princeton and the OPC," in Pressing Toward the Mark: Essays Commemorating Fifty Years of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, p. 245.
48. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 129.
49. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 113.
50. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 114.
51. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, pp. 116-117.
52. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 209.
53. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 133.
54. "Christian Scholarship and the Defense of the New Testament," in: What is Christianity, pp. 132-133. See on this same point What is Faith, pp. 41-42; Christianity and Liberalism, p. 17.
55. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 375.
56. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 387.
57. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 413.
58. Quoted in First Things, January 1993, No. 29, p. 65.
59. Christianity and Liberalism, pp. 48-52.
60. He was 5'8" tall and for most of his life weighed about 150 pounds. But in the last ten years he allowed himself to reach 180. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 506.
61. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 506.
62. "Christianity and Culture," p. 162-163.
63. J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, p. 389.
64. George Marsden, "Understanding J. Gresham Machen," p. 186. See above note 22.
65. "Christianity and Culture," p. 200; What is Christianity, p. 118; What is Faith, p. 18.
66. George Marsden, "Understanding J. Gresham Machen," pp. 198-199.
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